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Comfort	By : cr8zymommy Category: 1 through F > Criminal Minds Views: 5991 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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
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To keep things looking normal, Aaron left first, letting the two know the hallway was clear so they could head to their rooms. While they went and changed, Aaron took off for the station. Morgan and Spencer both had a text from Dave to meet up and drive down to the station. They took a quick minute to change and then everyone was piling into their cars.
When they arrived at the station, they saw someone had a tray set up on the conference room table with breakfast items.
“Morning, everyone.” Aaron greeted as his team came in. He was over by their map, looking over some of the information as he tried to figure out what they needed to do. The police Chief was there, setting out a pot of coffee on the tray. He looked at the other agents and gave them a tired smile. “Have a seat while I catch you up.” He told them all. “There was another attack last night. This time, though, the dirt bag left a witness.”
“What?” Ashley looked up in surprise from the seat she’d taken. “Shouldn’t we be interviewing the witness, then?”
Chief Summers poured himself a cup of coffee while shaking his head. “Not right at the moment. She was brought in last night screaming to high heaven about her friend being abducted, but she suffered from a head trauma.” He grabbed a file off the table and looked at the paper inside. “Says she has a grade III concussion and suffered something called an intracranial hemorrhage, whatever that is.”
Almost instantly all eyes turned toward Spencer, most of the team smothering grins while Dave put his shaking head in his hand. Spencer, on the other hand, had perked up slightly at the Chief’s words, lifting his head up and setting his cup down. “An intracranial hemorrhage is a hemorrhage, or bleeding, within the skull. It is actually a serious medical emergency because the buildup of blood within the skull can lead to escalations in intracranial pressure, which in turn can crush delicate brain tissue or limit its blood supply. Severe escalations in intracranial pressure can cause potentially deadly brain herniation in which parts of the brain are squeezed past structures in the skull.”
The look Chief Summers wore was almost priceless. His mouth was hanging open slightly and his cup was held, forgotten, halfway to his mouth. He couldn’t believe the ease with which the kid had rattled all of that off. Then he remembered that they’d introduced him as ‘Dr. Reid’ yesterday. “Are you really a doctor? You’re, well, you’re awfully young to have gone through medical school.”
“He’s not that kind of doctor.” Emily supplied when she saw Spencer’s blush.
“Not that kind of doctor? What kind are you, then?”
Flustered, Spencer looked down at his coffee cup. “I have three doctorates, actually. Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering as well as B.A’s in Psychology and Sociology and I should have a B.A. in Philosophy within the month. I’ve also been looking into getting a new Ph.D. in…” He cut off abruptly when Morgan touched his arm and shook his head. His blush came back hotter than ever. “Sorry.” He mumbled before looking back down at his cup.
“That’s all right, pretty boy.” Morgan reached out and ruffled his hair, laughing when the kid scowled. He switched them back to the topic at hand. “Now, with the damage she has, how soon should it be before we can talk to her?”
Spencer stirred his coffee while he got one of the expressions that told them he was thinking. “I don’t know the guidelines for grading concussions in this state, so some factors may be different. But concussions can vary greatly in symptoms and healing time.”
He sat back in his chair, getting a little more comfortable. After a quick sip from his coffee, he spoke again. “Cognitive symptoms include, but aren’t limited to, confusion, disorientation, and difficulty focusing attention. Post-traumatic amnesia, in which the person can’t remember events leading up to the injury or after it, or both, is extremely common of a concussion. Confusion, another concussion mark, may be present immediately or may develop over several minutes. Depending on how concussed she is, she may be slow to respond to questions or directions, have a vacant stare, or she might slur her speech. Affective results of concussion include crankiness, loss of interest in favorite activities or items, tearfulness and displays of emotion that are inappropriate to the situation.” He shrugged his shoulders. “How severe those are, I can’t predict. To judge how soon to talk to her, though, I would need to know what type of hemorrhage she had. Was it a subarachnoid hemorrhage? A subdural or epidural hematoma? Or was it an extra-axial or intra-axial hemorrhage?”
The chief seemed incapable of answering his question. He had that look on his face that the others had seen, and worn, that clearly said he’d been lost and confused by Spencer’s ramble.
Aaron smothered his grin, moving over and picking up the file that contained the woman’s medical records. Reaching out to the table, Aaron dialed Garcia, letting the ringing echo in the room. A moment later they all heard “It’s about time someone called me! I was starting to feel very, very neglected here. You can’t neglect me!”
“Garcia, I need you to look up some records for me.” Aaron said without even commenting on the way she answered the phone. The two seemed to have a mutual understanding about their interactions with one another. Rarely did Aaron bother to correct her for what she said unless it was in front of someone important and she refrained from using any of her cutesy names on him. “I need the medical information for a Priscilla Eller at Sacred Heart. Also, I need anything else you can gather on her.”
“Sure thing, boss man. Ok, let’s see. Medical records show, oh, poor girl. Says she has a grade III concussion as well as an intracranial hemorrhage. Something’s next to that saying, um…subdural hematoma. They’ve got her scheduled for some procedure. Let me take a look at this…”
The room filled with the sound of clacking keys. Everyone waited, munching on their breakfasts and drinking their coffee, until Garcia spoke again.
“Ok, got it. They’re preparing to do something called a lumbar puncture and then something with a catheter.”
Spencer nodded, understanding what she was saying. “A subdural is when blood gathers within the outermost meningeal layer, between the dura mater and the arachnoid mater brain. Usually resulting from tears in bridging veins which cross the subdural space, subdural hemorrhages may cause an increase in intracranial pressure which can cause compression of and damage to delicate brain tissue.” He looked around the room. “Doing a LP means that she’s suffering from ICP. Intracranial pressure. The lumbar puncture is the first step in symptom control by drainage of cerebrospinal fluid. We won’t be able to talk to her for hours yet until they get this under control, Hotch. And that’s if she even makes it out of this ok and without any brain damage.”
Aaron nodded at him. “Reid, I want you to go over to the hospital and keep your eye out there. You’re the one with the most understanding of when would be the best time to speak to her and what to expect.” Aaron told him. “On the chance she wakes up, I want someone there to talk to her. I also want to make sure that our Unsub doesn’t realize he left behind a witness and try to come silence her before she gets the chance to talk to her.” There was a quick flash in his eyes that his two lovers took to be apologetic. “Take Seaver with you.” It would be good experience for her and it would keep her away from potentially heavier stuff. “Morgan, Prentiss, I want you two to head to the bar, see if you can find out anything from them. Garcia, I want you to access their cameras if they have anything and see what you can find for me.”
“On it, Sir! I’ll have Priscilla’s information sent to your tablets in no time. Seaver, I hope you have yours, cause Reid doesn’t have one and he’ll need the information. Keep the love flowing, my beauties!” With that, she was gone.
Spencer shook his head and stood up. He gestured to Seaver to follow him, snagging one of the sets of keys from Dave, who only grinned at him. “Come on, let’s get over there.” Spencer told her kindly. As uncomfortable as she made him, he couldn’t bring himself to be rude to her. They were part of the same team; they had to work together. Still, he shared a soft look with each lover when no one else was looking, seeing the apology in Aaron’s eyes and the understanding in Morgan’s. Both of them knew how uncomfortable she made Spencer feel.
She said nothing to him on the way out of the station or even in the car. It was only as they pulled into the hospital that she decided to speak. “If this woman isn’t going to be awake for a while, why are we supposed to be here again?”
Furrowing his brows, Spencer parked the car. Hadn’t she listened to the explanation at the station? He turned the car off and pocketed the keys. “We need to be here when she wakes up so we don’t miss any opportunity to talk to her. What she has to say could be extremely important if she did happen to see his face or knows who he is. Plus, there is the chance that the Unsub could come after her and try to eliminate the threat she poses to him. It wouldn’t be uncommon.”
“It just seems like a waste of our time. They could have sent one of the locals to guard her room and let us know when she’s alert.” Ashley pointed out with a grumble. She moved to walk beside Spencer as they made their way into the hospital. “You do realize they’re most likely putting us here because we’re the two useless ones in the field?”
Spencer stopped, looking over at her with surprise. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, come on Reid.” Ashley lifted an eyebrow when she turned to look at him. “I’m the new girl no one quite trusts yet and you’re the brains of the group. When it comes to the field, you lack the typical skills and I lack the experience. Hence why we’re stuck here.” She gave him a funny look and shook her head. “You may be a genius, but sometimes you miss some of the most obvious things.” That said, she moved toward the desk.
Her words bounced around in Spencer’s head as he followed her. When they reached the desk, Spencer stepped up and took charge, finding out where Priscilla’s room was and getting an update on her condition. They were directed where they could wait and told that, at the first available moment the doctor would be out to speak with them, but most likely it could take up to an hour. Spencer assured her they’d wait.
It was when he and Ashley were seated in the chairs in the waiting room that he really got a chance to think on her words. For the next half hour, it was all he could think of. Was that how the team saw him? Did they really send him places like this because they didn’t trust his skills out on the field? Just thinking that hurt a little. Suddenly he couldn’t just sit there. He looked over to Ashley as he rose to his feet. “I’m going to go find some coffee. Would you like some?”
“No, thanks. Aren’t we supposed to stay here?”
Spencer held up his cell phone. “Anyone comes to talk to us, call me. The cafeteria is just a few halls down. I’ll be back in an instant if I’m needed.” He said nothing more as he took off down the hall. The last thing he needed was to hear any more of her comments. Did she realize how much what she’d said had cut to the quick?
He was halfway to the cafeteria, still stewing over what she’d said, when he realized what he needed to do. Something that would make him feel better. He wanted to talk to one of his lovers. Preferably both, but he’d settle for one. But, which one? Morgan and Emily were supposed to be out at the bar and Aaron had still been at the station when Spencer had left. Which one would be able to be more private?
The decision was stolen from him when his phone rang. Looking down, he laughed out loud at seeing what the caller ID said. He flipped open the phone and put it to his ear, smiling as he walked into the cafeteria. “Do you know how low the odds are that you just happened to call while I was thinking of calling?”
“We’re just that good, pretty boy.” Morgan said with a laugh.
Spencer took his place in line, waiting for the few people in front of him to place their orders. “Did you and Emily find anything out?”
“Not a damn thing. Hopefully Garcia has better luck with the camera footage. How’s our witness doing?”
Another person placed their order and stepped away. Spencer took the single step forward. “Not awake yet. She was stable when we checked in, though. There’s a high likelihood that it’ll be a while before she wakes up.”
Morgan made a small sound of agreement. “And how’s Seaver doing? She driving you crazy yet?”
His question brought Spencer’s mind back to her earlier words. The good mood he’d felt when Morgan called suddenly seemed to dissipate a little bit. “She’s fine. Bored, but fine.” He tried to keep his inner turmoil from bleeding over into his words. Apparently he failed because he heard Morgan moving in the background and then he spoke, sounding more serious than before “Pretty boy? What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine, Morgan. Really.
That was his standard line and only served to make Morgan even more worried. “Ok, now I know something’s up. What did she do, Spencer? Did she say something to you?”
The person in front of him moved, bringing Spencer to the front of the line and saving him from answering for a moment. He placed his order for coffee and gratefully took the cup from her once he paid. After he got it, he moved to the other side of the room, taking a seat at a table there. Morgan wasn’t going to just let him get off the phone and this wasn’t a conversation he needed to have around Ashley. Not that he was going to tell Morgan anything. If it was true, if what Ashley had said really was true, Spencer didn’t think he could handle hearing it from his lover. Either one of them.
He settled into his chair and took the first drink of his coffee, sighing slightly. “Much better.” He commented happily. “I actually feel more awake. That one cup earlier just wasn’t doing it.”
“You’re evading. Talk to me, baby boy. What did she do to you?”
“I told you, Derek. I’m fine. We really haven’t talked that much.” It was the truth. “I’ll be ok.”
A beeping sound in his ear cut him off. He checked the screen before quickly pulling the phone back. “I gotta go, Derek. She’s beeping in and I told her to call me when the doctor came out or something happened.”
“Ok. But we’re talking later. Love you, baby boy.”
“Love you too, Derek.” Hearing those words and saying them always made his heart lift. He wiped his smile away as he clicked over to his other call and set off down the hall. “I’m on my way, Seaver.” He said as way of an answer. “Is everything ok?”
“Doctor is here.” She said simply before hanging up.
Pushing down his other emotions, Spencer headed to the waiting room to do his job. He had no idea that, as he made his way to speak with the doctor, Morgan was on his cell texting Aaron, giving him a heads up that something had happened between Spencer and Ashley that had Spencer upset. Aaron sent him a text back saying they would take care of it the first chance they got and to keep an eye on him if possible.
While that text conversation was going, Spencer was standing beside Ashley as the doctor looked from one to the other. Even before the man spoke, Spencer knew what was coming. He knew the look in the doctor’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Agents. The ICP was too much, too fast. We couldn’t relieve the pressure. There was, well, there was just too much damage to the brain. To be honest, I’m surprised she made it as long as she did.”
“Thank you, doctor.” Spencer said somberly. “I appreciate you letting us know. Is there any way I can have a copy of her records to take back to the station with me?”
The doctor nodded. “Of course.” He led them over to the nurses’ desk, requesting a copy of the medical file to be made. Once it was done, he handed it to Spencer, who thanked him again for his time. Then the two agents headed back toward their car.
Ashley made a sour face as she climbed into the car. “Well, one useless job down. Wonder what they’ll find for us next?” She said sarcastically. Spencer bit his lip and said nothing as he turned the car on and started to head back to the station.
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Comfort