A/N Panic Button has got a mafis nose. It used to look like a little Malteser, now it looks like a Ferreo Rocher. LOL

PANOPLY OF FEAR
Chapter 12
Back off the Road Again


Quarantine Meaning and Definition

(n.) Specifically, the term, originally of forty days, during which a ship arriving in port, and suspected of being infected a malignant contagious disease, is obliged to forbear all intercourse with the shore; hence, such restraint or inhibition of intercourse; also, the place where infected or prohibited vessels are stationed.

(v. t.) To compel to remain at a distance, or in a given place, without intercourse, when suspected of having contagious disease; to put under, or in, quarantine.

It was as Emily swung the car door closed that she heard the gunfire.

Just one shot.

But it was enough.

Morgan instantly crouched into a fighting stance, and Emily pulled her gun. They ran bent over to the door in front of them. Standing with their backs to the wall either side of the door, Morgan pointed to a car, parked round the corner of the building. It was clean, obviously not been there long.

"The UnSub's car." He whispered. He reached out and pushed the door. It opened into a dusty corridor with an enclosed reception area on the right. There were footprints in the dust, disturbed in places as if there'd been a struggle. In silence they crept along the passage. One door from the end had sounds of a TV behind it. It was slightly open; Emily carefully pushed it all the way open. The room was empty, although until recently there had been someone there; there were cups of coffee on the table, and the remains of a meal.

Emily backed out, and followed Morgan to the last door. It was closed, but it had been reinforced and an open padlock hung from a heavy duty hasp. Emily stood back to back with Morgan. He opened the door.

"FBI! Freeze!"

Two young people of about eighteen stopped dead in their tracks. An older woman began to stand. Morgan gestured with her gun for her to sit down. She sat back into the lab stool. Morgan pushed the other two kids over to sit by her. He cuffed them together, and to the bench. Glancing back at them, ensuring they were held, he went to Spencer's side.

The forth person was holding a gun to Hotchner's head.

Emily felt sick. "Get away from him you sick bastard!"

"Guess it's whoever is the fastest, girly. Take your best shot."

Emily saw the man's trigger finger twitch. She squeezed the trigger and the two shots sounded as one. Edward fell back with a hole in his chest, Aaron's gun fell to the ground.

Aaron was lying prone, his arms twisted un-naturally at his side. His head turned to the side, blood ran from his eyes and nose; his inner arms bruised and bleeding from the removed IV's and blood sprayed from a fresh shoulder wound in his back.

Edward wasn't moving. She could hear the women screaming now as the sound of the shots faded. She kicked the gun away from Fair, and knelt by Hotch. gently she touched his arm. To her amazement, Aaron spoke to her.

"Don't... t-touch ...me."

"Shh, Aaron, You are safe now. I've got you."

Aaron tried to use his remaining strength to pull away from her, but she wouldn't go

"Don't touch...m-me!"

Emily called the emergency services, and pulled gloves on. She held her hand against the gun shot wound in her boss's back.

"Aaron, please, don't worry..." Emily gently drew Aaron to herself, still with her hand stopping the bleeding from his back. He had stopped reacting to her. His breathing was shallow and irregular. She counted his respiration as six. She looked across at Morgan.

"Is he ok?" he said.

"I don't know." She said quietly. "He's stopped responding."

"Emergency services are coming." Morgan reassured her. "Try to keep him talking."

"How's Spencer?"

"Unconscious. Bullet in the middle of his back. I just pray it missed his spine."

"Oh god." Emily curled her hand around the back of Aaron's head, feeling where the skin had broken, and the blood was still running into his hair. The photographs of the disease were nothing compared to seeing the man she loved suffering in this way. It was breaking her heart.

"Aaron, I need to tell you something." She whispered. "I need to be with you. I have a lot to tell you. As soon as you are better... " She glanced over at Morgan. It was no secret from him; he probably knew what her true feelings were before she did.

Sirens in the distance, the two women on the settee crying, the man keeping aloof but shaking.

She spoke to Aaron, "Emergency services are coming, Sweetheart. I can hear them. Hold on now, hold on..."

Morgan gently laid Spencer down on the floor.

"I'm going out to meet the medics." He said, and ran down the passage, no longer being careful not to preserve the footprints in the dust. He burst out of the door as the ambulance pulled up. The medics jumped down from the cab and began to don hazmat suits.

"Have you been in contact with the victims?" one asked when Morgan told them who he was.

"Yes, and Agent Prentiss too. We wore protective gloves."

"I am afraid that isn't enough." He said. "You will both need to be quarantined. Please wait here while we bring the injured outside."

They went into the clinic with two gurneys. Morgan followed them on. He wasn't about to take orders from a medic.

He watched as the suited men pulled Emily away from Hotch. Things moved in slow motion as they lifted him onto a gurney and intubated him, forcing air into what was left of his lungs. The tube was attached to oxygen.

Reid was lifted onto the second gurney. He was breathing ok, but they were worried about a lack of response to nerve function in his feet. Morgan called out to them.

"He had bad injuries to his left foot three years back." He said. "You could be getting false results."

One of the medics moved around the gurney and tested his right foot.

Still nothing.

"We need to get him to theatre. The bullet could be causing damage to the nerve."

They rushed him out of the lab, while the other two worked on Aaron. Things were not looking good. They put pads on his eyes and ears to prevent further blood loss. His skin was white and the deep red of the blood stood out in stark contrast. Emily stepped forwards and took his hand, cold and limp.

Aaron, please get better Baby. We cold have such a future, please, live for those who love you...

"What is the prognosis?" Emily asked. "Will he be ok?"

She didn't want to ask. She didn't want to hear the answer unless it was positive. The medic fixing the oxygen level looked at her and shook his head gently.

"It's not good, Agent. We will do what we can, but he is very poorly."

Emily stood by him and stroked his face. "Get better, Sweetheart." She murmured, and as Aaron's cold hand tightened around hers, a tear fell from her eyes.

-0-0-0-

Dave pulled up in his car just as the first ambulance drove off, lights flashing, sirens wailing. He left the car door open and hurried into the building. If he could run, he would have. As it was, his best was a slow painful limp.

He stood at the door and watched for a minute or two, watching them compress Hotchner's chest above his heart. The last thing to be affected is the heart, thought Rossi. And they were trying to start it.

He limped forward to his friend, and put his arm around Emily's shoulder.

"He's strong, Emily. If anyone can make it, he can."

Emily continued to smooth Aaron's hair and hold his hand. Gently, softly, she spoke to Aaron, telling him how she felt, telling him he needed to live for her, for Spencer, and most of all, for Jack.

"Come away, Emily, let them do their jobs."

She looked at Dave. "I can't. I don't want to be away from him." She turned back to Aaron. "He could die. He can't be alone."

David didn't say anything else. He stood with his arm around her, hoping fervently that he would live. He didn't want to lead the team. He never wanted to."

"He has a pulse..."

They carried Aaron out into the second ambulance. Emily and Dave said they would follow it back to the hospital in the SUV, where they would join Morgan in a negative pressure room until it could be certain that they were not infected.

Emily drove them back. She kept the ambulance in sight all the way back to the hospital. It was as if Aaron was in her sights all the time she could see the ambulance. When she had to wait at lights, and the ambulance turned right up ahead, she felt a panic set in. Desperately she tried to rebuild the wrecked compartment walls that had so devastatingly crashed down. When the lights changed, she broke the speed limit to catch up with the ambulance.

Rossi held onto the dash board as the car screamed around the corner. The gesture was not lost on Emily. When she had turned the corner, and the ambulance was in sight again, she slowed. Rossi leaned back on the head rest, the terror slowly fading from his eyes.

"Sorry." She said, and meant it. "I need to keep up with the ambulance."

"Emily, he won't live or die depending on whether you keep up or not. Just trust them to do their best."

-0-0-0-

The gunshot to Aaron's back needed attention, the surgeon, triple gloved and with an independent air supply, removed the bullet and stitched up the damage. He was shocked at the scarring to the man's back, and wondered at his strength to recover from such injuries to leave scars like that. His shoulder's were repositioned, and bandaged tightly. But the fever he had to fight for himself. They put him on erythropoietin therapy to try to replace the lost blood, and antibiotic cocktail to prevent secondary infection.

The bullet in Reid's back was touching his spinal cord. The doctors didn't want to operate. One tiny mistake would leave Spencer in a wheel chair. Leaving it there was not an option. A jolt or fall could move the bullet and cause even more damage. His career would be over. The needed a top neuro-surgeon. The best was in Chicago. Doctor Aaron Shutt was seconded to Atlanta from Chicago Hope Hospital, the countries best, to operate on Reid. He removed the bullet without damage, and he was confident that he would be ok. He brought with him Billy Kronk to assist. The Atlanta doctors weren't happy, but they had to bow to the superior knowledge and experience of the Chicago doctors.

Emily wanted to sit with Hotch, but they wouldn't allow it. The negative pressure rooms were divided up by glass. Reid and Hotch in one room, Dave, Derek and Emily in the adjoining room. All they could do was watch their colleagues. They couldn't talk to them or touch them. Emily and Rossi sat and talked for most of the time. Dave told her of the trip he had planned in just over two weeks when he was going to take Reid and Aaron to Italy to explore Dave's roots in Napoli.

"It would be nice if you could come too, Emily. I think both of them are going to need care. It will be like convalescence. I will ok it with Erin Strauss if you would like to join us."

Emily smiled at him. She couldn't think of anything better.

-0-0-0-

END

A/N (2) – OK I know there are millions of loose ends here to tie up. But the next story is a sequel, and all loose ends will be tied up there. 8¬)