Chapter 9

"Good evening! How can I help you?" Came the cheerful voice of the orderly sitting at the welcome desk of Claymore Nursing Home. She was young, Spencer guessed to be in her mid to late twenties.

The younger agent smiled at her, crooking up the corners of his mouth in an effort to seem welcoming. Morgan grinned to himself, seeing that his young lover was trying to see more normal in the eyes of the attending.

"Um..." Spencer mumbled, "I was wondering if we could talk with Addison Baker. We're FBI, and have some questions to ask her about a current case that we are working on."

When Spencer fell silent, the look of cheeriness on the woman's face had faded to a look of worry, and she rapidly nodded. "Of course. Whatever I can do to help the FBI." After typing a few words into the computer in front of her, she said, "Ms. Baker is in room 308, just go to the fourth floor and take a right. Her room is the first on the right after the elevator."

Morgan nodded before taking hold of Reid's arm, and steering him towards the flight of stairs that was adjacent to the elevator. Neither of them had been able to use an elevator ever since the time they got stuck in one together. Spencer's breathing was sharp, and short as they climbed up the flight of stairs.

Morgan could see beads of sweats scattered across the younger man's forehead as they made their way up. Morgan felt this primal urge to protect and help the younger man, but the moment he knew that there was nothing he could do, he would have to wait until they returned to Washington D.C. before he could do anything concrete to help the genius.

While part of the older man knew that Reid hadn't had much of a choice in getting hooked on dilaudid, there was part of him that wanted to blame Reid for what was happening to him. But there was also a part of Morgan that blamed himself for the situation that they were in. He should have noticed something was wrong long before now, Spencer hadn't been looking well for months. Derek had managed to find excuses every single time he found himself questioning the well-being of one Spencer Reid.

"I know what you're thinking." Spencer's voice cut through the thoughts that were flashing through the older man's mind.

Derek looked up at him, eyebrows scrunching his forehead together in a silent question.

At the inquiry Spencer clarified, "You blame yourself for me being hooked on dilaudid. You think that you should have noticed something long before now."

Morgan was shocked, the younger man had just voiced his inner thoughts.

He opened his mouth to say that Spencer was wrong, but the young man cut him off saying, "It wouldn't have mattered you know. You can't help someone who doesn't want help. I would have gone to either you or Gideon if I had been ready to talk to someone. But at the time, I wasn't ready to face what had happened with Hankel. The dilaudid was a way for me to forget. So, even if you had noticed what was happening, there would have been nothing you could have done." Spencer finished, before taking a deep breath, letting the air be forced out of his lungs.

Reid looked up into his friend and lover's face, seeing the look of tenderness and love that crossed the older man's face, before reaching out and holding Morgan's big hand in his own. The young agent brought their entwined hands together to his lips, and kissed the place where their fingers were laced together. "Let's finish this case, and go home." Reid's voice was soft as he spoke, but his voice still echoed throughout the hollowed column that held the stairs of Claymore Nursing Home.