Stay with me

Chapter 2

Spencer was never particularly bothered when he was asked to stay back and work at the office while the rest of the team was venturing out to the crime scenes. He usually felt like he served a purpose back at base, whether it was working on geographical profiles or searching through casefiles for common themes, but not today. Today he felt utterly useless. Hotch had given him a job that at least ten other doctors and scientists were already working on, who already had more data to work with, not to mention the actual ability to test the patients for the gases they suspected. All he had was books and the internet- Hotch had given him a school project. Spencer would've been angry if it wasn't for the fact that he was actually a tiny bit grateful for not having to relive his own ordeal with poisonous gases, he guessed Hotch must have foreseen his slight apprehension towards working a case so similar and decided to keep him away from the chaos, which was why Reid didn't make a fuss about his feelings of uselessness and instead got stuck into the research papers he'd found online.

When Blake and Rossi arrived at the morgue, they were forced to put on bright blue hazmat suits before even entering the building, Blake chuckled at the sight of Rossi's face as he manouvered his way into the protective article. "Not a word," he warned, resulting in Blake only laughing harder. Feeling ridiculous, they stepped through the sliding doors of the autopsy room to find the medical examiner in similar attire, "Dr Gable?" No answer. "Dr Gable!" Rossi shouted. The doctor raised his head quickly and turned around to face the agents.

"Ah, you must be the BAU. Sorry, it's a little hard to hear in these things," the doctor put down his instruments and walked over to Blake and Rossi, "sorry about the suits, it's protocol when you're working with unidentified chemicals and such" he explained with a sigh, seemingly just as frustrated as they were about the situation.

"What can you tell us about the victims?" Asked Blake.

"From what I've gathered, each of the four victims inhaled the gas, as I found microscopic traces of it in their lungs, nose and trachea. The first to die was Danielle here, she died at approximately 1am as a result of a deep stab wound to the abdomen."

"Do you know if it was self-inflicted?" Rossi asked.

"The angle of the wound supports that theory yes, and supposing she had the same symptoms as the other victims, it is certainly possible that she was in a dangerous enough headspace to lead her to do it." He answered sadly, "As for Mr Fryer, I put his death at around 1:30am."

"What about the two victims that got to the hospital, Anna Jacobs and Darren Gorge?" Asked Blake, eager to get the meeting over with and out of the hazmat suit.

"Well despite getting to the hospital, the only reason these two lasted longer than Miss Richards and Mr Fryer is because they were restrained and unable to harm themselves due to their deteriorating mental state. So because they lasted longer, their symptoms progressed further which became fatal, and these were heat stroke and hyperthermia- they literally became too hot to function. Due to the fact that the doctors didn't actually know what was causing the patients illnesses, they weren't able to treat the newly presenting symptoms in time, so in basic terms, they boiled from inside out."

Meanwhile over at the crime scenes, Derek and Emily were at their final destination, Boris Fryers house. Thus far they'd been unsuccessful at K street due to the lack of evidence left behind by the gas- there were no canisters or broken glass there that could've been used to transport the gas. The only useful thing they gained was the security videos from the lobby and the entrance of the building which they were going to take back to Garcia. At Danielle's house, they found a mess; all the furniture was either broken or out of place and there were bloody scratches all down the walls. At first glance you'd think there had been a huge fight between multiple people, but when you piece the clutter and destruction together, you can see she was in fact fighting herself- whatever had been happening inside her head to make her do this was something Emily dread to think of. She knew what it was like to be at odds with yourself, especially with her actually having lived two lives, one as Emily Prentiss and one as Lauren Reynolds. She hated Lauren and everything she represented, because not only did she bring a world of pain into Emily's life, but she also fell in love with Ian Doyle, and that meant Emily did too-which made the job a whole lot harder. Ian was oddly caring and loving towards her, she felt safe with him, like she could actually build a life with him, but she had to remind herself of what he really was- a terrorist, a man so devoted to the cause that he was willing to risk his own son in the pursuit of victory. So Emily took over, pushed Lauren aside along with all her ill-conceived feelings and got Declan out of there. The feelings for him faded over time, but they never left. No, Emily was often plagued by uncontrollable feelings of longing for the now dead man, to which she tried to cover with several bottles of wine or bourbon. Thankfully her yearning for the criminal had started to decrease, she guessed it was because her heart was finally being taken over by someone new, someone much kinder and much more loving than Ian Doyle could ever be (a fact that Emily sometimes had to remind herself of). She snuck a quick glance in his direction and the corners of her lips curled upwards, she was beginning to feel whole again, thanks to him.

Hotch was just getting off the phone with Morgan as he and JJ entered the hospital. They didn't find anything different at Fryer's house, it looked almost identical to the wreckage in Miss Richard's house. They were greeted by Dr Collins down in the entrance and escorted up to the infection control unit where the final two victims lay restrained in their beds in a sealed, pressurised glass room.

"They're barely holding on," the doctor stated dejectedly "Mr Marland slipped into a coma just under an hour ago and Mr Vance's temperature has been increasing dangerously since he got here, he won't last long before he loses consciousness as well."

"Do you know why they've lasted longer than the others?" asked JJ.

"My guess is that they inhaled less of the gas and so it's taken longer for their symptoms to show. But until we know what the gas is, we won't know for sure."

"How's the search going?" Hotch questioned, hopeful for a positive answer.

"We've got blood, urine and tissue samples being tested from each of the victims as well as neurological scans being developed. So far, we've had no luck, but we've got a lot of people working on it. From what we can tell however, the symptoms of infection follow a set pattern, it starts with disorientating effects such as dizziness and blurred vision- not constant but rather in episodes, then comes the physical effects: ataxia and slurred speech. After a few hours, the victims become erratic and violent, then the delusions and hallucinations start- we're not sure what they see but it does seem to spur on a lot of incoherent rambling. Finally heat stroke sets in which eventually leads to hyperthermia. Whoever's doing this definitely wants to cause their victims and onlookers a lot of pain."

"What makes you say that?" asked Hotch, clearly wondering about the 'onlooker' part of the doctors statement.

"Well obviously the symptoms of the gas make for an unbelievably painful death, but for an outsider, having to watch someone fight with themselves, want to tear their own body apart and lose touch with everything that makes them who they are...that's unbearable."