Spencer Reid

"Reid, I'm telling you. Something's wrong... I told her I would watch Hallie as long as she needed me, and of course I still will, but she promised it wouldn't be any later than seven and it's not like her to just not call or respond, you know that. I'm just worried..." Garcia spoke quickly into the phone as I gathered my things from my desk. "I just need my laptop; I feel icky hacking into Sabrina's. I just want to ping her phone and make sure she hasn't been swooped up or anything else crazy that always seems to happen."

I sighed and nodded to myself, pulling my bag strap over my shoulder as I walked down the narrow hallway to Garcia's office.

"Alright, give me a second." I said into the phone. I opened the door to Penelope's  clutterly-organized office and flipped the light switches on. I made my way over to her desk where many monitors hung above it, and looked over each of the three laptops.

"Which one is it, Garcia?"

"It's the one with the pink keyboard." she said, almost annoyed. It made me chuckle; As if I should know the blue and purple ones are for work purposes only.

"Okay. What next?"

She proceeded to walk me through her log in and directed me to open a special program located on her toolbar. Upon clicking into the app and logging in, I saw a list of locations already available for preview with all of the team's names highlighted on each one.

I didn't say anything, I only smiled to myself. I knew she was a protector and asking her about it would do no good.

She instructed me to put Sabrina's phone number into the "Add New +" portion of the program, and watched the screen quickly pull up a 3D map of coordinates of the phone.

"She's still at the hospital, Penelope." I said, my eyes squinting as I looked closer at the screen. "How often does this program update?" I asked, my eyes following the blue dot showing exactly where Sabrina's phone was located.

"It's live, it updates every few seconds." she said quickly. "Anyways, why don't you try calling her? Maybe I said something in my last text that upset her or something? I don't know. You call her, you're her favorite."

"I already tried to call her." I bit the inside of my lip at the thought of being Sabrina's favorite anything, but the thought was quickly pushed aside as I watched the blue dot of Sabrina's location move from the inside of the hospital and into the parking lot. I clicked the FEED button at the top of the program, causing a different screen to pop up and projected a street view of the hospital parking lot. It appeared to connect to the closest camera of the GPS location.

I waited a few seconds before I saw a familiar figure step out of the hospital and into the pouring rain. It was difficult to see her face because of the grain of the camera, as well as the harsh rain that continuously fell onto the lenses, but I was sure it was her.

"Garcia, I clicked the feed button and I see her." I said, still staring at the screen.

"What's she doing? That program has a ten minute delay, whatever it's showing it isn't up to date yet."

I continued to watch her walk through the parking lot without looking both ways before crossing, walking to her car without the slightest hurry from the rain. She didn't seem to care that her long-sleeved shirt had been completely drenched by freezing water, and she got into her car without turning it on.

I watched it for another minute or two, trying to figure out exactly what was happening.

Did something happen?

"She's... sitting in her car," I said slowly, still watching her not move in the driver's seat. "She hasn't done anything else."

"Do you think she's okay?" she asked, exasperated. "What's she doing in her car, not answering my calls? See, I told you she was mad at me! How did she know I let Hallie have ice cream before dinner?" she cried dramatically.

I ignored Penelope's ramblings as I continued to watch Sabrina, not moving in her car.

"Garcia, I'm going to try and call her again. I'll call you back." I said, and went to hang up, but she quickly and harshly whispered,

"What do I tell Hallie? She's asking when her mom is coming home."

"Tell her she'll be home when she wakes up," I said and looked at the clock. "It's already eight thirty, and I'm pretty sure her bedtime is eight."

There was a short gasp from the other line before she hung up, and I moved the phone from my ear to dial Sabrina's number.

Surprisingly, she picked up after the second ring.

"Hello?"

My heart rattled extra hard as I heard her voice, and I couldn't ignore the way she sounded as she answered.

"Sabrina, are you okay? What's going on?" I didn't want to tell her I knew where she was, I didn't want her to think I'd ever invade her privacy if I didn't think it was absolutely necessary- or if I thought her life could possibly be in danger. I mean, she has a stalker for crying out loud.

"Oh my god! I am so sorry, I'm on my way right now!" At this point, I could tell she was crying. The pain in her voice was evident, and I wanted to know so badly what had caused it.

I shut the laptop and quickly walked to the door, shutting the lights off in Garcia's office. I scurried down the hallway and into to the elevator, a flash of Déjà Vu behind my eyes as I remembered the last time I hurried down the elevator to get to Sabrina. Only this time, I knew her better, and I wanted to protect her from anything that could possibly cause her any harm.

"Sabrina, talk to me. What's going on? Please don't drive right now, you sound upset and you don't want to drive like that." I said quickly, my fingers gripping the phone as my free hand pressed the down button frantically.

"No, I have to get home. I am such a flake, I cannot believe I'm so late."

I couldn't help the pit that began to form in my stomach as she kept crying and sputtering out words about being late.  My foot began tapping anxiously against the floor as I watched the numbers above the elevator doors drop down one by one. As they opened, I dropped my phone in surprise hearing Sabrina yell, "Oh shit!" and quickly bent down to pick it up.

I was running at this point, bag clutched in my hand against my side as I fished for my car keys. Chills ran down my spine as I listened to her scream in fear, and the only thing I could do was drop my car keys multiple times in an attempt to unlock the door.

Goddammit!

"Sabrina, can you hear me?" There was no response, and I felt like throwing up.

I finally got into the sedan and with shaky fingers, managed to turn the car on and step on the gas.

"Sabrina?" I said a bit louder, a bit more frantically.

Silence.

"Spencer?" She was calm. She sounded tired-exhausted, even. But she was calmer than she was a moment ago.

"Sabrina, what the hell is going on? What happened? Are you hurt?" I asked.

Sabrina laughed as she responded. "I am hurt more than you could ever know." She paused for a moment, and sniffled a bit before continuing.  "Can you come get me?" she whispered.

I'd let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. I was already on my way to to the hospital, but  I felt even better that she'd asked for me without knowing I was already on my way to her. 

"I'm five minutes away." I responded.

It felt like longer than five minutes by the time I finally reached the hospital, but I didn't have to drive around the parking lot like I was expecting, as I immediately recognized Sabrina's  white Kia in front of the building.

I pulled the sedan up next to her crookedly parked car and barely put the car in park before I hopped out into the rain, pulling open Sabrina's car door.

She looked up at me blankly, her bright green eyes glistening with tears.

"Do you like my parking job?" she asked me, her stare still blank. "My car turned into a jet ski when I tried to save the life of that card board cut out of a mother and child."

I watched her carefully, wondering if she was in some kind of state of shock. Her eyes never left mine, and I held my hand out to hers slowly in an attempt to get her out of the car.

"We can talk about your parking skills later," I said quietly. "Right now, I think we should get going."

And with that, her eyes were no longer just glassy with unshed tears, they were now drowning under them as the droplets fell out like a leaking water bottle.

"Hey, it's okay." I whispered, pulling her out of the car and into my arms.

She held on to me for dear life, like I might somehow melt in the rain that fell around us-but I didn't mind. In that moment, I didn't mind the cold water that fell on us. I didn't mind that my socks were slowly becoming wet, leading my toes to also follow suit in a cold, wet, numbing sensation.

I didn't mind holding her like we were the only two people in the world.

Although I felt like I could have stood there with her holding her cold body against mine for a few more minutes, we reluctantly pulled apart as a shout from the hospital entrance was heard.

"Brina!"

I looked over my shoulder to see a very tall man waving his hand towards Sabrina. Her fingers tightened around my-now soaking wet-jacket and her eyebrows furrowed in frustration.

"I want to leave, Spencer," she said, still staring at the man in the doorway. He ran back in through the entrance and her eyes returned to mine. "Will you please take me home?"

I nodded quickly and took her hand as I lead her to the passenger side of the sedan. I opened the door for her and once she was inside, I opened the back door and grabbed the few blankets that were stored under one of the seats. I gently placed the blankets over her and closed the passenger side door and ran over to her car, now becoming fully aware of the harsh rain pouring down on me. I jumped into her car and pulled away from the curb, parking it in one of the empty spots appropriately.

I hopped out of the car with the keys in my hand, locking it as I jogged back towards the sedan.

As I opened the driver side door, the same man that had called for Sabrina had come back outside, this time with an umbrella. He looked around and spotted me again, his eyes visibly narrowing.

"Hey!" He called after me. As we made eye contact, I wondered if this is why Sabrina had been sitting in her car for all that time.

"Spencer, get in the car," Sabrina said, leaning over the center console. I met her eyes again, the irises pulling me in like a magnet. "Please." she whispered pleadingly.

I didn't have to think twice as I got back into the sedan and closed the door. From her  side of the car, Sabrina pressed the lock button and continued to stare towards the man holding a (now useless) umbrella as the wind blew it inside out.

I threw the car into reverse and pulled out of the hospital, turning back into traffic.

The car was silent, all except for Sabrina's harsh breathing and the tap of her small finger on the door, as well as the occasional hiccup or sniffle from her. I didn't know what to say, and I wasn't sure if she wanted to talk about it.

I'd seen Sabrina cry before- when she was talking about her sister, Sam. But I'd never seen her cry like this.

Every so often I'd glance at her as unknowingly as possible, seeing the never ending stream of tears gliding down her blotchy red cheeks.

"I know you may not want to talk to me about it," I said quietly, my voice seeming to immediately catch her attention. "But I am here if you do."

There was a moment of complete silence after I spoke, but was quickly replaced with the sound of a slap as she connected her hands to her face and sobs escaped from her lips.

My eyes widened and I felt panic bubble in my chest as I tried to think of something else to say, seeing as what I'd just said was not the right thing to say.

Before I could, however, Sabrina beat me to it.

"I-I c-can't b-believe she d-didn't tell m-me," she said through her sobs. "I f-feel like, I don't even know m-my f-family at.... at all!"

I stayed quiet as my mind raced through the different possibilities Sabrina could be talking about.

"I mean, we t-told each other everything. At least I thought we did! Why wouldn't she want me to know? She went straight to our p-parents? God, the guilt trip she threw when I- ugh! "  

I glanced at her to see her face was no longer blotched with red, rather her entire face was touched like a tomato.

"And I'm so fucking  hungry!" she yelled. She pushed her face back into her hands, her ragged breathing still prominent as her shoulders shook with each cry.

"I can get you some food, where do you want to go?" I stammered, my eyes sifting through the upcoming food places nearby.

"Oh god, Penelope! She's gonna hate me. Did you tell her I was so sorry?" She asked with a lean in my direction, completely gliding right over my question.

I cleared my throat and pulled out my phone, hitting the speed dial to call Garcia. The phone immediately connected to the Bluetooth and she picked up on the first ring.

"Reid, how is she? Did you find her? Is she okay?" Garcia came through the speakers at full volume and I reached to turn it down. 

"Penelope, I am so sorry! I truly did not mean to be gone for this long," Sabrina cried, wiping her eyes for the tenth time.

"Oh, please do not even worry about it! I can watch her for a while longer if you need me to- I know you haven't eaten yet because that nasty hospital food is not appetizing at all."

Sabrina rubbed her face with her hands, a new round of tears falling from her eyes.

"I would really appreciate that, Penelope," she said, her breathing was fast and close to hyperventilating.

"Of course! I'll see you whenever you get here. Take as much time as you need. Hallie is fast asleep."

Sabrina thanked her again, and I ended the call. I looked towards her again, this time she was staring right back at me.

"Can I have a hamburger?" she whispered. l smiled softly at her and nodded.

"I think that can be arranged." I replied.

* ੈ✩‧₊˚

I'd gone through the drive-thru of a local burger place and watched Sabrina scarf down an entire hamburger, as well as fries and a shake. While she was eating, she'd told me she hadn't had a real hamburger in years. She never liked them as a child and as an adult, she never had an inkling for one. But tonight, she felt like she had to have one.

As she talked to me and ate, the tears didn't stop. She talked about things that were not relevant to why she was so upset, but I was afraid if I asked her she may pass out. The heater stayed turned up full blast, considering her clothes were still soaking wet.

Eventually, she ran out of food and things to chat about, and we sat in a (mostly) comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"Are you ready?" I asked her gently, our fingers brushing on the center console.

She replied with a nod, as well as a sniffle as she crumpled up the trash from the food and stuffed it into the brown paper bag.

The drive to her house was also silent. I thought of what to say, and how I might be able to help without knowing what was actually wrong, but I couldn't come up with anything. I wondered if the man at the hospital had anything to do with it- I mean, it must, right? She practically ordered me to get into the car just at the mere sight of him. Was she afraid?

Was it an old boyfriend of hers, maybe? I didn't know, but I couldn't dwell on it.

"Do you want to come in?" Sabrina asked as I pulled into her driveway.

I cleared my throat and put the car in park, looking towards her. As she stared back at me with her tired eyes, I felt myself start to say not this time. It was obvious something was going on, but I really wasn't sure if she'd consider us close enough to tell me. Surely, she must have thought I was considering this because then she said, "I'd really like to talk to you more, but I do understand if you want to go home."

I nodded with a small smile and she returned it. I hopped out of the car as she wrapped up the few blankets she'd used in her arms, and I opened the door for her to climb out. She was still trembling as we walked to the door, but as we stepped inside, her nerves seemed to subside and it was only now a shiver.

Garcia hugged her and assured her over and over that she truly didn't mind watching Hallie and that it was silly for her to even think she would ever mind. She gathered her things after her short, yet sporadic goodbye and pinched my cheek as she walked past me to the door.

Sabrina stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, her hands together and elbows pointed upwards as she looked around aimlessly.

"Why don't you change into something warmer? You're shivering." I suggested softly, my voice barely louder than a whisper. She nodded quickly, glancing down at her appearance.

"Right," she sighed, still twirling her fingers around and looking from side to side. "What about you? You're still soaked."

I chuckled and held up my go-bag. "I'm always prepared." She nodded with a smile and disappeared into her room, but not before turning the light on in the guest bedroom for me to change in.

I'd changed into a dry pair of pants and a light blue button down under my black cardigan sweater. I was limited on options.

Sabrina had changed into dark blue ankle sweatpants and a black hoodie. She had her hair tied up in a bun, slowly drying itself from the heated vents. Her feet were covered in dark green fuzzy socks that came up past her ankles.

She had made coffee and set it down on the table in front of the couch, grabbing the black throw blanket that stayed draped over her couch. It was a three piece sectional couch that allowed Sabrina to sit on the L shape and me on the I; We were close but not too close.

"Spencer," she started. "I'm really sorry. I know tonight has been... strange. I did not mean to call you in yet another distress and have you rescue me, but I am grateful you did."

A small smile made its way to my face as I shook my head. "I called you."

"Whatever." She said with a playful eyeroll.

"Sabrina, you can call me at anytime, for whatever reason, and I'll be there for you." I said quietly. I watched her closely as I said it, and saw her cheeks turn a bright pink. Her eyes were no longer locked on mine, they were now trained on the frays in the black blanket that she was picking at. "I know you don't need me, but I'd like to be there for you if you want me to."

"You might want to add TM at the end of your sentence next time, since Kim Possible said it first. I am very serious about copyright infringement." she teased.

My eyebrows raised in amusement as I shrugged, embarrassed to mention I had no idea what she was referencing to. Of course I knew Kim Possible was a Disney Channel show, but I'd have to look up what she was referring to.

"But you're right. I don't need you, as I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself," She looked back up at me with a smile and leaned her head back on the couch cushions. "But I would like to have you in my life, Spencer."

I smiled back at her, but before I could say anything, I noticed the fall of her eyes.

I didn't say anything, and watched her body shift on the couch uncomfortably.

"I found out my sister was pregnant before she graduated from high school." Sabrina whispered, her eyes stuck on the couch cushion between us.

Everything seemed to click in my mind as she spoke; words I could only imagine hurt coming out.

"She didn't even tell me.." her voice was quiet and sad, her breathing becoming noticeably faster as she tried to stifle the tears inevitably coming to her eyes. "I just feel like, all of these people knew this one thing, this one important thing that I didn't, and we told each other everything-well, at least I thought we did. Is it selfish of me to think this way? Is it wrong for me to be upset with her, even though she's been gone for over ten years?"

I shook my head quickly,"No, of course not. You are allowed to be upset, Sabrina. Just because it happened ten years ago, doesn't make it hurt any less."

"And the fact that I had to find out from Michelle's parents is really what got me... Mr. Rowan was so rude about it, as if it were somehow my fault Michelle is where she is right now. It doesn't even make sense that Sam was pregnant- especially since they claim she had an abortion, when Sam swore up and down she was born to be a mother. " She ran a hand over her face and reached for her cup of coffee. "And Michelle- I don't know if she knew this entire time too. I want to ask her, but I'm afraid she might tell me something I don't want to hear." She was venting.

It was quiet for a moment, and I had to ask her what I'd been wondering since I picked her up at the hospital. "Who was the man calling for you at the hospital entrance, if you don't mind me asking?"

She rolled her eyes with a scoff and wiped under them again, shifting on the couch. "That was KJ, Michelle's older brother." She rested her head back again on the sofa cushions, her eyes staring up at the ceiling as she exhaled loudly. "Also, the father of Sam's unborn baby."

"Ah. I see." And I did. It was all starting to make a whole lot more sense. "Will you go back tomorrow to see Michelle?"

Sabrina had positioned herself on the couch with her legs bent up to her chest and her coffee mug resting on the top of her knee with one hand through the handle and the other wrapped around the cup. She stared into the black drink, her eyes giving nothing away as she contemplated her answer.

"I don't know yet." she said quietly. "But I do know, I want to go through Sam's old things."

"Oh? Are you looking for anything in particular?" I asked her.

She met my eyes for what seemed to be the thousandth time that night, and gave me a very small but triumphant smile.

"A birth certificate."

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AUTHORS                                    NOTE.

sorry I totally thought I published this chapter!!

I changed the book cover, are we liking it??

I wanted to show you guys Sabrina's car 😂 I think it's so cute. It's a 2015 Kia Optima. idk I think its funny whenever I accidentally do something dumb in my car like scare myself thinking I'm going to run over an animal but its actually a piece of trash, almost crashing LOL

Also, I think I've decided we are placing this story in season 11, but the year is still 2020. Like, everything that happens in season 11 and on will be like it happened more recently, rather than in 2015 like it aired on TV. (if that makes sense?) The only importance about the time is the letters that Sam received, I just really didn't feel like doing the math to line up all of the seasons with the story, lol. So no need to worry, the time isn't crazy intricate to the story, it's just a modern look on old CM episodes.

I will also be putting some episodes into the story, but we're going to ignore if they're out of order 🤪

Also, thank you all so much for voting on the covers in the previous update! (I'll be removing it from the story as it was just a temporary thing!) I really appreciate all of your feedback and its so so nice to have active readers 😥 I've literally been writing on Wattpad for ten years and this is the most activity I've ever had on any of my (many) stories,  so I'm really grateful to all of you!!

PS- You can find me on tiktok @gooblernation, and my personal tiktok is @ryahtaylor.
(IG is @ryahko If you want a face reveal other than my PFP lol.)

another PS- this chapter is heavily unedited, sorry guys! I'll come back later to touch it up.

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