Disclaimer: I own nothing at all!
This is my piece for theFanfic Challenge 2010 - Round 3 Dealer's Choice Assignments
My Pairings: JJ/ Rossi
My Prompts: Two pink lines, glass of wine and a black eye.
A/N: First time doing a JJ and Rossi pairing and I just hope I've done it justice!
-=-=-=-=- The Passion Of Purple -=-=-=-=-
If there was one thing Jennifer Jareau knew about herself it was that she was a confident, bold woman. She could walk into work with a certain poise and control because she was confident in the job that was literally built for her and with it she had every ounce of confidence in her ability to do that very job.
However, most other days she wasn't going through a divorce and she most certainly wasn't sporting a nice purple bruise around one of her normally bright blue eyes. She could a glimpse of herself in the metal wall of the elevator as she made her way up to the sixth floor, she smirked. The wonders of foundation! One touch of the stuff, one lick of makeup and she was good as new.
She knew both Prentiss and Garcia would pounce the moment they saw it and she didn't even want to think about how the men would react. It wasn't like they would think before acting out and to save all the drama she'd keep her mouth shut, her make up high and get on with it.
So far so good, she thought as she got into the elevator, no one stared, no one grimaced and no one cared. It was definitely working out for JJ so far. Her mood lifted, her confidence blossomed and she walked onto the sixth floor in her usual demeanour.
Jennifer Jareau was, after all, the most controlled, most able at her job, and more helpful in her field and she would keep it that way.
Nearly 8 months earlier JJ felt her world begin to collapse around her, she was losing herself and her love of her job. Her husband had drunkenly admitted on a night out with the team and their respective partners that he had slept with a woman on three separate occasions.
JJ had stormed out of the club and went home, she paid the baby sitter and then she had bagged enough of his clothes and thrown them out, locked the doors and tended to sorting order in her home.
They'd only just gotten married and now their vows were broken and tattered.
Will knew exactly how she viewed their marriage, how she cherished it, and how much trust and honesty she had poured into their bond and family. However, his admittance didn't fall so lightly, JJ felt betrayed and violated and as though her heart was torn up. Her thought's had flooded to her son, Henry, she was scared about the future and for that she had allowed Will back into the house. Began to tie things together again, get her family back. Began their second chance.
Things all changed again when JJ answered a call. The woman on the other line was Will's girlfriend. She enlisted Prentiss and Garcia and got Will completely moved out only days later. Garcia brought Morgan for force, while Prentiss got Hotch to start helping with divorce papers.
Now, with her divorce only a few notions until completion, JJ felt like her life was just beginning again. However much her heart was breaking over it still, she had her health, her family and the happiest son ever. She couldn't ask for much more. Well she could, she wanted to feel loved again, but she knew that wasn't close. For now her life was as complete as it should be in her predicament.
When JJ went home that night after work, she washed the makeup off and saw the bruise still there in it's purple force and was thankful for it easing and no one noticing the minimal swollen look she was baring. It might have been that she had her head stuck in a file all day, but nonetheless she's gotten through the day.
-=-=-=-=- The Passion Of Purple -=-=-=-=-
"Right, Regina Woodward, found battered to death on the roadside in Illinois 2 days ago, is the 4th victim to die of the same nature. Her dump site is the same as the others, all dumped on the same type of area, all suffering from almost the same injuries."
"Over what time period?" Hotch asked as he read through the file in front of him.
JJ rubbed her eye with the back of her hand before answering; she'd been up all night with Henry and was paying now. "Course of months, hence why no step up of the police and no real links were made."
Now work began.
"He likes to show dominance, by beating them he's taking charge, displaying his strength, his stamina." Morgan chucked in as he read the injuries; he looked up and noticed a smudging on JJ's eyes. "JJ you've got something under your left eye." He pointed out and pointed on himself.
Uh oh! JJ's head screamed as everyone looked up at her. Instinctively she brushed again and inwardly cursed herself.
"C'mon here Kitten." JJ heard Garcia said as she stood up, but she didn't get close enough before the nail was well and truly hit on the head.
"Is that a bruise?" Rossi asked from his seat, everyone froze, even Garcia as she was mid stride. He took in JJ's deer like expression.
"It's nothing." She told them and left the room going for more cover up.
Everyone looked around, Morgan pulling Garcia back to her seat next to him and Reid as Rossi stood up. "I'll go." He told them and left the room as Hotch resumed the building of the profile.
Rossi walked to her office, he tapped lightly and entered, he saw her plying more foundation. "I'll be back in a moment."
"Is everything okay Bella?" He asked her cautiously, he was more or less asking for the entire team but a protective streak in him took over. "It looks like a nasty bruise."
"It's nothing that won't heal." JJ feigned as she touched her makeup up around her eye. "I'll be right back."
Rossi entered, shut the door and proceeded towards her. "I'm here if you want to talk about it?"
JJ laughed. "There's nothing to talk about Dave. It's a bruise, I got it myself."
"Did you really?" Rossi asked in his usual tone and sat on the edge of her file filled desk. JJ surveyed his expression blankly, he was looking at her worriedly, and then she saw it, she saw the pity and she began to break.
Since her break up with Will, not one member of the team had looked at her that way, they'd all kept up appearance and kept work as normal as possible, allowed her to forget about Will and get on with life, but one look from this man and she was dissolving.
"Is that the truth or did someone do it to you?" JJ looked down a little and then back up at him. "I'll kill him myself." She heard Rossi mutter as he stood up and she followed his action and stood up shocked. "Where is he staying JJ?"
"W-what, who?"
"Will, where is he staying?" Rossi told her, his voice turning into a growl. "I will personally make sure he never lays a finger on you again."
"Whoa! Mr Hard-arse FBI man, you will not lay a finger on that man." JJ defended as she went to stand in front of her closed office door. "I won't let you."
"Why are you protecting him, JJ?" He asked her confused. "He hit you and you won't let me sort it?"
"He didn't hit me!" She cried at him.
"So what you walked into a kitchen cupboard?" He asked her sternly. He was feeling ready to hit something at her denial.
"No, I didn't, but Will certainly has never, and will never lay a finger on me." JJ replied calmly and Rossi took a step forward and she could feel his warmth as his finger grazed the light bruise showing through the layer of makeup.
Oh how she missed a man's touch.
"Tell me who then Bella." He urged her; he wanted to know, needed to know now. "Who hurt you?"
"About 7 Lego bricks." She admitted to him with a coy smile.
Rossi's hand dropped and he looked at her perplexed, the grin on her face confusing him. JJ watched his expression, and her shoulders slumped and she tilted her head. Game over.
"I was trying to feed Henry but he threw his toys at me, the Lego bricks caught me in the eye and at first I thought I'd survived without a mark, but the next morning I had a bruise."
Rossi chuckled as he put his hand to the side of her head against the door. "Why didn't you just say that?"
"I work with over protective Alpha males and some very protective other characters. Now ask me why I didn't ask?"
"You knew we'd react."
JJ nodded, "Exactly how you did. So I thought, to save me explaining the embarrassment of getting a black eye from motherhood, I would just put make up on and get on with life."
"No one cares if motherhood gave you that?"
"I know, I just, didn't want to have to explain. Life's a little stressful right now I didn't want more of my sob story added to it. I mean I already had a cheating husband, a repossessed house, a divorce and as I told the girls on the weekend, a lonely heart."
Then just like that, as JJ's eyes met Rossi's their lips seemed to pull together. A deeper, unconscious, neglected feeling derived from JJ's hurt and almost want caused the pair to become attracted to one another. Rossi pushed her against the wooden door and deepened the kiss, his arms wrapping around her slender frame.
Finally pulling apart they looked at one another, JJ's lips red from the kiss, her hair slightly messy and her expression lustful. Rossi smirked, he had a player look but JJ was strangely turned on by the older man's handsome looks and sexual vibes he was giving off.
"Erm... uh..." JJ began as they separated and she looked around her office. "We need to finish briefing." She told him and straightened herself out and then went for the door.
"And we need to finish that." Rossi said as he followed her flabbergasted aura in a cool and calm way.
From JJ's reaction he knew this was far from over.
-=-=-=-=- The Passion Of Purple -=-=-=-=-
Prentiss and Garcia watched as JJ paced, their glasses of wine now refilled, JJ glass still full on the table top. They could tell she was fretting.
"Honey, Jayje, take a large gulp of wine for me and then settle down." Garcia urged and pushed the glass towards her.
"Yeah JJ, it can't be that bad." Prentiss agreed.
They'd all watched JJ act weirdly for months now, she was nervous about something; besotted by another thing and now both had collided with full force. Something that was internally troubling the young media liaison and both women could tell.
"It can be that bad." JJ responded and stopped and finally grabbed the glass of wine and took a gulp of it. She then left them and brought in a brown paper bag.
The two other women watched as she poured out multiple boxes of pregnancy tests.
"Seems our evening just got more exciting, Girlies." Garcia spoke as she sat forward from her curled up perch on the couch. "So JJ's baby making with the Mr I-Know-Everything of the team, eh?"
"Time for jokes died a while back, Garcie." JJ said as she picked one of the boxes, she read it and then banged it against her palm. "I'm not even his wife, I can't be pregnant, what if he doesn't want it? What if he doesn't want me like that? I can't tie him down."
"Honey, you've seen him with Henry." Garcia proceeded to speak and nudged Prentiss to life.
"She's right, he loves that little boy and when he thought Will had hit you, he jumped right in there, you told us yourself. You were drawn to him, JJ."
They could still read the doubt on her face.
Garcia jumped up and grabbed two boxes she threw one at Prentiss and opened her one up. "Grab a marker, we're all doing one." She told her and went over the dining table while JJ went to get a marker pen.
JJ came back and saw all of the boxes now on the table; Garcia held one white stick, as did Prentiss.
"What are you really up to?" JJ asked as she handed over the pen, not fully convinced they were going to do this.
"Well, like I said I thought we could all do this. Just to help you through this moment of crisis, myself and Emily here are willing to piss on a stick for you."
JJ laughed, it shook with nerves. "You'd do that?"
Garcia ignored her, as did Prentiss. "Ironic really seeing as my initial is P and I'm gonna go pee for an actual reason." Garcia joked and winked t JJ, immediately watching her calm down.
"JJ, it'll be fine. The man loves you." Prentiss told JJ as she passed her now initialled white stick over. "I think it's show time."
"Yeah let's see if me and the Morg-ster can actually baby make." Garcia joked; she had to laugh out loudly as she near enough heard their jaws drop. "Come on soon to be Mrs. Rossi!"
-=-=-=-=- The Passion Of Purple -=-=-=-=-
David Rossi was never a worrier; never did he second guess himself, not even when his three previous marriages fell through. That wasn't his style. Yet there was something about Jennifer Jareau that made his entire past seem insignificant.
He had all the men of the team around, yet his mind was elsewhere.
The woman he loved was free of her previous marriage, and rarely did he live at his anymore, he loved her son as much as he loved her and he would, if anything, class that boy as his own. If he could, he would.
"What's up with you?" Morgan asked across the table.
"Yeah, Dave, for days you've been elsewhere, even with the job." Hotch asked him as he settled his bottle of beer down.
"I think it has something to do with JJ." Reid added in and smiled his little self assured grin. "I mean, it's obvious, she's been acting the same. Usually when two people are in a romantic relationship, they usually are intuitively in tune."
"What Reid's tryna say, Man, is that JJ's been acting like you have." Morgan told him and took a long drag of his beer.
"They're right; you need to sort it out. Before it finishes you." Hotch told him as he relaxed back in his seat. "I mean, you know what you want right?"
"I think I do."
"What is it?" Hotch proceeded.
"I want JJ and Henry." Rossi finished and for once in weeks he relaxed at the thought and prospect of the future.
He loved JJ, and he knew full well JJ loved him.
He just needed to go and sort this problem out.
"Coming?" Rossi asked as he stood up and the three men looked up at him confused. "I'm about to break up a girl's night. I need you to take the two remaining girls out of the equation for me." He said and headed for the door.
-=-=-=-=- The Passion Of Purple -=-=-=-=-
Rossi knocked on the door and waited. He was near enough flanked by Hotch, Morgan and Reid, he didn't feel empowered by it, he felt somewhat intimidating by the men that were near enough family to him.
Rossi was, of course, a man that could very well stand on his own two feet, he knew when to be forceful, when to use kindred to his advantage, when to back down, when to step up and he knew how to act in the moment.
Of course, all of that was when he was on a job. He couldn't very well jump in all guns blazing with JJ, she wasn't an Unsub, she wasn't someone to be interrogated, she was the woman he'd fallen in love with.
As the door opened he sucked in a deep breath at the sight of her in front of him. She looked ever more beautiful tonight, he could see from her eyes she'd had something alcoholic to drink and he could tell she was more than happy to see him.
"Dave, guys, what are you doing here?" She asked looking from Rossi to the other three.
"We come to kidnap two ladies and leave a man." Morgan spoke up as Rossi froze.
"We have two pink lines!" Garcia's voice shouted out slurred some.
"Shh! We don't know who's at the door!" Emily said with equal drunkenness. "What if it's M..."
"Shh!" Garcia said and the pair ended up giggling.
That was enough for JJ, she had to go back and look at what they were discussing. As she walked in Garcia looked at her and smiled brightly.
"It's not me!" She said standing up right, her hands in the air in mock defeat.
Prentiss looked from Garcia to JJ and mimicked. "Nor is it me!"
"You've gotta be kidding me." JJ whispered as she stepped forward.
The men all filtered in and saw the sight in front of them. "Right Baby Girl, you, me, Emily and the guys are leaving Rossi and JJ."
"Really, Stud Muffin?" Garcia began to argue with him, but from his seriousness, she swallowed and agreed. ""I love you Jayje, remember that!"
"C'mon Em, you too." Hotch said with a smirk and looked at Rossi and smiled reassuringly.
"Hmm..." She looked at JJ. "Me too, JJ!"
JJ watched as her house that was full with seven people now only contained two. She looked at Rossi as he stood far away and then she looked down at the three pregnancy tests. Garcia's was negative, as was Prentiss', but hers contained two pink lines.
She turned around to face him and spoke, "I love you," she said as he said the same three words. They both laughed a little and he stepped closer; JJ covered the test with her hand.
"It's positive isn't it?" He asked her, he knew, his gut told him so, and her slight hesitant head shake verified it.
"I didn't know it was going to happen."
"Makes it all worth it. You shouldn't plan these things." He told her as he went towards her more; he wrapped his arms around her. "JJ, I love you more than anyone and I know my marriages aren't a good track record, but now I know even more than anything that I want this. You're the only one to give me something that I've longed for."
"So, if I wasn't pregnant you wouldn't want me?"
"I felt complete the moment you let me into yours and Henry's life. I love that little boy, and I love you and now we're becoming a family." Rossi told her and put his hand to her cheek, she pushed into it a little bit, taking comfort. "I love you so much, Jen."
"I love you too." JJ said as her eyes welled up. "I never want to lose you, Dave, never."
"You're never going to." He promised her and leant in to kiss her, he wasn't going to wait for forever anymore.
Those two pink lines told him he didn't have forever; he had the here and now.
-=-=-=-=- The Passion Of Purple -=-=-=-=-
A/N: Woo! I got all three in there! Do I get a prize? =P
Right, I tried my hardest to get these two in character, I'm a normal MorganGarcia writer, so I'm well out of my depth here! Hope I did it!
Love it? Hate it?