Thirty: Spencer.

12x13 | Spencer.

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The pit in Julia's stomach didn't go away. In fact, it got worse. Julia had no idea why she kept getting that aching, dark feeling deep below. She got her coffee this morning and mixed a lot of creamer into it, like she always liked and even popped out a bottle of Tums once she walked back to her desk. Six days and her stomach wasn't getting any better with this stress.

          JJ was the first to notice as the girl sulked back to her desk. "Upset stomach?" She asks, nudging her head towards the bottle. "Nerves." Julia corrects as she pops a Tums tablet into her mouth.

           "I thought Tums only helped if you ate too much." Luke comments. "Helps with anxiety, too." Julia stated as she chewed on the tablet. "You okay?" Garcia asks in concern and Julia nods, "Yeah, yeah... just..." Julia sighs. "Weird feeling, I guess. I'm sure it's nothing."

         The four begin to talk about their mornings and even then does Julia's pit dissipate for a brief moment but when Emily and Rossi approach the four have distinct looks on their faces does the terrible anxiety return. "You guys alright? You both look like you need one of these." Julia jokes, holding up the Tums bottle but they weren't laughing.

        "What's wrong?" JJ decides to ask and only then does Emily rip off the band-aid and confirms four words that Julia never thought she'd hear come out of Emily's mouth. Or anyone's mouth, for that matter. "Reid is in jail."

Everyone stands still at this news and Julia's heart drops at this and it takes everything in her not to drop the mug she's holding in her hands. "Jail?" Garcia questions. Emily nods, "In Mexico."

"Spencer Reid. In jail. Please tell me that's a sick joke." Julia says, looking at the two with wide eyes but they look about as serious as a heart attack. "Unfortunately, it isn't." Rossi answers.

"What the hell is he doing down there?" JJ questions and Emily shakes her head, "I don't know. I didn't talk to him. The call came in to Cruz from their lead investigator." She explains.

"What's he being held for?" Luke questions. "Drug possession, with intent to distribute." Rossi answers. "What type of drugs?" Julia follows up and Rossi hesitates for a moment before answering — "Cocaine and heroin."

          Julia scoffs and she holds her breath as JJ covers her mouth in shock. "Oh, my God." She tells. "This can't be happening." Garcia shakes her head.
        "We need Lewis and Walker here ASAP." Emily tells, looking at Garcia to call them and she nods, "Yeah. I can call them. I can do that."

          Julia, Luke and JJ are standing in disbelief at this news. Could this been what Julia was anxious about? Manny always did say she had a sixth sense. Like when she was little that he'd broken his arm down the street and she knew something was up. Or when Clara had gone into labor with Gabe and Manny wasn't home, so she flew the entire way to DC without a call.

           Julia's ears ring as she thinks about everything regarding Spencer. Had he acted differently around her? (Of course he did, after everything that happened with them? He was acting differently). She blocks out everything going on. Emily and Rossi exit the convo as Garcia gets Tara and Stephen on the phone.

Julia feels a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey," Julia nearly jumps as she sees JJ is standing next to her. "Are you okay?" Julia wipes her thoughts away and shakes her head, "Yeah, yeah, I'm good." She lies. The one thing she needs to be thinking about right now is Spencer. And she needed that clear head at the moment if she wanted to help him. Obviously, they had the wrong man. There was no way Spencer Reid was in jail.

          The thought was incredulous in itself. Spencer Reid? In jail. Spencer Reid getting arrested. For drug possession and intent to distribute? That wasn't the Spencer Reid she knew. And it made her wonder what the hell he'd been up to to get into a position such as this one.

          Julia watches as JJ walks away and takes a sharp breath. This can't be happening right now. This can't be happening right now.

           Part of Julia almost didn't want to get on that jet on the way to Mexico to see Spencer. Emily had told her, Luke and Rossi that they'd be joining her in going to see him while JJ, Garcia, Tara and Stephen stayed behind at home at the BAU. Julia kept telling herself to keep it together for Spencer, because he needed that right now. It just wasn't easy when Julia would rather believe it when she saw it.

It was so surreal, she was in shock, after all. This was Spencer Reid, the man who wore mismatched socks because he thought it was good luck, who loved doing magic tricks, who loved chocolate donuts with rainbow sprinkles, who kissed Julia the night of the Christmas party. This man was no match for jail and Julia was so worried for him. How could this have happened?

Emily had patched the rest of the team on the monitors in the jet as they discussed possible theories as to who would've framed Spencer and why. "This has got to be Scratch," Tara assumed. "He was laying low. Now we know why."

"Crossing the border as a fugitive is a huge risk." Luke stated. "The reward is greater. He's been punishing the team. Now his target is Reid." Emily added.

"Peter Lewis dropped off the map after attacking Tara's family. Maybe he's been hiding in Mexico this whole time." Stephen said.

"But what if this isn't Scratch? Shouldn't we also consider that this isn't related to him?" Julia questions, trying to look at other possibilities here. "Who else would it be?" Rossi asks. "Drug cartels," Luke agrees with Julia. "Could have threatened Reid and used him as a mule."

"Julia, you could be right," Rossi says, now that Luke had a point. "This could simply be a case of bad luck. Reid was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Suddenly, JJ's voice patches through on the other side of the phone. "Spence's mom is okay. The home nurse he hired said all is stable." Julia takes a breath of relief at that. Garcia sighs as well, "Oh, thank the stars."

"How long did he tell the nurse he'd be gone?" Luke asks. "Uh, 3 days." JJ answers.
"That sounds reasonable. After the Palm Springs case, Reid said he had to get back to Houston to talk to his mom's doctor." Emily recalled.

"Well, Houston is only a 5-hour drive from the border." Tara figures. "But still, that's Houston. This is Mexico. Why would he lie about where he was going?" Julia questions out loud. And she had a point, why would he lie about where he was going unless he had something to hide?

"Usually I can read him," JJ scoffs. "I can't believe I didn't pick up on any of this." Julia agrees, "Me neither."

Stephen chimes in, "He didn't want you to, and there's no way you would have guessed he'd end up in Mexico."
"The question is, why did he go down there?" Tara wonders. "And why does he have narcotics?" Rossi adds.

"Yeah, exactly. That... that... He wouldn't... he wouldn't do that. I'm not gonna share any secrets I'm not supposed to, but those drugs were planted on him." Garcia stated quickly and it made Julia wonder for a moment. Secrets? With Reid and drugs? Had she walked into some Twilight zone where nothing made sense?

"Absolutely," Stephen stated. "But there's something bigger in play. That's why he crossed the border and kept it a secret. There's something he didn't want to share with any of you." He considers.
"That what? He's a drug dealer living a double-life in Mexico? I'm sorry, but this is Spencer. You guys know this. He wouldn't be capable of this!" Julia shakes her head, defending him because obviously there's absolutely no way Spencer would do such a thing.

"Okay, so what would make him risk everything?" Emily question. "His mom." JJ answers. "Yeah, but she's here and she's safe." Garcia tells and there's a beep on a device on their side of things. "Oh, wait. Cruz just sent me the arresting report. Hold, please. Translating now."

Julia sits up, eagerly to figure out how Spencer got to where he was now. "Oh... kay. It says here that Reid was involved in a high-speed chase." Julia makes a face and then looks at Luke, "Okay, maybe I was wrong about the drug dealer part." She mutters.

"What? He hardly ever drives." Emily stated. "None of this sounds like him. It says he was wearing jeans, he was really confused. And... according to the arresting officer, he was really high on something." Garcia told, voice trailing off in concern.

JJ quickly debunks, "No, no, he wouldn't do that. Not after what happened with Tobias Hankel." Julia furrows her brows as Luke takes the words out of her mouth. "Who's that?" He asks.

"An offender with D.I.D. who kidnapped and drugged Reid." Emily answered and Julia's eyes widen in shock as she questions, "What?"
"When was this?" Tara asks.
"Ten years ago." JJ answers.

        Julia figured that Spencer probably didn't say anything about it because of how long she'd been on the team. She'd been at the BAU for a year and a half now and she knew this team kept things to themselves, but still. Spencer was her friend, she guessed she was just shocked about the whole thing.

"What does the report say about the intent to distribute?" Rossi asks, changing the subject. "Uh, it says he was charged with constructive possession, and in the duffel bag there was cоcɑіnе, cash, and three bricks of heroin." Garcia tells and Julia closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Damn it, Reid." Julia whispers to herself.

Emily continues, "Ok, we'll be there in less than an hour." She looks over at Rossi next to her. "Dave, were you able to reach Jack Garrett?" Rossi shakes his head, "He's deep in a case, but he promised to do what he can." Emily nods, "Ok. We're gonna need all the help we can get."

Luke looks over at Julia, who is obviously very stressed. Leg bouncing and biting her nails in anxiousness. "You alright?" Luke asks her and Julia turns to him, "Spencer isn't capable of this. He can't be. Now, I'm just questioning if I even know him at all." She turns back to the window, hoping that this ride would go faster so she could get off this damn jet, the anxiety riddling through her bones and she shuts her eyes, hoping to God that Spencer is okay.

          When the team arrives, they're greeted with an Officer Casteneda, who leads them through the jail. "Thanks for calling us." Rossi starts as the agents follow the man. "A U.S. fed in our custody isn't something we see every day." Casteneda responds, looking at Emily as she nods at him, "We appreciate you letting us talk to him. Have you gotten his tox screen panels back yet?"
          The man shakes his head, "No."
         "You will need to expedite that. We have cause to believe that Agent Reid was drugged." Emily explains. "He was definitely high and driving like a maniac with $20,000 worth of heroin in his possession. Both of which put my officers at risk." Casteneda tells the agents.

           Julia's had enough and skips the niceties, looking around and her eyes find a man, sitting in his jail cell, staring off into space. She nearly had to squint to realize that this man wasn't just any random man. It was Spencer.

           Hesitantly, she approaches the cell. He looks so different, with the flannel shirt, jeans and boots. The stubble on his face, like he hadn't shaven in a minute, his hair wacky. Her breath catches in her throat when she stands in front of the bars. "Spencer?" She asks and the man looks up at her and she catches the tired, glazed look in his eyes. Almost as if he's lost. She pays attention to the bags under his eyes and frowns instantaneously.

           "Hi." Julia speaks softly, to keep him calm in a way. Or maybe even keep herself calm. She can tell that he doesn't recognize her, because all he's doing is staring at her and he doesn't say a word. But it looks as if he's really trying to recognize her, like maybe he should. "It's Julia?"

          Spencer still looks lost on her and Julia finds herself asking him if he still recognizes her — "Jules?" The smartest man on the planet, with an eidetic memory, known to not forget anything has forgotten her. And her heart aches a little.

            But by some miracle, Spencer speaks up, "Jul— Jules." And he repeats the nickname to himself and stands up, walking towards her. "Hey." She feigns a smile and Luke approaches behind Julia, looking at Spencer through the bars. "Hey, Reid." Spencer looks at the man. "It's good to see you, brother."

             Julia can see the dazed look up close now and she can see Spencer reacting to Luke like how he reacted to her a minute ago. "It's Luke." Julia clarifies and Spencer looks at the man and luckily, he seems to remember him as well, repeating his name to himself now.

          "Thank you for coming." Spencer says and Luke nods, "Of course." Julia turns away as Emily and Rossi walk towards them and she haphazardly wipes a tear from under her eye, hoping to God no one saw her do that.

          Rossi walks over, "We're gonna get you out of here, kid." Julia closes her eyes painfully, as she sees Spencer trying to remember his other colleagues. "We need to work out some details with the locals, okay?" Emily asks and Spencer nods a bit.

       "Who was your contact down here?" Luke questions and Spencer thinks for a moment, "Rosa." He then lifts his sleeve up lightly to reveal a name that he might've written down on his arm. "Rosa Medina. I think she's a doctor." Luke is quick to snap a photo of his arm. "All right. Where did you meet her?"

        Spencer shakes his head as he admits, "I don't remember." Julia looks at Emily and her look of confusion now. "If you saw her, would you remember her?" Luke asks and Spencer thinks once more before nodding and Julia frowns. "Yeah. I think so." There's not a thought behind those eyes.

       "You're missing time, aren't you?" Emily asks and Spencer nods, "It's— yeah. It's coming in flashes."
       "And you've been drugged." Emily stated. "Yeah, but I didn't take it myself." Spencer denies and Emily nods, "Well, of course you didn't, Spencer. We're thinking it might be Scratch."

        "Scratch." Spencer says, the name falling out of his lips but he can't seem to remember. Luke's cell phone rings and he excuses himself from the conversation to answer the call. Julia looks at Spencer and there's a pained expression on her face.

         Rossi looks at Julia and he asks her silently if she needs a minute but she shakes her head. It wasn't easy seeing Spencer like this. Like a lost puppy, still drugged and with glazed eyes, not remembering anything.

         Not a minute or two later, Luke comes back and holds up his phone to Spencer. "Hey, the team sent this." It's a photo of a woman. "Is this the doctor you met?" Spencer looks at the photo and nods before answering, "Yeah."

       "Her alias is Rosa Medina. Her real name is Nadie Ramos. Garcia tracked her to a motel just outside of town. Does that sound familiar?" Luke asks and Spencer shakes his head, trying to recall the events. "No."

      "We'll need to take Castenada and his officers with us." Emily decides. "You want company here?" Rossi asks Spencer but the man shakes his head, "No, I'm... I'm okay." He walks back to his seat and the four walk away but once Julia takes a look back at him, after swearing she wouldn't and gives in.

       "Uh, Emily?" Julia asks, the woman turning back to her and walking to her as Rossi and Luke walk away. "I'm gonna stay behind. I—" She shakes her head, looking back at Spencer. "I don't want to leave him." She admits quietly and Emily nods at her, "I'd feel better if someone were to stay with him, actually. We'll keep you posted." Julia nods as Emily walks away.

         Julia had managed to grab a cup of coffee since she knows she won't be sleeping tonight. Her mind trails back to all of the past conversations with Spencer, conversations where he'd talk her ear off and she's listen happily to whatever he was saying, commenting on how cute he looks while rambling and teasing him with her words, making his skin turn crimson. Now, the man could barely manage to get a word out.

           She watches him and she can tell Spencer is embarrassed because of what happened. He's embarrassed his colleagues have to see him this way. And Julia is almost thankful JJ and Garcia didn't come along, since they'd had a close-knit bond with him since she met them. She thinks she couldn't handle their reactions to this. To him. She can't even get a grip on her own emotions.

           Julia looks at him, his back is turned to her and he's holding his arms, head bowed forward and the glazed look remains on his face. She can tell he's trying to recall his memories, to find anything that got him where he was now but she knows it's no use with the drugs in his system.

            Julia twirls with her necklace and realizes that the necklace she's wearing is the one he got her for Christmas. Memories swarm back in her head. Before the party, everything with them was fine. And she begins to think. If they'd not kissed, would they have been still normal?

         Would he have told her everything that happened with his mother?

         Could she have prevented this if maybe she stopped holding onto the past and letting it get the better of her and Spencer?

        Would he have even wound up in jail at all?

        Her thoughts are interrupted when her cell phone buzzes in her pocket and she checks the called ID and sees that Emily is calling.

Julia turns away from the cell as she quickly takes the phone. "Hey, Emily. Find anything useful? You find Rosa?" Julia asked, realizing she was (slightly) bombarding Emily with questions. "We did, but, Julia..." Emily takes a brief pause. "She's dead."

Julia nearly drops her phone and her eyes widen. "Dead?" She questions. "What do you mean she's 'dead'?" Luke continues, "She was murdered, there's stab wounds on her body."

"And another thing," Rossi speaks up. "Casteneda already has Reid lined up for her murder. Another thing to charge him with."

The woman sighs and looks back at Spencer. He's still in a hazy mind-state and she hates what's going on with him right now. How did he get himself in this? She then decides, "Keep everything as is. I want to take a look at the body myself. We're proving he didn't do this." Luke agrees, "Roger that." Julia hangs up and looks back.

Julia knows that maybe Spencer hasn't even noticed that she stayed for him but it was better to tell him she was leaving inside of just leaving on him. She walks up to the cell, holding the bars as she looks at him. "Spencer?" The man turns around and he's still lost. She can tell he is. But there's a glimmer in his eyes. He's coming down.

"Jules?" Spencer asks and Julia nods at him, glad he didn't need to remind him of who she was. He stands up and walks over hesitantly. "When did you get here?" Now, Julia hides her heart breaking with a small smile. Did he not remember interacting with her earlier? Julia decides not to tell him that. Instead, she replies — "A little bit ago. The team, uh, had a lead and I need to go down there. I... I just wanted to stop by and say 'hi'." It was better to lie to him than to have him feel even more embarrassed than he already did.

The man nods, "I'm glad you're here." He tells and Julia nods back at him, "Of course," She then thinks. "Is there anything you need?" Spencer shakes his head and they exchange small goodbyes.

Julia exited the building and soon as she got to the SUV she requested, she bawled her eyes out the entire way to the motel Nadie Ramos was found at. Of course, she wasn't gonna let the team see her like that, she managed to stop crying before she got there.

It was just so much. And Julia had no idea if Spencer was going to get out of this. And that was a terrible feeling to help. It also didn't help that Julia was empathetic to everyone around her and she felt things ten times more when other people were emotional around her. But she ended up trying to remember the good things, that Spencer would make it out of this, even if it was the last thing anyone would do. She was reminded of Hotch. And she wondered how everything would've played out if he'd been around.

When she'd arrived, everyone was the same as she wanted them to be and had discussed with a medical examiner about how many wounds were on the body. Nadie Ramos was in fact dead, with at least twenty-five wounds on her body.

As she finished up talking to the ME, she overhears Casteneda talking to Rossi. "This doesn't look good for your friend." Casteneda began. "Come on," Rossi scoffs. "We both know these things could have been planted in here just as the drսg could have been planted in the trunk."

"Framed for drugs, framed for murder. You're not even considering the obvious?" Casteneda questions and Julia walks over, having enough of this. "All due respect, jefe, you wouldn't either if you knew Spencer Reid." She tilts her head, ready for another comeback from the man. "Anything else you'd like to say?"

Luke stands behind her, also ready to defend Spencer if need be. Casteneda turns back to Rossi and continues his convo with him. "We've both got a job to do. I'll get all this processed." He moves past the agents as he begins to walk out.

"And we'll continue to fight to prove he's innocent." Rossi tells the man as he walks out. Julia crosses her arms as she looks at Rossi and shakes her head. Rossi notices this and says — "He's got a job to do." He reminds and Julia sighs, "I know."

"Reid's stuff was everywhere," Rossi tells. "If they run DNA, he'll be all over this room. Maybe even on the victim." Julia sighs, getting back into agent mode. For Spencer, for Spencer. "The coroner counted over twenty-five stab wounds."

"There's still no sign of the knife?" Emily asks, walking over after she made a few calls. "No." Luke answered. "We've got a disorganized crime scene with the offender aware enough to take the murder weapon with them. It doesn't add up." Emily explains.

"Unless it was a drսg kill," Luke stated. "The unsub could have freaked out and taken off with the knife."
"Reid told Castenada he was chasing someone. It could have been the killer." Rossi suggested.

"Yeah. Well, if they took the knife with them, they could have dumped it in the desert. And Reid's got a nasty cut on his hand. It could be from the same blade." Luke also suggests but Julia shakes her head, "But he didn't do this." She'd adamant. Luke nods, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I know. But Scratch has done one hell of a job making it look like he did."

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            The team explained to Spencer how they found Nadie Ramos, standing in his cell and telling him what happened. "We know you didn't do this." Emily clarified after she'd explained.

"How did it happen?" Spencer asks. "She was stabbed, multiple times. It looked personal." Luke added. Casteneda walks in, holding a piece of paper. "We got the results of your blood work." He tells Spencer. "There's cocaine and heroin in your system."

"What else?" Emily asks. "He was in possession of cocaine and heroin when he was arrested. I found what I need." The man tells and Julia rolls her eyes as she retorts — "Well, we could've told you that."

Emily shakes her head, "No, I need a full tox screen panel. We're looking for scopolamine."
"That'll take longer." Casteneda tells.
"I don't care. I need it." Emily responds and in her head, Julia is cheering her on. You get him, boss.

Luke turns back to Spencer. "You were given a speedball. The opiates block the dopamine. That's why thing go from clear to hazy. The combination of the drսg causes a dissociative state and explains the memory loss. Are you coming down now?" Spencer's eyes are red and he's pale in the face and he still has that lost look on his face. "I think so." Spencer nodded.

"Do you think you could do a cognitive interview?" Emily asks. "I could try." Spencer stated quietly and Emily turns back to Casteneda. "Do you have a quiet room we can use?" The man nods, "Yes."

Casteneda holds a plastic baggie up. "There were five of these in your bag at the motel. You recognize them?" Spencer looks at the bag and it looks as if he's trying to recall them and something in his eyes tells Julia he does.

And if he didn't recognize them, she sure as hell did. She recognized the vials from the case she was working with Spencer at his apartment. The medicine he was giving his mother, the medicine that she'd dumped into the toilet. The medicine she remembered Reid screaming at his mother about. "Do you have any idea what I went through to get that medicine, Mom? It can't be replaced, do you realize that?" Well, now, Julia had a hunch for what he had to go through to get her medicine.

"What is it?" Casteneda asks and Spencer shakes his head but Julia can most definitely tell that he remembers. "I'm gonna run it through the lab." Casteneda decides and walks off, leaving the agents with Spencer, all in question.

"Whatever's in those vials, I was giving it to my mom." Spencer whispers. "That's the only thing I'm sure of." Julia looks at the man as she makes the connections in her head. "And when she threw them out, you went to get more, huh?" Julia asked and Spencer nodded faintly.

"How did you know that?" Luke asked. Julia looks at the man as she answers Luke. "When you guys had that case in Tampa and I was working with Reid." She tells, crossing her arms. "Turns out there's a lot of things we don't know about our special doctor."

             With that, she exits, deciding to take a well needed break. Julia finds herself, sitting down the hall on a bench, head in her hands as she recounts everything about that day. She was there when Diana threw out the medicine, for Christ's sake. How did she not see it? Maybe she wasn't that good of a profiler, her reading other people wasn't really her strong suit, it seemed.

              Julia then feels a presence next to her on the bench and she turns to see Luke, sitting there with two cups of coffee, one for him and one for her. Silently thanking him, she takes one of the cups and they sit there in the silence and to be honest, Julia is grateful for it.

             It's as if for a moment, maybe no one will speak. Until one finally does.

           "He rarely ever calls me Jules." Julia spoke and Luke looks over at her, with furrowed brows. "Huh?" He asks. "Spencer," Julia clears up, taking a sip from her coffee. "He rarely ever calls me Jules. He's only done it twice. He remembered me because I told him I was Jules. Not Julia, Jules." She explains to Luke and it was true. Spencer was only now just referring to Julia as just 'Jules'. And Julia didn't mind, Jules was a common nickname that she was often called. But Spencer didn't do nicknames.

            Luke contemplates what he says next. "You know, you're taking this pretty hard." He tells, index finger tapping on the styrofoam cup in his hand. Julia shrugged as she looked down, "I hate seeing him like this. Spencer's just usually so... put together. All this time and we didn't even know."

           "And..." Julia tilts her head up. "And I know we've been... weird lately and all I wanna do is fix it and I can't even do that." She frowns and she feels Luke's hand on her back, rubbing circles as he comforts her to the best of his ability. "Why have you guys been acting weird recently?" Luke asks and Julia looks at the man and doesn't know if she should say anything.

           And before she can even come up with a bullshit excuse, Rossi walks up and causes her to completely shut her mouth.
"You okay, kid?" Rossi asks, looking at Julia. She shrugs, "Not really, no." Julia admits. "What's up, Rossi?" Luke asks, seeing the look on his face. Julia concentrates on it now and Rossi sighs, knowing his poker face wasn't the greatest.

"You guys aren't gonna like this." Rossi began. "But they just charged Reid with the murder of Nadie Ramos." Julia's jaw drops and they both stand up. "We gotta tell Emily. And now."

They do so, informing Emily of the news and she'd also told them that she made some breakthroughs with the cognitive, but of course, it wasn't a lot. They all stood in the hall after they processed the info.

"We can't get him out of here, can we?" Luke asked, pacing. "I don't know how." Rossi sighs. "He didn't kill her." Luke denies. "If all I had to go on was the evidence, I would swear he did. But knowing Reid, hearing the cognitive..." Rossi trails off.

"Yes, he said there was another person in that motel room, but..." Emily holds out her cell for the group to hear the recording she'd done during the cognitive interview.

"Who has the knife? Who is stabbing Rosa?"
"I don't know. It's in my hand."
"You're trying to stop the killer."

Emily pauses the audio. "Right now, this is just more evidence against him." She mumbled. "So, we're completely screwed." Julia comments, rubbing the back of her neck out of stress.

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           Emily had called in some favors from Jack Garrett's team at the IRT and Matt Simmons and Clara Seger had arrived. Meanwhile, Rossi, Luke and Julia had been dealing with Casteneda and they'd discovered that by the end of the day, they were transferring him to the El Diablo Prison.

           Eventually, Julia had followed Casteneda and his officers back to Spencer's cell as he announced — "It's time for his transfer." Julia chimes in, looking at her boss, "Emily, I really tried to hold them back from doing so. I'm sorry."

          "We've had a break in the case. The victim was also American, and that calls for extradition." Emily stated. "I've got orders. Sorry." Casteneda told. Finally, Julia's had enough. "You're not sorry, you just want him arrested!"

            The officers put Spencer in handcuffs and Julia continues, "He's being framed!"
            "Julia," Spencer speaks up as the officers grab him. "It's okay." He assures and she can tell he's finally come down and that his head is clearer than before.

           It doesn't make it any better as the officers begin to take him away but Emily was quick to make a phone call as the officers begin their transfer. "With the victim having dual citizenship, we now have concurrent jurisdiction. It was my understanding that the official order to extradite SSA Spencer Reid would be evaluated." There's a pause. "I understand. Thank you."

         Emily hangs up and turns to group. "They're taking it to their brass. Go get him." Luke does the honors of doing so as Julia takes a deep breath, silently reminding herself and mumbling to herself — "He's gonna be okay, he's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay."

           Luckily, this whole mess was over in Mexico, but it was far from over in the US. The extradition was approved and Spencer would go to trial, confirming if he'd actually murdered someone, which everyone believed otherwise.

Now, they were heading back home and headed onto the jet. Julia took a deep breath as she, Matt and Rossi all walked up into the jet first. "Thanks for the ride home." Matt stated and Rossi nods, "Don't mention it. Commercial airlines kick my ass nowadays. You?" Matt nods, "Once you've had the best, it's hard to go back." Julia sighs, putting her bag down. "You can say that again."

Emily and Clara walk in next. "I was just thanking Clara for helping us." Emily told. "Yeah, and I told her, when one of us is in trouble, we all are. You guys have any other problems with this, we happen to know some people." Clara says and Julia chuckles lightly as Rossi speaks, "Love that."

"I can't thank you enough." Spencer says to Luke, getting Julia's attention as they walk in. "Hey, it's all good, man. I'm just glad you sound like yourself again." Luke said. "Me, too." Spencer tells. "Me, three." Julia agrees.

"And thank you for staying," Spencer says as he looks at Julia. "It really means a lot." Julia nods with a sympathetic smile on her face. "Of course, you'd do the same for me." Julia tells, rubbing his arm soothingly.

Emily looks at Spencer as she speaks up, "Okay, so here's the deal that Cruz made. We can stop by the BAU when we land, but then we'll drive you into the district and take you to the federal jail." Emily begins to uncuff his handcuffs. "Since you are under investigation for murder, these cuffs are going to have to stay on until you are arraigned, but you're not a flight risk up here."

Spencer softly smiles, "Thank you. Circulation's a wonderful thing."
"And the moment there's a chance for outside witnesses, these go back on." Emily adds and Spencer gives an affirmative nod.

"Have you talked to anyone about the legal team?" Clara decides to ask and Rossi nods, "Yeah. Stephen Walker made some calls to the BAP to get the best we can." Matt nods with that as he looks at Spencer. "The BAP's a great group. You'll be in good hands."

"Mark my words, kid. This whole thing's been a nightmare, but we're gonna get you out of this." Rossi assures. Julia gets a text message and she's quick to check her phone. "Prints and samples from the crime scene came back to our home lab. They found proof that backs up your cognitive. Not that we doubted it, but there was indeed a third person in that room." Julia tells as she stuffs her phone back in her pocket.

Emily looks back at Spencer and takes a breath of relief. "You're not out of the woods, but I swear we won't lose you."

"Yeah and if I need to, I can reach out to some of my mom's colleagues, maybe even my father's for the best lawyers or legal team to help." Julia offers.
"I thought you wanted nothing to do with your family's lives as well as their name." Luke comments and Julia shrugs, "I am, but for Spencer, I'm willing to do anything." She assured with a small smile as she looked back at him.

Usually, Julia hated doing that and of course, she never wanted help from her family or anything to do with the family name in general but Julia was willing to pull all the stops she needed for Spencer. She'd have a formal conversation with her father if it meant freeing Spencer from this nightmare of a situation.

          They'd landed back at the BAU and Spencer had kept his wrists covered with the FBI jacket so as not to show his handcuffs. They'd waited in the elevator and when the doors opened, the rest of the team was greeted with Tara, Garcia, JJ and Stephen. The first person to give Spencer a hug was JJ.

            JJ takes notice of the jacket. "Oh. I'm so sorry. It's only because there are other people around." Spencer nods, "It's okay." JJ looks at him, "We know you didn't do anything wrong."

          "But I should have told you guys I was going there. I never... never imagined in a million years it would have turned out like this." Spencer explains. "No one thought that this could have happened. Look, you're not in this alone anymore. Ok? No secrets." JJ decides and Spencer nods with that, "Deal."

          Garcia cuts in, wanting to hug the man, as well. "My turn. Come here, you. Oh, my God." She takes a look over him. "Your color's better. All I had to look at was that mug shot, and it had me really worried." Tara nodded, "Yeah, we all were." Stephen even adds, "Glad you're back."

         "Me, too," Spencer agrees. "How's my mom doing?"
         "She's fine. You don't need to worry about her, I promise." JJ assured but Spencer shakes his head, "I can't help it."

           The three had begun to speak to Spencer about his mom and Emily and Stephen had privately talked for a moment before Luke and Rossi had to take him to the district. As the remainder of the team, watched them walk away, Julia looked around and saw the distress in everyone's faces.

            Garcia was heartbroken, Tara was worried, JJ was distraught and Emily and Stephen had something on their faces that Julia couldn't place but she held her head high and grabbed Garcia's hand as she spoke, "He's gonna be okay, guys." She stated. "He's gonna he through this. And we need to be okay for him, too."

             He's gonna be okay, he's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay.

DUN DUN DUN 😈
the love/hate relationship i have with this arc

anywayssss
decided to write tonight especially since tiktok is now universally banned atm and i can't distract myself by scrolling 😓 i just got on booktok too ☹️

but oh em gee this storyline destroys me so much i kept shouting "MY SHAYLAAAA" at the screen every five seconds of watching this episode again 😭 i'm not ready for more

any ideas for what may happen in these next upcoming chapters??? cuz it's gonna be a lot so buckle up

also i just got a second job so writing chapters is gonna be a little bit difficult every now and again but expect the usual updates until i get my schedule lmao and i will let y'all know in advance haha

thank y'all for reading
the shitshow is about to begin 🥲