Broken Ice

Dehydrated and Tired

Reid arrived at work early that day. He sat at his desk finishing some paperwork that was stacked on his desk. Might as well be productive. He tried his best not to focus on how thirsty he was. Reid had only drank about a cup or two of water altogether from the time he fell in the lake to now. Reid desperately wanted to drink coffee, he craved the flavor and needed the caffeine right now.

Morgan and Prentiss walked out of the elevator and into the office together. They were making light conversation like usual, setting down their bags at their desks.

"Hey Reid" Prentiss greeted kindly. Reid didn't look up from his papers, he was lost in his own thoughts, separated from the real world.

"Reid?" Morgan said, louder. Reid snapped out of it and looked up.

"What?" Reid asked, looking at Morgan and then to Prentiss.

Morgan saw that Reid looked very tired, his eyes were squinted and had darker-than-normal circles under them. His hair was messy and sticking up in random places. However, Morgan was afraid to show too much concern, he wanted Reid to feel like everything was back to normal.

"Are you okay? You look really tired" Prentiss observed.

Reid rubbed his eyes, he could feel a migraine coming on. With his eyes still closed, he nodded.

"Yeah I'm fine, just didn't get much sleep last night" Reid replied casually.

"Alright kid, you want some coffee then? I'm getting some" Morgan said.

"Ooh get me one will you?" Prentiss asked Morgan.

"I'm good thanks" Reid said, even though he was dying for some.

"Reid doesn't want coffee? You're sure you feel okay?" Prentiss joked, Morgan left to get coffee.

Reid laughed with Prentiss at the joke, he didn't want them to worry about him or anything. He just needed to act like normal and nobody would notice...hopefully.

"Maybe I should go and get coffee, I can still try to drink it" Reid thought, he really wanted to avoid suspicion from his fellow colleagues.

Upon standing up, Reid began to feel slightly dizzy. His world dimmed for a second and the floor swayed. Reid placed his hand on the desk to stable himself. He blinked a couple times and he started to regain composure.

"Woah Reid, are you alright?" Prentiss asked concerned after seeing Reid so out of it.

"Yeah, I stood up too fast" Reid said as an excuse. He knew the symptoms of dehydration when he saw them.

He walked over to Morgan was to get coffee.

"Hey" Morgan said, he wanted to ask Reid what was going on so badly, he could tell that something wasn't right with him. He decided just to be straight forward.

"Reid, did you get any sleep last night? Be honest, I care about you" Morgan asked.

Reid wanted to lie, but Morgan always saw right through him. "No, I was too afraid of drowning again" he admitted.

"Drowning again? You mean a nightmare?" Morgan asked for clarification.

"Oh yeah, sorry, It's hard to determine reality from nightmares sometimes" Reid explained, pouring coffee into the paper cup.

The back of Reid's eyes and his forehead started to throb with pain, his headache was getting stronger. Reid shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in pain. He began to rub in-between his eyebrows.

"Reid, tell me what's going on," Morgan said, he hated seeing Reid go through so much pain.

Reid was silent for a moment, he didn't want to tell Morgan about his fear of drinking water. Morgan might think he was weak, then he would baby him even more.

"I don't want to tell you, I am sick of everyone asking if i'm okay and treating me like a child" Reid blurted out in a ramble.

"Reid, please talk to me about it, I care about you man" Morgan asked, he just wanted to help Reid.

"I'm tired of being such a burden, please, just let me handle this on my own" Reid replied and walked back to his desk.