A/N This is my first attempt at a story, so just tell me if I should keep going with this story or just give it up! Feel free to give my writing a review. Also, this is an AU after "200" where Emily never left the BAU and Rossi was never a part of the BAU. Finally, I don't own anything Criminal Minds.
Inspired by "Witness to the Decompression" by Kerisenpai and "Never Enough" by kaeh98
Chapter One
JJ collapsed onto the bar stool, sighing heavily as she did so. The team had just finished a case, and it was a particularly tough one for her. The unsub was targeting children, and he had a little girl captive when the team found his lair. When JJ went to talk him down, he grabbed the girl and put the gun to her head. She could tell she was losing the battle, as he was becoming more and more animated and unstable. Before she could end it, he shot the little girl in the head. She quickly fired one bullet into the unsub's head and rushed to the girl, calling for the medic as she did so. But she could tell it was too late. Brushing the girl's hair back from her face and wiping the blood from her eyes, JJ heard her last gasp for air and saw her tiny chest hitch for the last time. Then she was gone.
That's how she ended up in this hole-in-the-wall bar in the heart of St. Louis. Lately she had taken to drinking more and more after a case, and she could tell when she ordered her first scotch that she would soon slip into the hazy oblivion that had become ever so familiar but ever so welcoming. She knew that it was turning into a borderline problem, and she knew that Pen knew too, because she tracked the team using their phones, but tonight she didn't care. She was becoming increasingly depressed after a string of negative results of cases, and the bottle was the only thing that seemed to help, if only temporarily.
The team knew that she had gone out to be alone, but she had caught the concerned glances from Morgan and Emily, and even Reid. They were profilers, after all, and she had experienced a pretty horrible event today. She shook all of it out of her mind and focused on the bottom of her glass, which needed to be refilled. She lost count of how many she had before the bartender cut her off. Was it 7? 8? 9? She shakily extricated herself from the barstool as the world came in and out of focus. She may have overdone it tonight. Staggering out of the bar, she reached for the keys to her rental before realizing that she walked to the bar from the team's hotel, which was just a block or two from the bar. She was in no condition to walk, but she didn't want the team to see her like this, so she set her jaw and began to stumble off in the direction of the hotel.
Before she could even get out of the bar's parking lot, she heard a rustle behind her. Even though her brain was alcohol-addled, her instincts took over. She swiveled as quickly as her dizzy body would allow, but she had no defense against the wooden baseball bat that cracked down onto her head. Everything slowly turned to black as she felt herself being picked up and thrown into the back of a moving vehicle, powerless to resist.
