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A/N: The next chapter will probably be the last.
X
The first thing Derek realizes is that he isn't dead.
The second thing is that his head hurts.
A lot.
Then Penelope is there, not as bright as usual and tired looking.
"Hey gorgeous, you scared me there for a while."
Her smile is strained, forced.
He can feel bandages under his hand when he brings it up to the side of his head.
"Where are we?"
Derek is pretty sure he should know the answer, but he's tired.
"In the hospital. Again, even though I remember you promising that you were going to stop getting hurt."
Penelope's voice is thick, like she is holding back tears.
She probably is.
There is something nagging at the back of Derek's head. Something about Reid, but he pushes it away.
He doesn't really want to know.
Penelope is talking, but her words are blurring together.
Everything is blurry.
Derek closes his eyes, and falls asleep.
X
When he opens his eyes again Penelope is gone, and Reid is standing by his bed with a sling on his arm and a gun at his side.
In seconds Derek has Reid pinned against the wall by his throat, cutting off his oxygen supply.
The sudden movement makes him dizzy but he doesn't really care.
Because of Reid Derek's team is dead.
The alarms on the machines are going off and Derek is pretty sure that Reid's face is turning blue.
People are entering the room, quieting the machines, trying to pull him off of Reid and failing.
He is getting kind of light-headed and the room is spinning.
Someone grabs his arm and pulls hard, then Derek is looking at a very enraged Emily Prentiss.
It doesn't make any sense, maybe he is dead.
She is talking to him, gesturing to where he presumes Reid is.
Another wave of light-headedness hits him and Derek is falling, black spots dancing in front of his face.
Making it almost impossible to see the people crowding around him, trying to help.
Almost.
He can see both JJ and Hotch standing by the doorway, both of them wearing the same worried expression.
Penelope is right behind them.
she looks scared, and Derek cant quite figure out why.
Reid is the bad guy.
The spots are getting bigger, obscuring his field of vision.
X
Waking up for the third time in twelve hours is not a fun experience for Derek.
Hotch and Emily are waiting by his bed when he wakes up.
Wanting to know why the hell he had though it was necessary to strangle his teammate nearly unconscious.
Hotch's face is impassive as usual, but Emily's is stuck in some strange mix between concerned and angry.
"You guys are supposed to be dead."
Whatever they have him on is working, because his head doesn't hurt at all anymore.
"Reid killed you."
Noticing their confused expressions Derek decides to elaborate.
"He shot you. And me. And a lot of other people."
Emily doesn't really look all that angry anymore, and Hotch's expression is veering off into uneasy.
"Derek, you and Reid were in a car crash. You've been in the hospital for the last three days."
Emily's voice is a lot softer than he expects it to be.
But what she is saying makes no sense to him.
"I would remember being in a car crash."
He doesn't remember any car crash with Reid.
Hotch's voice is calm, reassuring.
"Your doctor said that you might not remember it at first, because of your head injury."
Except maybe there was one, with a lot of noise.
He can sort of remember Reid, and a car.
And a lot of noise.
Probably from some kind of crash.
"So Reid didn't kill anyone. It was all a dream?"
Hotch and Emily reply in the affirmative.
As it turns out, Derek was right at first, and his mind is the most messed up thing in the universe.
Because it sure didn't feel like a dream, and the images that are still in his brain are crystal clear and not at all unrealistic.
"And I just tried to kill Reid, who isn't a creepy serial killer."
Neither of them respond, possibly because they are worried about how he will react.
He doesn't really need the confirmation, if he was still dreaming they would be dead.
Derek isn't sure whether to be ecstatic that it was all just a messed up dream and nobody is really dead, or guilty that he tried to kill one of his best friends because of a dream.
It was easier when he was sleeping.
