In for Repairs

McMurphy: - What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets and that's it.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.


As Reid was sent off for CT scans and more tests Aaron went to find out what was happening with Flanders. He was in surgery. Punctured lung, massive blood loss, they didn't know how he was still alive with the amount of blood he had lost. His body had started to close down, but for some reason he was still alive and awake. This man was a minor miracle. They had stitched up his face, reset his nose, sewn up the forty or so holes which hand been punched in him by the knife. They sewed and dressed his hand and the deep slices in his wrists – which in themselves should have killed him. For cracked ribs there was not much they could do to help, for bruises on his face and lower body there was not much they could do but wait and hope he healed.

It was the alertness of his mind which had them puzzled.

Hotch stood outside the room he had been given and looked at the mess laying looking at the ceiling.

"You can come in. I'm not likely to bite. Not today."

Hotch gave a small nod and walked in pulling up a chair, sitting down out of contact range but close enough to see the pain Floyd must be in. "I wasn't expecting you to be awake."

"You weren't expecting me to be alive. Spence."

"Dr Reid is something we will talk about later. With witnesses. It was you I want to talk about."

A sigh "I just want to be sure he is alive. They won't tell me anything."

"It's not your problem anymore. Forget Reid. I haven't forgotten what you did. You put your life in danger to help me. I need to remind you however that if it had not been for you Reid wouldn't have been in the situation he was in, in the first place. You are responsible for what happened and although I will mention your part in the recovery operation which followed I will make sure you will never be a free man again."

"I took him dancing. I took him for a night out. Why do you feel you can get me incarcerated because you didn't like the venue?" Hotch looked at Floyd pushing himself up on his elbows.

"It wasn't the venue which was the problem, it was the activities you enforced upon my agent once there." Hotch now looked as Floyd keeping his eyes closed in concentration sat up fully in the bed.

"Any activities which were seen or enjoyed were done so without coercion or duress. He is a whore Agent Aaron Hotchner. He likes to whore himself out. It's something he does well. It's something he isn't mocked about. He has a place and he knows it."

"You drugged him."

"He was on pain killers. For his knee. That is all. Nothing else. Ask him." He moved now so his legs were over the side of the bed.

"You need to stay in bed." Hotch stood.

"I said ask him."

"I know what you said."

Aaron saw the look of panic slide over Floyd's face. "Why are you not asking him then?" He stood.

"He is having tests. You need to get back into the bed Flanders. You have stitches you will pull."

"Sod the stitches. What's going on? What's wrong with him? You are keeping something from me." He took what looked to Hotch to be a very painful step forwards.

"I'm not keeping anything from you. Get back on the bed and we will talk. If you persist in showing this aggressive behaviour I will walk from the room and the discussion will be over." Hotch waited until Floyd was sitting and then started up again. "He is not responding. He has withdrawn into an almost catatonic state."

Floyd ran fingers through his hair. "I need to see him."

"We need to come to some sort of agreement first." Aaron sat down too so as to appear less threatening.

"Agreement?"

"I can insist on a couple of things but they would be more conducive to a quick recovery on your part if you volunteer." Aaron leaned forwards watching Flanders closely.

"I'm listening. I may not carry out this plan of yours, but I am listening."

"You need treatment. You need to be hospitalized. For an unknown period of time."

"I am feeling fine. I heal quickly."

"I'm not talking about your body. You seem to be intent on keeping up a relationship with Reid. I don't like or understand it and I will not give you my blessing. I am asking, as a friend of Spencer's for you to seek therapy."

"Screw you Aaron. Again."

"I will stop you seeing him. I won't have you destroy him further."

Floyd was standing again, this time with less pain on his face. "It's not your decision to make."

Hotch stood and took a step towards Floyd. "He has no family as you well know."

"He has me." Floyd interjected.

"He needs someone to look out for him."

"He is a grown man."

"He is different. He needs someone to look out for him."

"He has me." He repeated.

"You will kill him."

"Then he will die happy. Get out of my way."

"You will agree to my terms or I will have you arrested for kidnapping a federal agent and drugging him. I will have you inside so fast your feet won't hit the ground. It is my way or nothing."

"You want to lock me in an asylum. No – you want me to ask to be locked in one. You don't want Spence to know you have anything to do with this – stop me when you think I have got it wrong – you want me to stay away from him as a volunteer or stay away from him in some dark forgotten hole of a prison."

Hotch nodded.

"It seems it is all the same Aaron. You who have done your own share of whoring with Spence." Floyd felt Hotch's hand swipe him across his face, snapping his head to the side. "I have smelt him on you! I am – not – stupid! I know he has whored with you. I KNOW!"

"Along with the therapy for your sexual sadism, you need to sort out your paranoia. You are delusional Flanders. You are a sadist suffering from a psychotic breakdown. You flit from one personality to the next and don't even realise what you have done. Or your choose to ignore it. I'm not the expert here and I don't know which interpretation of your mental state is the more worrying, but you will not be around Spencer again for a long time."

"Unless?" Fingers running through his hair again - "Unless I agree to your terms?"

"I'm not Spencer. I don't forgive as easily as he does. I'll protect him from you for as long as you are around. Unless you agree to the terms." A pause. "And even then I will feel it my responsibility to keep an eye on him."

"Aaron – he is not a child. Why are you treating him as such? I understand you need him. You need him to feel he needs you back, but I don't understand why you say he needs protecting. What are you protecting him for. Why not Morgan, or JJ for that matter.

………………….

After a few days they decided to transfer Reid to a specialist unit. There was nothing more they could do for him here. He was given a special diet, and he was still fitted with a catheter. He didn't respond to anything. The doctors were worried that he had closed himself so far down that he would never be able to claw his way out again.

He would need lots of very careful handling, by people who understood what happened and what caused this. Hotch stepped in as a lawyer for him to make sure he got what was owing to him. This way he could live somewhere where he could slowly heal. Somewhere that didn't smell of a hospital or prison. Somewhere a bit like where Spencer's mum was.

…………….

Floyd spent his first few weeks healing in a straight jacket screaming and throwing himself at the walls. He threatened anyone who came near him, and he spent evenings sitting staring off into space, his lips barely moving. Talking to him self, or to some imaginary friend. His food was drugged, his water was drugged, his mind slowly calmed down until the screaming stopped and all he did was sit against the wall in his pyjama bottoms and bang his head against the off white paint. His lips moving continuously.

……………..

Spence are you there?

Where are you?

They locked me away. They wouldn't let me see you.

I needed you.

I needed you too.

Can I visit you?

I am locked up somewhere. They are all mad.

I'm sorry hun – this is all my fault.

It's Ok Babes. Just wake up for them. Get well.

I can't. I can't do it.

Sure you can. Just listen to Aaron.

I try to. I want to.

Then you know what to do. Respond to him.

How?

When he holds your hand, squeeze it. Let him know you are in there still.

I can't do this alone.

You're not alone Babes. I am with you.

……………………..