Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season One

The Popular Kids: Part Two

The team landed shortly after the video call ended. Since there is nothing to do right now that would benefit the team, you decide to kick back and chat with Penelope until the team calls you or her. Your side still hurts like a bitch, but you're powering through. You've been shot before (thanks to you when you decided to go shooting for the first time without your dad) and the pain has never been this bad. It's like your side is on fire with something stuck deep inside you. There is something wrong, you can feel it, but you don't say anything about it. You absolutely don't want to go back to the hospital.

Instead, you talk to Penelope to keep your mind off your wound.

"Nice space you got here. I see you're trying to make it your own," you chuckle and point to the many colorful trinkets and figurines she has on her desks.

"It helps to have bright and colorful things to counteract the dark and gloomy things I see on a regular basis. I don't know how you do it, honestly."

"Sometimes I don't either. I don't know at what point it starts to become normal to see dead bodies and crime scenes. I don't even know if there is a point. Luckily, I have all of you to fall back on when it gets hard."

"Speaking of, what happened on that train?" she asks quietly. "If you don't want to talk about it, I'm totally cool with that too."

"No, it's okay. I knew something was wrong from the minute I got on that train. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to upset Elle. I have a feeling that she still doesn't really believe or understand what I can do, so there was no point in bringing it up at that time to her. There was this man, Ted, towards the back and he was talking to himself as if there was someone inside his head speaking to him. He was already agitated from the start and when we stopped, that's when shit hit the fan.

"Because I know more than the average person, I felt like I had to protect everyone on that train from Ted. I could feel the panic come from every single passenger in that cabin, but I felt it the most when it came from Ted. He was mentally ill, and I could almost see the person inside his mind. No one understood what was happening with Ted, not even his doctor, but I knew. I didn't understand it, but I knew.

"Then Spencer came in and he was just one more person that I had to protect. I felt like because I knew what was going on inside Ted's mind that I had a duty or a responsibility to keep him from hurting anyone else. He tried shooting a kid, but I took the bullet for him. It's not the first time I've gotten shot, but it still hurt like a bitch. Even when I was lying down with blood coming out of my mouth, I knew Ted was a lost cause. Spencer tried to get to him, but there was no amount of words that could bring Ted back to reality.

"One of the other passengers shot him. Elle and my gun were taken early on so we weren't able to use them. It was scary, but I was more scared for the other passengers than myself. I see enough tortured spirits lingering; I didn't need four more on my conscience. If I had to, I'd do it again."

You finish with a sigh only to realize you basically poured out a speech. You didn't mean to ramble for that long, but once you got started, it was hard to stop. After the event happened, you didn't really spend a lot of time thinking about it since you had other matters to dedicate your mind to. Now that you have a moment, you can truly reflect on what happened in that train. If only you had a way to help Ted, things might have ended differently–in fact, you know they would have.

"I'm glad you're okay. You're very brave for doing what you did," Penelope smiles.

"Just doing my job," you wave her off.

"I'm going to head to the breakroom to get some more coffee. You want anything?" she asks and stands up.

"You got any more ice cream?"