Chapter 10
He walked into casting making sure nobody knocked into his shoulder. The collar and cuff helping with awareness, so nobody bashed into him. Inside the casting unit he spotted Garcia both of her casts were bright pink with a blue walking shoe sat on her foot. A physio was helping her to walk with a gutter frame. On seeing Hotch she hobbled over.
"How are my babies?" she demanded to know.
"I'm about to find out are you cleared" Garcia nodded glaring at her physio.
"Yes Sir she can but only if she uses a wheelchair for long distances and although she can walk on that leg she needs to stay off her arm as much as possible."
"I will make sure of it" Hotch promised grabbing a nearby wheelchair. As Garcia sat in it he realised his problem he couldn't push her and she couldn't wheel herself luckily a nearby passer-by was on hand to help.
"Here where are you off too?" She asked
"Surgical floor please" Hotch asked.
"Oh good me too" She said, "I'm visiting my husband damn fool nearly took his hand off with a drill"
"Ouch" Both Hotch and Garcia winced.
"Yeah I wish this was the first time he'd done something so stupid" The woman moaned as they entered the lift. On the way up she told them more of his exploits by the time they exited both of them were laughing at her pain. She deposited them at the reception.
"Spencer Reid is in room 103, Derek Morgan is in 153, and Jenifer Jareau is booked into the high dependency unit. Emily Prentiss is in the burns unit and Jason Gideon will be in room 104"
"Thank you" Hotch said silently asking Garcia who she wanted to see first.
"Morgan" Garcia begged. Hotch nodded asking a passing nurse to push them to his room, Morgan was sat up his head wound neatly bandaged.
"Hey baby girl, hey Hotch" he greeted. "How are you both?"
"Discharged how about you?" Hotch replied
"Concussed but it's not too bad I'm just waiting my discharge papers as long as I stay with someone" Morgan said as if waiting for a cue and nurse walked in with papers.
"Well your mum is flying in soon with your sisters so I don't think that will be an issue"
"Remember take it easy, don't overdo it and practice those mental exercises we gave you" the nurse lectured. Morgan nodded. He stood up Hotch helping him using his good am to balance him. He gripped onto the handles of the wheelchair for support.
Arriving at Reid's room Hotch entered first.
He was propped up on the bed, oxygen prongs resting in his nose. Although he was covered in blankets poking out of them at the bottom were pink toes wrapped up in a cast. Sitting next to his bed was a machine displaying his vitals bleeping softly. An intravenous line ran fluids into his arm.
"Hey, how you feeling?" Morgan asked parking Garcia and sitting heavily on the chair next to the bed.
"Better my leg isn't hurting nearly as bad as it did how is everyone else?" Reid asked watching as Garcia reached into her handbag and pulled out a packet of coloured pens. Wordlessly each person was given a pen, naturally Garcia took pink, Morgan was given green, Hotch blue. Each wrote their name, as Hotch told Reid the state of the others.
"I'm glad they're going to be ok," Reid replied sitting up more to observe what Garcia and Morgan were writing on his cast.
"Have they said when you can be discharged?" Hotch asked
"Bed rest today and physio tomorrow if I do ok with crutches I can leave tomorrow." He smiled having already mastered crutches previously.
"Great, that's fantastic, I know you don't have any family to stay with so you can stay with us" Hotch said. Reid smiled awkwardly, staying with Hotch would be useful with his impairment with his leg but with a young kid and those two love birds it would be awkward.
"Nah Reid will stay with me, my mother will love him" Morgan said, knowing the genius would at least deflect some of the attention off him making it almost bearable.
"No way you have to bond with your mother" Reid said not wanting to be babied like that not by Morgan's sisters and his mothers.
"Please, Garcia is already" Morgan pleaded
"I am"
"Please baby girl you know I can't deal with my mother and my sisters by myself" Morgan begged. "And you know there is no way you can get up those steps like this"
"Well your mother does make the best pie" Garcia easily conceded and with that it was settled.
The nurse interrupted them,
"I need to do Spencer's observations now" she half asked half ordered.
"We will leave you too it, JJ will probably be out of surgery now" Hotch decided.
"I'll stay" Derek decided truthfully feeling to dizzy to walk for long periods of time.
Derek perched on the chair beside Spencer's bed.
Awkwardly Hotch pushed Garcia's chair out of the room, JJ's room was down the corridor.
Entering the room Garcia gasped. JJ was so pale she almost matched the sheets. Fluids were running into her arm and an oxygen mask sat on her face. One her wrist sat a clean dressing stretching from around her thumb to her elbow. She wasn't awake when they came in so they sat either side of the bed each grasping a hand.
"JJ" Garcia called as she stirred
"Penelope" JJ whispered,
"I'm here JJ"
"Good, we still crashed?" JJ questioned
"Yeah but we are safe now," Hotch insisted
"We survived" Garcia added
"Good" JJ whispered her strength failing as she slipped back to sleep knowing her team was safe.
"She'll be sleeping for a while now" a voice from behind them made them jump. A nurse had entered and was writing on a chart the observations on the monitor. "Your friend Agent Gideon is out of recovery too,"
"I'm staying with JJ" Garcia insisted holding JJ's hand tightly.
"Ok, I'll check on Gideon" Hotch decided secretly glad not to be pushing the heavy chair.
He walked down the now familiar corridors of the hospital, stopping at Spencer's room to let them know JJ was out of surgery.
Next was Gideon's room. He was sitting up reading when Hotch walked in.
"We made the front page" he remarked lowering the paper. Hotch took it studying it closely. It was a photo of the wreckage of the plane. Looking at it again Hotch thanked the Gods for letting them survive.
"Wow" was all Hotch could say looking at the photo.
"Yeah its one hell of a sight, everyone ok?"
"Yes banged up were just waiting on Emily coming out of surgery, Morgan Garcia and I have been discharged, Reid should be tomorrow. JJ I don't know how about you?"
"2 days as long as it doesn't get infected, I'm on intravenous antibiotics in case it is infected."
"That's good." Hotch eyed something on his bedside in a plastic bag.
"That's what was in my leg, I'm told its part of the wing." Hotch dropped the bag sharply while shocked how large it was really. It was a miracle really he was as well as he was.
A physio walked in holding crutches.
"Thank you" Gideon greeted taking them off her.
"Are you going to be ok to walk" Hotch checked, Gideon nodded
"Well hop" Gideon corrected. On wobbly legs he stood with both the physio and Hotch helping. Soon he was hopping around like a pro.
There first stop was Spencer and Morgan. Spencer was lightly catching up on lost sleep Morgan didn't look much better slumped in the chair dozing. They left quietly so not to disturb them. They passed Emily being wheeled up from theatre on the way to JJ's room so detoured there.
"Hey" Emily greeted, "How is everyone?" she asked her leg elevate on a pillow with her toes sticking out from under a dressing.
Hotch gave her the run down.
"What about you?" Gideon asked as a doctor entered
"Miss Prentiss, I'm Mr Rhodes plastic surgeon I operated on you" he eyed up the other 2 men in the room.
"Hello, its ok they can stay" Emily insisted
"Ok well I wanted to explain we weren't able to do the skin graft yet but we did a washout and debridement, erm basically gave your leg a good clean out and got rid of the dead tissue."
"When can I get out of here?" Emily asked
"Well that depends, we'll need to give you antibiotics as there are signs of infection already. Plus we will need to reassess in a few days if it needs a skin graft. We are looking roughly at 2-3 weeks"
Emily groaned it was like a nightmare. 3 weeks stuck in this small room. The doctor winced, smiling apologetically. He had the feeling it was going to be a fun 3 weeks for the nurses. He left Gideon following he had a plan.
When JJ woke up again she was feeling a lot better. The intense pain in her stomach was a lot better and her arm no longer felt like it was burning. Opening her eyes to soft beeping she spotted her best friend dozing on the chair.
"Hey" she whispered, mustering all her strength to get that out surprised that it didn't hurt her tummy when she spoke.
"Hey, I'm mad at you" Penelope told her
"Huh, why?" JJ asked confused wondering if she had said something out loud when she slept. Then she remembered seeing help and thinking it was Tobias attacking them again.
"Oh"
"Don't you 'Oh' me missy, why didn't you tell us we might have been able to do something, at least help"
"Sorry I didn't know, I mean I did but I thought I was at the barn and…." JJ trailed off remembering the panic
"What?" Penelope questioned, "JJ you are making it really hard for me to be mad at you"
"Sorry"
"Wait what are you sorry for?" Penelope asked really confused
"Making you mad"
"I'm not mad that you ran from the dogs, I think after what you went through in that barn it was natural, I'm not mad at you because you and Reid separated I easily think it could have been you Tobias took. I'm mad at you because you forgot to mention that you were bleeding internally and practically dying" She shouted the last bit.
"Oh" JJ replied falling silent wondering how to explain why she hadn't told them. "I thought it was period pains, then it got worst but I was the only one who could climb and walk to get help and I didn't want to let everyone down" She looked away slightly ashamed
"JJ you could never let us down. Unless you do something this stupid again then I swear I will wipe you off the virtual planet" Garcia threatened.
"And we will let her" Hotch said from the door. Gideon close behind.
"Damn right" Gideon agreed, "You have nothing to prove blondie"
"And if we ever find your hiding injuries from us again we'll have to take action," Hotch warned.
"Even if it's just a paper cut I want to know" Garcia insisted.
"Ok, but for the record I didn't think it was this serious" JJ apologised.
"Another hour and you'd be dead" a nurse interrupted, "Sorry but we need to move you to another room" She ordered as an orderly and a few other nurses came in and with expert efficacy unhooked the monitors pushing JJ out. Another nurse collected Garcia and indicated for Hotch and Gideon to follow.
They entered a room larger than the other. Behind the drawn curtain near the window they could hear raised voices.
"No daughter of mine is sharing a room, I will simply not hear of it! Who knows what freak or weirdo might be staying in here"
"Mother its ok they need the other room" a voice they all recognised replied sounding frustrated
"Emily" JJ and Penelope shouted as Hotch pulled the curtain back
"JJ you're ok, wait were rooming awesome" Emily squealed
"Ambassador" Hotch nodded respectfully,
"Agent Hotchner, it is good to see you again. I believe your wife is looking for you. Agent Gideon there was a young doctor who I believe wanted your company." The ambassador informed them. Both quickly excused themselves anxious to see their loved ones. With reassurances from Emily and JJ that it was fine they left. Elizabeth was next as her phone rang. Lastly Garcia excused herself as Morgan's sister came to collect her to take both of them home.
As it turns out both Emily and JJ were released on the same day. A private ambulance was charted for them both to drive them to Washington. Once there Emily was dropped at her mother's house, JJ was dropped at home where her mother was waiting.
