By Kalnaman
Warnings: A very depressed Spencer.
As/N: Thank you to those who given us reviews. Thanks to VirginSerpent for beta.
Sorry for the long wait.
Days later what Gideon and Hotch had feared, happened. That morning when they came in to wake up Spencer, he was just lying in fetal position with tears running down his face, but he didn't move or make a sound.
"Spencer?" Hotch shook his shoulder gently, trying to get him to respond. "Spencer? What's wrong? Are you in pain, son?" Hotch was starting to panic himself.
Spencer wanted to say that he was okay, but he wasn't. For hours now he'd been lying there without being able to move. He now feared that he would be locked up for the rest of his life.
He couldn't even open his mouth and tell them he wasn't okay.
He wasn't able to talk either, let alone move.
"I think we should take him to the hospital, Jason."
Gideon nodded and hurried to the phone and called 9-1-1 and then he called Dr. Nimoy.
In the mean time, Hotch started changing Spencer's clothes and getting him ready for their trip to the hospital.
When Hotch pulled off Spencer's pajama top, he saw something that caught his eye. Horrified him; he was scared for their friend.
"Jason. Look at this." Hotch called to him, pointing at the bleeding wounds on Spencer's body.
Gideon went to Hotch and looked shocked at the wounds. "Damnit, kid. What have you done?"
The only thing Spencer was able to do, was to move his eyelashes and let the tears run freely down his cheeks. 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry' Spencer wanted to say, but the words just didn't want to come out.
"Why haven't we noticed this Aaron? Why? Why haven't we?" Gideon asked sadly.
"I don't know." Hotch was speechless. He couldn't believe they hadn't noticed this before.
"It seems we haven't done such a good job at looking after him, after all." Hotch added sadly, a tear sliding down the side of his face.
They finished dressing him in silence, and moments later, the ambulance arrived.
At the ER Gideon and Hotch were pacing in the waiting room, waiting for news about Spencer.
Dr. Nimoy had arrived and was with Spencer in the examining room.
Dr. Nimoy bent forward over Spencer's curled up, sobbing body and lightly touched the boy on the arm, giving him a light squeeze. "Spencer? Can you hear me, boy?"
Spencer just kept on crying. He tried to move and talk, but he still couldn't.
Suddenly, realization on what the real problem was downed on the therapist. "Let's try something; I'm sure you're familiar with it. I'll ask you some questions, yes/no-questions and if the answer to the questions I ask you is no, you'll blink once, if it's yes, you'll blink twice. Okay?"
Spencer blinked twice.
Dr. Nemoy smiled, glad to see that this seemed to be working.
"Okay, are you for some reason unable to talk or move?"
Spencer blinked twice again.
"Has this ever happened to you before now?"
Now tears flooded down both his cheeks and then he blinked twice again.
Dr. Nimoy pursed his lips and rested a hand on Spencer's shoulder, to give him some of his strength. "Are you in any pain?"
He blinked once.
"Okay, that's good." Dr. Nimoy smiled reassuringly down at him.
Spencer was exhausted, so he closed his eyes and dosed off to sleep.
Dr. Nimoy sighed and patted the young man's shoulder lightly. Then he straightened back up and left the room, leaving Spencer in the capable hands of the hospital staff while he went outside to the waiting room to talk to Spencer's 'parents'.
Both 'daddies' hurried to the doctor's side. "So Doc, what's your verdict?" Gideon asked worriedly.
"I can't say for sure, we'll have to wait until they've run all the necessary tests to rule out any medical conditions. But in my opinion, and from what we've talked about with Spencer during my sessions, I think this is some kind of regression he's experiencing."
"It seems his depression went far deeper than what we'd expected." Nimoy continued, giving them a moment to let all of this sink in, "and that's maybe what has triggered this regression."
Gideon rubbed his face with his hands. He was worried that they'd lost Spencer for good now.
Seeing their anguished expressions, the doctor continued, trying to ease some of their fears by bringing some light onto the problem itself. "You see. Sometimes, when the mind finds a situation too stressing or unpleasant, it may decide it's just too much to cope with and will simply retreat to a safer place."
"I think that's what's happening to Spencer. His mind is just overwhelmed by everything that's been going on lately, and has retreated to a safe corner, a place where his mind was much younger and his worries weren't as great." Dr. Nimoy elaborated.
"But it's in no way irreversible. Like everything, it may take some time. But he will get better. Once his subconscious feels it's safe for him to reemerge, his abilities to speak, move and fend for himself will too." Nimoy said as soothingly as he could.
Hotch sighed, somewhat relieved at hearing Spencer's problem wasn't irreversible, but on the other hand, somewhat overwhelmed by all this new information too.
Spencer was woken up by nurses and doctors fusing over him. He wanted to scream when nurses were undressing him and cleaning his wounds, and when they put needles into him. He hated needles and the only way he could show his distress was to sob like a baby. He was kind of happy that he could at least get that sound out. That was at least something. But he'd rather be able to tell the nurses that he didn't wanted them to do what they were doing to him.
So he sobbed loudly. So loud that Hotch and Gideon could hear it in the waiting room.
"Spencer!" Hotch immediately got to his feet, fear written all over his features as he practically tried to run to into the examining room.
Spencer was happy when he could see Hotch coming in and hear him fight with the nurses to let him in. Luckily for Spencer, Hotch won. At the moment he just wanted to feel safe in his daddy's arms, hoping that he could make everything all better.
Hotch ran to Spencer's side, heedless of the nurses who were still trying to get him to leave the room. "Shhh... Spencer, we're here. We haven't left you, buddy. You're gonna be okay, son." Hotch soothed, picking Spencer up and holding him close to his chest in a tight hug.
Spencer calmed down; only small sobs could be heard now.
Gideon wanted to go in there too, and be with his kid, but he knew that Hotch probably had a hard time getting the hospital staff to let him stay in there. He got a nurse to give Hotch a message that he was outside making some phone calls. He needed to call the team. Now Spencer would need them more than ever.
Dr. Nimoy had to leave; he had an emergency with another patient of his, but he promised to get back as soon as possible, so they could talk about Spencer's future.
Gideon feared that he wanted to lock the kid up, but he prayed that they would be able to talk him out of it.
Hotch nodded absentmindedly at the nurses telling him Gideon would be outside making phone calls, his attention never really wavering from Spencer for one second as he gently rocked the young man in his arms until he finally fell into a deep sleep.
Gideon called rest of the team and every one of them told him that they would come straight away. Gideon asked JJ to go to Hotch's house first, though. In all the hurry they'd forgotten to take 'Spencer's teddy bear with them. JJ didn't ask any questions as to why Spencer would need a teddy bear. She promised she would do it.
Like by an old instinct, Spencer was somehow able to move his right arm to put his thumb in his mouth. Only hiccups could now be heard from the young man.
Hotch continued rocking him back and forth in his arms, not minding at all the way his arms were starting to cramp up. He made himself comfortable in one of the hospital chairs, holding Spencer in his arms as the resigned nurses and doctors continued working on Spencer while still in Hotch's arms.
Spencer knew he was now safe, so he let himself drift off into a deep sleep, and dreamt about being protected by his 'daddies' and everything being perfect. No hurt, no pain; just pure happiness.
A nurse gave Hotch a gown. "Would you try to put this on him? Please."
Hotch nodded, taking the gown from the nurse's hand and quickly dressed Spencer without even waking him up.
"We have a room for Dr. Reid and as it looks like he needs you to be by his side, we'll get a cot for you, so you can be with him," a nurse said.
An orderly then came in with a gurney to bring Spencer to his room.
"Okay, thank you." Hotch smiled, genuinely grateful to the nurse.
A doctor then came to him and said, "We'll keep him here for observation until tomorrow. Then we'll decide along with Dr. Nimoy if he needs to be transferred to a mental health facility."
TBC