Chapter 2

The Jet

It was 7.30pm when the jet left to Fairbanks. They had the usual briefing inside the small plane at 8.30pm as they ate an Italian meal, courtesy of Rossi's mother who was spending sometime at her son's house. Hotch took the liberty of informing the team about Strauss' involvement in the case and that it meant they had to act cautiously, by other words, they had to be preoccupied with the case and with the fact that Strauss could fire one or more of them if she thought protocol wasn't being followed. Morgan looked disappointed. Talking freely to Garcia was one of the few ways for the team, especially himself, to relief some of the stress and pressure that tagged with each and every case they worked on. How were they going to get a truthful moment of peace or joy until the case was closed it's a mystery to him.

By 10:45pm almost everyone was asleep, after all it was a nine hour plane ride until they could finally step a firm and solid ground. Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss were reviewing all they had on the case. They decided to begin tracing a geographical profile on the dump sites the killer used, they did so to spare as much as possible time to get everything done. Usually it was Reid's job to do it, but by getting it done sooner he would have more free time to help the team in other aspects of the case, and by doing so everything would run faster, since Hotch was also dealing with the press besides his regular functions.

Emily got up to fill their coffee mugs when a sudden jolt sent her to the ground after hitting her head in the balcony where the coffee maker was. Hotch grabbed his seat with his life and screamed to the other team members to buckle their seatbelts and for Emily to hold on to Rossi's seat, that was the closest to her position. A loud sound filled the air altogether with the plane's turbulence and made all of them to think they were going to crash to a certain painful death. After what had seemed hours the jet became stable and no one dared to speak, afraid that a single breath could make everything collapse. Being in the floor forced Emily to get up and eventually be the first one to speak.

"Is everyone alright?" With that said the profilers exchanges several looks between them until Reid spoke.

"We all seem to be slightly in shock. Other than that I think we're all okay under the circumstances…" He said with his voice wavering.

"Geez I think you might be the worst one kid…I mean, seriously? No rambling of statistics?" Before Reid could start speaking Morgan continued. "By the way…What the hell was that?"

"I'll check with the pilot. Remain calm, maybe we'll have to make an emergency landing." Hotch said as he got up from his seat and entered the pilot's cabin. At the same time Rossi stood and went near Emily who had been looking rather distant since she spoke after the turbulence.

"What's wrong Emily?" He asked as he accessed her physical and mental state. It surprised him how quiet she was considering there was blood all over her once white blouse. She had a big cut in her right arm; Rossi assumed it was from the mugs she was previously holding that broke with the prior scuffle for a safe and steady position as the plane shook them violently. She also had blood starting to fall slowly from a graceless gash that was covered by her black bangs. Her non-response made Reid and Morgan stand up from their seats and reach her quickly. The men on the team had been acting more protectively of her since JJ left the BAU. Sometimes she just wished to be treated has before, but after all they were a family.

"Emily look at me." Rossi tried. Seeing it wasn't working Morgan grabbed her shoulders and turned her body so it was facing his. He looked at her pale face and gently lifted her chin with his hand so he could look straight into her eyes. That worked and she quickly regained her usual posture and took a look at her surroundings, her teammates and herself.

"Look." She started as she absorbed the recent events. "It looks like a freaking hurricane passed right through here!"

"Yeah, and you were right in the middle of it." Rossi pointed. "Go with Morgan. You need to sit while Reid's going to get something to treat your wounds until we land. And I'm going to talk to Hotch."

"I'm fine. And where exactly is Hotch?" Emily didn't like being treated as she was made off porcelain.

"He's talking with the pilots. You're not fine Prentiss, you're hurt and in shock." Morgan wasn't going to let her go that easily. "Besides, you're in a plane, where are you going to? We can only wait until we land and then you'll go to a hospital."

"You're not my boss. And I've said I'm fine. It's just some scratches, nothing I haven't handled before." As she finished the last protest, Hotch, who had been informed by Rossi, had just left the pilot's cabin and was holding a first aid box.

"But I am. And it happens that I agree with Morgan." Hotch gave the box to Reid who sat rambling very low to himself statistics on plane crashes and first aid measures. He knew that being such a stressful situation rambling out loud would upset his co-workers.

"Emily…" Reid called as calm as he could. "Could you seat here?"

Emily sighed and did what he said, she was feeling wired. She leaned against a seat to Reid's left side and stretched her pained right arm to him. She closed her eyes and felt a strong wave of dizziness.

"Try to maintain awake. You can't fall asleep, you probably have a concussion. The severity of a Traumatic brain injury can range from a mild concussion to the extremes of coma or even death. But the percentage of people who fall asleep with a concussion and…" Reid was once more interrupted, this time by Emily herself.

"I promise I won't fall asleep. I know better…Humm I think concussions and bruises are in my top 3." She told him jokingly to ease the mood. But a sudden gasp she made, by Reid beginning to disinfect her wounds, gained her too much worried looks for her like, Reid noticed it and tried to apologize and keep her talking.

"Sorry…What top 3?" He asked as Morgan, whom had also noticed how uncomfortable she was for the attention she was getting, made his own question.

"What are the other ones?"

"It's okay Reid. One of them it is probably headaches." Hearing that made Morgan chuckle and take advantage of it to give his own contribution for a better mood between the profilers.

"Did you hear that pretty boy? You need to quit the sugar so you can speak less and spare Prentiss of undesired headaches."

"Shut up Morgan. Don't mind him Reid. He's just jealous he's not as smart as you." Emily playfully said as Morgan pretended to be hurt by her words. Meanwhile, at the most distant seats from the trio, Rossi and Hotch were far from discussing things lightly, they had to face the problem at hands without startling Prentiss. Reid had told them he was afraid she would go into shock again.

"The pilot doesn't know what happened. We'll be landing in Columbus, Nebraska for a check up on the jet." Hotch told Rossi in a low voice.

"Have you told Garcia?"

"No. The pilot doesn't want electronics working until we land."

"Why?" Questioned a curious Rossi.

"First he's not our regular pilot; he only got this job two weeks ago. He was previously working in Europe, and there they don't let people use electronics on board."

"I know they don't, but this isn't some cheap commercial flight!"

"He said, and I quote, «It's better to wait for a landing in twenty minutes than certain death before it. » " Hotch told every word without one hint of a joke. "I think we should do what he wants. I don't want him to get even more stressed than what he is right now. And it's useless to warn anyone else besides the airport of Columbus. They already know everything that has happened in this flight, I'm certain Strauss will be notified soon."

"How much are you willing to bet that Garcia already knows? She has a program, she made herself, that when one of our names appears in any hospital database she gets a warning message. I bet she has one just for the jet." Rossi said partially joking, partially assuring everything would go smoothly from that time on. "Every time one of us uses that bathroom over there she gets a signal in Quantico…I'm telling you, I have never feared someone like the way I fear her."

"Don't be so dramatic Dave." Hotch said has he rolled his eyes. "You get along just fine. Why should you fear her?"

"My ex-wife said I had a thing for drama." Rossi and Hotch both chuckled at this sentence. "I treat her well so she doesn't get mad and send a controlled missile after me."

"You're talking about Garcia?" Reid said, getting a nod from the older profilers who gave small smiles until they saw his hands. He had gone to check with Hotch about the current situation and forgot to clean the blood from Emily's wounds. Rossi gave his seat to the young genius and went to the bathroom for some paper to give Reid for him to clean the majority of the blood. Hotch told him the same information he had relayed to Rossi. Soon the three of them went to seat near Morgan and Emily who were talking about the current case in hands, it was a method of keeping Emily awake and everyone distracted while the plane reached the nearest airport for an emergency landing.

Twenty minutes had passed when the pilot announced they had to buckle their seatbelts and prepare to land. Everyone's hearts start beating faster, as if a shot of adrenaline had been administrated when the jet started is way down. Reid mumbled poems his mother used to read to him when he was younger and regretted not having visited her in the last four months. His mind flashed photographs and several old memories he rarely re-visited. There is a particular one, which jumped several times; that he chooses to hold on to. A picture his mother had insisted to take with the team when she went visiting him during last Christmas. Behind it she had written « Family is made by those you love. ». Rossi remembered one of his ex-wives saying, during the divorce process, how she would love to push him of a plane and never see him again. He also remembered how close they became after that and how he had wished to have had more time with her before she died. He just wanted to end this quickly so he'd be able to spent some time with is dog Munchie in the cabin he owned. Emily thought about what would happen if they couldn't help the victims' families of this new case, she had been under similar circumstances involving planes and didn't believe they would crash, but the FBI could take them of the case and that could mean more victims until another team could pick it up. She focused on the case and let the pain remain masked by her dueling of emotions. Hotch thought about his son, Jack, and how would the little Hotchner react if his father went to a better place like Haley. It hurt him not being as much present in his son's life has he wanted to, but since Haley's death everyone in the team found time to "steal" paperwork from the usually large pile of files in his office. He was grateful for belonging to this family and for Jack to be in it too. He took a deep breath and in his head he saw Jack smile. Morgan kept a hand in Emily's shoulder and tried to relax by thinking about his mother and his sisters. He thought on the day his father died and felt somewhat relieved for Ellie not having stayed with him. Still, the pain would destroy the tiny hope that now bloomed within her heart from having found her biological mother. Garcia would be forever broken if any of them returned to DC in a coffin. A sentence ran thru everyone's mind.

Life is too short and nothing lasts forever.

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