Derek had no time to think before the walls came down around him.

Before he knew what hit him, Derek found himself buried in debris. Concrete. Wires. Dust. Pain.

How had he gotten in here? What the hell happened?

He wasn't gonna make it.

"Morgan! Morgan, damn it, answer me!"

But there. Garcia. In his ear. He tried to say her name, but only managed a groan.

"Oh, God, you're alive! Stay right there. What am I saying? Of course you'll stay right there..."

"Morgan. Help's coming, okay? Talk to me," Garcia urged.

"Can't..." he rasped.

"Oh, be still my heart..." Garcia said, trying for levity. She needed to keep his mind on something else. Anything else. Anything other than where he was. Than what was happening to him. "Help's coming, okay? I see you on my screen right now. I'm right with you. I'm not leaving."

"Okay..." he managed, though his lungs burned. "Garcia. Tell my family..."

"You know what, Derek? You're going to be fine. They're there and they're working to get you out now, okay?" It was a lie, but he had to have some hope.

The noise was painful. Things in the darkness shifted and made him cry out in agony, but Derek was determined.

This would not beat him.

There. A tiny light.

"Hold on. They've almost got you..."

Hands pulled him out, and pain exploded like with the light in his eyes. Hands checked him over. When someone tried to take his earpiece, he grabbed the wrist and squeezed.

"Garcia?" he asked, sounding unsure in the hugeness of this space. In all this world.

"I'm gonna meet you at the hospital, okay? I'm right with you. Promise."

Derek closed his eyes, letting unconsciousness steal him.

"Stop. You're gonna wake him."

"Shut up."

Familiar voices.

"Derek? Can you open your eyes?"

This one was no one he knew, so he squeezed his eyes shut tighter. He hurt like hell. Everything was too big and too loud.

"What?" he asked irritably when he felt hands on him again.

"Derek, do you know where you are?"

"Temple Hospital. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. United...States..."

"Reid."

"Sorry."

"What he said," Derek groaned.

"I really need you to open your eyes."

"I really need you to get...the hell...out of my room..." he managed, feeling suddenly exhausted.

"Come on, sugar. Not even for me?"

Cautiously, and with effort, Derek obeyed. He had to for that voice. He'd move heaven and earth for that voice.

"Garcia?" he rasped.

"At your service," she responded, and he could hear the tense smile in the words.

Finally, he focused, and there she was.

There, in vivid bright glory of bright pink and polka dots and a hat with a feather. Bright red lips, and red hair. Those kind eyes. And that voice giving him the strength to hold on when nothing else had worked. She had been there through it all. She had kept her promise. She had never left.

There.

A tiny light with enough power to rock his world.