Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.
Happily Ever After-Chapter 36
As soon as Will heard Hotch's voice from the doorway, he spun around to face him, dragging Abby with him. He saw the gun the FBI agent had trained on him and said cockily, "Go ahead and shoot me, I'm not afraid to die, but I'll be sure to take this one with me."
Hotch didn't say anything, he just kept the gun trained on the center of Will's forehead, but he knew the former cop was right. Hotch knew that even if he shot Will right between the eyes, he would be able to cut Abby's throat before he died. Hell, even if he didn't have enough time to purposely cut her, he could slash her throat just by falling to the ground. For the first time in his professional life, Hotch was torn about what to do and Will could tell. Emily, who had come in behind Hotch also kept her gun trained on Will, but like her boss, she didn't know what to do.
"You kill me, I kill her. You know, even if you're the best shot in the world, I'll still kill her before I die, so why don't you put your fucking gun down?" Will said. From behind them, Rossi moved to grab his own gun and Will heard this, spinning back around to face him.
When he did that, Abby felt the knife slide away from the pulse of her carotid artery and she knew this was her one chance to get out of his clutches. Remembering everything her mother and uncle had taught her about self defense, she brought her elbow back as hard as she could, right into Will's stomach.
With a loud "Ooof!" Will bent forward, trying to catch his breath. As he did, he dragged the knife down with him and away from Abby's throat. Once her neck area was cleared, Hotch fired his gun, shooting Will in the shoulder and he went down, dragging Abby with him. They both hit the ground with a thud, and both Hotch and Rossi could see blood start to spread out on the carpeting beneath them.
"Oh God, ABBY!" Rossi yelled in a choked voice. What if Will had regained his hold on the knife and had stabbed her? What if she'd landed on the knife as she fell to the ground? What if Hotch had missed and shot her instead? Some of the blood he was seeing could be hers! He quickly pulled the half-conscious and moaning ex-cop off of his daughter and saw that she was laying on the floor in a daze.
"Pumpkin," he said as he gently pulled her up from the ground, "Are you all right?" She was half-covered in blood and he needed to know she was okay before he could think about anything else.
"I-I think s-s-so," she stammered as she ran her hands over her body. Her scalp and neck were sore from the times Will had yanked back on her hair, her face was hurting in the places where he had hit her, the front of her neck was bleeding in many places and she had a headache from when her head hit the ground after Will fell on top of her, but other than that she was physically unhurt.
Dave breathed a sigh of relief, although he could see the blood trailing down her neck from the cuts Will had made. He reached for her, intending to pull her into a hug, when she jerked her hand out of his and shrieked, "Don't touch me!"
Her reaction startled Dave and he dropped his hand, "I was just going to hug you Pumpkin," he said softly.
"NO! Nobody touches me!" She yelled, hysteria evident in her voice. She stood by herself in the middle of the room as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. She had almost DIED! A psycho from her and her mother's past had come here and nearly raped and killed her and her dad! Not only that, it was the psycho who consistently haunted her nightmares! Her mind was overloaded by the events of the past ten minutes and she just stood and shook.
Dave could see his daughter trying and failing to process the latest events. She looked so young and small standing there in the center of the room, hugging herself and shaking. He could see the terror and panic in her eyes and he wanted to run over to her and fold her into an embrace, but he didn't. He knew that between seeing him and JJ shot, watching her mother flat line in the ICU, barely sleeping and now this, she was close to the edge and he didn't want to push her over, so instead he spoke softly to her.
"What hurts, baby?" He asked softly.
"M-my neck and…and my h-h-head and…and…" She couldn't get the words out; her brain was so overloaded that she could hardly speak."
"Okay honey, I'm going to have Emily help you wash up and get changed so we can go back to the hospital, alright?" He asked gently and Abby nodded and started walking towards the bathroom. About halfway there, she remembered something Will had said.
"Mom!" She exclaimed, "He s-said someone was going t-t-to the hospital to…" She couldn't finish the sentence, but thankfully her uncle read her mind.
"Your mom is fine Abby," Hotch told her. "I was talking to Derek on the phone right before we came over here, and he said someone tried getting to her, but he was stopped. Everyone at the hospital is fine."
She processed the new information for a second and then nodded emotionlessly and walked into the bathroom. Emily picked up a Hello Kitty duffel bag and followed her. As she was a step away from the bathroom door, she heard a hoarse "Prentiss," and turned around to face Dave.
"Make sure none of the blood is hers. She's in shock right now and she might not know if she's been hurt."
Emily nodded, "Don't worry Dave," she said gently, "I'll take care of her."
He nodded and Emily walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind her. As soon as that happened, Dave's knees buckled and he sat down hard onto one of the beds. "Jesus," he breathed, "That was too close." He put his face in his hands and tried to calm down. He knew he had been minutes away from seeing his daughter die a brutal death at the hands of a madman. Suddenly he remembered what Aaron had said and looked up at him. "Did you mean what you said about Jennifer?" He asked, "Is she really okay?"
Hotch nodded, "She's fine, the guy didn't get close to her. Apparently Will's partner dressed up as a doctor to try to get to JJ, but when they had a code blue at the end of the hallway and he had no idea what he was doing, it became apparent that he wasn't a real doctor. NYPD arrested him, and he's sitting in a jail cell right now. Morgan called to tell me what happened and that's when I heard shouts coming from your room. I grabbed Prentiss and we both came to investigate."
"Thank God you did," Dave said and then heard LaMontagne moan as he started to regain consciousness. "Why didn't you kill that fucker?" He asked, wanting nothing more than to kill the little prick himself.
Hotch shrugged, "I couldn't get a head shot that didn't also risk Abby's life. Plus, I want to be able to question him. Did he tell you why he was going to kill you?"
Dave nodded, "Apparently his 'employer' wants thel three of us dead." Dave paused and took a shuddery breath, "Jesus Christ, Hotch. We were minutes, if not seconds away from death…he had Abby and was…" He couldn't get the rest of the words out.
"I know Dave, I know, but you did live and you got Abby out alive. If he came into your room at the same time as his associate entered the hospital, then you must have stalled for time, and that'swhat saved you and your daughter." Seeing the older man start to shake, Hotch said, "I know this has been hard on you, but you can't fall apart right now; you have a wife and daughter who are going to need you, so suck it up and get it together before Abby comes back out here."
"Awww, is the legendary profiler crying?" Will said mockingly from the ground. He was lying on his back and his hands were cuffed behind him and his shoulder hurt like hell, but he couldn't resist pushing some of Rossi's buttons. And it worked. Without consciously thinking about it, Dave grabbed his gun from the bedside table and strode over to where Will was laying. He knelt down beside the ex-cop and placed the barrel of the gun between his eyes.
"You fucking, lowlife, piece of shit! It wouldn't have been enough to just kill us, no; you had to make it personal. You had to threaten my daughter, you had to make sure this was something she would never forget. and you had to make it horrible for us. I am going to kill you, you fucking coward, and I'm going to take pleasure in ridding the world of a shitbag like you." He released the safety and was about to put his finger on the trigger, when Hotch's voice penetrated through the rage in his brain.
"Don't do it Dave, not like this," he told him.
"Why the fuck not? Why shouldn't I kill this little fucker right where he is?" Dave asked, his index finger moving onto the trigger.
"Because your daughter has been through enough tonight without knowing her father killed someone in cold blood," Hotch told him.
"She'll be glad I killed him," Dave growled.
"You know she hates violence, she won't be glad you killed him. And is that how you want her to see you from now on, as someone who could kill another person in cold blood?" Hotch asked. "Let him go Dave, let me take him in. We'll interrogate both of them and find out who their employer is. Until the employer is caught, you, JJ and Abby aren't safe."
Dave considered what Aaron had said and slowly lowered the gun. "Okay, but if he gives you any grief, kill him. Also, be sure to let all of his cellmates know that he's a decorated former cop." Will had been wearing a smug look on his face, but after Dave's instruction, his look turned to one of fear.
While Dave and Hotch were talking, Emily and Abby were in the bathroom, trying to clean Will's blood off of her. They both eventually decided that a shower was the only thing that would get Abby completely clean. As she helped the teenager undress, Emily surreptitiously stole glances at her body, making sure she wasn't hurt anywhere else. The only injuries Emily saw were bruises, which were most likely from the fall, and the more obvious cuts on her throat and face. Breathing a sigh of relief, Emily watched as Abby shakily entered the shower and drew the curtain closed.
Emily sat on the lid of the closed toilet and waited for Abby to finish her shower. She could have left the room while the girl showered, but she wanted to be nearby in case she needed anything. As she sat there, Emily thought about the Rossi family and sent a silent prayer up to the fates asking them to spare this family from any further pain. She couldn't imagine how Abby was coping with all she'd seen and been through the last couple of days, and she knew the girl was close to her breaking point.
After about ten minutes, the shower stopped and a hand thrust out from the shower curtain and grabbed a towel off of the rack. Emily could see that Abby's hand was still shaking and she didn't know how to help her. A minute later, the shower curtain opened and Abby stepped out, wrapped tightly in her towel. Emily sighed, the girl looked a little better, but the wounds on her neck were still bleeding and Emily guessed she would probably need stitches.
She helped Abby get dressed and thirty minutes after they entered the bathroom, they stepped out again. Abby was relieved to see that Will was out of the room and that someone had put a towel over the blood on the floor. She wordlessly walked over to the bed and sat down.
Dave sat down next to her, "Feel better Pumpkin?" He asked and she nodded mutely. He reached out to wrap his arm around her shoulders and his heart clenched when she once again recoiled from his touch. She wasn't as vocal about it this time, but he respected her wishes and pulled his arm away from her.
"Where's Will?" She asked, and Dave could hear a scared little girl in her voice.
"He's gone honey, NYPD came to get him."
"Wh-what happened t-t-to the guards?" She really didn't want to know, as she was certain Will had killed them.
"They're fine Abby," Hotch said gently. "Will used a tazer on both of them and then hid their unconscious bodies in the housekeeping closet. They're at the hospital right now getting checked out, but they looked fine to me."
"Speaking of hospitals, what do you say we get back to your mother's hospital room?" Dave wanted to see with his own eyes that his wife was okay.
Abby wordlessly nodded, and everyone got up and walked out the door, intent on catching a cab back to the hospital.