Criminal Minds 1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****_Criminal Minds _****or Spencer Reid. This story takes place sometime after "The Replicator" but before "The Inspiration."**

She was cold now, her lips pale and tinted blue. He slithered his fingers through her hair, still soft, shining in the fluorescent light. He fanned it out on the carpet, touched the stab wound just underneath her breasts. It was time.

He took her hair in his fist, using his free hand to hold the pair of red scissors. Delicately, he proceeded to sever the better part of her hair from her scalp. He let it fall into the Ziploc bag; he shuddered at the sound of it running up against the plastic.

He shook the bag and the hair settled, yellowy strands gently curled around each other. He looked back at her, starting to cry then. He always did.

Spencer hadn't checked his mail in three days, which would mean an inbox of: three local papers, a new TIME magazine issue, a cell phone bill, and maybe a letter from his mother. Three days straight he spent at the BAU, reviewing the profile of their latest UnSub: a disorganized white male who murdered prostitutes by stabbing them in the abdomen and cutting their hair postmortem. He had his speculations as to who it was, though he'd learned in his eight years with his team that speculating was like a rocking chair: it gave him something to do but didn't get him anywhere.

As he skimmed the latest headline on the front page of the paper, something on the kitchen floor caught his eye. He dropped the paper on the table and knelt down, picking the business card from the floor. Taking his glasses from the table and single-handedly easing them on, he began to read the small black, clinical text. The card belonged to one Danielle G. Flynn, a caseworker at Temperance Hospital in Quantico. Her cell phone number was circled in blue pen three times over. The name was familiar to him, and he tried to suppress the memory.

Spencer flipped the card over and fished out his phone to call Hotch.

_I can't stop. Please help me, _was written in the same blue ink. The call went to Hotch's voicemail, and Reid counted the seconds until the computerized voice stopped and he heard the beep. Fifteen. Sixteen…

"Hotch, I'll give you more information once I get to the BAU, but I think I know who our latest UnSub is. It's Nathan Harris."

It was seven o'clock on the nose when Danielle's ringtone jarred her out of her sleepless stupor. The Strauss boy was starting to worry her, and she'd spent the entire night poring over his file. Putting the manila folder aside, she picked the phone off the wooden desk and took the call.

"Dr. Flynn speaking," she started, rising from her chair and walking over to the window.

"Hi, Dr. Flynn." It was a male voice; that much she could tell. Not a particularly low or definitive voice, but it jarred her enough to keep her attention.

"To whom am I speaking?" She peeked out the window.

The man on the other end cleared his throat. "This is Dr. Spencer Reid with the BAU. Someone left your card with my mail this morning. Do you know a Nathan Harris?"

Danielle stiffened, her free hand habitually finding the scar on the left side of her head, right at the hairline. Nathan Harris.

"What's happened?"

There was a pause where she heard Dr. Reid swallow before continuing. "We don't know yet. That's what we're trying to figure out. I…I mean we would appreciate it if you'd come down to the unit if you have time."

Danielle crossed her free arm over her chest. She'd alerted the hospital night staff of the Strauss boy's nightmares and screaming; so far she hadn't received a page from them. But if it was Nathan the FBI were looking into…

"Nathan Harris was discharged from the unit two years ago." She pulled her sleeve over her hand, shaking her head.

Nathan used to talk about a Dr. Reid a lot during their sessions: something about how he saved Nathan's life. Danielle put her hand to her forehead again, touched her fingers to where her skin puckered into the white of scar tissue. Nathan had stuck with her especially, even after his discharge. And Dr. Reid, or Spencer as she used to know him...she wondered if he would recognize her after upwards of fourteen years.

"I'll have to clear it with my supervisor, but I'll get back to you as soon as I can." She hung up before Dr. Reid could reply.

"Spence, everything okay?" JJ emerged from her office with two cups of coffee.

Spencer took one, running his fingers over the Styrofoam lid. "I don't know. I think something happened between her and Nathan. She sounded…" He pursed his lips, trying to think of the right word. "She sounded wary when I talked to her. It sounded personal too, like she was afraid of him specifically. JJ, I think he…"

"Reid." Hotch appeared in the little anteroom, the fluorescence shadowing the area around his eyes. "Dr. Flynn's here. I think it would be best if Agent Rossi were with you as well. She seems pretty shaken up."

Spencer followed Hotch to where Rossi stood with a reddish-blonde haired woman. She wore a turtleneck and a pair of black slacks, and Rossi had his hand on her shoulder. Dr. Flynn was very young, at least three years younger than Spencer, and she couldn't have been in her field for long. She still had the same blue eyes, and Spencer felt his stomach twinge.

Reid was about six feet away from her when he noticed she had a scar on the left side of her head, right at the hairline.

**Author's Note: I really hope this is a good start; I'm a complete beginner. I plan to continue this story, at least I hope. Reviews are much appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Criminal Minds. _I hope you like this one. Please review it!**

"Dr. Flynn?" The same male voice from this morning's phone call drew Danielle's attention away from Agent Rossi.

"Yes." She stepped forward, shaking Reid's hand. "You must be Dr. Reid."

"Spencer." Dr. Reid cleared his throat, and Danielle thought she saw Agent Rossi smile. "You can call me Spencer." He looked up at her, and she noticed he had circles around his eyes. "Did you know that with the amount of germs transferred through a handshake it's actually—"

"Let's not move too fast." Agent Rossi guided Danielle toward his office.

Dr. Reid kept his head down as they walked; he sort of loped along, keeping his hands in his pockets. Danielle watched him take a seat on one of the couches as Agent Rossi closed the door behind them. He sat down next to Dr. Reid and gestured at one of the small chairs across from them.

"We just want to ask you a few questions about Nathan Harris. You're not in trouble, but we could use your help."

Dr. Reid leaned across the glass table and looked Danielle over, his gaze lingering at the scar on her forehead. "Where did you get that?"

Danielle reached into her bag and pulled out Nathan's file. "This is what I have on him. I worked with him for four years. It's a lot, I know."

Rossi held his hands out. "The more the merrier."

Spencer pursed his lips and nodded before spinning the manila folder in his direction and opening it. On top was Nathan's photograph, along with his initial registration forms. Dr. Reid ran a finger along the side of each report page, furrowing his brow.

"He takes all that in?" Danielle looked to Rossi, who raised his eyebrows.

"I can read about 20,000 words per minute." Dr. Reid didn't look up as he continued, "It says here in January 2010 Nathan had an episode. Can you tell me what happened?"

Danielle stiffened, gripping the small chair's armrests. "It says it right there." Her face grew warm as she snatched the file from Dr. Reid, scattering a few notes around the room. She pointed to the exact paragraph where the incident was mentioned and shoved it at him. "Right there. You read 20,000 words per minute? You figure it out."

Dr. Reid put his hands up, raising his eyebrows. Agent Rossi used his arm to move Dr. Reid away from Danielle. Danielle sagged back against the couch, crossing her arms over her chest. She looked toward the window, at the drawn blinds and started tracing patterns in the patches of sunlight.

"He attacked me in my office," she mumbled. "And after that incident, his behavior was exceptional."

"Do you remember most of what happened?" Dr. Reid leaned forward again, and Danielle met his eyes, noticing they were brown. She nodded.

"Listen, I know this is hard, but I want you to tell me everything you can remember." His expression shifted, like he wanted to reach out and touch her.

Danielle shrunk away from him, shaking her head. "It…I don't know what to tell you. It was 3 PM on a Friday afternoon…the twenty-second…"

_Nathan and I were having our usual conversation…he was doing really well with his new medications and his mother was happy with his improvements. He said he was even going home on pass this weekend. He looked better; he looked like he'd been sleeping more and he wasn't as pale. _

_I…I got up to get a drink of water and, for some reason that set him off. He ran at me from behind, but I put a chair between us and he grabbed a pen from my desk. I tried to tell him to calm down, that if he didn't, he was going to be sedated, but he kicked the chair at me and I tripped. I fell and hit my head on the corner of my desk. _

_I faded in and out after that, but I could hear him screaming something. I think it was "whore."_

Danielle looked away from the window and saw Dr. Reid squinting at her. Agent Rossi had pushed a box of tissues in her direction, and it was only then that Danielle realized she had started to cry. She pulled her sleeves over her hands, wrapping her arms around herself.

The door opened, and Danielle jumped. She turned and saw a blonde woman leaned halfway into Agent Rossi's office.

"Hotch needs us. They found another body: same MO, same signature."

Danielle shifted herself so that she was facing the blonde. "What does he do to them?"

The blonde hesitated before replying. "He stabs them in the chest and cuts off their hair. It's very similar to a previous case we worked on." She looked at Agent Rossi and Dr. Reid. "There's something different this time. The victim's got sperm content all over her."

The latest victim was dirty blonde, her clothes still wet with what must be sperm content. She was sprawled in the grass, mud and dirt covering her arms and legs. Her eyes were clouded over with white spots and her lips were blue; putrefaction was setting in.

"He knows we know who he is," Blake started. "There's more than enough for a DNA sample. He wants us to know."

Morgan returned from scouting out the area with what looked like a photograph.

"Guys, I found this tacked to a nearby tree." He handed the photo to Spencer, who looked it over.

It was Dr. Flynn.

Danielle put her head in her hands; all the training in the world could not have prepared her for this. Nathan had been Danielle's first real case. He had come in an ashamed, terrified sixteen-year-old and had come out somewhat more confident. His behavior after the attack had been impeccable: his episodes had lessened and he adapted extremely well to the new medications. By the end of his stay at Temperance Hospital, he was on partial; he went home at night and came to the unit during the day for therapy. He even emailed her several months after to tell her he'd been accepted at the local community college.

She felt a hand on her shoulder. Slowly, she dropped her hands away from her face and looked up. It was Dr. Reid.

He swallowed and bit his lip before speaking. "Hotch told me to see you back to your apartment and stay there with you."

"Why? What did you find?"

"We found your picture with the latest victim."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****_Criminal Minds. _**

When Dr. Flynn opened the door to her flat, every curtain was drawn and it was almost completely dark. She hit a switch and slowly the lights came up, and Spencer looked around. She was right-handed, that much he could tell: there was a notebook and a magazine on the right side of the coffee table; the one end table was to the right of the sofa. The entire place smelled like air freshener and laundry detergent. He noticed one huge photo on the mantle: Dr. Flynn with a mirror image of herself; she had a twin sister, that much he still remembered.

"Sorry. I didn't have time to neaten up. Do you want something to drink?" She snapped him out of his observations. "Coffee?"

"Sure." He flopped down on the sofa, wondering how to best pass the time. "I…um…"

She raised her eyebrows.

"I take mine with a lot of sugar. At least four teaspoons."

He thought he saw her laughing as she walked away. When she returned with the two mugs, he noticed she'd taken her hair down. She placed his mug on the coffee table and sat down next to him. He wondered how to broach the question to her, tell her he still remembered her.

"Thanks," he said, wrapping his hands around the mug.

"No problem." She tipped her cup toward her mouth. "I've literally been up all night working on a case and now this."

"When was the last time you slept?"

She put her head in her hands. "Monday night. It looks like I won't be sleeping again for a while."

"You need to get some rest," Reid said quietly. "Or at least try to. I'll…" He swallowed heavily. "I'll stay with you. Or you can…"

Danielle laughed, looking up at him. "Agent, really. It's fine. It's what, Friday? I've gone this whole week without sleep."

"The human body can go for a maximum of 264 hours without sleep. You're halfway there already. And it's doctor."

Danielle laughed again, sinking back against the sofa. "Okay, doctor."

"Will you try to get some rest?" Reid asked earnestly.

Danielle sighed, nodding. Reid got up to turn off the lights, and by the time he got back to the sofa, Danielle had curled into a sort of upright fetal position and was barely conscious. He tentatively sat down next to her, twirling his coffee mug around the table. He started when he felt something brush up against his shoulder. He glanced over and saw that Danielle's head had shifted, and she had the side of her temple resting against his arm.

Danielle's cell phone went off, jolting her awake. The caller ID read a series of unfamiliar numbers. She glanced at Dr. Reid, who was already dialing someone. She lifted the phone from the table and pressed the 'accept' button on the home screen.

"Dr. Flynn speaking," she started. There was heavy breathing on the other end; she thought she heard something of a choked sob. "Hello?"

"Please…Danny. Danny, it's me, Nathan. Please help me."

Reid started speaking. "Garcia, I'm gonna need you to trace a call to this number." Reid dictated the numbers. "I'm with her right now…what?" He turned to her. "You need to keep him on the line for as long as possible."

"Nathan, calm down. Tell me what you need help with."

"They…the urges, they started again."

"Nathan, where are you right now?"

She glanced at Dr. Reid, whose brow was creased in concentration.

"Danny, I…I killed them all. I killed them and I cut off their hair."

"Nathan, I want you to—"

"And I want to cut off yours and I can't stop it please, please, Danny…"

"Dr. Flynn, is this your building?" She glanced at the address on Reid's phone screen and nodded.

"Nathan, where are you right now? I can help you if…"

Dr. Reid grabbed her arm. "He's in the building."

"Nathan, stay where you are. There are people who are gonna help you. Just stay where you are."

The line cut off. "Nathan? Nathan!"

"Dr. Flynn, I need to get you out of here," Dr. Reid pulled her from the couch. "Please, will you—"

The fire alarm started to blare. Danielle clamped her hands over her ears, her phone falling to the floor. Reid wrapped an arm around her and pulled her toward the door, where she could smell smoke. They entered into a stampede of people driving toward the fire escape. Reid's fingers tightened around Danielle's shoulder and they ran for the stairs.

"Hotch," Reid spoke into a Bluetooth, "I have her, I have her. We're-"

Someone grabbed at Danielle's arm, pulling her away. Spencer's hand fell away from the Bluetooth and he lunged forward, wrapping his arm around Danielle, nearly lifting her from the ground. But Nathan held fast, and Spencer's grip was slipping. Nathan yanked at her arm, twisted it, and Danielle felt something pop. The pain shot up her right arm, and she screamed. Spencer struggled with her, grabbing for anything he could get ahold of, but his palms were sweating, and the smoke was starting to blur his vision.

Someone bowled into Reid, and he was hurled into a wall. A second arm wrapped around Danielle's waist and she was yanked away.

"Spencer!" she screamed, trying to see through the smoke. "_Spencer!_"

Something blunt hit her in the back of the head and everything fuzzed out.

Reid stumbled out into the parking lot, scanning frantically for Danielle.

"I see him. Reid!" Morgan came running over, followed by the rest of the team. "Reid, kid, you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he wheezed.

"Reid, where's Dr. Flynn?" Hotch asked.

"I lost her. Someone grabbed her, and I lost her." Reid yanked the Bluetooth from his ear and flung it to the ground. "It was my responsibility to protect her and I lost her."

The rest of the team stared at him in shock.

"Reid, look," Morgan started, "blaming yourself isn't—"

"Derek, I really could not care less for your generic advice. Nathan holds his victims for approximately twenty-four hours before he kills and dumps them. Which means that Dr. Flynn has about twenty-three hours, forty-five minutes, and thirty seconds left."

**Note: I really hope the few people following my story liked this one; it felt a bit rushed but that might just be me. As you can see, Dr. Reid is growing somewhat attached already, but he seems to form attractions quite quickly from what I've observed. Please review, as I'm interested in your feedback; I hope I haven't created a Mary Sue! (sorry, Dr. Flynn).**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Criminal Minds. _I do want to post a trigger warning for rape, so if you want to skip this chapter, feel free.**

When Danielle came to, she was in a warehouse of some sort, tied to a chair in nothing but her undergarments. Her clothes lay in a tattered pile on the ground. She tried to move her head, but was hit with an onslaught of dizziness and a protest from her right shoulder. A dull ache thrummed up and down her right arm, and the back of her head was matted with blood. When she was able to lift her head, she saw that there were rusted hooks hanging from the ceiling; she was in a meat locker.

Her throat was papery dry and sore; when she coughed into her left shoulder she tasted blood. She was tied to a chair in an abandoned meat locker with smoke inhalation and a broken right arm. Possibly a concussion, though she couldn't be sure at this point. A door opened to her right, and she could smell diesel. She was near a highway. If she could just move her hands…

"Hi, Danny" Nathan blurred into focus. He was in nothing but a pair of briefs.

He looked her over, from her bloodied hair to the bruises lining her left flank. She coughed, and blood splashed onto her upper thigh. Nathan felt his erection grow thick as he watched her gag and convulse. By the condition of her body, she worked out regularly; her legs were toned and her stomach flat. He approached her slowly, putting a hand on her right shoulder.

"That hurts, Nathan," Danielle managed to choke out.

His fingers tightened around her shoulder and she cried out, her vision blurring. His hand trailed down her arm, probing at her. He touched her breasts, reaching inside of her bra, trailed his fingers down her abdomen. She felt his breath at the top of her head; it came in short, staccato gasps. She felt him take her chin in his hands and cried out again when she felt her right arm twinge.

"I had to." Nathan's voice wobbled as he spoke; he sounded on the verge of tears. "He wouldn't have let you go otherwise."

He let go of her chin, and her head lolled forward, pitching up against her chest. Where was Spencer? Did he get out of the building?

"ME report came back from the latest victim," Blake walked into the conference room, where Spencer paced.

Rossi was watching him. "Maybe now isn't the best time."

At that, Spencer strode toward the conference table and grabbed the back of a chair.

"Reid," Blake started.

"Alex, it doesn't matter what you say, I'm not going to be able to stop moving for more than four seconds."

"Spencer, this is very unlike you." Alex helped him to sit down, gesturing for Rossi to leave the room.

Spencer wrung his hands, drummed his fingers against the table. "Oh, really, Alex? In the year that you've known me, you've never—"

"Who is she to you, Spencer?"

Reid pondered this question for a second, pondered telling Blake where he'd first met her. He closed his eyes.

"She was from my neighborhood. I went to high school with her brother. The…the summer after I checked my mother into treatment, I kind of shut away for a bit. I was actually taking out the trash when she approached me. I-of course I thought she was-but she was fifteen and I was eighteen so nothing came of it. But her family helped me get things together. She and I would sit in her basement and play video games sometimes. I would talk to her, too, but her brother didn't like me…he spread this rumor that I molested her and her mother believed him.

"One night, I was out on the front porch when her brother came onto the lawn. I think he was intoxicated, but he started to beat me up, and she came running. She called the police on him and the rumor stopped, but she wouldn't talk to me afterward. I went to grad school the next semester, then training. This is the first time I've seen her in almost fourteen years, Alex. She recognized me, I could tell, but she wouldn't say anything to me. Alex, I tried to save her, but I lost her, but I still find her…she was the only person from my hometown who…"

"The feelings were latent, Spencer. And now they're flaring up again, and I think you need—"

"Alex, discussing this isn't going to help anything. May I see the ME report?"

Blake pursed her lips before sliding the papers toward Reid. He scanned them, and it was on the second page that he saw it.

"The second victim had traces of packaging plastic under her fingernails. There was also dried animal blood, decayed animal tissue, and rust." Reid whipped out his phone. "Garcia, I think I know where he's keeping her. How many meat lockers can you find in the area?"

There was the sound of keys tapping. "There are three within a ten mile radius."

"Are any of them abandoned?"

"Oh, my God, Spencer, how did you figure this out? I'm sending you the address now."

"Thanks, Garcia." Spencer turned back to Blake. "He's holding her in an abandoned meat locker. Get everyone else in here. She doesn't have much time left."

"Spencer, it's only been six hours."

"He took her while her building was on fire. If you factor in smoke inhalation, it reduces her time by at least twelve hours."

Nathan was inside her, pushing in and out of her, holding her hair. Hot, rancid breath hit the side of her face, and the room shifted around her, flat orbs of light merging into one another. A sharp ache flowered in her chest, and she felt woozy from coughing. She breathed up against the shirt he'd stuffed into her mouth and tasted blood on her breath. She heard him crying, felt him dig his hands into her shoulder blades, but she was going numb from blood loss.

The door swung open, and Nathan yanked himself out of her.

"Nathan Harris! FBI! Put your hands where I can see them." It wasn't Spencer, that much she could tell.

She heard something slide from the floor, heard Nathan crying. She was able to roll herself onto her back.

"Nathan, you don't want to do this." It was Spencer's voice. "Please, put down the scalpel and talk to me."

She heard Spencer yelling something, heard the scalpel slicing into something, felt a spray of warm liquid. Something warm and damp collapsed on top of her, and she couldn't breathe. Then someone lifted Nathan's body off of her and Spencer came into focus. She smelled coffee on his breath, felt his hand on the inside of her wrist.

"Spencer," she mumbled.

"I'm here, Dr. Flynn."

There was a sliding sound, fabric against fabric, and Spencer wrapped his jacket around her. It was warm and smelled like coffee too. She felt his hands on the side of her head. Her eyes wheeled.

"Let me go," she managed.

"I'm not gonna let you die." Spencer held her head.

"Remember you," she was able to say.

She heard Spencer gasp.

"Reid, let the medics take care of her." Another man's voice came from somewhere in the room. "Reid!"

Someone pulled Spencer from her. She felt an oxygen mask go over her mouth, felt the paramedics pull a blanket over her and strap her to a stretcher. As she faded out, she saw Spencer follow her into the back of the ambulance.

**Note: ****I really want your feedback on Spencer and Danielle's shared past. I thought it was kind of dumb but your comments would be much appreciated! Please review!**


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Criminal Minds, Crime, Hurt-Comfort