Chapter One: Teeny Tiny Car Accident

Lucy is 15 years old in this chapter

She had been starring at her phone for multiple minutes now. Lucy had been able to persuade the nurse to let her inform her father but even then, the young girl postponed it as much as she could. However, she knew that now was definitely the time to contact her dad.
She dreaded talking to him, knowing that she'd be in a lot of trouble but there wasn't any other way for her to get home. Hypothetically, she could call her godfather David, or really anyone of the team as they were very close, but deep down she knew what she had to do.
Lucy could see the nurse starring at her sternly from the hallway, waiting for her to finally make the call. He wasn't going to take this well, that was for sure. She dialled his number and held her phone with her left hand to her ear, as her right arm was tangled.

"Hey sweetie" her father's deep voice greeted her from over the speaker.
"Heeey dad" she said more sweetly than she intended to. "Am I disturbing? I can call later?"
"Of course you're not. I'm just sitting here with the team, what's up?"
She sighed heavily and bit her lip and then chuckled nervously "Um…well"
There was a short silence.
"Lucy?" she could now hear a hint of worry in his voice. He had noticed that something was off.
"Is everything alright?"
"Um – Dad, I've got to tell you something ok?"
There was a moment of silence until he spoke again.
"Ok…What happened?"
"Before I tell you..."
She could hear him breath over the phone.
"Honey, talk to me, what –what is going on?"
"Look, before I tell you, I need you to promise me not to freak out, ok?"
"Lucy!"
Hotch was definitely losing his patience while his heart beat strongly against his chest.
"Dad, I'm serious!"
"Just tell me already what happened!"
"Please, just promise me to react calmly and understandingly! Please?"
He sighed heavily, "Ok. I promise. So what did you do?"
"It's actually a funny story, I bet you'll even laugh about it-"
"Then why am I getting the feeling that it's not funny at all?" he answered strictly, cutting off her nervous chuckle.
She tried to scratch her head but forget about her tangled arm. "Ouch"
"Are you hurt?" he sounded alarmed.
"Um No…not exactly." Before he could say anything else, Lucy continued quickly.
"Ok listen, so that's what happened. You remember James, right?"
"Yes" His voice sounded rather strained. He didn't like that boy.
"So we wanted to go see a movie at the cinema…and – and"
"And?"
"And James' just got his driver's license, so we figured that we'd be faster if we drove there"
"Oh god…" Hotch closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead in frustration. Lucy decided to ignore his comment and she continued with the story.
"Dad, this other guy basically drove his car into us – and we kind of had a teeny tiny car accident."
"Teeny tiny car accident?" Hotch growled in a deadly whisper.
She sighed, "I – I'm really sorry, dad."
There was again a silence between the two of them. "Are you alright, did – did you hurt yourself?"
Lucy looked down at her arm. "My – my arm is – sprained but that's it, I swear it's nothing…"
She could hear him clearing his throat and sighing, "In which hospital are you?"
"Saint Joseph Memorial" she whispered.
"Alright, I'll be there in a minute."
She wanted to apologize but he already hung up.

It felt like a lifetime until her father was at the hospital. She was laying in her bed, and fought strongly against the urge to fall asleep. Maybe it was because of the medicine that she was feeling very sleepy. It could have also been because of the shock. She still had horrible headache, the doctors had said that she suffered a concussion and was therefore supposed to lay down constantly.
She saw her father coming towards her room. She thought that he looked a little white, maybe it was only because of the light, or the fact that he didn't really like hospitals. She smiled at him from her bed but he only stood at the doorframe looking at her with a mix of different emotions, but mostly fear and worry.
"You promised not to freak out" she whispered and looked down.
"Oh sweetie." Hotch sighed and came to her bed. He lifted her face softly by her chin, and examined her face. He noticed the small scratch on her forehead.
He bowed down and gave her a gentle kiss at the top of her head and then hugged her tightly.
"You scared the hell out of me" he whispered.
"I know, I'm really sorry"
"You could have hurt yourself badly" he said. His voice went from soft to stern real fast.
She sighed. The lecture, she had expected it.
"I know." she repeated again.
"I talked to the nurses, you said that you only sprained your arm…"
"Yeah…I forgot to tell you about the concussion…" she sheepishly admitted.
He quirked one brow, "You forgot?"
She grinned now, "I've got a concussion, dad. Of course I forgot"
He laughed at her statement and kissed her head again.
"The doctors said they want to keep you tonight for observation"
She opened her mouth to protest but he looked at her sternly, "No discussion!"
Lucy sighed and made herself comfortable in the bed.
"Alright, alright"
"I want you to rest now, sweetie. I'll be back in a minute"
She sat up, too fast for her head, and asked, panic dominating her voice, "Where are you going?"
Lucy knew exactly what he wanted to do.
He turned around to her, "Oh nowhere, just wanted to have a word with the boy who nearly killed my precious daughter in his car."

"Dad!" she groaned loudly.
He continued walking out of her room. "Dad! Please don't, it wasn't his fault!"
"Lay down in that bed and rest!" he said sternly and left the room.
She let out a sigh in annoyance and fell back against her pillow.

When Hotch returned from his conversation with James to Lucy's room, he found her sound asleep in the hospital bed. She was curled up in a ball, taking deep breaths. He smiled slightly at the sight of her. She was a messy sleeper, she had tossed and turned and therefore thrown the blanket to the end of her bed. He picked it up and covered her with it.
She opened her eyes sleepily.
"Dad?" she asked tensely, the pain meds making her feel dizzy and confused.
"I'm right here, sweetie." he said and stroked her hair. "Go back to sleep"
As soon as she heard his soothing voice, her eyelids closed again and he could see her visibly relax again. She mumbled something he didn't understand, causing him to chuckle and shake his head in amusement.
Hotch sat down on the chair next to her bed and made himself comfortable. He didn't want her to be all alone when she woke, so he spent the night next to her.

David knocked on the hospital door and opened it slowly. He smiled as he saw his friend sitting on a chair next to his goddaughter. Hotch had removed his tie and jacket, looked up at him tiredly but still returned his smile.
"Morning, Hotch"
"Hey Dave"
"How's the little one?" Dave entered the room and smiled towards Lucy, who was sound asleep in her bed.
"She's alright, I guess" Hotch responded with a sigh. "She suffered a concussion and sprained her arm, it could have been worse."
Dave put a small teddy bear, who held a note saying 'get well soon', next to Lucy on a night stand and then sat down next to Hotch.
"She's tough, she'll get through it" added Rossi and clapped Hotch's shoulder.
"I know she will" Hotch said, "I just don't know what I'm gonna do with her"
Rossi quirked one eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
Aaron leaned forward in his chair and rubbed his face tiredly, he then turned to his friend and explained, "Well I can't ground her, technically, she didn't do anything wrong…but then again she got herself hospitalized"
Rossi chuckled, "Cmon Aaron, it wasn't something that she had control over."
"I know, I know..."
"But she was wearing a seat belt, though, wasn't she?" Rossi's voice had gotten a serious tone and he had straightened up in his chair tensely.
It was now Hotch's time to chuckle. "Of course, otherwise, I would've killed her." "See?" Rossi's voice was overcome by amusement again, "she's sensible. These kind of things happen, especially at this age"
Hotch watched Rossi closely. He grinned at him, David was always there and ready to defend Lucy no matter what. It was moments like these which clarified that he had done a good job choosing Rossi as Lucy's godfather.
"What about the boy?"
The agent couldn't help himself but roll his eyes. "He's alright" Hotch said grimly. He really didn't like him.
Rossi laughed, "Is it just me or do you sound unhappy about that?"
"I'm as happy as I can be about a boy who involved my daughter into a car crash, Dave" countered Hotch with a growl.
In just that moment Lucy stirred a little in her sleep and she slowly opened her eyes. The sunlight on her face felt warm and nice but her throat felt extremely dry.
Both men stood up and looked at her with smiles.
"Hey you little car crasher!" Rossi grinned down at her.
"Hi, uncle Dave" she smiled at him shyly.
"How are you feeling, sweetie?" Hotch asked his daughter with a concerned look on his face.
"Like I had a car accident yesterday" she joked sleepily and then tried to sit up. Hotch and David shared a small smile and sat down again.
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"When can we go home?"
Hotch sighed and shook his head. He always had the same debate with his daughter whenever she had to stay at the hospital. Thankfully that had never been the case very often, but she always whined until he took her home.
"Doctor Benson will check you up today again, and if he says that you can go home, then I'll take you"
Lucy sat up in her bed.
"Ok…but just so you know, I am feeling better already!"
Hotch looked at her, doubt written across his face.
"I'm serious, dad!" she tried convincing him and did something that she immediately regretted, "Look"
She raised her arm but immediately lowered it as she felt a sharp pain in her arm.
"Stop that, you're hurting yourself!"
Lucy tried playing it off but they had seen pain flash on her face. Hotch shook his head at his daughter whereas Rossi chuckled merrily.
The injured girl sighed and laid back again in her bed, wishing she was at home instead of the hospital.

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B.P