Morgan Family Residence, Chicago Illinois
It was the day after Christmas and Derek was packing his stuff and getting ready to head to O'Hare to fly back to Quantico with his partner agent Rhodes. Morgan tried calling her a few times over the last couple of days but she never answered, he figured it was because she hadn't seen her brother in a while maybe she didn't hear her phone.
Derek said goodbye to his mom and sister before taking a cab to the airport. He was halfway there when Hotch called him, "Hey Hotch, I'm on my way to O'hare now," Morgan said from the back of the cab. "Okay, have you heard from Agent Rhodes?" Hotch asked. "Not since we left the hospital, I tried calling her a few times but she didn't answer," Morgan replied. "I'm gonna get JJ to call her brother," Hotch replied.
The line went quiet for a few moments but Morgan could hear JJ on the phone. "Wait what? when? Why were we not informed? Where is she? Okay, we'll be there soon," JJ said. "So turns out that fall Rhodes took, was worse than the doctor's initially thought," JJ said. "Rhode's brain started swelling and pressing on her skull so they took her into emergency brain surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain," JJ replied. "What? Is she okay?" Hotch asked shocked by the news. "That's the thing, they don't know right now. They have her in the ICU at Chicago Med," JJ told them.
"I'm heading there now," Morgan said through the phone, "The rest of us will meet you there," Hotch said through the line before the agent hung up the phone and told the driver to take him to Chicago Med.
ICU, Chicago Medical Center, Chicago Illinois
Connor hadn't left Sierra's bedside, since she had been admitted to the ED. Dr. Abrams sent Sierra for a CT scan to make sure there wasn't evidence of bleeding in the brain (hemorrhage), blood clots (hematomas), bruised brain tissue (contusions), and brain tissue swelling. Dr. Abrams was surprised when Sierra's CT and MRI returned showing huge improvement. The swelling has gone down significantly Connor agreed to let Dr. Abrams perform the cranioplasty that was scheduled later that morning.
Connor sat in Sierra's ICU room waiting for them to bring her back, hoping with every fiber of his being that the surgery went well. It was close to noon when Sierra's bed was wheeled back into the room again along with Dr. Abrams and Dr. Halstead. "The surgery was successful, and without any complications. The sedatives should be wearing off in the next hour and when she wakes up we can see the extent of the damage," Dr. Abrams said before he made his way out of the room and down the hall.
Morgan made his way into Chicago Med around noon and made his way over to the information desk getting directions to the ICU. Morgan took the elevator up to the floor the ICU was on and stepped off the elevator. "Agent Morgan?" he looked in the direction of the voice to find Dr. Halstead. The doctor who was treating Sierra when she got admitted to the ED. "Where's Sierra?" he asked.
Dr. Halstead nodded down the hall before he led Morgan down the hall and paused outside a sliding glass door. Morgan paused next to him in the doorway looking into the room where his partner was lying in a hospital bed, IVs hooked up to her, a small tube up her nose. Her eyes were closed and she lay there almost lifeless if it wasn't for the steady beeping of the heart monitor she was hooked up to. Sierra had gauze around the entire top of her head, "what happened?" Morgan whispered more to himself.
His question caused Connor to look towards the agent in the doorway. he stood up and walked over to the agent. "She had a lot of swelling on her brain from the fall- she was fine when we left," Morgan replied. "It can take minutes, hours sometimes days before the brain swells from a head injury," Connor replied.
Morgan shook his head looking at Sierra, "I shouldn't have left," he finally said with a sigh. "She told you to go be with your family," Connor told him. A soft knock sounded on the door and the two turned toward the doorway to find Jay. "Is now a bad time?" he asked holding another bouquet of flowers. Connor shook his head, "Not at all," he replied. "How'd the surgery go?" he asked, "Really well, they took her off sedation and she should be waking up soon," Connor replied noticing Will left to go check on his other patients.
It didn't take long for another knock to sound from the doorway, "How's she doing?" Garcia asked walking into the room holding a bunch of get better soon balloons and a stuffed bear in camo. "She should be waking up soon," Morgan replied as the rest of the team stepped into the doorway of the small room.
Sierra let out a slight groan and slowly forced her eyes open only to instantly close them again due to the harsh lights. She forced her eyes open again letting her eyes adjust to the light, slowly everything came into focus. Standing by the window was Jay, the sight caused her to smile. "Hey sleepy head, how are you feeling?" he asked her with a smirk. "Groggy, a little confused," Sierra replied. "It's good to see your awake, you really had me really worried Si." Connor said pulling her attention to him and her team. "I'm gonna go page Dr. Abrams," he said sending her a small smile before he stood up and left the room.
"I thought you guys went home for Christmas?" Sierra asked confused. "We did, we came back this morning when we heard about what happened," Hotch replied. Sierra was confused, what happened? All she remembered was the team left for the holidays and after that, she woke up here. "Ms. Rhodes, I'm Dr. Abrams it's nice to see your awake," an older man she never met said as he walked in with Connor and Dr. Halstead.
"I'm going go through a series of tests with you if your feeling up to it?" Dr. Abrams asked her. Sierra nodded, "okay," she replied still confused. After a lot of random questions, getting her to wiggle her toes and feet, checking her pupils. "Does someone wanna tell me what happened? please?" Sierra finally asked looking at her colleagues, Jay, her brother, and both doctors. "You ended up getting a pretty bad injury after your fall," Connor said. "Your brain started swelling, so I brought you into surgery, we relieved the pressure on your brain. Inducing a medical coma allowed your brain time to heal and the swelling to go down," Dr. Abrams explained along with the medical coma they had her in to allow the swelling to go down.
Which was why she felt so groggy and like she lost time, "Thank you again, Sam," Connor said before Dr. Abrams left the room. "I recommend being more careful Ms. Rhodes, another hit like that and you may not end up so lucky," Dr. Abrams replied before he walked away. "Rhodes, what does he mean by another hit?" Hotch asked picking up what the other doctor said.
Sierra got quiet already knowing what the other doctor was referring to, she looked at her older brother and she could read it on his features. "You pulled my medical discharge file?" she said more then asked her brother who nodded. "You should've mentioned this Si, if not to me at least to Will. Especially when he asked you if you had any recent head injuries or concussions." Connor said lecturing her. "I didn't think it was a big deal," Sierra replied, Connor paused taking a deep breath, "You could have died Sierra, head injuries and concussions are serious," Connor said.
"Rhodes I'm really glad your okay, I am going to be putting you on mandatory medical leave starting immediately. When you're cleared by Dr. Halstead we'll discuss returning to work, starting with why I never got a copy of your medical discharge file," Hotch said in a serious tone. Sierra nodded, "understood," she replied.
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Hey everyone I hope you enjoyed chapter 11, and I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback in the comments. I'm gonna try to finish writing chapter 12 and get it posted at some point today hopefully. Thanks for all the love and support on No Mercy <3
-Muskokagirl204
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No Mercy (One Chicago/ Criminal Minds Fanfic)
FanfictionCo-Writer: @BrooklynDaniels32 At 17 Sierra Rhodes ran away from home and joined the Army Rangers. By 23 she was on her 5th tour in Afghanistan and her last after ending up captured and tortured by the enemy. Luckily she was rescued, brought home and...
