A/N: To clarify what I meant in regards to Rossi's wedding, I actually only meant playing havoc with the lead-up to the wedding. The wedding itself would be classy and romantic as befits our older profiler, but I was thinking about messing with him beforehand. Please let me know what you think.
Reviews are marvellous things and I'm certain that if they stopped, I wouldn't really want to write anymore. Thankfully that doesn't appear to be an issue as I have the wonderful HGRHfan35, Hazmatt, blackandblueangel and HPforever-after to thank for lovely reviews. Thanks for your input with Kelly and Dave; I'll continue working on my ideas before I decide anything for sure but it all helps to know what you're thinking.
Rated M for adult themes and other things.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds at all, although they do own me and I do own Carrie and Toby, Chloe and India, Kelly and Brad and Ben.
Missing – Chapter 10
"Em?"
Emily looked up from the book she was reading and smiled as something deep inside that had been knotted up tight relaxed.
"Hey you. I was beginning to think you'd never wake up." She put the book on the side table and scooted forward in the chair to gently stroke his hair back from his temple.
"Why do I feel like I got hit by a bus?"
"You actually got pretty badly spanked by the ground so that might explain it." When he frowned in confusion, she laughed softly. "Sorry; Penelope coined it a couple of days ago and everyone's been using it since."
"How is everyone? And did I see Jack with you before I went in to surgery earlier?"
"First off, your idea of earlier and the actual timeframe are two completely different things. You were rescued and had surgery three days ago. Secondly, everyone's going to be just fine given some time and yes, you did see Jack. He was so distraught at the thought of being left behind when we found out something bad had happened to you and you were missing that I couldn't leave without him. I'd been feeling off kilter thinking something was wrong with you and then he had a nightmare that you were in trouble and then the call came that no one could find you and you hadn't arrived and well...I think we both panicked more than a little. I'm beginning to have a greater respect for all that you put up with over the last few years what with the multiple times I was dying or just plain in trouble."
He nodded and closed his eyes. "Any chance we can turn the lights off? They're too bright."
Once the lights were out he asked softly, "Where's Jack now?"
She smiled with reluctant amusement. "He's taken a shine to Strauss of all people and has declared himself her junior assistant. She doesn't seem to mind too much and as he seems content to be with her without my constant presence, it freed me up to spend more time watching over you."
He laughed slightly and then coughed, groaned and went silent. She continued to stroke his hair as he settled, gave him a little water when he asked for it and then soothed him as he fell asleep.
The doctor came in five minutes later, checked him over briefly and then left again with the instruction that she buzz him immediately when Aaron next woke. This turned out to be an hour later as she was contemplating going to get a coffee.
"Em?"
"Here baby." She reached for the button to call the nurse before smiling at him. "Did you have a nice nap?"
"It kind of feels like I've slept the better part of the last three months away."
She grinned. "Oh, I'm pretty certain you have."
"Thanks," he said dryly.
"You're welcome."
After a minute, the nurse arrived, saw that he was awake and went to call the doctor.
"Do I really recall you telling me that Jack has appalling taste in friends?"
Emily laughed, amused at the way her husband had phrased something she'd always agreed with him on until recently. "I actually don't think she's that bad any longer. She's been wonderful with Jack and she's been extremely patient with the fact that this team will need to take yet more time off work. Particularly considering the expanding change in dynamics that we are all going to be going through over the next year."
He started to ask what she meant when the doctor arrived. He sent her off to get the coffee she'd been thinking about getting and although she left the room, she found she couldn't actually leave sight of the closed door while she waited for the updated verdict on her husband's condition.
"Hey Em, you look worried. What's happening?"
She turned her head and smiled at Austin. "Nothing too serious. Aaron woke up and the doctor is in looking at him."
"Well that's great, isn't it?"
She smiled tiredly. "Of course it is. It's just, he wouldn't look directly at me and I'm worried that's it not because he doesn't want to but because he can't."
"Oh, you mean like the swelling in his head hasn't completely gone down."
"Something like that." She dropped her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. "How's Reid doing?"
"He flat out told me he'd rather be shot in the leg than go through what he's now dealing with. On the plus side though, the latest surgery appears to be his last and the doctors are now certain that the antibiotics are on top of his bone marrow infection and are killing it off sufficiently. They'll continue monitoring him closely but they've fully closed up both sites and say that with the amount of pins and plates and such in him now that he should heal up the rest of the way on his own."
"That's really good news Austin. I'm so glad to hear that. I'll let Aaron know when I'm allowed back in to the room; I know it'll be a relief to hear that everyone is doing well now."
"Hmm. Heads up sweetie."
She opened her eyes to see the doctor coming out of Aaron's room.
"He's resting again, so why don't we go and get that coffee I know you didn't get in the last ten minutes and I'll tell you what's going on."
She nodded and waved to Austin as she walked off with the doctor. Five minutes later they sat down with half-decent lattes in the cafeteria.
"Before you ask, Aaron's recovering nicely and as far as I'm concerned, he's right on schedule for a full recovery."
She nodded as she pressed, "But was it just me, or is he still struggling with his eyesight?"
"It's not just you, but it also isn't anything I wasn't expecting. I finally got a good look at the scans that were done early this morning. There is still a little swelling, mainly concentrated around his optic nerves, but its less than it was last night and that's the main thing. If it continues to go down at the same rate it has been, he'll be able to see again in the next two or three days. We'll only start worrying about it if the swelling goes down completely and he still can't see. Otherwise, hold on to the knowledge that he's getting better and don't make a big thing about his sight."
"So how much can he actually see?"
"It's all pretty blurry for him right now. Light enters his sight as bright flashes that come and go, which is why we'll be mostly keeping the lights off for the time being. He could see a vague outline of you, but he couldn't make out things like colour or depth. Your touch was the most real thing about you; that and your voice. So comfort him those ways and let the rest go for now. Alright?"
"Okay," she said softly.
He checked his pager as it went off and stood as he picked up his empty cup. "Finish your coffee and go back to Aaron's side. Make sure you get some rest tonight though. I don't like how pale and tired you're looking."
"You sound like my doctor friend Brad."
"If you mean Brad Anderson, that can only be a good thing. Listen to his advice and get some rest. You won't be able to help Aaron if we have to admit you after you collapse of exhaustion."
She smiled slightly and nodded acquiescence. She'd go back and check briefly on Aaron and then she'd go and find Jack, have dinner and catch-up with the group and then she'd sleep for the next ten hours or so before coming back tomorrow to do it all over again.
This plan was interrupted slightly by arriving at Aaron's room to find him awake and determined to find out about the rest of the team.
"Look, love, you need to rest and get better. We'll talk in the morning."
"Emily, you will tell me now what I want to know or I'm not sleeping; I'll be too worried that you are keeping secrets that I need to know."
She sighed and dropped into the chair at his side. "You haven't pulled the truly stubborn card with me in a while. You must be recovered fully from your breakdown by now to be doing that."
"Stop changing the subject and spill the beans on the team so I can rest and you can go back to wherever you're staying and do the same. You sound exhausted."
She was so amused by his attempt to be bossy from flat on his back that she started laughing and couldn't stop until she was struggling to breathe with the lack of oxygen. She wiped tears from her eyes and sighed happily.
"Thank you for cheering me up babe. I really needed a good laugh."
"You're welcome," he said with a bucket-load of posh dignity in his voice.
She giggled again and then said wistfully, "Is there anything keeping me from kissing you senseless right now?"
He appeared to think about it before shaking his head carefully. "Nothing I can think of."
"Oh goody," she murmured before she spent the next few minutes doing just that. When they both had their breath back, she settled back in the chair with her hand in his and thought about where to begin.
"You should know, first off, that everyone is going to be just fine. It may take time, but you'll all recover nicely and we'll all as a group go back to kicking ass sooner than you would think and quicker than we did after the car crash."
"Don't you still have nine months of maternity leave left to go? The way you were talking just now, you'd be coming back to work with us."
"I do, but Strauss and I have been talking over the last couple of days and I'm pretty certain that I won't want the full amount of leave I could take off. I'm already going just a little crazy being left behind. This isn't to say that I'm not thoroughly enjoying motherhood in all its wild, crazy glory, but I need to be working and after finding that I can be separated from the girls for short periods of time and with the knowledge that I'm not breastfeeding them, we are now talking about me still taking the rest of the nine months off of full-time work and just doing part-time work instead."
"How would that work?"
"Strauss said we could attempt something like one week on, one week off. I obviously don't interrupt a case to leave if we are on one at the end of the week or just drop in on one if you're away at the start of my week on; she said it could be as flexible as it would need to be. Particularly when we go back to talking team dynamics."
"Yeah, I vaguely remember you saying something about that earlier. So what gives?"
"Right then; I'll go through everyone and their conditions and then I'll tell you how Strauss and I have determined everything should occur over the next year. Is this acceptable?"
"Am I still in charge of the team?"
She rolled her eyes, even though she knew he couldn't see her do it and said dryly, "Very funny darling. Who do you want me to start with?"
"How's Rossi? I know they said he was found and already being treated, but the lady on the other end of the line didn't have any of the pertinent details like what his condition actually was."
"Dave woke from his coma the second day after we arrived here, much to Teresa's utter relief. They were trying to avoid sending him to surgery to repair his internal bleeding because they weren't sure he'd survive it but in the end the surgery was necessary and it helped incredibly. They replenished his blood supply and he immediately started to recover from the damage he had sustained in the river. His brain activity is good and he is coherent when he's awake; his doctors aren't so worried about him now. He has a slight murmur in his heart, but they are monitoring it closely and are convinced it's fading on its own."
"I'm glad to hear that. I think because I couldn't talk to him while we were out there that he was the one I was the most worried about, even over the girls, considering how badly off they were. Did they get Kelly out alright?"
"It's understandable that you would think that way. Kelly turned out to be a miracle in the making. It took the rescue team almost ten hours to be certain of the actions they needed to take before they did anything to remove her from the plane but when they did, it all turned out splendidly. Her crush injuries weren't as severe as they first thought and they were able to extricate her without causing her further injury. Surgery repaired those injuries and with extensive physio she should make a clear return to her old physical self in next to no time."
"She said she was most worried about losing feeling from her waist down?"
"Hmm. I'll admit there was a lot of concern about spinal damage while the swelling was obscuring their scans, but when that went down this morning, feeling returned with a vengeance. We could hear her screaming with agony for almost a minute before they got her pain levels under control. Brad assured us that she'll be fine though, so that's the main thing."
"I'm really glad to hear that. She's such a physically active woman that I think it would have hurt something in all of us if she'd been permanently sidelined for life from this crash."
"I agree, but rest assured that she'll pull through nicely.
"Now, Reid is going to be on desk duty probably for the next six months before he is allowed back into the field. He's had a total of four surgeries to repair the damage to his right leg and he's spent the last three days doped to the limit on antibiotics and aspirin, which is the strongest painkiller he'll allow them to give him and there he only gave in after Austin threatened to leave him to get better on his own after he shouted at her in his pain."
"Oh dear. Did anyone think to record it?"
"No, and don't you dare tell me off for that either. I already heard all about it from Penelope who wasn't too happy to have missed it."
"You mentioned antibiotics?"
"He has a pretty severe bone marrow infection caused by the length of exposure to the less-than-sterile conditions surrounding him before he was rescued that is only now beginning to recede in the wake of the drugs he's on. He's got pins and metal plates throughout his leg and it's to be kept immobile for at least the next four months before they'll talk about removing some of the hardware to see if he's ready for physio. We clearly heard about that one too."
"At least if they're vocal about it you know they're well and truly alive and on the mend."
"I guess so. Though I know for a fact that Jordan wishes Derek weren't quite so vocal about it. He's driving her nuts with his grumpiness caused by his pain and enforced immobility and I've heard more than one nurse say they can't wait to see the back of him when he's discharged. Jordan's asked about sending him home and moving in with us for a week or two, just for some distance."
"Amusing, I'm sure. How's his shoulder?"
"They relocated it without issue but he has a hairline fracture in the shoulder blade he needs to be careful of for the next few months while it heals. His internal injuries were worse though. The damage to his spleen and appendix were too severe to fix so the doctor just removed them. His kidneys were worse though; he lost one of them and the other one is struggling to take over the full job on its own so he's on constant dialyses for the time being. As long as the kidney finishes healing without an issue, they don't think there'll be any long-term repercussions he'll have to deal with. And it is healing; it's just taking its time about it."
"That's good news. Penelope was really worried about him right before we were rescued. She said something about it being really hard to tell when a black man loses his colour so for Derek to look so pale could only be a bad thing."
"Yeah well, she wasn't kidding but he'll pull through and that is the main thing at the end of the day."
"Very true. So what about Penelope? I know she was worried about being in labour at the end."
"Oh she was very definitely in labour, poor thing. Her blood pressure and heart rate had plummeted on the way to the hospital and Kevin swears the doctor was going to pull his hair out because nothing was working in her favour initially."
"But you said everyone was going to be alright?"
"Penelope will be fine. They got her labour stopped about the same time they stabilised her blood pressure and her heart rate returned to normal."
"So how pregnant is she?"
Emily smiled in amusement. "Pregnant enough that everyone, especially Kevin, is annoyed with her for keeping it secret. She swears she was just trying to save it til Kevin's birthday, but she's almost 17 weeks pregnant and there was absolutely no way the baby would have survived if she'd delivered it now. She says she's learnt her lesson and next time she'll be up front and centre about it. Kevin of course told her they have to survive this time first; the look she gave him apparently had all the staff surrounding her at the time commiserating with Kevin about his almost-certain future."
"I can just see it now, knowing Penelope. And JJ?"
"All scans and x-rays showed the metal missed anything vital so it was removed with little effort and the damage to the surrounding muscle and tissue was repaired with minimal effort. She's had more issue with the infection caused by the metal and like Reid has been heavily doped up with antibiotics. Unlike Reid, she was right in her assumption that she's pregnant again and the antibiotics being used aren't as strong as the doctor would like them to be as he juggles killing off the infection with not killing off the baby. They think the metal came from the engine because of the amount of grease and dirt on it so her recovery has been slowed by her treatment being less than what it should be."
"So I have one of my agents already on maternity leave and another two who will be going on maternity leave in the coming months. Just peachy. How pregnant is JJ?"
"Only about 7 weeks, so just barely. Oh, and Penelope's having a girl, by the way."
"I'm delighted by that, truly. So now that I know everyone will be fine, what grand plan have you and Strauss come up with to get us through this?"
She sighed. "It's only a little bit grand and more leaning towards the desperate end of the scale. Almost everyone, with the exception of JJ, is going to be out of action for at least the next six weeks while various fractures and/or internal injuries heal. Strauss is in the almost literal process of making up bubble-suits for all of us because we appear to become more accident prone as the years go on. At the end of that six weeks, chances are good that only Penelope will be in any condition to actually return to work. You don't get any input until I'm done speaking," she said quickly when he opened his mouth to protest.
"Now, your doctor has informed us that those of you with head injuries; that is yourself and Rossi, are going to be out of action for at least the next three months as no neuro-specialist worth his medical certificate will be clearing you for work before he/she is certain that you are fully healed in the head and that is the approximate timeline for being returned to duty.
"Then there is Reid, who can return to desk duty in about eight weeks but not to field work, which is what we need. I'll slot into this category here, as a part-time return to work and I'm not finished yet. Again, my being part-time is not what we need.
"Kelly will be allowed to start physio in about a month once they're sure that her injuries are fully healed but it is possible that it'll be at least three months before she is cleared for more than desk work. We'll be keeping her on because she's done such a great job as me so that we're still covered when JJ goes on maternity leave because Jordan has flat out said she doesn't want the job again. JJ can train her when she returns to work. JJ herself will be cleared to work in the next few weeks once the infection clears and she's stronger but with the onset of morning sickness and the lack of a working team, this might be a moot point anyway.
"So, in light of all of this, we again have the rest of the year off to recuperate and get better on the understanding that if anything like this ever happens again, we will be kicked out of the FBI so fast we won't know what hit us. I'm pretty certain Strauss meant that threat despite the fact that we didn't exactly ask for any of this. And yes, now you may say something."
"You sound stressed. I think you need to come over here so that I can kiss you again."
She opened her mouth, closed it and then smiled reluctantly.
He grinned and beckoned with his finger. "Good answer. Now get over here."
She went quickly, before he changed his mind, kissing him until he gently pushed her back a bit.
"What you've just said makes perfect sense and if it means I get to spend more time just with our family in bonding and healing, I can deal with a few months enforced rest. Particularly knowing everyone will be fine in the end.
"Now, be a dutiful wife and go and get some rest. You still sound tired. Go, rest and come back tomorrow full of energy so you can take care of me some more; especially since you're doing such a good job of it already."
"I love you Aaron Hotchner; please try hard not to do this to me again."
"Only if you promise the same."
"Deal."
End-
A/N: And there you have it. Missing is done and dusted!
So as you can see, I'll be working Kelly into the near-future storylines and after JJ has her second baby we'll take it from there. I'll start properly laying that foundation in the next few pieces as I bring everyone home and get them settled back in to their lives.
As to Rossi, I guess we'll see about that soon.
Thanks again for all your patience through this piece and I hope the ending is all you could have hoped for. Til next time...
Please review with the conveniently placed link right under these words. I love to know what you think and it makes me type faster and update quicker.