Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds or anything else you recognize. Promise.
A/N: So surprise! Here's the next chapter, and it's earlier that I said. yay. :) Hope everyone likes it, and THANK YOU times a million to everyone who read, alerted, and reviewed so far! We love you guys!
Chapter Two
Morgan wiped the sweat from his face with his t-shirt as he surveyed the crime scene, the humidity was killing him. "Captain how hot did you say it was today?"
"Oh, I think they said about 93 or so. Not really the best day to wear black." Captain Morris stated, holding back a smirk as he took in Morgan's dark jeans and boots.
"Yeah I got that, thanks." Morgan said under his breath as JJ walked up to them, swatting away at mosquito's. "Any luck with the press, JJ?"
"Not yet. Sorry. Any chance we can get out of this heat soon?" She asked hopefully. She wanted to catch this UnSub, she really did, but she wasn't used to this kind of heat--it was making her sick to her stomach.
"Robertson take Agent Jareau back to the station!" Captain Morris called to a waiting patrolman who was guarding Amy Goldstein's crime scene.
"Oh, no Captain that's okay. Really." JJ insisted. While she hated the heat, she hated even more local cops that didn't think she could do her job.
"Now I know why you almost never pick cases in Alabama during the summer." Morgan muttered so only JJ could hear.
"And, We're never above the sun belt in the wintertime. I hate the snow." JJ scoffed.
"I knew you were smart, girl. But I didn't know you were this smart." Morgan joked.
"Just do your profilie thing so we can get out of here." JJ insisted. "I've still got a press conference to plan." She groaned slightly.
"Agent Jareau, with three female victims and three missing men, why is the FBI only now getting involved? Is it because they are biracial couples? " A reporter asked.
"Do you think these are hate crimes, Agent Jareau?" another reported interrupted. "Is the Ku Klux Klan involved?"
JJ cringed inwardly at that accusation, the file had been on her desk for weeks but they had more pressing cases to deal with at the time. "I assure you, we at the FBI and Alabama State PD are doing all we can to find the person responsible and bring him to justice." JJ deflected.
"But is the KKK involved?" the same reporter asked again, inching closer to the platform with each word he spoke. Something JJ knew Derek Morgan did not miss once she saw him begin to eye the over eager reporter from his place at the back of the room. This reporter, from the Huntsville Chronicle, would not be at the next press conference--she'd bet money on it.
"We have no reason to believe any organizations are involved in these crimes. We believe all three murders to be the work of a single man. At this time I cannot disclose any other information on this case, thank you all for coming." JJ stated eloquently before heading off the platform and out of the building--she really needed to get some air.
"Scott Miller I cannot believe you didn't tell her! I can't believe you didn't tell your own mother that we decided to wait a while before having children! But of course the good little son would never want to disappoint 'Mommy Dearest'! No...leave that to his bitch of a wife!" Natalie Miller screamed at her husband when she entered their bedroom. "Don't even think you're sleeping in here tonight!"
Scott Miller to his favor chose not to speak as he grabbed his clothes for the next day and a pillow for the couch. "Good night Nat." he muttered as he closed the door behind him and headed down the stairs. He knew he had messed up, greatly, now he just needed to find a way to fix it.
His Susan was angry again, she was yelling at Charlie--again. Why did it never stop? Why couldn't she just be happy? Why did she always have to yell? He would just have to teach her a lesson.
"Hey girl. Everything okay?" Morgan asked when he found JJ outside the small press hall twenty minutes later. It was well past six now, and the sun was almost completely gone from the sky.
"Oh, yea I'm fine." JJ answered, but her eyes never strayed from the building in front of her. She hadn't even looked away when he'd come outside.
"JJ..."
"I'm sorry, Derek. It's just that this case was on my desk, had been for weeks, and now two more women are dead because of it. It's possible that he's even found another unsuspecting couple to murder and now there's nothing I can do about it." She broke her concentration on the building in front of her but refused to look at him.
"JJ, it's not your fault." Morgan said, unsure of how he could comfort the woman who had come to mean so much to him.
"What happened to the guy who told me when Reid was abducted that one of us was there and one of us wasn't and that I had to figure out the rest by myself? I could use him right now." JJ said lightly.
"He fell in love with you, it changed some things." Morgan said, nudging her slightly on the shoulder. She finally turned to look at him, and he could see small tears forming in her eyes.
"Well, that sure doesn't help, but for what it's worth, I fell in love with you too." JJ laughed, allowing herself to rest her head on Morgan's shoulder, encompassed by the feeling of comfort that she felt every time he was around her.
Morgan's hand unconsciously drifted to the small velvet box in his pocket, is this the right time? He began asking himself. "JJ, I--" His proposal was cut short by the ringing cell phone in JJ's pocket.
"Uh...Sometimes I just want to throw my cell phone in the Atlantic, but lucky for my Blackberry, I am no where near any large body of water." JJ whined before begrudgingly answering her phone.
"Hello, my illustrious beauty, how's it hanging down in the good ol' south? While I am stuck here all by my lonesome in my lair. Seriously, I am getting desperate for human interaction. I would even willingly party on with Rossi, and that is saying something." A familiar voice said on the line.
"Garcia, why are you calling me and not Morgan? I am sure he would love to deal with your loneliness right now." JJ told her eccentric friend, knowing that Garcia had some ulterior motives, but not really being in the mood to deal with them.
"Because he is not in some strange, secret relationship that I feel I must know all the sordid details about. You, my dear, are. Which is why I will tell you my insanely rockin' intel and then proceed to grill you mercilessly." Garcia informed her blonde coworker.
"What intel?" JJ asked, resigned that she would not get out of this phone conversation until Garcia had extracted some form of gossip.
"All your victims' lipstick, same stuff. It's not from any major line, or even a current one. I am checking with discontinued cosmetic lines and companies out of business to see if it is any of theirs. Its made mostly out of Castor oil, which isn't popular now, so it comes from anything before the early '80s."
"Thanks Garcia." JJ said quickly, trying to get off the phone before Garcia could ask about JJ's love life.
"Hold it right there missy! You are forgetting the main reason I called!" Garcia yelled, as if she already knew JJ's brilliant plan.
"If I wanted to talk about it, I would have told you months ago." JJ complained slightly.
"ITS BEEN GOING ON FOR MONTHS!" Garcia squealed happily as JJ cringed. She heard Morgan chuckle lightly at her expression.
"I never confirmed that there was a relationship!" JJ backpedaled unbelievably.
"Okay Sugar, pass me on to my dark chocolate sundae." Garcia told her. JJ gave Morgan the phone, shaking her head with laughter. How was she going to get out of this?
"Hey baby girl, what is up?" Morgan said to his friend.
"Alright, your mission if you choose to accept it, is to find the stud that our young JJ must be dating." Garcia commanded.
"How do you know that she is dating someone?" Morgan teased, winking at JJ.
"She is too happy, its like she walked out of a Disney movie. She is seeing someone, make no mistake about that. I just need you, the object of my everlasting affection, to find out who. Godspeed Derek Morgan. Fail me my prince, and I will punish you!" She said hanging up on him.
"How does she know that I am dating someone, but not you?" JJ asked with disbelief as he handed her back her phone.
"Tricks of the trade." He said, kissing her on the cheek. JJ swatted him slightly and then gave him a quick peck on the lips.
"Yea, yea. Mr. Big Bad Profiler has his team mates all fooled. I know the drill. So where do you want to go for dinner?" she asked as they started the short walk back to their SUV. "But please no fish, shrimp, crab, or seafood of any kind. After being outside in the heat all day I'm not sure I can take it."
Stopping her quickly as they entered the parking deck, he scooped her up in his arms. "Derek! What are you doing?!"
"I'm carrying you gorgeous. I can't have you being sick if I want to see that present later, can I?" he asked as he leaned down to kiss her forehead. "How do you feel about Thai food?"
"Thai food? I'm not even sure what that is." JJ said as she allowed herself to snuggle into his arms in the almost abandoned parking garage.
"Well then you, my lovely girlfriend, are in for a treat. I know the perfect place."
The small restaurant was just as perfect as he remembered. The lights were dimmed, small votive candles were lit in the center of each cloth covered table, and he was fairly certain that this might be the perfect place and time to ask JJ the question he'd been trying to get out for weeks.
"Hey, JJ there's something I was hoping to ask you..." Morgan started as he took her hand over the top of the table, but was interrupted by one of the field agents from earlier in the day approaching the table.
"Agent Jareau it's nice to see you again. I'm Agent Nathan Romine, we met earlier in the afternoon." the good looking brunette man said politely as he stopped in front of them with a female agent. "And this is Agent Sarah Hunt, she's just been assigned to our field office starting today."
"Oh of course. Nice to see you again." JJ returned as she shook Agent Romine's offered hand, and then the woman with him who could have been her twin's. "You remember Agent Morgan, I assume?"
At the sound of his name the other blonde agent's head snapped around so quickly, Derek knew he was in trouble. "Derek Morgan?" she asked and JJ moved aside a little so the woman could see for herself. "I can't believe this! What the hell are you doing here? Still going for blondes too I see."
"I'm working a case with my partner Agent Hunt." Morgan answered cooly, not wanting to provoke the woman. He knew JJ was going to grill him as soon as they left the restaurant and that was something he was more than ready to get over and done with. "Congratulations on being assigned to the field office you wanted after your probationary two years."
"Ahh, you're partner--yes, you do have a history with those." Agent Hunt replied snidely, ignoring his last comment.
Morgan grabbed JJ's hand under the table, and began rubbing it with his thumb. He could see that she was getting uncomfortable with the woman's tone, and she had every right to be. Deciding that while he would be a gentleman and take the high road, he had to end the conversation with Hunt now, before his girlfriend went and hid in the bathroom. "I am sure you two are busy, so we will see you tomorrow if the case allows."
"Trying to get rid of me? Seriously? Are you afraid that I will tell your little girlfriend all about your conquests?" Agent Hunt laughed maniacally.
"I don't know how your girlfriend would find out about those conquests when she's still in Virginia." JJ said faking oblivion. She and Morgan had discussed past relationships, and while she was dying to know how he knew this woman, she wasn't about to let some bimbo destroy her and Morgan's happy and still secret relationship.
Morgan laughed lightly, catching on to JJ's intention, and sent her a small, but grateful smile when a crazed Sarah Hunt stormed away angrily, Agent Romine following close behind. "Sorry about that." he said sincerely apologetic. "I had no idea she was going to be here, I promise."
"Hey, I know that. I believe you when you tell me that that you had no clue that one of your ex girlfriends was going to be here." JJ said, going out on a limb in her assumption of who this Agent Hunt could be.
"She wasn't my girlfriend and I've never slept with her, baby girl." Derek answered honestly, but with a sad tone to his voice, "I dated her sister, and when I found out she was cheating I ended things."
"Then why is she so angry?" JJ asked as she squeezed his hand, prompting him to let her in to what was obviously a sad piece of his past, knowing how painful it was to have a significant other that was cheating.
"Sarah, or Agent Hunt now I guess, came to see me a few weeks after the break up, at the time I was working out of the D.C. field office. She said that Danielle, her sister, was so depressed after we ended things that she'd threatened to kill herself. She wanted to know if I would come and convince Dani to get some help, check herself into a hospital or maybe something else...I don't really know."
"Why would she have done that for you?" JJ asked, quietly "I mean, wasn't she seeing someone else?"
"I guess she had just closed herself off, I'm not sure." Morgan responded quietly.
"So, what happened?" JJ prodded.
"Well, I agreed to stop by after work, and when I got there Dani would only speak to me if we were alone, so I had everyone else leave the room and I thought I was able to convince her that she needed help. She even promised me that she would check herself into a psychiatric hospital if I drove her down the next morning." He scoffed slightly to himself shaking his head, and added quietly "Like I should have believed her."
They fell silent for just a moment, Morgan lost in his thoughts and JJ not wanting to push him further than he was willing. Finally, she prodded once more, "What did you do?"
"After that I went home and called my boss and told him what was going on, and he gave me the morning off to take her to the hospital. I spent the whole night awake wondering if I was doing the right thing, I mean I'd only dated the woman for two months--was that really long enough for me to tell what was best for her? Well, the next morning when I got to her apartment the place was covered with police and an ambulance was there too. The cop that was in charge of the scene told me that Dani had committed suicide by taking too many sleeping pills sometime during the night."
Morgan fell silent, and JJ could see the pain in his face of the guilt that he carried for so long. She definitely could understand guilt, even if it was misplaced.
"You couldn't have saved her." JJ informed him softly.
"I should have saved her...I could have..."
"No!" JJ insisted "The only road that leads to is self doubt and misery. Believe me, I've been there."
Morgan looked at her lonely, searching her eyes and finding only love and sympathy. Finally, he nodded slowly, a small smile creeping upon his lips "I knew there was a reason I liked you."
"Like me?" JJ asked, obviously trying to lighten the mood, "And here I was thinking you love me. Hmm...guess I was wrong."
"No, I just think you'd have to be certifiable yourself if you can't see the way I feel about you, gorgeous." Morgan said smiling softly in her direction.
"You know, I was thinking. What if we have desert before dinner? For some reason I really want something chocolate..." JJ mused, her mischievous smile letting on exactly what she meant by "desert", and it wasn't food.
With a smile to match hers, he responded with a low voice, "I think I may know the perfect thing..."
"Well then by all means Agent Morgan, lead the way." she sassed cheekily and they were out of the restaurant and in the car in less than five minutes flat. As they pulled away from the curb, both lost in teasing each other, they never noticed the black sedan tailing them from behind or the angry blonde woman driving it.