Chapter 04

River Valley State Park
Mariposa County, OR

Morgan

Of course when they got to the meeting point they ran into their first snag.

Morgan had been too busy talking to Hotch, then some General, and then Hotch again to pay any attention to what was going on in the back of the SUV. He figured as long as he could hear Spencer coughing then Spencer was breathing so it couldn't be all that bad. Once they got there one set of EMT's took one look at Spencer, pulled him out onto a gurney, slapped an oxygen mask over his face and headed for the rig. The other set started tugging the woman to the other rig. Which was exactly when they reached that snag. "No!" She said between coughs. "I'm going with him!"

"Ma'am..."

"I. Am going. With. Him." She pulled away from them and scrambled into the back of Spencer's ambulance.

"Not worth the fight people." Morgan said. She was walking, likely she wasn't bad enough to get in the way. He squeezed into the front next to the driver and tossed his keys to Deputy Wilmer. "Meet me wherever we're going."

Morgan tried to listen to whatever was going on behind him. From what he could tell the EMT back there had given the woman her own tank of oxygen, but was otherwise focused on Spencer. "Do you have a medical history for him?" The EMT asked.

"Yeah." Spencer was in no condition to give it up on his own. "Hey baby girl. Send Reid's medical file over." He said to the open phone.

"It is on it's way." Garcia replied. "Anything you need to know right now?"

"Any allergies?" The EMT asked.

"Um, carboxypenicillins." Garcia replied.

"Got it."

"He also had a nasty lung infection a few years back." Morgan said. "The doc who treated him then should be talking to the doc at your ER now."

"Got it."

"And he doesn't take narcotics."

"He might this time."

"They gave him something." The woman said.

"What was that?" The EMT asked.

"They gave him something. The doctor there gave them all something. It put all of them to sleep but Spencer. Don't fall asleep." She said that to Spencer, jiggling his arm until his eyes opened and he blinked at her.

The EMT pulled out a light and flashed it in Spencer's eyes. "He could be on narcotics." He said. "That might explain some of this."

Son of a bitch. "I'm sorry. I have to." Morgan said to Spencer. "He used to be an addict." He said to the EMT. The woman didn't even flinch. "Dilaudid. He's been clean for...uhhh...eight years now. Doing the whole twelve step thing."

"Good for him." The EMT replied. "If it is narcotics they must have given him less than his old dose. Good thing, most narcotics depress breathing. He might not have survived full sedation."

"I couldn't get the others out." The woman said. "I couldn't move them."

"Move them from where?" Morgan asked. But she didn't answer. He twisted around and saw the tears running down her face.

As Morgan watched over his shoulder Spencer reached for the woman as if to reassure her it would be all right.

Hyperbaric Unit
Mercy General Hospital
Manzanita Country, OR

This was not what Morgan had expected. "A hyperbaric chamber?"

"Administering oxygen at double atmospheric pressure helps clear any CO2 and cyanide out of the blood before it can cause neurological damage." The doc said. "And given the scarring in his lungs he can use all the help he can get. We usually use these for wound care in cancer patients and diabetics, but this time of year we run firefighters through as well. How the hell did he catch Anthrax anyway?"

To hell with security, Morgan thought, his little brother was in trouble. "He got between a terrorist and the rest of the country."

"Huh. Don't get many heroes through here."

"He was doing his job." And now Spencer was just lying there, looking like he was sleeping peacefully. But he had a mask over his face and tubes running to his arms, and they hadn't bothered to wipe off all the ash before they put him in there. But he was safe now, he was safe, he wouldn't be hurt anymore. "How long is he going to be in there?"

"A few hours. And before you ask he's going to be here for three to four days, you might as well get comfortable."

Great. But it didn't matter, he was safe. Nothing else mattered past that. Morgan turned to find a quiet corner to call Hotch. Except..."What happened to the woman he came in with?"

The doc checked the computer. "Transferred out. LifeFlight to UCSF hospital."

Wait, flight? "To where?"

"San Francisco. We're underfunded and understaffed; we didn't have a bed for her."

Crap. She was the only other witness. "You got a name for her?" Morgan asked as he fired up his phone.

The doc checked again. "Nope. She's listed as a Jane Doe."

Yep, crap. "Okay, thanks." Now before he could call Hotch he had to call the San Francisco field office and have someone go button her up for him. On top of everything else. He stepped out into the hall and pulled out his phone. "Hey momma."

"How is he?" Garcia asked by way of a hello.

"The docs here think he's going to be just fine. They're using a hyperbaric chamber to treat him now. He's out cold in there. Looks to me like he needs the rest."

"Agent Morgan?" A nurse approached him with a baggie of some kind. "I have Agent Reid's personal effects."

"Okay, so he's going to be okay." Garcia said, a sigh of relief in his voice. "But what happened to him."

"Just put them on my bag in there." Morgan said to the nurse. He resisted the urge to correct her to Doctor Reid, at the moment it would only confuse things. FBI agent was what mattered. "I don't know yet, keeping him breathing and from being poisoned by the smoke was the first priority. When they get him out of there we'll run a check on him. Right now I need you to get me through to the San Francisco field office."

"I can do that. Why San Francisco?"

"I've got to nail down the witness."

Except he didn't. "She was gone by the time we got here." The field agent on the screen told them. "They refused to tell me if she was transferred or left on her own. They said it would be a HIPPA violation."

Garcia had them all networked in. Rossi shook his head. "Now we have to wait for her to come to us on her own."

"Hopefully the San Francisco field office can track her down." Hotch said. "For now we're taking the plane out to meet you."