AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay so, here we go! The next chapter! I hope you like it. Thank you so so so much to Pembie, Dextolan, and Juna Izumi for taking the time to comment. Getting your reviews really put a smile on my face! If you're out there and you're reading this story, I'd really appreciate it if you could let me know what you think. You don't have to write an essay. Just, did you like it? Is there anything you want to see happen? Do you have any theories as to why Reid is behaving the way he is? Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Anything at all? :-)

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Chapter 6

i.

2 weeks later…

"Okay, Agent Morgan, if you can just hold Penelope's ankle, like this" said the physiotherapist, clearly finding it hard not to smirk.

Everyone had been briefed on this most unusual of situations but it was still hard for people to deal with, and they all seemed to think that they could make jokes about it whenever they wanted to.

"…and um… put your other hand here on the underside of her thigh…" she continued.

Morgan blushed a little, but did as he was told, placing his hands a little uncertainly, and looking at Reid as he lay limply on the bed, dressed in pink heart-patterned pyjamas.

"Like this?" he asked, looking decidedly embarrassed.

"Yep, you got it!" said the physio, giving him a reassuring smile and guiding him in how to move Reid's leg. "Okay, so, we're going to bend her leg up towards her chest, slowly and gently, like this… and then bring it back out into a straight position." She looked down at Reid as he winced in pain, and said, "Now, Penelope, I'm afraid this is going to hurt a bit… at first… Your muscles are very stiff and it's going to take a while to get them working again properly."

Reid nodded and bit his bottom lip, obviously in pain.

The physio turned to Morgan again, giving him an encouraging smile, and said, "Okay, let's try that again…" Looking back at Reid, she winked at him, and said, "What are boyfriends for, eh?!"

"He's… my fiancé" said Reid, wincing a little with the pain, "We're getting married… n-ext year!"

Morgan's eyes widened, wondering where on earth that had come from, and then glanced at the physio. He suddenly felt like it was about 100 degrees in here.

"Is that so?" she replied, a hint of a smirk playing on her lips.

"Yeah, that's right." answered Reid, with a happy little smile, "Next year."

Morgan gazed down at him. A sudden image of their wedding flashing through his mind, with the two of them in suits, and all their smiling friends and family gathered round. He could see them having their first dance with all eyes on them, and feeding each other wedding cake, and posing for photos. Then there'd be the honeymoon… maybe somewhere tropical… a big bed with rose petals… It didn't seem like such a terrible prospect at all.

'Jesus! Get a grip, Derek!' he scolded himself, when he realised that his imagination was running away with him again, and not only that, but he appeared to have turned into a teenage girl!

"Well, then!" exclaimed the physio, speaking to Reid, "We'll have to get you up and about so you can walk down that aisle! Won't we?! …Have you picked a date yet?!"

Morgan glanced at her sideways, still moving Reid's leg just like the physio had shown him, and gave her a look of disdain.

"Not yet." Replied Reid, "We're not going to rush… into things… We'll decide when I get better."

Morgan really began to feel like this whole thing was getting out of control, and wondered if Reid would remember these conversations, and feel that he'd been ridiculed. He didn't like where this was going.

They'd had a team conference with Dr Nash, the psychiatrist, to understand what was happening, and to reassure themselves that they were doing the right thing. Medical advice was to play along at all cost.

Morgan had raised his concerns about the part that he was playing in this whole thing. He was worried that posing as Reid's boyfriend, and letting him think that his delusions were real, was simply setting him up for a fall. Hotch was in agreement, but the psychiatrist had insisted, asking that they persevere for just a little bit longer and see how things played out. They weren't happy about it, but they'd agreed for Reid's sake.

"Okay, Penelope" said the physio, "I think we'll try to get you standing, if that's okay?" She nodded at Morgan to come round to the top of the bed. "I just want to see what your weight bearing is like. Is that okay with you?"

"I… I guess so" said Reid, looking very nervous and starting to breathe a little too fast. "Are… you s-sure… I won't fall?!"

"No Penelope, you definitely won't fall!" she said, giving him a reassuring smile. "Not when you've got this big strong boyfriend… sorry, 'fiancé'… here to help me hold you up!"

Morgan threw her another dirty look. He didn't like what she was doing, teasing them like this.

Doing his best to hide the fact that he was annoyed, he turned to smile at Reid again, and fixed his hair for him a little, tucking it behind his ears.

"It'll be okay!" he said, giving him a light little kiss on the cheek.

Kissing him had started to get a little easier, probably easier than he wanted it to be. There was a small voice in the back of his head screaming at him to take a step back. 'You're going to get hurt, Derek!' it shouted at him, 'You're going to end up broken-hearted, and then where will we be?!'

"We've got you!" he said, stroking Reid's arm reassuringly, "Okay Baby?"

The physio pulled over a standing frame and placed it beside the bed in front of Reid. She lifted both his legs and gently swung them round so they were hanging out of the bed to the side. Nodding at Morgan to lift him up by the shoulders, they brought him slowly into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, with Morgan and the physio holding him in an upright position and stopping him from falling forward.

"I'm… g-going to stand up!" said Reid, grinning up at Morgan with an excited look on his face. He turned to look at the physio and said, "Let's… do this!"

Morgan and the physio lifted Reid onto his feet, positioning his arms on the arm rests of the standing frame, and he stood there wobbling and swaying on shaky white legs. Morgan couldn't help looking, now that he was up on his feet, and shook his head a little. Dressed as he was now in a small pair of pink shorts with little red hearts on them, he'd begun to look alarmingly feminine. JJ had gone as far as shaving his legs for him and had even painted his toenails. He gazed at the man in front of him, with his impossibly big hazel eyes, and wondered what he'd say if he could see himself. He'd probably be horrified to be showing so much flesh!

"Wooaaah!" said Reid, shaking his head a little and closing his eyes. It was clear that he was breathing a lot heavier too. "I fffeeeel woozy" he slurred, "I think I'm gonna be s-sick!"

"It's okay, Penelope!" said the physio, "That's normal! You've been lying down for weeks now… Standing up can feel very strange… It'll pass… Just breathe!"

Morgan put his hand on top of Reid's, and smiled at him, when he opened his eyes and looked up at him. "It'll be okay!" he said, kissing him on the forehead, "Just breathe through it."

"Oh, my god! This is amazing!" exclaimed the real Garcia as she stood in the doorway. "I can't believe you're standing!"

"Hey" said Morgan, suddenly feeling quite awkward.

He didn't like having the others there when he was having to play the part of the 'doting boyfriend'. He'd had to kiss Reid properly in front of Garcia the other evening, and he'd been surprised to see a look of disgust on her face. She'd tried to hide it, but he'd seen it very clearly. Things had been a bit weird between them for the next few days. They were really only getting back onto an even keel now and he really didn't want to mess things up again. This was all getting so complicated.

"A-amazing, huh?!" grunted Reid, as he struggled with the strain of it all. "I'll… b-be… w-walking again soon!"

"One step at a time" said the physio, giving him a little wink.

Reid rolled his eyes. "Lame joke" he said.

"I think that's enough for today" she continued, seeing how badly he was shaking and sweating. It was obviously taking an enormous amount of effort to stay on his feet. "Why don't we get you into a wheelchair?" she asked, looking back and forth between Morgan and Garcia. "Maybe you'd all like to go outside and get some fresh air?"

Reid nodded, shaking violently now with the effort to stay upright, and Garcia pushed the wheelchair over for them to lower him in. He gave a sigh of relief and sat in the chair hyperventilating.

"I'm so proud of you!" said Morgan, kneeling down in front of him and putting his hand on Reid's knee. "That was amazing!"

Garcia stared at Morgan and Reid as they shared a tender little moment, kissing right there in front of her. She knew that it was irrational for her to feel jealous, especially when Morgan had made it abundantly clear that this wasn't something that he wanted to do. And even more so because she was the one that had begged him to do it in the first place! But they just seemed to be growing very close, and that kiss the other night had been verging on indecent! She was beginning to wonder if Morgan was developing feelings for him

'You're being ridiculous!' she told herself, over and over, "Morgan isn't gay!"

Even so… she couldn't quite push the thought away.

ii.

"…Bet it feels good to be outside?!" babbled Garcia, as she walked beside Reid's wheelchair into the garden. She'd been talking non-stop since they'd left physiotherapy but Reid hadn't said a thing. "It's so hot and stuffy in there!" she continued, "Isn't it nice to breathe in some nice fresh air?!"

Reid looked up at her and gave her a tired smile.

"Y-yeah… it's good" he said quietly.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

He nodded, but avoided eye contact, and pulled his baby pink dressing gown around himself a little tighter.

"What's wrong?" she asked, kneeling down and taking his hand.

He didn't answer for a moment, but then he shook his head and glanced up at her. "I'm just… so tired." he sighed, in a small voice, "And I feel like I'm not me... like there's something I've forgotten about myself... but everything's... like a thick fog..."

Suddenly, his eyes were welling up a little bit and he was frantically trying to blink back the tears. He seemed to cry so easily now that any little thing could set him off.

"Hey!" she said, glancing up at Morgan in concern, "It's okay! …We can take you back inside if you're too tired?"

He shook his head, and shakily lifted his hand to wipe his tears away.

"Sorry… I just…" he started to say, "I'm… just… This is so… so hard."

He gave a sigh and looked up at Morgan with big teary eyes.

"I'm just… so useless!" he sobbed, "I can't do anything for myself… I feel so weak… I'm pathetic!"

"Hey, baby! You're not pathetic!" Morgan assured him, as he hunkered down at the side of the chair, "You're getting better! Every day, you get better!" He glanced apologetically at Garcia, and then began gently stroking the side of Reid's face. "You took a really big step today!" he said, giving him a quick peck on the lips, "That's not nothing, baby! I'm so proud of you!"

Reid smiled, wiping clumsily at his tears again and put his hand on Morgan's chest just above his heart.

"Thanks…" he said, "I'm just… a bit em-emotional!"

He glanced at the real Garcia and gave her an embarrassed little smile.

She looked back at him, gently stroking his hair behind his ear, and fixed his little hairclips for him. She tilted her head at him and smiled. She couldn't help thinking that he actually looked weirdly pretty, despite his puffy eyes.

"You're gonna be okay!" she said, getting a little teary herself, "Look how far you've come already! You were standing today! …I bet in a week we'll be out here together, walking around!"

"Thanks Reid" he smiled, "I hope …I hope so!"

Morgan took his hand and gave it a little squeeze. "You will, Baby Girl!" he smiled, "We all believe in you!"

Garcia gasped and turned away when the two began to kiss again.

Her stomach clenched a little at the use of Morgan's nickname for her. 'Baby Girl'. It was about the millionth time that he'd said it in front of her now, and somehow it felt like it was losing its magic for her. Those two little words had always made her a little weak at the knees, but Reid was the one getting all the 'Morgan charm' now. He was the one that got to see that gorgeous smile every morning, the one that Morgan looked at like he was the most beautiful woman in existence. She hated it!

Was it wrong that she was jealous of poor little brain-damaged Reid? Why did he get to kiss her Chocolate Adonis like that, when she'd never had the pleasure herself?! The man that she loved was currently locking lips with her junior G-man and there was nothing that she could do to stop it! She'd been out-Garcia'd by one of her closest friends! She wanted to scream!

"Okay… You two need to get a room…" she said a little bitterly, "You know… not everyone wants to see…

Her voice died away when she spotted Hotch in the distance. He was watching from across the hospital garden and he definitely didn't look happy!

iii.

"Hotch! I don't know what it is you want from me!" groaned Morgan, "I'm just doing what you asked me to do! You asked me to pretend to be 'Garcia's' boyfriend… I mean, Reid's!... God! This is so confusing! …I mean… You asked me to do that!"

He knew that Hotch was angry with him. He could see it in every inch of the man's body language. Standing here right now, with him glaring at him like that, he felt like a small child about to be put on the naughty step.

"You asked me to!" he repeated, "…And now I'm doing it… And it's weirder than anything I could ever have imagined… But I'm doing it!" He rubbed his face in both hands. "You can't get angry with me… for doing exactly what you asked!"

"I didn't ask you to kiss him…" said Hotch, glancing down the corridor to make sure that they weren't overheard, "I didn't ask you to put your hands all over him either."

"I haven't touched him!" gasped Morgan, but his face had begun to heat up and the tone of his voice betrayed his guilt. "Nothing's happened" he insisted, "I've only kissed him."

"Morgan" frowned Hotch, "I saw you out in the garden a few minutes ago… I saw how… intimate the two of you have become…"

He grimaced a little at the implication, his mind already racing, and flashing through the events of the last few weeks. He tried to think how many little kisses there had been, how many little touches?! How much trouble was he in?!

"Hotch" he said, getting ready to defend himself, "I didn't… I haven't…"

"I'm not angry" sighed Hotch, as he motioned for him to take a seat on one of the plastic chairs. He walked over and sat down on the seat beside him. "I understand that we've put you in an impossible position…" he continued, "…and things can become… confusing… especially given your feelings for him."

"My feelings?!" repeated Morgan, feeling a brewing sense of panic. "Hotch, what are you talking about?!"

Hotch held a hand up to tell him to be quiet and then fixed him with that 'oh so serious' expression of his. He felt himself begin to sweat a little, as dark brown eyes fixedly held his gaze. It was as though he was 'reading' him.

"I knew when we asked you to do this" sighed Hotch, "…I knew that it was asking a lot… and I worried that it would blur the lines for you…"

"Hotch, I don't know what you're talking about" he said.

"Derek" huffed the senior agent, "I respect you too much to dance around this thing so I'm just going to come out and say it! We both know that you have feelings for Reid… I see how you look at him… I see how you behave around him… and I saw how you were with him just now…"

Morgan looked at him, wide-eyed in shock. Hotch knew that he had feelings for Reid?! Was he that bad at hiding it?!

"I know that your feelings for Reid are not new" he continued, "I know that you've been feeling this way about him for quite some time…"

Morgan went to speak, but Hotch silenced him again.

"I didn't say anything" he tutted, "I didn't… because I didn't feel that it was my place… Who am I to say that you can't have amorous feelings for a colleague as long as you don't allow those feelings to affect your judgement? As long as you don't act on them?"

"Hotch, I… I… don't know what to say" stammered Morgan, "I mean… I was just…"

"Up until today, I thought that we could… manage the situation" said Hotch, "But I can see now that that's not the case…"

"I was just doing what I had to do to make it seem real for him…" said Morgan. He could feel his face burning with shame and he hated the way that Hotch was looking at him now. He felt dirty. He felt ashamed. "I'm not enjoying this…" he said, rubbing his shaved head in a weary sort of way, "I'm really not."

Hotch raised an eyebrow at him in a way that said he didn't believe him.

'The lady doth protest too much' he thought to himself a little miserably, and then smirked at the thought, because he knew that Reid would probably tell him he was using the quote incorrectly or start telling him a million useless facts about its origins. He could just hear him now… 'You know, there's a theory that Shakespeare didn't actually write any of the great works that we…'

"Does anyone else know?" he asked, keeping his eyes fixed on the floor.

"Rossi picked up on it a while back" said Hotch, "But I don't know about anyone else..."

"Can we keep this between us?" he asked, hating the almost begging tone of his own voice. 'Are you that big a coward?!' he growled at himself in his own head.

"I won't tell anyone" nodded Hotch, "But you shouldn't be ashamed... No-one on this team would ever judge you for that... or have any kind of issue with it... Surely, you know that, Morgan?"

"It's nobody's business!" he snapped angrily.

"That's true" said Hotch, "But... it is a part of you, Morgan... Part of who you are... and I don't think it's healthy for you to hide that from the team... from us... We care about you."

Morgan breathed out loudly but didn't respond to that.

"I'd ask you to think about it." said Hotch.

Morgan rolled his eyes and made a move to get up. He needed some fresh air.

"I'm going to have to ask you to take a step back" said Hotch, putting a hand on his arm to stop him, "I can't allow one of my agents to put himself in question like this… If anything were to happen… there would be a lot of uncomfortable questions asked… and I also have a responsibility to Reid…"

Morgan nodded sadly as he sat back down, and stared at the floor. He couldn't really argue with the man. He probably would have done the same thing himself if he'd been in Hotch's position.

"So… what are you gonna tell him?" he asked.

"That you've had to go away on a case" replied Hotch, "We'll manage him, look after him… Garcia can work from his room if she has to… make it her base for the next few weeks."

"And what do I do in the meantime?" he asked, sounding thoroughly depressed.

"I want you doing paperwork" he answered, "Going over the last case… keeping busy… I think you need some time to figure things out for yourself… and I can't have you around Reid anymore… Not like you've been doing." He got to his feet and went to walk away but stopped when Morgan called out to him.

"Can I be the one to tell him?" he asked, looking up at him with sadness in his eyes, "Can you at least let me do that?!"