A/N I'm going to start with a massive thanks for all of the lovely (and not so lovely) reviews for the last chapter. I normally take great pride in replying personally to all of my reviewers, but this is the most I've had for a single chapter and I ran out of time (I'm assuming you'd rather I finish this chapter tonight?). So massive thanks go out to the reviewers I haven't managed to reply to: susannah2000, crazyobsession101, 00, sydcasy, EmmaEllieJane, lulubell76, dundeegirl1 and SkySydfan24.

Chapter 3

"Don't you dare shout at her Hotch" Morgan said menacingly. "You have absolutely no right."

Morgan had begun making his way towards Hotch's offices as soon as he realised what the shouting was about. Once he recognised that Garcia was on the receiving end of their boss' anger he had started sprinting.

"What the hell is going on?" he continued once he had stormed through the door. "Have you lost your mind?"

"It's OK Derek" Garcia said tearfully, stepping between him and Hotch. "Its fine; honestly."

"No it's not fine" he shouted, trying to step around the woman in front of him to get to his boss. "This is bullshit. She's done nothing to deserve your anger Hotch. NOTHING!"

"Are you finished?" Hotch said sardonically, his faux-calm manner only serving to wind Morgan up even further.

"Hell no" Morgan shouted. "I haven't even started. You and JJ lied to us and watched us suffer for 10 weeks and now you're shouting at Garcia! What happened Hotch? Did she make you feel guilty? Is that why you're shouting?"

"Do I feel guilty?" Hotch said. "Of course I do; but that is not the reason why I'm shouting. I'm saying what should have been said weeks ago – to all of you, not just Garcia."

"Then say it to all of us Hotch" Morgan growled. "We're all here and I for one am dying to hear what you have to say."

"Thanks to you three" Hotch started explaining, "we're down a damn good profiler, possibly permanently."

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about Hotch" Morgan said impatiently. "Do you think you could explain yourself a bit better?"

"JJ just tried to hand in her letter of resignation Derek" Garcia answered for Hotch.

"That's it?" Morgan demanded. "And you want us to feel guilty? I don't want JJ to leave Hotch, but I'm not going to feel guilty that she can't deal with the consequences of her actions."

"Derek…" Garcia pleaded.

"No baby girl" he said sharply. "We all have good reason to be angry with JJ and he has no right to make any of us feel guilty for our anger. You and JJ made a choice. You both had to realise that there would be repercussions."

"Of course we realised that" Hotch stated, "but you're going to have to explain to me why JJ seems to be the only one still left dealing with those repercussions."

"Don't worry Hotch" Morgan said sarcastically, "we're still angry with both of you."

"Then tell me, why is it that JJ is the only one who you're all ignoring?" Hotch demanded. "Why does she have to deal with the silence and the snide comments? Because I stopped getting that weeks ago and Emily never got it. We were all responsible for your suffering. We all lied to you. Why are you only punishing JJ?"

"I don't know about the others" Spencer Reid said quietly, speaking for the first time, "but JJ's betrayal was so much deeper than yours. You may have all lied to me, but you and Emily didn't really get to see just how much this was all affecting me. I went to JJ every week for the 10 weeks Emily was gone and cried on her. I laid myself bare. She knew just how much this was affecting me and she could have ended it, but she didn't. She let me suffer. I don't think I can forgive that."

"Do you think it didn't kill her to see all of that Reid?" Emily asked vehemently. "Do you think it didn't break her down to see you in pain and not be able to help?"

"But she could have helped Emily" Derek argued. "She could have told us at any time. She watched us all suffer and she could have stopped it at any time, but she didn't."

"She couldn't have told you" Hotch said, his anger obviously beginning to ebb as he heard the pain that his colleagues and friends had experienced.

"Why not?" Reid asked. "Why didn't either of you tell us? Did you think that we couldn't be trusted with the information?"

"Of course we knew we could trust you Reid" Hotch sighed, "but we just didn't have the authority. Try thinking about this dispassionately. Do you honestly think that JJ and I are at a high enough level to have been making those types of decisions?"

"No, but…" faltered Reid.

"But nothing Reid" Hotch interrupted. "The CIA and the Secretary of State made the decisions. I was told as Emily's supervisor and JJ was asked to act as Emily's contact in the State Department, but we were both told that no-one else could be informed."

"You still could have found a way to let us know" Morgan insisted.

"How?" Hotch snapped, beginning to lose his patience again. "How do you suggest we could have done that Morgan? Every person who knew added risk; risk for Emily and risk for themselves. You all know that Doyle would have stopped at nothing to get to Emily if he had found out the truth."

"But you know we wouldn't have told anyone" Garcia said, sounding hurt.

"I do know that" Hotch said with a small smile, "but we all know that, statistically, the more people who know something like that, the more risk there is of mistakes being made and information being leaked. However much we trusted you all, and we did – implicitly, we couldn't take that risk."

The room went silent as everyone in it digested this. Morgan was beginning to see the wisdom in Hotch's word, although a small part of him still felt betrayed. The more he thought about the situation, the more he recognised the agonising nature of the actions that JJ and Hotch had been forced into taking.

"Where is JJ?" he asked haltingly.

"She's at home" Hotch answered. "I've given her some time off to spend some time with Henry and to think about what she wants to do next."

"Is she OK?" Morgan asked; a part of him not wanting to know the answer.

"Come on Morgan" Rossi spoke for the first time. "You're a profiler. You know the answer to that question."

"I…." Morgan began to argue, immediately stopping when he realised the truth behind Rossi's words. His thoughts drifted uncomfortably to the last time he had seen JJ. She had been leaving the bullpen and walked past him on her way to Hotch's office. He closed his eyes and drew himself back into the memory, almost like doing a cognitive interview on himself. As she had walked past him she had given him a nervous look, avoiding his eyes. She was really pale and had dark circles under eyes and, if he wasn't mistaken, she had lost weight. He also thought he had seen unshed tears in her eyes. He sighed with frustration, both at himself and at the situation.

"What can we do?" he asked determinedly.

A/N I'm not sure that I'm entirely happy with this chapter. One of the reviews for the last chapter has left me second guessing the characters' reactions and I couldn't get the right level of anger between Hotch and Morgan. It was either too much or not enough. I would really appreciate some feedback here!