STOP MOTION
Chapter 10
No Escape

"But, for many minutes, the heart beat on with a muffled sound." – The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Whether it was the skill of the doctors, or Aaron's sheer doggedness, at the third attempt, his fragile damaged heart beat on its own and resumed pumping the life through his battered body. The elevator was filled with a renewed hope as the doors opened on the OR floor.

They wanted him out of the OR as soon as possible, so two teams worked on Aaron at the same time. The bones of his legs were pulled into position and pinned, and the gunshot wound in his thigh was repaired and closed. His facial bones were so badly broken he was bolted into a cage to keep him still. His jaws were wired and his cheek bones pinned.

But the main things that most of the doctors present were concerned about were his fingers.

-0-0-0-

Aaron's team members, friends and lovers waited in the relatives' room. They had been here before; different states, different doctors, same anxiety and fear.

Dave paced slowly up and down the room. He had abandoned one crutch and his right hand gripped the wet bloody patch on his lower abdomen. He ignored Morgan and Emily's pleas to sit down. He knew he was going to be ok, and this doing nothing was stringing him out. Pacing gave him something to do.

'For god's sake, sit down!' Reid shouted in frustration. He sat in a wheel chair in the corner and had said nothing up to now. He watched his fingers in his lap rip a tissue into tiny pieces and wondered if Hotch would still have his hands when they brought him out. It would be the end of his career if he didn't, a career that he had sacrificed his family to. If he lost this, Reid knew, if that god he had sacrificed to proved false, he would be as good as dead inside.

'Sorry.' Dave sat down on the edge of a chair as far from Reid as possible in the tiny room. This was not lost on Morgan who turned away from the window through which he had been staring for the half hour that they had been waiting.

'Let's not fall apart.' Morgan said. 'However this turns out Hotch is going to need us.' He had no doubt that Hotch was going to make it. He just didn't know how Hotch would react if he lost his job.

'Yeah.....,sorry Rossi.' Reid said without raising his head. 'Didn't mean to snap.'

Garcia had been on an ice cream hunt with Jordan, and she arrived back at that moment. Four pairs of eyes looked up hoping for news, and looked down again when they saw who it was. Garcia handed out the ice creams, and the team obediently unwrapped them and started eating them.

'Thanks Baby Doll.' Morgan said. No one else spoke. Dave stood with a groan and limped over to stand with Morgan and look out of the window onto the car park. A bit of a grey view, but at least it was a changing vista and people didn't look as if they were about to burst into tears.

'My apologies, Derek.' Dave said. 'I don't know what came over me. I'll never be the team leader that Hotch is. I don't want the job by default.'

Morgan put his arm across his friend's shoulder and squeezed lightly.

'I understand. The team needs Hotch as much as Hotch needs the team. We have to stay focussed.'

'Are Lester and Burrows in this hospital?' Emily asked. 'I'd like to chat with them.'

'Good idea.' Dave said, turning to face what was essentially his team until Hotch was back. 'Take Reid with you and see what you can find out. We really need to know if there is anyone else out there, or if we got the whole gang.'

Emily nodded and wheeled Spencer out of the room. Dave sat down again and put his face in his hands.

Don't cry here, David......

But he couldn't hold back any more.

-0-0-0-

In the dish that the theatre nurse was holding were two blackened fingertips. As she walked away from the operating table to deposit the necrotised fingers for histology, she glanced at the man's now deformed hand. She had watched surgeons remove entire necrotised limbs before, but this had affected her more than ever before. She knew a little of what had happened to this man, how he had been kidnapped and tortured for four days before he was rescued, and now his entire future was in doubt because of what the kidnappers had done to him.

She put the dish down and went around the table to where the surgeon was attending to Hotchner's other hand.

-0-0-0-

Morgan and Garcia pretended that they hadn't noticed Dave's breakdown. Jordan went and sat next to him.

Dave flinched and tried to wipe his eyes without anyone noticing.

'I need the men's room.' he announced unnecessarily, and left the room.

Morgan sat down next to Garcia and opposite Jordan. Then the doctor came in. Morgan stood up. He wanted to ask if Hotch was alive. Instead he stood mutely, and waited for the doctor to say something.

'Agent Hotchner is still in surgery.' he said. 'Although his injuries are extensive, none are life threatening on their own. However....' he paused, he hated giving this kind of news. 'However, put together, there is a tremendous strain on him, and with the injury to the heart muscle, he is in imminent danger of crashing. He will have to stay in intensive care for quite a long time, until his heart has recovered from the damage caused by repeated shocking.

'We have also had to remove the little finger and top joint of his ring finger of his left hand. We are hoping that the necrosis on his remaining fingers is only surface, and the tissue may recover.'

'His right hand?' Morgan asked. He needed to be sure.

'We are leaving his right hand intact because of his job. Leaving necrotised finger tips could endanger his whole hand, but we thought under the circumstances, it was worth the risk.'

Morgan blinked. 'His hand?'

'If the tissue doesn't recover, and the necrosis spreads, he could lose his hand, or possibly worse. We are hoping that the necrosis is only on the surface. We can't tell for sure without doing a biopsy, and we prefer to leave the tissue undisturbed.'

'When can I....I mean we see him?' Garcia asked, a faint tremor of desperation in her voice.

'Agent Hotchner is due out of surgery now. It will be about half an hour before you will be able to sit with him. It could be days before he responds to you. I will come for you as soon as he is out of recovery.'

-0-0-0-

Aaron's first awareness was of the softness of the bed he was lying on. He wasn't certain he wanted to come back. This could be a trick to try to trigger the Stockholm Syndrome in him. He was in pain, but it was a distant muffled pain as if he was feeling it through the softness on the bed. Had they given him pain killers?

He tried to move and the result was to make him dizzy behind his closed eye lids. There was something in his throat and he panicked. The first time he had felt panic since he had been abducted from his bed at gunpoint.

This was the first time he didn't understand what was going on.

A sudden dreadful pain, like a steel band tightening across his chest, stopped all thought, and he was sucked down into a mire of hopelessness.

The tiny movement as not lost on Garcia. She had been sitting with him for many hours now, and she was sure he had moved his head. But the movement was forgotten as the crash alarm sounded, and the intensive care team rushed into Hotch's ward.

There was a crash trolley already waiting by his side. Garcia stepped away from him and watched the scene play out in front of her in slow motion.

The back of her mind registered 'clear!' and she watched Aaron's back arch and his body jerk from the bed.

'Clear!' again. How could he take this? How much could one man take without giving up?

Or Had he?

'Don't give up, Hotch!' she called to him softly. 'We love you. Don't leave us!'

She saws the oscilloscope register the heart beat before she heard the sound.

He was back again......for now.

She resumed her seat next to him. She wanted to hold his hand, but they were bandaged and fragile. Instead she touched his face through the steel cage with the backs of her fingers.

'Stay with us, Hotch. Just stay with us.'

-0-0-0-

Dave had been dragged back to the ER to have his gunshot wound checked out. He took the rebuke for "rushing around like an idiot", and lay back quietly as the stitches were re done, and the dressing changed. Todd had gone back to the hotel to collect some clean clothes for him, and despite not wanting to be fussed over, he did feel better with clean jeans and shirt on. He promised to use both crutches, and he was dismissed, but not before getting told off again, and made to promise not to act as if he hadn't been shot in the guts.

He was in pain again after having been "poked about" and he slowly made his way back to wait with the others outside Hotch's room. Morgan told him what had just happened.

'We could still lose him, you know.' Jordan said. 'His heart is still so weak.'

Dave nodded and went into the room where Garcia had her head on his bed with her eyes closed. He sat down on the other side of the bed and touched Aaron's arm.

'Aaron,' he said. 'It's Dave. I wanted to say that we are all here for you. When you are ready, just open your eyes, and we'll be here.'

Dave patted his arm gently, and stood up again. He left the room without waking Garcia.

-0-0-0-

The voice came from a long way off, but he recognised it instantly.

Dave.

His friend.

Could it really be Dave? Had they found him?

Thinking was difficult. It was like trying to walk in treacle.

Was it another trick? He refused to allow them to trick him. Why didn't they just kill him and leave him alone?

He fought his way upwards and tried to open his eyes. He needed to see where he was. He needed to be awake to counter this trick they were playing on him.

The light filtered through his eye lids and his lashes cast shadows across his retina. With effort, he forced his eyes to open a tiny bit and look up at the ceiling.

He was in a different room now. No longer grey with a single dim bulb casting yellow light. This room was bright and he closed his eyes quickly. The light felt like a burn on his eyes, and he tried to turn his head.

Something was holding his head still. It felt as if his head was clamped to something and he felt a deep helpless fear. He tried to scream but something was in his throat. He couldn't move his jaws.

Tears of impotence and fear welled up in his eyes and forced themselves between his eye lids. The warmth of his tears on his skin was somehow calming, proving to him that the sensations that he was feeling were real. He flinched as something or someone touched his face. Inside he screamed but he was not able to make a sound. The touch was not hurting him, and he was confused, as things only hurt him now. Why were they tricking him? What did they want?

He felt his tears gently wiped away, and more fell to take their place.