A/N: This one kinda ran away from me at the end.


Flashes of orange. Intense heat. Then red and blue, cool night air brushing her skin. Then a torch light, waving in her face. Voices, yelling, talking in frantic, hushed tones. Then softer voices, kind and calm. All just minute flashes, slivers of consciousness as she fought her way back to wakefulness.

It was in the air that she came to completely. Silence and darkness gave way to the sound of helicopter blades, an intense buzzing that seemed to vibrate through her skull. More voices, yelling over the sound of the machinery, but in the midst of it all, another calm face, peering at her over the oxygen mask she could now feel on her face. A young woman, probably in her thirties, wearing earmuffs and a jacket, which JJ could just make out as having FLIGHT NURSE emblazoned across the left hand pocket.

"You're ok sweetheart!" she called out to JJ as soon as they locked eyes. "We're taking you to Atlanta! Don't try to speak, you've inhaled some smoke and your throat will be dry as hell!"

She wanted to speak. She wanted to ask why the hell she was in a helicopter. People didn't get airlifted for smoke inhalation. And where was Luke? Was he ok? She didn't remember seeing him… god, what if he was dead?

"We're almost there, only about five minutes away now!" came the voice of the paramedic, breaking her from her train of thought. She tried to lift her hand, wanting to reach out for the young woman who was keeping such a calm presence as they bounced about the sky above Atlanta, but she couldn't move. Her body felt heavy, like lead… what had been in that bomb? It had knocked her for six.

"Just keep nice and still. You're pretty banged up, I want the doctors to check you out before we go making any big moves, ok?"

And then everything was coming in flashes yet again. Whether it was a stream of consciousness, or just pure exhaustion, she didn't know, but she drifted in and out, catching moments every time her eyes flicked open. They were pulling her out of the helicopter, lifting her onto a gurney while the rotary blades continued to spin above them. Voices yelling orders, hands passing charts and equipment back and forth.

Then she was in a bright room, white walls surrounding her, the buzzing of the helicopter replaced by the hustle and bustle that could only come from an inner city emergency department. Someone was shining a pen light into her eyes, flicking it back and forth. Instinctively, she screwed up her face, trying to pull away from the light, but she couldn't move.

"Sorry honey, I know that's not super pleasant"

Cracking her eyes open again, JJ looked up into a kind face looking down at her. Another woman, this time probably closer to her own age. She was African American, her eyes twinkling in a way that reminded her of Derek Morgan, her curly hair piled effortlessly atop her head in a messy bun.

"What's your name?" she asked, pausing for a moment at JJ's bedside, creating just a moment of calm in a room that was nothing short of chaos.

Swallowing hard, JJ licked her lips, trying to coat her mouth with some sort of moisture before she spoke. As she tried to speak, her voice was hoarse, her vocal chords rubbed raw from the smoke, but finally, she managed to croak out a couple of words. "JJ"

"JJ, I'm Cassandra. Cassie, if you like. We're just going through your initial examination, but I'm going to be taking care of you while you're down here in the ER with us today," the woman replied with a smile. "Do you remember what happened?"

"A bomb," JJ said, her voice coming out in a dry rasp.

"JJ, I need you to tell me if you can feel this," came a second voice, this time male. She waited, watching Cassie's face, expecting to feel something any second.

But it never came.

She watched as Cassie looked up at the doctor and gave the tiniest shake of her head.

"Let me try on this side, JJ, tell me if you can feel it"

But again, she felt nothing.

"What's wrong?" she croaked out, her blue eyes suddenly wide and fearful as she looked up towards Cassie.

"It's ok," Cassie said gently. "Your body is basically one big bruise right now, so your nerves are probably being dulled by swollen muscles. We'll get one of our specialists to come down and check you out properly. Right now, just rest… everything is going to be ok"

But as Cassie and the doctor moved away, her chart in hand, JJ couldn't rest. Her mind was going a million miles an hour.

If she was one big bruise… why wasn't she in any pain?


The two hour flight to Atlanta had surely been the longest two hours of Emily Prentiss' life.

She and Rossi had sat tensely side by side amongst unassuming passengers, both of them totally unsure of what they were heading into, neither of them speaking, moving… nothing. She had considered calling Will before boarding the flight… but this late at night, she didn't want to call until she knew exactly what was going on; because while it didn't sound good over the phone, she knew it always sounded worse until you could assess it yourself, and there was no point in worrying Will if JJ was going to walk out of the hospital in a few hours with no more than a concussion and some scrapes.

They'd hit the ground in Atlanta and parted ways, Rossi taking off to Whitfield County with an agent from the local field office, Emily heading straight to Emory University Hospital, with the promise to update each other as soon as they had more information. Upon arriving at the hospital, she beelined straight for the admissions desk in the emergency department, her hand already pulling her badge from her pocket as she approached the clerk. She closed in on the desk, her shadow falling across the clerk's paperwork and pulling a sigh from the young girl.

"Please take a seat and someone will be with you shortly to assess you"

Opening her badge, Emily slapped it down on the desk, drawing the clerk's attention immediately up to her imposing silhouette. "Two federal agents were just airlifted to this hospital. I need to see them, and I need to know their conditions"

The clerk, whose name tag reading Jessica, was now visible to Emily, looked up at her with a stunned expression, seemingly unsure what to say next. Emily raised an eyebrow, and that seemed to be enough to provoke Jessica into moving.

"I… of course ma'am, please… please come with me"

Reaching over to her right, Jessica hit a button to open the doors that led out of the triage room into the main space of the ER. Even at this time of night, it was abuzz with activity, machines beeping amongst chaotic chatter and the occasional flurry of raised voices.

"If you wait right here, I'll go and find Dr Fitzgerald, he was the admitting doctor," Jessica said timidly, gesturing for Emily to wait in a spot along the hall that seemed to be relatively out of the way. "I won't be long"

Nodding once, Emily looked around her as Jessica hurried off. Across the hall, waiting on a gurney, was a little girl probably no older than six or seven. Her right hand was wrapped in bandages, bandages that were rapidly soaking with blood. The little girl didn't seem to be panicking, but a few scared tears were making their way down her cheeks as the man with her, who Emily presumed was her father, kissed the top of her head and gave her a tight cuddle.

Taking a deep breath, Emily closed her eyes for just a moment. God, she hated hospitals.

"Agent Prentiss?"

Opening her eyes, Emily found an older man standing before her. The embroidery on the left side of his coat clued her in that this was the Dr Fitzgerald she was to speak to. True to her word, Jessica had been quick.

"Yes," Emily said, smoothing down her jacket as she straightened up in front of the doctor. "I believe you admitted two of my agents this evening, Agent Alvez and Agent Jareau"

"I did," Dr Fitzgerald said calmly. "Both agents arrived via the air ambulance service. Agent Alvez was treated very quickly and has already been taken upstairs to the OR"

"Surgery?"

"Nothing major. Agent Alvez has a bit of a nasty head injury, some shrapnel wounds on his upper back and arms, a few broken ribs, and a few burns. Only one of the burns is third degree, on his forearm, but the burns team were able to treat it very quickly and he should make a full recovery… not without scars, but the function will remain the same. He's in the OR to have the shrapnel removed from his wounds and the burns properly debrided and dressed… after that, he'll probably be here for a few days before he's able to be discharged"

A small wave of relief seemed to flood through Emily as the doctor's words sunk in. "And Agent Jareau?"

Dr Fitzgerald paused for a moment, before glancing over Emily's shoulder. "Why don't we step out of the hallway for a moment"

As quickly as the relief had hit her, the dread was back. Allowing the doctor to guide her into a small private room that lay just off the main hallway, she found herself feeling suffocated by the silence as soon as he closed the door.

"Is she alive?" she asked nervously as Dr Fitzgerald came back to stand before her.

"Agent Jareau is alive, yes… however, we had some trouble assessing her when she came in. She has a head injury, and has been in and out of consciousness, which is what the paramedic who flew with her also reported… but there are other… more concerning symptoms that we're not really sure of the root cause of yet"

Shaking her head, Emily let out a sound that was somewhere between a scoff and a sigh. "I… can I just see her?"

"We're just waiting on the neurosurgeon to come down and assess her, and then I will take you to see her"

Emily's brain seemed to screech to a halt. "Neurosurgeon? What the hell aren't you telling me?"

"Agent Prentiss-"

"No-one seems to be able to give me a straight answer, so you're going to give me one right now. Agent Jareau is not just my colleague, she's my friend, and I'm the one who's going to be calling her husband to explain to him what's happened. I need you to cut the bullshit and tell me exactly what's going on"

Dr Fitzgerald paused, before exhaling heavily. "When we did an x-ray, we were able to see that Agent Jareau has two fractures in her neck. One of them has splintered away and is compressing her spinal cord. The reason the first responders were unable to get a pain response from her in the field… was because she has no feeling below her shoulders. She was unable to feel any of the reflex and response tests we performed when she arrived in the ER either"

Emily couldn't speak, her face frozen in a look of horror. Whatever she had expected him to say, it hadn't been anything close to that.

"She's… paralysed?" she breathed in horror.

Dr Fitzgerald nodded slowly. "It appears that way. We have our best neurosurgeon on his way now. He will be able to ascertain if it is an incomplete or complete injury"

"What's the difference?"

"With an incomplete injury, there is some chance for rehabilitation, though it varies from patient to patient. But with a complete injury, there's no chance to rehabilitate. If it is a complete injury… Agent Jareau would be a quadriplegic"

She felt like she was going to lose it. Tears wanted to burst forth, but she couldn't let them… she had to be strong. She had to be a leader. "Does she know?" she asked in a soft voice.

"Not yet," Dr Fitzgerald. "She's been in and out since she arrived, we wanted to try and stabilise her level of consciousness before we broke the news to her"

"She… she's got two boys at home, I… please. Do everything you can," Emily replied, and in the silence of the room, she could hear the pleading in her voice. Dr Fitzgerald nodded once.

"Would you like me to take you to see her?"

"Yes. And I need you to stay with me… I'm going to tell her what's happened. I don't know how she's going to handle it, but somehow… I feel like it will be better coming from me"

Without another word, Dr Fitzgerald led Emily out of the room. She felt as though she was in a daze as she followed him through sterile white hallways, weaving between people and gurneys, before finally walking out into a large open area separated by curtains. He paused ahead of her, holding out a hand towards the first curtain, allowing Emily to slip through it before he followed behind her.

When she first laid eyes on her friend, she felt like her stomach had fallen out through her feet. JJ was half awake, her head and neck immobilised in a hard plastic brace. Just below the brace, Emily could see a deep scrape on JJ's chin, joined by a myriad of bruises and scrapes that seemed to work their way down her body. Her vest had been removed, revealing that while it had largely done its job of protecting her torso from shrapnel, scrapes, bruises, and even a burn covered the skin peeking out from beneath the hem of her shirt.

"JJ?"

JJ cracked her eyes open as Emily approached the edge of the gurney. It took a few moments for her to register who was talking to her, but as soon as she did, her pale face relaxed into a smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, someone had to come and make sure you and Luke were ok," Emily said, a weak smile gracing her face in return. "Are you cold?" she asked gently, noticing the blonde was shivering.

"Yeah," JJ breathed, pausing for a moment before she spoke again. "And… kind of scared, but I'm fine, honestly… I'm not even in pain. I just want to get back to work," she said, her voice defiant, yet croaky. "Can you get someone to discharge me?"

Emily bit her lip, the tears threatening to surge their way to the surface once more, anger filling her mind and heart as she realised just how in the dark JJ was. "JJ, you… you're not going back into the field any time soon"

"But I'm fine, nothing even hurts," JJ insisted.

"JJ… have they told you what's happened to you?"

"I don't really remember," JJ said softly, her defiant expression suddenly changing to one of fear. "The nurse said that I'm really bruised, and that… my nerves are swollen?"

Emily took a deep breath, willing herself to keep it together. "You can't feel any pain, JJ, because you have a fractured neck… and that fracture is pressing on your spinal cord"

She watched as her words washed over JJ. The head injury was clearly slowing down JJ's processing, but the moment when it all clicked in her mind was clear as day, and it did nothing but drive the knife deeper into Emily's heart.

"Am I paralysed?" was JJ's heart wrenching whisper just moments later. Lost for words, all Emily could do was nod. And for a split second, she saw JJ trying to maintain her composure, trying to stay strong… but moments later, the blonde was breaking down, tears rushing forward with tremendous force, Emily just seconds behind her.

"I'm sorry, JJ," Emily said tearfully, bringing one hand to the top of JJ's head, the other to her hand. "I'm so sorry"

The tears, the fear, the crippling idea of the unknown that lay ahead sat squarely on their shoulders as Dr Fitzgerald left the curtained area, giving the two women a moment to process everything that had happened that evening. Just minutes later, another man entered the space, an older South Asian man, with a crop of salt and pepper hair and kind eyes that immediately made Emily feel comforted.

"Jennifer Jareau?"

"JJ," Emily corrected in a watery voice as JJ tried to stifle her sobs beside her.

"Hi JJ, my name is Rishi Sedra. I'm a member of the neurosurgical team here at Emory. I'm here to assess the level of neurological function below the site of your fracture, that way we can ascertain what steps we need to take moving forward to make sure you receive the correct treatment and care. To do that, I'm going to ask you to try and perform some very simple movements, ok?"

"Ok," JJ said weakly, her voice still thick with tears. She watched as the doctor moved to the end of the bed, lifting the blanket covering her lower half. The nurses had earlier removed her shoes and socks, doing very similar movement assessments before covering her with a blanket.

"JJ, can you try to wiggle your toes for me?"

Focusing on the ceiling above her, JJ visualised the movement she wanted to make. As she did, tears welled in her eyes again… how was it that she knew exactly what she wanted to do, and yet she couldn't make her body do it?

"I can't," she said tearfully. "I can't feel anything"

"Wait a moment," Rishi said suddenly. "Can you try that again for me?"

As defeated as she felt, JJ obliged, only for Rishi to suddenly drop the blanket back over her feet.

"JJ, I need to take you up to surgery now," he said urgently.

"Why?" JJ asked, her heart thumping away in her chest.

"You still have movement on your right side. You might not be able to feel it, but when I asked you to move, your right foot had a flicker of movement. We need to take you up to surgery and decompress your spinal cord immediately. The sooner we do it… the stronger your chances are for rehabilitation"

"Do whatever you have to do," JJ said immediately. "Please"

"You're in good hands, JJ, I promise you that. We're going to do everything we can"