chapter 15

disclaimer: i do not own any of the criminal minds characters, i do own the victims/suspects/officers.

this story will become very dark and may contain material that upsets some peoole

RATED : Mature Audiences only

please leave any comments below, this is my first criminal minds fabrication! please let me know what i can do better!

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Rossi was staring into his hands. His fingers were wrapping around each other and he noticed his knuckles were white. He took his eyes off his hands and stared at the short brown carpet below him. He was leaning forward in the cold hospital chair with his elbows resting on his knees. He glanced up and saw Morgan talking to a hysterical Garcia. He turned to see Reid sitting in a chair deep in the corner of the sea blue walls. He was lost in his thoughts, no doubt thinking about the statistics of Emily's survival and recovery. His legs were bouncing up and down, something he did when he was nervous.

Everyone is the room was just waiting for the update. That Emily was safe. The only thing that interrupted them was Hotch and JJ walking quickly into the room.

"We have a problem." Hotch' deep voice boomed through the room.

Everyone's attention was directed towards Hotch and he felt their worried eyes on him.

"Chris escaped custody."

"What? How?" Morgan suddenly said, sounding angry.

"He said he wasn't feeling good so the officers pulled over. They said he started seizing so they went back to help him and he jumped them. He killed both the officers." JJ informed them.

Morgan shook his head and walked back towards the dark blue wall.

"Hotch, we gotta catch 'em" Morgan said, clenching his fists.

"I know, and we will. For now, we don't say a word to Emily. She needs to rest and recover. I want one of us with her at all times, and I will out and officer outside her room." Hotch told them.

Everyone nodded and that's when Reid spoke.

"You know, if she survived the surgery, she has a fifty percent chance of surviving the blood infection, not to mention the mental healing she will go through–"

"Kid, not right now okay?" Morgan interrupted him.

Reid leaned back into his chair and began fidgeting his legs and hands again.

Then, a man in blue scrubs splattered with blood appeared in the doorway. He had bright blue eyes and had exhaustion written all over his face.

"Family of Emily Prentiss I assume?"

"Yes, that's us." Hotch replied, "how is she?"

The older doctor shook Hotch's hand and began telling them about Emily.

"She survived the surgery. She had internal bleeding of her spleen, which we were able to repair, and we stitched up her lacerations as well. As for her blood infection, she is on strong antibiotics to clear it up. They should start working within twelve hours. She also has a broken wrist and a couple broken ribs. We are hoping she wakes up by tomorrow afternoon," The doctor said, taking a breath before continuing, "as for her mental state, as you guys know I can't predict that. We have to wait until she wakes up to begin assessing her. Any questions?"

It took a moment for them to fully process what the doctor had just told them.

"Can we see her?" Garcia asked quietly.

"Yes, but only two or three at a time please. She's right down the hall, in room two hundred eighty." The doctor said pointing out the door.

Hotch stayed behind to discuss stationing an officer outside Emily's room and to get an in depth update.

Morgan and JJ were the first to go into her room. Garcia, Reid and Rossi waited outside.

As soon as they entered, JJ stifled a gasp behind her hand.

Emily was lying in the white hospital bed, hooked up to several machines, one of them was a ventilator. The walls were a sickly white color, the kind of white only seen in hospitals. It was dealt by silent expect the constant beeping of different machines.

"Em?" JJ said softly as they both walked to the side of the bed.

JJ sat down in the chair next to the bed and Morgan stood behind her.

They both stared at her. She had bruising all over her face, her hair was matted with blood and she had a tube going down her throat.

They saw her right arm was in a splint, and her ribs were wrapped with cotton.

Derek looked at all the IV bags she was hooked up to an assumed one was morphine and the other was the antibiotic. Seeing his Emily lying so helpless in this bed made him so angry.

He hated Chris more than anyone. His hatred went deeper than the surface. He wanted to watch him suffer. When he found him, he would make sure he got what he deserved.

JJ was holding Emily's hand and was running the back of her hand with her thumb.

"Please wake up, please Em." JJ pleaded.

"Derek...you should've seen her. In the ambulance I mean. She wanted to let go. She didn't want to live." JJ said, fighting back tears.

"Jayje, she's gunna be okay. We're all gunna be there for her, whenever she's ready," He said, looking down at Emily's almost lifeless body. Only the up and down motion of her chest convinced him she was alive. "ya know, she was scared of me. I could see it in her eyes. She didn't want me to go near her."

JJ looked over at Derek. She looked down then responded.

"She will heal Derek, slowly, but she will. And when she's ready, you need to be there for her. You're her partner."

Derek nodded and wiped away stray tears.

A knock at the door interrupted them from their thoughts.

"Can we come in?" Garcia asked softly.

JJ wiped her face and nodded. She stood up and walked out of the room with Derek.

Rossi and Reid followed in behind Garcia. As JJ closed the door behind her, she could hear Garcia's muffled sobs.

Hotch called Strauss to update her on Emily's condition. He hated making these types of phone calls to her, especially about a member of his team. He was their leader, he was suppose to keep them safe.

"Aaron? How is agent Prentiss?" Strauss said professionally.

"She had emergency surgery to repair internal damage, and has a blood infection. She is stable as of now." Hotch informed the older woman.

"That's good, keep me updated."

"I will."

"And Aaron, tell your team they should stay with her. All new cases are being directed to other teams." Strauss said, her voice going from serious to sad.

"Thank you Erin, we will."

With that, Hotch hung up his phone. He walked into the waiting room and saw JJ and Morgan.

"Garcia, Reid and Rossi are with her now." Morgan informed the confused unit chief.

Hotch quickly nodded.

"For now, we stay here. We don't move until she wakes up. I do not want her to wake up and be alone, understand?"

Morgan and JJ nodded in unison.

"Hotch, what do we do about Chris?" Morgan asked, afraid that Hotch won't let them work the case.

"When she wakes up, we can begin. For now I'll have the locals try and track him down, and Garcia can do searches from her laptop here."

Morgan nodded and took a seat. Hotch sat across from him and JJ was next to him.

The thoughts of Emily filled their minds, and it was like a giant, heavy rain cloud above their heads. None of them would know what really happened until she woke up. Outside, they could hear the muffled chaos of the busy hospital.