Chapter 10

JJ felt Derek fall heavily towards her and instinctively put her hands out to catch him. Realising that, with a sprained wrist, she had no chance of halting his progress; she did her best to slowly lower him to the floor.

"Get away from him" she heard a male voice shouting. "He had his hands all over you. He has no right."

She looked up to see their suspect, James McIninch, standing metres away from her with a baseball bat raised threateningly in his hands. She immediately took a step back and reached for her weapon.

"Put the bat down Mr McIninch" she said firmly, pointing the gun in his direction.

"Jennifer" he said calmly, without lowering his weapon. "You have a gun pointed at me. I'm not about to leave myself unprotected."

"If you put the bat down and get on the floor" JJ explained calmly, although she was inwardly shaking, "then I will have no need for this gun."

"You're not going to shoot me" James said, swaggering towards her as he spoke. She cursed herself as she automatically backed away from him, showing her fear.

"You know that I'm doing the right thing" he continued arrogantly as he moved past an unconscious Derek Morgan, while JJ shuffled backwards away from him. "These people need to be kept in their place. Nobody else was doing it. I had no choice."

"These people?" JJ sneered, finally stopping and standing her ground as anger overtook her. "These people? The people you killed were worth 20 of you. They had people who loved them. They had futures. What the hell do you have? You're pathetic! You've got nowhere in life and, instead of trying to work out what you can do better; you had to look for other people to blame for your failure. It's pathetic!"

She could tell by his expression that she had hit a nerve, so she instinctively aimed her gun more firmly in his direction.

"Don't move" she shouted as he continued to swagger towards her.

"What are you going to do?" he taunted, as he finally stopped moving forward. "You aren't going to shoot me. You don't have it in you."

They were both circling around each other now, neither prepared to give an inch.

"You have no idea how much I want to shoot you" JJ said, the anger from her sister's death merging with her anger over the case. "How much I want to kill you. You have murdered four people and attacked a federal officer. No-one is going to bat an eyelid if I kill you now."

"Then why haven't you already shot me?" he sneered, still circling her.

"Because a quick, easy death is too good for you" JJ returned. "You deserve to suffer; to feel the pain that you have caused others."

"So what are you going to do?" he taunted. "I'm not putting this bat down and you clearly haven't got the guts to take me down."

Finally having had enough of his grand-standing, she clicked the safety off on her gun, braced with her left hand and shot at the space between his legs.

"Next time I shoot that little bit higher" she warned, desperately trying to hide the pain in her wrist that the kick back had caused. "Now put the bat down and get down on the floor."

The hand holding the bat dropped slightly, showing that she was some way to making her point, but he continued to stare at her, obviously not certain as to how serious she was. Recognising that she needed to be even more obvious, she raised the gun slightly and clicked the safety again, not once taking her eyes off of his. After a few minutes his gaze lowered as he dropped the bat, finally falling to his knees.

"Face down on the floor" she ordered, moving towards him as he followed her instructions. Keeping her gun aimed at his head, she kicked the baseball bat away from his grasp.

Just as she was about to reach for her phone to alert the rest of the team, she was relieved to hear the sounds of people running towards her. Realising that her team and the local cops must have been alerted by the gunshot, she waited patiently for help to arrive. Within seconds the area was flooded with noise and light as everyone arrived on the scene. She watched as two local officers cuffed James and dragged him away. Only once he was out of sight did she relax enough to re-holster her gun. As the immediate danger disappeared she felt the adrenaline drain from her body and became immediately aware of everything that was happening around her.

"Jayje?" she heard Emily calling gently to her. She turned her head slightly to one side and saw Emily looking at her with concern written all over her face.

Suddenly overwhelmed by the pain in her arm and the shock of the situation, JJ shoved Emily out of the way and ran to the side of the building, where she threw up into a drain. As she felt the world beginning to spin around her, she closed her eyes and used her right arm to brace herself against the wall in front of her. She breathed deeply in an attempt to quell the nausea and, after a few minutes, was eventually able to open her eyes and turn away from the wall. She immediately felt Emily's arm supporting her.

"Derek?" JJ asked worriedly, subconsciously cradling her left arm.

"Conscious and claiming he doesn't need to go to the hospital" Emily reassured her.

JJ smiled weakly.

"And how are you doing Jayje?" Emily asked gently, walking her towards the ambulance where Derek was already being treated. "Is your arm bothering you?"

Too tired to argue, JJ nodded.

"The kick-back from the gun jarred it" she explained.

"Why don't we follow the ambulance to the hospital" Emily suggested. "Then you can get your arm checked out."

"Can I see him quickly first?" JJ asked.

"Of course" Emily answered, smiling as JJ walked unsteadily up to Derek, who was laying on a gurney in the back of the ambulance.

"I'm so sorry" JJ said tearfully as Morgan pulled her into a hug.

"Why are you sorry Jayje?" he asked, confused. "If you hadn't been there, he would have beaten me to death."

"But if I hadn't distracted you ..." she worried.

"This is not your fault JJ" he said firmly. "You got him. You finished this."

At this the EMTs told JJ that they needed to make a move; so she stepped out of the ambulance and walked over to the SUV where Emily was waiting for her.

"Hotch said we could stay at the hospital until Morgan is ready to leave" Emily explained. "He, Reid and Rossi are going back to the station to interview McIninch."

JJ merely nodded in response, too tired to talk. They travelled to the hospital in complete silence. JJ was pretty sure she dozed off for part of the journey, waking as they pulled into the car park. JJ wearily followed Emily into the ER and sat in the waiting room as Emily signed her in and checked up on Derek.

"He's being seen by a doctor at the moment" Emily said as she sat down next to JJ. "They're going to let us know when he's ready for visitors."

JJ didn't respond at all; the weight of the last few days suddenly pressing down on her. Without speaking Emily wrapped an arm around JJ's shoulders and pulled her gently until JJ's head was resting on her shoulder. They sat like this, in silence, until a doctor walked into the waiting room and called JJ's name.