A New Start {Sequel to 'A Bond that Can Never Be Broken'}

Former Identity

 I woke up in an ambulance lying on a gurney, wheezing as I realized that I was hooked up to an oxygen machine. I ripped the mask off of my face and sat up with the knowledge that I had a concussion. My hand flew to the side of my head as I felt a hepatoma forming.

A nurse was sitting on the bench next to me. "Agent, please lie back down. You have a mild concussion, a broken collarbone, and injured lungs."

"I'm fine ma'am. I've been through worse."I said, standing and opening the door. I dropped out and made my way over to Hotch. He heard my footsteps and he turned, looking angry as ever.

"You need to get back into that ambulance."he ordered, pointing to the vehicle only a couple meters away.

"Why the hell are you mad at me? I was the victim here."I said, raising my hands in surrender. I winced as I felt the two parts collarbone shift against each other and my hand flew to my shoulder. I gritted my teeth as Hotch called the EMT over with the gurney.

"You are going to the hospital and having surgery on your collarbone. We'll hold down the fort until you get back."Hotch ordered. I shook my head, but he pushed me onto the bed on wheels and the nurse and he strapped me to it.

"Hotch!"I yelled as the driver of the ambulance helped the nurse put me in the back of the car. "I swear to God that if you make me leave this case,"

"I forbid you to work this case until you're all healed."

"Hotch, don't do this to me! You did this to Morgan and I almost got killed! You're smarter than that!" The EMTs shut the doors and I was off to the hospital.

*

After surgery, I woke up with an IV, a few bandages on my left shoulder, and a sling holding my left arm below my chest. I saw that no one was in the room, so I ripped the IV from my wrist and threw off the sheets of the bed. My pants, shirt, and jacket were on the table opposite the bed, so I changed out of the patient robe and into my normal clothes, leaving my left arm out of its leather sleeve. I slipped my holster and my knife sheath onto my belt and my badge into my back pocket. Hearing doctors out in the hall, I slipped out the window and pulled my shirt hood over my head. I needed to lay low, under the radar. The hospital alarm went off and I began to walk faster. I needed to hunt down Samantha Shepherd and Henry Cruise before the killed Andrew.

I went to the hotel and went into my room, lying down on my bed. I needed sleep, so I locked the door and put a piece of glass on a chair that was leaning against it, then fell asleep.

*

I woke when the glass I had set up shattered and I ran behind the door, aiming my gun at the intruder's head until I realized who it was.

"God dammit, Hotch. I could have killed you."I yelled, pulling my glock back down to my hip. I pulled back the chair and began to pick up the broken glass.

"What the hell are doing out of the hospital?"he asked as he shut the door. I shook my head and he knew what my response was going to be.

"I'm not going to sit in a hospital bed while you and the others catch these people."

"These people? More than one?"he asked. I slipped up and he knew that I had known more than I was saying. "What are you not telling me?" I walked over to my bed and sat, Hotch sitting across from me on the opposite bed.

"I know exactly who took Andrew."I explained, his expression grew angry. "Samantha Shepherd and Henry Cruise survived the blast and took my son on the 6th anniversary day of Derek's death."

"We need to get to Garcia on this, get background checks on the two of them and see where they've been." I nodded and followed him out of the door.

*

"Garcia, I need you to look into the backgrounds of Henry Cruise and Samantha Shepherd."Hotch said as the rest of the team walked into the room.

"Okay, so we know that he was the son of Jason Cruise, a professional serial killer and a nurse, Amelia Cruise, until his father killed her when Henry was only ten years old. After that, his father took him hunting a lot."Garcia explained. We knew that much after the incident.

"What kind of game did he hunt?"Rossi asked Garcia, but I answered before she could.

"Deer and other large animals." Everyone looked at me and I shrugged. "I did some research."

"Okay we know more about Cruise, but what about Samantha Shepherd?"JJ asked.

"Samantha Shepherd, formerly Samantha Shulps, was put up for adoption at the age of twelve after her father went off the grid and her older sibling couldn't take care of her anymore."Garcia explained as her fingers flew across her keyboard.

"Shulps. Gary Shulps daughter?"Reid asked, her. I went silent.

"Uhh, yeah. And there doesn't seem to be a mother in the picture, like she never existed. Gary went off the grid in July, 1983, leaving his two daughters on their own until Samantha's sister left her three years later."she said.

"Who's Samantha's older sister?"Hotch asked, looking at the computer screen.

"Megan Shulps was 18 when she left her sister and her trail goes cold after she took a couple grand out of her father's credit card account. She had a criminal record, but it was expunged."

"Did you know Megan?"Rossi asked me. Everyone stared at the screen, while I tried not to.

I nodded, "Yeah, I knew her."

"It says she changed her name before she transferred to Hamilton High."Garcia said. Hotch looked at me then back at the screen.

"What's her name now?"JJ asked. Garcia pulled up a picture and everyone's eyes flew to me. The picture was of me right before college.

"Told you I knew her."

"The first step to living the life you want is leaving the life you don't want behind."                           ~Author Unknown