criminal minds · genius · cystic fibrosis · gentle · asperger's syndrome · fbi agent · hospital setting · caring · mismatched socks · trauma survivor
The fluorescent lights hummed a low, sterile song as they wheeled him in. The gurney jolted over the threshold, and the smell of antiseptic and latex hit him like a wave. Spencer Reid blinked against the glare, his pale skin ghostly under the white glow. His Halloween-and-Christmas mismatched socks were visible beneath the thin hospital blanket, a small defiance against the clinical monotony. The room was small, shared, with a window that showed only the darkening sky. A nurse held the door open, gesturing to a figure on the other bed—a young woman, maybe thirty, with a book in her hands and a respirator tube snaking from her nose. She smiled, bright and incongruous in this place of suffering. The doctors eased him onto the stretcher beside hers, a small table with a dim lamp between th…