CHAPTER 10

This is set the weekend after Season 3 Episode 1 since we usually don't know which day it is in the series.

"A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."
-Oscar Wilde

"When you're in college, all you want is to have fun and live your life. No one should take that away from you or scare you of going out in the dark." I explained to Will. We sat on my couch, my legs in his lap, I had a glass of white wine in my hand and talked about our most recent case. He said nothing, just listened to me pour my heart out, knowing once I was done, I'd be all his.

It had gotten kind of a routine. I flew to New Orleans or he flew to DC, unless I had a case. We'd talk about everything we had forgotten to tell each other on the phone and after about 15 minutes, we would move on to normal, present things again.
"What does the rest of your team do? Who does Emily tell her stories?" He wondered. That was a good question, indeed. I assumed she just kept it to herself like I had until then. "Guess she keeps a diary or something" I shrugged, admitting it felt so much better and freeing to tell a living person.
"Well, in that case, I'm glad I can function as a diary." He winked at me, leaned forward and kissed my forehead.
"I'm sorry you have to listen to this." I apologized. "I keep forgetting how awful this must sound to an outsider."
"It's fine. I'm always happy if I can help."
"Oh, you do" I reassured him. He was already my rock. The arms who caught me when I fell, the lips who shut me up if I started hyperventilating over nothing. "And I can think of something else, you might function as." I added, getting up and sitting down in his lap again.
"Oh, and what might it be, my darling?" He asked in the most adorable british accent.
Instead of answering, I kissed him fervidly.

Reid's call reached me in the middle of the night, Will moaned beside me as my work phone started ringing.
"Don't tell me you got a case at-" he turned the light of my alarm clock on- "3 o clock" he turned around again and hid under the covers.

I cleared my throat. "Agent Jareau." I already knew who it was, his number had appeared on my display.
I kissed Will's sleepy lips, told him to go back to sleep and crawled out of bed. "Hold on a second." I searched for a pair of shorts and put them on before I focused my attention back on Reid.

"Ok." I sat down at the kitchen table.
"Hey, it's Reid! Did I wake you or something?" he stammered.
"Well, it is 3am after all"
There was a quiet click, as if he'd checked his watch or something. "I'm so sorry, go back to sleep" he was about to hang up again when I interrupted him. "I'm up now anyway, so tell me what's wrong. I doubt you'd call without a reason."
"Gideon's gone"
"What do you mean? Did you call the police? What happened?" I got nervous, waiting for more information.
"No, not like that. He left the team, the BAU"
It is always hard to lose one of our own. And if one of our own loses a loved one, it's hard for us as well.
Sarah's loss had been tough on Gideon and I watched him struggle every day. We all knew the day would come that he would leave us, turn his back on the BAU and let us fight the monsters alone. I hadn't expected it to be so soon, though.
"Are you ok?" I asked concerned. Gideon was Reid's mentor after all, him leaving would be the most difficult for Reid. I was even afraid that he may leave us, too.
"Yeah, it's just... I didn't know who else to call" his voice broke.
"Do you want me to tell the rest of the team? I could call Hotch" Not in the middle of the night, perhaps, his wife already hated his job enough. Can't blame her, though. I couldn't stand my husband to be in such danger 5 days a week. Especially since they have a kid. What would she tell little Jack if Hotch died in the field? 'Daddy's not coming home again. He's a hero' that's just a cozy lie and wouldn't make anyone miss him any less.
"No, I'll tell them in the morning. Go back to sleep, JJ. I'm sorry I woke you." He apologized but I stopped him again before he could hang up. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked carefully, knowing Reid wasn't the talkative kind of guy.
But before I knew it, he talked on and on about how Gideon had motivated him to stay in the BAU, whenever he was struggling with himself.
About an hour later, I heard footsteps in the hallway. "Are you ever coming back to bed again?" Will yawned but I quickly put my hand over his mouth.
"What was that?" Reid asked suspiciously. Damn, this wasn't the right moment to tell him.
"Nothing" I didn't sound convincing. "I must have turned the radio on by accident. Can you believe they don't even play music at night? It's always just babbling about stuff no one cares about"
I seemed to have confused Reid. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, JJ and thanks for listening" he hang up on me before I could say goodnight, too.
"What was that?" Will asked, biting my hand. I pulled it away.
"Gideon's left the team and Reid called to tell me. I'm sure this wasn't the right moment to tell him I had a boyfriend, for the lack of a better word." I bit my lip, to hide the nervousness, Will must have thought the team already knew about us.
"For the lack of a better word?" he raised his eyebrows. Thank god, he overheard the 'you're my secret lover' part.
"I suppose we're too old to call ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend." I hated those words, they always reminded me of high school. Manfriend sounded ridiculous, too so I added the 'for the lack of a better word'.
"I like it. It sounds like I own you or something." He teased me.
"I have never heard of that definition but I guess you kind of do. Until some hotter detective comes along, of course." I teased him back.
"Of course." He repeated my words, lifted me off my feet and carried me to my bedroom so he could show me how hard it would be to find an even hotter detective...