A/U fic, implied prior relationship between JJ/Rossi. Just an odd oneshot, cause I have the JJ/Rossi bug again, but my other fic is going slow.
JJ looked at her watch as she climbed on the elevator. Will was expecting her home, she was already running late, which always seemed to annoy him. She yawned. She was tired. She wanted to go home, where she wouldn't see Dave. Where she could watch tv with Will and pretend that everything was perfect.
Jennifer Jareau sighed. She had gotten too damn good at pretending as of late.
It had been a year. A year since everything changed. She'd come back to work after having Henry, Will and her had gotten engaged, and now they were thinking of buying a house. She sighed, wondering when she'd lost control of her life. She willed the elevator doors to close, but they never got a chance.
He walked on, phone in hand. Their eyes met briefly and quickly dropped back to the ground.
David Rossi sighed. He hated pretending to ignore his feelings for her.
But pretending was all they had done for the past year, after she had proceeded with her relationship with Will. They didn't pretend to be friends all that much, everything was merely being co-workers between the two of them. Whatever spark or feeling may have been between them had been stomped out when she'd had Henry and Will had moved north.
So they stood on the elevator, in silence. Both looking down at the ground refusing to acknowledge the fact the other was in the elevator.
The lights flickered.
Both looked up, avoiding each other's eyes, as they tried to figure out what had gone wrong.
The elevator loudly grinds to a halt.
"Crap," JJ muttered under her breath.
Dave smiled and leaned over and hit a few buttons, hoping something would happen. Nothing did. He hit the emergency button, expecting the alarm to sound. Nothing happened.
The elevator was broken.
"Looks like you're stuck with me." It was the first friendly thing he had said to her in awhile, any comments between them having been work related.
"Wonderful," JJ said, sinking to the floor and burying her head in her hands.
"No need to be so enthusiastic about it." Dave slid down beside her.
The two sat in silence for a few minutes, that slowly ticked by. They both stared straight ahead, unwilling to break the silence that had surrounded them she'd told them all that she was engaged to Will. They looked like reflections of each other. Legs crossed, leaning against the back of the elevator, looking tired and annoyed. With a sadness in their eyes that had nothing to do with being stuck.
"I hear you and Will are looking to buy a house" Dave quietly said. He didn't like feeling uncomfortable around JJ. He needed to say something.
JJ just scoffed.
"We should talk, pass the time." Dave offered as explanation.
"What makes you think I'd want to talk?"
Dave sadly shrugged his shoulders. "We need to do something. We might be here for hours. I can't sit in silence for hours. I thought we could talk."
JJ didn't respond and the silence fell between them for a few more minutes.
"Yeah, Will and I are thinking of buying a house. I mean, we've had the baby, gotten engaged, might as well buy real estate together too."
"That's good. You're happy?" Dave asks, praying she says yes. And yet wanting her to say no.
JJ just shrugs in response. She can't make herself lie.
Silence falls again.
"How are things with you? " JJ asks, bridging the gap this time.
"Good. My latest book is being published next month, and I'm heading out on a book tour again."
"Oh, that's good."
"Hmm." Dave says and nods. After a moment he asks, "How's Henry?."
"Good. Henry started walking last week. Will thinks he may finally have a job with the Washington Police department."
Not wanting to hear about how wonderful it was with Will, Rossi let loose with a rumor he'd heard in passing, to get her to stop talking about Will.
"Kevin's thinking of proposing to Garcia."
"Seriously?" JJ asks, looking at Dave. Meeting his eyes for the first time in too long. She sees the sadness.
He sees hers. "Seriously."
Another lapse in conversation.
This time the silence lasts longer, both unsure of what to say.
A good ten minutes has passed before Dave talks again. "How did we get here?" he asks, throwing his head back against the wall.
"Good question."
"Jennifer." It's the first time he's addressed her by her first name since finding out her and Will had gotten engaged. "We shouldn't be this awkward around each other. It's not us."
"I know," JJ says and sighs.
"I'm sorry."
"What?"
"I'm sorry. I never meant for us to get to this point. First with the hidden boyfriend, and then you choosing him. Henry comes along, you come back here, telling me I was why you joined the FBI in the first place. I thought we might actually have meant something to each other. But I understand, your son comes first. So, anything I've felt, I just let go. So here we are."
"Here we are." JJ said.
They sit in silence for a few more minutes.
"I miss you," JJ says so quietly Dave almost doesn't here her.
But he does. "I miss you too."
Their hands find each others in the middle, and their fingers intertwine. Both of them sadly smile, it finally feels right again.
"I'm sorry too." JJ says.
Dave laughs. "What the hell do you have to be sorry for?"
"For not talking to you. I know you weren't talking to me but I could have tried. I should have tried. I'm sorry I didn't. I was confused."
"It's okay."
"No, it's not." JJ pauses, wiping a tear away from her cheek. "We need each other, don't we?"
Dave nods, his eyes filled with tears. "Yeah, I think we do."
JJ and Dave sit there, in silence for a minute, holding hands and letting tears that had been held back for a year fall freely.
"So Will, do you love him?" Dave asks.
JJ looks down at their hands, and contemplated lying. But it's Dave. She can't. "I don't know."
Dave smiles. "I think I've heard that before."
"Than you know how I feel."
"Confused. Scared. Alone. Pretty much like crap."
"Yeah, that seems to nail it."
"Do you want me to tell you its good you're trying?"
"No. It's not good. He deserves better."
"So do you."
JJ laughs. It sounds bitter. "We've made a mess of things, haven't we, Dave?"
Dave smiles at the sound of his name on JJ's lips. "We have."
"It's about damn time we fix it."
"Hmmm." JJ's heart trips at that sound. So Dave. It had been so long since she had heard it.
They find silence again, this time more comfortable with it. Holding hands and smiling through watery eyes.
"So I was thinking of getting a new dog," Dave says.
JJ smiles and giggles, genuine this time. "I like dogs."
"So I seem to remember." Dave pauses and takes a breath, nervous about what he's going to say next. "You could come help me pick a new hunting dog out. My last one passed on, I need to find a good hunting companion."
JJ pauses and thinks, of Will at home waiting for her and contemplates saying no. But then she thinks of the forced smiles of the past year, and the genuine one on her face now. "Yeah, I think I'd like that."
"Good." Dave says, contemplating kissing her. "How is it that we haven't talked honestly in so long, and yet I still feel for you what I did that first night we really started talking to one another?"
JJ shrugs. "Fate?"
"Fate," Dave says and nods.
Suddenly the lights flicker back on and the elevator begins to move again. The two stand up and gaze at each other, still holding hands. They finally reach the floor they were going to and the doors slide open.
JJ lets her hand drop. "I should go. Will's waiting for me."
"Yeah," Dave says and nods, looking sad again.
"Let me know about the dog. I mean it. Really. I want to do this. Be friends again."
"Friends?" Dave asks and raises and eyebrow.
"Maybe more. We'll see."
Dave smiles and nods, and gestures to the door. "Will's waiting."
"I should go."
"You should go."
JJ smiles and turns away and begins to walk towards the exit.
"JJ?" Dave calls out. JJ turns around, wondering what he could want. "I love you."
JJ feels a real smile spread across her mouth. It feels good. In that moment she knows what she has to do. She can hole up at Garcia's if she needs to, Garcia would do anything for her and her godson.
"I love you too."
Dave smiles at her and watches as she turns around and walks out the door.