Fic: Breaking the World (1/1 Criminal Minds)

[thefrogg]

Title: Breaking the World
Series: Of Innocence and Empathy
Author: Frogg
Beta: None
Rating: FRT-13
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Damnit.
Challenge: 50episodes – Criminal Minds, Morgan/Reid
Table: 2
Prompt: 40. Otherworld
Word Count: 281
Author's Note: The Timeline has been updated.

Derek stared upward into the gloom, wondering what had woken him. The ceiling was black, save the pools of soft orange light to either side of the bed. Spencer lay heavily beside him, the walking cast on his foot bulky and awkward.

Spencer's breathing changed, his head turning on the pillow restlessly. "Raph..." His voice trailed off.

That was why. Not a screaming nightmare. Not one of the warped-reality flashbacks that had driven them together in the beginning, or one of the near-panic attacks that had triggered the use of nightlights, but a quiet reliving of Spencer's suffering at Hankel's hands.

"...can't...God's image," Spencer whispered.

Derek listened, straining to understand half mumbled words.

"...stop...commission..."

Hoped that what Spencer's sleeping mind was internalizing was a drug-induced hallucination and not truth.

"...pretend..."

Spencer never spoke of Raphael, even though he'd indirectly, at least, mentioned Tobias and Charles during his recovery.

Inhaling sharply, Spencer tensed, head turning toward the far wall so hard Derek felt his own neck and shoulders ache with sympathy.

Unable to let even subconscious torment continue, Derek carefully rolled over, hooking his chin over a bony shoulder as his bodyweight pressed Spencer into the mattress. Spencer's nose rubbed his scalp, and a gust of moist air warmed his ear a moment later.

Finding comfort in the familiar, the scent and weight and feel of home, Spencer slowly relaxed, his hands rising up to pat mindlessly at Derek's arms and torso only to fall back to the sheet.

Derek lay awake, breathing in the fading copper tang of fear, the sickly smell of drugged sleep and the stronger, underlying sweetness of Spencer's skin as a helpless rage roiled in his gut.

~~~the end~~~

Previous:          Trusting Logic
Next:              An Innocent Inquisition 

Comments

This is love!

[angst-queen-98.livejournal.com]

This series of fics is so awesome. I love ongoing universes and am fascinated by how various authors approach them. I enjoy reading the stories as you post them but fully intend to go back and re-read them all in order once the timeline is done. Trust me I'm in no hurry for that to happen either!!! May the muse favor you with inspiration for a long time to come.

Peace!
Paige

Re: This is love!

[thefrogg.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I have to say, of everything I've ever written, this has been the most fun, and the most confusing, simply because of the way it's developed (i.e. very very non-chronologically).

I've been trying to figure out how to keep the truth of what happened to Reid in Revelations (according to OI&E) at least half-hidden until post-Evolution of Frank, when Emily catches up with it, but then had to go, "Wait. I can't hide stuff from the readers. I only have to worry about what the characters know." So it's a real balancing act around who finds out what, when, how, and how they react to that knowledge, both in terms of initial reactions and long-term deal-with-it-ness

I have to go back and read everything in order about once a week, sometimes more often just because I've written so many shorts I forget what title go with which story. I've written things into stories which I had no idea what they were about, but fit in perfectly with later developments (or earlier developments, depending on where in the timeline I was writing at the time, and what those lines refer to). It's been a real trip.

And I take it you checked out the newly updated timeline?

[reid-lady.livejournal.com]

The nearly silent nightmare, maybe even more terrifying than waking up screaming, and silent comfort, so powerful. Your writing moves me.

[thefrogg.livejournal.com]

I really think the show is doing at least a decent job at the fallout with what happened in The Big Game/Revelations. Not so much with Profiler, Profiled, but that could just be because of the much less immediate, more personal nature of what happened. I dunno.

But they both give some really nice openings for other developments, particularly in the area of things we didn't get to see. Or what happened to Reid that only Reid knows. Etc.

Thanks! I appreciate it.