What Happens Next

XVI. Call Me When You Can

"Officer Jareau?" 

JJ looked up from her hands, which she held together tightly. She pushed her messy blonde hair out of her eyes and stood, shoving the rough blue chair away from her body.

"Yes, that's me."

"Your mother's NG tube has been placed, you can return to her room now."

"Thanks," she forced a smile, nodding at the nurse. 

JJ admired the woman, whose dark curls fell beautifully around her face. Her scrubs were wrinkled, indicating she had been working for hours, but her hair remained perfect, something JJ could not achieve. 

The nurse followed her into the room, where she observed her mother lying unconscious on her bed with a large piece of tape holding the feeding tube onto her cheek. She was pale, and her frame appeared smaller draped in the white blanket on her bed. One of her frail arms remained tucked under the blanket, while the other laid on top of the blanket, with an IV the size of her hand poked into it. JJ knew upon seeing the woman's condition, she had made the right choice.

"We had to administer a sedative in order to insert the tube. She's a fighter if I've ever seen one."

"Yeah," JJ laughed, tying her hair into a bun for the sole purpose of removing the knots from around her face. 

"We would like to run some tests to make sure there is nothing else wrong with her. As her primary care proxy, we need your consent to draw blood."

"Yeah, yeah that's fine."

JJ fiddled withe the collar of her indigo police uniform, annoyed by the restrictive nature of the article of clothing she was forced to wear. She missed the freedom of the kevlar vest of an FBI agent. 

"When do you think she will wake up? I have to get home for my kids."

"The sedative should wear off in the next hour or so. We'll keep an eye on her until you get back."

JJ's blue eyes met the sparkling brown ones of the woman who looked to her to be fresh out of school. Her black and white striped long sleeve underneath her scrubs gave off the impression of a youth. She smiled at the nurse before giving a curt nod.

"Thanks."

When JJ arrived in the dark, damp parking garage, she could not bring herself to drive. She sat, eyes closed, with her head against the headrest, adoring the silence. She exhaled slowly, trying desperately to escape her emotions. She needed to be a rock. She was the only person her kids could count on, and she couldn't bring herself to upset them more than they already would be with the news of their grandmother's hospital stay. 

She had not spoken to Reid since he informed her he wouldn't be coming back. She knew she wasn't allowed to be upset with him, but she couldn't help the tinge of resentment boiling in her heart for his decision. When he was with her it felt perfect, as if all the pieces had fallen into place. The fights with her mother hurt less, and the stress of her life seemed to dull in his company. She missed him, but she couldn't admit to that. She knew he was doing the right thing by his family. 

She opened her phone, tempted to call and talk to him about her mother's admittance, but she closed it quickly. Part of her didn't want to bother him with her problems, and the other wanted the weeks of silence to be broken by him. She wanted him to miss her as much as she missed him.

She sighed heavily, and started her car, dragging herself back to reality. When she arrived at her house she found that Michael had helped his sisters off the bus, and the three had settled nicely into their own spaces.

"Is grandma okay?" Emily asked, seeing her mom enter the kitchen. 

"Yeah, honey. She's okay," JJ said, assuring herself as much as she was her daughter. 

"Are we going to go see her?"

"We should."

"So I don't get to go to practice?" Michael asked, dressed and ready to be punished for arriving nearly an hour late.

"I can drop you off on the way," JJ sighed. 

She watched her distraught son's face as he bit his lip intently. 

"What's wrong?" 

"I'm gonna get yelled at," he mumbled.

"Your coach will understand. I needed you home with the girls."

"Yeah," he agreed halfheartedly, knowing full well he was going to pay for his tardiness no matter what the circumstances were, "can we go now?"

"Okay, one second," JJ nodded, guilt burning in her stomach at the sight of her worried child. She never intended for her son to have to worry. She couldn't leave the girls alone, but she didn't want her son to miss his practice either. Football was important to Michael, and she would never want him to lose out, or be in trouble for missing it. She scrambled to gather her youngest and threw the children into her red minivan as fast as she could.

"Mommy," Emily began, using her baby voice and tried and true nickname for her mother in an attempt to get what she wanted, "can we get dinner on the way?"

JJ clamped her eyes shut, silently cursing herself for forgetting to feed her children. She opened them quickly, saying: "yeah. Yeah of course. Where should we go, baby?"

Fast food dinners in hand, JJ and her kids found their way to her mother's room. They pushed open the heavy wooden door quietly, entering into the private room fearing only awakening the furious old lady in the bed before them. 

Sandy opened her eyes, her slumber easily disturbed as she had been awoken time and time again by doctors and nurses checking on her, drawing blood, and adjusting monitors. She glared at her daughter, but refrained from arguing with her in front of her grandchildren.

"Hi grandma," Grace spoke, breaking the heavy seal of silence in the room.

"Hi Gracie, whatcha got there?" 

"Chicken," the girl responded, holding open the paper bag for the woman to look into.

"We brought you a smoothie," Emily added, placing the cup on the bedside tray and turning it so that it would reach the woman before her.

"Thank you, dear," Sandy smiled, making no effort to accept the drink.

"They said they wanted to run some tests?" JJ prompted, asking the woman to explain what had been done.

"Yes," sandy huffed, adding nothing to the conversation.

JJ sighed, deciding it wouldn't be worth it to argue with the woman before her, and sat on the pale blue visitors couch at her bedside. The kids followed her actions and seated themselves around her, digging into their long awaited meals. 

The blonde exhaled slowly, relaxing into the uncomfortable sofa. As stressed and angry as she had been, her exhaustion overpowered everything else, and she would have allowed herself to find comfort in a rock if she had to. She needed to sleep, to escape the turmoil of the day, but instead she allowed herself only a moment to close her eyes before pulling out her phone. She typed quickly, trying to fight her brain's demands for her to suffer through the situation alone. She sent the text and stared at her phone, awaiting the check mark that would inform her her message had been read. 

"My mother is in the hospital. Call me when you can."