December 10

Secret Santa, pt. 5

There were no new gifts for JJ for the next three days. Granted, there was a weekend in between, but JJ still felt a little sting in her heart, when she returned to her office Monday morning, only to find it exactly like she had left it the Friday before.

"It's funny how fast you get used to those little acknowledgements," she thought to herself.

However, there was still something she'd been looking forward to all weekend: Lunch with Rossi. At exactly 12 o'clock she heard a knock on her door and Rossi stuck his head in.

"You up for a break?"

"Sure." Smiling widely at him, she quickly grabbed her coat and scarf. It had finally become pretty cold outside over the weekend, the only thing still missing was snow. But much too JJ's and Rossi's surprise, when they stepped out of the FBI building, they were greeted with big white snowflakes falling from the sky. JJ's eyes began to shine as she looked up. "Wow," was all she managed to say.

"You like snow?" Rossi asked.

She looked at him with a big smile. "Oh yeah. Where I grew up, there was always a lot of snow in the winter. My friends and I always had the greatest of fun with downhill sledge races. I broke my arm once two days before Christmas, when I fell off, because I couldn't stop the sledge anymore." **

Rossi grinned. "So you were a wild girl? Who would have thought?"

"Well, yeah. I was always hanging out with the boys, because they always seemed to have so much more fun than the girls. Where the boys were, there was action."

"Well, come on then, let's have a little action sprint across the street to the Diner, because I'm really freezing over here."

JJ eyeballed Rossi and then chuckled. "No wonder you're getting cold with your coat open and no scarf or gloves." Without really thinking about it, she stood in front of him and began to button his jacket. Reaching the top button, she realized what she was doing and blushed again, something that seemed to happen a lot lately with him around.

"I'm sorry," she muttered embarrassed, beginning to draw away.

"It's okay," Rossi assured her softly and took her hands in his. Looking deeply into her blue eyes, he smiled at her gently and added: "Much better now."

There was some kind of magic spell around them for a few moments, when they just stood in the snow and stared into each other's eyes. The growl of JJ's stomach brought them back into reality. "Come on, let's get you over there, before you'll starve," Rossi said, putting his hand on the small of her back, and guided her over the street.

Lunch was as pleasant and enjoyable as last time, but again it was over too soon and they had to go back to work. For the rest of the afternoon, JJ's thoughts drifted off to Rossi more often than ever before. She still felt his hand on hers as he'd held them outside, and she shivered at the image of having them on other parts of her body.

It was shortly before quitting time, when a new urgent case came in, local this time. A six-year-old girl had gone missing and the team was called in. They had to work fast, knowing that with every hour going by, the chances of finding the girl alive sank.

They spent all night interviewing the family, friends and acquaintances, checking facts and working on a profile, but every lead they found had ended dead. At 7 am the next morning, JJ felt more exhausted than she thought she'd ever had in her life. More than twelve hours without a hot trail had taken its toll on her and the rest of the team, too, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to rest properly until the girl was found.

While Hotch, Prentiss and Morgan were out interviewing the parents and teachers again, the rest were in the conference room, JJ preparing another press statement, and Reid and Rossi looking over the facts again. JJ could barely keep her eyes open anymore, when she suddenly felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She looked up and into Rossi's deep brown eyes.
"JJ, you need to take a break," he said.

"No, it's okay. I have to get this press statement ready," she answered, shaking her head.

"Fine, I'll tell you what. You get this statement out, and then you'll take a nap."

"Rossi, I...," she started to object.

"Don't argue, JJ."

She simply nodded, too tired to start a fight with him.

Half an hour later, she was giving a short press conference outside the building. As soon as all the questions had been answered, Rossi took her back inside again, insisting that she laid down on his office couch for an hour. "I'll get you as soon as we have a lead."

It was Reid who cracked the case two hours later. They found the girl relatively unharmed, with only a few bruises on her arms. Everyone was happy at the good outcome, especially JJ, who realized that her Christmas would have been pretty sad, if things hadn't ended well.

After wrapping up the paperwork, Hotch gave them the rest of the day off, since they all had some sleep to catch up to.

JJ went straight home, taking a hot and relaxing bath and then sank into her living room couch, watching TV for the rest of the day. She went to bed pretty early at nine o'clock in the evening, feeling like a new woman, when she woke up the next morning.

Her good mood lit up even more when she arrived at the office and saw a new gift on her desk. It was a small box, and JJ went to open it, before she'd even put down her coat and purse. She gasped, when she opened the box to find a pair of beautiful silver dangle earrings with a small diamond at end. They looked expensive, but subtle and tasteful at the same time, something she knew she could wear without drawing too much attention to it, but which also couldn't be overlooked. She realized that no one had ever managed to meet her taste with jewelery like this before. Her previous boyfriends all had tried, but failed miserably. And they'd had known her for quite a while, before they'd attempted to pleasure her with giving her jewelery.

Lunch with Rossi was a pleasure again. They'd easily fallen into this habit, she noticed, when he'd knocked on her door again at twelve o'clock sharp. Other than that, the rest of the day went by rather quiet, with only paperwork left to be done.

The same could be said for the next day. Hotch and Prentiss were at a custodial interview and Reid and Morgan were giving a lecture, so Rossi and JJ took the chance and extended their lunch break to two hours, going over to a little Italian restaurant which was one block away. Walking slowly back to the office afterwards, they fell into companionable silence, as they inhaled the cool winter air. There was no awkwardness in their silence, JJ noticed with pleasure. Arriving back at the BAU, they reluctantly went back to work.

Thursday morning started early again for JJ. She woke up at half past four and couldn't go back to sleep again. Deciding that she might as well be doing something useful, she got up and started doing her laundry. While waiting for it to finish, she cleaned her apartment and then made herself breakfast. After a quick shower, she got dressed and decided to show up a little earlier at work today. She was surprised, when she met Morgan and Rossi in the break room.

"You guys are in early." She greeted them.

"You, too, obviously," Morgan answered.

"Everything okay?" Rossi wanted to know.

"Yeah, I just couldn't sleep."

She poured herself some coffee and sat down at the table with the men. They talked until by and by the rest showed up. Rossi and Morgan got up first, and she finished her coffee while going over the newspaper. Walking into her office a few minutes later, she was delighted that there was another present laying on her desk. To be more specific, this time it were several small items, all wrapped in Christmas paper. JJ laughed out loud as she opened them and found a soccer-ball-shaped eraser, a pencil with a soccer-ball-shaped pellet at the end, a pencil sharpener in the shape of a soccer ball, and a little notebook with the emblem of the Georgetown University soccer team on it. It surprised her a bit, how happy those little things made her, and she couldn't seem to get the smile off her face for the rest of the day.

When they came in the next morning, JJ was still in a good mood, and it got even better when Hotch surprised them with the team being on stand down until the new year. It meant moderate working hours from nine to five for the next two weeks, and JJ really appreciated the fact that she would now be able to get everything ready for Christmas, deciding for another round of Christmas shopping the next day. She said goodbye to everyone shortly after five, looking forward to her evening with her best friend from college, whom she hadn't met in quite a while. They always called each other around Christmas time, and JJ knew that Samantha would be visiting her family in D.C. as she did every year in December, so she'd called her this afternoon to see if she was already in town. It turned out that she was and that she was also still free for the night, so they didn't hesitate to meet at their local bar.

But first, JJ went home for a quick shower. Opening her apartment door as she wanted to leave again, she almost stumbled over a new package, which was lying right in front of her door. Carefully lifting it up, she realized that it was the heaviest she'd gotten so far, and the biggest. She closed the door again and went over to the kitchen, cutting the cardboard box, which was again wrapped in Christmas paper, open. Pulling the cushions out that were pressed in there, she found a beautiful white jar made of china, with little Christmas ornaments on it. Placing it on her kitchen table, she lifted the top and smiled widely as she found homemade Christmas cookies in it. At least she assumed they were homemade. Taking one into her mouth, she couldn't resist on letting out a small moan at how good they tasted. "I really need to know soon who this Secret Santa person is," she muttered chewing the last bites. Again, as with the last two presents, there was no new note attached. Since she was already late for her meeting with Samantha, contemplating about it would have to wait until she was home again.


** I know that JJ is from Pennsylvania, but I have to admit that I have absolutely no idea about the climatic conditions there, so please bear with me, if this is not correct.