So sorry for the late upload-I kept receiving an error message from the site. Happy Easter! -Flynn Writer
Chapter 9
Ten minutes later, a soft knock on the door forced Emily to her feet. Rossi poked his head through the crack in the door, smiling as he saw Emily. Emily smiled too, but it didn't quite eliminate the sadness in her eyes. Rossi beckoned for her to come outside, and embraced her as soon as she joined the door closed behind her. "Good to see you again, Emily."
"You too, Dave." She said, seeing Hotch out of the corner of her eye. "Hey Hotch." She hugged him quickly too, but let go as a doctor approached the team. The entire team seemed to stop breathing as the man approached, and his stern, middle-aged face didn't give away any information.
"Doctor Scott," Hotch said formally. "How is he?"
"About as well as what can be expected." The man responded, checking through a stack of papers on his clipboard. He pushed his glasses onto the bridge of his nose as he scanned through the information. "I had told you that we had to keep an eye out for organ failure…his spleen shows signs of blood deprivation, which obviously isn't good. Normally, the spleen holds a blood reserve, but that was exhausted when he was brought in. Our main concern right now is rehabilitating that supply, and making sure his iron and antibody levels are normal."
"What does that mean for him?" Blake asked tentatively. "When is he going to wake up?"
"Again, we want to keep him as still as possible until his internal injuries heal. His liver is also not healing at the rate we would expect, but that is less serious than it sounds. For now, maybe a couple of hours until we can retest."
"And the bullet's entrance wound?" Hotch asked. He had dropped the ball when he lost control of the negotiation, but he wouldn't gamble with Morgan's well–being again. A flashback of the blast blazed in front of his eyes, the explosion ripping through his mind as powerfully as it had in reality. He was snapped out of his reverie by the doctor's words.
"Healing quite well, actually." The doctor responded. "I didn't see any signs of infection, and the stiches are holding nicely. His ribs are doing well too. Those will take a while, he's injured them before, but they are in a good spot to heal correctly. We'll keep an eye out for splintering, but by keeping him comatose…well, he's not moving around much."
"Thank you doctor." Hotch finished, dismissing him. "You said a few hours?"
"I'll be back to check on him at noon. We'll see what happens then." With a firm nod, he turned smartly on his heel and began to walk away. The team looked at each other, not sure how to respond, until Emily stepped in front of the group.
"So what happened?" She asked directly, her dark eyes sad. "The whole story. I mean….how?"
JJ sat down heavily in one of the chairs and started speaking. "He had gone to meet with Eli, who was going to sign with U Maryland. As far as we know, Helmsley walked in, shot one of the waitresses, and then took everyone hostage. They panicked, he fired, and Morgan got hit, along with one other woman, who was probably dead moments later." She yawned widely, and Rossi took over the story.
"Local police called us an hour later when they identified his badge number through the window. Morgan had already lost a lot of blood; he was almost unconscious. Hotch tried negotiating, but Helmsley figured that he could distract us with a bomb and get out of the restaurant."
"But he ended up killing himself instead." Emily said, anger hardening her voice. "Four people dead. And Morgan…"
"Morgan is going to be okay." Blake interjected. "We can't give up on him."
"No one's giving up on him." Emily responded icily. "I was just saying that Helmsley's actions had consequences."
"I was not disagreeing with you." Blake responded evenly. They stared at each other warily across the small circle, and everyone else watched them uneasily. Emotions in the room fluxed with every breath as the worry that they all felt was countered by their exhaustion. JJ looked up, catching Emily's eye and cocking her head to draw her over. Emily sat down next to her and JJ patted her leg comfortingly.
Hotch looked at his watch regretfully. "I need to get back to Quantico to update Cruz and figure out the paperwork for all of this." Rossi picked up his discarded coat as if to follow him, but Hotch waved him down. "I'll be back in a couple of hours. Stay here for him; if I need one of you I'll call. I'll try to make sure we don't pick up any new cases, but I can't guarantee anything." He looked like he wanted to say more, but he shrugged and walked out.
"Some things never change." Emily said, breaking the ice in the room. She looked around at the faces of her old team, which she had only scene across video screens for the past couple of months.
"Some things do." Rossi responded, a cheeky smile on his face. "I heard you're becoming quite the bureaucrat. Taking Interpol by storm."
"Hotch said the same thing." She laughed. "It's not that bad. Definitely different, but not bad."
"Aw, guys, she actually misses us." JJ jested, gently leaning into Emily's shoulder. Emily wrapped an arm around her, squeezing her close. It had been awhile since she had gotten hugged, and she didn't usually realize how much she had missed it. She did not typically search out hugs, but the comfort that a friendly embrace can bring is much-needed every once in a while.
"I miss you guys so much. The people I work with…well, understand this: I'm not English so my social credibility is null. They respect my profiling skills, but the atmosphere there…It's not the BAU." She smiled as she said it, but the stress was evident on her face. She tucked a dark strand of hair behind her ear, leaning back in the chair.
"Well, no matter the circumstances, we're glad you're here Em." Rossi said.
"Yeah…the circumstances." She repeated ruefully. "I wish I could have visited before…before all of this happened."
"It's not like you dropped off the face of the earth." Rossi said, sitting down on Emily's other side. He patted her leg comfortingly. "You guys talk almost every day."
"I've just… The office had been busy lately. I was going to come back for Christmas, but my mom was in London…we just stayed there." She babbled defensively, throwing out excuses like shields. "And then I had this big case in February, and then…then this."
"Emily, you don't need excuses." JJ said, rubbing her back. "We know. Morgan knows." Emily leaned back in the chair, rubbing the tension out of her neck.
"Yeah." She agreed slowly. "Yeah, I know. I'm just…"
"Tired?" Reid suggested.
"Stressed?" Rossi said at the same time.
Emily sighed thoughtfully, thinking for a minute. She stared into the distance, her eyes glued to the opposite wall. "Lonely." she decided. "I'm surrounded by people every day, and that's all I can think of. Just…lonely. I miss you guys, but I miss the city too. Just the feel of Quantico, and DC…I'm not the one with the odd accent here…" She chuckled bitterly. "But that's the price you pay for power." Her cynicism was not lost on the others, who exchanged worried glances.
"I thought you said the Interpol job was going well?" Reid said, slowly measuring her tone.
"Oh, the job's fantastic." Emily affirmed again. "But it takes me out of the country too much. I can't form meaningful relationships with anyone other than the barista that gets me coffee every morning at 4 am."
"Well, it's a start." Rossi said jovially, but his words fell on practically deaf ears. Somewhat dejected, he picked up a magazine he had found. "I'm going to sit with Morgan. When you guys are a bit more optimistic, you can join us." He walked out of the room, leaving his downcast friends behind. They were starting to get to him.
