(Please be advised Criminal Minds and its characters do not belong to me, but only to CBS. Just to get the copyright issue clear :) here. Hope you will enjoy the story as much as I enjoy writing it. Have fun and reviews are most welcome to keep me going. Thank you so much to those who have done so.)
A gun shot was heard in apartment 5C. Silence followed.
At the BAU bullpen.
Morgan came in carrying a box of donuts and a cup of coffee. As he reached his table, he could not shake a bad feeling. Something was off. He just could not put a finger to it. Brushing it aside, Morgan decided to seek out Garcia.
"Hi Baby Girl."
"Hi Angel."
They began talking about the massacre which saw more than 80 people murdered in Canada by a serial killer and they only arrived in Washington from Canada less than two hours ago. They went home immediately to change before reporting back to work.
"I am just glad that monster is now gone," said Garcia as she was enjoying one of the donuts.
"Hey Morgan, what's wrong," she asked noticing the trouble look on his face.
"I could not shake off this bad feeling," said Morgan as he absently sipped his coffee.
Thirty minutes later, most of the team had already gathered at the bullpen. Reid, wearing a blue sweater, was talking at warp-speed about one of his theories to Prentiss who was trying so hard not to laugh. Everything looked normal.
Rossi was walking to his room when he noticed the dark room next door. It was unlike Hotch to be late.
He turned around and walked towards the team at the bullpen.
"Anyone knows where's Hotch?"
All heads turned and looked at the dark room.
"He must have an errand to run to be this late. I could not recall he has ever been late though," said JJ.
Rossi took out his mobile and began dialing. Hotch's mobile phone rang, but no one answered. He then tried Aaron's home number and also no answer.
Before jumping to any conclusion, he called Hotch's ex-wife and was told that Aaron had visited Jack few days ago, but had not heard from him since then.
He looked at Morgan and exchanged a worried look.
Morgan volunteered to check on Hotch at his home and Reid wanted to accompany him.
The duo walked towards the elevator when Rossi called out stopping them at their track.
"Call us immediately when you reach there."
Morgan and Reid both nodded in agreement and made their exit.
The bullpen was quiet. Nobody said anything as they tried to keep themselves occupied with paperwork.
On the way to Hotch's place, Morgan started to imagine all the possibilities which would cause the unit chief to be late. Nothing was promising.
Reid kept giving Morgan nervous looks as he tried hard not to ask the dreaded question: Was Hotch injured?
As the SUV pulled up at Hotch's building, Morgan set a fast pace walking to the entrance as Reid tried to catch up.
They walked to the elevator and pushed the button to Hotch's floor.
Outside the door of apartment 5C, both stood still for few seconds as they tried to listen for any sound from inside the apartment.
It was just silence.
The silence was so thick, one could cut through it with a knife.
Morgan started to knock on the door, but no answer.
He dialed Hotch's mobile phone and he could hear it from inside the apartment.
Now, he was certain that something was seriously wrong. Morgan began breaking down the door and Reid helped.
Once they were inside, Morgan quickly took out his Sig Sauer and Reid followed suit. They moved quietly as they began to assess the situation.
Both saw the shattered glass on the floor near the mini bar and the blood. Morgan's blood went cold. He followed the blood trail to the master bedroom. His hand was slightly shaking as he slowly turned the knob. Taking a deep breath he burst into the room ready to fire his gun on recoil reflex if necessary.
What greeted them in the room made both men gasped.
They saw Hotch sprawled on the floor near the phone as blood seeping out from under him.
Morgan rushed to his side and quickly checked for pulse. His face went white when he could not find any and nearly jumped when Hotch groaned.
He slowly turned the injured agent.
Hotch's eyes fluttered open and struggling to say something, but Morgan could only make out a name "Foyet".
Morgan was shocked. He quickly took out his phone and called Rossi as Reid gave Hotch's address to a 911 operator who had answered the emergency call.
He quickly briefed Rossi of what had happened and Hotch's condition.
Holding Hotch's clammy hand, Reid encouraged their injured unit chief to stay awake.
Five minutes later, they could hear the sirens followed by running steps of the paramedics. Morgan was so relief when he saw the paramedics who immediately checked Hotch's vital signs and tried to stop the bleeding.
Once they had stabilized him, Hotch was carried to the waiting ambulance. Reid followed Aaron in the ambulance as Morgan secured the crime scene. While waiting for the rest of the team to arrive, he started to analyze the scene. He began to retrace Aaron's steps from the point the section chief walked into the apartment and threw his keys on a table. Aaron also took out his gun and mobile phone which he put on another table. He "saw" Hotch poured a drink when the intruder possibly Foyet made his presence known.
Few minutes later, Rossi and the rest of the team walked into the apartment. Morgan went up to Rossi and said: "It was bad."
Rossi nodded and saw the blood in the bedroom through the ajar door. He felt sick. Prentice and JJ looked grim as they walked through the scene. All of them were worried about Hotch, but they could not let their emotions paralyzed them because they had an Unsub to catch.
At the emergency room.
Hotch was wheeled into one of the rooms and doctors as well nurses began working on him. It was chaos inside the room. Reid could only watch from outside and flinched when he saw the damage caused by the gun shot when one of the nurses cut open Hotch's shirt. He was surprised that Hotch was still alive. One of the doctors barked at no one particular urging any of the nurse to get more blood supply. The doctor, in his mid-50s, worked swiftly assessing the damage and slowly turned Hotch to his side to check whether there was any exit wound. There was none.
The doctor quickly looked for the bullet inside the entry point. He prodded the wound causing Hotch to groan in pain and start to struggle. One of the nurses held his hand, trying to comfort him. The doctor found the bullet and began cleaning the gun shot wound on the abdomen from any fragment. Thankfully, Hotch was unconscious at that time.
Few hours later at the BAU.
Everyone was busy putting together information about Foyet. Morgan recalled how the sick bastard had knocked him unconscious but did not kill him. Until now, he still kept the bullet which Foyet had left behind to taunt him.
He began fiddling with the bullet as Rossi looked on.
"Morgan, are you ok?"
"I am not ok. That psychopath hurt one of us. How can I be ok Rossi."
"I know how you feel. But, we have to be objective so that we can catch the monster."
"I'm sorry..." Morgan said slowly. Rossi put a hand on Morgan's shoulder and whispered to him: "We will catch the bastard. I promise."
Morgan closed his eyes and nodded.
Prentiss and JJ as well as Garcia were setting up the white board with Foyet picture on it.
As they worked, they silently listened to Rossi and Morgan.
When one of the phones rang, everyone was startled. Prentiss answered the call since she was the nearest to the ringing phone.
They could hear her asking Hotch's condition and his prognosis. When Prentiss hung up, all eyes were on her. She gave them a grim smile.
"The doctors said he is stable for now. But, they are still worried that the the bullet could have caused more damage than what they have repaired. He is being monitored closely in the ICU. Reid said Hotch is still unconscious and he will call us when Hotch wakes up."
Rossi walked to the white board and stared at Foyet picture.
He then headed towards his office and stopped outside the door of Hotch room. He took a deep breath and walked into the dark room. He switched on the lights and moved towards the table. He took a picture of Hotch and Jack. Then he walked to his room and made few notes before going to the hospital.
At the hospital
Rossi met Reid and had a brief chat with the young agent. He went to Hotch room. The sight of the dark hair man hooked up to all the tubes made him sadder and angrier. He stood beside the bed and held Hotch hand.
"Hang in there Aaron. We still need you. Your team needs you. Jack needs you. Do you hear me...come back"
Suddenly he felt Aaron weakly squeezed his hand. Maybe, he was imagining it. Then he saw the tear from the corner of Aaron's closed right eye lid. Rossi sighed and held on to Aaron's hand for few minutes.
He then put the picture of Aaron and his son on the side table so that the dark hair agent could see it when he woke up.