1 | Undeniable Chemistry [S. Reid]

v. boron

WILLOW LOOKS AT the house curiously, slightly squinting her eyes suspiciously at the house. She's trying to understand how such a normal looking house could be an evil biochemist's lair. Spencer notices her glare at the house, making him walk closer to her as he waits for Derek to finish on the phone with the team. Willow notices his presence and looks up at him for a second, before looking back at the house.

"How does an evil scientist, live in such a normal house?" She asks, her voice barely above a whisper, as if they were being listened. Spencer's eyes sparkle in amusement, as he smiles softly.

"Well, he lived a normal life. A wife, children, I suppose. I think his sudden interest in being an evil scientist, came after being denied the funding and being fired." Spencer points out, making her hum in understanding.

"Alright, keep me posted." Derek says as he joins the two back. Spencer shoves his hands in his pockets as he turns to look at Derek. Willow hesitantly pries her eyes from the house, worried that she might miss it transform into a bat cave. "This guy just had people over for a charity event last month."

"Maybe he was trying to seem like a good guy when in reality he's a bad guy." Willow says, making the two FBI Agents chuckle.

"You make a good point, Professor. Maybe you should consider a career in Profiling." Derek says, making her giggle as she shakes her head.

"We should probably look around." Spencer says, as the three start walking closer to the house. As they start looking around, Derek receives a phone call, making them stop momentarily, but Spencer continues walking. Willow goes to follow him, but he signals her to stay.

She sits down on the bench, waiting for Derek to finish the phone call and Spencer to come back. She really wanted to follow him, but she knew better than to do that, after all he knew what he was doing and she wouldn't even know where to start. Not long after, Derek hangs up and turns to look at Willow.

"They got nothing- Where'd he go?" He asks her, making her nod in the direction he went. With a frown, he goes in the same direction and Willow, unsure if she should, follows him. As they get closer to the house they notice the open door, making them walk faster. "Reid? Reid?"

"Morgan, get... get back.  Get back." Spencer exclaims as he appears and closes the door, making Willow stop and her eyes widen as she realizes what he did. "Take Willow and get out of here."

"What's wrong?" Derek asks one confusion as Spencer locks the door.

"Derek, look." Willow breaths out as she points towards the broken test tube with the hazard symbol on it, in the room Spencer is. Derek immediately looks back up at him, worry clearly covering his features.

"I'm sorry." Spencer says weakly, making Willow bite her lip nervously, as Derek leads her away from the door.

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Willow asks, crossing her arms over her stomach as she looks at Derek wide eyed.

"He will be. I'm gonna have to make a phone call. You stay right there. Don't go anywhere. Please." Derek says, making her nod in understanding. She breaths out as she looks around. She never had felt so helpless, she just wanted to do something to help, but she also knew that by following their orders and staying out of the way, she was helping them. A few minutes of waiting later, Derek comes back with Hotch and the medics behind him.

"Willow, how are you?" Hotch asks, making her bite her lip before answering.

"I've seen better days. But I think you should worry more about your agent, he needs it more than I do." Willow says, making him nod, before they starting walking towards the house again.

"What do we know?" Hotch asks his agent as they look at the house.

"Nichols is dead. Blunt force trauma to his head. Reid thinks he's been dead for 2 or 3 days." Derek explains, keeping an eye on Willow, who seems to be on edge.

"Well, then he couldn't have been responsible for the attack." General Whitworth concludes, making Willow look at him with a frown to try and understand how he could be focusing on that, when another person is at risk of dying.

"Reid took Cipro today, so he's gotta be ok, right?" Derek asks Hotch, who doesn't take his eyes off the house.

"I don't know. It was precautionary." Hotch admits, making Willow huff in frustration.

"It's not helping patients at the hospital." The General points out.

"Yeah, but they didn't take it until after they were exposed. Reid took it before." Derek argues back.

"Yeah, but we've never tested this strain on a cipro-ready subject. We just don't know." Whitworth says, just as a phone starts ringing, making Hotch take it.

"Reid." Hotch answers, putting the phone on speaker. They all look towards the house to see Spencer looking at them through a window.

"Hotch, I really messed up this time." Willow takes a deep breath as she hears the slightly panic in his voice.

"Reid, we need to get you out and to the hospital." Hotch says, clearly extremely worried for his agent.

"No. I'm staying right here." Spencer says, making Willow gape at him.

"No, you're not, Reid." Derek says.

"I'm already exposed. It's not gonna do me any good to stop working the case." Spencer says, and if Willow could she would try and slap some sense in him.

"He's already infected. Now, if Nichols created the strain, he may have also created the cure." Whitworth says, and Willow understood the logic making her sigh in defeat.

"My best chance is to stay here, see if there's a cure, try to figure out who killed Dr. Nichols." Spencer points out.

"Come on, Hotch, say something to him." Derek says, clearly not onboard with the idea of leaving Spencer in there instead of bringing him to the hospital.

"He's right. His best chance is inside. We're gonna get a suit and mask into you right away." Hotch says, making Derek sigh in frustration.

"Don't bother. it's not gonna do me any good. I'm already infected." Spencer says, making Willow wince.

"Reid, what do you see in there?" Hotch asks him.

"I see cages filled with dead animals. I see signs of a struggle, Probably before Dr. Nichols was murdered. Equipment's missing. There's a large desk. Clutter all over the surface. But in the corner, There's a smaller desk. It's organized, functional." Spencer explains, having left the window to look around.

"Two different work spaces?" Willow asks, her voice so soft, that she isn't sure that he heard her, but he confirms having heard her as he answer.

"Two sets of handwriting. I'm looking at instructions on how to boil lab-grade broth, sterilise lab equipment, and transfer spores." Spencer says, the sound of rustling paper in the background.

"Nichols would know all that." Whitworth says, making Willow quickly glance at him.

"He has a partner, maybe even a protege. Go back to the BAU, try to figure out who this partner is." Spencer says, making Derek turn to look at Hotch.

"Hotch, why don't you go? Willow and I will stay with Reid." Derek looks at Willow who nods in agreement.

"Funnel all the information you get to me." Hotch says, before leaving the two to look after Spencer.