A/N: Just got back from holidays in Germany, where I had no internet connection most of the time (stupid roaming laws cut me off after day 2). Anyway, here's the next installment, we're on our way to closure now, just a few wrinkles to iron out but no nobody will get hurt any more ;) Except for Strauss, and Lynch, of course ;)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Penelope passed out before arriving at the hospital, Morgan still holding her hand while she was being assessed on the gurney by the medics. He was clutching his arm with the other hand, feeling his accelerated heart-rate even worse in his wound.

"Sir, sir!" he vaguely heard the EMT yelling at him, in his daze he only had eyes and ears for his love laying there motionless in front of him, her dress now completely open. He knew it was so they could take a better look at her cracked ribs and try and asses if one had damaged her lungs, and he knew they had cut the fabric as respectfully as the urgency allowed, but his mind was boiling over with anger at the violation, hurt and humiliation she must have felt when Lynch... when he forced her. He tried not to let his mind wander there, even though his job usually demanded he go beyond what was unspeakable, he tried to shut off that part of his brain and just focus on his baby girl.

"Sir!" the other EMT, a tiny blonde with fire in her eyes, now yelled at him too. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, his throat suddenly too dry to answer. Inside, he wanted to scream that no, he was not okay, that his world was laying unconscious in front of him, but outwardly he was SSA Derek Morgan, agent and profiler to the core. He owed that to her. He couldn't take even a second of attention from her, not after he already failed her. He should've thrown caution to the wind, not listened to Hotch and Rossi when they convinced him to play along and not jeopardize his job, because they had broken frat rules and they needed a solid case against Strauss. "And Lynch," he thought bitterly, but he had been too busy focussing on the case, to get it over with as soon as possible, and on Strauss, and on missing Pen with every cell of his body. He should've seen the signs, even before their section chief had confronted them with the pictures.

After a short ride which seemed to last hours to Derek, they finally reached the hospital, where Penelope was taken straight into emergency care.

"You can't go in there with her, sir, not right away. Do you need medical attention? You are bleeding, sir? Come with me please, this way," a rattling but very authoritative and effective nurse directed him towards an exam room. He vaguely heard her saying something to a passing doctor, all he remembered was "fbi agent, shock, bleeding" but whatever she said, it worked because seconds later a doctor presenting himself as Dr. Mitchell came in, cutting straight to the point.

"Show me your arm, agent," he asked, and Morgan complied, still staring out in front of him, consumed by guilt and what if-scenarios. The wound was slowly bleeding again, courtesy of several ripped stitches, probably from when he pushed Lynch away or picked up Pen. He didn't know, and didn't care. All he felt was her pain, anyway. Mitchell didn't seem too worried about it either, quickly suturing it back up.

"Must've been one hell of a shooter huh, to miss your tattoo by so little," he tried to make some conversation, but it fell on deaf ears. Finally done, he sat back, studying Derek's face, trying to decide whether a psych eval was necessary or not. The nurse from earlier came back in, and he questioned her with his eyes about what happened. She whispered something in his ear, how he had been riding in the ambulance with an unconscious trauma victim.

Mitchell, who was not known for his superb psychological skills but liked to think emergency doctors where whatever their patients needed them to be, then made the mistake he would regret for the rest of his career, changing his views on many things.

"Come on, show us a little courage here, be a man about it. She's not the first, nor the last trauma victim coming in here, or that you have seen." he first tried, figuring he was sitting in front of an alpha male whose pride he surely could play.

Derek's eyes shot up, looking at the doctor in front of him incredulously. Satisfied with this reaction, Mitchell poked on, mentally congratulating himself he wouldn't have to play phone tag with the psychology department to get someone to see his patient before he could sign them off.

"She's going to be okay, nurse Ennis here tells me, another poor girl saved huh? She just had a little too much stress today, that's all!" he ended on a cheery note.

His life was saved in justesse by the rest of the team who had arrived at the hospital after calling in local police to secure Lynch in his hospital room, and heard Derek yelling a slur of insults at an unknown source. When they heard metal equipment scattering on the floor, they make a beeline towards the door of the exam room and came in just in time to prevent Morgan from grabbing Dr. Mitchell by the collar and sticking him to the wall.

XxXxXxX

The waiting room game then began, something all of them felt they had been playing way too often, way too long. JJ remembered the first time they had been waiting on news about Penelope, just a few years ago, and hoped the outcome would be as positive as then. Prentiss was sitting next to her, just like then, and this time it was JJ grabbing Emily's hand, in a comforting but all too familiar gesture.

Hotch and Rossi had taken off again, pleading their case with the LAPD and the regional FBI office, and trying to get as much information about Lynch's condition as they could. They met up with the rest of the team at the hospital, Hotch gathering them up to start a quick debriefing just when a doctor dressed in scrubs came out of the double doors of the ICU. He looked around, as if reluctant to interrupt the group since several of them still were wearing their FBI bulletproof vests.

"Euhm, excuse me, are any of you here for Penelope Garcia?" he walked up to them, taking off his mask and gloves. Morgan jumped up when hearing him, wincing a little as his leg protested the brutal treatment of the day, the rest of the team followed suit. The doctor looked at each of them, hesitant.

"Aaron Hotchner, Penelope's unit chief," Hotch extended his hand, hoping to put in some official weight to get information. The doctor took it, his lips curling in a regretful smile.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hotchner, I can only divulge information about Mrs. Garcia's condition to her family," he apologized.

"She doesn't have any family, we are her next of-..." Hotch countered, but he was interrupted by Morgan, who had been looking at the floor awaiting the news, but who now lifted his gaze to look the doctor right into the eyes. "I'm her fiancé."

To their credit, the rest of the team did not show any external signs of their surprise, gasping only inwardly, as the doctor seized up Morgan, choosing to believe him when he saw the apparent hurt in his eyes.

"Very well then. Mrs. Garcia will be fine. She has suffered multiple hits and traumas, but none that will leave lasting consequences. She has several cuts, these will take time to scar. As for her ribs, she broke two, and bruised the others, but they did not do any internal damage. We also did a rape kit, we are waiting on the police to come collect the evidence. I'm sorry." He glanced at Morgan.

Morgan closed his eyes, not wanting to think about what that meant, even though he knew he'd have to face it, if only to help Pen.

"Thank you, doctor," Hotch stepped in, taking over from Morgan, "Can we see her?"

"I don't see why not, she will be up in a room in about half an hour, perhaps 45 minutes depending on how busy they are. I'll have someone take you to the waiting room upstairs."

With a curt nod, he left the team, before halting and turning around towards them again. "Just one more thing, she's psychologically very frail. I don't think it would be advisable to interrogate her or stress her too much right now." He nodded again, and then went through the double doors again.

Just a minute later a nurse escorted them into a large waiting area on the first floor, and instructed them to wait until someone came to show them Penelope's room. They sat in silence, until a curious Emily could no longer keep her mouth shut.

"Fiancé, huh? Does Pen know?" she smirked.

Derek shot her a sideways glance, before resting his head back in his hands.

"As a matter of fact, Prentiss, yes she does." He shrugged. "Figured we wasted enough time already."

JJ shook her head. "Too much shocks in one day, wow, congratulations!" she smiled, but Derek was once again trapped in his thoughts, accepting her wishes with a faint smile while the others echoed JJ's sentiments.

XxXxXxX

When a nurse finally came to get them, Morgan went into Pen's room first, a little hesitantly, knowing that she was in pain but mostly not knowing how she would react when seeing him. His fears quickly disappeared when she looked at him with a mix of loving, frailness and hurt in her eyes, and he rushed over to her, taking her in his arms gently but as firmly as possible without hurting her.

"I love you," he murmured against her ear, his voice raw with emotions.

"I need you," she answered, tightening her grip on him.

"You got me," he settled her back into the pillows, tucking a loose strand of hair back behind her ear, his palm resting on her cheek for a minute, his other hand holding hers tightly. She smiled at him, then looked past him at JJ who peeked in, no longer able to wait to see her best friend. When she saw Pen smiling, she rushed in to her other side, hugging her one-armedly, quickly followed by the others.

Suddenly shy, Penelope looked down at her hands instead of at her family standing around the bed, silent tears welling up.

"I'm so sorry for causing you all so much trouble," she sniffed.

"Bella, you are no trouble, you are family," Rossi reassured her.

"You're not responsible for this Pen, Lynch and Strauss are," Emily added.

Pen's eyes shot up, wide open. "Lynch?" she inquired, closing them again. Everyone looked at Hotch and Rossi, who had the latest news on him.

"He got a bullet in his head, it didn't kill him, but lodged itself firmly in the area of his skull responsible for motor skills. He will probably survive as a tetraplegic, the doctor said," Hotch filled them in.

"Damn, I've lost my aim," JJ mumbled to herself, but loud enough for everyone to hear it.

"Yeah Morgan, I'd watch out if I were you, that's two of Pen's dates she shoots in the head," Prentiss joked, relieving the tension as everyone laughed, Penelope included.

"Okay everyone, I'm sure Penelope needs her rest," Hotch gathered them up. "Morgan, you stay here, while the rest of us go back to the FBI offices. We have official permission from the local director to sort out this case, he cleared it with Quantico over Strauss's head so she can't make us anything. But we still need to figure out her role. We'll come back as soon as we have more news, and then," he looked at Penelope, "then you will have to tell us everything that happened when you were here, are you feeling up to that?"

She nodded, snuggling closer to Derek, clutching his arm. "I'll be ready, boss man."

One by one they filtered out of the room, making their way to the elevators, except for Reid, who was fumbling with his phone.

"Aren't you going with them?" Morgan asked, shooting him a curious glance.

"Yeah, I'm going, I'll see you later!" Reid ran out of the room, catching up with the others. "Just a second guys, there's something I need to do before we go."

He left the rest of the team puzzled while he made his way over to the emergency room, where he asked for Kevin Lynch. Flashing his FBI badge, he was shown to the room where the man lay, guarded by a local LEO at the door, not that he was going anywhere.

"I'll be brief," Reid told the officer, peeking in, hoping against better knowing that Lynch would be awake already. To his surprise, the man was indeed staring at the ceiling, something he was going to do very often in his future.

"Hey Kevin!" Reid greeted him cheerfully, as if seeing an old friend, "I heard you weren't really going to recover from that bullet in your head, so uhm, considering that you're going to stay like this for the rest of your life, I thought I'd drop by to give you some news about your friends."

He grinned, and pulled out his phone, displaying a picture of Morgan and Garcia, cuddling close on her hospital bed. He held it above Lynch, watching the expression in his eyes change when he saw the couple together.

"They're going to be absolutely fine. Isn't that great news? Did you know they were engaged?" He paused, as if considering something.

"I figure you need your rest, Kevin," he continued, watching the anger in the paralysed man's eyes, "don't worry, I'll keep you updated. See you later!"

With a smirk on his face he rejoined the others, who were still just as puzzled as when he left them. They questioned him with their eyes when he arrived, hands in his pockets, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Just needed to give someone an update of sorts," he smiled, and they understood.

I know you all wanted to see Kevin dead, but I figured psychological torture is a really fun game to play. Reid is probably OOC there, but I do think he would be capable of it so I hope it's not too much of a stretch. And then again, screw that, Lynch deserves it LOL.

Next up: what happened, and how did Strauss and Lynch get to work together?