TW: mention and usage of guns, electrocution, suicide, described violence, angst, police presence, mild gore, language
mayhem, part one of two.
"the law of sacrifice is uniform throughout the world. to be effective it demands the sacrifice of the bravest and the most spotless " - mahatma gandhi.
-
"Hotch!" Genevieve fell to her knees beside him, pulling her hair into a ponytail as she did so. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," He brushed her off immediately, as she tried to examine the oozing lacerations that decorated his soot-covered face. "It's Kate I'm worried about,"
"They aren't letting anyone out here until they clear the area. It's just us," Derek said, crouching opposite to them, his hands hovering over Kate's lifeless form, before looking up at the young man who was kneeling beside Hotch. He had long curly hair, and a short beard, and couldn't have been anything older than early twenties. He must have been a bystander who didn't get evacuated. "Kid, get behind the barricades. Go!" Derek said.
The kid looked hesitant to do so, but slowly rose to his feet, and backed away.
"Good luck," He whispered to Hotch. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. There was something not right. But she didn't have time to worry about her nagging feeling now. Hotch currently had his whole hand buried into a gaping wound in Kate's side, his fingers clamping a spurting bleed that threatened to leak into her body.
"Hotch, has she said anything?" Genevieve asked.
"She said that she's cold, but then she passed out, and I haven't been able to get anything out of her since," Their boss muttered, barely coherent.
"Her body's trying to compensate for the blood loss. Her heart would be slowing down right about now. We can't do anything. We need a professional, and equipment." She sighed before lifting Kate's head onto her lap, just for the sake of keeping her off the dirty New York roads.
"Hotch, talk to me, can we carry her?" Derek asked.
"No, I tried. Morgan, she's going to bleed to death if we don't do something," Hotch said hopelessly. Derek's phone rang, and he whirled it out of his pocket to answer it as Genevieve fought to keep her head clear, trying to think of something - anything that they could do to give Kate a fighting chance.
"Garcia, we got Hotch. But listen, you need to get someone down here right now. You hear me? Right now," He said urgently. He paused, before his head whipped up to stare at something over Genevieve's shoulder. She turned around to see the kid, his hands in the air, and a smirk on his face. He gestured with his fingers, and a cocky wink. Come and get me. "What?" Derek exclaimed. "You're absolutely sure?" Whatever Garcia said must have been enough for him, because he hung up the phone almost instantly. "Guys. The kid. He's the bomber!"
They both froze for a second. Genevieve's eyes darted up to him, where he was still standing, taunting them.
"Go. Both of you. Go. There isn't anything that you can do here," Hotch said after a few seconds, dropping his head in resignation. Derek got up immediately, and started sprinting after the kid, who promptly turned on his heel, and started running. Genevieve didn't move. "Genevieve. Go. That's an order!"
Grimacing, Genevieve gently laid Kate's head down back on the pavement, before taking off after Derek and the kid, unholstering her gun from her waist.
+++
There were many things that made Genevieve an exceptional field agent. Her impeccable aim was one of them. Her impressive hand-to-hand combat was another. But there was one thing that set her apart from anybody else on her team, even Derek. And it was her running.
Within about one or two hundred metres, she was already neck and neck with Derek, but they were still too far behind the bomber. She breathed a long sigh of relief at the sight of the ambulance that tore past them as they sprinted down the streets of the city, blindly following the kid. The ambulance was definitely for Kate. She stood a chance after all.
But she was forced to push that thought aside, and focused purely on dodging the many potholes, and beer cans that littered the floor of the alleyway that she and Derek were currently running through. She let out a groan as she saw their Unsub start trotting down the stairs to the subway.
She pulled her torch from her belt and clicked it onto her gun and started down the stairs, Derek by her side.
There were people everywhere. Some were on the floor, and had clearly been pushed out of the way by the bomber. Over the P.A, was the repeated announcement for everyone to make their way to the streets, and to get out of the tunnels, which made it that much harder to push their way through the sea of oncoming civilians.
"Out of the way! Move it! Move!" Genevieve shouted in unison with Derek. The crowd did their best to give the two agents a berth, but it wasn't enough to keep the bomber in their sights.
"Where is he? Which way did he go?" Derek asked the onlookers, who all pointed them to a completely emptied out platform. They didn't waste any time thanking people, and ran in the direction in which they were told.
"Ah fuck," Genevieve gasped, starting to lose her breath, as they saw the abandoned train that stood eerily in the empty station. They heard heavy thumps towards the end of the train. They walked up to the shut doors of the train. Genevieve tried to give it a little jiggle, but they were closed pretty tightly.
"You bust them open, and I'll go in. Cover my six?" He suggested.
"Always," She smiled wryly, before sliding her baton out of its holder on her shin. She held it, before swinging the butt end of it at the centre of the doors. She heard them click slightly, and she gave herself a self-impressed smirk as she pulled the doors open. She saw Derek roll his eyes at her vanity, but quickly lost his joking demeanour as he stepped onto the train. She put her baton away, and clicked her torch on before following, sweeping her gun around the carriage. She turned so that her back was facing Derek's, and they had eyes on the whole train at all times.
And exactly like this, they made their way through all eight carriages of the subway train.
An eerie red glow filled the last carriage, as Derek opened the door, revealing the exposed train tracks, lit only by the red alarm lights that flashed lazily, illuminating the 'electrical hazard' signs that covered the tunnel walls.
"Watch your step," He whispered quietly, as she dismounted the train after him, and her heels caught between the tracks. She turned around, keeping her eyes straight ahead at all times, her torch lighting up the corners of the tunnel that Derek's didn't touch. "Show your face, you coward! You got nowhere to run!"
They both spun around at the loud clanging noise behind them, but it was just a couple of rats. Genevieve made a face, and turned around again as she and Derek took tentative steps farther into the tunnel.
"Stop hiding! There's two of us here. We know exactly what you're capable of. You don't have the upper hand," She called out.
"There's nothing down here for you!" Derek yelled.
"Is that really all you see? Huh? Darkness?" A smug voice echoed around them. Genevieve and Derek instantly waved around the tunnel, but the Unsub was too far away. All they could see was tunnel.
They both stiffened as they heard the light sound of footsteps ahead of them.
And there he was. Barefoot, and walking across the edge of the tracks like he was on a tightrope, his arms aloft, and his hands flailing dangerously close to the exposed wires that lined the walls. Within seconds, they had both of their guns trained on him, Genevieve's aimed squarely at his forehead, and Derek's at his chest.
"You listen to me, you son of a bitch. You get your ass off those tracks, and you put your hands ontop of your head. Do it now," Derek paused a few seconds, rage causing his voice to shake. "Now!"
The bomber put his hands up on his head, but didn't stop his circus act, inching ever so closer to the walls.
They could hear the electricity buzz threateningly.
"What's your name, kid?" Genevieve asked.
"Sam."
"Sam, keep your hands where they are, and come away from the wall. Walk towards me," She said calmly, keeping all emotion out of her voice.
"What's your name, Agent?" He asked. Sensing her hesitation, he egged her on further. "Come on, I told you mine!"
"Genevieve," She told him begrudgingly.
"It's a very nice name. But you know, you will lose in the end, Genevieve,"
"You keep her name out of your mouth. Now shut your ass up!" Derek yelled furiously, but he was ignored.
"You want to know why you'll lose? Because you fear what we embrace," Sam sent them one last smile, before jumping off the rail.
"No!" Genevieve shouted, but it was too late. She threw herself at Derek, and knocked them both down and out of the way as the sizzling blue light blinded them, and the smell of burned flesh overwhelmed them.
They were a mess of limbs, their visions distorted, and their noses burning. He managed to scramble up first, and grabbed her hand to pull her up.
"Are you alright?" He asked, pulling her into his chest for a tight hug.
"I'm fine. Let's just get out of here. Please," She pressed her head into his chest for a moment, before loosening her grip on him, and leading him out of the tunnel, not sparing one glance at Sam's charred and raw body.
+++
After they got out of the subway, Derek called both Garcia and Emily to assure them that they were okay, before he got word that Kate had been taken to Saint Barclay's Hospital by Hotch, and a noble paramedic that had braved the risk of driving in and helping them despite the possibility of the bomb threat.
The rest of the team were working on identifying Sam, and the Unsub that Emily had shot, as well as working through the profile to see what they had gotten wrong - because clearly, there was something that they were missing.
Derek had told them that they were going to go straight to the hospital to check on Hotch.
On their way to the hospital, they got a call from Rossi saying that Hotch had been admitted as a patient because he'd collapsed in the lobby.
"Doctor, FBI," Derek and Genevieve both flashed their credentials at the doctor that sat at the desk in the ER. "How's Aaron Hotchner?"
The pair had needed to negotiate their way in with the Secret Service, who had closed the hospital down as someone they were protecting was undergoing surgery. It had been a miracle that they'd let Hotch and Kate get admitted in the first place.
"He's got acute acoustic trauma in his right ear, and I pulled shrapnel from his leg," The doctor said, eyeing their badges. They heard a loud beeping sound, and Hotch's raised voice. Genevieve and Derek exchanged looks, knowing their boss' stubborn nature, and followed the doctor to one of the beds that had a curtain pulled around it.
"Please, sit down, sir," A nurse tried to gentle guide Hotch back to his bed, but the man wasn't having it, sitting up, and attempting to unhook himself from the machine he was connected to.
"Agent Hotchner, lie down," The doctor said sternly.
"Doctor, I'm alright!" Hotch insisted. Genevieve rolled her eyes, and grabbed one of his arms, while Derek grabbed the other, and guided him into a sitting position on the hospital bed.
"Hotch, you need to calm down," Genevieve muttered, while Derek apologised to the doctor, and assured him that he and Genevieve had Hotch under control. The doctor nodded, and beckoned for the nurse to leave the three agents alone.
"Where's Kate?" Hotch asked.
"She's in surgery," Derek replied calmly.
"Where are my clothes, please?" The unit chief's voice raised suddenly, causing Genevieve to flinch, and he stood up again.
"Boss, your clothes are on their way. Please just sit down," She tried to reason with him. He sighed, and she could see his expression change.
"Has anything happened since the first blast?" He asked, back to his normal self.
"Nothing,"
"Sam?"
"He electrocuted himself in the subway. There wasn't anything we could do," Genevieve said grimly.
"The profile's wrong,"
"We know. The team's on it now. We'll call them over here, and we can all run through it together, just please lie on the bed." She said firmly.
Sensing that he wasn't going to win this argument, Hotch begrudgingly lay on his bed, while Derek stepped out to call the team.
+++
The team had arrived at the hospital, and after Hotch had changed into his clothes, they were back to work.
"If it's not multiple targets, it's one target. One target, one bomb,"
"Garcia said that the device was placed under Kate's SUV," Rossi said, eyeing Hotch carefully.
"It was likely made using oxidising agents, including chromates, peroxides, chlorates, and red mercury. All jammed into a device no larger than a cellphone," Spencer listed.
"Imagine what a bomb the size of an oil drum could do," Derek shook his head.
"Yeah, but to make something that big, you'd need a chemical engineer,"
"Like the recently deceased, Doctor Azahari Husin, Asia's most-wanted bomb maker," Rossi's eyebrows quirked. "Authorities dubbed him the 'Demolition Man'. He treated each bomb like a work of art. One wrong move, and he becomes the victim of his own creation. He'll be more revered than all of the people his bombs killed,"
"Stop the bomber, stop the bomb," Emily nodded.
"To do that, we need to know how they would deploy something that big," Derek grimaced.
"Hotch?" Spencer piped up, pointing at the laptop in front of them. The CCTV footage that had captured the SUV explosion played. In the corner, they could see Sam dial his phone the same time the car went up in flames.
"Did you ever find Sam's cell?" Hotch asked Derek and Genevieve, who both nodded. They'd found it on the tracks on their way out.
"Did he call 911?"
"No. There was one number he called uh... six times, with a couple minute intervals. We gave it to Garcia, but it was a disposable," Genevieve sighed.
"Garcia tracked the number, but it went dead minutes after Sam died. Whoever had it, destroyed it," Spencer added.
"Well, if he didn't have a secondary device to detonate... there's only one reason that he stayed with us," Hotch said, staring at his shoes, deep in thought.
"To make sure the ambulance got to you," Rossi realised.
"In a city in lockdown, an ambulance with it's siren's blaring, lights on, is going to make it past virtually every barricade," Emily's voice filled with dread
"And straight into a hospital with a bypass order on it,"
"What?" Emily asked.
"The Secret Service has the hospital shut down," Genevieve explained.
"The Secret Service?" Rossi repeated. "Who are they protecting?"
"That's who Sam was calling," Spencer paled. "The paramedic from the ambulance,"
"The ambulance that I drove in here," Hotch said bitterly. "The hospital is their target, let's go,"
+++
The Secret Service refused to tell the team who they were protecting, and they couldn't interrupt the surgery to get their guy out, so their only option was to evacuate everybody they could, and eliminate the threat of the paramedic.
Genevieve was standing on the edge of the group with Derek, who silently slipped away from her side, before turning the corner, and breaking into a sprint, before she could recognise his absence. Too focused on the strategies being discussed, Genevieve didn't notice.
Garcia had managed to jam the cell signal, to stop the bomb from being remotely detonated via the paramedic's phone, but had warned them that it was only a temporary thing - it wouldn't last more than five minutes. So, the paramedic would be on his way to the basement to manually set it off.
It took her about thirty seconds to realise that he was no longer standing next to her. Silently cursing his name after realising that he had gone off on his own to get to the bomb in the basement, she too, abandoned the group.
+++
She'd made a couple wrong turns, but finally, she'd managed to make it to the basement, where the ambulance stood in solitary. She saw the door swing shut, and realise that she'd made it with seconds to spare.
"Wait!" She shouted, running up to the van, and banging her hand on the window. Derek closed his eyes in frustration, knowing that she wasn't going to let him leave without her, before rolling it down.
"Genevieve, find the rest of the team," He said sharply. He leaned over and locked the door from the inside, as she tried to open it to get in.
"Like hell," She refused adamantly. "You think I'm going to let you do this alone? Open the damn door, Derek,"
"Listen, doll. We're running out of time. The longer we argue, the less chance we have of getting this thing out of here," He lowered his voice, his tone changing from one of anger, to one of sadness.
"Derek, I'm your partner. You aren't in this alone. Just open the door," She felt tears sting at her eyes. "I'm not- I'm not leaving you alone,"
"And I'm not letting you put your life at risk for me," He said gently. "Please. Find the paramedic. And shut his ass down," He implored. "I adore you, Gen. Please. Let me go,"
She heard the elevator ding, and turned around to see a tall bald man with tan skin, a cellphone in his hand, a gun on his hip, and clad in a paramedic uniform.
"Well, I guess I don't need to find him," She muttered, before turning her attention back to Derek. "Okay, new plan. You take the bomb, I take the idiot with the gun," She said, her eyes wide, before pausing. "You're the reason I can do this job. Why I can keep coming back, despite the nightmares. I adore you too. Please know that,"
"I do," He said softly. "Stay safe,"
"Yeah, you too," She said, turning away to train her eyes on the paramedic. "Now get the hell out of here."
Derek wanted to change his mind, tell her to get in the van, and drive them both away from the maniac with the gun, but he knew that she was right. She was giving him the out he needed to get the bomb away from the hospital. And he had no choice but to take it.
"No!" The paramedic screamed. He started racing towards the ambulance, pulling his gun out of his holster.
With tears dripping down his cheeks, and one last look at her as she pulled out her gun, yelling for the paramedic to drop his, Derek stomped on the accelerator.
+++
The paramedic shot at the back of the ambulance as it screeched out of the basement, but Genevieve sent a returning shot at the man's shoulder, causing him to cry out, and drop his weapon. She didn't lower hers, but ran up to him, not wanting to needlessly deliver the fatal shot. She kicked his gun away, and made to grab his hands to cuff them, but he had other plans.
His forehead crunched into her nose, causing her to stagger away and cry out. A thin stream of blood streamed down her face, but she wiped it away. He ran at her, again, trying to knock her to the ground, but she dodged out of the way just in time.
She unfolded her baton, and struck him in the back of his knees, sending him tumbling to the ground. She flipped him onto his back, and tried to kneel on him to keep him steady as she fumbled with her cuffs, but he managed to disrupt her balance, and send her rolling. She dropped her cuffs during her fall, and they lay on the concrete.
He kicked her while she was down, before grabbing one of her arms, and dragging her over to the metal fence that surrounded one of the out of service elevators. He grabbed her cuffs from the ground, and locked one of her arms to the fence.
He rooted around his pockets for his phone while she tried to find the keys to unlock herself. She weakly lashed out a kick to try and delay him, but he simply stepped out of the way. She grabbed her gun, and even though it was with her left hand, she aimed, and pulled the trigger. But it was too late. The cell service was back, and he pressed the ring button, a triumphant smile on his face as the bullet buried itself in his forehead.
Genevieve dropped her gun, a sob racking her body as she heard the line ring. She didn't know whether Derek had gotten out, and if he hadn't, it would have been her fault. She should have killed him she first had the chance. There were loud footsteps, as the rest of the team all sprinting into the basement.
They all froze as they realise what must have happened, Spencer rushed to uncuff Genevieve with her discarded keys, and pulled her off the ground, and onto her shaky legs. She didn't stop crying as she leaned her full weight onto her brother's body, her sobs echoing around the otherwise silent basement as the whole team stood still.
No one dared to let their minds wander to where the ambulance had blown. Or who had been caught in the blast.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
next chapter is just going to be a little one that wraps the episode + season up! i hope that yall enjoyed this one <3.