Hands in his pockets, Will watched JJ walk into the terminal. She had told him he didn't need to drive her to the airport, that she could take a taxi—no need for him to put himself out. He had politely but firmly brushed aside her protests; he wanted to make the weekend last as long as possible, and that meant standing here drinking in the sight of her, blonde hair swaying as she walked, until she was completely hidden in the throng of people moving through the airport.
He couldn't have spoken for JJ—they didn't know each other nearly well enough yet—but he knew his own mind and heart, and there was no question in either that he was in love with her. Her sweet smile, her careful way of speaking, her heart, tender to the needs of others but strong enough to stand the horrors of her job and still come out with a belief in the good things. Will hadn't been able to get her off his mind since the day they'd met, and now he knew he never would.
The weekend had been even better than he'd imagined. For starters, neither of them had been called into work, a minor miracle Will still wasn't sure he believed had really occurred. He had spent most of the first night holding his breath, waiting for JJ's phone to go off and call her back to DC. She had confessed that she'd considered hiding his phone to make sure he wasn't called in, but he'd assured her that his partner had his back and would have covered for him as much as possible.
That conversation had been held in bed, between kisses, after the first impassioned round of lovemaking and well on their way to the second. Will had called for takeout eventually, rather than keeping the reservation he had made at a fine restaurant, and had discovered that drinking beer and eating Chinese food with JJ in bed was the most fun he'd had in a long time. She looked younger out of her BAU clothes (and in his shirt), freer and lighter and happier, and he wanted to keep her looking like that forever.
That night was a long one. It was impossible that they could have talked about everything that night, lying there in each other's arms under the faint whir of his ceiling fan, but he thought they'd come close. And yet it had only made him want more—more of her kisses, more of her laugh, more of the sharp leaps and turns her mind took. She was one of the smartest women he had ever met, and he found that overwhelmingly sexy.
They had managed to drag themselves out of bed late Saturday morning, and Will had taken JJ to some of his favorite haunts in New Orleans, showing her the beauties of the city that were off the usual tourist tracks. Will had been entranced by JJ's enthusiasm; she felt as though she belonged here, with him, already.
But of course, that couldn't be. The BAU was in Quantico; the BAU was in JJ's blood. Her eyes positively shone when talking about her work and about helping the families cope with the stresses of the investigations. She kept up with many of them long afterward, making herself available to them by phone and email, to be that familiar voice they could reach when the memories and grief got to be too much. Carrying all that weight didn't seem to burden her, though—it was clear to him that she liked it. More, that she throve on it. It was a part of who she was. No matter where this thing between them led, and Will wanted it to go far, JJ's job would have to be a priority.
He shook his head, still watching the corner she had gone around, even though she had probably gotten through security and halfway to her gate by now. Nothing like getting ahead of yourself, he thought, worrying about her job when all they'd had so far was one weekend.
But a hell of a weekend. And one that they both wanted to repeat, as soon as they could manage it. He thought of her again, her little smile, which had grown wider and more genuine over the course of the two days, as she had gotten used to him and started, just maybe, to trust him a little. He wanted to see that smile as full and whole-hearted as it could get. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed into it "miss you already".
Her flight would be boarding soon; there was no real point to him standing here. And he had work to catch up on, too. But something in him didn't want to go, not when there was still a chance they were both sharing the same piece of ground.
His phone buzzed, and he took a look at it, his heart leaping, hoping it was from her, but it was only from his partner, teasing him about the weekend and issuing dire threats about the amount of paperwork Will was going to have to do when he got into the office.
In the middle of reading the message, the phone buzzed again, JJ's name and picture popping up. The message said, "On plane. Hate to leave. I miss you, too."
He smiled broadly, sending her a happy face in response, and then he shoved the phone back in his pocket and left the airport, whistling a cheerful tune, already planning the next visit in his head. Will was under no illusions as to how difficult that would be to manage, but at least now he knew they would both be trying their best to make it happen, and that made all the difference.
In the meantime, police work in New Orleans was as busy as always, and Will headed back to the job.