PT2

Morgan and Hotch had woken him up a few times over the past day, checking his pupils and asking him a few questions to make sure that his concussion hadn't worsened.

All Reid wanted to do was sleep. Each time he awoke his head continued to throb and he felt as if he would puke at any moment. They kept attempting to put some food in his system, but he refused, knowing it would just come back up.

After a long and confusing 36 hours, Reid was off of constant watch. They no longer had to wake him up every few hours and his head felt much better than before. Morgan and Hotch were still keeping an eye on him, but they weren't constantly by his side.

To Reid; this meant he was ready to go back to work.

To any sane person, this meant he was healing but still needed rest.

Hotch and Morgan refused to let Reid go in, but they knew that he'd probably follow them in anyways, so the two had to devise a plan. They still had the rest of the day off, but the two of them were required back into work tomorrow morning. They were standing in the kitchen, watching Reid sleep from afar, speaking about the issue.

"Maybe we should just bring him in and pray we don't get a case. I can keep an eye on him in my office and let him do some busy work." Hotch suggested.

Morgan sighed, nodding his head. "That's probably the best we'll get from him."
Hotch glanced at Morgan, smirking. "Maybe this is how we get him to eat something though. We can tell him that if he eats and drinks something then he can come to work tomorrow and if not; I'll tie him to the couch."
Morgan laughed, "Would you actually tie him to the couch?"

"I think you'd be surprised." Hotch spoke ominously, laughter glinting in his eyes.

When Reid awoke again later, the two proposed the plan to him which he immediately accepted. Reid swallowed when the plate of food was handed to him, pushing down a wave of nausea.

'It'll be worth it.' Reid thought, taking a bite of the sandwich. It tasted like ash in his mouth, but he managed to swallow without puking. He made slow progress, drinking water in between, and eventually did finish the food.

He had to admit, he did feel less nauseated now that there was something in his stomach. However, his head was still throbbing, and light still hurt his eyes immensely. Same with sound. He wasn't quite sure how he'd get through the day tomorrow, but he needed to go back to work.

Reid hated sitting around.

The next morning, Reid slowly dressed for work, grimacing as his head panged with any movement. Hotch had helped him redress the wound on his head, and he deposited sunglasses on his face. Reid definitely did not look back to his normal self. He was very pale and looked sick, but he needed to go to work. He needed the distraction.

He made his way to the car slowly, wishing for coffee, wincing at the sunlight. Morgan was holding one of his arms, keeping him steady, and Hotch had already deposited his bags in the car.

"You sure you're up for this, kid?" Morgan asked when Reid swayed slightly on his feet.

"I'm fine Morgan."

He heaved himself into the vehicle, relieved he could sit and catch his breath. He leaned his head back, closing his eyes. Even with the sunglasses and the tinted glass, it was too bright in the car.

As the car began moving, Reid felt a bit of nausea creep back into his system. However, he pushed the feeling down. If he puked there was no way they'd let him go into work. He had to keep himself together.

The car ride went by fairly quickly and they arrived to work a few minutes early. Reid groaned when he opened his door, the light making his head throb more obviously than before. He held his head a moment before moving to get out.

When his feet hit the ground his legs immediately buckled. Luckily, Morgan had been making his way around the car and lunged forwards to catch him.

"KID!"
"Sorry." Reid whispered, keeping his head down and eyes closed. His head was swimming from light sensitivity.

Unbeknownst to him, Morgan and Hotch exchanged a look. They had a silent conversation with one another, both wondering whether this had been the right call. Hotch shrugged and Morgan shook his head. It was a little too late now.

The two men helped Reid get back up. He was a little steadier now but leaned on Morgan for support. They slowly made their way to the elevator, Hotch carrying Reid's bag for him.

When they did finally get upstairs, Reid cringed at the bright lights of the bullpen. Luckily no one was there yet, so it was very quiet, but the lights were almost worse than the sun had been.

Morgan pulled him forwards towards the light, but Reid unintentionally began flinching away from it. He tightly closed his eyes, trusting Morgan to lead him. Even with his eyes closed, the light was way too bright. He wasn't sure how he was gunna make it through a whole day like this, plus with the extra noise… This was probably a bad idea.

Reid opened his eyes to slivers after a moment though, realizing that Morgan wasn't leading him to his desk.

"Where we goin'?" Reid slurred, closing his eyes as he became dizzy.

"Up to Hotch's room." Morgan stated simply. Reid turned to him, about to inquire as to why they were going up there, but he stopped himself when he saw Morgan's face. It simply read 'Why do you think dumbass, we knew this would happen.' Reid nodded, continuing to let Morgan pull him along.

Walking up the stairs was much harder than Reid had remembered it being, but luckily it didn't take too long. By the time they got to Hotch's office, Reid collapsed on the couch, thankful that it was dark and quiet in the room.

Hotch had beat them there since Reid made slow progress, stumbling against Morgan. The man had already closed all the blinds and blacked out the windows. He'd also pulled out a pillow and a few blankets he'd kept in his office from the last time Reid had passed out on his couch.

Reid closed his eyes, leaving his sunglasses on, and laid against the pillow. Morgan smirked, turning to leave the office to get to work himself. He closed the door, nodding at Hotch as he left.

Hotch turned to watch Reid. He was already fading fast.

"Thought you wanted to do some work?" Hotch quietly asked, smirking.

Reid opened his eyes, taking off the sunglasses. He started to sit up, but quickly gave up. "Mmmmmm" He groaned, not knowing what words to form in response.

Hotch laughed, "That's about what I expected." He walked over to Reid, pulling one of the blankets out from underneath the kid and placing it atop him. Reid immediately snuggled into it, covering his head. "Get some more rest. If you're feeling up to it later, I'll get you a file or two from your desk."

"M'kay."

Reid dipped off into sleep quickly, happy to know that his mentor was watching out for him.

When Reid awoke, Hotch was not in the office. He sat up slowly, bringing a hand to his head. He felt a million times better than he had when they'd initially gotten to the office, but his head was still perpetually pounding.

He looked around the office, noticing a glass of water on the edge of Hotch's desk. Reid slowly stood up, letting the room stop its spinning before making his way over. He grabbed the cup, taking a few sips.

Reid noticed a note and pills had been sitting there as well. He quickly took them, recognizing them to be more Tylenol and read the note.

'D.C. Case. Team in field. Go to Garcia if you feel well enough to help. Hopefully I'll be back later to get you. If not, sleep in my office for the night. And I do actually mean sleep, not stay up all night and help with the case. Don't overwork yourself Spencer. That's an order. -H'

Reid drank the rest of the water and gave the pills a few minutes to kick in. He glanced at the clock noticing that it was already past three pm. He made his way over to the window, bringing the blind down slightly and looking into the bullpen.

The light immediately assaulted his eyes, but they didn't hurt as horribly as they had this morning. It wasn't too busy, looks like a lot of people must've been in the field besides their own team. A few people were walking around, but for the most part, it seemed fairly stagnant.

Luckily for Reid, that meant it wasn't very loud out there either. Which made getting to Garcia's office a little bit more achievable.

He grabbed the sunglasses off the table they'd been placed on, putting them back over his eyes. Reid attempted to straighten out his outfit a bit, hoping it didn't look too much like he'd been sleeping all day. He tried taming his hair, but quickly gave up. He perpetually looked sleep deprived and like he just rolled out of bed, so maybe no one would notice.

Slowly, Reid made his way out of Hotch's office. It took him a minute to adjust to the light, but still his head didn't pound as much as it did in the morning. Carefully, Reid walked down the stairs and out of the bullpen, thankful that it was pretty quiet. He briskly strolled down the hallway, heading to Garcia's room.

He passed by JJ's office and looked in, half hoping she'd be there. Since her baby was due soon, she hadn't been going into the field as much. However, it looked like today she was out with the team, probably taking his position.

Reid continued walking, eventually reaching the doorway. He quickly punched in the code and unlocked Garcia's door.

She spun around in her chair as soon as the door opened.

"REID!" She shouted, jumping up from the chair to tackle him in a hug. He flinched at the noise but smiled anyways, happy to see her as well.

"Hey." He whispered, hugging her back briefly before they separated.

"Okay here let me turn off the main lights so it's just the monitors, I know it's still a lot of light, sorry about that baby. And here's a chair for you and I even brought you a coffee, DON'T tell Hotch he'll kill me, and I have a blanket for you in case your cold and here's the case file and I'll brief you whenever you're ready!"
Reid was slightly overwhelmed by the quick pace that Garcia was running at. Usually it wasn't an issue because they were both like that, but his brain was stuttering slightly at the moment. He was shoved into the chair, file placed in his hand and coffee placed in front of him. She draped the blanket around his shoulders before sitting back in her own chair and typing away as if she'd never been interrupted.

Reid smiled, watching her work for a moment before opening the file. He pulled the blanket a little tighter to his body before reviewing the case.

He couldn't read as fast with the pain in his head, and his vision didn't seem to be cooperating as well as usual, but after a few minutes he'd gotten through the whole file.

"Alright, fill me in."

Garcia spoke lightning fast, filling him in on the rest of the details of the case. He quickly gave his profile to her and she confirmed that it was the same as what the team had come up with. They were working under a clock, since the killer was dumping bodies at midnight and immediately snatching a new victim up. Reid began a geographical profile on a map that Garcia had handed him and sipped on his coffee. He began narrowing down an area and they sent it off to the team, hoping they'd be able to catch the guy when he tried to dump a body tonight.

He worked for a few hours, the clock ticking by quickly as he was engrossed in his work. He didn't realize that he hadn't eaten anything since the morning, or that it was time for him to take more painkillers. At least not until he felt like someone was repeatedly stabbing his brain.

After the fifth time Reid rubbed his eyes, Garcia made a comment.

"Take a break 187." She stated without even glancing his way.

Reid looked at the clock. It was almost eight pm. They were running out of time, he had to figure out where the unsub would be dumping the body.

"I'm fine Garcia. I just need to figure this out." He continued staring at the map, but the roads and names seemed to be swimming around in front of him. He rubbed his temples, shutting his eyes a moment. If he could just will away the pain then-

"Spencer." He snapped his eyes open, looking at Garcia. She looked a bit worried but more determined than anything. She slowly stood, walking over to him. Garcia grabbed his body and physically turned him away from the map before beginning to drag him out of the room.

"Woah, woah, woah- aghhh" Reid said, cringing as they stepped out into the light. It was dark out now and everyone had left, but the hallway lights remained on. He stumbled blindly after Garcia, who had a hand tightly around one of his wrists. When they stepped into the bullpen, he felt slight relief. It was very dark and quiet, and he was able to reopen his eyes.

Garcia continued dragging him up to Hotch's office then essentially threw him on the couch. She wordlessly handed him two more pills which he immediately dry swallowed.

"Had anything to eat today?" Reid's face blushed, realizing he'd forgotten, and Garcia shook her head. She turned to walk out but quickly whipped back around. "Stay." Then she briskly walked out of the room.

Reid buried his face in his hands, willing the pain to lessen. The pills just didn't work fast enough. He sat there, still, for a few minutes before Garcia walked back in. She was holding a few bags of snacks and a water bottle for him.

"Here. Eat." She ordered, handing him the items.

"Thanks." He said softly, looking up at her as she handed off the items. She'd also brought a laptop in, he realized. He opened his mouth to ask but quickly shut it, realizing what she was doing.

Garcia plopped down in Hotch's chair and began typing away, getting back to work.

Reid smirked, a little annoyed that she didn't trust him but more thankful that she was willing to stay with him. He opened the bag of pretzels, quickly downing the food.

When he finished his snacks and water, he began laying back on the couch.

"Rest, Junior G-man." Garcia said, smiling. "I'll be here making sure you do." She smirked.

Reid nodded, burrowing under a blanket once more. He started to drop off to sleep, but he came back to himself, quickly opening his eyes. He awkwardly propped himself up, turning to face Garcia.

"Thank you, Penelope. For looking out for me."

She gave a large smile and quickly stood, making her way to the couch. Crouching in front of it, Garcia brought him into a warm hug once more. She rubbed his back and he tightened his grip on her, burying his face into her shoulder.

"I'm lucky to have you." He whispered, genuinely, in her ear.

She broke the hug a minute later, pausing to look him in the eye. Garcia had a large smile on her face and she briefly cupped his cheek. "You're damn right you are." She planted an affectionate kiss on his forehead before standing once more.

Garcia returned to her desk and Reid laid back down, heart feeling warm.

"Now really, Spencer, go to sleep."