Hey, everyone. Here is the next chapter for you all. I am so happy that you all like this fanfic, I have been super worried and super nervous all day long. I know it is different from what I usually do but I love the concept of having the beginning of this fanfic focus on the team and the painful emotions that come with not being able to comfort the one you love when you could lose them. I have to ask one reviewer, why was it strange to read? Just curious. I know this doesn't feature my usual brand of Reid whump but trust me, I have many gory fanfics to come into the future. Okay, so enjoy and I'd love to hear from you.

Thank you for the amazing response on the first chapter, I hope you continue to bring that throughout the story. You're awesome and absolutely amazing readers. Thank you!

Enjoy and please review

All mistakes are my own

Alex was the first to stay with Reid, the hospital had given the team permission to have a chair outside the window. She looked at the frail body of her friend and then glanced at her watch, they didn't have much time to save Reid. She just hoped that he held on for as long as he could.

"Is anyone...there?" Reid's voice came through the speaker.

She immediately pressed the button. "I'm here, Reid. It's Alex. How are you feeling?"

"Not good," he said gently. "I feel like every cell in my body is on fire. I-I'm...scared, Alex."

"Don't be scared," she tried to soothe. "We're working on finding the person who did this to you. We'll find him and get the cure. You'll feel better soon and you'll be guest lecturing with me with in no time."

"I'd like that," he sighed before coughing, a small moan then followed. "Hmmm...hnnn."

"I'm going to get someone to help you."

"Don't," he said quickly. "Nothing is working...at least, they turned...the lights down."

Alex frowned as she took in Reid's words. The lights were the same, they hadn't been turned down. "Reid, how much dimmer is it to you in there?"

"Almost as if I'm reading...by candle light. It's nice," he sighed before his breathing hitched for a second. Alex hit the call button near her and waited for the doctor to arrive. Doctor Graham appeared a few moments later. Alex cut off the intercom so Reid didn't hear and get scared.

"Doctor Graham, something is wrong. He thinks that we turned the lights down, he said it's almost as if he had candles lighting the room."

"He's losing his vision," she said, running a hand through her blonde hair. "This virus is working quicker than anything I've ever seen."

"Hotch didn't explain everything to us," Alex said. "Look, you must have some rough idea of what this virus is doing to his body. Please, tell me, how much more is he going to suffer?"

"The virus is attacking his body. When he came in, he had coughed up a small amount of blood. I can only give you a theory. As far as we can tell, it's slowly shutting down his body. Within a few hours, I think we'll have to do a intubation on him."

"Why?"

"By then, I doubt he'll have control over his lungs. His exposure to anthrax makes it worse. His lungs got affected by that infection. They're weaker than a normal person's lungs. I contacted Dr Kimura, the one who treated his exposure back then. She's on her way, I could use her help on this, she's one of the best out there. He's already begun to lose his sensory responses. One by one, he'll lose his senses and I think he's losing his sight first. His vital organs will go into failure near the end and I think we'll reach a point where it might be too late for a cure. This is all just a theory of what could happen but it's my closest guess. I hope your team find the cure."

"Can we do anything for him?" Alex asked, looking back to his pale face. "He's suffering and it's painful to see him like this."

"We're giving him morphine for the pain. I can't give him anymore without risking his life further. We're trying to keep him hydrated with drips but with his high temperature, it's not doing much good. I'm sorry to bring this up, but have you thought about a bad ending to all of this. We may not be able to save him."

"If we accept that now, we don't stand a chance," Alex shook her head. "I do understand though. Just do what you can to make him comfortable. If we don't find the cure, none of us want him to die painfully."

"I'll do what I can to keep him alive and I'll do what I can to keep him in comfort."

They all watched Reid on the screen as they reviewed CCTV footage of him leaving a bookstore and walking home. He looked strange to them all. A smile played on his lips but his eyes were sad, almost lost. Garcia paused it when a man bumped into Reid.

"That has to be the guy who injected him," Morgan growled gently.

"I can't get a clear shot of his face because of the sunglasses," she shook her head before pressing play. They watched Reid rub his arm and continue down the street.

"Garcia, can you follow the unsub? I want to see where he went."

Garcia searched through the footage, part of her feeling a great sadness at watching her junior g-man walking away on the screen. She wanted to reach in and help him. She had wanted to stay at the hospital. It hurt her not to be there for him. He was the youngest of them all, and had always seemed the loneliest, even when he was with the team. He was all alone in the hospital bed. No-one to give him water, hold his hand or stroke his hair. She quickly wiped away a tear from her cheek before the others noticed.

"Pause it," Rossi called. She quickly paused it. The face wasn't completely clear but it was enough for them to start a search.

"I want his face across the news, across the internet and to police stations across the country," Hotch ordered. "I want all airports given this photo. I don't want this bastard leaving the country. Just tell the news and airports that he is dangerous and wanted for questioning. Nothing more than that. We can't cause a panic."

"I'll get it done," Garcia said before quickly leaving the room.

"She's not doing well," Rossi said.

"Are any of us?" Morgan snapped. He realised how he sounded. "I'm sorry, Rossi. I'm just having a hard time dealing with this."

Before Rossi could say anything, an agent on loan from another department rushed in. He remembered her name being Kaylee Wright.

"Sir, we have another case of the virus," she informed them.

"At the hospital?" Hotch asked.

"No, sir. Dr Reid is the only one at the hospital. A hospital in Florida also instigated a quarantine, except-," she hesitated.

"Spit it out," JJ demanded.

"The patient died last night. Same symptoms and its suspected to be an intentional attack. No-one else there in the quarantine is showing signs so far. We only made this connection when all hospitals got informed. We may have the unsub's name though. The patient wrote a note before he died."

"Who?" Hotch questioned.

"Vincent McAllister, I already have people looking for him and looking into his past."

"Who was the patient that died?"

"Jason Gideon," she answered.

Reid wanted to cry at the pain ripping through his body. The morphine didn't help, it only dulled his mind. Someone had infected him and now, he was most likely going to die in a hospital, alone. He wasn't stupid, he knew he had lost his vision. Now, trapped in complete darkness, where he only had his pounding head and boiling blood for company. He knew that they would burn his body if they couldn't cure him. His body was dirty and contaminated.

"Dr Reid," a voice came through the speaker, through the darkness.

"Who is that?" he whispered, barely loud enough to hear.

"It's Dr Kimura, I came as soon as I could. Do you remember me?"

"You looked nice...in the orange suit," he tried to joke, the sickness ruining it.

"I will again, I'm coming in shortly to check on you. How are you feeling?

"I can't see...anymore," he said sadly. "Everything...hurts. Harder to breathe too."

He barely heard her next words, he let go of the world and let himself fall into a merciful sleep.

"He can't see," Alex shook her head, refusing to believe things were happening so fast. She hated that if he died, it would almost be in a tomb of his own body. He had lost his sight and his hearing might soon follow. He'd be trapped in his own mind. "Wait, will he regain his hearing and vision if we find the cure?"

"Yes, most likely. The virus is affecting his brain and all the messages that would usually control these senses. Once we stop the virus and allow him to recover, he should regain all his senses," Dr Kimura explained. "It's his lungs that I'm worried about. They are weaker than normal lungs. I think we need to have a intubation kit ready for when the time comes. I'm going to set it up now."

"What did he mean?" Alex asked. "About the orange suit."

"When I was helping Dr Reid look for the cure during the anthrax scare, he complimented me on how nice I looked in a decontamination suit. He's a good and kind man, and I'm not about to let him die, Agent Blake. I'm going to do everything I can."

Please review

I didn't put a character death for Gideon because lets face it, he hasn't been in it for years. Hope you like the twist though.