STOP MOTION
Chapter
9
The Family Together
"Death, the refuge, the solace, the best and kindliest and most prized friend and benefactor of the erring, the forsaken, the old and weary and broken of heart" - Mark Twain
Emily heard the whining sound of the paddles being charged. Someone shouted 'Clear!' and the paddles were placed on Hotch's chest. Emily heard the sound of Hotch's shocked body hitting the gurney as he collapsed back down. Emily pushed closer to him. The shock hadn't worked, and he was still dead on the gurney. The medic tried again, and this time Emily watched as his back arched and his heart responded to the current passing through his chest and began to beat again.
Emily realised that she had been holding her breath. Seeing Hotch brought back to life in front of her made her realise what she had almost lost, and the twisting of her guts made her realise just how much she wanted him to live.
They intubated him, and continued carrying him to the waiting ambulance. Emily followed and sat in the ambulance with him, gripping his hand with care. He turned his head towards her, and his eyes were deep and dark. He curled his blackened fingers gently around her hand.
-0-0-0-
Reid was pacing his room. He had just had a message from Dave that Hotch had been found and was on his way in. He needed to get downstairs to the ER and quickly. In the end a compromise was reached, and an orderly wheeled him down in a chair where he waited frantically for the ambulance to arrive. Dave arrived at the same time as he did, and they sat together pacing in their minds, but neither having the energy to do it in reality.
'I can't stand this.' Reid said, frustrated at not being part of the field team.
'Reid,' Dave said, 'please would you call Garcia and let her know we have found Hotch and give her the option of flying out to see him.'
Reid nodded and wheeled himself out to the entrance where he called her.
'We've found him.' Reid said before she could ask. 'They are bringing him in now. Are you.....?'
'I'm flying out on the next available flight, Sweet Cheeks. Where is the hospital?'
Reid gave her the address, and she put the phone down. All she could think of now was to get to be beside him. If he was going to live or die, he would do it with her by his side.
She wasn't sure of her feelings for him. She was not in love with him, at least not yet. But the Lomax case had forged a bond between them that transcended normal human emotions. He was the strongest, bravest man she had ever met, and she cared deeply for him.
Maybe that was love. She wasn't sure. It was so different to that which she shared with Kevin. That was a carnal rather shallow 'love'. What she felt for Aaron went so much deeper. She wanted him, but in a different way.......
All these thoughts flashed through her mind as she threw some things in an over night bag, and called the airline to make her reservation. Her breathing was tight and nervous as she dialled for a taxi, and ran down the stairs to the foyer.
-0-0-0-
As Reid turned his chair to re enter the hospital, an ambulance arrived and Reid stopped long enough to see if it contained Hotch. Reid was hurting, because he hadn't been in the field looking for him. It wasn't that he didn't trust his colleagues to work just as well without him as with him, it was just that maybe, just maybe, they would have found him sooner with another brain working on the problem.
He watched from the door way as someone was wheeled out of the ambulance, and he knew it was Hotch. Whether it was sixth sense, born of his deep love for the man, he didn't know, but even though he couldn't see his face, he knew.
Emily followed his gurney out of the vehicle, and she joined Reid at the door.
'How bad?' he asked.
'Very.' Emily replied. 'His injuries are everywhere. He has so many broken bones that they lost count. His face, his legs, ribs. He might lose his fingers.' She had tears in her eyes. Reid put his arms out to her and they hugged.
'When I see him like that, I want to hold him so much!' she said against Spencer's neck. 'Then when he's safe again, I get confusing feelings for him. I am so afraid that one day he won't come home, and I'd have lost my chance.'
'I understand.' Reid said. 'I love him too.'
-0-0-0-
Dave watched Hotch get wheeled through the ER to Resuss. He was still covered in a silver blanket, but he saw a hand, and the fingers were dark at the tips. If his right hand was damaged, he would lose his job. He stood up and followed the gurney.
'You can't go in there.' someone said to him as he reached out a hand to open the door to Resuss.
'I need to see him. We are as close as brothers.'
'Ok, you can go in, but keep back. If you get in the way you'll have to leave.'
Dave nodded, and opened the door. The silver blanket was gone now, and they were cutting his ripped and blood soaked pyjama bottoms off him, taking extra care where the blood had stuck the fabric to his skin. It was the first time Rossi had seen the extent of the beatings that Aaron had endured, and he felt sickened by what he saw.
How on earth could anyone endure that?
He took a step closer. 'You must save his fingers.' he said. 'He's an FBI Agent. He needs his hands.'
'We are trying to make sure he lives first. When we have done that we will try to save his hands.' came the answer.
Dave backed out of the room. He wanted to cry, so he needed the men's room. He glanced around and saw the men's room at the end of the hall.
As he approached the door to the toilet, he saw Morgan, Emily and Reid sitting in the corridor. He didn't want to see them. He wouldn't be able to talk to them without giving away his inner feelings – something he was not prepared to do.
He had learned at an early age not to cry in front of people.
He turned away and was about to walk in the other direction when Emily called his name. He paused for a beat to try to control his face, and he turned towards his three colleagues.
Morgan's eyes were red, and Dave could see that he had been crying. He was never concerned with showing his feelings; his heart was permanently worn on his sleeve. Emily was more reticent, but he knew she had a strange relationship with Hotchner. Reid, he knew was in love with him. He could see Reid's face was pinched and scared.
'Where's Jordan?' Dave asked.
'She's gone to find a working coffee machine that knows the difference between minestrone soup and 'rich roast'.' said Emily looking into her cup with disgust – anything to try to take her mind off what was going on behind the Resuss door.
'He might lose his fingers.' Reid said.
'I know.' Dave said. 'Excuse me.'
Dave left them together as Todd returned with a tray of coffee. He went straight to the men's room, and grabbing a handful of paper towels, locked himself in a stall. He closed the toilet lid and sat on it, and started to cry. He scrunched up the paper towels and cried into them, muffling the sound of his sobbing.
He knew deep down that crying wasn't a weakness, but he couldn't bring himself to cry in front of his colleagues. He'd seen Morgan cry, and Hotch, and he didn't think less of them as a result. In fact he greatly admired that they were not afraid of their own feelings.
But he couldn't do it.
Between his cries, he prayed. He prayed that Hotch would live, and that he would recover from the dreadful beatings.
'Please, please, take care of him......'
He heard the door open.
'Hey Dave are you in here?'
It was Morgan, bless him, come to see if he was ok. He rubbed his face dry and flushed away the paper towels.
'I'm fine.' he said, opening the stall door. As he was washing his hands, Morgan said, 'You're bleeding again, Dave.'
Sure enough, the bottom edge of his shirt was bloody, and there was a dark wet bloody patch on his trousers.
'Yeah.' he said. 'Guess I should be sitting down.'
Morgan offered his hand, and helped him out of the men's room and back to the seats where the other three were drinking coffee in silence.
-0-0-0-
The flight to Colorado was too long for Garcia. Sometimes she thought of taking the exams to become a field agent, but she knew deep down that her place was doing what she was good at, and that was hacking and programming. She didn't think she'd make a good field agent. But at least then she wouldn't be the last on the scene.
She couldn't get the image of Hotch out of her mind. She had insisted on seeing the photographs of him, but wished she hadn't. The image of him hanging from the manacles, his blood everywhere, was etched into her memory and however much she tried to over write it with visions of him at the meal with Todd and her Doctor, the awful image of him beaten and barely alive always shone through.
When the plane had landed, she almost ran down the steps onto the tarmac. Straight to the car hire kiosk, and before long she was driving to the hospital.
She hated being alone and driving somewhere new. Where was the car park? Did she have enough change for the machine? Would she get there without getting lost?
Would Hotch be dead when she got there?
She knew her make up was smudged, and her hair was a mess, but she for once really didn't care. She just wanted to be at Hotch's side.
She found the hospital without getting lost, fed the meter, and ran to the ER. She saw the others sitting in silence – the fact that they weren't all crying told her that Hotch was still alive. As she ran along the corridor to be with them, a doctor called out, 'Who is here for Agent Aaron Hotchner?'
Dave stood up with difficulty and the doctor approached them.
'We have managed to stabilise him now. He is on his way to surgery.' he said. 'It will be a long and complex job. The bones of his face are cracked and need pinning. His legs are badly broken, and may also need to be pinned. His wounds are cleaned and stitched, and his burns are covered. He has some deep burns which will take a long time to heal. They seem to be the result of repeated electric shocks.'
'He has been tortured for four days, Doc.' Morgan said. 'We don't know everything that happened to him.'
'The shocks may have damaged his heart. He crashed several times in Resuss, and the last time, we weren't at all sure that we could bring him back again. Hopefully, the damage is temporary, and will heal. In the meantime, he could arrest at any time. This surgery is very dangerous for him, but it can't be left.'
'Will you be able to save his hands?' Emily said.
'His fingers are badly damaged, especially those on his left hand. It seems that he had an earlier injury to his right arm, and while Mr Hotchner was being held, he took most of his weight on his left arm, leading to necrosis being more extensive on his left hand. We will try to save them.' the doctor said. 'That's the best you can hope for at the moment. As soon as we have news, I'll come back and tell you. I have to go now.'
When the Doctor was gone, Garcia sat down with her face in her hands. Jordan put her arm around her.
'I want to see him.' Garcia said. She took her hands away from her face and looked at Jordan. 'I just want to see him.'
-0-0-0-
In the elevator, Hotch crashed again. The theatre nurse compressed his chest. Someone else readied the paddles as a third removed the oxygen.
'Charging three hundred......clear!'
And Aaron's beaten and broken body jerked off the bed.
The nurse continued compressing his chest, but inside her own heart, she thought that they would be calling very soon.
