Reid, Alex, and Garcia sat in the waiting room while Charles was getting his arm looked at. "Is this night ever going to end?" Alex asked.
"It's morning," Garcia said after she peeked through the blinds.
"Thank god," Alex said as her tired head rested on Reid's shoulder.
"Hopefully, things can start going back to normal," Reid said.
"What has been up Hugh's butt lately?" Alex asked with her eyes closed.
"What do you mean?" Garcia asked.
"He's been all tense and judgmental," Alex said, sitting up more alert. "I mean, he's always had this superiority thing going on but always in a loveable way."
"He's sad," Reid said.
"What do you mean?" Garcia asked, sitting down across from them.
"He gave up the spy life, he became a professor in a different country, and his dad passed away, which was the only reason why he was in that country, to begin with. He thought his best friend was dead but turns out he wasn't. Meanwhile, the rest of us have been going on with our lives, getting married, having kids. He's been feeling left out and, well… sad."
Alex turned toward Reid. "Did he tell you that?"
"No, but can't you tell?"
"I mean, yeah, in retrospect."
"I did see him smile pretty big earlier," Garcia added.
"When was that?" Alex asked.
"When he was with Paul Cho."
Alex and Reid shared a spousal look. "Yeah, they worked… together when we had an assignment in Korea," Reid said.
"Well, let's just say that I hope Paul doesn't go back to Korea," Garcia said. "With the way, they were looking at each other and all."
The doors swung open, and Charles was pushed out in a wheelchair. His left arm was wrapped up in a sling.
"How you doing?" Reid asked as he went to his side.
"I'm in agony. I was so close to death. My life flashed before my eyes. I was heading toward the li–"
"He's fine," the nurse said, cutting him off. "It was a very clean shot. And looking at some of his other scars, I can tell this wasn't his first time."
Charles held out his right hand and looked to the ceiling. "Momma? Is that you?"
"Don't worry, we will take it from here," Reid said as he got behind Charles and took over pushing.
"I'm coming, Momma!" Charles said.
"Come on, Charles, let's get you home," Reid said.
"Spencer?" Charles asked weakly while looking around towards the ceiling. "Is that you? I can't see you."
"How much did they give him?" Garcia asked.
"Oh, this is what he's like when he's sober," Alex said. "When he's drugged up, he's usually very stoic and tends to talk about economics."
"I can hear the angels singing!" Charles praised as they pushed through the double doors.
Garcia stifled a laugh. "I'm going to go get the car."
The four of them were in the car as Garcia was driving them home. Alex turned to Charles, who was next to her in the back seat. Charles winced as he adjusted the sling holding his arm.
"You doing okay?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, I think some of the velcro is stuck."
Alex reached over and found where it was pulling at him and adjusted it. "There, that should be better now." She ran her hand over his hair in a maternal way. "You feeling okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said simply. He adjusted in his seat to turn to her. "I should be asking if you're okay."
"What?"
"You were drugged twice within a few hours and almost drowned. From where I'm sitting, that's way worse than a simple gunshot wound. Wait." He turned toward Garica and Reid in the front seat. "Did we ever find out about the waiter who drugged her? What his connection was?"
"Oh, yeah," Garica said. "You guys missed all that." She stopped at the red light and looked at Charles through the rear-view mirror. "So, Rossi was questioning him about all the past nasty things he had done, like stealing girl's unmentionables and such. Rossi pushed all the right buttons, like always, and he folded like a lawn chair. And not like a regular lawn chair, like a dirty, disgusting one."
"Why did he do it?" Charles asked.
"He was hired by Shaw. One of his plans for the evening was to hurt you guys personally. Ideally, the drug would have forced Alex to essentially cheat on Reid and cause major problems," Garcia said.
"That plus the motorcycle gang tossing bombs into buildings, trying to kill Charles and me… a few times. Everything is all over the place. Discombobulated," Reid said.
"It's like he's a Batman villain," Charles said. "And not a very good one."
"He was at the point of devolving," Reid said.
"What could we have possibly done to make him try and kill us?"
"He said we took the job that was supposed to be his," Reid said.
"Has Hugh been affected by this?" Garcia questioned.
"What do you mean?" Alex asked.
"I mean, Charles was a major target. He was after Reid tonight, at least, and you too. Nothing for Hugh? If you as a group took his job, wouldn't that include him as well?" Garcia explained.
"Well, that certainly is an interesting question," Alex said. "Perhaps he just didn't have the ability. He would have been caught up in it if he was out with us today."
"Unfortunately, Shaw won't be too forthcoming… with that hole in his head and all," Charles added.
"I don't want to have to think about any of this until I've had at least eight hours of uninterrupted sleep," Alex said, then let out a yawn.
"I think we all need a good sleep after the day we had," Garcia said as she pulled up in front of Reid's house. "I love you all. And get some sleep!"
Around noon Charles plodded down the stairs in a white t-shirt and boxers. He ran his right arm through his messy hair as he let out a loud yawn. He smelt the unmistakable aroma of fresh coffee and pushed open the kitchen door, where he saw a newspaper wall hiding the reader's face.
"Me… need… coffee," Charles said, caveman-like, as he grabbed a mug from the clean dishwasher.
"We still need to work on those manners," Hugh said as he lowered the paper onto the table.
"Hey!" Charles remarked, pleasantly surprised. "What are you doing here so early?"
"It's after noon. I came over to help replace the front door. And why aren't you wearing your sling?" Hugh asked scoldingly.
"It's difficult to sleep with. And besides, I'm fine. It's not the first time I've been shot in the arm, and it won't be the last." He finished adding milk, then took a tentative drink, testing the temperature, then a longer one. He sat down across from Hugh. "Are mom and dad awake?"
"Spencer is. I believe Alex is still sleeping."
"Yeah, she probably still has some of that Dilaudid in her system. Remember that time in Barcelona, I got drugged and slept for two days?"
"How could I forget? It was forty-eight hours of utter civility. I didn't have you babbling pop culture references incessantly in my ear ."
"Awe," Charles uttered as he wrapped his good arm around Hugh's shoulder, scrunching his body toward him. "I knew you loved me."
"Yes, I love you. Now, kindly remove your arm before you get a bullet hole in that one, too."