A/N: Wow, there was a much more popular response to this than I ever imagined there would be. I didn't think anyone would be that interested in a soap opera lol. But, due to how many of you actually fav and alerted this-and the reviews!-I'm going to go ahead and put the next chap up now. Keep on sending in the feedback, people! I love it. I love, love, LOVE it. Makes me all warm and giggly ;)


The gentleness with which Scott opened the door was at total opposites with the panic that Remy could feel coming off of him. He tried to project as much of a sense of calm as he could, despite his own nerves at being in these kinds of surroundings. He absolutely hated hospitals. They didn't hold a single positive memory for him. Habit had him ducking his head just a little and checking once more to make sure his sunglasses covered his eyes. All of that flew out of his head, though, when he and Scott went into the hospital room and Remy got his first look at the youngest Summers brother.

Holy shit. It was one thing to hear the list of injuries; it was another thing entirely to see them. You almost couldn't tell that there was an actual person underneath the bandages, tubes, scabs and bruises. The guy's face was a giant mess of bruising from the broken nose and other injuries. Even from the doorway, the bruising on his throat looked horrible and there were definite finger marks visible in them. The man wore the hospital gown and the blanket was up almost to his chest, so anything underneath wasn't visible, but they could see the lump of something that they both guessed was whatever cast or brace was on his leg. His arms were on top of the blankets and the white bandages around each wrist and over his fingers, as well as the splint over that, seemed to make the bruises on his arms stand out even more.

Scott looked at all of this in one fell swoop before looking at Spencer's face. He saw the young man focus on him before he turned his face away and closed his eyes. It didn't take being an empath to understand what his baby brother was feeling. Scott gathered his composure as best as he could and forced down his heartache. He reached out, dimming the lights in the room so that they'd be at a more manageable level for Spencer's eyes. Then he strode toward the bed. "You've had better looking days, Spence." He teased him lightly.

The woman beside the bed, a pretty black-haired girl with a sad smile, looked up at Scott, rising to her feet when he got close. "He hasn't spoken to anyone." Emily Prentiss told him sadly. "He just looks away and goes quiet."

"Well, he'll get over that." Scott said firmly. He reached out and adjusted the blankets over Spencer, hating the way Spencer just laid there as if nothing was happening. His eyes were still closed. As the door opened and the others made their way in, Scott snorted down at the man in the bed. "You think the silent treatment is going to send me running? You do realize who I am, right? Now, come on, open up those eyes for me."

Stubborn ass that he was, Spencer didn't move, his eyes resolutely staying shut. Okay, so talking calmly to him wasn't going to work. Scott took a deep breath and prepared to get through to his brother in another way. "Spencer Reid, I did not have Remy drive me here like a bat out of hell, breaking who knows how many laws, just to watch you sit and sulk like a two year old that was sent to their room. You just quit giving me this childish silent treatment and open your eyes. Now!"

He heard a few surprised sounds behind him and Garcia gasped out "Scott!" But none of that mattered. What mattered was that Spencer's eyes opened and he was turning enough to glare at Scott. "Go away." The two words were soft spoken and as rough as sandpaper.

"Not likely." Scott replied. He reached out to drop down the bar on the side of the bed. Then he gently sat, careful not to jostle him. Now that he had Spencer's attention, he let himself soften a little again. His hand came up, resting over Spencer's heart. From what he'd been told, it was one of the few places that wasn't really damaged. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Why?" Spencer rasped once more. The sound of his voice was almost painful. He took a shuddering breath and his eyes slid closed once more. "Weak." He breathed out.

"You are not weak, Spencer." Scott argued. Oh, how he hated seeing this. Hated how broken Spencer looked right then, and not just physically. It had been a long time since he'd seen Spencer knocked down this low. Hating it, he tried to reassure him. "How many times do I have to tell you? You are not weak. You're one of the strongest people I know. You're going to make it out of this just fine."

But Spencer gently shook his head. His mouth seemed to quiver before he firmed it back up. "Won't. My leg…crippled."

Oh, Spencer. "It doesn't matter. Having a bum leg isn't going to make you weak. And you don't know how bad it'll be. You won't know until you get done with physical therapy. For all you know, it could heal up better than the doctor predicts." Off to the side, Remy stepped up, a cup of ice chips and a spoon in his hand. Scott gave him a grateful look before taking them. He scooped up a spoonful and held it in front of Spencer's stitched lips. "Now be a good little boy and open up so I can feed you these yummy ice chips."

"Fu—" Spencer's words were cut off when Scott stuffed the spoon in. The older man grinned widely. Then he turned his hand, letting his fingers brushed gently over Spencer's cheek, and his voice went soft. "Things will work out. I'm going to take care of you, Sherlock. And you're going to be okay, you hear me? Things may not seem like it now, but they are going to work out."

In that moment, Spencer looked every inch his age; even younger. He locked his eyes on Scott and his mouth gave another little quiver. "You don't know that." He rasped.

Scott scooped up another spoonful of ice, feeding it to Spencer. "Have I ever lied to you before? About anything?" He asked him plainly.

"No." Spencer whispered. The word was a little less shaky than his previous ones.

Smiling, Scott nodded. "Then trust me now. Things will be okay. Now, here's what we're going to do. You're going to sit here and let someone give you ice chips so your throat feels a little better. While you do that, I'm going to go meet with your doctor and find out how soon you can be moved. Then I'm going to call Hank and arrange everything and get it cleared for someone to take care of things while I'm here and I'll see if Jean can bring me a few things to tide us over until you're safe to be moved, okay?"

"You don't have to stay."

With a shake of his head, Scott rose from the bedside. "For a genius, you sure say stupid things sometimes."

Just as Scott started to turn to hand off the ice cup to someone else, he heard a voice echoing down the hallway. His eyebrows shot up before furrowing down. He knew that voice. Dammit! "Who called Alex?" he asked the other agents in the room. When none of them answered, Scott scowled. "Great. Just great." Tossing a look at Spencer, Scott thrust the ice cup at Remy, already moving toward the door. "I'll try to head him off, Spence, but…"

The door burst open then and Scott stopped in his tracks. Behind his glasses, he closed his eyes and prayed for patience. When he opened them again, Alex still stood there, glaring at the room. "What the hell is this?" Alex demanded loudly. Behind him was an entire crowd of orderlies that he paid absolutely no attention to. "The little shit gets himself in the hospital and you don't even bother calling and telling me?"

"I just got here a little bit ago, Alex." Scott said patiently and calmly. "I was on my way to speak with the doctor and give you a call just now."

Alex scoffed and made his way past the agents that backed toward the wall. The group knew what it could be like when these brothers got together. The way that Alex rolled his eyes as he started toward the bed had Scott wanting to smack him. Somehow he managed to restrain himself. At least, he did up until Alex reached the bed and reached out, smacking Spencer's bicep. "What the hell did you get yourself into now, you idiot? When're you gonna stop playing at being a Fed and settle down in a real life, huh?"

The flash of pain over Spencer's face and the way his body locked down tight had Scott darting forward and shoving Alex back, delivering a solid thump to the back of the head. "You ass!" he snapped at his brother. "He's hurt, you can't hit him!"

"They've got morphine here." Alex fired right back. "He should be so drugged he's seeing pink elephants!"

Scott let out an exasperated sound. "Did you forget he doesn't take narcotics?" Then he turned back to Spencer. He brought one hand up to stroke over Spencer's bangs, pushing them back from his forehead, smoothing back the lines of pain there. "Watch your breathing, honey. Slowly, carefully, like you're meditating. In slowly and out slowly. That's it. There you go, Sherlock. You got it." Slowly he coached Spencer through the pain until he watched his face smooth out. Then he gave him a smile. "There you go. Better now?"

He felt Alex step up and then lean around him to brush his hand gently over Spencer's arm. "Sorry about that, pidge."

"If I…wasn't so…tired…I'd hit…you." Spencer forced the words out his scratchy throat. And, indeed, his eyes were starting to drift shut.

Scott looked at Alex. "Stay with him. I've got to go talk to the doctor about getting him transferred to the house."

"Good." Alex said firmly. He hooked a chair with his foot and sat down right beside the bed, one hand still resting by Spencer's arm. "Last thing he needs is to be here. Though they seem to have choice nurses here, pidge. You check em out yet? Saw a few that look like they'd be just your type. The one guy out at the front desk seems like a possessive asshole, just the way you like them."

Spencer's eyes stayed closed, but he very clearly rasped out "I saw a….clingy woman…all breasts…no brain…just…your type."

Smothering his laughter, Scott made his way into the hall. Once there he took just a minute to lean back and take a deep breath. He was okay. Spencer was okay. Battered, bruised, and in for one hell of a recovery; but he was okay. As his breath shuddered in and out of him, Scott knew that seeing the doctor would have to wait. There was one thing he had to do first. He pulled his ever present cell phone from his pocket and blindly pressed the button for the speed dial 1. In just a short time, the most beautiful voice came over the line. "You got good timing, Scooter. I was just getting ready to call and tell you that I'm on my way home."

Scott opened his mouth to say something, to try and make a comment about the mission or to ask about its success, but what came out was "Hurry home. Please."

"What's wrong?" Logan asked instantly.

"I…Spence is in the hospital here, Lo. Some mutant bashing asshole kidnapped him last night. Fuck." Scott ran one hand over his face and shuddered slightly. "He's gonna make it, he's talking as best he can with me, but it's bad, Lo. He…he's hurt pretty bad."

"I'll be there in a few hours. Just hold on tight and I'll be there, darlin."

Nothing else Logan could have said would have been more perfect than that. Scott clung to that lifeline and used it to strengthen himself. "I've got to talk to his doctor and find out when we can move him. Then I'm going to call Hank and see about getting things set up there for him. He'll have to stay in the Med Lab a while, but it's gotta be better than the hospital, right? Less stress for him."

"Alex there yet?"

"Yeah." That had Scott letting out a shaky laugh. "Yeah. He barged on in, furious I hadn't called him yet. I've got no idea how he knew. He's with Spence right now. Remy's here too; he drove me."

A growl of approval came over the line. "Good. Gumbo'll take good care of ya till I get there. Surprised ya got him through the doors of a hospital, but he'll stick it out with ya."

Indulging himself for a moment by closing his eyes, Scott sighed out some of his tension. "I love you, Logan."

"I love ya too, Slim. Now you go take care of business and keep yer mind busy. I'll be there as quickly as I can."

"No accidents."

"No promises."

When he hung up the phone, he was still smiling.


By the time Scott got off the phone with the mansion, he could feel a headache building behind his eyes. Damn. It had taken way too long to not only find the doctor, but get the man to hold still long enough to talk with him. Thirty seconds into the conversation and Scott had already decided that there was no way his brother was staying under this man's care. The doctor was a narcissistic asshole who had had the audacity to stand there and complain about the mutants that came through the ER. Scott wondered if the man would have had the balls to talk that way if Scott had been wearing his visor instead of his glasses. The glasses allowed him to pass as human; the visor would have given him away.

After finally extracting himself from the pompous ass, Scott had then gone to the waiting room to call the mansion. He'd spoken with Hank first, reciting Spencer's injuries for him and getting his medical opinion on moving him. Thankfully, Hank swore they'd be able to sedate him and move him before the evening was out. Then Scott had had spoken with the Professor, explaining the situation and essentially gaining his permission—not that it mattered to Scott; he would have had Spencer there anyways—for his brother to stay for a while and to have a room made up for Alex if he chose to stay. He also checked with Charles to make sure thing were running smoothly and that he wasn't going to be needed while he dealt with this here. He explained that Remy had driven him, so no one would wonder where the Cajun was. After that, Scott had called Logan back, letting him know they were transferring Spencer and to just head straight to the mansion.

Next he had the damn tedious paperwork necessary to deal not only with insurance, but to prematurely discharge Spencer from their care. That definitely didn't help his headache at all. He had to pop an Excedrin before finishing up the last page of information. As he stood and made his way to the desk to turn it in, he heard a voice shout out "Scott!" from the direction of the hallway. Reflexes honed by years of being a big brother to two troublemakers and even more years of actual battle and battle training, Scott didn't miss a beat, tossing the paperwork on the counter and turning and taking off down the hall to where Derek was sticking his head out of Spencer's room. There was a tone used to call his name that he'd learned meant trouble; that tone had been in Derek's voice.

What he found inside was complete chaos. Alex was face to face with the idiot doctor, Remy was alongside Spencer's bed obviously trying to calm the panicking young genius, and Derek was off on the other side of the bed with Ashley and Garcia, the three of them looking unsure of what to do yet they were still trying to help Remy calm Spencer. Alex and the doctor were in the middle of a shouting match that Scott couldn't quite understand, their voices overlapping so that it was hard to distinguish what was being said.

In his best leader voice, Scott snapped out "That is enough!"

The two shouters turned to gape at him while he strode into the room, letting the door slap shut behind him. "Alex, what the hell is going on here? The short version."

"This fucking idiot here tried to give Spence morphine and Spence flipped on him. The guy tried to give it to him anyways. I stopped him. Spence fried the vitals machine. Asshole went into mutant hating mode. Short enough, Slim?" The sarcastic tone washed over Scott without bothering him. No, it was the doctor that was bothering him. Scott swore he felt his own temper threatening to snap.

Bringing his fingers up, Scott rubbed at his temples. "I am going to end up with a migraine before the day is done. I just know it." He grumbled to himself. Then, with a sigh, he didn't even bother lifting his head before giving orders. "Alex, get over there and help Remy calm Spencer down before he hyperventilates or rips out stitches. Doctor Idiot," maybe that wasn't the calmest thing to do, but he didn't really care. "my brother does not take narcotics and you're not going to be giving him any. As for having a mutant in your hospital, that is one matter that is going to be rectified as soon as our doctor arrives to take him. I just finished the last of the paperwork to discharge Spencer and have him transferred. Dr. McCoy is on his way to come supervise said transfer. Not only are we better equipped to treat one with his special needs, but I wouldn't subject him to your treatment any longer than absolutely necessary. You're dismissed. We no longer need your assistance in here." Without another thought for the doctor, he turned and made his way to the bed, taking the side across from Alex and Remy that the profilers had just vacated. His heart clenched when he saw that Spencer had passed out. Whether from stress or pain or both, he wasn't quite sure. But his face was slack and his eyes were closed. Scott couldn't stop himself from reaching out and adjusting the blanket and then smoothing back Spencer's hair once more. "At least he's out." He said softly. "That'll make it easier till we can get him home."

"Did they catch the bastard that did this?" Alex's voice was hard and harsh.

"Yeah."

"Damn. That fucking sucks."

Scott understood the sentiment. Alex wasn't saying it because he didn't want the bastard who did this to suffer. He was saying it because he wanted to be the one to make the man suffer. Scott could only agree. He wished that he and Alex could have a bit of alone time with the son of a bitch to show him what happens when you mess with a Summers.

From the side of the room, Ashley looked startled by his words. "Excuse me?" she said.

Scott didn't even bother turning toward her. He just kept watching Spencer's face. But Alex looked up and over at her before looking back to Scott. "Isn't that the one bitch?" he asked conversationally.

Scott nodded. "Yep."

"And she's here why?"

"The hell if I know." He shrugged. Catching Remy's curious look, Scott tried to control his emotions a little better so they wouldn't bleed so much to his friend. "Sherlock doesn't like her." He said simply. Then, because her presence did irritate him, Scott looked up just enough that she knew she was being looked at. "Not that he comes right out and says that. Spence won't ever admit that she does anything to him, but he doesn't like to talk about her and he gets that hurt sound when she comes up in conversation. Not quite sure what she did to him, but it's kind of hypocritical to me that she'd hurt him in his day to day life, but act like they're friends just because he's hurt."

"Bitch." Alex muttered lowly. That had Remy snorting and smothering a grin before he elbowed Alex. The two had always got along every time Alex showed up, which wasn't that often, really.

The door to the room opened and a nurse poked her head in. "Excuse me? Mr. Summers?"

Alex and Scott both looked up and said "Yes?" at the same time. The woman looked back and forth between them before finally deciding to just address them both. "There's a Dr. McCoy out here that claims you sent for him. Should I send him down?"

"Yes, please." Scott answered quickly. It was time to get this show on the road. The sooner they got Spencer out of here, the better.