By Kalnaman and Malinga
As/N: Thank you for those who's given us reviews.
Spencer tried to get out of Hotch's grip. "Let me go! I told you, I'm not hungry!"
Hotch simply ignored him and held him in place at the table. "Hey, Jason. Do you have something ready for Dr. Reid here to eat? He's starving."
Spencer gave Hotch an angry glare. And then he looked over at Gideon. "No Gideon, that's not true. I'm not starving, as I'm not hungry!"
Gideon shook his head at the banter. "Yes, I actually have Dr. Reid's food ready." Gideon handed Hotch the food, while ignoring the angry stare Spencer gave him.
Hotch smiled, "Thank you, Jason." Then he deposited the plate full of food in front of Spencer. "Here you go, Dr. All yours."
Spencer wrapped his arms around himself.
"I think he's trying to tell us he needs some help here, Jason." Hotch said, matter-of-factly.
"No, I don't!"
"Oh... well. Guess we may as well give him a hand." Hotch grabbed the sandwich, "what do you say, Gideon?"
"Yes, it sure looks like it."
"No! I am not hungry!"
Hotch figured it'd be easier to feed him the sandwich if he cut it into small pieces, so he went to the kitchen cabinet, grabbed a fork and a knife and proceeded to cut the sandwich into small portions, grabbing one with the fork and putting it in front of Spencer. "Open up, Spencer." Hotch commanded, his voice stern and promising dire consequences, should he refuse.
Spencer kept his mouth shut very tightly and turned his head away from the fork.
Spencer was keeping on being stubborn. He fought eating and getting fed with all his might.
"Spencer, open up unless you want to end up over my knee again, and I don't care who's here to witness it, so you better choose wisely, Dr. Reid."
Spencer gulped. "Then let me eat on my own!" he said, not so nicely.
"Okay, as long as you eat." Hotch agreed, handing the fork to the young man.
Spencer took the fork and then used his magic tricks so that it seemed that the food went into his mouth, but it actually landed in the chest pocket of his shirt.
Fortunately for Hotch and not so fortunately for Spencer, Hotch was watching him closely while he ate and he had a keen eye and acute sense of perception, so he was able to see right through his ruse.
"Spencer Reid!" He barked loudly, "I expect you to eat that sandwich, not store it in your pocket."
"What? I didn't do anything!"
Spencer hurried to do one of his tricks again to hide the piece somewhere else.
"You are not eating anything either." Hotch shot him an angry glare, and to Spencer's surprise, reached inside the new hiding spot in his pants pocket and retrieved the uneaten sandwich slices.
Spencer looked down at his lap, not daring to look Hotch in the eye.
"I suggest you start eating now, for real this time." Hotch said in a low, yet firm voice.
"But I don't want to," he whined.
"Spencer, I'm warning you. I'm not arguing with you on this any further. So you'd better stop complaining and start eating." Hotch stared at him, sternly. "Understood?"
Spencer looked pleadingly at Hotch and he even forced a tear down his cheek in the hopes that Hotch would fall for it. "Please, I'm not hungry."
Hotch hardened his heart against the crocodile tears and simply pointed at the sandwich on Spencer's plate with his index finger.
Spencer just kept letting the tears fall down his cheeks.
"Looks like you should do as you threatened him Aaron. Force-feed him, since it looks like he won't do it on his own." Gideon said.
"It looks that way, yeah," Hotch agreed and took the fork from Spencer's hand.
"No! No! I promise I'll behave! Please let me eat on my own!" Spencer pleaded.
"No Aaron, don't agree to it; you already gave him a chance, and he blew it," Gideon said.
Hotch nodded, picked a piece of sandwich from the plate and put the fork in front of Spencer.
Spencer looked pleadingly at Hotch; he even used the puppy dog eyes look.
"Open up, now. Unless you want the other, more painful alternative," Hotch demanded.
Another tear ran down his cheek and this came from deep inside his heart.
Hotch sighed, "Come on, Spencer. I'm not doing it to torment you. You need to eat."
Spencer reluctantly opened his mouth. 'Why didn't I listen to Morgan?' Spencer thought sadly.
Hotch fed him dutifully, without saying a word until the last piece had disappeared from Spencer's plate.
"All done." Hotch announced at last, "it wasn't so hard now, was it?"
Hotch smiled, "don't you feel better now you've eaten?"
Spencer just gave him an angry stare and he was tempted to stick out his tongue, but the ache in his butt reminded him not to.
Hotch handed him a glass of milk at last, "here you go. Once you finish this, you can go back to the living room, if you want."
"But I'd rather have coffee," Spencer whined.
"I don't think you need coffee at the moment." Hotch tried to explain. "Milk is better for you, trust me."
"But I hate milk. I'd rather have coffee, please."
"Half and half, that's my last offer."
"Okay, that's better than nothing, I guess."
Hotch smiled, satisfied.
He poured some milk and coffee in a cup, added two spoonfuls of sugar and then handed it to Spencer.
Spencer drank it with some pleasure; it would have been much better with coffee without milk.
Hotch nodded, pleased. "Okay, you're free to go now."
Spencer hurried to get off the seat and out of the kitchen. He hesitated at the door to the living room, though. Morgan would definitely tease him about him not listening to him.
He reluctantly went into the living room and his face went red when he could see that Garcia had been eaves dropping at the door.
Garcia's forehead hurt after it had been in contact with the door to the kitchen. "Ouch! Oh, hi Spencer. I didn't see you there... I-I was just about to go inside to... eh um... to get something to... um eh... drink."
"Yeah, riggghhhtt." Spencer pouted, not believing one word.
Spencer didn't like the smug smile Morgan gave him.
"Told you so, kid." Morgan snickered softly.
Spencer pouted and then stuck his tongue out at Morgan.
Morgan got serious all of a sudden, got to his feet and walked over to Spencer with a murderous glare on his face. Once they were standing face to face, Morgan hissed angrily, "what did you just do?"
Spencer looked innocently at him. "What? Who? Me? I-I didn't do anything."
Morgan simply exploded into a fit of laughter and grabbed Spencer around the neck in a half-hug and gave him a hard nookie in the head. "Just kiddin' kid... hahaha... you should've seen your face."
Spencer started to relax a little, but he was still embarrassed that they'd just witnessed him being fed by Hotch.
Morgan, with Spencer still locked in a one-armed hug and still laughing and joking, led Spencer back to back to the couch.
"See? You should listen to the older and wiser people around you, kid," Morgan joked good-naturedly and took back his seat on the couch with Spencer by his side.
Spencer let out a sigh. He so wished he had listened to him. Why did he have to test Hotch? At the moment he didn't feel like a genius at all.
Emily took pity on Spencer at the miserable look he was currently sporting on his face and gently patted him on the back. "It's okay, Spencer. We've all made our own fair share of mistakes in the past; it's how we learn after all. So don't worry about it."
Spencer just nodded sadly. He hoped he'd learned a lesson and that he'd remember it. He should though because of his eidetic memory, but with things like that it was hard for him to remember.
Just then Hotch and Gideon walked through the door, Gideon holding a large tray filled with sandwiches and coffee for everybody.
Spencer reached for one of the coffee cups and prayed that no one would stop him from reaching his goal.
Hotch reached forward to bat Spencer's hand away from the coffee.
"I think we already talked about this, didn't we?" Hotch asked seriously.
Spencer pouted. "But why can't I have more coffee?" Spencer whined.
"Because you need your rest and coffee won't help you in that regard, I think you should cut down on the caffeine a little - for the time being, at least." Hotch elaborated.
Spencer wrapped his arms around himself and pouted.
"But I can get you some decaf, if you want." Hotch offered as a compromise.
"Thanks, but no thanks. It's far from the same, "Spencer said sadly.
"Well, if you change your mind, just let me know."
Spencer just nodded and went silent; he wasn't in any mood to talk about statistics or anything else.
After a while, talking about this and that and easing some of Spencer's worries about how the team would take this whole situation, they one by one said their goodbyes and left; all letting Spencer, Hotch and Gideon know they were there for them and not to hesitate to call at any time, should they need them.
Spencer hadn't said much, only when asked and even then it was only "yes" and "no" he answered with. "I'm going to my room," Spencer said.
Hotch decided to let him rest, before they discussed the issue with the anti-depressants, so he simply smiled and nodded.
Spencer hurried to his room, and jumped into bed on his stomach and he went out like a light.
"He was awfully quiet. That is so uncharacteristic of him," Gideon said to Hotch.
Hotch nodded silently, then heaved a deep sigh. "This must be very hard for him, having always depended on himself for everything, and then suddenly having to accept the help of others. It must be very difficult for him."
"Yeah, it must be. But I'm also afraid that it has something to do with him being depressed. We need to get him to take those antidepressants, or I'm afraid we're going to lose him for good," Gideon said sadly.
Hotch went silent at that, his face ashen and his eyes wide with renewed terror. He'd feared as much the moment they had to stop at the side of the road, and Spencer had started opening up to him about his innermost feelings, but hearing Gideon put words to his thoughts brought the reality of the situation crashing down on him like a ton of bricks.
He swallowed hard, and nodded his head in understanding.
About an hour later Spencer woke up. This time it was hard for him to move his legs and arm but not like last time, when he couldn't at all. He was scared, so scared. What was happening to him?
"I think I should wake up Spencer, now." Hotch told Gideon, who was reading the newspaper across from him in the armchair in his living room.
Gideon looked at his watch and nodded, "Yeah, it's time for his medication."
Hotch got to his feet and climbed the stairs to Spencer's room and lightly knocked on the door.
Spencer tried to answer but for some reason words wouldn't come out of his mouth.
"Spencer?" Hotch called at last, hearing no answer. "It's time to wake up now."
After awhile a few words finally came out of his mouth, "I-I'm awake."
"Okay, why don't you come on down now?" Hotch called from the other side of the door.
"N-No. I-I want to stay in here and read some."
"You can come back up later; we need to talk about a few things first." Hotch elaborated.
Spencer let out a sigh and buried his head in the pillow. He had bad feeling about the few things they had to talk with him about.
"Do you need help?" Hotch offered, worried that he couldn't hear any movement from inside the room.
Spencer lifted his head off the pillow and turned his head to the door, "No I-m ok. I-I'll be there in a minute."
"Okay." Hotch answered after a moment's hesitation. "We'll be waiting for you downstairs".
Spencer let out a sigh once again and slowly started to move his arms, and legs and luckily it got easier and easier to move. He then reluctantly got out of bed and down to the living room.
Hotch smiled up at Spencer on the stairs, "hi, son. Did you rest well?"
"Y-yeah I did."
"Good." Hotch smiled gently and motioned for him to join them in the living room. "Please, Spencer. Sit down. We need to talk."
Spencer did as he was asked, but reluctantly. "Why do I have the feeling that I'm not going to like whatever you wanna talk to me about?"
"You are probably not, but remember we only want what's best for you." Hotch added, wanting to reassure the boy as much as possible.
Spencer nodded sadly, "then let's get it over with."
Hotch nodded and took a deep breath, readying himself to deliver the news. "Remember that Dr. Nimoy wanted to put you on antidepressive medication?"
Spencer gulped. He didn't like the way this 'talk' was going, "yeah. W-what about it?"
"We called Dr. Nimoy and talked over the issue some more, and came to the conclusion that it would be best for you to start taking the medication as soon as possible." Hotch elaborated.
"No! He promised that I wouldn't have to take them! He promised!"
"He didn't promise any such thing." Hotch stared at him sternly, "he merely said he would allow you to stay off them for as long as he thought you could afford to."
TBC