GAME
Chapter 10
Game Over

"Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose." – Tom Krause

'This is the last level. I can't speak to her on this one.' Lomax said with a smile. 'It's another puzzle. If she gets it right, the game is over. If she gets it wrong, it's Game Over!' Lomax punctuated the last two words with a throat cutting gesture. It did nothing to up Morgan's mood. They watched as the lights came on in the new, last room. There were two doors, a speaker next to each, a key and an envelope taped to the wall.

Garcia carefully laid Hotch down on his side, and went to the envelope. She removed the message as before, without removing the envelope.

-0-0-0-

She read it out loud.

One door leads to freedom, the other to death.
You may ask one question of one door to decide which is which.
But remember, one door always lies, the other always tells the truth
When you know, use the key to unlock the door of your choice
Have fun
Gamagic

She took the message back to Hotch, hoping for his help, but he was unconscious now, and she feared that he could be very close to death. His skin was dry and papery, and his flushed cheeks sunken and marked with stings. She knew she didn't have a lot of time.

The obvious question, which door leads to freedom, was no good, as they would both point to different doors. It had to be a question where they would both give the same answer. She sat down, holding Hotch's hot hands, and closed her eyes to think.

-0-0-0-

Much as she would have loved to have dinner with Dr Nyland, she was working, and didn't think it was appropriate just now. She did give him her telephone number however. She could think of worse ways to spend an evening.

She was with Reid now, sitting next to his bed, waiting for him to come round from the anaesthetic. She would have liked to hold his hand, but she didn't know him well enough, and hesitated to do it. Especially as Danny (as the doctor was called) kept popping by to check on his patient!

When Reid woke up, it was Danny who noticed first.

'Well hello, Mr Reid. Welcome back.'

Reid smiled and coughed. He was used to this, waking up in recovery with a sore throat.

'You had us worried there for a while, Mr Reid. The bullet nicked an artery, and just a millimetre to the right, and you would have been dead before you got here.' Nyland said

'When can I get up? The team needs me.'

'They are managing fine, Reid, so you just relax and enjoy the stay.'

-0-0-0-

But the team were not managing fine. Lomax was not co-operating, and it was taking all Rossi's diplomacy to stop Morgan from beating the crap out of him. He wasn't sure how much longer he could hold him off.

Morgan paced and Rossi sat and Lomax grinned inanely.

-0-0-0-

Suddenly Garcia knew what to ask the door. In her excitement to get up, she forgot she had a broken wrist, and leaned on it to get up. She yelped in pain, and with teras of pain on her cheeks, she hurried to the first door.

She went to the speaker and asked her question.

The speaker crackled to life. 'This door.' it said.

Triumphantly, she collected the key from by where she had been sitting, and unlocked the first door.

She swung it open, certain in the knowledge that she had asked the right question, and was horrified when the open door revealed a brick wall.

'But I know I got it right! I know I did!' She shouted, tears welling up in her eyes. She sat down next to Hotch and cried, 'I know I got it right.'

There was a soft hissing sound as the room began to fill with brown gas.

She turned to Hotch, and saw that the gas was heavy and was swirling around his inert body. Without trying to be Careful, and coughing hard, she dragged Hotch up the stairs towards the now closed trap door. Gradually the pocket of clean air became smaller and smaller as the acrid gas filled the room.

-0-0-0-

'Let them out NOW!' Morgan said in a low angry tone.

'Hah! There is no way out!'

Morgan cocked his gun and held it against Lomax's knee. Rossi and Prentiss did nothing to stop him.

'Now Lomax. One..... two..... thr.....'

'Ok Ok!' He leaned forward and said into the microphone, 'It's the other door.'

-0-0-0-

She clung onto Hotch at the top of the steps until her hands became weak, and he slipped from her grasp. When she heard the message from Gamagic, Garcia was coughing, her lungs desperate for clean air. She pulled Hotch to the other door through the swirls of brown gas, and got the key from the first door. She unlocked it, and stared with tear filled eyes at the brick wall behind it. Sobbing, she laid down on the floor and covered Hotch. It was a trick. There was no way out. She had been right. She clung onto Hotch and struggled to breathe and she passed out.

-0-0-0-

This time Rossi had had enough. He dragged Lomax out of the pill box and towards the hangar.

'How do we get in you bastard!' he hissed into his face, but Lomax just laughed. Rossi threw him to the ground in an uncharacteristic loss of temper. It was Emily that noticed a newly bricked up area on the front of the hangar.

'That looks new!' she said. 'That wasn't left from the war!' She and Morgan ran to the wall. It was badly built, probably in a hurry. This they knew was the way in.

Morgan kicked at the wall. Prentiss looked around in the abandoned debris for something to use as a crow bar. She came back with a length of iron reinforcement.

She gave it to Morgan who began frantically digging away at the mortar between the bricks. Quickly it scraped away, and one of the bricks came loose. He stepped back as the acrid gas hit his lungs.

'God in heaven, he's gassing them. Sonofabitch!'

Holding their breath, they pulled out more bricks and they could see Garcia and Hotch in the room, lying close on the cold floor. They pulled at the wall and suddenly weakened as it was, it gave way and collapsed around them. Morgan took a breath of fresh air and ran into the room, getting Hotch under the arms and pulling him free. Prentiss did the same for Garcia.

Neither was breathing although Garcia still had a heart beat. Morgan knelt astride Hotch and started chest compressions. Emily was breathing clean air into Garcia's lungs. At last she took a breath on her own and Emily sat back on her heels, weak with turned her onto her side, and went to help Morgan

Rossi had secured Lomax to part of a brick pillar, and was breathing fro Hotch. Morgan was still pumping his chest.

'He doesn't want to come back.' Rossi said between breaths.

'Come on Boss, don't give up now, you're free!' Morgan berated. He heard Garcia stir behind him, and he turned to her.

'Am I dreaming, or did I get out?' she asked softly. 'Hotch! Where's Hotch! He's hurt!'

'I'll do this, Morgan, You go to Garcia.'

Emily took over from Morgan so that he could go to her. Morgan sat her up and took her in his arms. 'You made it, Baby Girl. Hotch...... well the others are taking care of him.'

She turned to watch just as Hotch took a breath for himself, and coughed the last of the poison from his lungs. She sighed with relief. Then she looked confusedly at Morgan.

'I know I got the question right.' she said, furrowing her brow.

What was the puzzle?' Morgan asked

She showed Morgan the piece of paper she still had in her hand.

'"One door leads to freedom, the other to death. You may ask one question of one door to decide which is which. But remember, one door always lies, the other always tells the truth
When you know, use the key to unlock the door of your choice."' he read. 'So what was the question?'

'I asked, "If I ask the other door which is the door to death"', she said, '"which door would it say?"'

Morgan was not good at puzzles. 'I'll think on that.'

EPILOGUE

The hospital was warm and comfortable, and as long as he didn't move too much, so was Hotch. They had saved his arm, although his Humerus was broken in six places, and was now riveted onto a steel plate, his arm strapped to his body. Strong systemic antibiotics had finally broken his fever. They didn't know what the infection was and thought it was probably a cocktail of bugs from the bite. His ribs would have to take care of themselves, and it was that which was causing the most pain.

Garcia had sat with him for most of the time. She held his hand and chatted to him while he was unconscious. He had had another seizure in the ambulance, and they had put him on anticonvulsants to help him recover.

Garcia was aware that there was a new bond that had formed between them. She wondered if it would go any further. She thought she could quite easily love him.

'Thank you, Garcia.' he said.

'For what?' she asked. 'I think it was you that gave me CPR back there.'

'It would have been so much easier for you to have left me and gone on alone. You could have come back for me.'

She smiled at him. 'I couldn't leave you, Sir......'

'Hotch.'

'Hotch, I couldn't just leave you. I didn't trust that Lomax, and as it turned out, I was right not to.'

'Seems like rescue came just in time.'

'Rescue from what?' Reid said, bursting through the doors with Jordan pushing his chair.

'Ha! You missed the fun at the end, Sweet Cheeks.'

Reid grinned. 'I have no doubt you will tell me all about it though!'

Spencer sat on the other side of the bed to Garcia and took Hotch's hand.

'You scared us there, Hotch. Please don't do that again.'

Hotch smiled at him, understanding the unsaid words. 'From what I hear you are a bit of a scarer yourself.'

Todd stood at the door, not quite feeling part of the team yet.

'It's good to have you back, Sir.'

-0-0-0-

The hospital was encouraging Hotch to get up and walk about. He staggered around the bed a few times hanging onto either Garcia or Reid, and sometimes both of them. All Hotch wanted to do now was go back to work.

He just wanted the Doctors to tell him it was ok to go......

...... so when Jordan said she had a date with the ER doctor, and would Garcia and Hotch like to double date in the hospital restaurant, it seemed like a great way to start his convalescence.

But that's another story.......... Anyone care to write it?

-0-0-0-

END

A/N I'm sorry if the end is a bit sudden. There really isn't anything else that needs to be said. Thank you to all my reviewers.
My writing may be a little erratic for the nxt few days as I am moving house on Saturday and it's majorly stressing me out. Please bear with me, and I'll be back to normal in no time!
The next story will be a follow on.........