Chapter 5

Morgan got to him first; he was lying on his stomach, next to Olivia, clasping her hand.

"Reid!" his tone was urgent as he rolled him onto his back. "Reid, come on man look at me." Reid's only response was a low moan. Dust and dirt was caked to the blood that covered the side of his face.

Prentiss was barking orders through the radio to get the medics in here fast. Hotch arrived with the police and they cleared the other bodies.

"Sheriff," Hotch turned to him, "Is this man Sean Masterson?" careful not to step in the pool of blood surrounding him.

"Yeah, that's him," he pointed to Olivia, "and that's Olivia Lawrence."

"Morgan?" Reid's voice was small.

"Hey, man." Morgan smiled, "We found you." Reid's eyes seemed to be unfocused as they closed and opened sporadically. "Stay with me man." He pulled Reid's hand free of Olivia's grasp and held it tight. There were angry red whelps up his hands and forearms. "Reid, what happened?"

Reid swallowed hard and tired to focus on Morgan's face. "You… I won't be doing your paper work today…."

Morgan squeezed his hand a little harder, "Reid, listen to me. Stay with me here. What happened?"

"Olivia is the unsub…"He turned his head in the direction he remembered her being. "…he poisoned her …."He turned his head back to Morgan. "I think …the sun is hot…" He swallowed again.

"Hotch," Morgan looked up, "Something's wrong. He's all confused." He pulled up his sleeve to show him the red whelps on his arm.

Hotch knelt down next to him and examined Reid's arm. "I think he may have been bitten."

"Those are black widow bites?" Prentiss gasped.

"I think so, it makes sense. That was his revenge," Hotch pointed to Olivia. "I'm sure we will find them on her body as well."

"He wanted her to feel the pain his brother felt." Rossi said as he approached.

"How far away is the closets hospital?" Prentiss asked. "If those are black widow bites, he is going to need help fast. We don't know how long ago he was bitten."

"They will have to take him to the county hospital," The Sherriff supplied, "They are the only ones with the antivenin. It's not something they have on hand at every hospital."

"How far away are we talking?" Morgan asked.

"It's a least an hour away if they book it." The Sherriff sighed.

"Damn it, that's cutting it close," Rossi barked.

Emily knelt next to Olivia's body and carefully examined her arms. "I count at least a dozen bites here." She jumped back with a yelp.

"You ok?" Rossi asked,

"Yeah," She shook her head, "There was a black widow hiding in her shirt." She sighed as she backed away from the body. "She's still warm. I'd say she was still alive an hour ago."

"All right, everyone be careful," Hotch ordered. "Finally!" He could see the two paramedics approaching.

"Excuse me sir," The two paramedics pushed their way through to Reid. Morgan reluctantly moved away, but he didn't move far.

"He's been bitten by a black widow, we don't know how long it has been." Hotch began.

"Sir, can you tell me your name?" The paramedic knelt next to Reid and opened his kit.

"My name is Spencer," he answered quietly. They set about checking his vitals as they asked him routine questions. He was having a little difficulty breathing so they placed an oxygen mask over his face.

"What about those two?" One of the paramedics asked indicating the other two bodies.

"No need." Hotch answered blankly.

The man nodded as he added another piece of tap to the IV in Reid's arm. Reid cried out when the paramedic pushed on his chest. "Sorry, it seems you have a few broken or bruised ribs." They gave him a once over and decided it was safe to move him.

They got him on the back board and carried him outside. Morgan didn't leave his side as they loaded him into the ambulance. There was an unspoken understanding with the rest of the team that HE was riding with him.

"We'll meet you at the Hospital when we are done here." Hotch stood at the back of the ambulance. "Call us if anything happens." Morgan nodded as Hotch handed him Reid's prescription. "The doctor may need to know about these."

"Please call Garcia; she will be more than pissed if someone doesn't let her know we found him." Morgan asked.

"I'll take care of it." Hotch assured him and closed the ambulance doors.

Morgan watched silently as the paramedic check his vitals periodically on the ambulance ride. Reid's whimpers of discomfort were like a stab to the heart.

"Hey Mike, I need you to step on it." The paramedic said. "He's not doing too good."

"Is he all right?" Morgan asked.

"I don't know." He had answered honestly. "His blood pressure is getting pretty high and his heart rate is increasing." Reid had begun to moan and his body was covered in a thin layer of sweat.

"Reid," Morgan moved closer, "Reid, can you hear me? Reid, come on. Please open your eyes." He was surprised when he realized that his eyes were open and they were staring right at him. The paramedic moved closer when Reid mumbled something.

"Sir?" The paramedic pulled the oxygen mask down so Reid could talk.

"..hurts.." Reid chocked out.

"What hurts, sir?" The paramedic asked.

"My chest," Reid replied. He began to cough; the paramedic replaced the oxygen mask.

"Try and take even breaths, sir. Not too deeply." The paramedic adjusted the cold compresses he had placed on the spider bites.

"I'm going to be sick," Reid stated urgently, pulling the oxygen mask from his face. He rolled to his side as he vomited on the ambulance floor. The paramedic grabbed a bag as he continued to vomit. Morgan held his shoulder firmly; felling his muscles tighten with each heave. There were tears starting to form in Reid's eyes as he mumbled something.

"What did he say?" The paramedic asked.

"Reid," Morgan leaned closer. "What did you say?"

"…horses.." Reid's eyes remained closed as he repeated the word.

"What is he talking about?" The paramedic asked.

"I have no idea," Morgan shook his head, "What about horses?"

"…horses… they make them sick….to…the horses…." Reid's eyes flickered open. "Morgan, the horses…" His eyes closed again, and this time they didn't open.

Emily slowly walked around the two bodies, making mental notes in her head. Seaver simply stood and stared at the spot where Reid had been laying. She had never seen someone looks so pale before.

"Seaver," Emily's voice pulled her from her thoughts. "Come over here for a minute."

"Yeah?" she moved closer, Rossi following her.

"Ok, take a look and tell me what you think happened here." Emily commanded softly, trying to distract her.

Seaver took a deep breath, "Well, Reid and Olivia were both restrained, Masterson poisons them. At some point Olivia is dropped on the floor, you can tell by the disturbance in the dust on the floor." She paused, "Reid is also on the ground, here," She moved a little to the left, Emily moved to meet her.

"Ok," She stoops to the ground. "I'm Reid. Rossi you be Masterson. Where is he?"

Seaver pulled Rossi to where she thought Masterson had stood. He places his feet in the foot prints on the floor, "He stood here, aims at Reid?" Rossi raised his arms and aimed in Emily's direction. "He wants to take out Reid first, because he is not as weakened by the poison as Olivia?" She asks.

"Good," Emily prompts her again. "Then what?"

Seaver studied the floor, "He has his back to Olivia, and probably thinks she's too far gone to pay much attention. That was his mistake, Olivia uses this broken pipe," She pointed to the pipe on the ground. "The Sherriff said Masterson had an old knee injury, she probably knew about it. She strikes him here," She points to Rossi's leg. "He goes down and they struggle for the gun. It goes off." She studied the floor again and moved to Olivia's body. "It looks like Reid crawled over to her, she saved him."

Emily moved to stand next to Olivia, "She died here, and he held her hand the whole time."

The ER doors burst open as they rushed Reid through. "We have a 26 year old male with a possible concussion, broken ribs, and multiple black widow bites to his hands and forearms. We aren't sure how long ago it was, at least over 3 hours we can safely assume. His symptoms include vomiting, fever, chest pains, muscle pains, confusion, and his pressure has risen to 142 over 92." The paramedic spouted off as the doctor approached. "We've given him 1 liter of saline and he became unresponsive about 20 minutes ago."

"Is this the FBI agent the police radioed in about?" He asked as he examined Reid's eyes.

"Yes," Morgan stepped closer. "He's on my team."

"All right, sir if he allergic to any medication?"

"No," Morgan supplied.

"Has he ever been bitten by a black widow before or a rattle snake?"

"No, I don't think so…" Morgan looked at him.

"Does he smoke or drink?"

"No on the smoking, he has a drink occasionally."

"Is he taking any medications?"

Morgan reached into his pocket and handed him the bottle. "He's been taking these."

"Any history of illness in his family?" he studied the label.

"His mother is schizophrenic," Morgan supplied, feeling awful he was talking about Reid that way. He was such a private person.

"All right, thank you."

"Is he going to be ok?" Morgan pleaded.

The doctor pointed towards the waiting room. "I'm going to need you to step out." Morgan began to protest, but he was shot down. "I need you out; please we will update you when we can." He pulled his stethoscope around his ears and began listening to Reid's chest.

Morgan stepped outside the door and watched as the ER staff buzzed around Reid. They removed his dusty and dirty clothes and covered him with a sheet. Morgan was shocked at how thin and frail he looked. Reid had obviously lost some weight and he could see the deep bruises on his chest. They poked and prodded and shown lights, checking his blood pressure and temperature yet again.

"Ok, he is going to need the antivenin, he hasn't been bitten too many times for us to just treat the symptoms," The doctor barked orders to the nurses, "I want you to perform a skin test, I don't want him to have an allergic reaction to the antivenin. Keep rotating out the cold compressions every 10 minutes. I also want to push ACE inhibitors. We have to get his blood pressure down before he has a heart attack."

One of the other nurses noticed Morgan watching from outside the hall. "Please sir, go to the waiting room."

With many protests and gnashing of teeth, Morgan walked the short distance to the ER waiting room and slumped himself into a chair. He leaned his head against the wall behind him and closed his eyes. Reid had to make it through this. He had to, if for nothing else just so Morgan could apologize to him. How could he have said those things to Reid, in the middle of the police station no less? He and Rossi had exchanged glances when Reid had returned from the restroom, his messenger bag clutched in his hands. Morgan had thought Reid has slipped, that he was using again. His behavior had given him every indication he thought he needed that would justify the confrontation. He was wrong. Morgan had let his emotions lead his tongue. The look of absolute and utter betrayal in Reid's eyes didn't cause Morgan to falter as he barred into Reid.

"You ok kid?" Morgan threw the file on the table as Reid set himself down.

"Yeah," Reid answered quickly, "You guys want to look at the geographical profile again?"

"Don't give me that crap. How can you do this to yourself again? To us?" Reid's body visible jerked.

"What are you talking about?" He was so confused.

"Look," Morgan began, "You can't hide it from us. We know all you little tricks from the last time we went through this. We see you every time you sneak off to the bathroom with you bag, we see you coming in late, looking like you haven't slept in days. Not to mention what happened in Miami. This isn't just about you, you know? When you do this to yourself it affects all of us, the whole team."

Understanding showed in his eyes as the implications of Morgan's words sunk in. "What are you trying to say?" His words were cold and biting.

"You know what I'm talking about." Morgan bit back.

Reid's face faltered as he let out a small chuckle.

"This isn't funny; we are trying to help you." Rossi had said as he leaned against the table. "This is hard for us too."

"Ha," Reid laughed. "Yeah I bet it was really hard for you to decide that right here, in the police station, filled with people was the perfect time to accuse me of using again. I'm going back to the hotel." He pulled himself to his feet and began to leave. He spun on his feet, "You know, if you guys really cared about me, you would have figured out what was REALLY going on with me." He was almost yelling.

"Reid," Morgan began "Calm down."

"No," Reid shouted back, "You picked this venue, not me. Don't get embarrassed that it didn't go the way you hoped."

"Listen man," Morgan rose from his chair, "It's not like our concerns are coming out of left field. I know what this job can do to a person. It's not completely unbelievable that you would have slipped!"

"Go to hell!" Reid shouted as he stormed out of the police station, passing Hotch as he left.

Morgan was going to go after him, but Hotch stopped him. "I think he needs some air."

Morgan's stomach was in knots as he stared at the ER waiting room floor. It was a cold, gray color. Reid was right. If they had stopped to find out what was really going on with him, they probably wouldn't' be in this situation. Morgan ran his hand over his face. Reid was probably terrified. He had been having these migraines for months, and no one had been there to help him. Given his mother's history, Reid was probably convinced he was going crazy. How could they have not seen?

"Agent Morgan?" Morgan's head snapped up as the nurse approached. "We need your help."