Chapter 31

Rossi rode with Hotch to the hospital. He had lapsed into unconsciousness before they had him on the gurney. While Rossi knew Hotch wasn't out of the woods yet, he was glad the hallucinations were over. He knew hallucinogens could last for a while, but he figured the shot of adrenaline and the fluids being given to him were helping to flush the drugs from his system. He knew LSD wasn't addictive and there were no withdrawals, but he wasn't sure about the other things in the mixture Hotch was given. He thought, hopefully, that since the other things were also hallucinogens, that they would have the same results.

He had no clue as to what had happened to Hotch's chest. He looked as though he had been beaten with a bat, but there were no clear long bruises. Most of the bruises, in fact, were circular in pattern. Hotch's torso and arms were also covered with scratches, but one look at Hotch's fingers told Rossi that Hotch had done that himself in one of the hallucinations he'd been trapped in. Rossi knew Hotch never even took headache medicine, so he had no doubt the powerful drugs wreaked havoc on his poor friend.

Rossi smiled to himself as he remembered Kahlan giving the hit man some of his own drug. An eye for an eye is a powerful thing. He wasn't sure what lengths Kahlan would have gone to to make the man talk, so Rossi was actually glad the man turned out to be a wuss. He was glad he didn't have to explain anything too drastic.

The ambulance pulled up to the ER entrance and Rossi jumped out to get out of the medics way. They wheeled Hotch around a corner and Rossi went to the nurses' station to give them the information they needed on Hotch. Not even five minutes later, Kahlan came rushing through the doors. With Rossi's puzzled look, she told him that Morgan let her use his SUV. She held up a kevlar vest for Rossi to see. Rossi quickly counted ten slugs in it and he knew what had damaged his friend's chest. Each of the slugs were different levels of smashed, telling Rossi that the man had shot Hotch from different distances and two looked like they were shot at point blank range. Rossi felt his anger boil. He had never heard of a vest failing, but he didn't think he had ever heard of one being shot ten times, either.

"I should have killed the son of a bitch!" Kahlan said disgusted.

"We might have had a problem if you did that," Rossi told her, but he knew exactly how she felt.

Suddenly, the doors opened and Kahlan could hear screams of terror. Her head snapped to the entrance and she realized it was the hit man. They were wheeling him in and around the corner, and Kahlan couldn't stop the smile from forming on her lips. Apparently Pat was having some terrifying hallucinations.

Rossi actually chuckled. "Serves him right for going after Hotch. The world would be a nicer place if they would just realize you don't mess with the BAU and its family," he said proudly.

Kahlan laughed at him.

"Or it's girlfriends," he added quickly.

XXX

Garcia had grabbed Kevin and went to retrieve Rossi's car from DC, and then they headed to the hospital. Morgan and JJ had ridden with a local police officer after they had turned the scene over to them for processing. Figure prints of Pat O'Harin connected him to twelve murders, and they were sure the DNA sample they took from him was going to tie him to several more. Police from everywhere were calling Morgan and congratulating the BAU for catching such an elusive killer. When he told Rossi and Kahlan about it, Kahlan just shrugged.

"We wouldn't have caught him if it wasn't for you," Morgan told her seriously. She started to disagree. "Your picture, your bug, your tactics, period!" Everyone else agreed.

"You would have found him eventually," she assured Morgan.

"Yeah," Morgan agreed honestly. "But I hate to think what else would have happened to him in the wait."

Before Kahlan could say anything else a doctor came out to give them an update. He looked at the motley crew who all claimed to be Aaron Hotchner's family. He smiled, though, because he could tell they all cared deeply for him. "We are pushing fluids on him to flush his system. We have sent him down to x-ray because I do believe some of his ribs are broken. He is also having trouble breathing, but I think that is just from the pain of the trauma to his chest. Since I didn't want to add narcotics to his system, I have put him into a medically induce coma to alleviate his pain. We'll do tox screens every half-hour, and once he is clean of the drugs, we'll be able to give him pain meds and wake him up."

"Will there be lasting effects of the drugs on him?" JJ asked as she thought back to Reid's addiction.

"Normally hallucinogens don't have addictive qualities or side effects. I have heard that long time abusers have flash backs of their hallucinations, but I wouldn't think that will be a problem for Mr. Hotchner." He noticed they all visibly relaxed a little.

"Will he remember what he hallucinated?" Kahlan asked. She had seen the fear in his face and heard it in his voice, and she didn't want him reliving that.

"I've heard it can go either way. Since this is his first time experiencing the drug, though, the possibility is greater that he will remember. He should remember that they were just hallucinations, though." When no more questions were asked, he went back to Hotch.

Kahlan ran her hands through her hair in frustration. "He's gonna be ok, Kiddo," Rossi told her and pulled her into a hug.

"Why don't you all go get some coffee or a bite to eat," Garcia told them. When they looked like they were going to argue, she continued. "Kevin and I will stay here; I'll send you a text if we need you or learn anything else."

Rossi nodded, and herded them out of the waiting room down to the cafeteria. He looked at his watch and realized they'd be serving breakfast already. Nobody wanted to eat, though, so they all got coffee and Kahlan got a hot tea.

Rossi walked up to her as she fixed her tea and took several pills out of her pocket. She dry swallowed them because her tea was too hot. "You know, after we found Wyatt, I didn't think I'd need those damn pills anymore. Being around you all, though, I think I'll probably need them for the rest of my life."

Rossi knew about her ulcer and he felt sorry for her. "It's not always this stressful," he told her with a smile.

"It better not be. He still owes me dinner," she joked and joined the others at the table.

XXX

After waiting for another hour with no change in Hotch's status, Rossi sent everyone home. Kahlan wasn't having any of it, though, so the two waited in the waiting room for several hours. Finally, the doctor came back out to them. "Mr. Hotchner has five cracked ribs and two broken ones. He is free of the drugs and he should be waking up shorty. He is receiving pain meds through an IV, so I don't know how lucid he is going to be, but you are welcome to see him as soon as they get him transferred to a room. I will send a nurse out as soon as we know which one."

They gave him their thanks and Rossi texted the team with an update. Within five minutes a nurse told them which room Hotch was in. Rossi and Kahlan walked in and they could tell Hotch was trying to wake up. His eyes were closed, but he was scowling. Kahlan laughed at the look on Hotch's face. Rossi went up to him and took his friend's hand. "That's right. Wake your lazy ass up," Rossi joked using the same line as the last time Hotch was unconscious.

"If I was as lazy as you say I am, Dave, I'd never get anything done," Hotch told him weakly, but smiled.

"You're not actually awake if you don't open your eyes, you know," Kahlan told him.

His smiled widened enough to show his dimples when he heard her voice. "I'm trying, but their too heavy."

She went up and grabbed his other hand. "Then just rest. We'll be here when you wake up."

"K" is all he said and his grip relaxed as he fell back to sleep.

They both pulled up chairs and waited for Hotch to wake up. He jerked in his sleep, but settled as soon as Rossi grabbed his hand. Almost two hours later, he woke up to find them both asleep. He smiled at them and laid his head back. His chest was killing him, but he realized he was on pain meds because it didn't hurt that much to breathe normally. He took a deep breath to see how far he could get. His right side hurt worse than his left. All of his muscles were sore, too, and he knew it was from all of the shaking the drugs had caused his body to do. He knew the fatigued feeling would go away, but he wasn't sure how long his chest would take to heal. He took another deep breath. Definitely light duty for a while. He felt he was being watched and smiled as he saw Kahlan was awake. He hadn't even moved, and yet she knew he was awake.

"Hey there," she said softly and got up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey."

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a truck," he told her with a grin.

"Close," she started. "Ten bullets could be considered a car at least."

"Ten? Damn, no wonder."

"You didn't know how many?"

"Nah. I passed out after four."

"Lucky you."

"Very lucky," he agreed. "Sorry I messed up my surprise."

"I saw your house. That was very sweet."

"Would have been an awesome night," he told her with another grin.

"I bet. Once you're healed up, I'll have to model those two outfits for you."

Hotch's eyes grew wider.

"And before you two can go any further with that conversation, I'll let you know I'm awake," Rossi told them sitting up in his chair.

Kahlan laughed and Hotch blushed. "Hey, Dave."

Rossi got up and grabbed Hotch's hand. "How are you?"

"I'll heal," Hotch told him. "I assume you got the son of a bitch."

"Oh yeah. He's somewhere else in the hospital recovering from the effects of some drug he mixed," Rossi told him with a grin.

Hotch looked back and forth between the two. He wasn't sure which one had done it, and neither face gave it away. He also knew that neither one would say. He nodded. "He said he was hired," Hotch told them seriously.

Rossi nodded. "Reid and Blake should be there now. It was Robert Adams' sister."

Kahlan could tell by the look on Hotch's face that he knew exactly who Rossi was talking about. "Wow, two years for her want for revenge to grow." Hotch shook his head. "What a waste."

"Yeah, well, if everyone were sane, we wouldn't have a job," Rossi told him with a small smile.

The doctor came in to check on Hotch and Kahlan and Rossi waited in the hall. "You can tell them the truth, you know. I'm a big girl. I can live with their thoughts against me."

"Yeah, I know, but it's just so much fun to watch them try to figure it out," Rossi told him with a grin. "It's a good thing you don't work with us." Kahlan gave him a hurt look. "I'd get in way too much trouble with you around."

She laughed. "Yeah. I couldn't work with your team either. Too damn many rules."