There was something to be said about watching Reid just look restful, sedated and sleeping with the gentle metronome of heart beats had allowed Hotch the reprieve of rest for four hours, and honestly that was more than enough. He'd run on less and been fully functional before.

Hotch's eyes opened in one felled motion as the sound of heels clicking registered. He stood up and entered the wash-room scrubbing his face in time to hear the door click open, light spilled from the crack under the door as the nurse turned the light on.

"Mr. Hotchner, you might as well come out from there. I already spotted you on my first set of rounds." The nurse announced before setting a coffee in the room on a table. She looked back to her ward.

He was still asleep, she crinkled her nose attempting to rouse a response from him. "Spencer, good morning, time to wake up…" She shook his shoulder gently and found no resistance to her prodding. "Oh come on, you can't be that bad of a morning-person…" She said in a goading tone hoping to get him to move, or show even a slight improvement in level of consciousness.

She was met with the same relaxing metronome Hotch had slept to. She nodded at him as he exited the bathroom, indicating the coffee. "Help yourself those chairs are hardly comfortable."

"Thanks."

"Spencer, come on, I need you to wake up for a bit." She attempted.

"What time is it?"

"It's 4 in the morning. You will need to leave before the head-nurse does her rounds, she's quite unforgiving and a bit of a prickly sourpuss. I think she's forgotten what it's like to have family, personally." The conversation carried on as the nurse continued to shake Reid attempting to rouse him.

The nurse muttered something pulling a stiff pin from her dress-collar. "I can't believe I'm actually using this technique… I always made fun of my professor about this." She said before jabbing the thing into Reid's finger. When he didn't jerk back reflexively or make any signs of waking up, she leaned back. "…Oh this is bad."

"What's going on?" Aaron said, coffee placed firmly onto the table as he approached.

"He's not responsive."

"I've had the occasion through work to room with him, he can sleep like the dead when he's exhausted…"

"…While I appreciate that metaphor, the only people who don't physically react to a pin-stab are either dead, have paralysis or have been over-medicated to induce a form of paralysis, none of these categories should fit your coworker here. You have to leave now."

"Wait, over-medicated? What do you mean?"

"He's supposed to be on muscle relaxers and sedatives, there are some types of pain medication that numbs nerves and act as agents of paralysis, but as I said, he's not supposed to be in that category."

"The nurse who was in here before gave him something to sedate him, in addition to his IVs."

"When?" The heavy-set woman with dark brown hair flipped through the chart.

"A little after 11, he had said he should be out until at least 4."

Her eyes narrowed, "There's nothing on his charts that he should be given with that long of a half-life. What the hell dosage did he give him… and of what…" She asked herself aloud, "Sir, you really do have to leave. I have to get to the bottom of this and call other nurses in."

"Is he going to be alright?" Aaron hated that his voice sounded as emotional as it did, he usually lived by a very strict edict of stoicism to not tip his hand.

"Right now, I don't know what he was given, how much, or how it's interacting with his other medications. I can't answer it… but, you're on his emergency contact list I presume?"

"Yes. Aaron Hotchner…"

"I'll personally call and update when I know anything. But you have to go, now." She emphasized that with a thrust of the call button.

Hotch did the only presented option to him, he slid from the room, down the hall, and to the cafeteria with vending machines and sat down hard. He took out his cell phone and waited to hear it ring.

This was not what he was thinking 4 AM was going to be like. He glared for a moment trying to recall what that damned nurse's name was. At that moment he wished he could remember his name. If he had Reid's eidetic memory or Prentiss's sex-drive he might have been able to recall the name-tag. Instead, he sat there using his eyes to put holes into the table as he willed himself to remember the important detail.

What had he given Reid? He had said it was something to make him sleep… he wasn't some angel of death, was he? Or worse, just an idiot who didn't know what he was doing with drug-cocktails… Well, alright maybe that wasn't worse, the situation as it presented was bad enough before launching into what-ifs.

He took a steadying breath, Reid had to be okay, he didn't have another choice. Hotch refused to give him a different option.

For over an hour Hotch stared at the table and his phone rested squarely between his fists, which rested on the table.

A low buzz brought him immediately from his thoughts as the clock informed him he'd have to head into the office soon.

"Hotchner here."

"Um, Aaron, hi, I told you I'd call to update you… Spencer just woke up a few minutes ago."

"Oh thank god… what happened? What was it? I'll be right there."

"That's not necessary, he's still groggy…"

"I'm sitting in the cafeteria, I'll be up in one minute. You can time me." He hung up to the sound of disbelief slipping out as a gasp.

He knew she was turning her wheels to realize the very real difference between friend, boss, and what THIS was. True to his word, he was at Spencer's room with 3 seconds to spare. She gave him a dark look.

"I thought I told you to go home."

"You told me to leave, and I did, and now I've come back. What happened and can I see him?"

She nodded, "As I said over the phone, he's groggy. His blood-work came back in, he was given an unknown amount of benzodiazepine which he OD'ed on, we gave him flumazenil once we figured out what he was given, and he started to respond fairly quickly."

"Wait, over-dose…"

"He was in a coma for the past five hours. I mentioned that he's groggy, but that's not half of it, he's confused and probably has anterograde amnesia, which should dissipate with the effect of the drugs."

"Oh my god…"

"…This could have been fatal, and there was no reason to give him such a high dosage of diazepam. If you hadn't told me about the injection we wouldn't have known to look. Your actions probably saved his life."

"Can I go in? I need to see him. He doesn't know what happened, does he?"

"He still isn't fully aware, so we haven't discussed this development with him just yet." The nurse confirmed. "Diazepam isn't something we don't give patients with anxiety, however we are unsure how he came to have such a high level. It may have been accidental, we are investigating though."

"Has something like this ever happened here before?"

The woman shook her head, "I'm hardly at liberty to say. I've already said far too much." She brought the file to her mouth, "Which of course, you won't mention when you go digging, I presume."

Hotch gave a stiff nod.

"I'll be checking in on him on the half-hour mark to give him more flumazenil." She pushed the door open. "Then by all means, check on your subordinate." Her tone all but screamed a much different word, Hotch nodded stiffly once more before going in, she closed the door with a click.

"Spencer-!"

Reid rubbed his head, "Hotch…? When did you get back?"

"Just now…"

"When did Morgan leave? And why do I have that sand-bag feeling…" He muttered more under his breath.

"Morgan left when I came back." Hotch started. He could see Reid staring at the flowers in the room. Hotch sat down in the chair next to Reid's bed. "You just scared the crap out of me."

"How's that?"

"You went into a coma. There was a medication mix-up, you received too much of something."

"…You mean I over-dosed on something?" Reid clarified still staring at the plants.

"On diazepam, apparently."

"How did that happen?"

"The nurse must have given you too large of a dosage, you're taking this calmer than I expected… Reid?"

"What are you talking about? You mean one of my IV bags is for diazepam?"

"No, you were given an injection, around 11."

"While I was in surgery?" Reid looked at Hotch daftly, "But I came out just fine…"

"11 PM, not AM."

"What time is it?"

"6 AM."

"…I'm just coming out of surgery now?"

"No, Reid, you… you've been out of surgery for over 18 hours."

Reid stared at the ceiling, "How can that be?"

Hotch paused, this was probably a clear example of 'confusion' with some 'amnesia' in it to boot. Just like the nurse- Carol- had spoken of.

"Hotch… where did Morgan go? Did you know Rossi brought purple flowers?"

"He knows purple is your favorite color."

"Really? How? I never mentioned that…"

"…Not many adult men wear purple unless they like the color, Reid."

That seemed to silence him for a few minutes. "Did you know purple flowers are the symbol of success and luxury?"

Hotch smiled, "I think you're overthinking this. Dave's knowledge of the flower world consists of roses for weddings, lilies for funerals, expensive for apologies, and purple for you."

Reid nodded, "That's plausible. You said it was 6…?"

"Yes."

He nodded for a few moments, "Why are you up so early on a Saturday? This isn't really your routine is it? I mean staying up late, seducing me with poetry, then being fully functional at 6AM…"

"You remember that I read poetry to you?"

"No, you memorized it, you didn't read it." Reid smiled and blushed at that. "…That did happen, right?" His brow furrowed, "It's hard to think of when that would've happened, I mean… Morgan was here just before so…"

Hotch smiled and ruffled Reid's hair, "Spence, Morgan left around 10. I read poetry to you around 10:30, you were out of it from 11 until 5, and now we're talking and it's a little after 6."

He nodded, Hotch was sure he'd have to repeat the timeline again.

"And that would mean the GQ nurse stabbed me with a needle around 11… right? Ugh, yeah he was trying to force me to drink water or sleep, and I didn't want to do either."

"Spence, what was his name anyway?"

"Hi I'm Greg smiley-face icon, according to his name-badge. I don't think that's how he files his taxes though. God I hope not at least."

Hotch put a hand on Reid's shoulder. "Greg, good to know. Greg isn't allowed back in here."

"Agreed. Why though?"

"Do you remember how I said you were out of it for a few hours?"

Reid closed his eyes and pouted for a moment, "You did… didn't you? I feel really tired."

Hotch gave him a measuring look, almost certain that sleep was on the end of the list of things Reid should be doing at the moment.

Just as he was about to voice that concern, the door opened and Carol came in with a vial and capped needle. "Good morning there, how are you doing Spencer?"

"Do I know you?"

Carol smiled, "Oh you wound me, forgetting about such a beautiful lady as myself, but with that to compare to, I can understand." She gave Hotch a look, "I'm your nurse Carol, how are you feeling?"

"Exhausted, thirsty, and my stomach hurts."

"I see, alright let's first fix number one, then we can work on two, three is just a bit of a consequence of the surgery though. You can put up with it for now, right Spencer?"

He nodded.

She injected his line with a copious amount of flumazenil. "Would you like to try some water?"

He nodded once, Carol went to the side table and pulled over a cup, straw, and pitcher of water. She filled the glass an eighth the way up and rested the straw inside it. "Slow sips, and when I come back next we'll try the same amount again."

"Alright." He took three small sips before finishing off the glass of water, Carol fiddled with his lines before patting his hand and leaving. "I like her, I don't want another nurse. She'll come back, right?"

Aaron smiled, "I'll make sure she's yours for the rest of her shift. And I'll have her hand-pick her replacement, how does that sound?"

"Perfect, and planned down to the finest of details. I knew I loved you for good reasons."

TBC.