Disclaimer – Not mine.
A/N – I'm going to cop to getting this idea from another story I read (a fabulous P&P story) the author got her inspiration from the movie Family Man which I actually haven't seen. Anyway this has more of a soap opera twist. (For those of you old enough think the Dallas Bobby Ewing shower scene.) Completely AU. Multiple chapters.
He came to slowly, his head felt like he'd been stampeded by a herd of elephants, blinking his eyes he managed to finally open them and after struggling through some blur, focus on the bright blue orbs of Jennifer Jareau.
"Hey." She was quick to blink away the moisture that had settled in her eyes. "How are you feeling?"
"Like shit, what happened?" He asked groggily as he attempted to move his head to see if there was anyone else in the room. The effort hurt far too much. "Where am I?" His throat was dry and hoarse.
"You're in the hospital." JJ smiled serenely and softly pushed a lock of hair that had fallen forward off of his forehead. "You scared the crap out of me."
He realized then that she was holding tightly on to his hand, which, while nice, confused him. "Was I shot?" He wondered, thinking that would be the most likely thing to occur in his line of work. He watched as JJ struggled with emotion before finally answering.
"No, you were pushed down a flight of stairs."
"Concrete?" He winced.
"No they were wooden basement stairs but you landed on the concrete floor at the bottom. You've got a couple of bumps and bruises but amazingly nothing broken."
"Nothing but my head." Hotch commented wryly.
"Well, we all know how notoriously hard headed you are." JJ quipped.
She was looking at him again with something in her eyes that he just couldn't place. "Where is the team?" He was confused by the fact that they were the only ones in the room.
"They're all in the waiting room. Do you think you feel up to a visit? I'm sure they would like to see you conscious. It was pretty hard waiting for you to wake up."
"How long have I been out?" He noticed once again the emotion that crossed JJ's face at the question.
"About 36 hours." She bit her lip in an effort not to cry. "Morgan's had it the hardest of the team. He was partnered with you when you were ambushed. Even though the doctor felt certain that everything was okay; your body just needed the time to heal. We tried to tell him you were just trying to bank some sleep hours but when one day began to stretch into the next and you still didn't wake he began to fret. It didn't help that Reid was there to give him statistics on coma patients."
"I was in a coma?" He asked sharply.
"That's usually what they call it when you take a hit to the head and don't wake up for days." She gave him a puzzled glance. "You know, why don't we wait until you see the doctor before the team comes in?" She squeezed the hand she still held and smiled. "He should be here any minute, I alerted the nurse when you started to come to."
As if she had conjured him the doctor chose that very moment to walk through the door. "I hear Sleeping Beauty has finally chosen to wake up." The doctor moved briskly towards Hotch. "How's the head feeling?"
"I'll step out for a minute and let you talk to the doctor alone." JJ announced then shocked Hotch by leaning forward and kissing his lips lightly.
"I'm sure that you could use the break, I told you that you need to be taking it easy." The doctor replied offhandedly as he grabbed the patient chart at the bottom of Hotch's bed and started to look over the statics it held.
Hotch didn't have time to question why JJ had been so forward as to kiss him or why she needed to take it easy before the doctor was shining a pen light in his eyes, he didn't even register her slipping out of the door.
Fifteen minutes later the doctor was shaking his head. "You are one lucky dude. Other than taking a Rip Van Winkle everything seems to be good. I'd like to keep you overnight for observation then we can evaluate where you are tomorrow. If you like I can arrange to get you some food, you're probably starving, and I can let some of the motley crew that has been haunting my halls in to see you." He shook his head again in wonder. "Some guys really do have all the luck."
The last comment was heard by a returning JJ. "Everything is okay?" She was focused on the doctor so she didn't see the attention that Hotch was giving her.
"Yeah, you can let the team in, I figure if they can see for themselves that their fearless leader is going to be fine they will finally leave my hospital."
JJ grinned. "We haven't been that bad." She went to the door and opened it, poking her head out she smiled at the assembled group. "Doc says that you can all come in if you promise to behave."
They filtered in the room each expressing their delight in seeing Hotch finally awake and hearing that he was no worse for the wear however he remained oddly fixated on the blonde had been sitting with him when he'd awoken. "JJ you're pregnant."
No alarm bells went off as they all assumed he was expressing concern for her wellbeing.
"Yeah, no kidding." She scoffed. "You're lucky you woke up, I would have been pissed if I had to go in the delivery room alone."
Her comment took him by surprise and it must have shown on his face as Rossi was quick to remark on it. "Don't worry we would have taken care of her."
Hotch nodded absentmindedly. "Has anyone told Beth about the accident?" He asked to no one in particular but was surprised when all activity stopped and looked from him to JJ.
"Who is Beth, Aaron?" There was a slight quiver in her voice as she moved to the foot of his bed and placed a hand on the bottom railing.
Hotch looked from one face to another in growing apprehension. "Beth Clemmons, I've been dating her for the last six months." He could have sworn the entire group took a step backwards, the entire group save JJ. He was oddly puzzled by her reaction and the fact that the both Garcia and Prentiss now flocked to her side and were both shooting him the evil eye. "You don't look so good, maybe you should sit down." He turned to Rossi. "Does she know?" He asked again.
Rossi was definitely hearing a distinct ringing now as he looked from JJ to Hotch and back again. "Aaron, I don't know any Beth Clemmons." He turned to JJ in bewilderment.
"What do you mean you don't know her? She was at the marathon." He watched as the statement didn't bring any recollection to Rossi's face. "I brought her to the wedding as my date."
This brought on a shrug, the team had celebrated a few weddings together. "Okay, who's wedding?"
"JJ's wedding!" He replied, becoming increasingly agitated he looked to the blonde in question now for assistance. "You don't remember my date at your wedding?"
JJ stared at him for a long minute before stating softly. "Yeah, I remember your date at my wedding." She turned to Rossi. "I'll go find the doctor."
"That's probably a good idea." Rossi replied and waited until she had left the room before turning back to Hotch. "Don't worry, we'll figure this out, Pal."
"What's there to figure out? Give me my damn cell phone and I'll call her myself. If I've been out for three days she's probably worried sick." He growled.
"I'm going to hope for your benefit that the knock on your head shook something loose because I would really hate to have to kill you." This statement came from Morgan who was clearly suppressing some hostility which surprised him considering JJ's comments from earlier.
"Bumps on the head can be dangerous. How many times has something like this happened when you thought the person was okay only to have them mysteriously drop dead?" Garcia shrugged her shoulders as all the heads in the room swiveled to her as she was still eyeing Hotch with open distaste.
"Actually you'd be surprised by the amount of stuff that we just don't know or understand in the human body." Reid began, only to be interrupted by Rossi.
"Let's not kill him just yet." He turned back to the man in question. Gone was the agitation that had marked his features earlier. He was clearly puzzled as to what was going on. Panic was beginning to set in.
Not sure why his team wouldn't help him contact Beth he turned his focus on the most important person in his world. "Where is Jack? Does he know what's going on? Is he with Jessica?" He fired the questions off without giving anyone time to respond.
There was a slight commotion at the door as yet another person entered the room. "Jack's fine. He'll be happier once he can come and visit you and see for himself that you're okay, but he's fine."
The group watched as Hotch struggled to sit upright; his face had gone slack and had a decidedly gray pallor. "Haley?"
The slight blonde grinned. "Hey there, I understand you're already in rare form, just woke up from a long winter's nap and already pissing off your pregnant wife. I'm so glad to see that talent wasn't reserved just for me."
Her words went unheeded as his mouth gaped unable to believe what he was seeing. "Am I dead?"
"You are if that Beth woman turns out to be real." Prentiss mumbled under her breath.
It was that moment that the doctor chose to walk back into the room and walked towards the patient that he'd just recently visited. "Okay, I'm going to need everyone to clear out." He looked at the group of people that had just been so exuberant only minutes earlier. "Mrs. Hotchner why don't you stay?"
Hotch watched as everyone reluctantly turned to leave. He watched in complete mystification as each of the team members embraced JJ before exiting the room leaving only Haley and JJ. He stared as Haley leaned in and laid a hand on JJ's cheek, he couldn't hear what was being said but he saw JJ nod before Haley gave her a quick hug and followed the rest of the team out the room.
The doctor broke him out of his reverie. "Why don't you tell me what's going on?"
Hotch looked from JJ to the doctor. His head was throbbing now, there was so much that he didn't understand. "Foyet didn't kill Haley." It was a statement, not a question.
JJ shook her head. "No, Sam managed to kill him."
"Sam is alive, too?"
JJ looked at the doctor, not sure what she was supposed to do. Hotch was obviously suffering from memory loss, but he'd also managed to rewrite history. Did she tell him what actually happened? Was he supposed to regain those memories on his own? She waited until Dr. Floyd gave her a nod.
"Sam was injured pretty badly. Foyet managed to get the drop on him and disarm him. Fortunately, Sam had a habit of carrying two back up guns; Foyet only got one and it proved to be his fatal mistake. Luckily Haley had arrived shortly after the showdown or Sam might have not made it either."
Hotch was struggling with the information that was being told him.
The doctor moved over to where JJ was hovering near the door. "Why don't you come over here and take a seat." He gently steered her over to the side of Hotch's bed where she'd pretty much lived the past three days.
Hotch watched as the doctor discretely took JJ's pulse as he situated her in the seat beside him. "Why did you stay behind and not Haley?" He asked in a shaky voice, trying to remember what Haley had said when she'd come in the room but failing. He'd been too stunned by her appearance to focus on the words coming out of her mouth.
"I assumed that the doctor wanted your current wife in the room, not your ex. Or your girlfriend." JJ snapped, the events of the past week and morning finally becoming too much for her.
Pregnant wife, he recalled that phrase floating at him. He swallowed hard and glanced down, JJ was pregnant and if he understood her correctly, she was his wife so that meant…
"Yeah, that's yours too." He watched as she bit her lip once more but was unable to stop the tears that escaped her eyes as she looked up at the doctor. "I should probably leave, he doesn't even remember me. My being here is only going to make him uncomfortable." The doctor looked back at Hotch uneasily. JJ laid a hand on the doctor's sleeve clearly recognizing his discomfort in the fact that he'd not noticed that her husband was clearly not well. "It's okay, just fix him alright? I'm going to need him better because if he really does have a girlfriend I'm going to kill him." She didn't kiss him this time as she once again left the room.
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