Alright, here's chapter two! We hope you enjoy!
And reviews are always appreciated! :D
JJ walked through the sliding glass doors and back into the hospital, the familiar scent of cleanliness, disinfectant, and sickness invading her nostrils. She crinkled her nose a bit, like many other people, finding it one of her least favorite smells, though she didn't like it for different reasons. It reminded her too much of the victims they had seen in a few of the worse cases.
She walked past the front desk and a few patient rooms over toward the elevators. She passed them up as well, instead opening the door to the stairs. She climbed up the stairs, mocha in hand, until she reached the fourth floor.
She made her way over to Brandon's room and peered inside. Brandon wasn't there, but she noticed his crutches leaning up against the wall and his overnight bag stuck in a drawer that was slightly open. The door to the bathroom was open as well, so she knew he wasn't there. Stepping back out of the room and over the nurses station, she checked the large clock hanging above it. It read 10:15.
JJ set her cup down on the counter and rummaged in her bag for a few moments, finally coming up with a few pieces of paper folded together. She shuffled the sheets around a bit, a few different print outs and tips about knee surgery that Garcia had compiled for her. She pulled out one particular sheet on which she had written the appointment times for the surgery. He wasn't supposed to go in for another 45 minutes.
She walked over to the solitary nurse sitting at the station, stuffing the papers back in her back as she walked.
"Excuse me," JJ said softly to gain the nurse's attention. "My boyfriend, Brandon is here for knee surgery. He's supposed to go in at eleven, but he's not is his room."
"Room 429?" the nurse asked, her blond curls bouncing slightly as she talked. After JJ confirmed the room number, the nurse wheeled herself over to the computer on the counter. As she moved her chair,
JJ caught sight of a name tag pinned to her scrubs that read 'Gabrielle'.
"I think..." nurse Gabrielle said slowly as she clicked around on the computer. "Yep. It looks like he was able to go in early. He went down about ten minutes ago."
"Oh...okay," JJ said softly, not sure how to feel about it.
"You're welcome to go wait in the waiting room," Gabrielle said. "It's down the hall near the elevators."
"Well, I'd like to know when he gets back," JJ said uncertainly.
"I'll be sure to send the doctor down to meet with you when he gets back," Gabrielle said with a reassuring smile.
"Alright, thank you," JJ said. She quickly grabbed up her mocha and headed towards the waiting room. It was small, filled with average waiting room chairs that weren't overly comfortable. JJ picked a chair in the corner of the room next to the one and only window and made herself as comfortable as she could.
She sat in thought for a few minutes, feeling incredibly guilty that she hadn't even been with him when he went down. She didn't get the chance to tell him that everything would be fine, or to wish him luck. JJ thought back to how nervous he had been, and how he must have felt to go down nearly an hour early without reassurance.
JJ sighed and pulled the papers back out of her bag. The notes Garcia had made told her that the surgery should take approximately an hour and a half. She quickly shoved the papers back again and pulled out the book she had begun earlier and opened it up to the right page.
It was going to be a long hour and a half.
Garcia stepped off of the elevator and walked quickly down the hallway. She opened the glass doors and walked into the BAU, catching sight of a few of her teammates. Right on schedule, Morgan appeared by her side and said, "Morning Princess."
She smirked and replied with her usual, "I'll show you a good morning, Hot Stuff."
She heard him chuckle behind her as she headed towards her 'lair'.
Once she got there, she unlocked the door and dropped her coat and bag, then grabbed her laptop off the table and headed back down the hallway. They didn't currently have a case to work on, so she decided to go hang out in the Bullpen with her fellow teammates. She knew Hotch and Rossi would stay shut up in Hotch's office together and talk about God only know what, but the rest of them would all gather around Reid's desk.
As she walked up she noticed that three people, instead of the usual four, were gathered around her Junior G-Man's desk.
"Where's my second favorite blond bombshell this morning?" she asked as she arrived.
Reid looked up at her and said, "JJ's boyfriend is getting surgery today, remember?"
"Oh, that was today? I do hope everything goes okay..." Garcia muttered.
"Wait...what do you mean by 'second favorite blond bombshell?" Reid asked curiously. "Who is your favorite blond bombshell then?"
Garcia almost laughed at the expression on his face. She widened her eyes at him, then picked up a lock of her own blond hair and gave him an amused smirk.
"Oh," Reid said. After a brief silence he piped up again. "Did you now that hair color is simply the pigmentation of hair follicles? It's colored by two different types of melanin, eumelanin and pheomelanin. The levels of melanin found in the hair follicles can even vary over time, resulting in hair color actually changing? It usually happens due to aging, such as children growing out of a hair color or your hair turning gray as you get older.
"And eumelanin is actually the more common pigmentation, it even has two different subtypes, black and brown. Having high levels of black eumelanin results in black hair, while low levels result in gray hair. And with brown eumelanin, high levels result in brown hair, with low levels resulting in blond hair.
"And did you know that blonde hair is actually the most diverse color of hair, with many different variations? You can have platinum blond, golden blond, or even strawberry blond, which is the rarest, as you have to contain higher levels of pheomelanin as well as the eumelanin."
At this point Garcia looked over to Morgan and Prentiss, who were both staring at Reid with nearly identical blank expressions. Garcia was forced to stifle a snigger. Something like this happened nearly every day she spent with her team, but it never ceased to amuse her.
"Reid," she said softly, hoping to catch his attention. He seemed slightly oblivious, and was now talking about hair dye worked. "Reid!" she said again, louder.
"Yeah?" he asked. Garcia sent him a pointed look. "I'm rambling again, aren't I?" he asked sheepishly.
"Only a little," Prentiss said, a smirk making its way to her face. Morgan was shaking his head.
Reid looked around awkwardly for a few seconds before saying, "I'm going to go get some coffee."
As he stood up, Garcia said, "Oh, and feel free to help yourself to the tin of cookies I brought in yesterday. It should be sitting right next to the coffee maker."
"Wait..." Morgan spoke up. "You brought in cookies? How come we didn't learn this yesterday?"
"Because I knew you would eat them all. And I don't want you ruining that lovely rock-hard body of yours," she said, winking at him. She looked up at Reid, only to see that he was walking very quickly, already halfway through the Bullpen.
Morgan shot up like a rocket and said, "I'm sure I'll be fine!" He then jogged over to Reid, and both of them began running and trying to get in front of each other. They were nearly sprinting down the hallway, earning many strange looks from other people.
Garcia turned an amused face towards Prentiss, who was staring after the boys. "I think I'd better go make sure they don't eat all of the cookies..." Prentiss said, hopping up and speed walking across the Bullpen, nearly breaking into a run herself.
Garcia laughed loudly and put her feet up on Reid's desk, marveling at how her fully grown FBI agent friends got so excited over something like a tin of homemade chocolate chip cookies. She then opened up her laptop and logged onto the internet, deciding to win a few rounds of online poker before her teammates came back.
JJ slammed her book shut and looked up at the clock anxiously for the hundredth time. It read 1:15. She had finished her book, but didn't take in much of the ending. She had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was wrong. Very wrong. The surgery was only supposed to take an hour and a half at most, and yet it had been over three.
Deciding to go talk to a nurse again, she gathered up her things and stood up, starching her stiff legs, then left the small waiting room. As she approached the nurses station, she noticed that nurse from before wasn't there, and there was a different nurse seated at the computer.
"Excuse me," JJ said to draw the nurses attention. Once she looked away from the screen, JJ went on. "My boyfriend went in for surgery earlier today around ten, and he still hasn't returned yet, thought the surgery was only supposed to take an hour and a half. I'm starting to get a bit anxious about where he is..." she let her voice trail off.
"No problem, I can look that up for you," the nurse said in an overly cheery voice. "Which room was he in?" she said as she clicked around on the computer a bit.
"Room 429," JJ supplied at once, anxious to know what was going on. She watched the nurse type a few more things and click the mouse a few more times. Then JJ watched the slightly irritating smile slide off of the nurse's face.
"Hmm..." the nurse said. JJ stared at her. She clicked the mouse a few more times, her expression becoming increasingly more and more confused.
"It seems that room 429 is empty," the nurse said slowly.
"No, it's not. My boyfriend was there just this morning, I dropped him off," JJ said.
"Are you sure he was in room 429?" the nurse asked.
"Yes!" JJ said at once.
"Well, he most likely had to change rooms, because of the painting. What is his name?"
"Brandon Waters," JJ said nervously. The feeling in her stomach still hadn't gone away.
The nurse then assumed a look of concentration on her face as she typed and clicked for nearly two minutes. JJ was beginning to sweat a bit.
"I'm sorry ma'am," the nurse said slowly, brow furrowed. "There's no one registered in this hospital with that name."
"... But that's impossible!" JJ said loudly. "I dropped him off this morning! I watched him check in! I helped him take his stuff to his room!"
She couldn't understand what was going on. Her head was buzzing. She was immensely confused.
Having a sudden idea, she turned back to the nurse and said, "I talked to a nurse before!" JJ said, sounding slightly more desperate than she wanted. "She told me that he had gone into surgery. Her name was...Gabrielle!"
"There aren't any nurses that work here with the name Gabrielle," the nurse said, her eyes wide.
"No! That can't be right! I know I dropped him off this morning, I know he was here, and I know I talked to a nurse named Gabrielle before! You must be mistaken!" JJ said, beginning to get slightly angry.
"Ma'am," the nurse said, her voice a bit softer than before. "There is nobody named Brandon Waters at this hospital. Now I have to go make my rounds, but if you have any more questions you can always go down to the front desk."
JJ stared after the woman as she walked away. Once she disappeared, JJ looked around herself for a few seconds, half expecting Brandon to wheel out from behind something yelling "Gotcha!"
He didn't.
JJ slowly walked over to room 429 and peered inside. It was much different from that morning. It was completely empty, no bed, no chair, not even the little chest of drawers. The only things left in the room were a few tarps scattered around the floor and a can of beige paint sitting on top of them.
JJ stepped back, away from the doorway. She looked around for a few minutes, at a loss for what to do. Then she decided that she would go down to see the receptionist at the front desk, and began to make her way over to the elevators. She realized just how frightened she was when her fingers shook as she reached out to push the buttons.
Once she made it to the main floor, she walked up to the counter, seeing a blonde receptionist stationed there.
"I'll be with you in just one moment," the woman seated in front of her said. JJ nodded nervously, and looked around her. She noticed a name plaque sitting upright in front of the woman. It looked as though it was made by a small child, and it read 'Sara'.
"Alright, what can I help you with?" the receptionist said as she turned to look at JJ.
"Well, my boyfriend came in for knee surgery earlier today and I can't seem to find where he has gone," JJ explained a bit awkwardly. "His name is Brandon Waters. I was wondering if you could look up his room number for me."
"Sure thing," Sara the receptionist said. JJ held her breath as she started typing on her keyboard. She watched with horror as the receptionist nearly mirrored the actions of the nurse from upstairs, the smile sliding off of her face and her brow furrowing. And the confused clicking and typing.
"It seems we don't currently have a patient named Brandon Waters residing here," she said slowly.
"Oh, not again! This is what the nurse upstairs told me as well! But I know he's here, I dropped him off, I helped him check in!" JJ nearly shrieked. "I went to get some coffee, and when I came back he wasn't in his room so I asked a nurse sitting at the nurses station and she said he was in surgery. So I went to wait, but it was taking way too long so I went back and the nurse I talked to then said the same thing you are now! But I left him here! I know he's here!" JJ ranted, tears of mingled frustration and fear threatening to leak out of her eyes.
The receptionist looked a bit frightened at JJ's outburst. But she wasn't the only one.
"Perhaps I can help you find him?" a voice asked from behind her. JJ turned to find a man standing there, wearing a rather expensive looking suit and a little smile.
"And who are you?" JJ asked, sounding a bit more rude than she had meant to.
"I'm Seth Matheson. The hospital administrator."