The Sound of Silence

Chapter 35

JJ saw him coming, the firefighter holding the lifeless body of Casey, and took Henry back behind the fire truck, to obstruct his view.

Yet another thing for you to absorb, my precious little man. He'd been faced with so many losses, at such a young age. Which one will be the one that does it? Which will be the one too many? The worry had already consumed many sleepless nights. This would be another in a long line.

He was hugging her tightly, not crying, not speaking aloud. Just being. Waiting. Hoping. Maybe praying. At length, he stirred.

"Mama, we have to go see him now."

She wasn't expecting that statement.

"See who, Henry? What are you talking about?"

"The fireman. He got Casey. He found her! We have to go see the fireman. And Casey!"

No, Honey, we don't.

But he was insistent. JJ kept trying to put him off, until she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her head to see. It was her father. And he was smiling.

"There's someone over here who'd like to see Henry."

JJ welled up all over again. "Really?"

"Really."

"Oh, thank God. Thank You, God."

"I said 'thank You to God, too, Mama! When He told me Casey was okay!"

The two adults just looked at each other as JJ lowered Henry to the ground. They followed his running footsteps around the fire truck.

"Casey!"

JJ turned past the back wheel and nearly fell to her knees.

She was still lying on the ground, still wearing an oxygen mask, but her tail was going a mile a minute. Casey was alive. After so much tension, and fear, and loss….this one survival felt like a victory.

Okay, I get it. Hold on, there's hope. Okay. And thank You. I know you love my little boy as much as I do.

JJ watched her father brush back tears as he gazed upon Henry hugging his beloved companion, and Casey trying to shed the oxygen so she could lick her little boy. Then JJ's eyes scanned up and looked at her mother. Sandy. Dry-eyed Sandy, holding Rosie, her hand on Charles' back.

Mom. You amaze me. I always thought any courage I had came from Dad. But now, I see. You blended it. It came from both of you. You give it to one another…..and to me.

Her thoughts flashed immediately to Spence, and the last time they'd been together, willing one another to be strong. And then she remembered what she'd concluded. That the attack on the Jareau home had come because…..oh, God.

The brief reprieve was over. JJ fished her phone out of her pocket and hit Garcia's number.

"JJ! Rossi, it's JJ!"

Rossi? If Rossi was there, something had definitely happened in Virginia.

"Pen, yes, it's me. Tell me, what happened?"

"Not so fast. What happened there? I've been trying to reach you for an hour!"

"It…we…..we're all okay. I'll tell you the rest later. Tell me what happened there. I know something happened with Spence. Tell me."

"Cara…."

Now she was sure it was bad news. Why else would he have started with the endearment?

"Rossi, please! Tell me…" Her voice had started off forceful, but fell into a pleading whisper.

A long hesitation, and then, "Cara….he's in the hospital. We have the men who did it to him."

"Did what?! One of you, please tell me!"

"Jayje….he's out of danger. It's just…."

"Just that he needs to stay in the hospital for a few more days. Cara…..I'm so sorry...…they gave him drugs."

She'd expected to hear that he was shot, or beaten...but, drugged?

"I don't understand. What happened?"

Rossi explained it to her as best he could, ending with, "Hotch says they don't expect him to be awake for about two days."

Charles had seen JJ's body language change as she listened on the phone. He walked over to put an arm around his daughter. He could hear only her half of the conversation, but it alarmed him.

"But what do they say about his brain? And what about a relapse?"

Without a frame of reference, Charles couldn't quite put the statements together. But he could see his daughter's distress.

"Jayje, Hotch is sending the plane. Strauss okayed it."

In Quantico, Penelope smiled at her companion, who, she was sure, had influenced the section chief's decision.

"It will take me an hour to get to the airport. And I'm not sure Emily will be ready to fly."

"Emily? Why not?" Garcia and Rossi were reminded that they'd not yet heard about what had happened in Pennsylvania.

JJ left spouse-mode and went back into agent-mode. She told them about the blackout, and the fire, and the shooting. Even she marveled at how detached she sounded as she recounted it. She couldn't help but notice her father having the same impression.

"Emily has a deep graze to her shoulder. They're taking care of it here, but I think she needs a real emergency department. And I can't just leave my parents here with the kids. They have no home."

Agent-mode or not, she had to suppress a sob at the last sentence. Charles tightened his grip on her shoulder, and laid a hand over her phone. He had something to say.

"I gather Spencer is hurt…..is that true?"

She could only nod.

"Then go to him. He needs you, and you need to be there. We'll stay with friends tonight, gather up what we can in the morning, and start down with the kids….and Casey." He nodded his head in the direction of the dog and her boy, hoping to have put a smile on his daughter's face. He wasn't disappointed.

"But what about Em?"

"Your mother and I can drive, you car and ours. It will be better that way, anyway. We can spread our things between the two cars. We'll be down by tomorrow night, Honey."

She nodded. "Okay." Lifting her phone again, she told Garcia and Rossi the plan. "I'll head to the airport as soon as I can get a ride."

"No worries, Jayje. Just remember that we love you. All of you."

"She speaks the truth, Cara. I'll meet you at the airport, and bring you to the hospital."

"JJ, I'm all right. It's just superficial. Please, go, be with Reid. It would make me feel better….really."

And she really meant it. Emily Prentiss was very skilled at worrying about everyone but herself. And Reid….was a special case. She would never admit her fear, but Emily was terrified that the amazing brain with which she'd bonded so strongly was no longer. Nor the awkward youth who'd grown into the man who so humbly commanded her respect.

"Please go and be with him. Tell him he'd better wake up ready to go and watch some ridiculously obscure film with me. In a ridiculously obscure language."

JJ laughed. She actually laughed. Emily was so good at skewering her husband, in the most affectionate way. "I love you, Em." She hugged her friend, sparing the bad arm. "And I'll be sure to tell him. I'm sure it will be incentive to..…"

She may have laughed, but she couldn't finish the sentence. Incentive to wake up. From a drug-induced coma. And maybe addiction. And maybe flashbacks. Please, God.

The conversation may have been internal, but Emily read it in her face. She reached her good arm around her friend.

"He'll be okay, JJ. He has to be. He's….he's Reid."

She made her way back to her family to say goodbye. Charles had already explained the situation to Sandy.

"Just take care of Spencer, Honey. We'll be down tomorrow night, just as your father says." Sandy was still holding Rosie, who was out cold on her shoulder. She leaned in and kissed her daughter, whispering into her ear. "You saved us, Honey. I'm so proud of you."

Charles took JJ into his arms and hugged her tightly. "Your place is with your husband. I'll take care of things on this end. Don't worry about anything."

JJ teared up at her father's words. "Thank you, Dad. But I think we all did it, together."

They released one another, and JJ moved on to say goodbye to Henry. She wasn't prepared for his reponse.

"NO! No, Mama!" He leapt up from Casey and threw his arms around his mother's legs. "NO!"

She bent to talk to him face to face.

"Sweetheart, I'm just going to see Daddy. He needs me right now. Meme and Papa will bring you home tomorrow."

"NO!" The terror was evident in his voice. Any question JJ had about how much her young son could take was being answered in this moment. "NO! I want you to stay here! Stay here with me!"

Emotionally and physically exhausted, JJ didn't know what to do. Until Emily ambled over, her arm in a sling. She whispered in JJ's ear. "Bring him with you."

JJ swung her head around, toward Emily. "What?"

"Bring him with you. Hotch won't mind if he's on the plane. Garcia can look after him. And maybe Reid will respond…."

Their bond was that strong. Maybe Henry could pull Reid back to himself. But JJ wasn't so sure she wanted her son to see his father, lying unconscious on a hospital bed.

Emily may not have been a parent, but she did own some human wisdom. "He's already been through the worst, JJ. You can't hide anything from him. Why not let him be a part of making things good again?"

JJ stood, looking back and forth from Emily to Henry. Thinking. Praying. Deciding. Then she bent to her son again.

"Henry, would you like to come for a ride on a plane?"

It was the middle of the night. Henry had fallen asleep in the sheriff's car that gave them the ride to the airport. JJ carried the dead weight of her son on board and laid him on the bench seat, covering him with a blanket. She sat on the bench as well, running her fingers through his hair as she stared out the window into the night sky.

She was in the unfortunate position of being very able to picture what awaited her at the hospital. They'd been here before. The wires, the tubes, her husband lying unconscious on a hospital bed. The waiting. The endless waiting….for him to wake up….for finding out if he was still whole, intact….for finding out if he could battle back that addiction demon once again. She felt so exhausted, she wasn't sure if she could battle it once again.

The computer uplinked from Quantico. Garcia.

"Hey, Jayje, how are you doing?"

"All right, I guess, considering…."

"Considering. Yeah, I know. I'm so sorry about your parent's house. Can it be fixed?"

"Fire chief says its got a lot of internal damage, but it's structurally sound. But it's more the loss of the things in it, you know? The pictures, the hand-made stuff….the things that made it feel like a home. A lot of it's gone."

Garcia was sympathetic. Her own apartment was filled to the ceiling with tchotchkes that were of no real monetary value, but made her place uniquely her place.

"I get it. I'm just so sorry. But I'm also so glad they're all right. That all of you are. Well, except Emily. But she told me she'll heal pretty quickly."

JJ smiled. "That's Em. We'll see if the doctors agree with her. I made her promise to go to the hospital and get it really looked at."

"Jayje, what will your parents do?"

The profiler sighed. "They'll go through the house in daylight tomorrow, and save what they can. Then they'll come down here with Rosie, and Casey and Em. I guess they'll stay with us until they can get back in the house. Although, knowing Dad, I'm sure he'll want to be there to supervise."

"Ha. Speaking of control issues, Rossi is just finishing up some things for Hotch, and then he's on his way to the airport. It looks like the FBI has won custody of the unsubs. Hotch wanted the Bureau to have it, considering. And you know Rossi is just waiting to pounce on the ones who got away. He's betting they're the same guys who were in your yard tonight."

JJ had already reached the same conclusion. "There wasn't exactly a lot of finesse in trying to start an 'accidental' fire with Molotov cocktails. And then shooting at the intended accidental fire victims. It would pretty much go with how they handled Strauss and Rossi."

Garcia nodded, getting excited. "So we're thinking that they're probably also not smart enough to stop using the cell phone whose number I can track. Right now it's stationary, so we gave our security detail the location. They're on their way as we speak."

The second piece of good news for the evening. JJ could only hope the trend would continue at the hospital. Which made her think to ask…

"Hey, Pen, do you think you could do me a favor?"

"Anything, dear heart, you know that. What do you need?"

"Henry's out cold. I know he wants to be with me, but I think he would be all right with you if he was in his own bed, in his own home. Do you think you could come with Rossi to the airport? We could stop by the house first, and…"

"Say no more. I'm there. And then I can hug some happy back into you!"

JJ smiled again at her good friend. "Can't wait."

Garcia was true to her word. JJ could barely breathe in her embrace.

"I love you, girl. We all do. You remember that!"

Before JJ could answer, Rossi stepped over and took his turn.

"It will be all right, Cara. In time, you'll be looking back at this. Just remember, one step at a time."

JJ returned the embrace. "I know. I wish I didn't, but I know."

Henry roused a little as Rossi lifted him.

"Mama?" He looked around for JJ.

"Here, Baby. I'm right here." JJ brushed his hair out of his eyes as he hung over Rossi's shoulder.

""kay." And he was out again.

As they approached Rossi's car, he went to the trunk and pulled out a booster seat. Both women were shocked.

"David Rossi owns a car seat?" JJ put it into words.

"David Rossi has a goddaughter who will one day be chauffeured in style. Of course I have a car seat. I have a baby one, too." He showed them in the trunk.

The women looked at each other and laughed. And then JJ remembered Emily's prediction about Rossi, and Rosie, and the convertible in the driveway when she turned sixteen. Oh, my.

The transfer at the Reid home went smoothly, Henry not awakening at all. JJ expected he would be disappointed when he rose in the morning to find that she wasn't there. But she also knew he loved Penelope, and would be comfortable with her. And some solid sleep would do his emotional state a world of good.

As it would hers. But she wouldn't be getting it this night. She rode in silence on the way to the hospital, trying to prepare herself for whatever news might await her. As they pulled into the parking lot, Rossi reached over and squeezed her hand.

"It will be all right, you'll see."

She gave him a quick smile of gratitude. "I hope so."

They were directed to the fifth floor, where they heard voices as they approached a small waiting area. Hotch was in conversation with a man whose face both agents recognized. Rossi wasn't surprised to see John, who had helped him secure the case for the FBI. But JJ hadn't been informed of his involvement.

"Sir. Thank you for coming." She sounded confused as she shook his hand, thinking it unusual for so high ranking a member of the Bureau to turn out for a non-life-threatening injury to one of their agents. She was even more confused when John spoke.

"I think very highly of your husband, Agent Jareau. He's a very courageous and dedicated young man."

JJ flashed a look at Hotch, who took his turn embracing her in greeting. He whispered into her ear, "I'll explain later."

Hotch released her, saying, "Morgan's with him. Room 523. Go on in."

Rossi escorted her down the hall and stood back to let her enter the room before him. Morgan was seated at Reid's side, head down. They couldn't tell if he was sleeping, or contemplating, or praying. But he looked up when they came in.

"Hey, Blondie." He hugged her. "I'm so sorry…about everything."

She spoke to Morgan, but her eyes were only on her husband. "I'm just glad you got them, Derek. Thank you."

Morgan shook Rossi's hand and whispered, "They said not to crowd the room. You visit. I'll be down the hall."

JJ stood looking down at Spence, taking inventory. He looked peaceful enough now. Sleeping. Or unconscious. Nasal cannula. Wires leading from his chest and limbs. Several IVs going. Arm in a sling. Some bruising. But no massive swelling, no breathing tube. Nothing broken. Except, maybe, on the inside.

She bent and brushed the hair back from his eyes, kissed his forehead, cupped his cheek.

"I'm here," she whispered. "I'm here, Spence."