AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you once again to my lovely reviewers (Pembie, Gawain, Dextolan and PoxyTraitors - Thank you sooooooo so much. Your reviews mean a lot to me!) Sorry it's taken me so long to post a new chapter. Hope you like this one! :-)
To anyone else reading this, it would be really nice if you could leave a comment. Literally one or two words. As I've said before, any feedback at all is welcome. Thumbs up, thumbs down, anything? Is it too weird? Is it confused? Is there repetitive language that's getting on your nerves? Is it one of the most stupid stories you've ever read? haha! Seriously, anything at all?
Chapter 11
24 hours later…
"How long has he been in there now?!" asked Garcia, nervously twisting her hands and glancing over at Emily as they sat in the waiting area. "It wasn't meant to take this long, was it?!"
Emily looked up from the magazine that she was pretending to read and gave a huff of exasperation. Garcia had asked that question twenty times already and if she wasn't asking that then she was phoning Hotch, Rossi and JJ to find out if there was any news on Morgan. He hadn't answered anyone's calls yet and even Garcia, with all her techy knowhow, hadn't managed to track him down. They were beginning to worry and everyone's nerves were wearing thing.
"It's an aneurysm!" snapped Emily, "He's not having an ingrown toenail removed! It'll take as long as it takes!"
They'd discovered damage to Reid's lungs as a result of the explosion. It wasn't as severe as that of the young boy, but it was worrying. The doctors said that he would probably have some breathing problems in later life. Of more concern had been the brain lesions caused by the fumes he had inhaled. Acting almost like a solvent, he had developed some areas of necrotic tissue, and one of the blood vessels had become very enlarged and was putting pressure on the frontal lobe. They were hopeful that surgery would resolve the issue and that, with a bit of luck, the old Reid would be back permanently. Now it was just a waiting game, and Emily and Garcia had agreed to be the one to stay and wait.
"You pecking at my head every few minutes isn't going to speed things up!" complained Emily.
"Okay!" Garcia snapped back, "I'm just worried about him, okay?! My sweet little baby cheeks is in there getting his head chopped open, that beautiful big brain of his, in some surgeon's hands?! ...How am I not supposed to be all kinds of messed up?!" She started looking up at the ceiling and fanning her eyes to stop from crying. "Just because you can hold it together, like some kind of ice maiden, it doesn't mean everyone can!"
"Garcia" sighed Emily, " I didn't mean..."
"So, I'm freaking out, because that's what I do" she continued, ignoring the half-hearted apology. She wiped at her tears delicately so as not to smear her makeup, "I'm freaking out about two of my babies right now... about my little baby genius in there, and now Morgan too! So, you're gonna have to cut me some slack if I peck your head a little, because you're the only person here, and I don't know any other way to be! I don't know how to not blink. Look at me, Emily, I'm blinking like a crazy woman, right here!" She glanced back over at her, a little out of breath from her impassioned speech and gave her a determined look. "Okay?!" she challenged.
"Okay" answered Emily.
"Okay then" nodded Garcia.
"I'm sure he's okay" said Emily, sounding less than convincing, "He's probably just gone to blow off some steam... This whole thing... It has to have been hard on him... Pretending."
"I guess" sighed Garcia, "But, I mean, why would he do this?! He knows what it means to just disappear, to go off the radar …I just don't think he'd scare us like this."
"You know how angry he was" she replied, "How big that fight with Hotch was... Maybe he just got trashed and hooked up with someone..." She failed to see the hurt expression on Garcia's face and gave a nervous little laugh. "He'll probably come slinking back with his tail between his legs... That sheepish grin on his face..."
"Yeah" said Garcia, "Probably..." She took her phone out of her bag and checked for any messages. "Nothing! ...I've sent him a couple of messages to tell him what's happening with Reid. I mean, he wouldn't ignore something as serious as that... An aneurysm?! You know how much he cares about that boy."
"Maybe he didn't get them?" ventured Emily.
"That's what I'm worried about" she replied, "Why isn't he getting them?! I mean, what will our junior G-man say when he wakes up and finds out he still isn't here?! We promised him!"
"We should probably be more worried about what he's going to say when he wakes up and finds out what the two of them have been doing!" replied Emily, with a little grimace, " I mean, if the operation's successful, and they relieve the pressure, then we're gonna have shy little Spencer Reid back with us, and you know how easily embarrassed he is... What's he gonna say when he finds out how much 'closer' he and Morgan have become? He's not gonna be a happy Reid, I'm telling you now!"
"Morgan didn't mean for those things to happen!" she said, sounding defensive on his behalf, mainly because she didn't want to believe that the object of her desires was in any way into what had been happening in that hospital room. "He stopped him from doing anything... from letting it go too far."
"But stuff still happened" shrugged Emily, "And Reid'll be embarrassed when he finds out... I don't know how we're gonna explain to him why we let Morgan behave like his boyfriend... He might think he's been taking advantage of him... and we basically endorsed it. We've messed up!" She shook her head in wonder, "How do you think he's going to feel about that?"
"But they didn't actually do anything!" exclaimed Garcia, "Morgan would never have let it get that far, you know that."
"It went far enough from what Hotch said yesterday" she said, wrinkling her nose a little, "The touching, the kissing... Reid won't be happy. I mean, there's the stuff you have to do when you go undercover, I get that... but this seems..."
"You're not seriously accusing Morgan of... of behaving inappropriately?" she gasped.
"No, of course not" said Emily, "I don't mean like that... I just think he might have made some poor decisions..." She shook her head a little disapprovingly, "I mean, come on Garcia, a nurse said she saw Reid put his hand inside Morgan's pants!"
"And she also said Morgan stopped it immediately" she defended, " Reid's hand in his pants, not the other way around! And he got out of the bed as soon as he woke up and realised what was happening... It wasn't like he was into it."
"But he didn't report it?" grimaced Emily, "Come on, you can see how this looks from Hotch's point of view? Morgan knew Reid was ill, Garcia. He knew that, and he still climbed in that bed with him... and when things got out of hand, he didn't raise his concerns. He didn't go to Hotch and say 'You know what, sir? I'm not comfortable with my colleague fondling my junk'... He didn't say a word, just kept it quiet... That's what looks bad!"
"He was protecting Reid" argued Garcia, "Don't you think that would be even more embarrassing for him?! Hotch knowing that he did that?! That he basically felt Morgan up?!"
"There's protocol" said Emily, "It's there for a reason."
"Yeah, and how often do we, as a team, break protocol?" asked Garcia.
Emily nodded, she couldn't argue with that. "I still think he should have said something..."
"Yeah, well, maybe he should... but he was probably embarrassed too... and he probably thought it was easier if he just said nothing."
Emily nodded again. "And I'm not saying he did anything intentionally" she said, "But, you have to admit, it doesn't look good!" She sighed as she watched Garcia check her phone for the millionth time today. "He probably is embarrassed" she ventured, "Hotch called him out on it, and it's forced him to look at his actions in a new light. Maybe he doesn't like what he sees? I mean, especially with his history..."
"Oh, you did not just go there!" gasped Garcia.
"No, I don't mean like that!" replied Emily, "But he's bound to start overthinking it... you know, the abused becoming the abuser? Maybe it's freaking him out and he just needs some time to process things?"
"So, you really think he's okay?" asked Garcia, still sounding thoroughly unconvinced.
"We just have to focus on Reid now" she nodded, "And you know what the doctors said… They don't know what way Reid is going to wake up! If he's still 'you' when he wakes up… then he's really gonna need us here... Especially if Morgan is still AWOL."
Garcia sat forward and put her head in her hands. "This is such a nightmare!" she groaned, "I just wish I could wake up and everything would be back to normal... You know, like Dorothy?"
Emily looked up at her in a startled way and began to laugh. "Oh god!" she gasped, covering her mouth, "That's so funny!"
"What?" asked Garcia, confused by her friend's sudden change in mood.
"Dorothy!" giggled Emily, as she began to wipe tears from her eyes.
"Yeah... so?" asked Garcia, smiling despite herself, "Like in the Wizard of Oz? You know, ruby slippers?" It was unusual to see Emily laugh, let alone crack up hysterically, so she couldn't help being surprised.
"You're Dorothy!" she wheezed out through laughter and tears.
"Yes, Dorothy" said Garcia, starting to get a little impatient, "Judy Garland, over the rainbow... I just don't get why this is so funny?!"
"If you're Dorothy" she gasped out, holding her stomach, "Then that makes Reid and Morgan 'Friends of Dorothy'..." She shook her head in amusement at her own joke. "And considering what's been happening..."
Garcia tried to look annoyed. It was such a stupid joke, but there was something kind of sweet about Emily finding this whole thing so funny. "That's really bad" she said, as her face broke into a silly grin, "I mean, really Emily, that has to be one of the worst jokes I've ever heard!"
"Then why are you laughing?" asked Emily.
"I could ask the same thing" came a male voice.
"Hotch?!" gasped Emily, suddenly sobering as quickly as she'd begun to laugh, "Any news?!"
He gave a curt little shake of the head and handed them a tray with decent takeaway coffees, not bought in the hospital.
"What about Reid?" he asked as he sat down beside Emily, "He should have been out by now, shouldn't he?"
Garcia glanced at Emily and gave her a 'told you so' raise of the eyebrows.
"Not yet" replied Emily.
"Really, sir?" asked Garcia, "No word from Morgan? No sign of him?"
"Rossi and JJ are at his apartment right now" he said, looking concerned, "There's no answer, no sign of forced entry, but he's not picking up..."
"This is bad, isn't it?" gasped Garcia.
"Lets try not to overreact" said Hotch, giving her a tiny imperceptible smile that did nothing to hide his tense body language, "We don't know anything yet."
"What about that kid?" asked Garcia, "Have you located his family?"
"No" replied Hotch, "No sign of them either. House was empty. Neighbours said they haven't seen them for nearly a week... I hate to say it, but all we have is a lot of dead ends, and an agent, who as of yet is unaccounted for."
They all fell silent. Surely, Morgan going missing couldn't have anything to do with the Unsub? That would mean stepping completely outside his normal victimology. The bombers were all in their early to mid twenties before, and of a much more low-profile type. Being an agent of the FBI put Morgan in a completely different category... and he was far too old... Wasn't he?!
Hotch looked at his watch again and stared at the double doors hoping that the doctors would come back soon. All this waiting was making him feel sick with anxiety. Waiting to hear back from Rossi and JJ, or from Morgan himself. Waiting to hear if local law enforcement had managed to locate either of the boys' missing families. Waiting to see if any of Garcia's leads turned up anything. And most pressing in this moment, waiting to hear if Reid's op had gone okay... He hated waiting!
And the last thing he wanted was to have to sit here with Garcia and Prentiss, with them looking at him like this, but he knew that he couldn't leave until he knew how Reid was. He was scared! Reid hadn't actually consented to any of the tests, or to the subsequent surgery. He'd had to be dragged there kicking and screaming, and they'd had to forcibly sedate him. As his medical proxy, Hotch had been given the final say. Reid had blamed him of course, calling him 'a mean man on an ego trip' and threatening to set 'his chocolate God of thunder' on him for 'revenge'. Now he couldn't help worrying. What if Reid was unlucky?! What if he didn't make it through?! He wouldn't be able to live with himself if that happened.
They'd said that 1% of patients died during the procedure, and 3-4% of patients suffered stokes or brain haemorrhages. As far as brain surgeries went, those were pretty good odds, but that was five people in a hundred! What if Reid was one of the unlucky ones?! He didn't know how he could ever deal with that! His heart hurt just thinking about it! And what if he made it through but he just wasn't the same after? What if they never got their 'Reid' back?!
Suddenly the doors swung open and the neurosurgeon walked through the doors in his surgical scrubs and pulled the cap off his head. "It went well, guys" he said, giving them a big smile as he walked towards them, "No complications ...Exactly as planned."
"Can we see him?!" asked Garcia, now up on her feet and looking up at him with a nervous smile. "Is he awake?"
"Not yet" said the surgeon, "He's in recovery… but we'll send someone to get you when it's okay to go in there… Not all of you at once though… He's been through a lot!" He gave them a little smile and walked away to speak to one of the nurses.
ii.
Garcia teetered into the recovery room on much too high heels, with Emily trailing behind her, and made her way over to Reid's bed. He was still asleep and linked up to a heart monitor that was beeping away beside him. She let out a sigh of relief and lifted his hand in hers. "Reid?" she murmured softly, reaching out gently to caress the side of his face, "Spencer, sweetie, can you open your eyes?"
Emily glanced at her a little nervously, wondering whether it was a good idea to call him 'Reid' before they knew what the state of play was. There was every chance that he could still be 'Garcia' and calling him Reid would just be thoroughly confusing for him.
Garcia peered down at his peaceful face and wondered at how young and fragile he looked. Without all the makeup he'd been wearing lately, he just looked like a sick teenage boy. Maybe even a cancer patient on the paediatrics ward. His head was shaved again, giving him that pale and pallid appearance that looked particularly shocking, especially with the train track of staples now gracing his scalp. He looked anything but well.
Despite his less than healthy looks, she was relieved to see him looking more 'Reid' and less 'her'. She wanted the old Reid back. Hopefully, the Garcia version of him was already long gone, cut out of his head with a scalpel, and discarded as medical waste.
She tentatively put her hand on Reid's shoulder and sat down on the chair beside the bed. "Hey" she said again in a soft voice, "Baby cakes, can you open your eyes?"
Reids eyes slowly began to flutter open and he gave a low moan as he registered his discomfort and how woozy he felt. He slowly brought his eyes into focus and looked up at Garcia with a pained half-smile. "...Cia… I feel weird…" he whispered in a hoarse voice, squirming a little and grimacing in pain.
" I know, sweetie" she soothed.
"Mrrrrmmmmm…." he moaned, screwing his face up and gripping Garcia's hand a little too hard. "My head h-hurts!"
" I know" she sighed, wincing a little at his tight hold on her hand. "Sweetie" she coaxed, "Look at me? ...Can you tell me what your name is honey?"
He looked at her a little quizzically but winced again as he tried to shift a little. "My... uh... my name's Spen... Spencer... R-Reid" he said, coughing out the last word.
"Good!" she cried, smiling from ear to ear, "That's exactly right, my little genius pumpkin pie!"
He tried to return the smile but grimaced, when he felt the skin pulling on his scalp. "It really hurts, Garcia!" he moaned, as he allowed his eyes to slip shut, "I feel l-like s-someone cracked my h-head like a ... a wal... a walnut..." He opened his eyes a little again and looked up at Emily. "Wh...what ha...ppened?!" he asked, "Why does it all... all h-hurt so much?!"
"I'll get the doctor" said Emily, patting Reid's shoulder and nodding at Garcia with tears in her eyes. "They'll get you some more pain relief, Reid."
"NO!" he shouted, "Don't want... no morph..."
"Don't worry" she assured him, "No narcotics. They know."
With that, she ran out the door. She was so excited. She had to go and get Hotch immediately! Reid had recognised Garcia, and with those two little words, 'Spencer Reid', they'd already got their answer! This was the real Reid! The surgery had been successful and the real Reid was back for good. The man that they all loved was really back!
She ran out to the waiting area to get Hotch. "He's awake!" she called out excitedly when she saw that Rossi and JJ had arrived, "And he knows who he is!" She was grinning like a maniac and almost skipping.
They turned to look at her, but her face fell and she stopped in her tracks when she saw the expressions on the others' faces. They looked anything but happy. She could see that JJ had even been crying.
"What's wrong?" she asked as she approached cautiously.
Hotch turned to look at her with haunted eyes. "He's gone" he said, with a voice that was almost shaking.
"Who...who is?!" she asked, her heart already thumping.
"Morgan" said JJ, choking out a sob, "Someone's taken him!"
"We found his car" explained Rossi, with a grim expression, "There were signs of a struggle... He must have put up a hell of a fight. There's blood everywhere..."
"So much blood!" grimaced JJ, "I don't even want to think..."
"Not enough to be fatal" corrected Rossi, "But he's hurt bad... From the splatter, I'd guess he was shot at close range... He'd need medical attention... and fast."
"Oh god!" gasped Emily, still unable to take it in, "When?!"
"Age of the blood suggests yesterday afternoon" said Rossi, "So, the Unsub's got a good start on us..."
"You really think he could have survived it?" asked Emily.
"Well, he isn't at the scene" he replied, "So, unless this Unsub has a thing for dead bodies, I'd put my money on him being alive immediately following the attack, and long enough for him to be dragged to another vehicle. He fought him all the way, even managed to knock the asshole off his feet for a moment. We've got CSI working the foot prints and the tyre tracks... This guy left us a nice set of prints... right in the blood..."
Hotch grimaced a little. That was his agent's blood they were talking about, and it had happened on his watch. Again. They needed to get him back, and soon!
"So, yeah" continued Rossi, "I think the Unsub probably patched our boy up yesterday, enough so he can do whatever it is he has planned for him..."
JJ shuddered.
"This doesn't fit the MO of our current case..." said Hotch, "A violent abduction in broad daylight, with no clear link to any kind of brainwashing or mild altering substances. None of the other victims were even reported missing. There was nothing that pointed to abductions... No blood splattered cars left in their wake... They disappeared seemingly of their own accord, only to return a few weeks later with a bomb strapped to their chests and a mission to take as many people with them when they went. This is different. It feels like a completely unrelated Unsub? Maybe his targeting Morgan was completely random..."
"I'd have to agree" nodded Rossi, " It just doesn't feel like the same guy."
"So, right now" sighed Hotch, "I'm inclined to think it's more likely we're looking at two separate Unsubs?"
"Probably... Or maybe they're a team?" suggested Emily, "And a different one did the abducting this time? Made it a lot messier?"
"We can't rule it out" said Rossi "Anything is possible."
"One really weird thing" said JJ, "There were a whole bunch of feathers on the ground when we found the car. Like big grey feathers, all soaked in... in um..." She grimaced a little, feeling reluctant to finish the sentence. "They were... in um... in Morgan's blood..." she finally managed.
Nooooo!"cried Garcia, from down the hallway. She'd just been standing there listening in silent shock, but the words 'Morgan's blood' had shaken her out of her stupor. "No, no, no, no, no...!" She fell to her knees and began to hyperventilate.
"Garcia?" said Hotch, making his way over to her, " You need to calm down... Take deep breaths... We'll find him, I promise you that..."
"No, no, no!" she sobbed, before looking up at him with big scared eyes, "You don't understand... The... the feath... feathers..."
"What about the feathers?" asked Rossi, as he approached her with one eyebrow raised in interest.
"At... all... all the b-bombsites..." she stammered, "Ev-every single one... I didn't know what to make of it, I only noticed it yesterday, but with everything... everything going on with Reid, I forgot to tell you..."
What about the feathers?" repeated Hotch, looking a little unimpressed.
She took a big breath before continuing. "At all the bombsites" she said, "All around the... the remains of the... I guess the 'victim'? ...They didn't think it was important because the bombers have nearly all used derelict buildings where there are a lot of pigeons, so they thought it was just natural contamination... but then they found them in the ruins of that busy diner in Maryland... and there couldn't have been any pigeons in there... Sir, all the crime scenes, and I mean ALL of them, have been covered in feathers..."
