Sincerity - Criminal Minds || Spencer Reid Fanfiction

31. Sacrifice

"Love without sacrifice is like theft." ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The Father

I didn't want to tell Melanie or Spencer that Robinson and I had done some training together after college. We went way back, but we hadn't stayed in touch. Of course, I had a sneaky suspicion that we'd both been following each other's careers over the years, but I had no idea that one day I'd wind up saving his life.

Or at least, attempting to.

It was dark and chaotic in the halls, the distant sound of gunfire and the occasional explosion making me feel like I was in some sort of war-zone.

The Cell had breached the grounds with a bomb, which had initially cut the power and was the first disturbance we'd experienced in the office.

As soon as we'd entered the hallways, another bomb had exploded, which was to mark the Cell entering the White House.

The 'search' and 'rescue' teams had split into two further teams in order to act as decoys and delay the Cell in reaching us.

Everything was complicated and chaotic and panicked and I wasn't sure which way was up and which was down, let alone who was who and where we were going.

Nevertheless, we pushed on.

Melanie and Spencer were up front; Carter and I were behind them, and Jason and Emily had the President flanked behind us with Darren bringing up the rear.

He was a little crazy and I had a sneaky suspicion he was enjoying all the carnage, laughing and cackling each time another explosion went off.

"Was he always like that?" I asked Melanie as we all ducked to the ground as a huge section of the first-floor bannister exploded and fell to the marble foyer below us, Darren laughing maniacally as we stared at the section just a dozen feet from us.

"Dad, you don't want to know." She replied, shaking her head and hurrying back to her feet.

"Psst, Melanie," Our radios began crackling as a voice tried to push through the interference. "Hellooo?" The voice sang. "Mellllanieeee?" A shiver ran down my spine at the sheer madness within the voice, and I realised that whoever the voice belonged to, would make a wonderful pairing for Darren.

We pushed through into another corridor and pressed ourselves against the waller, gunfire cracking at the end of the hallway.

Melanie unbuckled her radio and brought it to her mouth.

"Who is this?" She said, her attention only somewhat on the radio.

"Oh come on, tell me you don't recognise me?" The voice said, distorted and interrupted with static interference and gunfire.

"You'll have to spell it out for me." Melanie said, her head jerking back and forth as she swept the corridor we were on, Spencer doing the same.

"Look up." The voice said, suddenly crystal clear on the other end of the radio. In a heart-beat, Jason, Darren, Spencer and I, had all crouched and cocked our guns upwards, where a surprising mezzanine-type level had been created amongst the explosions.

Ainsley Hart's face was just-about recogniseable in amongst gear and the darkness.

Gun-fire cracked through the air as she shot at us and we shot at her.

She ducked out of view and Melanie immediately snatched the President and hurled herself into a nearby room.

"What're you doing? We need to get to the bunker?" Robinson gushed, Jeffers and the General hurrying after us as we piled inside what could only be described as a glorified cleaning closet.