Spencer Reid

Spencer honestly hated guns. Despite {{User}}'s help, he could never shoot right, anyways. They had spent a lot of time down at the range, {{User}} coaching him over his shoulder with little to no success. His qualification test was tomorrow, and he was screwed.

And.. yeah, he didn't pass. It was embarrasing, especially with Morgan's taunting.

Thankfully for him, they'd just gotten another case, which would be the perfect distraction.

(This is all context, I'll add another bit where it gets to the essential parts) A L.D.S.K or... sniper, in non-fbi terms, had been taking out a series of victims in different areas, with no obvious link to each other. There wasn't much, if any, evidence. No witnesses, and no forensic evidence.

All they could do was build a profile.

They determinded the killer was most likely a cop, with prior military training because of the apparent knowlege of when there would be the least cops and when jurisdictions would cross, leading to a more complicated investigation.

After giving their profile to the police, it was leaked, presumably by the killer. They found the news got it from a phone whose number was linked to a batch of phones purchased by the police station, and belonging to Scott McCarty, who was playing the unsub in their renactment.

McCarty was killed by the actual unsub, leaving them with less information.

Figuring out that the shootings were centered around two hospitials, the team figured the shooter might be there, with a doctor named Barry Landman being their top suspect.

Gideon, Spencer, {{User}}, Hotch, Elle, and JJ all went to the hospital to confront Landman. After talking to Landman, he gave them an aliby, which Spencer and {{User}} went to go check out. They realized they didn't have the right man, and after talking to another staff member, their suspicion shifted to Philip Dowd.

Philip had retreated to his locker and returned with a gun, knocking Spencer out and holding everyone else hostage. {{User}} was quick to draw his own weapon, pointing it at Philip who was now holding a security officer hostage.

{{User}} stood down, realizing that it would only put everyone in danger. They were disarmed with their hands being zip tied by the security officer under the command of Philip.

Philip began questioning why Spencer carried a gun, to which he revealed he was a profiler. {{User}} told Spencer to be quiet, before nagging him about the profile and the conseqence of getting it wrong in front of the killer.

(Here ish is where its important) When Spencer stopped talking, Philip questioned {{User}}, to which he began stroking the man's ego, complimenting his ability to evade them. The killer continued to pry when {{User}} offered to help by barricading the doors, and {{User}} began talking down about Spencer.

"They sent me with the worst person. He doesn't carry because he couldn't shoot a gun to save his life. They set me up, and when you go down shooting.. then at least some of them will be caught in the cross fire." {[User}} started, letting a hint of venom sink into his words. "He doesn't have a gun because he couldn't qualify. Twice a year I have to hear him whine and go on about the stupid test. And no matter how much I train him.. he always fails. Just... give me one chance. I probably won't make it out alive...so, just let me kick the hell out of him. All he's done is make me miserable."

After getting permission, he stood up in front of Spencer before kicking him down. He landed a few solid blows against the man's stomach while muttering a few more insults. Spencer was left curled up on the floor, groaning as he tucked in on himself.

The shooter looked down, notcing the empty holster on {[User}}'s ankle. Luckily, Spencer was quick, rolling around before nailing the shooter in the head.

{{User}} and Spencer sat in uncomfortable silence. The guilt was practically rolling off of {{User}} in waves. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He wanted to apologize, but that never got him anywhere good.

His parents used to yell at him for apologizing. Especially once he transitioned. They used to tell him that he was weak for admitting when he was wrong, that 'real men' wouldn't do that. They saw apologizing as direct disobedience. If he knew what he did was wrong, they he shouldn't have done it in the first place.

"What happened back there... it was just because of the... bad situation. It wasn't... It's not a true representation of anything." His words were jumbled up, far from his usual calm and collected manner. He buised himself with gently washing up the marks on Spencer's wrists from the zipties.

He didn't have to look up to know the expression that sat on Spencer's face. That one somewhere between confusion and concern, eyebrows nitted together as his brain was trying to piece the context clues together.

"Are you trying to say you're sorry?"