A/N: And the wait is over! I wrote this chapter in Venice, Italy on a small island called Lido (just in case you were wondering =P). Thanks for your patience, and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

P.S. I'm not familiar with the medical info, so please just bear with me.

Morgan sprinted around the corner, his gun raised and the hair on his neck standing up as a result of the gunshot that had just sounded.

Morgan stopped dead at the sight of Reid laying on the ground, blood pumping from a wound in his shoulder.

Quickly clearing the alley, Morgan rushed over to check on Reid. He was still conscious, but was rapidly paling from blood loss.

"Reid, what happened, are you alright?" Morgan asked, pressing his hands on Reid's shoulder while looking around for his teammates who had been following him.

"The UNSUB, he panicked..." Reid said. "He didn't want to shoot me... His, his hands were shaking."

"Ok, that's good. Which way did he go?" Morgan asked.

"I don't know... I'm sorry," Reid breathed.

The rest of the team suddenly rushed around the bend, coming to a halt at the scene in front of them.

"The UNSUB got away, Reid took one to the shoulder. Call an ambulance," Morgan called out instructions.

The team exploded into action; Prentiss on the phone with a 911 operator, Hotch and Rossi rushing down the alley in hopes of catching sight of the UNSUB, and JJ kneeling down beside Morgan.

"Spence, how are you doing?" JJ asked.

"I'm ok, don't think I'll be doing much writing for a few months," he joked half-heartedly.

"What, you're not ambidextrous?" JJ teased back.

"Actually... Only 0.2 percent... of the... population..." Reid started, his eyes beginning to flicker close.

"No, Reid stay with me," Morgan said urgently.

"Come on, Spence, just stay awake for a little while longer," JJ pleaded.

"Bus is 2 minutes out," Prentiss said.

Reid groaned in pain, but refused to open his eyes.

"Reid, you've got to stay conscious, ok? What's the percentage of people that live versus those who die if they don't pass out before the ambulance gets here?" Morgan tried, desperately grasping at straws.

"76 percent..." Reid said faintly.

"There you go. Be one of those 76 percent," Morgan said.

The sirens were arriving, and Reid was struggling to stay conscious. Blood was now soaking Morgan's sleeves and pooling on the street below him.

The paramedics rushed in a moment later, pushing Morgan out of the way. "GSW to the shoulder, based on amount of blood loss, it's safe to say the bullet punctured the Basilic vein. We need oxygen and the gurney, now," the older, male paramedic instructed his young partner.

As the paramedics worked, Hotch and Rossi returned.

"No sign of him," Hotch reported.

Morgan cursed under his breath, "How many dead at the school?"

"Three," Prentiss reported.

"And... Up on three. One, two, three!" the senior paramedic said, lifting the gurney up into the ambulance.

"I'll ride with him," JJ offered.

Morgan wiped his bloody hands on his jeans, and watched as his friend was carted into the ambulance, the doors shutting behind him.

"You ok?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah. I'm good," Morgan said, a firm resolve set in his eyes.

"Did Reid give you a description of the UNSUB?" Rossi asked.

"No, he was fading in and out, I didn't get any information from him other than the fact that the UNSUB didn't want to shoot him and that his hands were shaking," Morgan commented.

"His hands were shaking? That's highly inconsistent with the previous killings," Hotch noted.

"So's the shot to the shoulder. He's never injured before, just killed," Prentiss said.

"Do you think it's our guy?" Morgan asked.

Hotch frowned in concentration, "The phone call was consistent with our profile, and he gave us this address. There are too many coincidences for it not to be our UNSUB."

"The fact that Reid is an adult and - as far as the UNSUB knows - isn't a bully, probably threw him off; causing his hands to shake and miss his target," Rossi hypothesized.

"Hey guys?" Prentiss called from a few feet away.

The team looked over to where she had wandered.

Prentiss held up a small item in her gloved hand, "A shell casing."

Rossi rushed over, "We need to get this over to CSU, there could be a fingerprint on it."

"The school day's over. He shouldn't kill again today, so we have approximately 16 hours before he starts up again," Morgan calculated.

"Unless he targets kids at their homes. He's experiencing a psychotic break so he could strike at any time," Hotch said.

"Do you think he'll contact us again?" Prentiss asked.

"Probably," Hotch said grimly, "If to do nothing else but gloat."

"No, no, no, NO," the furious man shouted, smashing his hands into his skull.

He had frozen. He should have shot that idiot right between the eyes, not flaked out at the last second.

Inserting the needle into his arms, he relaxed and let a smile enter his face as the drugs infiltrated his system.

The surge of aggression that always accompanied the drugs he so frequently put in his system took hold of him. Pulling out a pad of paper, the troubled young man etched out: 'Finish the job'.

He would kill that agent, and anyone that stood in his way. He was unstoppable, but these damn FBI agents insisted that he was wrong - that the evil human beings the world called children were innocent.

They weren't innocent. And ever since the FBI began investigating, neither were they.

The man stroked his favorite gun, feeling the cool metal under his palm.

Enough was enough.

Reid's eyes blinked open, then closed. His mind felt foggy, and his body was surrounded by a soft haze.

"Spence?" a voice echoed.

Although the voice sounded warm and enticing, the world he found himself in was a beautiful space between consciousness and oblivion. No pain, no thoughts, just feelings.

Suddenly his world came crashing down, memories of gunshots and hooded figures infiltrating the peace in his mind. Snippets of the case, facts and pieces of data filled his subconscious, along with long forgotten memories of cruel, childish laughter. The sounds around him started to roar in his ears, causing his heart to start racing in fear. A loud, startling beeping erupted next to his ear, and he heard frantic shouting next to him.

Reid shot his eyes open, his body drenched in a cool sweat. JJ hung over him, desperately trying to calm him down. His chest heaved, trying to bring air into his panicked lungs.

"It's ok, Spence," JJ comforted, "It's ok, just breathe. It's ok."

Slowly, his heart rate returned to normal and the machine next to him stopped its piercing chirps.

An immense pain became apparent in his left shoulder, and Reid clenched his teeth, willing it to go away.

"Nurse?" JJ called.

A woman in white rushed in and inserted a substance into Reid's IV line, the warmth spreading through him, instantly stopping the excruciating pain.

"Hey," JJ said softly as Reid's eyes focused on hers. "There you go. Are you alright?"

"Been better," Reid said, his mind still reeling from the moments before.

"Can I get you anything?" JJ asked.

"Water?" Reid responded.

"Sorry, you're stuck with ice chips," JJ said, talking the white styrofoam cup from beside his bed and bringing the icy pellets up to his lips.

Spencer drank thirstily, and finished with a thick swallow. "Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem." JJ said.

The two sat in silence for a moment.

"So, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but the team's going to be here in about 20 minutes, and I was supposed to ask you if you could give a description of the UNSUB if you woke up," JJ said.

Reid closed his eyes, his head still spinning. "Maybe we could do it in a little while?" he asked.

"Of course," JJ said, "Take all the time you need, ok? Just focus on getting better."

"Did I have surgery?" Reid asked, opening his eyes and straining to see his wrapped up shoulder.

"No, it was a through-and-through. They stitched you up and wrapped it with gauze but you were lucky. Didn't even need a blood transfusion," JJ said.

"That's good," Reid said absently.

"You ok?" JJ asked.

"Just tired," Reid said.

"Ok, well let me go out into the hall, and you can get some rest," JJ said.

"Could you actually stay here?" Reid asked sheepishly, "I'd rather not be alone."

JJ smiled, "Sure. I can stay."

JJ watched as Reid fell back asleep, and wondered how many more hits her team could take before they began to fall apart.

A/N: This isn't a JJ/Reid pairing story, it's more of a team-fic so JJ's acting more as a friend/mother to Reid than a girlfriend - if you catch my drift. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and I certainly hope it was worth the wait! Clearly, our team hasn't seen the last of this UNSUB...

Stay tuned ;)