misery//sequel to gut feeling

one: misery

"Why is it so bright?"

Light filtered into his eyes, despite his eyelids squinting shut and trying to protect him from it. It entered and filled his brain, along with a loud, vibrating beeping sound. The more he tried to concentrate on it, the clearer it became.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Hotch felt dread building up in him. How many times had a bomb gone off next to him before?

"Run..." He mumbled, forcing words out of his tired mouth. "Get away from it..."

They were so close to getting away from Queenie and Harvey, he couldn't let his team die now.

"Get away, now." He said, mustering a stern tone.

"Hotch? Hotch, wake up. It's okay, you're okay. Open your eyes."

The light burning through his eyelids disappeared, and he squinted up. Morgan stood over him holding a hand over the bright light to give him some shade.

"What happened?" Hotch asked, looking around the room. A hospital room. "We got help?"

"Yeah, man, we did. After we got the radio working, you passed out. We thought... well, Hotch, they brought you into emergency surgery and they say you'll make a full recovery. And if you respond well to the medication, you'll get out of here even sooner. They said you also have a pretty bad concussion..."

As Morgan explained their current situation, everything started coming back: getting shot, Reid being taken to be "questioned", reuniting with his team... his team...

"Morgan?" Hotch looked up. Morgan started, surprised by the anxiety in his eyes. "What happened to the rest of the team? Weren't Prentiss and Reid missing?" He asked.

Morgan held up his hands in a reassuring gesture, though he looked worried by the mention of the team. "They're all here." He walked to the other side of the room to flip off the light.

"Morgan, we've been working with each other for years now. Don't lie to me. Whatever happened, you need to to tell me." The light turned off, and the room was lit by the dim light attempting to filter through the closed curtains.

Morgan closed his eyes and nodded. "Uh, yeah, they were missing. When help came for us, they still hadn't seen either of them. They sent out a search party and didn't find them until they went about two hundred yards from the campsite. Emily... she has a really bad concussion, they're trying to do some scans to see if she'll need surgery."

"And Reid?"

"He... he should be out of surgery soon."

Hotch noted Morgan's hesitation.

Penelope put her head through Hotch's door.

The two men looked up, startled.

"We got an update?" Morgan asked, standing up.

Penelope nodded with a sick expression. "Uh, yeah, but we're supposed to go in there right now."

"Why, what happened?" Hotch sat up.

"Uh, Spencer got out of surgery a while ago and so I went to see him..." She paused to take a shaky breath. "Um, I don't think he was supposed to wake up so fast after he got out, but he did, so I talked to him a little bit, so he'd know he wasn't alone... Well, I just told him hello and that we're glad he'll be okay, and he... he looked so confused. I mean I guess it was just the pain killers and we have no idea what the last thing he saw was but... I don't know, it just felt so wrong. I talked to a doctor and she said they're gonna run some scans because apparently on the way in he had a seizure, and that coupled with the concussion... they don't know what shape his brain will be in."

Morgan pulled Garcia into a hug and then turned to pull a chair up for her with one arm still around her. 

"Did they say...?" Hotch trailed off. He didn't know what to ask. How bad it was? If he would be okay? 

"They couldn't tell me anything else." Garcia said, fidgeting with a large ring on her finger.

The door opened again and JJ walked in holding a few coffees. "Hey, guys." She handed two to Garcia and Morgan and sipped out of the other. "Sorry, Hotch, I'm not supposed to give you any."

"No, it's fine." He shook his head.

JJ paused, looking into her coffee. "Um..." She shrugged. "Emily's awake."

Penelope looked up in shock. "Wait-- really?"

"Yeah." JJ nodded, still staring into her coffee.

Morgan looked from Hotch to JJ. "Is that a bad thing?"

JJ bit the inside of her cheek. "She-- I went to talk to her. And... she had no clue who I was."

"What?" Penelope asked softly. 

JJ shook her head. "I asked the doctors and they said that she may have retrograde amnesia."

"And... you can recover from that, right?" Morgan asked stiffly. "Man, if Reid was here--"

"Actually, the doctor told me that 77% of every 200 cases don't recover." JJ bit her cheek again and began tapping her foot softly. She shook her head and plastered on a hopeful smile. "How's Spence?"

Penelope, Hotch, and Garcia all glanced at each other.

Penelope finally spoke up. "He's not doing too good."

JJ's fake smile fell. "What's happening?"

"He has a concussion, and he had a seizure in the ambulance on the way back." Morgan said softly. "But the surgery went well and he's awake. They're doing some scans right now because he may have some brain damage."

JJ set down her coffee on a side table and Morgan stood up and offered her his chair. She took it silently, and sat with her face buried in her hands.

The door opened again. Rossi. "Um. We have a bit of a problem."

"What do you mean?" Hotch asked.

"We... I'm just going to start from the beginning." Rossi said slowly. "We all know we were just victims of a... very violent crime. An agent just came to talk to me about testifying against Harvey and Queenie because we are the only witnesses they have. But they haven't caught them yet. And they think they might come after us again so there won't be any witnesses to convict them."

"Just say it, Rossi, what did the agent say." Hotch said, thinking that he couldn't get any more stressed.

Rossi rubbed his forehead. "They're putting us in the Witness Protection Program. We've all been declared dead."