AN: Thank you guys for the get well wishes. I am now better. During the time I was Ill i have started writing another 2 stories which I am going to try and find beta readers for so if anyone can do it or wants to do it PM me. They are both JJ centric because she is my favourite character. :)
Thank you for waiting and here is a chapter which is much longer than the others I have posted.
Tell me what you think :)
In the car on the way to the hospital, everyone sat in silence before a gasp sounded from the back of the car, everyone turned to see Garcia in a panicked state, JJ shaking and convulsing at her side.
"Why is this happening?" Garcia shrieked, waving her hands in panic as Reid came to aid from the seat behind.
"Garcia, a febrile seizure is common in children her age especially with a temperature as high as she has. You know 1 in 20 children who have had a febrile seizure develop epilepsy later in life and 1 in 100-"
"Reid not now" Rossi snapped, leaning over from the front to feel her forehead. She was burning up, badly.
Upon arriving at the hospital they all rushed to the reception and told the nurse that Dr Fehr knew their case and would be able to help, not giving her a chance to speak before showing her their badges and screaming that is was urgent. In their luck, he was working the last shift tonight and was already in the hospital. He rushed to the emergency room where he took Hotch and JJ into a trauma department to give her a check-up and find out what was wrong.
The others were escorted to the family waiting room by the trauma department and all sat around the small coffee table, the silence eating away at them. Emily and Derek sat together occupied on their phones while Garcia was sat on a chair with her head in her hands thinking of what had happened, trying to calming herself the best she could. Reid was sat calmly in his chair on his phone doing some research on the children's symptoms and seizures and Rossi stood against a wall, looking down at his colleagues, praying everything would be okay.
About 2 hours later Hotch came out, looking even more exhausted than he did back at the hotel.
"Is she okay?" Garcia asked, everyone putting their attention on their boss.
"Reid was right, she had a febrile seizure. Her temperature rose to 105. Erm… She is unconscious right now, Dr Fehr said she might not wake for a couple of hours because the seizure has physically affected her body, because of her young age. She's on an IV currently and Dr Fehr is drawing blood at the moment to run some tests. They are working on getting her temperature down right now because that is their main concern. You're all allowed to go and see her as long as you are all quiet and stay out the way if the nurses are still in there" Hotch explained to them, staying silent while the information sunk in.
"Well what are we waiting for, taking me to my best friend" Emily said, standing up and pointing up at Hotch, making everyone laugh slightly. Penelope took her hand and followed everyone out the room, the pair of them sending a reassuring look to the other, mentally telling each other it would be alright.
They walked through the door and saw JJ lying on the bed, wires sticking out in every direction. She looked even smaller than usual (well, 4 year old usual). She lay with a thin sheet over her, keeping her concealed for her privacy but not too much do to her body temperature. They could all see the sweat dripping from her face, proving how high her temperature must be.
"Are we going to get ill like JJ?" Derek asked after a few minutes of silence, everyone looking at him as he sat holding JJ's small hand, Emily holding the other.
"I don't know buddy" Hotch answered honestly, running his hand over his face with a sigh. Dr Fehr entered the room, everyone looking expectantly towards him.
"So the nurse has taken some of JJ's blood to get tested for anything unusual and/or any illnesses. This looks like it could be influenza or the flu as you would know it by, but because of the fact she has had a drug put through her body to turn her into a child, this could complicate things further. I'm looking into it and I'll have the results in a few hours" Dr Fehr said to everyone, waiting for the questions to come. When everyone stayed silent, he backed out and let them wallow over the information while he got back, working on getting them information.
A few more hours went by the time they knew it, it was already 8.30pm. Emily and Derek had vacated to a couch in the corner of the room, now slumped against each other sleeping. Hotch, Rossi and Reid were all stood against the wall opposite JJ's bed watching her and talking about anything in general to distract themselves. Garcia had sat at JJ's bed side, mumbling things to her in hope she would wake up. She was still sound asleep.
"Guys look she's waking up." Garcia said, getting everyone's attention, waking Emily and Derek up.
They all turned and looked at JJ whose eyes were fluttering open, waiting for her to say something.
"Mama?" JJ said a bit confused, looking around the room.
"JJ, your moms not here sweetie" Garcia said hold the girls hand tightly. "Are you okay princess?"
"Hurts." She said before she burst out crying, worrying everyone.
They all looked to her sympathetically. This must be so difficult for her to understand and all she knows is that she's in pain. Dr Fehr walked in to find JJ crying, Garcia trying to sooth her, using a damp cloth to cool her down. Everyone turned to him in hope of good news, though it never come.
"I have the results and I'm afraid it's much worse than the average flu. A complication of the drug that she and the others were giving has occurred and due to her young age, JJ's symptoms have kicked in much sooner and are more heightened. I'm going to admit the other 2 in also so we can keep a close eye on them and hopefully slow down or even stop them getting as ill as JJ is" Dr Fehr stated, watching as the hope drained out of them.
"Wait so what about JJ? Is she going to get better?" Rossi asked, speaking everyone's worries.
"I'm afraid unless we get the cure and can get her back to her normal age, there will be nothing we can do for her. Her temperature is going to continue to rise and when it hits 107 degrees brain damage will kick in and it will more than likely to be permanent, even if she gets the cure after this stage. We can keep cooling her down and pumping her with IV fluids to keep her temperature down and keep her hydrated but it won't stop the rise in her temperature, it may just delay it, depending on how she is these next few days. There is also a chance of her having more febrile seizures. It's not good and with how quick you said this progressed on her we need to get started on Emily and Derek to keep them away from this for as long as possible. Their older ages may help with this as they can handle medication and treatment a lot better than JJ's small body can"
Everyone went silent. This was not good, it was not good at all.
"So you're basically saying JJ has maybe 5 or 6 days left if we can't find the cure to this?" Garcia said trembling, squeezing JJ's hand tighter, afraid she'll slip away if she lets go.
"Yes, I'm afraid so. If you'll excuse me, I need to set up the room next door for Emily and Derek. I'll be back shortly"
Dr Fehr set Derek and Emily up in the room next door. They had been hooked up to an IV which would keep them hydrated and run cool liquids through their systems to lower their temperature as much as possible, though so far they hadn't gotten past 100 which was a good sign. Garcia sent Rossi to buy some fans to set up in Derek and Emily's room and on in JJ's room and also to nip back to the hotel to get her laptop and anything else they might need for their stay at the hospital. Garcia, who was sat at JJ's bed side with her laptop, had done some digging into the past of Taylor again and cross referencing his name with the other three suspects. She was going into each of their back grounds slowing crossing things off her list bit by bit getting closer to finding who the accomplice was and hopefully this would help find Taylor and the cure.
After Rossi got back with the things he barely had a chance to sit down with his coffee before Garcia had him, Hotch and Reid out again to possible places Taylor could be. They thought they best check in case he was there; every lead was their best lead right now. JJ's life was hanging on by a thread and it was up to them to save her, and hopefully before Emily and Derek become like JJ.
Derek and Emily were settled down in their room now, finally alone. It was just past midnight and they were still awake, going over the day's events in their heads.
"Derek."
"Yeah."
"I don't want to get poorly like JJ." Emily confessed, feeling guilty because her best friend was dying and she was still healthy as can be.
"I know. It looks scary." Derek told her, also feeling slightly guilty.
"Is it selfish for us to be scared, you know because JJ is dying" Emily asked, Derek sitting up so he could see her better.
"JJ is not dying. She is going to be okay, don't think like that"
"I don't want to lose my best friend Derek" She said tearfully, looking sadly over to him.
"I know Em, she means a lot to me too. I don't want to lose her either" They stayed silent for a moment before Emily looked back over to him.
"Can I get in your bed tonight? I don't wanna sleep alone" She whispered, Derek smiling through the darkness at her.
"Yeah, just be careful not the knock over your IV stand" He said with a smirk, moving over and pulling the cover back for her to join him.
Emily hopped of her bed and tugged on her IV stand, pulling it over to the other side of Derek's bed before climbing in next to him, him wrapping his small muscular arm around her protectively, the paid almost immediately falling asleep in each other's arms.
Meanwhile in JJ's room Garcia was getting closer and closer to finding out who Taylor's accomplice was. She began looking into foster families and that's how she found the link between two of the main suspects.
"Yes! I did it!" Garcia squealed quietly to herself, wiggling in her chair doing a little victory dance. She picked up her phone and quickly dialled Hotch's number.
"Hotchner" He answered, obviously not looking at the caller ID before doing so.
"Boss man it's Garcia. I found them, put me on speaker quick" She said rapidly, Hotch barely being able to keep up with her.
"Okay you're on speaker, go ahead"
"Okay so I did some digging and went into Taylor's past. I looked into his foster families and the one thing we didn't do was check if the other suspects had been in foster families as well, and that is exactly how I narrowed the list down to two suspects. Wilson Harris looks like the best bet. He grew up with Taylor in foster care. They got moved into the same house and stayed in contact after leaving care. I found out that the Smith foster family, the last family the two had been in, have cabins. They haven't been used in years and according to records are all empty. One of those cabins is in the sector you asked me to search" She explained to them, reading off her laptop screen down the phone, though trying to do it as quietly as possible knowing it was early in the morning and the last thing the hospital needs is a woman shouting down the halls.
"Great work Garcia! Send the address to my GPS" Hotch said, following the others back to his car.
"Gottcha boss man, now go bring back the cure and fix my babies!" Hanging up, she sent the address forward and sighed happily leaning back in her chair. Finally they would get the cure and help JJ, Emily and Derek get back to the way they were. While she was busy on the phone, she never noticed JJ start to stir in her bed next to her.
"Garcie" JJ said in a raspy voice, startling Garcia. She turned and smiled down at JJ.
"Hey there princess. What's up?" Garcia asked softly leaning forward to hold JJ's hand.
"Want Dewek an Em'ly" She said looking round the room sadly.
"Honey, they are poorly too. Shall I see if they can come in here?" She asked, seeing how upset the girl looked.
"Yeah" JJ replied. As eagerly as she could.
Garcia left to check on Derek and Emily who had managed to get in the room next door. She walked in and they were both snuggled up sleeping on the bed together. She couldn't stop herself from pulling out her phone and snapping a couple of pictures, smiling happily at the sleeping pair. She turned around and left the room to go back to JJ and saw her curled in a ball with her teddy bear held tightly to her chest. Garcia didn't know what she could do to make the young girl better but she knew she had to try anything to help her.
"What's up JJ?" The young girl just shrugged in response.
"So Derek and Emily are sleep so we can't wake them yet, and really you should be sleeping too. Do you want something to eat?" Garcia asked wondering if that was the cause for JJ waking up at such hours.
JJ didn't speak but she nodded quickly indicating she was definitely hungry. Garcia handed her a ready-made sandwich from a bag which JJ greedily began eating.
"Slow down munchkin. You'll-" Garcia was interrupted by JJ throwing up, the half-eaten sandwich being covered in bile from the girl's empty stomach. Garcia quickly called a nurse to come and help with the equipment while they cleaned her and settled her back into bed. After she was settled, Garcia excused herself the go the toilet and walked out the room with the nurse, taking one last look at JJ who seemed to be falling asleep again before rushing to the closets toilet, not knowing that in those short minutes she was gone, JJ had another seizure and had fallen out of bed.