Chapter Sixteen: I Alone
"Great lives never go out; they go on." -Benjamin Harrison
By the time Tate became aware of her surroundings again, she was sitting on the couch in the living room. Max sat on the floor in front of her with his head in her lap, and she could hear Nolan in the kitchen.
As everything came into focus, she could hear Nolan approaching, and soon he was in front of her holding a glass of juice.
"Here, have a few sips of that," he said, handing the glass to her.
Tate obliged and swallowed a few gulps of the sweet liquid.
Nolan crouched down slightly so that he could look Tate in the eye.
"You okay? You were kinda out of it for a few minutes," Nolan asked looking concerned.
She nodded numbly as she finished the rest of the juice.
"I take it you don't exactly remember what I told you when I got here?" he asked.
"Something happened to Will," she said quietly.
Nolan nodded slowly but surely. "He was caught in an explosion and they had to rush him to the hospital. As of ten minutes ago, Jonesy hasn't gotten an update on his conditions".
"But he's alive?" she asked hopefully.
"He's not in great shape, but yeah, he's alive," Nolan told her.
"Can we go to the hospital?".
Nolan sighed and seemed reluctant to fulfill Tate's wish. "Jonesy sent me here to keep an eye on you,".
"You can keep an eye on me at the hospital," Tate argued.
"I don't know, kiddo, it might be better if we wait here".
"Please, Parker," she begged. Tate had never called Nolan by his first name, ever, but she needed him to cave right now.
After a moment's hesitation, Nolan nodded.
"Alright, let's go".
As the pair entered the hospital waiting room, Tate could see Jonesy along with many other officers sitting in the waiting room, taking up most of the seats. When he noticed Tate and Nolan come through the entrance, Jonesy got up and walked over to meet them.
"I thought I told you to stay at Will's place with her," Jonesy said to Nolan.
Nolan shrugged, glancing at Tate before looking back at Jonesy. "She wanted to come, and what can I say? The kid's stubborn".
Jonesy rubbed his temples and sighed as the three of them walked back over and sat down in the corner of the waiting room.
"I tried calling Beck but he didn't answer, and I didn't have JJ's number," Jonesy told the girl gently.
This wasn't right, a 13-year-old sitting in a hospital waiting room by herself, waiting to hear if her father was alive or dead. But Jonesy couldn't fix that, at least not until Beck picked up his phone.
"Beck's in Washington visiting Amelia's parents. Their house is pretty remote, apparently the cell reception sucks," Tate said, remembering a conversation between Will and Beck about how Beck might be hard to reach while he was gone.
"Listen, I'm gonna go check on some other officers that got caught in the blast, why don't you try calling JJ while I'm gone?" Jonesy suggested.
Tate dug her phone out of her coat pocket, and pressed JJ's number. After a few minutes of ringing, her voicemail message came on.
"This is Agent Jareau, Communications Director for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can".
Tate sighed and waited for the recording to beep. "Hey JJ, it's Tate. Something uh…something happened to Will so just call me back when you get this".
"How about we go get something to eat while we wait, kiddo?" Nolan asked her.
"I'm fine". She felt like there was a knot in her stomach, and was too nauseous to even think about being hungry.
"Okay, I'm gonna go find something. I'll be back soon," he promised, patting Tate's knee as he got up.
Once Nolan was gone, Tate drew her knees up to her chest, curling up in the chair. It wasn't fair that everything always got taken from her. Will was lying in a hospital, maybe dying, and once again, Tate was alone.
Will had always told her that Beck and JJ were there for her, but that wasn't true. Because here she was needing them, and they weren't coming. They weren't her for Will, and they weren't her for her.
Sure, Jonesy was here. But Tate knew that he had plenty of other people to worry about, and couldn't spend all his time focusing on her.
It took Jonesy almost an hour to check in on all his officers. Ten of them had been caught in the blast, and out of those ten, five were dead, three were hospitalized but stable, and two had critical injuries.
After Jonesy finished checking on Drew, who had sustained a major concussion and several broken ribs, he headed back down to the waiting room. Drew would have to spend a few days in the hospital, but he'd make a full recovery. It was the fate of his partner that was less certain.
Jonesy approached Tate, who was curled up in a chair in the waiting room, looking pale. Just as he made his way over to her, a doctor came into the waiting room.
"William LaMontagne Jr.?" the doctor called.
"Stay here, okay? I'll go see what's going on," he told Tate.
"But-" the girl began.
"I mean it. Don't move," Jonesy warned her. He knew he was being harsh, but he'd much rather have that than have some strange doctor coldly inform Tate that her father was dead. And yeah, Jonesy was gonna keep referring to Will as Tate's dad regardless of either of their objections, because that's what he is.
He walked towards the doctor and put his hand out of the man to shake.
"I'm his uh captain. His daughter's over there but I don't really want her to hear…" he trailed off.
The doctor pressed his lips together and looked over at Tate for a moment.
"There's no one else?" he asked Jonesy.
"We can't get a hold of his brother or his girlfriend, they're out of town," Jonesy explained.
The doctor looked relieved at that, and it made Jonesy nervous.
"It's that bad?" he asked the surgeon quietly.
"Detective LaMontagne's injuries were very severe, we had to rush him into surgery. He had internal bleeding from the blast and from the shrapnel that hit him. We had to remove his spleen
"But is he gonna be alright?" Jonesy asked the doctor.
"It's touch and go at the moment. If I were you I'd get his family here as quickly as possible," the surgeon advised him before walking away.
Jonesy took a deep breath before waking back over to Tate, who was now sitting up, looking slightly more alert.
"Is he okay?" the girl asked Jonesy.
"They don't know yet, honey, it's touch and go apparently," he said hesitantly.
He watched as Tate deflated before him, her eyes glazing over slightly. Nolan had told him she'd been kind of out of it at the house, and it worried him. With the death of her parents and brother, she no doubt had some form of PTSD, and the whole accident was probably causing a lot of triggers.
"Did you manage to get a hold of Beck or JJ yet?" Jonesy asked Tate hopefully.
Tate shook her head, she wished she had. She'd left a message for Beck and JJ, as well as Amelia, but no one had responded.
"Do you know where JJ is right now?".
'Um, a case in New York, I think," Tate murmured.
Jonesy sat down next to Tate, and they sat there in silence for a few moments.
"Can I go see him?" Tate asked suddenly.
The doctor had told him that Will was pretty roughed up, and he didn't think Tate needed to see her father on death's door.
"They said maybe in the morning," Jonesy said, hoping Tate didn't ask for an explanation as to why. Luckily she just nodded and settled back in her seat.
"Listen, why don't I have Nolan take you home. That way you can get some rest," Jonesy suggested.
Tate shook her head quickly. "I wanna stay, please,".
And how was Jonesy supposed to say no to the girl's blue eyes, filled with fear and sadness?
"Alright. Maybe when Drew wakes up a little more you can go visit him," he told her.
He excused himself and got up from the chair, heading towards a quiet hallway. He glanced back at Tate, noticing she'd pulled out a book. That kid could find something to read anywhere.
Jonesy pulled out his phone, and dialed Beck's number, waiting until he could leave his message.
"Beck, I don't know where you are right now or what you're doing, but go get your ass on a plane, and come be here for your family," he snapped angrily into the phone.
As he hung up, he noticed Will's doctor approaching again.
"Everything okay with Will?" he asked.
"Nothing's changed," the doctor said, and Jonesy let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding.
"Mr. LaMontagne's daughter, is he fostering her?".
Jonesy looked up at the doctor, suspicious of the man's questions.
"Yeah he has been for a few months now. How'd you know?".
"There's nothing in his medical records that lists a daughter as his next of kin. And I overheard one of your officers saying something about him fostering," the doctor explained.
"What's it to you?" Jonesy asked. He knew he was being rude, but he didn't like people in his officers' personal business.
"I'm afraid if Mr. LaMontagne's condition doesn't improve soon then the state will have to step in".
As the doctor walked away, Jonesy kicked the wall. It was bad enough that Will was seriously injured, but if his kid ended up back in the system, it'd kill him.
The second Tate had seen Jonesy walk away, she grabbed her phone and called Grant.
"Hey, kid, how's it going?" she heard him ask.
"I think I need your help," she said.
"What's going on?" he asked, and Tate sighed with relief. At least on person hadn't forgotten about her, hadn't abandoned her. At least Grant hadn't broken his promise.
So as Tate sat there in the waiting room, all by herself, she told Grant everything.
It was almost midnight by the time Beck and Amelia managed to get Asher and Ezra off the bed. They were visiting Amelia's parents for the week, and they'd driven to the family's lake house that morning to get out of Seattle. Amelia's two sisters and her brother had also come with their families, so the boys had spent the day running around with their cousins.
Cell reception up at the cabin was none existent, and Amelia's dad had turned the WiFi off earlier in the day in an attempt to get all the kids off their electronics.
Once they were certain all the kids were asleep, he went down to the basement where the router was located and turned it back on. To be honest, Beck hadn't exactly missed his phone. It'd been nice to forget about work for once, as a prosecutor was a fairly demanding job that involved long hours.
Amelia and him had been about to go to sleep when he figured he should quickly check his phone to see if anyone had tried to reach out. His heart stopped when he saw three missed calls from Tate and five from Jonesy, Will's captain. Seeing they'd left him messages, he quickly clicked on his voicemail.
"Hey, Beck. It's Jonesy. Things have uh gone a little south here and Will ain't in great shape. Call me back as soon as you get this,".
Beck could feel himself panicking. Jonesy wouldn't have called unless Will was seriously injured, unless he was hospitalized and unconscious.
There was a loud beep as his phone skipped to the next message
"Hi, Beck. Jonesy said you weren't picking up, but I figured I'd try. I know you're with Amelia's family but…Will's hurt and I think it's bad. I just…I need you to come, okay? Please come," Beck heard Tate's shaking voice.
Beck knew it was bad if Tate had called. This was the kid that didn't ask for anything, ever. And here she was, all alone with Will in the hospital, begging him to come.
He quickly got out of bed and grabbed his bag out of the closet.
As he got dressed, he could hear the next message start to play.
"Beck, I don't know where you are right now or what you're doing, but go get your ass on a plane, and come be here for your family," was the last message Jonesy had left for him.
Amelia sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes. "What's going on?" she asked as Beck hurried to grab his things.
"It's Will, I gotta go," he told her, snatching his car keys off the bedside table.
Amelia, god bless her, didn't even ask anything else, just helped Beck gather the rest of his things and kissed him goodbye, watching from the porch as he pulled out of the driveway, speeding towards the airport.
By 8 am, there were few officers left in the waiting room. Most of them had gone home to be with their families, and the family members of those that had been injured had mostly migrated to see their loved ones, or also returned home.
Tate was sitting in the chair beside Jonesy, curled up in her chair reading a book. He still hadn't been able to get her to eat anything, and he was fairly certain she hadn't slept.
As he glanced around the floor, he noticed Will's doctor approaching with a lady, and Jonesy could tell just by looking at her she worked for the government.
He quickly stood up and hurried over to them, glancing back at Tate to make sure she'd stay where she was.
"Can I help you, Doctor Ramsey?" Jonesy asked politely, hoping it would gain him a few brownie points.
"Captain Jones, this is Ms. Ramirez from CPS. She'll be taking Tate into the custody of the state," the doctor explained.
"Yeah, that's not happening," Jonesy declared firmly.
"Unfortunately, you don't have any say in the matter," Ms. Ramirez told him.
"Look, you can't just take his kid away," Jonesy said, trying to reason with the lady.
"Actually, I can. At the moment, he is unable to take care of her, which means I am well within my rights to remove Tate from his home".
"I can be responsible for her until Will wakes up," Jonesy offered as a last measure.
"Captain Jones, right now you have two options. You can let me leave here with Tate, or I can come back with a court order that will force you to relinquish her to me. And, fair warning, the second option will undoubtedly come with repercussions for you professionally," she stated.
Jonesy glanced back at Tate, who was distracted by her book, and then back at Ms. Ramirez. He didn't want to hand Tate over to this lady, not one bit, but he knew she would take her eventually, and he'd be able to help far less if he was under investigation.
"Fine," he told Ramirez, glaring at the woman.
"Tate, come over here for a minute," he called to the girl.
"Can we go see Will now?" she asked once she was standing by Jonesy.
Jonesy leaned over slightly, and took hold of Tate's shoulders.
"Listen, kiddo. Will still isn't doing really well, so Ms. Ramirez over here is gonna take you somewhere where you can be taken care of until he gets better, okay?" he told her, trying to sound reassuring.
As he spoke, he could see Tate turning pale and the fear growing in her eyes.
"No, Jonesy, please. Why can't I just stay here with you?" she pleaded, and Jonesy noticed her trembling slightly.
Will had told him some of what Tate had gone through while in foster care, and Jonesy knew that although it sounded horrific, Will had given him the less intense story, and the real one was probably even worse.
"Everything's gonna be fine, honey. You're gonna be okay, and you'll be back with Will once he gets better," he said, lying to himself and the girl.
"Please," she begged him one more time, tears growing in her eyes.
Tate couldn't go back, she just couldn't. It'd been the worst five years of her life. It'd been hell. And if she went back, unlike the first time, there'd be no one fighting for her. No one would be looking out for her or determined to save her like Theo had been. Beck was gone, JJ was gone, and Will was half-dead.
Best case scenario, she'd get sent to a group home, or a foster home where the parents just cashed the check and left her alone. Worst case, it'd be a home with foster parents that liked to use her as their punching bag. Or, and Tate didn't even want to think about it, a home where the foster father's hands would linger too long, and where he would sneak into her room in the middle of the night to play a game.
"My hands are tied, kid. There's nothing I can do," Jonesy said, and she could see the silent apology in his eyes.
"Well, we better be going," the CPS lady said cheerfully.
Drew, who had been in the process of being discharged, wandered over to see what was happening.
"Sorry, where are you taking her?" he interrupted.
"A foster home," the woman explained, trying to steer Tate towards the door.
Tate had begun to cry silently now, and was trying her best to remember how to breathe.
"You can't do that. Jonesy, tell her she can't do that," Drew ordered his captain.
"Drew, there's nothing we can do," Jonesy explained.
"Everything alright here?" Tate heard a voice ask from behind them.
She turned around to see Beck standing there, bags under his eyes but somehow still put together.
"As I explained to these gentlemen, I'll be taking Tate here into state custody," Ramirez said, sounding annoyed.
"There's no need for that, I'm her uncle and I'm perfectly capable of looking after her," he replied to the woman coldly.
"As sweet as your offer is, you aren't legally her uncle, and she's a ward of the state. The only way she'd be able to stay with you is if you had a court order. Now if you'll excuse us, we really must be going," she informed Beck, trying to sidestep the man but he refused to budge.
"You'll have a court order from Judge Hannigan within the hour," Beck told her.
"There's no way you could have gotten approved to take custody that quickly," the woman stated.
"I'm a junior partner at Pearson-Specter and Judge Hannigan is a very reasonable man," he said, anger seeping out of his voice as he moved to stand between Tate and Ms. Ramirez.
Will had once told Tate she didn't want to witness Beck in lawyer mode, and he was right. He was every bit as intimidating as Agent Hotchner right now.
Meanwhile, Jonesy was recalling the few times he'd ever seen Beckett LaMontagne this angry. Will hadn't really inherited his mother's anger, but Beck certainly had. Although it took a lot to make him lose his temper, once he did there was no going back. He wasn't loud when he was angry, but rather deadly silent. Cool, calm, and collected. The perfect lawyer.
The only time he'd ever seen Beck look like this was when Annie had randomly appeared to visit the boys. Jonesy had been at the LaMontagne's since Bill was hosting a barbecue, and Annie had begun lecturing Will on his choice to become a police officer. He'd only been 18 at the time, but was going to Tulane for a degree in criminal justice, and had firmly made up his mind.
One minute everything had been fine, and the next Jonesy heard Annie saying that Will was a failure just like his father. Will, who'd had straight A's all through high school, who had played varsity baseball, who'd constantly done everything for his mother's approval. For the woman who'd abandoned him when he was just 10 years old to finally notice him.
And Bill, to call Bill a failure was the most untrue statement of the century. He was the man who'd done everything Annie had ever asked of him. Who'd sat by her when she had cancer. Who'd been the perfect father to her two sons, that she couldn't care less about. Bill had been inside grabbing something, unable to defend himself and his son, so Beck, at just 23 years of age, had verbally demolished the woman and sent her packing. Jonesy had never doubted his skills as a lawyer since then.
"If it's not on my desk within an hour…" the woman warned Beck.
"It will be, you'll have it as soon as the courier gets into the office," Beck assured her.
As the woman began to leave, everyone sighed in relief.
Beck turned around and took one look at Tate, who was about to fall apart if she hadn't already. The glare and anger that had been displayed across his face just seconds prior disappeared off his face, and he pulled her into his arms.
Tate clung to him with a fierce desperation, burying her head into his coat. The LaMontagne brothers wore the same cologne, and she breathed it in. It was the smell of home, the smell that told her it was safe, that she was protected.
Beck glanced up quickly to make sure that the woman was gone, and Jonesy caught the look in his eyes. It was one of fierce protection, daring anyone to come and try and take his niece and face the wrath of Beckett Christopher LaMontagne
"You're okay, squirt. It's alright, hm? No one's taking you away, not while I'm here," he reassured the girl quietly as he held her.
She could feel Beck's heart beating strongly against his chest, right under her ear, a constant reminder that he had come, that he was here, that she wasn't alone anymore.
Slowly but surely, Tate's breathing became steady, and she was no longer about to hyperventilate.
Once her sobs had died off into sniffles, Beck pulled back and led her over to one of the chairs in the waiting room.
"Stay here for a minute while I go talk to Jonesy, okay?" he said.
Tate nodded, and Beck went back over to Jonesy.
"Took you long enough," Jonesy said gruffly.
"I don't need to hear it right now, just tell me what happened," Beck snapped.
Jonesy filled him in on what had been going on with Will and Tate, beforing looking over at Tate.
"I'm worried about her. She hasn't eaten or slept at all," he told Beck quietly.
"I'll handle it. I'm sure you have stuff you need to take care of, so you can go," Beck said.
"You sure?" Jonesy asked.
Beck nodded and thanked the man, who then left to go make sure no one had burned down the precinct while he was gone.
Beck headed back over to Tate and crouched down in front of her.
"You doing okay over here, squirt?" he asked her.
Squirt was an acceptable nickname. Will never called her that. No one ever had except for Beck and occasionally Grant. It was a good nickname, a safe one. It'd only been used by people who loved her.
"I didn't think you were coming," she whispered sadly.
Beck's heart broke a little at the girl's statement, as he knew it was true. He knew she had PTSD, that she had abandonment issues. She'd sat here in a hospital waiting room for over 12 hours thinking he'd abandoned her.
"Hey, look at me for a minute," he said, waiting until she lifted her head and looked him in the eye.
"I know it took me a while to get here, way too long, and I could make excuses, but I won't. But squirt, you gotta know, I was never not coming for you alright? No matter what, I'll always show up when you need me, trust me on that," he told her, making sure she was paying attention to his words.
"I know, I trust you," she said seriously.
Beck knew how hard that was for her. He'd heard conversations between Will and JJ about how with the exception of Will, Tate pretty much had an inherent distrust of men. She didn't like to be alone with them, she always avoided eye contact, and she'd flinch more often around them. She'd been better with Beck than most, but not nearly as comfortable as she was with Will.
But Beck could tell things were different now, he could tell she knew he'd never hurt her.
"What do you say we go get some food?" he asked.
"I'm not hungry," she replied quietly.
"Just a few bites of something, please?".
Tate looked up and met his pleading gaze. He was worried, she could tell, and it didn't help that his eyes matched his brothers, it only made her feel more guilty over worrying him.
"I guess so," she responded and Beck gave her a grin in response.
"C'mon then, there's a coffee shop just down the block," he said, wrapping his arm around her and steering her towards the door.
"What about Will?" Tate asked.
"Food first, then we can go see him," Beck promised.
JJ sat in a conference room at 26 Federal Plaza, looking at the evidence board the team had collected. For the past few months, someone had been kidnapping women and strangling them to death, so the team had been called in.
"JJ, Hotch wants us to split up and head to the precincts surrounding the crime scene radius and deliver the profile," Reid said as he came into the conference room.
"Alright, I'm coming," JJ replied, slowly getting up out of the chair, a task that was getting much harder now that she was six months along and expecting two babies.
She grabbed the prepaid cell phone she'd bought earlier that day off the desk, and reached for her coat before following Reid out the door. She'd accidently spilled water on her phone yesterday and it was completely ruined, so she was stuck using the temporary one if she needed to call the team.
JJ and Reid returned to 26 Federal Plaza after delivering the profile around the same time as the rest of the team did. It was almost 5 o'clock, and JJ was starving. They went up in the elevator together, and emerged on the lobby of the floor they'd been stationed at.
To make their job even harder, New York City was currently experiencing a blizzard. With over eight inches of snow on the ground and more still falling, all the airports were closed, and traffic was horrible.
"Excuse me, Agent Jareau?" a young agent said as she walked up to the team.
"Yes?" JJ asked.
"There's a young man waiting for you, he was quite insistent that he speak with you," the woman informed her.
"Who would come looking for you here?" Morgan asked her.
"I don't know," she answered honestly.
"He's over there," the agent informed them, indicating a small seating area off the main lobby.
JJ looked over to see Grant Sullivan standing up from his chair.
"Grant! What are you doing here?" she asked, walking over to him.
As she approached him, she noticed something, and assumed the rest of the team did as well. Grant was mad, no, not mad, furious.
"What am I doing here? What the hell are you doing here, JJ?" he said, voice level but sharp with anger.
"I don't understand, Grant…" she replied, confused. Morgan and Hotch seemed to have picked up on the young man's anger, and had come up behind JJ, standing guard protectively.
"Really, JJ? What I don't understand is why I got a call from Tate at midnight last night begging me to help her. I don't understand why I had to skip class and drive down here from Cambridge this morning in the middle of a blizzard and track you down in the biggest city in the country," his voice was steadily raising, anger flowing into it.
"And I certainly don't understand why instead of being in New Orleans for your boyfriend, or fiancee, or husband, whatever the hell he is, you're working. The father of your goddamn children is in the hospital, his daughter's called you half a dozen times, and you're fucking working," he continued, almost shouting at the end.
"Hey, man. Calm down, alright? Let's just take it down a notch," Morgan said, trying to defuse the situation.
But JJ had stopped paying attention once the word hospital came out of Grant's mouth. What did he mean Will was in the hospital? She felt faint all of a sudden, and it was only thanks to Hotch that she didn't collapse to the floor.
He led her over to a chair and gently but firmly pushed her down into it.
"What do you mean Will is in the hospital?" Emily demanded as she marched over.
"He got caught between a fire and a meth kitchen and I'm sure you know how that ends," Grant snapped.
And then he looked over at JJ and took in her pale face, and the team's stunned expressions.
"Shit, you didn't know, did you?" he asked.
"My phone broke yesterday morning," was all she could say to the boy.
Grant ran a hand through his hair and sighed.
"Everyone's been trying to get a hold of you since yesterday afternoon. When Tate called last night I offered to fly out, but she said it wouldn't help. She mentioned you were working a case here, so I figured 26 Fed would be a good place to start looking…" he trailed off.
"Is Will alright?" Hotch asked.
"It's uh…it's not looking too good," he responded quietly.
"I-I need to go, I need to get to New Orleans," JJ said trying to stand up, but Rossi gently pushed her back down.
"You're not going anywhere tonight, all flights are grounded," Hotch told her.
"But, what about Will? And Tate, you said Tate's all alone," JJ said, looking over at Grant.
"Beck called me half an hour ago, there was a slight issue with CPS but apparently he figured it out. I guess he couldn't get there till this morning" Grant said.
It had been a bit strange to receive a call from the man, considering he'd never met him, but he had no option except to trust him.
"Okay, that's good," JJ sighed, relieved.
"He'll look after her?" Grant asked JJ, concerned.
"Yeah, he's a good guy, she'll be fine with him," JJ assured him.
Eventually, the team went back to their hotel, knowing there was nothing they could do until the snow stopped and they could get JJ on a plane to New Orleans.
Will woke up to the sound of steady beeping. His first thought was that it was his alarm clock, before he realized it was too quiet.
Smoke alarm, he thought to himself, but he couldn't smell any smoke. What he could smell was antiseptic, and it clicked. Hospital. He was in a hospital and the beeping was a heart monitor.
Slowly, he forced his eyes open, and found himself in a dim room. He glanced to his left and saw Beck and Tate. Tate was curled up on the couch, Beck's coat draped over her like a blanket, and Beck was standing by the door, speaking in hushed tones to someone on the phone.
"Beck," he whispered, his voice scratchy since his throat was so dry.
Beck looked over at him and quickly ended his phone call. He reached for a water pitcher on the table and poured a glass before helping Will lean forward to drink a few sips.
"Better?" Beck asked, keeping his voice quiet so as not to wake Tate.
"Yeah," he said quietly, following Beck's example. "What happened?".
"You got caught in an explosion on a raid, caught a piece of shrapnel to the stomach and a lovely concussion," Beck explained.
As Beck spoke, Will began remembering what had happened. The blast, the pain, the heat, the fire. Drew pressing his hands to the wound, begging him to stay awake.
"Is everyone else okay?" Will asked.
"Drew's alright, the others weren't so lucky," Beck said, filling him in on the rest of the officers' injuries and those who had died.
Will looked over at Tate and noticed how exhausted she looked, even while sleeping. She was paler than usual and had bags under her eyes. He could tell she'd been crying.
"Everything okay with her?".
Beck sighed for a moment, glancing over at Tate.
"There were some issues with CPS, but I took care of it. I was out of cell range so I didn't get here until this morning," Beck told him.
Will panicked and tried to sit up, pain shooting through his side, but Beck gently pushed him back down.
"What sort of issues?" Will asked.
"I handled it, you don't need to worry about it right now, okay? Just trust me".
Will looked at Beck for a moment and could see the worry and exhaustion on his face.
"You know I do," he told his brother solemnly.
"You want me to wake her up?" Beck asked, nodding towards Tate.
"Nah, let her sleep a while, she looks like she could use it,".
A quick glance outside the window told Will it was either night or early morning, and, noticing his brother's gaze, Beck informed him of the time.
"It's about 1 AM".
Will nodded, feeling exhausted, but forced himself to stay awake in order to think about whether or not there was anything else he needed to know before he went back to sleep
"Where's JJ?" he asked, as Beck had yet to mention her.
"I dunno, Willie. She didn't answer any of Tate's calls, or mine. All I got was a singular text from a Doctor Spencer Reid around 6 o'clock last night telling me that JJ was gonna try and catch a flight this morning but that was it. But I have no clue why she didn't try and come sooner," Beck said.
"She was working, she's busy," Will told Beck.
Tate whimpered in her slimp, stirring slightly, and Beck rubbed a hand down her back until she quieted down.
A week ago, Tate would still flinch when Beck approached her too quickly, but she clearly felt more comfortable around him now, and Will was happy with the development.
"Will, the father of her children needed her, and she wasn't here. Tate called her begging her to come, and she didn't show up. I've always liked JJ, you know I have, but I would really think about whether or not this is the woman you wanna marry," Beck advised him.
"Okay, I will," he promised his older brother, ever the protector.
"Get some sleep, alright? Neither of us are going anywhere," Beck assured him.
And with two of the three people he loved most in the world around him, it was easy for Will to fall into a heavy slumber.
The next time he woke up, Tate was sitting on the couch reading a book, and the clock told Will it was 5 AM.
"Hey, kiddo," he said, slowly sitting up. Tate looked at him, hesitating.
"C'mere," he beckoned, wrapping the girl in a hug.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes, before Tate quietly whispered. "Don't do that again, okay?".
"I won't, kiddo, don't worry," he promised the girl.
He knew he shouldn't make promises he couldn't keep, and with his line of work he definitely couldn't keep this one, but his kid was scared and he had to do everything he could to fix that.
"Beck told me about what happened with CPS," Will told her. As he spoke, Will could feel Tate cling tighter to him.
"I'm sorry, chérie," he said quietly. He had let down his kid, failed her, and he knew it.
Tate pulled away and looked at him silently for a moment before speaking.
"You promised I wouldn't have to go back".
"You don't," he assured her.
"I almost did," Tate murmured.
Will didn't reply for a moment and watched Tate anxiously bite her lip.
"I know, it's not fair. I'll fix it though, okay? It'll never happen again, you have my word," he said.
And if there was anything that Tate had learned, it was that LaMontagne men never broke their word.
"Why don't you go home with Beck and get some sleep, kiddo? You still look pretty tired," Will suggested.
"I'm fine," Tate said, shaking her head.
Will got the sense that it was more due to the fact that she didn't want to leave him.
"Just lie here and take a little nap then," Will said, sliding over a little to make room for the small girl.
Tate considered it for a moment before nodding and lying down. After a few minutes, she drifted off to sleep. Will brushed a stray curl off her face softly, before pulling a blanket over her.
"You're safe chérie. I promise you that," he whispered to her.
He had to stop himself from laughing at Tate asleep next to him, as the girl had a tendency to sleep in a ball like a cat. It was cute though, it made her seem even younger than she was.
A few minutes later, Will, still exhausted from his injuries, nodded off.
And if Beck happened to return to Will's room to find his strong, brave detective brother taking a nap with Tate curled up against him, and he just so happened to take a picture, well then Will would never have to know.
Will and Tate woke up at around 11 AM, and Beck took Tate to get some brunch for the three of them.
Roughly ten minutes after they'd left, JJ walked into Will's room.
"Oh god," she said, rushing over and hugging him. "I was so worried,".
"I'm okay," he assured her.
Will waited until JJ had stopped hugging him and leaned back to sit on the bed.
"JJ, where have you been?" he asked.
And so JJ explained the whole cell phone situation, and then the blizzard that prevented her from flying out.
"I'm so sorry, I know Tate was alone until Beck could get here," she told him.
"It's okay, it wasn't your fault," he said, kissing her softly.
"Listen, we need to have a talk," he said seriously.
"Okay," she said slowly, looking worried.
"I want to adopt Tate. I'm ready, I've thought about it, and I don't wanna wait anymore," he told JJ.
JJ hesitated for a moment, looking down at her baby bump as she rubbed a hand over it.
"Will, I don't know if now's the time. I mean, we already have enough going on with the babies coming. And honestly, I don't think I can".
Will inhaled sharply before exhaling, making sure to look JJ in the eye,
"JJ, I'm doing this with or without you," he said quietly.
"Will-" she began, but Will stopped her.
"Just, just give me a minute okay? I love you so much, I love you more than I can say. But I need to do this. And Tate and I, we can't wait anymore. So if this is gonna be a deal breaker for us, then I'm sorry, but I'd choose Tate every single time".
Will knew it was a lot to ask of JJ. If she and Will stayed together, then Tate would be coming with him. And although that was always the plan, it'd be permanent if he went through with this. No backing out.
"Every single time?" JJ asked quietly.
"Can you honestly tell me you wouldn't do the same for the boys, if they were here right now, sitting in front of us?".
JJ didn't respond to that, because she knew he was right. She would pick her children, just like any parent would. Could she really blame Will for doing that?
"Look, if you want to adopt her, I'm okay with that. I just, I can't do it with you," JJ said.
"Are you sure? It'd be permanent JJ, I'd be her father," Will warned her.
"If it's what you want, then I'm sure," JJ replied.
"We still have a slight problem though," JJ continued.
"What?" Will said, looking worried.
Maybe JJ had changed her mind and decided she couldn't stay with him.
"We still don't have a house," she joked.
Will threw his head back and laughed.
"I think we can fix that," he said, grinning as he went to kiss JJ.
"Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world." -Robert Kennedy