Once again, a quick update because you lot had been too wonderful so I couldn't keep it away for much longer! Enjoy.
Title: Soaring into the Unknown.
Summary: Unknown to the team, there is a criminal on the plane. Could they survive and come out of the experience stronger than ever?
Author's Notes: With Many Thanks to REIDFANATIC for the beta read! I am graceful to her for making my work the best it can be.
I would like to shout out extra special thanks to the reviewers, CriminalMindsluvr21, Sue1313, didi2909, egoofy34, A-zla and Shell2005.
And to the rest of the readers, thanks for reading :)
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Sadly, the characters in this story are borrowed from the TV show 'Criminal Minds'.
The storm rumbled around them, mocking them. The uninjured members of the team struggled to keep the board upright, yelling commands to each other.
Emily had been given the job of squeezing JJ's shoulder with her good hand. Her tears mixed with the angry raindrops as she felt she was failing at the job. Blood rushed through her hand and JJ's eyelids hadn't moved for a long period of time. Using her body, she pushed into the wound, grunting in anger as JJ only moaned in her sleep.
Hotch ached all over, he used every ounce of energy and all his strength to keep the board upright. God dammit, he was the leader. He needed to make sure that the team was safe. He was grateful that Reid and Garcia were helping too, although their minds were getting clouded with fatigue and the cold. He dared not even think about how JJ would be doing. They had no choice but to give the job to Emily – he had every faith in her. He knew that she would try.
He turned around, gazing at the two sleeping people and an annoyed woman as she struggled to keep her best friend awake. He told Emily through his eyes that it would be alright, she responded by throwing her body weight onto her good hand which made JJ gasp and glare up at Emily with annoyance. Emily returned the look with a grin, letting the blonde agent know that she wasn't sorry about the pain that she'd just caused if it meant that JJ would stay awake. Emily kept the eye contact with JJ, not letting her panic about the stormy sea and the waves that threatened to push them over.
She shivered as the freezing water slid down her back, she hunched over JJ – trying as best as she could to protect her from the dangerous elements.
"Land!" screamed Reid as he leaped into the water, Hotch joining him moments later. The water only came to their waist; they were so close but yet so far. Reid grumbled as he kept tripping, the waves crashing into him however he never lost his grip on the belt that connected to the board. He was going to bring them to safety; he had to be useful – his guilt had been eating away at him since he was the cause for the gaping hole in the plane that led to the crash.
He could have kissed the sand when he landed face first in the stuff but the belt cutting away at his hands reminded him that the struggle wasn't over.
With a howl, the men pulled the board away from the livid waves. Reid could have sworn that the waves growled when they came onto the land, upset that they had lost their preys. He stood up, desperate to get moving. Rain weighted him down and he couldn't see anything.
"What do we do?" yelled Reid, trying to be heard over the raging storm as he looked at Hotch. Needing somebody to take control – he would just mess up like he always did.
"Walk. Just keep walking." Commanded Hotch as he paused, letting Garcia off so she could help out. The storm grew louder and the wind howled around them. He pulled, struggling as the board refused to move, digging it heels in the sand.
Hotch growled, angry that he couldn't do anything, and then stood still, clearing his head so that he could think what to do. He knew that there was too much weight on the board. Seeing that Luke was awake but confused, he pulled him off, pushing him toward Reid to hold him. "Emily, I am going to ask you to walk with us. Sorry but we need as little weight as possible on the board."
Emily didn't argue; instead she pulled her jacket off, not listening to the protests that her body gave out. She tied it around JJ's shoulder as tight as she could, taking no notice of JJ's tears as she tried to hold back the pain. Even now, she didn't want to appear weak. Satisfied that the younger girl would be okay for the time being she dragged herself off the board; accepting Hotch's help to stand up.
Both Hotch and Garcia pulled the board, while Reid pulled Luke; taking a beating as he turned violent not wanting to be a hostage.
They walked, struggling as their muscles screeched and their clothes felt like lead.
Morgan moaned as each bump brought a new wave of pain through his body. He held JJ's hand as he knew that she was feeling the same, offering her a little comfort. He liked it when she squeezed his hand now and then, although he knew that she was only doing it because at some points, the pain became unbearable, so unbearable that she needed to pass it on to somebody else. He gladly accepted the pain in his hand.
JJ wanted this to be over. She wished that Emily had just let her sleep instead of waking her to searing pain in her shoulder as she stuck her finger in her wound. As a new wave of intense pain rushed over her, she squeezed Morgan's hand, not caring if he had a broken hand by the end.
Emily winched and whimpered as she tripped and landed on her swollen hand. She curled up into a ball, letting the pain wash over her. She gasped as she could see a bone sticking out – she immediately felt sick.
Hotch watched as she dry retched violently trying to get the horrible pain out of her body. He placed a hand on her back, trying to let her know that the pain would be over soon. He tried not to look at the hand, he knew that he had seen worse, much worse, but it was one of his team members that was crying out of tenderness. Knowing that she would not be able to move, he picked her up easily and placed her next to Morgan.
"Ha, surrounded by the ladies." Grinned Morgan, trying to put some lightness back into the tension and it worked for a moment with Emily forgetting her pain for a moment and JJ gave a weak smile.
"And you better keep your hands off them, Derek Morgan." Joked Garcia as she gave him a wink, grateful for feeling some of the tension in the dark air disappearing.
They walked on, shooting out some jokes and funny stories to keep the lightness in the atmosphere. They pulled Luke as he grumbled and tried to bring the darkness back and it was slowly working as he keep saying that they don't know where they were and JJ will properly be dead by morning.
JJ's eyes went wide the first time he'd said that and her heart shattered each time he repeated it. Emily tried to put it back together by saying that the team wouldn't let that happen to her but JJ only heard Luke's haunting words.
The rain eased as they came under cover of the trees. Reid smiled; the first break that they'd had in so long. Without telling the others, he set to work. Tying Luke to a tree roughly with his favourite tie just because JJ said that it suited him well. He made sure that Luke couldn't get far before setting out to collect some wood. Hotch saw what he was doing and helped after ordering Garcia to make the other three comfortable and warning her not to go anywhere near the pilot.
Reid was getting concerned when they couldn't find enough dry wood. The storm had made its mark on everything, soaking it. He dumped yet another useless piece of wood, he looked over to Hotch. He wasn't doing much better, furiously picking up many pieces of woods and dumping them.
Meanwhile, Garcia was telling them a story about the time that she rented out an ice rink to herself so that she could slide across it on her stomach. "Damn girl, why didn't you invited me?" chortled Morgan, he liked that idea. If they got out of this alive, he would have to do the same thing and invite the whole team. It would an amazing way to get rid of some stress that they would have built up inside them.
Several stories later, Reid and Hotch came back with armful of wood and set out to make a fire.
After numerous tries, the fire finally spitted into life and burned weakly in the damp air. They all scooped closer to the heat.
Throwing a ragged blanket that once lay on Morgan to Luke, not caring about the cold that he was sure to feel. Morgan wanted him to be still be alive by the end of the horrible nightmare so that they can lock the scum up.
JJ relaxed as Reid gathered her in his arms and warmth washed over her. She fell asleep, feeling safe that the people she loved the most surrounded her. Her last thought was that she hoped that she would open her eyes again.
One by one as the fire slowly died, the team fell asleep – the storm calming and the stars peeked out from behind the dark clouds.
Only Hotch stayed awake, keeping a watch over the team especially on the breathing of the injured.
He wished that morning would come faster – he wasn't sure how much longer they would last.
Go on, make a girl's day – review :) you know you want to.
