Hey all, here is the next chapter for this fic. It's not very long, but it's something. I got a lot of great feedback on the last chapter, so I wanted to thank you all for liking this story. I hope you enjoy and please remember to review. Happy reading. x

All rights go to the owners of Criminal Minds, except for my original character.


Not Like This:

Chapter Fifteen: Two Days Later

November 24th, 2014

Even though her eyelids were closed, Jamie could see light shining behind them. Consciousness came to her slowly, letting her senses figure out their surroundings. There was the distinct smell of cleaner through the air, that stuffy, almost stale smell that most hospitals carried. She could hear the beeping of multiple machines next to her bed. She could feel the IV in her forearm and it ached. Her eyes squeezed shut tightly, kind of like they usually did right before she woke up from a night's rest.

When she opened her eyes, Jamie immediately knew where she was. She didn't have that moment that you see in the movies where the patient panics and has no idea where they are. There was no wondering what happened, or how she ended up there, either, because she remembered. The light from the ceiling hurt her eyes, as she was still trying to adjust them to the newfound brightness. Her eyes glanced round the unadorned hospital room. It was gloomy and the white and grey colors spread throughout didn't help at all. When her eyes came across a sleeping figure in an uncomfortable plastic chair on the other side of her bed, she tried to speak. Her voice was hoarse and then all at once, her chest started to throb. She moved her hand to the source of the pain, feeling it throbbing inside and out.

When she was about to call out the Spencer laying in the chair, somebody else entered the room. By the look on their face, Jamie knew they didn't expect to see her awake. She waved her hand for Morgan to go in, he complied in a hurry.

Trying to speak, but failing miserably, Jamie had to settled for hand movements. She made her hand into a circle, putting it back and forth to her mouth.

"Water?" Morgan asked.

Jamie nodded, feeling relieved. She was handed the water, which she downed in ten seconds. When she was finished, she couldn't help the cough that came along. The taste of leftover blood filled her mouth and she cringed as she had to swallow it back down. Her body visibly shivered and she covered her mouth with her hand, because the taste was so awful. When the feeling passed, she turned her attention back to Spencer. Her small coughing fit hadn't woken him, and Jamie was grateful for that.

"How long has he been here?" she whispered to Morgan.

He tilted his head at her, as if he was telling her it wasn't even a question. "Carter, he's been here the whole time."

She looked again towards Spencer, feeling somewhat guilty that he probably hadn't had a decent night's rest since she was checked in.

"You want me to wake him?" Morgan asked, his voice just as quiet as hers.

Jamie shook her head, maybe a little too hard, because she felt nauseous after.

"Why not?"

"He looks exhausted…" Jamie thought to herself for a moment, and her hand found itself back on her bandaged wound. She looked at Morgan, her eyes narrowed. "How long have I been asleep?"

"About two days."

Jamie sighed in relief, leaning back further into her hospital bed. "I swear, I thought you were going to say like, three months…" Her and Morgan shared a quiet laugh, Jamie putting it on hold due to her injury aching.

They were silent for a moment, the sound of Spencer breathing filling the cracks. Even though she remembered how she got shot, Jamie couldn't wrap her head around everything.

"Please tell me you guys solved the case." she said, her voice wary.

Morgan nodded. "Yeah, we did. We found who was really behind the operation. Owen McGregor was the one behind it all. He was there at the diner, we think he's the one who shot you. Coleman's dead, along with three other officers…"

The bed-ridden agent could tell there was something else. It wasn't that Morgan wasn'ttrying to keep himself stoic, but the way he trailed off from finishing his sentence gave it away. "What are you not telling me?"

"Carter, you were right about Vicky. She was in on everything, the whole ring."

Jamie laughed to herself, shaking her head. She looked at Morgan and as much as she wanted to say "I told you so" right then and then, she didn't. "Where's everybody else?"

Morgan gave her a smile. "Everybody's been in and out of here, said they'd come back in a little while. And like I said, henever left."

The stirring from the chair next to the bed caused the other two agents to turn their attention away from one another. They saw Spencer rubbing his tired eyes, opening them slowly as he looked around.

"Hey, sleeping beauty…" Jamie spoke quietly.

Spencer's went wide as he realized Jamie was looking right at him. "Jamie!"

The shout made Jamie and Morgan jump a little. They exchanged small laughs, Spencer rushing out from his seat to get closer to Jamie.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

Jamie shifted some in her bed, pointing to her chest. "I feel like I got shot," she laughed to herself, "but the pain isn't too bad right now."

"Did you just wake up?"

Jamie nodded. "A little while ago, then I saw Morgan. I didn't want to wake up, you looked tired."

"It's okay."

"So, I'll give you guys a minute." Morgan told Jamie and Spencer, sending a suggestive smirk their way. He left the room, closing the heavy door behind him.

Jamie's mind automatically went to the conversation she could hear while she was sleeping. Would it be right to ask him about it, or was that something he had said to JJ in a fit of unreal guilt? "Did you even go back to the case?" Jamie questioned instead.

Spencer shook his head. "Hotch told me I could stay here, but I think he wants to talk to you."

"Why? Because I was right?" Jamie said, humor found in her voice. "You know what they say about going with your gut feeling…" She tried to sit up, but the pain from trying to use her left arm shot an unpleasant sensation through her body.

"Do you need me to call a nurse?" Spencer wondered.

"What did the doctor tell you?" Jamie pressed, her face was filled with more than just curiosity. "Spencer, I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have made it out of this. I mean, look at where I was shot."

Spencer sighed, scratching the back of his neck. He sat down in the plastic chair once more, pulling it closer to the bed.

"Oh, that bad, huh?" Jamie tried to joke.

"You lost a lotof blood, and when I say a lot, that's probably an understatement..."

Jamie inhaled and exhaled a big breath. She thought back to when she felt the bullet go through her, remembering falling to the ground and hearing her name being called through all the noise.

"Other than that, he said you're going to be just fine."

"…I didn't mean to get shot, you know."

Spencer let out a half-hearted chuckle. "I don't think anybody ever means to get shot, Jamie."

Jamie looked at Spencer, giving him a grin. "You know you don't have to be here, right?"

"Oh, I know that. But I wasn't just going to leave you here by yourself."

Jamie pushed herself upright in bed, this time only using her right arm. "Spencer, go home with the rest of the team, okay?"

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to." he remarked.

"You're here because you feel bad about mebeing shot."

"I'm here, because I watched my friend get shot and then I held her in my arms as she started to bleed out…"

Jamie felt like an ass, now. "I remember…" she told him, rubbing the memories from her tired eyes. It was still vivid in her mind and she was sure there wouldn't be a time when it wasn't.

"How much?"

"All of it," she admitted. "I stepped out into the line of fire to grab that officer, then I felt a piercing pain go through my chest. I remember falling and hearing my name being called…really loudly, too. And I could feel and hear everythinggoing on around me, but I felt so weak." Jamie thought back, thought about seeing a panicked Spencer, his hands covered in her blood. He did all he could for her while they waited for a medic. She shook the memory away, letting it rest, for now anyway. "You need to go back to Quantico."

"Jamie-"

"Spencer…"

The knock at the door interrupted their almost argument, and Jamie was surprised when it was the rest of the team. Hotch, Rossi, JJ, Emily, Garcia, and even Morgan went back in. Garcia was holding balloons and she looked like she wanted to cry.

"Penelope, don't cry…" Jamie told her, tilting her head in a sympathetic way.

The tech analyst shook her head, trying to keep her emotions at bay. "I'm just really glad you're okay."

"We all are." Hotch spoke up. "And I think I owe you an apology…"

Jamie laughed. "I mean, as much as I want to say I told you so, I won't. I'm just happy it's solved. No apology necessary, boss."

Hotch nodded at her, probably feeling a sense of awkwardness in the crowd.

"When can you be discharged?" Emily asked.

Jamie looked to Spencer, hoping he would have the answers. "I actually don't know. I haven't seen a doctor, yet."

"Oh, I will go grab him. The sooner you're out of here, the sooner we're allout of here." Garcia remarked, feeling the room.

"How's the wound feeling?" JJ questioned.

"It kind of hurts when I laugh…or move my left shoulder, but apparently, I was lucky."

"Indeed, you were." A male voice came from the doorway In stepped an older man, clearly, he was the doctor. With his clipboard in hand, he leafed through the pages, containing all of Jamie's information. "Nice to finally see you awake, I'm Dr. Stephens. So, Ms. Carter, you received a GSW to the upper quadrant of your chest. It was through and through, so we didn't have to dig out any particles from that. I don't know if you were told, but it was close. You lost a significant amount of your blood. If your team hadn't of gotten you here when they did, its more than likely you wouldn't be here right now."

"So, I'm verylucky, then…"

Dr. Stephens nodded, checking her states on the machines. "Yes, but from the looks of everything here and your checkups on your wound from the nurse, you seem to be good to go. You can be out of here as soon as tonight."

"That sounds amazing, thank you, Dr. Stephens."

"You're welcome, and might I add that you've got a great support system here. They're certainly keepers."

"Don't I know it…"


November 25th, 2014

Jamie waited until the next day to be released. She wanted to make sure that she was truly ready to be discharged. When it came time for her to leave, the whole team showed up to the hospital, ready to get their friend out of there.

JJ had been kind enough to collect Jamie's belongings from her hotel room and bring them to her. It felt good to get out of that breezy hospital gown and into some normal clothing. Getting her bottoms on was no problem, but when it came to the shirt, there was a little trouble. Even though she had been taking pain medication, it still hurt to move her left arm, but she didn't have a choice, except to push through the pain and deal with it. When she checked herself out of the hospital, she was glad to hear that they were going home. Besides, the next day was Thanksgiving and Jamie didn't want her friends to miss out with their families just for her sake.

Stepping onto the jet felt like a new world to Jamie. Maybe it was just the fact that she had been in a hospital for almost three days, but either way, she loved siting down on the jet's plushy leather seats. Jamie settled into her seat, yawning from the early morning hours. It didn't take long for the plane to leave the Texas ground and find itself high in the sky. The colors from the sun mixing with the clouds, gave Jamie a sense of calm. There was no danger where she was, yet, she wasn't oblivious to the fact that there would be more serial killers they had to catch. She had been in the line of fire before, but this was the first time she had actually been hit; and she was okay with that. It could've happened eventually, but apparently, her time was now.

Then, a strange thought came to her mind. "What if things go wrong, because they would've turned out worseif they had gone right?"


Thank you for reading and please remember to review! I would really appreciate it.

If you like Supernatural, check out my other work(s): The Unforeseeable Life of Alexandra Winchester & Alexandra Winchester: One-Shots