Chapter 15

FBI Field Office
San Francisco, CA

Morgan

They were fogged in.

Hotch hung up the phone with a pained sigh. "What?" Rossi asked.

"They can't find hotel rooms." Hotch replied. "Some kind of convention..."

Rossi considered a moment, and then laughed. "Folsom."

"What?"

"The Folsom Street Fair. It's the biggest gathering of the kinky, leather, and likely gay communities on the planet. They take over most of the South of Market neighborhood for the week."

"And every hotel room in the city."

Tomás cleared his throat. "I'm sorry for the intrusion but we have rooms available. We don't rent rooms out this week."

"This week?" Rossi was surprised. "How much money do you lose?"

"How much is the comfort of our friends worth?" Tomás replied. "You'll need five singles?"

"Yes." Hotch replied. "At your usual rate, of course."

"I'll have it set up." Tomás pulled out his phone.

"Is the party tonight?" Alice asked.

"Yes." Tomás replied. "I didn't know if or when you were coming back and I..." A sadness crossed his face.

She smiled. "You wanted to hold a wake."

"Something like that."

"I'm honored. And grateful that it's not, although I won't be attending. I just can't..." She shivered slightly.

"Of course." Tomás nodded. Morgan could see it, there had to be a lot of PTSD there.

"Is the library set aside for overflow again this year?" Alice asked

"Yes."

"Reserve if and the conference room for our private use. We can use them as a parlor and dining room away from the gathering." She smiled at Hotch. "I'm sure the FBI would appreciate it as well."

"Yes, thank you." Hotch replied.

Morgan's phone rang. "So what did the doctor say?" Garcia asked.

"I don't need surgery." Spencer replied.

"Oh thank god!"

"But he does need ongoing treatment, including physical therapy and medication." Seaver said to Hotch specifically. "According to the doctor it should take four to six months to resolve completely. It shouldn't keep him out of the field, but he can't use any backlit personal electronic devices during that time, including computers, phones, tablets..."

"Backlit?" Garcia asked.

"Yeah."

"Hmmm, I may be able to work with that. Let me try a few things and get back to you."

"Thank you Garcia." Spencer said.

"I'll expect regular reports." Hotch said to Spencer. "I want to make sure everything goes by the book this time." But that wasn't what Hotch was saying. He was saying he wanted to take care of Spencer the right way this time, and not have what happened after Hankle happen again. And Spencer knew it and looked utterly grateful.

But talking about Spencer's eyes made Morgan remember something else. "Why didn't you ask for your glasses back in the hospital?" He asked.

"Because Garcia was shipping my spares out with my go bag."

"Yeah, but they gave me your personal effects. They're in my bag."

Spencer stared at him in confusion. "I didn't have anything personal in captive..." All of a sudden all of the blood rushed out of his face.

Rossi had moved over to poke through the light briefcase Morgan carried. "This bag?" He held up the opaque baggie from the hospital.

All of a sudden Morgan's stomach sank. "Yeah."

"I do believe this is evidence." Rossi looked at Alice of all people, who looked down and gave the tiniest nod.

Oh hell. Morgan groaned. "They were trying to save his life." He said to Hotch. Mishandling evidence was a capitol sin. "I didn't even think..." He'd been so distracted.

"We should have been there." Hotch said, easing his concern. "The hospital didn't say anything?"

"No. I was talking to the doc while they were putting him in the hyperbaric chamber, the nurse came in and said she had Reid's personal effects, I told her to stick them in my bag. They've been there ever since." He looked over at Spencer. "You didn't say anything."

"You said they ran a kit while I was sedated." Spencer replied. "I figured it was all already in evidence."

Rossi had opened the file, was looking over the different pages. "The hospital screwed up." He said. "They assumed it was personal when he first arrived and had to remove it for hyperbaric treatment. When they ran the kit after no one brought it up." He showed Hotch that there were two separate reports.

"Did they take pictures?" Spencer asked.

"No." Rossi replied.

Spencer groaned and kind of doubled over a chair. "All of this and the embarrassment might kill me."

"We won't look unless we have to." Hotch replied. "I know how it is."

"Really?"

"You have no idea where Foyette stabbed me."

"Not even close." Rossi replied. "We'd know. Come on." He said to Spencer. "Let's go get this over with."

Thankfully it was over fairly quickly. The bag was properly entered into evidence and the paperwork done by the time Rossi, Seaver and Spencer returned. "I put a sheet of paper over the pictures." Rossi said as he turned over the file. "I don't know about you two but if I can reach the end of my life without seeing any more of Reid's..."

"Huh?" Morgan took a look, carefully not lifting the sheet of paper stapled over the pictures. The report had been amended to note two wounds, each between a quarter and a half inch long, on either side of his... "Did they?" He made a gesture.

"Yeah, they did." Rossi nodded at the looks on the faces of the others. "The initial ER team in Oregon though he had it for fun."

"Reid?" Hotch asked.

"They don't know him like we do."

"But he'll be okay, right?" Morgan asked.

"It's a fairly small wound, according to the doc it should be all right until we return to DC. Then he'll have to have it dealt with. In the meantime they put him on antibiotics and sent him home with bandages." Rossi replied with a smile. The smile was short lived. "No, he's not ready to talk about it yet."

"I don't blame him."

Morgan thought he was going to have nightmares just thinking about that one. He looked over to where Spencer had rejoined Alice. "Does she know?"

"I would assume so. I'll double check that for the record though." Rossi replied.

"Later." Hotch said. "They look exhausted. Let's go find this hotel."