A/N This is an AU fic, one in which JJ is unattached and without a baby. Just a different take on the end of Zoe's reprise.
"Looks like a storm's blowing in."
Dave closed his eyes, groaning inwardly. He'd come out here to be alone, to think; and her cheerful tone was quite possibly the last thing he wanted to hear at the moment. Anybody else, Dave could have ignored, and they would've gotten the idea and left him alone. That was never the case with JJ. It wasn't the fact that she wouldn't leave him alone; Dave just couldn't make himself ignore her.
After a couple of seconds, he felt her hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. He sighed and opened his eyes, though he didn't look at her. Instead he turned his gaze out to on the creek, watching the clouds gathering. She was right; it did look like a storm. Though on a day like this, Dave much preferred a storm to the sunshine.
JJ slowly lowered herself to the grass beside him, watching him worriedly. "What are you doing out here?"
Quickly he glanced at her, though he didn't answer right away. "I was just…thinking." He shrugged. "There's only so many places I can go where I'm completely alone, especially in a strange town." he said pointedly, slightly dismayed when she didn't seem to catch his message. "You know, by myself?" he added, more forcefully than he'd meant. She quickly looked away from him, and instantly he felt guilty. He brought his hands to his face, rubbing his eyes. "I'm sorry," he sighed.
JJ shrugged. "It's okay."
"I shouldn't have snapped." He shook his head. He honestly didn't mean to take his frustration out on her. "You're just trying to-"
"Dave, it's okay," she interrupted softly. "It's been a bad week for all of us." She looked down, shifting her position. "I've got some things I can do, so I'm just gonna go, okay?"
He didn't exactly know what made him do it, but he reached out for her, clasping her hand in his. She looked at him in confusion, and he glanced away, letting go of her hand.
"Stay," he said quietly. "Just for a little bit."
She nodded, then once again made herself comfortable on the sand. "You confuse me sometimes," she murmured.
He looked at her, for a second allowing a smirk to show before he turned his eyes once again to the water. A short silence fell upon them, broken only by the wind as it whipped around them. JJ watched him intently, fairly sure she knew why he was so troubled this morning. "Anything in particular?" she asked quietly, after another moment.
"What?" he asked, now his turn to be confused.
JJ smiled. "You said you came out here to think. About anything in particular?"
Dave sighed, looking down at the grass. Anyone else, he would have lied to. But, just like he couldn't ignore JJ, he couldn't make himself lie to her either. "No. Not one thing in particular. Just everything in the last few days, I guess." He picked up a stone, tossing it halfheartedly toward the water. Feeling her eyes on him urging him to continue, Dave breathed in deeply; the scent of the coming rain mixing with the scent of what he'd come to know as distinctly JJ. It was intoxicating; oddly comforting, and suddenly, he could no longer hide what had been bothering him since the discovery of Zoe being murdered. "I can't get past the fact that I should've listened to that girl," he grumbled.
JJ tensed, fighting the sudden urge to reach out to him, to touch him in some way. "It happens, Dave."
"Sure it does." He shrugged. "You asked what I was thinking about, and that's it. That girl died because I brushed her off as just another fan. She goes to some crime scene and ends up a victim herself. So young, everything ahead of her. Me, I go home every night to an empty cabin, or an empty hotel room. Get up the next day, do the same meaningless things all over again. It should be old men like me that die, not young girls like her."
"Dave…" JJ reached for his hand, but he pulled it out of her grasp. Just listening to him broke her heart, and the apathy; the ease in which he seemed to speak hurt her even more. "Don't say that."
"It's the truth." He scoffed. "Doesn't bother me to admit that."
JJ moved slightly closer to him. "It bothers me though," she said quietly. "I know I asked, but I still wish you wouldn't say things like that."
Dave let out a sigh, turning his head to her. He watched her for a moment, long enough to see the hurt in her eyes and feel guilty again for having put it there. "Anything for you, Jen," he said quietly, looking back out over the water. The words were spoken in a slightly sarcastic manner, much like almost everything else he'd say. But it surprised him, the amount of sincerity that lay just beyond the sarcasm.
The air seemed to thicken as silence fell around them. JJ shifted slightly, suddenly uncomfortable. Absently she drew random patterns in the grass with her fingers, attempting to concentrate on anything except the silence. Her instincts, as well as the low rumble of thunder in the distance, told her to run; to just get up and get out of there; but JJ found herself unable to leave his side.
"How did you find me anyway? It's not like in this beautiful town I have many places to go. How did you track me down?" he asked her curiously.
"A little thing called a GPS tracker and a friend called Garcia. I called in a favor and followed the clues." JJ smiled at him.
Dave found himself watching her from the corner of his eye. He noted her sudden unease; her slight fidgeting, and the corner of his mouth twitched as he was reminded of just the day before. "You know, you really surprised me when you told me that I influenced you about joining the FBI" he commented, changing the subject and trying to ease some of the tension that had descended upon them.
It worked. JJ smiled, turning her face away from him, somewhat embarrassedly. "Oh God," she mumbled, a tiny frown on her face.
Dave raised an eyebrow. "What, that bad to talk about it with me now?"
JJ let out a breath, tucking her hair behind her ears. "It's embarrassing." She shook her head. "I let my "hero" know why I joined the FBI. Yeah, I'm just a little embarrassed, but you know, I'm so glad I met you though."
Dave smiled, remembering their earlier conversation. JJ telling him that it was because of his book tour, his speaking engagement, that this beautiful blond had joined the FBI, and in turn, worked with him now. He desperately wished that he'd remembered meeting her those many years ago, but he didn't. "You know, it's not so bad, JJ. It's not every day that I can say I influenced a beautiful woman to come work at a job like this."
JJ shook her head. "Yeah, hold that against me, Rossi. If I knew you'd get such a kick out of it, I might not have told you."
Dave looked at her, then said. "Don't say that JJ. It meant a lot to me when you told me that this morning. When I feel like what I do is useless, knowing that good people are doing this job, well, I can't ask for more than that. Besides, you're good at what you do, and no one can ask for more than that."
JJ smiled at that and playfully nudged him in the side with her elbow, enjoying the compliment from Dave. Dave pushed her back, pretending to take offense, but smiling despite himself. With a giggle, JJ tilted her head, watching him closely. Dave blinked. "What?"
JJ shrugged. "Nothing," she replied dismissively.
He grinned again. "No, seriously. What is it?"
"Why don't you do that more often?" she asked, smiling.
"Do what?"
JJ held his gaze for a moment before replying. "Smile," she said slowly.
Instinctively, Dave tried to drop his smile, but surprisingly, he found it somewhat difficult to do while still looking at JJ. With a shrug he looked away. "I guess I just don't."
JJ nodded, looking away herself. "Well, you should," she said softly, once more drawing circles in the grass as again silence fell upon them. Though this time, the silence wasn't uncomfortable; it was companionable. Surprisingly, Dave found himself glad she was there, even if they were just sitting in silence. It was the first time in a while that he'd found himself not wanting to be alone.
He wasn't sure exactly how long he just sat there with her in silence, simply enjoying her company. He wasn't sure when she'd done it; but at some point, JJ had stopped drawing random circles in the grass and had moved closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. He supposed it was around that time that his arm had ended up draped lazily around her; he wasn't sure. But the one thing he was blindingly sure of was that, however they'd ended up in that position, it felt completely natural.
He heard her sigh softly, and for a moment he wondered if she'd fallen asleep. He ran his fingers through her hair a couple of times, deep in thought; what he'd done earlier coming back to him. "I did it, JJ," he said quietly, feeling an oddly strong need to tell her.
JJ slowly lifted her head from Dave's shoulder. "What?" she asked in confusion.
He kept his eyes on hers, though he wanted to look away. "I apologized to her mother."
JJ gazed at him intently before a smile slowly crept across her face. She nodded. "Good. You have to realize you can't fix everything." she said quietly.
He looked deep into her eyes, and suddenly, there it was. The reason why he'd felt compelled to get up and go early to the cemetery, where he'd ran into Zoe's mother. He didn't answer JJ right away; instead he leaned into her and kissed her softly on the lips. Feeling her tense in surprise, Dave started to pull back, but changed his mind once he felt her respond. He placed a hand on her cheek and deepened the kiss just slightly, hearing JJ moan softly. After a few more moments Dave broke the kiss, pulling back and waiting for her to open her eyes. Gently he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, simply holding her gaze for a moment before he spoke.
"Thanks for everything, JJ," he said, this time the sincerity not hidden behind sarcasm. JJ stared at him for a moment before she remembered what he was replying to; her lips curving in a wide smile as realization dawned. She leaned in and recaptured his lips with hers, kissing him deeply.
A loud peal of thunder sounded from just overhead, and JJ jumped away from him, startled. Dave gave a low chuckle at her reaction. "You were right," he observed, glancing to the sky. "It is gonna storm."
"Of course I was right," JJ sassed. "When have I ever been wrong?" She smiled easily, feeling the last of the earlier tension dissolving.
Dave grinned. "You mean, besides that one time you --"
JJ quickly leaned closer to him, pressing her lips to his and effectively interrupting him. "You weren't supposed to answer that," she said upon pulling away. She looked to the sky, noticing a few raindrops starting to fall. "We'd better get out of here if we don't want to get caught in the storm," she murmured, although perfectly content where she was. Still, she stood and brushed the grass off of her. "Come on," she said, grinning as she extended her hand to Dave. "You can buy me lunch."
Dave stared up at her. "Uh, excuse me?" he asked, attempting to sound incredulous.
JJ smirked. "You were going to offer anyway."
"I was not!" he protested, even though he really had been just about to offer.
"Yeah, you were." JJ winked, grinning. "Come on, Dave."
Dave sighed in mock exasperation. "Fine. If I have to." JJ giggled, and Dave took her outstretched hand, pulling himself to his feet. "You know, I should have pulled you back down onto the grass with me," he smirked.
"Yeah, and then you'd have been buying me dinner too," JJ said. Playfully she tugged on his hand.
"Come on, Dave," she whined. "I don't want to get wet!"
Dave laughed, his spirits considerably higher than before. "So I'm guessing that picking you up and tossing you in the water is a bad idea?"
JJ stared at him. "You wouldn't dare."
Dave looked at her thoughtfully. "Yeah, you're right. You know how dangerous it is to swim in a storm," he said, beginning to walk up the embankment. He smirked once JJ caught up to him. "I'll just save that idea for another day," he teased, completely expecting the playful yet forceful shove he received in return.