Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a cut-and-dry apprehension of an unsub. His name was Eric Daniels, and he’d strangled four men who reminded him of his father. The team knew that. They’d done all the hard work - building the profile, sorting through the suspect pool, and now locating the unsub. This last bit was supposed to be easy.
-
“You’re surrounded, Eric,” Hotch says to the unsub. “There’s nowhere for you to go.”
The unsub’s eyes dart around uneasily as wind whips his long hair around his face. There are six guns trained on him - Hotch and Morgan in front of him, Prentiss and Rossi on the sides, and JJ and Reid in the back.
“It’s time to give yourself up, man,” Morgan tells him. “Just drop the gun.”
Instead, Daniels raises his weapon. Six FBI agents fire in unison, and crimson sprays from the unsub’s chest. He’s dead before his body hits the ground.
JJ notices Reid first. She takes in his too-pale skin, his stunned expression, and the blood pouring from his neck. “Spence!”
She’s by his side in an instant, catching him just before he falls and lowering him gently to the ground. Rossi tries to hold pressure to the wound, which has already soaked Reid’s shirt with blood.
The rest of the group is less than a second behind. “What happened?” Hotch demands, eyes darting around for a shooter who isn’t there. He shoots a glance behind him, where the bullet came from, and then it all comes together. There were two agents who were pointed in Reid’s direction. One of them was Morgan. The other was Hotch himself.
But there’s no time to dwell on that. Prentiss pulls out her cell phone and begins to frantically call for an ambulance. Rossi continues to try to stop the bleeding. Hotch and Morgan stand by helplessly, knowing there is nothing they can do that isn’t already being done.
“JJ?” Reid croaks. In his brown eyes is a mixture of fear, confusion, and pain. “What - what happened?”
“You’re going to be okay,” she assures him, taking hold of his hand. “I’m right here.”
Reid coughs weakly. Blood dribbles from his mouth, and terror grips JJ’s heart as his eyes start to flutter closed. “Spence? Spencer, stay with me!”
He forces his eyelids open, looking at her with a dazed expression. “I’m...right here,” he whispers. JJ strokes his hair with her free hand. She can feel tears building up, but she refuses to let them fall.
“Don’t try to talk, Reid,” Rossi tells him. “Just lie still. The medics are on their way.”
“You’re going to be fine, Spence,” JJ assures Reid. “You’re going to be just fine.”
“I - I don’t want you to leave,” he says in a shaky voice. “Please don’t go.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” JJ promises. She squeezes his hand tighter and he squeezes back, faintly. His bloodstained lips form the smallest smile before his eyes fall shut and his hand goes limp in hers.
-
Garcia hears that a member of the BAU has been shot and breaks all the speed limits on her way to the hospital. She bursts into the waiting room, takes inventory of her agents, and immediately vows to seek revenge on whoever hurt her precious baby genius. It takes her a few seconds to notice the tortured expressions of the rest of the team. Something is very wrong.
“What is it?” she asks, looking from one face to another, desperate for answers. “What happened? Is he…?”
“He’s still in surgery,” Hotch replies, his face even more closed-off than usual. “We haven’t been told anything since we got here.”
She knows her team well enough to know that something else has happened. Without thinking, she reaches to Morgan’s arm for comfort. He flinches and steps back. “Derek, what happened?”
The words are almost impossible to get out, but Rossi finally manages. “The bullet that hit Reid was one of ours.”
“Either mine or Hotch’s,” Morgan tells her in a hollow voice. He refuses to lift his gaze from the floor.
Penelope gasps, eyes wide. “Oh, God,” she breathes. She reaches out to Morgan again, but he pulls away. Emily takes her hand instead.
“It doesn’t matter whose it was,” Dave tells them.
No one calls him out on the lie.