AN: Hold on, guys 'cause this one's a doosy! Almost 3000 words! The longest chapter yet but also the last one. I'm honestly proud of it but it's a bit... emotional so I hope that I managed to keep the boys in character! Hopefully enough to satisfy at the very least.

Um... everything else is the same. No additional warnings or anything.

So, I give the the ending to Too Much at Once (one of my favorite stories with one of my least favorite titles!)

Please enjoooy!

Another day had passed; a day full of his team coming in and out, rotating between his and Reid's room. The fact that Reid was now securely on the road to recovery made their visits and the overall atmosphere more pleasant because there was nothing major to worry about anymore. Of course, Foyet was still out there with Aaron's family as his ultimately target and that had them all worried, but his family was about as safe as they could be given the situation and now the whole team was safe as well.

So, despite the pain and guilt that still tore at Aaron, even he had to admit that there was less to worry about now that Reid was okay.

Hotch had been longing to see him, though. Every time he went to sleep, he had nightmares, many of which were about Reid dying if they weren't about his family. Half the time, Aaron would wake up wondering if Reid was alive or dead. He felt like if he could just see him, he would automatically feel better.

But, he hadn't been allowed to venture out of his room yet which meant he could only hear about Reid's condition from the rest of the team and as far as he knew, Reid was doing pretty well.

For the first half of the day after Reid's surgery, few visitors had been allowed in his room so most of the team had stayed with Hotch. Then, late yesterday, Reid had been granted regular visitation conditions which meant that about half of them stayed with Hotch while the others went with Reid, and they would rotate.

But today, Hotch was determined to see Reid for himself.

Truthfully, he didn't feel nearly as bad as he had the previous days. In fact, he was actually able to move without feeling copious amounts of pain shoot through him. Without a doubt, his body was healing and he couldn't really imagine why they wouldn't let him go see Reid for even a few minutes.

"What are you thinking about?" Rossi asked, apparently noting Aaron's state of deep thought.

"I want to see Reid for myself," Aaron answered simply.

Dave didn't say anything right away, just observed Aaron. "Still having nightmares about him?"

Aaron didn't answer him, just looked into his eyes. Rossi was one of the most capable profilers there were so he would naturally know much of what his teammates were going through without them having to say anything.

"I've seen him myself, Aaron," Rossi continued. "He's looking better every day. He can even stay up for more than thirty minutes at a time the last I checked."

Hotch closed his eyes for a minute. "I still want to see for myself," he repeated.

"I didn't say you shouldn't. I actually think it would do you both good," Rossi retorted which made Aaron look at him. How would it do Reid any good?

"He's worried about you, too, Aaron," Rossi explained. "You have to understand, he's also only heard your condition from others and knows that you're going through a hard time. So, I think it would be good for both of you."

Aaron nodded and decided he should have figured that from the beginning. Aaron knew his situation was bad; his home had been invaded, he was tortured and stabbed several times, his family was now in danger and in the protection program and most importantly, the man who did all of it was still at large. He knew his team would be deeply concerned for him, especially Reid who was still very much so in the dark. In essence, he and Reid were in similar boats in terms of needing to see each other.

"I'll tell you what," Rossi said, interrupting Aaron's thoughts. "I'll go talk to some people, see what I can do, and I think I'll grab the others and we'll go for some lunch."

Hotch suddenly felt a wave of gratitude for the subtle abilities of David Rossi. He almost always knew exactly what needed to be done and managed to do it without anyone really noticing he had been there.

"Thank you."

"Anytime. I'll see you in a bit," Rossi replied before leaving Hotch's room.

Aaron didn't know how he did it, but not even ten minutes later, a nurse came strolling into Aaron's room pushing a wheelchair. The wheelchair didn't bother him though because he had known it would be the only way they'd let him out of his bed.

"Somebody called for a taxi?" the male nurse said pleasantly. "I believe I am to take you to room 115."

"Is that Dr. Reid's room?"

"I believe so, yes sir," he answered as he brought the wheelchair right up to Aaron's bed. "Now, you've only been permitted to go for fifteen minutes, so keep that in mind."

Aaron nodded, knowing there was no sense in fighting the rules established in the hospital. He gingerly, with the aid of the nurse, began to sit up and slowly transferred himself into the wheelchair. It hadn't been nearly as painful or difficult as it had been the few times before when he had to go to the restroom; definitely a sign of improvement.

"Alright, let's go," the man said as he began to push Aaron into the hallway, a place he hadn't been to yet, at least not while he was conscious, and then down the hallway. Before he knew it, they were slowing down in front of a room that looked just like his own. Beside the door a little plaque read "REC 115."

Aaron was then pushed into the room, allowing him his first glimpse of Reid. Due to the angle, however, he could really only see Reid's chestnut, straggly hair.

"Dr. Reid," the nurse said as he pushed Hotch further into the room. "You've got a special visitor."

Finally, Aaron was able to see Reid's face and was utterly pleased to see that the young man was awake and looking relatively well.

"Fifteen minutes, agents," the nurse said as he locked the wheels on Aaron's chair, then turned around and exited the room.

"Hotch," Reid said softly. "How are you?"

Aaron could sense the undertones of the question; he wasn't just asking about Aaron's stab wounds. Hotch took the opportunity to further examine his youngest agent. He was pale, no doubt from his continued recovery and he still had a nasal tube running over his ears and below his nose. Hotch did remember Prentiss saying something about his lung, so it made sense for them to still have him on extra oxygen. At least it wasn't a breathing tube.

"I'm okay, Reid," he somewhat truthfully. "What about you?"

Reid shrugged slightly. "It was my first major surgery."

"And two back-to-back, no less," Hotch added.

Reid shrugged again in response. "What is that saying?" he asked, "Go big or go home?"

Aaron smiled at this little idiom, thinking it was not usual for Reid but a nice little surprise. "Well, to be honest, I would have preferred you to just go home this time."

Reid smiled and seemed to agree.

"But I heard what you did," Aaron continued, getting a bit more serious. "And I'm very proud of you."

The young man seemed to be embarrassed at the compliment as he smiled and looked away for a moment. Aaron knew Reid was, against all odds given that he was one of the smartest men out there, quite humble and therefore didn't exactly embrace compliments. It was a quality Aaron hoped he would never lose. Although, he wouldn't mind if Reid gained a little more confidence in himself.

Silence fell over them for a short amount of time and Aaron was well aware that Reid wanted to say something, but was either holding back or else trying to determine the best way to say it.

"Hotch," he started slowly, his eyes wandering away from Aaron's face. "I… wanted to say something."

Aaron shifted in his chair, knowing that it was about to get slightly uncomfortable for both of them. It was notorious of the BAU team to be rather inept, with the exception of maybe a few people, at sharing each their feelings so it would naturally be uncomfortable in such an intense situation as this.

"Go ahead," Hotch said softly.

Reid bit his lips and waited for a moment, took a deep breath and began speaking. "I… I heard what happened and, I'm really sorry it did happen, of course, but what I really want to say is that… I know how it feels to be tortured… to be the victim."

Aaron frowned at this. Sure, he had suspected for Reid to talk about Hotch's encounter with Foyet, but Reid rarely brought up what happened in Georgia or anything that personal in general.

"I'm not saying I know how you feel exactly," he quickly added, almost as though he thought he had already upset the senior agent, which he hadn't. "Because… well, it only happened to me. I don't really have much of a family to be in danger and the unsub isn't still out there," he explained softly. Aaron knew that he was only trying to establish that Hotch was going through something beyond his own experience, and it was a nice gesture but Aaron knew what he meant.

"I just… well, BAU agents don't really have the best track record with life after being the victim, do they?" he said with a very uncomfortable and forced smile, alerting Aaron to the fact that what he was saying was bringing him much discomfort.

"What do you mean, Reid?"

Reid shifted in his bed, wincing at the pain it caused. "Think about it, after Elle got shot, she was never the same. And she ended up, well…," he trailed off and Aaron knew he was implying their certainty that Elle had killed a man she thought to be the unsub after he had been set free "She got into some trouble and left. Gideon… he left. And me…," he trailed off again and Aaron was almost certain he was fighting back tears.

"I just," he started again, seemingly pulling himself back together. "I've been thinking about it ever since I heard about what happened to you and you went through so much more than all of us, really. You're still going through it. And, if our experiences led us to… where we are, I really don't want to think about how you must be feeling."

He finally looked at Aaron and Aaron could see the intense pain in his eyes. He knew that Reid thought this conversation was of the highest importance because if he didn't, there was no way he would be bringing up so many of his own painful memories.

"I'm not saying that you'd do anything… bad," he quickly clarified. "I guess I just want you to know that I understand what you're going through, at least to an extent and if you ever… you know…," he trailed off once again and Aaron couldn't stand seeing him struggle so much anymore.

"Reid," he said calmly, but sternly, letting Reid know that what he was about to say was also very important. "I know what you're trying to say, and I appreciate it, but I need you to know something."

Immediately, Aaron saw some form of fear in the young agent's eyes as he apparently assumed he had offended Aaron in some way. Which couldn't have been further from the truth.

"The kind of things the members of this team, past and present, have been through," Hotch began, speaking slowly, emphasizing every word. "They are more mentally and emotionally damaging than most people can even imagine. That, on top of the fact that we see humanity at its very worst and therefore know exactly what may become of us when we find ourselves at the mercy of an unsub only adds to the severity of the experience."

Hotch did not allow any time for Reid to say anything, but he was pleased that the fear was subsiding in the young man's face.

"In my opinion, the only person who may have reacted poorly to their situation was Elle, simply because she likely ended up taking another man's life, something we are against," Aaron said, for the first time talking about Elle and her situation. But, in this case, it needed to be said. "Even then, she managed to walk away from the job. And Gideon, he did not react poorly necessarily, he just realized he couldn't continue this job and maintain who he was at the same time. To some, his reaction can be seen as a triumph."

Aaron took a deep breath as he came up to the most personal, but most important, part of his speech.

"And you, Reid," he began, noticing Reid tense up once again. "What you went through was about as bad as it could get for you. As you said, you do not have a wife or children, so what you went through was, for lack of better term, your own personal hell. And yes," Hotch continued, getting to the most uncomfortable part of the talk, "you fell victim to an unfortunate habit, which was almost expected given that Henkel had forced it on you to begin with."

Hotch took another deep breath and saw that Reid was now ashamed and embarrassed at the mention of his former addiction, but Aaron hoped to put his thoughts at ease with what he was going to say next.

"Reid, every single person, even us, would go through a rough patch following experiences like ours," he continued, his tone much softer now. "Nobody could simply get up and continue on like nothing had ever happened. But, it's what we do in response to those rough patches that determines who we are and how we handled the entire situation."

Reid looked at him now, slightly confused.

"Look at you right now, Reid," Aaron continued, gesturing at him. "You've been clean for years, you've denied helpful narcotics on more than one occasion when you could have really used them and most importantly, you're lying in a bed, having come very close to dying, because you were willing to sacrifice your own life for a man you barely even knew. Do you really consider who you are now a failure? Do you really think you responded badly to what happened to you, because I most certainly do not. And neither does anyone else on this team."

Aaron examined Reid, noting the one solitary tear that was rolling down his cheek, and hoped that he had gotten his point across.

"So yes," Hotch said after a few moments, "I will… inevitably, go through a rough time but I know that I will be able to pull through it, just as you did, Reid. I know my team will be there for me, just as we were there for you, and in the end everything will be okay."

Aaron finished and Reid nodded slowly, letting Aaron know that he had heard and understood what he was being told.

"Please know that I am extremely proud of you, Reid," he said finally. "What you've done over the past couple of years and what you did a few days ago proves that you have become a very valuable member of this team and one of the best agents the Bureau has seen. Never doubt that again."

"Yes sir," Reid said softly, again holding back on a few more tears that had accumulated in his eyes. "Thank you."

Aaron nodded slowly, "Thank you, Reid."

Silence once again fell over them but Aaron honestly didn't feel that it was very awkward this time. Yes, they had both went far more personal than either of them were comfortable with, but sometimes that was necessary and now was definitely one of those times.

They only had a few more minutes together before the male nurse reentered the room to take Aaron back to his own.

"You ready, Agent Hotchner?" the nurse asked as he unlocked the wheels and prepared to push.

Aaron, with one last meaningful glance at Reid, nodded.

Reid now understood something that Aaron thought was extremely important; how long he must of went thinking he had failed in responding positively to his kidnapping made Aaron feel guilty for having not made this clear earlier. Yes, the drugs had been a setback but an almost inevitable one. Reid's comeback, however, had been most admirable.

And, as Hotch got closer to his room, he realized that even though his goal had been to comfort Reid, he had actually learned a bit himself. Yes, things were going to get bad before they got better, but if Reid was able to return so strongly, Aaron simply did not see why he couldn't do the same.

With that hopeful thought, Aaron slowly climbed back into his bed and for the first time since the whole incident, he actually felt at least some peace come over him. They were all, eventually, going to be okay.

End.

EN: Did you like it? If you have never reviewed and feel up to it, please let me know what you thought of the overall story! And I'm always worried about my endings, so let me know what you guys thought of it por favor!

Well, another story down, I've got one more to finish (Enjoy the Silence) and I'm about to post the first chapter of a new story that has been sitting in my documents for almost a year! A little teaser? It's about two agents, trapped in the wilderness after a car crash (yes, one of those stories because I find it refreshing to not always have an unsub after them). So far, I really like it! Hopefully some of you will check it out.

Well, that's a wrap. Thank you so much to everyone who stuck with it! Peace and love!