And When I Wake

Chapter 11

Andrea Archer had more memory of the attack than did Linda Kimura. Kimura had been the first to be knocked out.

"The person was wearing a cap and a ski mask. Honestly, apart from knowing they were taller than I am, I can't be sure if it was a male or a female. I was bent over, getting ready to pull my purse from my desk drawer, and I heard kind of a grunt. When I looked up, Dr. Kimura was falling to the floor. I didn't see our assailant right away, and started around the desk. By the time I realized there was someone behind Dr. Kimura, it was too late…I was already too close to them."

She'd been struck on the side of the head, and they'd been told that it was providential she hadn't suffered a significant skull fracture, with bleeding on the brain.

"I don't understand," said JJ. "I thought you said the unsub was tall. How was it you didn't see him….or her…behind Kimura?"

Archer started to shake her head in a gesture of 'I don't know', but it was obviously too painful. Instead, she let her shrugging shoulders do the talking.

"I don't quite remember. But I'm guessing they were crouched down behind her. I'm sorry. That's the best I can do. It's the last thing I remember, until here. I'm sorry."

She'd been told that they'd found an injection site on her, as well. And that they suspected both physicians had been inoculated with the laboratory-engineered strain of pneumococcus. Given her circumstance, JJ had been impressed that the medical examiner was able to focus enough to answer their questions.

"You've been very helpful," said Hotch. "Thanks to you, we know how the unsub gained access to the building, and that he must have left the same way. That narrows our search for evidence."

Not mentioning that the cap, ski mask and gloves would minimize said evidence, perhaps down to nothing. But Dr. Archer had been able to deduce that the unsub could only have gained access to the building through the public front entrance. The receiving bay doors were fit with an audible alert, so that transport vehicles could be met, and assistance given with the movement of their once precious cargo.

"I would have heard it. I'm always tuned in to listen for it, whenever I'm in the building, because I know it means I'll need to triage the remains, perhaps even stay to oversee an emergency autopsy. There's no way they could have come in through there. But it would have been easy to walk in the front door, looking like a family member, and hide out in a bathroom until the office closed."

"What about getting out again?" asked JJ.

"The doors aren't locked from the inside. Only the vault is locked, where the remains are kept."

"All right, thank you, Dr. Archer. We'll be back if we think of anything more we need to ask you." Hotch motioned to JJ with his eyes, and the two of them took their leave.

"Call Morgan and let him know."

Hotch had sent one member of his team back to the ME's office to review video of the parking area and front entrance, hoping to catch a glimpse of their unsub and gain some insight from their method of movement.

"Okay. Then?"

Hotch looked as tired as JJ felt. "Then join the rest of us in Kimura's room." Before he walked away, Hotch had one more task to assign. "And call Garcia. Have her find us someplace nearby to get some rest. We're all sleep-deprived at this point. That won't help anyone."

Amen to that, thought JJ, as she walked away. But who can sleep


Hotch was silent as he entered Kimura's room, respectful of the conversation that was taking place over the speaker of Reid's cellphone.

"So, are you saying we should wait, or should they take prophylaxis?" Reid frowned at Kimura as they both listened for the answer.

It came through in a female voice. "I'm saying we're not sure it will work, but prophylaxis against pneumococcus is helpful in certain subsets of patients."

Kimura explained to the BAU members surrounding her hospital bed. "It's helpful in patients who have trouble fighting infections, especially those who no longer have a spleen. That's because most pneumococcal strains are susceptible to penicillin."

"But this one isn't?" For Rossi, most of the conversation may as well have been in another language, but he understood this concept.

"It is," explained Kimura. "But it also seems to have a predilection for getting to the CNS tissue." Correcting herself once the expression on Rossi's face told her she'd slipped into jargon. "For the brain and spinal cord. It's part of how it was engineered. It can cause other types of infections, but it seems to bond with the central nervous system the best."

Hotch spoke up this time, announcing his presence to the others. "Does that somehow impact on the efficacy of prophylaxis?"

Rossi threw his old friend a look. As an author, he was proud of his vocabulary, and didn't mind the use of multi-syllabic words. He just liked them to be in English.

Kimura fielded this question as well. "Yes…..and no. The sensitivities of the organisms from the children who died weren't unusual, just the predilection for the bacteria to cause meningitis rather than another form of pneumococcal infection. So a form of penicillin would be the right drug to use. But taking it by mouth doesn't quite raise the blood level enough to get a significant amount of it to cross into the CNS. That would require IV prophylaxis."

Rossi was about to ask for a translation when Reid spontaneously supplied one.

"So, you're saying that most cases of infection, even meningitis, start in the blood. If you can control the bacteria in the blood, you can prevent the meningitis. But this one goes too quickly to the brain?"

"Maybe," clarified Kimura. "Or maybe it just bonds better. It must interact with brain cell receptors better than most forms of it do."

If the subject matter hadn't been so serious, Hotch would have laughed at the sight of Rossi's head moving back and forth from Kimura to Reid, as though watching a tennis match. It moved again now, in Reid's direction.

"So, it wouldn't be enough to get a blood level of penicillin, we'd need to get you a significant level in your spinal fluid," concluded the young genius.

"Exactly." Kimura and the voice on the phone spoke at the same time, with the telephonic voice continuing.

"That's why I was telling Linda that I think she should have a port implanted, and we can keep her on IV prophylaxis for as long as it takes to figure this whole thing out."

JJ had entered the room without making a sound, and now stood next to the equally silent Kate Callahan.

"If it will keep you from getting sick, Dr. Kimura, I'm for that as well," she opined.

Reid smiled at his physician friend. "Make that three."

Kimura sighed. A port had its own risks. But if having one implanted would free her to do the work she needed to do, she would go along.

"All right."


"I'm sorry, it was the best I could do," apologized Garcia. "Three rooms at the Motel 6. None of the rest would let you check in at 6 AM."

"Doesn't matter to me," yawned Kate. "As long as it's got a mattress, I don't care if it's Camp Canoe. I'm exhausted."

Twenty minutes later, the weary BAU team divided into their two SUVs and drove the short distance to the motel. The three with children at home lingered outside long enough to call them, as it was just pre-school time in DC. Rossi headed to the room he would share with Hotch, while Morgan eyed Reid, who seemed to be in no hurry to get to their shared room.

"You got a call to make, Pretty Boy?"

Reid had been staring out the window, but was startled into response. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess I should call Stephanie. She should be up by now."

Morgan smiled at the fact of his 'little brother' finally having entered into the land of traditional romance.

"Okay, well you make that call, then. I've got my own lady to talk to." He wiggled his phone at Reid, indicating his intention to call Savannah once he got to their room.

"Go ahead. I'll be along. Make sure you don't use up all the towels." It wasn't the first time they'd shared a room.

"Hah!"

Reid found Stephanie's number among his 'recents' and pressed it. She answered on the second ring.

"Hi, Spencer!"

"Hi. How are you?"

"I'm fine. You?"

"Okay. How's the tour going?"

"So far, it's been sold out at every venue, and we've gotten a standing ovation each night. Which is the good news. But…well, I'm afraid I've got some bad news as well. The director wants to extend it by a week."

Later, when he thought back on it, Reid would be surprised that his only reaction had been to think about having a week to catch up on his reading.

"Oh. Well, bad for us, I guess. But good for the orchestra?"

There was a long hesitation on the other end of the phone, as Stephanie seemed to consider whether to tell him something. Reid couldn't be sure if all boyfriends had the kind of radar he did. But he was, after all, a profiler.

"What aren't you telling me?"

He heard her sigh before she responded. "He wants to take a small group of us…the string quartet, actually…..to China." She waited, and then continued when he gave no immediate response. "He actually brought it up a while ago, and I wasn't really considering it, but, now…."

"Now you've been traveling, and you've got the bug."

He could almost hear the smile in her next words. "I've got the bug." Pause, then hurried words. "But, if you don't want me to, Spencer…."

Reid's genius brain did its best to supply him with the right words, while he consulted with his ever-increasing emotional IQ.

"I would never ask you to give up an opportunity like this for me, Stephanie. Not that I won't miss you…" Emotional IQ points rising… "but it would be pretty selfish of me to keep the Chinese from hearing your music. Who knows what it might do for international relations?"

She chuckled through the phone. "Who knows? So, you're all right with it?"

He could hear the eagerness in her voice. She wanted this. "Of course. And, besides, for all we know, if you stayed back, I'd be called out of town for the whole time you would have been gone."

She sighed again. "We do have crazy schedules, don't we?"

Reid thought he heard something she hadn't said. But his fatigue was beginning to overcome him.

"We do. But that doesn't mean I can't call you tonight…or tomorrow morning…or whenever."

That was a clue. For all of his genius, Reid had trouble accommodating to time zones.

"Where are you?" asked Stephanie.

"Oregon."

"Oh! That explains the early phone call, I guess. What's the case?"

He hesitated. "Remember I told you there would be some that I couldn't talk about?" Like the one during which they'd met. "Well, this is one of them."

They'd been asked to keep things quiet, in the interest of not having a nationwide parental panic over vaccines.

"Oh, I see." Not really seeing at all. Stephanie had been tangentially involved the last time, and not entirely excluded from information. It didn't feel as easy to accept this time. "Well, okay, then."

"Okay." Emotional IQ lowered by fatigue. "Glad you understand. I'll talk to you when I can. Break a leg-or a bow, or something…" Knowing, from past experience, how she would react.

"Spencer!"


Hotch and Kate had already completed their calls and gone in, but Reid could see JJ still standing outside, a look of agitation on her face. As tired as he was, he decided to wait for her.

It was another two minutes before she ended her call. Or, rather, before her call seemed to have ended abruptly. Reid could see her standing, staring at the phone in her hand, as though she couldn't believe what had come through it. He decided to go outside, taking advantage of the privacy it would afford them.

She looked up when the doors swished open.

"Spence…"

"Hi. I was just finishing my phone call, and I saw you out here, and…" A rush of words, offering an unnecessary explanation.

"Oh. How's Stephanie?" Effectively changing the subject before it had time to become a 'subject'.

Damn. "She's fine. Said the concerts were all sold out."

"Wow, that's great. Good for them."

"Yeah. She also said the tour was extending for a week. And that she's going to China after that."

JJ had been using the topic of Stephanie as a means of avoiding talking about her own family. Now it seemed like it might actually be a sore subject for Reid. Or that it should have been a sore subject. She looked sideways at her best friend, examining him for signs of upset, and not finding any.

"Are you okay with that? With her being away for so long?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" His newly emerging social savviness always seemed to fail him with JJ. He was almost entirely incapable of artifice with her. Almost.

Realizing too late that he probably should have been disappointed about Stephanie, Reid tried…and failed…to reconnoiter. "I mean…. we can still talk. And I wouldn't want to get in the way of her success."

If she hadn't been so tired, JJ would have been more discrete. At least, that's what she told herself, afterward.

"Hmph. Unlike some people I know."

It took only a nanosecond for Reid to see his opportunity. He pounced.

"What do you mean?"

Upset with herself, JJ tried to put him off. "Nothing. I don't mean anything. We should probably get to bed, don't you think?"

"JJ?"

It was the nature of their relationship that it only took the one word. Mostly, that it only took the obvious love and concern that could be poured into a single word. Despite the fact that they'd both been trying to shield the other from their individual dilemmas…..the shield was down.

She shook her head. "It's nothing, Spence, really. Not worth talking about. Just more of the same. Will's upset that I was called away right after he came home...from a full week away, mind you. He thinks we should 'make our family a priority'".

"Well.."

"No, Spence. Because all he really means is that I should make his family a priority. In New Orleans."

"Aren't you going there in July?"

"Apparently not. He's told them we'll come for a long Memorial Day weekend. He's already told the school that Henry will be missing time." Sounding more annoyed with every word.

Reid's extensive vocabulary failed him. "I….. well, maybe….."

"Don't try to defend him, Spence. I'm too angry, and I might bite your head off, since I can't get at his."

He made a show of feeling about his face and hair, just as she heard her own words. JJ could do nothing but laugh at herself. "Sorry."

He smiled back. "Think nothing of it. It's just that I've grown rather fond of being in one piece."

She grinned at him. "You always know how to make me feel better, don't you? Come on, " linking her arm with his, "there's nothing I can do about this today, so I'd rather not think about it any more. Let's just get some sleep and dream good dreams…..like about Kimura not getting sick….or Stephanie coming home early…"

He joined in. "Or pancakes for breakfast. I think I might be as hungry as I am tired."

She snorted. "You and your godson are two of a kind. For Henry, there's nothing a good stack of pancakes can't cure."

He laughed, as he released her to open the door. "As long as they're filled with chocolate chips."

"I see you've been schooled."

"By the best." They'd walked down the short hallway to where their rooms were across from one another. "See you in the….. in a few hours?"

She nodded. "And, if we don't have time for breakfast, I'll make sure Garcia gets some delivered."

He smiled. "You and Garcia are a formidable team."

She wasn't sure quite how to take that, considering she and the technical analyst had teamed up to place the 'datemybestfrienddotcom' ad that had resulted in Stephanie being in his life.

"I hope you mean that in a good way."

"Always."