Disclaimer: This show is owned by someone other than me.
This is it my friends. The chapter is extra long cleaning up all the loose ends. I have totally made up all of the medical stuff, so please don massacre me if it's wrong. Also please forgive any mistakes, I'm my own editor and I just don't catch everything. I really hope you enjoyed the story and THANK YOU for reading, reviewing, adding, and encouraging me with your comments.
Without further ado: Enjoy!
The waiting room was silent. There wasn't even that supposedly soothing music playing at a murmur to help calm the family and friends of patients. David Rossi found himself all alone in the suffocating silence. With nothing to focus on he found his brain began recollecting the disturbing memories from the trip here.
He couldn't help but recall the first time that Spencer had coded in the ambulance. The EMTs had rapidly stripped the young man of his shirt and came upon the bomb vest. Rossi, having forgotten about it in the rush to save the younger agent, reminded them that it was harmless. The EMTs worked on unbuckling the straps that held the Reid in its stranglehold and tried to peel it off. They needed to clear a spot to put the paddles and the vest was in the way. Once all of the buckles were undone the EMTs had tried to remove it but the bottom part was not budging. Confused, the female attendant lifted up the vest and gasped.
"What's wrong? Why aren't you getting rid of it?" Rossi inquired with worry. They needed to move fast, the longer Reid was coding the larger the possibility of brain damage.
"It seems to be stuck around his midsection. It looks like some sort of metal hooks or fasteners are connecting the vest to his body. If we try to take off the vest here than we'll rip his skin open which would cause even more issues," she explained to Rossi and her partner.
"Okay, we're going to have to use the defibrillator electrodes and place them under the vest. Pull the top part of it down as far as you can and then place the electrodes. Tell me when you're ready," the male EMT said.
Rossi had decided at that moment to make the call to his teammates and update them on Reid's dire situation. He hated hearing the worry in JJ's voice, but it was not unfounded. It was moments after he ended the call that the techs were successful in reviving the doctor. Rossi grasped his hand again, after the last life-giving shock had been delivered and started talking to Reid hoping the young one could hear him.
After they arrived at the helicopter rendezvous point they wasted no time in loading up the agent and taking off. At first they tried to discourage Rossi from getting in the helicopter, but the older agent wasn't having it.
"He needs to have someone with him that he knows. If he wakes up he is going to be disoriented and in need of a familiar face. I will not abandon him like that!" Rossi said in a no-nonsense voice and climbed in the helicopter heedless of the technicians' protests.
The ride to the hospital was about fifteen minutes but it felt like a lifetime. Reid managed to code two more times on the way, and each time it took them longer to bring him back. The wound in his abdomen was proving tricky to treat, and it didn't want to stop bleeding. The EMTs were successful in putting in an IV and they were doing their best to get some liquids into the boy's body.
When they finally landed on the roof of the hospital there was a multitude of nurses and doctors awaiting their arrival. The unloading was a blur to Rossi and all he could recall was a kind nurse escorting him to where he found himself now, a lonely quiet waiting room.
Rossi had been perched in his current seat for over two hours awaiting news and the arrival of the others, even Garcia. He had memorized the pattern in the carpet underneath his feet and by now the coffee stain on the floor began to take the form of different shapes like a cumulus cloud on a sunny day. He could swear that the stain looked like magnifying glass for one minute and a coffee mug the next. Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Rossi looked at the door for the thousandth time in the last two hours, hoping against hope that a doctor would come in to update him on Reid.
As he looked up for the thousand and one time he saw his teammates on the other side with a nurse escort of their own. She opened the door for them and they all filed into the room. It took less than a second for them to pounce on Rossi and attack him with their questions. Rossi had to hold up his hands in surrender and say, "I can't hear you when you are all talking at once. Settle down and I'll tell you what I know so far."
"Settle down? How are we supposed to settle down when we don't even know how Reid is doing?" Morgan asked frantically as he began to pace the small waiting room.
"Morgan, panicking isn't going to help Reid. Just try to bring it down a notch and let Rossi tell us what is going on," Hotch ordered, even though anyone could tell that he was just as concerned about his agent as Morgan.
"First of all, no one has been in to update me since we landed. Reid was a mess and I'm not surprised that it is taking so long. In fact, I am taking it as good new that I haven't heard anything because that means he is still alive and they are still trying to fix him. So let's keep in mind that the lack of news is good. The bad news is that he coded three times on the way here, once in the ambulance and twice in the helicopter. It took longer to bring him back each time. They tried to control the abdominal bleeding but it was proving difficult to staunch. They didn't get to focus on any of the other injuries due to the abdomen proving to be so difficult," Rossi explained in a clear and controlled voice. He had had plenty of time to get his emotions under control and didn't think that allowing emotion to cloud his debriefing would be beneficial. "Uh, the other thing that I wanted to let you guys know about is that the bomb vest was attached to Reid."
"What do you mean attached?" Blake asked.
"Well, when he started to arrest the first time they needed to clear a place for the paddles to go. So they started taking the bomb vest off. It was going fine until they tried to remove it from his body. It was catching on something so the EMT took a closer look. It turned out that it was literally attached to his skin by some sort of metallic fasteners. If they tried to take the vest fully off of him than they would have ripped gouges into his skin and made his situation entirely worse. They had to settle for using electrodes to shock him instead of the paddles. When he was wheeled away he still had the vest on, and I sent in a bomb technician to retrieve the vest when it was safely removed," Rossi clarified for the team, knowing that this added information wasn't going to help the mood in the room very much.
Looking at his fellow profilers he saw all sorts of grief being displayed in their faces and actions. Each profiler exposed their worry in their own unique way. Hotch was as stoic as always but if you looked deep in his eyes you could see the worry consuming them. JJ was not as hard to read, especially with her fearful tears streaming down her face accompanied by little sobs. Blake was similar to Hotch in the sense that her facial expression remained stoic, but her tell was the way she wrapped random strands of hair around her index finger over and over again. Morgan continued pacing back and forth likely to worry a path in the carpet. The formidable agent also made a show of continually pounding his right fist into his left hand; it was almost as if he was imagining beating Lou up for all the abuse he put Reid through.
It was Hotch that interrupted everyone out of their thoughts. "Dave, what happened after Morgan and I left?"
"When the EMTs came in and flipped him over they found the abdominal wound. Reid woke up moments after they started wheeling him out. He wasn't really lucid and had a hard time getting any words out. He did manage to say something about Lou having a son, but I'm not sure why he was concerned about that. Blake called Garcia to have her look into it, but I'm not sure what she found," Rossi finished.
"Well, I can tell you for certain that Agent Pierce does not have a son. So whatever it was Reid was referring to it was not a biological or adopted child. I even dug a little deeper and there is no mention anywhere of Agent Pierce being associated with any children. I guess we're going to have to wait for him to wake up to get the full explanation," Garcia said as she made her way into the waiting room, overhearing Rossi's comments as she entered.
Everyone perked up a bit seeing the sparkly tech analyst enter the room. It didn't matter what the situation was, having Garcia's presence in the room always made everyone feel a little bit better. The woman sure knew how to set a more positive tone, even in a potentially sorrowful situation. "So what is going on with my baby? I haven't heard anything since JJ told me he was arresting in the ambulance. So somebody better start spilling," Garcia demanded with a few stray tear threatening to fall from her eyes.
It was Blake that took over the responsibilities of filling Garcia in on what they all know. Rossi was well spent and didn't feel like relieving the experience aloud again.
After that each member of the group found a spot to claim as their own as they sat and worried about the glue that holds them all together.
Another two hours had passed before a doctor finally arrived in the waiting room calling out the name, "Spencer Reid?"
Everyone stood up at the words and directed their attention to the older grandfatherly doctor. He looked like one of those stereotypical doctors you see on T.V. He had receding graying hair, glasses, and a distinguished mustache. His figure was swollen from too many gourmet dinners out accompanied with multiple glasses of wine. The doctor's lab coat was impeccable, leading the agents to believe that he had cleaned up before entering the waiting room. When he spoke his voice was gravely, which hinted at some sort of tobacco habit, probably cigars.
"Yes, we're here for Spencer Reid," Hotch came forth as the voice of authority for the team.
"I'm looking for an Aaron Hotchner, he is listed as power of attorney and the only person I am legally allowed to speak to about my patient," the doctor said.
"I am Agent Hotchner. And I am giving you permission to talk in front of all of these people. We're Dr. Reid's family," Hotch told the doctor.
The doctor raised his eyebrows at the revelation that they were all legitimately Reid's family, but didn't comment on it. "Well, I'm Doctor Allen and I was the lead on Dr. Reid's surgery team. Do you want to sit down before I go over his condition?" the doctor asked before he launched into the long list of injuries that Reid had incurred. Noticing that none of the people in the room were interested in getting comfortable he launched right into reporting out Reid's wounds.
"Alright, well let's start with the most concerning injury, the abdominal stab wound. The wound was made by some sort of large knife, more than likely a butcher's knife. While the knife was large the wound was not as deep as it needed to be to prove to be fatal, especially since he was found quickly after it was inflicted. I can say though that he would have eventually bled out if he was left alone for a much longer period of time, but your speedy rescue proved vital to his survival. Dr. Reid did manage to lose quite a bit of blood from the wound as it nicked some of his intestines, but we were able to stitch it up and repair the damage. We're going to be very diligent in making sure that the wounds don't get infected. The last thing his body needs now is to fight an infection. From there, we found that both his wrists and ankles are wounded from various forms or restraints. They are cut up but not to the extent that they needed stitches, and they probably won't scar. We are going to apply creams to them at least twice a day and keep them wrapped up for a little while. Now his right wrist is a bit of a concern. At some point he fractured it and it was never treated properly. We casted it to be safe and we will check on it in a week to see how it's healing. Hopefully he will be able to get away with a wrist brace for a few months until it fully heals," the doctor paused in his soliloquy to take a few deep breaths and look at the agents. He decided to plow on before they tried to ask questions.
"We found something quite disturbing while we were in the operating room, your agent's backside and legs were covered in bruises, welts, and cuts. It looks like at some point he was flogged with a belt. The wounds were clearly not treated and they have become infected. As a result Dr. Reid is running a fever and we have administered some antibiotics to combat the infection. We also had to stitch some of them up due to how deep the cuts were and those wounds will probably scar. Dr. Reid is also suffering from a mild concussion. At some point he took multiple blows to the head and he will probably be feeling a bit disoriented when he wakes up. He will have difficulty getting his thoughts together and stringing together coherent words. He is also suffering from dehydration and malnutrition. We have hooked him up to an IV to deliver him the fluids and vitamins he needs. Lastly, there are multiple bruises present all over his body that will just require time to heal," again the doctor paused to collect his thoughts. This was one of the lengthiest lists of injuries he had ever had to cover with a patient's family.
"Oh, one other thing, we had a very difficult time removing the bomb vest. It turns out that whoever put that vest together definitely had a mean streak. When we went to take it off we found that it was stuck on your agent via barbed hooks. There was no easy way of getting it off so we had to get some cutters and first clip the exposed metal all around his mid-section, leaving in the hooks. Since the hooks were spread all around his body we had to have some nurses hold him up so the ones in his back wouldn't get push all the way into his body. It took a while to remove each one and we had to enlarge each entry wound in order to get the hook out without tearing a larger hole than necessary. He has ten of these wounds scattered at even intervals around his mid-section. Each one required stitches and they probably will scar too. Just when we thought we were done we noticed what looked like burn marks in various locations underneath where the vest was situated. It seems that the vest was also capable of delivering electric shocks to your agent, and whoever was in control of it didn't hesitate to utilize that tool. We put some burn cream on the wounds and covered them up, but we are going to need to do a few tests to see if there are any adverse effects to the shocks that he received," Doctor Allen stopped his report and looked to the agents signaling that he was done with his description of Reid's injuries.
"Wow," was all that came out of Morgan as he finally paused in his pacing.
Everyone else was silent and contemplating how their friend was able to endure so much over the past few days. JJ and Garcia, as emotional as always, both had stray tears falling expressing their sorrow for their friend. Blake was more composed but she had moved on to fidgeting with her fingers trying to understand why she never bothered to investigate what was wrong with her friend. Perhaps if she had done more snooping or prodding into Reid's life she would have been able to help him.
Rossi was the first to ask, "So what does this mean for recovery? Are we going to be able to see him?"
Dr. Allen, realizing that he had left this part out of his report immediately rectified that mistake, "Right now he is in recovery and unable to receive visitors. A nurse will come and get you when he is moved into his own private room. As for recovery, Dr. Reid is going to be asleep for some time. His body is exhausted physically and emotionally and needs time to recuperate. I can't give you a good estimate on when to expect him to wake up, it's really up to him now. It could be a few hours or days before he decides to grace us with his presence. We are going to keep him comfortable on a low dose of morphine. I know that his medical files say no narcotics, but it is necessary we give him some to reduce the stress on his body. When he wakes up we will discuss other pain management alternatives. Agents, Dr. Reid is not out of the woods yet, but it's important that you keep a positive attitude at all times. The fact that we were able to treat his wounds and keep him here with us is definitely a step in the right direction. We just need to make sure that we get that infection under control and bring that fever down. Once that happens we will be in more positive territory."
It seemed like a collective sigh of relief flowed through the agents. Their friend had made it through the toughest part and the doctors and nurses would do their best to push him further along in his recovery. The doctor had taken his leave of the room by the time the agents sat down again. There was an unspoken agreement that no one was leaving until they all got to see Reid with their own eyes. So together they sat and reminisced about all the crazy situations Reid had gotten himself into over the last few years, hoping to pass the time until they were called back to see him.
The darkness was absolute. But this darkness wasn't scary, it was peaceful and comforting. It felt like a warm fuzzy blanket that your mom would wrap you up in when you had the flu. For once in his life Reid embraced the absence of light and allowed his mind to drift. He wasn't sure where he was and what had brought him hear, but he wanted to stick around for a while. After all of the trauma he had experienced over the last few days it felt nice to just enjoy this painless existence.
Off in the distance he thought he heard some faint voices. He couldn't make out who they were or what they were saying and it worried him a bit. What if he hadn't gotten free? What if he was still strapped to that bed and the darkness was a result of the blindfold? But that couldn't be true; he would still be in pain.
As he thought about it even more he realized that he couldn't feel the constricting vest wrapped around his chest either. It didn't matter that he had worn it for a few days, he never got used to the way the vest felt on his body. It had felt like it was tightening with every breath he took and the hooks were constantly pushing and pulling into his skin. No, he was sure that the explosive device was gone.
Shouldn't he be feeling some pain? Even if he was somewhere safe, it didn't mean that all of his wounds had magically healed. Worry started to overtake him as he considered the possibility that he was being drugged. He didn't want to be exposed to any narcotics for fear of relapsing into his former drug habit.
Suddenly, he felt a gentle touch on his hand. As he focused his concentration into the darkness he began to understand the words that were being whispered into his ear.
"It's okay Reid. We're all here for you now. You are safe. Just come back to us soon. We can't wait to see those big brown eyes again," the voice said as it massaged his hand.
He wanted to respond badly, but the words just wouldn't leave his mouth. Regardless, the voice had done an excellent job of convincing him that he wouldn't be harmed anymore. Finally being free from worry and fear he allowed his consciousness to drift away again to get the much needed rest he had been denied by his captors.
Most of the team had headed home after waiting in Reid's room for a few hours. The young man never woke up, but at one point they thought he was close when his heart monitor sped up. When they noticed the increase in his heart beat Garcia commandeered Reid's hand and whispered some soothing words in his ears. The monitor slowly went back to its normal rhythm and hadn't changed since then.
Morgan chose to stay by his friend's side, determined that whenever he decided to grace the world with his presence again he would see a friendly face there to welcome him back. He was sitting at the head of the bed with his feet propped up on an alternate chair, getting as comfortable as possible in the hospital furniture. He decided to maintain contact with Reid by covering his friends hand with his own. He wanted to impart some comfort to Reid on a subconscious level, and reassure himself that his friend was truly recovering.
It was because of that hand that Morgan was tipped off to his friend waking up. He felt a small twitch flow through Reid's pinky finger and it was accompanied by a change in Reid's heart rate. Shortly thereafter a slight moan issued forth from Reid's lips.
"Hey kid, wake up for me," Morgan encouraged his best friend. He began to rub circles on the back of Reid's hand with his thumb.
Reid's eyes peeled open slowly and did not react well to the light in the room. It took a few moments for the young genius to adjust, and when he did he turned his head to look down at his hand. Confusion dominated his expression for a moment, but then the realization of whose hand was rubbing his own shined through his expression.
"M-Morgan?" was the first word that came out of his mouth since he had been carted away into the ambulance.
"Yeah Reid. It's me. All the others were here but they went to a hotel to freshen up and catch a few z's."
Reid's face fell a little and he nodded his understanding. "What happened?"
"Well, what do you remember?"
"I remember Lou stabbing me in the stomach and then leaving me to die. Did you find me? I think I remember talking to you…," Reid trailed of trying to scour his memory for detail.
"Yeah, we talked. You didn't really say much because you had lost a lot of blood by then. But you did tell me that Agent Pierce had just left. That's when Hotch and I went after him and left you in the care of Rossi, JJ, and Blake. They got you to the ambulance and now you're here," Morgan said leaving out the details of Reid's journey to the hospital. He wasn't sure if Reid was ready to hear about coding three times and the endless list of injuries he had incurred.
"What happened to Lou?" Reid asked as he tried to adjust his position on the bed. He didn't like laying down flat and having to look up at people. It really made him feel childlike, which was a big issue being the youngest on the team. As a result of his movements he flared up some of his injuries and let out a small whimper in pain.
"Hey kid, just relax. Do you want me to angle the bed up a bit?" Morgan asked when he heard the whimper of pain.
Reid just nodded his head, not being able to get the words out while dealing with the pain.
Morgan moved the head of the bed to a 45 degree angle and answered Reid's question, "Well, Hotch and I had quite a run through the woods trying to catch Agent Pierce. He had a getaway car waiting for him about two miles from the cabin and that's where he sprinted off to. Hotch tripped in the middle of the run and I had to go on without him. Eventually I caught up with Lou at his car. Luckily it wasn't working and I was able to tackle him onto the car hood. He nailed me with a kidney punch and got away though," Morgan said noticing the worry in Reid's eyes. "Don't worry. He took off again, but he was getting winded which made it easier for me to catch up to him. I tackled him to the ground and cuffed him. Hotch arrived shortly after and helped me get him up off the ground. The thing is…Lou was dead. It was crazy Reid! He managed to fall right on a twig that was sticking straight up in the dirt and it lodged itself so deep into his throat it damaged his carotid artery. He bled out on the ground beneath me and I never even knew it."
Reid was silent for a few minutes after Morgan got done telling his story. He wasn't sure how he felt. It's not right to be happy when a human life is taken away, but after everything Lou put him through he couldn't help but think it was his just deserts. Then again, Lou got off a little easy not having to take responsibility for his crimes and receiving the punishment that was due his actions.
Wait a minute…Lou was dead. God, now he was left all alone with the responsibility of telling Rossi that Lou was his son. Reid wasn't looking forward to that conversation and hoped to put it off as long as he could.
"I'm tired," Reid sighed after he was done contemplating Morgan's story.
"Go back to sleep, kid. One of us will be here when you wake up," Morgan said to the exhausted agent.
The next time Reid woke up Rossi was sitting in the chair next to him reading a newspaper. It looked sunny outside and a glance at the clock on the wall revealed that it was nearing noon.
"Well hello, Agent Reid," Rossi said as formal as ever after noticing that the patient had woken up. He put down his paper and sipped on a coffee that was sitting on a nearby table.
"Hi," Reid said taking care to avoid Rossi's eyes.
"How are you feeling?" He asked, knowing what a stupid question it really was to ask someone with so many injuries.
"I feel fine," Reid answered as he analyzed his casted wrist.
"Sure you do…" Rossi said as he watched the young man as he clearly tried to avoid engaging the older man in conversation.
"Reid…I can see the wheels turning. What are you thinking?" Rossi asked trying to jar the kid out of his funk.
"Nothing," Reid said. Rossi was not the one that he wanted to be waking up to yet. He felt so guilty for trying to frame the man. If only he had been faster on his feet and quicker with his wit than none of this would have ever happened. How could the man next to him even stand to look at him, let alone want to be here as a comfort?
Sensing he knew what was bothering the young man Rossi decided to nip the issue in the bud, "Reid, I'm not mad at you for anything that happened."
Reid looked up and internally swore. Sometimes it really sucked to work with profilers. "How can you even look at me after what I tried to do to you?" Reid whispered to the veteran profiler.
"Reid, you did what you had to do under duress. None of it was your choice. I know that you would never intentionally harm me or anyone else. In fact, I'm impressed with how well you were able to hold yourself together wearing that monstrosity for the last few days. And don't think that I didn't notice those clues you tried to give me during our conversation the other day," Rossi said trying to make the boy realize that he was holding no animosity against him.
"I tried the best I could to impede their plans, but they had everything thought out and covered," Reid responded feeling a bit better after hearing Rossi's words.
"I was wondering about that. Why didn't you ever just tell us in the round table room or in a private office?"
Reid licked his lips and responded, "They installed a microphone in the vest and could hear every word we were saying. And I couldn't even try to write a note because they installed a camera in a tie tack that I had to wear every day. There was no way to tell you guys without them knowing. They also told me that if you guys found out about the plot they would detonate the bomb instantly, killing us all. I couldn't let that happen."
"Why didn't you just let them get out of the elevator first, tackle them to the ground, and yell for help at the top of your lungs? They wouldn't have blown the vest because they would have been killed too," Rossi asked.
Reid's eyes grew wide with the realization that that plan could have actually worked. He felt himself flush with embarrassment at his inability to devise an escape that should have been common sense. He could have prevented Anderson's death if he had just thought about escaping a little bit more.
Rossi seeing the humiliation rolling through Reid's face tried to calm him down, "Hey now, don't worry about it. You were under a ton of stress. It's no wonder that you didn't come up with that. Your mind was more concerned with keeping us safe."
"But if I had just thought of that then Anderson would still be with us today," Reid practically sobbed feeling endless guilt overwhelm him yet again.
"You don't know that Reid. None of us can say what might have been. What matters is that we honor Anderson's memory and remain thankful that the needless killing has stopped."
"I suppose," was all Reid would say sniffling and clearly not convinced.
"Reid, I have one more question for you before you get back to relaxing. When we were wheeling you out to the ambulance you said 'Lou's child.' What did you mean by that? Lou has no children that we could find," Rossi asked hoping to gain some insight on what the young man meant.
Again Reid had to prepare himself to answer and was worried about Rossi's reaction. "Well…um…when Lou was chaining me to the bed I realized that this whole plot couldn't have just been about money. I said as much to him and asked him the real reason he was trying to kill me and damage you."
"Okay…" Rossi said not wanting to interrupt the kid's explanation.
"Well, he told me it was because of what he and I had in common. Apparently, we were both abandoned by our fathers. He said that his father had never been around and blew his mother off completely. He never got to meet him and he never even tried to be in his life," Reid took a deep breath before revealing the final part of the story. "Rossi, he claimed that you were his father."
Rossi was speechless. He scrutinized Reid's face to see if the kid was joking, but who was he kidding Reid didn't know how to joke.
"What?"
"Um…yeah. Lou said that his mother was a witness to some case a long time ago and that you two had relations. Evidently your night of fun resulted in a child. His mother tried to contact you but you never returned the calls, because of that he grew up without a father. He didn't find out your identity until after his mother died. He found her diary and she had written all about you. She even kept up with you over the years, and cut out news clippings and such. When he found out about you he decided to join the FBI to get closer to you. He was looking for the right time to confront you but it never came. Lou became frustrated when you turned down his business plan, and started getting jealous of the attention you gave me," Reid explained slowly having to take sporadic breaks throughout the story to catch his breath.
"So that's why he decided to frame me? Huh…well I'm sorry you got dragged into this Reid. Especially since Lou was wrong," Rossi said matter-of-factly.
"What?" Reid queried incredulously.
"Reid, I know that I'm a man known for my past interactions with the ladies at work, but that's just it. All of my past discretions were with coworkers. I've never crossed that professional boundary and messed with a witness. His mother lied; perhaps she was even a bit delusional. I promise you though; I have never fathered a child. And if I did I would have never abandoned it. Look, I'll get a DNA test done to prove it, but I'm telling you there is no way that Lou is my son," Rossi said without a hint of worry that he was wrong.
"I believe you Rossi. Actually, I'm relieved. I don't know if I would have been able to look at you the same knowing that you left a child fatherless out there in this cold cruel world," Reid said finally looking Rossi in the eye.
"Well kid, let's be glad you don't have to worry about that anymore."
"Knock knock!" came an excited voice from the doorway.
Both profilers looked up to see the rest of the team standing in the threshold. They all poured in and started professing their happiness to see Reid awake and aware. Before Reid knew it the conversation was steered to happier topics and he was inundated with baked goods courtesy of Garcia.
Half way through the reunion a nurse came in with Reid's lunch. She lifted the cloche and revealed a hideous hospital meatloaf that made Reid cringe in response. Even more disappointing than the appearance of his lunch was its lack of dessert.
"Reid, why the frown?" Blake asked.
"There's no dessert."
"Oh don't worry Dr. Reid. I've got some dessert right here," the nurse called in the room. "I was just going to give you a choice of flavor, orange Jell-O or strawberry?"
Reid let a big smile breakout on his face, confident that this was one choice he wouldn't have a problem making, "Strawberry."