I take it if you are here you liked the evil cliffie. Hope you like this chapter.
She didn't know where she was, but she could tell that the lights in the room are very bright she doesn't want to open her eyes. She is in pain; her shoulder, head, and back. She feels like someone has used her for dodge ball target practice. Everything hurts. Someone is holding her hand, she doesn't know who so she squeezes it gently hoping that they will say something. At least she is on an incline that helps somewhat with the soreness of her body. Taking in the rest of her body she feels her right arm in a sling that is wrapped around her body somehow.
As she becomes more alert she realized something is wrong, her hearing, she can't hear, something she relies on, an integral part of her job. Straining she tilts her head ever so slightly trying to hear something, anything. She does hear something, but it is almost like she is listening to someone talk to her while she is sitting at the bottom of a pool but even more muffled. She pulls gently on whosever hand it is to get them to come closer. "Please turn off the light, it's too bright…" She says thickly in a whisper
The lights over the bed flicked off and she took a deep breath before opening her eyes, it's Emily. That much she knows even if she is a blur without her glasses. When she feels a straw touching her lips she sips some water. She watches her friend's mouth as it moves but Penelope can't hear anything she is saying.
Penelope takes a deep breath, talking louder, talking to Emily came first. "I can't hear you. I can't hear anything. You have to write it down and I need my glasses." She says with panic lacing into her voice. Just as Emily is searching for some paper and a pen the Doctor walked in. She watches the exchange between Emily and who she assumes is the doctor before waving a hand in the air.
Seeing the panicked look at Penelope's face the doctor turns to Emily and asks "What seems to be the trouble?"
Seeing a tall blur wearing a white coat. "I can't hear." she tells the doctor loudly almost shouting. Not realizing the volume of her voice, it only registered that it was indeed too loud by the way the two women wincedslightly. Taking a pen light out of her pocket she looks into Penelope's eyes and ears.
Then she takes a pad of paper out of her pocket the doctor writes something then hands it to Penelope. "Are you in pain?" it was hard to read but by moving he pad of paper she could just make out the blurred words.
Remembering the way the women reacted before she remembers to whisper. "Yes, shoulder, chest, and headache, sore all over."
She waited while the doctor wrote on the pad of paper. " You have a broken clavicle and you dislocated your shoulder, you also have a three cracked ribs, when you took that unscheduled flight."
She can't help but smile slightly reading that, humor always seemed to slip into conversations when law enforcement employees are hurt.
Whispering again she asks. "Did I lose my glasses in the landing?" The doctor smiles hearing the question.
Emily shook her head chuckling at her friend. She wrote on the pad. "Hotch has them, USB too. LEO found them."
The doctor turns when she hears the door open, seeing five fully armed agents walk into the room she relaxes knowing that her patient will be in good hands.
"How are you Kitten?" Is the first thing Rossi asks as he comes closer places a kiss on her cheek. "You had us worried Penelope."
Seeing her reaction Hotch looks at Emily and the doctor waiting for a report. Penelope moves her head slowly from person to person. She wants to scream not being able to hear and follow what they are saying about her, worse even because she can't make out anything clearly.
"She can't hear. We don't know if it is temporary or permanent. We have to do some tests."
"Can you do the test here?"
"We can, Agent?"
" It's Hotchner. Is there a problem?" He asks sensing the hesitation from the doctor.
Walking up to Penelope he takes her glasses out of his pocket then he takes one of her hands into his then gently places her glasses in it.
Feeling her glasses she quickly slips them on. At least she can see and follow their reactions, if nothing else.
"We're not a big hospital we usually send cases like this over to Harrisburg; they have the larger hospitals and the specialists. Or if you are leaving to go back east she can go there. Only she can't fly."
"When can she leave?" Emily asks.
"I'd like her to stay the night."
"We'd like to take her home, have her evaluated there." Tara tells the doctors.
Trusting Tara's judgment, the rest of the team nods their heads in agreement.
"I'm going to order some pain medication for her. It won't make her sleep just for the pain. I have to get my report ready for you to bring back and hand off to the specialist you will have her see."
"Thank you Doctor." Tara says with a nod.
JJ put her go bag on the chair near the bed then handed her extra cell. Penelope can't help but smile, for as soon as the cell was in her hand she was texting JJ for information. Now that she is able to see it is far easier to communicate with her. Once she is brought back to speed. Seeing that Penelope is able to communicate with the team Rossi slips away for a few minutes, he needs to make a few calls.
"DiNozzo."
"I need you to come to Pennsylvania, Penelope needs a traveling companion back to DC, you're going to take the train. She got hurt Tony, she can't fly and she needs the hospitals back in DC. There will be a ticket waiting for you at Dulles okay?"
"Like I'm going to say no, See you in few hours." Tony replies leaving Rossi looking at a disconnected cell phone.
Rossi slips back into the room standing next to Hotch, he tells him that help is on the way. Someone they trust would stay the night and bring her back tomorrow.
Hotch glares at him. "Tony's coming. Can you think of who else would drop everything besides Derek, and he can't, not anymore. He'll be here in a couple of hours I paid for the ticket. I'm not worried about the cost, it's her I'm worried about."
They didn't want to leave her until Tony came. She was a team-mate, but more importantly she was their friend. And right now she needed them more than they need to get back to Washington. Besides a few hours wouldn't matter one way or another.
One unsub was dead and the other in custody. Hotch had made a copy of the USB to give the locals for their files the originals would come back with them.
She wants coffee or tea it didn't matter, she asks them if she can have any, feeling the need to stretch their legs the team minus Hotch left to find the cafeteria.
Holding her cell she texted Hotch while he looks out the window. It wasn't that he was ignoring her, it was he was felling guilty. She wasn't a field agent, and she had gotten hurt on his watch. He keeps remembering her face as he brushed her hair out of her eyes and the blood.
The way she whispered his name, not Hotch like normal or even one of her nicknames. It was just a simple 'Aaron', it was the emotion behind the whisper that has left him perplexed. Almost as if she was reaching out to him and only him for something.
Hearing the text sound pulls out his cell. "How did you know, about the bomb?"
Turning he looks at her.
