Jason Gideon sat in the waiting room of the hospital as one of his agents was currently being assessed by the doctors. The fluorescent lights hummed above him. There were probably two or three other families in that room but Jason wasn't really focusing on the other people in the room. He kept replaying the recent events in his head. Flashes of Reid being tortured, his screams ringing in his head. The gurgling in Reid's breath as he slipped into cardiac arrest only to be followed by the cracking of his ribs as the killer performed cpr. Then, when they finally found Reid in that dark forest, the way he crumpled into Hotch's arms, going limp and falling into exhausted unconsciousness raced across his mind. The way the young man's head bobbed limply as hotch carried him bridal style to an ambulance absolutely gutted him. The way Reid hadn't yet opened his eyes since that point. Gideon tried to ground himself as noticed the blood on his sleeves. Spencer's blood. He hadn't called him Spencer for as long as he could remember. He always tried to treat him like all the old timer's (like Hotch), give him a fair shake at being respected despite his noticeable intellectual difference. That's why he always called him by his last name. But now all he could think about was how badly he wanted the young man to be okay.

He couldn't understand why this happened. He couldn't blame JJ, it wasn't her fault. And in a way, he was glad that they had separated so that only one of them got hurt instead of both of them, as horrible as that thought was. He saw the worst of humanity everyday and some how this was so deeply under his skin, that he nearly jumped out of his skin when his cell phone rang.
"Aaron Hotchner" the simple but descriptive caller ID read.

"Hotch," He said, greeting the man on the other side of the call.

"Gideon, how is he?"

"I don't know, they haven't given me an update yet."

"You want me to call the boy's mother?"

"No, not yet. I don't think that telling her would be a good idea at the moment. Not until we get an update."

"She won't take the news well that he was…"
"We don't have to tell her. She has a deep distrust for our organization anyway. We'll just tell her that he was hurt in the line of duty but he's okay. She doesn't need to know anything about the torture. It might be too much of a stressor for her."

"Copy that."

Gideon flipped his phone shut and shoved it into his pocket. He sighed deeply as he looked at the clock. 2:03 AM.

Time was moving slowly and it was fucking freezing in that waiting room. He couldn't wait for the doc to come out with some sort of news. The monotony was killing him. He could only watch the hands move around the clock, waiting and hoping.