It's a sick day for Reid. Don't you just hate being sick on the weekend?

I love Criminal Minds, I live Criminal Minds, I work overtime with Criminal Minds, but sadly, I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters.

An now, chapter 12 . . .

XOXOXOXOXOXO

The rest of the night went by quietly. Morgan awoke at 8:20 am with a start. The house was silent enough to worry him. He jumped out of bed, quickly dressed and opened the guest bedroom door to check on his houseguest. The young man was sleeping soundly with Clooney calmly playing sentinel on the floor beside him. "Good boy." He whispered to the dog, "Come on. Let's let him sleep a little longer." Clooney wagged his tale and followed his master out of the room. Though he had a dog door to access the back yard, Morgan let him out the sliding glass door, then followed the dog out onto the porch. He waited for Clooney to finish his business, threw the ball for him a couple of times, then the two of them walked inside together. Generally, Clooney would eagerly wait for his breakfast at this time, but today he bounded back up the stairs. Morgan chased after him afraid he was going to wake up Reid. He already knew he had the best dog in the world, but that was confirmed when Morgan found him sitting alertly, wagging his tale, just outside the still open door to Reid's room.

Patting the dog on the head, he heard Reid coughing. He peeked inside and found him trying to sit up. Morgan stepped inside and helped his friend prop himself up against the many pillows. Reid bashfully looked up at his friend, and through a stuffy nose said, "mornin'." He almost grinned at the funny sound of his voice.

Morgan replied, "Mornin'. How're you feeling?"

"Well, by troat doedn't hurt buch dis mornin', but I can't breade and by head hurts."

Grabbing the thermometer, Morgan said, "open up." He popped it under the kid's tongue with, "Mouth shut, please." Reid looked up at him with apprehensive eyes. He couldn't breathe at all if his mouth was shut. Morgan, hardly believing he needed to explain this, responded, "It'll only take a second. Take a breath and shut your mouth." Reid took his friend's advice. The thermometer registered 100.5. "Can you bare the headache? I don't want to give you any painkillers if we can keep your temperature up a little. Reid looked disappointed, but understood the reasoning. He nodded his head, and Morgan said, "Good. Are you hungry?"

Reid didn't have to think twice about that. He shook his head, no, a bit too emphatically and regretted the action as his headache worsened and his dizziness returned. He leaned his head back against the pillow behind him and rubbed his temples.

Morgan's brow knitted in concern, "You should probably sleep as much as you can today." Reid was all for that at the moment, and started to sink back down under the covers. Morgan stopped him with, "Hang on. I want to get some more liquids into you before you go back to sleep." He ran down to the kitchen, grabbed another bottle of water out of the fridge along with the orange juice. He poured a small glass of the juice and returned to Reid's room. Handing him the glass, he said, "Here. Drink this. I'll bring you more in an hour or two. In the meantime make sure you try to get as much of this water down as you can."

Exhausted, Reid snuggled back down under the covers and mumbled, "Tanks, Morgan."

Morgan retrieved another box of tissue from the hall closet, just in case, and left it beside the bed. He called his concerned furry companion out of the room, closed the door, and let the kid sleep for another couple of hours.

Hotch called at 11am. Without preamble, he said, "how's he doing?"

Morgan chuckled, "you sound like a worried parent. He's fine, but he is sick. He's sleeping right now."

As Morgan filled him in on the events of the night, Hotch started to feel more and more guilty for leaving. "I shouldn't have left."

Morgan thought that was ridiculous, "What? Hotch, he's fine. Just a little cold. By the time you get back, he'll be completely over it."

Hotch was also worried that he had burdened Morgan with something that was his responsibility, "Are you certain you're okay with this, Morgan? I could be back tonight."

"Hotch, will you leave it alone? He's fine. We're fine. Just take care of business there and we'll see you tomorrow night. I promise you, he'll be healthy enough to return to work Monday morning."

"Alright. It sounds like you have everything under control there." Changing the subject, Hotch continued, "The Seattle P.D. has an interesting case. Actually, they didn't start to pull it all together until this conference. Could be something the B.A.U. can help with. Rossi and I will get more details and pass them along to J.J. Wanted to give you the heads-up though."

Interested, despite himself, Morgan pressed for more details, "What's the case?"

"Young boys are going missing then turning up dead days later throughout the Northwest. They originally thought the cases were unrelated since they were so geographically spread out and they didn't see any real similarities between the children, but more evidence has been presented here that may connect them."

"What evidence is that?"

"Seems this is more wide-spread than they once thought, and all of the children have one hobby in common – coin collecting."

Morgan was unconvinced, "Lots of kids collect coins, Hotch."

"I know. I told you this is new evidence. We'll do more digging before we alert the team."

Clooney was laying at the base of the stairs. As Morgan listened to Hotch, he watched his dog's head pop up and his ears turn up. He tilted his head to the side and whined. He was definitely interested in something going on in Reid's room, but Morgan couldn't hear any noise coming from that direction at all. Clooney jumped to his feet, looked worriedly back at Morgan and began to dance around. Something was up. Then he heard a soft whimper coming from Reid's direction, followed by a frightened yell. He cut Hotch off with, "I'll have to call you back, Hotch!" and he clicked his phone shut.

Pocketing the phone, he bound up the staircase and into Reid's room. The young man was clearly still asleep while fighting off something big. He yelled out, "NO! Run, Morgan! I – AHHHHHHHH! NOOOOO!"

Before the next blood curdling scream could finish, Morgan had Reid by both shoulders, shaking him, "Wake up, kid! Reid! You're okay! Come on. Wake up!" Again Reid opened his eyes not quite aware of his surroundings, but this time he recognized Morgan immediately. He turned wide, frightened eyes on his friend and finally breathed. "You're okay!" Reid gasped in amazement.

"Yeah. I'm fine, kid. And so are you." Morgan brushed a bit of hair out of Reid's eyes trying to gage his temperature. He handed the young man the half-finished bottle of water and motioned for him to drink.

Reid gulped at the water until he finished it off. Morgan asked, "Do you want to tell me what that was all about?"

Still shaken by the intensely vivid dream, Reid quickly blew his nose, dried his eyes, then wheezed out, "bears. It was bears. They were following us for a long time, and we were trying to get out of their way, but then with no provocation they came at us from all directions. There was no escape. They went after you first, and there was nothing I could do about it." He almost started crying remembering how frightened he had been, then remembered he was talking about a dream. He felt a little foolish, but continued, "Then this other really huge bear started attacking me. I tried to run, but it was too fast. He knocked me down and started tearing at my chest. He was about to rip my head off, wh-when I woke up."

Morgan waved the thermometer in front of Reid's face. Calmer now, the young man obediently opened his mouth to accept it. Morgan said, "Wow, kid. You really know how to pick your nightmares." The device beeped, and Morgan was surprised to find it read only 99.8 degrees. "Well, it wasn't the fever that caused that dream. You're almost back to normal"

Reid shook his head, "I've had that one before actually. Different contexts, different bears, but always bears hunting me."

Morgan filed this one away for future reference and changed the subject, "You feel like getting out of this room for a while?"

Despite his runny nose, Reid was actually feeling quite a bit better. He almost grinned, "Yeah, I am."

"Good, let's get you downstairs. You want to watch a movie or something?"

Reid rarely indulged in movies, but the thought of putting the effort into reading right now was enough to exhaust him again, "That sounds good, yeah."

Morgan helped him to stand up, handed him a box of tissue, then led him out into the hallway where a happy Clooney greeted them. Reid immediately shied away from the dog. From past experience, he and dogs generally didn't get along well. Morgan caught the younger man's flinch and said, "Clooney's been keeping a close watch over you, kid."

Not taking his meaning, Reid moved further behind Morgan and responded skeptically, "I'm sure he has."

"Nah, man. I mean he's been watching out for you. He knows when something's wrong before I do." He gave the dog an affectionate scratch behind one ear.

Still not certain this could be true, Reid's response sounded a bit like a scared but curious child's, "Really?" He was still holding his hands at chest level and shying away.

Sincerely, Morgan said, "Really. Here, let him sniff your hand." Reid wasn't at all sure that was a good idea. Losing patience, Morgan grabbed his wrist and offered the attached hand to the dog. Reid stood absolutely still and waited for the inevitable nip. What he got was a cold, wet nuzzle and a gentle lick. A nervous laugh erupted from Reid's chest. Morgan let go of his wrist, but Reid didn't move away. Instead he reached up to pat the dog's head and said, "Good boy." He was grinning from ear to ear.

Morgan sauntered down the steps mumbling, "There's a first time for everything."

Reid and Clooney followed, headed for the couch. Morgan said, "I have a bunch of movies on the shelf. If you don't find anything there, we can run out and rent something."

Glancing at the extensive collection, Reid had no doubt he could find something to keep his interest. Morgan disappeared into the kitchen while Reid scanned the shelf. His eye was inexplicably drawn to a bright pink box. He pulled the movie off the shelf, crinkled his nose in distaste, and yelled toward the kitchen, "What's this?"

Morgan was clearly distracted, "I don't care. Whatever you want to watch. Just throw it in the machine and turn on the T.V. I'm making lunch. Go ahead and start without me."

His curiosity piqued, Reid threw in the odd pink movie and pushed play. It started out slowly with some lady singing in a dark nightclub. He was fairly certain he wouldn't like it, so he hit fast forward just to see what else was in this movie. When he hit play again, he found what appeared to be an old man wearing women's clothing. He/she sardonically said, "That's just what this country needs: A cock in a frock on a rock." Reid hurriedly hit stop, took the movie out and replaced it on the shelf continuing to look for something less frightening. He considered watching Nightmare on Elm Street, but then he saw theentire Star Wars collection and decided that would be an excellent way to kill the afternoon. May as well start with Episode I. He curled up on the couch, invited Clooney to join him, which he did, and drifted into a galaxy far, far away.

He was well into the movie when Morgan finally joined him carrying a large tray laden down with bowls of soup, glasses of juice, crackers and a sandwich. All this he laid in front of Reid who didn't move. He wasn't hungry, and the movie had all of his attention. Standing between the young man and the television, Morgan said, "Time for lunch."

Comfortable where he was on the couch, Reid felt a bit peevish about being asked to move. And why wouldn't Morgan get out of his way? Didn't he know this was the best part of the movie? He looked up at the older man without moving his head saying through his still blocked nose, "Mmnot hungry."

"You haven't eaten anything since noon yesterday, youngster. I don't care if you're not hungry. You need to eat something."

The resulting whine would do any four-year-old proud, "Moorrrgaaannn, I'm siiiick."

Morgan's eyebrows shot up, then his eyes dangerously narrowed. Reid didn't need to hear anything more from the man to know Morgan wasn't going to put up with his behavior, sick or not. He sat up as quickly as he could, disturbing the sleeping dog next to him. Morgan merely looked at the dog and pointed to the floor. Clooney immediately climbed off the couch and sat, docile, at his master's side. Morgan handed a bowl of soup and a spoon to the kid and waited for him to take a bite.

Reid stared at it, looked up at Morgan, again studied the soup and asked, "What is it?"

Trying not to lose patience, Morgan calmly said, "It's homemade chicken broth and vegetables. Do you think it would take me that long to heat up a can of soup?"

Still not sure he wanted to eat this, Reid continued his investigation, "I mean, what's in it?"

"I just told you. Chicken broth and veges. Now eat!"

"But, what kind . . . "

"Reid, if you don't take a bite of that soup this instant, I will help you."

The young man looked pensively up at his friend, decided he would probably do it, and sulkily filled his spoon with as much broth and as few vegetables as possible. He sipped at the hot broth and decided it would probably taste okay – if he could taste anything at all. "Mmm . . . it's good. Thanks, Morgan." Really, he just wanted to relax and watch the movie, but he had to convince his friend he would eat first.

Morgan wasn't buying it, "You need to eat those veges too. Understand me?"

Reid wasn't about to put these weird looking things in his mouth. Who ever heard of putting green stuff in soup? He pulled a face and made his query more specific this time, "What's the green stuff?"

Morgan picked up his own bowl, settled himself in the chair next to Reid, took a large bite and said, "It's spinach. Eat!"

Without thinking, Reid made a face like he'd just seen the most disgustingly mauled victim the B.A.U. ever encountered and said, "Ewwwwwww! Gross! Really?" When he tore his eyes away from the offending potage and looked up at Morgan, the icy stare he received told him he'd definitely stepped over the line. Wide eyed, he stammered out, "I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'll eat . . . " He turned his full attention back to the bowl and without hesitating, started shoveling vegetables and all into his mouth as quickly as he could.

Morgan did his best not to laugh at this, "Slow down, kid. Eat it, don't choke yourself on it."

"Sorry." Reid mumbled and immediately slowed down. He couldn't taste anything, but he noticed his mouth was burning, and not from the heat of the soup. Soon his nose was running uncontrollably. Nosily, he cleared his sinuses and found he was able to breathe almost clearly for the first time today. "What did you put in this stuff?" it was clear he didn't mean the vegetables this time.

Between mouthfuls of his own soup, Morgan answered, "That's the Cayenne you're feeling. Good, huh?"

Reid wasn't normally one for spicy foods, but he had to admit the result was better than not being able to breathe. He finished his soup, and felt truly relaxed for the first time that day. While Morgan continued to eat, Reid laid back down on the couch. He must've fallen asleep because the next thing he knew Morgan was actually starting up the third Star Wars movie.

Reid rubbed his eyes and sat up. He blew his nose and asked, "How long have I been asleep?"

Morgan answered, "three hours. Did you know you talk in your sleep?"

This wasn't news to Reid. He'd hoped he'd grown out of the habit, but apparently he hadn't. "What did I say?" he cringed hoping it wouldn't be anything embarrassing.

"You mostly just mumbled a lot of numbers. I think you were doing physics problems."

Relieved, Reid said, "Is that is?"

"No, you were also calling for someone. The name 'Nick' sound familiar?"

Reid softly groaned and squirmed a bit, "Yeah," he grudgingly admitted, "Nick is short for Nicola." At Morgan's questioning look, he clarified, "Nicola Tesla. The most important scientist and inventor of the modern age? The man who shed light over the face of the Earth?" Morgan continued to stare at him, "Anyway, I named my teddy bear Nicola – Nick – after him when I was four."

Morgan spluttered out a surprised laugh, "You named your teddy bear after a scientist?"

"Yeah. What did you call your teddy bear?"

The older man stopped laughing at the question. He didn't want to admit he even had a teddy bear, but he really didn't want to admit to his decidedly unimaginative name. He mumbled out, "Teddy."

Reid laughed. Then succumbed to a coughing fit.

The rest of the evening passed quietly. They watched Episodes I through III without Reid's temperature fluctuating much. Morgan even managed to get another bowl of soup into his friend. By 8pm though Reid was looking worn out again. With glassy eyes he watched the end of Episode IV and visibly fought falling asleep. As the credits rolled, Morgan clicked off the DVD player and announced, "Time for bed, kid."

Roused from a near sleep, Reid looked at his watch, confused, "but it's only 8:22."

Morgan could hear the irritableness creeping into Reid's voice. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at his friend and stated, "I know what time it is, and you need to go to bed."

"I slept all morning, and I've just been sitting on the couch the rest of the day. I'm not tired."

Not wanting to escalate the moodiness edging its way in, Morgan instead tried, "Okay, I'll make us some tea, and then you'll go to bed." He hopped up and dashed into the kitchen before his friend could protest the decision.

While Morgan was gone, Reid ejected Episode IV and, throwing caution to the wind, started up Episode V. As soon as the familiar music started playing, he heard from the kitchen, "That better not be the next movie!" Reid pretended not to hear and turned the volume up.

A few minutes later, two mugs of chamomile tea in hand, Morgan stepped in front of Reid, waited for him to make eye contact, and said in a low, dangerous voice, "Turn it off, youngster. We're not doin' this right now."

Reid was feeling extremely put upon. He didn't like being treated like a child, or being told when to go to bed, but even he couldn't believe it when he maintained eye contact and responded, "I'm not tired, and I'm not going to bed." Unmoved, Morgan simply held his eye. Reid's confident affect crumbled as he nervously lowered his eyes to the mug of tea and bit his lip.

Calmly, Morgan pressed the mug into Reid's hand, took the remote out of the other and clicked the television off, "Want to tell me what that was about?"

"I – I just don't want to go to bed right now. It's too early." He turned pleading eyes up to his friend, "Please. Just one more episode?"

Reid's glassy eyes and irritable attitude were all the evidence Morgan required to know he needed to get some real rest, "Sorry kid. We'll watch it tomorrow. Drink your tea. It'll help you sleep."

Without thinking, Reid clapped the mug down onto the coffee table and responded a bit too loudly, "No!" and sat back on the couch, arms tightly folded, in classic pouting position, "I don't want the tea, I don't want to go to bed, and you can't make me!"

Morgan would have laughed at this behavior out of Reid if he wasn't so sick. The older man recognized it was the fever making his friend grouchy, but he still wasn't going to put up with it. Sighing, Morgan reached down, grabbed Reid's ear and gently pulled. "Come with me, please," he calmly requested.

Immediately, Reid's arms unfolded. He had seen this technique used on children in old television shows, but he'd never thought it was actually effective. He wondered why Morgan bothered to say 'please'. The only way to avoid the pain was to do as he was told. As Morgan walked toward Reid's bedroom, the young man's ear firmly viced between his fingers, Reid protested his treatment, "Ow. Owww. Owww! Morgan! Come on, man! Oww! That's not fair. Okay. Okay. I'll go to bed, just let go."

Finally in the bedroom, Morgan released the appendage. Reid rubbed his ear and looked at his friend with shock loosely veiled as resentment. Again, Morgan was unmoved, "bed. Now."

Reid crawled into bed and rolled onto his side, facing away from Morgan. He wasn't about to do anything else to anger Morgan tonight, but he was still upset at being made to go to bed.

Morgan let the slight go. Things would look brighter in the morning, "g'night, kid." He walked out leaving the door open a crack.

XOXOXOXOXO

Twenty minutes later, Morgan's phone rang. It was Hotch. He cringed realizing he'd forgotten to call his boss back, "Hey Hotch."

"Everything okay, Morgan?"

"Yeah. Everything's fine, Hotch. Reid's in bed or I'd let you talk with him.

"He's in bed? So early?"

"His fever started rising and he was getting cranky, so yeah, he's in bed."

The frustration in Morgan's voice was well hidden, but Hotch knew his agent too well not to notice, "What happened?"

Morgan had no intention of ratting Reid out over something as minor as a fever-induced tantrum. He responded, "Nothing, Hotch. I took care of it. He's asleep now and that's what's important." A change of subject was in order or the older man would continue to press, "Any new evidence in that child abduction case?"

Hotch knew the conversation was being rerouted to distract him, but if Morgan had everything under control at home, he didn't mind. "No new evidence, but a few more connections being made. The local police have invited us in, but it wouldn't matter. This case crosses state lines. It's become a Federal investigation now."

"Crosses state lines? Hotch, you know how unusual that is. Are you sure all these cases are related?"

"Almost certain. I've sent the information over to J.J. She'll text you for a briefing tomorrow. If I'm reading this right we may not have a lot of time before he strikes again. I'd like to get the team out here as soon as possible. Do you think Reid will be up for it?"

With the kid's temperature rising again, Morgan wasn't so certain, but he said, "Maybe. We'll know more in the morning. One thing's for sure, he won't have as much energy as usual."

"I'm assuming you didn't take him to an N.A. meeting today then."

"It wouldn't have done any good. He was too weak to do much of anything."

"That's fine. I'll call again in the morning to check on his progress. If he's still too ill to join the team, we may have to ask Garcia to stay with him for a few days."

Morgan grinned, "Oh, he'll love that. Alright, Hotch, we'll touch base in the morning." He clicked the phone shut and decided he was hungry. Soup may be enough to fill up a skinny, sick kid, but he needed something more. He decided to finish off the last of the Thai since it sounded like he'd be gone for a few days after this. Afterward, he went out back to throw the ball for Clooney and enjoy the cool evening.

By 10:00 he was ready for bed. He looked around for his furry companion, but he was nowhere to be found. Peeking into Reid's room, he found his dog lying at the foot of the bed wagging his tail. Quietly, Morgan stepped into the room, laid a light hand on the kid's forehead without waking him, and was surprised at how cool he was. He gave Clooney a pat on the head and left the two of them to sleep.

It wasn't long before Morgan too was fast asleep in his own bed.

XOXOXOXOXO

So the question remains – What was that weird pink movie in Morgan's collection? Be the first to tell me and win! Win what, you ask? Why, the gratification of knowing you're faster, smarter and possibly even better looking than everyone else. Mind you, I'll only accept the entire title as a valid answer.

Bonus question – Where did I get the idea for Reid's teddy bear?

Hope you enjoyed. Please R&R.