Chapter Text
Spencer was craving, this was his third attempt to go sober and all he wanted to do was to call up his dealer. He wanted to be mad at Tobias for drugging him but he couldn't because he did what he believed was the best for him. But now Spencer had to deal with the consequences. His hands were shaking when he messaged his dealer, setting up a meeting.
He got up, put on some clothes and shoes, and then he was out the door. As he was walking he started to think about his team. He had thought that they would support him but every time he tried to reach out it was like he was met with a cold shoulder. The sad fact was that he wanted to be sober, he wanted to be able to go back to normal. But it was just so hard.
Just as Spencer was about to walk into the spot where he would meet his dealer, he turned left instead of right. He didn't want to go back home but he wanted to get as far away from the dealer as possible. It was just his luck that it started to rain. It was dark and raining and Spencer was disorganized and craving, as he was walking he slipped and fell. He screamed out from the fall, his knee hitting a stone staircase and the rest of him landed on that cold slippery, and wet stone. No matter how much he tried he could not get himself to stand up. It was not because something was broken he just mentally could not put in the effort. He lay there shaking from the cold and tears running down his cheeks
Noa was walking through one last time before she would retreat. She wanted to make sure that the silver was locked away, that nothing was lying on the floor, and so on. She was about to lock the doors when she heard a scream. Noa walked over to the doors and opened one of them. At first, she could see nothing, just the darkness, and rain but after a while, she started to see more clearly, that was when she saw him. A person was laying on the bottom of the steps of the church. She immediately grabbed one of the flashlights that she kept by the door and ran into the rain.
She had to slow down so as not to fall, so she got to the bottom and saw him. He had brown shaggy hair, tears running down his face. It was the face of a pained and desperate person. She tried to get the person to talk but after a while, she took out her phone ready to call an ambulance.
“No, don't call them please, I am begging you.” The man's voice was rough and desperate.
“I won't call anyone if you walk into the church with me.” The man thought about his options and then nodded. She helped him up on his feet and held his waist tightly as they walked up the stairs and into the church. She got the man to sit down while she fetched some towels and clothes for both of them.
Noa changed from the cassock she had been wearing and put on a long sleeve dress. She got some clothes that looked like it would fit the man. It was a good thing that he was small as she only had her extra clothing in the church.
She then made her way into the main part of the church where the man was still sitting. She spoke to him in a calm voice and told him to go and change in the bathroom. As a priest people came to her when they sometimes are at the worst place they have ever been. Over the years she has learned how to help someone that is having a crisis. She sat down on one of the benches and brushed her fingers through her hair before she started to braid it.
Spencer doesn't know how the situation changed so much. He had been laying on the ground with no strength left in him. Then out of nowhere, there was a woman's voice and then a flashlight in his face. He looked up at her face and the woman wore black and he recognized the cassock. A part of his brain told him that the steps that he was laying on were probably the steps of a church. He looked at the woman and he knew that she was speaking but his brain just refused to process what she was saying. But the word that she was calling an ambulance came through and he panicked. Hotch was his emergency contact and he wanted him to do this on his own then he would do this on his own.
He let the woman grab a firm grip of his waist, surprised by the strength she had. She sat him down on a bench and that was the first he really saw her. She had long dark hair that was wet and looked a bit messy. She was quite short and she had dark brown eyes. As she went to fetch something warm for them Spencer thought about what he should do. He should leave but something in him did not want to be alone in his apartment, the priest spoke softly to him and seemed kind. With all the darkness that plagued his mind her presence was like a light. She came back now wearing a black long dress, she handed him clothes and sent him into the bathroom.
He stood there for some time just looking at himself in the mirror. His cheeks were sunken in, his eyes were red from crying and his hair was a mess. It felt like he could never go back to his old self, the old Spencer was dead. He was never getting it back, and that hurt. Spencer took off his clothes and looked at his skinny and bony body. He had always been small but the way his bones were showing you could see that he was malnourished. He dried himself with the towel and put on the sweatpants, and then the shirt. Even though he was warmer now he still shivered. Spencer walked out of the bathroom and back to where the priest was waiting for him. She had her hair in a braid.
What surprised him the most that day was that she wanted him to sleep in her guest bedroom. But he did not have the energy to argue with her; all he wanted to do was sleep. He followed her out of the church and into a small hose that was beside it. There she got a bed ready and made sure that he laid down in it. She said goodnight and closed the door. Spencer was glad that there was a small lamp that was left on in the room. He went under the covers, the bed was soft and he fell asleep right away.
Noa closed the door after she made sure that the man was not about to leave. She felt bad for him, Noa wondered what had happened to him. That tortured look he had in his eyes did not come from anywhere. But he was in no state but to do anything but sleep. She made a cup of camomile tea and drank that whilst reading a book and then she went to bed.
It was midnight when she was awoken by a scream. She had expected the man to wake up during the night and wake her in the state he had been. But she had not prepared herself for the pure terror in his scream. She walked over to the room where her guest was sleeping, he was now completely silent and that was more worrying than if he would have been loud. She carefully opened the door and looked inside. The man that she had taken in was curled up into a ball on the bed, his shoulders shaking as sobs came from him.
“Can you tell me your name?” The man looked up and she could see the tears running from his eyes staining his cheeks.
“My name is Spencer Reid.”
“Okay, it is good to meet you, Spencer, my name is Noa Bright. Do you know where you are?”
“I, I, We are at your house?” Noa spent almost half an hour talking to Spencer calming him down. Noa was trying to figure out what she should do next, every person was calmed by different things, some needed to be left alone and others wanted someone to stay with them. In the end, they moved to the living room each with a cup of tea.
“You know, I never wanted to take anything, I have been scared of drugs since I was a kid, and now I am here.” Noa looked over at Spencer’s broken face.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Spencer nodded and then took a deep breath collecting his courage before he started to tell her his story. About how he worked for the FBI, how he went to interview a witness, how he got kidnapped, how he was drugged, and lastly how he took the drugs from Tobias' dead body. When he was done he was crying but he felt a bit better after getting it out in the air how he felt. After that, they decided to take another shot at sleeping and they went to bed.