JJ almost slept in on Tuesday morning, the late night and her inability to sleep having taken their toll on her. Fortunately, her trusty alarm clock had gotten her up and going, she only hoped she could hold things together and not give any indication to one nosy computer tech as to her previous evenings activities. Garcia already knew about the dreams, JJ wasn't quite ready to reveal that she was indeed dating the object of those dreams. Hurrying through her breakfast, she put the dishes away, and off she went.

JJ and Rossi both arrived at the BAU at the same time the next morning. Both looked like they hadn't gotten much sleep, but smiled wide smiles at one another. Since they were on the elevator by themselves, JJ brought up the fact that Will was bringing Henry by around 6 on Wednesday, and wondered if he could be there by then for their date, instead of 7.

"I tell you what, JJ, I'll bring some things with me, I'll change at your place, I'll just follow you home from here. What do you say?"

"Sounds fine, Dave. The guest room has a bath, you can get ready in there. And thanks, Dave. I'm still not ready to be alone with him. I don't think he'd pull anything again, but still, I don't trust him anymore."

"Good, I can't wait to go out with Henry and you. I'll have to revise my plans a bit, but we'll have a good time, the three of us."

With that, the elevator door opened and they got out on their floor. Both had no intention of letting anyone know they were dating yet. One date in, it was none of the teams business, none at all. JJ would have loved to have told Penelope of the wondrous place she'd visited last night, but knew if she did, Derek would be the first to know afterwards. And from there it would go. JJ wanted to keep this between themselves, no intention of letting this little slice of her private life being advertised. She liked to tell herself it was different than with Will, but in ways it was the same. As much as she loved her "family", she wanted to keep this part to herself for now. They parted, heading for their respective offices.

They swung into the work day almost immediately, a case coming in that JJ needed to do a report on and decide if it needed them immediately out there. Presenting the case to the team, she began.

"Okay, we have a Gabby Winslow, 22 years old, last seen leaving her place of work 22 hours ago. We've been called in because it appears to be a pattern of disappearances in the San Diego area, and she's the latest victim. Her car was found, parked at a marina, her purse and all I.D. Still in there, keys in the ignition, the door locked. It is apparently the 5th car to be found parked at the marina, no one seems to notice who's driving it or anyone leaving it. None of the other 4 women have been found. It's like they disappeared into thin air."

"Why is the police department calling us in now?" Reid asked.

"Latest vic is the daughter of the mayor. She's screaming bloody murder for the P.D. To get their asses into gear, and they don't have anything to go on. So, they are requesting official FBI help now. Too bad the other women weren't related to someone in power, otherwise maybe we would have been called in sooner." JJ said with distaste.

"Do the authorities have anything to go on?" Morgan asked.

"Very minimal. Only that the victimology is 22 year old , brown haired, green eyed women, who all worked in major hotel chains in San Diego. They all had different jobs, worked different shifts, and all disappeared after they got off shift. Other than that, nothing to lead towards a suspect."

"Well, inform them we are coming, wheels up in 2 hours." Hotch said.

With that, the team broke up, leaving JJ scrambling to go talk to Garcia. She didn't want Will to have to keep Henry while she was away, so she wanted Garcia to look after him, keeping the spirit of the custody arrangement. With that settled, she phoned Will, mostly just to tell him that Garcia would be picking Henry up tomorrow night at the appointed time. Having dodged that bullet, she realized her date with Rossi was now on hold, and while disappointed, she'd get over it. Someone needed their help, that came first.

They touched down in the California heat, and things went downhill from the moment they arrived. The secondary detective on the case out there had come on to JJ strong, never going too far out of line to catch the attention of the others, but trapping JJ alone long enough at times to convey in his attitude towards JJ as a potential conquest. By the end of the day, JJ was ready to kill him, Rossi was coming close to losing his cool (JJ seen how angry Dave was getting by the minute, but was proud of how well he controlled himself). However, it affected both of them in the way that they were more distracted by the minute over this little douchebag who thought he could put the moves on JJ.

JJ couldn't believe how unprofessional he was, and it made it very hard to work with the San Diego detectives. She finally had to approach Hotch, to see if he could get the lead detective to control him. Mission accomplished shortly thereafter, JJ finally felt she could breath for the first time since arriving. They finally called it a night, and retired to the hotel. Not long after she settled in her room, she heard a knock on the door. Looking out the peephole, she seen her boyfriend standing there and giggled. Opening the door to let him in, she quickly peeked out to see if anyone else was out there, before pulling him into her room.

"JJ, I've never wanted to harm someone like I wanted to harm that little jerk today. This is a case we're working on, they called us in, and he acts like that? How did you keep from slapping him?" an exasperated Rossi said to her.

"Dave, I don't want to even talk about it anymore. Even if I wasn't involved with you, I would love to slap him silly. I've never been treated in a worse way than this. But I am proud that you managed to keep your anger in check. I thought you were going to pop the vein in your forehead." JJ replied.

Dave brought her in for a hug then, rubbing her back. "Yeah, I really didn't want to be arrested here. I have a second date to replan for us. I'm sorry our date night tomorrow night got interrupted. I'll make it up when we get home, okay? I've got a few other favorite places around town I'd like to show you."

"Dave, you want to catch a bite to eat, and go for a walk? I'm really hungry, what about you?"

"Give me fifteen minutes to shower and change, I'll be right back. Sound good to you?"

"Sounds perfect. I need something to forget how badly this day has gone. I hate being here to help people and getting treated like a piece of meat by the people who need help."

"Well, we need to get this case solved, and get out of this town."

With that, he leaned in for a deep kiss, one that made her forget what had gone on today. They touched foreheads to one another, gave one last kiss, and he was out the door, leaving JJ to ponder the day and the man she had fallen for. Although the day had ended far differently that she had thought, and their second date was now on hold, it didn't matter to her. What did matter to her was she was starting to realize that Rossi did care for her, a lot. And she in turn, was falling a lot harder for him than she ever thought possible.