AN: Sorry guys, I went MIA. Long story short as to why I haven't updated... life... I will be updating Kids In The BAU Sequel tomorrow but I thought I should post this story and see what you guys think. Let me know what needs to be improved and if one of you feels you want to beta this story let me know cos I'll send it you because I need all the help I can get when it comes to writing.
If you review please can you tell me something I did well and something I did really bad. It's the only way to help me. But don't be silly and just put 'you can't write' or rubbish like that because I know I can't do it well which is why I am asking for constructive criticism.
I did post this story before a while a go but I got loads of reviews saying that it was a stupid story, I shouldn't be writing and a lot of horrible stuff like that so I deleted it and made improvements with the help of 2 other people. It is taking a lot of courage to post it back up here so please be nice.
Anyway on with the story.
The team had just got back in the office after an exhausting case in Arizona. They had been searching for a week for an unsub who was murdering teenage boys who were bullies. The weather in Arizona was ridiculously high, that the team had to go out and buy shorts and vest tops to wear. Which got them all Sun burnt. Unlucky for Emily and Reid they still had it bad but the others had gone a nice tan color as they had be privileged with great skin. Over the week they had all gotten, or so Reid had said mild cases of heat exhaustion, so they needed to stay hydrated.
JJ was sat in her office filling out paper work on the case and was going to sort through case files to pick the next case and get the others ready for consultants but she couldn't concentrate, she was feeling sick, her skin was hot to touch, but she had stopped sweating when they arrived at the jet, she had a dry mouth and it felt like the world was spinning as well as a bad case of nausea. She honestly couldn't think what it would be that could cause her to be like this. Had she been around sick people? No. So that really limited her chances of getting an illness such as flu which would make her feel like this. It was puzzling but a little scary. Ever since she was a child she has had a fear of getting sick and she still does now.
As she looked out of her window she saw the rest on the team sat at their desks doing work, it was rare they actually fully concentrated on their work, without chatting, because of how hard it can be at times, so she didn't want to bother them. Suddenly she had the urge to vomit so she bent over her trash can and she was there until she had nothing left in her to bring back up.
She sat back against her desk, breathing heavily, trying to recover from the vomiting but the oncoming headache didn't help. As she looked down to her left at the trash can. She knew she needed to move it but it was a big effort to move right now. She pushed through and started to move.
She was stood outside her door leaning on the little bit of wall next to it. How did she get so ill so quick? Had this been coming on for a while? 'Whatever this is I need help.' JJ thought.
"Em...Emily!" JJ called.
Emily looked up and saw her best friend leaning against the wall. Panic set in; she could see something was wrong, terribly wrong. She stood up and made her way over to JJ to see what was wrong.
Emily reached JJ and saw the sick in the trash can and she saw JJ, she looked pale, her lips looked dry and were lighter in color, her head was swaying aimlessly and she could see her eyes were trying really hard to concentrate. So she reached and took the bucket of sick from her and placed it on the floor. "JJ?" She asked as she placed her hands on each of her arms to steady the slowly swaying JJ.
"Come on let's get you in your office." Emily told her and she slowly lead her to the couch she had in there, hoping she could get something from JJ when she was a little more grounded.
"What's wrong Jayje?" Emily asked feeling JJ's forehead and frowning when she felt how hot she was.
"Mmm ti'ed, sick, diz'y Erm." JJ slurred together as she leaned back on the couch. She was getting worried for herself. Everything she was trying to communicate wasn't coming out how she wanted it to.
"Okay I'm going to get Reid he might be able to tell us what is wrong." Emily told her as she stepped out the office.
"Reid can you come in here JJ's not well and can someone come and get rid of this sick please before it stinks out the place." Emily told them.
Reid quickly made his way to JJ's office as Morgan moved the sick. Morgan was concerned but he knew that if JJ was sick they need to give her space and give the others space so they can figure out what is wrong. But he didn't go to fat he stood by her door way, watching for when he can help.
In the office Reid was checking JJ over until he came to a conclusion. "She has Heat stroke!" He said loudly. "It all makes sense we had hot weather for over a week, she doesn't drink much anyway so she is dehydrated, she stopped sweating but her skin is burning, dizziness. It all makes sense." Reid rambled.
"Okay so what do we do?!" Emily questioned.
"Get her to the restroom and I'll phone 911 and explain what's going on, oh and I'll tell the others." He said.
Emily jumped into action; she looked to JJ who looked about ready to pass out. She stood JJ up and put one of JJ's arms around her shoulder and grabbed that hand with her own and then she put an arm around her waist to keep her up and they set off to the women's restroom. Just as Emily had done that Derek stepped in literally sweeping JJ off her feet.
They rushed into the restroom and sat her up against the wall. Derek was getting some cool paper towels and Emily was talking to JJ. "JJ, can you try your best to stay awake?" They were all quiet scared, their friend was in danger now they had to do their best to make sure she made it through this.
"Mmm, w'er' 'r' we?" She mumbled looking round.
"You're in the restroom, you have heat stroke so we are going to try and cool you down. Is that okay?" Emily asked her taking her hands.
Derek brought over the wet paper towels and they placed them on her body. At that moment Reid, Hotch and Rossi all came in the girl's restroom.
"Reid what can we do to help her until the ambulance gets here?" Emily asked wanting to find other ways to help.
"You can take some of her clothes of her so that she starts cooling down slowly, give her water to drink and keep washing her down with cool water." Reid said off the top of his head.
"Okay can someone go and get Pen and all you guys please leave I'm about to start undressing her." Emily told them as she took JJ's blazer off her. "So unless you want the wrath of JJ when she's better I suggest you do leave and now.
All the men left and a minute later Garcia walked in. "Oh my Angel cake! Where do you need me?" She asked looking down at JJ.
"She's just passed out, can you just keep bringing me wet paper towels but not too cold." she informed her.
They carried on cooling her down until the paramedics came bursting through the door. They set up an IV and attached her to a couple of different machines and they headed to the ambulance where Emily jumped in with her.
Emily sat back watching as the paramedic was placing cool packs on JJ and taking her temperature when JJ started convulsing. Emily's hand went to her mouth, trying to block the sob which was about to escape. JJ's body was shaking, her back arching from the bed, her head violently shaking.
She thought she was scared before, witnessing that made her realise it was nothing in comparison to what she just saw then. That would be something she remembered for the rest of her life and she knew a couple of nightmares would come from it. She saw as they injected her with something and her body slowed down, The convulsions stopped and she now lay there lifelessly.
Emily was sat in the waiting room when the rest of the team walked into the room. The leg was bouncing up and down and her head was in her arms. She was nervous and scared and she didn't care about compartmentalising it right now.
"Is she okay, have they said anything?" Garcia asked as she rushed forward grabbing a hold of Emily and pulling her up.
"Not yet, she had a seizure in the ambulance, her temperature was 105F. They said they will do everything they can, and rushed her away into one of the trauma rooms." Emily said looking at the floor.
Garcia embraced Emily they cried into each other's arms, scared for the life of their best friend. The others sat down at the realisation that she could possibly die from this.
It was around 4 hours sat in a waiting room was a long time, the team, had gone through a good amount of the hospitals coffee to keep them up and alert. Their legs were bouncing and they paced back and forth, irritating each other.
"Jennifer Jareau?" The doctor called out.
"That's us." Derek jumped up, the rest of the team followed and they all looked at the doctor waiting for results.
The doctor looked at them and then he saw the agent she came in with, they shared brief eye contact and then he began. "Jennifer definitely suffered from heat stroke, to solve this we did a procedure called cardiopulmonary bypass, this is where we take the blood from her body, it goes into a machine which cools it down and then we put it back into her body. We currently have her on a drip because she was severely dehydrated and we have given her a muscle relaxant as she had another seizure when she came in and those should stop her from convulsing. Now she will probably be in for a couple of days depending on the results we get later today and tomorrow." The doctor looked at each agent before speaking again. "Heat strokes can cause brain damage, at this moment in time we don't know what the damage is and because she had two seizures in such a short amount of time we could be looking at anything, but we are ruling them out as we carry out tests on her."
Each of the teams member looked at each other with tear filled eyes. It could have been any of them, in that position. They were all there, they all got burnt and exposed to the sun probably more than her. But it happened to JJ.
They walked into her room and she was connected to a heart monitor and an IV she looked peaceful lay on the bed. They each made their way to her side all wishing her well and then took a seat around the room discussing memories they have of JJ and each other. They spoke of the time JJ had gone up against 5 guys by herself at darts. How she played like she didn't know what she was doing and then in the last 4 shots she roasted them by only getting bullseye's. They talked about when they watched Jack in one of his soccer games and she had slipped in some mud taking Emily and Garcia with her. Garcia had been furious that her outfit had been ruined even though JJ was the one covered in most of the mud from head to toe.
They waited around in her room for the rest of the day, they kept her company and hoped that them talking would help her, they didn't know in which way it would help her but they hoped it would. The longer she was unconscious the more worried they got although they didn't voice it because they didn't want to worry each other. They occasionally left the room for coffee or toilet breaks but then they came right back never wanting to leave JJ's side.
By 8:30pm all the team except Emily had gone home to get a good night's sleep.
"Mmmm." JJ said hearing noise around her.
"JJ, honey wake up it's Emily." She said squeezing her hand.
"Mem'y" She slurred.
"I'll just get the doctor honey, hold on." Emily said, she walked to the door and opened it calling out for the doctor before she walked back over to JJ, not wanting to leave her side.
"JJ are you okay?" Emily asked trying to look into JJ's eyes.
"Hu'tss." She slurred with a little cry.
JJ was finding it hard to concentrate on anything, her eyes couldn't stop wondering round and she was in pain. Her stomach was aching. When she tried to say this to the others her mouth would open but nothing would come out and she was finding it difficult to have control of her own body. 'What's wrong with me?' She thought.
Just then the doctor walked into the room."Hi Jennifer, My name is Doctor Wilson. How are you feeling?" He asked
"Hu'ts." She said.
"Okay, can you tell me where?" Dr. Wilson asked as he put on some gloves.
"t'mmy" she mumbled. JJ was getting incredibly annoyed at herself for not getting the words out like they should sound and she grunted angrily.
"Jennifer, don't get angry okay. Are you upset that you can't speak?" JJ simply nodded.
"Do you even know what happened?" He asked JJ. She shook her head. "What's happened is you were brought into to hospital with heat stroke. On the way you had a seizure and you had another one in the trauma room so we gave you something that will stop your seizures so it will have made your muscles relax which could be one of the reasons your speech is sloppy as well as your movements this will wear off in the next few hours. But heat stroke can cause brain damage especially with a temperature as high as yours. So far you have been extremely lucky because usually some patients get liver or kidney problems but your free of them so there is no need to worry about brain damage right now but I will take you for an MRI in a couple of minutes to rule it out okay?"
"Y'h." She replied with a sigh.
The doctor felt around her stomach and nothing seemed wrong, probably from all the vomiting she did, although he wasn't just going to leave it at that, he also did an ultrasound and was going to check on the MRI if anything was wrong. He then used a pen light and asked her to follow the light with she had managed to do successfully as her eyes were beginning to concentrate more the longer she was awake. Once he finished the quick exam he took her for the MRI.
The MRI was enough to confirm nothing so far was wrong with JJ or her brain and she would make a full recovery which was a relief to hear. They had to wait for the muscle relaxants to wear off and then they would send her for more tests and keep her for a couple of days for observation and then see how she was then to determine if she was ready for a release. Emily made sure to text all the team and inform them of the good results.
It was midnight and Emily was sat in the chair waiting for JJ to fall asleep before she did. They were both awake even though they were tired and falling asleep every time their eyes closed they opened right back up. JJ was scared if she closed her eyes then she would have another seizure and Emily still had images of JJ convulsing in the back of the ambulance and she didn't want to get that image stuck in her head again. They sat in an awkward silence because they didn't know what to say to each other until it got too awkward and JJ had to speak.
"Em'ly?"
"Yeah JJ?"
"I'm scar'd 'r' you scar'd?"
"Me scared, why would I…" Emily trailed off. JJ stared at Emily with her eyebrow raised. "Fine, yes I'm scared. I'm scared if I close my eyes I'm going to get pictures of you having a seizure or worse you do have a seizure and I can't help you." Emily admitted.
"I'm Fin' Em'ly. I'm safe with you." JJ said. She was still having trouble speaking, but she made sure to force the sounds out as best as she could. "Can you s'eep with me?"
"Yes, of course." Emily climbed into JJ's bed, careful of the few wires she still had attached, and let JJ cuddle into her. When they were cuddled close together they slept easily and they slept until 12 at noon the next day. Emily was the first to wake up and she saw the room full of her friends.
"Good afternoon sleeping beauty." Derek smiled.
"Ughh, shut up. What time is it?" Emily groaned as she sat up but she realised JJ was lay halfway down the bed with her head on her stomach. "How did she get down there?" Emily asked propped up on her elbows.
"It is 12:10 pm and for how she got down there I'm guessing that you crawled into bed with her last night and she wiggled her way down the bed in her sleep and found your stomach as the perfect pillow." Derek smiled at her.
"Are you saying my stomach is cushioned Derek Morgan?" She glared at him.
"I believe he called you fat." Reid told her with a sly little smirk.
"You should be happy JJ is holding me back right now otherwise you would be running for the hills." Emily said with a raised eyebrow and smirk herself.
"Okay princess, okay." Derek smiled again.
It was 2pm before JJ woke up. The two seizures she had the previous day had tired her out and the doctors must have knew it because they wouldn't wake her up. JJ was stirring still holding onto Emily's stomach. "Hey JJ. Are you waking up now? I need to pee." Emily asked. As much as Emily had wanted to move her when she was sleeping she couldn't JJ had a good grip on her and she looked too cute in her sleep so Emily wouldn't wake her,
"5 more minutes." She grumbled.
"No JJ. Please either you let me up or I wet the bed." Emily groaned.
JJ didn't even answer she just rolled over on the bed off of Emily and then hugging the rails on the side. Emily jumped off the bed and hurried to the bathroom. The team all chuckled at the two women. JJ couldn't get her left arm in a comfy position because of the IV in her arm so she pulled it out and bent her arm so her hand could go under her face.
"JJ! No, the IV stays in your arm." Garcia panicked when she saw JJ remove the IV.
Reid walked round to get a look at the place the IV was Derek pulled some cloths from in the side unit and handed them over to Reid while Garcia was waking up JJ. Both Hotch and Rossi sat back and watched them move around to look after JJ.
"JJ you're so silly. You shouldn't have down that. You've cut yourself taking out the IV." Garcia said as though she was talking to a child.
"Let me sleep." She slurred from tiredness.
"No because now we are stopping the bleeding you dumb blonde." Garcia said chuckling at JJ a little.
JJ groaned and sat up slowly, with the help of Garcia.. "You're mean. It was uncomfortable. And I wanted to sleep." Her body was aching today and now she was sat up her body just flopped forward not really supporting its self.
Emily returned from the bathroom and saw what had happened so she got a nurse. The nurse, quickly and efficiently patched up JJ's arm and put the IV back in but she put it in her foot so JJ would stop mithering about it being uncomfortable. The nurse was ever so kid as to have brought in new bedding. Derek had lifted JJ out of the bed so that the nurse could change the bloody sheets, he then whipped her up and back into the bed where he earn a slight chuckle from JJ but she soon fell back on the bed and had a nap for an hour.
An hour later when JJ was awake the team were just talking among themselves and she watched them and smiled at them. They were a family, they were all there for each other and they help each other when someone was in a time of need. This was just one of the things that proved that too her. She looked to Emily and gave her a smile. Emily climbed on the bed and was propped up on her side, JJ was lay next to her looking up to her while they talked and Emily ran her fingers through JJ's long hair. The team didn't mind, they carried on talking and having a laugh between them telling JJ of all the stories they had spoken about yesterday while she was unconscious.
A couple of days later and JJ was ready to leave. She was still a little weak but nothing that she couldn't handle.
"Right Jennifer, you have to remember you are more prone to heat exhaustion now. So you have to remember to keep hydrated and try and stay out of the sun for prolonged periods of time. If you do I want you to be drinking more regularly then you would on a normal day. Alright."
"Right doctor." JJ said as she rolled her eyes. She just wanted to get moving and go home.
"Also you need to increase your daily water intake, I am going to advise you to try and drink at least 4 glasses of water a day, not just the one. If you can do this you will decrease the risk of heat exhaustion anyway."
"Right I get it. Can I leave now please?!" JJ begged.
"Fine, now get out of here." Doctor Wilson smiled. He watched as Emily rolled JJ away in the wheelchair to the entrance to get out of the hospital.
All the team stood in her apartment waiting for JJ; they stood there with welcome home banners and balloons, just a small gathering for the team. When JJ saw this tears flooded from her eyes. The team had supported her incredible and she knew they would continue to look after her always especially if Emily repeated what the doctor had said to her. They were family and she was grateful to be able to be a part of something so amazing.