Chapter Three

Author: badly-knitted
Story: Transformed

12th April 2019

The last week was like hell. For everyone.

After an arrest gone wrong, JJ would have almost lost the baby if Emily wasn't the first to see the bullet flying in JJ's direction throwing herself in front of JJ to take the bullet.

It hit Emily straight into the abdomen. Morgan is quick to react shooting into the unsub's hand resulting in letting the gun fall to the ground. JJ quickly was on the ground pressing onto Emily's wound while Hotch was calling an ambulance.

Losing consciousness and a lot of blood Emily was loaded up into the ambulance, JJ riding with her. When the paramedics heard about JJ's pregnancy they insisted on bringing her to the hospital for a short check-up as well.

As soon as the ambulance arrived at Chicago Med they immediately wheeled Emily into Bagdad, one of the treatment rooms. For JJ they paged Dr. Manning a pediatric doctor and brought her into Treatment Room 3.

After her exam, Dr. Manning paged an OBGYN to look at the baby. Dr. Manning was qualified to do an ultrasound but as a mother of one, she just wanted to make sure that this Mom won't lose her baby.

"How's my friend doing Dr. Manning? Her name's Emily Hotchner" JJ asked. For the FBI Emily kept her last name Prentiss, but all other Documents, including her medical records, were changed to Hotchner.

JJ was glad the baby seemed okay, but she couldn't relax until she knew Emily would survive and that the ultrasound was done.

"Unfortunately I can't give you any information. Only immediate family." Dr. Manning had to answer.

As much as she wanted to tell JJ, she had to play by the rules. Especially since the hospital was under observation.

"We are family. But her husband is on the way." JJ said as she heard a commotion outside the room.

She could hear Hotch demanding information about Emily and her. Aaron always cared about his team members, even more about Emily, Garcia, and her.

Dr. Manning left the room and walked toward the Agent.

"Agent Hotchner?" she asked him, and he turned around with questioning eyes.

"Yes, I'm here for Agent Emily Prentiss and Agent Jennifer Jareau." He said undeniably worried. Another three people were behind him.

"One moment please. I'll have to look for information on Agent Prentiss, she is registered as Hotchner, correct?" Dr. Manning asked and excused herself after a nod from Aaron. She walked to the nurse Hotch talked to before. A few minutes later she came back with another Doctor.

"Agent Hotchner, this is Dr. Halstead. He was the leading ER doctor for your wife. He can give you more information than I could. As for Agent Jareau, she and her baby are fine so far. I paged an OBGYN who will be here shortly to make an ultrasound." Dr. Manning said introducing her colleague.

"As Dr. Manning said I work on the case of your wife. The bullet hit her in her lower abdomen. She has lost a lot of blood. We managed to stabilize her. She was now brought into surgery. The extended damage the bullet caused is still uncertain. We will know more after surgery. We kindly ask you to wait in the waiting room." The doctor explained.

"Thank you, Dr. Halstead! Can we see Agent Jareau?" he asked and the Doctor looked to his female colleague.

After waiting for almost three hours Dr. Halstead entered JJ's room with someone else. Presumably another Doctor.

They had waited there more or less patiently. Hotch questioned his decision to not call Jack and Jessica or Emily's mother.

"Agent Hotchner, I'm Dr. Rhodes I was in surgery with your wife. She is now in ICU and should make a full recovery. If you want you can see her now." He said and after a look back Aaron left the room with both Doctors. He had a feeling that there was something they didn't tell him.

The rest stayed in JJ's room. They got JJ a room so she could lie down. Sitting there or even pacing in the waiting room wouldn't do the baby any good.

"Agent Hotchner. There's something else we didn't want to tell you in front of the other Agents." Dr. Rhodes said while walking to the ICU. Hotch knew it, he was a profiler after all.

"Thank you, Dr. Rhodes." He said not knowing what to think or feel.

"The upper parts of her abdomen are uninjured. Unfortunately, the bullet located itself in her lower abdomen between her ovaries. There wasn't any chance to take the bullet out without her ovaries. We have to tell you, that your wife cannot become any children in the future." He said as they stood in front of Emily's room.

They haven't talked about children yet but hearing this was too much. One hand at the glass and tears streaming down he looked at the fragile frame of his Emily. He composed himself and asked if he could be the one to tell her. She always wanted to be a mother even if she knew she already was past her thirties. But hearing now she could never ever get any children had to be destroyed.

After staying with her he had to leave to call his and her family. Jack wanted to come but he could talk him down to staying at home.

Her mother was another case. She insisted on flying out to Chicago as soon as possible.

She was in Australia for an ambassador conference. She would be here by Saturday midday. After the civil marriage, the mother-daughter relationship started to improve.

Dave already informed Strauss and she told him that they should stay there for a few more days. Luckily on Friday morning, they could move Emily to the normal ward, so she was sharing the room with JJ.

Emily didn't take the news well and just wanted to be alone, but she knew that this wasn't the end of the world. She was alive and for now, that counted.

Hotch believed she might have seen some positive things in it and there would always be the possibility of adopting a child.

Everyone sat in the room, the women shared, with Chinese takeout and Emily and JJ's dinner on the tray. They had admitted JJ for two more days as they had difficulties in finding a heartbeat at first.

"As it is Friday, I have prepared the story, but if you don't want to it's alright!" Reid said to the team but more to Emily.

"It's okay, almost everyone is here." She replied.

Only Will, Garcia, and Strauss were missing. Over the past months, Strauss grew on everyone.

What the team didn't know was the plan Garcia had. Everyone was startled as Reid's tablet was ringing.

A skype call from Garcia. As he accepted he could see Will and Strauss in the background. He assumed they were in Strauss's office Hotch could see the picture of her kids.

"Hey Sugarplum, how are you feeling?" Garcia asked in her bubbly self. But still concerned.

"I'm good Penelope. But let's hear Reid's story he searched for us!" she said.

Getting away the attention on herself. She lay on the bed in Aaron's arm while JJ was on her bed and the rest sat on chairs, they became from the hospital staff.

"Then let's go!" Derek spoke as Reid made himself ready.

"Even if it isn't Halloween, I chose this one. This author managed to put a whole story into about 300 words and it still tells the same story. It's about Garcia, myself, and a little bit about Kevin." He introduced the story.

Kevin was a delicate subject after he left Penelope for someone else.

"It's short, so I'll read it out loud." He said and started.

"It's Halloween, the workday is over, and half of the agents of the BAU are heading out to Garcia's fancy dress pub-crawl party. The costumes are the usual mix, witch, vampiress, Frankenstein's monster, and then Reid comes out of the bathroom and every jaw in the place drops. Kevin, dressed as a wizard, nearly walks straight into the wall.

Reid is dressed all in black; leather and silk and lace, complete with long gloves, a cloak, and make-up. The transformation is stunning.

"Wow, look at you!" Prentiss sounds awed. "Never in a million years did I think I'd ever see Dr Spencer Reid all Gothed up like that! Are you wearing eyeliner?"

"And lipstick. It's all part of the Goth image. I figured if I was going to dress as a Goth I might as well go all the way with it."

"You're really getting into the spirit of Halloween."

"Actually, Halloween, also known as All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is considered by some scholars to be a Christianised version of ancient Celtic harvest festivals, possibly having its roots in paganism…"

"Spencer, this isn't the time for lectures, it's time to party!" Garcia butted in.

"Oh, okay. So, um, shall we get to the… partying?"

"Lead the way, hot stuff. And for the record? You look scarily good in eyeliner." Garcia licked her lips and winked at him.

"Um, thank you, I think."

"Oh, that was definitely a compliment. Trust me on that."

As they headed out to the elevators, Kevin sidled up beside Garcia.

"Should I be jealous?"

"Hmmm, I don't know yet. I'd have to see how you look in eyeliner first," she teased.

"You saucy minx. How about next weekend?"

"It's a date."

After Spencer finished reading, they stayed there for another hour just talking to the three in Quantico, discussing the story and what was going on in Quantico. After the team left JJ talked to Henry and Emily and Hotch talked to Jack.

Luckily Emily was discharged on Monday the following week, just like JJ. Emily wasn't allowed back to work for another three to four weeks. JJ had an ultrasound every eight hours to check for the baby's heartbeat, which they found after the situation had calmed down.

Next: Reid again, because he loves Halloween. Even if it isn't October.