𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐧 |~𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚒𝚍~|

Chapter Fourteen

I stayed in the hospital. My dad visited me every day. He was staying in my house back in Quantico. 

After two weeks, they took the tube out of my stomach and started the healing process to seal the wound. 

Spencer visited me as often as he could, which was about once or twice a week. One time, after a case, the whole team came and visited me. They brought a few boxes of pizza and basically drove the doctors crazy. 

Then, my dad had to go back to Maine. He felt awful, but I understood. He made Spencer promise to be there for me if I needed help. 

When it was finally time for me to go home, Spencer helped me settle in. 

As we were driving in his car, I looked at him. He wasn't on opioids anymore. I didn't know whether or not to talk to him about it. I could tell he wasn't okay.

Once we reached my house, Spencer helped me get out of the car and handed me my crutches. I laughed and stood by myself. 

"Spence, I'm fine. I don't need to use those." 

"You can't exert yourself too much, you know that!" 

I smiled. "Its a 13.3 foot walk from here to my living room. I'll be okay." 

"Fine, but I'm carrying your stuff." 

We walked into my house and I immediately had to sit down on the couch. Spencer smirked at me. "Okay, maybe I do need the crutches." 

He set my book bag down on the table. "Where do you want me to put this?" 

"Oh, just set it on the bed in the book room." 

"You have a book room?" 

"Well, I mean, its the second bedroom but I don't usually have guests so I put my books in there. Its the first door on the left." 

He nodded and started making his way to the room, examining everything I had in my house. I knew he was making observations and probably learning more about me, but I didn't mind. 

After he was gone for a while, I decided to get up and find him. I stood up slowly then walked in to the book room to find him standing in the middle of the room, looking around at all of the precarious stacks of books. 

"Ever thought of getting more bookshelves?" he asked as his eyes wandered around the room.

"Well, they'll just keep getting full as I get more books, and there really is no space." I grabbed a few books off of the bed and set them on top of one of the stacks. "Sorry its so messy."

He shook his head and sat down next to me. "No, its ok, I like it."

I sighed as it grew silent. "Are you ok?" 

He nodded. "I'm better than I was earlier." 

"I'm sorry. I wasn't there for you when I should have been." 

"You were in the hospital." 

"But you were there for me. I didn't do anything to help you." 

"That's not true, Laney." 

"It is. I knew. I knew you were on some sort of opioid, probably something similar to heroin. And I didn't do anything about it." 

Spencer was quiet for a while. "You knew?" he asked, finally. 

I sighed. "Yes, of course I knew." 

He looked at the floor. "I... I just wanted to forget."

I nodded. "Yeah." He looked up at me. "The doctors gave me oxycodone. I know how well it erases the pain."

It was silent again. "I guess the best thing we can do is just be there for each other." 

I nodded and looked him in the eyes. "I'm sorry." 

"I'm sorry, too."