I'm back! And so is this story. I want to thank you all for reviewing and reading my first story. I'm glad you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

DISCLAIMER: Criminal Minds no es mío, ¡lo juro! (Just a bit of Spanish)

ENJOY!

Chapter XIV

The atmosphere in the ER waiting room was eerily silent at the high hours of the night. A few nurses and doctors walked through doors not paying attention to the expectant looks thrown at them by the patients' family members and friends. Among those in that gloomy room were six members of the BAU team.

"How long has it been?" asked Morgan in his mind. He was sitting on a bench with Garcia's head resting on his shoulder. He looked to his left and, on another bench, Emily Prentiss had her eyes closed, but she was not sleeping. None of them were. They were too anxious to drift off to slumberland. Derek continued to look around the room and saw Rossi sitting in a corner with a magazine in his hands. Morgan knew he was just turning the pages without paying attention to the pictures and the tittle-tattle in there. By a window, with her back to the waiting room, JJ stood talking on the phone with Will. And then pacing back and forth, with his arms crossed over his chest, was unit chief SSA Aaron Hotchner.

They all looked tired and worried, overwrought about the fact that their friend was once again in danger. Surgeries are not a walk in the park, and particularly not the one Reid was having.

Morgan kept staring at the door, waiting to see Dr. Carter, going through all his fears about that particular moment. He didn't want to lose hope. He wanted to believe the kid was strong enough to make it through one more time. He was convinced Reid wouldn't give up.

After a few more minutes, he saw the face he'd been waiting for. Dr. Carter pushed the doors opened and calmly asked: "Spencer Reid?" He was looking to everybody in the room, except Derek, something that really pissed him off, but also scared him to death.

Hotch cleared his throat and said: "We're here for Dr. Reid." Penelope's head lifted from Morgan's shoulder and she grabbed one of his hands. JJ came to where the group was and Rossi stood by her.

For a moment, everything was strangely quiet, like the calm before the storm. Derek wanted to stand up, but he didn't trust his legs, so he remained there, on the bench, anxiously waiting for the doctor's words.

Doctor Carter breathed deeply and asked them to follow him to another room.

"This can't be good" thought Morgan.

When they were all in the small, white-walled room, Dr. Carter closed the door and rested his back on it.

"Dr. Reid had an internal bleeding in his brain caused by the cliff fall. When we opened him, his brain had already suffered too much pressure from the massive pool of blood. We tried to stop the bleeding and stabilize him, while the ortho surgeon fixed his shoulder." The doctor paused, licked his lips and regretfully added: "Unfortunately, we couldn't stop the bleeding in time. I'm sorry, we did everything we could." He swallowed a lump in his throat. "Your friend is dead."

Pain. Fear. Sadness. Disbelief. Denial. Anger.

That's all Derek Morgan felt in a split of a second after hearing Reid's surgical outcome. His friend was gone. He looked around to see if he had misunderstood, but Emily's teary eyes, Garcia's sobs, JJ's laments, Rossi's sorrowful look and Hotch's pain-filled silence told him he hadn't.

Then all the pent-up powerlessness caught up with Morgan and manifested itself in a fit of anger.

"What?! No! You son of a bitch! You killed him!" screamed Derek, louder than appropriate for the tiny room they were in.

"You fucking bastard!" He got close to the doctor, who was completely taken aback by the agent's reaction, and crossed his arm on the doctor's neck wanting to choke him, while he kept yelling accusatory phrases to the now scared to death doctor. "You did this! You sick bastard!"

Hotch and Rossi took each of Morgan's arms to get him away from Dr. Carter.

"Morgan!"

"Calm down!" exclaimed Hotch.

"Hotch, he killed Reid! This son of a bitch!" Again, Morgan attempted to throw his body against the doctor.

"Morgan, I need you to calm down or I will take you out of the room" said Hotch in a hard voice.

Derek heard cries, sobs, laments, sighs, weeps and comforting words in that room, but nothing could make him believe that he had lost his kid. He felt hot tears in his eyes and a lump in his throat was choking him. Then, he gave up the fight and raised his arms to let Hotch and Rossi know that he wouldn't attempt anything else against Reid's doctor.

"I can't believe this." Morgan said falling down on a couch by the wall.

"I know, honey. I'm so sorry, sweetheart" answered Garcia, kindly touching his left hand.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. Not like this. Not the kid. Never the kid." whispered Morgan with despair.

After a few minutes, Dr. Carter said: "You can stay here as long as you want. I'll be around if you have any questions." Then he turned around to leave the room and added: "Again, I'm really sorry for your lose."

Everybody in the room nodded and before the doctor could leave, Morgan slowly asked: "Can I see him?"

"Sure. I can take you where his bod... where your friend is" answered the doctor from the door.

"I can go with you, honey, if you want" offered Garcia, standing next to Morgan.

Morgan shook his head no. "No, it's OK. I need a minute alone with him." "With the body of who used to be my best friend, my baby brother" thought Morgan.

Doctor Carter led Morgan through a chillingly quiet corridor with white walls and up a set of stairs. Derek paled as he saw the doctor stopping in front of a door.

"He's in here. Take as much time as you need."

Morgan thanked him and, breathing deeply, he turned the doorknob to get into the room.

The room was hauntingly empty, except for a bed in the middle of it. He stood by the door, not daring to take one step forward. He knew that when doing it, he'd see the dead body of his fellow agent and his death would be real. Dr. Spencer Reid, his best friend, would be gone forever.

He swallowed the tears rising in his throat and felt them blurring across his eyes. He took one more deep breath to regain courage and took a step forward.

Then another.

And then...

"Derek. Derek. Wake up."

Someone was shaking his shoulders. "There's something wrong here" thought Morgan, completely confused by the situation.

"Chocolate muffin, wake up. The doctor is coming."

That was enough to bring him back to reality. It had all been a bad dream. A hell of a nightmare. It had been the kind of nightmare that normally freak all the living hell out of you and don't disappear when you wake up.

Bewildered, Morgan opened his eyes fast, leaving them wide open. He was breathing with difficulty and sweating profusely.

"Are you OK, Derek?" asked a concerned JJ.

Morgan nodded and explained: "Just a dream."

They could all relate to what Morgan was feeling. All the members of the team had been afraid to close their eyes to wake up to a nightmare where their friend was gone.

Just like in Derek's dream, Dr. Carter asked them to follow him to another room. This time the place was far from quiet. Nurses were chitchatting at their desk. Others were going through the patients medical histories with doctors.

They entered the room, following Dr. Carter, who said: "Dr. Reid had an internal bleeding in his brain. And the ortho surgeon fixed his shoulder while we worked to stop the bleeding." Morgan felt the doctor's words were oddly similar to the ones in his dream.

Then Dr. Carter added: "Fortunately, we were able to stop it in time. He made it. He's now in the recovery ICU. He's still sedated, but I'm confident he'll be awake in a few hours."

A wave of relief bathed everybody in the room.

"Did you hear that? He's fine!" said Garcia with a smile in her lips. "My junior G-man is alive!" She hugged Morgan, who still felt shocked by the outcome.

"Can we see him?" asked Hotch.

"As I said, he's still sedated, but I guess you can see him for a few minutes" answered the doctor. "Although, I'll allow only one of you to go. Dr. Reid needs to rest now."

Everybody looked at Morgan, who said: "I'll go."

Dr. Carter opened the door to leave, followed by Derek.

"Tell him we're all here waiting for him to go home with us" said Garcia.

"I will" said Morgan, almost smiling.

Then he was gone, leaving the rest of the BAU team to enjoy the fact that their friend, the baby of the group, was alive, having escaped once again a brush with death.

So Reid's death was just a nightmare... Don't tell me you thought I'd kill something as cute as him! I'm actually afraid of what you guys would do to me if I did... See you in a few days with a new chapter of this story. Thanks for reading!