"For sleep, one needs endless depths of blackness to sink into; daylight is too shallow, it will not cover one."
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
The first person that JJ decided to call was Hotch because she knew that since he was the unit chief, he would want to know what was going on first. She held down one of the speed dial buttons on her phone and Hotch's number came up on the screen. As it started ringing, JJ started thinking about what this case was about…children getting killed? How much of a psychopath do you have to be to think its okay to do that? JJ poked her head down the hall and saw Henry's room at the end of the hall. The thought of anyone putting a hand on him made her toes curl.
"Hello?" Hotch asked into the phone, almost surprising JJ. From the exhaustion in his voice she knew that he had most likely just woken up.
"Hey, Hotch…its JJ. Strauss called me we have a case and apparently they really need profilers to get there tonight before the unsub kills again." She let out a sigh to let him know that she wasn't happy about this either.
"What's it about?" He sounded more awake now at the mention of a case.
"The unsub is killing children every three days and according to Strauss, Homeland Security tried to sort everything out, but they can't get a jump on the unsub like profilers could. They need us in San Francisco as soon as possible." JJ informed him, glancing at her watch. She needed to end this conversation too so that she could call everyone else soon.
"Oh alright. I'll see you at the station." There was a pause and JJ was about to hang up when she heard Hotch talk again, "Oh and JJ?" He started.
"Yea?"
"Watch out for Emily. She's cranky in the morning." There was a hint of amusement in his voice and JJ let out another of what seemed like frequent sighs.
"Okay, thanks Hotch." JJ hung up the phone and decided to get the worse over with first. She dialed Emily's number and waited patiently for the brunet woman to answer her phone. Anxiously, JJ started pacing as the phone just kept ringing and ringing, but no answer yet. After a long wait JJ finally heard a voice on the other side of the phone.
"JJ what the hell do you think you're doing calling me at 5:00 on a Friday? Whatever it is, I don't care…I'm going back to bed." Emily sounded groggy and there was an intended edge in her voice, but it didn't intimidate JJ.
"Wait!" She said before Emily could hang up on her, "We have to go down to the station because we have a case."
"Are you serious? You can't be serious? It's FRIDAY! They can't give us a case over the weekend! Who does the bureau think they are? JJ I'm not coming in and I swear if you try to call me or convince me don't even bother because-" Emily started ranting, but was cut off.
"Emily." JJ said firmly, making the older profiler pause. "The unsub is killing children every three days." She told her, playing the sympathy card to get her friend to calm down. Every woman had a soft spot for children, even Emily so when JJ brought it up the other woman was silent for a few moments.
The only thing she uttered after the long silence was, "Oh."
"Yea, so will you come in?" JJ asked, hopefully. If they wanted to finish this case, help the children and get back home they needed all the profilers out there helping out. Emily's presence was needed among them for a different perspective, which was the point of having a whole team in the first place…for all of them to be there.
"Y-yea…of course." Emily answered, obviously now trying to wake herself up. She started to say something else, but JJ knew that she had a time limit to get everyone up and to the office so she stopped Emily before she could start her sentence.
"I'm sorry Em, but I really have to call the rest of the team. I'll talk to you at the station, okay?" JJ didn't even wait for her to answer either. She just pressed the end button and dialed David Rossi's number. For some reason she felt nervous to talk to him in the morning because his normal "during the day" attitude could be kind of touchy sometimes…imagine it at 5:00 in the morning.
"Agent Rossi." Rossi answered, but the weird thing was that he didn't sound tired at all. If anything he sounded awake and ready to go for the day, it made JJ kind of suspicious so she decided to call him out on it.
"Hey, it's JJ….uh…where are you?" She could also hear the faint static noise that comes from a phone when wind is blowing near it. He had to be somewhere outside for some reason, but why at 5:00 in the morning?
There was slight pause, "Sometimes over the weekend I drive down to Chesapeake Bay to watch the sunset…" He told her modestly, "The real question is why you're up and calling me at this hour. You deserve this sleep, JJ. Take it."
"I wish I could, but Strauss just told me that we have a case. You're gonna have to drive back to Quantico because we need to be in San Francisco by tomorrow." JJ took a moment, "Sorry…" She muttered to him, feeling a little bit guiltier that she was disrupting his peaceful time to watch the sunset on the water.
"No JJ, it's alright. You're just doing your job." That was the last thing Rossi told her before they both hung up and she was grateful for the way that he handled the call because she was getting annoyed with the flustered answering that she had gone through with the other two answers. He was just collected and composed; it was easy to talk to him, but now she had to call Morgan…great.
The line rang a few times before she heard him pick up, but instead answering with hello he immediately assumed what was going on. "Please don't say it's true…it's the weekend! There's no way that they can make us come in. You can't possibly be okay with this!" He exclaimed, crankily.
"It's actually urgent Morgan and Homeland Security couldn't get it under control. We have to be in San Francisco by tomorrow." JJ sighed, getting tired of telling the same story over and over again to her colleagues. She didn't understand why Strauss didn't just call them herself.
"This is totally unfair JJ! How can you let this happen? I thought you were gonna spend the weekend with Will and Henry. Are you really okay with this? It isn't right!" Morgan vented on the other and she became irritated with him easily this early in the morning.
"Morgan, kids are being murdered…every three days. Little kids from what I understand so do you really want to argue with me about what's right, or do you want to get out there and help find the unsub that is doing this?" JJ said firmly into the line and he was silent for a few second, she had won this battle.
"Okay I'll be at the station as soon as I can." Morgan stayed on the line for a few more seconds, "Sorry JJ I didn't mean to be rude." He sounded remorseful.
"It's okay, you don't need to apologize. I know we're all just tired so don't worry about it, okay?" JJ told him, not wanting this to be an obstacle during the case.
"Sure, see ya." Morgan hung up and JJ was thankful that she only had two more people to call, Spencer and Garcia. She thought that they would be the easiest ones so she had saved them for last. First she called Spencer and he answered on the second ring.
"JJ?" His voice was hoarse like he woken up only seconds before. "What time is it?" He muttered.
"5:30. Look Spence, we have a case so everyone has to get down to the station. It's in San Francisco and we need to there by tomorrow." JJ told him quickly, knowing that she was running low on time and needed to call Garcia.
"Okay." That was the only word that the genius voiced in a melancholy tone. It made JJ sort of curious as to what was running through his mind because usually he would have asked what it was about or where they were going, but now he just went with it. She had to ask what was going on.
"Are you okay?" JJ asked him in a soft, concerned voice.
"Oh yea…it's just that if you're calling me at 5:30 in the morning…this case must be bad. I guess it's not going to be a good weekend. I'll see you at the station, JJ." Reid's voice was still dull as he hung up, but JJ convinced herself that he was going to be okay before dialing Garcia's number on her phone.
It rang a few times before she answered and JJ was about to start talking when Garcia interrupted her.
"I already know. Hotch called me." Garcia told her quickly and JJ smiled, glad that Hotch had been productive and helped her in calling one of the team members. She wondered if he had called any of the others after she had called first. That couldn't have gone well.
"Oh good, so he briefed you on everything. It sounded terrible by the way that Strauss explained it, but you never know with her…sometimes she over exaggerates." JJ glanced at the screen on her phone only to see that Garcia had already hung up and that JJ wasn't even talking to anyone. "Great." She muttered, picked up her bag and walked down the stairs. As she walked towards the door she heard footsteps behind her. Small footsteps.
"Mommy?" A tired voice sounded behind her and she turned around to see her son standing at the bottom of the stairs, fully dressed in his pajamas.
"Henry? What are you doing out of bed?" JJ shook her head, smiling. "You are one bad boy." She told him jokingly as she lifted him off the ground and started back up the stairs.
"Where you going?" Henry asked, curiously. "Me and daddy were gonna…we were gonna take you to the park and get ice cream! You can't leave!" He pleaded with her and she felt her heart slowly break, piece by piece.
"I'm sorry, baby." JJ kissed his forehead. "Some other little boys just like you are getting hurt by bad guys so I have to go help them right now…" She told him as she brushed some of his hair out of his eyes.
"Why can't they just get their own mommies to help them? You're mine!" Henry looked up at her, tears surfacing in his eyes.
"Their mommies don't know what to do so I have to go help. I'm sorry, I promise I'll call you ever night. Make sure you brush your teeth and clean your room, okay? Make me proud while I'm gone, buddy." JJ laid Henry back down in his bed, gently.
"I will. Catch the bad guys, mommy." Henry gave her a small smile before he closed his eyes.
JJ touched his cheek gently with the back of her hand. "I will." She kissed his forehead again and then walked down the stairs. She saw Will standing by the door, holding her bag.
"You're up too? I thought I told you to go back to bed!" JJ exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "William LaMontagne, you are crazy." She joked as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Not as crazy as my woman." Will kissed her gently on the lips. "I love you, JJ. Please be safe, okay?"
"I always am. Don't worry, I carry a gun." JJ chuckled and hugged him tightly. "I'll miss you guys and I'll call when we land. I'm really sorry about this Will."
"It's fine; just get the job done JJ. If anyone can do it, you guys can." Will kissed her one more time before carrying her bag out to her car and sending her on her way. She waved to him as she pulled out, feeling a tear roll down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and rolled down the road. Sometimes it was hard for her, but she never took them out of her mind and she made sure to lead by their example of innocence and spontaneous actions. They brought out the best in her and she could catch this unsub…for her family.
"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."
Erma Bombeck
