Chapter 15
Forty minutes had passed and the team was finally heading towards Hotch's room.
"Where's the doctor?" huffed Morgan to the young nurse in bright pink scrubs leading the way.
"Dr. Allery has asked me to bring you to Agent Hotchner's room." smiled the young red-headed nurse . "My name is Cadence and I've been involved in your agent's care."
"Why couldn't she come and get us herself?" Morgan continued.
The nurse's smile dropped slightly. "Some issues have arisen, pertaining to agent Hotchner that she had to see about."
"Issues?" asked Prentiss.
The nurse nodded and continued forward.
The argument could be heard from the elevator.
"You have no right coming in here waving your credentials, flaunting any authority you may think you have! My patient comes first and this can hinder his progress!"
"These credentials and the fact that he is my agent gives me all the right in the world, doctor. Now please update me on my agent's progress as you mentioned, or do I have to escort you and everyone else from this floor and make this a locked ward?"
"You don't have that authority!"
"I'm FBI, so believe me when I say that yes, I do."
The team rounded the corner in the hall to find the doctor and Strauss in a standoff; an agent guarding the door to a nearby room.
When Dr. Allery saw the team, she threw up her hands in exasperation.
"I'm going to check on my patient! If I'm allowed that is!" She turned and stormed into the guarded room the door swinging closed behind her.
Strauss whipped her head around to glare at the team members.
"Erin…" began Rossi softly, his hands half raised.
Strauss stepped towards them, "Don't Erin me, Dave. Right now I'm Director Strauss to all of you! What were you thinking, leaving me out of the loop on this!?"
She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "You had evidence that an FBI agent was an accomplice in several murders and you said nothing! Told no one!"
"Ma'am I um... Director Strauss, but it was Agent Hotchner." reasoned Garcia. "You know he would never have willingly done what those pictures showed."
"What I know, Miss Garcia is that willing or not, Agent Hotchner was involved in the abductions leading to the deaths of at least 5 women and that his team knew about it."
"We wanted to find him first, give him a chance to explain; the circumstances may not be as they seem, Director." explained Morgan.
Strauss gave him a scathing look. "Well we shall soon see won't we…This can be the downfall of us all; for now, the guard stays. As to the future of the role of Unit Chief," she glared at Morgan, "I'm beginning to think the next person to fill that seat should be someone new, from the outside."
"That seat belongs to Hotch." he growled.
Ignoring Morgan, Strauss turned to JJ, "I'm putting you in charge of keeping me updated on Agent Hotchner's progress; you will keep nothing from me this time, do you understand?"
JJ's eyes widened, "Yes Ma'am." she nodded.
"Miss Garcia?"
"Ma'am?"
Strauss moved to stand inches away from the IT tech, her voice an angry whisper.
"The news stations and papers will no longer be showing any of Ezral's photos; I've put a stop to that; but the damage has already been done, there's no turning back the clock. For now, what I need from you are copies of those photos and then that email with its attachments off our servers do you understand me?"
Garcia nodded quickly.
Strauss turned to the rest of the team, her voice still low.
"I'm not so cold that I can't feel for Agent Hotchner."
She pulled a file from her valise and handed it to Morgan.
"The preliminary report from the forensics team; there were drugs found in the house, hallucinogens, Scopolamine and a slew of others. They found blood stains in a van parked at the house and the bodies of the 5 missing women buried nearby. Blood stains, including Agent Hotchner's were found in the cellar; his blood was soaked into the cot, the stains embedded in the handcuffs found attached and also in chains found in a closet. Ezral hurt him."
Strauss paused letting that fact sink into her mind along with the rest of the team's.
"If he was an unwilling participant, if he was drugged or forced to help Ezral, we'll get him the help he needs. If we find out that wasn't the case that somehow Ezral turned him…well that's a can I'm not willing to open as of yet. For now, I have to deal with the media mess and maybe just maybe by the time this is all over, we can all end up keeping our jobs and ourselves out of prison."
Strauss shook her head, her lips tight, then turned and headed for the elevator.
"Well, that went well." sighed Prentiss.
"Better then it could have gone." replied Morgan, he glanced over at Reid who was leaning against the nurses' desk staring at the door to Hotch's room.
"Kid...you okay?"
When Reid didn't respond the team moved to face him.
"Spence?" JJ said softly placing a hand on his arm.
Reid blinked slowly, then quickly as he realized everyone was looking at him.
"I..I'm fine." he murmured.
"No, you're not." frowned Morgan. He looked the younger agent over. The image of Reid struggling under the strength of a crazed Hotch, made Morgan wince inwardly.
If Hotch had killed Reid…
"You gotta know that Hotch would never purposely do anything to hurt you. What happened earlier...that wasn't Hotch…that wasn't our Hotch. You get that, right?"
Reid stared at him, then turned back to the door.
"I know that."
"So what's going on it that head of yours ..?"
Reid turned back to Morgan.
"Morgan, I could have killed him...I shot at him..."
"Reid," started Rossi. "You didn't know it was him you were chasing, none of us did; we thought it was Ezral."
"But it wasn't…" argued Reid.
"And you didn't shoot him." finished Morgan.
"Not for want of trying…" Reid chuckled sadly.
"Well kid, this is the one time we're all glad you missed." smiled Rossi.
Just then the door to Hotch's room opened and the doctor emerged.
"Agents?"
The team turned to her, worried looks on their faces.
The doctor smiled and beckoned them forward.
"It's Agent Hotchner…he's waking up."
-TBC-