Thanks for your reviews and for reading! :) I played with this chapter a lot, so please let me know what you think.

"JJ?" Reid mumbled groggily as he slow woke up. He was in a bed but clueless as to how he got there or where "there" was exactly. His head was spinning and he could tell that if he opened his eyes he would be sick to his stomach. So he just lay still in the bed hoping that there was someone there to answer him.

He was in a lose/lose situation. If he opened his eyes he knew he would feel worse than he already did. At the same time, not knowing where he was or who he was with terrified him. He was about to give in and open his eyes when a strong voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Well good morning, Pretty Boy," Only one person called him that, he was safe with that voice around.

"Hi, Morgan" Reid smiled. He could hear the other man setting a magazine down, getting up out of a chair and shuffling around the room.

"How are you feeling?" The older agent asked as he sat down on the edge of Reid's bed.

"Like I got hit by a truck." His dizziness was subsiding and Reid slowly opened his eyes. The bright light in the room hurt his eyes initially but they soon began to adjust.

Morgan gave a short, half laugh, "Yeah, the doctor who was in here earlier said that would probably be the case. At any rate, glad to see you're awake."

"Where's JJ? She was in the car with us on the way here." Reid asked noticing that the blonde agent was nowhere to be seen.

"She had to get back to the station. You've been out for a couple days, man." Morgan said. A couple of days...

"The Unsub killed someone else, didn't he?" Reid felt the blood drain from his face. This was his fault, all his fault. Morgan could see exactly what the boy was thinking; he could read him like a book.

"Reid, man, you can't blame yourself for this." Morgan said softly shaking his head. The young agent stopped speaking and got really quiet for some time.

"When can I go? We need to get back to the precinct." Reid tossed the blankets off of his body but Morgan was quickly there pushing him back into the bed.

"Easy there, Pretty Boy." Morgan said, "You're here for at least another 24 hours. The doctors are still trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with you."

"They still don't know?" Reid asked a little concern.

"No," Morgan answered avoiding eye contact, "They think you might have some underlying condition. They wouldn't tell us since we aren't immediate family."

"What aren't you telling me?" Reid asked knowing that something was being hidden from him.

"Look Reid, I don't think this is my place to tell you." Morgan looked away again. It didn't take a profiler to know that avoidance of eye contact was rarely a good sign, "The doctors advised JJ to stay away at least until you woke up."

"What happened?" Reid asked his heart pounding, his mind racing – what could he have said to warrant such a mandate. Morgan sighed and rubbed a hand over his head.

"You uh...you were really out of it when we first got you here – it scared us. Your fever wasn't too bad but...uh...you were still really out of it. You were saying a lot of things. Bad things, kid. You were hallucinating a lot too."

"What did I say?" Reid asked embarrassed, he could feel tears pricking at his eyes, "Morgan, what did I say when we first got here?"

Derek closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, how the hell was he supposed to explain everything that happened to the kid.

"What's his name?" one of the nurses asked as they placed the young agent onto a gurney.

"Spencer Reid." JJ answered as doctors and nurses quickly buzzed around them. One was taking his blood pressure while another stuck a thermometer into his ear.

"Do you know his medical history?" Asked a doctor who had come up and joined the medical team, "Any allergies?"

"We have all of that information back at the hotel." Morgan answered, "I don't think he has any allergies besides a slight lactose intolerance but..."

The straight face doctor nodded and quickly interrupted Morgan once he received the information he needed, "What brought you in here?"

"He started vomiting blood earlier today; he's been really out of it for awhile now. High fevers, dizziness, headaches. He fainted and we think he might have hurt his wrist or hand as a result of that fall." JJ said sympathetically looking down at her sick friend. He looked so vulnerable and her heart ached with emotion.

"Keller, get two milligrams of dihydromorphinone." The doctor said to one of the nurses – Morgan and JJ exchanged a quick knowing glance. The nurse soon returned with a syringe full of a clear substance and began to sterilize a spot on Reid's antecubital.

Morgan's hand shot up and grasped the nurse's arm before the needle penetrated Spencer's skin, "What is that?"

"It's an opiate for the pain."

"Don't give it to him." Morgan spoke with force as he protectively maneuvered himself between Reid and the nurse.

"Sir, please step back" The doctor said as he put a hand forcibly on Morgan's shoulder, "Let us do our job. Your friend appears to be in a lot of pain from his injured wrist and we're just trying to help him."

"I want it," a feeble voice suddenly called out. Everyone's heads turned to face the young agent whose eyes had slowly begun to flutter open, "Morgan, I want it. Let them give it to me, please."

"Reid, you don't know what you're saying, man" his voice was getting caught up in his own throat as he became overwhelmed by emotion.

"Stop it, Morgan, let them give it to me. Dihydromorphinone, it's the pharmaceutical name for..." Reid's voice was becoming more distant as he quickly began to fade again, "...dilau..."

"You can't give that to him." Morgan said more sternly looking at the doctor; JJ turned her head to the side as she tried to hide the tears that were forming in her eyes and threatening to stain her porcelain cheeks.

Morgan had seen the kid's struggle with the drug first hand and knew what the repercussions might be if the opiate reentered his system. For the second time that day he thought back to the afternoon he had caught Reid about to shoot up. It wasn't more than two nights after that incident that the boy showed up on Morgan's door step drenched in sweet and shaking uncontrollably. Morgan had spent enough time around the streets of Chicago to know what withdrawal looked like but back then it was homeless junkies who couldn't afford their next fix – not a friend desperately seeking sobriety. He invited the boy to stay with him and Reid graciously spent the following two weeks at the older agent's house as he went through a hellish withdrawal. The shaking, nausea, vomiting – Derek had been there for it all.

"What's your name, sir?" The doctor asked folding his arms across his chest.

"Special Agent Derek Morgan."

"Well, Special Agent Derek Morgan," the doctor stated in a mocking tone, "I didn't hear an M.D. at the end of that name, so I suggest..."

"He used to have a dependency problem." Derek said. He had sworn to Reid that he would never tell anyone but he was running out of options and it was the only thing he could think of. Derek tried to rationalize his actions – the reason Reid didn't want him to tell anyone was only because he didn't want the team to be disappointed in him; back then he was too doped up to notice that they all already knew – you can't hide much from a group of profilers.

"Excuse me?"

"He had a dependency problem with that same stuff – dilaudid. You won't find it on any of his records...it was the result of a case..." Derek sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, "Look, he's a good kid that just got hooked because of circumstances beyond his control. But believe me; you just can't give him that stuff. He's worked too damn hard on being clean to throw it all away because of a hurt wrist."

The doctor looked down at the boy who was once more regaining partial consciousness, "We'll hold off on it for now – until we can get him stabilized. If he asks for it then...we'll have to give it to him...if there's no record of the dependency, it becomes your word against his and he's our patient."

"I can't feel it," Spencer cried out suddenly realizing his sobriety, "Morgan – what did you tell them?"

Reid thrashed on the bed and JJ swiftly walked over to him, "Reid, Morgan is just trying to help."

"Wh-what are you doing here?" He suddenly asked wide eyed, looking up at the blonde woman.

"Kid, what's going on?"

"Derek – did you call her here? Why did they let you out of the home – I'm supposed to be the only one allowed to release you."

"Do you know who he thinks she is?" The doctor asked turning to Derek.

"His mother, he did the same thing earlier at the hotel." JJ was still by Reid's side trying to comfort the younger boy.

"Reid, shh" she hushed soothingly, "It's just me, it's JJ."

"Mom...why are they doing this to me, Mama? I just want to go away. I want to go back to that place again."

"Reid, what place?"

"When I was younger...with you. I want the dihydromorphinone...I took it for you, for us. So I could be with you again – so I could remember you like you were, how you used to be before you got sick..." his voice trailed off as his head fell limply to one side. The doctor sprinted over to him.

"His fever's spiking, we need to cool him off." Three other medical attendees swarmed the gurney and Reid was quickly rushed off to a back room.

"After that, anytime JJ would get near you..." Derek's voice trailed off.

"I would think she was my mother." Reid said finishing his sentence.

"Yeah, kid." Morgan said nodding, "It would get you really upset. Something would go wrong whenever she came in here so the doctors suggested that she stay away for awhile. It worked too. Your fever stopped spiking and you stopped hallucinating other things too."

"I'm so sorry," Reid began to cry softly, "Is she mad at me?"

"Not at all."

"Are you mad at me?"

"Not at all, Pretty Boy. There isn't anyone on our team who could be mad at you." Derek smiled trying to ease Spencer's worries, "We've all just been worried about you. Garcia even threatened to come here a couple of times if you didn't wake up soon."

Reid smiled and the two men sat in a blissful silence. It was nice to relax for awhile after the emotionally and physically exhausting past couple of days.

Suddenly Reid looked at Derek with pleading eyes, "They didn't give it to me, did they?"

"No, kid. They never gave you anything."

"Morgan," Reid looked straight into his friend's eyes, that one look saying more than words ever could, "Thank you."

It ended up being a little longer than I thought it would be – please let me know what you think! You've already read it, now all you have to do is review ; )