Emily was there to greet them when they got up to the sixth floor.
"Morning guys…" She said when she saw them.
"Morning…" They replied.
"Please tell me we're not missing anyone, I mean, we saw what it was like downstairs, it's a ghost town, it's like half the building is out sick." JJ commented.
Nothing about Emily's expression said that she thought JJ was exaggerating.
JJ and Reid looked at each other, and then back at Emily.
"Actually that's more or less accurate, partly because this thing is spreading like wildfire and partly because some of the advice the CDC is telling the public has turned into direct orders coming down to us from the director. Anyone with any obvious symptoms is supposed to be sent to the infirmary and if they're found to have a fever or their blood tests positive for the virus, they're sent home with fourteen days of mandatory sick leave. The agents and support staff on the main floor deal the most with the public so it makes a lot of snse that they've been hit the hardest but it's probably just a matter of time." she explained.
Reid and JJ stared at her with aghast expressions on their faces.
"So far, no one from our unit has called in sick, but Monte from the IRT was sent to the infirmary fifteen minutes ago, Kevin called in sick and his Unit Chief called me to ask if I could get Garcia to cover for him, I haven't heard from Tara or Luke but neither one of them is here yet either."
Listening to her telling them how severe and how hard the bureau had already been hit, Reid's heart sank as it was looking less and less likely that his record of having gone his entire career with no non case-related sick leave, would remain unbroken. Much to the horror of his inner germaphobe, he was completely surrounded, even here. The only way to stay away from it was to stick with his own team, all of whom seemed to still be perfectly healthy, and stay as far away as humanly possible from almost everyone else as much as possible.
By the time several hours had passed, Garcia couldn't deny the fact that she was sick anymore, she was sweating and freezing. She felt achy and exhausted, her throat burned, her head pounded, and she couldn't breathe through her nose anymore. She'd spent the day in a kind of self-imposed isolation in her office, trying and failing to stay focused on her work. She knew that the only way to keep working, was to try not to let her productivity waver and try not to let the others see her. The instant they did, she'd be sent to the infirmary and then home. So far the rest of her team was just fine, everyone was present and accounted for, and emailing her their reports and paperwork by the hour. Fortunately, there had been no request for the team to take over an active case, so they'd spent the morning focusing on completing leftover paperwork and working on cases they were consulting on. However, that was unlikely to last, a new request could come in at any time, and when it did, with both Kevin and Monte already sick, there would be no one left, at least no one she knew and trusted, to help them with it by doing her job for her. She couldn't afford to let them down. She refused to.