Spencer's Adventures With Caffeine

Too Much Caffeine

"What cup number is that?" Emily asks Derek as Spencer walks out of the lounge with another cup of coffee.

"I've lost count." Derek tells her. "Probably three or four though."

"Should he be drinking that much?"

Derek just shrugs. "I have no idea."

Emily frowns and goes into the lounge. Grabbing the instant coffee that they use she searches the nutritional info for caffeine contents.

"Ninety-six milligrams for eight ounces. Okay not bad."

"What are you looking at?"

Emily turns around to see Rossi walking in.

She holds up the coffee bag. "Caffeine content."

"Any specific reason?"

"Spencer has had a lot of coffee today." Emily says. "I just want to know how much caffeine he's consuming."

Rossi nods. "Makes sense. That kid is going to be a jittery mess by the end of the day."

"I don't doubt it."

The two chat for a few more minutes before heading back to work. When Emily sits down she notices that Spencer had already drank his coffee. How he drank it so fast was a mystery to her.

Shaking her head, she dismissed it and turned back to her computer. She lost herself in her work for a few hours along with the rest of her team. There was no shortage of paperwork around here.

What everyone on the team failed to notice was Spencer getting up almost every thirty minutes and coming back with more coffee.

Spencer was trying to concentrate on the file in front of him, but his head was pounding, and he was slightly nauseous. He reached to take a drink from his mug before he decided against it. He'd already had eight cups of the stuff today. And what his friends didn't know is that he doubled the amount of instant coffee supposed to go into a mug. So, he'd really had sixteen cups of coffee. How much caffeine was that again?

"One thousand five hundred and thirty-six." He muttered to himself. Then he remembered the two caffeine pills he'd taken that morning. "Almost two thousand."

Maybe he'd had too much? His throat felt dry, and now that he thought about it so did his mouth.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as Hotch called them into the conference room for a new case.

Slowly he stood up, leaning against the desk as a wave of dizziness took over.

"Spencer?" came Emily's voice.

"'M fine." He mutters pushing off the desk, shakily walking towards the conference room, missing the worried look Emily sent Derek.

He basically collapsed into his chair in the room and watched as the others filed in.

"Okay we have a case in Tulsa Oklahoma where-" Penelope started.

Spencer's head was aching something horribly. He was trying to pay attention, but he just couldn't. He was dizzy and nauseous. His heart started beating faster in his chest and he took a deep breath, bringing a hand to his chest.

"-d? Reid?." Came a distant voice.

"Spence!"

Spencer jumped and looked up to see his team staring at him.

"Sorry?" He asked, dropping his hand.

"What do you think of the unsub taking the victim's fingernails?" Derek asks.