Reassurance

Tag to S7 Episode "Hit/Run"

Contains Spoilers for S7 Episode "Hit/Run"

Everything was black. He could feel the gravel beneath his fingers. But it was silent. Almost peaceful …just for a minute. And then he heard it. The ringing in his ears. It was deafening. What the hell just happened? One second he was walking behind JJ, his right hand on her left shoulder. Tunnel vision. Get the hostages out. The next second he was face down on the dark pavement, glass all around him, his ears ringing, while black smoke billowed out of the building behind him.

"JJ…JJ?" Derek questioned. He saw her blink. "Are you okay?"

Allowing Derek to help her up, JJ frantically looked all around her, her mind clearly on one thing: "Where's Will? Did he get out of there?"

Derek didn't know but his next instinct was to make sure all of his friends were safe. He looked over at the FBI Mobile Command Center just as the door opened and Strauss, Garcia, and Rossi came barreling out. Phew. Turning around, he saw Hotch helping another agent to his feet. Reid was still at Quantico. Out of harm's way. He sighed in relief. Everyone was accounted for. Almost.

"Where's Emily?" As the words left his mouth, his heart seized, as his mind backtracked several minutes. Was she already inside? But he already knew the answer. While he and JJ were preparing to enter the bank through the front entrance, he was painfully aware of the fact that Emily had already snuck in the side door with two SWAT agents. Before he had time to react, however, JJ took off towards the front entrance of the nearly destroyed building. "Will!"

"JJ wait!" Derek called after her. He wasn't sure it was safe to enter. But he didn't hesitate to follow her inside. To hell with protocol. She's in there.

"Will!" "Emily?!" "Will!" "Emily!"

Derek's heart was pounding in his chest as he and JJ made their way through the rubble inside the bank. Please no, Derek thought has he checked the unmoving bodies underneath the many floorboards, ceiling tiles, and other debris. His heart pounded in his chest and suddenly it was just over a year ago in a pitch-black warehouse in Boston. Steady hands firing at any obstacle in his way while he searched for her, terrified of what he might find.

"Will!"

"Emily!"

"Over here!" Both Derek and JJ stopped short and looked at each other, before taking off in the direction of the voice. They rounded the corner and there she was. He released a breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding and glanced at the elderly couple sitting on the floor with Emily.

"Can we move them?"

"Yes. With help." she answered and gestured towards the man. "He's unconscious."

While JJ sympathized with the couple, she was still on a mission. "Have you seen Will?"

Emily shook her head. "No. But he could be down below."

JJ nodded slightly and took off towards the stairwell. Derek hesitated. He wanted to stay. To wrap his arms around her and make sure she was real. That she wasn't going to disappear if he followed JJ down into the tunnels. Because when he lost sight of her at that warehouse in Boston, when he could no longer wrap his hands around hers and beg her to hold on for him, he had lost her. They put her in the ambulance and he never got a chance to say goodbye. And while he knows now that it wasn't forever – that seven months later she would return from the dead and they would move on, the two of them pretending that nothing had changed between them – he was still deathly afraid of walking away from her now and never seeing her again.

He held her stare for a second longer, wordlessly confirming with her that she wasn't going anywhere. That he should follow JJ down those stairs and she would still be here when he got back. And that reassuring glance was all he needed before he took off running.

She was still here. She was alive. She'd be waiting for him when he got back. And, for now, that was all he needed to know.