At those words, numb turned to panic and I snatched up a pair of pants, shoes, and Reid's sweater, letting him grab my arm and drag me through the apartment--why weren't we going out the window again?
We burst into the hallway and instinct kicked in. I dashed across the hall and pounded on Mrs. Mulcahy's door, glancing frantically down the hallway for the man who was trying to kill me. There was no one there, yet, but I dragged Reid with me as we shoved past Mrs. Mulcahy and into her apartment the minute she opened her door so I wouldn't have a chance to see my stalker. Or, more accurately, he wouldn't have a chance to see me.
I spun and threw all three locks on the door before dropping against it, panting as the clothes I had snatched up spilled from my arms.
"Charlie, what in heaven's name is going on?" Mrs. Mulcahy asked, baffled, before noticing Reid. "Who is this young man? What happened to your clothes?" she questioned and then shot Reid a dirty look.
"Sorry, Mrs. Mulcahy. I'm hiding from a crazy ex-boyfriend," I heaved out the most reasonable lie I could think of.
She believed it, exclaiming curiously, "You didn't tell me you were seeing someone! Is that who came and destroyed your apartment last night?"
"Yeah, he was being a real dick when I wouldn't answer my phone," I offered a totally false explanation. Funny, it still hurt with the amount of truth it held.
"Well I hope this new boyfriend of yours has more respect for you, but I have to say he's not off to a very good start considering your state of undress," she said, giving Reid a glare as she stepped in front of me.
"No, ma'm, I--" Reid started to fumble an apology despite the fact that this wasn't even the first time he'd seen me in my underwear. Not that it'd be in either of ours best interest to let Mrs. Mulcahy know that, either.
Mrs. Mulcahy shushed him with a finger and then ushered me to her bathroom to finish getting dressed.
"So you don't get any more ideas, young man," I heard her accuse Reid from where she was standing on the other side of the door, guarding me from the prying eyes of my coworker.
It wasn't quite amusing enough to make me laugh, but I did catch a glimpse of a smile on my face in the mirror as I finished pulling my clothes on. Almost enough to make me forget that the reason I was hiding in my eighty-year-old neighbor's apartment at eight o'clock in the morning was because my life was currently being threatened by a stalker who may or may not be just outside in the hallway.
"I wasn't--I'm not her boyfriend, I just work with her. She needed a ride so I stopped by to pick her up and then her ex-boyfriend showed up," I heard Reid trying to placate Mrs. Mulcahy.
"And you entered her apartment while she wasn't even decent?" she asked him incredulously.
"I promise, I wouldn't do something like that normally, ma'm, but Charlie was in danger. Her st-ex," he quickly corrected himself, "can get mean sometimes."
Before Reid had to defend himself any further, I came out of the bathroom, fully dressed now, and then went to check through the peephole to see if there were any suspicious knife-wielding psychopaths lurking in the hallway. Of course there wasn't, though.
I glanced at Reid before gesturing him over to the peephole to check for himself, asking nervously, "Are you sure you saw him?"
"He was in the alley, I saw him through your bedroom window since the door wasn't closed tightly. Maybe he guessed we were running and is planning on waiting you out," he suggested, his voice low enough that Mrs. Mulcahy couldn't quite overhear.
I felt guilty, being so secretive in her apartment, but I didn't want to drag anyone else into my problems, including the rest of the team like Reid was trying to do because he said, "We need to get to the BAU as soon as we can."
I sighed, wanting to argue, but I had promised him we'd go today last night, so I nodded.
"Thank you, Mrs. Mulcahy, and sorry again," I apologized.
"Oh, no worries, dear, you just keep yourself safe. My, what a whirlwind romance is these days," she mused before addressing Reid, "And you, young man, better treat her right or I'll have my nephew come and show you what for," she threatened, giving him a look.
Reid glanced warily at me but then replied nervously, "I will. Thank you," before unlocking the door and peering into the hallway.
He gestured for me to follow him, and I called a, "Bye," over my shoulder and followed him outside.
When we got back in his car, Reid turned to me and remarked, "I don't think Mrs. Mulcahy likes me."
I shrugged and answered casually, "Probably cause she saw you with me when I only had half my clothes on. Don't worry, you're the first guy I've ever brought over to see her," I teased, trying to make light of everything that had just occurred as he started driving towards work.
We were so late for work, but it's not like I had my phone with me to let anyone know, and considering the circumstances, I'm sure Hotch'd understand. After he got mad at me over being so stupid, as I found out once we got there when I went to talk to him.
I didn't tell him about the emails that had escalated to letters and then phone calls and then appearances in my apartment, I just told him someone had been stalking me for a few months. I knew who it was, but I didn't know his name, or where he lived, or why he was obsessed with me.
And then I had to sit in silence while he explained it to the rest of the team, and they all decided the safest place for me was in the FBI academy until they tracked this guy down. I felt like a child with three dads, three moms, and an awkward friend who was trying to keep me safe. To avoid suspicion, or said stalker tracking me down again, Hotch and Rossi decided that Morgan would drive me to the academy by himself and the rest of them would work the case. My case.
Despite all that, I didn't feel any safer as I walked to the elevator with Morgan. Reid stopped us, asking if he could talk to me. Morgan gave a nod of approval--not that I wouldn't have talked to Reid if he hadn't let me anyways, but his approval was nice--and I walked over by him.
"You don't still expect me to believe that that letter in your pocket that night isn't related to this, do you? The team should know, it's essential to catching this guy," he said.
He was right, but I objected, "Yes, but I will be the one to tell them."
"Charlie--" he protested, but I cut him off, instructing firmly, "Spencer, I'll handle it," and then turned and slipped into the elevator next to Morgan.
I stayed silent as Morgan drove, but then he asked, "Rookie, what's going on?"
I turned to him and snapped, "Did you not just hear Hotch explain everything?"
"Yeah, but now how about you explain everything to me, McDowell," he requested.
I hated working with profilers, but fear spiked in my chest again when he passed the café two blocks from my apartment--I quickly turned away from the window, and remembering what I'd told Reid, I decided to start talking.
"It started two months ago--" but suddenly a jolt slammed through the whole vehicle, sending the entire world upside down and spinning across the street in a blur.
A grunt escaped my chest when my seatbelt held me fast to my seat and the cacophony of noise ended with a tinkle of glass. We were upside down, and Morgan was hanging limply in his seat, his hands dangling above his head, unconscious. There was a lot of blood, dripping off his fingertips to plip plip plip onto the crumpled ceiling below us.
"Morgan. Morgan, wake up," I said calmly, glancing out the shattered window at the smashed front of the navy blue SUV that had hit us. And then spotting a dark-clothed man stalking towards us.
"Morgan--" shattering glass split my words into a scream as a gloved fist punched through the passenger window, inches from my face.
My scream woke Morgan whose eyes widened in panic once he realized what was happening, struggling to free his gun from his hip as a knife slashed through my seatbelt. I screamed in pain as I crashed into the arms of my stalker and squirmed to get myself free, only to have glass slice my skin as he dragged me through the window kicking and yelling. I was plummeting a few too many feet to the ground and a crack rocked my entire body as I hit, sending black dancing over my vision.
Through the black, I saw Morgan get his head smashed in with a metal pipe, and then the pipe blacked out the little I could see as it smashed my head in, too.