Hey guys! I'm back, sorry for the extremely long wait. Life happens, you know? Anyways, I finally got around to writing the final chapter of this story, and after reading your reviews I hope I've answered any of your questions with this last part. It's not my best work, but I'm just getting back into writing so please bear with me. Let's get on with the show!

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used in this story. I will not profit from this, it is purely for entertainment purposes.

Everything felt numb, was the first thing that Reid noticed when he floated back into consciousness. There was also a dull throbbing along the back of his head, which he much preferred to the stabbing pain of earlier.

Speaking of earlier, what had happened?

His mind was fuzzy, a complete mess of unconnected, sporadic thoughts. This was something he did not like; he was used to his brain being ordered and methodical.

He slowly tried to piece together the events that had led to his present condition of confusion, but everything was just a blur. He remembered an unsub, and a house raid. Other than that he had nothing.

As his awareness began to improve he felt a hand resting on his arm. It felt reassuring, like an anchor holding him down and stopping him from getting lost in the muddle that was currently his brain. He tried to open his eyes to find out who was providing him this anchor but they just felt so heavy.

The presence beside him shifted and he felt the hand disappear from his arm. Spencer was suddenly overcome with panic, is anchor had gone. He heard as the person stood up and began to slowly walk away. He didn't want to be alone, alone to get lost in his thoughts again. He willed with all is might to show the other that he was awake so hopefully they would stay with him. His eyes cracked open, only for him to be suddenly blinded by the bright lights. After a moment to adjust, he managed to squint past the blinding lights and see that the person who has been holding him was in fact Hotch.

"Hotch," he tried to call, but it came out as no more than a croaky whisper.

—

Hotch had sent the rest of the team home a few hours ago, insisting that they get some rest. Rossi had told he should go home too so he could get some sleep, but Hotch refused to leave Spencer alone.

He sat next to the younger man, and watched his surrogate-son sleep. Despite Emily's words of wisdom earlier, he couldn't help be feel it was his fault that Reid was in the hospital bed and he was going to do everything he could to make it up to him. He placed his hand tentatively on Spencer's arm and looked at his face. It was completely emotionless, and although it reassured him that he wasn't in any pain it was also unnerving.

After a couple of hours of just sitting and watching, Hotch finally gave in and decided that he would have to leave Reid momentarily to relieve himself and get a coffee.

He got up slowly and headed towards the door. He was just about to reach out and open it when he heard a soft whisper; "Hotch "

He was at Spencer's side in lightning speed, and grabbed hold of his hand.

"Hey Spencer, how are you feeling,"he asked gently.

The young man slowly shifted his gaze to look at him and after a few seconds replied "Not the best to be honest"

Hotch nodded, "Are you in any pain?"

"Not really, my head just feels fuzzy"

"That's good, do you remember what happened"

Spencer shook his head.

That was bad.

It was at this point that Hotch realised he should probably get the Doctor, and notify his team that Reid was awake. He leant up and pressed the call button to alert the doctor before sending a quick text to the others.

Within a couple of minutes the Doctor came in, followed by a nurse.

"Hello Doctor Reid, my name is Doctor Smith and I've been looking after you the past couple of days. I'm just going to quickly check your brain function by asking you a few questions, okay?"

He waited for Reid to slowly nod before continuing.

"What is your name?"

"Spencer Reid"

"Good, what is your profession?"

Reid hesitated momentarily, "Supervisory Special Agent with the BAU unit"

"Good, good. Can you tell me what year it is?"

"2019"

"Okay, you're doing great so far. Can you recall how you sustained these injuries?"

Reid sighed, "Not really"

"Don't worry. You've suffered a major brain injury, a little memory loss is normal and is much better than the other different outcomes you could've faced"

The doctor took a few notes on his clipboard before turning to the nurse, "Can we keep I'm under regular obvs and give him an extra 12mg of Morphine please?"

Spencer was about to relax again when the gravity of what the doctor just said settled with him. He couldn't have Morphine, what if he became addicted to it like he did with the dilaudid. He looked to Hotch hoping he would get the message but he was too busy listening to the doctor ramble. "No Morphine!" He cried and started to pull at his IV line to stop it from getting into him. His breathing became erratic and raspy as he fought to remove the offending item.

"Dr Reid, calm down. The morphine will help with the pain"

"I don't want it!" Reid yelled and he was about to pull out his line but a strong hand stopped him.

"Spencer, its okay. if you don't want the Morphine it is fine, we will work something out. Pulling your IV out will only make matters worse. Just calm down for me, that's it" Aaron spoke gently to the young genius as he eventually managed to regulate his breathing.

"Good boy, calm down. I'm going to go talk to the doctor now, I will be back as quick as I can"

Aaron stood and gestured to the others to step outside with him. Once out the room he turned to the Doctor.

"Spencer unfortunately became addicted to dilaudid after being injected with it against his will on a case. He has now recovered, but refuses to take any narcotics in fear of becoming addicted again" he explained.

The doctor nodded, and after a minute of thought replied "that's okay, we've had patients before who can't have narcotics. We will take him off the Morphine and only prescribe him with ibuprofen for now, will he be okay with that?"

"Yes that's fine" Aaron said before nodding his thanks and returning to the room. Spencer had now sat himself up and seemed to be deep in thought.

"Hey, I've spoken to the doctor and he's agreed to only give you ibuprofen from now on"

Spencer looked up at him confusedly for a second before nodding. Hotch sat back down in the hospital chair and an awkward silence settled. After a couple of minutes Hotch realised that Spencer hadn't had anything to drink and must be thirsty. "Would you like an ice chip?" He asked.

"Yes please"

Hotch got up again and picked up one of the smaller chips and carefully placed into Reid's mouth. The cold water was refreshing and soothed as it slide down Spencer's throat. He greedily took three more and was about to ask for another when Hotch told him he would slow down. , Spencer suddenly realised how tired he actually was and struggled to keep his eyes open. Hotch noticed this, "Sleep Spencer, you need to" he told him. Spencer didn't need telling twice, and was back in the land of dreams within minutes.

Not long after he'd fallen asleep, Hotch also felt himself feeling dreary and soon found himself dozing lightly in his chair.

He didn't get much time to rest though because in only a few minutes he was startled awake by Morgan bursting through the door, closely followed by JJ.

"How is he?" Morgan questioned his tired boss.

"Doing well actually, he was awake for a good 15 minutes but fell back a sleep a moment ago"

"He's not the only one who should be sleeping, have you had any rest Hotch?" JJ asked.

"Well I was about to drop off until you two came flying through the door," he chuckled lightly.

The trio soon fell into a comfortable silence, and JJ took the other hospital chair while Morgan leant against the wall. All three just watched their resident genius sleep peacefully in the bed.

— 2 Hours Later —

Hotch had finally managed to fall in to as comfortable of a sleep he was going to get in the awkward hospital chairs, and Morgan had gone in search of his third cup of coffee.

JJ was softly stroking a thumb over the back of Reid's hand while she held it, both to soothe him and calm her own nerves. She knew he had been awake with Hotch before but she had yet to see him awake for herself and she was starting to feel dispirited from only seeing him unconscious. It broke her heart to see her little brother lying there practically helpless, surrounded by all the different machines doing god-knows-what to keep him alive. A silent tear slowly slid down her cheek.

"Don't cry"

Her head shot up at the sound of that unmistakable voice.

"Spence! Oh my gosh, are you okay?"

"I'm fine JJ, just a little tired"

"You suffered from a brain injury and you only feel 'a little tired'?"

Spencer nodded.

"Wow, well the Gods must have been looking out for you these last few nights"

It was at that moment that Morgan returned to the room. His eyes instantly lit up when he saw that Reid was awake.

"Hey Pretty Boy, nice of you to finally grace us with your presence"

"Derek," Spencer smiled.

"That's my name don't wear it out. How's our genius doing?"

"Okay thanks"

"Even with the whole shaved head thing?" Morgan laughed.

"What?" Spencer lifted a shaking hand to feel his head, and was shocked to find it was completely bald. He moved his hand all over his head, panic overcoming him when he finally realised his precious long hair had gone.

Morgan noticed how panicked Reid was getting and sat on the end of the bed.

"I'm sorry Reid, I didn't realise you hadn't noticed yet. Hey, it doesn't look that bad, you kind look like one of those cat-walk models with shaved heads that are all super-cool."

Reid stopped feeling his head and dropped his arm defeatedly. "I suppose it may do me good to grow it out again, it was getting quite unruly," he sighed.

"That's my boy"

Suddenly, the doors were flung open for the second time that day. Garcia ran in looking quite disheveled compared to her normal look.

"There's my boy wonder!" She exclaimed before practically throwing herself at Spencer for a hug. She held him tight in her arms, intent on never letting him go again. That was until Reid timidly asked her to loosen off so he could breath again.

"Sorry, I'm sorry. Did I hurt you, I hurt you didn't I? Oh, I can be so stupid sometimes" she rambled.

"Calm down Penelope, I'm fine"

"That's good, thats good then."

Suddenly, she leant forward and smacked him on the arm.

"Ow!"

"Don't you ever scare me like that again! I was so worried about you, I thought you'd died!"

Spencer took her hand in his own and looked up at her. "Penelope, I would never leave you. I'm sorry for worrying you"

She hit him again.

"Ow! What now?"

"Don't ever apologise for getting hurt, it wasn't your fault you shouldn't be sorry!"

Spencer turned to Morgan for support, but he just shrugged. Penelope then sighed and sat on the bed next to Morgan. She kissed the back of Spencer's free hand before leaning back into Morgan's arms. The group all sat quietly, and soon Reid find himself lost to sleep once more, and the other's closely followed.

That's how Hotch found them when he finally awoke; JJ, Morgan, Garcia and Spencer all tangled up in each other and sleeping peacefully. He smiled to himself, after all this team had been through he was proud to know that they would always stick together, and that the bonds that held them strong were unbreakable.

And with that, he too fell asleep again, content in knowing his team was safe once more.

There we go, all finished! I hope you enjoyed and please review, I love to hear all feedback good and bad.

- AmIThatWeird xx