A/N: This takes place during Season Three. Lucky and Penelope have happened but it's a good few months before In Heat. Feedback would be really appreciated as although I have a general idea about where this is headed, I have nothing else written. Next update in around a week.

Hope you enjoy!


Born to Die

Will was supposed to have been here by now.

Since she'd had to work late, they'd simply settled on him getting a taxi to her apartment from the airport. He knew exactly where it was; there was no point in waiting another two hours after a nearly three hour flight. So JJ left him her keys and politely excused herself when the team asked if she wanted to go out for a drink with them.

At first she thought that the flight had simply been delayed, not worrying when he didn't answer his phone. That must be why; you can't answer phones when you're thousands of feet in the air.

Then as the hours passed, JJ's mind led her to much less pleasant thoughts. What if he just didn't want to see her, and was too cowardly to say it to her face, and so simply didn't come? No, Will wasn't like that. He wouldn't do something like that to her. Would he?

The transition from early hours in the morning to afternoon the next day seemed to take forever. She must have rang his cell phone two dozen times, and was in the process of calling his house phone for the fifth time.

'Hey, you've reached the voicemail of Will LaMontagne Jr, clearly I'm not here right now so give me a buzz later.'

It was getting harder to listen to that every time. Seconds passed like minutes, minutes passed like hours until finally the blonde gave in and slept, unable to convince herself Will was coming any longer.

In the end, she had such a restless night that it was a relief to be called out on a case.

"Hotch?"

"JJ, we need you to come in. We've got a case that needs our attention."

"Got it, I'll be there in thirty."

Sleep hadn't been kind to JJ. Just one look at her was enough to tell you that. Or the amount of concealer she had to pack on underneath her eyes. After making herself a quick coffee, she hesitated before leaving her apartment. There was just that tiny nagging voice in the back of her head, saying but what if Will is just extremely late? She decides the only way to pacify the annoying voice was to write him a note, since he wasn't responding to any texts either.

Will, out on a case. Give me a call if you see this. JJ. X

By this point, JJ wasn't sure if she wanted to see him or not.


"God JJ, you look like hell." Emily pointed out, not really concerned, more pointing out the obvious.

Morgan clapped her on the back, an almost proud smile written all over his face. "Damn girl, now I know why you cancelled on us Friday."

JJ forced a sheepish smile, deciding not to let her team know exactly why she was so tired. It wasn't even like they knew about Will anyway; she had gone to great lengths to make sure of that. "Come on, I've got to prep you on this case."

Emily and Morgan took their seats at the table, across from Reid and Hotch who were waiting already. She handed out the case file to them all, leaving one in the empty seat that was filled by David Rossi almost as soon as she put the first image up on the screen.

"Three men have gone missing in the past week in Jacksonville, Florida. All male, between 6'1 and 6'3, brunette, well built. No bodies have been found and given that not long has passed since the first abduction, Jacksonville Police are presuming all the victims are still alive."

"No doubt we have the same guy," Rossi muses, looking at the pictures on the screen. "They're all pretty similar. All of them have blue eyes as well."

"Are we sure we have a guy?" Emily inquired.

"These men are 220, 230 at least, you've gotta be pretty strong to lift that."

"Wheels up in twenty, this is a pretty time sensitive case."


"Good Morning, Crimefighters. Guess who has some pretty wonderful news for you?"

"Shoot, Babygirl." Everyone was at the precinct, no one wanting to take the extra hour to go to the hotel, since time was everything on this case. There weren't even any crime scenes to analyse as thankfully there were no bodies. That wasn't to say that they weren't somewhere else though.

"Okay, so I had a little look into the credit card records of our guys and it turns out all three of them had booked into the Lassar Resort at some point in the last two weeks. I did some digging and it's a pretty famous resort, everyone wants to stay there and they have about 700 visitors around this season."

"Our UnSub must be based around that area, possibly a member of staff?" Emily suggested.

"Prentiss, Morgan, Rossi, JJ, head over there. Ask some questions, look at their rooms, talk to the managers." Hotch ordered. "Reid and I will stay here and work on victimology. Garcia, I need you to look into the staff at Lassar, see if you can find anything suspicious."

"Got it, Boss. Garcia out." And the phone line cut.

JJ didn't bother grabbing her jacket as she followed the other three out of the precinct. God knows it was hot enough already. She got into the SUV with Morgan, not looking for conversation. She tried to put Will out of her mind. Everything was probably fine, and being distracted on the case simply wouldn't do.

After a rather quiet journey, they arrived at the resort, just after Rossi and Prentiss.

"I'll talk to James Taylor's friends," JJ offered, knowing that's where her services would be best required. "They're still here. I'll see what I can get out of them, since the police never got the chance to question them."

James Taylor's was the latest abduction, having only been missing two days, and it being reported yesterday. His friends were still here, not sure how to go home when they were still missing one of their own.

They were waiting in the lobby, sitting with their backs to her. For a second, JJ's heart seemed to leap out of her mouth as she saw the familiar dark hair, cut short for convenience in the heat. She was about to call out to him, when he turned and his face didn't match the one she imagined.

Don't be so stupid, JJ. She chastised herself. Why would Will be in a resort in Florida?

"Hi," she greeted the two men warmly, plastering her best smile on her face. "My name is Agent Jennifer Jareau, I'm from the FBI. Is it alright if I ask you some questions?"

"FBI?" The other one asked, clearly shocked that their missing friend had caused the feds to get involved. This guy had sandy blonde hair, stood at around 5'11 and although taller than his friend, wasn't quite as built. "A bit serious, isn't it? I mean, he's probably just hanging out in that girl's apartment."

"There have been two other disappearances this last week," JJ began to explain, until something clicked in her brain. "Sorry, did you say that girl?"

"Yeah, we went out to some club the other night, to pick up chicks and that," the other brunette said. "She was hot, and took a liking to Jimmy straight away. They were proper all over each other."

"Lucky guy." The sandy blonde added, wistfully.

"What did she look like?"

"Tan, blonde, maybe 5'6?"

"Oh, and she had a scar across her collarbone. She'd tried to cover it up, but her shirt kept slipping down."

"Did you get her name?" JJ asked, urgently. This could be the break in the case they needed, and so early on.

"Er, I think she said Mia? I didn't catch her last name."

"And the name of the club?" JJ pushed for answers, hand already on her phone.

"Magenta, I think."

"Thank you very much, would you mind staying in the resort for now, we may need to ask you some more questions?" JJ didn't even wait for them to answer, and was already calling Hotch, with the news.

"Hotch, we need to look into a club called Magenta, James Taylor was last seen leaving there with a 5'6, blonde girl going by the name of Mia. I think our UnSub's a girl."


Seventeen hours later and the team were boarding the plane, unbelievably tired. Their UnSub went by the name of Mia Trapp, and she was indeed the same girl that James Taylor's friends had seen. They had sent one of the local police undercover to the club, and followed them back to her house. They made a move just as soon as the officer was hit over the head with a frying pan.

They found the other men chained up in the basement, all severely injured but nothing fatal. It was a rare happy moment, to find out that no one had died, that you had saved at least three people, and countless others. Mia Trapp had been physically and sexually abused by her boyfriend; this was her way of revenge.

In a way that she didn't quite understand, JJ sympathised with this girl. Sure, what she did was wrong, but would she have even considered it if she hadn't suffered so much at the hands of her boyfriend? The worst part was that he wasn't even getting tried for anything, and he was the cause of it all.

She learnt a long time ago that you couldn't save everybody.

JJ sat straight in the window seat, opposite Morgan and Rossi. It was Emily's turn on the couch. It was weird, she should be absolutely shattered, having not slept more than an hour during the past 72. But her mind was far too active to rest. All she could think about was Will. Had something happened to him? Had he abandoned her, after they became impossibly close the weekend before? What was she going to do?

She felt a gentle touch on her arm, as Reid settled down in the seat next to her. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." She snapped at him, her voice much colder than it would have been usually. He recoiled a little, clearly hurt, but trying to hide it. Morgan didn't hear since he had his headphones on, shutting out the world. But Rossi did, and he raised and eyebrow in question. He hadn't been on the team long, but he seemed to know a lot about everyone already. JJ wouldn't be surprised if he had been silently profiling everyone since he joined.

Nevertheless, JJ felt guilty immediately. Reid was one of her closest friends, sometimes she even considered him her best friend, and he was just trying to be kind. She took a deep breath, and apologised. "I'm sorry, Spence. I'm just tired, have slept much this weekend."

He offered up a tentative smile, and went started spouting out facts uncontrollably. "Did you know that Shakespeare had severe insomnia? You can tell from the way he depicts sleep in many of his plays and the vivid descriptions of insomnia lead to the theory that he himself suffered-"

JJ smiled and nodded along with his facts, not taking any of the information in, but grateful for the temporary distraction. But it was just that. Temporary.


"Will somebody please tell me what the point in us coming all the way back here is?" Emily groaned and stumbled out of the elevator. Morgan laughed and supported her from her elbow, making sure she didn't completely collapse.

"For starters, our cars are still here anyway," Rossi chuckled. "And I wouldn't call a ten minute walk a particularly draining distance?"

"You know that if we're getting the day off tomorrow, we have to take our paperwork home with us, it's protocol," Hotch explained as he walked up the stairs to his office.

JJ sighed. She certainly wouldn't be getting the day off tomorrow. She would be here bright and early, poring over new cases and trying to figure out which people deserved to die and which deserved to live.

Morgan returned first from his desk, collecting the least amount of paperwork. At least you could say he was realistic about how much work he would do on his day of reprieve.

"What about you, Blondie?" he asked, intrigued at her lack of files.

"Oh, I don't get the day off tomorrow. Strauss wants me in bright and early to figure out where we're going next."

Morgan exhaled loudly. "Man that's harsh. No offence JJ, but you could sure use the sleep."

JJ forced a laugh. "Thanks, I'll try not to take it to heart."

Hotch joined the others, who were still waiting by the elevator. They made a point of departing together, when they could. His face was sterner than usual.

"What's wrong?" Rossi asked, sensing something was up with the boss.

"I just got a call from the New Orleans Police Department."

JJ's head snapped up, her breath hitched in her throat, the hairs on the back of her arm standing to attention.

"Remember the detective from the Jack the Ripper copycat case. Will LaMontagne?"

They all nodded, apart from Rossi, who hadn't yet joined the team. Emily's gaze landed on JJ for a second.

"He's dead."


'Losing someone when you're young, is the greatest pain anyone can face.' Amory Blaine.


Have a great week, my lovelies.