"Do you have a shot?", Hotch asked sternly.
"I could disarm him, I can't get a kill shot.", Rossi replied.
"Take it.", ordered Hotch, the tension palpable in his voice.
As soon as Rossi had taken the shot, Morgan, Emily and Hotch hurried down the stairs.
Morgan kicked Daniels' gun out of his reach and Hotch started handcuffing him.
Rossi's shot had hit his left shoulder.
Emily immediately went over to JJ, she was tied to a wooden beam by her hands and feet and her blouse was ripped open.
Morgan and Hotch quickly took the assailant out of the basement; Reid and Rossi appeared at the top of the stairs but Emily said, looking at JJ: "Can you stay out of the basement for now and maybe send down some female paramedics?"
"Of course", Rossi replied.
JJ looked utterly terrified and Emily wasn't sure whether she had been able to comprehend everything that had happened and therefore that Daniels was no longer a threat to her.
"JJ?", Emily asked, kneeling in front of her friend, "it's me, Emily, you're save now. Is it okay if I untie your hands?" Relief flooded through the agent as she saw a look of recognition on her best friend's face and JJ gave her a tiny nod.
While untying her hands and feet Emily saw that her face sported a couple of bruises and her wrists and ankles were rubbed raw.
"JJ, can you tell me where your hurting the most?", Emily said, trying to assess how badly she had been hurt.
"Em, I'm so sorry, I..."
"JJ, you have nothing to be sorry for, you didn't do anything wrong. You're safe now, he can't hurt you anymore."
But JJ just kept saying that she was sorry.
Emily was wondering what she could possibly mean by that and the mental state of her fellow agent and friend worried her immensely.
When the paramedics came down the stairs, JJ tensed up but seemed more at ease, when she saw that they were two young females, probably around her age.
When they wanted to assess her however, JJ refused to be touched and insisted on walking and not being carried out on a stretcher.
"Would it be okay, if your friend here helped you to get to the ambulance?", the paramedic who had introduced herself as Sienna carefully asked, trying to make the traumatised woman feel more safe.
When JJ hesitantly nodded, she said:" Okay, if you need to stop at any point, just say so."
Emily realised that JJ was shivering, so she took off her FBI jacket and draped it over JJ's shoulders.
When they emerged from the basement after what appeared to be a painful climb of the stairs, JJ's gaze went to the floor as soon as she saw Reid and Rossi, who were cautiously looking at her.
Emily shook her head slightly, to give them to understand that they shouldn't approach their colleague and friend right now.
Once in the ambulance, between Emily and the paramedics, they were able to convince JJ to be hooked up to an IV and a heart monitor.
She had become rather quiet was as starring into space.
"JJ, I will stay by your side as long as you want me to. Do you want me to call Will?"
When Emily mentioned Will, a look of panic appeared on the blonde's face. To be honest, Emily had already had a strong hunch that JJ didn't want to see her boyfriend right now, especially with what she had implied about their relationship yesterday evening.
Was it only just yesterday that he two friends had talked about that? Emily wished that she could turn back time and save JJ from whatever she had gone through.
She vowed to making her friend feel save and to help her get through this.
"It's okay, we don't have to call him right now, he doesn't have to be here if you don't want him to.", Emily assured JJ, when they were arriving at the hospital, "Do you want me to stay with you?"
JJ nodded.
The brunette agent was relieved that it seemed like at least for the time being JJ hadn't shut her out and that she seemed willing to accept support from her.
The stretcher was pushed into an exam room and JJ felt overwhelmed by the amount of people in the room; there were the two paramedics, two nurses and a doctor. The paramedics were about to leave however, and JJ noticed relieved that once again the treatment team was all female.
"Agent Jareau? Did you hear me?", the doctor asked.
"Um, sorry. No, I guess I was ..." JJ trailed off.
"That's alright, my name is Dr. Hailey Keppler" the doctor repeated, "could you tell me where you are hurt and maybe also a little about what happened?" The doctor had a calm and soothing, but also firm voice.
"I, um..." JJ looked over to Emily, who was standing right next to her.
"Dr. Keppler", Emily spoke up, knowing what her friend was non-verbally asking for, "would it be okay if I started explaining?"
"Is that okay for you, Agent Jareau?", the doctor asked; JJ nodded again.
"She was abducted by a suspect of our current case earlier this morning. When we found her just now, she was tied up in a basement.", Emily began," I don't know what happened during the time that he kept her."
An uncomfortable silence filled the room. JJ knew that it was her turn to tell them what had happened to her but not only did she not know where to start or how to describe it but she also felt like she physically couldn't do it.
She knew that Emily had tried to step in and help her by starting to explain the situation and she was grateful for that; but she felt helpless and like she was not in control.
JJ hated not feeling in control. It brought back unwanted memories of times she wasn't keen on ever revisiting.
She felt like she was stuck in herself and couldn't act unless someone gave her clear commands.
"Agent Jareau? Agent Jareau? Can you look at me?", JJ heard Dr. Keppler's voice through the fog of her own thoughts and emotions.
Looking up, she saw that both Emily and the doctor were eying her cautiously with looks of worry.
"I understand that this must be really difficult for you. Do you think it would be alright for you if I asked you some questions and started examining you?" Dr. Keppler asked more firmly but nonetheless with a certain softness and kindness.
JJ nodded once again.
"Okay, can you tell me today's date?"
"Um, I guess it's Thursday night or maybe early Friday morning. That would be the 10th or 11th of October."
"Good, that's great. I'm going to use this light to check for your pupil reaction... okay, that's looking fine. You don't seem to have a concussion."
The doctor was relieved that the earlier impaired consciousness didn't seem to stem from a head injury, but this indicated that it was probably due to her struggling with dissociation, which wasn't uncommon after being severely traumatised.
She was going to have to find out what exactly had happened to the agent to cause this trauma appart from the obvious consequences of being abducted.
"I noticed that your breathing is a little shallow and erratic, are you in pain or is that due to your anxiety?"
"Um...", JJ felt a flash of memories coming back but managed to not slip away and stay in the present moment, "I... I received some punshes and kicks to my abdomen and ribs so...", JJ trailed off, trying to stay in the present moment, to focus on being safe, being with Emily in this hospital room.
"Okay, I'm going to have to open you blouse and take a look."
When she did, Emily couldn't help but gasp at the sight.
Her friend's torso was covered in already dark black and blue bruises in stark contrast to her pale skin.
"I'm gong to touch you now, please tell me if it becomes too painful."
Dr. Keppler started to palpate her abdomen and press on her ribs to feel for internal injuries and fractured ribs.
JJ's face remained completely stoic, even though it was extremely painful.
"Okay, from what I could feel, you have three broken and two fractured ribs, the bruises on you abdomen don't seem to be deep tissue bruising, but I'm going to order a CT scan to check for internal bleeding and and an x-ray for your ribs.
Your oxygen saturation is a little lower that what I would like it to be, so I want to support your breathing with a nasal oxygen tube."
The doctor paused for a moment before asking her next question, wondering how the woman had been able to not react to her earlier examination.
"Agent Jareau, on a scale from one to ten, can you tell me how much pain you are in at the moment? One being no pain and 10 the highest."
JJ just felt numb. She could feel that her body was in pain but she didn't really feel connected to her body. "I don't know..."
"JJ, please, you don't have to be tough right now, you deserve to get some pain relief...", Emily strated.
"It's not that", JJ interrupted her, "it's just that I feel really numb. Everything is really distant and surreal at the moment."
"What you are feeling is not uncommon. You went through a traumatic event, both physically and mentally. I would suggest that I finish examing you and run the tests and then I would like to give you some pain medication and a light sedative to relief you from the pain and exertion.", Dr. Keppler suggested. JJ nodded.
It was becoming obvious to Emily, how out of it and exhausted JJ had to be in order to agree to staying in a hospital and be medicated.
"Do you think you could tell us now what else has happened?", the doctor asked carefully, glad that she had managed to get her patient to communicate at least a little more than just nodding or a few words.
"Um... I don't really know where to begin", JJ mumbled.
"Do you remember being at the Smith's house", Emily intervened. JJ nodded.
"Why don't you start by telling us what you remember after that.", Emily proposed.
"Yeah, I guess... I wanted to clear my head after having to inform the family of Julia's death, I walked down the street and I guess I was quite distracted... I remember having an uneasy feeling and then I felt being pricked with a needle in my neck and... the next thing I remember is being in that basement, tied up..." Tears were streaming down her face but she didn't seem to notice, too consumed by her memories, her gaze starring into space again.
She flinched, when Emily took her hand, but quickly
realised that it was just Emily and squeezed back. Then she felt like she was stuck again, it was physically impossible to keep talking.
Realising that, Dr. Keppler asked: "Would it be easier if I asked you some medically relevant questions? That way you wouldn't have to go through everything right now." JJ nodded.
"Were you drugged apart from what you've just told us?"
"I don't think so", JJ replied quietly, relieved that the doctor was asking her questions now.
"Did he physically injure you in any other way than what you've told us?"
"Um...", JJ's breathing quickened and she let go of Emily's hand.
She started stimming with her hands, she felt like she was slipping away into her memories again.
Dr. Keppler had a strong hunch but felt reluctant about asking the woman in front of her.
"Agent Jareau", she finally said as calmly and empathetically as possible when she realised that her patient wouldn't answer her previous question, "were you sexually assaulted?"
