the violet effect // spencer reid

11 • how to save a life

• chapter warnings: spoilers for s2e11, mention of murder, dead bodies, prostitution, mental illnesses, attempt of suicide •

previously:

"Do you know where your husband went?"

"He said he had work to do."

•••

After calling Hotch and the rest of the team in the span of seconds, Spencer and Violet ran outside and started asking anyone on the street whether they had seen the man. "He's got to be somewhere out here," Violet sighed. And speaking of the devil, the next woman they asked, pointed to a man on the other side of the road, saying, "That's him."

Without hesitation, Spencer ran over the street, looking like a maniac trying to avoid getting hit by a car. "Ronald Weem! Don't move! Put your hands in the air and get down on your knees." Spencer pointed his revolver at him. Meanwhile, Violet managed to follow him to the murderer they've been looking for. As Reid put his gun back into his holster, she placed cuffs on the man's wrists and violently pulled him up. He cried, in defense, "They said they'd clean them off the streets. They lied. What was I supposed to do? I had to do something."

•••

The rest of the evening was suprisingly peaceful. The team was just finishing up paperwork. Everyone had already left except for Spencer, Violet, and Hotch, who was sitting in his office with the blinds pulled down. Spencer felt his phone vibrate on the table, somewhere under all the paper.

Once he found it, he chuckled to himself as he saw the caller ID.

"Hey Reid."

"Hey. I heard the juvenile authorities let you go today. I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"It's alright."

"Where's your mom?"

"Oh, she had to go back to work. So, you were there when they caught him?"

"Yeah, I was."

"Did he say how long he knew what he was?"

"No."

"Well, do you think it's possible for me to maybe talk to him?"

"I'm sorry. You're not him, kid. Who we are, it's constantly evolving. I'm a lot older than you and I'm changing all the time. You know, this job changes me. You've changed me."

"You sought me out to try to understand how not to harm other people."

"That's a far more important part of who yo are than the one that scares you."

"My mom wants to have me go to a hospital for a little bit."

"Maybe that's not such a bad idea."

"You know, once they lock meup, they're never going to let me out of there."

"You don't know that."

"Whatever. I just wanted to say goodbye."

"When are you going in?"

"It's supposed to be tomorrow. It's the last night of freedom. Thank you for caring."

"Take care, Nathan."

In a way, Spencer had a heavy heart thinking the kid was gonna be locked up. But on the other hand, this was maybe better than letting him harm himself, or even worse, someone else.

"The kid, huh?" Violet spoke up.

"Hm? Yeah. His mother's sending him to a hospital."

"Ah." Violet fell silent again. And so for the next hour, after which they were finally done with paperwork.

Just as Spencer was packing up his bag, he got a call from Nathan. Again. Except this time, on the other side of the line there was a hysterical voice of a girl, screaming something about blood and wrists and a card that she saw on Nathan's nightstand.

He slit his wrists. "He's trying to kill himself." Spencer ran to the stairs of the building, the elevator was taking too long. Violet ran after him. "I'll drive."

•••

Thanks to the sirens on the workplace SUV, the agents got to Nathan's home within minutes. Spencer had stormed in, seeing the kid spread out on the bed with blood pooling from his wrists onto the floor, and a woman, completely in shock and panic, in the corner of the room.

Spencer immediately clutched the wounds as tightly as he could, to stop the blood from leaving his body, while he impatiently waited for paramedics to arrive. Fortunately it didn't take long.

The boy had lost a lot of blood, but thanks to Spencer's heroics, he made it safely to the hospital.
The agent stood outside the apartment, hair dishevelled and blood on his hands.

Violet handed him a towel. "Are you okay?"

Spencer didn't reply for a moment. "I think so." He wiped his hands off.

"You saved his life." She stated, to which he nodded. He still seemed a bit in shock.

Violet put her hand on his shoulder for a moment, before deciding to go all in and wrapping both her arms around his neck and pulling Spencer into a hug. "He's gonna be okay, Spence."

It was the first time someone ever called him that, and it made his whole face go warm. It was the feeling that he couldn't describe - again. It came every time he saw her smile, or every time she glanced at him when Hotch did something that would only be funny according to Spencer or her.
No one in his life had ever made him feel like this. It was magical, but at the same time embarassing and annoying.

Spencer combed through his entire encyclopedia of a brain to find an explanation and the only thing that made any sense was that, to his surprise, he was falling in love.