A/N: This chapter required a huge ton of research, so I am hoping it's as accurate as can be. Keep in mind that this will NOT be a hospital fic, it's only getting better from here. I will be showcasing their suffering as well as their healing, so you can see the journey they have been on.

Coughing and spluttering, Jennifer Jareau held onto her husband as they emerged from the rough and damaged federal building. Up ahead, their 4 year old daughter was being wheeled away. Swarms of people lined the area and there seemed to be no sense of structure. No sense of direction. JJ turned around and looked up at the building and squinted. Half had smoke coming from it. Half was untouched.

"Are you okay?" Hotch asked as he looked his wife up and down.

JJ nodded. "A couple bruises and cuts, but I think I'm okay...you? Are you okay?"

Hotch shrugged. "I didn't inhale as much smoke as you, but I'm doing alright. We need to get our lungs cleared out, though."

Jennifer and Aaron remained calm as an EMT approached them.

"Can you come with us? We have to take you in." A female said, leading them to an ambulance.

JJ's white blouse looked no lighter than grey, and Hotch's sky-blue dress shirt looked as though it were a slate colour. Ash covered their bodies and it was sprinkled throughout their hair. It was more prominent in Aaron's darker locks. They walked, hand in hand, to an ambulance, where medics began to clean their ears out.

"Will our daughter be okay?" Hotch asked suddenly. His heart began to pound. It was like being back at boarding school. He hated answering questions, but he felt as though he had to do it to get a decent grade. Before he would even raise his hand, his heart would try to make a run for it. He swallowed and looked up at the EMT.

"The little girl?" She asked as softly as she could. The doors were closed by someone on the outside and the ambulance began to move. "She's being transported to—"

"Georgetown University Hospital, I know," Hotch said. "But will she be okay?"

The woman nodded, taking out a stethoscope. "She's in severe diabetic ketoacidosis. She had levels above 400 when she came out here. She is in critical condition, but I assure you, she will be treated successfully."

"But...the...the smoke inhalation. She inhaled so much smoke," JJ said quietly. "So much, and...and...I know it's a lot more dangerous in diabetics...I think it's...it's because of her weakened immune system...I don't know, it has to be."

"Ma'am, she is in the best hands right now. She will be treated successfully. She's been identified as a diabetic through her bracelet, and you've also gone the extra step to include that she's deaf. She will be absolutely fine."

JJ nodded and looked down at her grey and ashen legs.

"Does she need an interpreter? Does she speak?" The medic asked.

Hotch swallowed before answering. "By law she is entitled to an interpreter, and yes, she does need one. She doesn't speak."

"Okay," the EMT said softly as she began to check JJ's ears.

The room is packed. Nervous feet hit the floor as if keeping a tempo. The smell of medicine fills the air. It's silent, but the beeps of monitors and doctors speaking in the background are loud. They'd been cleared for over 3 hours now and they were in fresh clothes. Her husband's on the phone with the kids' babysitter. He's trembling, scared for his daughter's life.

Any minute now.

"Aaron and Jennifer?"

JJ stood up and held her coat over her arm. Aaron put his phone in his pocket and walked over to the doctor in navy blue scrubs.

"Is she okay?" JJ asked.

The doctor nodded slightly and looked at Hotch.

"We've stabilized her blood sugars, but we conducted a urine test and found small traces of protein—"

"Kidney failure," Hotch said quietly, looking down.

"It is very small. With the right treatment, we can prevent its progression. I assure you there is nothing to worry about. As for her blood sugar levels, they were above 600 at the time she came in here. While we were checking her lungs for smoke damage, we noticed a large amount of fluid. She is currently in the ICU—"

"Oh my God," JJ said, covering her mouth. "The ICU?"

The doctor nodded. "She has acute respiratory distress syndrome and is currently on a ventilator and is receiving oxygen."

"How long will it take for her to breathe normally again?" Hotch inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"If we're lucky, a few days. You know that she had steroids as an infant to help her lungs grow, right? So, you know that her lungs aren't as strong as full term babies'." The doctor paused and caught her breath. "She will likely come off of the ventilator in a few days, a week or two at most. And her blood sugar levels are stable for now. Would you like to come and see her?"

JJ and Hotch exchanged glances and nodded. They were led to another floor, the children's ICU floor, where Grace was. Each second that passed felt like an eternity. They were anxious to see their child, their sick and helpless child. They reached the top of the stairs and began walking down a long, colorful hallway. A pretty teal colour paint covered the walls, and snowflakes hung from the ceiling. Each door had a countdown until Christmas on it, and a little Christmas tree sat at the entrance to the pediatric ICU of the hospital.

"Is she going to be awake?" JJ asked, grabbing her husband's hand as they neared their daughter's room.

"Yes, she will be awake. She is doing very well, though she's a bit sleepy because of the medicine, but for the most part, she is doing just fine," the doctor said.

They soon approached Grace's room and JJ and Hotch watched as Grace's Doctor opened the door. A monitor beeped every other second and the ventilator made a gentle hum.

Grace turned to her parents and her doctor and waved at them.

"What's her blood sugar at right now?" Hotch asked as he pulled up a chair beside Grace's bed.

The doctor checked the computer beside the bed. "Just under 500, 492, to be exact. We're bringing them down slowly but surely."

[What is happening?] Grace signed slowly.

"She's a bit drowsy and tired, so she'll be a bit slow, but if you need me, I'm just out here, okay?"

JJ nodded and sat down on the edge of her child's bed.

[You are in the hospital,] Hotch signed. [You are okay.]

[Your hair is grey,] JJ told Grace. [Not strawberry-blonde. We should clean it.]

Grace nodded. [Clean, yes. Where are the boys?]

[They are at school,] Hotch signed. [They will be here soon. Do you want to see them?]

[Yes.]

[Do you remember what happened?] JJ asked with her hands. [Do you remember uncle Spence helping you?]

Grace nodded. [Is uncle Spence okay?]

[Yes,] Hotch answered. [The team is downstairs, in the adult hospital. They are being checked by a doctor.]

To the left of Grace's bed, her chest x-rays hung on the wall in front of a giant light. The large amount of fluid in her lungs was visible. Had she stayed in the building any longer, she would have choked and died.

"Should I see if Reid can come up and see her?" JJ asked her husband aloud.

Hotch nodded. "I think she'll like that."

JJ left the room and that gave Hotch and Grace time to communicate. Hotch looked around the brightly decorated room with butterflies and bumble bees and breathed in the medicinal air. The white linen curtains had been drawn to the left, revealing the starting of a snowstorm outside.

[White,] Grace signed, kicking her feet in excitement. [Snow!]

[Yes, snow! It is pretty, isn't it?]

Grace nodded excitedly. [Christmas.]

[Soon,] Hotch answered. [When you are well enough to walk and breathe on your own, we will bring you outside to see the snow.]

[It will be so cold!] Grace signed. [There are not any coats here!]

Hotch laughed as he grabbed Grace's small hand and held it tightly.

"What d'you mean she can't breathe?" Jack asked, unzipping his coat as they reached the pediatric ICU.

Their babysitter and family friend, Lily, unzipped Tyler and Benjamin's coats.

"She breathed in a lot of smoke, okay? She has a tube in her throat that is helping her breathe. So you can still use sign language, okay?"

"So, she's okay?" Henry asked worriedly.

"Yes, she is just fine. Let's go and see her."

They reached Grace's room and knocked a few times.

"I'm sorry we're here so late," Lily said, eyeing the clock. "It's almost 1 in the morning. The boys couldn't sleep without seeing Grace and saying goodnight to you both."

Hotch smiled as he hugged Lily. "It's okay. Jen's fallen asleep, but I don't think sign language can wake her up."

The boys walked in, where Grace sat up in her bed, playing on an iPad. She smiled when she saw them and waved.

"Dad, how do I ask if she's okay?" Jack asked.

Hotch showed him the sign and let Jack go ahead and try it for himself.

[How are you?] The oldest child asked. [Are you okay?]

Grace smiled. [I am okay.]

The other boys didn't know as much sign language as Jack, but they knew enough to talk to Grace every day. They knew basic words and phrases, and Grace had given them each sign names. They were established in the deaf community, according to Grace.

[Do you hurt?] Tyler asked.

[No,] Grace responded.

"This is a lot of questions," Hotch said. "Do you guys wanna play with Grace on the iPad while I talk with Lily?"

The boys went straight to Grace's bed and started to play with her, waking JJ up.

"I didn't know when you'd be here!" JJ exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her 4 boys.

"This is past our bedtime!" Ben said excitedly. "But we're not tired, and it's Friday."

"No school tomorrow, so it doesn't matter," Jack said. "We can stay up as late as we want!"

JJ chuckled, pulling her husband's sweater down. "Are you not cold? It's chilly in here."

[Snow outside,] Grace signed.

[Yeah, that's why it's cold,] JJ replied. [You're smart.]

Grace laughed gently, causing her monitor to beep. Hotch rushed in quickly and stared at the screen of the monitor.

"BP's rising," Grace's doctor said calmly, putting her stethoscope to Grace's chest.

"What's happening to her?" JJ asked.

The doctor shrugged it off. "Laughing so suddenly caused her blood pressure to increase rapidly. The monitor is very sensitive, so it will send signals like that off. You just have to be gentle with her and make sure there are no sudden movements, or anything that could scare her, okay?"

JJ and Hotch nodded.

"Boys, don't scare her, alright?" Hotch asked. "Halloween is over and she's sick."

"Be kind to your sister, please. Don't have pillow fights, don't play dodgeball with her socks, and for the sake of God, don't surprise her," JJ told the boys. "Her body is trying to get better, and it can't if it's constantly being compromised."

Snow fell in heaps as the day became brighter and the world began to wake up. Doctors made their rounds and collected vitals and a nurse came around and turned each patient's miniature Christmas tree on. Hotch and JJ had decided that JJ would stay the first night with Grace, so he had gone home with the boys. JJ had fallen asleep in the chair beside Grace's bed and a doctor had come in and covered her with a rough linen blanket, much like the one on Grace's bed. Jennifer woke up to the quiet beeping of the monitor as the doctor was leaving, and rubbed her eyes.

"Dr. Stevens?" She called out, causing the blonde-haired woman to turn around.

"Yes?"

"Is she okay?" JJ asked, looking from the doctor to her daughter.

"She's fine. BP is good, vitals are stable, blood sugar is getting to normal range."

JJ nodded and soaked the information in. "What's her level at right now?"

The doctor checked her charts and looked up. "She's at 524 right now. I would give it a day or two and she'll be ready to go home."

"But what about her kidneys?"

"Her urine had a small amount of protein in it. We'll be checking again later, but we are concerned about acute kidney injury—"

"Acute kidney injury?"

The doctor took a few steps back into the room. "Acute kidney injury is when the kidneys don't function as they should...this usually progresses very suddenly, over days or weeks. We think she might not be getting enough blood to her kidneys. This is known as pre-renal AKI. It's not the kidney itself, and it's a treatable condition. You will have nothing to worry about."

"Do you know what caused it?"

"Until we run more tests, we only have the injuries she sustained in the fire, alongside her diabetes. This is an undiagnosed condition, remember, so, tests might rule it out. But be prepared for a diagnosis."

JJ nodded as the doctor walked out. She turned back to her sleeping daughter and grabbed her hand and held it tightly.

A/N: Don't worry! Grace is not in any pain and the injuries she sustained are explainable. The next chapter will focus more on how everyone outside the family deals with it. Thank you for getting this far! Please review, I've been missing those!