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Previously on Criminal Minds- Kissing the little boy's forehead, Aaron settled in for a long sleepless night.
CM
"Daddy, I's hungwy" Henry proclaimed as he leaned against his father's legs.
"I know buddy. We'll go get something to eat as soon as your mama finishes helping Aunt Emily, okay?" Will replied, ruffling his son's hair.
"Otay" Henry agreed. Plopping down on his behind, he pulled his toy car out of his pocket and happily started rolling it along the floor.
"What's taking them so long anyway?" Morgan groused. "She was just getting in bed. Surely that doesn't take…" he glanced at his watch. "twenty minutes."
"Derek my boy as a three time husband I can tell you that nothing is ever simple or fast where women are concerned." Rossi relayed. "What takes us two minutes, takes ten or more for them. You know that. After all, you have two sisters."
Morgan smiled. "Oh yeah" he said. "I'd almost forgotten having to fight for bathroom time growing up. We had two and my sisters hogged both of them. The only way I could get in the bathroom was to outrun them or pull some kinda prank on one of them. I never could figure out what took them so long in there."
"Trust me when I say you do not want to know." Will stated.
"Why Will is there something…"
"You can come in now guys." JJ called.
Will jumped on the chance to get away from the uncomfortable conversation. "JJ, I told Henry we'd go get something to eat when you finished. He's hungry." He told his wife.
"Oh, okay" JJ replied. She stuck her head in the door and told the ladies where they were going before walking out of the room. "Alright, let's go."
"You guys want anything?" Will asked.
"I could go for a burger and fries." Morgan answered. "What about you, Rossi?"
"That sounds good." Dave seconded, reaching into his pocket. "Need some money?"
"No, we've got it." JJ said. "Just hold down the fort while we're gone. Maybe see if you can get Em and Morgan to rest."
Dave grinned at Morgan's groan. "I'll do my best, my dear." He agreed. After seeing the couple off, he placed a hand on Derek's shoulder and ushered him into the hospital room. "How are you doing, Emily?"
"I'm fine." Prentiss huffed, rolling her eyes. "I don't know why they insisted on keeping me."
"Chill Prentiss" Morgan suggested. "It's just for twenty-four hour observation. You'll be out before you know it."
"That's right, Sweetie or should I say daughter in law" Fran said. Crossing her arms, she glared at the three profilers. "Would one of you mind telling me why that nice little doctor thought my son and Ms. Prentiss were married?"
Derek wearily dropped into the green plastic chair beside the bed. "Sorry about that momma." He apologized. "We didn't expect to see Dr. Sawyer here so we didn't really have time to warn you."
"Warn me about what? What's going on, Derek?" Fran questioned.
"We were out in California a couple of months ago when Reid got really sick. Emily and I were with him so we were the ones that ended up taking him to the emergency room. We knew they wouldn't let us back with the kid if they knew we weren't related so we pretended to all be family." Morgan explained. "It was the only thing we could think of at the time."
Fran smiled. "That is so sweet." She said, pinching her son's cheeks. "I knew you were…"
"Evening Ms. Prentiss" a haughty voice called out as the door slammed against the wall. Looking up from his clipboard, Dr. Cavanaugh sneered at the group. "You people have to leave. I need to examine…"
"No" Prentiss broke in.
"Excuse me?" the physician growled, turning his attention to the woman on the bed.
"Did I stutter? I said no. You are not examining me." Emily informed the arrogant doctor. "I'm asking for a different physician."
Anger flashed across Cavanaugh's face. "Madame, this is not a spa. It's a hospital. You do not get your pick of doctors. You were assigned to me and I will be your doctor during your stay. You have no say in the matter." The conceited physician ground out as he walked over to the bed and reached for his patient's wrist.
Emily grabbed her attacker's wrist and twisted his arm. Placing her other hand on the man's elbow, the agent applied enough pressure to elicit a whimper from the prick. "Now that I have your attention I want you to listen and listen good. You are not going to lay one hand on me. I am requesting a new doctor and you are not going to oppose it. You are going to walk out that door and never come back. Do you understand?"
"Y-y-yes!" Dr. Cavanaugh squeaked.
Prentiss released the physician and leaned back against her pillow. "Goodbye Dr. Cavanaugh" she grumbled.
Rubbing his arm, the furious doctor strode to the door. "You're going to regret that." He threatened.
Emily faked a yawn.
Huffing Cavanaugh stormed out of the room.
"Girl that was fantastic! You were like Wonder Woman!" Penelope gushed. "You have so got to show me that move!"
"You've got it, Pen. As soon as I'm outta here, you and I will have a self-defense day." Prentiss promised.
"Wonderful! I'll plan it all out! We can have popcorn and some of those kung fu movies and…"
"Garcia" Rossi called, garnering the excited woman's attention. "Why don't you and Fran go down to the cafeteria and join JJ and Will? I'll keep watch till you get back."
"Okie dokie" Penelope agreed. "Come on Fran. Let's go get some grub. You can finish telling me that story about Derek and the ducklings on the way."
"Gladly" Fran replied. She shot her son a mischievous grin before walking out the door with the tech analyst.
"Oh man! Kill me now!" Morgan groaned, slapping a hand over his face.
"Sorry Morgan" Emily stated though her expression said she wasn't the least bit sorry. "Hey, you wanna play poker while they're gone? It might help."
"You'll do no such thing." Rossi scolded. "Both of you are going to rest. Prentiss, you lie down and Morgan go sit in the recliner and lean it back." When neither profiler moved, he pinned the two with his best fatherly glare. "NOW! Don't force me to make it an order."
Emily and Derek exchanged evil looks before chorusing, "Yes daddy" and breaking out in laughing fits.
"Oh good grief!" Dave huffed, rolling his eyes. "Lay your butts down and go to sleep already! I'm going outside to wait on the others. I hear one little sound and my belt's coming off. Got it?"
"Ewwwww!" Morgan groaned, covering his eyes. "Quick Emily! Close your eyes and pretend to sleep! You do not want him to go there!"
Cackling, Prentiss closed her eyes and made loud snoring noises.
Dave sighed. It wasn't exactly the way he envisioned getting them to rest but he'd take what he could get. Crossing his fingers that the others would make it back soon, the senior agent turned and walked out of the room.
CM
Hotch glanced up at the snick of the door. Seeing Dave, he held a finger to his lips and nodded towards the couch. Aaron leaned over, brushed his son's stray bangs out of his eyes, and kissed his forehead and then silently made his way to the pale gray sofa where his friend was waiting. "How's Emily?" he whispered.
"She's fine. She finally fell asleep an hour ago. Morgan, too. He conked out in the recliner after he ate." Dave related. "How about Little Bit? He hasn't had any more trouble with his stomach, has he?"
"No, aside from waking up in pain a while ago Spencer's been sleeping peacefully." Aaron replied with a smile. "Even the coming and going of the medical staff hasn't disturbed him. He'll wake up long enough to answer any questions and then fall right back to sleep."
"Good, sleep's the best thing for him." Rossi said.
"For all of them," Aaron corrected.
Dave smiled. "And us" he added. "I sent the others to a nearby hotel for the night. JJ, Fran, and Garcia were all falling asleep sitting up."
"Is that wise?" Hotch asked.
"Relax Aaron, they had a police escort there and the officers are going to be guarding their rooms all night. They've also stationed guards at Prentiss' room as well as this one. The police aren't taking any chances after the crash." Dave relayed.
Aaron raised an eyebrow. "You talked to the police?" he inquired. "What did they find?"
"A whole lot of nothing" Rossi answered with a huff. "There were no fingerprints, footprints, tire tread impressions, or anything else that might narrow down the suspect list. And considering our jobs that suspect list is extremely long."
Hotch nodded. Between their jobs and their personal lives, they all had more than their fair share of potential enemies. The person that caused the accident could have been targeting one or all of them. It could be a personal vendetta or it may be a totally random attack. There were too many possibilities. They had to narrow it down somehow. Starting with… "What do you think, Dave? Were they going after Morgan or is it someone after the team?" he asked.
Rossi ran a hand across his face. "I'm thinking the unsub's after the team. While the explosives were in Morgan's vehicle, I don't believe he was the target. I think the unsub simply chose that vehicle over the others. Maybe he knew of a weakness with that truck or maybe he was just more familiar with Jeeps than the others." He theorized. "The person responsible had no way of knowing Morgan would be the one that drove the truck. Anyone of us could have decided to go into town. Whoever this is was simply interested in causing the most damage possible."
"I concur." Aaron said. "Any thoughts as to who?"
"Mr. Reid tops my list. He's intelligent, highly motivated, and most of all he has one Hell of a grudge against the team for losing him his wealthy fiancé." Dave told the younger man. "And then there's that foster turned adoptive mother we encountered. She was none too pleased with us when we left."
"Do you really think Ms. Pringle would come after us?" Hotch questioned. "She seemed to have her hands full with those special kids of hers."
"True, but I wouldn't rule her out." Dave advised. "She could have sent that cop friend of hers after us. He seemed all too ready to *yawn* to do her biding."
Aaron grinned. "Go get some sleep, old man." he teased, patting the older man on the back. "We'll finish our discussion tomorrow morning."
"No we won't. Garcia and Morgan are coming to spell you and you are going to the hotel to rest first thing in the morning." Dave countered.
"I'm not…"
"Yes you are. You can either go willingly or I'll concoct a way to get you there." Dave stated, looking pointedly at the coffee mug in his friend's hand.
Aaron's hand froze in mid-air. He glanced at the inky liquid before quickly setting down the mug. "You wouldn't dare." He challenged.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that if I was you." Rossi replied. "I'll do what I have to for the sake of my family's well-being. Hercules that you are even you can't go without sleep. You need it to be at your best and your best is what you're going to have to be if you're going to handle a tired, hurting, cranky Spencer."
Aaron grimaced. A grumpy Spencer was never fun. He would definitely need a lot of energy to deal with his son in that shape. "Okay, I'll sleep." He reluctantly agreed. "On the couch"
"Hotel"
"Couch"
"Hotel"
"Couch"
Dave blew out a frustrated breath. "Fine, sleep on the couch" he conceded. "But you better sleep. No getting up every time Spencer wakes."
"I'll try." Aaron promised. "Now go on. Get to the hotel and get some sleep. I'll see you in the morning."
Rossi nodded. Standing, he crept over to the bed to check on their sleeping youngest. "Night kiddo" he whispered, palming the boy's cheek. He eyed the monitors for a moment and then slowly shuffled to the door. "Night Aaron, take good care of our boy." he quietly called before walking out the door.
Hotch walked back over and took a seat on the bed. "I will." He softly answered. Lying down beside Spencer, Aaron gently snuggled the little boy into his side and closed his eyes.
CM
"And the prince walked into the room at the top of the tower. Seeing the love of his life lying on the rose strewn bed, he strode over to the beautiful sleeping princess and tenderly kissed her lips." Garcia read. "True love's first kiss broke the witch's curse and Aurora awoke and looked into the eyes of her charming prince…"
And fey got mawwied and lived happ'ly evew aftew no mattew how unwealistic fat is." Spencer huffed, rolling his eyes. He slammed his eyelids shut as dizziness assaulted him.
"Spencer? Are you alright, Sweetness?" Garcia asked, the concern clear in her voice.
"Y-yeah" Reid responded, opening his eyes a little. "Jut got dizzy"
Penelope frowned. "Do you want me to call Dr. Sawyer?" she inquired, her hand straying to the call button.
"No, I'm otay. I jut have to be mowe taweful." Spencer told her. Seeing the skeptical look on his friend's face, he added, "Honest."
"Okay" Garcia hesitantly agreed. "Well, what do you feel like doing now? Want me to read some more? I bought plenty of fairy tale books at the store this morning."
"No, no mowe faiwy tales! Fewe'we tupid!" Reid complained, crossing his arms. He winced as hurt flashed across the usually bubbly blond's face. "I'm sowwy Gawcia. I didn't mean fat. I'm jut tiwed, sowe, and gwumpy."
"I know Sweet Pea. I know." Penelope said, wrapping her Junior G-man in a hug. "I wish I could make you feel better."
"You'we mating me feel bettew jut by being hewe." Spencer informed her.
That brought a smile to Penelope's face. "Just call me Penelope Poppins. Only instead of the spoonful of sugar, I have a tablet full of stories for you." she joked. "You don't have to stick with the fairy tales Handsome. You can pick any kind of story you want. You just say the word and I'll wave my magic wand and your story will appear."
"Otay" Spencer agreed. He thought for a few minutes before breaking into a grin. "Gawcia, have you evew read the owiginal Gwimm's Faiwy Tales?"