Italics for dreams and thoughts. I know there's too many adjectives and adverbs, but I'm still learning. I own nothing.
Creeping up the stairs of the house he shares with his wife and son, he aimed his gun at the only door he could see. He stopped his ascent wondering why he was affected by the drug Peter Lewis had given him. He wasn't adopted, he didn't grow up in a group home with Lewis, he wasn't coerced by Susannah Regan to make up stories about his teachers or his father. He himself had profiled that the victims shared a mental condition in order to have been affected by the drug. What made him similar to Lewis' victims? "Aaron no, please!"" he heard Haley shout, bringing him out of his thoughts. He steadied his hands and swung open the door to come face to face with something his mind couldn't quite grasp. A tall dark silhouette was standing over Haley and Jack looking at Aaron with piercing eyes he couldn't place. The nearly transparent figure shifted into focus to reveal a mirror image of himself. Aaron's breath caught in his throat as he lowered his gun, struggling to process the scene before him.
Haley and Jack were sitting on the ground shaking and crying; Haley's arm wrapped around her son and covering his eyes. "Aaron! No please Aaron, don't hurt us! Don't hurt Jack!" she begged. "Haley take Jack and run!" Aaron said raising his gun and pointing it at the imposter threatening his family. "No!" said the familiar stranger, "I want you to see this." He heard two shots and felt blood splatter on his face as his ears began to ring. He looked over to see Haley and Jack lying still with their faces frozen in an expression of terror, both shot in the neck. Aaron felt rage boiling up in his body so strong he staggered and almost passed out. His family had been taken from him again. 'Again?' Aaron thought to himself. He shook his thoughts away and trained his gun on the thing standing in front of him with a knowing smirk on his face. Enraged, Aaron fired his gun and stumbled backwards looking down at the blood pouring out of his chest. Collapsing to the ground, he heard more shots and someone shouting. Dave suddenly appeared at his right side staring at him furiously. Derek and Emily appeared over his head drawing their weapons. "We know what you did." Morgan said with a sadistic grin. "You're just like him!" spat Emily. Aaron looked to David for an explanation but he just looked away sadly and drew his weapon. Everything seemed to slow down and freeze as David, Emily and Morgan trained their guns at his head. The only thing moving was a ceiling fan directly above him. He watched in confusion as a brilliant white light flourished and expanded to all corners of the room before swallowing them all whole.
"Mr. Hotchner?" he heard someone say. Memories came flooding back to him and relief calmed his racing heart realizing he hadn't murdered his family, but his thoughts became numb and hollow as he reminded himself his wife had been dead for sometime. He opened his eyes and quickly shut them, his hand pushing the nurses' penlight away. "Get that thing out of my eyes." he said weakly, white spots dancing across his eyelids. Pain starting to radiate from his chest down to his stomach made him cry out. "I'll get you something for the pain in a moment Mr. Hotchner but answer my question, do you know where you are?" he asked kindly. "Hospital." Aaron ground out in agony breaking into a cold sweat. "Hold on Mr. Hotchner I'll get the doctor." he said hurrying out of the room. What the hell kind of dream was that? What was that thing, and who shot Haley and Jack? That man didn't have a gun, I had the gun... I could never kill my own son. "Are you sure?" said a small, distant voice. A slight feeling of uncertainty nagged at him thinking of the other dream of killing Beth, then having Jack blame him for it. Jack was too young to understand what his father went though. The image of chasing down Jack then stabbing him as he screamed for help was quite disturbing, but he was in too much pain to think about it, anyway it was just a dream. A familiar woman and an agitated David came into the room followed by the nurse with the penlight.
"Mr. Hotchner can you understand me?" the woman asked shining another light into his eyes and prodding him with her fingers while the nurse checked his IV and vitals. "Yeah, my chest..." he said breathlessly, squeezing his watery eyes shut against the expanding pain in his chest. David was standing at the foot of his bed looking anxious and giving him an encouraging smile. Aaron started to feel the pain ebb away slightly, "Is that better?" the doctor asked adjusting his oxygen tube, Aaron just nodded tensely waiting for the pain to go away. As they waited for the pain to level out Aaron saw the woman and David walk away from his bed, "... shouldn't be here, it's not appropriate..." said one voice, "... conducting an investigation headed by Section Chief Erin Strauss, if you have a problem you can take it up with her..." said another. With his pain lessening and his mind becoming more conscious he asked the first thing that came to his mind. "Am I going to be alright? David is everyone else OK?" he nearly shouted in apprehension. The two stopped their conversation and walked back to his bed, "You'll be fine Aaron, everyone is fine." assured David earning him a reproachful look from the woman. "Yes Mr. Hotchner you will fully recuperate and I'm Dr. Genderman. Now, do you know why you're here?" Aaron scoffed lightly in annoyance, not wanting to be treated like an invalid. "It's just procedure Sir." she prompted although she and David looked a little uncertain about what Aaron knew. "I was shot." he said shortly too tired to get angry. "How did you get shot Mr. Hotchner? Can you be slightly more specific?" asked the doctor.
"We were going after a killer, Conrad Wallace. I don't know how he shot me or when but he must have... 2016, Albuquerque New Mexico." Aaron said quickly wanting to get it over with. "So what happened to me?" Aaron asked causing the doctor, nurse and David to look at him like he had lost his mind. "I mean what are my injuries? I must have been in surgery, how did it go?" he asked in annoyance. "Of course," said the doctor looking visibly relieved, "The bullet gave you a sucking chest wound and your lung collapsed, you were on the table for three and a half hours. You also suffered two broken ribs on your right side and you lost a lot of blood, but we managed to keep you stable and repair all the damage. You dodged a bullet Mr. Hotchner." the doctor said immediately cringing at the unintentional pun. "I mean, you're very lucky to be alive. You were unconscious for about eighteen hours, you woke up briefly but we had to sedate you. Do you remember that?" she questioned. Yes, that was right after I dreamed of stabbing Beth and Jack, and before I dreamed of shooting Haley and Jack to death. What does it mean? "Maybe, I'm not sure." he answered beginning to feel vulnerable, "Can we do this later? I'm feeling pretty tired." "Of course Mr. Hotchner, Agent Rossi..." "Conducting an investigation..." said David repeating his words from earlier. Somewhat of a standoff was starting to form between the two when Aaron stepped in, "Doctor, may he stay? I have a lot of questions pertaining to the investigation." Aaron said keeping up the ruse that David was playing as to not get kicked out. "Fine," she said defeated, "But as soon as you want some privacy you press this button right here," pointing to a panel on the bed, and giving David a dissatisfied look, "and Tom here will come and remove him. Here's your morphine drip, try not to use it too much." she said while giving it to Aaron. She left in a huff with Tom following quickly behind her. "Aaron, are you OK?" asked David, concern evident in his voice. "I... Yes, I'm fine." finished Aaron nervously. It was hard to speak to David when only a few minutes ago he, Emily, and Morgan were going to kill him. The dream... it felt so real. David immediately looked skeptical but gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder. "But I do really want to get some sleep." said Aaron not wanting to have this conversation now. "OK," said David pulling up a chair and sitting down next the his bed, "But I'll be here when you need me." Aaron adjusted his morphine drip and fell asleep.