Part VII

The team readied themselves to spend the rest of the night at the hospital. After the first hour, they were allowed to join Cathy and Lila in the room that they were sharing. They were going to be kept until the doctors were satisfied that their short period of oxygen deprivation hadn't caused any other problems. Rossi was encouraging them to start talking about what they remembered as Hotch stepped out into the hallway to speak with one of the fire investigators.

Lila let her head drop back against her pillow, closed her eyes and let everything flow out.

"There's not a lot I can tell you. I was asleep, then I woke to Spencer banging on my door. First thing I noticed is that the power was out, but he was yelling that we were in danger, so I just grabbed for my robe and got out of the room. Spencer had his phone in one hand and was hitting Cathy's door with the other - I could tell that a fire had started from the smell and headed for the back door like Spencer told me to. I couldn't get the door to budge at all and yelled to let Spencer know. He and Cathy came - he went to open the window so that we could go out that way, but when he reached for the window latch, I heard the glass breaking and he fell back. He warned us to stay down and out of sight of the windows - then Cathy took over. Thank God, because I know I was just staring at the blood and I didn't know what to do next."

Her eyes popped back open then.

"Has there been any word yet on how Spencer is doing?"

Rossi reached out and took one of Lila's hands.

"They had to wait until they got his breathing smoothed out before taking him into surgery, but from what I heard, they aren't expecting any complications."

He didn't bother mentioning that Reid's old nemesis, Anthrax, was the main reason for the delay. They had wanted to take extra precautions where Reid's lungs were concerned. Rossi had been about to turn the questioning to Cathy when Hotch stuck his head back into the room.

"We'll let you ladies get some rest now. We won't be far away if either of you needs us for anything."

After the others exited the room, Hotch led them to another room down the hall.

"The hospital is letting us use this consultation room for now. Garcia?"

The room had a screen and a laptop interface available, so Hotch had made use of it so that they could all listen as Garcia filled them in on the known details on their suspected Unsub. From his seat, Morgan groaned.

"Great. Someone who wants to restart the Salem witch trials."

Shaking his head as he studied the image of Samuel Mather, Rossi reached for one of the cups of coffee on the table.

"No. Not the trials. He's already appointed himself judge and executioner. If we go by his accomplice's rantings, Mather is placing a lot of emphasis on Reid as the 'consort'. She seemed convinced that Morgan and I were under his influence."

"We might be able to turn that to our advantage. Use Reid to draw him out before he targets anyone else."

"In the condition Reid's in?"

Before Morgan could protest any further, a knock on the door interrupted them. Shutting down the connection to the larger screen, but not the laptop connection, Hotch called out.

"Come in."

Morgan recognized the doctor that was on Reid's case and quickly introduced her.

"This is Doctor Heather Baer. She's the one that's taking care of Reid."

The doctor found that she now had the full attention of everyone in the room.

"Doctor Reid already gave me permission prior to surgery to keep his team fully updated, so I wanted to let you know that he is out of surgery. We have him on antibiotics to lower the chances of infection, but I'm not anticipating any trouble. He is rejecting medical advice on pain management, saying he needs to keep a clear head for the case that your team is on."

Hotch nodded in agreement. If that was the story Reid preferred to go with in this instance, they would back him up on it.

"Yes, Doctor Reid's input is needed in this case. How long will he have to remain in care here?"

The doctor gave a sigh that was partially amused.

"It's easy enough to tell you're part of the same team. We're currently replacing some of the blood that he lost. If he does well today and isn't showing signs of fever or infection, we could release him tomorrow. Assuming that he will get follow up care from his regular physician."

"We'll see that he does, Doctor. When can we see him?"

She glanced at her watch.

"He'll be in recovery for the next hour to make sure he's fully recovered from the anesthesia, then we'll be moving him to a room, You can see him once we've moved him, but just for a short period. He needs his rest, especially if he wants to be discharged tomorrow."

"Thank you. We'll be here."

Once the doctor had exited, Hotch brought the screen back up and continued.

"The lead fire investigator spoke with me just prior to us coming into here. It appears that someone used an industrial strength adhesive on the back door as well as on the windows – at least it was present on all the windows that were left by the fire."

"So their only way out would have been to break out a window – which he effectively discouraged by shooting Reid when he got close to one. He didn't leave much in the way of opinions for them."

"No, he didn't, J.J. Which leads me to believe he'll be even more frustrated that his plan didn't work. We need a press release – a vague one regarding the fire and mentioning a lone male survivor."

"You don't want any mention of the women, Hotch?"

Rossi cut in at that point.

"How about saying that the other names are being withheld until their family can be contacted?"

"That should work. So, when do we go on the air with this? The morning news?"

"Definitely, J.J. Then we'll move him to protective custody around lunchtime."

"Whoa, Hotch. The doctor said tomorrow, not later today."

"We'll be working around that, Morgan. Now, while we're waiting, let's work on getting the wording down for the news."