Author's Note: These chapters will be short and each is supposed to be an hour long.
WARNINGS: This story contains graphic discussion of tragic adult themes. The entire story is finished, and won't be altered for subject matter. I do not believe the story is heavy enough to warrant an M rating, but just be warned.
Disclaimer: I do not Criminal Minds or its characters.
Noon
Once he was sure that JJ was asleep and not going anywhere, Derek released his grasp and jerked himself away from her as if he had been burned. Striding quickly out of the room, he only made it about 5 feet before he flung his fist into the wall. "Damn!" He breathed as he slammed his fist into the wall again, trying to find some way to get out the sick feeling that overcame him at the torment that JJ was experiencing.
"Is that helping?" Rossi asked, gingerly stepping out of the hospital room.
Derek didn't even turn around, but responded. "I just feel so damn useless. And then—what happened to her—nobody should have to go through that Rossi."
"I know." The older man agreed simply.
"After everything she's been through, and then I—" Derek struggled to form the words. "Shit! I held her down like I was some monster. Dave, I—"
"Did what you had to do." Dave interrupted. "It's not like you had much of a choice."
"There's always a choice." Derek insisted softly. "I just hope I made the right one."
"JJ will thank you some day." Rossi comforted, "We do what we can to help each other, but sometimes that just doesn't seem like enough. But when all of this is over, she will know that you care enough to—" He was cut off by someone clearing their throat behind them.
"Are you the FBI Agents?" A tall male doctor asked, a young female nurse stood slightly to the man's left, allowing the doctor whatever time and privacy he needed to speak to the agents.
Derek nodded, "You are?" He asked, looking over the man's credentials.
"Dr. Jacob Gordon, you can call me Jake." He smiled, though there was something in the back of Derek's mind that made him wary of the other man. "I'm the trauma surgeon, Dr. Spaulding needed me to come in and examine Agent Jareau before we can think of releasing her. She asked that I speak with you first."
Derek sighed before rubbing a hand over his bald head. Dave stepped in, "Agent Jareau is very skittish right now, can this wait? She just fell asleep, this has been a very trying ordeal for her."
"I'm a busy man." The doctor bristled, then smiled, attempting to soften his obvious annoyance. "But I don't know when I'll have time to come back."
Derek and Dave shared a knowing look. With a resigned sigh, Derek nodded, and pushed his way back into the room he had just left. The others took one look at the entering men and stepped back, silently attempting to get out of their way but staying as close as possible to step in when needed.
Derek took his place at the right side of JJ's bed while Dave took a place across from him. Hotch wordlessly stepped up at the foot of JJ's bed, unwilling to step back and surrender his position as the head of the team. The three men hovered over JJ's bed, desperately hoping that they would not be required to inflict more trauma on their friend.
Derek caught Dr. Gordon's—Jake's—eye and nodded slowly. The doctor approached quickly, gently lifting JJ's head to inspect the wound just behind her ear. He gingerly prodded the soft swollen tissue, and at the increased pressure on her wound, JJ's eyes sprung open and she instantly jerked away.
The three men standing beside her, who had been watching her for such a reaction, quickly stepped in. While they hadn't wanted to hold her down if she woke calmly, but if she had a reaction like the one that had caused her earlier outburst, they were ready and prepared to help in any way necessary.
"JJ, it's alright." Hotch stated calmly, surprising the others with the warmth in his voice. "We're right here, we won't let anything happen to you."
Stepping back, the doctor smiled down at his terrified charge. "Jennifer, I'm Doctor Gordon." He informed her, ignoring the way she shrunk back into the bed trying desperately to distance herself from him. JJ felt the urge to vomit as the sickeningly familiar smell wafted past her nostrils.
"You." She stated, horrified. "It was you."
Stepping behind the men who were holding her down, Dr. Gordon quickly addressed the nurse who had come in with him. "Get me a dose of Ativan. I don't want to give her a sedative because of the head wound. I'll need some more blood work done."
"Is she going to be okay, Doctor Gordon?" Penelope asked anxiously. The others looked on desperate for some comforting words regarding their friend. If Derek wasn't so emotionally exhausted, he would have paid more heed to the niggling in the back of his mind that the Doctor didn't immediately correct Garcia the same way he had introduced himself earlier.
"Any head injury is troublesome because of its possibility of brain damage. In Jennifer's case we'll need to run a few more tests to be sure there's only minimal pressure against her brain. In the event of an injury to her temporal lobe, it's likely that immediately after the injury, she had a difficulty understanding what was said to her. Even now, you may find that she has a difficult time recognizing faces or categorizing objects. This should decrease as the swelling around her wound goes down, but I just need to be sure before I can release her."
Hotch nodded curtly, holding JJ down tightly as he forced himself to ignore her desperate pleas to protect her from the doctor. "I understand doctor, but she is already in danger. I'm sure you are aware of the incident earlier, we need to do everything we can to protect Agent Jareau."
"Are you referring to her allergic reaction, or her mental breakdown?" The doctor shot back quickly. "She is also not in a mental state where I can in good conscience allow her to leave medical care."
"Derek, please. Don't. Keep him away." JJ plead in between broken hysterical sobs.
The nurse quickly returned with a loaded syringe, and Dr. Gordon stepped back up to JJ's bedside. "Jennifer, I'm going to give you something to help calm you down. You've been through a tragic ordeal, and this should help you relax."
JJ could easily see the cold hatred in his eyes, the same hatred she had felt bored into her through every minute of her torturous experience the night before. "No!" She screamed, thrashing uselessly against her friends' tight grasp. "He's trying to kill me." She forced herself to take a deep breath that her friends might understand. Ignoring the way her lungs felt like they weere about to burst with fire, she looked Derek directly in the eye. "Please" She begged, "don't let him do this."
"Jennifer," Doctor Gordon smiled again, "this will help you feel better, I promise." He quickly plunged the syringe into her IV.
"JJ, we're not going to let anything hurt you." Dave added as he watched the medicine flow through the IV. "We're here to keep you safe."
"We will protect you." Hotch added comfortingly as JJ continued to struggle under their hold, "It is alright JJ."
"I won't let anything happen to you." Morgan agreed, looking her straight in the eye, "it's all going to be okay."