Chapter 14

Hours had passed, the hospital's waiting room chairs were hard, unforgiving, but no one even noticed.

Rossi sat leaning forward, hands clasped whispering a small prayer under his breath as with tired eyes he looked around the room.

Reid had moved over to the window, he'd been staring out of it for more than an hour now. Garcia had tried to pull him towards a seat, but he had gently pushed her hand away and resumed his silent stance.

Morgan's face was stone, but Rossi could see the tension rippling through him; the only thing most likely keeping him from punching a hole in the wall or yelling at an unsuspecting nurse or two was Garcia who he had an arm around as she slept fitfully her head on his shoulder; Rossi could see the stains across her face where her tears had fallen earlier.

Prentiss had called Garcia with the good news, telling her and JJ to get to the hospital a.s.a.p. Rossi didn't think exultation and worry could resound in someone's voice at the same time, he was mistaken. He sighed and leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes.

Strauss...the consequences coming their way for keeping those photos from her...

This was going to be a long night.

"We should have heard something by now."

The older agent's eyes snapped open and after a beat he nodded his agreement at Prentiss who was sitting directly across from him.

Shaking her head softly she glanced down at JJ who had somehow curled up on the stiff chairs and was asleep, her head on Prentiss' lap.

"Hotch's been through a lot, it's going to take a while to check him over... You okay, Emily?"

Prentiss stared at him for a moment.

"No, I'm not. Are you?"

Rossi slowly swiped a hand down his face and turned to look at Reid.

They had called in an AirEvac for Hotch, they wanted him in a larger hospital closer to home where there would be a better chance of him getting the help he needed.

While awaiting the AirEvac, Morgan and Prentiss did a sweep of the house. The sound of the generator behind the home was weak, the fuel almost gone, but lights flickered throughout as Morgan and Prentiss quickly made their way from room to room, the house was small, so it didn't take long for the "clears" to be completed.

The last door led to the cellar; as they walked down it guns raised, the rank smell made their noses twitch. Morgan switched on the rope bulb, the light flickered but dimly held.

With the help of their flashlights, it only took a moment to see that there was no one in the cellar; it only took another moment for their minds to grasp what they were seeing.

Dried blood stains spattered the room, lengths of used rope in a corner, an overturned stained cot with handcuffs on its ends.

Prentiss had called him over to a corner of the room to a small closet, an open padlock hanging from it, inside blood stained chains attached to the wall.

"Morgan." Prentiss' voice was heavy.

The faint sound of an approaching helicopter could be heard in the distance.

"I know." he had replied, trying to hold back the horror he was feeling. "I know, we'll get someone here to check this out. We got Hotch back, everything else we'll deal with later."

Rossi had rode with Hotch in the helicopter, his mind whirling as he thought of the unfairness of Ezral's too sudden death and the image stained in his mind of Hotch attacking Reid.

He looked down at Hotch who lay way too still for Rossi's liking.

What the hell did Ezral do to you, my friend?

Once at the hospital, Hotch was whisked behind closed doors; the doctor on call, a tall woman with olive skin, long dark hair pulled back in a tight bun, she had introduced herself as Dr. Allery, told the team she'd let them know when she knew herself, then disappeared behind the doors following Hotch's gurney.

Several hours later, the tension was building in the waiting room. Garcia and JJ had awoken earlier and had finally coaxed Reid away from the window to go with them to find coffee and food, he had yet to utter a word since the woods.

Morgan had surprised Rossi by not pacing, but the quiet anger rolling off the younger man could be felt as far as the nurses desk; he noticed a few of them glancing at him a look of concern on their faces.

Empty coffee cups littered the waiting room along with a dent in the wall where Morgan had finally released some of his anger when the doors they were hoping for swung open and Dr. Allery appeared.

The team stood as one.

"How is he?" asked Morgan stepping forward.

The doctor glanced at each of the team members, then at the dent in the wall.

Exhaling deeply, she spun as she said, "Come with me."

She led them to a private waiting room, where they stood impatiently waiting for her to talk.

"Please, have a seat." she said as she closed the door behind her.

The team all remained standing; when Rossi saw the subtle ripples of tension in Morgan's jawline he stepped forward.

"Doctor, please, just tell us." he pleaded.

She paused for a moment then nodded.

"As of yet, Agent Hotchner is still unconscious. He has a moderate concussion, we saw fading evidence of past extensive bruising over parts of his his entire body, along with some scarring from some recent knife wounds."

"Wait, how recent?" asked Morgan. "Agent Hotchner was attacked and stabbed multiple times almost a year ago."

The doctor nodded, "Yes, I saw those scars, the ones I mentioned were made more recently within the past several weeks at least. Not stab wounds, he has scarring across his chest from long cuts made with a blade, some of the cuts were shallow, some a little deeper, there was also signs that a strip of skin was cut from his upper right arm. The wounds looked like they were tended to, there's no obvious signs of infection, but we have him on a low grade antibiotic just in case."

Knife wounds…skin…

"We're any of his bones broken?" asked Morgan, knowing the team needed to know.

He heard Garcia gasp and watched as she turned away moving over to one of the couches in the room as she pulled a tissue from her bag; JJ moved over to her sitting close, an arm around the teary technologist.

"No, there were no signs of any fractures anywhere."

Morgan's heartbeat slowed a little at that news. "When can we see him?"

"Well, we're just waiting for his blood test to come back and we're just finishing up a few more tests, then we'll be moving him to his room, so maybe in about an hour or so. You can all wait here and I'll come and get you when it's time."

As the doctor turned to leave, Prentiss asked, "You said that he had a concussion; its been hours doctor, shouldn't he have woken up by now?"

Dr. Allerey sighed and nodded. "Yes we were hoping he would have shown some signs of waking by now; but I've seen this before in patients who have gone through similar traumatic events.

"Seen what?" asked Prentiss.

"It's possible, even more than likely, that agent Hotchner does not want to wake up."

TBC