AN/Thanks so much to everybody that has reviewed or alerted or even just read happily this story.

JJ awoke with the utmost clarity the next morning. It was Reid's birthday, and she was going to make it memorable. She mentally made a checklist for all the things she had to do for his party. At the BAU, they normally didn't make a big deal about birthdays, but with Spence, it was an entirely different story. She had people from other units coming up to her, asking JJ to tell Reid a happy birthday for them. She had to make his cake, and had to find a way to switch the ridiculous trick candles Morgan had bought for the occassion.

JJ resigned herself to get ready for work quickly, pampering herself by wearing a dress that she loved, but didn't wear often. When she was ready, she went to her kitchen and pulled out her supplies, grateful that Reid hadn't pulled a Garcia last night, and switched around her organized kitchen. "This is going to be good.." JJ thought to herself, silently hoping Spence liked chocolate. The recipe for the cake was a simple one, one not needing her full mental attention to work out perfectly. She thought for a moment about Spencer, and how it seemed completely platonic. JJ was not cocky, but she usually had a fair amount of control over the guys she liked. Reid didn't even seem to notice that she was a girl.

Putting the batter in the pan, she put the cake in the pre-heated oven and began making her home-made frosting. JJ, realizing she had a thirty minutes before the cake would be done and she could frost it, decided to call Lauren. She dialed the familar number and waited for her friend to pick up.

"Cawfield, work doesn't start for another hour so what do you want." Lauren said over the reciever.

"Laur, its me, JJ. Do you usually answer your phone like that?" JJ teased. "What if it had been your boss?"

"I work in Missing Persons for a reason, unless we have an on going case, I work normal hours. Since we do not have case going as of yet, they have no reason, nor right to call me before it starts."

"What is with the crankiness? You are usually a semi-happy person, what happened?" JJ joked.

"Late night with Perfect Paul, great at the time, but the morning after sucks." Lauren informed her.

"Yeah, I understand, I had a late night too." JJ said, priming her friend.

"WITH WHO? WHAT HAPPENED? TELL ME EVERYTHING!" Lauren shrieked excitedly, JJ knew this was because Lauren was afraid of JJ's lack of a social life in DC.

"Spence, but it wasn't anything like that, we just had a 'Star Trek' marathon." JJ admitted sheepishly. While she wished she could tell her friend something more romantic, this was the best she could do.

"Why you playing with my emotions Barbie? Well, how was it? Did Luke find out who his father is?" Lauren replied, completely disintrested.

"That's 'Star Wars', and it went fine, nothing special. Well, except that it is Reid's birthday today so I am in the process of making him a cake." JJ told her.

"A cake? That's kinda romantic."

"No, it is a completely friendly gesture. I promise." JJ informed her friend.

"You never made anyone besides me a cake at MPU, and that's only because I lived with you and would force you to make me one." Lauren reminded her. JJ remembered Lauren's birthday last year, where Lauren set JJ's alarm for 4:30 in the morning and left the cake ingreadiants out. JJ had no choice but to make the cake.

"Because no one needed a cake." JJ lied unconvincingly, then deciding to try again added, "Hey, I am turning over a new leaf, one of cake making."

"Sure, and you are also now trying to fight world hunger. Not to mention single-handedly fighting teenage pregnancy." Lauren teased. "You like him."

"No...I am just...He doesn't have any family near here and I am being a good friend!" JJ said, trying to defend herself.

"No, you are a being a good girlfriend. Face it, you do not need to be a profiler to understand that your cake equals love!" Lauren yelled, "Hey, when you two have babies are they going to play soccer or are they going to go to college when they are 7?"

"HE WAS 12!"

"You're smart too. It will make your little Reid and JJ children even more brilliant." Lauren rebuted quickly.

"We aren't going to..." JJ started but stopped as she heard the buzzer going off. "Hold that thought, the cake is done. Bye Lauren...and by the way, I do not love Reid." JJ affirmed her friend.

"Bye JJ, give Reid a kiss for me. Or for you, whichever as long as you give him one." When JJ heard this, all she could do was shake her head, why did her best friend have to be insane?

Getting the cake out of the oven, she put it on the counter and began to frost after it was cool enough. "If I am doing this, he better be wearing the hat." JJ thought to herself. Grateful that her Aunt Susan had taught her cake decorating, and pleased with the professional look the cake had, she began debating whether to write 'Happy Birthday Spence', 'Happy Birthday Ried', or 'Happy Birthday Spencer Reid.' On the one hand, she wanted to make it personal. But, she worked with a bunch of profilers, and if she used a term of endearment, she would never hear the end of it. Calling him by his full name seemed cold, but calling him by his first name was out of the question. "Fine. Happy Birthday Reid." She decided. "Now, do I write in all capitals, or not?"

She walked into the BAU only ten minutes before everyone else on her team. She had gone out and purchased the Star Trek animated series, knowing that was the only one Reid didn't currently own. She was currently debating whether or not to have the team sign a card as part of her gift or let it be solely from her. She saw Hotch and Gideon enter their respective offices, but was too busy in thought to acknowledge them. Unfortunately it was Garcia's day off, so she wasn't going to be any help for this party.

"Nuh-uh girl, we get to use my candles." Morgan surprised her from behind as he began placing and lighting the twenty four trick candles.

"Morgan these candles are so immature, lets act like adults." JJ tried to persuade.

"I bet you won't even let him try for thirty seconds before you save him from embarrassment." Morgan teased her, finishing lighting the candles and watching them spark.

"Alright, you are on!" JJ told him competitively, while she stacked the multi-colored cups onto Reid's desk.

Elle and Reid entered simultaneously, Reid holding in his hands the birthday hat that she had made him promise to wear.

"Spence! What did I tell you about the hat?" JJ teased as Morgan ran up to him, grabbed the hat forcefully and jammed it on his head.

"You're going to be having fun!" Elle commanded, catching on to the party. While she didn't know before hand it was Reid's birthday, she was after all a profiler.

"Ok, let's sing." Morgan commanded.

"Oh, no. I've heard your singing. You can just blow out the candles." JJ shot a triumphant glare at Morgan.

"Make a wish!" JJ encouraged to Reid.

"Ok, fine!" Morgan said, as Reid breathed in, "Come on man, Blow baby, blow."

"I thought you were full of hot air, Reid." Elle teased.

"Come on Reid!" Morgan bellowed, nudging JJ, who was counting the seconds until she could inform him about the candles, she decided to quit at eight.

"They're trick candles Spence, ok, they're gonna come back on everytime."

"Oh, Mommy to the rescue." Morgan taunted, shoving JJ slightly while he pulled on Reid's hat.

"Mommy?" Reid said, slightly offended. JJ shot Morgan her best death glare, reserved only for ex-boyfriends and her brothers.

"Ignore him." Elle assured him, trying to be nice on Reid's birthday.

"He wishes he could." Morgan said proudly.

"Its not hard, I do it all the time." Elle shot back.

Deciding he did not like the shoe being on the other foot, he called, "Hey Reid, does this make you legal yet?"

"What does it matter, half the girls you date aren't?" JJ spewed angrily. Resigning herself to remember that Morgan was not worth it, she came forward to cut the cake. "Hope you like chocolate." She said, bending forward to take out the candles. Elle did the same, and Reid looked confused and worried. He got up to talk to Gideon.

JJ accidently dropped a flamming candle, "Ops," She said quickly grabbing it before she set something on fire.

"You couldn't even make it fifteen seconds." Morgan mused at JJ.

"I did too." JJ lied.

"Whatever, that was like four seconds."

"It was eight. Shut up, trick candles was a stupid idea anyway." JJ responded as she cut the cake. She shoveled a nicely sliced piece onto a blue plate and called over to Reid. "Hey Spence, first piece for the birthday boy!"

She saw as Reid turned to Gideon and whispered something to the Senior Agent before he came over to the desk. JJ grew impatient, "Spence,get over here, hurry, Morgan is already eating."

"Birthday boy." Morgan addressed Reid. "JJ, why don't you feed it to him?" Morgan gave a knowing look to the blonde, apparently her crush was not as secret as she would have liked.

JJ had never wanted to kick Morgan as much as she had at that moment. Before she could think of a witty come back, Hotch yelled over to them.

"Sorry guys, party's over." JJ gave the team members a knowing look as she picked up her PDA to prepare the case to present to the team.

"JJ, wait! You didn't get any cake." Elle reminded her as JJ pushed the glass doors of the BAU open.

"Oh. I don't eat sugar. Thanks, though." JJ said as she left the bullpen.

"Who doesn't eat chocolate?" Elle asked under her breath.

She and Hotch quickly briefed the team on the case. The Tommy Killer. The case had been sitting on JJ's desk for a week, but with only four victims in two weeks, it hadn't been a priority. Now they had two more victims, rapid escalation--that was the term the team had used. These guys got more disgusting by the minute. Deciding that her dress, while flattering and pretty, was not conducive to field work, JJ quickly grabbed the extra business that she had hanging in her office.

This time, however, Elle did not steal JJ's seat next to Reid. JJ was secretly grateful for the older woman, but took the seat across from the young genius to give him some space. Having to make calls, it was incredibly awkward to continue getting up and down if she were sitting right next to him. As the team began to debrief, she quickly ended her call alerting San Diego PD that they were coming. JJ was busy reviewing the case files as the team discussed the newest depravity to grace her desk. Only once Spence started talking about Death and Search engines was she pulled from her thoughts.

"Reid, no wonder you can't get a date." Morgan teased as Spence's cheeks flushed furiously. JJ dropped her head to hide her disappointment. He could get a date if he wanted one. Keeping her eyes off the other profilers, she pretended to busy herself in work as she listened to the rest of the planning.

Once the team arrived at the San Diego police department, the profilers spread out, not bothering with introductions. JJ, who was walking with Hotch, got stopped by the the police chief.

"Captian Griffen, Task force captain." A small, portly man said

"Sorry, we all get tunnel vision, Aaron Hotchner, and this our liaison Jennifer Jareau." Hotch said to the man. JJ searched and found Reid staring at the board containing the balads. She walked over to the young genius.

"Creepy, huh?" JJ muttered.

"Actually, uh....Conversations between Death and his victims is a fairly popular literary and artistic theme throughout the Renaissance." Reid said, and then observing JJ's lack of reaction to what he said added, "Yeah, creepy." He said in an attempt to cover up what he deemed nerdy, mistaking her admiration for mockery.

Another unsub, another press conference. Really, this was her favorite part of this job, putting herself out there--representing the team, especially when they were trying to trick the unsub into calling them. It made her feel like she was really helping the investigation. Following Hotch's suggestion, she set up the press conference right in front of the precint's entrance.

She almost laughed to herself as Morgan and Elle walked behind her with the unsub. These foolish reporters were like putty in her hands, ignoring her for the visual sight of the person caught. When she announced that someone was arrested with connection to the Tommy Killer murders, there wasn't any more need for suggestions. They attempted to badger her with new questions that she easily dodged. Finishing the conference, she walked in behind Elle and Morgan.

"He confesed to Mrs. Gordon's attack before we even got to the car." Elle admitted as JJ shook her head. What is wrong with people?

"It should be just make the 11 o'clock news." JJ observed.

"Did you get good footage?" Hotch asked.

She was more than pleased with herself, able to answer "Yeah, you couldn't miss him."

"Call Garcia." She was commanded. It was rewarding to be the person the team relied on, the one that could make things happen to progress their investigation along. It was moments like this, moments where she could feel, confidently, like the team was only feet away from catching the UNSUB that JJ knew she was in the right line of work. This confidence was crushed only moments later when Garcia admitted that the trap and trace hadn't worked. Another girl was going to die, and it was her fault.

Paired with Hotch in their undercover surveillance, she masked beautifully her feelings of inadequacy. She was the master of control, and she wasn't about to let her boss know she ws weak, especially since he had seen her indisposed several times.

"You know, it's not your fault." Hotch said, breaking the silence that had permeated their vehicle.

"What's not my fault?" JJ tried to redirect, hoping that they weren't about to have this conversation.

"You are the face of the BAU, you are the one that got the UNSUB to call, I bet you think that it's your fault if another woman dies." Hotch observed.

"And how would it not be my fault?" JJ asked, resigning herself to honesty.

"Because you may be able to control those reporters. You may be able to control the LEOs and other officers. You may even be able to control the members of this team, but no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to control the Unsubs."

JJ fell silent at his empassioned plea. This is why you don't have a crush on a married man! She scolded herself.

"You know, you've changed this team a lot." Hotch continued, sensing that JJ didn't have much to say. "I'm not the only one who notices that you break down on particularly difficult scenes, that you feel for the victims and that you do more than you have to in order to ensure that the victims are accounted for."

"I'm sorry. I need to be more controlled and--"

"No. JJ, all of us hope on some level that we can break down when the situation warrants it."

JJ could feel tears sting her eyes and fought for control of her emotions. "Um, I need some air, mind if I go for a walk?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Take all the time you need." Hotch advised.

Not five minutes later she returned to the SUV, Hotch immediately started the car.

"What did I miss?" JJ asked in surprise.

"We've got the unsub's name. Gideon found him at 875 Orange. We've got to get there now!" Hotch commanded as he flipped on the lights.

They drove furiously to meet Gideon and catch the unsub. JJ mentally cursed herself for the breakdown that lead them to being moments later than the others. Hopefully we're not too late.

"JJ, watch the front! I'm going in the back!" Hotch yelled as he pulled the car into park in front of the home. Catching up with Elle who was currently watching the front, the profiling pair ran to the back door, offering Gideon backup he needed.

Watching Hotch lead the unsub who had caused so much pain and anguish to so many families to the waiting police car brought JJ more satisfaction than she initially thought. Good, now I can go home and take a nice long bath.

JJ relaxed on the plane, a mug of coffee--her only source of unnatural sugar--in her hands. Busy looking over the final reports that had been writen, she triple checked to ensure that all of the required fields had been filled in. Her in depth study was interrupted by Spence who came to sit across the aisle from her.

"Hi" Reid said shyly, JJ's only response was to look up. He didn't usually seem this nervous.

JJ smiled to encourage him to keep on talking.

"So I never knew you were a fan of football." He observed, glancing over to Gideon. If this ended the way JJ wanted it to end, then she would be giving the older man a hug. Glancing over to the older profiler, JJ just smiled at Reid, encouraging him to continue.

When he didn't she gave a noncomittal shrug "Yeah. I'm a small town girl." Wow that was stupid! She thought to herself.

"Well, I was wondering if you'd like to go to the Redskins game with me." Spence stated quietly so no one could hear, though JJ saw the corners of Hotch's mouth pull upward.

"Like a date?" JJ asked, keeping an impressive amount of control on the excitement that was building inside her.

"Well...some people might call it that...I mean, if you want too...but..." Reid began nervously fidgiting with his hands.

"A date it is." JJ said definitely.

"Oh! Ok! Um, the game is for Sunday at 6:30. So, I'll pick you up around 6?" He suggested, she could tell by the pitch and speed of his voice that he was excited.

"Great. What about dinner?" She asked encouragingly.

"Oh. Right. We can go to dinner before, so like 5:30?" Reid asked, disbelievingly.

"Sounds perfect Spence."

AN/Again, I encourage everyone to read this awesome story 'The Ties That Bind', it's really good ;)