Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

Christmas Magic-Chapter 1

~This is written for Starrmyst for the CM Christmas Fic Gift Exchange at the Chit Chat on Author's Corner Forum.

~This will be a multi-chapter story and I want to get all of it posted by the end of Christmas Day, so it will be updated multiple times each day. Enjoy!

As he walked down the street, reflecting on the previous day he'd spent with his family, David Rossi heard a familiar voice.

"No Henry, we've already chosen our tree, you have to let that tree branch go," Jennifer Jareau said, trying to pry her son's hand off of a lush evergreen tree limb. Why she'd thought it would be a good idea to take the eight month old to a Christmas tree lot, she would never know.

"Problems Agent Jareau?" She heard a deep voice ask behind her. She spun around to see who was there. "Dave!" She greeted enthusiastically as she tried to keep the wriggling mass that was her son securely in her arms.

Just being near her had both a calming effect on the older agent and, paradoxically, it made his pulse race. He'd been in love with the young media liaison since the moment he'd first met her in Hotch's office upon his return to the FBI. One of the hardest things he'd ever done was watch her walk away that day without saying anything to her.

He would have pursued something with her if it hadn't been for his best friend. Aaron Hotchner had made it very clear that JJ was off limits until he'd been back for at least six months. The last thing the unit chief needed was for Dave to have one of his knee-jerk reactions upon meeting a beautiful single female. He'd had plenty of those reactions his first time around in the BAU, and Hotch didn't want it to happen with any of his female team members. He knew that if Dave still felt the same way after six months, it would not be a light romance for him and he would treat the woman better than he had his previous wives.

Dave had followed his friend's warning to a tee, waiting the prescribed six months before acknowledging his feelings for her. The only problem was, that by the time he could tell her how he felt, she'd already gotten pregnant by Will LaMontagne. Never one to make a play for another guy's girl, he'd kept silent and had simply watched her from a distance.

"What are you doing here, Jennifer?" A shiver went down JJ's spine as he addressed her. So few people called her by her first name anymore and it made her tingle when he did it.

"Hmmmm, let's see," she said, looking around. "It's nearly December and I'm standing in the middle of a Christmas tree lot. Come on Agent Rossi, put that phenomenal investigative mind of yours to good use and see if you can come up with the answer."

Smiling at her good-natured sarcasm, he clarified his question, "I meant, what are you doing here by yourself, smartass?"

"I'm trying to get a Christmas tree for our apartment, but it's a little hard to lug this," she held up a tiny, scrawny looking tree in her right hand, "And my son to the car at the same time." She set the tree down and asked, "What are you doing here, Dave? I thought you were spending Thanksgiving with your family in Commack?"

"I was, but there is only so much 'family togetherness' I can stand before going insane-" He was cut off by JJ's frustration.

"Oh shoot," she said, mildly panicked, "Henry dropped his pacifier." She looked at the snow covered ground, but the binky wasn't readily visible. "Here, do you mind holding him for a minute?" She asked, shoving her son in his direction.

Dave took the boy and held him between his two hands, his arms stretched out as far as they could reach, and studied the young boy. Thankfully he'd gotten most of his mother's features, since Dave privately thought that Will looked like a scrawny, sickly, little bird. He continued to hold Henry like that until JJ finally stood up triumphantly with the binky in her hand.

Seeing her colleague holding her child so stiffly and so far away from his body, JJ giggled, "He's not a bomb, Dave, you can hold him closer to you," she said as she took him back into her arms.

"Sorry," the profiler said sheepishly, "It's not that I don't like kids, I'm just not comfortable around them. Growing up, my older sister always took care of the younger ones and since I don't have any of my own, I've just never been around them much."

"It's okay, it takes practice. You should have seen me when I first had him. If it weren't for the internet, I doubt Henry would have made it past his first month."

Dave chuckled and then changed the subject, "So why isn't Will here helping you?" He didn't want to verbalize it, for fear of losing part of his manhood, but this type of thing was a man's job and he didn't think he needed to point that fact out to the young southerner.

JJ sighed, she knew she would have to reveal her secret sometime, she just hadn't imagined it would be here, doing this. "Will and I aren't together anymore," she told him, as matter-of-factly as possible.

"JJ, I'm sorry," Dave said, lying through his teeth. While on the outside he was playing the concerned friend, on the inside he was jumping for joy that she was single again. "What happened?"

"Let's just say I caught him in a compromising position a few months ago and leave it at that," she told him, not wanting to elaborate. She should have known he wouldn't let it go at just that.

"What do you mean a 'compromising position'?" He asked, ready to find LaMontagne so he could kick his ass.

"I mean," JJ said, knowing she would have to tell him everything, "That I caught him with another woman. It's like this, Rossi; my old college roommate came to DC to visit me and to stay at our apartment while she did some archival research at one of the museums in town. Well, one day I left work early so I could spend some time alone with Will, since he'd been grumbling at my lack of attention. Anyway, I got home to find my college friend in bed with my boyfriend. The kicker of the whole thing? She was wearing my lingerie to seduce my boyfriend!"

"Get outta here!" Dave said, feeling his heart leap into his chest at the thought of her being a free woman.

JJ nodded, "Yup, so after that, I told Will exactly where he could go and how he could get there and he left. Then he had the nerve to accuse me of screwing around on him! He told me that unless I allowed him to take a paternity test, he wouldn't give me a bit of support, both financially and just by visiting Henry and taking him off of my hands every once in awhile."

"Jesus," Dave breathed, already planning on how he would find LaMontagne and let him know how being a father worked; of course the prick might not be able to walk upright after their discussion, but he could still be a father from a wheelchair. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him to go to hell, that I didn't want our son to be around someone who obviously didn't love him and care about him. It's been a rough couple of months since then, but it seems like Henry and I have finally found our footing," she told him, her cheeks reddening; she'd never meant to tell him all of that.

"Christ Jen, why didn't you tell any of us?"

"Because as much as I despise him, I didn't want to see Will floating down the Potomac any time soon and if I'd told the team, that's exactly what would've happened." Seeing him open his mouth to deny the accusation, JJ kept talking. "Come on Dave, you know that would have happened. Can you honestly admit you weren't just planning Will's demise when you mentally checked out a minute ago?"

"Are you sure you're not a profiler?" Dave mumbled, not directly answering her question as he decided a change of subject would do them some good.

"Since my ego can still fit though a doorway, I'm fairly sure I haven't joined the ranks of a profiler yet," she said with a smile. Ever since Will had left her…hell, even while they'd still been together, she'd dreamed about being with the older profiler who was currently standing in front of her. She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she's fairly certain that Henry was conceived while she was fantasizing about the great David Rossi.