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𝑷 𝑶 𝑽
❝ 𝚍𝚒𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚗 𝙵𝙱𝙸 𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚝? ❞

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PREVIOUSLY ━━

ㅤ𝑺𝑷𝑬𝑵𝑪𝑬𝑹 𝑾𝑨𝑺 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑭𝑰𝑹𝑺𝑻 𝑶𝑵𝑬 𝑰𝑵. "Hands in the air, Ilya Kuznetsov." His gun was pointed directly at Ilya's forehead. The Russian man grinned at him, pressing a knife against the neck of a very weak Gwen, who looked like she couldn't even move, but she tried her hardest to smile at him. He felt himself tear up before locking eyes with Ilya. "Let her go, or I swear to God I'll put a bullet through your skull."

"Spencer," Hotch silently scolded, which prompted laughter from Ilya.

"You should listen to your boss," Ilya laughed. "You don't look like much, little boy. You're a twig."

"He can still put a bullet through your skull," Hotch told him. "I just don't want any blood in his hands."

"Aww, how sweet--"

He was cut off when Spencer did exactly as he said and shot the straight through Ilya Kuznetsov forehead. He collapsed, but Spencer paid him no mind as he holstered his gun and rushed towards a relieved Gwen.

"You saved me," Gwen whispered to him as he tried to find a way to cut the metal wires.

Spencer sighed in relief, pausing for a second the cup her face, when her eyes started drooping. "God, Gwen, I...Gwen? Gwen?! Come on, open your eyes for me, baby. Come on. Gwen...Gwen!"

PRESENT ━━

The Avengers were all outside apprehending all the other bad guys, while the BAU team quickly hauled Gwen into the quinjet. Viktor rushed into the jet to get the engine started.

"The others will get extracted later on," Viktor told them. "Right now, we need to get Gwen into the compound, and fast. Are you guy strapped in?" A chorus of yeses were heard. "Alright. Someone call Alina and Helen." He closed the hatch and immediately began ascending. "This is not gonna be easy for Gwen."

Spencer sighed from the quinjet floor. He refused to leave her side, sitting down right next to her unconscious form. His lower lip trembled as he thought over the events that just occurred; he almost lost her. Tony was able to stabilize her for a few moments, but the electric shock that came from Ilya's homemade electric chair was at least 50 milliamps, and Gwen had a seizure while they were trying to retrieve her.

She nearly died in his arms.

He sniffled and wiped a tear away, listening to Emily while she was talking to Alina and Helen on the phone. As soon as she ended the call, she looked at her teammates, who were all teary eyed. "They're setting up the infirmary. They're getting the best medical care known to man prepared for her."

"Helen and Alina are smart, they can stabilize Gwen, I'm sure of it," Viktor said. But the profilers doubt that he was talking to them.

Spencer sniffled again and looked up at Derek, who went over to kneel beside him and pull him into his arms.

Derek hugged Spencer tightly. "She's gonna be okay, alright? She's the strongest person we know, she's gonna pull through."

"What...w-what if she doesn't?" Spencer stuttered, hugging Derek just as tightly as he freely let his tears fall. The entire team didn't know what to say as they exchanged looks; all of them were terrified.

"She...she will, okay? She will."

Once they arrived at the compound, Alina and Helen were already waiting with a gurney and several other doctors with them. As soon as Viktor opened up the hatch, the team of doctors were already working on transporting her onto the gurney, and they instantly began wheeling her into the infirmary.

The BAU all ran after them, not wanting to leave her.

They were met with JJ and Penelope, who were both anxiously waiting, and the latter stumbled in shock when she saw Gwen being wheeled in.

"Oh my God," she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. JJ quickly pulled her into a hug while trying hard to cry. "is she gonna be okay?"

Derek ran up beside her and led the two women to rush after the doctors too. "She had a seizure on site, but Tony was able to stabilize her enough for transport. Right now it's...we don't know if she..."

JJ shook her head while wiping her tears away.

Gwen was eventually wheeled into a room, but Alina had to forbid the team from entering. "Look, I'm sorry, but you all need to just wait here. We have to make sure she's secure and stable, and we have to work with no distractions. I'm sorry."

"Please..."

"I'm sorry, Spencer."

Just as she was turning around to close the door, one of the doctors called out, "Her rhythm's abnormal."

"It's VF," she said walking over to the bed after locking the door. "We have to stabilize her or else she'll go into cardiac arrest."

"Get the AED."

"...all clear!"

"Nothing."

"She's flatlining."

"Get started on the CPR."

"One...two...three...four..."

"Come on, Gwen, come on."

"One...two...three...four..."

"Doc..."

"No!"

"Charge it."

"All clear!"

"She's back, but heartbeat's still unstable."

"We have to stabilize it."

"All clear!"

Alina nearly collapsed in relief. "She's stable again. But we'll have to run some tests. The antivenom could cause massive internal hemorrhaging and coagulation defects. The area it was inserted into is already blistering."

"I'll do a tox screen," Helen nodded at her, grabbing a syringe and feeling for her radial artery. She looked at Alina, scanning her face for a second, before saying, "The VF might not kill her, but the antivenom can. What do we do?"

"We'll decide once we get the tox screen results," Alina replied, making eye contact as she tried not to cry. She trembled for a moment, watching as Helen pushed the first extracted blood into a red-capped blood bottle, and grabbed another syringe to extract more blood. She pushed the second round into a blue-capped blood bottle and sighed. Alina instantly pulled the taller woman into a hug once her hands were free. "I...I..."

"Hey, hey," Helen soothed as she hugged back, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "We need to stay level-headed, all of us, for Gwen."

"I know."

Helen nodded at her, leaning down to kiss her cheek, before leaving the infirmary and heading towards the labs. She made eye contact with Hotch before walking away.

Spencer watched everything from outside as the rest of the team swarmed around him, sort of hugging his presence to reassure him. Throughout the whole ordeal, he was trembling, and it was very obvious that his mind wasn't working as it normally did. He nearly rushed into the room when Gwen flatlined, and had to be held back.

But even the team was no better, as they all had to watch everything from behind the glass, helplessly staring at Gwen's weak body.

"Since Gwen's stable, they moved her into a more comfortable room," JJ informed her team as they all sat on the couches back in the conference room. She had just gotten back from asking the doctors of the current situation. "They're still trying to figure out a way to get rid of the antivenom. It's uh..." She pursed her lips. "Dr Cho says it's poisoning her."

Spencer leaned back against the chair, closing his eyes. He was pale, clearly dehydrated, and he hasn't eaten; none of the them can get him to leave the confines of the room. They've given him food and water, but they're still sitting on the coffee table untouched.

"Spence...you have to--" JJ was cut off.

"No, Jennifer, I've said no, again, and again, and again," he angrily snapped. "Why can't you all just leave me alone?!"

Derek crossed his arms and glared. "Look, I don't know about you, but I don't think Gwen would wanna see you like this. You know this, Spencer, you know this. She'll want you to keep fighting for her. And that starts with taking care of yourself. She's stable, she's safe, and four of the world's most brilliant minds are working to reverse whatever that bastard did to her. Right now, all we can do is wait."

Spencer stayed silent as he mulled over Derek's words.

Hotch looked up at JJ. Unlike Spencer, he and the rest of the team had eaten and rehydrated themselves, but they were still on edge, and it was very obvious. "Can we visit her?"

JJ nodded. "They're still running some tests but they're certain she can take visitors."

"Alright." He glanced at Spencer. "Why don't you..."

Spencer didn't even let him finish. The genius was already up on his feet and running out of the room. He didn't know where she was at, so he had to ask FRIDAY, and the AI led him towards Gwen.

He saw Tony there, standing at the end of Gwen's bed.

Tony was quick to notice Spencer, and beckoned him inside. They stood in silence for a moment, before the billionaire spoke up.

"You know...I uh, first met Gwen four years ago," Tony chuckled. "I thought she was way too young to be of any use, as bad as that sounded. But she proved me wrong of course...that's just who she is. She always wants to prove her worth even though...even though she doesn't really need to. I mean, she's pretty awesome." He chuckled again, before looking at Spencer directly. "She seems to really like you, kid. She seems happy too. She told me once that...that she was so happy you didn't know about...her past, her powers, all of that. She was happy because you saw her for her. Not as some enhanced individual, or a broken person. Just her. But now that you know a lot...just...don't break her heart." Tony smirked. "Or you'll have the force of the entire Avengers on your ass."

Spencer smiled a little. "Did you just...did you just threaten an FBI agent?"

"No, of course, not. I'm threatening the boy who wants to date my little sister," Tony patted him on the back rather roughly. "Word of advice, don't get in between her and her snakes. They can't coexist without the other. I'm telling you--"

"Oh my God, the snakes," Spencer realized, cutting him off. "The snakes! Have you--have you formulated an anti-antivenom?"

"What?"

"Just answer the question."

"Uh, no."

"Well, okay, so Gwen's body works differently because of the experiments, right?"

Tony nodded slowly and frowned. "...right...?"

"Antivenom does the exact opposite of what it should do; it incapacitates her, causes blood coagulation issues—amongst other things—that are common with venom. What if--"

"Injecting her with venom can cause the effects associated with antivenom," Tony realized. "We were dead-set on making up our own anti-antivenom when the answer was right in front of us." He side-eyed Spencer. "Alright, I approve."

"Wait, where are you going?" Spencer called out as the man began running out of the room.

"I need to talk to Banner!"

"...Maybe that's why her snakes have been restless ever since she arrived," Bruce realized, looking down at the three caged serpents that were transferred into the lab. "But we can't just let them...bite into Gwen, can we? I mean, we have to figure out which venom will work the best."

"Why not let the snakes decide?" Alina suggested, earning her raised eyebrows from the three other geniuses in the room with her. "Okay, look, they may not be humans, but they know Gwen the best. They have this connection, remember? It makes them, I don't know, smarter. But regardless, they have a connection with Gwen that we can never understand," she glanced at the snakes, "it wouldn't hurt to try."

After that, they formed an agreement as they carried each of the snakes into Gwen's room as the others all watched from outside. Bakunawa had to be wheeled in because of his weight.

They all carefully placed each of the cages on top of Gwen's bed before opening them.

One by one, the snakes slithered over her. Bakunawa immediately cuddled up to her and wrapped his body around her. Ladon slithered near her head and settled in her hair like a crown. But Medusa went ahead and slithered over to where the antivenom was injected, inspecting it. Everyone watched with furrowed brows as she settled into the area.

Bruce and Tony grabbed the cages and placed it on the floor.

Bakunawa used his head to tilt Gwen's to the other side to expose the red and blistered area even more, and Ladon shifted his body to push Gwen's hair away. Medusa then carefully lifted her upper body up, opening her jaws wide to expose her fangs, before striking down upon the entry wound.

The humans all watched as Medusa pumped venom into Gwen before letting go and settling on top of Gwen's stomach. Then, several parts of Gwen's skin started...scaling.

"Oh, thank God," Alina looked down and sighed in relief. 

Spencer watched curiously as random areas around Gwen's body started shedding like a snake. Some of them had already fallen off and revealed skin that looked untouched. He was sat on the chair right beside Gwen's bed, and across from him stood Bucky. They were left alone by the others.

"Is this how she heals?" Spencer asked curiously.

"Yeah," Bucky nodded. "It's the reason why she doesn't have any scars."

"But how come it didn't take effect sooner?"

"The antivenom, it's like poison," Bucky shrugged. "Probably held back her healing."

"Does she heal faster than a regular human or..."

Bucky looked at him in amusement. He couldn't blame the FBI agent though, as they don't typically work with the enhanced. "She doesn't. She just heals like a regular human. But, like I said, nothing leaves a mark on her because she just sheds off the affected skin. That's pretty awesome."

Spencer chuckled. "Yeah...yeah, it is."

Bucky gave a small smile before walking toward him and patting him on the back. "I'll leave you two alone."

He nodded, watching as the super soldier left, before looking back down at Gwen. He held her hand before carefully intertwining their fingers together.

"So, uh," he cleared his throat, his voice a little hoarse from all the crying, plus his dehydration. "Gwen...right now, the doctors put you in induced coma to help you heal better. And there haven't been any definitive proof that coma patients can actually hear everything but...I just wanted to talk to you.

"I...I love you, Gwen." He chuckled nervously. "You know, men do tend to fall in love faster and express it earlier, but regardless...I knew that I loved you when Henry chose you over me." He smiled. "Remember that? When we had dinner at Rossi's and...and he just...he wanted you to hold him. I didn't even know who you really were but at that moment...I could see a future with you." He leaned forward and rested his head on one arm that he placed on her bed, while the other remained intertwined with hers. He was careful with the bandages on her finger tips. "And uh...I know about the very low chance of you having kids, but I don't care. I still...I still want to have a family with you. Whether they're biologically ours or not.

"I don't really care about that anymore, I just...I just wanna be with you because I love you. And I hope that I can admit that to you once you're conscious. Sooner than later, please," he softly teased. "I love you, Gwen. I can't stop admitting that. And it's strange, you know? I've never felt like this before yet I'm so sure that this is what I'm feeling because...because it's you." He chuckled. "I hope you heal well, so they can wake you up. I can't wait to see you smile again."

author's note: not yall thinking im a sadist for knowing how to induce primal emotion through my writing ✋🏻😭

is this the best time to say that i plan on taking psychology for college?

but anyway, i'm really really glad that yall are liking my writing, as well as the characters im bringing to life. it's very amusing and also touching to see how yall are really connecting with them. it means a great deal to me, but i hope yall realize that the song's about to end. 

but that doesn't mean it's over, of course.

i'm in the process of finalizing the overall plot of rem. i don't think it's gonna be as exciting or action-packed as pov, but it won't be a criminal minds fanfic without a dash of trauma right? 

other than that, thank you all sm for 50k and 3k votes !!