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Chapter Fourteen: Fight

The team was trying to stay awake as long as they could just watching Garcia, hoping she'd wake up and everything would go back to normal. But they all knew things weren't going to be normal any time soon.

About an hour after they'd been allowed into Garcia's room, JJ couldn't hold it back anymore. She started crying silently trying not to get the others attention. But Reid noticed. He got up from his chair, walked over to JJ and sat in the vacant chair next to her. JJ was looking down trying not to notice Reid watching her, when he put his hand on hers. She looked up and that's when she saw his red eyes and a trail of water from his eye to his chin from where he had let a tear escape. She looked around and noticed that he wasn't the only one on the verge of tears. Hotch was bent over with his elbows sitting on his knees while he rubbed his face, Emily was staring at the machine that was breathing for Garcia, chewing her nails and occasionally wiping her eye, and Morgan was sitting on Garcia's right side, leaning forward, and staring straight at Garcia with a worried look on his face that she'd never seen before.

Every half hour or so a nurse would come by to check Garcia's stats and make sure there was enough blood going into her veins. Each time she came in she would smile sadly at them and ask if there was anything they needed. And each time they just shook their heads.

After about two hours the past couple of days started to catch up with them. When they had been close to finding Penelope they'd forgotten all about the lack of sleep they had, but now they were finding it hard to keep their eyes open. So they each fell asleep whether they wanted to or not.

A few hours later they all woke up at the same time. At first they didn't know what had woken them up until they noticed the lack of beeping in the room. They looked over and sure enough Garcia's heart monitor was flat lining. There was a constant buzz in the air and before they could do anything nurses were rushing in the room with a crash cart.

They were so shocked they didn't even notice when a couple of nurses took them outside the room. They were brought back by the snapping of the door as it shut. Morgan then tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge so he proceeded to knock, or actually hit and kick the door. Hotch went over and placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

"Let them do their job." He said quietly

"I need to be in there Hotch." He yelled angrily. Hotch just looked back at him "I can't leave her, not now." He said a bit more quietly

"I understand Morgan. Believe I do, if I didn't think it would make things worse I'd be helping you kick down the door. But right now we'd just get in the way." Hotch said trying to remain calm for his team

Hotch stepped aside and hesitantly Morgan walked over and set in a chair by the wall.

After what felt like an eternity a nurse opened Garcia's door. The team quickly moved forward just as the rest of the nurses and Penelope's doctor stepped out of the room closing the door behind them.

When the doctor saw them he stopped and they noticed he looked older, tired and sad.

"Is she…" Reid began

"She's alive." The doctor said with a sigh "It was close. She was technically died for almost a minute and then she kept going in and out. We've managed to stabilize her for the time being."

"But…" Hotch said when he stopped and looked down

"As I've said the next twenty-four hours is crucial. I highly suggest you talk to her now, but be positive, there is a possibility she can hear you. It's up to her if she makes it. But on the other hand even if she fights, she still may not make it." He said looking even more depressed.

With that he nodded goodbye and left. Slowly the team made their way to Garcia's room. When they opened the door and went in she looked exactly the same as when they left.

After a few minutes of silence Hotch decided he better do something.

"I think it would be a good idea to take the doctor's advice and talk to Garcia." He said looking around at his team "Morgan you can go first while the rest of us go to the cafeteria, then will keep taking turns until we've each had a chance."

Everyone silently agreed and with one more look at Garcia they left Morgan alone with Penelope.

Morgan carefully took Garcia's casted hand in his. For a while he just watched her. He couldn't stand the thought of losing her. I tear pooled to his eye but he wiped it away.

"Penelope, you got to wake up. You have to fight. If I lose you I don't know what I'll do. I need you baby girl, more than anything." He paused and looked down at her hand before continuing "I was so stupid." He said with a dry laugh "I should have told you how much you mean to me a long time ago, but I guess I just didn't believe it. You see I never thought I'd find someone like you. You're absolutely perfect." He looked back at her face and took a breath before saying what he wished he'd said before "I love you Penelope. Let me rephrase that." He said with a slight laugh "I'm IN love with you." He said stressing the 'in'. "Sweetness, please, fight this. You can do it. You're a lot stronger than you let us think. I know that." Morgan said. He watched her for another minute praying her eyes would open and he could smile again.

It hadn't seemed like it had been as long as it had when JJ quietly knocked on the door and opened it. Morgan looked up still holding Penelope's hand not wanting to loose contact.

"It's been almost thirty minutes." She said as she came further in glancing at Penelope

Morgan didn't want to leave but knew the others wanted their turn. So he stood up, brushed some hair out of Penelope's face, and turned to leave. When he got to the door he turned back.

"If anything happens…"

"Don't worry Morgan. You'll be the first person I call." JJ said quietly trying to give him a reassuring smile but finding it difficult

Then with one last look at Garcia he left the room silently closing the door behind him. For a minute he just stood outside leaning against the door with his eyes closed. He then started to head down to the cafeteria where the others were.

JJ wasn't sure what to say. There were plenty of things she wanted to say, but knew if she started talking then she'd cry and she didn't want Garcia to hear her cry. If she could hear her at all that is. So she took a minute to breath. She closed her eyes and fought back the tears. When she opened her eyes she noticed Garcia looked even paler then when the team had left for the cafeteria.

"Hey, Pen." She began a bit shakily but at least not crying "You know you better wake up soon before Morgan has a stroke." She said with a forced laugh. She looked down at her hands before looking back up and continuing. "You have no idea how much you mean to all of us Garcia. You're family and we need you and I don't just mean with work either. You make us smile and laugh even when we don't feel like it. Whenever we need someone to listen you're there, no matter how late. You're what keeps us sane, basically." She said with a laugh. She stopped for a minute to get her nerves under control before looking back at Garcia. When she looked down and saw her friend so badly beaten and broken she almost lost it. Suddenly a rage came over her and she desperately wanted to go and personally beat up Rigswood, preferably to death. She took a few deep breaths trying to calm down. "You know, you're like my sister Pen. You have to fight this. You have to wake up. Please." Seeing Garcia and realizing she was so close to dieing she couldn't hold it back. Tears started rolling down her cheeks but she covered her mouth. Just at that time there was a knock on the door and Reid popped his head in.

"Umm… hi JJ." Reid said a bit nervously seeing JJ with tears running down her face "It's…um…my turn, but if you need another second I can…"

"No, it's ok." JJ said with a watery smile as she wiped some tears away. She stood up and wanted to lean down to kiss Garcia's forehead but stopped when she saw the many bandages, cuts, and bruises. So she turned and headed for the door. When she reached Reid she looked back once more before placing a comforting hand on his arm and leaving to join the others.

Reid went over and sat in the chair JJ had just vacated. He looked down at his friend and couldn't remember her ever looking so fragile. Every time he looked at her his stomach lurched. He'd read the files along with the others so he had a pretty good idea what Rigswood had done to her. When he looked at her he could see the SOB torturing her and remembered the conditions they found her in. That alone made him want to throw up.

"Hey, Garcia." He began holding back the tears that were welling up. "You know statistically…" he started but then imagined Garcia rolling her eyes and laughing so decided it wasn't the time. "I know I haven't told you this, and I should have, but you're the closest thing to a sister I have. When I first started to work with the BAU I was feeling a bit… alone, but it's like you took care of me when no one else cared. I don't know how you do it, but you always know what to say and when to say it." He said with a slight laugh. "And you know, I just realized, you help keep us sane, but you never really ask for anything in return and we never try to help you like that. I mean we ask you if you're alright after you've seen or heard something bad but that's it. If it had been us than you would have taken us out or forced us to talk or something like that. There's not many people who would willingly listen to us talk about that kind of stuff and not expect anything back." He stopped for a minute and looked at his watch. "Well I guess Emily will be in here soon. Before she gets here I just want to say that you need to beat this. If something happened to you then who would I be able to tell everything to? You're one of my best friends Garcia and I swear I'll never take you for granted again." Just as he said this Emily knocked and opened the door. He stood up and looked at Garcia before turning and leaving trying not to let Emily see his red eyes. But he didn't have to worry about Emily seeing his eyes. She was completely focused on Garcia.

JJ was right, she looks even worse than before. "Garcia, you have to come back to us." She said as she sat down. "You're defiantly going to have your work cut out for when you wake up." She said with a little laugh "I mean you should see Morgan. At first he wouldn't stay still and now he's sitting with his arms crossed not moving an inch and just staring at random objects. Oh and Hotch. He's trying to act calm but every few minutes he's getting up to refill his already full coffee cup and every time a door opens he looks over to see who it is." She looked down and when she saw Garcia she had to look at the ceiling. "You know we would have found you a lot sooner if you'd been there to help. I mean that substitute tech was awful, or at least compared to you. I know you've probably already heard this from the others, but we need you. A lot. So please, Garcia, I'm begging you. Fight. We all know how stubborn you can be and you're defiantly not weak. I mean look at what you have to do at work all the time. You see more than we do sometimes. Not to mention the fact that you not only lived through Rigswood you also fought him. When they were taking him away I noticed the scratches and bruises you gave him." She stopped again and took a deep breath. "You helped make me feel welcomed when I came and you're my friend. You can do this, I know for a fact you can make it. Just…you have to try." A couple of minutes went by as Emily just talked about some fun times they'd had before there was a knock on the door.

Hotch sat in the chair for a couple of minutes before beginning. It had only been two hours since he'd seen her but she looked paler. She was defiantly getting worse instead of better.

"Garcia, I absolutely do not, under any conditions, give you permission to die." He said but then laughed "Knowing you that probably wouldn't have worked if you were awake." He could imagine Garcia crossing her arms and raising her eyebrow at him. "You mean a lot to this team Garcia." He said getting serious "We wouldn't be as good as we are without you. I know you do more for us than we even realize and that you'd sacrifice almost anything to help us. We're a family, though a slightly odd family as you pointed out to me once. You're what keeps us together and brings some light into our sometimes very depressing job. We need you, all of us need you. This team will fall apart without you. You know you say that you don't know anything about psychology or that kind of thing, yet you use it on us all the time. When ever I start to question why I do this all I have to do is hear you or see you and it becomes obvious. You remind me that there are still innocent, good, caring people in the world, but that there are others who want to hurt them. And I can't let that happen. And it's not just me you remind it's the whole team. I can tell on their faces when they start questioning or getting depressed and all it takes is one call from you and they're good as new. Everyone on this team, including myself, needs you. We're very dependant on you. So I highly suggest you wake up. I realize it's a bit selfish on our parts, but we need you to wake up and get through this. We'll be here when you wake up, whether you want us to be or not. When this is over you're going to be sick of us." He said with a slight smile.

He looked up at the clock on the wall and noticed he'd been there for a little over thirty minutes. It hadn't felt that long. "Well Garcia, I better go get the others. Morgan's probably about ready to kill me for going over my half hour." So he got up and slowly walked over to the door, but before he turned the handle he looked back. "You need to fight Garcia, for us." He then opened the door and walked out. And sure enough just as he was closing the door he noticed Morgan walking toward him with the others not far behind.

The team spent the next few hours talking to Garcia as a group. They told her about how they finally caught Rigswood, how they couldn't have done it if she hadn't left them the file, how they would always be there no matter what, and sometimes they just reminisced. They never mentioned death or what she had gone through; instead they talked about what they were going to do when they all got home. They kept this up the rest of the day, never once leaving her side.

As they sat and talked to her they noticed that she was getting even paler, which they didn't think was possible, and the beeping of her heart monitor was getting slower. But no one said anything about it. They just looked at one another occasionally with sad looks and tears in their eyes. She was dying and they all knew it.

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