Chapter 8: ER

It's Monday and I've been at work at the hospital for a few hours. It's not a bad day, it's just a Monday. Just feels like it's dragging on. I see my patients and talk with coworkers like normal and the day drags on until about 6 pm, right before I'm supposed to leave, I get paged to the ER. Which is weird because I rarely get paged to the ER. I make my way down there quicker than I would to other areas of the hospital because, you know, it's an emergency. I get down there and see Dr. Reynolds, the chief trauma surgeon, gesturing for me to come talk with him in private in his office. Weird. Dr. Reynolds tells me to go in his office and I see Spencer's friends, Morgan and Hotchner are there. I start to feel panic creep through my body. Something's wrong. Morgan looks at me when I walk in and the first thing he says is "Spencer is okay," and I feel relief course through my body. But then why am I here? Why are they here? At my place of work? Hotchner seems to read my thoughts and says "he was shot, but he's going to be okay. They're treating him now. We just wanted you to hear it from us due to the fact that you are now involved with him and this is your place of work." The panic starts to creep back in and I slowly sit down in the nearest chair. Morgan kneels in front of me and tells me to focus on him and breathe with him before I have full blown panic attack. Hotchner leaves to talk to the doctor. After a few minutes of deep breathing I calm down and turn to Morgan and say "what the fuck Morgan?! You guys scared me so bad! What the fuck happened?!" Morgan is shocked at my profanity and chuckles a bit before saying "he was shot in the knee protecting a victim from an unsub." I look at him and say "unsub?" Morgan nods and says "the guys we catch are called unsubs for unknown subjects. He saved a man's life today. That man was a trauma surgeon so he probably saved a lot more lives than just him. He's okay. We just wanted you to hear it from us since you work here. We didn't want your work to be affected." I nod and say thank you. Then ask "when can I see him?" Morgan checks his watch and says "he should be coming out of surgery any minute." I exhale a bit and ask "is it okay if I sit with him after he gets out while he's coming out from the anesthesia?" Morgan smiles and nods "sure, baby girl. He really likes you, you know? He's been talking about you nonstop since he got discharged and recovered from the anthrax exposure. You make him really happy. So thank you." I laugh and say "well he's about to get an earful from me for getting shot right after getting over anthrax poisoning. Hero or not." Morgan chuckles and nods and leads me to Spencer's recovery room on the second floor. As soon as the elevator opens I see them wheeling Spencer into his hospital room and I feel relief flood my body just seeing him and knowing he's alive. I pull up a chair next to his hospital bed and grab his hand. The heart rate monitor is steadily beeping indicating he's stable and sleeping. I suddenly remember Ryder is at home and needs somebody to stay with him while I'm here. I ask Morgan to sit next to Spencer for a minute while I go make some phone calls. I call every neighbor and they're all busy and none can help me out. I groan in exasperation and walk back into Spencer's room. Morgan asks "what's wrong?" I look at him with a furrowed brow and say "how is it all of you can read my mind and predict what I'm going to say?" He chuckles lightly and responds saying "well, no offense, baby girl, but you kinda wear your feelings on your facial expressions. It may not be obvious to other people, but to profilers it's like you broadcast every little feeling to us." I nod in understanding. I can definitely believe that. He says "but seriously what's wrong?" I sigh and say "nobody can take care of my dog so I probably have to go home for a bit and I'll just hope he doesn't wake up before I can get back." Morgan shakes his head and says "hey now somebody on the team can go take care of him and you stay here. You should be here when he wakes up." I smile and nod and say "okay. None of your team will rob me will they?" Morgan laughs and says "the only thing you have to worry about is if they fall in love with your dog. You'll never get rid of them, then." I laugh in response and say "hey, I have a guest room and they can make themselves at home." Morgan nods and leaves the room and says "okay let me make some phone calls." I sit down and take Spencer's hand again and say a silent prayer for him to be okay and come back to me. Morgan comes back in asking for my key and tells me that Garcia and Prentiss, Prentiss I know I met before, are going to go take care of Ryder for me while I sit with Spencer. I give him my key and my access code to the apartment complex and sit back down taking Spencer's hand again. As I sit there listening to the steady beeping of the monitors and caress his hand I slowly start to fall asleep with my head laid on the bed next to him.

•••••

~Spencer's POV~

I wake up very confused and disoriented. I start to panic and I hear the heart rate monitor increase with my rising panic. I look down and realize Anneliese is sitting here with me, asleep. I try to calm down so the machines don't wake her. I am not successful. She wakes up and snaps her head up to me and takes my face in her hands. There are tears in her eyes. She looks at me and says "I'm so glad you're okay. What were you thinking? You could've been killed!" I chuckle at her and say "I'm sorry I worried you. I'm here, I'm okay. It was just my knee." She looks at me with an incredulous expression saying "oh so just because you have two of them it's okay to get shot in one? My God, Spence." I give her a tight lipped smile and push some hair behind her ear and say "I'm okay, Annie. Just some physical therapy and recovery time and I'll be good as new." We sit in silence for a while, she's stroking my hand while I play with her hair. After a bit I say "isn't it crazy that this is my first time being shot and I almost died of anthrax before being shot while working as an FBI agent." Annie looks at me and says "wait this is your first time being shot? In five years?" I nod in response saying "well I've been shot at and used as a hostage many times but this is the first time a bullet actually entered my body." Annie shakes her head and just says "oh my God just stop talking. Please. You need to rest, it's after midnight." I nod and then say "wait where are you going to sleep? You should go home and sleep in your own bed." She shakes her head no and says "I'm staying right here and I already called in for work tomorrow. I'm going to help get you settled back home. No argument about it." I open my mouth to protest and she stops me and says "No. Arguments." We talk for a bit, I think she's trying to distract me from the pain. Annie knows from when I was her patient that I don't take pain medication. She doesn't know that it's because I used to be addicted to dilaudid. I'm glad she doesn't ask because this is not the time I want to discuss such a heavy and personal topic. As the anesthesia wears off I'm starting to feel the pain more and more. My only hope is to be able to sleep tonight and hope it's not so bad in the morning. The team will recognize that I'm in pain. I only hope that they don't say anything about it. Eventually Annie falls asleep sitting in a chair next to my hospital bed, still holding my hand. I sit in there in the dark of the room and stroke her hair lightly as she sleeps. I could get used to this. The night of the accidental sleepover I slept the best I have in years. I guess the fact that she's here for me while I'm in the hospital, again, and I'm not her patient means she cares. A lot. We haven't made anything official yet, but her being here solidifies that we need to have that conversation very soon. She wouldn't be here if she didn't want to be romantically involved with me? Right?

•••••

~Anneliese's POV~

I wake up with an awful pain in my neck. I sit up and look around and realize I'm in Spencer's hospital room and I slept the whole night with my head on the edge of his bed. "That explains a lot" I think to myself. Spencer is asleep, but his heart rate is elevated. He's probably in pain because I never noticed anybody offer or give him pain meds since I got here. That's something we will probably talk about when he's ready. This is still very new. I hear footsteps and turn around to see SSA Hotchner standing in the doorway. He sees me, pauses for a second, and continues to walk in. He stands at the foot of Spencer's bed and says "I never apologized for snapping at you on your first day treating Reid. I'm sorry. I am glad you didn't let me scare you away because you seem to make him really happy." I give a tired nod in response and say "Thank you, sir, I appreciate the apology. I understand, with the anthrax case I'm sure you had a lot going on. We all have bad days." Hotchner shakes his head and says "there's no excuse for my snapping at you. And please call me Hotch or just Aaron." I smile lightly and say "okay, Hotch." He leaves the room to talk to a nurse about Spencer's status. Spencer starts to stir and he wakes up. He looks around before his eyes land on me and I see the confusion leave his face when they do. He smiles and says "good morning" with his beautiful morning voice. I smile and say "good morning, Spence. Hotch is talking to the nurse now." He nods and says "that's good I was wondering when they would update me." Just then the nurse comes in with Hotch and she says "good morning, Dr. Reid," looks like she got a warning from Hotch, "how did you sleep?" He grimaces a bit and says "okay, considering I was shot." The nurse nods in understanding and says "I can see that. So has anybody talked to you about what your recovery will look like?" Spencer shakes his head no. She nods her head and says "okay so from today until about two weeks from now, you will be on crutches. After the doctor clears you from the crutches you will likely have to use a cane or something similar to walk until you can walk unassisted with no pain." Spencer nods in understanding, but furrows his brow and asks "so when can I go back to work and when can I be out in the field again?" I internally roll my eyes. Of course he is concerned about work. He wants to get back to the job that landed him here in the first place. The nurse says "that's up to the doctor to clear you, we don't have any guarantees. It'll take a while for you to be safe to fly, for sure, and a good bit of time before you can walk unassisted, let alone run. If you're compliant you'll heal faster, but I'm sure you know that already." The nurse asks if we have anymore questions. None of us speak up and she excuses herself. I look at Spencer and say "looks like you're going home soon. I'm still here to help if you need it, but if you would rather me back off and let your team take care of you I understand. I mean you aren't even officially my boyfriend or anything." Hotch discretely excuses himself from the room, for which I am very grateful. Spencer lightly caresses my cheek and says "I am if you want me to be. If you didn't share the same feelings as mine you wouldn't be here with me right now. I'm very grateful that you are here even though you didn't have any real obligation to be. After I was shot all I wanted to do was call you, but I didn't want to scare you or affect you at work since there wasn't much you could do." I nod and say "I want to be your girlfriend, Spence. I know this is wildly unconventional, but there's no books on what to do when a guy you've been on three dates with and really like is shot. I just had to follow my instincts and do my best to be here. Morgan also helped. He encouraged me to be here and arranged for somebody to help me out and take care of Ryder last night." Spencer let's out an incredulous laugh and says "of course he did. Well I will be forever grateful for his meddling." "Spence," I say, "do you want me to help you get home and help you recover? If this is too much I can give you space and let Morgan or Hotch help." Spencer says "I want your help, but I don't want you missing more than one day of work for me or neglecting your dog to take care of me. You don't have to do it by yourself. The team can help when you need to go home." I give a soft smile and nod in return. "Well, you're going to be discharged very soon and I'm happy to drive you home. I'm sure Morgan or Hotch will want to tag along and help."

•••••

I drive Spencer home, Morgan follows behind us and helps get Spencer up the stairs. He already has crutches in his apartment from past injuries, go figure, so we decide to just help him home until he can get around on the crutches on his own. Morgan helps him in the apartment and gets him settled on the couch. The first things I notice in Spencer's apartment are the beautiful sage green walls and the bookshelves that cover the majority of the walls. It's beautiful. And a bit intimidating. Spencer didn't have a lot to bring in from the hospital so Morgan got him set up on the couch. I ask Spencer if he's hungry and ask if he wants me to fix him something. He gives me a small laugh and tells me I can try, but the kitchen is sparse. I go into the kitchen and find he wasn't lying. However, I do find bread, cheese, and butter. I pull out a skillet and whip up a quick grilled cheese. I look through his cabinets and find a can of tomato soup and quickly warm it up. Grilled cheese and tomato soup always made me feel better when I was sick, hopefully getting shot in the knee is comparable enough. I bring the sandwich and soup out to him with a glass of water. As he begins to eat I go into the kitchen to clean up the tiny mess I've made. Morgan follows and says "pretty boy told me you guys made it official. Congratulations, I'm happy for you." I smile and thank him. He continues and says "I know you're tired and you flinch every time you barely move your neck. Don't try to tell me otherwise. I've got it for now. You go home and shower, change clothes, take care of your dog, and get some rest. We can take care of him for a while." Too tired to argue I nod and tell him I'll leave after I've finished cleaning up. Morgan takes the pan out of my hands and says "I've got it. You go home and take care of yourself. You're no help to anybody if you're tired and burnt out." I nod and give Morgan a tight hug. "Thank you, Morgan," I say. "Any time baby girl. Now get out of here," he says and chuckles. I laugh in response and make my way over to Spencer on the couch. "Hey baby I'm going to go take care of some things at my apartment and I'll be back to check in on you tonight or tomorrow, okay? Text me or call me if you need anything." He nods and I give him a quick kiss and I grab my keys and head out the door back to my apartment.