AN: I know that it's been a couple weeks since I updated, but I was having some difficulty with this chapter. I hope you like how it turned out. PLZ R&R!

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Chapter 14: Ryan's Scare

Derek slumped into his seat on the jet as everyone else filed on behind him. He looked at his phone to see if he had any messages or missed calls. After seeing that he didn't have any, he put his phone away and lay his head back. Dave sat down in the seat across from him and he glanced at him.

"Have you heard from my mom?" he asked him. "I tried calling both her and Penelope, but I got no answer."

"I'm sure everything is fine," Dave told him. "How's Ryan?"

"I haven't talked to him in a couple of days, but Penelope said she was picking him up when she got all her work done today."

"That's probably why you can't get ahold of them. They probably took him out shopping or something."

"Probably," Derek nodded. "And Ryan never complains."

"Exactly," Dave smiled. "At least we got you home in time for the home study."

"Thank goodness," Derek sighed. "But Hotch would've let me leave tonight no matter what."

Everyone settled in as the jet finally took off. When they landed a couple hours later, everyone filed off the jet and started towards their cars.

"Derek!" Dave called across the tarmac as he was loading his bags into his car.

"What's the matter?" Derek saw Dave hanging up his phone.

"Call Penelope. Now!"

"Why?"

"Just call her. She should answer you now."

"All right," Derek took out his phone and hit speed dial one. "Baby Girl-"

"Have you landed yet?" her frantic voice came out.

"Yeah, I'm loading up my car now. Why didn't you answer my calls earlier?"

"I wanted to, but I didn't want to freak you out when you had a long flight ahead of you."

"What's going on?"

"Ryan's in the hospital,"

"What? Why? What happened?"

"I'll explain everything when you get here. Mark and I will meet you in the waiting room of the Pediatric ICU."

"I am on my way," Derek hung up his phone and climbed into the passenger side of his car as Dave took his keys from him.

"I'll drive," Dave told him.

"What's going on?" Hotch asked.

"Ryan's in the ICU," Derek told them all. "I'm not sure what happened yet."

"We'll follow you," Hotch told him as the others climbed into one of the SUVs.

Dave pulled out of the parking lot and sped down the crowded streets towards the hospital. A trip that should've taken them twenty minutes, only took them five. Dave dropped Derek off at the entrance and went to park the car as Derek ran towards the elevators.

The doors opened on the pediatric floor and he searched frantically for the ICU. He got past the sliding doors and ran to Penelope and Mark.

"What happened?" he tried to catch his breath. "Where is he?"

"Your mom is sitting with him now," Penelope told him as they led him into a private room. "He had a seizure brought on by a very high fever, but he's fine now."

"Though he does have a case of pneumonia," Mark told him.

"Start from the beginning," Derek told them. "What happened?"

"I had to go out of town for a family emergency," Mark told him. "Which meant that-"

"Director Steele was in charge," Derek sighed.

"When I left, Ryan just had a cold. He should've been over it in a couple days; except that he was sent off to school when he shouldn't have been."

"According to Ryan's roommate, he was sent down to the school nurse." Penelope told him. "They called the director to pick him up, but he never did. And he refused to give Ryan any kind of medicine."

"I swear Derek, if I had known-"

"It's ok," Derek assured him.

"I made plans to pick him up and take him over to your mom's place," Penelope told him. "We were all going to make you and Dave a welcome home dinner. Director Steele said that I wasn't authorized to take him, but I called the board. One of them, Mrs. Clemens, escorted me to the office and demanded that I get to take Ryan. I was on my way to his room to get him when his roommate ran out. He told me that Ryan wasn't waking up. When I got there, he was burning up and unresponsive."

"I saw her carrying him in her arms when I was pulling up to the orphanage after I got back into town," Mark told him. "I knew she was too distraught to drive, so I got them in the back of my car and brought them here. The doctor said that if we hadn't gotten him here when we did-"

"But he's ok now right?" Derek looked at them.

"He hasn't had anymore seizures and they're giving him medication to get the pneumonia out of his system." Penelope told him. "His fever is already going down."

"Can I see him?"

"Yeah," Penelope stood up and led him out of the room. "He's really only allowed to have one person at a time in with him, but the doctor is giving us a little leeway and allowing no more than two."

"Morgan!" they looked down the hall and saw Dave with the rest of the team as they all walked towards him.

"I'm going in to see him now. Mark can tell you what's going on." Derek told them. "Dave I know I said that I wanted to do this the right way, but I need you to call every contact you have that can help me get Ryan out of that orphanage and into my home permanently."

"Already on it kid," Dave told him. "I've also reserved two tickets for Sarah and Desiree to fly out here. Not the best way for them to meet Ryan face to face for the first time, but-"

"Thank you," Derek told him as he and Penelope walked down the hallway.

Penelope stopped in front of a set of sliding doors. Derek peered in and saw his mom perched on the edge of a bed as a small figure lay on the bed totally motionless as a mask covered his face.

"Why is he on oxygen?" Derek asked.

"That's not oxygen," Penelope told him. "That's how they're giving him his medication since he's a little weak right now."

"So he's really going to be ok?"

"He's going to be fine. Just go in. He's been asking for you when he was coherent enough to form sentences."

The sliding doors opened and Derek slowly walked towards the bed. His mom looked back and smiled at him as he approached the bed.

"He's content for now," she told him. "He's basically been in and out of consciousness. The doctor said the best thing for him right now is rest."

"Everyone just got here," Penelope told her. "Dave's making some calls."

"I'll let you two have some time," Fran got off the bed. "You're supposed to page the nurse when his treatment is done."

"Can you have someone go by the office and get my laptop?" Penelope looked at her. "I think I'm going to do a little research on this Director Steele."

"No problem," Fran smiled at them. "He's going to be so glad to see you when he wakes up again."

"Thanks Ma," Derek told her as she left the room and he carefully sat on the edge of the bed.

Ryan was as pale as a ghost and his hair was damp seemingly from the sweat that he saw trickling down his face. He saw the steam emmitting from the mask covering his face as he took his limp hand in his.

"I'm here buddy," he told him. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

"He's going to be fine," Penelope stood next to him and embraced him.

"I know," he looked at her. "I just-don't like seeing him like this."

"Me neither," she told him as they continued to keep a watch over Ryan.

Fran met everyone in the waiting room as she saw her husband talking animatedly on the phone. He spotted her and hung up his phone.

"Sarah and Desiree just boarded the plane," he told her. "So they should be here in a couple hours."

"Good, Derek needs his sisters."

"Ryan's social worker is on the way down here," Dave told them all. "She was informed of the situation and wants to talk to everyone involved."

"I called the board," Mark told them. "They're coming down here so they can look into what happened."

"I brought this," Will approached the group and they saw that he had Penelope's laptop bag with him.

"How'd you know to get that?" Fran asked him.

"She texted me a couple hours ago," he told them. "I was at work so I couldn't get it down here until now."

"I'll get that to her," Emily started down the hall and stopped in front of the sliding door and knocked on the glass.

"Thanks," Penelope smiled at her as she stood in the doorway.

"How is he?" she saw the pale, motionless form in the bed.

"He's almost done with this round of medication," Penelope told her. "But he's not really coherent right now."

"Mark and Dave are making calls, so there's going to be people wanting to talk to all of you."

"We know,"

"I'm going to get back to everyone. Just call or text one of us if you need anything."

"Thank you," Penelope went back to Derek.

"I think his treatment is done," Derek told her as he pressed the call button.

A few moments later, the sliding doors opened and a doctor came into the room followed by a nurse pushing a cart with all kinds of medical supplies on it.

"My name is Dr. Rosen, I'm Ryan's primary physician." He held his hand out to Derek and he shook it. "You must be Derek, I've been informed of the circumstances invloving Ryan."

"How is he doing?" Derek asked as Penelope pulled him away from the bed so that they could examine Ryan.

"Much better," the nurse told them as she was spotted shaking a thermometer. "He still has a fever, but it's gone way down from what it was earlier."

"I've been informed of the situation around Ryan," Dr. Rosen looked at Derek. "I know you're planning on taking on guardianship of Ryan."

"Hopefully by the time that he's released from here," Derek sighed. "What will I need to do for him once I get him home?"

"He'll still need to be on breathing treatments twice a day, along with a course of antibiotics so that we can make sure the pneumonia will be out of his system completely with a couple of weeks after he's released."

"So what are you doing for him now?"

"Right now, he's getting his treatments every four hours. Once his fever breaks, we'll cut back on them and he can be moved to a step-down unit once we're sure that he's out of the woods."

"But we can stay with him right?" Penelope asked. "We don't want him to be alone when he wakes up."

"Only two people at a time," Dr. Rosen told them.

"I believe he's waking up," the nurse told them and Derek went back to the bed.

"Derek?" a small, raspy voice greeted him.

"Hey buddy," he smiled down at him as he took his hand. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't know, are you really here?"

"I'm really here, and I'm not leaving until you can get out of this place."

"Good," Ryan's eyes closed again.

"The medication we have him on will make him sleepy," Dr. Rosen told them. "So he will be in and out the next several days."

"I plan on being here the whole time," Derek looked at the doctor.

"That's fine," The doctor nodded. "But there will be hospital staff in and out of this room quite a bit so try not to get in their way."

"As long as they're all helping him, they won't have a problem with me."

"I'm going to be doing some research in this room," Penelope told Dr. Rosen. "On my laptop. So I'm going to be tapping into the hospital's wi-fi. But it's all to help Ryan."

"No problem," Dr. Rosen nodded at her. "Besides, I know enough not to argue with you again."

"What'd you do?" Derek looked at her as the doctor and nurse left the room.

"I just had to convince them to let me and your mother in here to see Ryan," she smiled at him. "But by that time, Mark had already given the ok."

"You're amazing, Baby Girl."

"Stating the obvious," she smiled at him as she took her bag and started setting everything up.

Derek got settled on the chair beside the bed as he continued to clutch Ryan's hand in his own. He kept his focus on Ryan, hoping that he would wake up again. Penelope was already in her own little world as her hands flew across the keyboard hoping to find what she knew she was looking for.

AN: So what'd you all think? There will be a lot more excitement to come in future chapters. Hope you liked this. PLZ R&R!