ENJOY!
Summary: what if the only thing Scratch brought into the delusion were the contraptions and the injuries were real. In what state do the team find Emily?
When Emily's delusion leads her to believe that Scratch uses Amphetamines to stop her heart when he figures out that he can't torture the answers he want out of her, her delusion simulates her death, but with the combination of seeing light and feeling warmth and the date she 'died' from the injuries received by Doyle she realizes that Scratch created an illusion to trick her. She knows what she has to do and she jumps into the grave to turn back to her body. As soon as she catches her breath she doesn't feel the agonizing pain she felt before anymore. Relieved by this she tells the man who she now believes to be Scratch to go and get Scratch, implying that she's willing to give him the answers he wants.
After the man leaves, Emily tries to move her body, however, nothing moves to her frustration. She closes her eyes willing to move at least one part of her body as footsteps get closer. Her attempts aren't working and she lays her head back down frustrated at the lack of movement.
The man she sent to fetch Scratch returns to the room "He's on his way, ok?" he tells her, she doesn't answer instead she tries to focus on reality like she suspected the man doesn't exist and it's indeed Scratch who plays both characters. Scratch continues when he doesn't get an answer "Ok? Ok? Ok?"
Then, finally, Emily decides to answer "Yeah, okay" and Scratch leaves while acting like the man before returning mere seconds acting like himself. He walks into the room with a big grin on his face, assuming that Emily's still in the delusion and that she'll finally give him the answers he's been craving for.
"If I would have known that putting you at death's door would get you to talk, I would have started with that" Scratch pauses for a second, enjoying the fact that he managed to break the person even a former IRA terrorist-turned-serial killer couldn't break "Now, will you tell me where Hotch and Jack are?" Emily nods, acting like she doesn't have enough energy left to speak "Good" Scratch says, his voice filled with anticipation "Go ahead" he nudges her.
"They're…at…" seeing that Emily can barely bring anything out anymore he leans closer to her mouth "eight" Emily says really softly and Scratch leans even closer.
Encouraging Emily to carry on, he says "Tell me"
"Five" Emily continues, when she sees that Scratch's ear is in reaching distance she acts biting in his ear. Scratch screams and it takes him a few seconds before he's able to pull his ear free from Emily's teeth. As Scratch takes a few steps back, Emily tells him with as much sneer in her voice as she can muster "They are at go fuck yourself"
Scratch gives Emily a filthy look before grabbing the hammer he used earlier. He lets it dangle above her legs long enough for Emily to realize that although her legs aren't broken it's clear that she's in fact paralyzed seeing that her brain is sending frantic signals to her legs to move, but they don't move an inch. When Scratch lets the hammer fall, Emily lets out a small scream like before as to not inform him of the fact that she's back to the real world, where she isn't in as much pain. As she looks to the side table where the tools were supposed to be she notices that the only real thing was the scalpel, the rest of the tools and medical equipment were part of her delusion.
All out of sudden "FBI" is shouted by voices Emily recognizes and she relaxes while Scratch tenses up and grabs the scalpel before standing behind Emily and pulling her limp body in front of himself. About a minute later the team existing out of Alvez, Reid, Simmons and JJ comes into the room.
No-one says anything for a few seconds, Scratch enjoys the silent knowing that his life is probably coming to an end very soon whereas the team is taken aback by the sight of Emily being limp in Scratch's arm with only her head able to move to communicate with them. After Tara told them about what Scratch did to Emily when he took her they assumed that the paralyzed part wasn't real as well, however, seeing that Emily's eyes are clear and she doesn't seem to be in the delusion anymore, but not being able to move it's very clear that the paralyzes is real.
JJ takes a step closer to Emily "Stop right there or I'll cut her throat right in front of your eyes" Scratch threatens. He moves a bit trying to shift the weight of Emily's body in his arm, but by doing so he gives the team enough space to shoot him and soon there are four bullets in his head with JJ's one having hit him right between the eyes. As Scratch's body falls backward, the scalpel falls out of his hand onto Emily who falls back flat on the bed.
The boys make sure that Scratch is really dead as JJ rushes towards Emily and pulls her into a hug, since Emily can't really hug JJ back she settles for resting her head on JJ's shoulder "I'm okay, Jen, promise" she murmurs into JJ's ear trying to soothe her.
JJ pulls back a little while still keeping Emily upright and looks Emily into the eyes "You've got to be fucking kidding me, woman. You are far from okay, you were with that maniac for hours and you are paralyzed. Em, if you call that okay, when will you say that something is bad. On top of that, you're being your selfless self and trying to calm me down while you are the one who went through all of this" JJ tears up.
Emily looks into JJ's eyes apologetically "I'll rephrase that promise then, I'll be okay, Jen. I've got you and the team. We'll all be okay"
"An ambulance is on its way" Reid softly interrupts them.
JJ smiles gratefully "Thank you, Spence" Reid gives a small smile back in response.
Ten minutes the ambulance arrives and Emily is carefully transferred to the gurney before being loaded into the ambulance and taken to a real hospital. JJ is quick to hop into the back and stroke her hear when the guys tell her they'll take care of everything.
After hours of testing, Emily's put in the same room as Tara and Garcia immediately stops hovering over Tara and runs to Emily. Tara is happy she can cough and breathes a little louder than normal without having Garcia worried that she's going to lose another friend. She totally understands Garcia and doesn't really mind, but it'll be nice to share her hovering with someone else although she wished it was in a different setting.
Garcia stops next to Emily, not really knowing if she can hug her friend. JJ notices Garcia's struggle and alerts Emily who, after some bribing and blackmail finally accepted some pain killers to stop the nerve pains radiating from her broken right arm, isn't as sharp. Emily gives Garcia a calming smile before telling her "You can hug me, PG" Emily reassures her "I just can't hug you back and you're going to have to lift my upper body a bit" Garcia's grateful for her friend's reassurance and instructions and she immediately follows the instructions to pull her friend into a tight hug. Emily can't feel the hug, but the thoughts behind it are brought over anyway. Tears that have been building during the day, but were held back since Emily was missing come out. Garcia starts to sob and keeps her hold on Emily who softly speaks to her. JJ decides to give the two of them some privacy and walks over to Tara and Rossi on the other side of the room.
The first sentence Tara, Rossi and JJ are able to hear is "I promise" said by Garcia "I promise to do that as long as you promise to stay safe, cause my heart can't take you getting hurt anymore"
Rossi snickers a bit, he gets a deadly look from Garcia and explains "Sorry, Penelope, but asking Emily to stay safe is the same thing as asking Morgan to stop flirting before he met Savannah" the others can't help, but laugh softly as well at this true statement.
"Thanks, Dave, I needed that" Emily states before turning her attention to Garcia and telling her "I promise you, PG, that I'll try my hardest to stay safe" Garcia accepts this promise, knowing that Emily doesn't make promises she can't keep and that this is the best she's going to get.
A few hours have gone by before the doctor finally stops by with news for Emily. He walks into the room filled with the whole team with a calm expression on his face, he shakes everyone's hand to introduce himself "Agent Prentiss, according to the test results you should regain feeling in your whole body within the next six months. Although you most likely don't feel like it, you're lucky. Not many people are able to regain feeling in their full body. You'll need to stay in the hospital for about a week, just like agent Lewis and you need to stay with someone else when you can leave"
"That's covered" JJ immediately says.
The doctor smiles "That's good to hear. Now we'll make an exception on the rules and two of you can stay during the night, the others, however, will have to go home and come back tomorrow morning. Both Agent Prentiss and Lewis need all the rest they can get" he finishes and leaves the room after shaking everyone's hand.
Garcia and JJ say at the same time "I'm staying"
The men smile and Rossi says "We hadn't expected anything else"
Later that night when the men are getting ready to leave Emily stops them "Wait a second please" everyone turns to face her, she takes it a cue to continue with what she needs to say "Before you leave there's one last thing I need to say. Scratch got deeper into my head than I care to admit, and the only way I was able to stay sane was by repeating a mantra, two words. You know what those two words were? 'Wheels up' it saved my life when I wasn't sure I was gonna make it because it reminded me that you were out there fighting, so take your time to recover. You've earned it. But, when we get back, wheels up, JJ"
"Wheels up, Em" JJ tells her.
"Wheels up, Tara" Emily says.
"Wheels up" Tara replies.
"Wheels up, PG" Emily continues.
"Wheels up" Garcia responds.
"Wheels up" Simmons says.
"Wheels up" Alvez adds.
"Damn right, wheels up" Rossi states as Emily looks at him.
"Wheels up" Spencer says after a few seconds and hopeful faces looking at him.