Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds
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The men carried on down the steps, Hotch's feet hit the ground first, followed by Rossi's, then Derek's and lastly Reid's. They all looked at one another before deciding that the main light would be appropriate. Reid found it and waited for Hotch to nod his affirmative to switch it on. When the overhead light beamed on the sight that lay before them was enough to make even the strongest stomached people of the world want to throw up.
'Oh shit.'
'Fuck.'
'God.'
Hotch remained silent as the other men spoke in an age related order. There in front of them was an room so empty there were echoes everywhere, the only furniture being a well made bed, the mattress worn and thin, the frame did not match up to the mattress in the slightest. On top was a flattened pillow and a thin sheet, all blood stained. On every surface were little droplets of blood, blood sprays on the walls, blood sprays on the floor.
'I think we've just found out where Penelope got some of the head injuries.' Rossi said as he approached an area on the wall where there was a circular blood pattern consistent with Penelope's height. Underneath was the evident trail where her lifeless body slid to the ground.
Hotch walked to the bed, the pillow was bloodstained which linked in with the cuts to Penelope' face and neck areas. He stared at the bed, all the time they had been searching for her; her brother had been subjecting her to beatings, to revenge tactics.
'I think he kept her restrained.' Hotch said as he caught a glimmer of light on metal, when his gloved hand moved it on the bed railing he found handcuffs with blood on. Evidently done too tight for her wrists.
Reid circulated the room, he found more blood, he found vomit coherent with the initial effects of starvation. He looked at Derek who was still completely frozen to his spot at the bottom of the stairs. Then all of a sudden he clicked into life and started to search, he halted in the corner and knelt down. Curious Reid approached, noticing Derek's body shake slightly as he composed himself from his discovery.
'Morgan?' Reid said gently. 'Everything okay?'
'Not really...'Derek stood up. 'I think we just found out he started to cut her hair.' Was all he said as he pointed to a pile of blonde hair, straight and curly, that was piled in the corner of the room.
'Come on let's go back. The local police can come in a process this.' All three other men nodded and followed Hotch up the stairs, all with the image of the room in their heads. Realisation with that room was that Penelope truly needed them to step up game and be the men that wanted her protected and safe, not to be viewed as a victim.
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When they arrived back at the hospital they walked through the doors of the neurosurgical unit to find JJ, Emily, Desiree and now Sarah all standing outside Penelope's room, arms folded, eyes not quite knowing where to look.
'What's happened?'
'Well two things, the movement from early is now showing and they wanted to give her more feed to increase her strength.'
'So what's happening?'
'Well she's got a nose bleed, still got her headache and she started to be sick as they increase the feed.'
'Her stomach's not used to so much food consumption so it did the one thing it needed as a defence mechanism.' JJ finished off after Desiree spoke.
'I take it moms in there?' He asked his sister's who simply nodded.
'She refused to leave unless it was to leave Pen with you or Hotch.' She responded with a slight smile on her face.
After 20 minutes, almost an hour for the girls, the doctor left the room and approached. 'You can go back in there now.'
'Is everything okay?' Hotch asked again, feeling that was his over used phrase for the last couple of days.
'Ms Garcia had a nose bleed due to the harsh movements of earlier, we are keeping an eye on her because she has persistent headache, and we had to change the feeding tube to the other side of her nose, if this is still increasingly uncomfortable for her then we will think about inserting it via her stomach. For now she is still extremely weak and in and out of consciousness but when she is awake she is alert to her surroundings and people.' He watched them all take it in, he knew now they realised that this was going to be a long process. He then excused himself for rounds and left them to go back in the room.
'What did you find?' Emily said halted the progression towards the room.
'Too much.' Was all Hotch answered as he carried on his walk, allowing Derek to enter the room first.
Penelope lay there with evident tear streaks to her face, hers eyes glassy from their build up. She still had the mask over her face with the feeding tube limply looped out and running into a machine by the bed. Everyone now realised she had a new IV in her chest as well as in the back of her hand. Fran had taken a seat on the side with Penelope's fractured hand and motioned to Derek to take the seat the other side, he complied and gathered Penelope's hand in his, they all saw her smile at his touch as she closed her eyes.
They all took seats letting minimal conversation flow around, most of the time their gaze was glued firmly to Penelope as she slept, the bruising seemed to go from strength to strength in colour rather than fade away. About two hours later Derek just stood up and excused himself.
Hotch left the room moments later to find him and check if he was okay, when he found him Derek was sitting against a wall with tears pouring down his face, the moment he saw the boss he stood up straight and wiped the tears away whilst admitting his fine. Hotch knew otherwise.
'I'm not going to think less of you Morgan.'
'No?'
'No... God I've cried, I cried looking at that room that she had to be subjected to that. I cried because I felt I didn't do enough to protect her, like I didn't look hard enough as my job as boss. But she's back and the past is unchangeable, we shape our future and that's what we should do.'
Derek nodded and breathed in deeply. 'I told her I loved her the night she disappeared.' He looked at his boss, who looked shock, he knew they had admitted it to one another but not on that night. 'She told me she loved me too... so she went to break it off with Lynch because she felt she had questioned and doubted it too many times. She told me after her brother got arrested that she was coming back to me when he got her.'
'Is that what you're having a hard time getting past?'
'I blamed her Hotch. My initial thought was that she had lied and ran.'
'That was initial shock though, when you found out she was taken you did nothing but look and look... I even know for a fact that you stayed at her's often.'
'I wanted her close... I've missed her so much and now she's really hurt.'
'She's in good hands, all she needs now is good positive attitudes around her, that and love and support. She's going to need help; we've all seen that just from the bruising. Derek what she needs from you is your love... the one she going back to.'
