When Morgan set Reid down on the floor, Reid thought he was going to be able to rest for a few minutes. He closed his eyes and let the pain wash over him like the sun coming out from under a cloud. If he were really lucky, maybe he could lose consciousness before Morgan returned and the remainder of his transfer to a new hospital could be done in blessed oblivion. He barely heard Morgan yelling at the rest of the team, but felt a smile twitch on his lips at his griping. The smile fell away as the door slammed shut and he realized his last two words had been, "Oh shit."

Reid echoed the words in his own head. He might have even said them aloud; he wasn't sure. What he was sure about was that he wasn't going to get any rest. Trying to move as little as possible, he fished Hotch's phone out from the pocket of his sweatpants where he had stuck it after speaking with Blake earlier. Without even opening his eyes he hit the redial button and waited. If Blake was caught up in whatever was going on outside that door, he reasoned that she wouldn't answer. If she did, maybe she could fix the problem and he could continue lying still against the step.

He didn't realize he had faded out until he heard Blake's voice shouting over the line. "Hotch? Reid? Somebody answer me." He stared at the phone in his hand for a second before bending his arm to put it close to his ear.

"Alex, it's me."

They spoke at the same time. "What's going on?"

Since Reid didn't reply immediately, Blake continued. "I'm waiting outside by the ambulance. Where are you guys? Did you get downstairs okay?"

"Something's wrong," Reid commented, more to himself than to Blake.

"What?"

"Something's wrong," he repeated with a little more force.

"Reid, where are you?"

"Stairwell. Morgan brought me down. Went through the door and started cussing. I don't know . . ."

"I'm coming back inside, Reid. Are you okay?"

"I think I'm safe," he answered. "Not really okay."

"I'm going to put the phone in my pocket," Blake told him, "so I can have my gun out and ready. Don't hang up, but don't say anything either." When Reid didn't answer her, she wasn't sure he'd heard. "Reid?"

"You said not to talk."

Blake would have laughed except she could tell Reid was completely serious. "Try to stay awake, Spencer. I'll let you know as soon as I figure out what's going on."

Blake entered the front door cautiously, treating the hospital like a hostile crime scene. She knew she would feel slightly stupid if it turned out everyone was just standing around having a simple conversation, but she figured she would feel a lot stupider if she went barging in and it turned out that the Unsub had everyone hostage or something. "Yeah, right," she muttered to herself, knowing how unlikely it was that her entire team could have been captured so easily. She cleared the foyer, the front desk, and the first waiting room, and then stood silently in the hallway trying to decide where to look next.

Hearing voices behind one of the nearby doors, she approached it warily. The door was not completely latched, so she used the toe of her boot to push it open just an inch. Hearing the brother and sister arguing inside, she rapidly retreated into the waiting room and took out her phone. "Reid," she whispered urgently.

"Yeah," he answered groggily. " 'm here."

"Michael and his sister seem to have our entire team hostage. I'm going to hang up with you so I can call Cruz and the DC police."

"What!" Reid sounded awake now. "What do you mean, have them hostage?"

"I couldn't see into the room," Blake explained, "But I heard the woman telling Michael to 'put the boy down,' and Hotch trying to talk them down."

"I have to help them," Reid said, and Blake could hear scrambling sounds that she presumed were Reid's attempt to stand.

"Reid, no!" Blake shouted, and then continued more quietly while sticking her head out into the hall to make sure no one had heard her. "Listen to me. I'm calling for backup. Stay right where you are. Nobody is in immediate danger, and you are in no shape to help anyone."

"You said Michael was holding one of the boys," Reid protested.

"So if you go barging in there you might get that boy hurt," Blake reasoned. "Promise me you'll stay put. I have to call for help."

She heard a reluctant, "I promise," before she clicked off the call and started dialing Cruz's direct line.

After hanging up with the section chief and police dispatch she put the phone away and drew her gun again. Moving silently she positioned herself outside the door where she could hear what was happening with her team, even if she couldn't see them. She was prepared to wait for backup, but she was also prepared to go in should things seem to be turning south.

Minutes later that's exactly where things seemed to be headed. Michael and his sister were practically screaming at each other, there was a thud followed by a small, harsh cry of pain, and then a single shot reverberated through the room. Blake threw herself through the doorway in time to see Reid flinging the woman's gun across the room. "FBI, freeze!" Blake shouted, but the woman – Dr. Grosso, Blake suddenly recognized – was far past listening. She punched Reid viciously on the bruised side of his face and then rolled free of him, kicking rather more than necessary as she wiggled away. Blake tried again – "I said freeze!" – but felt no compunction about firing at the disheveled doctor when she attempted to scramble toward the area where Reid and thrown her gun. "I didn't know if she could find it," Blake explained later, "but she'd already shot her own brother and injured Reid, and no one else on the team was going to be able to protect themselves. Shooting her seemed like the only option."

Much later still, when the team was alone in their offices, she admitted to them only, "She pissed me off when she punched and kicked Spencer like that."

By the time Chief Cruz, a second FBI team, and the DC police arrived on the scene, the BAU had things under control. Michael had not survived the gunshot to his chest. Alecia's shoulder wound was not life-threatening, although you wouldn't know it based on the amount of screaming she did when they put handcuffs on her. Blake had used the scalpel Michael had dropped to cut the ties around everyone's wrists, including JJ who was cradling a sobbing Henry in her lap. The paramedics who had been waiting to drive Reid to a nearby hospital had entered the building once they'd been given the all-clear, and Morgan helped them place the youngest agent's unconscious form on a gurney and roll him out to the ambulance. One of them returned and placed a splint on Henry's swelling right wrist and a bandage on his neck. JJ refused to let the boy out of her sight, so Rossi offered to drive her, Henry and Will, and follow the ambulance.

Two hours later the DC police had taken custody of Alecia, Alaina's aunt and uncle had come to take her to their home, and Jessica had picked up Jack, leaving most of the team to, yet again, sit in a hospital waiting room expecting a doctor to tell them the outcome of Reid's surgery. JJ and Will were in a private room with Henry who, having had a cast put on his arm and nine stiches put into his neck, was now refusing to take any pain medication because, "Unca Spence won't take it, and he's BWAVE!" The doctors had promised to have Reid moved into the same room as soon as he got out of surgery in the hopes that he would be able to talk some sense into the little boy.

Hotch stood up as a man in scrubs entered the waiting room and said, "Spencer Reid?"

"I'm his medical contact," Hotch confirmed. "How is he?"

The doctor looked at the assembled group doubtfully. "Um, perhaps we should speak privately. HIPA rules and all."

"Don't bother, doc," Morgan told him. "Whatever you tell Hotch, he's going to tell us as soon as you leave the room. We're family."

Hotch nodded at the doctor's disbelieving expression. "You might as well."

"All right, if you say so. Mr. Reid . . . "

"Doctor," came the customary chorus.

"Right, sorry. Doctor Reid suffered a second collapse of his left lung brought about by one of his broken ribs slicing through the stitching which had been put in previously. He had a small amount of internal bleeding from the same wound but, all in all, he was actually quite lucky. He'll have some new bruising, but, frankly, you probably won't be able to tell on top of all the contusions he already had. He's breathing on his own with no apparent difficulty, and they'll be moving him into his room within the next half hour or so."

"Thank you, doctor," Hotch said, shaking the man's hand. "The rest of you go wait in Reid and Henry's room until they bring him down. I need to make a phone call."

When Reid woke up for a brief second he thought that he had dreamed everything since his first surgery and that he was seeing Morgan for the first time. "Henry," he gasped, struggling to get off the bed and check on his godson.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Pretty Boy, take it easy," Morgan instructed, pushing him gently back down. "Henry's in the next bed asleep, and you're going to wake him up if you're not quiet."

"That's right, sweetcakes," Garcia gushed in a whisper, sweeping in and placing a purple teddy bear into the crook of Reid's good arm. "It's your job to keep our godson safe and sound, and you've done an amazing job of it the last few days. Don't screw it up now by waking him up and making him cry, because if he starts crying, JJ will start crying, and if JJ starts crying, I'll start crying, and that is not good for my sunny disposition or my makeup."

Seeing that Reid's eyes had grown progressively bigger during that tirade, Rossi tried to save the young agent. "We all just wanted to make sure you're okay," he said, patting Reid's foot through the blanket. "We'll be going now."

"Just a second," Hotch stopped them, stepping into the room. "I just got off the phone with Cruz. Everyone on the team has a mandatory two week vacation, starting tomorrow."

"Aaron, you always were my favorite," Rossi proclaimed, kissing the unit chief on each cheek.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Morgan enthused. "Reid, I'll be by to see you tomorrow. We'll find out how soon you can get out of this jail, and then you and I are going somewhere with sun, sand, and sensual women. See ya tomorrow, kid." Morgan was out the door before Reid could reply.

The others said their goodbyes as well, each one planning where to spend their unexpected two weeks off. JJ sent Will home as well, since, as a non-team member, he was actually going to have to go back to work soon. She stayed seated between Henry and Reid, allowing herself to breathe freely for the first time in days.

"JJ," Reid said softly.

She jumped slightly, having thought her friend was asleep. "Yeah? What do you need, Spence?"

"I just want to talk," he told her. "It helps."

"About that. Are you still refusing to take any narcotics?"

"Of course," he replied, as if she had asked if he still breathed oxygen.

"Well, the thing is, Spence . . . "

"Mommy?" JJ immediately turned to her son. Reid smiled as Henry climbed out of the bed and onto JJ's lap, then grew concerned as the child started crying. "It hurts, mommy. It hurts real bad."

"I know baby." JJ gathered Henry close and rocked her upper body in semblance of a rocking chair. "I can call the nurse and get you some medicine."

"No!" Henry wailed. "No, no, no! I'm a big boy! I'm bwave!"

JJ looked over at Reid and shook her head helplessly. "Talk to him, Spence."

Reid was confused, not understanding what it was JJ wanted him to say. "Hey, Henry," he attempted, reaching out his good arm and rubbing Henry's leg, "what's going on, buddy?"

To JJ's surprise, Henry scrabbled off her lap and up onto Reid's bed. "Henry, be careful," she warned, fearful for both her injured son and her injured friend.

"It's okay," Reid assured her as Henry snuggled in next to his undamaged right side, supplanting Garcia's teddy bear and knocking it to the floor.

"Tell her, Unca Spence," Henry demanded tearfully. "Tell her that we're bwave."

Reid took hold of Henry's un-casted hand. "Well, Henry, I know that you're very brave. But your mommy knows that too. Why do I need to tell her?"

"'Cause she wants me to take pain med'cation, and daddy said you're really bwave because you won't take it. And I wanna be bwave, too. But, Unca Spence, my arm hurts real bad."

"Oh, Henry." Reid sighed and laid his head back against the pillows. "For a genius, I can be a real idiot sometimes."

"What you mean, Unca Spence?"

"I mean that refusing to take our medication doesn't make us brave. It makes us a little bit stupid. If you feel bad, and the doctor or your mommy and daddy can give you something to make you feel better, you should take it."

"You don't."

Reid let go of Henry's hand and grabbed the call button attached to the head of his bed. "I am now, Henry. I'm going to tell the nurse to give us both our medication, and we're both going to take it until we feel all better."

JJ was shocked. She had thought Reid could convince Henry to take the meds, but she hadn't thought he would break his own long-standing embargo of narcotics. "Spence, you don't have to," she said.

"It's ok, JJ. The doctors all promised it wouldn't hurt me," he reassured her as one nurse injected a solution into his IV and another handed Henry a dosage cup of pink liquid and a drink of water. "Besides, if I'm going to enjoy our time off, I need to feel better as quickly as possible. Right, Henry?"

"Wight!" Henry agreed.

AN: Well, that's it. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I very much appreciate all the reviews, follows and favorites. I have more ideas for stories, but my big plan was at least to start writing a book this summer, which hopefully one day will sell and make me some actual money, and I really need to put some time into that. I don't know how long I'll manage to stay away, though, because positive reviews are extremely addictive.