A/N: The first chapter to In The Sun. I just had to get it written and out there, so here it is. Let me know if you want it continued. And I apologize for my rant in the Author's Note in the latest installment of Need You Now, I'm about to go back and delete it, though I will keep the petition link up in the note and on my profile.

And please note, just because I put this up, doesn't mean the poll is closed. I put this up soulfully for me, you can still vote on which story you want started and I will start it, but the updates will depend on the reviews, same for every other story from here on out. The story with the most reviews will get updated the most.

I do not own Criminal Minds or the song 'In the Sun'. CBS owns the show, Joseph Arthur and his signing record company own the song. I do own Adine and this story line.

Unit Chief Hotchner sat at his desk finishing paper work. It was late, to say the least, but if he didn't do this, no one would. However, tonight the paper work was taking much longer than it normally, for tonight Hotch kept getting distracted by something that had taken place a few hours earlier…

"Hotch?" He heard a familiar voice call from the doorway. "Yes, come in, JJ." He told her, not looking up from the papers spread across his desk. He wasn't sure what time it was, but he could guess from the black sky outside of his windows that it was late enough for JJ to be heading home. He was a bit thrown off by her knocking on his office door this late.

He finally looked up from his desk when he heard her footsteps come to a stop in front of his desk.

"Hotch, I-," She started, looking down at the floor, "I don't think I can do this job anymore."

Hotchner stood up and led the woman across his office to some seats. They both sat down across from the other and he asked her why she thought that.

"Hotch, I'm a mother now." She told him. "I know I have been for a while, but after Henry was born, I thought I could balance this job and my family, but I- I can't."

"JJ," Hotch started, "I know. I don't blame you for wanting out. This job, it takes everything a person has. Their time, energy, sometimes sanity and life. It's a hard job. No one will be little you."

"I-I know," She admitted, "But, I-I just feel like I could be trying harder. I mean, this job took your marriage and the life of the woman you love. You get to see your son even less than I do and you're still here."

"This is true." He said, "But you and I are two different people. Going down to a primal level, you're a mother. You naturally have a much closer bond to your child, so it hurts you more. And I did loose my marriage and the love of my life to this job, but that only makes staying here seem worth it. If I left now, then I would have lost all of that for nothing. You don't have to loose Will, JJ. You can get out and be with your family. If you want to, than do it."

"But-"

"JJ," Hotch interrupted, "I told you, this job takes everything, including passion. If a person doesn't have passion for this job, they won't do it right. Your passion doesn't belong to this job anymore, JJ. It belongs to your family, as well it should."

JJ sighed before saying, "I've been thinking about this for awhile now. I've been looking into replacements off-the-grid."

"And?" Hotch urged. He didn't want her to leave, but he understood exactly where she was coming from.

"There's one woman, Adine Grace. She was a student at Cal-Tech and Harvard, graduated from with high honors, valedictorian of her Harvard graduating class."

"She could have any job she wanted, why this one?" Hotch asked.

"I asked her," JJ said, "She told me she has a strong passion law enforcement- always has- she actually loves being busy-says it keeps her mind off of other things- and she's always been one to make the decisions."

"What 'other things'" Hotch questioned. If this woman was involved in any trouble, he needed to know.

"I won't tell you," JJ said sternly, "That's entirely up to her if and when she wants to tell you. But I can say with utter confidence that everything about it is very noble and only makes her a better candidate for the job."

"Is she responsible?"

"Well," JJ said, "Like I told you, graduated from Cal-Tech with high honors and valedictorian of her Harvard class…"

"Yes…" Hotch urged.

"But I failed to tell you her graduations were within two weeks of each other."

"She attended both colleges at the same time?" Hotch asked, disbelieving.

"No," She corrected, "She attended Cal-Tech. She almost never actually went to a class at Harvard."

"How?"

"She's a very smart girl." JJ said simply. "Not a certified genius, never actually had her I.Q. measured, but very smart. The whole process she explained to me was too confusing to remember, though."

Hotch gave a small smile before getting back to the original point.

"So is Adine Grace going to be our new liaison?" He asked.

"I called her and she said she can come in tomorrow. We have a case and I was hoping maybe she could go with us, get a taste of the job before she had to take over."

"Jordan Todd didn't go on a case." He pointed out.

"Jordan Todd was a temporary liaison." JJ countered.

"I see your point." Hotch admitted. "Tell her to pack a go-bag just in case. I'll discus it with Dave tomorrow morning and we'll let you and her know."

"Alright." JJ said, getting up, "And Hotch?" She called from the door to the man now back at his desk.

He looked up at her.

"Thank you." She said with a small smile before walking out.

JJ was leaving. Hotch was telling the truth, he didn't blame her. Right now he himself wanted nothing more than to go home and read his son a bed time story, but he was also telling the truth when he said this job takes everything a person has.

There was one thing he was truly worried about.

The team loved JJ, hell everyone loved each other. They were closer than family, and now another member was leaving. How would they react? Especially to Adine Grace?

He remembered Gideon's reluctance to involve Prentiss in anything, and that was only after Elle had been part of the team a little over two years. JJ had been with them much longer.

Hotch looked back down at the open folder lying on desk, then at the digital clock in the corner of the desk. 10:23pm. Even though his bed time was 9pm, Jack always stayed up until 11pm at the latest waiting for his daddy to come home.

Grabbing his suit jacket and walking out of his office, Hotch decided everything could be dealt with tomorrow. Right now, he was going to go tuck his son into bed.


I pictured you in the sun
Wonderin', what went wrong?
And fallin' down on your knees
Askin' for, sympathy

Adine Grace listened to her favorite song play over the water-proof speaker in her bathroom as the steaming hot, jet propelled water pellets loosened the knots in her back. She woke up at her normal time – 4am- and went straight into her shower.

She use to hate waking up so early when she was a child, but once she got into the rhythm of what she knew was her new life, she soon got over it.

Once she finally went to college, she realized that she was still waking up at her normal time, no matter what time she went to bed. Once again, she came to realize the usefulness of being an early riser. It made taking classes from an Ivy League college and a private research university-both on different sides of the country- much easier.

However, now she was at a stand still in her live. She just finished a lecture tour and was waiting for word from Agent Jareau, so her days were filled with nothing. There was absolutely no reason for her to be waking up to early. She didn't want to be bored. It gave her time to think and thinking leads to memories and for her, memories are not fun. For the majority of her days of boredom, Adine would write. Anything that had to do with focus and words and distracted her from her childhood, Adine would write it. But you could only write so much. And usually you have to stop sometime in a near 20 hour day, if only for your posture.

And being caught in between
All you wish for
And all you seen
And trying to find anything
You can feel
That you can believe in

Adine sang along to the song she knew by heart. Her best friend Danny was a huge Joseph Arthur fan. And the day after the song was introduced to the public, Danny dedicated it to her. Everytime she woke up from a nightmare, she'd call him and he come over and sing her to sleep. But now he couldn't do that.

'Don't be mad at him, Ada,' she thought to herself, 'It makes him happy.'

Adine stepped out of the shower and wrapped a white cotton towel around her body. Whipping the fog from her mirror with a hand, Adine examined her clean face.

Her shoulder-length hair was patted down and slicked back by the water, extenuating her forehead. Her light-brown eyebrows rested in a straight line a matter of centimeters above her eyes. She liked her eyebrows. They were an odd thing to like, but she would take what she could get. They weren't special, just there, about as thick as her slim little pinky finger. No arches or curves or anything. Just her natural, slightly plucked eyebrows.

Below her eyebrows were of course her eyes. They were prominent and a deep green. She use to love her eyes when she was a little girl, everyone always complimented her on them. But soon, she learned to hate them. They looked beautiful cosmetically, but emotionally, they were dead. Danny, sometimes too honest, told her that her eyes use to sparkle and brighten his day, but now they were just dull and made him a little depressed every time he saw her.

Well, he didn't have to worry about that anymore, now did he!

'Damnit, don't be mad at him!'

Taking her mind off of Danny, Adine lowered her eyes to examine her nose. It was nothing special. Just a nose.

Then, she looked to her lips. A soft, rosy pink color. Rather full. Danny use to joke about how she could be a ChapStick model.

A 'bizz' sound from her bathroom cabinet snapped her back to reality. Adine turned to the cabinet and opened the double doors. Grabbing her Blackberry, Adine opened the new text message. It was from Agent Jareau, asking if Adine could come in today around 9am and possibly go on a case.

Adine replied in the positive and turned back to the mirror. She was going to go meet new people today.

She looked deep into the reflection of dead, green eyes and let the soothing voice of Joseph Arthur consume her, singing along in her mind.

'Cause if I find,
If I find my own way
How much will I find?
If I find
If I find my own way,
How much will I find?