It was one in the morning when he heard her screaming on the couch in the living room. He bolted out of bed and down the hall at speeds that he hadn't known he was capable of. She was thrashing in her sleep, trapped in the folds of the blanket she was covered with.

"JJ." Spencer knelt beside the couch. "JJ! Jennifer, wake up!" Her eyes began to flutter. "Wake up, it's just a dream."

Awake now, she clutched fistfuls of his T-shirt and buried her head in his chest, weeping. "He was doing it all over again and I couldn't stop him, I couldn't get away."

He moved to sit on the couch and pulled her close, reminding her softly, "But you did get away. He's gone now, and if he even thinks about trying to come back or come for you, I can tell you right now that he won't make it past the door without a fatal bullet being lodged somewhere in his person."

JJ sniffled, as her tears lessened. "Why are you doing this for me?"

"Because we're family, and if I was in trouble, you'd do the same for me." The next phrase slipped past his lips before he could register them. "And because I love you."

She froze in his arms. "You do?"

"Yes." He had only just realized it himself.

She sat up, looking him in the eye. "I... I love you too, Spence. I really, really do. I mean it."

They smiled at one another before he was reminded by a glance at the clock what time it was. "JJ," Spencer couldn't believe he was about to suggest this, especially not after what had just been said between them. "Do you want to sleep in my bed? It would be more comfortable for you. I don't mean that I want to do anything, nothing like that. It's just, you still have to be sore, and the couch can't be helping. I can even sleep in here, but I want you to take my bed."

"I won't kick you out of your bed, Spence." She smiled, taking his hand. "But if you want to share it, I would be okay with that."

His heart rate kicked up a notch, but he said, "JJ, you're tired. Exhausted emotionally, physically, and mentally. You need to sleep."

"Then we'll just sleep." she agreed, standing up and tugging on his hand. "Come on." Seeing he wasn't going to move, she dropped the act and said, totally serious, "Please, Spence? I need someone there with me to keep the nightmares away."

He agreed. "Alright."


The next morning, Spencer stayed motionless with his eyes still closed for a few minutes after waking up. At some point during the night, JJ had ended up in his arms, and he could feel locks of her silky blonde hair splayed across his arms. The scent of her strawberry shampoo surrounded him, and he listened to her steady breathing. When he opened his eyes to see her sleeping peacefully, she took over almost every one of his senses. If only he could taste her kiss.

"Go ahead," JJ murmured groggily with a smile, eyes still closed. "I dare you."

"What?"

"You said something about a kiss." she informed him, yawning and opening her blue, blue eyes.

"Out loud?"

"Yes, Spence, outloud." She smiled. "And I really don't mind, after all, we just spent five and a half hours sleeping in the same bed. I think that you have the right to one little kiss."

"But that's all we did," Spencer pointed out. "Just sleep."

"Well," she asked with arched eyebrows. "Do you want to do something more?"

It was an honest question, he could tell, so he thought for a second before giving her the honest answer. "Yes, I do. After you've fully recovered."

She groaned loudly. "I'm fine, Spence, honest!"

But the black eye, other bruises that he had caught glimpses of, and nightmare all told a different story. And they both knew it.


They got a case that day, and spent the rest of the week in California.

The first night there, JJ woke herself up from another nightmare, sweating, and with tears running down her face. Considering the fact that each member of the team had gotten their own hotel room this time and what that gave her leeway to do, she lay in bed for another minute.

Yet every time she closed her eyes to try and go back to sleep, Will waited there on the backs of her eyelids with all of the memories of what he had done to her.

Eventually she gave up on trying to sleep in her room. Decision made, she swung her legs out of her bed and stood up, padding on socked feet across the hall to Spencer's room. She knocked softly on the door.

He came and opened the door in a matter of seconds, and she wondered if he had been waiting for her. The thought also crossed her mind to wonder when it was that she had stopped being the one to take care of him and he had started taking care of her. But neither one of them really minded.

He let her in without a word. They both slid under the sheets and she moved close to him, letting him hold her. In this way he held her thoughts of Will at bay, if he didn't make them disappear completely.


I would like to say that I have no problems whatsoever with Will, but this is the story that came to me, thus I am posting it. This is probably going to be longer than the promised three-shot. Maybe four or five chapters. Inspired by Toby Keith's "New Orleans." Please review! Thanks!:)