AN: I own nothing that is familiar.
AN: This is the Sequel to my story Trust; you really should read it first.
Chapter 1: Returning
They were walking out to their cars about to head their separate ways when JJ's phone rang. "Agent Jareau." She answered, before she completely stopped moving and she lost all of her color as she listened to whoever had called. The others did not notice this odd behavior until the phone fell from her hand and her knees gave out.
"JJ! What's the matter?" Garcia asked as Reid asked, "Who was that and what is wrong?" But JJ just sat their frozen while her phone called out to her, "Agent? Agent, what happened? Are you still there?" Hotch picked up her phone as the girls tried to get her to stand and talk to them.
"This is Agent Hotchner, Agent Jareau's team leader she has collapsed into a cationic state. Who is this and what did you tell her?" Hotch demanded into the phone, using his most commanding voice that would normally be very effective with anyone.
"I am sorry sir, it would be best if you had Agent Jareau sent back to her home immediately. There was a high-speed chase and her husband was in an accident. He is in the hospital in critical condition, but frankly he wont make it through the next day. Their child is being cared for here at the station…" The voice on the phone rambled.
"I take it this is either his captain or his partner…" Hotch started trying to find out who he was talking to.
"Yes, sir his captain, his partner is also in the hospital although he will probably pull through." He rambled again apparently nervous about talking to Hotch.
"The next time something like this happens I expect you to not tell anyone over the phone like you just did, unless you have to. We were going to be on a plane home tonight and you could have told her in person. What if she had not been out to dinner with our whole team? What if she had been alone? You did not even bother to find out where she was in-case this happened and you needed someone to go and help her. We will be there in a few hours." Hotch yelled at the man and then hung up on him, never even finding out his name. "We have to get her to the plane and home now. Derek if you and Garcia want you both still have some time you can stay but the rest of us have to get JJ to that Hospital, and pick up Henry."
Derek and Garcia both shook their heads, "I am sorry mom I would love to stay so that you all could talk about the wedding but we are going to stay with JJ." Derek explained before turning back to JJ and helping Reid get her off the ground. They needed to move fast if the look on Hotch's face was anything to judge by.
Fran and the rest of Derek's family nodded in understanding, they knew that this team was like a family and that meant sticking together. "Don't worry about us right now baby, you take care of your extended family. We will pack your things and have them shipped to you. Do any of the rest of you have anything you need in the hotel?" She asked the team.
"Our bags are packed; all we would need to do is run and get them but thank you for the offer." Dave told her as Hotch was on the phone with the pilot, explaining that they needed to be in the air as soon as possible. He stood a little away from the group so that he could hear as the scene had changed from giddy happiness with no worries to near chaosed curiosity, as no one but Hotch and JJ knew what happened to Will to cause such reactions from both of them. But they all assumed it was at least not good.
Derek gave his Mother and sisters hugs and kisses, before getting into the passenger seat of the SUV with the girls in the back and Reid driving, motioning for Hotch to get into the other with Dave and hurry up. Reid and Dave obeyed all of the traffic laws on the way to the hotel. Knowing that there would be no way of getting JJ to the hospital and apparently to Will's side if they were detained by the locals or harmed in a crash. When they pulled in front of the Hotel only Hotch and Dave went up to the rooms they gathered everyone's go bags While Derek hurriedly check them out. While they were doing that Reid called the local FBI office and let them know that they were departing and that the SUVs would be at the airport and one at the Morgan house.
"He said that Will was in a high speed case. The suspect they were casing lost control and slammed into the side of his car. Will was thrown from the car to land right in front of the suspect's car. They don't think he is going to make it through the night." JJ told them in a monotone as they drove to the airport knowing that only Hotch knew and everyone else was just taking his queue that this was something bad and they needed to support her.
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Flashback
"I wish we did not have to go." JJ told Will as he led her from the restaurant he had taken her to. It was really more of a blues club but a very swank blues club. Everyone was dressed formally and dancing after they ate to the music that constantly surrounded them thanks to having two bands playing all night. One playing a set while the other took a break.
"I wish you did not have to go too." He told her before pulling JJ to a stop with the hand he held and pulled her in for a kiss. "It is a damn shame we live so far apart, sugar."
They walked hand in hand back to his home and he made her feel things she did not know existed before…
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JJ smiled remembering the Will she had dated, the Will she had fallen in love with, the sensations and the feelings her had given her were so unreal. She realized that that statement was so true, they were SO unreal. She was so lost in her thoughts she forgot she had even told the team what was going on, much less noticed their reactions to the news, or their reactions to her behavior, which did not seem much like a heartbroken wife they thought she should be, either as friends or as profilers.
They did not need to share a look to know that they were all thinking the same thing; JJ must be dying inside at the thought of her husband in such a horrifying crash. They were all confused by her demeanor though, beyond the initial falling to the ground she not seemed anything but shocked. JJ had not shed any tears and her voice did not waver as she had told them what happened. Penelope and Emily sat there with their arms wrapped around her telling her that everything would be okay, although they had no idea how. And that they would be on the plane soon and that was the fastest way to get her to Henry and Will. Derek volunteered himself and Garcia to pick up Henry from the station so that JJ could go straight to the hospital to see Will.
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Flashback:
"You wont leave your job? Not even now that you are a mother to our child and we are married?" Will asked her with a strange glint in his eye.
"I can't leave my team they need me." JJ tried explaining it to him again. "We are a family and I can't be comfortable if I leave them. I will know that they have to find someone that meshes with the family and can handle the pressure. They need to work like a well oiled machine. Hotch can't do my job and his like he is doing with Jordan. I wish that I could be there but Hotch wont sign off on me returning to the field until I have used up my entire maternity leave."
"Do you hear yourself, any normal person would kill to have a boss tell them that, and to even encourage them to go away for a while to spend time with your newborn son and husband but not you. You look at it like you are under arrest being here!" it was right then that JJ noticed that she should fear her husband. He raised his hand and back handed her across the face. He looked appalled at someone but she wasn't sure if it was at himself for what he had just done or at her for not following his orders.
Will walked away his hands raised in surrender like he knew what he had done was wrong, and wanted her to know he would not do it again. "I am going for a run to clear my head. I'll be back later." He told her as he walked out the door, leaving JJ still gawking at the space he had just occupied in front of her, unable to believe what had just happened.
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As they talked to her Reid focused on driving, trying to remember that Will was not dead yet and that he could pull through and JJ would be fine. He did however keep checking on her in the rearview mirror, hoping that no one would notice what he was doing. Derek and JJ noticed, but both decided that he was just worried about her wellbeing.
As they reached the airport JJ's shock was starting to fade and she could see that if he died tonight she would be free. She could take Henry and move out of their horrible apartment to somewhere that she felt safe! At this thought a smile started forming on her face, and a near hysterical giggle forced its way out before she could contain it. She had to keep a stopper on her glee the team would not understand, JJ reminded herself. Too late she thought as she noticed that they were all staring at her in curiosity, Reid still glancing into the mirror to see her with a perplexed look on his face. Derek had turned in his seat at the giggle, the girls pulled back a little, and no one was saying anything. If the SUV was not running you could have heard a pin drop, and even still she could almost hear the questions that were racing through their minds.
Luckily for her they arrived and everyone piled out of the SUV, Emily and Reid walking with JJ both with a hand on her as if leading her to the plane. While Penelope helped Derek and Rossi and Hotch got their go bags. Still being in his walking cast Derek was slower then Emily, JJ, and Reid which allowed him time to fill in Rossi and Hotch about JJ's behavior as the shock faded.
On the plane JJ sat on the couch and pulled Emily and Reid down next to her. This Forced Derek to sit in one of the chairs with his leg up on Pen's lap, everyone else piled in around them for take off. Hotch walked up front to talk to the pilot once they were in the air. No one had said a word they just stared helplessly at one another. When Hotch came back from the cockpit he paced for a moment before stopping in front of JJ and crouched down to look into her eyes, he wanted to know the truth of her answers.
"JJ are you happy in your marriage? I know that you are completely happy as a mother. But how about as a wife?" JJ looked away from them all not wanting to answer him, but knowing that not answering would also give them an answer, and give them more ammo for this conversation, so she answered simply, "No."
"Alright, why not?" This time Emily asked, hoping she was following Hotch's thinking.
"I can handle it; I want Henry to grow up happy with two parents to love and care for him…" Her eyes were clear and strong, her voice didn't waver.
"With two parents, not both of his parents?" Derek caught her slip. At the same time as Pen asked, "Handle what sweetie?"
"Henry is still a baby how would he know who his father is…?" Worried that something was really wrong at this point and none of them had seen it, they all shared a look, before Hotch asked.
"JJ, why are you happy that your husband is in critical condition and may not make it through the night?" She looked away from them blushing, and refused to answer.
"Think back over the time since Will moved up here. JJ has slowly stopped going out with us as a team, but so have Derek and Pen, we need to work on our family skills again guys we have missed so much about each other in the last year it is amazing really. It has been warm at home but I have not seen JJ in anything long sleeved since last summer. And there has been more makeup then normal, I attributed that to lack of sleep with the baby but I am starting to think that he abuses her." Reid told them; watching JJ's reaction as he said this, surprise that he had noticed all of that about her flashed a moment before the pain and fear set in.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Emily asked.
"I wanted him to stop not die, but now he is dyeing and I can't seem to feel anything but relief. I thought loved him once and I did not wish harm to come to him and that includes your disappearing thing Penelope. As long as he did not hurt Henry I was handling it just fine. But last week I came home and Henry had a bruise that he could not explain to me, I was going to serve him with papers when we got back. There was nothing he could have done to change my mind about it not after hitting Henry."
The shock that ran through the team was nearly audible, they were outraged that they had not noticed the signs, that Will would abuse anyone and that JJ would take any form of abuse and finally that he had hit a baby. They had all been fooled by him; they had believed that he was a good man, a good cop, a good husband, and a good father. This man had completely duped the best profiling team in the country.
"I think that we need to go away awhile together do a little team rebuilding figure out a new dynamic of having a couple on the team." Hotch started, "We need to learn to trust one another again, to read one another again. I know that enter team profiling is against the rules but missing something like you two dating or what was happening to JJ, is different then profiling one another. I will make sure that we can take pets, and children where ever we go, and I will let you know when. Dave, could you talk to Strauss and get us off active rotation? We can still give consulting profiles but we will not go out into the field."
Hotch moved away from the group and got started planning the retreat, Dave also moved away to talk to Strauss about what was going on and taking the team off active duty until further notice. Derek called ahead to have two SUVs meet them at the airport, making sure that one had a car seat installed in it for after they picked up Henry from the station. Emily had finally persuaded JJ to release her hand so that she could run to the restroom and while she was up Reid pulled JJ into a hug and did not let go, giving in she cried into his shirt. Reid rubbed her back and spoke soothingly in her ear; letting her know that none of this was her fault, that everything would be okay, and she would not have to do everything on her own that he would be there to help her always, she just had to ask.
Penelope smiled knowingly, but no one else heard him, they were all busy trying to get everything organized. She was ecstatic that Reid had stepped up, he has had feelings for JJ for a long time and Pen hoped that helping her out would bring them closer like it did for her and Derek when she was shot. She knew that Reid still held a flame for JJ, he had wanted her to be happy so had kept to himself, not that he knew how show her how he felt anyway. Right now JJ needed the kind of support that he would offer her.
She fell asleep hugging Reid, snuggled into his side and he spent the rest of the flight trying not to move so that she could stay asleep once she realized that he husband was dying she would start going through a whole ream of emotions. From fear of a life without him while raising Henry, even though she knew that he had done very little for their son recently. To Guilt for thinking she had wished him dead, which she hadn't even thought of until he was already dying and was not her fault. To relief of being free to live her life again without fearing that he would hurt her.
Derek laughed to himself watching Reid try not to smile about JJ sleeping on his shoulder; he nudged Pen and nodded his head towards the youngest member of their team. Pen passed the message on to the boss men sitting behind her. Hotch sent them both an email to their PDAs
Hopefully she sees what we do, that he loves her. And we know that he would never hurt her. But lets not force them. No one forced you two even though we thought about it from time to time and look how you turned out.
Alright but if she starts going out with someone besides Reid after he tells her how he fells I am slapping him for letting that go on again right under his nose.
Derek replied, and groaned when he saw a sorry look come into Pen's eyes, he should have sent that to just Hotch. But he knew his baby girl would either not leave him alone until he told her what he told Hotch or she would just hack his PDA.
AN: Tell me what you think!