Chapter 1:
JJ could feel her foul mood lifting as she grabbed her gym bag from under her desk. Finally through with another long workday and ready to have some time to herself. With Henry visiting her mother for the week she had finally started to catch up on areas of her life that had been sorely neglected by the rigorous demands of balancing single motherhood and her job after Will had abruptly left them over six months ago. He had made one final ultimatum for her to choose between him or her work and this time had followed through on the consequences when she again refused to quit her job at the BAU.
The divorce had just been finalized earlier in the month and she was still trying to think of herself as a single woman again. She struggled at times, coping with her failed marriage and in darker moments found herself questioning her choice. But in more logical moments she could confess that she did feel happier in not having to deal with Will's drinking, temper flares and guilt trips about putting her work before her family.
With Henry gone for the week she had spent three days at home after work, delighting in being able to finish all the cleaning, laundry, bills and everything else that had piled up. With her home life now organized and ready for the return of her baby she had finally started making some headway on the work piles and was now ready to hit the gym and enjoy the opportunity for a workout without having to rush home to relieve a babysitter.
She felt herself smiling as she reached the door, with the lateness of the hour she anticipated having the gym to herself to enjoy some private time to contemplate what the future held for her in terms of her personal life.
As word of her divorce had spread she had received a couple of date invitations from office workers not in the BAU. A well intentioned Kevin and Garcia had set her up with one of their IT friends which had been a total disaster. She had tried to give the man a chance but it had been obvious for both of them within the hour that they weren't clicking. She displayed as much interest in his knowledge of the Lord of the Rings trilogy as he did in profiling and working as an FBI agent. The only relief came when they both acknowledged the mismatch and shifted to talking about how to report the experience to their matchmaking friends. Most recently she had received an invitation from a casual acquaintance in accounting named Marty, he seemed nice enough but she found herself leery of immersing herself in the dating world again.
She paused when she heard the clank of weights as she opened the door, signaling that she would not be as alone as she hoped for her workout. Deciding not to let that change her plans she forged ahead, skirting the perimeter of the workout area as she headed towards the locker room.
With a quick glance all she could determine from the furtive look she shot across the room was that the other occupant was definitely male judging by the hairy legs protruding from black gym shorts. "He's supposed to be using a spotter," was the thought that came to mind as she entered the deserted locker room and began stripping off her clothes to change into her own workout gear. She couldn't help feeling annoyed at this thought though deep down she realized her anger was more about not having the gym to herself as she had hoped than whether the man was following the gym rules.
As she changed into her spandex and tank top her mind strayed back to the state of her social life. Garcia had tried to tell her she needed to find a new man for Henry to have a father figure but she had squashed that suggestion almost immediately. Will had left her but still planned to be involved in Henry's life as they continued to work on custody arrangements. She also reminded Garcia that Henry had quite the range of male role models among all his BAU uncles. With Cruz, the four men on their team and Kevin there was no loss of men in their lives that could help fill the gap for Henry but did not require any romantic entanglement. She had initially wondered if any of the men on the team might look at her differently but nothing seemed to change as they team rallied around her in support after she broke the news about the end of her marriage but no one seemed to think of her as anything more than a friend and fellow agent the best she could tell. Either that or they had seen she was not ready, either way there had been no overtures from the men she spent so much time with on cases.
Reid had apparently matured past the initial crush he had on her, Morgan still acted like a brother and Rossi like a father with a perverse sense of humor as he shared some of the advantages of divorce from what he considered his vast experience on the subject. Hotch had remained silent aside from an acknowledgement and offer of whatever help she needed in terms of managing her schedule or if he and Jack could do anything to help Henry. His offer was reinforced by Cruz for both agency support and personal support. She had almost taken Cruz up on his offer to let Henry spend the night with his family but in the end realized that she needed to keep her little boy close right now to help keep her focus during the first few rocky months, this being the first week she had let him leave for more than an overnight visit. Her son seemed to have finally made the transition to not having his daddy around as much, having less tearful episodes or clinging to his mother and she was finally feeling the sense of their life moving towards a new version of normal. Shaking her head to clear the thoughts of her broken marriage she exited the locker room.
Moving towards the elliptical machine for a quick cardio workout she put in the earbuds for her mp3 player and hit the preset button on the machine to start the warmup. Now able to more casually examine the man using the bench press only 10 feet away she immediately observed that with the soles of his sneakers facing her he wouldn't be able to see her without sitting up so let herself be a little more open in her study of him.