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x-reader-theater · 3 years

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Inspired by the @katytheinspiredworkaholic Noir AU mood board, Spencer dating Hotches or Alvezes younger brother in around 20's-40's era when it was still illegal. Hotch or Alvez (who ever you choose) would be some sort of important name in the city so obviously the reader would be too, being from a wealthy family. So it is especially hard for the reader and Spencer to sneak around kissing and stuff when everyone has their eyes on the reader. But one day the reader realises that fuck the others, he is wealthy and so known that no-one dared to mess with him anyway so reader and Spencer would publicly announce their relation ship.

(sorry if its too long of a request)

This got away from me a bit, I'm so sorry. I also made a moodboard because I was so inspired. This was soooooo much fun to write. I love me a good noir AU loll. Edited by @mystic-writes

Moodboard by Me

You laugh lightly as Spencer pushes you into the wall right outside of your bedroom, kissing down your neck and sucking right below your collarbone. You chose to have your top three buttons undone tonight, just for this very purpose. You wanted to entice, without making it known that it was your intention. You got a few ladies coming over to try and talk to you, much to your brother's delight, but you rebuffed every single one of them. They weren't who your heart was truly with.

You moan as you grind your hips against Spencer's and pant out, "We- uh- we should get inside. Before someone sees us."

"Let them," Spencer says, kissing your neck more. "Let them see us. I don't care."

You push Spencer away, holding him at arm's length, before saying, "I do. I care. Do you know what my brother would do if he found out who I shared my bed with?"

You look away from Spencer, who sighs. "Maybe I should go-"

"No, wait," you say, grabbing his wrist. "Please don't. Just, hold me tonight?"

Spencer smiles and kisses you.

–

"Hey! Little brother! Come to watch the show?" your older brother Luke asks you from his usual seat. He's the only one in the club, but that makes sense since the sun hasn't even set yet. You walk over and sit down next to him, and he leans over, whispering, "Isn't she a vision?"

he points to the obviously very beautiful woman on stage, with dark skin and black hair curled beautifully on her head. She's wearing a white rhinestoned dress with spaghetti straps and you think you see her pearly white heels underneath . She looks stunning.

"She's not my type," you say, leaning back and listening to her sing.

Luke hits your arm. "No one is! I swear, if Ma and Pa hadn't raised me to be such a gentleman, I would be kickin' the snot out of you to find out."

You snort when he says he's a gentleman, but cross your arms and ignore it. "I do have a type. You just don't know what it is," you snort, and look over at your brother, who's frowning at you. "You're not her type either." You nod to the woman on stage.

"What do you mean? I'm everybody's type!" Luke exclaims and the woman glares at you.

You snort. "She keeps looking over at Penelope at the bar, making sure she's watching. She's singing a love song, but the only person in the entire place that it's for is your bartender."

Luke's eyes go wide, and you smile and slap him on the shoulder, while the woman finishes her song. You give Penelope a wink as you exit.

–

That night, you walk into the club. No one's singing at the moment, but you met the woman, Tara, back behind the stage in one of the back rooms that had been converted into a dressing room for her. She's going to go on stage later, and you paid her something extra to make the first song a love song.

You were good for it after all.

You haven't been keeping up with the family as much as you used to, but you notice your brother doing deals every now and again, and you have to step in to save him from getting his ass beat.

You take a deep breath and walk into the crowded club, the low jazz coming from the band on stage. You walk over to the bar and order a gin from Emily, who smiles at you and takes it from your fingers before you can grab it. She points at one of the tables where you see Spencer, sitting with a woman, ignoring her flirting. You sigh and thank Emily, before going to the table with your drink, and sitting down on Spencer's other side.

"[Y/N]!" he exclaims, a grateful look in his eyes.

"Spencer! Good to see you," you say, clasping a hand onto his shoulder. You squeeze it and he smiles at you. "Who's your friend here?" You ask, gesturing to her, but you don't stop touching him.

"Uh, this is… uh…" he starts to say, but the woman frowns at him when he doesn't say it.

"I'm Lila. Lila Archer," she says. While you're in Chicago, most folks around here don't have any sort of accent. She however has a southern lilt to her words. She's blonde haired and blue eyed, and she looks incredibly uncomfortable in here, surrounded by both black and white folks. There was also the occasional Hispanic person in here, like your brother, but they are few and far between.

Your brother owns one of the only mixed race clubs in town, only because he was adopted into the family as a young boy. He has the money as a non-white to own and run a business. Helps that his "family" is a majority white as well.

Your grandfather was sent to Chicago from New York to make sure the city knew the Italians still ran the place. But, he likes to pick up a lot of strays.

Doctor Spencer Reid being one of them. No one quite knows what he's a doctor of, but he seems to be a doctor of everything. Medicine, the arts, mathematics, you name it, he probably knows it. It's one of the many reasons you fell in love with him.

"Miss Archer. I've never seen you in here before. Is this your first time visiting my brother's club?" You ask.

She nods stiffly. "That's right. My father wants to buy this place, but he can't seem to put in an offer big enough. Says he wants to rid the city of it's filth and reclaim it for the whites once again."

"Well, Miss Archer, as you can see, there are plenty of whites here tonight," you say, gesturing to the people seated at tables and getting drinks from the bar. "And I'm really hoping you don't share the same… convictions as he does, because otherwise, I might just have to get one of my people to throw you out of here."

You make eye contact with Morgan who's sitting at a nearby table and he nods at you, acknowledging what you want.

"I-" she begins to say, before she deflates. "I wanted to see what was so bad, all the voodoo and evil devil worshiping he says he's seen you folks doin'. But, y'all just seem like good honest people."

You smile at her and stand up. "I'm glad to hear it, Miss Archer. I think you'll find we're a lot more human than everyone makes us out to be." She smiles at you and you turn to Spencer, holding out your hand. "Now, my good doctor, would you do me the pleasure of joining me for a dance? Miss Lewis is about to start her singing, and I heard it's going to be *beautiful*."

Spencer grins and takes your hand. You drag him to the dance floor, where there's already a group of people dancing together, swinging them around their bodies, moving and shaking and laughing.

The music gradually changes, and while it does get slower and softer, it is by no means a slow dancing tune.

You start shaking your hips and kicking your legs and Spencer does the same. He spins you around, almost forcing you to go out and in, and it's perfect. The melody is beautifully sung by Tara, and you smile as your back is pulled to Spencer's chest. He loops his arms around you, and you look up at him, smiling.

He's looking at you with a quizzical look, as if saying, "You sure you want to do this?"

Instead of answering, you kiss him. He opens his mouth and you slide your tongue into his mouth, capturing his mouth in a wet and heated kiss. When you pull away, he has the happiest smile on his face.

You look over at your brother, who has the angriest look on his face, and you raise an eyebrow, silently saying, "Just try to stop me."

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x male reader #spencer reid #luke alvez #noir au #criminal minds reader insert #criminal minds x y/n #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds #my writing #my work

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arrthurpendragon · 5 years

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These read & reviews seem to work best for me, so I don’t suffer burnout. I collect the names of people who have reviewed my stories since my last read and review and then their stories get added to my list to review. That simple. (Some have asked how to get on this list--that is how)

So, here is my attempt to also shine some light on stories of other people! I am adding summaries now to hopefully get others to want to read! I likely won’t get to all of these in one day, but hopefully within the next week! Thanks! :)

Ties That Bind (Supernatural) by: @inkoutsidethelines

For as long as Isadora could remember, the name Dean Winchester had been scrawled on the inside of her right wrist. Now she was seeing him for the first time, but not in the way she expected. He was on the news, wanted for murder. Isadora didn't know how her soulmate could be a serial killer, but she made up her mind right there. She wanted nothing to do with Dean Winchester. READ AT: FFN

Defying Demons (Game of Thrones) by: @darkwolf76

Hazelyn Bolton just wants to escape the demons of her family's legacy. But on her journey to find freedom, a chance meeting with the heir to Winterfell puts her on a path she never could have imagined. Robb and the Starks might be the key to a happy future, but when deceit, war, and old demons threaten it, will love, courage, and family be enough to hold them together? READ AT: FFN + WATTPAD + AO3

Journey of Oaths (Lord of the Rings) by: @mimikoflamemaker

Fate forges tangled paths for us. Often leading us to the least expected destination. One step in the wrong direction, one seemingly insignificant decision can push us down the path there is no return from. The path that will either change us... or break us. READ AT: FFN + AO3

The Noble Stag and the She Wolf (The Originals) by: @carlylynnmikaelsonscamander

Eliza and Hayley Marshall are in search for their family and travel to New Orleans for answers. Meanwhile after a one night stand with Klaus Mikaelson her entire world is turn upside down. Now she is living in New Orleans with her sister Hayley and under the protection of The Mikaelson protecting the one thing she never thought she would have, a child. Can Eliza and Hayley survive life in New Orleans while avoiding detection from Marcel and his vampires and keep her baby safe? READ AT: FFN + WATTPAD

Ready or Not (Criminal Minds) by: @mbmrocks

Everyone knew Spencer had secrets they just didn't think it would be a family of his own Spencer Reid had always been the awkward resident genius of the BAU, the one who always seemed to have trouble talking to women. That was before he met his wife. READ AT: FFN + WATTPAD

Survivor (Percy Jackson) by: @iceandwaterfairytail

You should never trust a survivor. Daphne knew this, she was one. She's done things in the Titan War that she isn't proud of. She understands that no one in Camp Half- Blood trust her. She did after all betray them and joined Luke. So, why is it that when Jason Grace appears he trusts her without a single thought despite being warned? READ AT: WATTPAD

Far Frome Home (Harry Potter) by: Bluebell Winter (FFN)

Adriana Frost comes from a broken home. Her older brother was killed by a hag, her father's in Azkaban, and her mother hates her. When Adriana gets to Hogwarts, she keeps her secrets, makes friends and maybe even finds a family in them. However, long-hidden secrets always has a way of coming to light. READ AT: FFN

A Thousand Ships (Percy Jackson) by: @randomestfandoms-ocs

Helena Jackson's life is fine, really. Sure, she hates her boarding school right in the city, her mom is married to an abusive asshole, her dad is some flake, and she and her twin brother are for some reason not allowed to ever go to the same school, but really, it's fine. And then Percy gets expelled, again, his best friend turns out to be a goat, their mom gets kidnapped, and her flake of a dad is actually a god. Oh, right, and apparently they're now the lead suspects in the case of Zeus' bruised ego. But still, her life is fine, really. READ AT: FFN + WATTPAD + AO3

The Making of a Hero (DC) by: @foxesandmagic

Dick Grayson had grown up as one of the Flying Graysons, as the Boy Wonder, Batman's sidekick; always part of a team. Even when he outgrew the role of Robin, however, when he found his own feet leading other teams instead of just part of them, the name stuck. But, when tragedy strikes at the heart of Gotham, is it time for him to hang up the mask and do something alone for once? A.J. Kane had sometimes relied on others to keep her back from the edge, yet she was learning to cope alone. But, when a disastrous blow hits the Wayne family she finds herself just as lost as everyone else. Can she find her way back to the calm that she was used to, or will she spiral back to closing her walls again in an attempt to stop herself being hurt yet again? READ AT: WATTPAD

Delicate (Harry Potter) by: @akabluekat

In a perfect world, Maggie would feel right at home standing up in her cousin's very trendy and glamorous destination wedding. In a perfect world, Maggie would definitely stop finding inventive ways to embarrass herself in front of Fred Weasley. But it's not a perfect world…and really, that might end up being rather perfect for Maggie. (AU: Fred lives!). READ AT: FFN + WATTPAD + AO3

Sky’s Still Blue (Friday Night Lights) by: @barbychan4ever

After her parents' divorce, Anne moves to Dillon, Texas with her mother. She becomes fast friends with Julie, Matt and Landry, and circumstantially entangled with the Panthers' running back. Eventual Tim/OC. READ AT: FFN

Wasn’t Supposed to Be (XMEN) by: @lovelygraceflower

For a mutant to survive, it's acceptable to blur the lines of right and wrong more than once. That's what she was taught, along with don't rely on anybody and never betray her own kind. She never questioned those rules until she's forced to choose between surviving or doing what's right, both costing her more than her life. Havok/OC READ AT FFN

* Read @mystic-scripture too! (I’m current on their stories, so I’m saving them for after a time they update) BUT YOU can find their fics at FFN or WATTPAD. They write for Riverdale, Teen Wolf, Sons of Anarchy, and The Walking Dead

Feel free to reblog to spread awareness

#oc fanfiction #oc fanfic #oc fic #xmen #friday night lights #harry potter #dc #percy jackson #criminal minds #supernatural #the originals #game of thrones #lord of the rings #read and review

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saviorgenius · 5 years

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Drowning Alone

Ship: Spencer Reid x Reader

Genre: Angst with self-deprecating humor

Summary: The reader is having a weird day and feels off. The team gets called on a case where a psychopath is emotionally traumatizing victims while holding them captive. The Unsub targets the mentally ill and the last victim is going to be a certain person. WARNING!!!!!! there will be talks of depression and self-loathing as the unsub and as the reader but it will have a happy ending ish

Writers note:I’m not going to go into detail with the kidnapping part because I suck at it and also it would end up messing with my head and putting me in a bad place so I apologize if it seems skippy towards the end. Plus I kinda feel like this story sucks and no one will like it so I just want to get it over with lbs.

Key:

(Y/N)- your name

(D/P/N)- Derek’s pet name for you

(P/N/N)- Penelope’s nickname for you.

You woke up this morning and just knew in an instant that it was going to be a sucky day. There wasn’t really anything you could do about it but pretend that you feel fine and head into work. Little things went wrong from the time you got out of bed until you made it to the BAU helped you remember the fact that today was the worst. You hit your toe on the bed frame, you dropped your toothbrush in the toilet, your hair is an untamable mess so you wear it up, the hot water in your apartment isn’t working and after you get dressed you make coffee and then that same exact coffee ends up being worn by you. That wasn’t even all of it, that was just the stuff that occurred in your apartment. When you eventually made it to work, you immediately went into the kitchen area to find a donut or bagel since you didn’t have time to stop and eat. All the foods you liked seemed to be out of stock, it honestly didn’t even surprised you. Then as you leave the kitchen Emily calls out for you, “We got a case!” and then everything else stops. You walk onto the jet and go straight to the seat that you normally sit in, it’s in the corner by the window so you can watch the sky go by as you fly to each and every place that you go. For some reason that one seat is the only place in the entire jet that you are able to fall asleep or feel calm. It was like your safe haven, nothing bad could go wrong there, and hopefully, today won’t change that.

“Hey, (Y/N),” Spencer says as he walks over and sits in the seat across from you, he noticed you showed up late and that you weren’t exactly your normal talkative self.

You look over from where you were staring out of the window, “Hey Spence.” It wasn’t how you normally talk to Spencer, normally you smile and light up slightly just because it was him. There is something there that no one talks about, you believe it’s one-sided but in reality, there is a reason he is always around you, there is a reason that your favorite snacks are always available at the times you eat with the team.

“I hope you don’t mind me asking, (Y/N), but are you alright?” He looks so concerned, you think about telling him the things you are thinking in your head just because he is super approachable but he’s also your team member. “I’m always here if you need to talk, I’ve been told I’m a very good listener.” A small smile appears on his lips as a way to try and cheer you up, it almost works but not quite.

“I know you are but I’m okay, don’t worry.”

“But I do.”

That is the simplest response to get from someone when you tell them not to worry yet when Spencer says the words, it gives you pause and makes you feel guilty that he even wants to know. “I’m just having an off day.”

“What do you mean?” He furrows his eyebrows and leans into the conversation.

“It’s just like I said, I’m having an off day.” You shrug and let your head fall back against the seat as you glance from the window to Spencer, “I just have a bad feeling in my gut about today.”

That didn’t sit well with Spencer, but he thought some positivity might help. “I’m sure everything’s going to be okay, don’t worry.”

Don’t worry. You laugh internally at the fact that Spencer just told you not to worry, that everything was going to be okay. Sure okay, how could you have missed such a simple solution. For the rest of the flight you sit in silence, you close your eyes and try to find a way to sleep for the amount of time you have left.

This case was an abduction case, the unsub takes women who have struggled with mental illness and use all their judgments about themselves to torture them. It was sickening to you, how could anyone do something this horrible to a person. The worst part is that he isn’t killing them, normally that would be seen as a good thing but the way that he gets into their heads changes them entirely. They become reliant on the things they hate about themselves, the only thing they can think about are those things. So far they haven’t been able to ID the man through the victims because none of them have seen his face and he used a voice manipulator while speaking to them.

As the case went on you and the team split up and began working different leads to cover more ground. The unsub took another two girls and you have 22 hours left to find them before their damage is unrepairable. You usually get paired up with Spencer or Emily, only because you and Emily are really close and bounce ideas off each other well. Sometimes you go with JJ, you don’t have anything against the rest of the team but Spencer and Emily are the two you are closest with just like how Derek is with Penelope and JJ acts with Spencer. Today though, you weren’t paired with anyone and honestly, you were fine with that. You wanted to be alone and if Spencer was with you he would have just tried to pry more into what was wrong. He means it in the best way possible, you know, but sometimes when you are having a bad day you just need to be left alone.

JJ and Spencer were sent to talk with the first victim and their family, Derek and Emily went and talked to the people who had found Nicole, the first victim. Luke and Tara went to talk with the second victim, Katie, who was just found last night. You were sent to check out the second dumb site by yourself since you were down a team member. Rossi decided to take some personal time so that he can spend time with his daughter.

The dump site was weird, it was like no one had ever set foot in the area for years yet for some reason the unsub left her there. You start to look around, this place gives you the creeps. The bad feeling that you have had all day grows stronger and causes you to physically stop in order for you to catch your breath. “Calm down, (Y/N), you’re just in a creepy place by yourself that’s all.” As you walk around the building making sure that it was secure you feel something like pins and needles all over your arms and the back of your neck, it causes you to touch your hand to your gone and swing around. There isn’t anyone or anything there so you calm down but there is still that feeling there, that someone is watching you. He picked this dump site meticulously, he must have considering how annoying it was for you to get here. At first, you thought maybe it was random, it’s an abandoned building, but now that you’ve seen it you can feel the ambiance it gives you and you see the resemblance to a psychiatric facility. It goes with his MO, making people hate themselves more than they already do, teaching them that they can’t live without it. It almost seems like the unsub is trying to talk through the victims, telling us that’s how he feels and that he believes he should be in a psychiatric facility. He doesn’t know how to control himself from his psychotic episode and he enjoys it at the same time. Pleading to be caught yet making sure he’s organized enough not to be. With what you found out at the site you decided to head back to the station that you guys set up in, the rest of the team was already there and you walk in mid brainstorming session.

“Got anything (D/P/N), you’ve been gone a while.” Derek smiles at you and Emily rolls her eyes because that nickname for you is just too much not to.

“Yeah, I think I do actually.” You walk all the way in towards the board where Spencer was still pinning things up onto, “I think the unsub is lashing out at the victims the way he wants to lash out at himself. He needs help, well he wants it but doesn’t know how to ask for it while at the same time it almost seems he’s conflicted with how he wants this all to turn out. The site I was just at where Katie was left is an extremely specific and thought out place. It’s almost like he thinks, somehow in his mind, that he’s saving them.” You cringe at the thought, everything that he’s doing is beyond horrific, you couldn’t believe that those words even came out of your mouth.

“Saving them?” JJ says trying to follow your train of thought.

“Yeah, I know. It’s just a theory.” You immediately shut down, usually, you don’t jump in on throwing out theories but this one was begging for you to say it.

“No, I think I see it,” Emily tries stopping your retreat. “We went to the first disposal site and there was this psychiatric hospital vibe. It was secluded too, the people who found Nicole were only there because they wanted to cut through and get home.”

“Nicole kept repeating things he had told her almost as a mantra, ‘I don’t deserve to live’, ‘I am a burden to the people I love.’ She almost looked helpless like she wanted to stop but the few days that he kept her he must have scared her enough to make her unable to stop even while she’s safe. That deep seeded hatred had to come from somewhere, the fact that he doesn’t kill them may represent how he tried to end his life once but either failed or couldn’t go through with it.”

You start piecing the different factors together in your head as you turn to look at the board, Spencer had just finished marking the locations of Nicole and Katie’s homes as well as where they were found. In retrospect, they didn’t live that far away from each other nor were the dump sites far so he definitely has a small comfort zone.

A thought crosses your mind and you say it in a whisper not realizing it left your lips until Spencer asked you what you said. “What if the Unsub is the victim's therapist or counselor, it said in the file that Nicole and Katie were both on antidepressants and seeing counselors.”

Derek immediately calls Penelope, “Hey baby girl, you’re on speaker. Behave.”

“Or what you’ll spank me?”

Derek couldn’t help but let a smirk cross his face, no matter the situation if Penelope was involved it just felt wrong to be serious.

“What can I do for my favorite group of crime fighting badasses?”

“Can you check and see if Nicole and Katie have the same therapist?” You ask as you sit in one of the chairs around the table that Garcia, or the phone she is in, is sitting on.

“Let me work some fabulous magic that can only be provided by me really quick aaaaaaand, that’s a negative sweetcheeks. Sorry.”

“Can you maybe check if they at least go to the same center?”

Garcia pauses for a moment before a slight noise of surprise leaves her mouth, “I didn’t notice at first because the company that was in Nicole’s therapy building bought the company that Katie’s therapist is at. They meshed into one big pile and are officially the same.”

“Thanks, Garcia,” you say and turn to look at the victims before looking back at your team as Derek hangs up with Penelope. “Anyone else thinks this was too easy?” Spencer furrows his eyebrows and you get a few other confused looks, “what? it usually takes a little longer to understand what the unsub is doing let alone where he is.”

“We still don’t know who he is.” Derek points out, “his organization and cockiness are what may be his undoing. He thinks that we won’t catch him since he wasn’t caught the first time.”

After a day of searching through all the overlaps that were possibilities of having to do with the case, they decided to call it a night and head to the hotel in order to get some sleep. You, on the other hand, were not in the mood for sleep and this guy was getting to you. It was almost like he was taunting you and you were making it personal since you’ve struggled with mental illness most of your life. Instead of going to the hotel you decided to go look at the last dump site one more time. Before you even made it to the SUV you were hit in the back of your head, next thing you feel is the cement scraping against your clothes as you are being dragged. The rest of the team was still inside, you hoped with everything in your body and soul that someone- anyone would walk out and stop this. You had no such luck, instead, the pain in your head overtook your sight and you started to black out.

“All the people we have talked to so far aren’t a match to the profile. Yeah, some have parts of it but without the psychotic behavior he wouldn’t be kidnapping the women.” Emily and Spencer were walking out of the station talking about the case, they were waiting for you but didn’t realize that you had already left. Once it was apparent that you weren’t in the building they left and headed to the parking lot.

“I think it’ll be smart to get some sleep, we’ve been working on this for the past 36 hours.” Emily rubs her temple under her bangs as she closes her eyes for a minute trusting herself to be able to follow Spencer’s voice for a moment.

Something hits the tip of her shoe and she opens her eyes as she watches a phone spin in the direction her foot kicked it accidentally. Spencer looks at it in confusion before going to pick it up, “someone must have dropped their phone.”

He clicks the home button and the picture that pops up stops his heart, it’s a photo of the team at one of the get-togethers they had over at Rossi’s. The only person who wasn’t in the photo was you because you are the one who took it.

“It’s (Y/N)’s phone.”

“What, are you sure?” Emily takes the phone and looks at the picture, they both know that’s been her lock screen since she took the picture so there was no mistaking it as hers.

They both stand there for a moment in shock as they think of all the different possibilities of what happened before rushing back into the station where everyone else still was.

Time goes by and no one hears from you. Right now everyone is just assuming that the Unsub took you which would be a good assumption since it’s what happened.Spencer feels responsible somehow, he thinks there was a way he could have stopped it from happening. Maybe if he had just left the station with you or maybe if he would have asked you to wait for him before leaving you wouldn’t be in this situation.

Everyone is working harder than before, which is saying something because that shouldn’t even be possible, Penelope called with an update saying that there were no men fitting the description they give her earlier that have had contact with both Nicole and Katie.

It was like Spencer had an epiphany, he turned around and looked at the phone sitting on the conference table where Penelope is. “What if it’s not a man.”

Everyone stopped the work they were doing, “A woman?” Tara asks and then it all seemed to click for them, they have been so focused on it being a man because of the vague description the victims gave that it wasn’t even a thought. Now that it has been said though, all the pieces fit better. A woman would be more likely to try and kill herself and fail, woman are also more in tune with other peoples emotions and better at twisting words around.

Penelope was already searching for a woman that crossed Nicole and Katie’s path as the team started discussing possibilities. One of the most likely one is that the drop site that you went to was important to the unsub and when you went to check out the scene she saw you.

“Got her! Her name is Jennifer Riley, she’s a counselor who specializes in special cases and by special I mean the people who are ready to take their last breath. They come to her and she works them back to as much mental stability as possible.”

“Do you have an address?”

“Who do you think I am? It’s already sent to your phones now go save our (P/N/N).”

You told Spencer today was going to suck but you never realized how much. This was the day from hell and you honestly wish that you just wouldn’t have woken up this morning. You have no idea how long you have been knocked out but it’s really dark so either you’re in a room with no windows or it’s night time. “Fuck,” you say as you try and pull your hand up to your head to touch the area that hurts but ropes around your wrist don’t allow you. You clench your eyes shut and let your head fall back, your head was pounding.

“I see you finally woke up, I was starting to think you wouldn’t.”

“What a shame that would have been for you, huh.” Your eyes open as you search the darkness for the voice, you can’t see anything until a bright overwhelming light flashes on and blinds you. A sharp pain slashes through your head and once again your eyes are closed. You hear footsteps walking towards you and then suddenly they stop, something doesn’t feel right once again.

“You don’t sound too upset that you could have died.”

“I’m pretty sure that was in the non-disclosure agreement I signed when I joined the BAU.”

“To not care about living or dying?”

“No, that it’s a possibility to be injured or die.”

“That doesn’t mean you can’t still be scared of dying.”

You stop and listen to what this psychopath is saying, didn’t they just kidnap you? What does it matter to them? “Why do you care?”

“I don’t. It just proves I was right about you when I saw you earlier.”

“Right about what?”

The unsub clicks a button and then the next voice you here surprises you, “that you want to die.”

It’s a woman.. It makes sense, all of the behaviors felt a little off for it to be a man but not enough to say it wasn’t one. You hope that your team has already found this out or that they at least realize you’re missing.

“I don’t.” Your voice was hesitant, not purposefully, you’ve had your reservations about living but you though you were done with those thoughts. Now your depressed days are just your ‘I have a bad feeling’ days.

“No need lying dear, we’re the only ones here and we both know the truth.” She walks up to you and you beat yourself up for not realizing she was anwoman before.

“Go to hell.”

She just laughs at you as she takes a few more steps in your direction, “I’m already here. Now, let’s get started shall we?”

“If I say no does that mean I can go home?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so.” You hand your head as a way to calm yourself down, you were already having a bad day so the things she’ll say to you may push you to a point you’ve not gone to before.

The things she says to you, you try to go to a different place in your head but it’s so hard. It’s like she knew what you thought of yourself or maybe it was just so obvious to other people because it was true- no it’s not you’re just horrible to yourself it’s not true, it can’t be. She keeps pushing and it’s hard to control the pain you feel, it’s like you’re being told all the things you already think about yourself are true. You chose to stay quiet and just give as little expression as possible, maybe that will make her want to stop.

It doesn’t.

She doesn’t stop.

You want her to stop.

You don’t even care if she stops anymore,

You just want it all to stop.

Tears are streaming down your cheeks but your face is blank. There are shadows of blue and red barely visible in the room, they must have found you.

She looks in the direction that you are and noticed as well. Next thing you know you’re being untied but yanked against her, you can’t even focus because of your mind feeling so full and lost. There is shouting from your capture, she’s pushing you towards the exit and on the way you trip over the floor since she wasn’t giving you enough time to walk. You land on your knees and she yanks you back up before continuing to walk out of the building. You feel something hard against your head but don’t register what it is until you turn your head and she’s pointing a gun directly at your face until you turn it back.

You see Emily and Spencer standing in front with the rest of the team, the moment that you two walk out everyone aims a gun at you and her except your team. They don’t want to hit you, the rest of the squad doesn’t care though, they just see the woman who has been torturing the people living in their town.

“DONT SHOOT, LOWER YOUR WEAPONS.”

Emily shouts and pushes the guns close to her down as Spencer continues making eye contact with you. “(Y/N), we’re going to get you out of this.”

You watch him, he believes what he said but all you can think is it even worth to save you? What could it hurt? Then your pain turned into self sacrifice, if you die here they will kill her too. She deserves it. “Shoot her, what she does to people is fucked up!” You start struggling and pulling away from the woman who hits you and holds you tighter putting the gun to your stomach to have a better grip. Spencer starts rushing forward but Emily holds him back as much as it sucks to do. If they aren’t going to do it then you have to. You look into Spencer’s eyes and he knows, somehow he knows you’re about to do something idiotic, stupid, dumb, which ever word works better. Both him and Emily notice and start to try and calm the situation but it’s too late, you grab the trigger on the gun aiming at your stomach and pull. It shoots through your stomach and into the woman, Spencer and Emily rush forward along with the team as the others apprehend the suspect.

“No no no, (y/n), why would you do that. God you’re so stupid sometimes, it’s going to be okay.” He adds pressure to the wound and you just look up at him, your hand moves and takes hold of his bloodied hand on your stomach.

“It’s okay.”

“No it’s not, WHERE IS THE MEDIC?” Spencer looked around and back to you, Emily got up to find the medic to bring them to you. “You’re not dying (Y/n).”

“Told you.” You cough and take a breath.

“What?”

“I’m having a bad day.”

He didn’t find it funny, not one bit but maybe later he would. Right now probably wasn’t the best time to make a joke as you lie in the cold ground bleeding. “Sorry too soon.”

Once the medics get to you they stabilized you and got you into the ambulance before rushing you off to the hospital. Spencer came in the car with you while the others drove behind following. He wouldn’t let go of your hand, you didn’t really want him to anyways. At the hospital you had to go into surgery, it took a few hours but once you were out and in a room the team surrounded you. This was your family, these are the people you’d hurt if you left them. That was more than enough of a reason to stay. What you didn’t realize is Spencer was still planning to have a conversation with you about what happened. The end.

#criminal minds #criminal minds x reader #emily prentiss #spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #emily prentiss x reader

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dontshootmespence · 6 years

Text

Let Me Do This

A/N: A piece from my own brain. I’m not gonna really give this a description because I don’t want to spoil the ending. All I’ll say is that there is a friend”ship” that I don’t feel gets enough attention, and my brain went the angsty route, so prepare thyself.

Warnings: Mentions of suicide and death.

Buzzing vibrated in his pocket against his leg. “Sorry, Mom,” he said, staring at the phone. “Duty calls.”

He stood up and took in a deep breath of the flowers he’d brought, setting them in front of the oblong stone with his mother’s name written on it. It had been a year since she passed, but he was still struggling. Emily and JJ had suggested going to the cemetery to sit and talk with her on occasion claiming it might help. He was skeptical at first, but he tried it once, and then again, then another time, and then he was coming nearly every day he wasn’t at work. He missed her - more than he ever thought he would.

Since he worked at the Bureau, he didn’t have enough time to see her as often as he would’ve liked, and after her diagnosis it was even worse. Deep down, he knew his mother wanted him exactly where he was - she’d been so proud of him - but that didn’t alleviate all of the guilt. Little of it in fact.

“We have another case, Mom. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“What do we have?” Spencer asked the moment he stepped into the bullpen.

Emily shook her head. “Nothing good.”

As they stepped into the room together, Emily asked for Garcia to start the briefing. Garcia was even more on edge than she normally was, and if it wasn’t something in her personal life, then this case was even worse than Spencer had imagined. “We found a mother, Margaret, and daughter, Abigail, last name Harraway, locked in a building off the highway on the way out of DC. The mother died from a heart attack and the daughter from cyanide poisoning.”

“Cyanide?” JJ asked. “Who uses cyanide beside those committing mass suicides and vengeful spouses trying to get rid of their significant other?”

Garcia clapped her hand up to her mouth, trying not to vomit as she placed the recording in the middle of the table. The obviously distorted voice on the other hand sent chills down the spines of everyone in attendance.

Wanna make a lasting impact? Scarring someone’s brain does far more than a knife. And the scar is much more permanent. Didn’t exactly go as planned unfortunately. Mother died of a heart attack. But next time, I’ll pick a better couple to work with.

Matt sucked in his lips and rapped on the table trying to keep himself together. “So he locked the two in a building, gave them enough cyanide to kill one and what? Made them choose?”

Tara had come into contact with a number of psychopaths whose lack of empathy astounded her, but this was something else all together. He watched from the sidelines like a voyeur as a daughter took a cyanide pill, presumable to save her mother’s life. “Whoever this is likely claimed that whoever lived would be allowed to leave. They just had to choose amongst themselves.”

Rossi felt the acid rise in his throat. “So Abigail swallowed the cyanide so her mother would live?”

Garcia had already pulled information on the family. “Abigail lived at home. She had a difficult time maintaining a job and her mother helped her a lot. Margaret lost her husband in a car crash years ago and was recently engaged to a new man. It would make sense that Abigail wanted to give her mother a chance at happiness again?” The fact that she was able to do any kind of profiling at all made her queasy, and the silence from her friends confirmed she was on the right track.

“All right,” Emily said, turning on boss-mode again. “We need to get ahead of this. Let’s get to work.”

They hadn’t gotten ahead of him. For nearly a week, they had been two steps behind. Another two people, couple Ava Lockner and David Euling, had been taken and hidden away. After 10 hours of captivity, Ava emerged, ran to the nearest person she could find and was taken to the hospital. David had swallowed a pill to save the woman he loved, and during her first 12 hours in the hospital, she tried to commit suicide twice. She was distraught, numb - hollow.

But finally they found the unsub and narrowed down where he might be located. “He has a home, owns two vacant lots, and recently purchased a small warehouse for the start of a business,” Garcia said.

“Okay,” Emily said. “Matt, you and JJ take the warehouse. Rossi, Tara and Luke, you take his home and the abandoned lot closer to the Bureau, and Spencer and I will take the other lot.”

“Does it make sense to even check out the lots?” Garcia wondered.

Spencer shrugged. “Given the nature of this unsub it’s more than likely that he has a bunker or bomb shelter of some kind on one or both of the vacant lots.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense. Stay safe, my babies.”

Nearly every location they sought out came up empty, and within a couple of hours, Rossi, Luke, Tara, Matt and JJ returned to the Bureau with nothing to show for their outing except a location the unsub wasn’t located. “Spence and Emily aren’t back yet?” JJ asked.

“Nope,” Garcia replied. “And I haven’t heard from them either.”

After another hour and numerous phone calls that went unanswered, they all knew something was wrong. They had to go to the other vacant lot.

“Emily, we’ve been here for 4 hours. What the hell are we going to do?”

Shortly after they’d arrived at the lot, Spencer was shot in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. Before Emily could even turn around and aim her gun, no less find the unsub, she’d been downed as well. Both had woken up a short time later and deduced that they’d been placed in a bomb shelter. “What we’re not doing is giving this asshole what he wants!”

This team had come to far; she scoured the area for anyway to unlock themselves from their confines without any luck. Again, Emily listened to the tape:

I don’t know which of you agents are down here, but same rules apply. I will let one of you leave when the other takes the poison. Who lives? Who dies?

“Why are you listening to it over and over again?” Spencer bellowed. “There is nothing on this recording! We don’t even know if we’re in the lot where we stopped. There was a forest behind it. We could be in there. We literally have no idea. And we have no cell service.”

He was right. They had nothing to go on. All they could hope for was that the team would find them in time. Although she’d continue looking for a way to escape. They’d been left one glass of water - presumably to swallow the pill. But they had nothing else, meaning that if the team didn’t find them within about four days, they were both dead.

“We’ve been scouring the area for days!” Garcia screamed when the rest of team came back to recruit more Bureau members. “It’s been three days!”

Matt did his best to comfort a shaking Penelope. “We have no idea what kind of food and water they’ve been left. It could just be a battle of wills.”

Penelope knew that wasn’t possible; the other two crime scenes had not turned up food or water save for one glass, but she allowed herself to breathe in Matt’s embrace for a moment before they got back to work.

“No, Emily.”

“But I’m older.”

“What kind of logic is that?” Spencer asked, his mouth heavy as he spoke. They’d only had a few sips of water each and it had been at least three days. They weren’t going to last much longer. “You’re not taking the pill. The team is going to find us.” After this long, he wasn’t quite sure, but he wasn’t about to let Emily give her life for him; she’d already done too much, put too much of herself on the line for his sake. “I won’t allow you to do that for me. You’ve sacrificed enough for me.”

Emily was so tired; she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. But she reached over and grabbed Spencer’s hand. “I would make every decision again. Spence, you’re one of my best friends.” Her eyes began to water as she spoke. She knew she needed to keep her fluids, but she couldn’t help herself, her voice shaking as she continued. “I love you. And I regret no decision I’ve made in regards to you. You’re like the brother I never had and wished I did.”

“I love you, too, Emily. If I had a sister, I think she’d be a lot like you.” Spencer squeezed her hand and looked toward the glass. The unsub had stood by his promise with the previous couple. If he took the poison, Emily would be free to go. “But you’ve done enough for me. Mexico, prison, Barnes. You put everything on the line for me when you could’ve easily thrown me under the bus. I won’t let you do this too.” It hurt to speak. His muscles felt like they were being weighed down by cement. They didn’t have much longer.

When he looked over this time, Emily was asleep; she was alive, her chest rising and falling slowly, but she wasn’t going to last long. He’d made his decision a day ago. Silently, he slunk over toward the desk and picked up the pill, turning it over a few times in his hand. He wasn’t scared. He actually felt calm; this was what he was supposed to do.

As he swallowed the pill, Emily opened her eyes, and shot to attention. “No! Spence! Throw it up, now! I am your boss! This is an order!” She screamed so loudly her voice broke. She clenched her teeth so hard she could’ve sworn they’d broken. The tears streamed down her face as she stared at him in horror. “Why did you do that?”

“Because he’s going to let you go as soon as I die. Emily after everything you’ve done for me. Let me do this for you. Let me give you a chance to live.”

“Spence, you have so much to live for. The team is coming. Please, don’t do this.” Her head fell into his lap. Her friend. Her baby brother. “Please, it’s not too late. You can throw it up.”

A sleepy smile painted its way across Spencer’s face, his hand now resting on Emily’s head, doing his best to comfort her. “I’m not afraid of dying. You’ve already done it once. It’s my turn.”

A painful, sobbing laugh wrenched its way up Emily’s throat. “How can you not be afraid? I was petrified.”

“Because I’m doing this for you. Knowing you’ll live makes it all okay. And...” It was getting more and more difficult to speak. Cyanide could be a very ugly or a fairly painless death, thankfully, it seemed to be the later. He could feel his heart rate slowing.

“Spencer! Spencer, stay with me! And what? Keep talking.” She watched Spencer take a deep breath, barely able to talk now, and she screamed in agony. “Someone help us! Please! Spence, stay with me,” she whispered. “And what?”

“And if religion is actually true and not just a figment of our imaginations, I’ll get to see my mom again. She’s waiting for me, Emily. I have to go. I love you. Tell everyone I love them and I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no, no, no.” Emily sat up and opened Spencer’s mouth attempting to make him throw up in a desperate attempt to save his life, but he couldn’t move.

She beat her hand against the wall as Spencer slumped into her, barely breathing. All she could hear were the sounds of her own sobs and the slow, dull thumping inside Spencer’s chest.

A slight buzzing caught Emily’s attention. The camera watching them eyed them both, and a metallic thud resounded throughout the bunker. “Spence, it’s open. We can get out of here. Spencer...”

With her head to his chest, she listened. Nothing. “No, no, Spencer, we’re saved. Please wake up!”

Freedom was within arm’s reach, but she couldn’t leave him - not here.

The area of the forest they’d been taken to still hadn’t been searched - too large and too cumbersome to do in so few days. “What was that?” JJ asked, her ears picking up a sound she hadn’t heard before. From deep within the forest, a resounding scream thudded against the trees.

@kalie-bee @jamiemelyn @iammostdefinitelyonfire26 @coveofmemories @unstoppableangel8 @rmmalta @lukeassmanalvez @veroinnumera @lookwhatyoumademequeue @remember-me-forever-silent-angel

#spencer reid x emily prentiss #emily prentiss #spencer reid #dontshootmespence #let me do this

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3one3 · 6 years

Text

The Sequel - 877

Nurse Schü

André Schürrle, Juan Mata, other Chelsea/BVB players, and random awesome OC’s (okay they’re less random now but they’re still pretty awesome)

original epic tale

all chapters of The Sequel

“Time to wake up, Prinzessin.”

“Nuh.”

“Just for a little.”

“Go way.”

“I need you to eat something. I know you don’t want to, but you’ll feel better.”

“No.”

“I made soup. I really made it. I boiled a chicken and everything. My mom FaceTimed. Just have a little?”

“No.”

“You have to get up anyway because we need to talk about the horse show. You need to decide whether or not to ship the horses tonight.”

Christina sneezed, wiped her nose with the disgusting tissue she’d been keeping inside her blanket, and turned over to bury her face in a cooler section of pillow. André rubbed her shoulder and looked on pityingly, wishing he could make her feel better. She was about 36 hours into some sort of flu, suffering from fever, runny and stuffy nose, cough, nausea, and vomiting. Technically the vomiting was on pause because she hadn’t eaten anything since the previous day. It was almost 5pm, and her husband and de facto nurse really wanted her to get some food in her system. He brought her toast in the morning and it was still there in the afternoon, along with the red Jell-O Espen made for her while he was at training. Luise told him to offer her some clear chicken broth with white rice, and Christina said many times throughout their relationship that store-bought chicken soup isn’t any good for sick people because it’s full of salt and mystery ingredients. When André and Lukas got sick, they got homemade soup. Luise knowingly suggested he could fudge her rule since she probably wasn’t going to have more than a couple spoonfuls anyway, but her son wanted to make it himself regardless. It at least made him feel useful. Nothing he did for his poorly wife seemed to make her feel any better. She just wanted to be left alone in bed with her stuffed zebra, her tissues, and her Murder She Wrote reruns. She hardly ever got sick that way, and it was extra hard on her. She was convinced getting sick was the universe’s way of punishing her for not only having but telling Juan, in detail, about her Marcos Alonso and Alvaro Morata threesome fantasy.

“Chris? Please sit up for just a minute?” The BVB man kept trying. He reached to touch her hair, and she surprised him by turning onto her back and actually opening her tired, dull eyes.

“I don’t feel good,” she croaked. Her throat was sore from the post-nasal drip and all the coughing, and it made her voice raspy.

“I know, pretty girl. Did you take the medicine?” André glanced at the nightstand, at the bottles and boxes of drugs meant to ease the symptoms rather than cure the illness. Her new doctor said there was nothing for the bug but prescribed a list of over-the-counter remedies for the cough, the runny nose, the stomach, and the general achiness. Christina nodded and clutched at her throat. It was killing her. She kept alternating between rubbing at it and touching her raw nose, as if either thing might relieve the pain. “Can you try some soup? It’s pretty good. Mama said I’d know if I did it right if it came out really clear, and it looks clear to me.” Her caregiver picked up the deep coffee mug of chicken broth and rice. His mom suggested the mug because Christina could eat from it without having to sit up much, it wouldn’t slosh out like from a wide bowl, and she could drink from it if that was easier. Christina looked at it but didn’t express any interest.

“Luke?” she asked hoarsely instead.

“I taught him how to do a Rabona. He’s practicing in the garden with Espen.”

“Is he-“

“He’s not getting sick. He’s fine.” André’s reassurance about their little boy reminded her that she wanted a fresh tissue. She held her icky one up out of the blanket, and André picked up the waste basket from the floor so that she could put it directly in there. He was trying to avoid getting sick too. “Want me to feed you?” he asked with a burgeoning grin. It was just a few days ago she was looking at those pictures of the old man feeding his wife ice cream in the car and asking me if I would feed her ice cream when she’s ancient. I think it’s going to be the other way around. I think she’s going to be taking care of me. I can handle spooning some soup for her now though, he laughed inside.

“Drink.”

“Have this instead, if you’re thirsty. You don’t have to have the rice. It’s just broth and rice. No vegetables. I hardly put any seasoning in.” Come on, eat something, he willed her. You can’t fight off a bug if your system is weak, and I bet now her stomach and her head hurt because she’s hungry. The freezing, pale rider shook her head. She wanted the severely watered down sports drink she’d barely sipped all day. There was no need for her to reiterate that she was deathly afraid any kind of nutrition would have her scrambling for her “barf bowl” again, and that swallowing anything was incredibly painful. He held the cup for her and moved the bendy straw so she could get to it without having to move much. “Tom says if you want to be able to compete on Saturday then your horses absolutely have to go down tonight so that he can do the jog thing with them in the morning. Do you think you’ll be well enough to ride Saturday? Probably not, right?”

Christina was supposed to compete in a German Masters event about 90 minutes away at the weekend. It was a bit of a last minute thing. The organizers decided to donate all the admission proceeds to a local family trying to survive a double cancer diagnosis. The husband and wife were a breeder and trainer combo, and found their colon and breast cancers just three months apart. They had three young children, and 16 horses, and were going to struggle mightily to keep their stable operating. The horse show sent invitations to all of Germany’s biggest stars, most of whom wouldn’t have had a reason to compete there. Christina signed up right away so that they could use her to help draw crowds, and she lobbied her friends to go too. A few said yes. Most were already committed to other events for the weekend. If it had been any other situation, André wouldn’t have even asked her about going. He would have just told Tom she was too sick, and not given her a choice. It broke his heart when she shook her head again to confirm that there was no way she could make it, because he knew it was breaking her heart too.

“The kids should still go,” she added in her sore throat whisper. “We’ll write a check.”

“Okay. I know you want to go, pretty girl, but you need to get better. Everyone will understand.” The player took the cup away when she released her straw, and he offered her a fresh tissue from the box on the nightstand. Christina accepted it and dragged it inside her cocoon like some kind of terrible beast hauling a proffered carcass into the cave in which it was chained. Then she tugged her comforter up to her ears and wriggled back to her left side. That meant “go away now”. “I’ll leave the soup in case you want some later. Maybe when you take the next doses of the medicine? I think one of them is supposed to be with food. Text if you need anything, okay, Prinzessin? You have your phone in there?” He saw the bun on her head move back and forth and took that as affirmation on all points.

I hope this doesn’t last long, André thought on his way downstairs. Mausi doesn’t understand why he can’t see her. He knows she’s here, but she’s not around and he can’t go visit. And her horses need to be ridden. And her tossing and turning all night to switch which side of her nose is stuffed kept me up most of the night too. I hate that she’s miserable. She has a pretty high threshold for discomfort and inconvenience so I know she really feels terrible. For her to go to the doctor for something other than her ankle is a big deal too. She didn’t even have one here until yesterday.

“Is she feeling any better?” Espen asked him when he stepped outside. She was sitting on the low step from the patio down to the grass, watching Lukas run around to kick his little football Rabona-style. Spencer and Lucky were chewing on sticks and supervising as well.

“No.”

“Did she try the soup?”

“No.”

“She can be so stubborn,” the nanny sighed with no small dose of resentment. She was in charge of looking after the rider while André was out.

“I don’t want to eat anything when I’m sick either,” he shrugged.

“I guess you wasted your time going to the market for the chicken and everything.”

“She’ll want it eventually. I don’t mind. She always makes it for me when I get bad colds, which is a lot. She even mixes fruit juices for me to balance the pH so it doesn’t upset my stomach.”

“Mhm.”

“Looking good, Mausi! Pass it over here.”

Lukas picked up his ball and ran to Daddy with it. He was at a stage where he understood enough of what adults said to him that they often forgot that he didn’t understand all of it. Sometimes he just thought he did, or he guessed. Sometimes André was confused by his confusion at first. He’d stare at him with a skeptical sort of frown on his face and wonder what he was thinking. His wife was better at deducing the tiny child’s train of thought. Mistaking “pass it over here” for “bring it over here” wasn’t a big mystery, though he was sure Lukas knew the difference. They were playing a lot of football together lately.

“Let’s do goals, Daddy,” the smaller Schü suggested. He handed over the football and then pointed at the small goal by his playhouse.

“Do you want to try doing the Rabona into the goal? You’d be a better player than me if you pulled that of in the match,” the bigger one chuckled. He dropped the ball in the grass to toe it along, and let Lukas take his hand to escort him toward the goal.

They took turns trying to cross their right legs behind the left to strike the tiny ball into the similarly small goal, and the younger player had some trouble. He kept trying to look at the ball. Usually he looked down to his left at it, but a few times he tried to look all the way behind himself from the right, and spun around, and made his dad laugh hysterically. He fell over a few times. The professional footballer eventually deduced that Lukas’ cap was part of the problem. It was a bit big on him and it fell forward into his eyes when he looked all the way down.

“Why don’t we take it off?” Dad suggested when Child grew frustrated.

“No more goals. I don’t want to do goals. It doesn’t go in!” Lukas whined. André squatted to address the hat situation and the discouragement too.

“You can’t just quit. Here.” He turned the red Ferrari cap around backwards so that the brim wouldn’t get in his way anymore, and he used his long reach to get the ball and roll it closer. “Mommy won’t let you wear Vettel’s hat if you quit. He doesn’t quit. That’s why she likes him. You know how she’s been yelling at the TV a lot lately when we watch the cars?”

“The fast cars! Rooooooooom, rooooooom, pew, pew, pew!” His son was into the somewhat tame sound of the current generation of Formula 1 engines.

“Vettel’s car keeps breaking and Mommy gets upset. She almost cried last week, remember? But Vettel keeps going. He even smiles. He just thinks about next time. So if you wear his hat, you have to smile and keep trying too. That’s why Mommy gave you the hat. You like the hat, yeah?” Lukas nodded and lifted his right foot to rest it on the ball. “Ready to try?” Again the little blonde nodded, and his encouraging chaperone set him up in front of the goal with the ball in the right place and demonstrated the technique for him again. Lukas did his best, and the ball slowly crawled toward the goal. André gave it a little help with his toe since it was lacking momentum. It was on target, so it still counts, he rationalized. Lukas was waiting to see if he was supposed to celebrate or not, so he turned around as soon as it went in and thus gave him permission to celebrate too. They jumped around together and did high-fives.

After that they practiced some more conventional shooting, which allowed the aspiring striker more physical power and thus enough oomph to get the ball into the net on his own, and from a little further out. Sometimes he enjoyed running to fetch the ball more than kicking it. Sometimes he ran to get it before it even finished rolling into the goal. He also enjoyed kicking it into the temporary mesh fence around the swimming pool, because it bounced back and he never knew where it would go or where he would have to run to retrieve it. Spencer and Lucky usually liked that game too, but they were more into their sticks on Thursday evening. André tried putting them in bed with Christina to keep her company, or at least extra warm, but they didn’t like her tossing and turning either and reappeared downstairs while he was making the soup. He thought maybe they were just feeling spiteful because she was gone for 6 days and then came back and more or less went straight to bed. The rider was already showing signs of what was to come when she left Barcelona. Juan even texted André to warn him that she was getting sick and already resisting taking anything or planning to see a doctor. He told him to make sure she went, or at least got a basket of drug store remedies for her nose and throat situations.

The sneezing and runny nose started on Monday. They thought it was just allergies, especially in light of their visit to the botanical garden. Then Christina didn’t feel well after dinner on Monday night. Her tummy felt “weird”. But she and Juan ate their way through the Boqueria during the day, mixing all different kinds of foods and all different courses, including a lot of dessert-like sweets and spicy meat. They had horchata later, and then a late night dinner. It would have been weird if she didn’t feel weird at bedtime. The nausea didn’t go away when she got up, and their further adventuring was tempered by the addition of chills and aches. The rider was feeling pretty miserable by the time she got to the airport to go home, which was where Juan made his third and final pitch for some decongestant and a fever reducer. Her chief objection was that cold and flu medications put her to sleep and she wanted to be awake and alive to do things with Lukas, André, and the horses, not be sick. The Spaniard pointed out that denying she was sick wouldn’t stop her from being sick. Both players knew her MO, and commiserated together over how difficult she could be about such things. By Wednesday morning Christina was ready to admit defeat and see a doctor. First she had to throw up several times.

“Time for dinner!” Espen called to the blonde ballers around 7. She gave André a grocery list when he went to get the soup ingredients. They were continuing to take advantage of Christina’s absence by enjoying fish for dinner. The nanny made the lady of the house’s sheet pan blackened cod recipe, with sweet potatoes and zucchini. Lukas was adopting his dad’s penchant for smothering everything in his mom’s garlic-lime guacamole, so Espen had to make that too. She was a better baker than she was a chef, but she could pretty capably follow Christina’s basic recipes. She always left a list of “suggestions” for meals when she went out of town, and usually stocked the refrigerator and pantry accordingly. Sometimes Espen just made whatever she felt like making though. She winged it on Thursday since she wasn’t even supposed to be there, and Christina was too ill on Wednesday to do the shopping as planned. André and Lukas didn’t really care. They both conned her into special request meals while Christina was in Spain. The baby got crunchy baked fish and chips one night. The footballer got thick cut pork chops fried with onion and apples, and a mountain of delicious, buttery mashed potatoes to go with it. There was no cauliflower in sight.

“Put the ball away and we’ll go wash our hands, mm?” he called after Lukas, who cut and run as soon as he heard the word “dinner”. The little Ferrari fan reluctantly stopped and turned around to get his football. His father tried very hard to honor and enforce Christina’s code of conduct when she wasn’t available to do it herself. Lukas definitely got away with more on his watch than hers, but it wasn’t a free for all. André never sought credit for that unless it came up as a joke or something. He just wanted to be consistent for the child, and make his wife’s life easier. He spent enough time around Marco, Zoe, and Noah to see how difficult Zoe’s life could be because Noah had totally different rules and expectations for his behavior on his dad’s watch. André was all about trying to make Christina’s life easier, or at least not making it harder. He checked on her once more while Lukas used the stepladder to wash his hands in the kitchen sink. She hadn’t tried the soup.

“I don’t want anything,” she repeated when he offered again to help her eat it. “Can you come back after you eat? Sit with me?” Her face was very red and she’d peeled her comforter down to about her waist for ventilation- evidence that she was going through the sweating part of freezing and sweating. Getting into bed with a sweaty flu victim really didn’t appeal to her husband. She’s either feeling a little better or feeling a lot worse if she wants company now though, he reckoned, taking in her sad, hopeful expression and otherwise pretty unfortunate state.

“Okay. I’m going to bring some fresh soup though and you have to try a little. And you can’t wipe your nose on me.” The BVB man wrinkled his nose in displeasure at the idea of being used as a tissue, which both his wife and his kid were known to do from time to time. It wasn’t so bad if it was just regular everyday snot that ended up on his arm or whatever. He didn’t want flu cooties. A quick flash of relief in Christina’s eyes reminded him that even the drawbacks to having to repay a partner for all the times she looked after you could actually be satisfying little perks.

“What about Mommy?” Lukas asked him a few minutes later, at the dining room table. The boys and the nanny each had a plate of food, and André told him he could start eating right away. He was used to waiting until whoever served his dinner said he could dig in, and used to that being whenever everyone was seated, though sometimes he was eating alone at the counter while Christina did other things around the kitchen. She usually tried to at least sit with him while he ate, even if she was having something else later, or going out after.

“She still doesn’t feel well,” Dad told him. “Do you want to make a card for her before bedtime? Oh, do you mind staying to do bedtime with him?” André pivoted to ask Espen. She was supposed to be off-duty after dinner. “Chris asked me to bring her some new soup and sit with her.”

“Suuuuuure,” the nanny replied with mock enthusiasm.

“Sorry. I want to take advantage while she’s willing to try to eat.”

“Yeah.”

“I like soup,” Lukas reminded everybody.

“Hopefully Mommy likes the soup and it makes her feel better. You can do a card for her. Wait, do you know about cards?”

“He’s made you birthday, Father’s Day, and Valentine’s cards.”

“Which cards?” he asked with what his dad deemed a really cute amount of confusion in his already adorable features.

“You give someone a card that says you hope they get better soon,” André explained while Lukas gave up working with his fork and picked up a cube of roasted sweet potato. “You can draw one for her. Draw like...a picture of her playing with you, or Mommy on her horses, or just Mommy smiling. Then she knows you love her and you want her to feel better.”

“I love Mom. She knows.” Lukas was very confident in this knowledge. His nanny told him to use the fork and stop talking with his mouth full, so he swallowed the potato and tried the fork again.

“How does she know?” André asked in the mean time. Does he even know what love is? He hears “I love you” like 90 times a day, but does he know what it means? I’ve heard Chris try to explain love to him since he was just a day old. I don’t think I had any idea what love is until I was like 20 though. I bet he has a really funny reason, like “Mommy knows I love her because I like bananas”.

“She does...” The tiny blonde did an exaggerated scowl to demonstrate what he was trying to say. “I say sorry and do a kiss. Mommy...” His next expression was a big smile, and he held his arms out like to welcome someone into a hug. “Love you, Mun-ken. Love you, Mommy.”

“He’s going to break all the hearts.” Espen shook her head ruefully while André grinned with pride and awe and congratulated his son on already knowing exactly how to handle women. What a genius! He’s already learned how to get out of trouble. You can mess up all you want as long as you say sorry and give good kisses.

“I draw animals for her. Mommy likes.”

“Okay. After dinner, draw some animals for her and I’ll show her. Then maybe tomorrow she can come down to play.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

“Stop talking with food in your mouth,” the nanny reminded again.

“Sorry!” Lukas continued chewing but kissed his hand and then flung it in her direction, clearly thinking this would absolve him of guilt. André laughed and almost choked on the fish.

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