Okay, here the fourth chapter in celebration of the upcoming second episode of season seven, "Proof".

I personally think this one's a little weird. That happens when I write at different times of the day… In the morning, the dialogues get too funny/sarcastic, and then I have to add some crazy melodrama late in the evening. Anybody else know that feeling?

Chapter five is going to take a while now, because I haven't even started it yet… (usually I start uploading a story when I have at least two chapters ready in storage.) But it will come, rest assured.

Also, I am beginning to think that this story doesn't really have a plot xD… It's mostly hugging and talking. But I like it.

You do, too? Take the time and write me a tiny little review. I love you all.

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It was five thirty in the morning when JJ was woken by a knock on her door. For a second, she wanted to jump up, get dressed and get into her car to drive to the BAU headquarters, then she realized that they were still in Georgia. Groaning, she took a look at the clock on her cell phone, wondering why on earth someone would wake her that early. It was a fact that was often dismissed in the FBI, but people did in fact need sleep to function properly.

She got up and tugged at her pajamas to make them look a little less disarranged. She wasn't surprised when she saw Reid's weary face through the tiny glass window in the door. With a sigh, she unlocked it, thinking to herself, he of all people should get some sleep.

"Spence. What is it?", she asked, sounding sleepy but not unfriendly.

"I…" He hesitated. His face looked even paler in the automatically activated light of the corridor. "I couldn't sleep. I just wanted to see if you were awake, too."

"I was," JJ lied, so he wouldn't feel guilty about waking her. "Come in."

Awkwardly, he entered her room. His pajamas were plain, long-sleeved and brown, and he had put on a beige cardigan. His feet were bare like JJ's, and she was glad the light of her bedside lamp was dim enough to hide the horrible bruises that covered one of them. His longish hair was messy, but it looked clean and soft, like it had just been washed. Really, he took a shower? Why can't the poor thing just go to sleep?

"Where's Morgan?", Reid asked, looking around.

"He went over to Penelope's room as soon as we came here, unsurprisingly." She smirked slightly, and Reid forced a little smile.

JJ went over to the double bed again and sat down on it, wrapping up in her still-warm blanket. When she noticed Reid still standing in the middle of her room, she gesticulated him to come over, too.

She realized just how tired he had to be when he didn't even hesitate to sit down on the other side of the bed, with less than three feet between them. He took the blanket that would have been Morgan's and wrapped up in it the same way JJ had done with hers.

The sat next to each other, backs against the wooden back plate of the bed, Reid resting his chin on his knees, JJ resting her elbows on hers.

"So," she said after a few moments of warm, cozy silence. "Two hours of sleep in three days, huh?"

"Make that one hour for me. Plus one or two minutes of technical death." If that had been supposed to be a joke, Reid had miserably failed at it - his voice was as bitter as vinegar.

"Spence?", JJ asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"I am so sorry."

He was silent for a moment, then he whispered, "It wasn't your fault."

Just like he had when they had found him yesterday.

"I should have been there with you. I shouldn't have split up with you. I can't tell you how goddamn sorry I am," she continued, almost pleadingly.

"I shouldn't have suggested it in the first place." His voice was quiet and hoarse. "I won't let you blame yourself." They were the words of a strong man, but JJ heard something beneath them, something that told her Reid was everything but strong right now. Of course, if anyone had the strength to get through this, it was him - he had practically looked after himself since he'd been six years old, and God only knew what the older students had done to the child prodigy in high school - but JJ just felt like something was broken.

"Are you gonna be alright?", she asked weakly. She was a media liaison, she had studied talking to people at a university, and yet she couldn't express what she really wanted to say.

"I don't know," Reid confessed.

"I mean… the, you know, the heroin..."

He looked at her with what would have been utter surprise in the face of a well-rested person. There was fear in his eyes. "You know?"

"Emily and me talked to Tobias' NA sponsor," she said. "He told us. He - I mean, Tobias… he gave you some, didn't he? That's what the profile said. We never… saw it, though."

Reid looked down at his long, slender fingers. "I didn't want it. I never asked for it."

"Oh, I know that, Spence," she said, putting an arm around his thin shoulders. She felt so sorry for him that if he hadn't been sitting next to her, she would have simply started weeping. Why him?

If Hankel gave him the drug, he probably did it more than once. And now Spence hasn't had anything for about twelve hours.

Before she could help it, her eyes noticed the sweat on the young man's forehead, and the way his arms hugged his knees so tightly, controlling a barely noticeable shaking of his hands.

JJ shivered with sympathy for her friend and moved a little closer to him until she could actually feel the warmth radiating off his skin. She didn't know a lot about withdrawal symptoms, but since he had only been with Hankel for two days, she hoped that he would be better by midday.

His skin really seemed disconcertingly warm. "Are you sure you're okay? You feel like you may have a fever," she commented cautiously. Like she had feared, he didn't take that very well.

"Will you stop asking me that?", he said, his voice not growing louder, but a little sharper. "I told you, I don't know, alright? I just… don't know." He rubbed his eyes and left his hands on his face, massaging his temples.

"Sorry," he whispered a few moments later.

JJ didn't allow herself to be thrown off track by his little outburst. Instead, she put her second arm around him and pulled him into a tight embrace. His fingers stopped moving and he was still for a moment, but then he relaxed.

It was awkward because they were technically sitting next to each other, and there was JJ's long hair, the two blankets and their pajamas everywhere.

She buried her head on his shoulder, fighting bravely against the tears wanting to fall from her eyes. The beige fabric of his true-Reid-style cardigan smelled of clean clothes and wool. Nothing about it was particularly standing out, but for that exact reason it was quite pleasant. Similarly, the shower gel he had used was faint and non-intrusive, but nevertheless tinted the note of his hot, dry skin with a touch of crispness. JJ felt his shaky, irregular breath on the top of her head.

"Hey," she said, pulling back eventually. "I know you're gonna be alright, okay? And whatever happens, we're all here for you. And even if it looks like you're alone, you… You have two remember that somewhere, there will always be us, your team, that did everything they could to… to save you… And I just want to you to know that we, all of us, we care about you so much. We will never let anything like this happen again and…" Her voice cracked as she couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

"God, I'm so sorry. I'm not the one who should cry," she said, annoyed at her own weakness.

"Just… let me know if there is anything you need?"

"Actually, there is one thing. Could you maybe make us some of that instant coffee I know you always take with you?", he asked with slight smile.

It was so peculiar to him; JJ couldn't stop herself from laughing. It was watery and desperate, but he had managed to make her feel better already. She untangled herself from the blanket and got up.

"If that makes you happy. But you know, there comes a time when all the caffeine in the world won't make up for missed hours of sleep anymore."

"Let's hope that day shall never arrive," he said. JJ felt admiration for this man who was strong enough to at least try to regain some of his humor, even if there was nothing funny about the situation.

"Oh, and JJ?", he added. "I really don't need anything else. And that is because of you guys. I couldn't wish for better friends."

Attempting his strategy as well, she answered, "Just when I was going to apologize for the melodrama."

She disappeared into the bathroom and filled the two hotel-provided glasses with instant coffee powder and hot tap water. Reid took the rather pathetic drink gratefully when she re-entered the bedroom.

"To friendship," he announced before taking a sip.

"To friendship," she repeated, waiting for the liquid to cool down.

She new the light atmosphere was a farce, but she decided to enjoy it for another while. She knew that he wasn't really ready for jokes yet, and she knew that he simulated this happiness and sense of overcoming for her.

Or was he also trying to fool himself?

The shadows in his face were just too deep, the circles below his eyes too dark, the pain in his honey-colored eyes to fresh.

The shaking of his hands and the sweat on his forehead just a little bit too noticeable.

But she had meant what she had said. She had sworn herself to be there for him forever, long before Tobias Hankel, even before he had asked her out on his twenty-fourth birthday. And she knew Morgan felt the same way, and so did the rest of the team.

He was going to be alright.