As Unit Chief of the BAU, it’s part of your job to put your team before yourself. So it makes sense that failing at that is your worst fear, right? And if someone should cause that to happen..

It wasn’t a regular case. Victims state that they smelt sage, and saw a shadowy figure enter their home, and then they pass out. They come to, typically found by police, knife in hand, and a murdered corpse of a loved one next to them. It doesn’t make sense. They all have no memory of ever killing anyone. So, after this unsub has been identified as a “Mr. Scratch” you and the team ended up with a new lead, which led you to be driving in your car, alone, to the house. You enter, and after watching the woman you had come to retrieve before Mr. Scratch got to her plunge a knife into her neck, you smelt sage, and then, you knew it was too late.

You stirred from pitch darkness to a dreamlike haze, the furniture in the room wobbling and multicolored dots dancing before your eyes. Then, you register the man sitting in front of you. None other than Mr. Scratch. You have a, not entirely productive, conversation, and suddenly you are being pulled to the darkness constricting your throat and rooting through your hair. And here you find yourself back in the dream realm, barely registering the sound of the front door opening and your team walking in. And then it happens. One by one, picked off all too soon. It sends a sharp pang through you, and just as the sage did, it too seems to root itself inside you as a dull ache.

You barely register the headlights, or how Mr. Scratch hands you your gun. But the front door opens, and he flees, but someone else doesn’t. Spencer Reid. While the rest of the team is searching, he’s already next to you. Pulling you in. Of course, he’s going to stress over you. You being the youngest, despite your rank as unit chief, it’s just what everyone does.

“Are you okay?” He asks, still not letting you go from this hug, this welcome warmth. And you don’t mind at all.