Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited this story. This idea has been in my head for awhile, I hope I do JJ and the show justice. And as always I don't own Criminal Minds.


"If we knew each other's secrets, what comforts we should find." John Churton Collins

Rosaline stood at her locker, the school day was over, and it hadn't come soon enough for the teenager. The halls were empty, once that bell rang everyone had run out of their high school as fast as they could. Rosaline stared at everything she had in her locker, the pictures of her friends at a Band concert, pictures of Jason and her before prom last year, and numerous post cards from Paris she had collected of the years. She pulled the pictures out and shoved them into her backpack.

There were stacks of papers she had kept, she had been proud of those stories. Without a second thought the stack was thrown to the bottom of a trash can, a loud thump echoing through the halls. Mementos from her high school years tossed aside, as if the life she lived in these halls had been for nothing, the yellow locker was bare save for the stack of text books.

"Ms. Jareau" Roz's favorite teacher walked down the halls toward her student and neighbor. Stacy Thompson had grown up with Sandy and Michael Jareau and had watched as the three Jareau children grew up in front of them. Stacy had always wanted children of her own, when they never came, she treated her students and the Jareau children like they were her babies.

"Hi, Mrs. Thompson." Rosaline quickly closed and locked her locker, not sure what Mrs. Thompson would think of the uncharacteristically bare locker.

"You're here kind of late aren't you? Are you staying for your sister's soccer game?" Mrs. Thompson asked with a smile, everyone in town knew how good a soccer player Jennifer Jareau was, it wasn't every day that an eleven year old played on the 13-14 girls team and still out played them.

"Um, yeah probably." Rosaline merely shrugged.

Mrs. Thompson noticed the stacks of papers in the trash, "Are you cleaning out your locker already? Most kids wait until June to do that."

"It was getting messy…" Before Rosaline could think of a better excuse she was interrupted.

"ROSALINE!" JJ ran towards her sister in her Blue and Yellow East Alleghany Junior Wildcats Uniform. "Roz, are you coming to my game?" JJ was hoping that her big sister had forgotten their fight at the breakfast table. JJ ran up to her big sister, Sandy Jareau following closely behind.

"Jennifer don't be rude," Sandy whispered as her daughter ignored everyone but the sister that she adored.

JJ looked from her sister to her mother and then to their neighbor, "Sorry, Hi Mrs. Thompson. How are you?" she asked politely,

"I'm good thank you JJ." Mrs. Thompson smiled down at the child, like many in the town they found it hard not to smile at the little girl. "I hear your team has a big game today? Are you ready?"

JJ nodded her head excitedly, "Yes ma'am we're playing North Mammon. And we're going to beat them!" North Mammon and East Alleghany had a rivalry that went back as long as anyone in either town could remember, it started with the high school football team and had found its way into any competition where the two towns competed. JJ knew everyone was counting on her team to beat the North Mammon Devils.

"You're going to come watch, right Roz?" JJ pleaded with her big sister, "You can't miss this game!"

"I don't know JJ," Rosaline picked up her backpack and threw it over her shoulder, the last thing she wanted was to be at a soccer game, she just wanted to go home and be alone.

"Please Rosaline! Please! I'm sorry I read you diary I promise, PINKY PROMISE, I'll never ever ever do it again!" JJ pleaded again hugging her sister for good measure.

Rosaline pulled her sister off her, "I said I don't know JJ!" the frustration with her little sister evident, "I have homework to do." She added softly, realizing she was hurting her sister.

"Jennifer, Rosaline, enough." Sandy interrupted. She had been prepared for her children to fight, it was expected, but it seemed like all her daughters seemed to do lately was fight.

"Sorry, Mom." Both girls grumbled.

Stacy Thompson could feel the tension between the girls and their mother, wanting to help cut through the awkward situation she kneeled down in front of the young soccer star, "You know JJ, Mr. Thompson was telling me that he saw you practicing your bicycle kick in the backyard," Stacy spoke of her husband, who was the High School girls soccer coach. Stacy knew that would get JJ excited hearing that her husband had noticed her.

"Really?" She asked excited. Stacy nodded her head, "Do you think you could show me how you do that?" Stacy looked up at Sandy Jareau, their eyes meeting for a moment, "If your mom says that's ok of course."

"Please Mom! Can I?" JJ begged her mother. Sandy could only shake her head at her little girl, "Yes, Jennifer you can go. I want you to listen to Mrs. Thompson and stay where she can see you. Is that clear?"

"Yes Mom. I promise." JJ hugged her mother before grabbing her blonde neighbors arm trying to pull her out to the soccer fields. Stacy took a quick look back at Sandy and Rosaline Jareau, noticing for the first time the sad look in Rosaline's dark brown eyes. She quickly nodded her head at Sandy as the older women mouth a word of thanks.

With her younger daughter's attention occupied Sandy focused on Rosaline. "Rosaline, what's going on? We always watch the games as a family."

"I know Mom," Rosaline inhaled deeply, she tried to think of reasons her mother would accept for her missing a family function.

"Baby, what's wrong?" the tired look in her daughters eyes didn't escape the seasoned parent. She could see something was bothering her little girl, and as much as she had tried to brush it off, something had been bothering her for some time now, and it was more than just a break up.

Rosaline's deep brown eyes meet with her mother's blue ones. While the color of their eyes were different they had always held the same expressive looks. That was the only part of her mother it seemed Rosaline had inherited, she had her father's dark hair and coarse features, features they also shared with her older brother. If it wasn't for their eyes it would be hard to believe that they were family. Rosaline could see the pain in her mother's eyes, she knew that she was causing that pain.

Rosaline hated being the cause of the pained look in her eyes, but she didn't know how to stop her mother's pain. She couldn't seem to stop the pain she felt constantly, how was she supposed to help someone else.

The hallway was quiet as mother and daughter stood next to one another, neither knowing what words could make things better. Rosaline wanted to break down, to tell her mother how bad she was hurting, she wanted to crawl in her mother's lap like she was a child again. Sandy Jareau slowly brought her soft hand up to her daughter's cheek, she caressed the girl's cheek softly with her thumb. When a single tear escaped those dark brown eyes Sandy silently wiped it away and pulled her daughter to her chest and held her tightly.

"I've got you baby, it's going to be ok." Rosaline laid her head against her mother's comforting body, wishing she could believe her. That she could believe that everything was going to be ok, that her parents could fix everything. Rosaline wished she could be JJ again, that she was young enough to believe in magic, that their father could make the monsters disappear. That a warm cup of hot chocolate held enough of their mother's love to make all their problems go away. But, Rosaline wasn't a child anymore. She knew that monsters still existed, and that they didn't hide inside your closet, or under your bed, that sometimes they were invisible and sometimes they weren't. She knew that a cup of hot chocolate or a warm batch up Sandy's Jareau's famous chocolate chip peanut-butter cookies wouldn't solve the ill fates that life could throw at them.

For one weak moment Rosaline let herself believe in childish dreams again as she closed her eyes and inhaled her mother's familiar scent. A soft mixture of Suave Shampoo and cookies, the scents of her childhood. She felt like the world around them slowly disappeared, she forgot that she had been cleaning out her locker, she'd forgotten about the heartbreaking look in her sister's eyes when JJ realized her big sister didn't want to go to her game, and for just a brief moment she forgot about the constant pain she had been feeling.

Sandy wrapped her arms around her seventeen year old daughter, she remember what it was like to be seventeen. A time when it felt like the world was against you, you were too young to be an adult but too young to be a child. She wanted nothing more than to shield her children from the pain that this world so often dealt people, who so often were the ones who least deserved the pain. She held her daughter just a little tighter in an effort to protect her daughter just a little longer.

"Mom, I…I'm…" Rosaline tried to form the words, to tell her mother just what she was feeling, what she was thinking, but the words just couldn't come out.

"It's okay baby, you can tell me anything." Sandy whispered softly, taking her time not wanting to push her child.

Rosaline pulled back just enough so that she could look into her mother's eyes again, she could see her own reflection in her mother's eyes, she could see just for a moment the way that her mother saw her. For just a moment she felt safe. Just as she was ready to tell her mother everything, that moment passed, and Rosaline was reminded of the truths of life.

"I'm tired Mom, I just don't feel like going to JJ's soccer game today." Rosaline finally said, and in that moment she saw the change in her mother's eyes. She could tell that her mother didn't believe her.

Sandy let out a deep sigh, she knew there was something going on with her daughter, and it was more than being tired and more than not wanting to go to a soccer game. "Rosaline…" she started.

"Mom, please." The teenager pleaded, "I've got so much homework, I think I took too many AP Classes this year, and I think you were right I didn't need AP French." Sandy opened her mouth to say something when she was interrupted, "Please mom I just need to go home."

Sandy finally nodded her head, "Alright, I'll tell your sister you'll be at the next game. We will talk later though," she finished firmly.

Rosaline nodded her head in agreement before turning to leave. Sandy watched as her daughter walked out of the school alone, talking a moment to pray for her little girl and whatever it is was that was causing her so much sadness.

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey. - Kenji Miyazawa