I don't own the characters *sigh*. I'm just writing for fun, I'm not making any money with this, blah, blah, blah... all that things you already know.

A super-double very big thank you to the formidable Cat Jenkins, who revised this story and corrected it's many mistakes.


...:: Waiting at the airstrip ::...

The team had successfully resolved another case. The UnSub was in a nice, very secure prison cell. The police were grateful and quite impressed, and to top it all off, it was Saturday morning and the profilers, plus the technical analyst, were flying home, with the prospect of having –probably– a free weekend.

That's why Will, Henry and Kevin were at the airport, waiting for the jet to land. Henry was sitting inside the car, occupying himself with drawing pictures of mommy fighting the bad guys, who, of course, didn't stand a chance against her. Will and Kevin where outside the cars, talking about everything and anything.

"I can't wait to have Jayge home," grinned Will. "A whole weekend as a family sounds like heaven!"

"Yeah, it does," agreed Kevin. "I don't understand how you do it… I can barely handle it when Penny goes out with them, and she does a lot less traveling than JJ."

"It isn't easy," admitted Will, sighing. "That time she was working at the Pentagon… I thought it would be better. Regular hours, more time with Henry, out of the firing line… more time with me… it sounded so good. It wasn't as if she would never see the team again; they could meet whenever they wanted, or their schedules allowed. The salary was practically the same, and the stress was supposed to be less. No minds of sick murders and rapists to get into."

"Sounds good to me."

"Yeah, I thought that too. Sadly, it wasn't so good in the long run." Will's expression was a mixture of guilt and anger. "She wasn't allowed to talk at home about anything that happened there. The people were a bunch of self-centered idiots, who either ignored her or criticized her. And about less office hours? Yeah, right, but only because she worked at home twice as much as before. Jayge was working more than ever, talking less, she barely saw her friends… she wasn't happy. Other people would do anything to not have to do her job, but she loves it. And as long as she's happy and alright, it's okay with me."

"You… don't you ever…" Kevin doubted a moment "…get jealous?"

"Jealous?"

"Yes, I mean… I know, I know, a relationship thing is about trust, and I trust Penny with my whole heart, and I also know your wife is an admirable woman and a wonderful mother and everything." Kevin spoke rapidly, clearly nervous. "But… sometimes when they are together, the team… I don't know, it's almost as if they have their own little world, you know? Sometimes they almost understand each other without speaking, or know just what to say and what to left unsaid, or… or maybe it's just that I'm a fairly new addition to the group, and I still have to learn how to integrate myself into that close-knit group. Or so my therapist tells me. But I swear, I have lost count of how many hours of therapy I've spent discussing my girlfriend's relationship with Derek Morgan, and I still don't understand them!"

Will only smiled.

"First time I heard them, I honestly thought they were having an affair," he admitted.

"Exactly!"

"Next time I heard them talking, Hotch was there, serious as ever, listening. Then I knew there was no chance that anything other than friendly teasing was happening between them."

"That's what has been driving me crazy!" answered Kevin, excited. "I trust Penny with my whole heart, and I know she would never cheat on me… not without a very good reason… not without screaming at me first and ruining forever my credit records and general online life," he admitted. "Rationally, I know there is nothing going on there. I know that if I asked her to not flirt with Morgan, she would stop. I also know neither of them means it to be anything more than friendly banter. Then why are they doing it?"

Will looked pensive for a moment or two before he answered.

"Where do you work inside the Bureau? I mean, for what department?"

"Information Technology, why?"

"Have you ever worked a case together with the team? With the BAU?"

"Once… when we met. Penny had been shot…"

"Yeah, I remember. Jayge shot the shooter."

"I know. I was there." Kevin shuddered. "Probably the most terrifying moment in my life, so far."

"Well, that was an actually tame case," Will explained, matter-of-factly.

Kevin's jaw dropped.

"There was the personal component of the victim being someone from the Unit, but other than that, the serial killer was actually rater… calm, in comparison to others. Or so I have been told," Will explained further.

With some work, Kevin closed his mouth. He appeared to be speechless.

"Did you know that JJ and Spencer went out on a date once?" asked Will.

Kevin opened his eyes so wide he looked a bit like a cartoon.

"It was long before she and I even met. He took her to a Redskins' game. Apparently, Gideon got him the tickets for his birthday, so as to have an excuse to invite her," Will explained. "He liked her, but didn't know how to ask her out. She enjoyed the game enormously; he didn't even understand what was going on in the field. Then they got something to eat, she talked about the game all the time and the only thing he did was to nod when appropriate. He took her to her home, she thanked him for the effort he put into making the day special, and then he asked her for something."

"What?" Kevin was listening with rapt attention.

"He asked her to please be his friend, to have his back, and to never, ever, make him go to any sort of sports thing again in his entire life." Will grinned as he said it. "They've been good friends even since."

"Wow." Kevin was honestly astounded. "And… it doesn't… bother you, to have him around?"

"No, why should it? It's not as if I expected Jayge to never have gone out with anyone before she met me. I mean, come one, it goes against the law of nature that a girl like Jayge wouldn't attract attention from men. And at the time, I was dating someone else, too."

"Oh."

"Her name was Angelina. Really nice, pretty, quiet. Chaste. She goes by Sister Mary Agnes these days."

"Ooohhh."

"But what I was trying to say, if Jayge went on that date, I'm glad it was with Spencer. He is a good guy, he treated her right, he let her babble about sports even when it didn't interested him because it was important for her. Nothing more happened, and they've been really good friends ever since."

"I think… I'm beginning to understand what you mean," Kevin said slowly.

"Knowing, even superficially, the sort of cases they work… I think they not only are a really close group, they sometimes desperately need some reason to smile, to laugh, to stop thinking about the monsters even for a moment. I'm not a profiler myself, thank you very much, but I think for Morgan and Garcia, their shamelessly flirting is that escape. Jayge has Henry, and me if I may say so myself. Hotch has Jack. Spencer has his magic tricks, his statistics, all his enormous knowledge… I'm not sure about the others, but they also may have some way to cope," speculated Will.

Kevin nodded slowly, a new resolution setting into his eyes, before he got his phone from inside his pocket, just as they saw the jet slowly coming closer.

"I think on that jet is an amazing, beautiful, smart and sexy computer genius who needs to get told how wonderful she really is," he explained to Will, who was smiling broadly. "And lunch at her favorite restaurant should be a good beginning. Even if I strongly dislike that place… It's only once in a while, and it is for her."

While Kevin made the reservations, Will watched the jet land.


Thoughts, comments, constructive criticism and the like are welcome. Thank you for reading!