AN/I apologize for the delay, and the only excuse I have was that this was incredibly difficult to write. I know this may unnerve many of you, but this is likely the last chapter of this story. It doesn't NECESSARILY have a non-happy ending, but I felt that any other way would belittle the story. Please let me know what you thought, or any suggestions--if you have a better idea of how this story should end, let me know...I could be swayed to have it end another way.
"How could this have happened?" Emily asked to no one in particular, interrupting the silence as the occupants of the small hospital room watched the sleeping blonde intently.
"Emily, it's not your fault." Rossi began wisely, only to have Reid snort with disdain.
"Not her fault? Of course its her fault. If Emily hadn't--"
"Reid!" Morgan stopped the genius whose voice was filled with venom.
"It's true!" Emily agreed, not willing to take the coddling the other members of the team were willing to give her. "If I hadn't been so hurt that JJ had abandoned us, I would have seen through the ruse that Beth and Will shared. I spent almost every day over at their house for months. I even hung out with Beth--I wanted her to feel like she belonged."
The words hung limply in the air as each team member contemplated the depth with which JJ had been betrayed. "She wanted it that way. Sometimes we make mistakes. We're not perfect." Hotch said softly, his comforting words belittled by the character behind the person saying it. Hotch didn't make mistakes. And the unspoken words that Emily added herself "But none of the rest of us would have made that mistake" only added to her guilt.
"Hotch is right." Morgan agreed. "We messed up, but its not our fault."
"Not our fault?" Garcia asked incredulously, turning on her friends more rapidly than a Mexican hat dance. "Then whose fault is it, if not ours? JJ's? I don't think so."
"I wasn't saying--" Morgan tried to clarify, only to be cut off by Reid's rant.
"No, we failed her. I failed her. We abandoned her." Reid sided with Garcia, full of self loathing for how easily he had given up on his close friend--the mother of his godson.
"She's the one who fell in love with a sociopath!" Morgan retorted quickly, immediately regretting his words as the sleeping blonde stirred from her semi-medicated slumber.
"Stop it. All of you." Rossi commanded with authority. "This isn't doing any good."
"I must agree." Leo affirmed, unwilling to absolve JJ's friends of their guilt, but knowing that it wouldn't do any good to have them continually berate themselves while their friend lay sleeping in a fractured mental state. "Now is not the time for you to argue amongst yourselves. JJ will need your assistance as she continues along in her recovery. It will be a long road uncharted road that few have successfully charted."
"Recovery?" Emily asked in a small voice. The magnitude of the situation continually worsening with each revelation. She barely registered the nurse that entered to check JJ's vitals.
"Recovery." Leo reaffirmed. "Unfortunately, Miss Jareau was given--"
"What are you doing in here?" The nurse interrupted, horrified as she saw the man who was still recovering from a heart attack having snuck out of his hospital room and now hovering over another patient.
"Alas, I'm afraid our visit must be cut short." Leo smiled apologetically as the nurse gruffly grabbed his wheelchair to escort him back to his own room.
"I'm sorry." The nurse apologized to the room full of people and looked down at her charge scolding, "Dr. Scott, we've had this discussion multiple times. You just had triple bypass surgery. You need to be resting."
"I bid you all adeiu." Leo smiled happily over his shoulder as the nurse pushed him out of the room and past Daniel who had been just about to enter the room with coffee in hand.
"I'm not even going to ask." Daniel muttered, momentarily indecisive as to whether he should follow his mentor or stay with his charge. Deciding upon the latter, he strode into the room with authority and looked at the others with disgust. "So, she's sleeping now?" He asked to no one in particular.
"What was Leo talking about?" Garcia turned to the young psychiatrist. "JJ needs to recover? I thought that once the drugs were out of her system, that everything could go back to normal."
Daniel cringed at having to deliver another blow to the group that stood huddled by the blonde's bedside. "I'm not her doctor here, so it would be unethical--"
"Screw unethical." Emily interrupted. "What did he mean that 'few had successfully charted' or whatever he said?"
Daniel sighed, "Unfortunately, JJ was given a lot of various treatments in her stay at the hospital. Mental illness is very treatable with medication--but for a healthy mind, these chemicals can wreck havoc."
"What does that mean?" Hotch asked immediately.
"She may very well need to be on medication for the rest of her life. She may now be completely unstable, even with pharmaceutical intervention. Only time can tell."
"So since she was locked away in Timbuktu, now she might need all of that stuff you accidentally gave her before?" Garcia asked incredulously.
"It's possible." Reid answered before Daniel could, the psychiatrist simply nodding in agreement.
All eyes settled on the woman that had been through so much. They could have stopped her torture. They could have helped her. But each one of them had failed her. Each one of them had given up too easily. Each one of them, except Garcia.
Garcia fought the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes as she grabbed the sleeping blonde's hand. Will had betrayed her. Beth had attempted to destroy her. But nothing could happen to make Garcia give up on their friendship. Whatever JJ needed, Garcia silently vowed, she would be there.
AN/The end. (I think)