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Time	By : cr8zymommy Category: 1 through F > Criminal Minds Views: 4585 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story

Chapter List
- 18
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Getting Spencer into bed had been absolutely easy. After the way Spencer had reacted to just the idea of sitting on his bed in his apartment, Morgan had been worried that it would be beds in general that bothered the younger man. That would have been extremely difficult to work around; the kid was too injured to constantly sleep on a couch or to sleep on a floor. But apparently he’d worried for no reason. Spencer easily lay down in the big bed, allowing Morgan to tuck the blankets around him.
Looking down at his sleeping figure, Morgan thought about the way Spencer had reacted to his bed and how calm he’d been around this one. Maybe it was just because Spencer didn’t feel safe or comfortable in his own apartment? He had been attacked there. Or…God, maybe the man had taken Spencer back to his bed; maybe he had done something there before taking him out of the apartment. That would explain why Spencer wouldn’t go near his bed. The thought made Morgan sick. To not only have your home violated, but to have it happen in your own bed, the place you were usually your most vulnerable…it was horrible and terrifying.
He pushed those thoughts back. Getting angry about what had happened in the past was not going to help anything now. Over and over he told himself that as he changed into a t-shirt and pajama pants that he rarely ever used. Usually he slept in boxers. He knew that wouldn’t be a good idea if he was sharing a bed with Spencer.
Sharing a bed with him. That was just as surprising as the rest of it. He’d understood Spencer wanting him to be with him. Was he really going to be ok with them being in the same bed? Sometimes he couldn’t stop himself from wondering when this comfort that existed between one another was going to disappear. It seemed like it was too good to be true. Could Spencer really feel that safe around him that he wasn’t going to panic like he did with everyone else? Or was this going to be the calm before the storm? Morgan was terrified he was going to do something that would scare the younger man and the trust they shared would be shattered.
No. He couldn’t live constantly in fear that he’d do something wrong. If he did, that would only cause more damage. Right now he just had to take each day as it came and pray that he would do things right. And if things did change and Spencer became scared of him, well, they would work past that. He was not going to let this man bottle things up and try to heal on his own. He was going to be there for him, no matter what.
With that firm thought, Morgan climbed into the other side of the bed, sliding under the covers. A small lamp still burned on the other side of the room, giving them a dim light. He knew Spencer hated the dark. He’d always hated the dark.
It had been so good to see him opening up just a little with the team. True, he’d barely spoken. But he’d soaked up their words like they were water. Everything they’d talked about, Spencer had been absorbed in listening to. The kid had wanted to know everything he’d missed.
A few times Morgan had seen one of the team look at Spencer, catching sight of one of the multitude of marks on him and they would flinch just slightly. It was hard to see. Hard to look at those marks and know what the man had lived with. Morgan had an extremely hard time looking at it without feeling the guilt that still sat inside him. If only they had been able to find him! If only he’d been rescued sooner. In the end, it hadn’t even been them that had found him. He was only here now because of luck on a police raid. If that hadn’t happened, they might never have found their young friend.
Morgan reached a hand out, brushing back a strand of hair from Spencer’s face. “We failed you before, pretty boy.” He whispered into the dark. “I won’t let it happen again.”
Slowly, Morgan drifted off to sleep. The last thing he saw before his eyes closed completely was Spencer’s sleeping face. The kid looked more at peace than he had since he’d been found.
CMCMCM
Hours later, the first nightmare of the night woke Morgan. He felt Spencer thrashing around in the bed, moaning in his sleep. Rolling over, Morgan hesitated, trying to figure out how to wake the man out of his night terror without scaring him more. “Spencer, hey, come on now.” Morgan called out, not sure if he should touch him or not. “Come on, kid, wake up. Come on now.” It was obvious, though, that the words weren’t getting through. Spencer’s face was screwed up like he was in pain and his body was jerking. He was whimpering in time with each jerk in a way that had Morgan’s stomach rolling. It was like he was watching the kid being whipped.
He couldn’t just sit there. So he reached a hand out, touching Spencer’s arm, intending on calling out to him again. Almost instantly Spencer’s body went still and his eyes shot open to lock, wide and terrified, on Morgan’s face.
“Hey, hey, it’s Morgan. It’s just me.” Morgan quickly said. “You had a nightmare, kid. That’s all. You’re at my house, remember? You’re safe. Everything’s ok.”
Spencer looked like he was frozen in place. His body was tight as a bowstring and his eyes were so wide they seemed to take up most of his face. “Morgan?” He croaked out, his mouth barely moving.
“That’s right. You’re with me, Spencer. You’re safe.”
They were lying face to face, staring at one another. Morgan watched as those wide eyes slid closed and Spencer’s face seemed to go tight, like he was working on holding everything inside. Morgan couldn’t resist running his hand up and down Spencer’s arm, trying to soothe him. “You want to talk about it, pretty boy? You don’t have to, but it might help. Sometimes talking about it takes it away.”
“It won’t ever go away.”
Spencer’s pained whisper was soft and yet it was packed full of emotion. In the dim light, Morgan saw a tear drop from Spencer’s eye, down onto the pillow. The older man wished he could chase away that pain for his friend. “I’m sorry, Spencer.”
Still keeping his eyes closed, Spencer shifted his body, though he still stayed curled into the small ball he’d been sleeping in. “I…I was there.” Spencer suddenly whispered. His words throbbed with the pain that was in them. “He, he was so mad. I was a bad boy, but I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what I did. He was telling me I knew what I did and I begged him to tell me so, so I could fix it. I didn’t know.”
The tears were coming now, faster and faster. Morgan said nothing. He didn’t want to say anything that might stop Spencer from talking about this. He needed to talk about it.
“When I…when I told him again that I didn’t know, he was furious. He thought I was being deliberately obtuse. So he grabbed the, the b-bull w-whip. It wasn’t as, as long as some, but it hurt. He, he wouldn’t stop. I screamed and I screamed and he just, he wouldn’t stop.” The tears were pouring from Spencer now and his words cut off under a strangled sob.
Morgan wished he could gather him close and hold him without terrifying him. “Oh, kid. You’re safe now, you hear me? He’s not going to hurt you anymore. I won’t let him.”
Bringing his hands up, Spencer covered his face. “I tried so hard to be good, Morgan. I tried!”
“I know you did, sugar. I know.” Morgan moved his hand, rubbing at the back of Spencer’s neck, intending on only trying to ease the tension there. Spencer reacted as if Morgan had pulled at him, though. He suddenly uncurled his body and practically shot forward to Morgan’s chest. The older man enfolded him in a comforting hug, letting him cry.
He held tight, whispering soothing words as Spencer sobbed against him. After a while, after the sobs finally stopped, he felt the body in his arms go limp. Spencer had cried himself back to sleep. Still he held him, keeping them close together, crying his own silent tears for his friend’s pain. Eventually he, too, fell back asleep.
Nightmares woke them three more times that night. After the first one, Spencer didn’t speak about what he dreamed about. He just cried against Morgan’s chest until he finally drifted off to sleep. It made for a long night for them both. So when his cell phone rang in the morning, Morgan almost didn’t want to answer it.
Somehow he forced his eyes open enough to look at the nightstand where his cell sat ringing, the ringtone turned down low. After Spencer’s reaction to the vibrations of Aaron’s cell, Morgan had put his own phone on sound. He wasn’t going to risk scaring Spencer.
Lying on his back, Morgan had Spencer against one side, his arm around him and Spencer’s head pillowed on his shoulders. He used his free hand to reach out and open his phone before the sound could wake his friend. Exhausted, he brought the cell to his ear. “’Lo?”
“Hey, Morgan. Just checking in on things over there.” Emily’s voice came over the line, too happy sounding for Morgan’s tired ears. He barely resisted scowling at the air. “Sleeping.” He grunted back at her.
“Sleeping? It’s like, almost eleven in the morning, Morgan!”
Really? Well, hell, they’d slept in late, hadn’t they? But they’d been up a good chunk of the night, off and on. “Long night, Prentiss. We didn’t really get a lot of sleep.”
“Oh.” Soft first, and then “Is he ok?”
“Yeah, just nightmares. He’s sleeping now, though.” He looked down at Spencer’s sleeping face, checking on the truth of his words. He didn’t want to wake him by talking or anything like that. Sure enough, Spencer was still out, his face slack with sleep. It made him look so young and so innocent.
Emily’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “His release paperwork said that he would probably end up sleeping quite a bit. His body was bordering on severe exhaustion. I’m surprised he stayed up as long as he did. I guess now that he feels safe, his body is telling him it’s time to sleep and recover. Don’t be surprised if he sleeps most of the day away.”
“I won’t mind. What’s important is taking care of him. If sleep is what he needs, then it’s what he’ll get.” Pausing, Morgan tried to make his brain a little more alert. “How are things going with work? We having any problems with Spencer’s, ah, confession? Or with Vincent?”
“They’ve got Vincent in jail right now. Hotch said that he and Rossi checked out some of the tapes from Vincent’s house. Most of it was logged away on his computer, though. They got Garcia to access his computer at our office and show them how to open things and then they kicked her out, refusing to let her see what was on them. They said there’s video to back up Reid’s story about not actually killing the women. Just, watching them as they died. No one is going to convict him on that.”
“They sure as hell won’t!” Morgan snapped out. He felt Spencer shift against him and mentally cursed himself. Bending the arm that was around Spencer, he stroked the man’s hair, soothing him back down. In a quieter voice he said “They couldn’t get anything on him anyways. So they’ve got the proof they need to lock Vincent away?”
“Oh yeah. Hotch and Rossi wouldn’t let me watch either but they came out pretty pale and said there’s plenty on there to get him away for life. With video evidence, they won’t even need Spencer to testify against him. Thank God for that. He’ll never have to see the bastard again.”
In some ways, it seemed too easy. “I wish I could get him alone and show him what it feels like. Give him a scar to match every damn one he left on Spencer.”
“You and me both, Morgan. You and me both.” Emily agreed in a hard voice. Then she let out a soft sigh. “Oh, well, like I said, I just wanted to check up on you guys. Want me to alert the troops to stay back today so you two can just rest? It sounds like it’s what he needs.”
“Could you?” Morgan shifted a little, his exhaustion starting to come back. “I think it’s exactly what he needs. What all of us need. A day away from this to just sleep.”
“No problem, Morgan. You take care of our boy, you hear? And yourself, too. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Later, Prentiss.”
Once his phone was closed and back on the nightstand, Morgan settled back into the bed. A soft movement against his chest alerted him that Spencer was awake. He looked down into warm, sleepy eyes. “Well hey there, pretty boy.”
Spencer licked his lips before saying “Hey.”
“Just go back to sleep, kid. I didn’t mean to wake you. Prentiss was just calling to check in on us.” Morgan reassured him. He kept stroking his hair, hoping to soothe him back down. It was easy to see that Spencer was still drained.
Nodding softly, Spencer snuggled in even closer, readjusting himself until he was comfortable. Once again Morgan found himself marveling at exactly how comfortable Spencer was with him. It constantly amazed him.
He didn’t realize he’d spoken his thoughts aloud until he heard Spencer’s mumbled reply “I know you won’t hurt me. I trust you, Derek.”
As Spencer slid back into sleep, Morgan looked down at him with a smile. His own thoughts were pleasant as he too drifted back to sleep.
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