A.N.: Hi everyone, I'm sorry for the delay, I've been busy with my exams. Three down, only one to go, but I have plenty of time now, so I'll try to post the next chapter sooner. Thanks for your patience and thanks again for the great feedbacks I've received on the previous chap. Well here you go! Beta-read by REIDFANATIC.

Chapter Seven

Present

The next morning found Jessica sitting by Reid's bed, with a cup of tea and a book in her hand. It was the Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte; Jessica loved classical literature. Sometimes she glanced up and took a look at the apparently sleeping young man in front of her; after seeing that everything was okay she returned to reading. She had already noticed earlier that the man was sweating and his forehead was hot with fever; now she was waiting for his restless sleep to end.

Reid was semi-conscious. Again and again he drifted off into sleep, but not too deeply, and almost all of the dreams turned to nightmares at the end. When he briefly came to, he sensed only two things about his world: that his clothes were soaking wet and that his side was throbbing again with burning pain.

After a particularly bad nightmare involving Morgan, Garcia and a pistol, he felt cool fingers stroking his forehead and hair. He opened his eyes and turned his head to see who it was, only to look into Jessica's worried face.

"How do you feel?" The girl asked.

"I've seen better days," Reid smiled, although his voice was low and raspy.

"Are you hurt somewhere?"

"I feel my side a bit," Reid admitted, hoping that Jessica had already gotten those painkillers.

"I'm sorry, Andrew's just left a couple of minutes ago, he'll buy some medicine for you and you'll get them as soon as he comes back. You have a fever too, and I can help you change your clothes if you want to."

"Um, thank you, but my shirt will be enough, I think," Reid said, "and can I have some water please?

"Of course, I've made some tea too. I'd just completely forgotten about it. I'll bring it in a minute."

With that she hurried out of the room. Reid shifted onto his back and started trying to take off his shirt. It proved to be quite hard as almost any little motion he made sent pain searing up in his right side. He clenched his teeth as he pulled one of his arms out of the shirt. He felt more sweat break out on his forehead and flow down his face; he also noticed that the bandage around his torso was not only soaked with sweat but with blood as well.

Swearing mentally, the young agent pulled out his other arm too, then lay back on the bed and breathed deeply, absorbing the pain. The action seemed to suck all energy out of him and he even felt a bit dizzy despite his lying position. The sun was shining into the room through the window and he could see a gentle flood of dust gleaming in the light. It was getting blurrier and he had to make an effort to be able to focus on it.

Jessica returned with a small tray in her hands.

"Oh Spencer, you shouldn't have done it alone," she said with a rather motherly tone, "I would have helped you!"

She quickly put the tray down on the bedside table and sat down, turning her attention to the young man's condition. "You seem to need new bandages as well," she established. "Don't worry; I'll make them for you. But first, you have to drink some tea."

She arranged the pillows and helped Reid sit a bit more upright so that he could drink.

"What do you drink your tea with?" Jessica asked, "Sugar, lemon?"

"Sugar, please," Reid croaked, "lots of it."

For a moment he thought that he should have asked for coffee instead, but as soon as the warm tea entered his mouth, he didn't mind anymore. It was quite delicious and warmed him up inside.

"Guys, get up, we need to go out again," Hotch addressed his team.

"What? Why?" Confused questions from Prentiss and JJ flew towards him.

"I thought the unsubs had escaped," Rossi joined, "it's not like I'm pleased about it, but…"

"We have to find Reid," Hotch cut them all off.

Morgan shook his head. "He got away too, didn't he? We weren't able to catch him. As smart as he is, he's probably sitting somewhere in another state by now."

"I doubt that," Hotch spoke softly. In the sudden silence, he added, "He's been hurt."

"What?"

"How do you know that?" Morgan demanded, but there was considerable worry in his eyes.

The team leader sighed. "The blood we found… DNA proved it was his."

The silence that followed was, if possible, even deeper than previously. JJ covered her mouth with her hand in shock, and pure terror was readable on Prentiss' and Morgan's faces. Even Rossi seemed anxious.

After a couple of long seconds, Morgan spoke up in a barely audible voice. "You're saying… you're saying that I shot him?

In the next moment, all four other agents started talking at the same time.

"We can't be sure, it could have been one of the unsubs that wounded him as well," Hotch said.

"It's not your fault, Derek, you didn't see…" JJ said.

"You couldn't have known, we saw him run in the opposite direction," Rossi said.

"Everyone calm down, let's talk this over," Prentiss said, but no one seemed to listen.

Morgan didn't say anything, just lifted his hands to his head, then got up and stormed away. Hotch took a tentative step after him, but Rossi caught his arm.

"Let the ladies do that," he said softly.

Hotch nodded. "Tell him I don't blame him," he called after Prentiss and JJ who were already on their way.

"Now you'll have to sit up and stay sitting while I change your bandage," Jessica ordered as Reid was finished with his tea.

But Reid didn't want to sit up at all. He knew the pain that was waiting for him and that thought alone made him uncomfortable.

"Um… could I have something to eat before that?" He attempted.

"You can have your breakfast as soon as I'm finished," Jessica laughed. "Come on, don't be a baby, you know I need to do this or the infection will get worse."

Reid didn't like how Jessica pronounced the word 'baby'. He sighed and turned to his side, trying to sit up; Jessica took hold of his arm and helped him as much as she could. Within moments, he was finally seated upright, with his side on fire and his head swimming. He had to close his eyes to overcome the dizziness, and groaned involuntary from the pain.

"Shh, it's okay, we're there," the girl tried to calm him. "Now just stay still."

She carefully unwrapped the bloody bandage. The wound surely wasn't a nice sight; it had been definitely infected. Jessica gently cleaned it with a wet cloth, then reached for the antiseptic which was left on the bedside table from yesterday.

"Now this is gonna sting a bit," she announced and a moment later Reid inhaled sharply as the cold liquid touched the injury. He absorbed the burning pain with closed eyes and deep breaths. Then, when it dropped to a more bearable level, he opened his eyes and before he could stop himself, he began to speak.

"Did you know that the first antiseptic was discovered by a Scottish doctor named Joseph Lister? He was the first to use a chemical to prevent patients who had been through a surgery from developing infections, and it was carbolic acid."

"Really?" Jessica smiled while she was busy re-doing the bandage with clean white gauze. Reid was still breathing hard and seemed to be having trouble staying upright. So she decided to distract him from the pain. "Go on. I'm interested!"

The young agent smiled and looked at her. "Really?" He asked this time.

"Well Lister heard about the French scientist, Louis Pasteur's theory, in which Pasteur stated that there were little organisms called bacteria that were responsible for the spoiling of meat and milk. Lister then thought that these bacteria might have caused the infection in some of his patients too, and decided to try something that could kill them off. He made sure that all medical tools were cleaned in this substance before each surgery, and when a patient developed an infection, he put the chemical directly on the wound to destroy the germs."

"That's really interesting. I've never heard of that before!" Jessica marveled.

"And guess what, with this method Dr. Lister managed to drop the death rate after his surgeries from 50 to 15 percent!"

"How do you know so much?" The girl asked. She was finished with the bandage; now she got up and started pushing Reid gently back onto the pillows.

"I think I just… tend to read a lot." The young agent answered. "I remember everything I've read; I have an eidetic memory. You know… it's like I was photographing the things I see with my brain." He explained, blushing slightly.

"You have to be kidding me," Jessica smiled and shook her head. "That means you could tell me, for example, who was the nineteenth president of the US?"

"Rutherford B. Hayes," Reid said without thinking. "He governed from 1877 to 1881 and his vice president was William A. Wheeler."

"It's amazing," Jessica admitted. "Then where did the Olympic games take place in 1952?"

"Summer or winter Olympic games?"

Jessica laughed.

"Summer games took place in Helsinki, Finland. Winter games in Oslo, Norway. What else do you wish to know?"

"You're like a walking lexicon," the girl said, still laughing.

Reid smiled too. "My colleagues keep telling me the same, I wish I knew why," he joked.

"You won," Jessica said, "now let's get back to your meal, should we? I had toast and bacon for breakfast, are you okay with that?"

"Absolutely," Reid nodded. "Thanks."

It turned out though that he wasn't as hungry as he'd felt before. He managed to fight down only one of the two pieces of toast, and it felt like one more bite would make him throw up. In addition, now that his stomach was full, the bandage around his abdomen felt a lot tighter, and breathing once again became a painful action.

Jessica obviously saw the change on Reid's face as she sympathetically touched his hand. "Don't worry, it'll be a lot better tomorrow."

"I hope so," Reid breathed. He began to feel cold; the fever must have started kicking in with renewed force.

"I'll let you rest a bit, okay?" The girl offered and stood up. "Call me if you need anything."

"Thank you," the young agent nodded again. "Hey, just one thing, if my colleagues from the FBI come back, say you never saw me."

Jessica didn't answer, just stood there in the door, watching the kid who was already half asleep, not sure what to do. Should she really lie to federal agents? She didn't want to get in trouble, although she felt sorry for this injured young man that looked so desperate to hide from his co-workers. But why would he want to hide from them at all? Or was it only the fever making him say this? Jessica was completely puzzled.

After a few moments of thinking, she shrugged and went back in the living room. If nothing better came to her mind before then, she'd just pretend not to be at home.

Okay I know we haven't gotten closer to knowing what happened to Reid in the past so the cliffie can still be smelled, but I promise I'll try to update fast. Hugs,

Kay