A/N: Having spent a fair amount of time jumping back and forth from the past to the present, I have decided I have strung you all along for long enough. This chapter will be entirely dedicated to you finding out who is who and who is missing from the plane and therefore it will all be in flashback mode.
I have just one person to thank for reviewing chapter 5 and that is HPforever-after; your reviews are always short and sweet but I always appreciate them greatly. Thanks ever so much for brightening up my day.
Rated M for adult themes and other things.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds at all, although they do own me and I do own Carrie and Toby, Chloe and India.
Missing – Chapter 6
Aaron Hotchner knew he'd been in bad situations before. He'd been shot at, stabbed multiple times, had his ex-wife murdered while he listened and nearly lost his current wife three times to circumstances beyond his control. In addition, he'd nearly lost his son and in the process had completely lost his sanity. In short, the last five years of his life hadn't been easy ones.
And now there was this to contend with.
He knew he was hurt, and badly so. The dappled sunlight shouldn't be as bright as it was and he could feel a slow, steady build-up of pressure inside his skull that told him that the concussion he had was the least of his worries. He also couldn't see clearly when he actually managed to get his eyes open and everything had at least three shadows to it instead of just the one solid layer he would normally see.
He touched the mechanism for the seatbelt; he'd been surprised to find he was still in the seat and that it was intact and now he was even more surprised when the belt actually clicked open as soon as he touched it.
He slowly manoeuvred his way to his feet and then waited while the world spun in dizzying circles around him before settling back into what he supposed was going to be the norm for him for the next little while. He could see the bulk of the wreckage when he turned to his right so he made his slow careful way forward, making sure of his footing before moving ahead. He didn't know how long he weaved around debris before he stumbled on a pipe and all but fell into the section he'd been aiming for. Pain exploded through his head as he realised he'd landed on a pair of legs and the darkness came back to claim him.
New Section
Derek blinked in shock to see his unit chief suddenly appear and fall unconscious across his legs. Despite their obvious fear and pain, both Kelly and Penelope giggled, probably at the look on his face and even Reid was fighting a smile through his perpetual grimace.
"You want some help moving him?" Penelope asked as her laughter faded.
Derek shot her a look and drawled sarcastically, "Noooooo; he's not heavy at all, really."
She tsked at him and helped him use his good arm to turn their leader over and check him for injuries.
"It looks like the worst of the damage is to his head. I'm not a doctor, but I don't like how his pupils are looking. I think it's really serious."
"Does he have his phone on him?" Kelly asked as she stared at the light playing across the ceiling above her stationary position. Her back was flat to the floor and everything from her waist down was severely pinned by a twisted hulk of chairs and fuselage. She'd long since lost feeling in her legs but it didn't stop her from hurting from the multiple cuts and bruises she'd obviously sustained in other parts of her body.
Penelope checked and pulled out a phone that was just as useless as all the others. "It must be the region we're in; there's no cell service at all."
"But we could still call 9-1-1 though," Reid insisted from where he sat beside Kelly, his leg straight out in front of him and now braced as best as she could manage it under the circumstances. Trying to strap straight pieces of anything with bones breaking through skin in two places had been no easy feat but she'd somehow managed it. Now she sighed slightly in exasperation.
"Fine, I'll give it a go but I doubt it'll work."
She was just about to dial when a faint voice filtered through to them.
"Hello? Is anyone out there?"
They all exchanged looks. "Sounds like the missing little mama just woke up. I'll go see if I can figure out where she is and bring her here."
Derek nodded as Hotch groaned softly. "Good idea sweetness. See if you can find us some of the bottled water I know we always carry as well."
She saluted sloppily and carefully picked her way to the other end of the sheltering section they were in. As another faint pain slid through her abdomen, she whispered a soft prayer to any and all deities known to man that nothing would come of the intermittent pains she was suffering from.
She moved around a tree blocking her way, still following the faint calls she could hear and found another smaller section of the fuselage resting precariously on a ledge overlooking a drop. She swallowed as she reached the edge of the ledge and looked over to see a more than 100 foot drop below to a small creek. Even if she couldn't find bottled water, perhaps if they could get a fire going they could boil some water if they could figure out a safe way down the rocky face she could see.
She backed away slowly and poked her head into the section of plane as another call alerted her to arriving at her destination.
"Oh no Jayje."
New Section
"Has there been any change in his condition over the last hour?"
"No doctor and the CT scan of his head revealed a fairly large contusion at the back of his skull which may explain his coma."
"Let's see the films?"
Greg Harper sighed tiredly as he studied the film on the lighted boards in front of him. His shift was only a few hours old and it was already shaping up to be a doozy.
"What about his core temperature and the internal bleeding?"
"His temp is holding steady right where we want it but he's still bleeding and his hearts' beginning to develop a murmur."
"Damn; has a cardiologist been called to come down and look at that?"
"Yes, but it may be a few hours before they can attend as they are dealing with an extremely tricky surgery and two of their doctors are off sick. They asked that we keep him as stable as possible and someone will be down as soon as they can manage it. Alternatively if he starts to drop alarmingly they'll do their best to get down here sooner."
Greg snorted and muttered that sooner was better than later where the heart was concerned. "And there's been no hits on his photo? We still don't know who he is?"
"Michaela found an extremely water-logged pass that might be FBI-issue in his pants pocket. They are trying to dry it out enough to be sure before they contact the office in Denver to see if they are missing anyone. No drivers licence though and no distinguishing marks or tattoos we can run through the database."
"Right then, let's check our John Doe into an ICU bed and go see how the lab is going with that pass. The sooner we can figure out who he is, the sooner we can find out what he was doing in the middle of nowhere."
New Section
Penelope carefully inched her way into the section where she'd found the teams' media liaison and waited to see if it would cause the section to go over the edge. Nothing happened beyond a groaning of the metal settling under her feet, so she moved cautiously forward, pausing often to make sure she wasn't about to send them both over the edge.
Now certain that the section appeared stable enough, she knelt down beside JJ as tears slid down her cheeks. When she was close enough, JJ lifted a hand weakly and wiped away a couple of her tears.
"Please don't cry PG; if you cry then I'll cry and then I'll get short of breath which will make me move more to get more air and then it will hurt worse which will make me cry harder and the whole vicious cycle will be unstoppable until I cry myself to death. It'll be stupid, yet tragic and I really don't want to die so ingloriously."
Penelope sniffled slightly and said softly, "Do you realise how morbid you sound right now?"
JJ gestured to the twisted piece of metal intersecting her upper midsection. "Don't you think you'd be a little morbid if you were in this situation? I mean I'm lodged on metal, I don't know where anyone else is and I could be wrong because I'm really not sure but I think I'm pregnant and now I'm stuck here, on this metal, far away from Will and Henry and I miss my family…"
She was suddenly crying nearly hysterically and Penelope sat down all the way and gently stroked her hair back from her brow as she murmured softly to her, trying to calm her down and trying not to cry again herself as she saw the blood that was beginning to come out around the piece of metal sticking about a foot and a half out of her. Her 'little sister' was well and truly lodged and not going anywhere and she was suddenly scared that this was it and she was going to lose parts of her so-precious 'family'.
When the sobs had decreased to an occasional tear, Penelope leaned forward and said, "Strauss is going to blow a gasket."
With a last sniffle, JJ looked up at her curiously. "What makes you say that?"
Penelope smiled slightly. "Well, we seem to continue to have bad luck in keeping everyone in one piece. Apart from Rossi, who is MIA, everyone else is in the other section of plane and I appear to be the only one steady on my feet. Kelly is pinned under chairs and plane, boy genius has an extremely badly broken leg, my chocolate Adonis has a dislocated shoulder and broken ribs and Hotch has a really, really bad-see somewhat potential for fatal-head injury. Add to that the fact that I am pregnant and then if you are too, Strauss is going to blow a gasket."
JJ smiled faintly. "Oh dear. Maybe we should all just disappear now while we're all still alive and in somewhat one piece."
They exchanged a look before dissolving into a fit of giggles just as Derek poked his head in the opening.
"Hey did I hear you correctly when you said you're both pre…oh shit," he said with real feeling as he took in JJ's situation.
She smiled sadly and said dryly, "Welcome to my world."
End-
A/N: Please review with the conveniently placed link right under these words. I love to know what you think and it makes me type faster and update quicker.