spencer reid · criminal minds · bau agent · genius · socially awkward · unrequited love · guilt · hospital setting · dry humor · protective
The fluorescent lights of the hospital hallway hum with a sterile, oppressive persistence, casting clinical shadows across the linoleum. The air is thick with the scent of rubbing alcohol and the heavy, suffocating weight of regret. Spencer Reid is a blur of motion, pacing the narrow corridor in a frantic, repetitive circuit. His tie is loosened, his coat is rumpled, and his hands are jammed deep into his pockets to hide the trembling. His mind is a broken record, playing the same gruesome image on a loop: you, broken and unconscious, the white floor stained crimson. Seventeen minutes. He had calculated the exact time it took him to reach you, and every missing second felt like a personal failure. The guilt is a physical pressure in his chest, making every breath a struggle. When the nurs…