𝑃𝐸𝑅𝐶𝑌 𝑅𝐸𝐼𝐷 thought the worst thing he would have to live through was his mother's death but life deals him a new hand, something he would have never expected, it takes away his father.
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FOR THE PAST TEN YEARS, SPENCER REID HAS BEEN SOBER. For the past ten years, he wasn't sober for himself. They told him he had to get sober for himself but to him, his life hadn't mattered enough, what did however matter, was whether or not he wanted his son to be raised by an addict or not. What mattered to him was that his son would never see him struggle, that Percy would never find him near dead because he had been poisoning himself and what mattered most all was that Percy didn't lose another parent.
He had already lost his mother when he was barely five minutes old, he could not lose his father before he even turned five so Spencer went to rehab for a month, left Percy with Elle for a month, there was no one else he trusted more with his son's life. He missed Percy but he knew when he came back, he would be a better man, a better father, the father Percy deserved.
It was because he had been sober for ten years that it took him a few minutes to realize that he was riding a high. He woke up in a jail cell and he didn't realize he was high until he saw her, until he saw Delaney at the foot of his bed, which was just a mattress on a hard metal board. He saw her, he saw Delaney, he recognized her immediately by her blonde hair, by her leather jacket and jean shorts and when she turned to face him, he couldn't breathe. "You look like you've seen a ghost, pretty boy." She got up, moving over to sit down beside him, he rubbed his eyes hard, feeding the migraine pulsing in his head and when he opened his eyes, she was still there. "How can I even see you right now?" For a moment she was hazy or maybe it was just the corners of his eyes fogging up.
"Is that the only thing you have to say to me?" She fell down beside him, blonde hair covering the pillow and he swore he could feel her arm graze his on the small bed. He swore she was there, she was with him, for the first time in fourteen years, he wasn't alone. "I'm not real, Spencer and I'm guessing the reason I'm still twenty is that you never saw me grow up, you're thirty-five now but I never stopped being twenty." She turned to him, and he saw Percy in her eyes, he could remember the days he would look into Percy's eyes and see her and now the roles had reversed. "I shouldn't be seeing you right now." He got up and closed his eyes, whispering that she wasn't real until another voice broke him out of his haze, "Hey Reid." His head snapped to where the sound was coming from.
"It's good to see you, brother." He just sat there, not entirely sure the person that stood in front of him was real.
"It's me, Luke." He got up, trying to shake himself awake as he drew closer to the bars of his enclosure. "Luke," His voice was raspy, his mouth dry as he wrapped one hand around one of the bars. "Thank you for coming," Luke gave him a warm smile, "Yeah, of course." He placed his hand on top of Spencer's for a second when a familiar voice rose from the dead again. "Get a room," Delaney was back, this time she was on the other side of the bars, eyes averted up as she looked from Luke to Spencer. Spencer knew looking at the ghost of his ex-girlfriend was weird, he was the only one that could see her after all, but he couldn't help it, he was greedy for the sight of her.
"We're gonna get you out of here, okay?" Another familiar voice, Rossi. "We're just working out some things with the locals." And Emily. At the sound of her voice, Spencer looked away from Delaney to Emily. He moved over to get a better look at her, all his movements seemed to be slower than usual. "Emily, where's Percy?" He gripped the bar now with his bloody hand, it had been wrapped with but it still bled through when he put too much preassure on it.
"He's with JJ, Garcia and Elle." Spencer didn't say anything for a while, he sat down and covered his face with his hands, shame was a heavy blanket casted over his shoulders, weighing him down. "He went to Elle," He whispered, not to them, not to himself but to Delaney.
"What does he know?" He spoke clearer now, the question now directed to his colleagues, his friends, hell, his family. "He knows you've been detained here for a while, that's about it. I know you said not to baby him, but JJ said he's been through enough." Luke looked at him with pity, Spencer knew he couldn't help it, but it only made him feel more like a caged animal. "She made a good call." Delaney spoke before he could, "Yeah," He only responded to what she had said as he got up again, creating a distance between them but she was hard to shake.
"Don't worry, you'll be home with your boy in no time." Rossi spoke like he was making a promise, but he couldn't keep it because Spencer would go weeks without seeing his son and Percy would spend weeks losing his mind at the sudden absence of the person he loved the most in the world.
