Elysian [Book 1]

thirty-three

thirty-three; mac n' cheese

I stood in the elevator next to Spencer and in front of Derek, while Leilani and Prentiss were by our sides. "The case must be local, JJ said not to bring a go-bag." Spencer said and I groaned. "God, I just want to sleep and eat." I said and Derek laughed. "Listen Sleeping Beauty, you need to wake yourself up, And for the eating part, I just don't understand that."He said picking at my ear to bother me and I slapped his hand away, looking at him through my dark shades and while holding my coffee. I did sleep through Spencer's alarm, and then mine, and then Spencer's again.

The elevator doors opened and we saw the Army walking through. "What's the Army doing here?" Derek asked and I shrugged. "What the hell is going on?" Emily said as we walked into the bullpen and I looked at how many people were in here. "Holy shit." Leilani and I said at the same time, as I saw my old partner, Azalea, wearing a blue suit. She turned her head and looked over at me. Giving me a small nod, and the she went back to talking to the General.I walked inside the briefing room behind Leilani and Spencer and there JJ stood pouring water into plastic cups.

"Guys, this is Dr. Linda Kimura, chief of Special Pathogens with the CDC." JJ said and I almost choked on my coffee. "Why- Why is the CDC here?" I asked and Hotch walked in with Adeleine.

"We need to get started." Hotch said and JJ nodded."Last night, 25 people checked into the emergency rooms in and around Annapolis." She said and handed us all of our files." They were all at the same park around 2pm yesterday. Withing 10 hours the first victim died." She said and I pulled out the picture of the deceased victim.

"It's now just past 7am and 12 victims are already dead." She said and I looked at the autopsy report. "Lung failure and black lesions." I stated knowing exactly what this was. "Anthrax?" Leilani asked and Spencer looked at her. "Anthrax doesn't kill this fast." He stated and Dr, Kimura nodded. "This strain does." She said and I looked down at the table that had pills in cups.

"What do we know about this strain?" Spencer asked and Dr. Kimura looked at all of us." The spores are weaponized, reduced to a resprial ideal that attacks deep in the lungs. Odorless and invisible. "My team is in charge of curing all victims." She stated and Hotch nodded.

"Reid and Māhoe, go with Dr. Kimura to the hospital, and interview the victims. Prentiss, Morgan and Hadley, there is a hazmat team that will accompany you to the crime scene. There's Cipro, everyone needs to take it before you go." Hotch said and I shot my eyes to him, as everyone grabbed it and popped it into their mouth.

Hotch looked at me, when Dr.Kimuara walked away and the team still stood there. "What is it?" He asked and I looked up at him and gulped. "I can't take that." I said and he furrowed his eyebrows.

"Why?" He asked and I looked up at him. "Because of Modafinil my dosage is strong if I take that we can be taking a risk mixing them together, I don't know how I'll react to Cipro." I said and Hotch looked at me and sighed. "Hadley, you can't go out there. Why didn't you say something?" He asked getting mad and I threw my hands up.

"Because I didn't think that I'd be dealing with an Anthrax outbreak." I said sarcastically and he sighed. I knew this probably gave him more stress so I rolled my eyes and grabbed the cup, putting my head back and swallowing the pills.

"Had- What the hell." Derek said and I clenched my jaw. "There, problem solved. Let's go." I said and Hotch sighed as Derek stood there, probably deciding if he should throw me down a flight of stairs or lock me into a bathroom. Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose and Emily and Leilani had their mouth opened wide and Adeleine was shaking her head. I didn't even want to know what Rossi and Spencer's face was so I just grabbed my bag and walked out.

"You know, that was really stupid of you." Derek said and I rolled my eyes, looking over at him as we walked towards the scene. "The worst thing that can happen is that I probably would go into a coma or something." I said and Emil shook her head.

"So how are you and Spencer?" She asked and I shot my head over to her. "I-What?" I asked stuttering and she laughed. "Oh, c'mon, it's obvious." She said and I rolled my eyes and laughed.

"We're good." I said and she nodded, smiling at us. We walked up to a guy wearing a hazmat suit and he looked over at Emily. "What are you telling people about why the park is closed?" Emily asked the man and he looked over at Derek and I.

"Methane build up in the sewage system." He said and I snorted. "And people believe that?" I asked and he nodded. "Are we safe here?" Emily asked and he nodded. "Yes ma'am." He said, his eyes lingering on her, I nudged her side as he turned to walk away.

"Okay, so high levels tested right over there." Derek said looking down at the paper, he pointed to an area, where there was a cop car and some guys walking around.

"Okay, so where the UnSub released the attack." I said and Derek nodded I looked over at Emily who was looking around the park.

"This doesn't really scream target to me." She said and I shrugged. "Maybe it was symbolic to our UnSub." I guessed and Derek nodded. "Is it bad if I wished that we had a dead body or something?" I asked and Emily looked over at me and tilted her head.

"What!? There isn't anything I can exactly help with here." I said and Derek nodded and his phone went off. "Yeah?" He asked and I crossed my arms looking around the park.

"Okay, we'll be there." Derek said and then shut off his phone, and turned to Emily and I. " We're going to go Hotch is giving out the profile, Hadley, he want's you at the hospital with Reid and Māhoe." He said and I nodded, turning to the SUV.

I walked into the upper part of the hospital and saw Spencer talking to Dr. Kimura. I walked over to them and she looked up at me. "Agent LaMontagne." She said extending her hand, and I grabbed it, shaking her hand smiling.

"Dr.Reid is just around that corner." She said and I nodded, walking around the corner. I saw Spencer standing there, with a cup of coffee in his hands. He turned around and saw me and smiled.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" He asked and I shrugged, walking up to him as he raised the cup of coffee to his lips. "Hotch said that he wanted me here." I said shrugging and he nodded, and walked over to me. "Hungry?" He asked and I nodded. "Starving." I said and he chuckled and we walked to the cafeteria of the hospital. I sat down at the table with the tray that had Mac N' Cheese and a cup of soda, while Spencer just drank his coffee.

"How are you feeling?" He asked and I looked up at him from eating a bite of Mac N' Cheese. I knew he was asking about how I was feeling about the medicine. "I'm fine. How have things been around here?" I asked looking up at him, and sipped some soda. He shook his head. "It's sad." He said and I sighed looking at him.

"I say after all of this, we go and watch a movie, a really good one." I said and he rolled his eyes. "Hads, you always fall asleep." He said and I chuckled, looking at my Mac N' Cheese.

"Spence, I can't help it. Plus you had me sit and watch some documentary." I said and he threw a napkin at me and I laughed, looking at him. "Y-You know, you could always move in with me." He said and I looked up at him. "I-I mean if you want to, you don't have to, I'm not pressuring you to. I just thought because you sleep over sometimes and some of your clothes-" He said and I laughed at him.

"Spence, that sounds good, but I don't want Hotch to suspect things, if I just suddenly move out of his house, but I want to, I do." I said and he smiled at me and nodded. His phone rang and he took it out of his pocket and answered it. "Yeah?" He asked and looked over at me. "Yeah, we'll be there." He said and I looked at him, as he hung up.

"They think we found or UnSub, Derek's coming to pick us up to go to his house." He said and I breathed out and nodded, standing up and leaving to go to the UnSub's house.