So, this chapter's a little bit shorter but I'm hoping it'll tide you over for a bit before I get the next chapter up. Anyway, hope you enjoy and all that...
"What the hell do you want from me?" she asked as she was being tied up, her hands behind her back. She was at an awkward angle, an angle that didn't allow her to see the guy's face.
"You tell me, Dr. Torres," he replied, lowly. Too low for her to recognize the voice.
"If I knew, neither of us would be here, would we?" Callie grumbled. Right now she was more frustrated than scared - and the cryptic answers were not helping that right now "Is this a robbery?" she asked "Because I don't keep cash in my scrubs, I'm afraid,"
Suddenly, her hair was being pulled back, almost to the point where it was coming out of her scalp. She yelped and she felt a hot breath on her ear "Shut the fuck up,"
That's when the fear set in, and her eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat "Just-just tell me what you want,"
Then the figure stepped in front of her, and with the confusion of who was standing before her, came dread. The wicked smile on his face was only there for a fraction of a second, but it was there, and she saw it.
Just before the hard crack of a hand came across her face.
"Anything, Garcia?" Emily asked through the comms, as she and Hotch made their way through the ground floor, clearing room by room.
"Not yet, there's a lot of cameras and a lot of people,"
They made their way down the hall, clearing supply closets, patient rooms and on-call rooms as they went along. As Emily approached an on-call room to her left, she re-gripped the weapon in her right hand, her left coming up to touch the door handle.
She pushed down on the handle slowly, but the handle didn't move very far - it was locked.
Emily glanced back at Hotch as she stepped back from the room, and saw him nod at her as he stood ready to back her up. She took another step back and positioned herself in front of the door before spinning on her leg and roundhouse kicking the door wide open - Chuck Norris Style.
There was a loud yell as Emily charged inside, Hotch followed closely behind.
"Oh, Jesus!" Emily cried at the sight in front of her as she lowered her gun, Hotch doing the same.
Two people were in the bed, furiously trying to cover themselves with the bed sheet "What the hell?" the man yelled.
"The hospital is in lock down," Hotch said, holstering his weapon "Get dressed and follow us, now,"
Emily almost would have laughed if the situation weren't so serious, but she couldn't help but crack a smirk as she walked past Hotch, stopping to murmur in his ear "I guess what they say about hospitals is true,"
He could feel her breath on his neck as she whispered, his lip twitching as she brushed past him. He followed closely behind her, leaving the naked two in the room to get dressed.
Her mind was racing as she lie curled up on the floor, her head throbbing as blood trickled from the point of her eyebrow. She knew what was about to happen, she knew the inevitability. No one even knew she was missing, and by the time someone figured it out, she'll be dead.
She closed her eyes as he paced back and forth. The only thing she could think about right now was her ex-wife. That was the only thing getting her through.
The music was soft, but she could hear it as she walked through the door of their apartment. Callie frowned slightly as she threw her keys in the bowl by the door and put her bag down, taking off her leather jacket.
She walked through the apartment and found the music coming from their daughter's room. As she approached, she was able to make out the song - Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley. It was an odd choice from her wife, she thought, but what she saw when she reached the room made her breath hitch in her throat.
In the middle of the room, stood her wife, dancing with their daughter. Sofia's chubby little fingers were wrapped around Arizona's pinky as she slowly twirled around the room in a waltzing motion, her head buried in her mother's neck as she slept.
Callie stood, mesmerized, looking at the beautiful creature she'd married. The twinkly lights they'd hung around the room illuminated her skin, her eyes bright as she looked down at the sleeping baby.
It took a moment to realize that Callie was in the doorway, but when she finally looked up at her wife, she gave her a two-dimple super-magic smile that managed to take her breath away all over again.
"I didn't know you were a Presley fan," Callie whispered as she walked further inside the room, wrapping her arms around the two.
"I'm not," said Arizona, leaning her head against Sofia's, her eyes gazing into Callie's "My dad used to do this with me when I wouldn't sleep, figured I'd give it a try,"
"It seems to be working," Callie replied, reaching up to tuck a stray lock of blonde hair behind her wife's ear and tracing a line over her jaw.
Arizona lifted her head off Sofia and smiled for a moment before whispering "Callie,"
"Yeah," Callie replied, her arm tracing little circles on the blonde's back.
"Kiss me."
And so she did. She had kissed her. And every bit of love she had ever felt for any human being was all in that room. Her daughter, her wife. Her family. She needed to remember that in that moment, because there was a very high possibility she wasn't making it out of this alive.
Dave and Tara swept through the ground floor, locking everyone in rooms and hiding them away so they weren't out in the open.
"I hate hospitals," Rossi grumbled, looking around like he felt someone watching him "Bad things always happen in hospitals,"
"You're being paranoid," Tara replied, sweeping another supply closet.
"The last time we were in a hospital, Derek's wife was on the table. Before that, Reid got shot in the neck and almost died - and the time before that, JJ told us that Emily had died," Rossi said, and he saw Tara pause at the last one "I'm not being paranoid,"
"Okay, I take your point," Tara replied, continuing along the corridor, not pressing the subject any further.
Before either of them could say anything else, they heard Garcia through the radio.
"Guys, I found her - well, I found the last time she was seen on camera,"
"Where?" Tara asked.
"Ground floor stairwell, she goes in but never comes out,"
"Prentiss and I are closest, we're headed there now,"
"Copy that, Hotch," Tara replied as they made their way toward the stairwell, heading down.
Hotch and Emily picked up their pace as they made their way toward the stairwell, scanning the access key before barging through with their guns raised and ready.
"Where we headed?" Emily asked "There's two ways this could have gone,"
"Roof or basement," Hotch added, voicing it out loud.
"Considering we're on the ground floor, I don't think he would've taken her all the way to the roof," she said, looking at him for confirmation before they went down.
"Okay," he nodded "Down."
Emily returned the nod he gave her and led them down a flight of stairs to a door. It was very possible that this was it, so they both prepared themselves.
They looked at each other, taking a moment to make sure they were ready before Emily took a step and kicked the door down hard.
The strangled cry that sounded wasn't a pleasant noise, especially when they saw Callie behind held in a choke hold with a knife to her throat, blood running down her face.
"FBI!" Hotch yelled "Put the knife down!"
"Get back!" he screamed at them.
"We can't do that," Emily responded, the barrel of her gun directed right between his eyes. She could make the shot, but he was moving too much, he was too erratic and there was a possibility of hitting Callie in the process "You've got my friend there, and I'm gonna need you to put the knife down,"
"She's a whore!" he screamed and Callie's eyes squeezed shut as the tip of the knife pressed into the side of her neck even further, drawing blood "They all are!"
Emily hesitated for a moment, and she knew she was gonna get in trouble for what she was about to do, but she lowered her weapon anyway. She put it back in it's holster, and she could almost see Hotch seething next to her as he tightened his grip on his gun.
"Why is she?" Emily provoked, taking a small, slow step forward.
"She was married!" he yelled.
"To Dr. Robbins," Emily said, risking another step forward.
"No!" the man screamed at her, digging the knife in deeper so Callie cried out in pain "Before that, she was married! It's wrong! It's disgusting and people like her shouldn't exist!"
"You're right, it is wrong," said Emily and she knew that she had to empathize. The problem with that was that not one bit of her would ever be able to do that, and she didn't even know who he was - which was going to make it even harder "She betrayed you,"
Emily could see the sweat on his forehead, his eyes were wide and his body language was shifty "She made you nothing,"
"She left me!" he cried out.
"And you are hurting," Emily said, taking another slow step forward "She made you feel like you were nothing, like you meant nothing,"
She could see him pull the knife away from Callie's neck slightly as she made it closer to him and he started to talk to her "But that's not her," she said "That's not her,"
"She's just like her," he growled "She's just like all of them,"
"What happened to you, wasn't fair," she said, and she was getting real tired of empathizing with this jackass, but she continued anyway "You didn't deserve that, you deserved so much better,"
A tear rolled down his face, and his grip loosened on Callie a little, but not enough for her to break free yet. Just a little more.
"Because you're a good guy, a decent guy, unlike all of these women," she said, and she could feel the bile rising, but pushed it down anyway. She saw the knife in his hand start to tremble, and she knew this was it, and stuck her hand out "Put down the knife, and I'll walk you right out that door,"
He looked hesitant "You'll kill me,"
Emily shook her head "No," she said firmly "Not if you put the knife down. If you put the knife down, I'll make sure you tell your story, I'll make sure the entire world knows what kind of women they were,"
"You're lying," he said and Emily looked him dead in the eyes.
"I'm not lying,"
Her gaze didn't waver even though the more she looked at him, the more she wanted to throw up. It looked like he believed her, because that's when he started to lower the knife and his grip on Callie loosened even more.
"It's okay," she pushed and he pushed Callie to the side, and Hotch stood in front of her.
As he was about to drop the knife into her outstretched hand, he suddenly turned it up and stabbed her in the exposed part of her gut, just under her vest.
Emily stood frozen, just before she dropped and Hotch didn't waste any time before he fired a shot right between his eyes. The unsub fell to the ground, a pool of blood spreading underneath his head immediately.
Hotch wasted no time in making his way to Emily, who was struggling to breathe a little bit "Emily," he said as he started to take her vest off "Emily, stay with me,"
He looked back at the doctor, who seemed to be in shock. She was staring at the dead body on the ground, blood running down her neck.
"Dr. Torres!" he called out to her, snapping her out of her daze, and she came rushing over.
"Okay," she said, putting her slightly shaking hands over the wound and looking at Hotch "Go get some help," she said, and he nodded at her before looking back down at his agent, his hand quickly squeezing hers before he bolted out of the room.
"Emily, can you hear me?" Callie asked, holding steady pressure on the bleeding wound.
Hotch ran through the halls of the hospital, trying to find a doctor. This couldn't be happening, not again. She couldn't be in this position again. He couldn't lose her again.