It was always tough being back at the BAU. She had worked here for the last 6 years and one day it was all suddenly taken away from her and she was reduced to a mere visitor. It had hurt a lot in the beginning but after a while JJ understood that her transfer to the State Department had been a blessing in disguise. Her split with Will (her incredibly long working hours at the BAU were apparently not the least of their problems) meant that she was required to be home a lot more than her job at the BAU would have allowed. Will had moved back to Louisiana but was thinking of moving back to Virginia in a few months to be close to his son. Just because he wasn't able to work things out with JJ didn't mean that he had to abandon his son too.
Her meeting had ended early and she knew from her daily morning chat with Garcia that the team was coming back from their latest case later in the day so JJ had decided to stop by the FBI Building and check in with her friends- maybe grab a cup of coffee. Which is what brought her to this moment, curled up in a chair in the Tech's small office catching up on the latest gossip. Garcia's extension dinged, effectively breaking off all conversation. It was the security personnel downstairs saying that the rest of the BAU team had arrived back at the office. Both women grabbed their respective cups of hot liquid and headed to the bullpen to greet their friends. Garcia knew that their latest UnSub had not gone down without a fight but she was not prepared for what she saw. Their Unit Chief looked like he had gone a few rounds with a sledge hammer and by the looks of it the hammer had won. His face was bruised badly, his lip was torn and his arm was in a soft sling (meaning that it wasn't broken but probably twisted the wrong way). All in all he looked terrible.
Garcia was too busy doing her own assessment of the battered Unit Chief that she failed to notice the expression on JJ's face. It was a look of pure horror as she took in his slightly limping form. A loud gasp escaped her, her coffee cup dropped out of her hand and crashed onto the floor but JJ didn't notice anything. She dashed down into the bullpen and straight up to the only person that she could see at the moment. The rest of the team could've been dancing around naked for all that she noticed.
"Rossi what the hell?" JJ yelled but not even bothering to look at the senior most profiler. "You promised me! YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD TAKE CARE OF HIM! And now look at him! He look like he was hit by a Mac truck! WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?"
If JJ had bothered to take in her surroundings she would have been the looks of shock and slight amusement (only in case of Dave Rossi) on the 4 profilers' faces. But the tiny blonde was too busy gently grabbing the taller dark haired man's face and pulling it down to see the damage closely. Hotch, himself, was in too much of shock at JJ's actions to react and was allowing the blonde to do whatever she liked with his willing body.
JJ touched Hotch's face gently. His injuries looked painful and she momentarily thought about what else was hidden under his clothes. She briefly looked into his eyes which were slightly wide with shock but nothing was registering with her. It was like she was in a silo where only her and Hotch existed. She pulled his face closer and lightly traced his features with her fingertip and then ever so lightly touched her lips close to the worst of the cuts and bruises. His sharp intake of breath as soon as her lips touched his face was what brought her back into the present.
Hotch watched as JJ blushed and knew that up till now she had been acting on instinct but as she realized what she was doing she was adorably embarrassed. Knowing that she was about to pull away from him and not wanting her to, he grabbed her elbows and tugged her closer to him. Once she was close to his body he moved his hands from her elbows to her waist and pulled her flush against him not willing to give her even an inch to escape.
JJ had lowered her face unto his chest unable to look into his dark eyes anymore; she was so embarrassed! What had she done? Nobody (or anybody other than Rossi) knew about her feelings for the Unit Chief and now she had gone ahead and let her feelings and worries for his well being completely take her over! Oh God he would never want to look at her now but (a tiny voice at the back of her mind whispered) it was an amazing feeling being tucked into his solid chest! As soon as she thought this JJ remembered that he had been limping and she was fairly sure that he was injured on the parts of his body that she couldn't see which included his broad chest that she was comfortably snuggled into and jumped away.
Hotch had not expected JJ to move away so quickly and was therefore unable to stop her in time before she had put considerable distance between their bodies. He wanted to pull her back to him but was acutely aware of the eyes of 5 profilers watching the pair of them closely. "JJ?" He whispered softly (mainly because he didn't want to disrupt the silence surrounding them but also because talking hurt!) "Are you ok?"
Was he kidding her? He was the one who looked like he had been beaten within an inch of his life and he was asking HER if she was ok? The thought was so ludicrous that it caused her to snort and she turned to look at his face. "Are you kidding me Hotch? Have you seen your face and you're asking me if im ok?" she lightly scoffed at him but she couldn't help the smile that stretched her lips. He was too adorable at times.
Her smile brought his own out to his lips and he cocked an eyebrow up at her. "You know what I mean JJ" he responded gently. "And I'm fine; trust me it looks much worse than it is!" The way that her eyes widened for a second then narrowed to slits showed up that she didn't believe him. He was momentarily reminded about how well she knew and could read him. He had never been able to lie to her.
Rossi interrupted the 2 of them lightly staring at each other by loudly clearing his throat; "JJ I tried to look out for him but he is a sneaky bastard who just refuses to listen. You know how stubborn he can be. BUT he has been looked at by a doctor who has said that the rest of his bones are apparently just as hard as his head and with lots of rest he should be back to his anal self in about a week, ten days."
Rossi's statement earned him a glare from both the Unit Chief and the tiny blonde standing behind him but it was the blonde who recovered first "Guess that settles it then. Come on Hotch its time to get you home. Thanks Dave and let me know if there is anything specific that the doctors want or don't want him to do. Also can you please drop Jack off at my house? We will just head straight home so Hotch can just relax and maybe get some sleep."
None of the members of the BAU could ever say that they had ever seen their boss' jaw drop before now. Hotch just stood there gaping like a fish staring at JJ's outstretched hand. Nobody had ever bossed him around like that; not even Hailey and she had been his wife! Apparently he had been motionless for too long because JJ just reached for his hand and started to pull him towards the door.
Glancing back at the stunned faces JJ thanked Garcia for the coffee and apologized for the broken cup. She smiled widely at Rossi and then stopped to glare at all of them. "Oh one more thing, any one of you disturbs him for the rest of the week will have me to deal with." Then with a wide smile and her arm gently around his waist she left the BAU.