The Element of Surprise

Recovery

The following day starts slow at the Bureau. Despite Estella being transferred to a hospital closer to the office, there is still no sign of her waking up any time soon. The doctor explained patiently and kindly that she's been struck with extremely high voltage and the fact that she's even alive is a miracle in itself. It will take some time for her to recover. He also threw it out there that they should be relieved she's still unconscious, considering the immense pain she'll be in once she wakes up.

So the team of profilers try keeping themselves and their minds occupied to keep their thoughts traveling to their friend and colleague in the hospital. For once, JJ doesn't take the trip to meet up with her secret boyfriend. Spencer offers to do Estella's paperwork to give him something extra to do, once Emily's done with hers, she volunteers doing several coffee runs in order to get some air every hour or so, while Derek, on the other hand, makes it his mission to support Penelope during this time. First her best friend get kidnapped and tortured, and now she's in the hospital with no telling when she'll wake up. Hotch deals with the stress as he always does; overloading himself with work and keeping to his office.

Only Rossi has no idea what to do or where to go to give his mind a rest. Of course, he would go to the hospital in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the overly strict personnel keeping him from seeing Estella. He's tried visiting twice this morning already and both times he heard the same thing: No visitors allowed at the moment. Agent Presley needs her rest to recover. First, it angered him. Are they implying he'll deliberately try and wake her up? Will it really influence her recovery negatively if he only sits at her side a few minutes or so? He'll be quiet, hell, he won't even touch her!

But once the anger vanishes, all he feels is a hollow pit in his stomach that fills with dread every few minutes the longer he goes without seeing her. How will they know if she wakes up? Who will the hospital contact? What if they receive a case and need to leave again? What if she wakes up and he's not here?

These thoughts keep him up at night throughout the entire weekend. He would lie awake until the early hours of the morning, waiting for his phone to ring with any news, reminiscing about that night at the hotel when he and Estella shared a bed, recalling how it felt waking up next to her with her arm and leg sprawled over him.

And if he did doze off he is almost immediately woken up by nightmares that took him back to that dreadful night twenty-one years ago - the children's screams, their parents' mutilated corpses, the blood...

Call it his subconscious' way of painting him a picture of what it'll be like if Stella doesn't come back from this, but Rossi would bolt upright covered in sweat after each dream and instantly follows the same routine of checking his phone for any news from the hospital or his team.

And then it comes.

A week after returning from Philly, JJ rushes into the bullpen with the brightest smile on her face, "Stella's awake!"

Dave wanted to laugh and cry at the same time as relief lifted that weight off his shoulders. Maintaining his composure, he instead sank down the first chair he sees and runs his hands down his face.

Stella's awake.

He can see her again.

"Wait, did you just say Stella's awake?" The good mood is gone the moment Agent Guzman pops his head around his desk divider with a hopeful expression on his face. "Does that mean they'll let us visit now?"

"I don't know, maybe," JJ beams while the rest of the team is already throwing on their blazers and gathering their things to head out.

"Finally," Guzman wastes no time to join them, much to Rossi's annoyance, "I've tried visiting at least twice each day. It's always the same thing: No visitors allowed at the moment. Agent Presley needs her rest to recover," he scoffs, "As if I'd deliberately try and wake her up."