By Kalnaman and Malinga
As/N: Thanks for the great reviews :o)
Hotch's eyes opened wide, "that won't be necessary, doctor. My friends and I can take care of him," Hotch hurried to contradict the doctor, his facial expression hardening and getting ready to get into a shouting match with the hospital staff if needed.
"Sorry Agent Hotchner, it may come to this, but hopefully not. Let's cross that bridge when we get there. Now we better get you two more comfortable." The doctor then gave the orderly a sign to get the patient on the gurney to wheel him to his room.
"That won't be necessary," Hotch hurried to add, getting to his feet with Spencer in his arms. "I can carry him."
The orderly looked at the doctor as if to question what to do. The doctor nodded that he could let the agent carry the patient. The orderly then nodded and showed Hotch the way to Spencer's room.
Hotch followed him and once there, helped get Spencer settled in his room. Spencer never stirred throughout all this, still content in his daddy's arms.
In the mean time in the waiting room, the rest of the team had arrived a while ago and were already pacing and waiting anxiously for any news on Spencer's condition.
Gideon was happy when they'd finally showed up; now he wasn't waiting alone in this boring waiting room, even though JJ hadn't showed up yet. He was worried. Had something happened to her?
He was relieved when he finally saw JJ coming in with a teddy bear in her arms. She gave Gideon a hug. "How is Spence?" She asked worriedly.
Gideon looked sadly at her. "Not good I'm afraid. Hopefully we'll be able to help him through this."
JJ nodded sadly. "We'll do our best." She then handed him the teddy bear. "Thanks JJ. I'll go and give it to him. I'll be back in a few minutes."
When inside the ER, Gideon was told that Spencer had been moved to a room and they showed him the way.
He was happy that he would finally be able to see how he was doing.
Gideon went inside and noticed Spencer in Hotch's arms sucking his thumb. Even though he was surprised to see him sucking his thumb like a toddler, he was happy that he at least had been able to move his arm to get his thumb into his mouth and he hoped it was a good sign. He then gave Hotch the teddy bear to give to the boy.
Hotch snuggled the teddy in Spencer's free hand and was glad to see him smile faintly in his sleep when he felt the soft fur touch his fingers.
"Thanks, Jason," Hotch smiled, not taking his eyes from his precious charge.
Gideon nodded. "I had a feeling he would need it and so I asked JJ to get it for me. It was really a great idea of you to give Spencer the teddy bear, I just hope Jack will let him keep him, or I'm afraid we're going to have a really sad boy on our hands."
"Don't worry; I don't think Jack will mind." Hotch smiled, "he's got many other teddy bears."
"And I think he'll like the idea of sharing with a brother," Hotch added as an afterthought.
Gideon nodded satisfied.
"So did the doctors say something new?"
Hotch pursed his lips in worry, fear and anger. "He did mention something."
Gideon noticed Hotch's distraught face. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
Hotch sighed, wishing he could find the words to tell Gideon the unpleasant news the doctor had recently passed on to him.
But he was afraid there may just not be any. "Well, the doctor said," He took a deep breath and unconsciously tightened his hold on Spencer's sleeping form, "that he'd have to consult with Dr. Nimoy in order to decide whether he needs to be transferred to a mental health facility." Hotch's voice visibly shook at the end.
Gideon gulped; he'd feared as much, but had hoped he had been wrong. "We won't let them. Will we? We can all take shifts to take care of him, right?"
Hotch shook his head with strong, inner conviction, "no, we won't. I said as much to the doctor, we can take care of him."
Gideon nodded satisfied. "I'm definitely happy that I've retired. I will hire private nurses if the doctors require it in order to allow us to take him home. I'll buy everything he needs."
Hotch nodded in response, pleased that they had a contingent plan, should the need arise. He really hoped not, but should it be necessary they would be able to take care of things for Spencer.
A nurse then came in with a tray of oatmeal and a sippy cup with milk. "Here's some breakfast for Dr. Reid. We need to find out if he's able to eat, and if he isn't we'll need to put a feeding tube down his throat. Can you try and see if you can wake him up, please?"
Hotch didn't like the idea of waking the boy up, but he didn't like the feeding tube either, so he reluctantly get out from under Spencer and woke him up. He placed him in a sitting position with help from Gideon. "Hey buddy, wake up. You need to eat something."
Spencer didn't like the idea of waking up and he wasn't happy when his 'daddy' took his thumb out of his mouth. He tried to place his thumb back into his mouth, but a hand restrained his hand in doing so and Spencer started to cry again. "I'm sorry son, but you need to eat first," Hotch said. Spencer slowly opened his eyes. "That's my boy; let me see those beautiful brown eyes of yours," Hotch said. He then took a spoon and put a little food on it and lifted it up to Spencer's mouth. "Open wide." Spencer sniffed at the food and made a face. And he kept his mouth closed. "Come on kid, you'd better start to eat if you don't want a nurse to put a feeding tube down your throat."
Spencer started to whimper at that. "I'm sorry buddy, but that will be the alternative if you don't eat on your own."
Spencer then reluctantly opened his mouth and swallowed it as best as he could. It saddened him when most of it went down his chin; that he was messing things up like a baby would do while eating.
Hotch noticed Spencer's distress. "It's okay, buddy. Everything is going to be alright," he said while he was cleaning Spencer's face with a wet cloth, which a nurse luckily had brought with her along with the tray of food.
oOo
Both Gideon and Hotch were happy that Spencer had been able to eat a great deal of his food, even though most of it at landed on him instead of in him. But at least he'd eaten enough, so he wouldn't need a feeding tube, for now anyway. He had a hard time swallowing the milk from the sippy cup, but the nurse then went to get something that made the liquid thicker and then it went much better, to Hotch and Gideon's relief, as the nurse had informed them that a baby bottle could be another option for Spencer to get down some liquids. They didn't want to humiliate Spencer even more than he already was, and it would only have made it worse if he had to drink out of a baby bottle.
When he was finished Hotch washed Spencer's face and hands with the wet wash cloth, which Spencer let him know with cries that he wasn't happy about one bit.
A nurse took the tray with her and then a few minutes later came back. "Do you know Dr. Reid's bathroom routine? Does he have bowel movements every day?"
"He has a bowel movement once every two days, and he had one yesterday."
The nurse nodded. "Okay. What about his bladder? Does he have any trouble keeping dry?"
Gideon and Hotch shook their heads. "No accidents what we know of. But he has to empty his bladder three to four times a day. And often one time at night. Why are you asking these questions?" Gideon asked.
"Because as Dr. Reid can't take care of his own needs, we need to find out if he will need diapers or if we're able to help him to the bathroom."
Gideon nodded. "We'll help him. Diapers won't be necessary."
The nurse nodded, "Hopefully not. Let's see how it goes. We better try and get him to the bathroom now."
"That's okay, nurse. We can handle it from here," Hotch said and then looked over at Gideon for an agreement and Gideon nodded.
"Okay, but call me if you need any help. Don't hesitate. Okay?"
Hotch nodded. "We will." With that the nurse left the room and Hotch and Gideon helped Spencer to the bathroom. As Spencer couldn't walk, Gideon was the one carrying him to the bathroom. Since Spencer only was wearing a gown they just had to pull up the gown and then place him down on the toilet. They kept a protective hold on him so he wouldn't fall off.
Happily Spencer was able to empty his bladder. They helped him up and this time it was Hotch who carried him back to bed. They tucked him in and Spencer went out like a light. They put up the rails and tucked Spencer's teddy bear under his arms.
"What about taking shifts staying with Spencer? You have a meeting today, right?"
"Oh, yes! I'd forgotten all about it. Though I think I should postpone the meeting. I don't feel like leaving Spencer at the moment."
"I can understand you, Aaron. But your meeting is important as the meeting is about getting Agent Rossi onto your team. Your team will be too weak if you don't get a new agent, especially when you from time to time can't show up for work because of Spencer."
Hotch nodded. "Yeah, you're right," he said reluctantly.
"Don't worry, Aaron. I'll take good care of him."
Hotch went to Spencer and stroked his hair gently and then he went out of the room.
TBC