"The night is darkest just before dawn. [...]" - Hideaki Sorachi
The case they had been working on had been a particular hard one. The unsub they had chased had tortured his victims to death by slowly beating them to death. His frequency, one victim every day, three woman and one man, also meant a brutal pace for the team. They had slept no more than six hours in three days and each member looked more worn out every day, slowly approaching physical and psychical exhaustion. Even Rossi, somewhat more prepared for this kind of sleeping routine due to his time as a marine, now showed clear signs of fatigue. He had tried to lighten the mood with some old military sayings about sleep, but even the effect of that faded with time.
Worse still, the arrest was not the smoothest they ever had. Garcia had located two properties registered to their suspect. As he had just kidnapped another victim, they knew they were short on time to safe the man, knowing he didn't need more than two hours to beat his victim to death.
Hotch, always the leader had made his call with his usual confidence and determination, almost in an instant. "Dave, Emily and Morgan, you come with me to his house. JJ and Reid, you go to the old family estate."
At the beginning, everything went well. JJ and Reid stormed the house through the front door. Due to being only two and drawing from past experience, they did not split up. In an instant, Reid knew something was off, but even with his genius IQ of 187, it took him a split second too long to figure out what it was. When his gaze fell onto the spots on the furniture, where the dust had clearly been wiped off, he knew Hotch had miscalculated. The unsub was with them.
"JJ", he raised his voice, wanting to warn his partner, but it was too late. While she was still in the process of turning around to him, the unsub appeared. Through they knew from the profile that their subject was physically fit, the photo that Garcia had send them did not do him justice. He was nearly 2m in size with a muscular physique. A hard right hook hit JJ in the process of turning, knocking her Glock out her hand and sending in flying across the room. Hit directly in the side of her face, she collapsed like a sack of potatoes.
For his size, the unsub was surprisingly agile and blindingly fast. Reid only managed to get one shot out, which went wide over the unsubs head before he was able to close the distance between them. A punch bit Reid just below the hip. He could swear he felt his bones break under the impact, as he dropped his revolver, which slid along the ground and out of his sight. Even with his broken ribs, remembering his hand-to-hand training lessons with morgan, he was ready. He parried another hook to his face, before quickly countering with a punch on his own towards the center of mass of his opponent, which send him stumbling backwards.
Quickly weighting up his chances, Reid decided to go for JJ's gun. As he spun around, the unsub attacked him again. With a jump, he landed next to JJ's weapon. Grabbing it, he turned around on the ground as quickly as he could. But it was too late. The unsubs face was not more than a meter away form, leaving him not enough time to aim and shot. While Reid's mind was busy calculating his next move in record time, he heard two gunshots. His attacker was clearly hit, judging from the spray of blood that showered him. Unable to control his body anymore, the dying man barrelled straight into Reid, crushing him under his weight.
While he was still fighting to get free from the body, he tried to locate the source of the shots. After a quick room scan, his eyes met JJ's. She was barely back up, resting on her elbows, holding his revolver which apparently had slid over to where she got hit. She smiled at him, a small unsure smile that faded from her face as she collapsed back onto the floor and slipped into unconsciousness.
Before he could do more than call out JJ's name, the door from which they had entered before, flew open again. He turned to see the rest of their team storming into the room, Hotch and Morgan in the lead. Hotch gave a wink to the accompanying officers: "Search the building". The two came straight to him with Morgan pulling the heavy body and Hotch helping him up. At the other side of the room, Rossi and Prentiss knelt down on both sides of the still unconscious JJ.
Reid got up with the help of Hotch, but could not stop himself from groaning in pain. "How is JJ?", were the first words he spoke to Hotch, before he was led outside to an ambulance that came with the second team.
On the other side of the room, Rossi had moved JJ sideways, after checking that she was steadily breathing. Just as he finished relocating her, she opened her eyes, a disoriented look on her face. "Dave, what's going on?", JJ muttered, still half unconscious. Her next words were more pronounced: "Did I hit him? Is Spence okay?".
"You're alright", Emily answered: "And he is too."
Outside, Reid was treated by a paramedic on his rib injury, but she kept insisting that he should go to the hospital for an x-ray scan. As he still argued with her, JJ was carried out of the building on a stretcher. "Hey JJ, how are you feeling?"
She didn't get a chance to answer before they were both carried to the hospital in separate ambulances.
The hospital checkups itself were uneventful. Reid got away with two partly fractured ribs as well as a dozen bruises from his collision with the unsub. JJ on the other had hat received a mild concussion and a severe bruise on the left side of her face, leaving it red and swollen. After the checkups, he was finally able to walk over to JJ's room, just when the nurse finished threating the bruise.
"Hey JJ, how are you", he asked with barely hidden concern as he examined her face, his genius mind cataloguing everything he saw. JJ smirked as she turned a bit to let him finish checking out her wound. "I'm fine Spence, nothing I can't handle. Besides that, I heard you got yourself engaged pretty hard." Now it was her turn to look concerned.
"It's nothing, two ribs and a few bruises. Don't tell Morgan that, but his hand-to-hand training really paid off", he said, rolling his eyes. That elicited a laugh from her.
She got up from the bed she was sitting on and engulfed Reid in a hug, being especially careful not to make contact with his ribs. Their hug lasted only a short while and they did not speak, before they were interrupted by Hotch and Rossi that entered the room. They broke apart and turned around, their arms still wrapped around each other.
"Good news", Rossi said: "Hotch convinced the doc to let both of you go." Their physical signs of relief were so strong that he started laughing and even Hotch could not hide a grin.
"Under the condition", he said, regaining his stern look: "that you both take your prescribed meds and get a good night's rest. We had a few stressful days and I send the others back to the hotel already. They wanted to wait for you two but they needed it".
"They both were soundly asleep when I came to the waiting room to tell them you were fine", Rossi remarked, a fatherly look on his face.
"I called Quantico that we stay for the night and fly home tomorrow. We all need to get a good few hours of sleep", Hotch said: "Come on let's get you two out of here". Rossi stepped over to JJ and offered her his arm.
"I must be hallucinating from my concussion, chivalry is not dead", JJ joked, taking the offered arm.
"Never with me mia bella", Rossi replied. When the four of them left the ER, Hotch padded Reid on the back but did not said anything, for which he was thankful, his mind still processing the events of the day. In front of them, JJ and Rossi where still locked into a playful back and forth about chivalry, but JJ had now leaned against Rossi, her check resting on his shoulder, his arm around her waist.
It was an interesting dynamic. During cases and official appearances, they (except Garcia) always seemed distant to each other as if they were just good colleagues. But outside of work, this tended to switch and they tended to physically contact each other much more than the average group of friends, independent of that being hugs, pads or even friendly kisses on cheeks, thanks to their intimacy much more resembling that of a family instead of mere friends.
The drive back to the motel was quick and uneventful, nobody speaking much until they had all reached their respective rooms and wished each other a good night. They had luck, having individual rooms this time instead of having to share.
Hours passed, but Reid could not sleep. Despite his physical exhaustion and the numb pain in his side, he couldn't get rest, his mind still coping with the stress of the day. This was nothing new, it always kept him awake if he or a member of the team were injured during a case. This normally allowed him peace of mind after rethinking and accepting everything that had led to an injury, but tonight it was not working. He got up and splashed cold water on his face before taking a few sips. Not content with laying back onto the bed and aimlessly starring at the ceiling for any longer, he left his room, hoping to get some fresh air. When he passed the door to JJ's room he stopped. Contemplating if he should check on her. He was unsure, as he didn't want to wake her up. As he was still weighting the pros and cons, the door opened.
"Spence, what are you doing here?", a very surprised JJ asked.
"I was going to check on you and get some fresh air…", he trailed off.
An impossible sweet smile appeared on JJ's face: "I can't sleep as well. I also thought on checking on you, but I guess that is not needed anymore." Her smile grew just a little bit wider. "Come in, it is way too cold out here". She reached out to him and he took her hand and let her pull him inside. She quickly made herself comfortable in her bed, a huge blanket draped over her, while Reid stayed in the middle of the room, looking somewhat lost. A few seconds passed with JJ looking up to him before she spoke: "Come on Spence, hop over here and make yourself comfortable".
"I don't know if I should…", was all he managed to say before she shut him off: "You are my friend and I insist." Her eyes emitted that kind of spark that let him know further resistance was futile. When she lifted the blanked on the right side of the bed, Reid crawled under the blanked and laid down on his intact side, facing her. Their faces were now very close together. She knew the look on his face, arguing internally if he should say something. But she knew better than to push him, so she just kept her eyes on him, waiting for him so speak. When he finally started, it was not what she expected.
"I want to thank you and I want to apologize, If I had connected the clues at the house quicker you would not have been…".
"No!", she shut him off, catching him off guard: "This wasn't your fault, so don't even try to present it as yours". A stern look entered her eyes.
"But you could have been…", Reid started again but again, JJ cut him off, this time by taking his hand, that laid between them on the bed. Reid was normally not a very physical person, not even shaking hands, but he had always made considerable exceptions for his family and most of all for her. So, he entwined their fingers and held her hand firmly.
"What happened was not your fault or anybody's fault really. It was just unlucky that he was at our location, the chances where what, 20%?", she looked expectantly over to him.
"Actually 19,573%", he muttered, coaxing a smile out of JJ.
"You see, we just had bad luck and actually you did spare me from a much wore fate." This was answered with a questioning look. "The doctors in the hospital told me that I was lucky to still have an intact skull. They said the punch had only grazed me so it didn't crack open my skull. But as I see it, I didn't have luck, I had you… If you hadn't warned me…", she trailed off, leaving the answer open.
"Thank you", Reid softly said: "For saving me today and for putting up with my sulk".
Reid winced when JJ hit him against his chest. "Hey what was that for, I didn't…" once again he was cut off, this time by her "mom look", reducing him to silence under her gaze. Contrary to her look, when she spoke, her voice was soft and full of compassion.
"On the lifesaving part, we call it even. You warned me and I got him. One the sulking part, I don't ever want to hear you say that again. You're my best friend, you can always come to me." She could now see him physical relaxing, the stress from the day finally leaving his body.
"I don't deserve you". Reid always had problems opening up to people, stemming from his troubled childhood, combined with his fear of loss.
"Yes, you do you idiot! And now sleep, we have a long flight back tomorrow". With that, she leaned over and placed a kiss on his forehead. Reid, already half asleep, reacted with a smile. Moments later, the fatigue of their day finally took hold of them and they both fell asleep.
Hours later, when Hotch gathered his agents for their flight home, he found his two youngest agents still hand in hand and in deep sleep.
