Chapter 12: Las Vegas
Everything in him wanted to tell Hotch no, that he wasn't going to leave her, but he knew he needed this job to provide for her and his little girl. Instead of fighting with Hotch he decided to pray the whole flight from Quantico to Las Vegas. Of course this case had to be across the entire country, not like it could have been a local case. "Morgan," Hotch shouts, "You need to keep your head in the game. The sooner we solve this case the sooner you get back home to her. I know your scared so we need to solve this case fast. Also just for your peace of mind I asked Anderson to check on Garcia every few hours so she won't be alone too long."
"I'm sorry Hotch. You're right I need to focus. Let's find this monster so I can get home to Garcia," he replied pulling his attention back to the case file on his tablet. "Looks like this guy has been doing this for a while. Two bombings in a day... either he's preplanning or he's just that good," Morgan adds.
"I think I've seen this before actually, let me tell you about the other case I recall," Reid says.
Its been three days... a long three days. Penelope is missing Morgan more than ever and this Anderson guy wouldn't leave her alone. She knew that he was only doing it because he was asked, but he kept moving her case files and it was making her edgy. It was nice having him to get lunch though. It allowed her to not have to leave her office at any point of the day. It was reassuring that he would be close if she did in fact need him though. Garcia sees her phone light up with Morgan's face, "Hello Handsome," she greets him. "How is the case coming?
"Its great! We just caught the guy. All we have to do is fill out some paperwork here and then we will be back on our way to you. I can't wait to be home with you again," he explains excitedly.
"That's great! I'll finally be able to go home and sleep in our bed rather than sleeping on my couch here. I haven't left my office much with Anderson being around. He's been super helpful. Thanks for asking him to sit with me," she thanks him.
"That was all Hotch Baby Girl, but I will let him know. I have to go now Sweetness, but I'll shoot you a text just before we take off so you know when to expect me. I love you P," he says before hanging up the phone.
There is a knock on the door so Penelope goes to answer it. She wishes she could say she is surprised by it being him, but at this point there is no denying it. "Hello Garcia, can I get you something for dinner?" he asks her nicely.
"No thank you Anderson. The team will actually be back very soon so I'll just catch dinner with Morgan when he gets back. Thank you though for hanging here with me the last few days," she thanks him.
"No worries. I just wanted to give Hotch and Morgan some peace of mind so that they could focus on their case. If you need anything I'll be here for a little while longer," he says as he leaves the room. Garcia got started on the paperwork to close the case. Doing this for the team meant that they got the opportunity to leave for home even sooner. She pulled up the case notes from each member and began inputting them into the reporting portal for the case file. She hears a ping on her phone and sure enough it is the message from Morgan letting her know that he is boarding the jet now. He should be home in about four hours. This will give her plenty of time to finish the case notes and even some time to take a quick nap before they arrive.
She refocuses and begins to work on the case files again. She gets through Morgan's, Emily's, JJ's and Reid's. It's taken her two hours to get those ones done. At this rate she should be done with Rossi's and Hotch's in the next hour. That will leave her with a full hour to rest before they make it back. Things could not go any better according to the plan. She sets into working on the other two. She has just finished them when she hears a knock on her door. Figuring that it is Anderson coming to tell her he is leaving for the night. She pushes the unlock button for her door and tells him to come in. "I'm still good Anderson. You can head out. Morgan will be back in about an hour or so," she says as she turns to face him.
She is shocked when she realizes that the man in her office is not Anderson, but instead is Kevin. "You know that you shouldn't be here. You've been instructed by Hotch and your boss as well that you are to have no contact with me at all. Please leave my office immediately," she demands.
He laughs the most evil laugh she's ever heard. " I told you that one of these days I was going to come back and that I'd make Morgan pay for taking you from me. Well here I am and today is your day to pay back all that you've taken from me," he chuckles. He walks over to the door and locks its before turning back to her. She glances at the clock. Only fourty more minutes until Morgan will be back at Quantico to save her.
She looks up to him and says, "please don't do this. I'm sorry that things with us went the way that they..." she stops as he backhands her across the face.
"Now isn't the time to beg you worthless bitch. You had the time to make this right and you chose him instead. Now I'm going to make you feel the way I did when you left me," he says cutting her off. He throws her to the ground and kicks her in the ribs once... twice... three times. The feeling of the pain floods back to her. She remembers how horrible she felt the first time he did this to her. She can't allow herself to pass out this time though because she needs to make sure that she keeps her baby safe. She looks up when she sees something flash in the light. This is when she realizes that he has a knife. "Look at me, I want to see the look on your face when I shove this knife into your body,"he shouts at her. She closes her eyes so she doesn't give him the satisfaction that he is searching for. Thats when she feels it, the stinging, burning sensation in her back. Its a pain she has never recognized before. The room begins going dark. Garcia is fighting to stay with it, fighting to keep herself balled tightly around the baby, but the darkness is just too much. She feels the burning sensation again and this time it is too much. The room goes dark.
The plane has just landed it Quantico. Morgan is the first off of the plane, he jumps into the first SUV front passenger seat next to Hotch and pulls his phone out to call Garcia. Her phone rings until it goes to voicemail. He hits the off button, but stares at his phone confused. "She didn't answer," he tells Hotch.
"I'm sure she just fell asleep. You have to remember we've had her up all hours of the night for the last few days. She probably just sat down to rest and dozed off. We'll be at the office in fifteen minutes. We can check on her then," Hotch tells Morgan reassuringly.
They drive the short fifteen minutes to the office and the team walks into the elevator together. They all split up to go to their respective offices to look over the case notes that Garcia has prepared for them. Morgan however goes straight to Garcia's to check up on her. He pulls out his keycard and lets himself into her office. As soon as the door opens he sees her. She is laid on the ground covered in blood. "I need help in here now!" he screams. He runs to her and checks for a pulse. It's there, but it is very faint. He checks her over and finds 4 stab wounds into her back and abdomen.
"What's wrong Morgan?" Hotch yells as he busts through the door. He sees Morgan starting CPR on Garcia. Every thrust down he makes causes blood to starting pouring out of the stab wounds. "I need a medic in here now! Someone grab some towels now!" screams Hotch. He runs over to Morgan and helps put pressure on all of Garcia's wounds. "Don't stop Morgan. The most important thing is that her heart doesn't stop."
In the door rushes Rossi followed by Anderson carrying towels. "Sir I was just here about an hour ago. I told her that I'd be here if she needed me. She never alerted Sir. I'm so sorry Morgan," Anderson cries. Morgan just ignores him and focuses on keeping the right rhythm for her heart. The EMTS come barreling through the door and they load her on the stretcher and drag her out with Morgan on top of her continuing CPR.
"Find him Hotch. If I find him you'll be taking him out in a body bag," Morgan yells on his way out.
"Team we need to assemble in the Round Room immediately," Hotch says in a disheartening manner. "Guys we need to alert all agencies to be on the lookout for Kevin. I want two posted officers at every enterance into any room where Penelope will be. I want someone with Morgan at all times as well so that he doesn't do something that he will regret. We need to bring this home for Morgan. It... it doesn't look good guys. I'm so sorry," he addresses all of them. A lone tear runs down his face and he excuses himself to go change.
Its been a half hour and the team is all gathered in the waiting room of the hospital. Morgan is up pacing the room while Emily and JJ are huddled in the corner crying together. Hotch continues to check in with the reception desk every five minutes or so hoping for an update, but keeps coming back empty handed. Morgan looks at the clock its 11 p.m. They should be at home right now. He should have her in his arms rubbing her belly and telling her how much he missed her. A sob escapes his mouth and Hotch goes over to him. "Its okay Morgan. We don't know anything. We just need to wait until we have an update from the doctors," Hotch says calmingly.
"Hotch, Rossi... I know what's going to happen. I'm going to lose at least one of them. It's too early for the baby to live outside of her. Did you see the stab wound to her stomach? He knew about the baby. He was trying to kill my baby. Where is that son of a bitch? I want him in a jail cell now and I want five minutes alone with him," Morgan yells.
"Listen Morgan, I know it's hard, but I promise you we have everyone in the city looking for him. They will find him and they will make sure that he pays. You are right where you need to be. She will need you when she wakes up," Rossi says trying to keep Morgan calm.
The door to the waiting room opens and in walk Dr. Sheets and Dr. K. Morgan brisquely walks over to them both. Dr. Sheets looks at Dr. Kr and then back at Morgan. "Why don't you take a seat," he says. Morgan's heart drops into his stomach. The tears he has been holding back start falling. This is it he thinks, but he does as he's told anyway. "Agents, I'm going to be very direct with you all. Ms. Garcia was in very grave condition when she came in today. She had multiple stab wounds as well as lots of other bruises to her body from force. When she arrived we took her into surgery to stop the bleeding. We had to do two blood transfusions because she was bleeding out. We were able to stop the bleeding from her abdomen. That's the good news. Unfortunately at some point during the scuffle she hit her head and caused swelling in her brain and is now in a coma. I believe that as long as the swelling decreases she could make a full recovery, but she has a long road still ahead of her. She may also suffer some memory loss or impairment at a result of the head trauma. I also need to let you know that we ran a rape kit on her. When she arrived we noticed evidence of a sexual assualt. I know this wasn't the news you were hoping for, but I wanted to be 100% honest with you," Dr. Sheets explains.
"Fuck! She can pull through this though right? She can still make it?," Morgan asks the doctors while he sobs.
"Yes she can sir, but it won't be an easy road for her. She's very lucky to have survived this level of attack. There is no doubt that the person that hurt her had intentions of killing her," Dr. Sheets replies.
"And the baby? Will she make it through this as well?"Morgan finally asked.
"Once they got Ms. Garcia through surgery they allowed me to look over her and the baby. None of the stab wounds hit the baby directly. One of them did hit the placenta so unless it heals we may have to do a C-Section and remove the baby sooner than intended. As of right now my recommendation is to do check ups on her every few hours and try to let nature take its course, but if the baby is in any more distress or has issues getting what she needs from the placenta we will be forced to do a C-Section," Dr. K jumps in.
"Isn't it too early for her to make it outside of the womb yet? What's the probablility if we do a C-Section that the baby will make it?" Hotch pushes while Morgan sits with his head in his hands.
"The likelihood of survival is slight. Maybe ten to twenty percent," Dr. K answers.
The team all looks from Morgan to the floor. He was right. More than likely one of the two of them is not going to make it out of this alive. This will destroy Garcia. There is nothing more that she has wanted than to be a mother. Morgan stands up from his chair, "I need some space. I need some alone time to process this. I'm gonna go on a walk. I'll be back soon. Call me if anything changes please," he says on his way out the waiting room door. The doctor's follow him out and go back to check on Garcia.
"Hotch do you think we should call Fran? I know they've kept this pregnancy to themselves, but at this point we already know that Kevin knows and I think he needs his mom's support," Emily asks. Hotch simply nodds his head and pulls out his phone to make the dredded phone call.
"Good Evening, is this Fran?" He asks.
"Yes this is Fran," she replies sleepily.
"Ma'am this is SSA Aaron Hotchner, sorry for waking you," Hotch begins.
"Is he alright? Please tell me my baby is okay?" she says panicked.
"Ma'am calm down. Morgan is fine. I'm calling you for a different reason. I need to update you on a few things that have changed in the last few months and I need your help. I'm sure you are aware that Morgan and Garcia have gotten closer in the last few months. She is actually pregnant and we've had to hide the pregnancy to keep her safe from a previous ex. Tonight, she was brutally attacked and is in the hospital in a coma. It's possible that both she and the baby might not make it. Morgan is understandably upset and we felt it would be a good idea to ask you to come to help console him," Hotch rushes out quickly.
"Oh my. I'll catch the very next flight. Tell him to hold on. Momma is coming," she says with a click.
"She is on her way. Can someone go find Morgan and let him know that his mother is coming? Maybe that will be enough to pull him together for now," he says looking at JJ and Emily. JJ nods her head and gets up to go find Morgan.
Five minutes later JJ walks into the waiting room quickly. "Sir he's gone. Morgan left the hospital when he left this room," she yells quickly. "His SUV is gone out of the garage, I've pulled his GPS it appears he is at Garcia's apartment," she follows up.
"He must have gone to look for Kevin! JJ stay here in case there are any changes with Garcia. The rest of us need to go bring Morgan back here before he gets himself in trouble we can't get him out of!" Hotch yells grabbing his coat and running towards the door.
The drive is only five minutes from the hospital so they make it to her apartment quickly. As the team approaches Garcia's door they can hear the sound of a man groaning inside. Hotch kicks in the door and sure enough they find Morgan sitting on the couch with his handgun pointed directly at Kevin. Kevin on the other hand looks much worse. His hands are tied behind his back, he's been beaten up, and he's crying. "Morgan don't do this. This isn't the way to make him get what he deserves. This isn't what Garcia would have wanted," Emily begins. "There is still a chance the baby can make it and she's going to want you to be the one to care for her. Don't leave your daughter alone. Morgan your baby needs you," she begs him.
Morgan doesn't respond, doesn't make eye contact, and doesn't change the direction of his gun. Instead he turns on the laser and points it directly on Kevin's forehead. "You don't know how much I want you to die. You don't know the amount of pain you've caused me, caused Garcia, our precious baby girl. If she dies, if Penelope or my precious daughter dies, I will personally come to your jail cell and murder you," he shouts at Kevin ignoring the rest of the team.
Hotch does something he's never done before. He walks right up to Morgan and kneels in front of him. At this point the laser is pointed directly at his head instead of Kevin's. "Morgan, I know you're hurting, but don't do this. She needs you," Hotch starts. The sound of a vibration fills the room. Hotch pulls his phone out of his pocket and sees its JJ. He takes a look around and answers the phone. "Hotchner," he answers. "What? When? We are on our way. Tell her to hold on," Hotch yells. "Morgan we need to go now. There has been a change with Garcia and they need us. Are you coming with us or do you really want us to leave you here with Kevin?" Hotch says waiting for an answer.
"Is she? What's changed?" Morgan asks changing the direction of the gun slightly.
"I don't know. JJ just said that we need to get there now. If you want to stay I can't make you leave, but I'm not going to leave Garcia there alone. Let's go team," Hotch replies. Morgan drops the gun and puts it back in his holster. His face flinches as he does so. The cops burst through the door to take Kevin down to the station and the team runs to their respective SUVs to head back to the hospital.
"Emily, here, you drive," Morgan says throwing the keys at here. "One of my hands isn't working as well as it should be," he finishes. She catches the keys and makes a mental note to have someone check on Morgan's hand when they get back to the hospital.
Five minutes later the team is yet again busting through the doors of the waiting room except JJ is no where to be found. Morgan runs to the reception desk and asks where she has gone. They give him Garcia's room number and ask him to head there. The team walks down the corridor until they come across her room number. Morgan peaks in the window and sees that JJ is sitting next to a still very unconscious Penelope. The team goes in to check on her.
"What has changed JJ? Hotch said you called him," Morgan questions her.
"She coded while you guys were gone. They didn't think they'd get her back, but somehow she did. I didn't want her to go if you weren't here to tell her good bye," JJ cries.
Morgan runs to her bedside and grabs her hand. JJ notices that he flinches. "Morgan what did you do to your hand?" she asks.
"It's nothing. I'm fine," he brushes her off.
"I'll have a doctor stop in and look at it in here. It needs to be corrected if its broken before the swelling start," Hotch says before leaving the room.
Morgan puts his head down on Garcia's shoulder, "Baby Girl, come back to me. I need you, we need you. Please, baby. I love you," he cries to her. Doctor Sheets come into the room. Morgan goes to stand up, but Dr. Sheets shakes his head.
"I'm not here for her. I'm here for you. I hear that you hurt your hand? Let me see what damage you did to it," the Dr. says grabbing his hand. "It is definitely broken. Let me do a quick x-ray then we can set it and wrap it for you. I'll bring everything we need to this room so you don't have to leave her," he says before leaving the room. The doctor came back several minutes later and fixed up Morgan's hand without causing him to leave the room.
Now the wait was on... how long would it take for her to come out of this coma? Would Garcia ever wake up from this coma? There were still so many unanswered questions.