AUTHOR'S NOTE: Apologies for the delay on this chapter, and thank you sooooo much to all my lovely reviewers (Dextolan, Pembie, Juna Izumi, AceAttorneyFantic, and Gawain!) You have no idea how much your comments mean to me. It's so lovely to see an email come through and know that someone is enjoying your writing. Gawain – Sorry I can't send you a PM but just wanted to say that I really appreciate you taking the time to give me feedback Hugs to all of you! xx
Chapter 9
i.
Morgan looked up when he heard the door at the end of the corridor bang open and a gurney was pushed through quickly. Doctors and nurses were crowded around it, and talking loudly, as they rushed along the corridor. Everyone seemed to be competing to be heard over the screams of the young patient.
"…12-year-old…"
"BP elevated… 140 / 92"
"We're gonna need a CBC, LFTs, and a CT scan"
"On it… What about a drug screen?"
"Yeah… Chem panel too."
"Jimmy?! Jimmy, look at me?!" said the doctor nearest the patient's head, "We need you to slow your breathing for us… Just try to calm down… We're just trying to help you, Jimmy…"
Morgan clambered to his feet, and watched as the gurney stopped in front of him, the doctors waiting for the elevator. The patient was a young boy about 12 years old who was clearly in great distress. He was bucking his body off the bed and twisting his head from side to side but they'd used restraints to keep him in place. There were straps around his wrists and ankles, which he was frantically pulling at, but some of the nurses and doctors were having to forcibly hold him down.
The boy roared something unintelligible into the oxygen mask that they had covering his face but began coughing and spluttering, and they had to turn him a little to allow him to vomit.
"Shhh, come on, kid" said one of the doctors as he held the oxygen mask away from the boy's face, and rubbed his back, "Come on… Just breathe…"
The boy's eyes flicked up towards the doctor's for a moment and held him with a gaze of pure hatred.
"Fuck you!" he growled through gritted teeth, vomit still clinging to his chin.
Morgan stepped forward and looked a little closer now that the boy's face was turned towards him. 'It can't be!' he thought to himself, 'It can't!'
But it was! It was James De Luca from the bombsite! The little boy that Reid had saved! He would have recognised that face anywhere! What on earth had happened to him?!
"He's seizing!" shouted the lead doctor, as the elevator door 'bing-ed' open, "We need to get him to resusc!"
Morgan stood watching as the elevator door closed behind them, and then he pulled his phone out to call Hotch. He needed to know if this had some connection to the case they were working or if it was just a strange coincidence that Jimmy had been brought in gasping for breath. He held the phone to his ear but frowned in confusion when he heard Hotch's ringtone in the hallway. He looked up from his phone to see a dark-haired man right in front of him.
"Hotch?!" he said, with a look of surprise and guilt.
He was just standing there only a few feet away from him; a look of thunder on his face. "Did I not make myself clear?" he asked quietly, his voice stiff with anger.
"Hotch… I… I just…" he began to stammer.
But just then, Rossi walked through the door with his phone to his ear, and threw him a questioning glance as he finished his call. "You got here fast" he said to him, as he put his phone away. There was a little smirk playing on his lips of course. He knew why he was there!
"They've taken him up to resusc" said Hotch, giving Morgan a look that said 'I'll deal with you later'.
Morgan nodded and followed them to the elevator. "Someone want to fill me in on what's going on?" he asked.
ii.
"He's not answering my text messages!" whined Reid, as he stared down at his phone looking upset. "I don't understand! He just left me… He said he was going to take a phone call and then he just sent a nurse to tell me that he'd gone. He was supposed to call me, but he hasn't!"
"He's probably just tied up at work" said Emily, sitting down on the end of his bed and patting his leg. She cocked her head to one side and gave him a sympathetic smile, thinking how hurt and vulnerable he seemed in this moment. "I'm sure he'll give you a call soon" she said, trying to reassure him. She glanced at the door, wondering when everyone else was going to get here and what the big emergency was. 'Get here now' Rossi had text her, and she'd come straight away, but she hadn't been told what was going on. They'd just asked her to babysit Reid and said that they'd put her in the picture later. It was all very cloak and dagger.
Reid shook his head at her. "I fell over, Emily! …I fell over like an idiot …and Derek saw me …It was so embarrassing! You should have seen the way he looked at me! …He couldn't get out of here fast enough! It was like he suddenly didn't want to touch me or have anything to do with me!"
He wiped at the tears that had started rolling down his cheeks and looked up at her with eyes full of hurt.
"Now he's not even answering my messages! And his phone is going straight to voicemail! He just doesn't want to talk to me!"
He wiped at his eyes again with the sleeve of his pyjama top and his chin trembled as he tried not to cry.
"What am I supposed to think?!" he continued, "…Why would he do that?! I mean…Is it…is it… Is it that he doesn't want a…?!" He looked down and motioned at his own body with a look of disgust, "Maybe he just thinks all of this is too much!"
"Garcia! Seriously?!" scolded Emily, as she shook her head at him emphatically, "Morgan would not leave you because you fell over! Or because you can't walk well at the moment! What kind of man do you think he is?! That's completely ridiculous! …He wouldn't do that! You know Morgan wouldn't do that." She reached for his hand and gave him a sad little smile, "He wouldn't! …He loves you!"
She knew that this was all getting into very dangerous territory, and she couldn't help feeling guilty about lying to him like this. but seeing how upset he was about it all, she just wanted to calm him down and make him feel safe. Lying to him seemed like the kinder option right now.
"He'll call you!" she said, nodding at him in as sincere a way as possible.
She looked around the room and noted that this one was a bit more swish than the one he'd been in up to now. He had a flat screen TV up on the wall and his own little bathroom.
"Why did they move you in here?" she asked, trying to change the subject and distract him a little, "Did Rossi pull some strings for you? Pretty fancy, eh?!"
He shrugged and wiped at his eyes again. "I don't know… Maybe? …They just came and moved me late last night…" he said, gazing around the room. "Everyone's been acting really weird and I'm starting to get a little freaked!"
"What do you mean?" asked Emily, looking at him with a mixture of concern and curiosity. "What's going on?"
Reid glanced at the door to his room to make sure there was no one there and beckoned for Emily to lean in so he could whisper to her. "The nurses keep talking about me… All they do is whisper! They're always outside my room whispering and looking at me weirdly… I don't know what they're doing but it's making me really nervous. It's like there's some big joke that I'm not a part of!"
Emily grimaced a little, thinking about the fact that Reid was starting to pick up on the dishonesty of the people around him, and wondered how long it would be before he realised that his 'family' was lying to him too. She thought how hurt he would be when he found out the truth.
"I'm sure it's not like that!" she said, starting to blush a little red but hoping that her guilt and discomfort wouldn't show too much.
"It is!" he said, nodding at her in an insistent sort of way, "They all seem to think that there's something really funny!"
He glanced again at the doorway as though he was worried that someone would overhear what he said. Keeping his voice really low, he looked at Emily with big worried eyes.
"Some new doctor came to see me too…" he whispered, "He kept asking me weird questions…"
"What kind of questions?" asked Emily, furrowing her brow at him. She could see how scared and upset he was and wanted to be supportive and put his mind at ease. "I'm sure it was just routine" she said, giving his leg another little pat.
Reid looked down, flushing red in the face, and looked ashamed and embarrassed. He glanced up at Emily and tears started to roll down his cheeks again.
"He kept asking me what I look like!" he said, unable to maintain eye contact with her. "He gave me a mirror and he asked me to describe myself… so I did… and the nurse that was with him just started to laugh!"
"Oh, sweetheart!" exclaimed Emily, biting her lower lip in a nervous kind of way. "I don't think she'll have meant anything by it!" she said, feeling a little sick at the thought of him finding out what the joke really was. This was all getting so sick and twisted.
He stared off into space with a very sad expression on his face, and then lifted his hand and started to chew one of his pink manicured finger nails.
"Am… am I just really ugly now?"
"God, no!" she gasped.
"Morgan seems to think so" he sighed, "Y'know… me and Morgan? …We haven't had sex since this happened and …I don't think he even wants to!"
She did feel sorry for him but she was also finding it hard not to laugh, more out of nerves than anything else. She couldn't imagine the real Reid ever speaking quite so bluntly about sex. An image of his flustered little face flashed through her mind as she imagined him trying to initiate sex. He'd be so shy, so awkward… Even just saying the words would probably put him in a tailspin! It just wasn't something he'd be comfortable with!
She moved up the bed to sit beside him, putting her arm around his shoulder, and leaned her head against his.
"Hey" she said, in a soft and soothing voice, "I don't think it's like that, sweetie… It'll be okay, you'll see!"
She held him as he cried in her arms and wondered what on earth they were going to do now! Morgan had all but done a disappearing act since yesterday, under the strictest orders from Hotch, but how were they going to explain that to a heartbroken 'Garcia'?! This was just so difficult for everyone involved!
After what seemed like an eternity, he seemed to have calmed down, so she gave his shoulder a little squeeze. "Maybe we could watch a movie?" she suggested.
He lifted his head and looked at her in an embarrassed sort of way.
"Yeah, maybe" he said, glancing nervously at the doorway. He looked back at her and blushed a little red. "Could I ask you a favour, Emily? Please?" he asked, looking decidedly shamefaced.
"Yeah, course" she replied, wondering what this favour was going to entail. If he looked this embarrassed, she figured it wasn't going to be something easy.
"Um… Could you…" he said, faltering a little and looking anxiously at the door again, "Could you help me go to the toilet?" He could see how uncomfortable she looked with the whole idea, so he added, "I just don't want those nurses laughing at me anymore! …I really need to go! …Please Emily?!"
She flushed bright red and wondered if there was any way that she could get out of it. This was all just getting too weird! She'd never helped anyone on and off a toilet before, and certainly not a man! Looking at him now though, with his big plaintive eyes and wounded expression, she knew that she couldn't say no.
"Um… okay…" she said, glancing desperately at the door again and willing one of the others to walk through it and save her. No-one came! She got to her feet and dithered by the side of the bed feeling really unsure about what to do. "How… how do we?" she asked, with her face burning bright red with the embarrassment of it all.
"Just help me get up" said Reid, pulling himself over to the side of the bed and holding out one of his arms to put around Emily's shoulder. "I just can't manage it with my crutches" he said, hoisting himself to his feet in a wobbly way.
She led him slowly into his private little bathroom and they stood in front of the toilet. "Um… okay….so, now what?" asked Emily, doing her best to sound relaxed about what they were doing.
Reid bit his bottom lip and gave her an embarrassed little glance. "You'll need to help me… with my pyjama bottoms" he said, motioning with his eyes.
She took a deep breath and did as he asked, pulling his pyjama shorts down, and then lowering him onto the toilet seat. She wondered at the fact that she was so uncomfortable with this whole thing. At the end of the day, she reasoned with herself, it wasn't like it was anything that she hadn't seen before! It was just a man with his pants down. Just a penis. Why was this all so embarrassing?! She figured it was probably more to do with the confusion of the situation. She knew that Reid would never have asked her to do this if he'd been in his right mind, and that he'd probably be mortified if he knew what was going on. In some ways, she almost felt like she was doing something very untoward, and taking advantage of him in some way.
She turned away, and listened to him pee, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her completely. When he'd finished, she turned back around to help him get up but she realised as soon as she looked at him that something was wrong.
He was looking down at the pink pyjama shorts gathered around his feet and holding his hands out in front of him as though he'd never seen them before. There was a look of shock and horror on his face and then he looked up at her.
"Wh-What?!" he stammered, as his eyes darted around the small bathroom and then back to her. "Where am I?!" he asked her, trying to stand up, "What the hell is going on?!"
"Oh God!" she exclaimed, covering her mouth with her hand as he struggled to stand up.
In a flash, she'd put two and two together and realised that this was the real Reid. It was amazing how much his face had changed in just a moment or two. He was still wearing makeup but his expression was undeniably 'Reid-ish' now and she could see how distressed he was to find himself here in this bathroom, with her… with no explanation.
"Uh, Reid… I'll need to help you." she stammered, nodding down at his pyjama shorts so he'd see that he was in a state of undress. "You can't walk well. I'll need to help you."
"What?!" he snapped at her, and gave her a dirty look. "Stay away from me!" he growled, taking his hand off the handrail beside the toilet and trying to stoop to pick up the shorts.
As soon as he began to bend down, he wobbled badly and nearly lost his balance, before gripping onto the handrail again and righting himself. He shook his head, realising that he couldn't walk, and gave a heavy sigh in a defeated sort of way.
"Just? …Please?" he asked her, looking thoroughly humiliated and motioning with his head to the shorts around his ankles.
She pulled the shorts up for him, flushing bright red in the face, as he watched her crouch down in front of him. Helping the Garcia version of Reid was one thing, but helping Reid, now that he was fully aware of what was going on, was quite another!
"I'll help you back to the bed" she said, tentatively pulling his arm over her shoulder to support him as they walked. He gave in, looking thoroughly miserable, and they wobbled their way back out into the room and towards the bed.
"Emily, what the hell is going on?!" he asked, looking at her angrily, as though all of this was her fault. "Where are we?! Am I in hospital?!"
"Yes… this is the hospital" she said, lowering him onto the side of the bed and taking his hand in hers. "You were in an explosion, and you have a head injury."
He put his hand on his head, and began feeling all over it, stopping when he found the large scar and the feeling of four little screws under the flesh. His eyes widened at her and he said, "They operated?!"
She nodded and gave him a sad little smile. "You were in a coma for 6 weeks… You only woke up a few weeks ago."
"But… but I can't have" he said, frowning and shaking his head at her. "I just … just woke up now… I haven't…" he stammered, looking down at his feet and legs. "Why do I have pink toenails?!" he asked, straightening his leg out in front of him. "Why are my legs shaved?!"
She sat down on the side of the bed beside him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Things have been a bit confused." she said, squeezing his shoulder and giving him a pitying little smile. "I think maybe I should go and get the doctors for you and they can explain?" she said, starting to get up.
"No!" he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her back down onto the bed beside him. "Please, Emily?! Just tell me!" he pleaded, with fear in his eyes. "Why am I wearing these clothes?! What on earth is going on?! …I need to know!"
She nodded slowly, and stared down at the floor, wondering where to start. "You thought you were a girl" she said, looking back up at him and tilting her head sympathetically. "You thought you were Garcia!"
"But… but I am Garcia" he said, looking at her in a confused way, "What are you talking about?!"
And just like that, Reid was gone again.
"We were just talking about the explosion…?" ventured Emily.
"Were we?" he asked, looking down at the ground and shaking his head slightly. "I don't remember what we were talking about." His eyes began to fill with tears and he looked at her with obvious fear etched across his face. "Why is this happening to me?! I keep forgetting stuff! …It's like I just go away for a while and when I come back people are being really weird! …What is wrong with me?!"
She put her arm around his shoulder again to comfort him, "I think we need to speak to the doctors about this, sweetie."
"Okay" he said, nodding his head sadly and hugging his arms around himself. "I'm just… I'm such a mess!" he sobbed.
