A/N: Thank y'all so much for all your best wishes and such. I appreciate it. My friend is doing better and he's going to be moved out of the ICU and into a regular room today. :)
Okay, two points I want to make. One - this story is fiction and the injuries in here are NOT the injuries myself or my friend obtained. I, of course, made things worse for Spencer, though I did draw off a past experience a friend of mine had, and I used it a bit as some help for this. But even so, the injuries/treatments in here are totally Google informed. Which leads me to point number two - I am NOT a doctor. I don't even play one on TV. So, my lovelies, bear with me if the medical isn't perfect, m'kay? Merci!
Two hours later found the waiting room at George Washington University Hospital packed full of people. If Spencer had been there to see it, it would've both warmed and broke his heart all at the same time. It would've warmed it to see just how many people were there for him, how many were waiting anxiously for news. Yet it would've broken it to see the pain that they were in.
Bailey sat in one corner with his mother on one side and, surprisingly, his father on the other. Any troubles set in that family were forgotten in this moment as they sat with their son while he waited on news of someone very important to him. Even his father, who didn't approve of his friendship with Spencer, was nothing but supportive, keeping a protective arm around his boy as if somehow he could protect him now from anything more happening to him. As if he could shelter the man who had once been his little boy.
Off on the other side of the room sat the entirety of the BAU team. JJ was seated in a chair in the corner, speaking lowly on her phone to Will, telling him that they still had no news. Beside her was Emily, who was picking at her fingers absently, her eyes on the floor yet with a distant look to them. Dave sat with one leg crossed over the other, staring off into space, locking into his own thoughts. Over by the window, Aaron was much the same, staring out at the dark night.
Penelope and Derek sat side by side, their shoulders brushing together in silent support. Penelope had her knitting out and though her hands shook, she kept on knitting, needing to have something to do with her hands as the minutes ticked by and turned into hours. Derek had his arms resting on his knees and his hands clenched together between them. Occasionally he would drop his head down, running his hands over the smooth skin of his head, wondering why the hell someone would want to hurt Spencer of all people. How could someone hate so much that they could do something like that?
They'd heard the reports from the police officers already. What they'd been told had been enough to shake them all. The officers had said that Spencer had been severely beaten and had been barely conscious when the two offices arrived on scene. They'd found him in only his boxers, his clothes ripped and laying in the grass not that far away from him. Both he and his clothes, the officers told them, had been urinated on. They'd told them that there were offensive slurs written on his arms, his chest, his back, even his face. Hearing that had been the limit for Penelope. She hadn't been able to stand there and listen to it anymore. Bad enough that these people had beaten him so horribly, but they'd had to humiliate him, too, marking him for all to see. It was just too much.
The doors leading to the back opened and every head in the room lifted as each person went on alert. They all slumped back down when they saw the doctor go to the only person in the room that wasn't here for Spencer.
Waiting was its own form of torture. It allowed the mind too long to think and wonder and worry. Worry about just how badly these people had managed to damage their friend. Worry about the fact that Spencer had been in surgery for hours now and no one had come out to tell them anything yet. Any requests at the nurses' station only earned them a "We'll let you know as soon as we know anything new."
For Bailey, the waiting allowed time for the guilt to build. It let the 'what ifs' and 'maybes' build in his mind until he felt like he'd be sick once more. He wrapped his arms around his waist and held on in the hopes that maybe the world would steady around him again. Maybe, if he closed his eyes and wished hard enough, he'd find out the whole night was one great big nightmare. He'd be at home in his bed instead of here in a hospital waiting room praying that someone very important to him wasn't going to die.
To try and distract himself from the voice in his mind that whispered that this never would've happened if he hadn't called Spencer to come meet him, Bailey looked around the room at the people that he knew Spencer cared so much about and who he could see cared just as much. As he did, he realized that there were a few people missing, one person in particular. Before he could stop to think about his words, he asked "Has anyone called his life partner?"
Six heads lifted and turned towards him at almost the same time. It was slightly creepy and had Bailey sitting back just a little. "His what?" JJ asked with obvious surprise.
"His life partner." Bailey repeated slowly. These guys knew about him, right? Spencer had said something about telling them. Had he not done it yet? It was too late to take the words back now and Bailey doubted it would matter. This was too important to worry about upsetting other people. I'm sorry, Spencer. "Someone needs to call Remy. He should be here."
Only one person in the group seemed to know what Bailey was talking about. Derek Morgan sat up a little straighter and the surprise on his face grew. "He and Remy got together?"
"I'm sorry, thought he'd told you already." Bailey bit his lip and scratched absently at the pad of his thumb. He felt his Dad's arm tighten around him briefly but his parents said nothing. Brushing some of his blond hair behind his ear, he blew out a shaky breath. "I knew he was planning to. They got together like, a month ago, I think. Spencer told me he didn't want to just blurt it out to you guys. That it felt kind of special, you know? So he was planning this big barbeque for everyone and he was going to tell you guys then." He looked down at his lap and then back to the BAU team. "He said telling friends is easy, but telling family about something like this requires a little extra attention and a touch of ceremony."
That effectively silenced any protests or complaints from anyone. JJ's eyes looked suspiciously moist as she said "That sounds like Spence. He's so formal about some things."
"I'll give Remy a call. I should've called him anyways." Derek said. Even though he hadn't known they were together, he'd heard about Remy plenty of times from Spencer and he knew the two were extremely close friends. They had been ever since Spencer was a child. Derek pushed up from his chair and pulled out his cell phone as he made his way over to a more private spot to make the call.
That little bit of conversation seemed to have broken the silence that was sitting over the waiting room. "I can't believe I never even knew Reid was gay." Emily said softly. She didn't sound upset, just surprised.
"He's not gay." Penelope said immediately. Everyone looked at her and she smiled faintly at them. "I made the mistake of saying the same thing you just did when I ran into him during a pride parade. He told me that he's not overly fond of labels, but that he doesn't identify as 'gay' or 'bisexual'. He said that, if he had to have a label, then the most accurate one would be pansexual because gender and sex aren't what makes him attracted to someone."
Derek's call had finished quickly. He was already on his way back over as Penelope finished her statement. As he took his seat beside her once more, he added on "I asked him once why he never told us and he said he just figured we all knew. He didn't think he had to make some big announcement about his sexual preferences. He says he knew none of us would care anyways."
"Now that definitely sounds like him." Dave said with a smile.
Bailey's mom, Tiffany, gave her son's arm a gentle squeeze and then looked around at the team. "Spencer's a very lucky man to have such understanding friends."
"How is it that you know him?" Aaron asked curiously.
"He's my mentor." Bailey answered. He looked at them and he could see more than a few blank looks. They had no idea what he was talking about. Didn't they know? Ignoring the tension in his Dad, Bailey explained "I'm part of a sort of big brother program. Spencer, he's my mentor. I got hooked up with him through the GLA at my school."
JJ tipped her head and gave him a curious look. "GLA?"
Hadn't these guys ever heard of it? He'd figured they would know, being feds and all. And being Spencer's friends, didn't they know all this? "Gay and lesbian alliance. There's a mentorship program through the local community center and they send someone out to local schools so people can know what they offer and can sign up for a mentor. I got Spencer. He's been my mentor for about five months now and he's really helped me out." Unable to help himself, Bailey looked at Derek and asked the question that was nagging at him. "Did you get a hold of Remy?"
"I did. He's on his way now." Derek reassured him. His expression clouded over slightly. "Hopefully we'll know something by the time he gets here."
Those somber words had a sobering effect on the room. Once more everyone fell silent as their minds turned fully back to their friend.
It wasn't much later that the doors nearby opened once more. This time, the woman that came out made her way directly to the large group waiting. She looked around at them all. "Spencer Reid?"
"That's us." Derek said, pushing to his feet. Everyone else rose with him.
The woman gave a look of surprise at the sheer amount of people that were here. She looked around at them all and her eyebrows furrowed down. "Are any of you a…" she looked down and checked the chart in her hands. "…Remy LeBeau?"
Aaron stepped to the front and drew her attention to him. "We've called him and he's on his way here. I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner and the man you have back there is one of my agents. How is he?"
"I'm Zoe and I'm the doctor that operated on your agent." She introduced herself. "He's suffered quite an extensive list of injuries, Agent Hotchner." She pulled the cap off her head and let out a sigh. "It'll be easier and take less time if I summarize this as best as possible. But, bear with me, as this list may take a moment." She warned them.
Her words had a very sobering effect. More than a few hands were gripped tightly as everyone watched her and waited for whatever she had to say. Zoe took a deep breath and prepared herself to do the part of the job that no doctor enjoys. "I'm going to start with the easiest injuries to list; the breaks. Dr. Reid has a spiral fracture on his right arm and his left wrist was sprained while that shoulder was also dislocated. He's got two broken ribs, a broken nose, and his left foot was broken as well. The worst of the breaks was in the femoral shaft on his right leg. We had to insert a metal rod down the center of the thigh bone called an intramedullary rod. This procedure reconnects the two ends of the bone, and the rod is secured in place with screws both above and below the fracture. The intramedullary rod generally remains in the bone for the life of the patient, but can be removed if it causes pain or other problems." She saw their worried looks and held up a hand. "I know that sounds like quite a lot, but the breaks themselves were easy to repair and I have confidence they'll all heal well. It'll just take a little while. It wasn't the breaks that worried us the most. What worried us was the internal bleeding. That was what took so long. When he came in, he was suffering from massive internal bleeding. We got everything patched up, but he lost a lot of blood that we've got to work on replacing now."
"Oh, God." Penelope breathed out. She had a hand pressed against her stomach like she was going to be sick, but she didn't leave. She stayed there and waited for what more was to come.
"He took a rather serious blow to the head. There was some swelling and pressure that we had to relieve. I'm confident there'll be no lasting damage, but we can't be positive until he wakes up. We've got him on a ventilator right now. As of this moment, he's not breathing on his own. And none of that even begins to cover the amount of bruising that covers him. I'm going to be blunt with you, agents. The next twenty four hours are critical. At the moment things could go either way. But he's young and he's in good health and that gives him a good chance. Make no mistake, though. He's going to have a long recovery ahead of him. He's going to have some time spent in a wheelchair and there's going to be plenty of rehab in his future. But if we can get him through the next twenty four hours, I'm very optimistic for a full recovery."
A stunned silence had fallen over those listening at the high list of injuries that Spencer had sustained. The BAU team was horrified by what they heard, yet they knew better than most just how lucky Spencer really was and just how much worse this could've been. A group of drunken men can cause serious damage, especially against someone as slender as Spencer. He was very lucky that he was still alive and they were determined that he would stay that way.
Zoe could see that she'd given them quite a lot to process right now. Her voice gentled slightly with the compassion that made her a good doctor. "He's being settled into the ICU now. Once he's settled into his room, you'll be able to see him. No more than two visitors to the room at a time. We've a private waiting room just down the hall that the rest of you can stay in. I'll have one of the nurses show you where to go. And, agents? Prepare yourselves. The first look is always the hardest."
Nothing she said could've prepared them for the sight that met them. Derek and JJ went first, two of the adults here that were closest to Spencer. Bailey wanted to go in immediately but a look shared between his parents and the agents prevented that. Better that they go in and see just how bad Spencer was, how he looked, before letting Bailey in. The profilers could easily see just how guilty Bailey felt already. There was no telling how he might react to whatever Spencer looked like. They wanted to be able to prepare him in case it was bad. One look at him told them there was no preparing for it.
A soft gasp slipped from JJ and she brought a hand up to cover her mouth. Red rimmed eyes were locked on the slender figure lying so still in that hospital bed. Derek could only stare, mouth open. Was that…could that really be Spencer lying there? It seemed impossible. The blanket lying over him hid everything from the armpits down but from there up was bad enough to see. There was just a faint hint of the writing left out on his arms, barely there but still noticeable. Derek could make out the word freak through the bruising, half hidden by the cast that was over the kid's arm. The cast ran from palm, opening up for his thumb, down almost to his elbow. On his other wrist was a brace, presumably for the sprain, Derek assumed. The gown they'd put him in hid his chest and shoulders, though there was a faint hint of bruising peeking out, but it was from the neck up that was the hardest to see.
Definite bruises stood out around Spencer's neck. It looked like someone had tried to choke him. His face—his face was a mess of bruising. Most of it could probably be attributed to the broken nose. It was swollen and the bruising spread out to his eyes. Derek had seen that before. There was no way of telling if the bruises on his eyes were from being hit there or from the nose. Not that it really mattered. The left half of Spencer's face had some gauze on it that hid something from view. A cut? Scrapes? They didn't know. He had the ventilator in, as they'd been warned. What got to JJ, as strange as it may seem, was the hair. She looked at Spencer's head and couldn't help but comment. "They shaved off part of his hair."
"They probably had to shave a patch to fix up his head." Derek said lowly.
JJ took a careful step forward, moving almost hesitantly up to the side of the bed. When she got there, she lifted a shaky hand and brushed it ever so lightly against Spencer's remaining hair. He didn't make a sound. He just laid there, the machines beeping in the background, looking for all the world like he was asleep. "They should've at least cut it all. He looks, uneven. He'd hate it."
"We'll make sure we get it fixed for him."
"God, Morgan." JJ stroked at Spencer's hair, unable to keep from touching him a little more, reassuring herself that he really was there. That he was alive. "They better find the bastards that did this to him. How could anyone do something like this?"
Derek stood beside her and looked down at his best friend, a kid he had taken under his wing so many years ago who had grown up to be one hell of a man. "Hate makes people do crazy things." He murmured. Too many times he'd seen it. Not just in the job, but in his life. People who still believed that skin color was important, who thought there was something wrong with a black man and a white woman having a relationship. He'd heard that kind of prejudice and hatred his whole life and he still didn't understand it. To see it turned against Spencer this way, someone who accepted everyone for who they were no matter what, was gut wrenching. "We'll get em, though." He promised, not quite sure who he was making the promise to. Himself? JJ? Spencer? Maybe all three. "We'll get em."
