Disclaimed!
Hi to everyone who is taking the time to read and review.
Attention detail police; I'm not a medical expert so I've tried to stay away from going into too much detail and just vaguely followed the NHS website and the internet, half of this is made up so don't think about it too much, just know that Henry is in a bad state. Thanks.
Anyways, hope you enjoy, poor JJ isn't having any luck but it adds to the drama.
Let me know what you think!
...
Rossi held onto JJ's hand as they rushed through the hospital corridors in silence. Ignoring the happy butterfly and bumble bee patterns on the walls, they pushed through the heavy double doors and stepped onto the children's ward.
JJ abruptly let go of her father's hand and headed towards the nurse's station to demand information from the standing, fair haired nurse who was watching them enter the paediatric wing from her desk.
"Can I help you?" The young looking woman asked the frantic mother.
JJ turned to see Rossi hovering protectively behind her and nodded. "My son, Henry Jareau- LaMontagne was admitted here..."
"David. Jennifer." Strauss appeared from the room opposite the nurse's station, with Garcia standing solemnly behind her.
JJ's tense shoulders dropped as she moved towards the two familiar faces. "Where is he? Is he okay? What happened?"
Strauss met Rossi's concerned expression at the younger woman's breathless questions. "Henry's..."
Garcia stepped in front of Strauss and wrapped her arms around her best friend. "He's in surgery."
"What?" JJ couldn't help the tears that were freefalling down her face.
The TA pulled back and grabbed JJ's hands. "He came around in the ER and so they moved him up here. I was just about to put him on the phone with you but..."
Strauss stepped towards Rossi and wrapped his arms around herself as she helped Garcia finish the explanation. "Henry had another seizure. A neurology specialist came down and took one look at him before rushing him into surgery."
"Do they know... what's wrong?" JJ sobbed.
"They think there's a clot." Garcia replied, mirroring her friend's anxious and devastatingly heartbroken expression. "There was no time to call you, then you were already on the plane and you couldn't do anything, I just didn't want you to worry."
"Is he going to be okay?" Rossi asked sensing his daughter's inability to speak.
Strauss tilted her head back onto his chest as they watched JJ slowly retreat into herself. "The clot is creating slow blood flow to his brain. The specialist was hopeful that they spotted it in enough time."
"Come on JJ, let's sit down in here." Garcia led the fragile profiler into the waiting room and sat her on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs.
The emotional mother scrubbed her hands with the heel of her palms. "I need to talk with a doctor."
"Nurse Denby has gone to get one." Strauss replied instantly as the three colleagues sat around the shivering blonde.
JJ sniffled quietly. "Someone needs to call Mom."
"I'll do that." Rossi offered softly. "And I'll call the rest of the team once the doctor's been."
"Will's undercover but he said if we needed anything to call his Captain." JJ stated as her eyes wandered to the door.
Strauss smiled hopefully. "I'll make some calls."
"Henry will need some PJ's and his toys." JJ's voice trailed off as Garcia held up a bag that was on the floor besides her.
"I gave a list and your spare key to Chief Strauss' assistant." Garcia explained.
Strauss cleared her throat softly. "I hope you don't think of it as an invasion of privacy. We just wanted you to have everything you might want here. Colleen brought you some fresh clothes too. We assumed you'd be staying here."
"Thank you." JJ replied croakily.
A doctor wearing green scrubs walked into the room, with Nurse Denby a few steps behind him. "Mrs LaMontagne?"
"Henry?" JJ stood bolted upright, her eyes wide in apprehension.
The balding male doctor held out his hand but quickly retreated seeing the panic in the young mother's eyes. "Mrs LaMontagne, I'm Doctor Gerrad, the attending ER..."
"It's Ms Jareau and I'm her father, David Rossi. How's Henry?" Rossi interjected quickly as JJ attempted to control her breathing.
"Of course. Henry gave us quite a shock. My colleague Mr Harrison is our hospital's top neurology specialist, he's currently in surgery with Henry to remove a cerebral embolism." Gerrad indicated that they all should sit as he began simplifying his speech. "We believe, the embolism in his brain formed because of a blood clot developed due to a heart condition called atrial fibrillation. Basically, a clot formed in your son's heart and broke off into the bloodstream. It's very unusual that this would occur in a boy so young which leads us to believe that Henry has suffered from a heart condition since his birth."
"The last few times, the doctor's said it was a bad case of the flu." JJ shook her head in shock.
Gerrad grimaced slightly. "With Henry being so young on his previous hospital admission when he had a seizure it is possible that the doctor overlooked the clot. Looking over Henry's medical charts that were sent over from St Mary's, his blood pressure was raised during his last stay in hospital. It could be that the clot hadn't left the bloodstream at that time and his seizure was a mixture of flu and what was going on inside of his body."
JJ wiped her damp face with the sleeve on her jumper and sighed. "Is he going to be alright?"
"Ms Jareau, I'm going to be honest with you because I need you to be prepared. For such a young boy to suffer from an embolism because of atrial fibrillation, we need to be extremely cautious. Harrison is very good at his job and all signs from the OR are positive that Henry is going to make it, but..."
"What is it Doctor?" Rossi queried seeing the man's hesitance.
"Embolisms are tricky. There are many side effects and the causes vary, so even if Henry gets better from this, there could be other causes for concern. We need to take a look into everything that could be affecting Henry, from diabetes to other heart conditions. It's going to be a long road but the fact that Henry has had other seizures and recovered to 100% and that he earlier regained consciousness in the ER is a good sign." Gerrad smiled encouragingly.
JJ inhaled slowly, hoping to quell the nausea in her stomach. "Do you think he's going to make it?"
"I think that there's a very good chance that he'll make it out of surgery. But every time he has a seizure it affects his brain." The doctor explained softly.
"There are some forms I need signing, Ms Jareau." Nurse Denby stepped forwards as the doctor backed out of the room.
Rossi took hold of the forms that the nurse was handing JJ and urged Garcia to comfort the shaking blonde agent.
Three hours later, just after Rossi and Strauss had returned from the airport to pick up Sandy Jareau, Mr Harrison the specialist entered the waiting room where JJ and Garcia were huddled together on the chairs.
Garcia helped JJ stand as the grey haired, spectacle wearing doctor smiled thinly at the two women. "Henry did great. We removed the clot and repaired some damage that we found. I'm going to keep constant watch on him and I've also referred your son to a cardiologist here in the hospital who will continue to do some tests, to avoid this happening again."
"He's going to be okay?" Garcia asked with relief.
Harrison gave a slight nod. "There could be side effects. Whenever blood is restricted to the brain, we expect some consequences. We won't know more until Henry wakes up."
"When?" JJ mumbled.
"Excuse me, ma'am?" Harrison raised an eye at the petite profiler.
JJ coughed, causing pain to ripple through her sore, dry throat. "When will my son wake up?"
"Hopefully in the next 24 hours but it'll depend on whether or not his body needs more time to recover. We're monitoring his brain and everything appears to be as it should. You'll be able to see him once he's out of recovery." Harrison smiled thinly before telling the pair that he was available for questions anytime and he'd check in on Henry before he exited the room.
Garcia rubbed her friends' back soothingly. "JJ, he's going to be okay."
"I wasn't here." JJ muttered sadly. "I should been here for him. He must've been so scared."
Garcia sighed. "Oh honey, don't do this. Not know. We need positive energy."
"I'm his mom, Pen." She groaned.
"He's going to be okay." Garcia stressed, wrapping her into a hug.
JJ whimpered softly. "What if he's not?"
Reaching his hand over to the younger woman's, Rossi sighed unevenly. "Henry's a strong little boy, honey."
"He's so small." JJ sniffled in attempt to halt her threatening tears.
Garcia kissed her friend's head soothingly and met the older profiler's eyes unsurely. Sitting up straight, Rossi hesitantly pulled himself to his feet and wandered out into the main corridor.
Strauss quickly followed leaving the three women alone, and met Rossi at the Nurses' station where he was organising Henry's room allocation.
In the waiting room, Sandy paced as Garcia held onto JJ while she began crying silently. "He's going to be okay."
JJ shook her head at her friend's reassurance. "We can't keep going through this."
...
(The next chapter has some Jotch!)
Thanks for reading!