Second Childhood
Part 17
3 December 2011
The next morning, Spencer and Hotch and Jack all got up at the usual time, and after a little pleading by Jack, Hotch drove them to a store to buy two kid-sized inner tubes so that they could each have one and wouldn’t have to share the sled. Finally they went to a large hill in the middle of a park. It was obviously a popular destination , to judge by the amount of cars parked along the road, and the number of children swarming up the steps set into one side of the hill to launch themselves down the slope. Jack and Spencer eagerly joined them. At the top, Spencer flopped facedown onto his inner tube and Jack gave him a funny look. “You’re supposed to sit on it, like a sled—“
But Spencer didn’t hear the rest of what he said, because his inner tube started to slide, and he was racing down the hill. He felt a moment of fear, but then the slope became more shallow and he slowed down, finally coming to a stop, and the fear turned into delight. And when Jack’s inner tube bumped into his and scooted him along a little bit farther, he just laughed.
“That was great!” he cried to Hotch, who was standing there with his phone in his hand, taking pictures, or maybe even a video.
“Yeah, this is fun!” Jack chimed in.
“Well, do it again,” Hotch replied, giving them a fond smile.
They went up and down the hill so often that Spencer lost count. Finally, Hotch said, “One more time each, and then we should probably go.”
“Awww,” Jack and Spencer said at the same time, which made them both laugh. Then Jack picked up his inner tube and started to climb, and Spencer followed a moment later. When he was halfway up, however, a young child on a sled went by too close to the steps and accidentally clipped Jack’s inner tube, tearing it out of his hand so that it slid down the slope on its own.
“Hey!” Jack shouted, turning around. Spencer turned, too, and saw Hotch run over to grab the empty tube. Jack tried to go down the steps, but there were too many children coming up, so he stepped off onto the snow. Hotch came diagonally up the slope towards him, dodging tubes and sleds as he made his way to the steps. They were almost close enough to meet when two adolescent boys on a huge inner tube ran into Hotch, flipping him onto his head.
“Dad!” Jack screamed, and Spencer called out as well. “Hotch!”
He lay there, much too still. Pushing down his dread, Spencer dropped his inner tube, stepped into the snow, and made his way carefully down to where Hotch was sprawled. His head lay on one of the cement steps, but at least his eyes were open.
“Hey, mister, you all right?” a teenage girl was asking, and Jack was practically crying, “Dad, Dad!”
Other people were starting to crowd around. Letting his FBI training take over, Spencer wriggled through, knelt down next to Hotch, shucked off his gloves, and felt for a pulse. It was there, strong and steady, and he freed his watch from his sleeve to count. Normal. Then he peered into Hotch’s eyes to see if the pupils were dilated, but they looked normal, too. Hotch blinked and frowned up at him.
“Dad?” Jack asked again.
Spencer dug out his phone and dialled 911. “Hello, my name is Spencer Reid, we need an ambulance.”
“Hey, kid, I’ve already called,” somebody said loudly, but Spencer ignored him and gave the operator the address. “It’s the hill where everybody is sledding. My – my guardian was hit by a tube and knocked off his feet. He hit his head, I’m not sure if he was unconscious, but if he was, it was for a very short time. His pulse is steady and his eyes don’t appear to be dilated.”
“I’ll relay that information, and an ambulance is on the way,” the operator said.
“Thanks,” Spencer said, and hung up.
“Uh,” said Hotch, reaching out a shaky arm, and Jack practically fell on him, crying. Hotch gave a weak “oomph,” then said, “Jack … s’okay.”
Spencer pulled Jack back as much as he could. “You have to be gentle with him, Jack, he’s hurt. Just hold his hand for now.”
Jack reached out for Hotch’s hand, and Spencer said, “Hotch? Look at me. How many fingers am I holding up?”
“One,” Hotch murmured.
“Can you follow my finger with your eyes?” He moved it back and forth and Hotch’s eyes followed the movement smoothly.
“Do you know where you are?” Spencer went on.
“The park.” Hotch looked blearily around, then tried to sit up, and groaned. Seeing a spot of blood on the step where his head had been, Spencer pushed him back. “Don’t move. You hit your head. Do you feel nauseous?”
“No,” Hotch said, but he didn’t try to sit up again.
“Okay, but please stay still, the ambulance is coming.” Spencer glanced around, hoping to see it pulling up already, but although it wasn’t in view, he could at least hear a siren. “Does anybody have a blanket? He’s in shock, we need to keep him warm.”
A man came forward with a children’s blanket and Spencer directed him to tuck it under Hotch’s legs. A woman volunteered a hat to place under Hotch’s head, and Hotch lifted his head obligingly, but winced as he did so. Spencer patted his shoulder reassuringly. From behind him, another man asked jokingly, “Hey, kid, where’d you go to medical school?”
“I didn’t,” Spencer replied. “I just read a lot.”
“Wow,” the woman said, and Spencer felt obliged to add, “And my guardian here is in the FBI – he taught me a lot about how to respond to a crisis.”
“Wish he could teach my kids,” the woman said. “They’d just step over my body and run home to the Nintendo.”
Saying the letters FBI reminded Spencer that he’d better inform the team, and because he was supposed to be meeting up with Emily later that day anyway, he took out his own phone to dial her number. When Emily answered, it was obvious he’d roused her from sleep, but when he explained the situation, she became instantly awake.
“The ambulance is coming, I’ll call you back when I know more,” Spencer said, and hung up. Spencer ran over to meet the paramedics, telling them what had happened and giving them what information he had on Hotch’s condition. They insisted on checking for themselves, of course, which made Spencer just a little impatient, and then they carefully loaded Hotch onto a gurney.
“Can I go with my dad?” Jack asked tearfully, running along as they started to wheel the gurney towards the ambulance. Spencer jogged to keep up and announced, “There’s nobody else here to take care of us.”
From the gurney, Hotch said, “My wife died and it’s just me now …”
“Guess you boys had better get in,” the one paramedic replied. “And don’t worry, even if your dad has to spend a night at the hospital, he should be fine in a day or two.”
They loaded Hotch into the back of the ambulance and found room for both Jack and Spencer.
“We need to call Aunt Jessica,” Jack said as they drove off.
“Number … in my phone …” Hotch mumbled.
“We’ll take care of that at the hospital,” the paramedic announced brightly, but Spencer reached in under the emergency blanket and patted along Hotch’s hips until he found the phone.
“I’ve got it,” he said, standing up to get the phone out of Hotch’s pocket, and almost falling over as the ambulance went around a corner. The paramedic grabbed him around the waist to steady him.
“Sit down,” the paramedic said, pulling him back. “We don’t want to be treating you next.”
But Spencer had already managed to wriggle the phone out of Hotch’s pocket, and as soon as he was seated again, he began to search the list of contacts.
“Let me call,” Hotch said, but Spencer found the right name and handed the phone to Jack instead.
“Aunt Jessica?” Jack wailed as soon as there was an answer. “I need you! Dad’s been hurt!”
“Let me talk to your aunt,” the paramedic said, and Jack handed over the phone. The paramedic spoke briefly to Jessica, explaining the situation and giving her the name of the hospital, then gave the phone back to Jack.
They arrived at the hospital, and one paramedic took Jack and Spencer to the waiting room while the other took Hotch to an examination cubicle, informing a nurse about the situation on the way. Spencer took out his phone and informed Emily where they were, then put it away again. Almost instantly, his steady calm dissolved into worry, and he realised it was because the responsibility had passed from him to the professionals, leaving him with nothing more to do but wait. He tried not to talk to Jack and the paramedic too much about statistics and probabilities.
Hotch’s sister-in-law arrived first, and Jack ran over for a desperate hug. “Aunt Jessica!”
“Jack! Whoa, don’t knock me over! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, but Dad …”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” The waiting room was crowded, so Jessica took the seat Jack had just vacated, and Jack climbed onto her lap. Looking over, Jessica also said, “Hi, Spencer.”
“Hi,” he said.
“I take it you’re a family member?” asked the paramedic.
“I’m his next of kin, yes,” she replied. “How is Aaron, do you know?”
“It looked like a concussion to me, but he’s still being examined,” the paramedic said, then turned responsibility for Spencer and Jack over to her and went back to his ambulance. They sat there for several more minutes, with Jack telling Jessica his version of what had happened, then Emily came in. Spencer, who had been watching for her, stood up on his chair and waved both arms. “Emily!”
“Hey!” she said, and when she came over, Spencer reached out for a hug. “Hello, Spencer, you’re awfully cuddly all of a sudden.”
She used one hand to brush the melting snow from Spencer’s boots off the chair, then sat down with Spencer in her lap and turned to Jessica. “Hi, I’m Emily Prentiss, I don’t know if you remember me, but we met at Haley’s funeral? I work with Hotch?”
“Emily, yeah, hi,” Jessica said, looking from her to Spencer and back again. “Sorry, I thought you might be Spencer’s special nanny, but, um, you said you work with Aaron?”
“My old nanny quit, and Emily’s helping out until we can find a new one,” Spencer explained.
“Oh. Okay,” Jessica said, still a little confused, but visibly deciding there were other things to worry about.
They were interrupted by a nurse calling out, “Family of Aaron Hotchner?”
Jack jumped out of Jessica’s lap and raced over to her. “I’m his son! Is he all right? Can I see him?”
Jessica, Spencer, and Emily followed with only slightly less speed. Upon discovering that Jessica was the next of kin, the nurse directed her next words to her. “He’s got a concussion, and we’ll be taking him for an MRI to rule out anything worse, but on a day like to-day, there are a few people ahead of him and it’ll be a long wait. You can see him for a few minutes, and then you should probably take the children home. Can I get your number so we call you with an update?”
Jessica gave it to her, then asked, “Will he have to stay overnight?”
“Yes, and depending on what we observe, maybe even longer than that,” the nurse said, leading them past various cubicles. “Here you are. Keep it brief, please.”
Hotch had been transferred to the examination room bed and clothed in a hospital gown, with his belongings packed up in a huge plastic bag down at the end of the bed. When they came in, he opened his eyes and smiled weakly. “Jack!”
“Dad!” Jack cried, reaching out to give him as much of a hug as he could. Spencer saw Hotch wince whenever he moved his head.
“Jessica,” Hotch said next. “Thanks … for coming.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Jack for you,” she said. “You just concentrate on getting better.”
“I will,” Hotch said, then asked, “Emily? What are you … doing here?”
“Spencer called me,” she said. “How do you feel?”
“I’ll be okay,” Hotch claimed.
“Hotch, can I stay with Emily while you’re in the hospital?” Spencer asked quickly.
“Yeah,” Hotch exhaled.
“And can we borrow the keys to your car so Emily can get the car seat?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks, Hotch. Now you don’t have anything to worry about, so just get well soon,” Spencer told him with fake optimism. He hoped Hotch was only concussed and hadn’t sustained a traumatic brain injury.
“Yeah,” Hotch said for the third time, which only increased Spencer’s misgivings.
“Jack and I can get the car seat if you want to stay here with Spencer,” Jessica volunteered.
“That’s good, we can do that,” Emily said. “We’ll be out in the waiting room if you two want a few minutes alone with Hotch.”
“Thanks,” Jessica said.
In the waiting room, Emily said, “Jessica seems really nice.”
“Yes, but I don’t really know her, and she doesn’t know me,” Spencer said. “I mean, she doesn’t know it’s me. How could I tell her she has to drive a five-year-old to the BAU every morning? And after having been interrogated by SHIELD, I’m a bit hesitant to tell anybody else about the de-aging machine.”
“Yeah, I totally get that.”
“Not to mention I really have trouble acting like a kid,” Spencer went on.
“No! You don’t say!” Emily teased. “But you’ll have to sleep on the couch at my place. I haven’t got anything else for you.”
“The couch will be fine. My legs aren’t as long as they used to be, so I should be able to fit on it without any problems. And Hotch has a sleeping bag we can borrow, if that will help,” Spencer said.
“I’ve got plenty of sheets and blankets. We’ll make you comfortable.”
Jessica came back then, and made arrangements to call Emily when she was on her way back to the hospital with the car seat. Spencer was able to tell her exactly where Hotch had parked his car, and it took less than an hour for her to go and return. Once the seat had been transferred and Spencer was safely buckled in, Emily got into the driver’s seat and said, “How about we get some food, and then we can see about getting you set up at my place?”
“What about our Christmas shopping?” Spencer asked, and Emily groaned. “Sorry, with Hotch in the hospital, I completely forgot. Yeah, Christmas shopping.”
Spencer suggested a certain bookstore that had a café, and Emily asked, “A bookstore? Will I be able to get you out of there again?”
“I’m shopping for Hotch and Jack, not myself,” Spencer said, and Emily laughed. “You think that will make a difference?”
“Well, I already have something in mind for Jack, but I’m not sure about Hotch, so … maybe not?”
But when they were at the bookstore, Spencer saw something on the cover of a book that inspired him as to what to buy for Hotch. It meant going to another store, and then going home, putting the final touches on everything, and wrestling with wrapping paper, but then it was done. Spencer sat back and looked at the packages with satisfaction, thinking about Hotch using what he’d bought.
After supper, when Emily was making Spencer laugh by wrapping Sergio in gift paper and seeing how far she got before the cat no longer played along, Jessica called. Hotch was only concussed, and although they were going to keep him for observation until Monday morning, everything looked good so far. They could even visit him the next day if they wanted.
“That’s a relief,” Spencer said when Emily had relayed the news. “I was worried about traumatic brain injury.”
“Yeah, he seemed a little out of it when we were there,” Emily remembered. “Jessica also said they’re at Hotch’s apartment and if you need anything, we can drive over and get it.”
“My pyjamas,” Spencer said immediately, but also thinking of Boney. “My whole go-bag, actually.”
“Well, let’s go get it,” Emily said, “and then it will be bedtime for you.”
But the next morning, when they were getting ready to drive to the hospital to visit Hotch, Emily’s phone buzzed. She looked at the message and announced, “We have a case, and if they’re calling us out on a Sunday, it’s going to be a bad one.”
“I’ll get my bag!” Spencer called, already running towards it.
“I’ll call the cat-sitter,” Emily said.
Garcia and Morgan were already there when they arrived in the conference room, and Garcia immediately asked, “How’s Hotch?”
“We were just on our way to see him,” Emily said, “but obviously, we didn’t make it.”
“Oh, dear, and here I was hoping for new news,” Garcia said.
“Hey, Reid,” Morgan said. In Hotch’s absence, he was acting unit chief. “What are you doing here?”
“We have a case,” Spencer reminded him.
“Yeah, but I thought you’d be staying home with Jack and Jessica.”
“I’m actually staying with Emily at the moment.”
“Yeah, but are you even allowed to work without your supervisor?”
“I worked three and a half days last week without a supervisor. I took myself out for breaks, and Hotch made sure I got lunch. We can do the same on the case. I’ll make sure I take my breaks, and you guys can take turns with the other stuff.”
Morgan frowned, not convinced. “I don’t know, maybe we should ask Hotch.”
“I already did, and he said yes,” Spencer reported.
“You asked him if you could go on this case?” Morgan pressed, looking skeptical.
“Well, I asked him if I could stay with Emily, and he said yes, so if she goes on this case, then I can go,” Spencer reasoned.
“It’s okay,” Emily broke in. “I’ll take responsibility for him.”
“If something goes wrong, I’ll tell Hotch it’s all your fault,” Morgan threatened, but he smiled as he did so.
“I said responsibility, not blame. There’s a difference.”
“There might not be,” Morgan teased. “But, okay. I won’t pretend we don’t need you, Reid.”
“Hey, guys, you’ll never guess who’s the star on a Youtube video that a friend of mine just sent me a link to,” said Rossi, coming in with his phone at the ready.
“Who?” Emily asked as they all crowded around to watch. At first, he could only see the back of a boy’s head, but then he heard a high, clear child’s voice saying, “My – my guardian was hit by a tube and knocked off his feet …”
When the Spencer on the film remarked that he hadn’t gone to medical school, but that he read a lot, all the other agents burst into laughter. Spencer cringed a little, reminded of being laughed at too many times at school, and was happy when the video ended right after the woman made the Nintendo remark.
“I didn’t see that anybody was filming that,” Spencer said. At least the video only really showed him from the side and back, and Hotch was mostly out of focus.
“You were too busy taking care of Hotch,” Morgan said.
“You sounded just like a real doctor when you were getting Hotch to follow your finger,” Rossi told him, grinning.
“I am a real doctor,” Spencer pointed out, “just not a medical one.”
“Oh, JJ, you have to see this!” Emily said, greeting the newcomer.
“Is that the video of Spence and Hotch after his head injury?” JJ asked. ”Will showed me that last night. Spencer’s so adorable when he’s acting like a doctor, isn’t he?”
Spencer didn’t bother to protest a second time that he was a doctor. Instead he looked pleadingly at Garcia. “Can we get on with the case now?”
“Okay, speaking of cute kids, this one was kidnapped three weeks ago, and this one was kidnapped a week ago. They were both tortured and died as a result of that and sexual assault. This morning, a third child was reported missing,” Garcia began, and soon the team was flying to a small airstrip in rural Oklahoma. They were met by a nervous-looking mixed-race deputy with only one car and definitely not enough room for all of them.
“Hi, I’m Gary Wagoner,” he said, then caught sight of Spencer. “Well, hey, munchkin, who are you? I didn’t think the FBI brought their kids to work with them.”
“My boss is turning a blind eye, just this once,” Emily said. “My nanny quit, and we haven’t got a new one yet. But my boy here is very smart for his age, and incredibly well-behaved. We’ll just put him in a hotel room with a few books, and we won’t hear a peep out of him, will we, Spencer?”
“Not until I run out of books,” Spencer said, shivering a little in the icy wind.
Wagoner laughed uncertainly. “Well, it’ll be a motel room, because we don’t have any hotels in a town this size. That okay?”
“As long as there’s a bed and the heating works, we should be fine,” Emily said.
“We do have a small library branch. If the little guy wants to use my card, I’d be more than happy to share. And, uh, obviously we also don’t have a very big police force, so I asked a friend to help pick you up. She should be coming … right about now,” Wagoner said, directing their attention to an older station wagon lumbering up the road.
The middle-aged woman who got out to greet them was black, short, plump, and dressed as though she had just come from church. Spencer, Garcia, Emily and the pilot ended up in the station wagon with her, headed for the motel, while she mentioned that she’d cut short her afternoon Sunday School class in order to do anything at all, no matter how small, to help law enforcement find who was repsonsible for those poor children. Meanwhile, Wagoner was driving the rest of the team straight to the police station.
Despite the small town and the limited pool of suspects, there were also a lot of false leads over the next few days that didn’t pan out. Spencer cut his breaks shorter and shorter, and kept working closer and closer to his bed time, going over the available information again and again, and questioning his co-workers over video link as much as he could. He yearned to be out in the middle of the action, observing witnesses and crime scenes for firsthand details, especially when the body of the third child was discovered.
Part 18
Part 16
Return to Criminal Minds Page
The next morning, Spencer and Hotch and Jack all got up at the usual time, and after a little pleading by Jack, Hotch drove them to a store to buy two kid-sized inner tubes so that they could each have one and wouldn’t have to share the sled. Finally they went to a large hill in the middle of a park. It was obviously a popular destination , to judge by the amount of cars parked along the road, and the number of children swarming up the steps set into one side of the hill to launch themselves down the slope. Jack and Spencer eagerly joined them. At the top, Spencer flopped facedown onto his inner tube and Jack gave him a funny look. “You’re supposed to sit on it, like a sled—“
But Spencer didn’t hear the rest of what he said, because his inner tube started to slide, and he was racing down the hill. He felt a moment of fear, but then the slope became more shallow and he slowed down, finally coming to a stop, and the fear turned into delight. And when Jack’s inner tube bumped into his and scooted him along a little bit farther, he just laughed.
“That was great!” he cried to Hotch, who was standing there with his phone in his hand, taking pictures, or maybe even a video.
“Yeah, this is fun!” Jack chimed in.
“Well, do it again,” Hotch replied, giving them a fond smile.
They went up and down the hill so often that Spencer lost count. Finally, Hotch said, “One more time each, and then we should probably go.”
“Awww,” Jack and Spencer said at the same time, which made them both laugh. Then Jack picked up his inner tube and started to climb, and Spencer followed a moment later. When he was halfway up, however, a young child on a sled went by too close to the steps and accidentally clipped Jack’s inner tube, tearing it out of his hand so that it slid down the slope on its own.
“Hey!” Jack shouted, turning around. Spencer turned, too, and saw Hotch run over to grab the empty tube. Jack tried to go down the steps, but there were too many children coming up, so he stepped off onto the snow. Hotch came diagonally up the slope towards him, dodging tubes and sleds as he made his way to the steps. They were almost close enough to meet when two adolescent boys on a huge inner tube ran into Hotch, flipping him onto his head.
“Dad!” Jack screamed, and Spencer called out as well. “Hotch!”
He lay there, much too still. Pushing down his dread, Spencer dropped his inner tube, stepped into the snow, and made his way carefully down to where Hotch was sprawled. His head lay on one of the cement steps, but at least his eyes were open.
“Hey, mister, you all right?” a teenage girl was asking, and Jack was practically crying, “Dad, Dad!”
Other people were starting to crowd around. Letting his FBI training take over, Spencer wriggled through, knelt down next to Hotch, shucked off his gloves, and felt for a pulse. It was there, strong and steady, and he freed his watch from his sleeve to count. Normal. Then he peered into Hotch’s eyes to see if the pupils were dilated, but they looked normal, too. Hotch blinked and frowned up at him.
“Dad?” Jack asked again.
Spencer dug out his phone and dialled 911. “Hello, my name is Spencer Reid, we need an ambulance.”
“Hey, kid, I’ve already called,” somebody said loudly, but Spencer ignored him and gave the operator the address. “It’s the hill where everybody is sledding. My – my guardian was hit by a tube and knocked off his feet. He hit his head, I’m not sure if he was unconscious, but if he was, it was for a very short time. His pulse is steady and his eyes don’t appear to be dilated.”
“I’ll relay that information, and an ambulance is on the way,” the operator said.
“Thanks,” Spencer said, and hung up.
“Uh,” said Hotch, reaching out a shaky arm, and Jack practically fell on him, crying. Hotch gave a weak “oomph,” then said, “Jack … s’okay.”
Spencer pulled Jack back as much as he could. “You have to be gentle with him, Jack, he’s hurt. Just hold his hand for now.”
Jack reached out for Hotch’s hand, and Spencer said, “Hotch? Look at me. How many fingers am I holding up?”
“One,” Hotch murmured.
“Can you follow my finger with your eyes?” He moved it back and forth and Hotch’s eyes followed the movement smoothly.
“Do you know where you are?” Spencer went on.
“The park.” Hotch looked blearily around, then tried to sit up, and groaned. Seeing a spot of blood on the step where his head had been, Spencer pushed him back. “Don’t move. You hit your head. Do you feel nauseous?”
“No,” Hotch said, but he didn’t try to sit up again.
“Okay, but please stay still, the ambulance is coming.” Spencer glanced around, hoping to see it pulling up already, but although it wasn’t in view, he could at least hear a siren. “Does anybody have a blanket? He’s in shock, we need to keep him warm.”
A man came forward with a children’s blanket and Spencer directed him to tuck it under Hotch’s legs. A woman volunteered a hat to place under Hotch’s head, and Hotch lifted his head obligingly, but winced as he did so. Spencer patted his shoulder reassuringly. From behind him, another man asked jokingly, “Hey, kid, where’d you go to medical school?”
“I didn’t,” Spencer replied. “I just read a lot.”
“Wow,” the woman said, and Spencer felt obliged to add, “And my guardian here is in the FBI – he taught me a lot about how to respond to a crisis.”
“Wish he could teach my kids,” the woman said. “They’d just step over my body and run home to the Nintendo.”
Saying the letters FBI reminded Spencer that he’d better inform the team, and because he was supposed to be meeting up with Emily later that day anyway, he took out his own phone to dial her number. When Emily answered, it was obvious he’d roused her from sleep, but when he explained the situation, she became instantly awake.
“The ambulance is coming, I’ll call you back when I know more,” Spencer said, and hung up. Spencer ran over to meet the paramedics, telling them what had happened and giving them what information he had on Hotch’s condition. They insisted on checking for themselves, of course, which made Spencer just a little impatient, and then they carefully loaded Hotch onto a gurney.
“Can I go with my dad?” Jack asked tearfully, running along as they started to wheel the gurney towards the ambulance. Spencer jogged to keep up and announced, “There’s nobody else here to take care of us.”
From the gurney, Hotch said, “My wife died and it’s just me now …”
“Guess you boys had better get in,” the one paramedic replied. “And don’t worry, even if your dad has to spend a night at the hospital, he should be fine in a day or two.”
They loaded Hotch into the back of the ambulance and found room for both Jack and Spencer.
“We need to call Aunt Jessica,” Jack said as they drove off.
“Number … in my phone …” Hotch mumbled.
“We’ll take care of that at the hospital,” the paramedic announced brightly, but Spencer reached in under the emergency blanket and patted along Hotch’s hips until he found the phone.
“I’ve got it,” he said, standing up to get the phone out of Hotch’s pocket, and almost falling over as the ambulance went around a corner. The paramedic grabbed him around the waist to steady him.
“Sit down,” the paramedic said, pulling him back. “We don’t want to be treating you next.”
But Spencer had already managed to wriggle the phone out of Hotch’s pocket, and as soon as he was seated again, he began to search the list of contacts.
“Let me call,” Hotch said, but Spencer found the right name and handed the phone to Jack instead.
“Aunt Jessica?” Jack wailed as soon as there was an answer. “I need you! Dad’s been hurt!”
“Let me talk to your aunt,” the paramedic said, and Jack handed over the phone. The paramedic spoke briefly to Jessica, explaining the situation and giving her the name of the hospital, then gave the phone back to Jack.
They arrived at the hospital, and one paramedic took Jack and Spencer to the waiting room while the other took Hotch to an examination cubicle, informing a nurse about the situation on the way. Spencer took out his phone and informed Emily where they were, then put it away again. Almost instantly, his steady calm dissolved into worry, and he realised it was because the responsibility had passed from him to the professionals, leaving him with nothing more to do but wait. He tried not to talk to Jack and the paramedic too much about statistics and probabilities.
Hotch’s sister-in-law arrived first, and Jack ran over for a desperate hug. “Aunt Jessica!”
“Jack! Whoa, don’t knock me over! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, but Dad …”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” The waiting room was crowded, so Jessica took the seat Jack had just vacated, and Jack climbed onto her lap. Looking over, Jessica also said, “Hi, Spencer.”
“Hi,” he said.
“I take it you’re a family member?” asked the paramedic.
“I’m his next of kin, yes,” she replied. “How is Aaron, do you know?”
“It looked like a concussion to me, but he’s still being examined,” the paramedic said, then turned responsibility for Spencer and Jack over to her and went back to his ambulance. They sat there for several more minutes, with Jack telling Jessica his version of what had happened, then Emily came in. Spencer, who had been watching for her, stood up on his chair and waved both arms. “Emily!”
“Hey!” she said, and when she came over, Spencer reached out for a hug. “Hello, Spencer, you’re awfully cuddly all of a sudden.”
She used one hand to brush the melting snow from Spencer’s boots off the chair, then sat down with Spencer in her lap and turned to Jessica. “Hi, I’m Emily Prentiss, I don’t know if you remember me, but we met at Haley’s funeral? I work with Hotch?”
“Emily, yeah, hi,” Jessica said, looking from her to Spencer and back again. “Sorry, I thought you might be Spencer’s special nanny, but, um, you said you work with Aaron?”
“My old nanny quit, and Emily’s helping out until we can find a new one,” Spencer explained.
“Oh. Okay,” Jessica said, still a little confused, but visibly deciding there were other things to worry about.
They were interrupted by a nurse calling out, “Family of Aaron Hotchner?”
Jack jumped out of Jessica’s lap and raced over to her. “I’m his son! Is he all right? Can I see him?”
Jessica, Spencer, and Emily followed with only slightly less speed. Upon discovering that Jessica was the next of kin, the nurse directed her next words to her. “He’s got a concussion, and we’ll be taking him for an MRI to rule out anything worse, but on a day like to-day, there are a few people ahead of him and it’ll be a long wait. You can see him for a few minutes, and then you should probably take the children home. Can I get your number so we call you with an update?”
Jessica gave it to her, then asked, “Will he have to stay overnight?”
“Yes, and depending on what we observe, maybe even longer than that,” the nurse said, leading them past various cubicles. “Here you are. Keep it brief, please.”
Hotch had been transferred to the examination room bed and clothed in a hospital gown, with his belongings packed up in a huge plastic bag down at the end of the bed. When they came in, he opened his eyes and smiled weakly. “Jack!”
“Dad!” Jack cried, reaching out to give him as much of a hug as he could. Spencer saw Hotch wince whenever he moved his head.
“Jessica,” Hotch said next. “Thanks … for coming.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Jack for you,” she said. “You just concentrate on getting better.”
“I will,” Hotch said, then asked, “Emily? What are you … doing here?”
“Spencer called me,” she said. “How do you feel?”
“I’ll be okay,” Hotch claimed.
“Hotch, can I stay with Emily while you’re in the hospital?” Spencer asked quickly.
“Yeah,” Hotch exhaled.
“And can we borrow the keys to your car so Emily can get the car seat?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks, Hotch. Now you don’t have anything to worry about, so just get well soon,” Spencer told him with fake optimism. He hoped Hotch was only concussed and hadn’t sustained a traumatic brain injury.
“Yeah,” Hotch said for the third time, which only increased Spencer’s misgivings.
“Jack and I can get the car seat if you want to stay here with Spencer,” Jessica volunteered.
“That’s good, we can do that,” Emily said. “We’ll be out in the waiting room if you two want a few minutes alone with Hotch.”
“Thanks,” Jessica said.
In the waiting room, Emily said, “Jessica seems really nice.”
“Yes, but I don’t really know her, and she doesn’t know me,” Spencer said. “I mean, she doesn’t know it’s me. How could I tell her she has to drive a five-year-old to the BAU every morning? And after having been interrogated by SHIELD, I’m a bit hesitant to tell anybody else about the de-aging machine.”
“Yeah, I totally get that.”
“Not to mention I really have trouble acting like a kid,” Spencer went on.
“No! You don’t say!” Emily teased. “But you’ll have to sleep on the couch at my place. I haven’t got anything else for you.”
“The couch will be fine. My legs aren’t as long as they used to be, so I should be able to fit on it without any problems. And Hotch has a sleeping bag we can borrow, if that will help,” Spencer said.
“I’ve got plenty of sheets and blankets. We’ll make you comfortable.”
Jessica came back then, and made arrangements to call Emily when she was on her way back to the hospital with the car seat. Spencer was able to tell her exactly where Hotch had parked his car, and it took less than an hour for her to go and return. Once the seat had been transferred and Spencer was safely buckled in, Emily got into the driver’s seat and said, “How about we get some food, and then we can see about getting you set up at my place?”
“What about our Christmas shopping?” Spencer asked, and Emily groaned. “Sorry, with Hotch in the hospital, I completely forgot. Yeah, Christmas shopping.”
Spencer suggested a certain bookstore that had a café, and Emily asked, “A bookstore? Will I be able to get you out of there again?”
“I’m shopping for Hotch and Jack, not myself,” Spencer said, and Emily laughed. “You think that will make a difference?”
“Well, I already have something in mind for Jack, but I’m not sure about Hotch, so … maybe not?”
But when they were at the bookstore, Spencer saw something on the cover of a book that inspired him as to what to buy for Hotch. It meant going to another store, and then going home, putting the final touches on everything, and wrestling with wrapping paper, but then it was done. Spencer sat back and looked at the packages with satisfaction, thinking about Hotch using what he’d bought.
After supper, when Emily was making Spencer laugh by wrapping Sergio in gift paper and seeing how far she got before the cat no longer played along, Jessica called. Hotch was only concussed, and although they were going to keep him for observation until Monday morning, everything looked good so far. They could even visit him the next day if they wanted.
“That’s a relief,” Spencer said when Emily had relayed the news. “I was worried about traumatic brain injury.”
“Yeah, he seemed a little out of it when we were there,” Emily remembered. “Jessica also said they’re at Hotch’s apartment and if you need anything, we can drive over and get it.”
“My pyjamas,” Spencer said immediately, but also thinking of Boney. “My whole go-bag, actually.”
“Well, let’s go get it,” Emily said, “and then it will be bedtime for you.”
But the next morning, when they were getting ready to drive to the hospital to visit Hotch, Emily’s phone buzzed. She looked at the message and announced, “We have a case, and if they’re calling us out on a Sunday, it’s going to be a bad one.”
“I’ll get my bag!” Spencer called, already running towards it.
“I’ll call the cat-sitter,” Emily said.
Garcia and Morgan were already there when they arrived in the conference room, and Garcia immediately asked, “How’s Hotch?”
“We were just on our way to see him,” Emily said, “but obviously, we didn’t make it.”
“Oh, dear, and here I was hoping for new news,” Garcia said.
“Hey, Reid,” Morgan said. In Hotch’s absence, he was acting unit chief. “What are you doing here?”
“We have a case,” Spencer reminded him.
“Yeah, but I thought you’d be staying home with Jack and Jessica.”
“I’m actually staying with Emily at the moment.”
“Yeah, but are you even allowed to work without your supervisor?”
“I worked three and a half days last week without a supervisor. I took myself out for breaks, and Hotch made sure I got lunch. We can do the same on the case. I’ll make sure I take my breaks, and you guys can take turns with the other stuff.”
Morgan frowned, not convinced. “I don’t know, maybe we should ask Hotch.”
“I already did, and he said yes,” Spencer reported.
“You asked him if you could go on this case?” Morgan pressed, looking skeptical.
“Well, I asked him if I could stay with Emily, and he said yes, so if she goes on this case, then I can go,” Spencer reasoned.
“It’s okay,” Emily broke in. “I’ll take responsibility for him.”
“If something goes wrong, I’ll tell Hotch it’s all your fault,” Morgan threatened, but he smiled as he did so.
“I said responsibility, not blame. There’s a difference.”
“There might not be,” Morgan teased. “But, okay. I won’t pretend we don’t need you, Reid.”
“Hey, guys, you’ll never guess who’s the star on a Youtube video that a friend of mine just sent me a link to,” said Rossi, coming in with his phone at the ready.
“Who?” Emily asked as they all crowded around to watch. At first, he could only see the back of a boy’s head, but then he heard a high, clear child’s voice saying, “My – my guardian was hit by a tube and knocked off his feet …”
When the Spencer on the film remarked that he hadn’t gone to medical school, but that he read a lot, all the other agents burst into laughter. Spencer cringed a little, reminded of being laughed at too many times at school, and was happy when the video ended right after the woman made the Nintendo remark.
“I didn’t see that anybody was filming that,” Spencer said. At least the video only really showed him from the side and back, and Hotch was mostly out of focus.
“You were too busy taking care of Hotch,” Morgan said.
“You sounded just like a real doctor when you were getting Hotch to follow your finger,” Rossi told him, grinning.
“I am a real doctor,” Spencer pointed out, “just not a medical one.”
“Oh, JJ, you have to see this!” Emily said, greeting the newcomer.
“Is that the video of Spence and Hotch after his head injury?” JJ asked. ”Will showed me that last night. Spencer’s so adorable when he’s acting like a doctor, isn’t he?”
Spencer didn’t bother to protest a second time that he was a doctor. Instead he looked pleadingly at Garcia. “Can we get on with the case now?”
“Okay, speaking of cute kids, this one was kidnapped three weeks ago, and this one was kidnapped a week ago. They were both tortured and died as a result of that and sexual assault. This morning, a third child was reported missing,” Garcia began, and soon the team was flying to a small airstrip in rural Oklahoma. They were met by a nervous-looking mixed-race deputy with only one car and definitely not enough room for all of them.
“Hi, I’m Gary Wagoner,” he said, then caught sight of Spencer. “Well, hey, munchkin, who are you? I didn’t think the FBI brought their kids to work with them.”
“My boss is turning a blind eye, just this once,” Emily said. “My nanny quit, and we haven’t got a new one yet. But my boy here is very smart for his age, and incredibly well-behaved. We’ll just put him in a hotel room with a few books, and we won’t hear a peep out of him, will we, Spencer?”
“Not until I run out of books,” Spencer said, shivering a little in the icy wind.
Wagoner laughed uncertainly. “Well, it’ll be a motel room, because we don’t have any hotels in a town this size. That okay?”
“As long as there’s a bed and the heating works, we should be fine,” Emily said.
“We do have a small library branch. If the little guy wants to use my card, I’d be more than happy to share. And, uh, obviously we also don’t have a very big police force, so I asked a friend to help pick you up. She should be coming … right about now,” Wagoner said, directing their attention to an older station wagon lumbering up the road.
The middle-aged woman who got out to greet them was black, short, plump, and dressed as though she had just come from church. Spencer, Garcia, Emily and the pilot ended up in the station wagon with her, headed for the motel, while she mentioned that she’d cut short her afternoon Sunday School class in order to do anything at all, no matter how small, to help law enforcement find who was repsonsible for those poor children. Meanwhile, Wagoner was driving the rest of the team straight to the police station.
Despite the small town and the limited pool of suspects, there were also a lot of false leads over the next few days that didn’t pan out. Spencer cut his breaks shorter and shorter, and kept working closer and closer to his bed time, going over the available information again and again, and questioning his co-workers over video link as much as he could. He yearned to be out in the middle of the action, observing witnesses and crime scenes for firsthand details, especially when the body of the third child was discovered.
Part 18
Part 16
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