Avenger of Blood
Chapter 7
Recovery and Love

"Love is the enchanted dawn of every heart." ~Alphonse Marie de la Martine~

Hotch was floating in a pain free sea of soft blackness. He knew that he was hurt, but he couldn't feel it any more. He tried to call out Reid's name but something was preventing him. His throat had something in it stopping him from speaking.

Spencer......... are you there.............?

His mind called out. He felt agitated even though his body was free from the agonies of the beating he had endured. He just wanted to know that Reid was all right. He remembered him being there, touching him, holding him. Now those arms were gone, and he was alone.

He tried to move his hand to his throat, but it felt as if they weighed too much to lift. He was paralysed, and nothing worked as it should.

Spencer........

Spencer wasn't there any more. They had been parted. He couldn't understand why he had gone, and in his distress, his eyes overflowed with tears.

Hands were touching him, but it wasn't Reid. These were strangers' hand. He felt the hot tears run down the side of his face and wet his hair. He wanted to speak, to tell these people to leave him, to find Spencer and look after him, but the words wouldn't come, and he drifted away as exhaustion took hold of him.

-0-0-0-

Reid was awake, and could feel the mask across his face. He breathed the oxygen gratefully, and he turned his head to watch what was happening on the next bed.

He knew it was Aaron, but he couldn't see him. He wanted to reach out to him, but his body was not responding to him. It was as if he was in someone else's body, and he had no control.

He felt a surge of love for him, followed by fear that he wasn't going to make it.

He looked up into the eyes of the doctor who was caring for him.

'We are going to send you up to theatre. We need to repair your stomach, and get the bullet out. You are going to be fine, but it is going to hurt.'

Reid watched in silence as a drug was injected into his IV line, and within seconds, he slipped into a dreamless sleep.

-0-0-0-

Dave was awake now, and fretting about Aaron. He remembered that the man had taken Aaron as a hostage, and left him to die, and he desperately wanted to see Aaron, to make sure with his own eyes that he was going to live.

He moved in his bed, and winced as damaged muscles protested. His hip was hurting and his leg felt as if a thousand needles were digging into him. He squeezed the hand that was in his, and he opened his eyes again to see who was with him.

'Hello again, Sir.' Emily said with a smile. 'They found Hotch, and he's alive. He's in theatre at the moment. He should be joining you down here very soon now. Reid has been shot, but he is going to make it too.'

Rossi smiled his lop sided smile, and squeezed her hand again. The team was still intact. He allowed himself to relax and close his eyes again.

-0-0-0-

JJ was fine other than a few cuts and bruises. She went to the coffee machine and collected a coffee for herself and Emily. Taking it back she thought about what had happened.

Somehow she had survived a madman's bomb with hardly a scratch. The gods were obviously smiling on her. She was the only member of the team to have pulled through without needing hospital intervention.

She sat down next to Emily and gave her the coffee.

'Rossi was just awake. I told him that Hotch had been brought in.' she said. 'He's gone back to sleep again now. I don't think he would have relaxed until he knew Hotch was safe.'

Emily shifted painfully in her wheel chair. Sitting wasn't a very good position for her to be in, and the pain was making her feel sick.

'I have to go back to my room, JJ.' she said. 'Will you stay with Rossi?'

JJ promised she would, and Emily wheeled herself out of the room and to the nurses station, to find someone to take her back.

-0-0-0-

A few days later the three agents were lying side by side in the high dependency ward, although Dave was well enough to be moved, until they needed the bed, he was being allowed to stay. Reid was awake, and on strong pain killers, but Hotch was being kept under. He had been beaten around the head, and he had a swelling of the brain, and so until the swelling had gone down, he was in an artificially induced coma.

Reid asked that his bed be pushed up close to Aaron so that he could hold his hand. He reached out tentatively to him. Hotch was asleep, but as he took his hand, his fingers curled around his. Reid smiled. It was so peaceful, lying there, holding Aaron's hand. Reid felt relaxed and happy for the first time in a long time, and Aaron was by his side.

Hotch had IV drips in his arm, and tape holding his eyes closed. He looked so young and helpless lying there, a bandage around his head, that Reid wanted to slide his body across into his bed. But he didn't. It would have been taking advantage of him.

-0-0-0-

It was only when Hotch was released from his coma that the doctors could be sure that there was no brain damage. He had been severely beaten, and permanent damage was a possibility. They stopped the drugs on the seventh day, and Dave and Spencer watched anxiously, as the nurse peeled back the tape that was holding his eyes closed.

Hotch blinked a few timed against the bright hospital light. He was confused, not knowing where he was. He gripped Reid's hand tight as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. He still couldn't speak with the tube in his throat, but he turned his head towards Reid, and his eyes shone with life.

'He's going to be ok.' Reid said. 'He has life in his eyes.'

'The fact that he woke up so quickly is a good sign.' the doctor said, smiling. He looked down at Hotch.

'Can you tell me your name?'

'Aaron...... Hotchner.' he said softly

'Do you know where you are?' he asked.

'Hospital.' Hotch replied.

'Very good. Now your friends are here with you, Aaron, but don't get too excited. You are in a very fragile condition. Take it easy, or we will have to induce a coma again for you to recover.'

Hotch nodded very slowly. It hurt to move his head too quickly. And he smiled a weak smile with the tube still in his throat.

-0-0-0-

The following week, Dave was pronounced fit enough to go home, but not well enough to return to work. Strauss had disbanded the team temporarily, and Dave called into the office to tell her how the other's were. Emily was walking now with crutches, and she was in the bull pen doing paperwork. JJ was sorting papers and telephoning request replies, explaining why the BAU couldn't help them. Morgan was doing paperwork, but it wasn't enough to form a team.

Dave asked Strauss if he could return and work some cases, but she refused, saying that if the doctors had said he wasn't fit, then he wasn't.

It was very frustrating. He spent most of his time at Reid and Aaron's bedside. They were both fully awake now, and Aaron was breathing on his own. Reid spent most nights lying at the edge of his bed with his arms around Aaron.

Aaron was confused by this at first.

Reid gently touched him, his arm around his waist. Aaron held his breath, wondering what Reid was doing. He turned over so that he was facing him.

'It's ok, Aaron. I just want to feel you close. I almost lost you, and I don't want you apart from me again.'

'Do you...... love me, Spencer?'

'Yes. I have for a long time, Aaron.' Reid said softly.

'Oh Spencer.............I can't love you back, I am so sorry. You are special to me, but I can't love you like that.'

Reid's eyes filled with tears. 'I know, Aaron.' he said. 'I don't want to make you do something you don't want to. But if you will just let me hold you, I will be happy with that.'

'But I feel that I am leading you on, Spencer. I can't do it. It wouldn't be fair.'

'Please, Aaron. I just want to feel close to you.'

Aaron touched Reid's cheek with the back of his hand, wiping away the tears that were falling.

'Ok, I would like you to.'

Aaron moved to the edge of his bed, and Reid put his arm around him. Aaron reached out and touched his hair, and the two men went to sleep in each other's arms.

This is how they slept each night from then on, until the day that the doctor said they could go home.

THE END

A/N The sequel will address the feelings these two wonderful men have for each other.
And what about Dave? Where will he fit in?
The next story is called PAYMENT. Please review if you have time.
Aggie xx