The next morning, the doctors felt that Spencer was doing well enough to take him off the sedation as well as remove the nasogastric tube. He woke two separate times, briefly, after they did that. Neither time did he fully wake enough to be coherent, but the doctors said that was expected and assured the others that his body would wake when it was ready; it had been through quite an ordeal. The nurses all smiled to themselves at the obvious love this group of people held for one another—the young man in the bed was never left alone for any period of time. One of the nurses suggested to the serious looking man with the arm sling that maybe he go home and rest and he'd just shook his head before calmly telling them "I'll be here when he wakes." Then he and the darker man had settled into chairs beside the hospital bed, keeping out of the way of the nurses, and they held hands as they quietly waited.

For the amount of times that he'd been in the hospital, one would think that Spencer would have grown used to waking up and finding himself there. Yet each time he did it, it was always a shock to his system. It always took him just a little while to reorient himself. This time wasn't any different. Slowly but surely Spencer felt himself starting to wake up, his senses coming back to him slowly. As always, thought was one of the first things to trigger for him. How many times had Morgan teased him that his brain never stopped thinking of things? He didn't tell the man how true that seemed to be. It was already thinking before he even got around to opening his eyes. Every bit of his body felt heavy in a way he thought he recognized and that made him very afraid. That heavy feeling only came from one thing; drugs.

What came through next was touch. He felt hands in his, stroking at his arms, one up by his face and smoothing his hair back from his forehead. Then voices. Someone was talking to him, coaxing him, and he knew that voice. No, those voices. There were more than one. "Come on, baby boy. That's it. Come on now, open those pretty eyes of yours." Said one. And the other, "That's it, honey. We're right here with you. Just open your eyes and look up at us. We're right here and we've got you."

A second later his brain processed who those voices belonged to. Aaron and Derek. Those voices were Aaron and Derek. Finally, finally, some of the weight lifted and Spencer tried to blink his eyes open. The first look he got had him shutting them tightly once more and regretting trying. It was bright. The rest of him still felt all floaty, almost weightless, but that bright light made his eyes hurt. He heard a groaning sound and it took him longer than it should have to realize that it came from him.

Someone's hand was stroking over his cheek and another was smoothing back his bangs again. "Shh, baby boy." Morgan murmured lowly. "Don't try moving too much yet. I didn't think about the lights. Just take it easy, take it slow."

"Everything and everybody is okay." Aaron told him. They were words that Spencer latched on to. "We're all okay. You just lay there and take it easy. You've had it awfully rough, honey."

The more alert he became, the more reality was returning. All of a sudden it became important that he opened his eyes. Important that he see the men in front of him and know for sure that they were really there. That he wasn't just in some medicine induced haze from whatever had happened and was hallucinating their voices. He had to see for himself that they were really okay. Spencer made himself try to blink, to gradually adjust himself to the light. It took a few blinks and a few winces before finally, thank you!, he got his eyes to open. They were blurry at first under the bright light but gradually they cleared and he saw the most beautiful sight ever right in in front of him. Morgan was on his left, Aaron was on his right, and both of them were bent in so that their faces were practically side by side and oh-so-close to his. It was the perfect thing to see when he woke. The absolute perfect thing.

Morgan's hand was cupping his cheek now, thumb stroking over his cheekbone. "Don't move too much, pretty boy. You've got to keep still okay? You…you've got some incisions in your stomach."

Incisions? What…the bullet. That was right. He'd been shot. He tried to open his mouth, to say something, but Morgan's thumb moved to cover his lips. "Hush. They just took that nose tube thing outta you earlier and they said your throats probably going to be sore."

Aaron rolled his eyes and gave Spencer a smile. "It was a nasogastric tube, not a nose tube thing. Point is, you'll be tender for a bit. We'll get some water in here for you in just a minute, once the nurses check you out. They'll want to look at you now that you're awake."

He wasn't able to tell them that it didn't matter. The drugs in his system were already kicking back in, dragging him back down toward sleep. Against his will his eyes slipped shut and his body went back under.

The next time that Spencer woke, sound came first. Something coming from the left side of his bed, pitched low but still distinguishable. It was a sound he knew very well and that inspired an instinctive response in him. Even as he was blinking his eyes open once more, he was trying to lift his left hand, just barely succeeding in getting it up off the bed a little. Still, it allowed him to move that hand over and, when he got his eyes open a slit, he managed to shakily put his hand over the dark one that rested on the bed beside his. At the touch of his fingers, Morgan cut off whatever he'd been growling about and spun toward the bed, looking up from his chair and toward Spencer's face. Everything about him lit up. "Hey, sleeping beauty."

A corner of his mouth quirking, Spencer managed to croak out a "Hey." It had him wincing from the dryness and soreness in his throat, however.

There was movement on his right and someone stepped up close; a nurse, it looked like. "Dr. Reid, here." The woman held a cup and straw out in front of him. "Just little sips, now. It'll help wet your throat."

He gratefully took a few sips, enjoying the cooling effect on his throat. When she took it away, he blinked and looked back toward Morgan. "The Unsubs?" Though his throat felt better, he kept his words short and to the point. With wakefulness this time came achiness. There was a dull, muted throb from his abdomen that reminded him it was there with each breath he took. He'd ask about that in a minute. Right now, his brain was fully waking up, not clouded by sedation or anything else anymore, and he needed to know what had happened with the Unsubs.

Morgan's hand curled around his in a reassuring sort of way. "Chill, kid. Everything's fine. We got the guys. Well, you got one of them. He didn't make it out of surgery." Morgan sounded entirely too gleeful about that, but Spencer saved that thought for another time. He focused fully on his lover while the nurse was off to the side, checking his vitals. "And the other?" he asked.

"They've got him. Rossi took care of interrogation." Something flashed over Morgan's face, something that worried Spencer. He tried to tighten his grip on Morgan's hand, appalled at how weak he felt. He couldn't even get a good grip. Morgan must've understood, or seen something on his face, because he quickly spoke up. "Shh, kid, stay still now. Come on. Just look at me and chill, okay? Things are all right. Everyone's all right."

"What's going on?" Just because Morgan said everything was all right didn't mean that Spencer could relax. He knew how prone Morgan was to trying to shelter him from things. "Tell me, Derek. Tell me."

Morgan sighed and ran his free hand over his face. "I'll tell you." He finally said. "On one condition. You try not to freak out on me, okay? Keep in mind that we've got everything under control."

Spencer didn't budge. "Tell me."

"Rossi found out who paid our Unsubs to come to the house. It was Haley's friend, Tammi Miller. Apparently Haley had vented to her about our relationship and Tammi decided to take matters into her own hands and try to 'fix' this for Haley. They're positive that Haley didn't know what was going on, thank God. But that's why the guy took Aaron out of the room and why they were going to 'question' us."

"To break us up. She wanted to break us up." Closing his eyes, Spencer battled back the heartache and nausea. Jesus, the measures some people could go to for what they believed was the 'right' thing! How could someone ever think that hurting people was an okay response to fixing something? How could this ever seem like a solution to them? "I can't stand prejudiced people." Spencer finally said softly. "Don't they realize there's enough pain in the world? Why create more over something as simple as people being happy?" A wince cut off his words and he tried not to shift. The nurse was there quickly, hands on his blanket, saying something, but it was all lost on Spencer as one thing cleared his head. Aaron. "Where's Aaron?" he croaked out in just barely a whisper.

"Pardon me, Dr. Reid? What was that?"

"Aaron." He opened his eyes again and looked at Morgan. "Where's Aaron?"

This time it was Morgan who winced. "He's out on the phone with Strauss right now."

Dealing with Strauss. Oh, man. Spencer closed his eyes and then moved his hands, reaching toward his side rails. Hands were abruptly on him, pinning his shoulders to the bed, keeping him from rising as he'd been trying to do. The nurse was trying to hold him down, her voice firm as she said "Dr. Reid, please! You need to stay still!" and Morgan was telling him "Spencer, baby boy, lay back. Everything's okay, baby, just lay back." But they didn't understand. He needed to see Aaron. Right now, he needed to see him. It was embarrassing, how easily they held him down. There was no way he'd break free of their hands. That meant he was going to have to try a different tactic. He looked at Morgan and then at the nurse. "Go get Aaron." He told them in as firm a whisper as he could muster. "Go get him."

Morgan's hands settled on Spencer's shoulders and he looked over to the nurse "Get Agent Hotchner, please. He should be right down at the waiting room. Trust me, he won't relax until you get him." And with that order, Morgan turned back to Spencer, bringing his hands up to cup his face. "Relax for me, pretty boy. Relax. You can't be moving around like that, you hear me? You had surgery yesterday. The doctors said they had to remove your spleen and right now, you need to keep as still as possible in this bed so you don't do any damage. So quit trying to move around. They'll get him for you, baby boy. They'll get him."

Spencer heard the door open and then footsteps rushing over toward the bed. A second later Spencer saw the very face he needed to see. Aaron was there, leaning over the edge of the bed, one of his hands automatically coming up to smooth back Spencer's bangs. "What's going on in here? What's wrong, honey?"

The honey warmed Spencer's insides, just as it always did. He gathered what little strength he had and he lifted his right hand, grateful when Aaron quickly reached down an took it. Spencer made himself meet Aaron's eyes, looking straight at him as he told him "Not your fault." All this talking had dried out his throat and it had exhausted him, but this was important. This, he needed to say. "Not your fault. None of this."

Aaron grimaced. His hand never stopped smoothing back Spencer's hair, though. It continued with gentle little strokes that were making Spencer feel sleepy again. "You just relax, Spencer. Worry about you right now."

"No." Spencer closed his eyes and relaxed for a second before he continued speaking. "You don't get to feel guilty. Not your fault." He squeezed Aaron's hand and Morgan's as well as he felt his other love take his free hand. "Love you. Love both of you."

"We love you too, baby boy." Morgan said warmly. "And we're not going anywhere. Just rest, okay?"

Aaron bent and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. "He's right. We love you and we're right here. I promise, we'll deal with all this when we get you home. For now, just rest."

Reassured that neither man was going to leave on him out of misplaced guilt or something, Spencer took their advice. He kept his eyes closed and just relaxed. They were by his side, they were okay, their Unsub was under arrest, and for now, that was enough. The rest could be handled soon enough.

And, sorry folks, but this story is almost at its end :O I know, right? Amazing! Most likely there'll be 2 more chapters left and they'll probably be this length or longer. Hope you all have enjoyed the ride and haven't hated me for spotty updates :P I love all your reviews and you've all been wonderful!