Title: Rock Paper Scissors 22/22

Rating: FRT

Pairing: Morgan/Reid, but mentions of Garcia/Kevin & Hotch/JJ

Summary: Barry is in custody, but there is still work to be done. Reid says goodbye.

Beta: None. Ah well. All mistakes are mine.

ConCrit: Better than Reid’s boy band haircut. Wait, nothing’s better than that :)

SPOILERS: Some canon from all seasons, but not always in the way it happened on the show.

*Remember that thing Prentiss knows about Toby Bell’s death that she didn’t get to tell Morgan? Yeah, she finally tells him :):):):):):):):)

~~~

~~~

Hospital in Miracle King, WV

Dr. Spencer Reid

I wake up on a gurney in a private hospital room. Cuffs are off my hands. Rossi, JJ, Ringer, Joe and Hotch are all standing at my side. I sit up, dizzy. “Rossi did you have to hit me that hard?”

“You didn’t seem to want to break your cover, and it just occurred to me we needed an excuse to bring you to the hospital.” He smiles. “And I may have some pent up frustration for you kid.”

“You did good kid,” Joe says.

“Hotch, are you okay?” I ask, noticing the bandage on his head.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Where’s Derek? Is he?” I can’t bring myself to say it.

“He just got out of surgery, he’ll be fine. Prentiss is in his room now, but I don’t think he’s awake yet,” JJ comes over and puts her arm on my shoulder. “It’s so good to see you.”

“We have a problem,” Joe says, looking to Hotch, who nods in understanding. Obviously something they’ve already discussed. “Word has come down that we have finally infiltrated The Gaia. Even with Barry gone, Hank is calling himself the new leader.”

“Strauss got a call from the director of DHS and the Secret Service, they’re ordering you to stay in your cover,” Hotch says.

“They can’t make me.” I shake my head. “I have to see Derek. I can’t leave.” Just days ago I wanted to leave and never look back and now all I want is to stay.

“I’ve been ordered to issue you an ultimatum,” Joe says. “Either you complete this assignment or I have to place you under arrest for interfering with a federal investigation. I’m sorry Dr. Reid. I shouldn’t have let it get this far.”

“So arrest me.”

“Spencer,” Hotch approaches me and puts a hand on my shoulder. “It’s federal custody. They’ll throw you in high security prison without a trial until The Gaia is taken down. Could be years.”

“You’re a genius, you’ll be able to get us Hank. See, he’s in custody right now but we can’t hold him on anything since we saw him trying to stop Barry Garrison.” JJ says.

“Won’t his fingerprints be all over the bombs?” I ask.

“We had to detonate them,” Rossi adds. “Any fingerprint evidence is gone. I’m sorry Reid.”

I take a deep breath. JJ’s right, I can do this. I’ll be able to get Hank and the rest of The Gaia done. “Only if I get to see Derek.”

“We can take him up the private elevator, nobody would see him,” JJ offers.

“We’ll have to take you back to the jail before we release you, we’ll get you another weapon and cell phone, go over your contact and protocol information,” Joe says. “We have to cut you and Hank loose soon, we don’t have enough to hold you. We can hold Strawberry longer for ID fraud, for working under a fake name but that’s all we have.”

“I just want to see Derek.”

~

After a silent and awkward ride in the elevator, JJ takes me to Derek’s room. I see Prentiss sitting in a chair at his side, holding his hand. “Spencer, thank God you’re alright,” she says quietly.

“Can you give us a minute?” I ask her.

She stands up and comes to me, putting her hand on my arm. “He wanted me to tell you that he loves you.”

I wait for her and JJ to close the door behind them before I go over to Derek’s side. I sit down and gently take his hand.

“Hey Derek, we got the bad guy. He blew you up,” I feel tears running down my face and I don’t even bother to wipe them away. “JJ shot him before he could blow up the mine full of people. Emily gave me your message. I love you too. I know that now. When I get back, I’ll tell you in person. I...I’m staying undercover. Orders from the Director of DHS. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I’ll be back. I’m coming back. So you better let everyone take good care of you while I’m gone, okay?”

I lean in and kiss his cheek. “I love you Derek.”

I sit back down and Prentiss comes back in the room. “Good to see you two made up,” she smiles.

“Well, at least I did,” I manage to smile back.

“Joe said you can stay for about an hour or so before it looks suspicious. He’s claiming that an injury to a non-violent protestor needs to be investigated to cover the department’s ass.” She pulls up another chair next to me. “If you don’t want to finish the assignment we can find you a way out of it. It might take some time...”

“I got to do it. I understand.” I settle back in my chair, still holding Derek’s hand. “You know, before this case I was going to leave the FBI. There’s a resignation letter in my desk at Quantico and everything. I was going to pack my bags and try to put everything and everyone behind me. Now, I want to stay more than ever but I can’t.”

“At least you’re leaving for the right reason now and not the wrong one.” She takes my other hand. “You better come back, all in one piece, and to the team. We all need you.”

“Will you take care of him for me? My mom, make sure...uhm, Garcia has all my account info and...”

“We’ll take care of everything. Just...” her voice cracks and tears fall down her cheeks. “Just come back to us.”

~~~

That evening in the hospital in Miracle King, WV

Agent Derek Morgan

“You need to eat something, you heard the doctor,” Prentiss says, poking a spoonful of Jello in my face.

“I can’t. And I don’t need to be fed like a baby,” I mumble, refusing the food. “Besides, swallowing hurts.”

“You should still try,” she sets the cup down on the tray, giving up for now.

“Why did Hotch let him go?” I ask. After I woke up, Prentiss filled me in on what happened with Spencer.

“He didn’t have much choice. For all we know, Reid will be gone for a week or two.”

“Bullshit. From what JJ said, this Hank guy is non-violent and there is no way the Director of DHS is going to let them collar this guy for some minor graffiti. They’ll assume as the new leader that he’s planning something, and they’ll make Spencer get as much Intel as possible.” I put a hand on my wound as I shift my weight in the bed. “If I knew he’d be safe, I’d blow his cover right now.”

“And get thrown in federal prison without a trial? That would just make things worse,” Prentiss shifts in her own seat. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell you this, but he was here. In your room, holding your hand for about an hour. See, during the arrest he made Rossi punch him in the face and we used it as a guise to bring him to the hospital.”

I force myself not to laugh, putting the pain into consideration. “Rossi must have liked that a little too much.”

“I think so,” she smiles. “As much as I love Reid there’s a part of me that would really like to punch him in the face for making me feel stupid all the time. You know, when I first joined the team, I resented him.”

“Really?”

“He shot up through the FBI on his brains. I could have used my name to do the same thing, but I chose not to. I worked hard to get where I am. It wasn’t until I got to know him that I realized not only did he not intend to do it, but that he was worth breaking the rules for.” She takes my hand. “He’s worth it.”

“I know.” I reach for the Jello and take a few spoonfuls. “Not bad.”

“Gelatenous sugar, what’s not to love? You know, Garcia insisted on sending you flowers and teddy bears until Hotch threatened to fire her.”

“She’ll just send them to my apartment when I get home,” I reply, polishing off the Jello. “I had some strange dreams while I was under. One where Spencer and I were happy and home and together. But...I just shouldn’t get my hopes up. I still don’t know if I could really forgive him.”

“Wait, about Deep Lake?” Prentiss takes my hand. “I never did get to tell you what Garcia found out on the report.”

My whole body tenses almost to the point of pain. “It doesn’t matter, I already know. Spencer has an eidetic memory, he wouldn’t forget.”

“I think you need to know the truth.” She scoots her chair a bit closer to my bed. “Spencer was high on morphine, which can effect perception. He didn’t shoot Toby Bell.”

“What?”

“Toby Bell was killed by a gunshot wound that entered his back. One that matched a gun found several yards away in the snow about a week later. Reid’s gun was fired during that night, but he didn’t shoot Toby. The unsub did, perhaps at the same moment Reid was intending to fire. His reflexes were affected by the morphine. As was his memory. The unsub shot Toby Bell. The same unsub Reid killed not long after when he found them.” Prentiss takes a deep breath. “Reid is innocent.”

“Did you tell him?” I grab the button to make the bed sit up, wincing at the pain of my bending torso. “We have to tell him.”

“I completely forgot about it until just now,” Prentiss says. “Just calm down, you need to stay calm and relaxed.”

“He doesn’t know! He’s out there, thinking he’s a horrible person who killed an innocent man, and doing something reckless. He’ll get himself killed out of guilt!” I let myself cry, because I don’t care anymore. “You have to tell him. Who is his contact, Joe? Joe can tell him.”

She shakes her head. “No, you tell him when he comes home.”

“I know I should have looked at the report myself when he told me,” I wipe my face with my hand. “I just believed him.”

“We always believe him. He thinks he killed Toby Bell, so he’s not lying. He’s just wrong.” She laughs. “Spencer’s going to be so mad that he’s wrong.”

I know that’s funny, but I just can’t bring myself to laugh. All this pain and suffering for nothing. The horrible things I’ve said to him, the horrible things he thinks about himself. He’s going to be killed and he’ll never know the truth.

It’s all so hopeless.

~~~

That night in Charleston, WV

Dr. Spencer Reid

“We can stay here, I have a fake credit card,” Hank pulls the car up to the office of a Holiday Inn. “You wake up Strawberry.”

I turn around and gently nudge the sleeping woman in the backseat. Joe and Hotch decided to let her go, because they thought it would help the case. They gave her some legal garbage about not having any proof and the guilty party in custody. “Strawberry, we’re at the hotel.”

She yawns and stretches. “Okay.”

A few silent minutes later, Hank comes out to the car and takes us inside to our one shared room. “We’ll stay here tonight, leave for Minnesota tomorrow. Could take us a few days to get there.”

“Why Minnesota?” I ask, guiding a very tired Strawberry to the nearest bed.

“Gaia members are meeting at the ranch in northern Minnesota. It was a safe house Barry set up. There are already several there. Not all the members where in Autryville.” Hank grabs the phone book. “Do you eat meat Loki?”

I nod. “Yeah, sure.”

“I’ll order a couple of pizzas.”

“We don’t have any clothes,” Strawberry says.

Hank sighs. “Okay, I’ll go out and bring back food and a change of clothes. I have to make some calls anyway and I don’t want them traceable to this line. Loki, can I trust you to watch Strawberry?”

“Of course, I’m you right hand man,” I reply. Earlier, Hank told me he’s taking over The Gaia and wants me to be his second in command.

“Right.”

“Why don’t you take a shower while he’s gone?” I suggest. “Then you can eat and get some real sleep.”

“Will you share a bed with me?” She asks, getting up and moving towards the bathroom.

“Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for me to sleep on the floor?”

She smiles. “Okay then.”

I wait until I hear the shower running before I reach into my backpack and into a secret pocket JJ sewed for me to keep a PDA and GPS device. No new messages. I’m supposed to check in with Agent Joe Helman every Friday between 10am and 2pm eastern time. Unless there is an emergency, I won’t hear from them and they won’t hear from me. I should only have to charge the phone once a week.

I hide the phone and slump into the chair, feeling my eyes fill with hot tears. Derek’s hurt and I should be there. He should wake up to my face and we should be together. Why did I do this? I miss him, I need him. I can only hope he’d take me back.

He did tell Prentiss to tell me that he loves me. That’s got to account for something.

~

FIN

Perhaps a one-shot here or there before a trailer vid for the final installment in the saga! Thanks everyone for reading!