So, I wanted to post this a few days ago so I wouldn't leave you hanging this long, but life got in the way. But here it is.
Hotch watched as the monitors went black and he fought off tears as Doctor Abraham pulled the tube from Jessa's throat. After that was done, she began carefully disconnecting all the wires her body. When all the wires were removed she looked at the two men sadly.
"Time of death," She put two fingers against Jessa's throat and glanced at the clock. Instead of finishing the sentence, she frowned.
"What?" Dean asked, panic flooding his features.
"I, um." Doctor Abraham moved her fingers to Jessa's wrist.
"What is it?" Hotch asked, Dean's worry was mirrored in his face
"I, um—she has a pulse."
"You mean she's not dead?" Dean took a step toward the bed.
"It would appear not."
"So does she need all those machines?"
"She's breathing on her own, and her heartbeat seems regular." She reattached a few wires to Jessa, "I've just hooked up her heart monitor again, so we can keep an eye on it." She smiled at both Dean and Hotch, "It would appear that Miss Winchester isn't ready to give up."
"When is she ever." Dean allowed himself to smile before he grabbed his phone, "Excuse me." When he got into the hall he frantically dialled Sam's number. "Come on, come on." He muttered as it rang.
"Dean, you can't talk me out of this." Sam answered. "I have to go." He moved the phone away from his ear and was about to end the call when he heard Dean yell out.
"Sam, she's alive."
"What did you say?"
"The doctor turned all of her machines but she didn't die."
"Jessa is alive?"
"She's alive, Sammy." He almost laughed but then he remembered what Sam was about to do, "You haven't done anything stupid, yet. Have you?"
"No not yet." Sam looked down at the box he held in his hands. It was everything he needed to summon a crossroads demon, but he was yet to bury it. "I haven't summoned it yet."
"Good."
Sam smiled, but then it occurred to him. "Dean, how is she alive?"
"I have no idea." Dean hadn't stopped to think about it—he was just so happy that his sister was alive. "Maybe she's just fighting."
"Maybe." Sam didn't sound convinced. "I'll be back there shortly." He hung up the phone and took off running.
Hotch called a meeting as soon as the team arrived the next morning, knowing they would all be thinking the worst when he assembled them. They were all waiting on Garcia when she came rushing in.
"Is this about Jessa? Are you going to tell us that this was all a bad dream and she's okay?"
"Sit down, Garcia." He ordered. Five anxious pairs of eyes stared at him intently as he began, "Last night Jessa's brothers made the decision to turn off her life support."
"Oh god." Penelope muttered, tears escaping her eyes.
"The doctors can't explain what happened, but she survived."
"What?" Morgan almost yelled, his eyes doubling in size. "I thought you said that the doctors said she wasn't going to?"
"That's what they thought, but when all her life support machines were switched off she started breathing on her own."
"Is she awake?" JJ asked softly.
"Not yet. No one can be sure when—or if—she will."
"Can we see her?" It was Reid that spoke now, looking up at his boss.
"They were going to take her into surgery today to repair the rest of the damage that she couldn't handle before, so her brothers have asked that we come in tomorrow."
Morgan stepped into the hospital room and felt a pang of grief. He didn't quite know what he expected to see, but Jessa didn't look a whole lot different than the last time he had seen her when they were sure she was dying. This time, she didn't have a tube down her throat, and her skin had a little bit of colour, but she was still unconscious, and her future was still unknown. It was almost a full week since Hotch gave them the news, but this was the first time he had been able to bring himself to see her.
"Are you okay?" JJ's soft voice beside him brought him back to where he needed to be.
"She looks the same."
"She's getting better." Her arm curled around his, "You just have to believe that she'll get even better."
"We don't know that."
"Jessa needs us to believe that she will."
He knew JJ was right—she mostly was—but somehow the pessimist in him won. "I have to go."
JJ watched Morgan run away and minutes later Garcia walked in with the three coffee's she was sent to fetch from the cafeteria.
"Where's Morgan?" She asked, setting down the paper tray.
"He left." JJ took the cup meant for her, then gripped Jessa's hand with her free one.
"Oh." She took a seat, "Why would he leave?"
"It's got to be hard on him—seeing her like this."
"It's hard on all of us."
JJ tilted her head to the side, studying her friend, "Still, I can't imagine how he's feeling right now."
Penelope remained silent.
"You know he's in love with her, right?"
"What?" The analyst seemed genuinely shocked, "I mean, I knew they had a thing, but—how could I not see that? I see everything. I'm like Big Brother."
JJ chuckled, "I wouldn't beat yourself up. You can't know everything."
Penelope grumbled something about being off her game, but otherwise dropped the subject. "Hey, where did her brothers go?"
"They don't like being here while we are. Why?"
She grinned suggestively, "I like looking at them."
The comment made JJ laugh more, "Yeah, how did one family get so much good genes?"
"Hey, don't complain."
"I'm not."
"Good." The pair lapsed into comfortable silence until Garcia lost her patience. "When is she going to wake up? It's already been a week."
"She'll wake up when she's ready. Give her time."
"It's not the same without her around."
"She'll come back. This is Jessa we're talking about."
"You're right."
The two women sat with their friend for over an hour before Sam and Dean walked in and they left.
Dean was chatting to Jessa while Sam was outside chatting up the pretty blonde that worked with their sister when Ellen stormed into the room, her expression somewhere between grief and fury.
"Why didn't you call me?" Was the first thing she demanded.
"Uh, well, um." Dean stammered, the truth was he didn't know what to say, and then too much time had passed and he was scared of her reaction. Dean Winchester could stare into the eyes of any supernatural monster and not even blink but Jessa's mother-figure scared him to death. "I, um… Who did call you?"
"Her boss." She all but yelled, "My girl has been laying here—dying for all we know—for a week and I have to hear it from her boss!"
Dean cursed, he knew he shouldn't have let slip that Ellen didn't know in front of Aaron. "I'm sorry, Ellen. I just—I didn't know what to say."
The hitch in his voice softened Ellen's expression as her maternal instincts kicked in, and she wrapped her arms around Dean, "It's okay. I'm here now." Another moment passed before she released him, "How is she?"
"Same as ever. Miraculously alive, but still comatose."
"Miraculously? We believe in miracles now?"
Dean held up his hands in an 'I'm innocent' gesture, "We didn't do anything like that. But a week ago, we switched off her life support and she just didn't die."
"You didn't think to call me then?!" Ellen yelled, but then backed down, "Sorry, trying not to be mad here."
"Well, she should have died but she didn't. Sammy and I have tried everything and we don't think it's supernatural intervention. So it must be a miracle, right?"
"I don't know, maybe it's just her stubbornness."
Dean chuckled, "Could be."
Not long later, Sam walked in followed by Jo.
"Did you get her number?" Dean asked his little brother.
"What? Who?"
"The blonde you were hitting on."
"JJ? No, I—" Realising Dean wasn't buying it he dropped the lie, "I was going to but then someone," He looked pointedly at Jo, "interrupted."
"Way to go, wingman." Dean laughed.
"She wasn't interested, anyway Sam." Jo told him, patting him on the back.
"What? Of course she was."
"Trust me, I know when a woman is trying to blow someone off."
Dean laughed, and Sam scowled but they dropped the subject.
"How are we all doing?" Dr Abraham walked in, "Aaron not here today? That would be a first. But I don't believe we've met." She smiled at Ellen, "I'm Doctor Abraham, Jessa's doctor."
"Ellen Harvelle." She shook the doctors hand.
"Family? Friend?"
"Family."
"How's my sister doing today, Cecily?"
"Improving. She seems much stronger than yesterday, and there's far more colour in her skin. I would say she's recovering."
There was a collective sigh of relief in the room.
"I just wanted to let you know how she was doing. I'll leave you to it."
"Thanks, Doc." Sam smiled politely, but as soon as she was out of the room he hit his brother.
"Ow. What was that for?"
"Cecily? You're hitting on Jessa's doctor!"
"Am not!"
"You are, but it ends now. Concentrate on your sister, for god's sake."
Over the next couple of weeks, Hotch spent all of his spare time in the hospital chatting with Jessa about whatever case they were working at the time. He found her brothers to be good company, them having spent more time in the hospital than him.
Today however, was one of the rare days that he got there and Sam and Dean were not. He sat down on his usual seat and pulled out a case file.
"Here's one you might be interested in. We're consulting for Alexandria PD." Hotch told her, "Two school teachers killed over the last month, one male one female. Both taught at different schools, lived in different parts of town, and went to different churches, supermarkets, parks. No overlap in their lives whatsoever. Both found dead inside a building site nowhere near where they were supposed to be. Any theories?"
"Have you tried good old fashioned psycho kidnappers?" Hotch turned to see Dean standing in the doorway.
"Actually, I was thinking it was more your kind of thing."
"My kind of thing?" A confused look crossed his face before it dawned on him, "She told you, huh?"
Hotch nodded.
"Give me a look." Dean held out his hand for the file. He flipped through it for a moment, "Where is this?"
"Not far. Alexandria."
"You know anything about the building site?"
"The site has been abandoned for years, last thing there was a church."
"It's just a nutjob." Dean closed the file and handed it back, "And by that I mean human."
"How can you be sure?"
"Hallowed ground. The chances of it being anything supernatural is almost nothing."
"Thanks."
"Dean, they didn't have any pie." Sam said, entering the room with a small paper bag and a tray carrying three coffees.
"What's this?" Dean snatched the bag and inspected its contents. "A muffin?" He looked offended.
"Well, yeah. There was no pie." Sam handed him a coffee, then one to Hotch.
"So you got me a muffin?" Dean shook his head and chucked it onto the nightstand. "What kind of cafeteria doesn't have pie?" He mumbled, taking a sip of coffee.
There was a brief silence that was broken by the sound of the monitors going crazy. The three men jumped to attention as Jessa's eyes shot open and her breathing grew more and more rapid.
"Sam, get the doctor!" Dean yelled, grabbing his sister's hand to try and relax her.
Jessa's eyes darted around the room as she panicked.
"Jessa, it's me." Dean spoke soothingly, "J, it's Dean. Calm down." One of his hands gently rested on her cheek, "You're in the hospital, okay?"
Dean's touch helped, but Jessa didn't truly relax until her eyes rested on her boss.
It was barely a beat later when a panicked Sam re-entered the room with Doctor Abraham in tow. She began to assess Jessa, shining a small light into her eyes.
"How are you feeling?" She asked.
Jessa opened her mouth to answer, but ended up in a coughing fit.
"It's okay. We'll get you some water, but maybe don't try speaking just yet."
After she had a small cup of water she spoke, "Where'm I?"
"The hospital." Doctor Abraham said, "Do you remember what happened?"
Jessa frowned, then nodded.
"Good." The doctor smiled, "All your vitals look good, but we'll obviously have to run a few tests, but everything looks good for now." She wrapped her stethoscope back around her neck, "Welcome back, Miss Winchester. You must have some sort of guardian angel looking over you."
Doctor Abraham left the room and Dean grabbed his sister's hand, "How are you feeling, J?"
"Shiny." She mumbled, coughing.
"Here." Hotch pressed another cup of water into her hand.
She accepted it gratefully and took a few small sips before she tried to speak again, "Wha' happ'ned t'my Hawk?"
Dean laughed, "You know you got hit by a car, right? J, your bike's toast."
She made a face, "I liked that bike."
Sam just rolled his eyes at her, "We're all glad you're okay, Jessa."
There you have it! How did she survive? I may be evil, but I love doing this.
Xoxo
