He misses his kids, badly. It's been two weeks straight of non-stop travelling for cases. Unfortunately, these unsubs are inconsiderate of their working hours. Heck, he even misses Emily and he works with her. He misses her outside of work. At work there was Hotch and Prentiss, not Aaron and Emily.
The heavens has blessed him with kids who have huge hearts. They understood and never got mad. Of course, it helped that they talked every day, but it wasn't the same. If he was not on a case, he was stuck in the office for paperwork or crappy meetings, like the budget one he had to attend to this morning. It took roughly 5 hours of his day, and now he has to discuss things regarding the budget with his team. Hence, their gathering the conference.
It was already past 3PM and he was explaining the budget cuts and raises on certain things that could affect the resources of the team.
"As long as they're not cutting the free coffee, I'm good." Reid chimed in.
Emily huffed, "Amen."
"The coffee's safe, don't worry." Hotch murmured without looking away from his file. While still in the middle of a discussion, Hotch's phone rang. He rejected the call, thinking that there's only a couple of minutes left before this is over and he'd just call back whoever it was. However, a second later, his phone rang again, interrupting his discussion with the team.
"Excuse me." He said as he walked out of the conference room. "Hotchner." He greeted the anonymous person on the line.
His mind went blank as the man on the other line, an officer he knew from the local PD, gave him the sad news.
"Yes, yes. I'll be right there. Thank you." He said as he hurriedly returned to the conference room. "I need to step out. It's my daughter, there was an accident." He said as he hurriedly gathered his files and walked out. The team was also left in shock. They were all instantly worried that they wanted to go with him, especially Emily. But they all knew that Hotch would let them know if he needed their help and that he would call with more details later.
Emily could not hide the grim on her face. Her heart feels like it would rip out of her chest. Could this be it? The time that it has gone too far. I hope not. Please let her be okay. If anything happens to Maya, she's not so sure what would happen to Hotch. For the first time since she met him, she finally thinks that this could be something that could break him. And she hates the fact she can't do anything about it, at least not right now.
What happened? Message back when you can. Xx. That was the message she sent him, and now, like the rest of them, all she could do is wait.
/
The scene that he arrived into at the hospital was something that he didn't expect. He was expecting, or rather hoping, that it was just something minor. "Agent Hotchner." The officer who called him earlier greeted.
"Officer Lawson." He shook his hand. "What happened? Where's my daughter?"
"They're still checking on her."
"I need to see her." He demanded, trying to make his way into the emergency room, but another officer and a nurse was quick to stop him. "Agent, the doctor will be out to talk you in a minute, but let us attend to your daughter first." The nurse said, which he accepted, because her daughter was more important than his alpha male urges.
"Tell me what happened." He said to Lawson.
"We responded to a call regarding an accident on 8th St., your daughter was hit by a speeding car. It appears that she was on her way home from school at the time since she's still in her uniform." Lawson said.
Hotch tried to process this information. Home from school? Why was she walking home from school all alone? He thought, and arrived at the only possible explanation. Haley.
"My daughter has never in her life walked to or from school. It's either her mother drives her or I do. Today, her mother is supposed to pick her up. Did you contact her?" He said, as composed as he could be.
"We tried multiple times, but she hasn't answered yet. One of our officers is still trying to contact her." Hotch was livid once hearing this. He's likely to punch someone on the face right at this moment.
"And the driver?"
"He's in a different hospital, but I can assure you that appropriate charges will be filed and he will go directly in custody once he's out of the hospital." Lawson carefully explained. Knowing Agent Hotchner also meant knowing his reputation. He was one of the FBI's bests and Lawson would never dare to make one wrong move, especially in a case involving him. "As a protocol, Agent Hotchner, a social worker from child protective services will talk to you and Ms. Brooks later today. She would also need to talk to your daughter when she's well enough."
"I understand. Thank you, Officer." Exactly at that moment, the doctor came into waiting room.
"Agent Hotchner, I'm Dr. Savannah Marshall. I attended to your daughter in the ER." They shook hands.
"How is she?"
Dr. Marshall could only sigh at the look on his face. Obviously he still wasn't aware of how the serious the situation was. "Your daughter suffered multiple injuries due to the strong impact. Our major concerns though are her right shoulder, her lungs, and a possible head trauma. We need to take an X-ray to assess the extent of the damage then we will take her to surgery, but from what we can assess right now, it's most likely shattered. As for her lungs, we've detected minor punctures in each one. These are the ones that can heal on their own, but of course, we would still need to monitor them and see if there are any progress in the coming days. Now for the most crucial part, we do not know for certain if, at some point that she was out there, she stopped breathing. This makes it complicated for us to know if there is a possible brain damage due to lack of oxygen. The only way to know for certain is to wait for her to wake up and do further tests. But right now, we will do a CT scan before she goes into surgery to see if there is any bleeding, swelling or pressure on her brain that we can most likely stop."
Too much. This is too much. Too much for him and definitely too much for her daughter. She's a little girl. She's freaking 9. She shouldn't be here. His thoughts rambled as he tries to process all these information.
"Agent, you may see her now before we take her in." The doctor said. Of course he hurriedly followed her. But when was in there, he stopped. He stopped right at the foot of the stretcher she was in. This couldn't possibly be his daughter. His daughter was vibrant and full of life. This girl in front of him was almost lifeless, plugged in to numerous machines to keep her heart beating, stuck in a head-brace and full of bruises.
He walked beside her and gently held her hand, running a soothing thumb at the back of it. He gave her a kiss on her blood-stained forehead and whispered, "Maya, sweetie, daddy's here. I'm here now. You'll be okay. The nice doctors will fix you up and you'll come home with me, okay? I love you so much, sweetie. Just hang in there. Don't leave me. Please don't leave me." As his tears started to fall, he heard a little moan from her, which made him smile a little. "There you are, my little fighter. Daddy will be here waiting for you. I love you." He gave her one last kiss before the doctor said it was time to go.
Hotch sat in the waiting room, hoping and praying for miracle – that her daughter will pull through. Heaven knows he would give anything to trade places with her. He sat there alone, thinking of the things that could have been: if he just acted faster, if he had just pulled his kids out from that place, that woman, this might not have happened. Once again, Hotch felt like he had failed the most important people in his life, and look where they're at now.
"Agent Hotchner" Dr. Marshall greeted, and sat beside him. "We've done the scan and x-ray. The scan showed that there is a pressure on a part of her brain which is caused by liquid that's building up in there. Now, there is no need for surgery on that. What we will do is to make a small incision on her skull then insert a tube that would drain out the liquid and relieve the pressure. As for her shoulder, the X-ray confirmed that it is broken in 6 different places, we're preparing her for surgery now. Due to the pressure on her brain, we will keep her in a drug-induced coma after the surgery so we can monitor her brain activity."
"I understand. Please do everything you can to save her. I do not care how much it costs, just do it."
"Rest assured, Agent Hotchner. However, there is one more thing."
"What's that?"
"We found several bruises on her body that's inconsistent with the accident and in different stages of healing. While they are not life-threatening, it is protocol for us to report if we see these kind of things and we will have to relay this information to the social worker."
Hotch did not trust his voice this time so he just nodded. "I have to go back to your daughter now. Excuse me."
Too much. This is too much. Where the heck is that social worker? Where the hell is his ex-wife? And he needs to call his lawyer, or maybe another lawyer, the best the one in the country. His mind was in a fog ever since he stepped his foot in this hospital. He's afraid he might break, the he might just lose it. But he can't. He has to stay strong and rational in all of this. But, for once, he admitted to himself that he can't do it alone. So he made that call.
Hey it's me. Uhm, I'm at MedStar Georgetown. Maya was airlifted here, there was an accident. It's… It's bad. Really bad. I really wish you're here. Please be here.
The desperation in his voice made Emily's eyes water. She was in the comfort room when he made the call so it went directly to voice mail. As the message ended, she quickly grabbed her things and headed out of the building.
/
Emily arrived less than an hour later. Her heart shattered at the sight of her best friend sitting all alone in the waiting room, looking so lost. They hugged, but no words were said. No words were needed. Right now, they sit side by side as they wait for news of Maya.
A few moments later, a frantic voice can be heard from the hallway. Then, a sight of a woman he never wanted to see appeared.
"Aaron!" She said. His head snapped up at her, but his face immediately softened when he took a look at his son being carried by his mother.
"Daddy!" Jack immediately ran up to him.
"Hey, buddy!"
"Is Maya okay?"
"I don't know yet, bud." And that was the truth. He doesn't know anything anymore, and he hated it. So he just hugged his son again, a little tighter this time, afraid that he might slip out of him too.
"Aaron I-" Haley started but she was immediately cut off.
"Jack, buddy, why don't you go with Emmy first. Find you a snack and some for me too?" He said, looking at his son solemnly and then to Emily, who gave him a tight smile back. Knowing all too well that what is about to happen is not for Jack's innocent eyes, ears and mind, and frankly, not for hers too.
"C'mon, Jack." She took his tiny hand in hers. "Maybe we can find something for Maya at the gift shop too." Hotch watched as Emily and Jack walked out of the room hand in hand.
"I'm sorry, I was-" Haley whispered after the silence became unbearable.
"No. You don't get to be sorry. You don't get to be sorry because sorry does not bring back time. Your sorry will not bring back time that's being loss in Maya's life right now. Your sorry will not heal all her injuries and all the pain she's feeling. What happened before, between us and this marriage, that was all on me. I understood why you left and took the kids with you – why you wanted a divorce. I've accepted that. But this – this is all in you."
"Aaron-"
"I will never understand why you would want to hurt our daughter like that, why would you lash on her like that. Are you still mad at me? Because if you are, you have every right to be, but you do not have any right to take it out on our daughter. This explains all of it – the change in her behavior, her nightmares. I confronted her and she told me to let it go because she doesn't want you to get in trouble. That's how much she loves you, and you don't even deserve it. You don't deserve her."
He sighed, already wanting her to disappear. "You're lucky I'm not charging you with child abuse, out of respect for my children. But I don't want you anywhere near them. I'm filing for full custody, and you will never lay a hand on them ever again."
"You have no right to do that. You do not have the right to take my kids away from me." Haley said in a stern voice, eyes piercing against Aaron's. "And just how are you planning to do it, Aaron? Raise two kids all alone with that schedule of yours. You're never home, you're always buried in your files. The judge will never even favor you."
"And let's see if the judge favors you – a mother who hurts her children. See you in court." Hotch couldn't bear to be in the same room with this woman so he walked out and stood in the hallway. A few moments later, the social worker approached him. He sighed. Great, another conversation with Haley.
This one was less confrontational though. The social worker took statements from them and asked questions, which Hotch felt somehow incriminating. But he had no choice. There was a process, and if he wanted to keep his children, he must go through with it.
Once the social worker left satisfied with their statements, Haley has also left the building. Aaron made it clear that he doesn't want her anywhere near the kids anymore. Once she was gone, he sent a message to Emily that it was safe her and Jack to go back to the waiting room. Aaron was surprised when she didn't come back alone though. The team, who was waiting at the cafeteria with her and Jack, was with them. After comforting hugs and words were shared, they all waited together for several more hours.
"Agent Hotchner?" The doctor greeted, alerting everyone in the waiting room. Everyone stood up, except Emily who had a sleeping Jack on her lap.
"How is she?"
The doctor sighed.