(Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or its characters)

Thanks to everyone who reviewed.

"What do you mean!? If he was with you how was he shot?"

Aaron winced as the Italian yelled down the phone. With a grimace he put the device back up to his ear.

"He came back, Dave. If he hadn't I'd be dead."

"And if he had left you he wouldn't be dying! You're meant to look out for him."

"He's not a kid anymore!"

There was a pause and Aaron felt bad. He turned away from the waiting room, pressing himself to the wall.

"He'll always be my boy," Dave said, his voice thick with emotion. Aaron felt his heart clench at the thought of Rossi crying.

"I know," Aaron said quietly. "I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you we'd of done it differently but then innocent people would be dead."

There was a muffled sniffing from the other end of the phone. Dave must have put the phone away from him.

"It was a shoulder wound. He was talking and conscious for several minutes before he passed out. He's a tough kid, Dave. He'll be alright."

"He better be," Dave said but his voice was softer than it had been. "I'm coming down."

"No-"

"I'm coming. I need to see him when he wakes up. Is he still in surgery?"

Aaron glanced down the busy hallways. Spencer has been taken into surgery ten minutes before he'd called Rossi. They'd stabilised him but the bullet was still in his shoulder. "Yes," Aaron said. "He's only just gone in."

"Okay, I should be there before he's out. Stay there... please."

"I'm not leaving."

Aaron pulled the phone from his ear and exhaled deeply. He made his way back over to Tara who was flashing him a look of sympathy.

"How was it?"

"As you can imagine," Aaron muttered, sitting down heavily beside her. He balanced his elbows on his knees and dropped his face into his hands.

"You both did good," Tara said as Aaron pressed his fingers to his eyes. "No one died... and no one will."

Aaron nodded slowly.

"The others are sorting through some things at the station. They took Taylor to a different hospital. The police riding with him said he complained all the way."

"Good," Aaron said, a little startled by his own maliciousness. He glanced at Tara but she didn't seem shocked by his words, instead her eyebrows were creased as she glared angrily at the floor. It seemed she shared his sentiments.

Aaron looked down at his watch. "How long are the others going to be?"

Rossi dropped his phone on the kitchen counter. His hands clenched around the edge of the marbled countertop and he stared down at it for a long moment. He looked down with a hard gaze, trying not to despair over the news. His fingertips pressed painfully into the marble, indenting his skin.

Eventually he looked away, releasing the counter to wipe his wet eyes.

He needed to get going. He wasn't going to have his son wake up without him. And he was going to wake up, Dave would make sure of it.

Rossi sniffed and brushed past the counter, heading for the front door where his keys and coat were hung.

He got to the hall when someone moved into his way. He nearly shoved past them when his gaze crossed a woman's filler-lips.

"Charity," Rossi said, breathing the name out as he looked up into her blue eyes.

"Where you goin'?" she said, her voice a little more demanding than it had been on their date.

Rossi blinked at the woman. Her face was pulled back sharply, her lips full and her nose too narrow and straight and perfect. She was an old Barbie doll, melting inside while the outside was pulled up and back and down and contorted by scalpels. Rossi had never really gone to someone like her for love but the company was nice.

Charity pushed her blonde hair off her shoulder and pressed a wrinkled hand to her hip which was pinched in like a corset.

"Well?"

"M-my son," Rossi said quietly, looking up again at Charity's face.

She rolled her eyes and Rossi clenched his fist at his side. She draped herself the doorframe and shot Dave a sultry look.

"He's grown. Let's go back to bed, hmm? Then shopping? You promised last night."

"He's been shot," Rossi whispered. He looked away from Charity who stood up from her lewd position. She frowned, narrowing her eyes at Dave.

"Huh?" she said in a squeaky, cutesy voice, reaching up and pulling a thin strand of hair from her face and running her fingers down to the split-ends.

"My boy's been shot," Dave said. He could barely make the words out. His throat felt too thick for it. He swallowed, his airway narrowing with emotion and panic as he thought of his son in hospital.

"Oh... well that ain't good." Rossi looked up to see Charity pouting her shimmering lips out like a petulant child.

"No. I have to go," Rossi said and he looked over at his keys, hanging up and waiting for him. "I'm sorry, I have to... I have to see him. I have to be there for him."

"Can't you go when he's out or something?"

"He's in surgery," Rossi snapped. He was glaring at Charity now who seemed to drop the dumb-blonde act. "He's all I've got."

"Right," Charity muttered and she stepped aside. Her shoulder were high and defensive, but her body was no longer curving with seduction. "So you kicking me out?"

"I need to go."

"Fine." Charity stood up straight, her lips pinching in sourly.

"I'm sorry. I'll call you when I know anything."

Charity wasn't listening. She turned back toward the front room where her shoulder bag was hanging off the couch. Her long manicured nails scratched the leather couch as she yanked it off and swung it over her shoulder.

Rossi grabbed his keys, looking back at Charity before hastily grabbing his coat.

"Got everything?"

Charity scowled at him but nodded.

"Do you want me to call you a cab?"

"No," Charity snapped, moving past Dave and through the door which she threw open angrily.

Dave watched Charity as she trotted down the path, her cardigan hanging off her bare shoulders where the spaghetti straps of her top were tightly strung.

Dave sighed as she turned and walked down the block, pulling her phone out as she glared back at Rossi.

"Spencer," Dave muttered suddenly and he hopped through the doorway onto the porch and pulled the door shut after him. As it shut the sound of claws on hardwood flooring came from inside the house and Dave opened the door again.

"Stay inside, Dotty," Rossi said when the tall black Labrador tried to push her snout through the gap in the door. Rossi stuck his hand inside and patted her head quickly, smiling down at her confused expression.

"I'll be back soon," he said, giving her another little nudge before shutting the door. His heart clenched when he heard her whine on the other side but he didn't hesitate in hurrying to his car.

His son was his priority.

Aaron stood up from his seat when he saw Morgan bang a door open on his way over. He saw Aaron and marched toward him.

"He alright?"

"I haven't heard anything yet," Aaron said, glancing behind Morgan and being thankful to see JJ and Luke following.

"It's been nearly two hours!"

"I know," Aaron said and he glanced down the way they had taken Spencer before looking back at Morgan. "Is everything sorted?"

Morgan nodded and reached around his neck with a guilty look on his face. "Sorry it took so long."

"No, I understand what it's like. Did anyone give you a hard time?"

"Just Lawrence. He was sure we had the wrong man. Idiot."

Aaron sighed and slowly dropped back into his chair. "You didn't miss anything," he said and he gave Tara a quick nudge as she nearly nodded off again.

Morgan chuckled and took a seat beside Aaron.

"Haven't been in one of these places in a while," he said as he looked around.

Aaron frowned and tilted his head around to look at Morgan who was staring around the room in a daze. JJ sat beside Tara with Luke shuffling in next to them, all looking a little lost.

"A hospital?" Aaron asked as he returned to his conversation with Morgan.

Derek shook his head and slumped back in his chair. "The waiting rooms," he said. "It's been nearly a year since one of us were in here."

"That's because it was you after you dislocated your collarbone," Aaron retorted and he laughed when he remembered how bitter Morgan had been about the whole ordeal.

"Don't remind me."

They sat in a comfortable if not slightly agitated silence for another ten minutes. Aaron glanced down the corridor to the theatre and then back toward the entrance, praying on at least one Rossi entering soon.

Morgan sat up straight in his seat and leaned against the wall, tapping his fingers against his arm.

A doctor in scrubs caught Morgan's attention as he walked down the hallway to the desk across from them all. Morgan stood up quickly which caught Aaron's eye.

"Do you think he knows something?" he said, looking down at Aaron who looked in the direction Morgan's body pointed.

He saw the man, scrubbed up and looking ready to take a shower or go to bed. The man swivelled around, adjusting his glasses and squinting around the room. Aaron stood up then, taking a stance beside Morgan. This caught the doctors eye.

"I hope to god it is," Aaron said and he sucked in a breath when the doctor started making his way towards them.

He was only a row of chairs away from them when the large swinging doors to the right of them were thrown open.

JJ jumped up when she saw David Rossi thundering down the corridor and she went to greet him.

"Rossi!" she said, stopping him with a hug.

"Where is he?" Rossi said. He pulled JJ along with him until he was beside Aaron and Morgan. "Is he okay? Have you heard anything?"

Aaron looked from Rossi to the doctor who was one step from joining them. "I think we're about to," he muttered.

The scrubbed doctor looked them up and down. "Agents?" he asked. They all nodded without hesitation and the doctor smirked. "You're all here for Spencer Rossi I suppose."

"He's my son," Dave said, interjecting quickly and with such a desperate look that the doctor ceased to smile. "How is he? He's okay, isn't he? He's going to be okay?"

The doctor clasped his hands behind his back. "Mr Rossi-"

Thanks for reading. I was a bit behind with this chapter. Hopefully this is out on Wednesday, otherwise I do apologise.

Wait, was that the meanest cliffhanger ever! Whhhhhaaaaat!!!

Sorry.

Thanks for reading. If you hate me for the cliffhanger leave a review. Or if you enjoyed the story, leave a little review and let me know what you thought.

Until next time, stay safe.