It was in the middle of the night when the phone rang. Hotch woke up while his mind was already running down the possibilities of what could have happened. His first thoughts automatically went out to Jack. He was staying at his aunt, Haley's sister.. What could have happened at such an unearthly hour? His second thought was about his work. Maybe something huge and urgent has happened… oh God don't let it be a terroristic attack..

Whatever it was, it was bad.. that he knew. Although he couldn't see a thing his hand smoothly reached his phone. An unknown number. Jack was probably okay.

"Aaron Hotchner" he answered, his voice sounded calm and steady.

Whatever he'd expected, he didn't expected to hear this voice on the other side of the line.

"Hotch, I'm very sorry to call you this late. I just.. I didn't know who else to call.." he stumbled.

Though he didn't introduce himself, he also didn't have to. His unmistakably southern accent already gave away that he was speaking with Will Lamontagne, JJ's husband.

Immediately alarmed he knew that Will would never call unless it was really important.

"It's okay Will, take a breath.. What happened?" he tried to stay calm in order to keep Will calm.

"It's JJ.. she didn't come home".

Hotch's heart sank, the words he dreaded to hear had just been spoken. This was all wrong, they landed about six hours ago.

Will continued: "She texted me like five hours ago, saying that you were landing. She still hasn't come home and I can't reach her. Maybe it is nothing, but I just had to check whether or not you had another case or something. It worries me that she hasn't texted me."

He could hear his desperation. His mind somehow blocked, went blank. As though his brain refused to process the info. It took him a while to answer. "Okay, just stay calm. No case has come up and I thought she headed home. Have you already contacted hospitals to see if there has been any accidents?" He spoke those words against his will, realizing that 'stay calm' and 'accidents' were totally conflicting things.

"Yes, and I've checked in with the local police station.. nothing"

Hotch didn't expect anything less from dect. Will. "Alright, I'm coming to you, what's the address again?"

He printed the address in his memory and hung up. Then, for a moment, he sat real still. He took a deep breath, he wasn't ready for this…

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It was a weird situation, to stand with JJ's husband in their living room. He looked around and saw a picture of two little girls hanging on the wall. Hotch recognized that one of them was JJ's sister, which would mean that the other girl staring at him, with a big smile and blue eyes, was young JJ. He couldn't help it but to internally smile back at her. He remembered the night when JJ told him about her sister. A rare, intimate moment in which she'd chosen to share a very personal story with him and gave him some insight into her past. He knew that that wasn't easy for her, since she always kept to herself.

Will sat down on the couch, burying his head into his hands. Hotch sat down in a chair across of him. Together they reconstructed the evening from the moment that they landed in Quantico til now. It wasn't very fruitful. Will told him about the same things that he'd already said on the phone. JJ had texted him, telling him they were about to land, telling him not to stay up. Will had already tucked in Henry when he went to bed. He fell asleep but when he woke up, JJ was not lying next to him. He started to call her but although her phone would ring, she didn't pick up.

"I am just so sorry Hotch for calling you so late" he said while shaken his head and staring at his hands "maybe I'm just exaggerating."

It was the second time he spoke those words. Why was he even doubting? This was so out of character for the JJ he knew that it had sent shivers down his spine. So why was Will acting so unsure, insecure, nervous? Could it be that he had an alternative explanation in his mind? And why not share it with him?

"What are you not telling me?" he asked plainly.

Will moved uneasily.

"Will if you know something that could be relevant this is not the time to hold that information back" Hotch spoke firmly but yet with empathy in his voice.

Will looked him in the eyes, but it seemed to cost him effort. "It's just..." he choked.

Hotch could see him waging his words.

"How are things between you and JJ?" he asked and looked away to give him some space to answer his direct question. He had rather not asked it, but it was inescapable.

Will sighed.
"Rocky" he finally said "we .. uhm" Hotch could hear how Will was building up his courage to talk about it. "We had this huge fight right before she left for the case you were working on."

Hotch hated how familiar this sounded to him. He thought about the countless fights he and Hailey have had over his job.
"What kind of a fight?" he pressed.

"About her work, and about her and us. Ever since she came back from Afghanistan she's just a different person" Will looked at the ground his eyes almost became hollow. Hotch just realized with a shock that he was mourning about the JJ he'd lost, lost to the job. It was painful to see it all over again.
His throat fell awfully dry when he asked his next question.

"This wasn't your first fight was it?"

Will gave him a dark smile "if only that was true. All we do is fight" he sounded defeated.

In front of Henry? Hotch wondered.

"Never in front of Henry of course.." it was as if Will had read his mind.

"What does JJ normally do after you had a fight?" Hotch seriously doubted that the answer was walking away and not checking in. Although he suspected that she would do the walking away part.

"Uhm I don't know" Will mumbled "mostly you would go away for a case but afterwards she would always come back."

"So she wouldn't just disappear?"

"No.. but.. well this fight .. it was different" stumbled Will.

"Different how?" Hotch asked sharply.

Will stared at his hands. If he wasn't embarrassed before he certainly was now.
"We've gotten physical.. or.. well... I've gotten physical with her."

Anger rushed through the entire body of the SSA. He couldn't believe his own ears. How dare he lay his hands on her!

"You hit her?" he whispered, barely able to contain his anger.

Will just nodded, then a took a deep breath.

"You don't know how much I regret it. It just happened before I even realized it."

The words echoed into his mind.. It just happened... words that he had heard woman say protecting their abusive men.. really he didn't mean it, it just happened...

"Hitting a woman doesn't just happen" he fought to keep his composure, still aware of Henry sleeping in his room. He turned away from Will, just to free himself from the sight of him. He stood there a few moments while Will wisely kept his mouth.

Then feeling it was safe to talk again he said "you're absolutely right, I don't know what had gotten into me. Just a second in which I lost it, but I would give anything to turn back time..."

Hotch turned around. His eyes were still filled with anger but he calmly said "lets first figure out where JJ is. Because she's still a mother and I highly doubt that she would just stay away from her son like that."

Will silently agreed. "What are we going to do?" he asked next.

Hotch was considering if he should or shouldn't notify his team. On the one hand it was not without a reason that they couldn't already file a missing person order. Even when it was out of character who knew what JJ was doing? Maybe she needed a bit time for herself, cooling off or maybe she was scared to go home... He felt as if notifying everybody would somehow invade her privacy. A thing that JJ really was allergic to. On the other hand he had a really bad feeling about this.. and if anything were to happen with JJ time would be their biggest enemy.

"Alright" he said, at this point deciding that he should do something, anything "I'll call Garcia, if anyone should be able to track her, it's her. In the meantime you call everyone you can think of where she could be, her parents.."

"Her mom" Will interrupted softly as if it mattered.

".. her friends, other relatives, anyone you consider relevant. Okay?" when Will nodded he continued "in the meantime I'll drive the route she takes from your house to the BAU."

He was just about to leave when a buzz interrupted them.

Will reached for his phone, his mouth dropped.

"What is it?" Hotch said alarmed.

"It's JJ..." Will said confused.

Hotch grabbed the phone and read the text.

'Sorry I didn't respond earlier, hope you didn't worry too much. At the last minute a case came up. Just landed. Very sorry! Give Henry a big kiss.'

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Both men looked confused at the phone.

Will was stunned, he opened his mouth to say something, closed it and then opened it again.

"Do you guys ever split up when you got a case?" he asked, not directly believing JJ was lying to him. If in fact it was JJ sending that text.

"No, not without me knowing about it" Hotchner answered.

Will blinked a couple of times, why was she lying to him?

"What should I do?"

"Call her" first let's find out if it really was JJ, Hotch thought.

"And say what?" Will asked.

"Just let her do the talking, ask her if she's okay. Listen closely to how she sounds, do it now."

Will quickly entered her number and held the phone to his ear. It took a long time and Hotch was almost surprised when Will suddenly said: "Hey .. JJ, what's going on?... Another case?... Where? ... So quickly?... You've got the whole team with you?..."

Will gave Hotch a quick look and then turned a bit away from him, lowering his voice.

"JJ, I was worried about you... I'm just so sorry, so so sorry. You can come back home, if you want me to leave the house for a while... JJ, tell me honestly are you okay?... Okay JJ... Please text me as soon as you can.."

Overall it was a hasty conversation. Hotch saw how the man sighed. JJ was lying. But why? And was she okay? Or just scared of Will?

"Will, what did she say?" he asked carefully.

"That you guys were working on a case in Pennsylvania and that she was okay, she sounded distracted and in a hurry" Will shook his head "she's lying, Hotch."

"Yes, I will contact her, make sure that she's safe" he answered, for that was his priority.

Will looked at him. "Will you please not mention our conversation?"

"No of course not" he said discretely. The last thing he wanted was to get caught up in their marital problems and to lose JJ's trust.

There was an awkward silence between the men. Both felt very uncomfortable by the knowledge Hotch had now.

"I'm so sorry again for waking you up and get you caught up in this" Will broke the silence with his third or fourth apology.

"No really, it is not a problem. I can perfectly understand why you did and you're absolutely right. Please let me know if JJ contacts you" he took a breath " your marital issues are something between you and JJ. But detective, make no mistakes, if you hit my agent again I will make it my case. You understand?"

"Crystal clear. Thank you for looking out for her" he shook the hand of the FBI agent "let me know if you get in touch with her."

Hotch gave him a nod and walked out the door.

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The road was dark and pretty much abandoned.. His mind was running down in hundred different directions about what was going on with JJ. He just couldn't believe Will hit her. His hand clamped around the wheel. What on earth made him 'lose' it like that? He could never imagine hitting the mother of your child.. and especially not hitting JJ.
'Ever since she came back from Afghanistan she's just a different person' he heard Will's voice echoing inside his head.
Damn it! He didn't even know what Will exactly meant by that! Why had he forgotten to ask that? He just assumed that Will meant her more businesslike, goal-oriented attitude. He couldn't believe his own stupidity. Assumption was the mother of all mistakes! It was like lesson number 1.
He made a mental note to remember to ask Will about it, at least if it should still be relevant.

He looked at the digital clock in his car, 4 o'clock. He didn't even feel tired anymore, probably because of the years of experience with staying alert at critical times. His mind wondered of to what Will said earlier. He corrected him when he told him to call JJ's parents. Her mom, he had said.

Hotch wondered where JJ's dad was. He wasn't at JJ's wedding to give her away, instead her mom did. At that point he kind of assumed that JJ's farther had passed away. But when Garcia had kept her Halloween party to pay respects to the dads, JJ had brought a picture of her sister but not of her dad.

The longer Hotch thought about it, the more the feeling he got that there was something off. When family members pass away, especially on a younger age, you tend to put them together. As a comfort that where ever they are, they're together. JJ's sister had passed when JJ was eleven. If JJ's father had passed away, he would (comparing it to JJ's mother) also have been relatively young. The most logical thing for JJ to do was to bring both a picture of her sister Ros, and a picture of her dad along. For him that narrowed it down to a few possibilities: the first one was that JJ's father was still alive but JJ had such a poor relationship with him that he wasn't even invited at the wedding, the second one was that her father had passed away but that for some reason JJ would not want his picture near to that of her beloved sister which, again, came down to a poor relationship.

In his mind a poor relationship with her father clicked with another issue of JJ, namely her commitment issues. The first relationship with a man almost any girl have, is that with her father. If her father abandoned her or treated her badly it would provide an explanation for her fear of engaging in a serious relationship. Add to that the sudden, self-chosen death of her sister and anyone would be afraid of being hurt in an intimate relationship. A fear that she obviously have had with Will. He had envied Will for quite a lot, but certainly not for that.

A shock of realization hit him. He had just broken one of his personal rules, namely to not profile his co-workers. It was like a rule of integrity for him. He was scared to admit to himself that he had just treated JJ the same as he did with the victims of their cases.

If only he could speak with her. He didn't want JJ to know that he knew about the marital problems. But he also needed to hear for himself that she was doing okay. He needed some excuse to call her at this hour.

And the only thing he could think of was another case.

He turned around the car and headed towards the building of the BAU.