A/N Did anyone notice the reference to 'Avalon' in the last chapter? It was the music that Danny Nyland played to the coma woman in episode 3x20 of Chicago Hope – Positive ID's – the Epi after the car crash (Oops there goes the tommytummy again!! LOL) I thought that if he chose it for someone else, maybe he would like it too.

Chapter 10

A Bad Night and a Little Help

Francis Bacon wrote, 'What then remains, but that we still should cry, not to be born, but being born, to die.'

"What's the latest?" Morgan stood at the door, his eyes on Hotch. He looked so peaceful, as if he was asleep. But cast your eyes down just a little, and there was the tracheotomy cut into his neck, and the stitches and blood and the ripped chest rising and falling with the machine in the corner.

Dave tore his gaze from Aaron and looked across to Morgan.

"They've stopped sedating him, and untaped his eyes. He could wake up now." he said. "It could be in the next few minutes, it could be years." He looked back at his friend. "Or never."

"Reid wants to know."

"Tell him he's off sedatives, and we're waiting for him to wake up."

Morgan turned to leave. "Morgan?"

He turned back at the door.

"Has anyone told Sean?"

"Oh no, I don't think so. He's got Jack hasn't he?"

"Yes." Rossi passed him Aaron's phone. "The number's on there. Could you call him?"

"Sure." said Morgan, looking down at the phone. "There's a missed reminder on here." Morgan called up the message, and blinked back tears.

"What is it?"

"He'd put a reminder on the phone to call Jack." He looked back Aaron. "Why has that upset me so much?"

He left the ward and went outside to call Sean.

-0-0-0-

Morgan hadn't come back. Spencer desperately needed to see Aaron.

It was only next door.

He threw back the cover and carefully turned so that his feet were over the edge of the bed.

I'm coming to see you, Hotch. ...

Only next door? The end of the bed seemed like miles away!

He inched forwards so that he was right at the edge, and lowered himself onto the floor.

Straightening out was agony. The pain in his abdomen doubled him over and he groaned as he clutched his stomach.

"Oh god..." he said softly.

With one hand he leaned on the bed and shuffled forwards a few feet. When he reached the end on the bed, he leaned his body face down on the bed and rested. The next part of the journey had nothing to hold onto.

He straightened a little, and took a tentative step away from the security of the bed, and reached one hand out to the door. He could just reach it with the tips of his fingers. He lurched towards it, tears of pain running down his pale cheeks as he hung onto the door.

He opened the door and steadied himself against the frame.

Taking a step out of his room into the corridor was frightening. There was nothing to hold onto, and the floor looked slippery. But he did it anyway.

Leaning on the wall, one hand on the wall, the other on his stomach, Reid slowly began the long walk. As he reached Aaron's door, though, a sudden shot of pain around his waist and hips forced him to bend forwards, and with a whimper of agony, Reid fainted within touching distance of his goal.

-0-0-0-

Sean wanted to come straight there, but Morgan said not to.

"Please, if you can, just hang on to Jack for a while longer. I'll call you every day to let you know if there's any change." Morgan could hear Sean crying on the other end of the phone, and beyond that, sounds of a child playing. "Jack is comfortable with you; it's what Aaron would want."

Sean agreed under protest, and Morgan promised to call him the next day.

Slipping the phone back in his pocket, he walked slowly back up the corridor to the HDU.

He turned the corner in time to see Reid slide down the wall onto the floor outside Aaron's room. He broke into a run. Kneeling beside him, he carefully turned him onto his back.

He was breathing, just out cold.

"What the hell do you think you are playing at?" he said to the unconscious Reid. "I leave you for five minutes and look!"

There was blood soaked through his hospital issue PJ's. Sighing, Morgan slipped his hands under Reid's way too thin body, and picked him up. He wasn't quite sure where to take him. He ought to be back in bed, but if he didn't see Hotch, chances were that he'd try this again. But he was bleeding.

Morgan carried him back to his own room and laid him down on the bed. Then he pressed the call button. "You're going to get me into trouble!" he said, gently brushing Reid's hair to one side.

-0-0-0-

The nurse came in and checked Reid's dressing. The wound had pulled, but the stitches were intact, and she redressed it. Reid came round, and she threatened to sedate him if he pulled another stunt like that. Spencer laid back and closed his eyes.

"I need to see him. I want to talk to him." he said quietly.

Morgan shook his head resignedly. "Not yet. You will end up with more damage. You were lucky this time. Maybe you won't be so lucky next time."

"You call this lucky?" Spencer said.

"Well, you're both alive. I'd say so."

-0-0-0-

The rest of the team came back to the hospital that evening. JJ and Will sat with Reid. Rossi refused point blank to leave, happy to sleep with his head on Aaron's bed. He was reading an article about the Sargasso Sea out loud to Hotch out of a copy of National Geographic.

Will had brought in a Mah-Jong set, and he, JJ and Reid played a few games in which Spencer thrashed them. Emily, Garcia and Kevin were on coffee and snack patrol. When Reid eventually went to sleep, they went down to the patients' lounge, and chatted and drank coffee, and hoped that there were no serial killers who needed chasing up. Late that night, JJ and Will left, and said they would return tomorrow with Morgan.

Spencer didn't have a good night. His dreams were filled with images of what he saw in that damp cellar, images of torture and rape, of blood and screams. He woke suddenly and alone with a frightened cry, bathed in sweat and terrified. The night nurse heard him, and she and Emily arrived together. He was offered Mogadon, which he refused.

"I am so sorry." Emily said. "I stay with you now."

"It's ok, Em. You don't need to."

"I know that. I want to."

He soon was asleep again, and Emily spent the rest of the night by his side. He was quiet, maybe a subconscious knowledge that he wasn't alone any more.

-0-0-0-

The rest of the night was uneventful. Morgan, Will and JJ came back at nine the next morning, and relieved Emily, Garcia and Kevin. Dave had spent another night in the chair and was starting to look crumpled. He went for a shower, and felt slightly refreshed. When he returned to Aaron's room, there was a small packet in a padded envelope by his bed, addressed to Mr. A Hotchner. Out of habit, Rossi picked it up, and felt it, trying to identify the contents.

It seemed to be a cassette. He opened the envelope and tipped the contents onto the bed.

As well as the cassette, there was a short note. It was addressed to Aaron. Dave wasn't sure if he should read it. But it could be a while before Aaron could.

"Aaron, you have had a letter. I'm going to read it to you.

"Aaron, I wanted to come up and see you, Bro, but I thought it was better if I took some days off and cared for Jack until you are on your feet again.

Rossi glanced at Aaron at this point. What would happen to Jack if his Dad didn't recover? He went back to the note.

"I understand that when people are unconscious, they can often hear whet's going on around them. So Jack and I made this tape for you, and I hope it helps you recover quicker. I have to stop writing now as I'm sending this by courier, and I think he's at the door now. I'll be thinking of you,
From Sean, with love"

Rossi switched off the CD, and opened the cassette player on the front of his machine. He slipped the Cassette in and pressed play.

The sound of Jack's voice filled the room.

Rossi took Aaron's hand again. Maybe this would work.

Come home, Aaron...a little boy needs you!