A/N: Ahhh I need to know what happens to JJ and Luke!
Static.
That was all the team could hear. All they had heard for the last agonising five minutes of their lives as they watched… waited for any sign of life from the two agents in Whitfield County.
"They have to be ok," was Garcia's whisper, breaking the horrified silence engulfing the room. "Right?"
"The SWAT team should be almost there," Rossi said, his voice thick as he spoke. "It could just be a comms outage from the blast… the SWAT agents will be able to confirm"
"Try their cell phones," Emily said firmly, trying with every ounce of strength she had to keep her voice level and calm; right now, she had to be a leader. She had to guide this team.
Tara obliged to the instruction immediately, opening her phone contacts and clicking on Luke's name. It didn't even ring before it went to his voicemail, his voice echoing out from the speaker of Tara's phone.
"Hey, it's Luke Alvez, leave a message"
"I'll try JJ," Tara said as she hung up the first call, but her voice was feeble. She tapped a few more times, before the same few seconds of dead silence greeted their ears, followed by another recorded message.
"Hey, you've reached Jennifer Jareau. Leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can"
"Shit," Tara breathed, looking up at Emily with fear written all over her face. "What now?"
"We keep trying to raise comms until the other agents on the ground can give us an update," Emily said shakily. "Hopefully… hopefully we get to them first"
Heat, so intense he felt like he was cooking from the inside out. Flames, dancing orange against the walls, audibly raging inside the contained space.
Surely he was dead. This had to be hell. No-one could survive this level of heat.
But he wasn't. For under his hands, he could feel dirt, debris and... blood. That thick, wet substance on his skin had to be blood.
Groaning under the effort, he forced himself to try and move, cracking his eyes a little wider as he did. He couldn't see much else other than piles of debris and the fire that was threatening to engulf him, but somehow, he had to move. He slid his legs up, using the traction on the bottom of his boots to push himself across the floor, fighting back the urge to cry out at the excruciating pain it caused. He didn't even know what was injured. But every single part of his body seemed to hurt.
Gritting his teeth, he pushed past a stack of fallen boxes, shuffling over the broken glass littering the floor. And as he did, his eyes locked on to the crumpled form of another person, laying much closer to the stairs. He could hardly see them through the angry flames that seemed to be licking higher up the walls to the ceiling. At first, all he could do was wrack his brain. Who the hell was in here with him?
And then it finally caught up with him. JJ. JJ had come into the container with him.
He made to drag himself closer to the foot of the stairs, only to be stopped in his tracks by a sharp rip of pain going down his back. He cried out, going limp and dropping his face to the concrete, forcing himself to breathe as the pain ebbed through his body. Turning his face, he grimaced, trying to find his voice to call out to JJ, but all that came out was a dry rasp.
Swallowing hard, he tried desperately to get any sort of moisture to the back of his throat.
"JJ," he managed to choke out, but he knew she wouldn't be able to hear him over the roar of the flames surrounding them. "JJ"
Exhaling heavily, he coughed as smoke filled his lungs. Swallowing hard again, he lifted his face just enough to see JJ's crumpled form.
"JJ!" he called out as strongly as he could manage. It was louder than before, but he still didn't know if it was enough. "JJ!"
His head was spinning. His eyes itched with smoke, his eyelids dragging heavily down with every passing second. He tried again to call JJ's name, but his voice died in his throat, the pain forcing him to go limp on the concrete floor. The world around him was fading, dancing orange giving way to still black. But just a split second before his eyes fell completely closed, he saw another pair of boots making their way down the stairs.
Was that help?
He didn't know. And all he could do was finally give in to sweet unconsciousness, the pain ebbing away as the orange completely gave way to black.
Bailey had left the room. To do what, or go where, no-one knew, and no-one cared. Right now, all they wanted was to hear their colleagues', their friends' voices come over the radio.
No-one knew what to do. They all knew there was surely something to be done, something that would help the case, but no-one could move. They were all frozen there, flooded with fear, anticipating the very worst. Was their team of six now a team of four?
"G-Garcia, maybe try to see if you can bring the signal back online," Emily stammered after an incredibly painful silence. "Or a location on their cell phones"
Garcia paused, before nodding stiffly. "Yes. Yes. I can do that." With tears still shining in her eyes, she lowered herself into the chair behind her, pulling her laptop across the table and putting herself to work.
It was a tense few minutes of listening to Garcia tapping away at the keyboard. And then, startling them all, Emily's phone rang.
"Agent Prentiss," answered Emily within seconds.
"Agent Prentiss, Sergeant Evan Miller of Atlanta PD SWAT, we were asked to meet two of your agents at a location in Whitfield County"
"Yes," Emily said, her hand gripping the phone tightly. "They had bodycams. There was a bomb"
"We've arrived to find the location completely engulfed in flames. We've managed to pull both of your agents out, but they're both injured. Alive, I can assure you that, but they definitely need medical attention. The medical team are arriving now"
Even though it was clear JJ and Luke were not in perfect shape, Emily couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "Any sign of our unsub?"
"Negative, Agent Prentiss. I've had my guys sweep the surrounding area. Other than some tyre tracks about a quarter of a mile away, we can't find any trace of anyone else being here"
"I need that scene secured, I'm going to send an agent down to work with the local field office," Emily said firmly. "No offence whatsoever, but your guys aren't trained to look for the same things we are"
"Yes ma'am"
"And I ask that you keep me updated on the conditions of Agents Alvez and Jareau"
"Of course. I should have more information soon, and I'll call you as soon as I do"
"Thank you," Emily finished, hanging up the call and looking up to find three expectant faces looking back at her. She let out a heavy breath, running a hand through her hair. "They're alive. Injured, but alive"
"Do we know how badly injured?" Rossi asked. Emily shook her head.
"Miller didn't say. He's going to keep me updated, there's a medical team enroute now," she said. "Tara… I'm sending you down to Georgia. I need that scene scoured for any evidence that may point to who was there. Someone had to be close enough to know that JJ and Luke were inside when the bomb went off"
"Copy that," Tara said softly, slowly pulling herself away as she started for the door, but as she did, Emily's phone rang again. Recognising the number as Sergeant Miller's, Emily answered it immediately.
"Miller?"
"Agent Prentiss… I think you should get down here as soon as you can"
That one sentence was all it took for Emily's blood to run cold. "What's going on?"
"Your agents are being airlifted to Atlanta. There's only one air ambulance available out this way at the moment, so Agent Jareau is going first, and then a second one has been dispatched from Athens for Agent Alvez"
If JJ was being airlifted first… that meant her condition was more severe.
"Miller, what are you not telling me?"
There was a silence at the other end of the line, followed by a heavy breath. "Agent Jareau isn't responding properly to pain stimulus. The medics aren't sure if it's because she's not completely conscious, or if it points to something more sinister… but they have her stabilised and ready to move. X-ray and CT are on standby at Emory University Hospital for her, and they're going to scan for head injuries as soon as she arrives"
Emily frowned. "That… that doesn't sound as serious as you made it seem"
There was another pause, and then Miller spoke again.
"No… Agent Prentiss… they're concerned about a potential spinal injury. Which is why she's going straight for scans as soon as they arrive in Atlanta"
"Ok," Emily breathed. Concerned. Concerned didn't mean convinced. At this stage, it sounded like JJ was just barely conscious, and thus not responding properly to examination... which would always make it difficult to ascertain the true nature of someone's condition. "And Agent Alvez?"
"Definite head injury. He's conscious and talking, but confused and agitated. Shrapnel injuries, a couple of burns, and potentially some broken bones. The fact that he's conscious and able to respond to questions puts his head injury a little lower on the level of concern than Agent Jareau's, hence why she's going to Atlanta first"
"Ok… please keep me updated." She ended the call, leaning forward and resting her hands on the table.
"Are they ok?" Garcia asked weakly.
"They're… being airlifted to Atlanta. Luke is conscious, but they think he has a head injury, and he's pretty beaten up. JJ… JJ's not really conscious and they're struggling to ascertain what her condition is, so she's being airlifted first," she relayed, before shaking her head. "Tara, I've changed my mind. You're going to stay here with Garcia and keep working on the tech evidence with her and Tyler, as well as processing the shipping container from Washington"
Tara nodded.
"Dave and I are going to go to Atlanta. We'll make sure JJ and Luke are ok. Coordinate with the local field office, and process the location in Whitfield County," Emily finished. "Garcia, can you get us a flight departing as soon as possible?"
"Sure thing," Garcia replied. "Go make sure our angels of music are ok"
