Worries

As soon as they reached the hospital they rushed Aaron straight into OR leaving Spencer in the ER watching them run off with his boyfriend's gurney. He paced until a nurse took him off to a waiting room.

Once there he sat down with his head in his hands. What was going to happen now? What if Aaron's hearing loss was permanent? He knew he'd never leave him but how would he take it? How would he be able to prepare his stepson?

He heard footsteps coming closer and looked up to see Valarie run in concerned and worried. It was obvious Dave had called and told her what was going on. When she saw the tears in Spencer's eyes she swallowed the lump in her throat preparing herself for the severity of her son's injuries.

"How is he? Have they told you anything?" she asked worried.

He shook his head. "They haven't told me anything more than what I already guessed. It looks like he has a burnt arm and leg but the worst damage is his head..." She sat down beside him and held his hand as he tried to swallow the lump in his throat. "I believe he has a ruptured eardrum and acoustic trauma..."He couldn't hear us."

"Spencer, his hearing could come back. The ruptured eardrum and acoustic trauma will heal," she answered soothingly.

"Valarie, seven years ago Aaron was involved in another bomb attack. The blast gave him acoustic trauma in his left ear and he was signed off for a few months while it healed. He got the doctor to let him back in the field a month too early and he was warned if he was near any more loud noises he could lose his hearing permanently," he answered trying not to show her how lost he felt. "He suffered greatly that first case back."

"It was seven years ago. It's surely healed since then," she replied rubbing his back.

"Four years ago he was near a bank when a bomb caused it to explode. It caused ringing in his ear and he had to get it checked out. I know his ears have always been fragile since the original bomb. This time he was about to get in the car when it went off."

"Spencer, we don't know anything until the doctor comes out and tells us. You could be fretting over nothing," she soothed.

He nodded but he couldn't shake off the feeling. "What if he is?" he asked sadly.

"Then we come to it when it comes to it. We help him through it. There are many different things that could help him hear but we let him make the final decision. I'm not going to lie it won't be easy at first but we'll all adapt and we'll help him, won't we?"

He nodded answering firmly, "Of course we will. I'll never leave him. I love him."

"I know," she answered rubbing his back. "If anyone can get him through that it's you and Jack but we don't know for certain yet."

He nodded. "Does he know?"

She shook her head. "I decided we shouldn't tell him anything until we know for certain what's going on. I didn't want to scare him until we had the facts."

He nodded still feeling a little lost. He just hoped the doctors would come out soon and tell them what was going on. He also hoped the team would finish the case soon and join them. He was eternally grateful though that Valarie was here. They'd become close over the last year.

He heard footsteps and looked up to see both the team and the doctor arriving from opposite directions. He breathed a sigh of relief but at the same time prepared himself for the worst.