*Through many dangers,

toils and snares,

we have already come.

'Twas grace that brought us safe thus far,

and grace will lead us home.* – Amazing Grace

Left foot.

Right foot.

And again. At this point, Reid hung between Hotch and Prentiss, his head bowed, breathing labored. His vice like grip giving way to exhaustion and his limping had become foot dragging. The only comfort he took was in the sound of the sirens just ahead.

"You're almost there, Reid. Reid! REID! Hotch!"

Hotch quickly grabbed Reid's other arm and brought the young man to his knees before he could fall flat on his face. The two men knelt down on the edge of the grass, Reid resting his head on Hotch's shoulder.

"I knew..." Reid panted, trying to raise his head up to look at Hotch, only to decide that took too much energy.

"Tell me tomorrow, Reid," Hotch hushed him, while the senior agent signaled for help. The paramedics took over, half-carrying, half-dragging Reid the rest of the way to the pavement before lowering him onto gurney again.

"Spencer, my name is Matt, this is Ryan. We're going to get you to the hospital, but I need you to answer a few questions on the way."

"BAU team: J.J, Morgan, Prentiss, into the SUV. Let's go."

"Shouldn't one of us go with him?" Emily asked as Hotch motioned every one towards the SUV.

"No. In the car, I'll explain everything."

Not needing to be told twice, Emily followed Hotch and climbed into the back seat with J.J. just as the ambulance sirens went on. "They need to ask him some questions about his other injuries and its more likely that he'll be truthful if there isn't an audience. Don't worry, he's in good hands."

"You don't think he was sexually abused do you? The previous victims..."

"...had no evidence of sexual assault. I know, Morgan. I doubt it," Hotch admitted as he opened the driver side door.

"Um, Hotch, maybe someone who hasn't been shot should drive!"

Hotch paused for a moment, then nodded, handing the keys to Morgan and climbed into shotgun.

With everyone belted and sirens on, they were off.

"The other victims," Hotch continued, as if there had been no interruption "were killed by Rafael. Most of our profile was based on Rafael's behavior, but it seems as if Charles was the one in control tonight. Reid was apologizing for weakness back at the graveyard which tells me he's embarrassed about something."

"So we're letting him suffer alone because of embarrassment?"

"He knows we're here for him." Hotch's voice was confident, reassuring - except that the car was full of profilers and not one of them was buying it.

"No we aren't. He's there, we are here!" J.J. was starting to get hysterical again. "He's scared and he's going to think we are abandoning him. You wouldn't even let me see him."

"The paramedics need to be able to tell the doctors what happened and the only one who knows that is Reid. We don't know how he got the head wound or if there are any broken bones from the first night's beating...or anything else that happened when the cameras were off. If having privacy makes him more willing to talk, then privacy is what he'll get. And the more information he gives in transit the faster the doctors can help him."

J.J. sighed and leaned back in the seat. Hotch was right. She looked out the window to see the ambulance lights in the distance, relieved when she felt the SUV speed up.

"And I'm sorry for keeping you from seeing him, but I had to. You said yourself the last thing he remembers is the two of you splitting up. You shot the dogs, he probably heard the shots and thought you were in danger - "

"You're saying its MY fault. He came back to help me!"

"J.J., no! We don't know that. But if Reid saw the blood on your shirt, he might think the worst. We don't need him panicked over nothing."

"Where is Gideon anyway? Emily asked, before J.J. could get even more worked up. "I didn't see him after he pulled Reid out of -" Her voice caught in her throat.

"He headed back for the ambulance the same time I did. I don't think he realized Hotch assigned me to that. When I showed up, he said he was going to get Garcia back at the house. They're probably already there."

"Garcia must be loosing her mind. She called the paramedics. They knew he'd been stabbed. She must have seen it happen via webcam."

"If Baby Girl hadn't called from the house, we would have been waiting a lot longer."

"Let's not think about that, alright. He's alive, he's in good hands. It's going to be a good night. A little optimism please. Happy thoughts. Happy, happy, happy."

Emily smirked, she just couldn't resist. "You've been watching too much Barney haven't you, Hotch?"

"No!"

"Hotch..."

It's not my fault Haley puts on the Barney sound track for Jack's bedtime!"

When they finally arrived at the hospital, they were greeted by two very familiar voices.

"How could you be so stupid!" Gideon exclaimed, not noticing the rest of the team. "Do you have any idea how worried I was when you weren't back at the house?"

"What was I supposed to do? Sit around on my perfect posterior and do nothing?"

"You broke the law!"

"So what are you going to do about it? Arrest me? He killed at least 6 people and hurt Reid for the past three days and you're mad at me for stealing that run down piece of crap of his? Trust me, karma is still in my favor."

"Two wrongs don't make-"

"Alright, alright!" Hotch stepped in between them. "Enough of that. If the owner is dead, he can't press charges. I don't care. Garcia, where is Reid?"

"They took him down to radiology as soon as they got here a few minutes ago. They wouldn't even let me see him. I just heard the paramedics give his name to the doctor."

"I'll go get the doctor," Gideon volunteered.

He returned moments later with a petite Asian lady in a lab coat.

"Are you all here for Spencer Reid? Any family among you?"

"How is he?" Garcia was fiddling with her bracelets and her mascara was smeared across her face and from the fact that half of it was perfect, it looked as if she had tried to reapply it and then gave it up as hopeless.

"No," Hotch replied. "We are from D.C. on a case, you can speak to all of us."

"Case?"

"Yes. I'm Agent Hotchner, we're with the FBI, as is your patient."

"Very well, my name is Dr. Patricia Cheng, I will be attending to Agent Reid tonight-"

"Dr." It was Gideon, as usual.

"Sorry?"

"Gideon, not now."

"Dr. Reid."

"Isn't he a bit young-?"

"He graduated from high school when he was 12 and somehow has three doctorates, can read faster than a computer and has a perfect memory," Emily finished in a ramble that would have made Reid proud. "Can we get on with it? How is he?"

"Well I will have to take issue with the 'perfect memory' claim. The paramedics say he told them that he was 'hit in the back.' Apparently from how he was trying to move, he doesn't realize that there is a knife in his back. That means that he's still in shock which is masking some of the pain."

"Masking?" Emily's jaw dropped to the ground. If shock was masking the worst of the pain she didn't want to imagine how much pain he would be in when it wore off.

"How can he NOT know its there?"

"He's been taken to radiology so we can see what we are dealing with," Dr. Cheng continued as if she had not been interrupted. "But I need to know everything about what happened and if he has any other medical conditions or prescription medications."

"No," Hotch answered. "I'm his medical contact and he wasn't on any prescriptions to my knowledge prior to his abduction, but he is allergic to Beta Lactums. Didn't the paramedics ask him?'" Hotch could have sworn they asked Reid at least routine questions when they first arrived in order to assess his condition.

"Thank you and no, he was not. When asked his birthday the paramedics said his answer did not match yours. You - or someone at the crime scene - said his birth year was 1981, he claimed it was 1980. Now either, he couldn't finish what he was saying due to breathing difficulties or the head trauma is causing problems with memory recall, either way his answers could not be relied upon. He also denied having taken any drugs prescription or otherwise, whereas the paramedics said a crime scene source found evidence of Dilaudid injections, which is consistent with the five fresh needle marks on his arms."

"Hankel's rehab contact mentioned that he would cut the drugs sometimes, usually with a psychedelic...He gave some to Reid?" Reid was on narcotics, and in shock and still in that much pain?

Morgan nodded. "While you were in the cabin, Reid asked for the medicine in Hankel's pocket. He didn't know what it was called but he knew it was there. I told the paramedics and Detective Farraday about it. It's been taken to the lab for analysis."

"We've already drawn a stat tox screen as well as a CBC and a Chem Panel but without knowing what he's been given or how much, I can't justify giving him any morphine. If he seizes from an overdose, he could puncture a lung or tear an artery. And with that head wound, putting him under anesthesia could cause a cardiac event."

"Don't heart attack victims get surgery all the time?" Garcia asked. "Why can't you -?"

"Because most heart attack victims don't have a head wound, an unknown amount of unknown narcotics in their system and a knife in the back. I would have to examine his head wound further to know the risk level for certain but I can't put him into an MRI with that knife. The machine is basically a gigantic magnet. It would rip the knife out of his back, killing him in seconds." Not to mention the damage that a flying knife could do .

"He also can't handle a second cardiac event."

"Second?"

"The kidnapper sent us video images of Reid's torture -"

"Torture? In addition to the knife wound?"

"Yes, it's been a long three days. In the videos, he was seizing and going into cardiac arrest less than two hours ago. The kidnapper didn't want to loose the leverage of a hostage so he gave Reid CPR..."

"That could be from a concussion or the the result of an overdose. If it's the overdose then more would kill him," Dr. Cheng finished.

"Its probably the overdose," Hotch added. "He had the blood on his head in the first video footage 2 days ago."

"Please tell me you aren't going to take it out without anesthesia," Garcia begged.

"There is one other option, there are risks, but they are much less likely."

Emily could tell just from Dr. Cheng's hesitation that she didn't like her own idea, which was ominous to say the least.

"We could give him an epidural. He would be awake for the procedure but once it takes effect, usually in less than 20 minutes, he would be numb from injection point on down. At that point we could safely remove the knife."

"That sounds wonderful, what's the risk?" Garcia was chewing her manicured nails wondering how numbing her Junior-G man was such a bad idea. "Wait, I thought pregnant women get those in labor?"

"Epidurals are most commonly given during labor because the fetus can't tolerate I.V. pain killers, but what they do is block pain signals from the spinal cord. We would have to use a needle to inject a catheter and then through the catheter, we inject the medicine into his spine. I won't know where to put the epidural until we get the xrays back, but there is the risk of paralysis, which is my main concern and the reason this is a last resort. With the epidural, we can administer a variety of different drugs including corticosteriods, pain killers and numbing agents straight to the spine without the drugs entering his blood stream. It's the drugs in his blood stream which pose the greater immediate risk, if he were to have another seizure, it would surely kill him. That risk is high and the chances of paralysis from the epidural are slim, but it is a risk."

"A needle in his spine? My poor baby genius." Garcia looked ready to faint. "I'm never going out into the field again."

"How great is the risk of paralysis?"

"Minor, about 10%. But there is also the risk of infection and minor nerve damage. Minor as in not paralysis. This is a last resort. Normally I.V. sedation is the safest, but -"

"But this isn't normal. I understand. Bring me the consent forms," Hotch instructed as he lowered Garcia into the seat before they had two of the team in for head injures.

"Very well. Also if you have that video footage, I would like to see it for myself."

"We'll have it brought over ASAP. Oh and Dr. Cheng, one more thing. We are going to need that knife as evidence and you might want to run an STD panel on Dr. Reid, we believe that knife may have been used in 6 previous murders -"

"5." Emily corrected. "Mrs. Douglas didn't have her throat sliced, she was...never mind," she trailed off, cringing at the memory.

"Very well, I'll add an STD screen to his blood work and since I'm guessing his vaccination record isn't on hand, I'll get him Tetanus and Hepatitis B vaccines as soon as the knife is out."

"Excuse me, Dr.?" Emily approached her before she could leave the waiting room. "Is it okay if I stay with him when he's out of radiology. If him staying still is as important as you say, I think I can keep him calm until the epidural takes effect."

"If it's okay with my patient, and you don't get in the way of my nurses, then yes. And no crime scene talk unless I ask for it, okay?"

"Understood."

"I'll ask him when he's out of radiology. Your name?"

"Emily Prentiss." When she got back to the team, Hotch was pulling keys out of his pocket and handing them to J.J.

"Take Garcia back to Hankel's house to get the footage. We'll call the house if there's any news. If anyone else wants to join them, go ahead. I'm staying here."

"So am I," Morgan and Prentiss answered in the same breath.

"I'll go with you, I know the way." Gideon got up and followed J.J. and Garcia out of the waiting room.

Emily rolled her eyes and Gideon's back. "He knows the way?" she scoffed. "Well that's a lame excuse."

"He doesn't want to see Reid in pain because he feels guilty about the virus warning. Like J.J. feels guilty for splitting up."

"Except that J.J. is begging to see him, Gideon is avoiding him."

"Everyone copes differently."

The three of them sat in silence, not wanting to talk about what happened and not wanting to think about the statistics that Reid would usually be rambling off at this point. He must be so scared, Emily thought sadly. Reid thrives off of information, and being in that much pain with that little information must be terrifying him.

"I don't know about you guys, but I feel like an idiot." Morgan had his head in his hands after the uncomfortable silence became unbearable..

"How so?"

"Does no one find it strange that we couldn't solve this case without Reid. I mean he's the VICTIM and he still solved the case."

"Don't talk about him like that!" came Garcia's sharp tongue from over head. "Sorry, I know he is. But when I think of victims, I think of corpses, and I can't think about him like that. And that stupid Dr. never answered my question."

"She's not stupid, Baby Girl. She's just focused on helping Reid, which is how it should be."

"How could my genius doctor not know that he has a knife in his back, that's kind of a hard thing to miss."

"Not really," Hotch answered, not looking up for the patient information packets the nurse had handed him with the consent forms. "He can't see the injury. He knows he has a back injury that's causing breathing difficulty. It's not unusual for trauma victims not to realize the severity. Some people in car accidents don't even realize it when they loose limbs. There's so much trauma the nervous system can't process all of the pain signals properly. All the patient is aware of is that there is pain and lots of it. They know what hurts but they don't always know why."

"Like phantom pains. People thinking they have pain in limbs they no longer have."

"Something like that. Reid could explain it better. How did you guys get back here so fast?"

"We may have cut a few corners," J.J. answered, handing the keys back to Hotch with a small smile.

"You used the sirens." It wasn't a question.

"You said ASAP. The hospital is actually closer to the Hankel house than it was to the cabin."

"Where's Gideon?"

"Back at the house!" was Garcia's angry retort. "'Well we can't be of any help at the hospital so we might as well get some rest'." She put down the hand quotations and slammed her laptop on the waiting room sofa with a little too much gusto. "Its like he doesn't care," she snarled in a very uncharacteristic way as she powered up the laptop and plugged in a USB drive.

"He cares, he just has a lousy bedside manner."

"It has to exist before it can be lousy. Please tell me he's okay."

"No word yet."

"Well then I'll just have to find some! I don't care if I have to -"

"Garcia, no turning their computer system into - anything. And no hacking security cameras to check on him."

"But Boss Man!"

"No!"

"Fine!" Garcia snapped the laptop lid shut and took off down the hallway towards the nurses' station.

"I do not envy those nurses right now!" J.J. knew Garcia would stop at nothing to get the information she wanted.

"Garcia!"

The cyber tech stopped in her tracks.

"What are you doing?"

"Dr. Cheng wanted the video footage. I'm just following Dr.'s orders," she answered innocently. "I promise no stone age technology."Then she was out of sight.

"Want odds on her resorting to blackmail?"

"I'll take those."

"Emily Prentiss."

Emily looked up to see a tall brunette nurse.

"Yes?"

"Agent Reid is out of radiology. Dr. Cheng said you wanted to see him."

"Yes. How is he?"

"No change in his condition. Dr. Cheng is reviewing the film. Come with me."

"You should know, our tech, Penelope Garcia has the footage Dr. Cheng requested. She's just left to try to track her down. Oh there she is - Garcia!"

"I don't care if -Emily!"

Emily didn't miss the relived look on the nurse's face as Garcia's attention was redirected.

"He's out of radiology. Come with us. Dr. Cheng will be in his room shortly but if he wants to you leave, you have to. Okay."

"Got it. I probably won't be able to stomach anything. I just haven't seen him since I saw it happen on the video and I just -I have to see him - I"

"I know. I know. Just calm down before you go in the room. We don't want you upsetting him. If you can't calm down, then you can wait for Dr. Cheng outside."

"Okay, okay, I'm calm. I'm TOTALLY calm. Absolutely."

"That's right, just keep telling yourself that."

The nurse pulled back the curtain. Garcia couldn't stop the chocking sob as she saw Reid curled up on the bed. He was lying on his side with a couple of pillows separating him from the bed rails. He was clutching a pillow with one hand and the bars with the other. His face was buried in the pillows, the oxygen mask barely visible. They could still hear the sobs and labored breathing. The bed blankets thankfully covered up the knife and the blood but she could still see the outline of it.

"My poor baby!" Garcia wailed, kneeling next to the bed. "Reid, Reid it's Garcia! I'm here. Emily is here." She slipped her hand through the rail and grabbed the one that was clutching the pillow - the one without the I.V. and pulse oximetry machine. Garcia turned to look at Emily, at a loss. She wasn't used to getting no response out of Reid. Reid and silence were never a good combination.

"Is there anything I can get you, Reid? You must be hungry. Do you want some coffee, jello? Just name it, anything." She caressed his check, wiping away the tears. His face was drenched.

"HURTS!"

"I know, baby. I know. It'll be over soon, but you need to eat. You need your strength."

"Reid, it's Emily." She turned to Garcia and motioned her aside. Garcia got up and sat down in the chair along the wall. "Reid, give me a thumbs up for yes and down for no. Do you know what an epidural is?"

One thumb up.

"Okay, Dr. Cheng is reviewing your x-rays. When she comes back, you're going to be prepped for an epidural. It's going to numb your back so the pain will be gone and she can fix you up. You just need to hold on for a few more minutes, okay."

"Gone?"

"Yes, the pain will be gone." She couldn't help but notice the small but short lived smile that crossed his face at the thought. "Hey, how about a song. Got any songs you'd like us to sing." She ran her fingers through his bloody hair.

"Dylan."

"Bob Dylan, okay. We can sing some Bob Dylan. Garcia, know any Bob Dylan songs?"

Emily moved down toward the end of the bed, keeping her hand on Reid's back just below the knife, to make sure it stayed steady if he did move. In the meantime, Garcia reclaimed her place by the head of the bed and took his hand and rested her other one on his bloody hair and started singing 'Shelter from the Storm'. Her voice was shaking through her tears, but Emily thought it was the most beautiful sound she'd ever heard.