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Reid got stitched up during their last case. The unsub knew he could overpower him and in a last ditch attempt to save himself chose to use him as a hostage. It was something that happened too often, he found himself being held in a chokehold a lot. This time though the unsub was desperate and tried to take Reid down with him, a knife was not a good enough weapon when surrounded by FBI agents though. The wound was deep enough to need stitches but it was nothing stitches wouldn’t fix.
He was fine after that, he got the clearance from Hotch to go on cases. He was supposed to take it easy, he was doing a good job at that. Most of the time the work didn’t involve much physical activity anyway. He h=thought he’d be fine.
He saw the blood before he felt it. His torso flooded with it, he had been so absorbed in reading the journals that he didn’t register that he pulled the stitches when getting the box. The team always liked to joke that he went to a different place when he read, perhaps he tended to get a bit absorbed.
“Garcia has a location,” Morgan startled him as he came into the room, he eyed him when he saw the suspicious way Reid jumped. “You okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine, are we leaving now?”
“Yeah Hotch wants us out now,” Morgan said more seriously. Reid didn’t want to hold back the team by bandaging his wound. Morgan was leaving and Reid quickly stood and grabbed his FBI jacket, he zipped it up enough to hide his dampening shirt. It wasn’t cold outside, it was quite hot but in the rush of finally catching the unsub no one noticed how odd it was for him to be wearing it. His head spun with his quick movements, he was grateful the car ride allowed him to sit and stay still. No one noticed when he winced when he got out, if they did they assumed he moved too quickly for his stitches.
Usually he talked down the unsubs, it was easy for him to empathize with unsubs for some reason, even if he was just straight up lying sometimes. It was easy for him to emotionally manipulate them and talk them down. The unsub they were dealing with was going through a psychotic break, Hotch almost instinctively expected Reid to start talking and putting down his gun like he’d seen him do so many times for unsubs but a quick glance told him that wasn’t happening.
Reid looked unfocused, his gun wasn’t aimed correctly. If he shot he would likely miss. It was something Hotch hadn’t seen from him in a while, not seen passing his qualification back when they were dealing with the L.D.S.K.
The unsub was shot, it was the only way to take him down when talking wasn’t working. Even Rossi hadn’t been able to get through to him. It wasn’t Reid’s fault, something was clearly up with him, he wasn’t responsible, maybe he wasn’t, but when the shot rang out his eyes focused onto the now limp form of the unsub. He hadn’t been focused, the life of the unsub could’ve been preserved if Reid had been focused and tried to talk. He felt bad.
Despite what he knew logically, that if the unsub didn’t relent despite multiple people trying to talk to him, then there was no guarantee the outcome would be any different for him.
The case had been relatively easy to solve, they got done with it quickly. Due to his psychotic break he had been messy and left plenty of forensic evidence, the journals Reid had been reading were what the therapist recommended for him. The hardest part had been getting a location. They finished with plenty of time in the day to spend. They used the time to catch up on work.
Reid didn’t want to be too suspicious and go to the bathroom immediately after getting back. They usually talked a bit after and his absence would be noticed. As soon has he saw the opening he went to the bathroom. The first aid kit was right by it so he took it with him on the way. He went into one of the stalls in case someone came to look for him or walked in. He removed the jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, the stitches were torn, the bleeding was dripping steadily still, he used gauze and toilet paper to clean it away and apply pressure. He didn’t have much time so he didn’t wait for the bleeding to stop before stichting his wound. He cleaned the blood afterwards again too.
He bandaged it and did his best to hide the blood covered papers.
He zipped the jacket back up. His own clothes were too bright and the blood had already soaked through his vest. He was overheating slightly but if he avoided coffee then he may be fine. The AC was always on in the office.
“Reid, my office”
He had only just sat back down at his desk, Morgan and Emily made childish oo’s, no one thought he was actually in trouble but Reid himself.
Hotch stared at him emotionless, it unsettled him as he stood in front of him.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,”
Hotch was clearly unconvinced, Reid couldn’t say it was his most convincing argument. Hotch took a minute to figure out the best way to get past his walls, as weak as his security was, it was persistent.
“Take off the jacket”
His shirt was stained with blood.
“I.. I can’t, um.. I’m cold”
“You can put it back on after” Hotch knew he was right.
“Uhm.. I’m fine Hotch, really. What do you think is wrong?” He tried to change topics, he tried to keep his voice natural but that didn’t work either.
“Take off the jacket Reid or your on leave for a week until I know whatever is wrong has been fixed”
Reid thought about it. The default option was worse.
“It looks worse than it is” he started with, Hotch knew he wasn’t going to like where it was going. He unzipped his jacket with sheepishness, Hotch didn’t know what he was expecting but Reid’s front being covered in blood was not it. He stood more tensely, even more worried now.
“I already took care of it, I stopped the bleeding and stuff” he reassured.
“Have Morgan take you home” he settled on. Despite the fact it was a rule not to date each other, Hotch had a suspicion there was something going on between them two. It was hard to tell with Morgan, he often acted flirtatious when both parties were comfortable and he trusted them, but whatever their relationship was, Morgan would be able to ensure Reid got home and stayed there. “Take tomorrow off, you can come back the next day if you feel like it. Go to the doctors if you feel sick, you lost a lot of blood” There was no room for argument.
Reid nodded wordlessly and put back the jacket so the rest of the team didn’t jump him if they saw. He managed to tell just Morgan without anyone overhearing. JJ and Emily were too busy talking to hear.
“What the-!” Morgan threatened to shout but Reid quickly hushed him.
“Just take me home, please. I’ll explain on the way, but it’s okay right now I stopped the bleeding already and it’s restitched”
Morgan breathed heavily but ushered him to the car. Reid explained on the way how he accidentally pulled the stitches while getting a box and ended up being too engrossed reading that he didn’t notice he was bleeding. Morgan called him a dumbass, he knew there was some truth to it.
“Is it patched good?”
“As good as I could in the bathroom stall without mirror”
“You stress me out”
“Sorry,” he laughed a bit, very not apologetically.
Morgan drove them to his own place, they came to the conclusion that Reid didn’t have any medical supplies, oddly enough. He seemed like the type that would have a whole portable hospital but it turned out that wasn’t the case. Morgan had more stuff so they went to his. His shower was also a bath too, which would help clean the wound.
Reid was embarrassed about being bathed, they hadn’t done anything sexual and Reid was self-conscious. He didn’t see why he couldn’t bath himself, his hands worked perfectly fine.
“Because it’s more romantic this way,” Morgan insisted, laughing at how affectionately stunted the man was. Of course he’d prefer logic over affection. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you need to, I want to take care of you”
And so Reid sat docile in the bath rambling any discomfort away. Morgan used a rag to gently clean the dried blood, only after criticizing his stitching job.
Admittedly, it was a lot more comfortable than Reid expected. His hair getting washed for him was a silly feeling, Morgan would play with the curly strands and overly soap his hair. Morgan actually listened to his rambling, maybe because he made an effort to ramble about something he knew he wouldn’t lose interest in. He batted his hands away when Morgan tried washing any other part of his body that wasn’t his injury, even if it was just his shoulders. The foreign hands were ticklish and he hated it.
“Thanks for helping” Reid had said when they were done and he was finally dressed cozily. The feeling of a normal shirt without blood cooling and sticking to him was a relieving feeling.
“Thanks for getting us the day off” Morgan teased, placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.