Being stuck in a hospital by yourself had to be one of the most boring things. Morgan woke early in the morning as he always did, but being in the hospital meant that he couldn’t go for his usual morning run. There was no warm body next to him. No soft sounds of sleep coming from the body he had grown so used to having in his bed. It had made for a difficult night of sleep. The only thing that had helped him pass the night was the pain medication they’d given him for his aching wrist before he’d fallen asleep. For someone who wasn’t used to taking strong medication, it had knocked him out.
Now it was morning and he was wide awake in his hospital bed. The only thing Morgan wanted was for the next few hours to pass quickly so that Spencer could arrive and take him home.
God, he couldn’t believe how idiotic he’d been. What had possessed him to take his bike out of all things? Sure, he’d been pissed. Hurt, too, by his sister’s actions. Spencer yelling at him to take a walk hadn’t helped his temper at all. But he should have just taken the walk like his pretty boy had suggested. Spencer knew him better than anyone else—sometimes Morgan thought that Spencer knew him better than his Mama did sometimes. The young man knew that Morgan needed something physical to burn out his anger. A walk would have been perfect.
But no, he’d been too annoyed, too hurt, and he’d wanted to get far away from the house that was at the root of it. So he’d hopped on his bike without a second thought and had taken off into the night. He couldn’t help but wince as he remembered the sound of his bike sliding on the pavement; the feel of his body starting to slide as well when he’d hit.
Resolutely he pushed those thoughts back. No, he wouldn’t think about that. The ache in his head and wrist were enough reminder, as well as the random bruises on his body. He didn’t need to sit and relive the moment over and over in his mind to add on to it. But when he pushed that image out of his mind, another one cropped up, almost as painful.
Perfectly he could see the look on Spencer’s face when he’d broke here in the hospital room. The absolute terror that had been in those big eyes while he’d released his emotions behind a scared stream of statistics. He could hear the quaver in Spencer’s words when he’d snuggled close to Morgan’s chest and whispered “I could have lost you, Derek.”
That ate at Morgan more than anything else. The whole fight that morning had started because he’d been trying to stop someone else from hurting Spencer and in the end he’d been the one to hurt the younger man.
Thinking on the fight brought Morgan to thoughts of his sister. It made his heart lurch to think of how his sister was acting. He’d been so positive that his family was going to be there for him. That they would be supportive of him. Yet, not only was his sister not supportive, she’d actually had the audacity to say something to Spencer about how she felt! She was family, dammit! She should have been there for him. Yet she wasn’t.
Morgan was drawn from his thoughts when he heard his hospital room door opened. He turned his head, sure it would be one of the nurses. Who else would be coming in at six in the morning? What he saw surprised him. He only had one split second to take in the sight before he found himself with his arms full and he was having the living daylights hugged out of him.
“Baby girl!” Morgan let out a warm laugh as Garcia pulled back from him. “What’re you doing here?”
Garcia straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “What am I doing here? What do you mean, what am I doing here? You were in an accident, you insane man you! Of course I’m here!”
“Did Spencer call you?” That surprised him. He hadn’t thought that Spencer would call and tell anyone about something that was, in Morgan’s eyes, so minor. He would be pretty much healed by the time the holiday was over!
Garcia grabbed the nearby chair and pulled it over, sitting down with an angry huff. “No, my little baby cakes did not call me. And trust me, he and I will be having a long talk about this one! I have a program on my computer that alerts me anytime one of your names pops up in the local hospitals. Just in case. I woke up this morning and found the alert that told me you were here so I hacked in and found out what happened.” She explained it as if it were all very simple. He didn’t even get time to shake his head at her before she started in on her scolding. “What were you thinking, Derek? You could’ve been seriously hurt!”
He brought his good hand up to rub at his eyes. There was a dull headache throbbing behind them. “I know, Garcia. Trust me. Spencer already read me the riot act when he got here. It was stupid, I get it. I never should have been on the bike in this kind of weather.”
“Sweet little Reid got mad at you?” Garcia sat back in her chair and let a grin unfold. “I think I would’ve paid to see that. I bet he’s hot when he’s mad.”
Morgan chuckled softly at his friend. His morose mood that had been on him since he’d woken up was starting to fade away. Garcia was always good for bringing a little sunshine when she visited. “That he is, mama. But trust me, when he gets really mad, it is so not a site you wanna see. That boy can have one hell of a temper on him.”
Leaning forward, Garcia reached up and took his hand, her face suddenly concerned. “Something’s bothering you.” She said in a gentle voice. “I can see it on your face, so don’t even bother lying to me. What’s going on, Derek? What happened? Did you and Reid get in a fight?”
Had he really thought he’d be able to hide anything from Garcia? Or that he’d even want to for that matter. Aside from Spencer, she was Morgan’s best friend. They always talked about everything, no matter what was going on. Not telling her the truth about him and Spencer while they were undercover had been one of the hardest things Morgan had ever done. Usually Garcia was his sounding board when something was going on in his life.
He looked at her now and abruptly gave up any ideas of acting tough. “No, Spencer and I didn’t fight, not really.” And with that, he told her everything that had happened since his sisters has arrived. He told her about the first issue he’d had with Sara and her storming out and then coming back. He told her about how off Spencer had been the night before and about the flashback and then their conversation in the bedroom. Then he caught her up on everything that had happened yesterday.
By the time he was done, his temper was soaring. “How am I just supposed to cool off, Garcia? He wants me to relax and to just let her stay there! Let her stay like she didn’t have the nerve to insult the person I love in our home! I mean, I love Sara. She’s my sister and I’m always gonna love her. But like hell if I’m going to tolerate her hurting him that way!”
“What about her hurting you?” Garcia asked gently.
Surprised, Morgan sat up a little straighter, looking to Garcia curiously. “What?”
“You’ve said quite a bit about what she said about Reid and how she hurt him, but not once have you really talked about how much it hurt you. She’s your sister, Derek. She’s supposed to love and support you and she didn’t. I know that’s got to hurt.”
Leave it to Garcia to go right for the heart. What his sister had done, it did hurt. It hurt quite a bit. But he hadn’t let himself focus on that. Instead, he’d focused on what she’d done to Spencer. How she’d hurt Spencer. It was easier than dealing with his own pain. “It does hurt.” The words were quiet and just a little shaky. “I mean, of course it’s going to. She’s my sister, baby girl. I didn’t think she’d act like this. To have her throw Carl up in my face…” He cut his words off with an angry grimace.
Penelope said nothing. There were times to talk and times to listen. This was most definitely one of those times that it was best to just listen. So, holding Morgan’s hand, she did just that.
“And then I let her back in the house, gave her another chance, and what does she do? She hurts him.” Morgan tried to keep himself from squeezing Garcia’s hand too tightly. “She betrays my trust and verbally attacks someone I love. And it hurts to know that, because of me, Spencer got shit. When we were arguing the other night, after the flashback…did you know he gets crap at work about us? I want to look out for him and I’m failing at that, Garcia. I couldn’t protect him from our last Unsub, I couldn’t protect him from Michael, I haven’t protected him from people at work, and apparently I can’t even manage to protect him against my own family.”
The pain in those last words seemed to be the breaking point for Garcia. She rose up from her chair and moved right up to him, wrapping him in her arms. Morgan let himself be hugged; let her pull him close so that his head rested on her shoulder. With his good arm he hugged her back. It was the perfect antidote to the pain that was growing inside of him at the moment.
One of Garcia’s hands gently stroked at the back of his head, her fingernails running lightly over the skin there. “You listen to me and you listen well, Derek Morgan. What all these people have done to Reid, none of it was your fault. You couldn’t have saved him from any of it, sugar plum. And you have protected him. You got him the heck away from Michael when no one even knew what was going on. You helped him to stand up for himself and in the end, you shot that sicko. The people at work, well, even I didn’t know they were giving my little genius trouble and I know everything!”
“I just want to be able to keep him from hurting any more, mama. Too many people have hurt the kid already. He’s been through way too much shit in his life. And then to have it happen in our home, the one place he should feel totally at ease, and have it happen because of my family? How am I supposed to be calm and ok with that?”
“You’re not.” She answered easily. Pulling back, she cupped a hand under his chin and made him look at her. “You’re not going to be ok with it and you’re not supposed to. But you are supposed to deal with it together, the two of you. Not just you and not just him. Instead of getting mad and blowing up, or dropping it altogether, why don’t you sit down with Reid and talk to him about what he’d like to do and what you’d like to do and figure it out together? You’re a team, sweet cheeks. And it’s the Christmas holiday. Peace, love, all of that beautiful, sparkly stuff.”
Morgan couldn’t help but chuckle at her. “In your own zany way, you’ve made a good point. I’ll talk to him. We’ll take care of it, together.”
“If I’d known that all it would take was a talk with Garcia, I would have called her yesterday instead of sending you off to take a walk.”
Spencer’s amused voice filled the hospital room. Love filled Morgan’s heart and his lips curved with happiness even as he was lifting his eyes instinctively toward that voice. There in the doorway stood Spencer, hands stuffed deep in the pockets of Morgan’s winter jacket, a knit cap from Garcia on his head, and a smile curving his lips. “Spencer.” Morgan said. Just that, but it was enough.
The younger man walked into the room and right over to the two of them. He let Garcia hug him, awkwardly hugging her back, and then he leaned in and gave Morgan a kiss as greeting. The older man sighed at the feeling of those familiar lips on his. Some of the tension and pain in him eased with just that little kiss. “You’re here awfully early, baby boy.”
“Well, your mother called and said that there was a call for a storm, so she got her flight switched to an earlier one. The girls are on their way in their rental car to pick her up now. While they do that, I came to check you out of here. I’ve already talked to the nurses and your doctor and, so long as you stop off and sign the papers at the desk, you are now a free man.” An impish light danced in Spencer’s eyes. “I thought you might prefer to be home when your mom arrives, instead of bringing her here.”
“On that little note, I’m going to go ahead and let you two go. I’ve got a date with Kevin for breakfast and then an afternoon braving the malls with the girls.” Garcia said with a grin. She stole a hug from each of them, kissing both their cheeks, much to Spencer’s embarrassment.
The younger man did manage to smile at her, though. “Don’t forget, you’re supposed to come over tomorrow.” He reminded her.
The peppy blond grinned at him as she made her way to the door. “Forget? Reid, you wound me! How could I forget?” The two were going to be doing Christmas baking .Spencer could cook, and he did occasionally, but he much preferred baking and he was rather good at it, as was Garcia. The two in the kitchen together was something Morgan certainly wasn’t going to protest.
Once she was gone, Spencer turned to Morgan and gave him that shy smile that the older man loved so much. “Why don’t we get you home, honey?” Spencer said.
Morgan’s heart gave a little flutter. Man, if anyone knew, they’d think you were a total chick he thought to himself. But, really, he didn’t care. Spencer was not one for using pet names. He used someone’s nickname or their given name, but in relationships he was not one for pet names. It made the few times that he did use them all the more special. When he called Morgan honey, or baby, it always made his boyfriend’s heart flutter.
Just as he started to climb from the bed, Spencer leaned in close, biting at the bottom of his ear and making Morgan’s whole body freeze. “If we get out of here soon enough, there’s a big empty house waiting for us. Between arrival time, gathering her luggage, and driving home in this weather, I estimate we have eighty minutes before your family returns. I can think of plenty of ways to spend that time.” Spencer murmured in his ear. Those heated words went straight to Morgan’s loins.
He was dressed and ready to go in under five minutes.