Summary: It was something he'd learned of late. If you truly wanted to hurt someone, you aimed for the heart. Teamfic. Warning, character death! Set pre-Cradle to Grave.
Disclaimer: Ava and Cara don't own Criminal Minds. But if they did, it'd probably be the most character-whump show in the world.
Previously on 'Aim For The Heart': The Reaper has hurt our team in unimaginable ways. He may be no more, but even in death he managed to blow up a house. What skills and commitment that man has. Injury list: Rossi was shot but saved by his Kevlar vest but fell down some stairs instead. Morgan has some nasty cuts and burns but thankfully some nice people are looking after him. Emily was ultimate whumped, along with a nice little dislocated shoulder and a serious slice into her chest. Hotch just got blown up. Darcey's been shot a few times and blown up. Devlin's been blown up. The Reaper was shot dead and blew some people up, along with himself. Or have they been blown up? Hmmm... Oh and JJ's dead, along with Haley, Officer Cameron Garvey, SWAT Officer Charlie Sierra and now the big bad Boston Reaper, George Foyet. Will Reid be joining them with his body attacking itself? Will a few more casualties be joining the death toll due to our kaboom? Read on to find out.
Authors' Note: Sorry for the serious delay but we focused on another one of our projects ('A Rose Once Grew', two one shots thus far on JJ's possible exits. Not to spoil them, but we can assure you that we do not kill JJ in 'A Rose Once Grew'! Yet… go read!) Also, serious technical difficulties with Ava's laptop prevented the chapter from appearing. Hopefully its worth the wait, we have bestowed quite a lengthy chapter on you. Thank you reviewers as per usual - the-vampire-act, PrincessHotch, nexis44, imajazzbandnerd, and new reviewers sal-e13 and lolyncut, who read the whole thing in one sitting. Nice to have you guys with us! (And lolyncut is very perceptive as far as the transfusion is concerned… that's all we're saying. This chapter also introduces four characters who are semi important because they speak in very medical terms. And one of them is named after two awesome people! Some medical terms explained, just below the usual 'reviews are love' plea. And here's a game to play (if you want to gain a lot of weight that is.) Choose a character's name, adjective and verb and eat something (like little cut up pieces of pop tarts, which is highly recommended. But M & M's, Skittles and pieces of fruit will work too. Grapes are probably the safest option) every time the words are mentioned. It is fun… we swear. Spoilers for random episodes through the series as usual, including Amplification, Faceless Nameless. Anyways, enough with our ramblings on to someone else's… like our Hotch man… happy reiding.
x Cara and Ava.
Chapter Twenty Four - Reunited; Rescued? Part Two.
"It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts." ~ Carl Jung
He didn't expect to be let through the gates of heaven. Sure, Hotch had done good things in his life. But all the people he'd saved, what did it matter when he couldn't save the two people that mattered more than anything to him.
It killed him that Haley had died feeling resentment toward him. She had died still carrying anger that he had been forced to uproot her and Jack's life in Virginia - because of the Reaper. And it had all been in vain when it came right down to things. She was dead, because of the Reaper. He had failed her. If this was hell, he deserved to be here.
It felt like he was in hell. Not just emotionally. He could almost feel the flames licking his face. He could feel the heat pressing in on him. He could hear the screaming of tormented souls…
Aaron Hotchner opened his eyes, and saw that he was jumping the gun a little. He may not have been completely in hell, in one sense at least.
He was still in the basement. He was still alive. How he'd survived the blast, he didn't know. Luck?
He didn't feel like he was in too much pain, but his ears were ringing. A long forgotten souvenir of that damn New York case.
But aside from the ringing, he could hear something else that didn't fit in with the New York case. He could hear a woman screaming. Shrieks of agony. That wasn't right, even for all the pain she was in, Agent Joyner hadn't screamed once.
Hotch looked around him, from the partially destroyed stairs to his side to further over, where he could see four outlined figures. Three out of the four were lying limp - only one showed any signs of life.
Hotch slowly got to his feet, finding it difficult to balance as he did so. His head span but he clambered over two still forms to the third one.
"Kenneth?" he called the detective, panicked to see a large bump on his head. Hotch was filled with relief when, although the detective didn't respond to his name being called, Hotch gripped his wrist and could feel life beating through his veins.
But for how much longer? Hotch knew they weren't in a very sturdy environment and that at any time the roof could collapse. He was going to have to get him out of here…
Almost as if to avoid being neglected, Hotch heard another loud pained cry. He glanced over at the young police officer and flinched. The concrete ground around her was completely submerged in a pool of blood, and yet she was still losing what little blood she had left.
Hotch had a decision to make. Who to take first? The person who had trusted his own people and was now paying the price for it? Or the person who had betrayed her own people and now others had been caught in her web of deceit? Someone who had a family to help him through his recovery? Someone who had a prison sentence to look forward to once she'd had time to recuperate?
He knew he wasn't being just, fair or anyway like himself, but if Officer Miles had come forward with the fact that it was Foyet behind the killings, which she'd obviously known all along, they could have saved JJ… Haley… the team could have been spared their latest bout of pain and suffering. He knew he didn't know the full story but at that point he didn't care - only about the detective who had risked his life to help Hotch get his team back rather than the person who had put them in that situation to begin with.
He knew it would be difficult. Hotch wasn't Morgan, wasn't renowned for his strength. Detective Devlin wasn't a particularly light man. But he did his best and thrust the older detective over his shoulder and into an awkward fireman's carry. He took a hesitant look at the struggling police officer, who was gazing up at him with an air of lucidity. She knew damn well what he was doing.
But he couldn't stop. The building was burning around them and he had to get Devlin out of there. Even if the fire itself hadn't done a lot of damage, the smoke inhaled could cause as much damage. Almost as soon as he had that thought, once he had reached the stairs the smoke seemed to get thicker and Hotch had an over whelming feeling of suffocation. He had to make it up those steps… but his legs seemed to get weaker, yet heavier. His legs felt like lead, impossible to manoeuvre.
It felt like a life time before he reached the door, and groaned when he remembered how forcefully Gideon had slammed the door. Knowing that there was the possibility that the handle would be red-hot from the heat, Hotch decided to try a more Morgan-suited tactic. Praying that the heat would have weakened the door hinges, Hotch reluctantly threw his weight against the door and to his immense relief, the door collapsed off its hinges. Possibly from all the abuse it had endured in the last hour alone.
The scene was one to behold. Paramedics and now the Crime Scene Units were arriving and were now running around like headless chickens, unsure where to begin first. Hotch could hear the distinct noise of a fire truck in the distant background, and more sirens to come.
Through all the chaos, he swore he heard someone scream his name. It was difficult to say - the ringing wasn't stopping.
He continued walking forward until he could feel someone tug at his shoulder.
A paramedic. A man. With a stretcher.
"-help?"
"I'm sorry?" Hotch enquired. He hadn't been aware that the man was speaking.
"Is this man the only casualty or is there anyone else that needs help?" the man asked. Seeing the remains of his team in the distant background, and that Detective Devlin had all the help he could get for the moment Hotch's reaction was done perhaps out of spite.
"No," he began, "There's no one else that needs your help."
Taking the hint, he laid Devlin on the stretcher, nodded at the paramedic before indicating the fallen detective and asking the paramedic,
"Take care of him."
Stumbling over to Morgan and Prentiss, he breathed a sigh of relief.
" ...right!" he saw Prentiss say.
"I can't hear, what did you say?"
He managed to read her lips enough to understand "We saw the explosion…. - you're all right." The ringing in his ears was alternating between being able to hear and nails being hammered into his ears. He wasn't sure which was worse. When he could hear, his ears were filled with sounds of sirens, panicked mutterings, the hiss of the flames and maybe… maybe he was imagining it… a scream. A loud piercing, begging scream of agony. It was the kind of scream that, upon hearing, his body itched to help. Through all his years at the Bureau, he had never ignored it.
This time he did.
"…checked out."
He felt a hand on his arm.
"Hotch." Morgan nodded to the paramedic. Hotch turned around looking confused. He raised an eyebrow in question.
"Medics need to check you out, man. You didn't think you could escape them, did you?" Morgan asked, his attempt at humour obviously forced.
"Yeah." Hotch nodded, seeming dazed. He muttered to himself as he followed the medic.
Prentiss followed their boss with her eyes. Morgan seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Another one bites the dust."
"Don't Derek, just….don't." Emily said before turning to look for Elle. Before she had strayed too far, a firm hand gripped hers. Emily gasped and spun around in horror at the contact. The hands flew from her arm and held them up in mock surrender.
"Whoa! Easy! I'm one of the good guys." It was only a paramedic, young and inexperienced looking. It seemed like she'd just qualified as a paramedic the night before - and this was her first outing. Luckily she was perceptive and understood that perky was the last thing Emily wanted or needed right now.
"Mind if I check you out?" she asked in a kind tone, "Looks like you've really been to hell… and back. Can I ask you your name?"
"You can ask." Emily grumbled in response.
It was Morgan, who was currently having the cut on his cheek cleaned, who answered, "Her name's Emily. Emily Princess."
Emily smiled slightly at the old endearment. A reminder of times past… times they'd never get back…
The medic sat Emily on the edge of the van and leaning against the door of the ambulance said "Well hi there Emily, my name's Melissa. I'm gonna get you to sit here for a few minutes while I check you over. Let me know if at any point you feel…uncomfortable, and we can…work around it."
Emily nodded mutely.
The medic scrutinized her arm, "This was nicely bandaged up." Melissa said appreciatively, absentmindedly running her fingers over the soft material of the sling. Emily pulled her arm away.
"Do you mind if I take the sling off?" Melissa asked gently. Seeing it was obviously of some importance to the agent she added "you can hold on to it if you want."
Emily nodded, and whispered a small "thank you," when the medic tenderly handed it to her.
"As professional as this looks, it seems to have had it's day. I'm gonna put it in a fresh sling, plus it'll make it easier for the hospital, so you can get fixed up a little quicker!"
Emily snorted, "A clean sling is going to get me out of hospital faster." she looked down at her most noticeable injuries, before shaking her head. "Yeah, right. That's really gonna make a difference."
Melissa gritted her teeth and after taking a deep breath smiled again before chuckling, "Well you know what they say …every little helps!"
"How do you do it?" Emily asked with slight awe.
"Do what?" Melissa asked tying the final knot in the sling.
"I've been a complete moody bitch from the offset and yet you smile and let it all blow over. You've been nothing but nice to me and I've been horrible to you!"
"I don't know exactly what happened to you all, but from what I've gathered so far, I think you're entitled to be a little moody and unreasonable."
"Hey, I said moody and horrible, I said nothing about being unreasonable." Emily replied in mock outrage, her slight smile warming the young paramedics heart.
Looks like there's hope for her yet. She thought, if she can smile and joke a little, there's still a chance she'll be ok.
"I'm just gonna check your pupils and then-" Melissa was interrupted by her pager.
"What the-" she stood back from her patient for a moment, before muttering " what's AHTR?"
Emily stared blankly, " I went to Yale, not medical school. Sorry."
"You let me down Emily!" Melissa chuckled before turning her attention back to the emergency page before her. " AHTR? Arrgg! I know it but I just can't think what - Acute Hemolytic Transfusion Reaction! I got it! Haha, yes I got it.!- Oh crap, that's not good…."
"What's a cute homeostatic transfusion reaction?" Morgan asked, wincing as his paramedic applied gauze onto the burn on his hand.
"Acute Hemolytic Transfusion Reaction?" Melissa repeated.
"That's what I said." Morgan retorted. "But what is it?"
"A serious reaction to a blood transfusion. It happens when someone gets the wrong blood type during a transfusion. The main differences between blood types is only the fact that some blood types have an extra structure on them, a protein, whereas others have none. So when someone gets the wrong blood type, the extra structure isn't recognised so the cells attack each other. That's hemolysis. The blood cells destroying each other."
"So… what you're trying to say… is it's serious?" Morgan offered.
Melissa nodded, "Very much so. How someone here could have it, I don't know. The most common cause is clerical error in a hospital."
"Trust us, we always seem to manage to break the boundaries of normality. It's something that seems to follow us."
"I'm sure that's not true -"
"Not true? A few months ago, one of our team members got infected with a very rare strain of anthrax."
"Oh. Well I'm sure -"
"Than he got shot a week later, not long after our boss got stabbed nine times." Morgan explained bluntly. Melissa had no answer. Morgan continued, "Now he's MIA."
"What?" Emily exclaimed.
"Well that's what I gathered from my conversation with my Baby Girl." Morgan said despondently
Melissa leaned in quickly to Emily as she got to her feet, "Stay sitting. I'll have to have someone else over to you to finish your exam before we can ship you off to the hospital."
Emily looked at her, panic in her eyes, "Why?"
Before Melissa could answer her pager buzzed again. She looked at the page and frowned, before turning to Emily again. "I'm so sorry, Emily, I really have to go. I'll check in on you at the hospital. Promise!"
"Alex!" she called to a paramedic in the distance, "Can you take over? My notes are beside her. Thanks, I owe you!"
Emily swung her legs, keeping her eyes on her feet at all times. Anything to avoid Morgan's gaze. She heard paper rustling, before a strong hand grabbed her good shoulder. A strong male hand.
She shrugged it off violently. "Get away from me," she hissed menacingly.
He studied the notes before him, "So you're Melissa's patient?" He held out his hand, smiling. "Hi, I'm Alex."
Morgan looked at the newest arrival and groaned, "Is anyone here older than thirty?"
"I'm thirty in March." Alex supplied needlessly.
"Great." Morgan muttered, rolling his eyes. " Good thing Pen isn't here, she wouldn't be able to control herself."
"And you can?" came a voice, "Come on all, these lovely young ladies, and zilch from you?"
"What can I say Greenaway, maybe I'm a changed man?"
"I'll believe that when I see it."
"Ok, maybe not completely changed, but I'm getting there, besides you've always found me endearing, right Elle?"
"Um, sure….that's one word for it!" She turned to Emily, "How you doing?" she asked with a subtle nod towards the new medic.
Emily didn't reply, instead choosing to watch the flames flickering. A dark silhouette seemed to run through the blaze. Emily blinked thinking it was just her imagination. When she opened her eyes again the shadow was slowly fading, coupled with the cry of;
"I haven't finished your examination! NO! Agent Hotchner, don't do it!"
Melissa Cook was a barely qualified paramedic. Hell, most of the people who were attempting to aid the injured FBI agents were from her class, and now they were trying to help some severely injured agents.
As a woman, she only needed to take one look at Agent Prentiss to know what was wrong with her. With Agent Morgan, all his injuries were superficial, skin deep. Agent Prentiss's injuries went way below the surface. And Melissa had to think the dark terms of what had happened to her.
Sexually assaulted was the clinical way of putting it. It didn't sound as drastic as what other people called it.
Rape.
She needed to talk to someone to truly get over what had happened. She needed a friend. And maybe she seemed to have it in Agent Greenaway, but Melissa was prepared to be that person. Once all this was over.
But Melissa had other things that she needed to concentrate on. She took one look back at Agent Prentiss as the Agent threw off her good pal and colleague Alex's arm more violently then she had thrown off Melissa's. It confirmed her suspicions. She felt a little guilty for setting both Alex and Agent Prentiss up like that, but it had been necessary. If she had to rush off to the unknown, to an emergency that she wasn't quite sure what entailed, she needed to know what was wrong with her original patient.
Melissa jogged to the house, the number of which she had been paged. She pushed the gurney ahead of her, knowing that it was of the utmost importance to get to this patient.
She wanted to see for herself what the patient looked like - she'd only been qualified a few months and this was an opportunity she had yet to see. She rushed around the back of the house and noticed the open door leading to the basement. She manoeuvred the gurney carefully so it would not hit the concrete steps too roughly, and once she reached the bottom of the steps, opened her mouth to ask a question before one of her colleagues asked her one first.
"Melissa, please tell me that there are more paramedics behind you."
Mark was looking up at her, along with Lisa, the most experienced medic they had, and two older men. The men where looking at her in absolute disdain. Melissa couldn't blame them. They had probably been expecting half a dozen experienced medics to come swarming in, rather than a lone, hardly qualified medic with a gurney.
"Have you been up there Mark?" Melissa asked as she joined the semi circle around a young agent. "It's like a zoo, two bodies accounted for, four injured at the moment and a house in flames! And some of them acting like it's all in a day's work."
The look on the agents' face made Melissa immediately regret the blunt way she'd put their colleagues' situation. Chances were, they didn't even know whose bodies she had mentioned so off-handily. So she did what anyone in her situation would. She put it to the back of her mind, acted like she hadn't said anything and quickly focused her mind at the task at hand.
"So tell me about our latest casualty?" Melissa casually asked.
"There's really no one else coming?" came Mark's slow response. Melissa shook her head. The two agents looked like they'd just been told that Santa didn't exist. He sighed and proceeded to bring Melissa up to speed as Lisa set up the fallen agent's IV line.
"Agent Spencer Reid, seems to be somewhere in his late twenties -"
"Twenty eight," came the correction from Gideon.
"…twenty eight. Suffering from Acute Hemolytic Transfusion Reaction, we don't yet know his blood type though."
"How he ended up with AHTR down here is still being speculated." Lisa said.
"These agents seem to believe that Agent Reid was poisoned." Mark added sceptically.
Melissa raised an eyebrow, "By who exactly?"
"The Boston Reaper," one of the agents added defiantly.
All the paramedics immediately stopped what they were doing and looked at Rossi. Mark was intrigued, "Why would the Reaper…"
"He has a personal vendetta against the team, he even stabbed our Unit Chief-"
"Nine times," Melissa finished. "Agent Morgan mentioned -"
"Morgan? Derek Morgan? You talked to him is he-"
"What do you care, Jason. You haven't talked to him in two years."
"Ahem." Melissa coughed, getting their attention again, "Agent Morgan is okay, and he mentioned the team's string of bad luck, like the stabbing. Is that what happened here? The Reaper came back to -"
"The Boston Reaper's motives are not part of your job description, Melissa Cook." Lisa interrupted. "Mark stop staring at Agent Rossi and finish the prepping of Agent Reid's arm for his IV. Left arm, I don't want to risk making that rash worse than it already is. Melissa I want-"
There was another interruption - a deep hacking cough. The medics looked on in horror as their critical patient coughed up scarlet blood.
"That's not a symptom of AHTR." Melissa commented, pulling out a tissue, cleaning the blood from the Agent's lips and disposing it.
"We know, Melissa." Mark snapped. All the medics were now feeling the pressure, particularly with two other agents staring at them expectantly.
"Melissa," Lisa continued as if nothing had happened, "Take a look at his leg - upper thigh. There's a half-healed gunshot wound freshly opened. I need you to clean and bandage it, he's lost a lot of blood and we don't have the time or the resources for you to suture it closed. If you have the bandage tight enough it should stop the blood loss, another transfusion is the last thing he needs right now."
Mark inserted the IV line, Lisa tried to adjust an oxygen mask to aid Reid's breathing. But Reid began coughing yet again.
Lisa whispered in a low voice so only the other medics would hear, "He's already going into shock, but could be approaching the organ failure stage soon. I don't know why the lungs are being compromised first. Other than a possible underlying lung condition."
That struck a chord with Melissa who paused mid-bandaging as she recalled the conversation she had had with the other BAU agents. She continued to simply stare at the bandage in her hands before Lisa angrily interrupted her musings, "Melissa Cook - now is NOT the time for daydreaming!"
The younger paramedic did not respond to more experienced older paramedic, but turned to the profilers and asked quite pointedly,
"Has Agent Reid had any respiratory issues in the past? Perhaps caused by any… biological contaminants?" Gideon looked absolutely bemused, but the agent with the nasty bruise on his forehead nodded knowingly.
"You seem to learn everything about our team before you got here."
"It may have come up -"
"Melissa," Lisa warned, urging her to get to the point.
"Agent Reid contracted anthrax a few months ago not long before he was shot."
Agent Rossi nodded in the affirmative as the two other medics looked absolutely dumbfounded, "A strain that specifically targeted the lungs. He almost died."
Gideon was horror-struck. This was all news to him.
"That explains the respiratory distress." Mark nodded, taping the IV in place. "IV's good."
"I'll keep an oxygen mask on him until he's at the hospital to ensure he doesn't asphyxiate. Melissa is that leg bandaged up good and tight?" Lisa asked.
"We're good to go Ma'am," Melissa replied as she finished tying the bandage. "Let's get him on the gurney and out of here."
Lisa's pager went this time, and she frowned, "GSW to the abdomen. I better get over there - but Agent Reid is still priority, he's still top of the triage. Melissa, Mark I know you're inexperienced but this is an unusual situation. It's up to you to get him to the hospital and keep him alive until you get there. I'm needed else where - I'm trusting you both."
And with that, their most experienced medic was gone.
Melissa turned to the agents, "Can you help us get him on the gurney?" They nodded and the four of them, two inexperienced medics and two seasoned FBI agents lifted Reid onto the gurney gingerly. Reid showed absolutely no awareness to the movement. The medics adjusted the IV line and oxygen mask, gathered their equipment and angled the gurney so that Agent Reid's head was towards the foot of the stairs.
Rossi leaned into the female medic and asked lowly, "Would it be okay if I went in the ambulance with him?"
Melissa gave Rossi a quick assessment before replying, "It wouldn't be the worst idea, as long as you let us do our jobs. Besides, that head needs to be checked out - you're off balance and seem to have trouble focusing your eyes. It's possible that you have a minor concussion."
Gideon looked a little resentful, as if he wished he had thought of asking for ambulance privileges first. However, he said nothing.
"Okay," Mark began, standing on one side of the gurney with Agent Rossi while Melissa occupied the other alongside Agent Gideon. All four stared at the long staircase ahead of them, feeling the dread. Mark continued,
"On three, we lift."
"Princess, it's ok, I'm here" Morgan murmured, noticing her clenched fists and gritted teeth. She never liked hospitals or medical examinations, but Morgan knew that right now, after everything that had happened, being examined- by a man nonetheless- was not at the top of her wish-list.
"Yeah, well, you were there last time too, weren't you? Didn't make much of a difference did it?" she muttered bitterly.
Morgan looked down, his eyes closed, shaking his head slowly.
"Em…" he whispered sadly, "I'm - "
"Derek," Elle said, stepping between them. She rested her hand on his shoulder. "I think your ambulance is nearly ready to head off." He stood up reluctantly, Elle following him, as they neared his medic, she glanced over her shoulder to check on Emily before calling her former colleague.
"Hey, Morgan. Stop and listen to me for a second, ok." he looked down at her, his confliction evident. "Don't apologise for … what happened. There is nothing you could have done."
"I should have done something. She begged me to help her, to make him stop…and I did nothing."
"There. Is. Nothing. You. Could. Have. Done." she repeated. "You were there for her, then, and I'm guessing your gonna be there for her in the aftermath."
"Damn straight." he said, fiercely.
"Then that's all anyone could expect. You're a good friend Derek, she's lucky to have you."
"Just promise me something, Greenaway."
"Anything." she nodded.
"Don't mess her around. Don't be nice as pie and her new best buddy, if you're just going to up and leave at the drop of a hat; as soon as things start getting tough. She doesn't deserve that."
"I won't, trust me. I've learnt from…past mistakes."
" I hope so Elle. I really hope so."
"We'd better get back to her," Elle nodded to Emily, who was sitting tensely as Alex continued his examination.
"But I thought, my ride was here?"
She chuckled, "I lied, I just needed to get you alone for a minute."
"Tease," he muttered, playfully punching her arm, before stopping realisation hitting him full force. She smiled softly.
"It'll get better. Easier"
"But not like before." he finished, her unspoken words ringing loudly.
"It can't be the same Derek, after all this? We just have to move onwards. Work through this, together."
As they came closer to Emily, Morgan stopped Elle, before pulling her into a hug.
"I'm glad you're back, Brooklyn. I really missed you." he whispered, into her hair
"I missed you too." she smiled into his shoulder. And, she decided seven hundred and fifty-nine miles from DC, it was good to be home.
"I'm guessing not everyone's going to be as quick to forgive are they?" Elle asked, sighing. "They all seemed so mad. Garcia snapped at us. She yelled at me. I've never heard her yell at anyone."
"She's just stressed out…and hurt that you didn't say goodbye."
"I thought a clean break would be easier." she said as they finally reached a weary looking Emily. "Clearly I was wrong about that."
She leaned against the door of the ambulance, deep in thought.
"Don't you talk to me about getting shot! Don't try and act like I'd never know what it feels like! Maybe if you'd been paying attention to that news article that brought you here, you'd have noticed that since you left, two other people on the team were shot - and dealt with it without shooting the next scumbag possible dead!"
"Morgan? Did something happen to Penelope after I …left?"
"She dyed her hair. A lot." Emily supplied tiredly.
Elle chuckled, "Not what I meant, but thanks. No, she said that two members of the team had been shot. She was seriously pissed off. 'Don't talk to me about getting shot.' 'Don't act like I've never known what it feels like.' Oh God, She was, wasn't she? She was shot."
Morgan nodded tensely. "Yes."
Clearly now was not the time to push for details.
"Who else?"
"Reid." Emily said.
"Still as lucky as ever then?"
"Wait till you hear, about the BAU adventures," Morgan chuckled.
"Most of them featuring the genius himself," Emily smiled slightly.
"Now he's MIA. Wonder where he's got to." Morgan said lightly, trying to play down the situation. It didn't work.
But Emily played along. "Disney World?"
They heard loud urgent voices through the hissing of the flames, over the droning of the two dozen people bustling around the scene, interrupting their conversation.
"Outta the way! Move outta the way we got a critically injured patient. Get out of the WAY!"
The FBI agents turned to see what the commotion was. A gurney was being carried out from one of the houses, the body was mostly concealed by the paramedics working over it. One medic was more familiar than the others.
"Melissa!" Emily called, The young woman moved to the side, just enough for the profiler to see familiar brown curls, flayed over the gurney, oxygen masked protruding ominously.
"Morgan? I think I just found Reid."
What's this? No one gets shot? No explosion? Yeah… we thought we'd give you a break from all our suspenseful cliffies! Instead you are faced with the team finally being reunited… heart warming as you guys thought?
Some medical terms explained:
*Suture: In basic terms, Lisa is telling Melissa not to stitch the wound closed.
*Asphyxiate: One of the three causes of death (Asphyxiation, Blood Loss, Cardiac Arrest) and Reid is in danger of all three. Asphyxiation is the lack of oxygen to the body which stops respiration and causes the death of cells. There are several causes of this, including suffocation, strangulation, damage to the lungs, electrocution, etc.
*Rape: We hadn't directly used the word, so we just wanted to get it out there. Another term you can use is what we like to call the 'ultimate whump'. But if you don't know what the word itself means you probably shouldn't be reiding this.