Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Blake, and Garcia arrived at the hospital and were shown to a private trauma waiting room just as JJ, wearing hospital scrubs, followed the trauma team and Dr. Paxton, the psychiatrist called down to consult, into the OR.

A nurse pushed a rolling stool up next to the head of the table on which Reid was already positioned, and told JJ she could sit if she wanted. JJ sat so she was eye level with Reid, who still looked pale and frightened. Despite the mask Reid could see her reassuring smile.

On the other side of the OR Dr. Paxton and the surgeon, Dr. Ezzo, were talking, but JJ couldn't hear them and really wasn't trying to listen. She was more focused on Reid and the nurses who were removing the blood-soaked gauze from his upper left arm. Despite what she knew was his best effort to hide it JJ could tell it was painful just by watching, and she tried to help him by reminding him to breathe and offering him her hand to squeeze.

JJ almost jumped off the stool when she felt someone's hand touch her shoulder. "Excuse me, Ms…?"

She looked up at Dr. Paxton, or at least she looked up at the small portion of his face she could see between the cap and the mask he wore, and said, "Jareau, JJ."

"Could we talk to you for a minute?" he asked motioning back towards Dr. Ezzo on the other side of the OR.

Reid's eyes were closed, and he winced as the nurses pulled the last bits of gauze away from his wound. "I'll be right back," she said. He nodded, eyes still closed, and teeth gritted.

"Look, Ms. Jareau," Dr. Paxton began, "under these circumstances I do not believe hypnosis is a good choice for this patient. It can be used for pain control, but it requires a great degree of trust and a level of calm that I just don't think are achievable here."

Dr. Ezzo stated, "Even with a lot of local anesthetic what I am about to do to your friend is going to be painful. Just getting that much local anesthetic into the site would hurt like hell, and that's even if I could. And I can't really say if I could until I see what we're dealing with, which means more or less torturing him with surgical instruments..."

"What my colleague is trying to tell you, Ms. Jareau," Paxton interrupted, "is that we would like you to convince your friend to let the anesthesiologist anesthetize him for this procedure. We will ask that he not be given narcotic painkillers, but he does need to be unconscious before Dr. Ezzo starts poking around in that open wound."

"Do you understand," Ezzo asked, "if I hit a nerve and he moves serious damage could be done, damage that would almost certainly affect his career?"

JJ sighed and looked back at Reid. "OK," she said.

Settling back on the wheeled stool JJ moved as close as she could to Reid so he could clearly see her eyes. Behind the mask she exhaled, took a deep breath and then said, "They can't do this while you are awake, and it's going to hurt… a lot. If you are awake there is a risk that you might move and be seriously injured by accident…"

"They just don't want to be sued," he interrupted.

"No, Reid, I truly believe that they really just don't want to hurt you or injure you further. They want you to consent to be anesthetized for this procedure, and they promise, no narcotic painkillers."

Reid looked up at the overly bright OR lights, squinted, and bit his lower lip. He had a look on his face that he sometimes had when he was calculating in his head. "Talk to me, Spence," she implored.

After several minutes he responded, "OK, I'll consent."

JJ turned and nodded at the two doctors. Dr. Ezzo motioned for a nurse to get Reid to sign a consent form, and then suddenly there was a buzz of activity in the room as the anesthesiologist started to prepare Reid to be put under.

"Ms. Jareau," the nurse who had given JJ the rolling stool said as she moved the lights above Reid and concentrated the brightest beam on the surgical field, "now that he's going to be unconscious, you can't stay during the procedure."

Although it had occurred to her that she might be asked to leave at some point, JJ wished that someone had informed her of that requirement away from Reid, so she could have told him instead of having him overhear it as if he wasn't even present.

The anesthesiologist, who was watching Reid's vital signs and noticed an obvious increase in his heart rate, quickly added, "She can stay until he's out."

"JJ?" Reid nearly whispered, turning his head back to face her.

"Yes," she replied as quietly.

"Promise you'll be there when I wake up?"

"I promise. We will all be there when you wake up," she reassured him softly and sat by his side until his eyelids fluttered closed, and he drifted off.

As she was leaving the OR one of the nurses told JJ that she would find her colleagues in a private waiting room down the hall.

They were all a bit surprised when JJ entered the room wearing hospital scrubs, which she knew by their expressions and to which she responded by explaining what happened in the ER and then in the OR.

"How long do you think he'll be in there?" Morgan asked.

JJ shrugged. "They weren't exactly sure what the extent of the injury was, but I imagine it won't be too long."

"How is he?" Garcia inquired with a worried expression.

JJ made eye contact with Hotch, who she thought knew the answer to that question better than she did. "It's going to be a long time," she said, trailing off with a sigh. Then she changed the subject, "I promised him we'd all be there when he wakes up."

"And we will be," Hotch said.

"I think," Alex Blake started after a few minutes of silence, "that one of us should always be here with him until he's discharged."

"We can take turns," Garcia responded. They all agreed.

"And he's welcome to stay with me for a while after he's discharged," Rossi offered, "if he wants to, that is." JJ smiled at Rossi. They all knew Rossi had ample space in his gracious home, and Reid would certainly be well fed too as Rossi was a fantastic cook.

A few minutes later Dr. Ezzo walked into the waiting room. "Ms. Jareau," he said.

"Dr. Ezzo," she stood and introduced her colleagues to the surgeon.

"Agent Reid is lucky, at least with regard to the bullet wound," Ezzo began. "The bullet missed the major nerves and only barely nicked one of the minor arteries. It's going to be painful, especially without narcotics, but his shoulder will heal just fine. He's in recovery now."

"I told him that we'd all be there when he wakes up," JJ said somewhat sheepishly to the surgeon.

Looking around the room at the concerned expressions of his patient's colleagues he said, "We don't usually allow this many people into recovery, but exceptions can be made." He smiled at JJ. "Down the hall, the hallway to the right of the OR."