Gone too Soon

I am so sorry about the long wait. I anticipated for this chapter to be up last week Friday but it's been tough. My manager has been giving me a lot of hours at work lately that I have been working hours at a time almost every day for the last week and then this week I work almost thirty hours to top it off with college work I have to do this summer. I will try to get chapter 5 up on Friday even though I work that day. Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy the next chapter.

Chapter 4 If Only

Rossi, Emily and JJ entered the hospital as they were going to be talking to the staff and to see if they can get anything out of Gail Nixon. They feel like they can get answers here at the hospital. Answers they know that they can't get anywhere else. The staff can tell them about Gail's condition and anything about the type of burns, the effects and what could happen to her. Then there is Gail herself who could also help, if she able to talk and cooperate with them.

Once they entered the hospital they separated as Emily and JJ stayed together to talk to the hospital staff. But David went off to the side as he entered a hospital room where Gail was stashed away trying to recuperate from her injuries and burns. He walked over to her bed where he found her completely bandaged up from head to toe. It looked like she could barely move. The burns were blistering and red. It looked like it fell into both ranges of second degree burns of superficial partial thickness and deep partial thickness. Then there were also the third degree burns of full thickness. It looked like it was possible that she could recover from the burns because it isn't as bad as having fourth degree burns.

He knows that once she recovers there is going to be scarring from the second degree deep partial thickness burns and the third degree full thickness burns. There could also be contractures; amputation through third degree burns, there may be skin grafting or even excision depending on the type of burn.

He stood there looking at her as she looked like that. But he could see curls of black hair outline her face, her small petite body but strength behind it all. He knew that she could be pulled through. It's just the matter of when and how.

Rossi walked in as he went over to the bedside and looked better at her to where he saw glazy blue eyes. It seemed as though they were placard there in place. That those eyes he was looking at were fake and that he could see beyond that façade.

"Gail. My name is David Rossi. I'm FBI." said David Rossi as he grabbed out his badge and showed it to her

"Mhm." mumbled Gail as she looked at it

"I was wondering if you could tell me what happened to you." replied Rossi

"I was running errands." said Gail through words but it was tough as she talked one word at a time "I . . . went . . . in . . . my . . . car. I . . . started it . . . then it burst into flames. I . . . screamed."

Gail started coughing right there as Rossi stepped back as she was reliving the memory and the flames were touching and feeling her. Her eyes rolled and looked to the side trying to remember the memory. She then looked back at Rossi right there.

"I thought . . . I saw someone there." said Gail as she was about to coin some words together "If only . . . I wasn't . . . there."

"You could have never known. Could you tell what the person looks like? Was it male or female?" asked Rossi

"Male." muttered Gail right there "I only saw . . . the outline. I think . . . he wanted to . . . see it burn and . . . go up in . . . flames."

"Did you hear or smell anything unusual?" wondered Rossi

"Didn't . . . hear anything . . . but I smelt . . . a perfume of roses." told Gail

"Okay thank you. I will let you rest." responded Rossi

He walked away from her and through the door letting her be. He noticed that Emily and JJ were talking to the doctors that were there. They seemed busy that he didn't want to intrude. He looked down the hall then he started on walking. He felt like there was a screaming in his ears as he opened the doors to the hospital as he went outside. He felt a small breezy, wind catch and latch onto him. He continued on walking in front of him.

That's when he stopped because he saw something that caught his eye. It was an illusion of Dr. Spencer Reid. He was standing on a patch of grass looking at him. Rossi looked behind him and around seeing if anyone there could see him as well. But there was no one there to tell him if it was just an illusion, farce or if it was real.

He stepped forward going closer but Spencer disappeared. It was like a flash through a flash of light. Rossi covered his eyes for that quick moment then stopped in his tracks. He turned around hoping to see him again but he was nowhere to be seen. He kept moving around in a circle hoping to find the illusion again but instead of finding that illusion he found himself a headache. He stopped as he put his hand to his head to recover.

He then walked off and went under a tree. He felt a nice windy breeze around him and could hear the trees rustling about. The smell of the trunk of the wood wafted through his nose. It was like he wasn't where he was. He felt like he was transported out of the location. He set his hands to his face as he looked down and rubbed it. The smell, the wafting air and that breeze felt amazing that he just wants it to continue on. He stopped and looked up again to find Spencer Reid back in front of him.

"I was wondering when I would start seeing illusions of you." said Rossi to the young deceased FBI agent "It's been five months and nothing. Yet now here you are standing in front me. How are you doing?"

"I'm okay." answered Reid right there as he set his hands to his pockets

"People would think I'm crazy seeing you." told Rossi

"We're all crazy, we always feel like we're seeing someone. We just get lost in our thoughts and in the process of it all it's like someone ends up being right there in front of you." exclaimed Reid

"I bet you are giving everyone a run for their money up there." said Rossi

"Not exactly." retorted Reid in retaliation

"I should have pulled you back so you wouldn't go into the building that got caught fire. You would have never have died." replied Rossi

"This isn't your fault, it's no one's." responded Reid

"No this team isn't the same without you. I feel like I'm losing it then there's Hotch who is spending all his time at work. Morgan is devastated, sad and taking out his anger at almost everything possible. Your death was the final straw for Derek for everyone." said Rossi as he stepped forward

The wind started to pick up as they stood there talking. It made Rossi's jacket billow lightly and Reid's hair beat gently against him. It seemed odd to Rossi how it was even possible. Reid's hair for one is short and the other is he's supposed to be dead. It shouldn't be like that.

Rossi then went over to the tree and set his back against the trunk as he slid down to the ground. He sat there with his back against the tree as well while he put his hands up to his hair scrunching it close to the scalp. It was hurting him but that's how he feels. He's hurt and he's devastated. Reid walked over and stood beside the tree as he looked up at it to the top looking at the branches billow and snap at the wind.

"Why did you have to leave us?" questioned Rossi as he looked at the grass

"I never left. I'm still there with you. I will always be there no matter what." said Reid as he bent down and looked right at Rossi

"This case is getting to me because of what happened to you." told Rossi right there

"It's hitting close to home I understand that. It's because of me but don't let it get in the way." replied Reid

"I don't know if I can." muttered Rossi right there

"I have something for you." said Reid

Rossi scoffed at the idea of Spencer Reid having something for him. He was skeptical about it. He looked up to see Reid look at him with a strange look, a look that he has never seen before on him. But he decided that he should just play along and see what he says to him before he goes to any conclusions about it. He sighed as he looked at the billowing grass around him.

"Okay I will go with it." said Rossi

"Back at my place there is a black box engraved with a design. It's right inside of there. You will know it when you see it." told Reid to his superior right there

"Rossi!" shouted Emily and JJ from afar

Rossi looked up to see them looking at him. He looked beside him to see Spencer Reid gone. It was like he was never even there. He looked back at his female co-workers. He got up from the spot as he walked over to them and stopped at them. He looked back at the tree while the females started talking to one another. He saw Spencer Reid again for a moment again before he disappeared once again.

Over and hour had gone by and Derek Morgan entered into the police precinct after going to the cemetery and the last location of the fire. He walked over to the conference room going in finding both Hotch and Jill in there as they were running ideas through one another. Hotch was sitting down on a chair by a table while Jill was standing and walking from side to side while holding a marker in her hand.

Morgan looked at the board that was there as they have a few things on there about the, unsub. They have that it's a guy, a background in chemical engineering and that he's young. It's not a whole lot but it's a start on, who the guy is.

Morgan grabbed a chair from the side bringing it over to Hotch's side and sat down. He looked up at Jill who started pacing even more and started talking to herself in a pretense of not realizing that the two of them are still there. Morgan closed his hands together.

"I saw Reid." said Hotch to Morgan

"I did to." replied Morgan to him

"What did he want with you?" wondered Hotch right there curious not believing they both saw an illusion of their deceased comrade, co-worker and friend

"That he's always with me no matter what that we're still brothers even though not through blood. That he's still alive within us. And that it wasn't my fault he died." exclaimed Morgan right there as he looked at his linked hands

"He said something similar to that aspect to me." replied Hotch

"It seemed to real." muttered Morgan right there "It's like he was actually there in front of me."

"It seemed so real to me as well." said Hotch as he placed his fingers to his face between his eyebrows

"He wasn't even burnt." replied Morgan

"I saw that." responded Hotch

"Do you think there's something going on that we don't know about?" questioned Morgan

"Why would you say that?" wondered Hotch

"I don't know I just thought if I saw him he would be burnt to a crisp like the way we found him. Then there's his mother as she didn't lose it when we told her what happened to him. I thought she would do something to herself but she seems okay." told Morgan

"I guess that's a little weird." retaliated Hotch

"I miss him." murmured Morgan as he leaned his head down in front of him as he looked at his hands

"I do to. His life got taken too early. But he died a hero." told Hotch

"It doesn't help that I miss him." said Morgan

They looked at each other right there as it was hard. But they seemed okay after their conversations with deceased Spencer Reid. That the illusion or the figment of the imagination was playing with them helped them out a little bit. It made them realize that they were lucky to be alive. That they shouldn't pity the dead that they should pity the living; that they still have everything going for them and the bright future ahead.

"He mentioned something called Operation Black Bird." told Morgan

"He did?" questioned Hotch concerned

"Yeah but he didn't say what it was exactly. He just said that it was a US Marshall's case as well as DEA that there is no FBI involvement. And that you and Strauss were looking into it. That you need to get out quickly because it's apparently dangerous." explained Morgan right there

"He mentioned it to me as well. He said that it came across his desk and that he looked through it. Strauss told me to look into it when I knew shouldn't look into it at all." said Hotch

"So what did Strauss say to get you to look into it?" wondered Morgan

"I can't say." replied Hotch

"Well you need to stop looking into it. All of you it's a DEA and US Marshall's case." said Morgan

"Yeah you're right." said Hotch

"I was glad I saw him though. It helped get rid of the demons inside of me." told Morgan

"So do you guys agree?" asked Jill as she stopped in her place and looked at them as Hotch and Morgan looked up at her "Were you guys even listening to me?"

"Sorry we were talking about something else." said Morgan

"This case is important if we're going to catch this guy we need to know who he is." told Jill

Just then the rest of the team came into the conference room. They were going to talk about what they all found. But they noticed Rossi was avoiding their eyes. He seemed put off for some reason. He set down his things on the table and grabbed keys to a FBI car. It looked like he was going to go somewhere. The rest of them looked at one another wondering what was going on with Rossi.

Rossi waved at them then walked back the way he came in and out of the doors leaving the premises. He went into the car and started the engine. He sighed as he placed his hands on the steering wheel. He then pulled out and left the parking lot. He looked back as he noticed the rest of the team come out and see them looking at him. He smiled at them then completely left leaving them baffled on where he was going.