Criminal Minds: Paralysing Anger

Chapter Five

Hospital Family Room

"He's alive. Just. He was shot twice. One bullet entered his back and hit his right kidney, and the other lodged itself in his lumbar spinal region. Spencer lost a lot of blood, we had to transfuse multiple units of blood and blood products, and there was a brief period where we couldn't pump the blood in fast enough, and we lost cardiac output for several minutes..."

Morgan's own heart felt like it stopped for a moment. They had lost him for a time. But he's alive, remember he's alive, he thought over and over again.

The doctor continued: "...but we got him back, managed to stop the bleeding and repair as much damage to the kidney as we could. We hope that the kidney should return to normal function. The bullet in the spine, however, took a long time to extract safely. Still, after several hours our consultant neurosurgeon with the assistance of myself, trauma surgeon, managed to remove it. We cannot tell yet what damage has been done, whether there will be any potential paralysis. At present, there is a lot of swelling, and once Spencer is awake, we will be able to test his reflexes to determine the degree of damage, but the spinal cord remains intact. However, it may be days potentially weeks until the inflammation subsides enough to know if permanent paralysis is a possibility."

There was a collective sigh; it appeared everyone had practically held their breath whilst the doctor explained.

"Can we see him? Is he awake?" JJ asked.

"I can take you to him, but he is heavily sedated and probably won't wake up until morning.

You all look the way I feel. You should go get some rest and return in the morning." The doctor spoke as he led them through the darkened ward to a side room at the end. He opened the door, and the group filed in, encircling the hospital bed containing their beloved friend.

Spencer looked so frail and small despite his 6ft1. He had numerous wires and tubes coming from all over him including wound drains, monitoring and oxygen tubing.

The friendly young nurse that showed them to the family room hours before was taking observations.

"This is Amanda; she is Spencer's lead nurse this shift. I can promise on her behalf that she will get in touch with you if he wakes up before you return in the morning or if his condition changes. Right, Amanda?" The doctor said, smiling warmly at the nurse.

"Absolutely Doctor Harris," Amanda replied, returning the smile. "I will be here by his side all night. He's in good hands."

As much as the group wanted to stay with their friend, they knew that they still had a case to finish, an Unsub to catch.

They began to leave to take the SUV's back to the hotel to get a few hours rest before they got back to the chase. JJ and Garcia, in turn, each kissed Spencer on the forehead before leaving. Rossi, Blake and Hotch each gave their young colleague a squeeze of the hand. Morgan leant down to whisper in his ear. "Hang in there, boyo. If you die, you know I'll have to kill you! We love you, man." And with that, he kissed the top of his head and left to join the group.

By the time they arrived at their hotel, it was nearing 4 am. The group would maybe get about four hours of sleep if they were lucky. Even if they did rest, you could guarantee it would be plagued with the events of the past 12 hours. They agreed to meet in the foyer at 9 am and then said their goodnight before dispersing to their rooms.

Morgan sat on the edge of his bed, his head in his hands. He let out a long frustrated sigh. Getting up, he grabbed a miniature bottle of whisky from the minibar and downed it in one. Without bothering to undress, he flung himself down on the bed and buried his face in the pillows trying to induce sleep.

He must have eventually drifted off because the next thing he knew the sun was breaking through the curtains. Looking at the alarm clock on the bedside table he saw it was 8:11. Enough time for him to jump in the shower, change his clothes and grab a quick breakfast to go. He needed coffee. Strong black coffee was all that was going to get him through this day.

Morgan had awoken with a fierce determination to get and nail this guy by sundown. Upon arriving in the hotel lobby, he got the vibe that his colleagues were in the same form.

The last to arrive was Hotch. He was finishing up on a phone call as he walked up to them.

"That was the hospital. He's awake. Spencer had a stable night. His observations have all been reasonable. They are about to test his reflexes see if there's any weakness. But they have said that it is not a definitive answer. The swelling may cause false results and might change once the swelling subsides. I know we would all like to be there with Reid, but we need to get to work and catch this guy so that no one else needs to go through what we've gone through."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Garcia spoke up "Sir? I can do most things from my laptops from the hospital. I can be at your beck and call and be a friendly face and some company for Reid."

Hotch agreed, and he, Rossi, Blake, Morgan and JJ set off for the police station, with Garcia heading the opposite direction towards the hospital.

Hospital

When Garcia reached the hospital, she was straight to Reid's bedside in an instant.

"Reid? Oh, my! Baby boy, how are you feeling? God, you had us terrified." Garcia exclaimed, giving him a playful slap on the arm then wrapping him in a massive hug.

"Hey, Garcia," Reid replied, slightly spacey. "They didn't know I didn't want narcotics before, so now they do, and they gave me some gas and air for when I am in pain. Its gooood." He emphasised with a cheeky smile and glassy eyes.

Garcia chuckled lightly at stoned Reid. "Did the doctors do their reflex test?" she asked with all seriousness.

"Yup!" Reid answered, popping the 'p'.

"And?!" Garcia asked impatiently, a slight smile creeping at her mouth. He seemed in good spirits, which must be a good thing.

"Nope!" he said, smiling.

Garcia was stunned.

"Reid." She said with a heavy sadness. She placed a supportive hand on his knee, as was closest and then realisation hit in. She moved it and grabbed his hand between both of hers and squeezed it tightly.

Reid's façade fell apart; his drug-hazed state was disappearing fast, Garcia was beginning to think that it had been exaggerated slightly as a defence mechanism. Tears started to slip down his face.

"What if they never come back? I know I don't kick down doors like Morgan, but I can't be in the field in a chair. I guess I could work from headquarters like you. My apartment building doesn't even have a lift. I'll have to move. I won't be able to drive my car; I'll have to sell it. I guess things are going to be very different." He was dissolving into tears once more. Garcia gave him another tender hug and wiped his tears away.

"Reid, there is always hope. You know the doctors said it might just take time for swelling to go down. Come on, boy genius, you should know the statistics. You've been through so much and come out stronger than ever."

"Yeah, I guess. I just feel that my luck might have run out."

Garcia hugged him once more, kissed his cheek and said: "Positive thinking my lovely. Don't be making contingency plans before you know for sure."

"I'll try. Garcia, I think I want to rest, do you mind?" he still didn't sound incredibly optimistic, but Garcia didn't want to push him.

"Okay, my sweet. I'll be in the family room with my laptop. Get the nurses to grab me if you need me." And with that, she picked up her many laptop bags and quietly left the room, closing the door softly behind her. She stopped and took a final look at her young friend through the room window. She saw tears still running down from his closed eyes and couldn't prevent a couple of her own from falling in camaraderie.