Title: Sometimes The Best Laid Plans Part 3: It's not Easy Bein' Reid
Author: Trista Groulx
Rating: T
Disclaimer: The usual don't own, don't sue just letting them play.
Summary: After Reid and Prentiss' Las Vegas wedding they tell Ambassador Prentiss, who plans their wedding reception. But something goes wrong.
Notes: Sometimes the pull of drama just grabs me, and this is defiantly one of those times. I might be evil. My apologies.
After they landed they rented a car and went right to the hospital. They went right to the nurse's station.
"Hi, I'm Doctor Spencer Reid, my mother Diana Reid was admitted here due to a stroke. I was wondering how she's doing," Reid explained.
"Have a seat in the waiting room, and he doctor will be right out Doctor Reid," he nurse told him softly.
"Is she all right?"
"It's too early to tell how much damage there was, the doctor will explain everything in just a moment."
"Thank you."
Prentiss took his hand, and they went into the waiting room. She then ran her hand along Reid's face gently. He looked up at her, glad for the distraction. Not even a few hours ago they had been celebrating their recent marriage, and now they were in a hospital room. Reid had taken off his tie, and left his jacket in the car, but he still looked out of place in the hospital room. A doctor came into the room.
"Doctor Reid?" she asked.
"Yes," Reid replied, standing up to shake her hand.
"Hi I'm Doctor Dorion. Your mother had a minor stroke, but with her other medical conditions is hard to determine what kind of damage it did to her nerves. We expect her to wake up from it, but we just can't predict what her mental and physical state might be. I'm sorry Doctor Reid, Missus Reid."
"It's Prentiss," replied Prentiss out of habbit.
"All right, I'm sorry. You can go see her if you'd like."
"Thank you," they both replied.
The doctor left the waiting room to go do her rounds. Reid sat there for a few minutes, holding Prentiss' hand. He wanted to go see his mother, but he couldn't make himself get up. He took a deep breath, then backed down again. He was scared, but glad he wasn't alone through this.
"Do you want to go see her?" Prentiss asked.
"Yeah, I do," he replied. "You're coming with me?"
"Of course, whenever you're ready."
"Yeah, this isn't going to be easy. It's strange with my mother's episodes it's not like she's been sick. She's never been hurt like this, in a hospital," he explained. "I'm not sure I'll ever be prepared for this, but I need to see her."
"I'm right here, Spencer. You don't have to do this alone anymore."
"That helps more then you know Emily."
He squeezed her hand, trying to kill a little bit more time before he went toward the hospital room. They walked through the hallways toward the room she was in. He stopped in front of the door, his hand on the doorknob. Prentiss moved her hand between his shoulder blades to comfort him. He opened the door slowly.
He tried not to gasp when he saw his mother hooked up to the heart monitor and other machines. He had never seen his mother like this before. Prentiss pulled him closer to her. He relaxed a little, trying not to start to cry again.
"Mom, Emily and I are here," he said, softly. "You really scared us. The doctors say you are going to be fine."
Reid thought the whole thing was strange, but continued to talk to her, even though she couldn't respond. He had heard from a lot of people that it was good to talk to loved ones after something like that happened to them. He just wasn't sure what to say. Prentiss meanwhile had sat down in a chair that was in the corner and listened to him.
"Oh, I forgot I got you a new book Mom. How about I read it to you?" Reid suggested.
"I think that's a good idea Spencer," Prentiss said from the chair she was in.
Reid reached into his messenger bag, and pulled out the book. He began to read to his mother. Prentiss realised that she was exhausted it has been a long day, and she had hardly slept the night before because she had been so worried about her mother's event. The sound of Reid's voice was so soothing she began to fall asleep in the uncomfortable hospital chair.
Prentiss woke up with the sun in her eyes, it was coming through the window of the hospital room. She was glad that the doctors had let them stay with Diana overnight. She wasn't sure how long she had slept but her whole body was stiff. Reid was still wide awake, not saying much anymore.
"Spencer?" Prenitss whispered.
"Hmm?" he responded.
"Sitting here watching her isn't going to do either of you any good. How about we go try to find some breakfast?"
"I don't want her to wake up alone."
"We'll give the nurse your number and she can call you if something changes."
"Yeah, I guess."
She stood up and took his hand. The two of them left the hospital room. They soon found a nurse, who had agreed to call if Diana began to awake. They left the hospital and went in search of something from breakfast and good coffee. They were just finishing up their coffees when the nurse had called to tell them that Diana was waking up. The two of them raced back to the hospital.
Again, when they got to the door of her room Reid hesitated slightly, until Prentiss opened the door for him. She took his hand and they went inside. There seemed to be less machines attached to Diana since they had left. Reid went over to her bed slowly, not sure what to expect.
"Spencer," Diana whispered weakly.
He smiled and went over and hugged her gently, careful around the wires. Reid realised right away that she looked pale but didn't want to upset her. He was just relieved that she had woken up and would probably be all right. She was still his mother despite what had happened to her. He could tell that her right side had been affected because her hug was slightly lopsided. He didn't tell her.
"I missed you Mom," he whispered.
"I missed you too."
Diana looked up at the woman who was watching the two of them. She didn't like that she was watching her with her son. She didn't look like a nurse, but she didn't recognise the woman. She thought that it was very strange that the woman was watching them like that. Everything was already hard enough without anyone else being in her hospital room watching them.
"Spencer, who is that?" she whispered in his ear.
"Mom, that 's Emily," he replied confused.
"Emily?"
Diana was confused, she knew that Reid worked with a woman named Emily, but that didn't explain why she was there watching with him, and watching them. She understood that Reid might have needed a friend to come with him. This certainly would have been hard for her son to accept, but now it was her time with her son. Reid looked at her as if she should know who this woman was, but Diana didn't know why.
"Yes, my wife, Emily."
"Wife!" Diana snapped. "No, no, Spencer! You are not married!"
Reid knew what this meant. His mother must be having an episode. It always scared him to see her like that it made him feel like he was a small child again, scared and unsure how to help her. Prentiss never seen her like this before, he just hoped that he would be able to deal with the situation. He didn't want to ask her to leave the room, because he was so upset, but he didn't want to make this worse for his mother.
"Mom, please," Reid begged. "You were at our wedding."
"I don't re- Stop Spencer! Just stop right now! I don't like this!" she began to yell.
"I can't undo this Mom. I'm sorry."
Reid tried to hug her, to help to calm his mother down a little, but she just got more agitated. She was so upset she tried to push him away. Reid didn't want to do this to his mother, he hit the button to page for a doctor, knowing that she might need some medication. Before the doctor got to the room his mother began to flail around, hitting herself, and managed to hit Spencer in the process. She gasped she realised that she had hit her son quite forcefully. She knew she had had hit him the face, and could have given him a black eye.
"Spencer!" both Diana and Prentiss gasped.
"I'm okay," he assured them both.
Prentiss went over to him, and began to look at his eye, trying not to touch where he had been hit. They both knew that Diana hadn't meant to hurt him, but as she looked at him, she knew that he was going to have a black eye for a few days. She wanted nothing more then to kiss him to try help calm him down, but she didn't want to upset his mother any more.
"Honey you are going to have one hell of a shiner tomorrow," she whispered.
"I'm so sorry Spencer. I didn't mean to hit you. Please don't be mad," Diana stammered.
"I know Mom, I know. The doctor will be here soon."
The doctor came into the room a few minutes later. She looked surprised to see the scene that seemed to have unfolded. She had been told by Diana's doctors that with the mix of medications she was on she should not have any episodes while she was there. Now Doctor Dorian worried about one of her staff getting hurt if she had hurt her own son.
"What's going on here?" asked the doctor. "Her doctors at Bennington assured me that she would not do anything like this."
Reid pulled the doctor to the side. "I agitated her, I apologise Doctor," Reid explained. "The problem when I told her about Emily being my wife. I can't lie to her Doctor, and I can't ask my wife to leave. I know I made the situation worse but I still need to figure out how to deal with this."
"Thank you for being honest with me Doctor Reid. We'll figure out a solution. For now I think it would be best to sedate your mother to help her calm down, and we'll have a conference with her regular doctors."
"All right, that sounds like the best choice right now."
"I'll get the nurse to get you some ice for that eye."
"Thank you very much," Reid said shaking her hand.
The doctor left the room, and a nurse came in with an ice pack, and added something to Diana's IV drip. When she was asleep again Reid kissed his mother's forehead softly before leaving the room, and going out into a waiting room. Prentiss followed him. He pulled her into his arms and began to cry.
"I don't know what to," he admitted. "I feel like I'm a kid again, and she's having an episode, and I'm all alone and I don't know what I should do or how to help."
"You're not alone anymore, you never will be again, I promise you that," Prentiss assured him, stroking his cheek. "We'll figure it out Spencer. We don't even know if this is a side effect from her stroke, or just another episode. You've told me that she's forgotten about you in the past."
"I know. I just keep thinking, what if it's not part of the stroke? What if she doesn't remember you, and she doesn't feel the same way about you?"
"Then I won't come along when you visit her anymore."
"But I need you there, Emily."
"We'll figure something out when we know how long this is going to last. This could be temporary and we are worried about nothing." She ran her hand through his hair.
"I guess I'm just upset about all of this."
"How about we go check into our hotel, and we'll try to take a nap?"
"That's a good idea."
They went back to their rental car, and drove to the hotel they usually stayed at when they were there. As always Reid brought their bags up to their room. He put them down, and then sat down on the bed. Prentiss sat down behind him, unbuttoning his shirt, and then pulling it down his shoulder. She then began to massage his shoulders gently. She knew he had had a hard day and wanted to help feel better.
"Talk to me Spencer," she said softly.
Tears started to fall down his cheeks again. "We eloped so that my mother could be there, and now she might not even remember it. I feel guilty that I got to have my mother there, and you didn't, now she may not even remember."
"I never wanted my mother there. All that stuff we told her just lies so she wouldn't be mad about. Even if she doesn't remember, you remember, we remember that she was there to share that with us. All the way here, and until she woke up this morning you worried that you might lose your mother. You haven't, she might just be different."
"You're right, she's here. She's going to be all right, even if she doesn't remember everything, she's alive and that's what matters."
"Exactly, now Spencer you haven't slept in thirty six hours, you know your mother is doing better, try to get some sleep."
"I'm not tired Dolcezza."
"Yes you are, you've been awake for over twenty four hours. I know you're worried about her, but you know how she is about you taking care of yourself. That includes sleeping."
"Fine, I'll try, but I doubt I'll be able to sleep."
She kissed him softly before going into her bag, and getting her night shirt. She slipped it on not bothering to go into the bathroom. Reid meanwhile had taken off his pants, revealing the boxers he was going to surprise her with after their reception, before he climbed into the hotel bed.
"You're going to have to wear those again, because I like them a lot, but I'm too tired to appreciate them right now," she told him, getting into the bed.
"I promise I will," he assured her pulling her to him.
"I love you Spence."
"I love you too, Emily."
Reid took a deep breath, as he laid his head down. He pulled her as close to him as he could without hurting her, hoping it would turn off all the thoughts that were floating around in his head. She was the only person who could turn off his thoughts like that. He closed his eyes, and soon fell asleep. Prentiss was asleep not long after, knowing that he was actually sleeping.
End part 3
Notes: All right sometimes I just can't resist the drama (Jen!) I hope you liked it, will wrap it up in the next part