Chapter Seven - Timeline

Rossi's Journal: Entry Three, written specifically to his shrink

Did you know that I have written over 1,000 pages in published works? That doesn't even include the number of pages I've written for other purposes. I do believe I have done quite enough writing.

JJ's Journal: Entry Twelve

After all of the cases I have seen and all of the victims and families I have worked with, I've never stuck around to see their recovery. We never do. I know it takes a long time for them to recover, to heal, to be able to move forward again. While I knew that, I never knew the true length. It's been 19 days, and I'm only now considering the possibility of returning to work soon. By soon I mean by next week. At the earliest. Just considering it makes me feel like the ground has tilted wildly under my feet. It's been so long, and I'm still stumbling. The reality is that most of us are. Hotch is different. He's Hotch. I'm not sure he would ever truly acknowledge his feelings or show anything that might be considered weakness when we need him to be strong. So that's what he is. But he's not invincible, not invulnerable. Personally I think that's the main reason why Rossi returned so soon. Someone needs to keep an eye on Hotch. As for the rest of us, we will continue to try to find our ways forward again. For Hotch. For the team. No matter how hard it is or what it takes. It's amazing that I can say that now. I guess I really have come a long way since we were rescued. Too bad I'm still not sure if I will ever make it to the end.

0~0~0~0

George Huang stuck his head into Cragen's office and called out to the captain.

"Don. You wanted to see me?"

"Close the door behind you please."

Huang did as he was asked and moved to stand by Cragen's desk.

"Is this about Olivia?" At Cragen's nod of confirmation, Huang continued, "Has something else happened?"

He'd heard about Olivia's meltdown in the squad room shortly after her rescue. That night he and Cragen had a long discussion about what they should do for Olivia. They'd both agreed that even if she was at work, she wouldn't be allowed into the field. In the end, Olivia had taken time off so they hadn't worried about keeping her from field work, which would have been difficult to say the least.

"She came in yesterday."

That caught Huang's attention and both his eyebrows lifted in surprise. The last thing he'd expected was Olivia to return without warning. Before he could ask anything, Cragen cleared away some of the confusion.

"Not to work. She was using the precinct as…" he hesitated a moment as he tried to find the right word to describe it. "…a hiding place or somewhere to get her head on straight."

"She feels safe here. The fact that she's using that is a good thing."

"Sitting in a police station by herself can't possibly help her."

"It can. Not as much as counseling will, but it can provide her with an anchor to hold onto when she needs it."

Cragen nodded. Most of what Huang was saying made sense. After what she'd been through, having somewhere safe and solid to return to was essential. If that place was the squad room for Olivia, then Cragen was happy to allow her to use it when she needed too. As for the talk of counseling, they'd been over that before. Both of them knew Olivia was going to need help to move forward, but neither knew if she was getting that help.

"I'm going to start getting some heat for her still being on leave pretty soon. I need her to get her head together, but…"

Cragen shook his head in mild frustration. Olivia wasn't suffering from a physical injury. There were no doctor restrictions placed on her, and that made it all the more difficult. He was willing to give his people as much time and leniency as they needed, but his superiors would only allow so much. It ended up putting him in a rough spot.

"Unfortunately there's only so much time you can give her before it starts standing out. You might need to consider the best way to determine if she's getting counseling, and if not, how to get her to go."

As Huang spoke, Cragen rubbed his head in frustration. That was the problem. Olivia wouldn't make the discussion easy, and he could end up doing far more damage than good.

"How am I supposed to do that? I don't want to force her. If I do, we both know full well that she'll fight it."

"You can't force Olivia to do anything, and it won't help her either. After what she experienced, she needs that control back. Just talk to her. Give her the facts and let her make her own decision."

"Hopefully it works. I don't want to lose her."

"You shouldn't. Olivia is strong enough to overcome this, and she has a lot of support to get her there. She just needs to accept that it's okay to take that assistance. Talk to her."

"I will. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Huang replied and headed for the door. He'd only opened it about an inch when he turned to look over his shoulder at Cragen. "And Don? My guess is that Olivia's already seeing someone."

0~0~0~0

Rossi did not like what he had seen. Strauss rarely came down to the BAU bullpen, and when she did it was never for anything good. The fact that she had made her way into Hotch's office and had closed the door didn't bode well. Rossi left his office and stopped in the hallway between his and Hotch's doors. He noticed Reid watching Hotch's window with a worried expression on his face. His eyes shifted to Rossi for a brief moment. The two made eye contact, and Rossi nodded reassuringly to Reid. He'd handle this. While Reid returned to his work, Rossi leaned calmly against the railing for Strauss to emerge. She would notice that he was standing there waiting like a guard dog, but Rossi didn't really mind. If she wasn't pleased about it, Rossi didn't really care either.

He had to wait a good twenty minutes before Hotch's door opened and Strauss stepped out into the hallway. She lifted one eyebrow at Rossi, her eyes locking with his in displeasure. Rossi simply smiled and let her ire roll off of him.

"Erin."

"Agent Rossi," he greeted coolly before turning away and heading down the steps.

Rossi watched her go and couldn't help noticing that Reid was carefully keeping his head down. With a grin, Rossi headed into Hotch's office to figure out what had drawn Strauss' attention. His quiet entrance gave him a moment to catch Hotch before the unit chief could compose himself. Hotch was grimacing and rubbing at his forehead and eyes with what Rossi could see was quite a lot of pressure. It was Hotch's display of stress, which was not what he needed more of right now. Rossi remained still and silent as Hotch slowly pulled himself together. His eyes closed, and he took a few slow and regulated breaths. After clenching and forcibly releasing his fists a few times, Hotch's muscles started to visibly relax. Rossi took that as an indication to make his presence known.

"Strauss really didn't pull any punches, huh?"

Anyone else would have jumped in response to Rossi's voice, but Hotch only twitched slightly.

"You watched?"

Rossi shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

"I didn't eavesdrop on your conversation. I simply used my presence to make it clear to Strauss that I didn't approve of her dropping the hammer on you."

"Mn."

"So what did she want?"

"She wanted an update. Let's just say that she isn't exactly pleased we're the only two back."

Rossi had figured as much. There really wasn't anything else she could have come in for. They hadn't worked a case in a while, and they weren't on one now.

"I'm sure she didn't take the news that they need more time well."

"No. I was able to give her a date for Prentiss' return. Unfortunately she was less than pleased with Morgan's New York vacation and JJ's time with family. She made it very clear that everyone better be back to work by the beginning of next week or they could be facing anywhere from a review to a pay decrease or the loss of their jobs."

A look of disgust swept across Rossi's face, and he shook his head. He'd seen Erin be unreasonable before, but this almost reached the level of ridiculous that trying to blame Hotch for everything that had happened the day Haley had died had reached.

"I'll talk to her, Hotch. You just try to get a timeline on those two. Let them know what's going on."

"See what you can do."

Rossi gave Hotch a curt nod and left the room to go talk to Strauss. If anyone could convince her to give Morgan and JJ a little bit more time to regroup, he could. A quick trip down the hall led him to their section chief's office. He knocked on her door in the process of walking into the room.

"We need to talk, Erin."

"I figured you'd be in here," Strauss replied as she continued to focus on the paperwork she was working on instead of Rossi. "You realize that you have no authority to question my decisions."

"I wouldn't use the word questioning, more discussing."

Strauss placed one more file onto a pile before looking up with an expression of annoyance. To her it was the same thing.

"You know how hard it is to return here, Erin. You have to come back when you're ready, not before. Don't push them before they're truly prepared to return."

"Agent Morgan and Agent Jareau have had two weeks to do that."

"And it took you two months."

Strauss' eyes narrowed dangerously at Rossi. He had no right to go there.

"The team can't be grounded much longer, David. They're needed in the field."

"Once Prentiss returns we won't be. The four of us can handle field cases. It's not uncommon to split the team."

Strauss sighed. "Dave…"

"A little more time, Erin. That's all I'm asking."

"Two weeks. That's as far as I'm willing to go."

"That's enough. Thank you, Erin."

"Don't make me regret it," she warned as Rossi made his way out.

Rossi lifted his hand in acknowledgement as he headed off to let Hotch know he'd succeeded in his mission.

- Three Days Later-

"Damn it's nice to see a smile on your face," Morgan teased after Olivia had opened the door for him.

Olivia rolled her eyes and snatched the cup from his hand.

"Because you brought coffee."

Instead of responding Morgan grinned and stepped into her apartment. Over the past few days he'd started to see some life come back into Olivia. He'd been able to touch her without her panicking, and there had even been some sparkle replacing the dullness in her eyes. She'd lost some of the ground she'd gained following the arrival of her visitor, but she'd made it up again.

"I'll keep that in mind then."

"Mmhmm."

Olivia sipped at her coffee as she moved toward her kitchen and leaned against the counter. She reveled in the taste of the coffee and couldn't help smiling again. Morgan grinned too and shook his head in amusement. So far it was a good start to the day. Hopefully it would stay that way. He was about to take a drink of his own coffee when his phone rang. Before he could get out more than a rushed hello, Garcia started in on the other end. Morgan actually had to pull the phone away from his ear a bit because of her exuberance, which allowed Olivia to hear. Her eyebrow rose a bit at the level of excitement, almost nearing franticness, which she heard.

"Derek, Derek, Derek, Derek, Derek!"

"Whoa, baby girl! Slow down a minute and breathe!"

Despite the mild reprimand Morgan couldn't help chuckling. That was just the way it was with Garcia. He glanced toward Olivia with a smile that still stretched fully across his face. On seeing it Olivia couldn't stop a small smile from tugging at the corners of her mouth as well. Morgan's grin widened a bit when he saw her smile, then he turned his attention back to his cell.

"Hey Miss Smile Maker. This anything confidential or can I put you on speaker? Olivia could use some more pep in her step, and you certainly have that covered."

"Morgan!" Olivia hissed after she'd managed to stop gaping at him.

"Sure thing!"

Morgan ignored Olivia's glare and switched his phone to speaker.

"All good, Garcia."

"So you're the reason he stuck around, huh? You better be doing a good job of looking after my handsome prince."

"I…" Olivia stumbled.

"She's doing a fine job, Momma. Don't worry about it. Now what's got you so hyped up?"

Olivia forgotten, Garcia's energy bubbled over again as she returned to the reason she'd called.

"Em's back! It's her first day back in, but she's just like she usually is. Finally it's not so quiet, and it was so bad! I mean really bad, but she's back now and it's so much better!"

Morgan was chuckling softly from a mixture of Garcia's excited babbling and Olivia's expression. She was staring at the phone wide eyed and completely stunned. Her eyes flickered to Morgan's and she stared at him with her mouth slightly agape.

"That's great, baby girl. I'm glad. Prentiss seems really good, huh?"

It certainly was nice to hear. While he didn't regret his choice to stay in New York with Olivia, he did miss knowing what was going on with the rest of the team. Phone updates were great, but he much preferred being there so he could do his own profiling and make his own assessments. If Emily had returned to work she had to be back on track. Hopefully she wasn't the only one.

"Hotch and Rossi still doing alright?"

"Yup, and the boy genius is looking better every day. Now that Emily's back he's really starting to act like himself again, which is good because a gloomy Reid is not a good Reid. Not at all."

"Hear anything from JJ?"

"Oh my girl. No, not really. She's still really quiet even when I do get a chance to talk to her."

That didn't sound good. He'd have to call Hotch tonight. Maybe even Rossi too. Not only would he be able to get a better update on the team, he could give them an update on himself and run something by them as well.

"Thanks, Garcia. Tell Prentiss I'm proud of her, and let her know that when I get back I'll be sure we do coffee together. If you hear from JJ, tell her I'm thinking about her."

"Will do, sweetums. You look after yourself. Garcia, over and out!"

When Morgan hung up Olivia again raised an eyebrow at him.

"You are such a flirt."

Morgan beamed at her and spread his arms as a way to show himself off and say, "yeah, so?"

Olivia rolled her eyes in mild disgust.

"How any of your coworkers handle all of that sweet talk I will never know."

"Aw, come on now. I'm not that bad."

Olivia shoved his chest a little bit as she walked away. She'd dealt with a lot of perverts before, and Morgan didn't qualify. He may be a playboy, but it was in a friendly way. Many times the sweet talk couldn't be considered as anything other than playful and maybe a little bit teasing. She'd yet to see him make any kind of advance when it wasn't wanted, and she seriously doubted he ever would. That just wasn't Morgan.

"No, you're worse," she teased.

"Oh, ouch. That hurts!"

"Serves you right," Olivia smirked.

0~0~0~0

Will worked at keeping his attention split between Henry, who was happily kicking a soccer ball in their front yard, and JJ, who was just as unhappily discussing something on the phone. He'd figured out a few minutes ago that the person on the other end of the line had to be Hotch. Ever since he'd realized that, he'd been unobtrusively listening in to the conversation.

"I understand. Thank you, Hotch. I'll keep it in mind."

JJ hung up the phone and sighed softly. Will didn't need to be a profiler to pick up on the worry creasing JJ's face. Whatever it was she had learned from the conversation, it had bothered her. Will was honestly surprised she hadn't called him out for eavesdropping, but apparently she was too distracted or lost in her own thoughts to notice.

"Cher, sweetheart, what is it?"

"What?" JJ asked, a little bit startled. "Oh. It's nothing."

Will reached out and tucked some of JJ's hair behind her ear. He met her eyes firmly before he spoke so she couldn't avoid the question.

"Come on, JJ. What did Hotchner say that's bothering you so much?"

JJ leaned in to his touch, letting him gently cup her cheek.

"Strauss is making a fuss about my return to work. Hotch doesn't want me to worry too much, but he did need to let me know that she's looking at two more weeks. Technically less since they discussed it a few days ago. It's that long only thanks to Rossi's intervention too."

"That shouldn't be too hard."

When JJ didn't agree Will's forehead wrinkled in concern. He ran his thumb across her cheek a few times, but she still kept her eyes on Henry.

"Jen, do you want to go back?"

JJ pulled her eyes off Henry and focused on Will. Her blue eyes shimmered with worry and uncertainty which only made the blue stand out more.

"Yes, but I'm not ready yet, Will."

Will sighed heavily. Her fear was getting the best of her. At this rate, if they couldn't get it under control, JJ would never return to the BAU. In a way that didn't bother Will, but he knew how much JJ loved her job. Even if leaving the unit would be better for him and Henry, he couldn't do that to her.

"In this line of work we all see bad things. You know that. We all go through the nightmares that come with that too. Usually our minds make it all worse, and we've got to find a way through that. You've got to find a way through it. It ain't easy, that's for sure, but you find a way. That way's not by brooding over it all day, every day either."

JJ bowed her head sadly as Will spoke. Part of her knew she was being ridiculous, but another part of her couldn't let go. Fear for Henry weighed down on her, and it became so much worse when she was away from him.

"Nobody is after you, JJ, and nobody's after Henry."

She nodded but still kept her eyes downcast.

"I know you're scared to leave him, but we can get you there one step at a time. I'll help you. You've just got to be willing to take that first step. Are you willing to do that?"

"I…"

"I know it's scary, Cher, but I know you can do this."

A brief smile flickered across JJ's face. It was weak, but it was there.

"Okay?" Will asked.

"Okay," JJ returned.


Author's Note: I know this chapter is particularly short compared to the others, but I promise that the next chapter makes up for it! That, and I didn't realize this chapter was so much shorter than the others until just now... Oops. Unless it's not and fanfiction is just being dumb with the numbers?