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The team has been chasing this goddamn unsub for hours now. A highly unorganised man in the middle of a psychotic break, and still he somehow escaped them twice already. He should've been travelling by car, but still there is no sight of it, and every crime scene is more gruesome than the next.
The victimology has been consistent. Law enforcement off duty, in their own homes. They've been ranging from lawyers to police officers, but the focus is clearly on the law and the people upholding it.
And now they're running after him, and there is no sight of the car. The unsub does not fit their profile, and the whole team is on edge.
„Spencer catch up, he's right around the corner!“ Derek yells, traces of irritation in his voice. Spencer has been falling behind. From an outsider's perspective, he looks out of breath, only barely keeping up with the rest of the team. The team being JJ, Derek, Emily and Hotch. This job requires a lot of endurance, which the young doctor was not showing at the moment.
--
(3 hours earlier)
„Spencer, you're falling behind.“ Hotch remarks once they'd cleared the scene and they regrouped in the car. The unsub escaped. „You arrived a whole minute after us.“ spencer winces. Hotch is keeping his tone intentionally neutral, but Spencer knows what he's hinting towards. Spencer should be able to arrive on scene as fast as possible, lives depend on it.
Spencer disappointed him, and it bring him irrational guilt and embarassment to have hotch point it out like this.
„Yeah, I know. I stumbled.“ The tall brunet says, shrugging his shoulders, pointedly looking out the window to avoid eye contact. The tips of his ears burn in shame, and the shoulder tap JJ simpathetically offers him isn't helping.
„Maybe you should exercise a bit more, you've seemed a bit slower recently.“ Emily jokes with a smile. Spencer almost visibly cringes at her words, but restrains and just smiles back. His chest is tight when Derek joins into the teasing, and his smile falls. „you're almost out of breath walking from the plane to the car, pretty boy, you spend too much time reading.“ He laughs, and all spencer can do is roll his eyes and ignore the laughters.
There's a lump stuck in his throat the whole car ride to the station. He's dreading the next time they will have to get out of the car and face a situation like this.
The car stops in the parking lot and the team climbs out of the car to rush back into the station, ready to give the police officers the next pieces to their puzzle. Spencer's phone buzzes in his pocket and he checks the number. The name on his screen makes him pause. He taps emily's arm and catches her right before she enters the building.
„I have to take a call, I'll join in just a few minutes.“ he tells her and she nods, unreadable expression on her face. „don't wait too long, spence.“ she soflty reminds him, and he agrees, letting her go. He knows they're all worried about him. But there's multiple issues he needs to tackle before he can think about his coworkers. One of them is waiting for him to pick up.
He finally swipes the green button on the screen, and the voice on the other side of the line loosens the tight knot in his chest. „Hey Elia.“ his voice is so frightfully soft, if his teammates heard him, they would immediately know he was talking to a lover.
He'd been keeping his relationship a secret for a few months now, out of fear it wouldn't last. But Elia had been nothing but a saint, and spencer was running out of excuses not to tell his teammates. Maybe there was an underlying worry of judgement that stopped him from telling them.
„Hey, mi cielo.“ The man answered, his voice fond. „You haven't called in a while. Everything alright?“ Spencer sighed deeply at the question, wondering about the answer himself. „The case is going to wrap up soon, I promise. We're really close, the unsub's beginning to panic.“ spencer explains shortly, and of course Elia notices the exhaustion in his voice.
„Has your leg been giving you trouble?“ Elia inquires, but he already knows the answer. Elia was the first to visit Spencer in the hospital when he was shot in the knee, even though they'd only met days prior. It was one of Spencer's most treasured memories of them, and they hadn't even begun dating then.
So Elia had a front row seat to the moment when the doctors informed him he would likely have pain for the rest of his life. The info shattered spencer's self worth and confidence, but he simply nodded along until the doctors left, and he was alone with Elia again.
The next hour would forever stay between the two, Spencer trusted Elia to keep his promise.
„You've been gone for almost a week, Amor. Your leg must be killing you, and you're probably not letting yourself rest either. Please tell me Hotch knows.“ Elia begs, and spencer hates hearing the worry in his voice. Hotch does not, in fact, know about the extent of his injury.
He should have informed Hotch after receiving the news. He's putting himself and his team in danger, after all, but back in that hospital room, the illogical part of his brain was telling him that the doctors weren't 100% sure just yet, and he might recover better than they expected.
Now, almost a year after the injury, he still hasn't told hotch.
„..I'm sorry, Elia. I don't want him to take me off the field.“ He admits quietly. The first time he's admitted to this. The line stays silent for a while, and spencer almost thinks Elia had hung up on him.
„We can talk about it when you get back. You have a case to get back to, correct?“ Elia rightly assumes. „I won't hold you any longer. But please, Mi cielo, stay safe.“ Spencer will hate the conversation he'll have to hold when he gets back, but he feels absolutely lovesick when Elia doesn't berate or put him down for his choices and feelings, however bad they may be. There's something beautifully enamouring about being understood.
„I promise. I'll tell Hotch after this case. I love you.“ „I love you, Mi amor. I'll see you soon.“ Spencer hangs up feeling just a bit better than when he took the call, and heads inside the station where his team is already waiting for him.
--
(Present)
He's quietly cursing and stumbling into the alleyway his team just disappeared into moments ago. He hisses in pain when turning the corner puts more pressure on his left knee, and his vision blacks out for a moment. He has to sink against the brick wall to the dirty floor to avoid crashing to the ground. The shame he'd felt in the car comes bakc full force, and he just wants to be swallowed by the earth and disappear.
He knew this would happen eventually, but did it have to be now? He can barely move his leg without shooting white hot pain up his spine.
His eyes surveil his surroundings quickly, and he seems to be safe for a second, so he breathes in deeply. There's two thoughts running through his brain simultaneously. He needs to inform his team he's down and cannot move from his location, and there is something awfully off about this case.
He reaches for his earbud to inform the team immediately, but a memory flashing up randomly makes him freeze. What if the unsub was not alone? His first painful reminder of how unorganised unsubs work with organised unsubs was tobias hankel, but he brushes the memory into the back of his head.
With a sharp breath he remembers how the unsub seemingly travels at unnatural speed with no trace of a car, and how he seems to be escaping without a trace despite the absolute brutal and wild scenes. The profile fits, they had just been chasing after only one half of an unsub duo.
„stay still.“ A voice sends chills up spencer's spine. „Drop your gun.“ Spencer doesn't dare turn his head, but he can hear the distinctive click of a gun.
Well, shit.
He slowly lowers his hand to take his gun out of its holster. How long would it take his team to figure it out? He wonders while giving up his only protection.
„you're our second murdered right?“ He speaks carefully, keeping his movements gentle. The unsub clicks his tongue. Spencer wills his breathing to stay calm, but this could not have gone any worse. That this unsub isn't with his partner in crime means that spencer's team caught up to them, and the mastermind left his puppet behind.
He probably walked right off the scene, undetected by a team of FBI agents, spencer thinks with a sour taste in his mouth.
„How do you know there's only two of us?“ the man replies. There's disgust in his voice, he doesn't hide his distaste in law enforcement one bit. He needs to play along until his team figures out there are two unsubs, or he's dead and the unsub escapes. He tries to keep his knee still and swallows a hiss, but every movement still burns like a thousand suns.
„I know you have a partner that you care about, why would there be more?“ Spencer says, keeping his hands up and visible. „Law enforcement did something to you and your partner, right?“ The man's eyes don't leave spencer for a second, but he doesn't interrupt him. He's looking for spencer to validate his feelings.
„Law enforcement hurt you and your partner, and now you're giving him a chance to get revenge.“ Spencer explains, and a wild emotion flashes into the man's eyes.
He dashes toward the doctor and presses the gun to the underside of his chin, laughing histerically. Spencer tenses up and closes his eyes to wait for the gunshot, but it never comes.
„HURT?! THEY DESTROYED OUR LIVES!“ the man shouts, shoving spencer's head around while speaking. He gets so close spencer can hear his breathing, smell the cigarette smoke in his clothing. „They did nothing when our brother went missing, they did nothing and the case went cold. We begged, but they smiled and said there was nothing more they could've done. They mocked us.“
„So you took it into your own hands to get revenge.“ Spencer concludes, his voice shaking. The cold metal was compressing his windpipe and his inhales were wheezy.
„You'll pay for this. For taking my brother. All of you.“ The man's voice whispered, and there's a strange focus in his eyes. He's preparing to kill. Spencer's mind unhelpfully provides.
He tries to count how many seconds it could've taken the unsub to flee the scene to reach him, how long it would take his team to find them, but his head comes out blank. Panic is blocking any of his coherent thought processes.
How long will Elia have to wait for him to come back before realising something happened?
„Take off the vest.“ The man orders, snapping spencer out of his thoughts. Tears spring up in his eyes against his will, and he swallows hard to try and keep them from falling. He's scared. He's been held at gunpoint more times than anyone could imagine, but the terror will never change when it happens.
As soon as he pulls the vest off, the man pulls him up by the collar and spencer cries out in pain, dropping back down like a sack of flour. He's staring in panic as the unsub starts cursing loudly, pointing the gun at spencer's head. Spencer's reaction triggered something, but he isn't sure what, and his head won't let him think properly. It seems the man has lost all soundness of mind, probably because of the stress of being caught, and losing his second brother to the police. And spencer is here to witness it all, helpless at the dangerous end of the barrel of his gun.
Now that he's looking into his almost assured death, spencer can see the unsub is shaking so badly
there's no way he will hit where he wants to, even at half a meter's distance.
He uses this to his advantage, clicking his earbud before trying to diffuse the situation.
„Hey, It's alright, I didn't move!“ Spencer tries to sound calming, but it comes out rushed, fear is stuck in his throat. He raises his hands to show the man he's no threat, but his words don't seem to get through to his opponent, who is now holding the gun with two hands trying to stabilise it to no avail.
There's a moment of silence.
Spencer can hear his own heartbeat, thumping like nothing is happening around him.
There's a moment of calm before reality hits.
He realises he's been shot only after the loud ringing of the gunshot - gunshots? - reverberating in his head stops, and all other sounds fade back. There's police sirens far in the background. The unsub is pulling on his own hair, slamming his head against the wall opposite to where spencer is sitting, but he's barely present enough to really care.
He's trying to assess approximately how long it will take for him to bleed out, but the adrenaline is starting to wear off, and he feels lightheaded.
It starts feeling like he's floating away, but nothing really hurts so he takes that as a win.
He somehow remembers he has hands and that he's injured, so his hands wander over his torso trying to find the wound. He stops when he touches the fabric around his shoulder and it's soaked and sticks to his skin. It dawns on him how serious this is when he pulls his hand back and its drenched red.
Nausea rolls over him. His mind is split between regret and and fear, and he can't seem to focus on keeping pressure on his shoulder. He wants to cry, but also doesn't want his tear-striken face to be the last image his team has of him.
You promised him you'd stay safe.
A noise catches his attention.
„..cer ...Sp.. Spencer!“ A voice calls out to him, and every possible sensations hits him all at once. He's ripped out of his floaty adrenaline state so fast he doesn't recognise anything at first.
The breath spencer didn't know he was holding comes back in the form of loud gasps of agony. Pain radiates from his left shoulder and right side like molten stone, and he goes deaf for half a second, reflexively curling in on himself.
Hands stop him before he can move far, patting his face gently. In his pain-induced trance, he realises the person wants to get his attention, and he tries to focus.
„Spencer. There you go, eyes on me.“ He hears hotch say, and he finally locks his eyes to look at his supervisor's. Hotch looks worried. His brows are furrowed and creased, and his mouth is pulled into a tight-lipped line. „Spencer stay with me alright? Keep your eyes open.“ Hotch is talking confidently, but his body language screams terrified rather than calm.
Spencer can't help but feel relieved.
He's still scared, but he feels much calmer with someone close. He's just a little less terrified of what will happen to him. He looks up and hotch's eyes are wide as saucepans, his mouth is hanging open. „Spencer, don't say that. Please. Keep your eyes open.“ The older man's voice is shaky, this time around, and spencer's heart tightens with guilt.
He might've even apologised to the older man, for dying in front of him, but his vision is rapidly shrinking and he has suspicions that his time is extremely limited.
Everything hurts. He wants to throw up. A part of him, his human survival instinct, perhaps, is egging him to fight the darkness, to not let it take over.
His brain, however, is telling him to just let it go.
I'm so sorry Elia
It takes on average three to five minutes for someone to bleed out depending on the injury, and he's nearing the four minute mark quickly.
Hotch's voice grows quieter.
His heartbeat is slow and relaxed, beating like nothing is happening.
There's that sweet silence again.