The Stone Wall and His Weakness [A.H.]

XVII

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JJ had found a note by the payphone, something about seeing red. She had shown it to Derek, that's how he knew who our suspect was. We had been standing in the conference room when a nurse came looking for him. Garcia pulled up footage from the ER entrance, which showed Derek had run off.

Aaron pulled out his phone, "Where is he?... Morgan, tell me where he is... This isn't your call... That's why you need to come back here or tell me where you're going..." Rossi and I exchanged glances as we could only hear Aaron's side of the conversation. His arm dropped back to his side, sighing heavily. He turned around and shook his head.

"He's going to get himself killed!" I shouted, pulling my phone out to try his cell. It went straight to voicemail.

We rushed back to the conference room, Penelope already tracking him, "GPS has him heading north about a mile away from the hospital and then he stops. Why would we stop?"

"He must've dumped his phone."

"No. No, no, no. That guy's trying to kill him. He's walking into a trap!"

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"Morgan never calls me Aaron. Why would he start?"

"What else did he say?" JJ asked. We were standing around the conference table, too anxious to sit.

"That of all people, I should understand."

"He's talking about Foyet."

"Yes. But he mentioned that earlier. Why would he bring it up again?"

"He wanted you to relate to his rage and back off?"

"Is there any other relevance to Foyet?"

"He attacked in my home. Maybe Morgan subconsciously let that slip."

"Yeah, but Morgan's house isn't red."

"Yeah, but he's renovated a lot of houses over the years. What if it's one of those?"

"Wow. I knew Morgan was busy, but he has eight properties. He started renovating in oh-one, right after nine-eleven."

"I remember him saying he didn't know what else to do with his frustration," I ran a hand through my tangled hair in frustration, "He thought tearing down walls would be a good start."

"He wanted to restore them so he could control something."

"Could Montolo know about these houses?"

"It's public record, so probably. Uh, let's see... Morgan uses a service to rent out the properties. Here's one that's been rented out for a while to a C.R. Joseph."

"C.R. Joseph... C.R. Joseph... C.R... Guys, Joseph is the english translation of Guiseppe. What is C stands for Chazz and R for Rosemary?"

"Do you have an image of the property?"

"I can find one." Moments later, a photo popped up on the screen. A gray two story house with a bright red front door.

They all began to rush out of the room, Aaron pausing for a moment to look at me, "Are you coming?"

"No, no. I want to be here in case something happens with Savannah... Go bring him home."

As soon as he was out the door, a nurse came in to tell us that they had taken Savannah out of the induced coma. She was asking for Derek. I told Penelope to stay behind in case the team needed her while I went to see Savannah.

"They need to do a C-Section, where is he?"

"Okay, the team had a lead on the case and it's all about protecting you and the baby. He wants to be here for this, but-"

"Well, tell him to get back here!" The nurses began to roll her bed out of the room.

"Okay, okay. I will, Sav, I promise."

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I paced anxiously in the waiting room, Penelope sat watching me and gripped her phone tightly. The team ran in, Derek running passed the room.

"Oh, thank god!" I dropped into the closest seat. We had lost contact after the team entered the house. Aaron sat to my left, Rossi to my right. Reid and JJ sat across from us, beside Garcia.

An hour later, Derek walked out, dressed in blue scrubs. We all stood up as he clasped his hands in front of his face, a huge grin taking over, "It's a boy!" We all run over to him, hugging and cheering.

Aaron and Derek went down to see the baby, while Garcia and I went to see Savannah. She was asleep, so we sat quietly until the boys came back. Then we trailed back down to the waiting area to be with the rest of the team.

A few hours later, when she was finally awake, we all went in to congratulate her. Penelope, JJ, and I all offered to babysit whenever she needed it. She joked that she didn't think she could ever let go of her baby boy, and JJ sympathized with that. As everyone sat around talking, Aaron made his way over to me. I was standing in the corner.

"You okay?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, yeah. Just thinking."

"About?"

"Just... stuff." He raised an eyebrow at me, moving to wrap his arm around my shoulders and lean against the wall with me.

"Do you... Ever think about having one?"

"What, a baby?"

"Yeah. I mean, we've never talked about it, but..."

"Aaron, honey, I love you, and I want to have this conversation, but I don't think this is the time." I leaned my head back to look up at him, forcing a smile onto my face, "Later, okay?"

"Okay," he moved his hand from my shoulder to the side of my head, pressing a gentle kiss onto my hair.

We stood around for another hour, until Savannah started to doze off. We left one by one, Reid being the last to leave.

We all made our way to the office, not wanting to go home just yet. Aaron, Rossi, and I sat in Aaron's office, a glass of whiskey in each of our hands. None of us had bothered to drink any yet. I looked out the door, watching as Derek slowly made his way to the glass doors. He paused, turning around and looking at me. I smiled softly, titling my head down for a moment. We'll be okay without you.

Reid slowly trailed out from the roundtable room, pausing at the top of the stairs. He gave a sad wave as Derek turned around, head held high as he exited the bullpen. We all knew we'd see him again, but it was bittersweet watching him leave. He had more important priorities now.