Honesty - Criminal Minds || Spencer Reid Fanfiction

29. Overview

"Sometimes there are no words, no clever quotes to neatly sum up what's happened that day. Sometimes you do everything right, everything exactly right, and still you feel like you failed. Did it need to end that way? Could something have been done to prevent the tragedy in the first place? And what about my team? How many more times will they be able to look into the abyss, how many times before they won't ever recover the pieces of themselves that this job takes? Like I said, sometimes there are no words, no clever quotes to neatly sum up what's happened that day. Sometimes, the day just ends." ~ Aaron Hotchner

Overview

Spencer looked over his shoulder as the team bundled inside the ladies' restroom. Morgan winced at the sight of Melanie hunched in the corner of the stall, sobbing in Spencer's arms.

He turned and laid eyes on Mahoney dead on the floor. It was clear from the position he was in that they'd find his DNA all over Melanie.

"We have to get her out of here." Hotch said in an enraged tone, storming from the room.

The door bounced against the wall as he slammed it open, causing JJ and Prentiss to jump delicately at the harsh sounds.

"I'll go." Rossi said with a nod to the rest of the team as he followed after Hotch. It was a tragic situation that unfortunately nobody knew how to deal with.

EMT arrived carrying their bags, two female paramedics to handle the delicacy of Melanie's condition, and two male coroners to dispose of Mahoney's dead body.

"I just can't believe it." Officers were saying.
"He seemed like a good man I thought."

The Detective was shrugging, completely oblivious to his Sergeant's psychopathic tendencies.

*

Outside on the sidewalk, Hotch was vomiting near a trash can.

"Hotch." Rossi caught up with him and placed a gentle hand on his back. "We weren't to know." He said calmly and Hotch shrugged the hand off.

"She fit the victimology, I shouldn't have left her unprotected." He snapped defensively.

"She's a federal Agent with Bureaucratic and International training. He was a psychopathic bastard who didn't give a damn about training."

"She couldn't protect herself because the bastard knocked her unconscious, Dave. I should've brought her with us."

Hotch turned to his colleague and friend with enraged eyes, tearing his bulletproof vest from his body, dumping it on the ground as he stormed back inside the station.

*

As this encounter was taking place, Melanie stopped crying and allowed the paramedic to help her to her feet inside the small cubicle.

"Please sir if you could just step outside for a moment," The paramedic asked of Spencer and he looked at Melanie's broken expression, her tears slowing until they finally stopped and she stared off into space blankly.

He nodded his head before stepping out of the cubicle, the door closing behind him.

"Agent we have to take you to the hospital to be checked over, is that alright?" The paramedic asked Melanie.

It became aware she was in a severe state of shock as she done nothing to answer the paramedic.

"Alright," The paramedic said in a delicate voice, wrapping a blanket around Melanie's shoulders in order to give her some dignity from the torn blouse.

Outside the cubicle the restroom was empty if for Mahoney's covered dead body, the second paramedic and Spencer.

"Are you okay to walk ma'am?" The paramedic asked Melanie and she took one step forward, a cry escaping her lips as she fell against the paramedic desperately.