Derek would remember this night for the rest of his life because he witnessed for the first time what it meant to be this family. All families had the cord that held them together. All sacred love had some shared virtue, this he knew. Yet, as he beat and kicked the doors to get to J-J, as he felt Hotch, Rossi, and Penelope join his side, kicking, screaming for her, they had not expected it. They had not known yet, not before tonight, just how many cords bound them together. They were more one family than if their blood was all the same, than if they were carved from bone and built from the earth's foundations.
They had not expected Emily to appear at the scene, stumbling, calling out to Reid, with Pepper at her heels. They had not expected Bones, Tito, and Grams to load up buckets of water from the church's obscure pump and stumble forward, starting the grueling process of summoning water to the scene of the desert fire. The flash flood rushed up behind them, adding chaos, but would it be enough to subdue this roaring pyre of holy oil and madness.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Bones's shout rose above it all. They turned for a moment. Spencer. He had torn up to the scene, despite Emily's protests and snatched a bucket out of Bones hands. He dumped the water on himself. Derek felt his legs turn to jelly because he knew what he was doing and he knew there was no way in Hell he could stop him. Because this could be the gates of Hell, or eternity, the bottomless pit, all the forces of gods and men and the mythic, and it wouldn't matter. It was Jennifer on the other side of that fire. Jennifer was all.
Reid took a running, crashing, swan-diving leap through the stained glass window at the side door of the church. His body shot arrow-like straight into the fire and the fury.
"Bolt cutters!" Hotch cried. The front door was their best chance of getting the firetrucks to contain the fire. That is, if they ever made it.
"We're going to get you out! We're going to get you outta there! J-J! Spencer! No, no, no!" Penelope's mascara had melted. She beat her fists, her knees, her hands. Rossi threw his shoulder into the door again and again and again. At this moment, it had nothing to do with the unsub. It had everything to do with their family.
Derek stood back in a daze as Emily, struck in the head as she was, tore forward with the bolt cutters, and began trying to cut the door handles off. That's when he took it in. The roaring, black smoke. The screams of the officers.
"Listen to me, you son of a bitch! You've come for my family for the last time!" Derek turned to Grams who had brought a fire hatchet for the door. He took it from her hand and cut through the wall instead, cutting around the door frame, thrusting in his knees and arms.
"Derek! You'll cut yourself half to death that way!" Penelope screamed.
"I don't care. This ends tonight. I'm going after that SOB. J-J! J-J! Kid?! I'm coming for you, hold on!"
Derek had no idea what he was diving into. This game had no rules now.