Psychosis

Chapter 32- Well, Better Late Than Never

"Oh, hey Reid! What brings you by? Come on in," Akilah invited him in, and he followed her, notepad in hand.

"Um, I wanted to talk about Ciara," he answered, and her attitude changed. Sighing, she sat down on her bed. She had noticed that Ciara had lost all her progress, and Reid knew that she still felt it was her fault for not having been there for Ciara. Reid knew that she felt that if she had been taken with them, she could have protected Ciara and saved her slowly healing psyche from shattering again. If anything, Ciara was probably worse, as she had quit talking altogether unless it was absolutely imperative. They had performed a psych evaluation on all of the agents taken, and somehow, Ciara had been cleared. They still couldn't quite get her to talk yet, and she blanked out much more often than before, and Reid still wondered if she was fighting to keep herself in reality during those moments.

"Yeah, what about her? I don't know how to get her to talk again, Reid. I don't even really know what my bastard brother did to her during the time he had you guys that set her off so much, but whatever it was... well, one, she's not gonna tell us why it's affecting her so much, and two, whatever it was destroyed whatever progress we made. It hurt her deeply, Reid," Akilah said.

"Okay, thanks for clearing that up, but that's not what I came here for," Reid told her, and Akilah raised an eyebrow.

"Then what are you... you don't have a present yet for her, do you? And so you came to me because you thought I'd know her well enough that I could tell you her likes and dislikes and what she already has and what she needs?" Akilah asked.

"Um, well, yeah. That's exactly it. But I remember that she said CD and vinyls are a good idea for her, and I thought you could help me figure out which CDs she doesn't have. That, and somehow I can only remember one of the bands she likes," he revealed, holding out the notepad. Akilah looked at it and snorted.

"How could you not remember Fall Out Boy? Remember when she came in crying that one day?" Akilah asked, and as Reid thought, he remembered the day she was talking about.

"Woah, Chestnut, what's wrong?" Garcia asked Ciara, who had come in that morning in tears, with tear streaks from the night before still obvious on her face. Her eyes were red and swollen, telling everyone that she had been crying for a long time. Everyone except for Akilah had gathered around her, worried about their teammate. Akilah just sighed and sat down at her desk, already knowing why Ciara was crying, but not really understanding why it was affecting her that much.

"Don't ask. Seriously, don't ask." Akilah said with an eye roll, and under her breath, Reid could have sworn Ciara said "bite me". However, despite Akilah's warning, they kept asking Ciara why she was crying until she finally burst with a new set of tears.

"Fall Out Boy went on an indefinite hiatus!" she cried, and everyone except for Garcia stopped in their tracks.

"They did WHAT?" Garcia exclaimed, and Ciara had gone on to explain that the night before they had posted on their social media that they were taking a break, and they didn't know when, or if, they would ever get back together, leading most to think that this hiatus was going to end in them completely breaking up. Garcia, ever the emotional one, began to tear up at the thought, but Ciara completely started to cry again, explaining when asked that these people had helped her through some tough times, but that she didn't expect the others to understand.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. You know, after that, I did some research on why fans feel such a deep connection with a band or singer sometimes, and I found some interesting things-"