A few years ago I wrote a A/U story about the team and 9/11. I've had this story in my mind for awhile now. The idea came from a similar assignment I had when I was in high school. In my history class we had to interview someone who was alive during WWII and someone alive during The Vietnam War. Thinking about 9/11 and the current generation in high school I realized that for them 9/11 would be an event in the history books nothing that they had experienced first hand. This story is set in the future and take place just before the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 and will include all the team members.

Friday September 3, 2021

Jennifer Jareau had just finished putting away her work files when the front door opened, the sound of teenage boys running through the house quickly followed. The sound of her boys her cue to put the work away until Monday. It had been five years since the former profiler had left the BAU, taking a supervisory position in the FBI's media department. There were days she missed jetting around the country, hunting down UnSubs with her team, but being a Mom was always her priority, and being home with her boys far outweighed the thrill of taking down the bad guys.

The boys had always said they understood when their parents left on a case, often excited to tell their friends their parents were real superhero's, but as they got older the nights and days without their parents began to weigh on the two young boys, the birthdays and holidays missed threatened to tear apart their small family. JJ had been the first to leave the BAU, and unlike being forced to leave for the State Department this move had felt right, she could still help people, could still make this world a better place for her family, but at the same time she could be there to raise her boys.

It was a year after JJ had left the BAU that Aaron Hotchner finally accepted the promotion to Section Chief, a position everyone thought would kill the man who needed action. Like his wife the change in position had been a seamless one, the time with his family worth the days spent behind a desk. Leaving the BAU had been easier knowing it was Derek Morgan who would take his position, Hotch had always known Morgan would excel in a leadership positon, and with Prentiss has his number two, the BAU had continued to flourish.

Between JJ and Hotch taking new positions in the FBI and David Rossi retiring for the second time, the BAU may have spread out but they were still very much a family, one that no other BAU team could replicate. They didn't spend their days together but managed to keep their family together in both the big moments in life and the small ones.

JJ shut her office door putting away her work persona until after the holiday weekend, ready to spend her weekend with her boys and her family. Her BAU family would congregate at the Hotchner home the next afternoon for an early Labor Day weekend barbeque, and the mother of two couldn't wait for her family to be together.

"Hi Mom!" Twelve-year-old Henry Jareau-Hotchner ran past his mother more than ready to get out of his school uniform. "Bye Aunt Jessica, tell Conner I'll text him later about the new Madden game." With barely an acknowledgement Henry ran upstairs ready to start the extended weekend, three days away from school.

JJ watched as her youngest son ran past shaking her head at the preteen. "Thanks for dropping them off Jess." When JJ and Hotch first started dating Jessica had worried what having JJ in their lives would mean for her relationship with her nephew, little had she known she would gain a new friend and surrogate nephew out of the deal.

"Anytime, I believe I saw Jack running towards the kitchen, something about him starving." Jessica knew about teenage boys and their bottomless pits they called a stomach, "We'll see you guys tomorrow afternoon." She waved as she left the other mother in search of her oldest son.

Walking into their kitchen JJ found her son digging through the pantry, "Don't eat too much Jack, Dad's picking up pizzas on his way home from work," she warned the fifteen-year-old.

Jack grabbed a bag of Cheetos before sitting at the bar watching as his Mom grabbed items out of the refrigerator. "I thought you said Dad was getting pizza for dinner?" Jack asked as he munched on the cheesy flavored snack.

Dropping the items in her arms to the counter, "He is, this is for tomorrow. Everyone's coming over for a Labor Day barbeque."

Jack shoved another chip into his mouth, "That's right I forgot."

JJ went about starting the prep work for the various potato and pasta salads she was making as Jack watched her as he enjoyed their family's favorite snack. "So, Jack how's school going?" JJ finally asked, filling a pot with water for the pasta. The boys had finished up their first week of school Jack starting his Sophomore year and Henry his first year in Junior High.

"Good, it has been easy so far but it's just the first week. My teachers have been pretty easy on us so far, the only homework we have so far is for History and it's an assignment that we have until next week to do. I can't wait for football season to start, I won't have to wear this uniform on Friday's anymore." Jack pulled on the collar of his dress shirt for emphasis, the dark blue tie had been loosened once the final bell had rung. Football games would mean he could wear his team jersey instead either a dress coat or sweater vest. He would still have to wear his slacks and dress shoes but the jersey was much more comfortable.

JJ smiled softly at the fifteen-year-old, the closer Jack had gotten to Junior High the couple had discussed their options as far as the boys' education. Public school was certainly more affordable but the seasoned agents had been concerned with the rise in crime and drugs at public Jr. High and High Schools. They had made the decision to send the boys to Potomac Academy, a private school near their suburban home. It had been an adjustment for the two preteens leaving the friends they had grown up with and acclimating to the strict policies of a private education. While both boys were thriving in their new environment that didn't stop the mother of two from worrying if it had been the right decision.

Jack told his mom about his first week of school, the teachers he was excited to have again and the ones he wasn't so excited about. JJ listened as she continued to work her way around the kitchen, asking questions about his classes, always happy to spend time with her oldest son, knowing this moments were few and far between.

"Hey Mom? Is there something I can help with?" Jack finished up a story about the soccer team realizing he hadn't offered to help the obviously overworked FBI Agent. His answer was a soft smile followed by a bowl of potatoes and a peeler placed in front of him. Jack didn't need instruction, picking up the first potato he made quick work of the brown peel.

"Mom?" Jack asked softly not sure how to broach the real reason he was spending his Friday afternoon with his Mom working in the kitchen. JJ's soft blue eyes made contact with his, "Can I ask you a question?"

JJ looked perplexed, Jack knew he could ask her anything, "Jack you know you can always ask me anything."

Of course, he knew he could ask her, he just didn't know if he should. His only homework assignment had come from his history teacher, the teacher warned them of the sensitive nature of this particular assignment. He had been warned that even years later people had a difficult time discussing what had happened, particularly people in the area they lived as so many had been affected.

Finally, he just decided to ask, hoping it didn't upset the woman he had chosen to call Mom after losing his Mom at a young age. "Where were you on September 11th?"

Of all the questions JJ thought Jack could ask this one was certainly the very last question she expected. The question froze her in place, memories from that day nearly twenty years ago flooding her mind.

Jack froze at the look in his mother eyes, he knew her mind was going back in time, instantly he regretted asking. "I'm sorry Mom, don't worry about it." He told her quickly wanting to change the subject back to their lighthearted conversation.

JJ breathed deeply shaking her head, trying to make the memories fade. "No, Jack It's ok. What made you ask about that day?"

"Mr. Nelson, my history teacher. This year it will have been twenty years since the attacks. Our generation wasn't alive when 9/11 happened, we're the first generation who can only learn about it in the history books. Mr. Nelson wants us to interview at least three people to learn what it was like that day. He says the more people we interview the more we can learn about what happened, that it was different for everyone depending on where you were when it happened." Jack explained his assignment.

JJ paused, it was hard to comprehend how much time had passed, how this was history for her boys, that this was something they would learn from books not having experienced it themselves. It seemed surreal that her fifteen-year-old would be asking about what happened on 9/11. She was grateful he would never know the horror they had lived through but to tell him about that day, about her own experience, she wondered how much to tell him, how much she cared to relive. Finally, she answered him, "Your teacher is right Jack, it was a different experience for everyone. In a matter of minutes our world changed before our eyes.

"Twenty years later and I can remember details about that day that are so mundane, things that any other day I wouldn't remember. I can still feel the warm late summer day, the way the sun felt, how the grass smelled. I remember what I was wearing, where I was when the towers were hit, when they fell, or when the Pentagon was hit. I couldn't tell you those same detail about September 10th, what we did the day before 9/11 seemed so insignificant in comparison."

Jack was curious about the day that affected his mother so much, a day that as she said had changed the world they lived in. He could barely remember what he wore last week, he couldn't imagine trying to remember what he wore twenty years from now. "Twenty years and you can still remember all that? How?"

JJ thought about his question not really sure if she could truly explain why. "You'll have moments in your life son that will leave an impact on you, moments that will stay with you no matter how many years pass by. My parents could tell you details about November 22, 1963." Jack looked at her confused. "That was the day President Kennedy was shot. My grandparents' world changed on December 7, 1941. There's events in our lives that will leave a mark on you that will stay with you, for my generation that was the day the towers fell."

"Will you tell me what happened that day?" Jack knew who President Kennedy was and he knew about Pearl Harbor but those events seemed like they were a lifetime ago, this day he could relate to 9/11 and how it shaped the world he was a part of.

JJ thought about that day, the events that shaped the person she was today, considering where to start, how much to tell. The sounds of Aarons car pulling up giving her a reprieve. That moment of pause gave the mother an idea of how to truly help her son understand the events of that day. "Jack, Dad's home, why don't we hold off on this until tomorrow that way the team will be here and you can ask them about their perspective from that day. All of us were somewhere different both in the world, and at different stages of our lives. I think that will give you the best idea of what unfolded that day and how our country and world reacted to it."