Later that night, JJ sat up in bed. She had been trying to get to sleep but after a few hours of tossing and turning, she realized that wouldn't be happening any time soon. She decided to get some studying done. She climbed down from her bunk quietly to not wake up Emily and groped in the dark for her phone. Finding it, she turned it on and used the light from the screen to find her flipflops and backpack. She turned the doorknob slowly so it wouldn't squeak and left the room.
In the hallway, she pulled her hair into a high ponytail and was about to sit down on the floor and study when she remembered that she wasn't at the group home anymore. She almost laughed out loud. She was at boarding school! She could go to the BAU room to study! No more hiding in bathroom stalls studying and avoiding social workers! She walked to the elevators and rode to the 9th floor. She looked right and left as she walked down the hallway, trying to remember the room number when she came to the door with the white letters denoting B.A.U.
She was surprised to find that she wasn't alone in the room.
"Aaron?" She said with surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" he replied. "Its almost-" he checked his watch "Its almost one in the morning!"
"I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd get some studying done."
"Same," said Aaron. "But I'm getting pretty tired, I think I'm going to bed now." He stood up to leave but JJ blocked the door.
"Wait, can we talk?" She asked, looking at his bruised face.
"Oh, I'm so tired. Can we talk later?"
"You're not tired, you're just saying that so I'll leave you alone. Sit down."
Aaron was surprised to hear JJ speak so forcefully so he sat down.
"Okay JJ, what's up?" He asked.
"First things first, who's hitting you?"
"What?!" He said, jumping to his feet. "What-what are you talking about?"
"Sit back down, I'm not going to judge you." She said, calmly.
"No ones hitting me, I don't know what you're talking about." He said forcefully. "My cousin hit me in the face with a baseball."
"And the ones on your back?" asked JJ. "Those are from a baseball, too?"
"No, they're from a-" He sat down again. "How did you know about those?"
"Trust me, Aaron. I know what you're going through."
"You don't know what you're talking about." Aaron turned his back to her and she could practically hear his mental fences going up around him.
"I do, I really do. Let me guess, you don't want anyone to know? Do you have younger siblings? Is that why you're hiding it?"
Aaron turned around, his eyes filling with tears.
"Shut up, JJ, just shut up. You don't know anything."
"It it your mom? Your dad? You're worried they're going to take you siblings into foster care so you take hits for them?"
Aaron put his hands over his face. "Shut up." he whispered "Just shut up, okay?"
"Aaron, I know what you're going through."
"You have no idea."
JJ sighed, then turned around. Taking a deep breath, she took off her t-shirt. She heard a sharp intake of breath from Aaron.
Aaron stared at the long scars that crisscrossed JJ's small back. They were about an inch thick and six or seven inches long and there were around 15 of them, going in all different directions. Aaron took a step towards JJ.
"Do they-" His voice cracked. "Do they hurt anymore?" JJ shook her head no, then pulled down her shirt and turned around.
"Now tell me who hits you. I promise I won't tell anyone."
Aaron sat down on the table and sighed. "My dad." He looked out the window at the Chicago skyline. "My mom died when I was twelve and he started drinking. You were right about my brother, too. If anyone finds out, they'll put him in foster care and I'll never see him again."
JJ turned around and stared out the window. The windows in the skyscrapers were full of light even though the sky was dark. It gave the impression of a skyline made out of stars, reflecting on the black waters of Lake Michigan.
"So who beat the crap out of you?" asked Aaron after a minute of silence. "I'd guess that those look like marks from a ass-kicking with an electrical cable."
"I've been in foster care since I was 11." said JJ without turning around. "I live in a group home in the South Loop."
The two teenagers sat in silence for another minute.
"Are you sure that he isn't hurting your brother?" asked JJ.
"For now, yeah. I'm not sure how long it'll last. My brother's five and he's gonna start talking back or something." JJ could see from the deep exhaustion in Aaron's eyes that this was something he worried about a lot.
"You know what you could do?" She said gently, sitting down on the table next to him. "If you can get him to Chicago, chances are that they'll enter him as an abandoned child from Illinois rather than go through all the paper work to send him back to Virginia."
"What would that do? Then he'll just be lost in the foster care system of Chicago rather than Virginia."
"I could pull strings to get him put into the same group home I grew up in, on the younger kids floor. It wasn't such an awful place and you'd be able to see him a lot."
"I don't know…" said Aaron slowly. "I've read about how growing up in institutionalized foster care affects kids…"
"The younger kids floor is much nicer than the older kids floors." said JJ. "Less kids per room, more social workers per child, an arts and crafts room, the works. He could stay there for a year or two until you've finished high school and then you could take legal guardianship."
"Maybe," said Aaron. "I don't know how I feel about taking him out of his school in Virginia…"
"Just think about it." said JJ. "I don't want to force you into anything. If you want me to help you get him into that group home, let me know."
She looked at the clock. It was one thirty.
"We should go to bed so we aren't falling asleep during our first day of classes." said Aaron quietly. JJ nodded and the two friends left the study room together.