I know this whole thing with Agent Wilson is strange and I had not intended any hints at romance especially with OC but there is something about her that I felt needed to come out in the story. There is an old black and white film called "Laura" it is about a woman of that name who is murdered. The detective assigned to the case never met her in life, but he falls in love with her upon seeing her portrait. And he hunts her killer down because of that love. I always loved the concept, so I had Samantha fall in love with Reid just from a case file picture and his coworkers description of him. Anyway it's silly I know but hey I'm the author I can do as I please. Now gentle and faithful readers on to the next chapter.
12 hours later at the Hospital
Gideon sat slumped in the chair in the hospital waiting room. It was crowded that night with wailing children, crying relatives of the sick and the dying, and it held his team, his family. JJ sat in a corner, her eyes red and swollen from crying, she stared into space and had said nothing for hours. Morgan, unable to pace in the crowded room, sat fidgeting in his chair, reminding Gideon of Reid and how he was never still.
"God, what if he's damaged beyond repair. What if his mind has broken and we have to watch him heal physically only to then visit him in an institution?"
Thoughts like this and others chased each other around and around in his head, as they had for hours, giving him no peace. His thoughts were interrupted by Hotch and Agent Jeffrey Hansen arriving in the waiting room.
"I'm am so profoundly sorry Jason, I swear to you I had no idea what Agent Moreland was up, if it was up to me-"
"Jeff, please stop blaming yourself, we always trust the ones we work with in this job, and we have to. How else can we work as teams?"
"But your agent-" Hansen said horror and sadness were clouding his eyes.
"My agent will be fine; he is much stronger than he looks." Gideon said firmly. He wondered who he was trying to convince himself or Hansen.
Hotch said to Gideon, "we've finished with the crime scene. Jaworski documented everything he did; he won't see the light of day again, although he will probably plead insanity and spend his days in an institution." He sat down next to the older agent and squeezed his shoulder his face as unreadable as ever.
"It's not the cell I want for him, but it will have to do."
At that moment a doctor dressed in surgical scrubs, splattered with blood, approached the group.
"Agent Gideon," he said looking at their faces.
"I'm Jason Gideon." He said rising to his feet.
"I'm Dr Hastings; I head the team that has been operating on Dr Reid. We just finished and he came through very well. He is in recovery and will be out for several hours."
"How is he doctor?" Morgan asked anxiety flooding his face.
"He suffered a badly broken nose, but we have an excellent plastic surgeon of the team and I promise you when he's healed you won't be able to tell anything happened. He has four cracked ribs and one broken rib. We had to stop some internal bleeding but that was no problem. His left knee is sprained pretty badly and his right wrist is broken. As you saw he is badly contused over much of his body, but all of that is being treated and will heal. Your agent is a strong man not many people could take multiple beatings like that and live."
"Thank you doctor, when can we see him?" Hotch said.
"Not for several hours, as I said he is unconscious and I don't want you in there till he wakes up." the doctor said in a tone that was used to being obeyed without question.
"Dr Hastings may I speak with you for a moment" Gideon asked walking down the hallway with the other man.
"Of course,"
"How is he mentally, can you tell me?"
"Agent Gideon I know very little of what was done to Dr Reid beyond his physical injuries, but I can tell you that a CAT scan and MRI revealed no brain damage."
"Dr Hastings, we know he was tortured, and if we hadn't gotten to him when we did, he would have been raped as well, he wouldn't let any of his male team mates near him or the male med techs."
"Agent Gideon, when he wakes up we'll be very careful with our male personnel around him, I will give this information to our best psychologist. She will be able to advise you on how to help him."
"That's fine but I don't want her to talk to him until he is more comfortable in his surroundings. His mother is in an institution for paranoid schizophrenia and he is terrified of the disease manifesting itself in him. If you send a psychologist in there right away-"
"I see what you mean, the doctor interrupted gently, I'll have her speak to you first."
"Thank you again doctor and thanks to your team." He gave the man a small smile. The doctor patted his shoulder and said
"It was our pleasure agent. You look exhausted, he's going to be under for several hours, why don't you and your team go home and get some rest." Dr Hastings suggested his eyes kind.
"I can't go till I know he's okay Doc."
Al right, but listen I'll have a nurse show you to an empty family waiting room in ICU we're not busy up there, thank God and you can spread out a little."
"Thanks Doc"
He smiled again and turned to the nurses' station.
Four hours later.
Everyone was asleep where the sat or lay except for Agent Wilson, no one had wondered that she stayed, the team was grateful for her help in getting Reid out of the that horrible room. She sat wide awake because every time she closed her eyes she saw him and the blank look in his eyes when she tried to get him out of the corner he was huddled in. Then he had collapsed and she thought he was dying and her heart had stopped for a moment.
Flash back sixteen hours before
"Let me try," Agent Wilson said.
She knelt in front of Reid, and began to speak softly to him, try to reassure him that the men meant him no harm. It took a few minutes, but he finally focused on her.
"Don't know you" he said, still rocking back and forth.
My name is Samantha Wilson I am an FBI agent like you Spencer and we just want to help you now, you're hurt we need to take you to the hospital."
"Hospital" he repeated like a child in school.
"Yes Spencer a hospital," she said softly.
"Don't like hospitals, they poke you with needles and stuff," he said sounding more and more like a small child.
"I know Spencer I don't like them either, but if I go with you will you go please?"
Don't want to go Samantha Wilson." He repeated beginning to shiver uncontrollably.
Spencer, please come with me, I promise I'll stay with you the whole time."
Agent Wilson held out a hand to him. He flinched away and stared at her hand. She stayed still till he reached out a shaking hand and took hers. She moved close to help him up. He cried out it pain when she wrapped an arm around his waist. She was shocked at how thin he was; she bit the inside of her cheeks hard so as not to cry. She had taken only two steps with him when his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell nearly pulling her to the floor. He began to convulse.
She was pushed aside as the paramedics lifted him onto the gurney, one of the them jabbed a needle into his arm and after a minute the convulsions stopped. He was silent and still as the grave. They pulled an oxygen mask to over his head and stood up to take him out of there and to the hospital.
She stood staring at where Reid had lain and then silently the tears began to drop down her face. An arm came around her shoulders.
"Come with me," a voice said, and they walked out of the room and up some stairs, though another room and out into a star filled night. It wasn't fair that she should see the beauty in the night and he was unconscious and on his way to a hated place to be poked and prodded and terrified.
"You love him don't you, the voice said again. It was a kind voice one that did not judge her. It was Gideon's voice.
"You must think I am crazy, after all I've never even met him. At least not really." She laughed bitterly wiping the tears from her eyes.
"I don't think you are crazy Agent Wilson, everyone needs some one to love and believe me that young man is going to need all the friends and all the love he can get in the next few weeks. But I ask you to please be discreet, he is very shy and unsure of himself and after what Jaworski did to him I don't want him pressured about anything." Gideon said seriously looking her squarely in the eyes.
"Don't worry Agent Gideon; wild horses couldn't drag it out of me. Is it okay, though for me to go to the hospital, I want to know how he is?" She looked pleadingly at him.
He smiled and said "of course I can't keep you away if you want to be there, but I warn you, you will be surrounded by profilers they will probably figure out what is going on with you when their heads are clearer."
"Come on he said, let me drive you to the hospital, we'll wait together."
"Okay"
In the car she said to him, "He doesn't realize it does he?"
Gideon smiled again and said. "He doesn't realize what?"
"That he's beautiful."
"No, but then how could he, most women don't take the time to see past the awkwardness, the shyness and his huge intellect to know anything about him. I tried to steer him towards a female agent on the team once, but it was a disaster, or I assume it was as they are friends but nothing more ever came out of it." He said
"I promise you I will stay silent till you tell me other wise you know him the best."
"That's all I ask" Gideon said.
End Flash back
Now sitting here in the hospital, wondering how he was, she wondered if she could keep her promise to Gideon.
A nurse came into the room. She walked over to Agent Gideon and woke him.
Dr Reid is out of recovery and in a private room. He was starting to wake up, do you want to see him."
Yes, I'll go in, thank you."
Reid's Hospital room
His eyes blinked open. The quality of the light was different. He decided he was dreaming again. He jerked away from the sound of the opening door.
"No, please no more, I'll be good I promise" He believed he was shouting, in reality he could only whisper his throat raspy and dry.
When he turned his heard toward the footsteps, he saw Gideon. He heard the man speak but all he could do was shrink back in fear and ask Gideon over and over again why he hated him, why he was being hurt. As he became more and more agitated, Gideon left the room in a hurry only to come back with a nurse. She injected Reid and after a moment he went limp.
"It's a sedative, he'll sleep now, and I want you out of here if you are going to upset him."
"Of course, you're right; I didn't think I only wanted to see him."
He left and went back to the waiting room. He was devastated at the look of fear and betrayal on the young man's face. He wondered if he were lost to them forever.