"Morgan? What the hell are you doing? Let him go!" Hotchner suddenly shouted, startling them both. He had come into the room for his forgotten day planner and gotten the shock of his life.

The gun was pulled out of Reid's mouth, and he thought that it was Hotchner that had overpowered Morgan and pulled it out, but he soon realized that it wasn't, when he felt Morgan twist around to stand behind him, the crook of his arm closing around Reid's throat, the gun coming to rest against his cheekbone. Reid's hands automatically clutched the arm around his throat. His eyes locked onto Hotchner, hoping against hope that there was an end to this nightmare.

Hotchner stood across the room, his gun drawn and pointing at them. "Morgan, what are you doing?" he asked again, much calmer this time. As the initial shock passed he realized that Morgan was not himself and he felt himself thread on very uncertain ground as he slowly edged closer to the pair.

"Come on, man. Let him go. We can talk about this. Everything will be all right."

"Hotch?" Morgan asked, sounding uncertain. "Wha… Why's… What's going on?"

Hotchner heard footsteps behind him, and realized that his shouting would have alerted the rest of team, and probably half the office. He saw Gideon in the corner of his eye and took a step back to let him move forward to talk, trusting him to be able to reach Morgan, whatever state he was in, but he didn't put his gun down. Morgan still had his gun pressed into Reid's cheek, and Hotchner didn't even want to think of the disaster laying in wait right in front of his eyes.

"Derek," Gideon said softly, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm… I… Gideon?" Morgan squinted, raising his gun hand to wipe sweat off his forehead, but bringing it back down quickly, the barrel grazing over Reid's ear, making him flinch.

"Derek, what are you doing with Reid? Why don't you just let him go and then we'll take care of you."

"Me? Take care of… No, no, you've got it all wrong. Don't you see, I'm doing us all a favor here! I'll take care of everything, you don't have to worry about it."

"What are you taking care of? What is it you want to do? We can help you, I promise. Just let go of Reid."

Behind him, Reid could feel Morgan's body trembling and sweating. He could feel his panting breath against his neck and beneath his fear and confusion, he knew that there was something horribly wrong with his friend.

"No, no, no, no… I'll fix it, I'll fix everything. I just need… need… I'm… Gideon? What are you doing here?" Morgan brought his gun hand up again, wiping his wrist across his eyes, pressing his hand against his head, raking it over his hair.

This time, however, Reid was ready, and when the gun moved back towards his face he reached up and made a grab for it, at the same time twisting himself out of Morgan's grip, which had become increasingly weaker. Morgan gave up the gun without protest, and Reid quickly backed away, while the others moved in closer.

Reid stood a bit away, alone, trembling, breathing hard, clutching the barrel of the gun which was still wet with his saliva, and rubbing his other hand over his throat while the others crowded in on Morgan, who was looking increasingly confused.

Morgan really didn't look well, Reid reflected from his position. He was sweating and swaying. He was trying to bat away Hotchner and Gideon's hands when they reached for him, but he was too weak. And then suddenly he collapsed. He just slipped out of their hands, fell to the floor and lay unmoving.

The room turned frantic. Morgan was quickly turned into a rescue position as they shouted orders at each other. Elle called for an ambulance and Hotchner darted out of the room to get a rescue bag. Suddenly Morgan started seizing, his body tortured by violent, bone-crackling jerks.

Reid kept staring at Morgan's shaking body without really seeing it. It was all too much for him to take in right now. The taste of gun oil was still too thick in his mouth.

The gun clattered on the floor as he dropped it when he ran out of the room, almost crashing into Hotchner who was returning. He made it to the bathroom just in time. Kneeling in one of the cubicles he was violently sick, the brutal heaves forcing tears into his eyes. He stayed on the floor for a couple of minutes until his stomach was completely empty and the dry heaves had subsided. And then he stayed another minute, just to get his breath back.

His mind was moving with dizzying speed as he tried to understand what had just happened. Had it even happened? It felt like such a bad dream, but he knew it wasn't. His mouth still hurt and his lip felt like it was on fire. He clumsily pushed himself back up on his feet and made it over to the row of sinks. Looking at himself in the mirror he saw that his lip was bleeding profusely. He didn't remember it happening, but the gun had smashed his lips into his teeth, splitting it open and the vomit had made it sting fiercely.

He washed himself off as best as he could and rinsed his mouth out, over and over and over again, but to no avail. He could still feel the gun in there.

The door opened and Gideon came in. Reid saw him in the mirror and turned to him.

"Morgan?" he asked hoarsely.

"He's being loaded into the ambulance now. Hotch is going with him. It doesn't look good… How are you?" Gideon pulled a couple of paper towels out of the dispenser and pressed them against Reid's lip, making it difficult for Reid to answer, which he was grateful for. He didn't think he could lie convincingly right now.

Gideon looked searchingly at him. He still didn't know the whole story; there hadn't been any time for explanations while they had been working on keeping Morgan alive. When he had come into the round table room, Morgan had been holding Reid around the neck, threatening him with a gun. He wondered what had happened before that, he wondered what had split that lip. But mostly he wondered what was going on in the head of the man in front of him right now. He had a pretty good idea of what had sent him running to the bathroom, but he had a feeling that now was not the time to push him.

He let Reid hold the paper towels himself and gave his arm a small tug.

"Come on. Elle and JJ are waiting for us. We're going to the hospital."

"I'm not sure…"

"You need to have that lip looked at. Come on."

When they walked by the round table room Reid saw several forensic agents moving around carefully, bagging the food containers, the water bottles and the rest of the trash from their lunch.

"What are they doing?" he asked.

"We think Morgan suffered an overdose of something, we have to figure out what it was and where it came from."

Drugs. Drugged. Overdose. Involuntary overdose. Poisoned. He should have figured that out. Of course there was a rational explanation for his behavior, because Morgan would never do that to him. Only… only he had. He had pulled out his gun, and he had… Reid shook his head to get rid of the unwanted image. He needed to think about something else.

"But, if it was in the lunch… is every one else okay?"

"So far. We're all having blood tests done when we get to the hospital though."

Reid nodded. That made sense.


A nurse met them outside the hospital entrance.

"Are you the BAU team?"

"We are," Gideon confirmed.

"Please come with me, we're going to keep you isolated until we are sure that what happened to Agent Morgan won't happen to you too."

She led them through a side door and into an exam room. Hotchner was already there, his jacket off and his shirtsleeve rolled up. Another nurse was drawing blood from him and he was talking on his cell phone, even though the nurse was giving him the evil eye.

He looked up as they entered and saw the blood splotched paper towels Reid held to his lip and frowned. He didn't remember him bleeding, but truth to tell, he had lost sight of Reid pretty fast and prioritized Morgan. First he'd been a threat, then he'd been a team member in distress, and Reid had been lost in the shuffle. He had simply trusted that someone else would take care of him, and he really hoped that someone had.

"We don't know yet, Mrs. Morgan," he said to Morgan's worried mother, over the phone, "but we'll call you as soon as we do… We'll see you then, bye." He hung up and turned his attention in his team.

"Morgan?" JJ asked.

"Down the hall. They are working on him. I… We don't know anything yet."

"Could you all roll up your sleeves for me, please?" the nurse asked. "And why don't you sit up here, sweetie, and let me take a look at your lip." She pushed Reid towards the exam table where Hotchner was already sitting and he reluctantly sat next to him.

Reid didn't particularly like sitting on exam tables, counters, bar stools or anywhere else that was high enough to make his feet dangle. It always made him feel so small. It was a residue left over from his school days. As he'd advanced through the classes he'd grown smaller and smaller compared to his classmates.

The nurse started by drawing blood from all of them and sending an orderly to run them to the lab, before she removed the wadded up tissue from Reid's hand. The room had grown quiet, each of them lost in their own thoughts and worries and all of them reluctant to discuss anything before they were alone.

"This is going to need stitches," the nurse said. "I'll send someone in in a minute. Just keep pressure on it." She disappeared.

Reid kept his eyes down, staring at his own feet, waiting for the inevitable. He could feel Hotchner's tense shoulder against his as they sat side by side, as well as he could feel everybody's eyes on him. They would expect him to have all the answers; they would expect him to be able to explain the unexplainable.

"Reid, what happened?" Gideon asked gently, just in time before the silence finally drowned them in their own misery.

Reid felt an overwhelming, petulant desire to answer 'nothing', but he knew that wouldn't fly well. So instead he settled for the ever neutral, "I don't know."

"Reid?" Hotchner's voice was soft beside him.

"Seriously, I have no idea. We were talking and everything was fine and then… then it wasn't. Morgan just went, uh, I don't know… kind of crazy."

"There's more than that, Reid. What were you talking about? What set him off?" Gideon asked.

"Basketball. We were talking about basketball… or he was. I was talking about pre-Colombian ball games. I guess he got a little upset over something I said."

"A little upset? Reid, when I walked in, he had his gun in your mouth! He was about to shoot you!" Hotchner said, also more than just a little upset.

"What? Oh god!" JJ gasped, looking horrified at Reid.

Reid winced at Hotchner to-the-point description, but he was also grateful that he wouldn't have to be the one to say the words.

"Yeah. Apparently he thinks I talk too much."

"Reid, no." Elle was sad for him; he could hear it in her voice. "He doesn't really think that. You know that. He wasn't himself."

He wasn't himself. He knew that that was meant to comfort him, but it didn't. Not right now. Maybe not ever.

He chanced a look at his teammates and was taken aback with the emotions they all displayed. They looked angry, worried and confused and it dawned on him that he should be too. Someone on their team had been attacked. Why and by whom they didn't know, but that should be their, his, priority right now. Someone had drugged Morgan. Morgan, with the warm laugh and never-ending patience. Morgan with the sharp mind and wicked sense of humor. Morgan with the unforgiving fingers and shiny gun… No. No, he shouldn't think about that. That was not the picture of Morgan he wanted in his mind. He wanted to go back to think of him only as a teammate. A teammate who had been hurt, and it was his obligation to find whoever had done this to him. He was the real victim, he was the target. Not Reid. He had just been at the wrong place in the wrong time. That was what he had to hang on to. He had to forget about what had happened in the round table room and concentrate on finding the unsub that was hurting his team. That was what he had to do. That was what he was going to do.

Gideon saw all the different emotions flickering over the young man's face and the determination it settled in to and he wasn't happy. Reid was going to bury this, which only meant that it would come back and haunt him in some other way. How were they ever going to fix this? Reid deserved so much more right now and he wondered if they would be able to reach him in time.


TBC