AN: Thanks for checking out this story. I hope you enjoy it. It is complete at this point except for the epilogue. It will be 12 chapters plus the epilogue.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Hotch groaned as he sat at his desk as another wave of pain crossed his abdomen. He had been plagued with pain for most of the day. Now he was beginning to wonder if he had caught the stomach bug that Jack had brought home from school the previous week.

He looked wistfully at the picture of Jack and Haley that sat on his desk as he remembered Jack's despair when he was sick. He really missed his mom even with Hotch and Jessica doing what they could to help him feel better. As Jack's birthday approached, Hotch missed Haley as well.

With not feeling the best he was hopelessly behind on his paperwork for the day even with it having been relatively quiet, at least by BAU standards. With that in mind he decided to lie down on the couch in his office for a few minutes and then get back to work.

At some point later he was startled awake by a knock on his door. When Garcia stuck her head in to tell him they had a case he answered that he would meet the team in the conference room. As he sat up he noticed that he felt worse than he had earlier wondering how he was going to make it on this case. Shaking his head as he pushed that decision aside for the moment. As he stood up he didn't miss the dizziness he suddenly felt. Yeah he was going to need to think about conferencing with the team from here.

As he stepped out of his office, Hotch thought that he would need to give Emily a heads up that the team had a case and he was sick. She was planning to come to visit with all of them in DC sometime in the next few days after her work meetings in NYC.

At least she would if Clyde Easter didn't force her to return to London again before she had the chance to visit. He had been doing it anytime she had planned a trip to see any of them. Hotch didn't want her to make an unnecessary side trip south if the team was away or to risk catching the stomach bug if Jessica ended up getting it as well.

The rest of the team is already there when he steps into the conference room. He doesn't miss the picture of the antique car next to Dave, probably a new addition to the elder profiler's collection that seemed to be the subject of conversation before his arrival. As Garcia started to present the case his abdomen cramped up and his field of vision narrowed. He interrupts before excusing himself. Before taking a couple steps away, he feels himself falling to the floor noticing the chaos around him as he loses consciousness.

####

After arriving in her office early in the morning, Emily sat at her desk trying to make a dent in the paperwork before she was scheduled to leave for NYC that evening. She was quickly trying to make it through the items that couldn't wait for her return in a few days.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her cell phone. Picking it up she smiled as she saw the call was from Garcia. Her bubbly friend had been in frequent contact since Emily had first mentioned a visit after her meetings.

When she answered Emily was overwhelmed with the anxiety laden run-on sentence Garcia had initiated as soon as the phone was answered. From Garcia's tone, it was immediately clear that this was not one of their normal phone calls.

As she began to parse together what Garcia was saying Emily cursed to herself as she looked at the clock. Refocusing back on the call, she said, "Garcia, I'm on my way. I need to go so I can rearrange my flight. I'll be in contact once I'm in the air."

After hanging up the phone, Emily picked up her office phone and instructed her assistant to request the pilots ready her jet for an earlier departure. That she wanted to leave as soon as they could be ready and change the flight plan to arrive first in Washington DC.

As she waited for word, Emily powered through the work on her desk. Making a pile of items including those that she could hand off to her assistant, what she could take to work on on the jet and what could wait until she got back.

As she stepped out of her office to hand off the first stack of files, her assistant informed her that the changes had been made and she could leave in as soon as 30 minutes. Stepping back into her office Emily mumbled to herself 'wheels up in 30', a phrase she now always associated with her friend and former Unit Chief.

Going up to her desk she put the second stack in her briefcase, picked it up, got her suitcase from the corner of the room and walked back out at a rapid clip in the direction she needed to go to reach the airfield.

####

As he rode with Hotch in the ambulance Dave could feel his blood pressure continuing to rise as the paramedic next to him was yelling to his colleague driving the ambulance that Hotch's blood pressure was falling. It was the anxiety that occurred anytime someone on the team was hurt but particularly Hotch ever since Haley died. But it wasn't an injury in the field this time. Those he understood. No, right now Hotch was in bad shape with no obvious reason why.

When they arrived at the hospital the staff ushered Dave into the waiting room while Hotch was taken directly into the ER. As he paced the room waiting to hear from them, he took out his phone to call Garcia asking her to fax a copy of Hotch's medical power of attorney form to the hospital as well as a copy to Dave's phone.

The staff treating Hotch would need a copy of that form to know that Dave was designated to make decisions if Hotch was unable to do so. Given Hotch's condition in the ambulance, Dave was almost certain that it was going to be needed. He smiled as Garcia answered that it was done as soon as she knew to which hospital they were taking him. Thanking her, he hung up then opened the form.

He smiled when he saw that he wasn't the only person listed. It didn't surprise him that Hotch still had their former teammate listed on the form. But she now lived thousands of miles away. Well it looked like he needed to make a third difficult phone call. For now he would start with Jessica so she knew where Aaron was in case he had plans with Jack.