Title: The Waste Land
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Characters/Pairing: Team-centric - gen
Genre: Drama/Suspense
Summary: Part Two: Reid is missing, JJ is in surgery and the unsub they're trying to catching isn't the unsub they should be worried about. The fallout from this case will change their lives in the way they most fear.
Warnings: Character Death
The Waste Land
Part Two: A Thunderstorm
'When you're dead you're dead.'
Kurt Vonnegut
'One need not be a chamber to be haunted,
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.'
Emily Dickinson – One Need Not Be A Chamber to Be Haunted
Chapter Six – Bittersweet Symphony (JJ)
JJ wakes up, her throat dry and her whole body aching. Her mind is a dark fuzz – she's not quite sure what had happened to put her in this position, but judging by the stab of pain in her torso as she tries to sit up, it's nothing good.
'Lay down, chere,' she hears, and frowns. It's Will's voice, but he hadn't been here, in Boston, had he? 'I'll call for a doctor.' She manages to open her eyes, and the world is a little blurry at first, but she blinks a few times, and her vision clears.
Hospital room.
Which explains the abdominal pain, as well as Will's presence.
A memory flashes through her mind.
Staunching the flow of blood in the rain. A knife. She feels the stab all over again, and lets out a gasp.
'It's okay, Jayj.' Will's voice again. 'You're alright. Are you thirsty?' She barely has the presence of mind to nod, and feels a little bit better when she feels the first of the ice chips starting to melt in her mouth. Not quite an oasis in the desert, but she'll take what she's given.
'My name is Doctor Cahill. Can you tell me yours?' It's only at the sound of the second voice that she realizes someone else is in the room – a white-coated someone.
'Jennifer Jareau,' she tells him, her voice scratchy. Despite the ice chips, her throat still feels dry.
'Do you remember what happened?' Cahill asks, his brow furrowed.
'Yeah,' she breathes, and even the act of talking is painful.
'You're very lucky,' the doctor says. 'You lost some blood, but you'll be fine with a little bed rest.'
'I guess that means I'll be waiting on you hand and foot for a few weeks,' Will says, a grim smile on his face.
'The team?' JJ asks, because it's really the only thing she can think about; the team and the case.
Will's expression falters. 'I don't have all the details,' he tells her. 'But I know that Agent Prentiss was in with a concussion.'
'Agent Prentiss was just discharged,' the doctor reveals.
JJ chokes on her words, trying to get them out. 'Can I see her?'
'You really should be-' the doctor starts, but JJ cuts him off.
'Please – I need to know.'
She's tired and her body aches, and she's worried – if Emily has a concussion, then what fates might have befallen the rest of the team?
'I'll see if she's left yet.'
The next few minutes pass painfully slowly, and JJ's heart thumps an aching beat against her chest. She almost cries in relief when the doctor returns and Emily walks in after him.
'JJ…How are you feeling?' The other woman looks tired, her eyes sunken and filled with concern, bruises dark against her usually pale skin.
'…Been better,' JJ breathes. 'What happened?'
The look in Emily's eyes tells her everything she needs to know; it's definitely not good news.
'He, um…' She bits her lip. 'He took Reid. And beat the crap out of me,' she adds as a side-note.
Any words JJ might have had are lost in Emily's revelation. He has Reid. A narcissistic, sociopathic serial killer has Reid. Again.
'The team have been working the case all night,' Emily continues, and it doesn't feel right for her to be saying the team, because the word "team" implies that they're all there, instead of just four of them. 'I need to get back to them.' Her voice has taken on an apologetic tone, and JJ knows that she has to leave.
'Go,' JJ tells her. 'Find him. We can't…' Her words are mingled with a choked sob, and JJ realizes that she's crying, her cheeks wet with salty tears.
'We will do whatever it takes,' Emily promises her. 'You get some rest.' Her voice has that same concerned tone as Will's, and JJ is already getting sick of hearing it. She needs to be out of this bed, right now, but judging from the IV stuck in her wrist, and the half dozen machines hooked up to her body, that isn't going to be happening any time soon.
'Call me,' she says forcefully, as Emily walks out. 'If anything happens, call me.'
'We will,' Emily says with a strained smile, and JJ's not really sure that she believes the other woman's words.
She doesn't need to be a profiler to know what her family is thinking.