A/N a quieter chapter this time, but what more can you expect with our poor JJ safe but unconscious? A serious question though, do you want the full recovery + endgame in this fic (making for a very long story) or part of the recovery in this fic, followed by a sequel covering the main recovery and the endgame (can make a standalone story)? It's up to you guys so let me know what you think.

Thank you as always to the reviewers of the last chapter: AWChic, MaybeALittleBroken, Casie01, Jareau37, snuggleUP, Leslet, rmpcmfan, Cupcake, pxlenno and Lktwh13.

And finally a massive thank you to snuggleUP for all your help with the medical stuff, I don't know what this chapter would have been without you (and thank you for all your patience with my questions)

On with the story!

After what felt like an eternity, paramedics arrived and ran over to where Morgan and Emily were knelt by JJ. Emily had JJ's head cradled in her hands and was whispering to her, regardless of whether or not JJ could hear her. Morgan was just in shock, staring at the blood that was slowly pooling beneath JJ's chin as though he could somehow will it back into her body.

"Agents, please, give us some room to work." One of the medics said quickly. Morgan backed away on autopilot but the other medic had to physically guide Prentiss away with a murmured "Let us do our jobs and help your friend" so that the first could assess JJ.

"Miss, can you hear me?" She said loudly, turning JJ onto her back. "Oh Jesus" She breathed as she saw the bruises and blood covering JJ's face. "What the hell happened to you, sweetie?"

"JJ, her name is JJ. She was in a… a fight." Prentiss muttered absently. "She's going to be okay, right?" Her voice choked at the last moment and a pair of tears traced down her cheeks. Morgan pulled her into a desperate hug but neither took their eyes off of their friend.

"We'll do the best that we can, Agent." The medic had her ear near to JJ's lips, listening for any signs of breath. But there were none, there was no tell-tale tickle against her cheek or any rise or fall of her patient's chest.

"She's not breathing, I need a C-collar and a suction pump." The medic said quickly. Her partner was there in a matter of seconds. With well practised movements, they fitted the C-collar around JJ's neck and set up the suction pump, swiftly clearing the blood from her mouth and throat.

"Give the medics some space." Hotch said, motioning for his agents to climb down out of the van. "Morgan, call Reid, tell him to meet us at the hospital." Hotch was looking unnaturally pale, with no small amount of fear etched across his face. Fear for JJ. Fear that even after everything that had happened, even when they were so close to getting her back, they might lose her all over again. Lose her permanently.

"What do I tell him about JJ? He's with Penelope, Hotch, she'll want to know how JJ is."

Hotch sighed and raked a hand through his hair. "Tell them that she's in bad shape but that the medics are with her and she'd going to be okay." He had no idea if that last part was true but the last thing he wanted was Garcia having a meltdown. Morgan seemed to understand this and nodded, getting out his phone. Hotch also took his phone out and dialled Rossi's cell, he needed to know what had happenened.

The medic checked JJ's breathing again. Still nothing. "I'm going to have to intubate. How's that ECG coming?" She asked, grabbing a laryngoscope and endo-tracheal tube from her bag.

"ECG's almost up." She checked the blood pressure cuff she had placed around JJ's upper arm quickly. "BP's 70 over 30," She glanced at the ECG monitor, "Heart rate's 135. I'm setting up an IV."

"Left lung isn't ventilating, I'm hearing gurgling sounds."

"I'll get the gurney." The second medic handed the bag of saline to Prentiss to hold and dashed back to the ambulance to grab the gurney. She wheeled it back just as quickly and removed the backboard, sliding it beside JJ's supine form.

"On three. One, two-" On three the pair shifted JJ onto the backboard, then transferred her onto the gurney. "One of you can ride with us to the hospital." The first medic said over her shoulder to the three team members still stood in and around the back of the van.

"Prentiss, you should go." Hotch said, "We'll meet you there."

Emily nodded and hastened to follow the paramedics who were loading JJ into the back of the ambulance. As she climbed into the back of the ambulance, one of them was climbing back out and got into the driver's seat. Once the gurney was secured and JJ was strapped into it, the medic attending to her shouted up to the front. "We're good to go!"

Emily barely had time to sit down before the ambulance pulled away, lights flashing and sirens blaring.

The medic with JJ worked quickly, cutting away her clothing, checking for other injuries. Emily gasped when she saw the dark red and purple bruising that covered a large section of JJ's rib cage. It was so dark it was almost black. There was a long gash that stretched across her stomach; it was deep but would only require stitches, it certainly wasn't life threatening.

The medic pressed some gauze against her stomach wound and the stab wound in her shoulder, all the while pushing air into her lungs via the bag attached to the ET tube. Emily just held onto her hand, as though physically hanging on to her could somehow keep her alive.

Emily was slumped in chair with her head in her hands when the rest of the team finally arrived in the waiting room.

"Have you heard anything?" Morgan said instantly, slightly out of breath from running from the haphazardly parked SUV. Emily shook her head. She chewed her thumb nail anxiously. If she kept going at that much longer then she'd have little more than bleeding stubs by morning. The rest of the team wearily took a seat around the room, each wrapped in their own thoughts.

Garcia sniffed quietly, and wiped her eyes with a pink butterfly printed tissue. Morgan reached over and held her hand, whispering something to her. Hotch wasn't sure what he had said but it seemed to reassure Garcia somewhat. Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose. He'd seen his agents injured before, but never like this.

Elle and Garcia had both been in the hospital before he'd seen them, even with Emily the paramedics had already been at her side by the time he had finished clearing the warehouse. Watching Reid at the hands of Tobias Hankel had been horrific but at least he had only been missing for a matter of hours, not years.

JJ hadn't been shouting at them that she could take it, or trying to feed them clues. She had simply been fighting to survive, and losing. Her screams of pain still echoed through his mind, taunting him with his own powerlessness.

He looked up as a young man in a nurse's uniform walked in. "Jennifer Jareau?" He said to the room.

Everyone's gaze immediately jumped to the young nurse, but to his credit he didn't flinch. "That's us" Hotch said quickly. The nurse looked dubious, but as everyone in the room flashed their badges at him, he nodded; one of the paramedics had mentioned that she was an FBI agent.

"How is she?"

"Is she okay?"

"When can we see her?"

Hotch waved down the barrage of questions, entirely focused on the nurse, who gave him a quick nod of thanks before speaking.

"We managed to stabilise Ms Jareau's condition and prep her for surgery. She's in the OR as we speak. We were able to drain her haemothorax via a chest tube however due to the extent of the internal damage shown by the CT scan it was decided that open thorax surgery was the best course of action. The surgery will take between 6 to 8 hours so I would recommend that you all try to get some rest." He smiled at the team kindly. They just stared back at him. "However, I can see that that is unlikely so the cafeteria is one floor up, three doors down on your right as you leave the main stairwell. You'll be able to get snacks and hot drinks in there before it opens for breakfast at 6.30am."

"But she'll be okay? The worst is over, right?" Emily asked quickly, a small part of her bolstered by the thought of caffeine but fear for her friend was still the overriding emotion.

"I can't make any guarantees, however given the improvement in her condition between arrival and transfer to OR, I would say that her chances look good. That said, any information you can give me, especially regarding her kidney donation or any medication she may be taking would go a long way to helping with her treatment and recovery."

"I'm sorry, her kidney donation?" Hotch said in shock. "JJ never donated one of her kidneys."

The nurse frowned. "During our initial assessment, we noted a scar concurrent with that resulting from a kidney transplant. The CT scan confirmed that Ms Jareau has only her right kidney. By our estimations, the scar was a little over 2 years old."

The nurse felt distinctly uneasy as he finished speaking; this was definitely news to these agents, and unwelcome news at that.

Prentiss felt like she was going to be sick; her nausea was only outdone by the cold ball of sheer fury that was growing in her chest. As if it wasn't enough that those monsters had stolen 3 years of her best friend's life, had stolen her identity. They had treated her like a bag of spare parts, to sell as they saw fit. She could see her rage reflected in Hotch's eyes.

Garcia turned to Morgan, a desperate look on her face. "What does he mean?" She whispered, looking to him to tell her that what the nurse had said wasn't true, looking at him to deny what the nurse's words meant. But she knew what they meant, and the horrifying truth about her friend's captivity.

Morgan just looked back at her with tears in his eyes. There was nothing he could say or do that could possibly take back what the nurse had said. He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, trying to stem the flood of anguish that threatened to overwhelm him, trying to quell the part of him that vowed to kill each and every person who had so much as laid a finger on JJ.

Reid was willing his brain to just be quiet, to stop rattling off statistics and figures, to stop running through the potential implications of this news. Because facts and figures couldn't help right now, couldn't help JJ. A fact was something certain, something undeniable. He didn't want facts. He wanted to hide from the truth, to feel the bliss that ignorance carries with it.

Rossi sat down in shock. His memory of the vibrant, young woman he had known had never faded. But he had seen the conditions she had lived in, the cage she had slept in each night, with nothing but a scratchy blanket and a piece of plywood set over the bars for comfort. And it broke his heart. But to hear this. Just when he thought there was nothing more they could have taken from her, he had been proved wrong.

Blake sat down beside him. She had never met JJ, she only knew what her team mates had said about her, and that they cared about her deeply. This was not a fate she would wish on anyone, to be so completely under someone else's control that they could forcibly remove a physical part of you and sell it for profit.

Hotch looked back at the nurse. He was so used to hiding his emotions, to keeping himself calm and collected, that it was almost second nature. But there were times when he wished to God that it was okay just to lose it, to take out all your anger and hurt on anyone and everyone, just because you needed to. Because no matter how bad things get, no matter how terrible a situation may be, they can, and will, always get worse. But losing it wasn't an option today, so instead, he replaced his unreadable mask and stepped towards the door.

"I think it would be better if we spoke outside, I can tell you everything you need to know." He said quietly to the nurse, who looked grateful to escape from the room of suffering agents. Prentiss looked up suddenly.

"Wait, there was a man, a John Doe, who would have been brought in about the same time as JJ. He had a gunshot wound to the chest. Is he alright? Did he make it?"

The young man nodded carefully, "He crashed on the way in but paramedics were able to resuscitate him. He was stabilised in the ER and then transferred to surgery. I'm afraid I don't know any more than that."

Whilst Hotch and the nurse stepped outside, Emily sighed in relief; Crow was alive, at least for now. Relief was evident on Morgan's face as well. He had seen how close JJ and Crow were and he knew without a doubt that JJ would need him when she woke up.

A/N well I hope that wasn't too slow for you, I'm thinking I might explore Crow's back story a little in the next chapter, what do you think? Don't forget to review/let me know about the sequel/no sequel thing.