AN--We still don't own Criminal Minds. Thanks to everybody who's reviewed this story!

Chapter 10

The group stared at JJ in shock of her revelation. "He wants what?" Emily asked in shock. She knew only the very basics of what had happened to JJ, and the idea that Will was looking for primary custody of their son made Emily feel sick.

JJ fought for control of her emotions, "He wants primary custody. Excuse me." She said as she left the group and practically sprinted into the house, barely making it to the downstairs bathroom before getting sick.

"How could this happen?" Morgan asked angrily.

"I don't know, but I'm sure as hell not going to let that scumbag anywhere near her or Henry." Rossi said angrily.

"Me neither." Emily seconded, Reid agreeing with her.

"Just find me a computer and I'll wipe his sorry existence off the face of the earth!" Garcia promised, "Let's see how he likes being a ghost detainee at Gitmo!"

"Whoa Garcia, slow down. We'll do this my way, and if that doesn't work then we'll let you near a computer. Deal?" Hotch asked, the look in his eyes leaving room for no argument. "We each got where we are because we're the best at one thing or another. Let me call in a few favors in the local attorney community and see what I can come up with."

Austin, noticing that the team of profilers were plotting the downfall of the man who had tortured their friend. Unsure as to whether she should go support the blonde or join the team in their anger, she decided on the former. Walking in slowly to the house, she stopped momentarily, unsure as to where JJ would have gone and unwilling to call loudly enough to alert the team to the strong woman that had fled to the house.

Sighing heavily, she tried to remember what Spencer had always tried to teach her about profiling. If I were JJ, where would I go? First checking the kitchen, Austin then moved to the bathroom where she found the blonde curled up next to the toilet.

JJ looked up as Austin entered the room. Laughing to herself softly, she spoke quietly as Austin strained to hear "Pretty pathetic, huh?"

Austin sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. "No, I'd say you've been through a lot. Believe me, I understand."

"What am I going to do?" Austin heard her whisper, though she wasn't sure who JJ was talking to.

"Well you've got a whole group of people that seem intent on ending his existence." Austin smiled.

JJ chuckled slightly and Austin praised herself for making the blonde smile. "That's true." JJ admitted at the thought of her friends defending her. "But, how can I do this?"

Austin and JJ sat silently for a moment, the bond that the pair had discovered seemed to connect the two women deeper than years of friendship could have. "You're going to get up tomorrow morning. You're going to kiss that little boy of yours, and then you are going to go fight for your son." Austin said resolutely.

"I don't think I can do it anymore." JJ admitted in a small voice.

"You have to." Austin said simply, "you don't get a choice. You have to fight."

JJ seemed to savor Austin's words for a moment before squaring her shoulders resolutely. "You're right. If not just for Henry, but for me too."

"Ready to go back outside?" Austin asked, pulling herself up into a standing position and offering JJ a hand up.

"Absolutely." JJ answered, taking Austin's offered help and standing up. "Hey Austin?"

"Yeah?

"Thanks." JJ said, smiling at her new friend as they made their way back outside.

The group was still in the throngs of discussion when JJ and Austin returned. JJ smiled at the passion at which they were deciding her fate. "You know, it is a common myth that women are favored in custody cases, but a recent study showed that almost two-thirds of men that had been accused of battering their wives received sole or joint custody." Reid rambled, causing JJ's smile to fade immediately.

"Reid." Hotch warned, noticing JJ's presence and the color draining rapidly from her face.

"Another study suggests--"

"Spencer." Austin warned, elbowing him lightly in the ribs, causing him to stop.

"I can't let him near my son." JJ whispered fiercely.

"We know, JJ, we're here to help--" Rossi started, his wife nodding her confirmation.

"I know, and thanks. But, I need to do this on my own." JJ answered, sounding more like she was trying to steel herself for what was coming than talking to her friends.

Later after the team was gone, a knock on the door startled JJ, making her freeze on the spot. Determined not to be afraid, she carefully made her way to the door and looked through the peephole to find one of the bureau lawyers on the other side.

Opening the door quickly, she asked "SSA Sanchez? What are you doing here?"

"Hotch called me earlier, I'm your lawyer starting right now." The Latina woman answered, holding a hand out for JJ to shake, "And if we're going to be spending time together, please call me Elizabeth--only Strauss calls me SSA Sanchez."

"I'm not sure what to say." JJ said as she let the woman into the front room of Hotch's home.

"There's not much to say, but let's get down to business, it's a custody dispute and divorce?" Elizabeth asked, pulling out a notebook.

"Yeah, Will--my husband--he's contesting the divorce." JJ clarified, not sure of what to say.

"He was abusive?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yeah." JJ admitted, feeling her cheeks flush with embarrassment.

"It could happen to anyone." Elizabeth dismissed, "Physically?"

JJ simply nodded in reply.

"Do you have scars, markings, anything like that?" The lawyer asked.

JJ nodded once more, prompting Elizabeth to continue, "We're going to need pictures of as many injuries as we can catalogue. I need you to tell me what happened in each instance as best you can remember." She said sadly. She had heard great things about the legendary Jennifer Jareau, who in a few short years at the bureau had managed to make a huge impact on one of the top units in the entire FBI, and she wasn't about to let her lose to an abusive ex-husband.

"JJ, are you sure you don't want me to come?" Hotch asked as he turned off the car in front of the county courthouse. JJ had insisted that she didn't want him to come, and he suspected that she didn't want to appear weak in front of him. Little did she know that could never happen.

"Hotch, I need to do this myself." JJ said softly.

"But you don't need to do it alone." Hotch said mirroring her tone.

"I'll call you at lunch. If it goes really badly, then you can come for support." She compromised.

"Okay." He agreed as she smiled and left the car quickly.

Once JJ was out of sight, Hotch quickly parked the car and entered the courthouse behind her. She had begged him not to come to the hearing, but he wasn't about to go back to work when she could be suffering. Waiting in a corridor close by, he was determined to support her until he knew that she was going to be all right.

"Okay JJ, how we doing? You gonna be okay with seeing him in there?" Elizabeth Sanchez asked, "Just remember what we talked about, there's no way he can hurt you--I'll be right there with you."

Taking a deep breath, JJ nodded, "I'll be okay, I just want to get this over with, and move on."

"It's going to be ugly." Her lawyer warned.

"It's been ugly for a long time." JJ admitted, stepping inside the courtroom.

Entering the court room they found Will and his attorney already seated on their side of the small court room. Keeping herself calm and confident JJ avoided looking in his direction, even though she felt his eyes burning into her back.

"Please rise for the Honorable Judge Patricia Matthews" the bailiff announced as the judge entered the courtroom.

"Thank you, please be seated."

JJ tried to keep her eyes forward, avoiding any contact with the man who had done so much to her. Even being in the same room as him felt like too much to handle. JJ's palms began to sweat and shake, she tried to be like Reid for a second, trying to lose herself in facts. Her palms were being affected by the epinephrine pulsing through her system. Epinephrine or Adrenaline, would be active within her the entire time the threat was present. She should expect to crash when this was all over, once the Adrenaline stopped. Her blissful retreat was soon interrupted by Will's first witness.

"Mrs. LaMontagne is a diagnosed manic-depressive with suicidal thoughts and self-mutilating tendencies. Her husband has done nothing but try to protect her from herself and now, she has lashed out at him, likely due to her not taking her medication. If there is a victim in this case, it is William LaMontagne. He has done nothing to deserve this. Here he stood by his wife as she threw herself down a flight of stairs, killing their unborn child. In her desperate attempts to kill herself, she has endangered not only herself, but her husband and child. If I were Billy, I'd be filing for sole custody. But through true Christ-like compassion, he is allowing his wife to remain involved in young Henry's life." Doc Hendricks said. JJ should've known that he'd been one of Will's witnesses. The man was the one who'd seen her every time Will knocked her unconscious and told her that it was her fault.

JJ now tried to be Morgan. She began to picture this man as weak and stupid as he was. The doctor on the stand was the one who'd diagnosedher with Manic-Depression. He only told her she was because he said that there was no way that Will could've done this to her for no reason. She must've been attacking him or out of control. Yeah, like a burn on my back could be self inflicted. JJ thought spitefully.

"Agent Sanchez do you have any questions for this witness?" the judge asked.

"Yes your honor." JJ's lawyer answered, gathering the photo's of JJ scars and injuries, "I'd like to enter into evidence these documented photo's of my clients multiple injuries as documented by the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"Very well, you may proceed with the witness." Judge Matthews answered.

"Thank you." SSA Sanchez nodded, turning towards the witness, "Doctor Hendricks how long have you been the LaMontagne family doctor?"

"Since about a year before Billy got promoted to Police Chief, maybe about four years, but I've known him since we were babies."

"And you got your medical degree where?" SSA Sanchez prompted.

"Louisana State." Dr. Hendricks answered, slightly annoyed at JJ's lawyers line of questioning.

"And at Louisiana State did they teach you how the human body moves, how it operates?"

"Yes ma'am." Dr. Hendricks nodded.

"Then how do you explain my client's burns on her back being self-inflicted? Only a human contortionist would be able too reach that spot on their own back and stay in that position long enough to burn the tissue with a cigarette multiple times. And what about her cracked, and crudely healed, left rib cage? Did she kick herself in the ribs? Or the greenstick fracture documented by our experts that appears in her arm? For that fracture to occur someone would have to have turned her arm until it snapped. It's not possible for that kind of injury to be self inflicted Doctor Hendricks--but you already knew that, didn't you?"

"Billy admitted that he grabbed her, but only because she was trying to hurt herself." Doc Hendricks dismissed, "Her ribs were because she tried yet again to hurt herself by throwing herself into a counter, and the burns are from where she lay on a burning cigarette when she didn't want to do it in a place, like her arms, that Billy could see. That poor boy had to check everyday that she was taking her medication--one day he found out that she had been flushing it down the toilet." Doc shook his head sadly, "Then he had to monitor her taking them everyday. Like I said, if there's a victim in this marriage, it's Billy."

JJ shuddered, the feeling of humiliation that she felt in her life with Will coming back to hit her full force. He had been so angry about the pills, but it was just another thing that he could hold over her head.

"Because it's more likely that a woman who has undergone multiple evaluations at the FBI is suddenly correctly diagnosed by a backwoods doctor." SSA Sanchez scoffed.

"Excuse me?"

"My opinion is irrelevant. You said in your report that my client suffered a miscarriage last year?" SSA Sanchez questioned.

"Yes, I have no idea why the poor girl threw herself down the stairs six months in, but it's what caused her to lose little Martha."

"Martha?"

"It's what Billy told me they were going to name her, it was his grandma's name." Doctor Hendricks informed.

"Dr. Hendricks, in a few hours we are going to put a different doctor up here on the stand and he will affirm that there is no way that these injuries could be self-inflicted. How would you respond?" JJ's lawyer asked.

"I know Billy, I have for ages. There is no way that he would do those things to the woman he loved." The man on the stand affirmed.

JJ had currently been trying to control herself like Emily would have, compartmentalizing all of the anger and hurt that she felt. Emily had taught her to do it once, imagining putting that anger into a box and shutting the lid, as though nothing could affect that now. But her control was quickly lost as she listened to the man on the stand describe her marriage from an outside perspective. She knew Will was cunning, that he could put on a charming atmosphere, but the idea that she would purposefully hurt her own child was sickening.

"In your report on my client it states that you recommended my client be committed to a mental institution for suicidal tendencies, why is it that you felt Agent Jareau was unstable, other than the fact that you believe that she tried to kill herself the night that her unborn child died?"

"Mrs. LaMontagne was a danger to herself, but she was becoming a danger to others. Billy called me late one night while she was sleeping and brought their son Henry, who was about a year old at the time, to see me. The boy had a minor concussion." JJ bit her lip to stop the tears that threatened to roll down her cheeks at the innuendo. She couldn't help but glance at her husband, who looked directly at her as he sat with a smug grin.

"We have nothing further, Your Honor." SSA Sanchez declared as she sat next to JJ and squeezed her hand reassuringly. "It's not as bad as it sounded." She whispered encouragingly to the blonde.

"Court will recess for lunch and reconvene at 1:30." Judge Matthews declared.

Exiting the courtroom quickly, JJ was barely hanging on to her emotions--her only relief was seeing the one person that could make her feel safe right now waiting patiently on a bench outside the court room. "Hotch, what are you doing here?" She blurted out.

"I figured you might need me so I stayed after I dropped you off, and I had Dave put the team on stand down until after this is over." He explained.

"Oh." She offered lamely, sitting down on the bench next to him.

"So, how did it go?" He asked tentatively.

"Pretty much like every day of my marriage, but worse because everyone was watching." JJ admitted, holding onto her emotions. "I got blamed for everything....nothing new." She dismissed.

"I'm sorry." Hotch offered.

JJ nodded, lost in her own thoughts slightly.

"Do you want to go get something to eat?"

"I'd like that." JJ smiled, pulled from the guilt that she was reflecting upon.

When they finally reached the safety of Hotch's SUV, JJ couldn't hold back the tears anymore. Quickly letting her climb into the back seat, Hotch followed before closing the door and letting his arms wrap around the sobbing blonde.

"Hey sshh...everything is going to be okay, JJ. I promise." He soothed gently as he rocked back and forth slightly.

"They said everything was all my fault" JJ sputtered, clinging to his waist, "They said I was the one torturing myself the entire time, and I found out today that Henry had a concussion and Will took him to see the doctor in the middle of the night so I wouldn't know--the doctor said I gave it to him, not Will."

Hotch felt his blood boil as he held his sobbing friend. He had seen first hand the bruises and scars that JJ possessed, and was aware that she reserved several scars from his view, but the idea that this woman had hurt herself and her own son in this manner was absurd. "JJ, it'll be okay." He assured her, praying that his promise wouldn't turn out to be false. "I'll do everything I can to make sure everything will be okay, I promise."