Hello all! I really hope people are still enjoying this story! I'm trying to continue it well and with as much enthusiasm as I can, though it's starting to drag I'm afraid since I've been so busy and haven't been able to update the way I'd like. Anyway, I won't bore you with all that. Here's another chapter, please do enjoy! Of course, as always, I don't own them and I never will, even if it would be cool if they really did do what I wanted as I watched on Wednesdays!
Trial by Fire
Chapter Eight
"Okay people," Rossi's voice called the small meeting back to attention. "Detective Brustin set the explosive device in Agent Morgan's vehicle, but he was not our subway shooter. That person –or persons- is still out there. So, where does that leave us?"
Hotch, JJ, Reid, and the local detectives on the case began to go back through the theories and conclusions they had come up with before both Morgan's injury and Brustin's basic suicide-by-cop. But it was Joyner who eventually spoke up to answer his question. "Have we given up the idea of a terrorist cell driving this to create panic and therefore achieve their ultimate goal while everyone else is wrapped up in the resulting chaos? I certainly still think it's a worthy theory, and we could even be bringing in leaders and prominent members of the known cells in the area to interview, see if we can get any leads. We may get lucky and someone's behavior will tip us off or at least rule them out."
"Are there that many operating cells that you know of that haven't already been broken up? Why are they being allowed to flourish?" Rossi asked sharply, gaining a raised eyebrow from Hotch, but no vocal remonstrance. It was a fair question, even if they did think that they knew the logical answer.
"Because they're very good," Kate answered calmly. "They have been exceedingly careful, and stealthy enough to cover their true designs so far. We can't pin anything on them that would actually prove they were terrorists, but there are several, let's call them 'militant protest groups' which we have been watching and which seem to fit the profile."
Dave nodded, immediately resuming calm control once satisfied by her answer. "I think that's our best bet at this point. We'll want in on the interviews alongside you or one of yours, obviously."
"Obviously," she nodded in difference to him, a small, knowing smile quirking one side of her lips as if she had expected no less.
"Hotch? Anything else?" Rossi questioned the team leader before the meeting adjourned.
"No, but let's get this in motion as soon as possible. We're running out of time. I think they're done ramping up. They've created their panic, they've set the stage, their next action is going to be toward their final goal – whatever or whoever that might be."
Reid spoke up then, motioning to himself and JJ as he did. "Hotch, if you and Dave have the interviews covered, I'm going to take the case files to the hospital, go over them with Emily and JJ, maybe even Cooper now that he's recovering. I think we're close to finding out their target. It feels like we're close – if we could just slide that last piece into place. Then, just in case the interviews don't pan out and yield a suspect, we'll at least know where or what they were planning to strike. That knowledge would also give us something to use – some leverage – to fluster them, trip them up in interrogation if we could find it for you soon. The element of surprise would be on our side, if we knew something they obviously thought they had managed to keep secret."
Hotch nodded his assent, and their two younger agents left on that errand, while he and Dave turned to Kate and her officers, figuring out who their suspects were and how they were going to round them up to bring in for questioning.
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Penelope could tell that Derek was on pins and needles waiting for the rehabilitation therapist to finish her examination and give him her prognosis on his recovery. She had been looking over the burns on his side, examining him closely for almost ten minutes now, and Penelope could tell that it was all he could do not to burst out with a demand for answers right that second. If he had been as mobile as he usually was when working a case, he would be pacing or joggling his knee and rapping his fingers on the table, but he kept himself still as the therapist studied the blistering, the open wounds, and the hard eschars down the side of his face, neck, shoulder and arm, his hip and side, and bit his lips to keep back comments – either jokes to lighten his nerves or pleading for a positive diagnosis.
Finally the therapist, a Dr. Sara Nolan, straightened and stood back, looking both he and Penelope in the eyes. "Well, Agent Morgan, I have both good news and bad news for you. You have sustained some serious injuries all along your side; first, second, and even a few third degrees burns over almost 29 percent of your body. It's nothing to take lightly and it is not something you're going to bounce back from quickly. However, it could have been much, much worse. If you hadn't stopped and been opening the door to exit the vehicle already, we could be looking at a very different situation. As it is, there has been no permanent respiratory damage, they've managed to keep infection at bay with the mycitracin and other antibiotics, and the care they've taken has preserved most of the affected dermis from being lost. Skin grafts may be necessary in places, but they would be mostly cosmetic. With time, and patience, I think you may recover full mobility. You'll have some extensive physical therapy if you want that mobility, but you will recover."
Penelope felt herself drawing in a huge, shaky breath, one of the first full ones she had been able to draw into her lungs since Dr. Nolan had arrived. Morgan's brow furrowed though, not yet ready to feel relief until he knew the answer to the question that had plagued him since he first regained consciousness. Swallowing hard, he spoke up, voice rough, eyes now pegging hers with seriousness equal to what his therapist had just directed towards them. "Will I be able to return to field work?…Can I still do my job?"
Sara Nolan's eyes warmed, concern evident in them, as she very slowly shook her head of bobbed brown hair. "I want to tell you 'Yes, of course you can, in time,' but I honestly can't say for sure. It's too early to tell. There is a good chance you should – with some restrictions for a time – but I can't make promises to you until you begin physical therapy and we see how it goes and how the injured skin holds up."
Morgan nodded tightly, his mouth a hard line and his eyes dark and determined, but the crease of worry between his eyes eased slightly at last with the tentatively good news. "Physical therapy will be just fine. I'll make sure of it," he answered decidedly.
Dr. Nolan shook her head slowly, but glanced for a moment at Penelope, shrugged her shoulders, and gave up the fight. She could tell that cautioning him he might never be 100 percent fit again was a hopeless endeavor, and his possibly foolish self-assurance was much preferable to any patient's recovery than completely crushed hopes. "We'll see soon," was all she stated out loud. "I'll be speaking with your burn doctor to be certain, but I would expect to see you next week for our first session."
Morgan and Penelope both thanked her, and she turned and left the room. When she was gone, Penelope turned to look back at him tilted up to sitting position in bed, and smiled at him. She could feel her eyes glittering with unshed tears of pride. To her, his resolve was nothing short of inspiring. She knew if there were any chance on Earth that Morgan would be back to his old self, he wouldn't allow any other option. "Well, Stud Muffin, I certainly wouldn't want to get in your way."
He shook his head playfully, winking at her with, she was glad to see, a much happier, more hopeful look in his eyes. "Nope, not when I mean business," he replied. "And I do mean business. This isn't gonna finish me."
"I wouldn't have expected anything less." She brought her lips down to meet his lovingly to emphasize her words, and she knew, could feel it in her bones, that Derek would be alright.
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Reid and JJ arrived at Emily's hospital room and let themselves in before she looked up and saw them, a smile crossing her face. Her lip still looked bad and there was some swelling in her jaw, but knowing there was no concussion and that she could be discharged as early as that evening was already making her look and feel much better. They knew that she didn't like to be out of the loop on a case and excluded from the action anymore than they did.
JJ gave her a quick, one-armed hug, telling her affectionately that it was good to see her in one piece. Reid hugged her too as she was blushing sheepishly from JJ's comment, and asked how she was feeling.
"I'm fine, Spence, thanks for asking," Emily answered, her voice low and quietly embarrassed. "I'm stiff and my face and lip are sore, but mostly I just feel ridiculous for tripping and almost getting us both blown up."
"I told you not to look at it that way!" he reminded, his warm, soft eyes luminous enough that it made her stomach do funny things she wasn't prepared for. "I certainly don't."
Throughout this exchange, JJ's eyes were stealthily darting from one of them to the other, taking in the warmth and concern, and the bond forming between them. The blond liaison knew from experience what it was like to try to hid romantic feelings from the rest of her team, and she could see that Spence and Emily were going to be no more successful than she had been; it was obvious that something had changed and some brand of attraction was now growing between them. An evil grin crossed her pretty face and a mischievous twinkle entered her playful eyes as she let them both know she was onto them with a look. "When did this happen?" she asked them both teasingly.
"What do you mean?" Reid asked, his brow furrowing as if he truly didn't know what she meant, but his voice squeaked nervously at the end of his words, realizing that JJ was onto what he hadn't been able to admit to Emily yet – or even allowed himself to acknowledge in his own mind.
Emily flushed again, suddenly unable to meet either of their eyes and her long fingers began fiddling with a loose string on the blanket covering her legs.
"Okay, fine," JJ chuckled, rolling her eyes at their feeble attempts to evade her question. She thought to herself that though she had been caught by her teammates, she and Will had surely been more sly than this. "Act like you don't know what I mean. I'll find out what you two are up to anyway, just give me time. But we came to talk about the case – any potential target that Hotch and Rossi could use as leverage in the interrogations they're conducting with Joyner."
"You're right," Emily added, latching onto anything else to deflect JJ's focus and running with it. "Let's look over them once more. There has to be some connection in there that we're close to finding, something that will help us see what they're after."
Reid nodded and began arranging the open files on both her bedside table and over her lap where she could see them as well as he and JJ, unknowingly making her shiver when his fingers grazed her legs through the blanket. "No matter how random the actual victims are, there has to be something we can learn from these attacks. Maybe they're gauging something with the locations. We must be close – we have to be."
"The locations?" JJ repeated slowly, running what Reid had said through her thoughts, feeling instinctively as if there were something to it. "Like testing how long it takes the police and EMTs to get there? Or how cleanly they can get away from an area at different times?"
"Yes! Exactly! JJ, that's it! Reid, why didn't we connect the locations? Are they all around some common building or landmark? It's the place they're planning to strike that they all have in common!"
Reid pulled out a map while Emily and JJ eagerly read him the different streets and subway stops where the shootings had occurred. Then, suddenly, Reid dropped the map, eyes wide, where both could see just what it was that all the sights circled around. "There it is," Reid murmured almost breathlessly. Licking his lips nervously, he pulled out his phone to call Hotch with the update when Emily and JJ both nodded their agreement. "Hotch!" he burst out anxiously as the call was answered. "We're not sure what their intent is yet, but whatever the reason, we've found their target…"
