A.N. Hello there. Well, I'm taking on another fandom and jumping (sans lifejacket) into the Criminal Minds fandom. One I have not been a part of for very long. First, this story is AU but not really AU enough to warrant it being categorized as such. In my story the team consists of Hotch, Rossi, Reid, Morgan, Garcia, Prentiss and J.J. along with my OC Riane Collins. This is – or rather will eventually be – a Hotch/OC story but that might not be for a while.

I'm Canadian. All my geography of the United States is google-based. Along with all my medical knowledge. This is going to be very rough because I just want to get it up before I leave town.

Please Read and Review for they are love. Enjoy.

Riane Collins had a schedule that constantly changed and was hectic enough to put her on constant edge most of her waking moments. Not only did it take her over two hours to get to work in the morning from the time she woke up but her work days were almost never the nine-to-five that she craved. Then again, none of her other coworkers at the BAU worked the hours that they wanted to, they were in the same position as she was; read: a slave to the job.

Which was fine most of the time. She only had a few major commitments that she had to keep, and it had all seemed to be working out fine until that point. Which was a blessing because when she'd (cautiously) taken the job she'd done so ready to quit at a moment's notice.

"You're not sleeping?"

Riane looked up at the stoic face of her boss. The man was either in his late forties or early fifties, with only a hint of gray at his temples – which was surprising given his occupation.

"I wouldn't classify my current state as awake."

The slight curl of his lips was counted as a win in Riane's books, the man rarely smiled despite the fact that from what she could tell, Aaron Hotchner had quite the sense of humour.

"I know what you mean. Got a minute?" he asked as he took a seat opposite her which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on edge. Hotchner was a hard man to read and the we-need-to-talk tone would have made anyone run for the hills.

She shrugged, "Sure. What's up?"

"How long have you worked for the BAU?"

Riane arched an eyebrow, "About six months"

He nodded, "And would you say that you get along with the other members of the team?"

She grinned, "Oh yeah. That's a good group of agents you got there Hotchner."

"So no problems?"

"Everything is extremely copasetic."

He glanced up at her over the form he'd been filling out, likely the survey he was asking her questions from. Riane idly wondered how many questions were on the survey.

"Interesting word choice."

"Interesting job."

Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow, "That's one way to look at it."

"Well Agent Hotchner, perspective is in the eye of the beholder."

He nodded slowly before closing the file that housed the survey. "We'll be landing soon. I'll leave you be."

Riane watched him go back to his seat before looking out the window. In the distance she could see the familiar lights of the airport and couldn't help but feel a small twinge of excitement; as much as she loved to travel, coming home was always the best part.

Even if it only was for a little while.

After the plane had landed and her feet were back on solid ground Riane glanced at her watch; it wasn't too late, if she left now she could still make it.

"Got somewhere you gotta be Ryan?" Derek Morgan's smooth voice interrupted her train of thought and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Some of us have lives Darcy."

He whistled, "Oh. I get it. Kitty's got some claws huh?"

"Well Kitty can back off because I called dibs on this fine piece of dark chocolate long before you ever got here."

Riane chuckled as the hacker extraordinaire herself Penelope Garcia walked up behind Morgan, winding herself around him.

"You can have him Garcia. I'm more of a Clooney girl myself."

"I'm sure I could grow a beard." He joked.

"Yeah. It's totally just the lack of facial that's keeping me out of your pants."

"I called dibs!"

The banter was interrupted by Hotch's entrance into the room, no doubt wanting to start and the post-case paperwork that had to be done. Riane inwardly sighed, the paperwork would take the better part of an hour…it had been a bad case to say the least.

"Listen," Hotch started. "It's been a hard couple of days. I want everyone to go home and get some rest so we're ready to go at normal time tomorrow."

There was a chorus of sighs of relief from her fellow team members and Riane had to stop herself from fist pumping in happiness. Saying a quick goodbye to everyone in the bullpen she all but ran to her car. It was late which meant the traffic would be a little lighter which meant she could get within the hour.

Hopping into her black sedan she rested her head against the back of her seat she relaxed into it. She hadn't had her license for that long and quite frankly she hated driving but it had become necessary. Especially with the job, if it wasn't driving to and from work it was driving one of the unmarked black vans to crime scenes and whatnot.

She pulled out onto the freeway, it was late and the driving wasn't too bad which was due partly to the lack of traffic. She was about ten minutes from home when her phone rang, prompting a glance sideways at the handheld in the passenger seat, despite the best intentions she'd yet to get a hands-free device. Nevertheless Riane Collins would never talk and drive at the same time; she was too much of a nervous driver.

Not to mention she'd seen enough phone-oriented car accidents to last a lifetime. Some people never learned.

The car hit her from the driver's side, causing the phone to be shot even further out of reach, which happened to be the least of Riane's problems. The last thing she saw before everything went black was the lack of headlights on the Ford F150 Pick-Up.

Jennifer Jareau pulled the phone sharply away from her head when her receiver started to scream in her ear.

"Woah…okay there Riane, you need a new phone."

Hanging up, she gave another glance at the purse that was currently taking up residence with her own on the hood of her car.

"J.J. you still here? Will's gonna wonder where you got to!" Derek yelled to her with one arm casually around Garcia.

J.J. smirked, "You let me worry about Will. Hey, do me a favour? Try calling Riane's cell, I just tried and all I got was the reason for why I'm going to need a hearing aid. Sounded almost like a fax."

"Sure," he shrugged as he pulled his phone out and started to dial. "What's up?"

J.J. shook her head, "Nothing. She just left her purse on the plane and I was going to bring it to her."

A minute later Derrick hung up the phone. "No luck. It wouldn't even go through. It must be turned off or something."

"That's strange. I guess I'll just keep it for the night. I mean, she has my number if she wants to come get it but I have to get home so…"

"Good plan. You go home to Will and Henry and I'll take this home." Garcia purred as she ran her hand down Derrick's home.

"What about Kevin?"

"You two get along don't you?"

"Whatcha got going on in that head of yours Baby Girl?"

"Well…"

J.J. laughed as she watched the two walk off. Despite what it looked like there really wasn't anything romantic between the two but she sincerely hoped they never stopped flirting, it was one of the funniest parts of coming to work.

Sighing, J.J. got into her own vehicle and started the drive home. Whatever was in the purse could wait until morning. All she wanted to do was get home to her husband and son and get a good night's sleep with the case solved and put away.

Aaron Hotchner was going to be late.

Not really late, only by five, maybe ten minutes but he was going to be late nonetheless. It irked him to say the least but there was nothing he could do about it, Jack was in an awkward stage and it presented itself in the form of tantrums and especially grumpy mornings.

God he wished Hayley were there. She would know how to handle Jack, she'd always known what to do with him and how to comfort him. What did he know? He was all but married to his job and was for the most part an absent father.

Parking his car he grabbed his brief case and tried to get to his office as fast as possible without looking like he was in a hurry. However when he walked into the bullpen he found that none of the attention was on him, which was concerning because everyone in the room looked overly stressed for people who'd just supposedly had a good night's rest.

"What's going on?" he questioned.

"Riane was in a car accident last night." Came J.J.'s solemn response from his left.

Aaron felt the shock register over his features "What?"

"Last night Riane left her purse in the plane so I tried calling her cell but I couldn't get a response. Actually, it sounded like getting a fax which was strange. When I couldn't get an answer this morning we ran a trace on her plates and found out that her car had been in an accident about a half hour after we got back yesterday."

"Seems a little drastic," he countered. "Running a trace on her plates? How did you know she wasn't at home?"

"I drove by." It was Spencer Reid to speak this time. "J.J. called me this morning and because I live a little bit more up town from her I decided to drive by. Her car wasn't there, and there isn't a garage it could have been in either."

He nodded, "Where is she now?"

"Garcia's working on it now." Morgan replied.

No sooner had Morgan finished did the phone on his desk ring.

"Hey Baby Girl, what did you find?"

"She's at Potomac. Brought in via ambulance just after eleven last night."

"That's in Woodbridge. What's her condition?"

"Sorry Sugar, I didn't go that far. I called you as soon as I knew where she was."

"Thanks Garcia."

"Call me as soon as you know anything!"

Aaron let out a breath when the phone was hung up. "Alright. I'm going to head down there now. J.J. do we have the next case ready?"

She seemed to hesitate for a moment but eventually nodded, "Yeah. Everything's already set up in the briefing room."

He nodded, "Okay. Get started. I'll call with any updates but I shouldn't be that long."

"Hotch," Derek cut in. "You sure you don't want one of us to go with you?"

"No. You're needed here. I will call if anything happens but for now we need to keep working."

Although he knew that the rest of the team wasn't happy it couldn't be avoided. They couldn't all go down to the hospital, especially not when they'd already promised to lend their services to a local police service.

Saying a final goodbye Aaron got back into his car and headed for the hospital. He hoped she wasn't in too bad of a state; he hadn't known her for that long but he knew her well enough to know that she would hate being stuck in a hospital bed.

After he'd parked at the hospital it took him less than fifteen minutes to get past the front desk and get to her room.

He'd seen better.

Then again he'd seen much, much worse.

From what he could see most of the damage was to her right side, there were bandages on her right arm and right along with major bruising to the face and neck. Not to mention the now stitched up cut and other contusions.

"Excuse me sir? This the ICU, you can't be in here. Can I ask who you are?"

Aaron turned to see a slightly past middle-aged woman standing in the doorway, despite her apparent age her face gave nothing away suggesting a woman who'd been working in the trauma centre a long time.

She also wasn't wearing a wedding ring, something Aaron could empathize with.

"Aaron Hotchner. I'm with the BAU. I'm Ms. Collins' boss."

"Oh," the woman seemed to relax and offered him a hand. "Rita Abringer, I'm the physician overseeing Ms. Collins' treatment."

Aaron nodded as he shook the doctor's hand before looking back at Riane, "What's her condition doctor?"

The doctor sighed and shook her head. "The good news is that most of the injuries are typical of a "T-Bone" car accident. Her lright ankle along with the wrist and forearm were completely crushed, her hip was dislocated, there were two broken ribs, and she has a concussion and some ear damage however the extent isn't exactly well known for now. She's also sustained a bad case of whiplash but surprisingly there appears to be no major back injury. Of course, this is on top of all the bruising and lacerations sustained to the body."

The look on his face must have been worse than he'd thought because the next thing he knew Rita Abringer was trying to reassure him.

"It sounds like a lot, I know. But the ribs, the bruising and the cuts will heal fairly quickly. There was little internal bleeding which we took care of during surgery – "

"Surgery?"

" Yes. Which went very well and we were able to clean up her arm and leg a little bit. I'm sorry that this is coming all at once but she didn't have anyone listed as an emergency contact so there was nothing we could do."

Aaron frowned, it had been the same way when she'd applied for the job at the BAU and he'd been meaning to ask her to find someone to list in the case of an emergency.

"Will she be okay?"

"She'll need more surgeries to fix the nerve and tendon damage in her arm and leg, and maybe something for her hip – we'll have to see once we're in there but right now I don't see any reason for why she shouldn't make a full recovery. However, I can't make any guarantees."

He nodded slowly, "I understand. Excuse me."

Pulling his phone out he stepped into the hallway to call the team. They weren't going to like what he had to say but there was nothing he could do to change it. Halfway through the call he felt a hand on his arm and looked to his Rita pointing back at Riane's room.

"She's awake Agent Hotchner. You can go see her if you want but she'll be very tired."

Aaron thanked the doctor and finished on the phone, composing himself before going back to Riane's room. The doctor had been right, she was awake but the way she was staring at the ceiling suggested she was fighting to stay awake.

Taking a seat on the chair next to her bed Aaron reached out and clasped her hand in his own, effectively drawing her attention to him.

When she met his gaze he saw the panic overtake her features and her grip on his hand tightened. Looking at the monitor Hotch also noted that her heart rate had increased.

"Riane?" He kept his voice low on purpose, trying to get her to calm down.

She opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a cough that made his own chest ache.

He shook his head. "Don't talk, just listen for a minute. You were in a car accident last night. We're in the hospital now. Do you understand me?"

She nodded but the panicked look in her eyes didn't fade, nor did the grip on his hand. When she opened her mouth again to speak he leaned in to make it easier for her, she obviously had something to say, he may as well have made it easier for her.

"Please…" The word was a pained whisper and he frowned.

"I…I don't understand. Are you in pain?"

She shook her head and he could see tears beginning to run down her cheeks.

Giving her hand a light squeeze he drew her attention back to him again, hoping that she could compose herself enough to get out what she desperately needed to say.

"My sons," she gasped. "I need…my sons."