Selcouth | Criminal Minds | Spencer Reid

Chapter 11

"In Case You Ever Foolishly Forget; I Am Never Not Thinking Of You"
○------------------------------------------------○

I TOSS MY boots across the hotel room and flop onto the burgundy covers of my bed.

When I peer around the room, I notice it's the only bed in the room though.

Just at that moment, Morgan takes the chance to duck his head into the room.

"You settling in okay Nat?" He smirks, his gaze falling on the only bed.

"Let me guess, you did this?" I huff, crossing my arms over my chest angrily.

"What, me?" He gasps in mock horror, his hand fluttering to his chest.

Before I can reply, he rushes off, yelling a quick greeting to Spence as he rushes off.

"Why's there only one bed?" Spence questions curiously, dropping his duffel onto a table in the corner.

"Morgan," I mutter, unzipping my bag to pull out a pair of sweatpants and one of Spence's button ups to change into after my shower.

"Hey, is that my shirt?!" Spence yells as I bolt towards the bathroom.

Spence is faster and yanks me back, wrapping his arms around my waist to stop me, reaching for his shirt.

"No, mine!" I screech, squirming in his arms to escape.

I'm able to break free and rush into the bathroom, where I quickly slam the door shut with a resounding thud.

"Nat, let me in!" Spence yells through the door exaspheratedly.

"Nope!" I yell back, starting the water and shedding my uncomfortable pantsuit in lieu of the warm water.

Just as it begins to cascade over my head, soaking my chocolate locks, I can feel the tears start to pool over as I think over the day.

I had never particularly liked the cases where a child was killed or injured, but I had also never liked cases that involved the very people I had tried to escape.

"You're so stupid, you know that?!" Nicholas yells, his hand cutting through the air towards my face.

I flinch and cower away from him, just as I had done countless times with my biological father.

His hand wavers and I feel a small surge of relief, believing he hadn't meant to almost strike me.

That is, until he instead sucker punches me in the stomach. I should have known, that he was too smart to leave a visible mark.

I fall to the floor, clutching my stomach in pain and gasping for air.

I can't help the guttural scream that erupts from my throat, full of unspeakable horror and fear as I clutch at my stomach, hoping for at least one feeble kick from my daughter.

Instead, my stomach is still aside from the throbbing pain of the literal punch to my gut.

"No no no!" I whisper scream, rocking back and forth with tears falling onto my cheeks.

Nicholas tips back his bottle and ignores my screams as he stumbles away, leaving me crumpled on the grimy kitchen floor.

My eyes snap open and I quickly finish up my shower. I make sure to splash cold water on my red eyes before tugging on my clothes and exiting the bathroom.

Spence looks up from his book, one of his favorites, and jumps off the bed with his own stuff to head into the bathroom.

He pauses when he starts to pass me and pulls me towards him, his eyes scanning my face.

"How come you were crying?" He questions softly and my eyes widen at the comment.

"Wait- how?" I spit out practically, not even attempting to hide my surprise.

"You have raccoon eyes and your eyes are puffy," He replies, motioning to my face.

"I'm not even going to- ok, yes, I was crying," I mumble, attempting to pull away from his grasp.

Suddenly, his hand flies up and I flinch a bit, but he's only pushing a strand of hair from my face.

"Nat, I would never hurt you, what's going on?" He whispers, my flinch not going unnoticed by his quick eyes.

I shudder a bit as I struggle to keep in the sob that threatens to consume me.

"It's just this case, you know?" I manage to choke out before the tears spill out.

"Nat, shhh, you're going to be ok," Spence whispers as he leads me to the bed.

We climb under the covers like usual and I rest my head on his lap as he gently strokes my hair.

It isn't the first time I've broken down in front of Spence and it certainly won't be the last, but for the moment being, I choose to treasure the mutual understanding between us.

A/N:
This probably had to be the hardest chapter I've ever wrote! The little Nat/Spencer moment I've included makes me feel a bit better about introducing Nicholas though (not really). Anyone see the parallels in Natalia's flashbacks? To let everyone know, I'm horrible, but not horrible enough to kill off Natalia's unborn child like that. What was her fate though do you think? Hmm...