Unshed Blood | Criminal Minds

chapter twenty-nine - casualty

- CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE -

CASUALTY

PENELOPE AND SOREN rushed to the hospital, both being escorted by Anderson who had also been informed of the news. Soren was attempting to calm Penelope down but nothing had seemed to be working, the blonde had been overthinking the worst outcomes the entire trip there and it was causing Soren to stress herself out more.

Once they arrived, rushing past everyone else on their way and muttering apologizes after, they had reached the desk where a blonde nurse was sitting. She looked up from her computer, with Penelope already calling ahead to let them know they were coming along with the FBI agents who had been in the collision.

"Follow me." The Nurse gestured with her head, walking ahead of them as she explained the situation. "All the agents are awake, none needed surgery but they do need some rest. And a lot of it. The doctor should be here soon to give you a more detailed record of everyone."

"Thank you." The two women said, as the nurse left them on the sectioned off wing on their own which was surrounded by security and other armed officers.

"I'll check on Reid, JJ and Morgan. Could you check on the others?" Penelope questioned, breathing in and out as Soren agreed, heading into the direction of David Rossi's room. She felt more nervous than ever walking towards the door, despite her and Rossi having to take some time to warm up to one another, she had began to look up to him and the thought of anything happening to him scared her.

She knocked on the door with her knuckles, waiting for a response from Rossi but she didn't get one. Instead of waiting around, Soren opened the door finding Rossi standing, just having finished getting back dressed into his FBI gear. "What are you doing? You should be resting, Rossi."

"No way." Rossi shook his head. "I'm going to catch that son of bitch, with or without the others."

"Hold on. Hold on." Soren interrupted him with a nervous laugh. "You, are not going anywhere. Arlo could be anywhere by now, so we wait for the others and then you profile where he would go. You guys always say you do things as a team? Right. So wait."

The older man sighed, hearing the point that Soren was getting across but it still angered him that they had fallen right into Arlo and Lorenzo's trap. "Fine, have you seen Emily or Derek yet?"

"Not yet, I wanted to check in on the old man first." She joked, lightly shoving his shoulder as she stared at him for a moment. "I'm glad you are all okay though, honestly."

"Look at you being all soppy." Rossi pinched her cheeks childishly. "Kid, you don't need to ever worry about losing us, because it's going to take a lot more than this to get rid of us."

"I hope you are right about that." Soren sighed, she just wanted the nightmare to finally be over but luck didn't seem to be on her side any more.

"Go see Derek." Rossi practically shoved her out of the door, "That man has been arguing with the nurses since he got here to try and see you."

Soren rolled her eyes, walking back out of the door as she headed to where Derek's room was. She repeated the action of knocking on the door then entering when she heard Derek call out that it was okay to come in. What Soren didn't expect to find was a shirtless Derek standing up whilst a Nurse attempted to wrap the bandage around his stomach, clearly he had been more injured than they all thought.

Soren's eyes widened when she saw the bruises on his back and chest, and one that was on his eye. She had never felt more guilt that she didn't warn them it was a trap before it was too late. Derek turned around, seeing Soren zoned out like she usually was whenever she was overthinking. "It wasn't your fault."

Soren snapped out of her daze, looking up at him when the Nurse walked out of the room to give them some privacy. "What?"

"That look on your face? It's one you always make whenever you feel guilty about something." Derek pointed out, they turned around to face one another. "This is no ones fault but Arlo's."

"I know that, I just...I could of warned you both sooner but I didn't but I didn't trust that I was right." Soren apologized, rubbing her hand across her arm. "That bruise is going to last a while, looks painful."

"I can handle it." Derek smirked at her, walking closer to her so she had too look up at him. "Now, quit worrying. We'll get him."

"And have you lot risk your lives, again? No way." She shook her head adamantly. She was sick of the team putting themselves on the line for her family, it wasn't fair on them. "I want you and your team to drop the case."

"What?" Derek scoffed. "No offense, but that isn't up to you. We all want to find Arlo, no matter what it takes."

Soren sat down onto the bed, sighing. "I don't want any of you to die at the hands of my father."

"Neither do we. But, this is our job. I can't promise you that something like this won't happen again, but we will catch him." Derek reassured her, he knew that Soren was the type of person who needed constant reassurance and he was happy to give her it if it set her mind at ease.

"Good." Soren nodded with determination. "Because I have a plan."