Walk me through the dark

7

Spencer spent the night drinking cup after cup of coffee to stay awake to stay away from the nightmares. He was able to play several games of chess with himself in between case files. He was able to finish up most of his work load from the last week before he heard the first person come into the office. 

 Spencer started another pot of coffee, then grabbed his go bag and headed to the bathroom. He was glad they spent less time out on that last case than expected, because that meant he had one more change of clothes available.  He quickly changed in the bathroom, brushing his teeth and splashing water on his tired face a few times before locking himself back in to the handicapped stall. It's been almost eight hours since everyone left, it's been nine hours since he last used and the ache was starting to make it hard to focus.

When he came back into the bullpen he saw that Hotch was back. Spencer set his bag down, glad that his desk and change of clothes maybe made it look like he actually left. Spencer was filling his sugar with coffee when Derek and Emily came in, laughing loudly at something Garcia said who was stumbling behind them with a pink face. Spencer returned to his desk, resuming his work from not even an hour ago. Morgan yelled something to JJ when she came in, but Spencer was too busy blowing his nose to hear it. His body shook with a set of chills but they quickly stilled. Ok maybe spencer didn't take enough.

Several hours later, hours of ignoring the conversations around him and hardly being able to focus on his work Spencer jumped at a tap on his shoulder.  Morgan sat down on the edge of Spencer's desk, using his finger to nudge the chess game a little out of the way.

"Ok kid, spill"

Spencer just looked at him confused,

"Did you sleep?"

"What do you mean, of course I-"

"Because I just watched you yawn at least twenty times in the last few hours" Morgan cut him off, raising an eyebrow in question.

"Oh so you can count things but if I do its annoying" Spencer muttered under his breath,

"What?" Morgan didn't hear what he said, just the tone in which he said it, which didn't sound good.

"Nothing, I'm fine" Spencer smiled up at Morgan, who went to fight more when Hotch called him to his office. Morgan sighed and got off the Spencer's desk, walking quickly into his bosses office.

"Sit" Hotch motioned to the chair in front of his desk, and Derek sat.

"What's up?" Derek asked, leaning forward and putting his elbows on his knees.

"What were you and Reid talking about?" Hotch said, looking up from the paper in his hand to look at Morgan.

"I asked if he got any sleep, he's been yawning and quiet all day" Morgan sighed leaning back in the chair.

"I don't think he did '' Hotch said, his eyes glancing back down at the paper in his hand before setting it aside. "I think he stayed here all night" Hotch resumed, watching Morgan raise an eyebrow in surprise. "He was still here when I left and refused to leave" Hotch glanced out his window, seeing Emily and JJ hunched over Emily's desk laughing at something, while the top of Reid's head could be seen as he was ducked down looking at something.

"Ok, so?" Morgan was confused as to why his unit chief called him in and not Spencer.

"I want you to make sure he goes home tonight" Hotch said looking back at the agent.

"Why me?"

"I feel like he'll listen to you more"

"Hotch have you not noticed the hostility the kid had toward me lately?"

"No i've noticed"

"I think something is going on"

"Me too" Hotch mutters looking down at his hands briefly.

"I'm not sure what you want me to do"

"I noticed that you noticed that something is wrong, and I think the less people who try to tackle this, the better it will be for Reid. If I got someone else in here to help, he might feel trapped."  Morgan could agree with Hotchner's logic, they all knew how Spencer dealt with things. He didn't. He buried them down and tried to ignore them and forget them and he did that while alone.