This is the story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world and while she looked so sad in photographs I absolutely love her when she smiles.
We got onto the jet. I sat next to Emily, across from Reid and JJ. Rossi sat on the couch and Hotch sat on the other side of us. JJ sat in the aisle seat. She looked uncomfortable sitting with us. She was looking down at the case file. Hotch looked at me with a questioning face. I shrugged.
"Morgan, can I speak with you privately?" Hotch asked. I sighed and stood up. We walked to the back of the plane and heard Reid start talking to JJ.
"Wait, you said there were notes? What did they say?" Reid asked quickly.
"The note next to Danielle Jacobs foot said: Oh, what, whose,O'er, And, Gave, O, O'er," JJ started. Reid pulled out a pen and started writing.
"Derek, what's going on with JJ. She seems to be avoiding you and Prentiss. Is there something I should know?" Hotch asked me in a hused tone.
"Hotch, as soon as I know, you'll know, but since JJ won't tell me, well…" I stopped talking. I figured he understood.
"Alright. Keep an eye on her, please," He said. I nodded and we sat down.
"What…?" Prentiss asked me quietly, but then understood when I subtly eyed JJ. She nodded and went back to her file.
"JJ, were there notes on all the bodies?" Reid asked.
"Yeah. The next note on Elizabeth's body said: Say, so, broad, the, the, proof, say, does, the," JJ said.
"And then on Tara's?" Emily asked. JJ shifted uncomfortably when Emily spoke, but then replied, "Can, proudly, stripes, ramparts, rocket's, through, does, land…" JJ's voice trailed away.
The team all sat pondering the words. Reid was scribbling furiously. Finally after a few minutes he looked up.
"It's the national anthem…" Reid murmured.
"What? Reid?" Prentiss asked. She looked at the genius.
"Look, if you put the words in lines by phrases, it's the first word from every line in the first note, the second word from every line in the second note, and so on," Reid explained.
"Okay, so if we have a patriotic unsub-" I began.
"Or someone who is anti patriotic," Hotch added.
"Well add the chains into this…what do chains have to do with patriotism?" Rossi asked.
There was silence.
Then JJ said, "Guys we're landing in a couple of minutes."
Prentiss put Garcia on via laptop.
"Garcia, can you pull up a picture of the statue of liberty?" She asked.
"One second, my darling!" Garcia exclaimed and in indeed one second it was up.
"Chains." SHe said pointing to the feet of Lady Liberty.
Rossi smiled at Emily's intelligence.
JJ picked up her purse quietly. She pulled out a bottle of pills and popped to into her mouth. I looked at her, without saying anything. She immediately felt my eyes on her.
"Asprin," she said irritated. I nodded. Hotch had had enough of this. The plane landed and everyone except for Hotch and JJ had exited. I looked back at Hotch who motioned for me to go.
"JJ," Hotch said as she grabbed a file off the table.
"Yeah, Hotch?" She asked.
"What's going on? I want the truth now," He commanded.
"Hotch, I don't want my personal life interfering with everyone and everything at work. Anything outside of work, I will deal with. Anything here, feel free to join in," She said as politely as possible.
"Obviously whatever is going on with you in your personal life is interfering with work. You are avoiding eye contact with everyone, and avoiding Emily and Derek all together! If what's going on can't be dealt with right now, I'm going to have to ask you to sit this case out," Hotch said.
"Hotch…" JJ begged.
"JJ." Hotch said. He did not begged, he demanded.
"Fine. Will and I are fighting. There! I said it. He said I'm not a good parent. Everything that I do is for Henry. Absolutely everything. So you can see why I might be a little upset about this," JJ said angrily. One tear fell from her eye, and then she would not let another one come.
Hotch, who never had a problem with words, struggled to find the right ones to say. JJ usually was the most organized, most put together, and most sane person on the team. When everyone else's personal and work lives were going to hell, JJ was on top of everything making everything easier for them.
"Uh, JJ…" He began slowly, "I'm sorry I pried. I didn't mean to upset you," Hotch tried. He was going to have to smooth it over. He was still trying to think of what to say to her.
"No, Hotch. I'm sorry. This shouldn't be affecting my work. And I shouldn't have gotten angry. I really didn't want to make this a big deal, but I guess I did a bad job on that…" JJ said giving a nervous laugh.
" Will you be alright now?" Hotch asked, genuinely concerned.
"Yeah, thank you," JJ said nodding. Hotch wasn't sure if she was lying. He was a profiler, damnit. He knew he should have been able to tell, but from the way she said it, and was acting, he couldn't. Or maybe she wasn't lying.
She gave a weak smile to Hotch, and then walked off the jet and onto the runway. I was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. She stopped, looking into my eyes for only a short moment. Then she shook her head. As I was about to speak, she cut me off.
"Derek, not here. Not right now. Not after what just happened." And that was it. She brushed by me quickly and caught up with the others, who were looking at her confused. They also felt so badly for her. I knew they did. I had to get through to her. I just didn't know how.