Morgan and JJ both grabbed their bulletproof vests before running down to the OR where Jacob had taken Lara Trenton into surgery. Along the way, Morgan asked a desk worker for another surgeon, and explained the situation to her as they ran. As soon as they arrived, Morgan burst into the room, his gun aimed at Jacob's head.

"Jacob Trenton, step away from the table!" He shouted. Jacob sighed, and set down the scalpel he'd been holding.

"You won't save everything." He said I a creepy, sing-song voice. "You're too late for that."

"Step away from the table!"

Jacob did, moving slowly away from the surgical equipment, and away from Lara's unconscious body. Morgan came forward and cuffed his hands behind his back while JJ holstered her gun and nodded to the surgeon. Quickly pulling on scrubs, she rushed over to examine Lara, then faced JJ again.

"I can get her back, but..."

"What's wrong?"

The surgeon gestured to a small incision at the base of her throat. "She had selective mutism, if I remember? Well...I'm afraid it's it's permanent now."

JJ sighed, putting her head in her hand. "He took away her voice."

Morgan returned to Spencer's room around ten minutes later. As soon as he entered, he held up his hand to stop Spencer before he could even ask.

"She's alive." Morgan told him. "We got Jacob Trenton, and another surgeon is repairing what she can. But..."

"But...but what, what did he do?"

"He...removed Lara's vocal cords." Morgan said. "JJ asked, but the surgeon was adamant about it; there's no way to repair that."

"So...she'll always be mute?" Morgan nodded, coming to a stop next to Spencer's bed.

Spencer let out his breath, relaxing back into the mattress, and turning to face out the window. "Hey, kid." Morgan prompted. "Mind if I ask why you're so invested with her?"

Spencer sighed and shook his head. "I wouldn't be alive if she hadn't done what she did. I asked her to leave and contact you guys, and...I nearly got her killed."

"Oh, come on, Reid, you know that's bullshit. Matthew and Jacob Trenton almost killed you both, no one else. You can't start blaming yourself." Spencer stayed quiet.

Morgan's phone rang suddenly, cutting through the silence. Spencer looked over as Morgan answered. "Hotch, hey, what's going on?" He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, okay, I'll tell him." He hung up before turning back around to face Spencer again.

"Hotch is giving you a three weeks' leave, he already talked to Strauss about it."

"Three weeks?"

Morgan rolled his eyes. "Reid, you're a hell of a lot smarter than that, you know you need to take some time for yourself."

He sighed. "I know."

"Hotch did say something else." Morgan added. "He's made arrangements for Lara to be able to come back to Quantico with us. She's gonna need a shoulder to lean on while she recovers from all of this."

"Where would she stay?"

"Hotch said he thought about that, too, and...decided to rent her an apartment down the hall from yours. In case of emergencies, and all."

"That's...that's good, it's really good." Spencer felt himself starting to get tired again. "I'm glad she's okay, really, I am..."

"You really helped her, kid. You know that right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Good. Because you ain't finished helping her yet, kid."

For the next couple of days, the pace of things seemed to slow down. According to the doctors, Lara would make a full recovery from both her bout of heat stroke, and the unnecessary surgery Jacob Trenton had performed on her. Spencer's recovery was slow, but it was also going well, and the doctors predicted that he would be able to go back to Quantico. This was, however, considering that he would be driving back instead of flying. The team had protested that he didn't need to make an eleven hour drive just to go back home when they could make the same trip in an hour by the jet. Despite this, Spencer still refused, because the longer the team stayed there with him, the more cases would pile up back in Virginia, and he didn't want to hold them back from doing their job.

Once the decision had been made, Morgan took off for the next week, in order to volunteer to be the one to drive Spencer and Lara back to Quantico. He was to stay in Illinois until Spencer was released, drive them back and drop them each off at their apartment building, and tgen head back into the office the following day.

Spencer and Lara both were satisfied with these arrangements. Because they were both fully aware that the traumatic situation they had been through couldn't be coped woth alone. And Spencer's team knew it, as well, but not one of them was worried about them. Because they knew that they would take care of each other, and although none of them said so, they all felt it would continue as such for quite some time.

*Sorry for a crappy ending, I'm trying to wrap things up neatly. I think I'm getting ready to end this book, but PLEASE let me know if anybody wants more chapters, it even a sequel. I'm always up to write more Spencer Reid! Just let me know if y'all want that or not.*