Criminal Minds

Garcia

"Alright, handsome boss-man," The blonde woman said upon entering the hospital room. Over one shoulder she carried a large bag depicting a squirrel playing the drums. She liked to think of it as her 'Mary Poppins Bag'. It had everything and anything that the technical analyst could possibly need. Tucked under her other arm was a teddy bear bigger than Jack Hotchner. "You're stuck with me."

Penelope Garcia placed the jumbo sized teddy bear on the window-sill, positioning it so that it looked as if it were smiling at her boss and her boss alone. She was sure that Hotch would kill her for it, but it was forty dollars well spent, and she'd deal with that bridge when she crossed it. She stared at it for a moment longer, fixing its arms into a huggable position. "There we are."

In the meantime, Garcia pulled a wooden green-cushioned chair next to her boss's bed and plopped herself into it, placing her bag at her feet. She hadn't yet received a response from him, but she didn't expect to. S.S.A. Hotchner wouldn't be waking up any time soon.

It had been three days since the shooting in Hotchner's apartment, and Garcia was sure that the hospital had seen enough of the BAU by now to last a lifetime. Yesterday, the doctor had finally consented to allowing him to come off of the ventilator, a feat that helped assure Garcia of his recovery. They were now keeping him on heavy sedatives, as they had previously established that they would, and one of the BAU were staying with him at all times, starting today, which they were more than glad to do.

Garcia had first shift. She knew that without a doubt once those sedatives were taken away, there would be a wealth of pain from the bullet that had slammed into him, so Garcia was glad to see that for now at least, her boss looked peaceful.

"Haley and Jack were here, I don't know if you remember." Garcia babbled. "They just left a bit ago. I made sure they both got a good lunch; Jack got Mac and Cheese special from the Garcia kitchen." She paused. "Okay, so it was from a box, but I added extra cheese and everything. I think he liked it. I offered Haley some, but she didn't really seem up to eating, but Morgan was so I fed him too." She took a deep breath, having said all of the previous in one gasp of air.

"So," She paused, slightly embarrassed at her own rambling idiocy. "Oh, you want to know what's in the bag? Well, I'll tell you what I've got in the bag. Everything, that's what." She said without hesitation, and reached into the bag.

The first thing she pulled out was two long sticks with yarn between them. "These are knitting needles. You wonder why I have brought knitting needles with me? These," She said, pointing to the glob of blue yarn between the sticks. "are gloves. I thought about making them for you, but I figured that I liked keeping my head attached to my neck, and I decided to make them for your son." With a confused look, she turned the needles around in her hands.

"I, uh, hope Jack doesn't mind gloves with only three fingers. Because this is my first knitting project that isn't a scarf." She confessed this fact in a dignified matter, placing the 'project' on her lap.

"I have more inside this bag, but ah, those are my secrets and my secrets alone, and if you want to find them out you must get better. That is my condition." Garcia nodded decidedly, and ran her hand over the navy blue yarn.

"I'm serious, Hotch." She tapped her fingers on the edge of the chair. "I know you don't like smiling, but we over at the BAU are like McDonalds. We love to see you smile. So you're going to get well, and show us that big old smile of yours again." She paused, furrowing her brow. "Except, we don't have as good coffee as McDonalds does, and I think that needs fixing."

Completely on a whim, the tech analyst reached out her hand and placed it over Hotchner's, giving it a small squeeze, shocking herself.

"We were just all so worried." She murmured, looking down at the knitting project in her lap. "They're only letting one of us in at a time, but someone's going to be here constantly. You're not going to wake up alone. Rest of 'em are out on the job. You know, the entire team was here for nearly twenty four hours the first day?" She grinned. "True story, we tried to insist that JJ head on home before Will lost his mind, but she's too stubborn. Then you were out of surgery and we saw you quickly and got sent packing."

"Rossi almost killed a nurse, Morgan almost ensured that this place would need to hire a contractor to fix their walls, and Haley almost left a Nascar worthy track from her pacing. I'm proud to say I did not hack into the system to find out how you were doing… more than once." Her tendency to babble when under stress had peaked, and it was being used to soothe herself and not Hotch, but it was all she knew to do. She couldn't fix this like she could fix a computer bug.

She wished she could.

But she couldn't. And it killed her. She absolutely despised that she couldn't help this time. She'd have to leave it to the boys and girls back at Quantico to save the day. To find Foyet.

That was something she couldn't even bear to mention.

"Get well soon, okay? I need all my little ducklings."

The clack of the knitting needles filled the room.

--

TBC

Author's Note:

I intend to do a visit for each of the team, yes, in case anybody was wondering. If any of you have ideas for a chapter that you wish to see, let me know please! I'm definitely open to suggestions from the readers. I'm also stunned by the response that I've received – fourteen reviews for three chapters is pretty good in my eyes.

This one's going out to nexis44 – the conversation at four in the morning made my day.

Thank you to all of my reviewers – nexis44, Sami Marie, jeannieann Lenni George, and Agnixx (yes, chapters that you haven't read already are a rarity – this ones been edited since you've last seen it, if you haven't noticed.)