Warped details/spoilers from the season seven finale included.
Theirs is an intricate bond, with many strands that make for a chord not easily broken. He is her boss; she is his right hand man. He is her leader; she is his informant. She is, in some ways, his best friend. She is the one that he tells his… feelings to, things that he wouldn't dream of telling Rossi unless the older profiler simply knows instinctually what they are. Sometimes she is his little sister – the one that he needs to protect at all cost, and he's entirely willing to do it. Sometimes she's his big sister, the one who won't let the world carve another scar into his body - or even his heart - no matter what it takes from her. Sometimes she is like his twin – the one who can read his mind with far too much ease, even when he has his "impenetrable" mask firmly in place. She is, in some ways, his mother, or really the mother of the whole team, which simply means him too, by default.
But there one thing that she is to him – above all of the other things – that is hardly by default, because somewhere along the way, after Will was blown to kingdom come in the case that pushed Emily to go to London and after Beth found someone "better" in New York, they crossed the line. They became lovers. They broke the cardinal rule of common sense, and they fell in love.
When they're alone, he's Aaron to her, and when he's drunk for one reason or another, she's Jenny to him. But that's all… That's all that they allow themselves, because if they allow anything more, people other than themselves will get hurt, and they can't let that happen. They might lose their jobs, and now that they each have no one to help them take care of their respective sons, they can't let that happen either. It doesn't matter that both of their barely-healed, far-too-scarred hearts are breaking anew because of their love for each other, because it's a love that they both accept cannot happen. They must accept that, therefore they do accept it.
She simply finds more reasons for them to be alone together, and he lets himself get drunk just a little more often. It isn't the type of love story that either of them deserves, but it is the type of love story that both of them have come to accept.
It is just another one of the intricacies that defines the relationship between them.
I'm rather proud of myself for the fact that this includes not even a mention of Reid, because as much as I like him, I want to write for all of CM, not just when it includes his character. This was a bit of a character study on JJ for me, and hopefully I did okay on that angle of it, since I have a bunch of JJ-centric story ideas. Reviews make my day, if you feel so inclined! Thanks! Up next is a Reid/Lila multi-chapter.:)