Speechless | Spencer Reid FanFiction ✔️

Chapter 1: Exposure

I am currently working a particularly brutal week at the hospital that seems to be never ending. We've had multiple admittances of anthrax exposure over the past few days. This anthrax attack has required me to work over time and come in on days I was scheduled to be off due to the high demand. We were explicitly instructed to not mention the anthrax cases to anybody outside of hospital staff in order to not cause a widespread panic. We had to sign non disclosure agreements, meaning we could be fired for even accidentally leaking the truth.
Finally towards the end of this week we haven't had any admittances for the last few days, however I've lost a lot of patients I was trying to help recover. We only have 4 patients that were exposed still surviving in the hospital. It's heartbreaking, so many of them were young and had long lives ahead of them.

* paging Anneliese Winters to the CCU *

I internally groan after hearing my name paged to the critical care unit. That can only mean one thing, more anthrax patients. I've seen enough of the destruction this disease caused and I just want it to be over. I try to cheer myself up and remind myself we now have the cure to the strain, so hopefully there won't be anymore deaths.
I walk into the CCU and up to the nurse's station and ask the charge nurse for the chart or charts I need. She hands them to me and pats her hand on my shoulder because she knows I have slept as much as she has in the past week, if not less. She's tired of seeing all of this pain, too.
After briefly skimming the singular chart I knock on the door frame of CCU room 4. "Hi, Spencer Reid?" I ask the very pale man lying in the bed. "It's Dr. Spencer Reid, actually" says the harsh looking dark haired man sitting next to the patient. I look down at the chart and realize in my haste, I've made an error. "Oh I'm so sorry! I just rushed here so quick and only had a minute to read the chart before getting to y'all. It's been a bit of a madhouse here the last few days" I say to both men. The man in the bed finally speaks with a gravelly voice "It's fine, I completely understand. Yes, I am Spencer Reid."
I smile and nod and begin to walk towards the vacant side of the bed while responding "Hi, Dr. Reid, my name is Anneliese Winters and I'm your speech therapist." He nods and says with a still gravelly voice "I've been expecting that due to my being intubated when I first got here and also having had some aphasia" coughing profusely after he finishes his statement. I nod along with him and smile as I say "I'm actually very impressed, most patients have no idea what it is I do or why I'm needed. Since you know that, you must also know you shouldn't be talking so much right now while you're healing."
He turns a bit pink with embarrassment, I'm honestly relieved he can with how pale he is after being so sick, and nods. I smile at his actions and say "very good" as I chuckle at his shy smile. I check the inside of his mouth and throat for signs of irritation or infection and find only the expected slight inflammation and swelling.
I look at him and say "I'm going to ask you a few yes or no questions and you just nod your head yes or shake your head no for me okay?" He smiles softly and nods his head. I nod as well and ask "Have you had a lot of pain since they removed the breathing tube?" He nods his head yes. I nod and continue my questions "Have you had difficulty swallowing since removing the tube?" I watch him try and successfully swallow and he shakes his head no in response. "What about difficulty breathing?" He shakes his head no. "Does it hurt to talk?" He gives me a hand wiggle in response indicating it only hurts a bit.
I laugh and tell him he can talk now if he feels up to it but not to overdo it until I can make sure there's no infection and the inflammation and swelling goes down. The stern looking dark haired man tells Dr. Reid he has to take a phone call and will be back later. Dr. Reid looks at me after the man leaves and apologizes saying "I'm sorry he snapped at you, a lot of people discount my achievements because of my age and since I almost died I think he's being over protective." I smile and tell him "It's not a problem I totally understand, is he a relative of yours?" Dr. Reid shakes his head no and tells me the man is his boss. I'm a bit shocked until I look over at the chair and see the FBI jacket laid over the chair left behind by the man.
Suddenly it all clicks in my brain "oh my gosh you're the FBI agent who found the cure!" Dr. Reid smiles shyly again and nods. Suddenly a different man with tanned skin and a dazzling smile interrupts me from the doorway saying "yep he's our resident genius and hero du jour!" I laugh along and introduce myself, the man smiles and introduces himself as "Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan." I shake his hand and tell them I'm going to prep the materials for a bed side swallow study and that I'll be right back.
I go to grab the water, saltine crackers, and applesauce from the cabinet on the wall of the CCU. There are multiple cabinets throughout the CCU with equipment like this, so I just go to the nearest one, not far from my patient's room. As I'm washing my hands I overhear the conversation between the two federal agents. Agent Morgan makes a low whistle and says to Dr. Reid "wow, I didn't know speech therapists were a thing, but she's certainly made you speechless, pretty boy" he laughs. I hear Dr. Reid respond saying in his raspy voice "I'm not supposed to talk a lot yet Morgan," and I smile with pride knowing I have at least one compliant patient I'm caring for today. Morgan laughs and says "never stopped you from rambling before." He then poses the question to Dr. Reid of "What's a bedside swallow study? Do I need to leave for this exam?" He says in a suggestive voice.
I roll my eyes and internally groan as I glove up. Every man loves to make this part of my job sexual. Much to my surprise I hear Dr. Reid say "ew no it's not that kind of swallowing Morgan, she's just trying to make sure I can handle all consistencies of food before they let me eat" in response to SSA Morgan's dirty joke. Before he can make another dirty joke I make my way into the room and start setting up while saying "now SSA Morgan you know he shouldn't be talking very much right now, right?" SSA Morgan nods and says "I'm sorry I'm being a bad influence. You can also just call me Morgan or Derek if that makes you more comfortable." I nod and look at my patient. "Dr. Reid do you know what this procedure is or shall I explain it to you?" He readjusts a bit and says "I believe so, but please explain it in case I'm not as clear as I think I am. Also you can just call me Spencer if you like."
I smile, nod, and say "well Spencer, this bedside exam is just going to make sure that you don't aspirate your food in varying consistencies before we let you loose to eat whatever you want. I have a feeling it may take you a bit to get back to normal." He nods and gives me a tight lipped smile in response. I give him the water and ask him to take a small sip. He follows my instructions and shows no signs of aspiration. I ask him now to take a bigger gulp of the water which he also does successfully. Now we move to the applesauce, which he eats without any difficulty. Then comes the part I'm most concerned about, the saltine crackers. I'm fairly certain it'll take him a few more days of recovery before he can comfortably swallow solid foods like this without choking. As I expected, he coughs and aspirated a bit on the crackers.
Morgan gets up and hits him on the back while I tell him to drink water. Morgan looks at me with an anxious look and says "what does that mean?" I give him a tight lipped smile and say "it means no solid foods just yet. I'll tell the kitchen my recommendations and you'll only get soft foods until I clear you for solid foods. If this continues more than the expected amount of days we may have to do a modified barium swallow study." Morgan looks at me wild eyed and says "what is that?!" I chuckle and tell him we will just take Spencer to radiology and have him eat different foods with barium at different consistencies to see if he is aspirating the food or if it's getting caught elsewhere." Morgan nods, looking relieved.
Spencer looks at me and asks "what about jello? Can I have jello?" I smile and tell him it should be okay but I'll sit with him and make sure there's no signs of aspiration while he has his first cup. After all goes well with the first cup, he can have as much jello as he wants. His face lights up with excitement for the first time since I've come in the room at that remark.
I leave to get the jello from the nurses' station and on my way back I hear "If you don't ask for her number, I will!" from Morgan and I slowly walk in and bring the jello in for him to try. Morgan stands and bids his goodbyes as he leaves, thinking I don't catch the wink he sends Spencer. I internally roll my eyes and just plan to continue to do my job. I can't date patients, so there's no sense in getting attached.
"I didn't know what flavors you like so I just grabbed strawberry and lime. Which one?" He grabs the lime flavored cup and begins to ravenously eat his jello. He's eating so fast I'm afraid he will choke. "Whoa whoa hang on there Dr. Reid you'll choke and then I can't in good conscience let you have jello when I'm not here!" This catches his attention and he slows his roll with the jello. I chuckle a bit and ask him if he's feeling uncomfortable or in pain. He tells me he's hurting a bit and I offer to ask a nurse to get him some pain meds. He looks at me with panic in his eyes and says "no, I don't want any narcotics, please."
I nod with a serious expression and gather that he doesn't want to hear anything more about pain medication and I change the subject to his job. He tells me he's been there for a few years and he's the youngest member on his team. I ask if he likes the job even though it's so serious and heavy. He tells me he loves it and doesn't want to do anything else with his life. I smile and tell him I feel the same way about my job. He offers me a shy smile in return.
After a few minutes of talking with him while he finishes both cups of jello I stand and throw away the empty cups saying "okay, Dr. Reid," he interrupts, telling me "please call me Spencer." I smile and nod and say "okay Spencer," enunciating his name, "looks like you can handle jello just fine as long as you eat slowly. Tonight and tomorrow morning they'll give you soft meals. I'll check back with you tomorrow at lunch time and we will see how well you can handle solid foods then. Try not to talk too much so you don't irritate your throat any more than it is from being intubated, as well. Sound good, any questions?" He smiles and nods and gives me a thumbs up. I chuckle and say "Good job following directions. Rest up and I'll see you tomorrow!"

AN: hey guys this is my first fan fic pls be nice to me lol. Hope you liked the first chapter! This will be a bit of a slow burn but we'll get there, I promise!