Their voices are too hazy to understand. You keep blinking against the lights and things start to come into focus. The area is lit up by flashlights and portable floodlights. If you had any energy to laugh right now, you'd probably find it funny that the woods looked like a highschool football field on a friday night. JJ and Rossi are standing behind the medics, peering into the river. Morgan is standing in a group away from the edge, likely with the unsub.

The clarity returns to your hearing at the same time Hotch pulls away from you. Against the background noise, Prentiss's voice is soothing in your ear.

"Hotch is going to get you a medic. You're gonna be fine, alright kid? We'll be home in no time..." You nod in response to her voice and she lets out a sigh of relief.

"Welcome back, babe." You can hear the smile in her voice. As promised, Hotch returns with a medic in tow. She takes your vitals and checks for breaks and bleeding.

"Can you tell me your name? What state are you in?" You rattle off your answers to the concussion questions.

The EMT turns to Hotch. "She's alright. No signs of shock. No obvious physical issues. Exhaustion is probably setting in after the adrenaline rush. You need to take her straight to a hospital for a full physical, but nothing needs immediate attention." Hotch nods and thanks her.

"Prentiss, make sure Reid gets checked out. I'm taking y/l/n to the nearest ER."

"Got it." She gives your hand a reassuring squeeze before she makes her way to JJ and Rossi. Hotch helps you up and tells you to sit tight for a minute. He heads upriver, towards where you jumped in. He returns with your clothes and Reid's sweater.

"You need to get out of the wet clothes. Come on." He leads away from the lights, giving you a dim spot to strip. He turns his back to you, and you try to be efficient. You sacrifice your blouse to the cause and use it to dry off. Wearing slacks without underwear is a bizarre sensation you have no desire to experience again. You shrug into the sweater and your boots. You wrap your bra and underwear in the wet blouse.

"I'm, uh, good." you try. The FBI handbook says nothing about how to tell your boss you aren't naked.

"Warm enough?" he turns and asks.

"Yeah, I think so." clearly, this was not the answer he was looking for. He pulls off his suit jacket and helps you into it.

In this most atrocious outfit you've worn (middle school not included), you follow Hotch out of the woods. He makes you talk to him the entire time to prove you're alright. You rarely talk about life outside of work with him, so it's a bit of a struggle to come up with a topic. He's not much of a conversation, since he's focused on getting out. You decide to tell him about what you made for dinner yesterday. A perfectly neutral topic. Unfortunately, it takes twenty minutes to get back to the SUV's, so you end up detailing your last week of dinners to him. Any time you stop, he'd prompt "keep going, y/l/n."

He makes you talk on the drive to the hospital, too, but at least he's willing to actually converse now. He picks a fairly neutral topic, too, asking about you favorite and least favorite college classes.

"I'm not sure how well I could remember those on a good day." you tell him honestly.

"Try, will you?" he says, but for the first time tonight, there's a levity to his voice.

In the ER, he's all business again. He pulls out the FBI badge and gives a brief explanation of the situation, ending by telling them you're ten weeks along.

Clearly, the nurses are a bit intimidated. Hotch offers to come back with you, but you return his jacket and tell him you'll meet him in the lobby once you're cleared.

After hearing the babies heart beat and getting a full physical, and you're returned safely to the lobby. Hotch is waiting as promised, along with the rest of the team, Reid excluded. The excited voices are a bit overwhelming, especially when the nurse tells them you're perfectly fine, but welcome all the same. They promise you that Reid is alright, just getting the same exam you did. After you say hi to everybody and apologize for scaring the hell out of them, JJ holds up your go-bag.

"You're a saint, Jayge." you tell her. She laughs and puts a hand on your back, leading you to a restroom. While you change, she tries to dry off your top and underwear with the hand dryer so that you don't have to keep wet laundry in your bag on the way home.

"Aw, you didn't have to do that." you blush a bit at her help.

"No, but you'll be glad I did." she snorts. You can argue with that.

In a clean set of clothes, you walk back out into the sterile white of a hospital hallway. JJ stops you before you get to the lobby, insisting you call Garcia.

"She's gonna chew me out." you beg for JJ's mercy, but she blows you off.

"Garcia's been worrying over you all night. Call her."

From the moment she picks up the call, Garcia starts going through every human emotion. She greets you with her bubbly personality, tears up, threatens you vaguely for scaring her, and above all, she talks.

When she finally lets you go (not without making sure you know she loves you, JJ's only comment is that you "deserved whatever Garcia had to say."

Reid hasn't returned yet, so you tuck into a waiting room couch with a bottle of water to sip on and try your best to relax. Prentiss and JJ practically beg you to go to a motel with them, but it doesn't feel right to go anywhere without Reid.

You must have fallen asleep at some point, because you wake up briefly to the sound of a man's voice.

"She's perfectly fine. She's already seen a doctor. Please go put some normal clothes on, man. Hospital gowns are not a good lo-"

"What did they say exactly?" another man chimes in.

"I don't exactly know, genius!" This is the point where you hid your head in your arms to block out sound.

The next time you woke, it was to the feeling of a hand shaking your shoulder.

You start to sit up and you get knocked back into the back of the couch. After a moment, you realize somebody is hugging you. Tightly.

"Are you alright?" Reid asks. Recognition turns into instinct as you hug him back, as tightly as you can. Tear prick a bit at your eyes as you nod.

"Yeah. We're fine" you croak quietly. He pulls back, but sets his hands onto your biceps.

"Listen, we can fly home tonight if you're up for it."

"Yeah, yeah, that sounds good. Let's go home." The sooner you got into your bed, the better. He stood up and past him you could see the rest of the team pretending to be busy in the plastic-y waiting room chairs. You might not be the most experienced profiler, but it was easy to tell they were all eavesdropping. Seeing the whole team reminded you of something-

"Reid! You gotta call Garcia. She's-"

"I already made him do it, kid." Rossi calls over to you.

Satisfied, you take the hand Reid offers you. Prentiss grabs your bag from you and tells you to ride with her.

When she turns the engine over, the dash sparks to life.

"Holy shit, Emily. It's almost five."

"Yup. Been a long twelve hours, huh?"

"How long was I out?"

"Forty minutes maybe? Reid got there a couple minutes after you fell asleep."

"Huh." you mutter, leaning back against the headrest and drifting off again.

You're up again when Prentiss walks you to the jet, but the second you sit in your seat and lean your head on JJ's shoulder, you're out again.

You wake for good when your ears start popping on the descent. Hotch makes you swear that you're feeling up to driving yourself home, repeatedly offering to drive you himself. Reid makes the same offer (also repeatedly), but he settles for your offer to come straight to your apartment when he gets back. It would have done it anyway, but agreeing on it placates him.

You weren't lying, you really did feel alright. Your cat naps had added up to get you through the 6:30am traffic in Quantico. You crack the windows on the drive home, enjoying the nice, cool air.

a/n: sorry for spooking you all, but baby reid is just fine... ch 20 will be up either tonight or tomorrow and we'll get to hear what reid has to say about the whole situation

"The kind of love that we will be forced to celebrate or escape on Valentine's Day is too small." Adrienne Maree Brown