Permanent

The team stood beside Spencer and Valarie as they faced the doctor. Dave held Valarie's hand and squeezed it while she did the same for Spencer. They tried to swallow the lumps in their throats and looked to the doctor who looked grave.

"Are you here for Agent Hotchner?" he asked.

They nodded and Spencer asked vulnerably, "How is he?"

He looked down at his chart swallowing the lump in his throat. This wasn't going to be easy to say. Spencer's eyes widened and he felt the ground open underneath him. It couldn't be, could it?

He looked back up and saw that the young man and older woman were now distressed as were the agents who were trying to remain calm. He cleared his throat and answered, "We managed to save his arm and leg. There will be a bit of scarring but no serious damage. I wish I could say the same about his ears..."

"It's permanent, isn't it?" Spencer answered trying to battle his tears.

He nodded. "I'm so sorry. Though his ruptured eardrum and acoustic trauma will heal due to him having already had acoustic trauma this accident has worsened it to the point he's suffered it's injured the ears so bad that the hearing loss is permanent."

Spencer couldn't control it anymore as he turned into his father-in-law and broke down on her shoulder. She tried to keep her tears inside and strong for her son's boyfriend as she rubbed his back. She wanted to break down herself that Spencer's fears had been confirmed; her son was deaf.

"Can we see him?" Dave asked trying to keep on top of his emotions. He was reeling from the fact his best friend and stepson was now deaf but he would stop at next to nothing to help him in any way he could. He'd even buy him aids if he wanted. Money was no problem with him. Aaron was the son he'd always wanted and soon he'd be his stepson officially.

"We're just putting him in a room but as soon as we have we'll take you to see him."

"Thank you."

He nodded and left.

JJ took Spencer off Valarie's hands so Rossi could hold her as she broke. She was silently thankful for JJ's actions and Dave enveloped his fiancée into his arms as she broke down into his shoulder. He hugged her close to him wanting to shed a few tears himself while JJ held Spencer close to her.

Meanwhile Derek slammed his hands against the wall. This was so damn unfair! They couldn't have given into the terrorists but they hadn't known it would have turned this bad. Due to these damn terrorists Hotch had lost his hearing!

He heard tears behind him and turned round to see Garcia trying to wipe them away. He immediately pulled her into his arms and wrapped them around her letting her cry into his shoulder.

"Baby girl, it's going to be alright," he soothed.

"How chocolate thunder? Bossman will never hear Spencer and Jack's sweet voices again," she cried.

"We'll be there for him and help him through it." She nodded. "He'll need all of us now especially Spencer, Jack and Valarie. He'll need your beautiful smile to show he can adapt and get through this. He'll also need your jolliness. When we see him standing on the brink we'll have to pull him back and there's no-one better at that than you. You do it for us everyday."

"Oh chocolate thunder," she smiled slightly up at him through his tears.

"What am I going to tell Jack?" Spencer asked trying to control his tears.

"The truth. Dad was deafened by a bomb on the job and we got the bad guy..." He looked up at her. "We got him Spence and he can't hurt anyone any more. Dave made sure of that."

He nodded trying to recover his tears. "Good."

"I don't need to say Aaron's going to need you two even more than ever now. He's going to need you to help him adapt to his new condition and carry on doing the things he loves. He's going to need your help to see he can carry on doing those things just with a few adjustments."

"Like cochlear implants and a dog for the deaf."

"Exactly."