𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮 ➣ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝓽𝔀𝓮𝓷𝓽𝔂-𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓮

"She's going to be fine," the doctor told the team. "She lost some blood, the bullet went straight through, she needs a few weeks to heal and she'll be back up and running."

"Thank you."

The doctor turned to Reid, his mouth open in the question she was about to answer. "She's asking for you."

Reid followed the doctor to her room and Mara was lying there, her face pale, blooding seeping through bandage. Her eyes landed on him and she sat up, cringing at the ache in her shoulder.

"Spencer."

"Mara," he said, a small smile pulling at his lips. "You're okay."

He sat down in the chair next to her bed and smiled at her. Mara chuckled at him. "You're cheesing."

"Sorry," he smiled. "I just-I'm really glad you're okay."

"I'm beginning to think it's literally impossible to kill me."

"Yeah, well let's not test that theory." He smiled, grasping her hand.

His smile fell and Mara noticed immediately, squeezing his hand. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, I just.." he trailed off, trying to gather his thoughts. "Every time I see you go down, I'm worried you might not get up."

"I know."

"I'm worried that this time, that time, it's going to be the last straw," he said to her. "That you're gonna decide that you can take getting shot, beat up, targeted anymore."

"I'm gonna need breaks, like you," she replied. "But I'm not going anywhere. Not for a while. They say pain builds character."

Reid shook his head. "Sometimes pain isn't supposed to teach us anything, it doesn't build character. Sometimes, it just hurts, and even though we want to look at the bright side desperately, there's nothing but overwhelming darkness."

"Srishti Chopra," Mara smiled at him. "I don't know which is right."

"Sure, pain builds a character," he replied. "But pain like the kind we've felt, that's not just pain. It's misery."

"I'm tired of talking about pain," she replied. "I'm ready to go home."

"I'll go see if the doctor clears you to fly home."

Reid turned to leave the room but Mara reached out and stopped him, grabbing his hand. "Thank you."

"For what?" 

Mara chuckled and shrugged. "I don't know..for being you."

Reid smiled. "I don't know how to be anyone else."

He left the room as Mara shook her head and laughed at the young doctor. Reid moved to get the doctors to release her, shamelessly flashing his badge a few times. The young nurses couldn't help but release her. Not just because they wanted to appease the attractive agent but because they wanted to get on his good side.

Once Reid signed the papers to have her released, he returned with her belongings and some clothes from her go-bag JJ brought from the station.

She tried getting dressed but she couldn't move her arm without it hurting unbearably. Reid stood in the corner, his back turned to her, arms crossed over his chest, listening to her whimpers of moans of pain.

It wasn't until she got to the shirt that she huffed and let her arms drop, her shoulder throbbing. "Help?"

Reid spun around, seeing the shirt caught around her neck, one arm through. He chuckled but moved over to her, trying not to look at the bottom half of her torso. He unraveled the shirt and helped her wounded arm through, pulling it down and setting it around her hips, running his hands over her hips.

He felt Mara tense up under his touch, a strange touch to her. It was something she'd craved to touch but right now wasn't the time to be sexually frustrated. She looked up at him and met his eyes, setting a hand on his shoulder to balance herself. 

"You okay?" He asked her, moving his hands from her hips to her waist.

Mara gently smiled and looked down to his feet. "I'm okay."

He moved a hand to her face and let out a soft smile, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to her forehead. 

There was a knock on the door, causing the two to pull away from each other, Hotch's suspicious eyes looking between them.

Reid left her to get the rest of her things together, leaving her and Hotch together. "You're cleared to work. The shot was clean. You're sentenced to bed rest at home for a couple of weeks."

"What else is there?" Mara asked him, taking a seat on the hospital bed.

Hotch crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not one to pry but I'm required by the bureau to know if there are relationships happening among the team."

Mara quickly shook her head. "Reid and I aren't dating."

"I didn't ask if you were dating, I asked if there was anything going on."

"No," Mara replied. "He's my best friend."

"Mara, I need to know," he said, meeting her eyes. "I'm a profiler, you know I catch onto things easily."

"Yes, I love him but if you're asking if I'm in love with him, then your answer is no," she said. "Hotch, really, I wouldn't lie to you-"

"You did last time," he cut her off. "When you two slept together."

Mara opened her mouth to rebut but there wasn't anything she could say because he was right, she did lie to him when he asked if there was anything going on between them before.

But now, she was telling the truth. Her and Reid were working on rebuilding their friendship, learning to forgive each other for what happened. She knew that relationships were kind of a touchy subject in the FBI, but there wasn't anything for Hotch to worry about. At least, not right now.

"Sir," Mara said. "Reid and I are repairing out friendship and that's it. That's something you don't have to worry about."

Hotch nodded. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Thank you, sir."

The rest of the team came in after Hotch left, Garcia hugging her so tightly she couldn't breath. 

"You almost beat his ass." Morgan teased.

"Yeah, I guess that hand-to-hand training paid off." She chuckled, Morgan taking her bags and she followed them out to the trucks and they got onto the jet and finally headed home.