Psychosis

Chapter 38- Anger Management Skills

Isabel hid out in the bathroom, unsure of how to get out of her situation. She knew that on the other side of the door, Hell awaited. Maybe not literal Hell, but her own kind of Hell. The devil was on the other side of the door, and she knew that he would be bringing his demons with him. She felt the air temperature in the bathroom chill, and she looked down to see that tendrils of darkness were curling underneath the crack in the doorway. Isabel knew what that meant. The demons were trying to shove themselves underneath the doorway. One long tendril of darkness reached its way towards her, and she scooted as far away as she could from it. She hit the wall, and she closed her eyes, not wanting to watch when she was captured. She waited for the darkness to wrap around her ankle, but it didn't. She opened her eyes to see that it was just too short. The demon couldn't comfortably reach anymore. That's when the devil kicked the demon into the door, and it wrapped itself around her ankle, and she screamed as she was dragged towards the door, towards the devil, towards Hell.

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"Spencer Reid, you'd better have a damn good reason for not helping Ciara when she very clearly needed you!" Akilah screamed at him the moment she crossed the jet to where he was sitting. Reid struggled to find the right words to say that could appease Akilah, and when he looked up to see her brown eyes flashing with anger, he knew that there was nothing he could possibly say that could ever appease the Arab woman.

"Can we take this back to where you and Ciara were sitting, Akilah?"

"No. Whatever you need to say to her, you can say to all of us, Reid," JJ answered for Akilah, and Reid could tell by the looks on Akilah's face that she agreed. Morgan did, too. Sighing, Reid looked to see that Hotch was in a discussion with Rossi, and probably wouldn't hear what Reid was about to say. He looked at the people around him. Prentiss was next to him and Morgan in the seat caddy-corner to him, and JJ, who had been sitting next to Morgan, had moved across the aisle so that Akilah could sit across from Reid and watch as he explained, setting her next to Morgan. Reid saw something flash across his face when she sat next to him, but he figured now was not the time to be asking questions. 

"Okay, okay. Five weeks ago on the flight home from Sisters Ciara had a nightmare on the plane. Everyone was asleep except for Hotch and me, and I knew that she had to be comforted somehow before she started screaming and woke up the entire plane. I would have gotten Akilah, but you know you get cranky when you are woken up too early," Reid started to explain, and Akilah opened her mouth when Morgan interrupted her.

"You really do, Akilah," he said, placing his hand on top of hers. If Morgan saw the raised eyebrow from Prentiss, he ignored it. He didn't draw his hand back right away, and Akilah didn't make a motion that she minded, instead motioning for Reid to continue before resting her face in the opposite hand.

"So I knew it was up to me to get her out of the nightmare somehow, but I couldn't touch her or anything like that, even though I was sure that's what she needed. So I remembered the thing I did when Lucas McCoy abducted us. I found a blanket, wrapped her in it, and gave her the hug she needed. And she did need it. She eventually calmed down and she even smiled a little bit. Because it looked like she was having a good dream for once, I... I may not have let go automatically..." Reid drifted off, and Morgan smiled.

"Pretty Boy making some moves!"

"Now you just gotta do it when she's awake," Akilah added, and Morgan laughed. Reid saw their eyes connect for a moment, and if there was any doubt that something was going on between the two of them, it was gone now. There totally was. But he'd ask later. Now wasn't the time, not with Hotch around.

"And Hotch caught me. He warned me that I was getting too close to her, and when I tried to tell him that I was just helping a friend get through a nightmare, he warned me that I couldn't let my feelings become more than that. So I cut her off from me as much as I could to make sure they didn't," Reid finally explained, and he saw Akilah's angry face soften a little bit into curiosity.