~~~ Sorry this chapter is a bit short. Again, I'm probably stretching the Witness Protection Program, but for the sake of this story...JJ can't leave it. ~~~

Life for the Jareaus wasn't so easy at first.

Mrs. Jareau, formerly a translator for a major marketing company, found another job quickly at a department store in the city half an hour away, managing overseas costumers and once again having to put her language skills to work. The store was so desperate for someone who could communicate in a language other than English, they hired her nearly without question.

Mr. Jareau had been the editor of a top magazine, and finding work for him was more difficult. But after some months off, he returned to his first love, writing, and began working for the local paper, first with little pay and only occasional publishing, but eventually his articles became a regular feature.

Harvey graduated from high school and when autumn rolled around, headed to university for his medical degree. Corrie, born in the summer, celebrated her sixteenth birthday with no friends. She'd always been scholarly and shy, and had been too wary and self-conscious to make friends with her new classmates.

This was not the case for JJ. She had already sussed out that in her small town, jocks were treated like celebrities. Playing tackle football as a girl was not met with enthusiasm from the gossipy mothers, but it was perfectly fine for her to play soccer, especially since she was so darn good at it. The school's coach had sent her home with a registration form to join the town's rec. team, and he'd told her that next year there was a guaranteed spot for her on the school's team. The boys respected JJ, and the girls were in awe of her, and JJ was incredibly happy. She was young, and she adapted quickly.

The year progressed, and in sixth grade JJ did join the school's soccer team and she continued to bring home more friends after school and attend more slumber parties than she ever had before. She liked how close-knit the town was, how she could walk down the street and know someone's name, or at least recognize them, and they'd know her too. She liked the fact that she was able to impress - and sometimes even play better than - the thirteen year-olds on the soccer team, and she liked walking into a store, finding herself a dollar short, and being told not to worry about it, she could pay them back later.

Then one night, a few months after her eleventh birthday, Cassie walked into JJ's room. Her long hair spilled down her shoulders, she wore cuffed jeans and a black tank top, and she held something glittering in her hand. JJ was doing math homework at her desk, and ignored Cassie until she spoke.

"JJ, are you ever going to grow your hair long? It looks like a boy's," Cassie said. JJ raised a hand to her short strands. She still had the same messy bob cut she'd had since she was younger.

"I like it short," she replied, "It's less work."

Cassie, who had been leaning against JJ's doorframe, walked over to the desk and opened her palm, revealing the glittering object to be her gold locket. She'd gotten it from her best-friend for her thirteenth birthday. She always wore it, and it had been the only piece of jewellery JJ had ever coveted. Cassie knew this.

"You can have it," Cassie said now.

"I can't take it," JJ protested, but her longing eyes gave her away. They didn't stray from the necklace.

"As long as you promise to always remember me when you wear it, you can have it." Cassie insisted.

"I promise," JJ said quietly, wide-eyed, her math homework forgotten.

"You have to remember me as Corrie, though," Cassie was whispering now - she didn't want their parents to hear. "Ok?"

JJ nodded, "Ok," she agreed. She turned so her sister could fasten it around her neck. The clasp clicked, and JJ smiled as the locket shone up at her from her t-shirt.

"I love you, JJ." Cassie said.

JJ gave her sister a strange look. They got along ok, but declarations of hate were much more common - and expected - than ones of love.

"I love you, JJ, you know that, right? No matter what happens." Cassie added.

JJ nodded and smiled up at her big sister, "I know," she said, "Thank you," and then: "I love you too."

Satisfied, Cassie left the room. JJ returned to her homework. She didn't know it, but in a few hours, Cassie would hang herself from the belt of her robe, in the closet. Her father would find her and start to holler. Her mother would run to him and burst into tears. 911 would be called - paramedics would arrive and pronounce Cassandra Jareau dead. Investigators would rule it a suicide. Harvey would temporarily leave university and the family would go to Arizona, where Mr. Jareau's parents lived, and have Cassandra buried there. They would remember her suicide letter - found alongside her in the closet - and check with their US Marshal before engraving Cornelia Jakob onto her headstone.

Her suicide letter went like this:

Dear Mom and Dad,

I know this will tear you apart, but I have to do it. It's all my fault that we've had to start new lives, and now that I'm gone perhaps you can go back to Seattle and tell the neighbours about the vacation in France, and how I died bravely from an unsuspected case of leukemia. I just can't live anymore, scared and guilty and so alone.

I'm not Cassandra Jareau, I'm Cornelia Jakob, and please burry me that way.

Let JJ and Harry know that I love them, because I do.

Forever,

Corrie

After that a few things were established.

One was that Cassie had died perhaps in vain, for they could never go back to their former lives.

"The gang is vengeful," the Jareaus were informed, "They could come after all of you, or -" there was a look in JJ's direction.

Two was that JJ decided to grow her hair long, as Cassie had had hers.

Three was that the family, which grew quite accustomed to their new identities, came to think of their deceased sister and daughter as Corrie once again - they only referred to her as Cassandra when with the townspeople.

Four was that the smallness of the town, which JJ had previously adored, became to her a great cause of aggravation. Everywhere she went, everyone knew of her sister's suicide and looked at her with pitying eyes. She grew to find it insufferable, absolutely hated it, and could not wait until she could move out.

Which lead to the fifth; if JJ wanted to get away, she'd have to go to a good university, and she'd have to do that almost totally on her own. Her depressed mother became unstable, quit her job, and blew all the family's savings (this, too, earned JJ pitying eyes). So JJ carried on with her soccer, earned herself a scholarship, and got the hell out.

She ended up in the BAU.