Work Text:
Reid reached out his arm to turn off the alarm, but when it didn’t stop he realized it wasn’t his alarm, it was Garcia calling him. He picked up his phone and saw it was 9:07, which meant he was already 7 minutes late to work. He answered the call with a groggy,“Hello?”
“Hey boy wonder! First why aren’t you at work already? And second, we have a case.”
“I slept through my alarm”—he turned away and coughed in his shoulder—“ I don’t feel so good.” His head hurt, he was sweaty and burning with fever, he ached all over and everything felt just… wrong. He hadn’t tried standing or sitting up yet but he was sure it would result in either him swooning or vomiting, or both. Just thinking about it made him nauseous.
Garcia gasped,“What’s wrong?” She had never seen Reid sick, she wasn’t sure he could even get sick. But she suspected it had to do with the fact that he was very good at hiding it, which meant that when he admitted to being sick and needing to miss a case, it was serious.
“It’s just a cold.” He would’ve said more but his throat started to hurt as well. He thought about how he caught it and soon realized it was on their last case, which involved visiting an elementary school, so it wasn’t surprising he managed to get it.
“You were fine yesterday! When did you catch it?” Garcia was worried that Reid had been sick in the previous days too.
“I woke up with it. Must’ve caught it on the last case.” He was surprised he was still awake, much less talking.
“Oh you poor thing, I’ll come by later and make you some soup.” Garcia knew first hand how awful it is to be sick when you’re alone and she’ll do everything to make sure Reid doesn’t have to go through this alone.
“What about the case?” Reid put the case before his own health as always.
“The team can handle it. Now drink some water and get some more sleep! I’ll see you at eight. Okay?” She was mentally making the groceries list for the soup and wondered whether Reid had any medication at home… probably not, she’ll go the pharmacy too then.
“Okay, will do. Thank you.” Reid was genuinely thankful, he had always handled everything alone and it would be nice to have someone there to care for him.
“Anything for you genius. I’ll have to go. Bye!”
“Bye Garcia.” Reid said and hung up. He put the phone on the bedside table and thought about getting some water, he had told Garcia he would, so he very slowly made his way to the bathroom, he drank a glass of water but it made him nauseous. He fell to his knees in front of the toilet and the water made a reappearance mere seconds later. He managed to flush the toilet but he didn't have the energy to stand, so he curled up on the floor. His fever was climbing and he was violently shivering as he fell into a fitful sleep.
---
Garcia rushed to the briefing where everyone was waiting for her,“Sorry I’m late, let’s get started.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Reid?” JJ asked.
“I called him. Boy wonder is sick and won’t come in for a few days.”
“Only he would manage to get sick mid July." Emily smiled as she said that.
"Will the be kid okay?" Rossi asked.
“Yeah. I’ll check him after work and make sure of it.”
“Good. Now let’s get to work.” Hotch was always the practical one.
---
The next time he woke was when someone was shaking him and calling his name, he groaned in response.
“Reid! Come on! Wake up!” Garcia was panicking.
“Garcia?” Reid was confused, wasn’t she supposed to come there at eight, it couldn’t’ve been later than lunch, right?
“Reid! Look at me!”
Reid looked up at Garcia, his eyes were hazy with fever,“What time is it?”
“A little after eight. Now can you get up? We have to get you to bed.”
Reid nodded and with Garcia’s help he stood and they walked to the bedroom, where Reid climbed back under the covers and closed his eyes. He heard Garcia shuffling around and then she came back,“Open up.”
Reid opened his eyes and saw that she was holding a thermometer. He opened his mouth and she put the thermometer in his mouth. A minute later it beeped and she took it out. He already knew it would be high, considering the fact he had blacked out for more than ten hours.
“103, that’s bad. Reid have you taken anything for the fever?”
Reid shook his head. He didn't even have anything to take and when he thought about it, he didn't have a thermometer either so Garcia must have brought one with her.
“How long were you on the floor?” Garcia was getting worried by Reid’s lack of talking. He was always telling some pointless fact or just rambling but now he only said something when he was asked.
“After you called I wen't to get water but I couldn't keep it down and then... and then you were here."
"Oh my god! That's like 11 hours. You must be dehydrated. I brought some juice. Do you think you can manage it?"
"I guess," Reid said although he wasn’t sure about that.
Garcia left and returned a minute later with a glass of juice and some pills.
"These will help with your fever. If it doesn’t go down we’ll have to get you to urgent care. "
Reid took the pills and and the juice with his shaking hands. He managed to swallow the pills and drank the juice with small sips. When it didn’t come up after a few minutes Garcia told him to sleep a little and left to let him sleep in peace. Reid burrowed into the blanket and tried to sleep but suddenly he couldn’t he was still cold and he couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep. After half an hour he stood up slowly and wrapped his blanket around himself. After the world stopped spinning and he didn’t feel like he would keel over after the first step he went to the living room, where he found Garcia siting on the couch and watching TV.
"Why are you up already? What happened? " She asked and rushed over to Reid. She guided him to sit down on the couch and waited for him to answer.
"Couldn’t sleep."
"You poor thing." She sat down, put a pillow on her lap and guided Reid to lay down, "I’m making chicken soup, it’ll be ready in twenty minutes."
"Thanks."
"You’d do the same for me." Garcia started running her fingers through his tangled hair. He sighed contently and turned his attention to the TV, "What are we watching?"
"I have no idea. Looks like some soap. What do you want to watch?"
"Doctor Who?" Reid asked hopefully.
"No! If we watch that you’ll never get sleep!"
"Pretty please." Reid did his puppy dog eyes he knew Garcia can’t refuse.
"Fine. But you better not blame me when you’re sleep deprived later."
The watched the TV until the soup was ready. Reid managed to eat a small bowl of it and when Garcia took his temperature again it was down to 101. They continued watching Doctor Who and halfway through the second episode Garcia noticed that Reid was asleep. She extracted herself and wrote a note with the promise to come back tomorrow. She also wrote for Reid to call her when he woke up. She turned off the TV and left.
---
Reid woke up the next morning and saw Garcia's note, so he called her.
"Hey Garcia!"
"Look who’s sounding a lot better!"
"Yeah. Thanks to you."
"Anytime, Reid, anytime. I’ll come again today after work and I’ll call at lunch. In the meantime eat some soup, drink the juice and take your medicine. And don’t forget the sleep! "
"Okay. Talk to you at lunch then." Reid hung up and ate some soup. He was feeling a lot better, although he did feel his fever coming back. He took the pills and fell asleep. At lunch he talked with Garcia and in the evening they watched TV together. Reid had to stay home for a couple more days with a low fever but after that he returned to work, where Emily was teasing him and JJ was constantly asking him if he was okay. Everything was back to normal.