Chapter 14

As soon as the remainder of the BAU team approached Derek's room, they knew that something had happened. Each member's heart plummeted at the frenzy of activity leading towards a particular hospital room. They were possibly too late.

Reid had been driving when Hotch received the call from Rossi. He had accelerated even more while listening to Hotch's side of the conversation. Neither of his teammates commented as he drove them to the hospital at breakneck speed, running through several red lights and missing other vehicles by scant inches. Clearly even Reid had acquired aggressive driving skills from his time on the team. They would all have done the same.

Hotch's expression became grim as he walked purposefully to the area. JJ and Reid walked quickly to keep up as he lengthened his stride to get to his destination without wasting any more time. Their faces were equally sombre and alert. They shoved away their exhaustion and closed ranks.

There were too many people coming and going in an unfamiliar setting for the team to piece together what had happened immediately. They did notice that there were several policemen guarding the entrance to Derek's room, instead of only a single officer that had been the norm for the past few days.

Hotch sized up the participants quickly and headed towards the officer that appeared to be in charge. He recognized the man and assumed the recognition would be reciprocal.

"What happened, Officer Green?" he barked without any formalities of speech.

The weary policeman took a few minutes to get his bearings before he finally placed the Unit Chief, in his memory.

"The uh, UnSub, as you guys call him, decided to come after your man in there," he replied with an exhausted voice.

They had all surmised that and were barely able to contain their impatience.

"He killed the officer at the door to get in," explained the officer. They all then realized that he was also taxed with grief and anger. The life of a good comrade had been lost. They tried to be patient.

"As far as we can tell, Agent Prentiss was there too and she fought with him. He strangled her and no one outside really noticed until the monitors went crazy and somehow, your Agent Morgan managed to press the emergency call button for help," narrated the officer.

The BAU team breathed a tiny sigh of relief but prudently waited to hear the rest of the story.

"The medical team weren't really used to dealing with things like that. The first nurse panicked and just threw herself at him. Luckily, he hadn't had time to take out his gun or it would have been a lot bloodier. Another one of the nurses or doctors, I'm really not sure which, was a bit smarter. Swung the end of a crutch she'd managed to grab on the way in when she heard the yells to call security. That did some damage to the guy and he let go.

Eventually security got up here and other people called us in. But not before the guy lost it and just went crazy. He got in a lot of hits and damaged some people really bad but did not kill them, thankfully," continued the policeman.

"Did you manage to restrain him?" asked Reid.

"A group of us held him down while a doctor jabbed him with some stuff to calm him down. It was either that or bash his head in. Frankly I would have preferred the latter," growled the officer.

Hotch sensed that they were not going to get much more from this man so he let him go. JJ was already looking around for a medical staff member to ask about Derek and Emily.

"Agent Prentiss blacked out due to a lack of oxygen and she may have some throat fractures but other than that and a sore throat, she should be fine. Agent Morgan, interestingly, has appeared to regain consciousness. Which is miraculous timing and probably saved her life but definitely ironic that he comes to when his wife passes out," stated a doctor gruffly, when accosted by JJ.

"I have just examined Agent Morgan and I'm sure that with some physiotherapy, he'll be absolutely fine. Now if you'll excuse me. I have other patients to attend to," continued the doctor, leaving quickly.

"What an ass!" huffed JJ, indignantly.

"I think he's just had a very busy night and there are always less staff on nights. Also he may have been involved in helping restrain the UnSub, he has scratches on his neck and the disarray of his hair at the back indicates that someone had gripped his hair extremely tightly," pointed out Reid.

"Right. I didn't notice that," muttered JJ, with a shamed face.

They both suddenly realized that Hotch was missing. He must have slipped away.

"Guys, what happened?" came the voice of David Rossi, with Detective Lewis in tow.

"They're okay," said JJ with a smile. She started telling them what had happened with a brief interruption to call Fran and inform her that her son and daughter-in-law were okay.

Reid wandered over to Derek's room. He absently thought that they should also inform Garcia as soon as possible.

He saw Hotch talking to Derek. Derek could talk. He was extremely relieved to witness that. Hotch finished what he was saying and squeezed Derek's shoulder. Derek still appeared weak and he closed his eyes when Hotch stopped talking. Hotch caught Reid's eye as he glanced towards the door.

It was all going to be okay. The team had survived intact. They were all still alive. For now.