Disclaimed!
Sorry for the delay life is hectic right now.
Let me know what you think!
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JJ sat in the parked black SUV after she found a free parking space in the Quantico parking lot. Looking at her cell phone in her hand, she blinked slowly, taking in the information she just received from a friend at the State Department.
Tilting her head back onto the head rest, the agent inhaled deeply, feeling her lungs expand in her still sore ribs.
Closing her tired eyes, JJ listened to quietness in her car now that Henry was safely at Will's and the radio was switched off after the incessant ringing of her cell phone.
The silence was welcoming but at the same time was threatening, more so after the recent phone call.
A tap on her driver window startled the blonde, making her jump. Placing a hand on her chest, JJ met Hotch's concerned gaze with wide eyes.
Undoing her seatbelt and organising her belongings, JJ hesitantly stepped out of the car, forcing a smile onto her face.
Hotch frowned and stepped forward, closing the space between them. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." JJ shook her head disbelievingly.
"It's not, nothing, JJ." Hotch stated knowingly, running his hand softly down the side of her cool hand.
JJ tilted her head, a soft smirk creeping at the corner of her lips. It had been a week since she had given in to the determined profiler and her feelings.
Over the last week they had spent nearly every case-less hour together, talking and kissing like teenagers once the boys were distracted or asleep and in that time, JJ had realised she had told the raven haired man more about herself than any other person she had known and she felt the Unit Chief was in the same predicament.
His eyes wandered around her face, looking for some sign of how she was feeling. "Aaron..."
"What is it?" He prompted quietly.
"Morning, you two!" Rossi's voice quickly separated the pair as he stepped out of his car. "Am I interrupting something?"
"Yes." Hotch growled lowly.
JJ chucked warmly. "No Rossi, you're not interrupting anything. My morning just hasn't got off to the best start."
The three profilers fell into step in silence and remained quiet as they were crammed into a busy elevator.
Once they reached the twelfth, Hotch nodded to Rossi who went straight into the bullpen, while he followed JJ down the corridor to her office.
The senior profiler hovered behind the former liaison as she unlocked her office, allowing her the space she needed to think by not initiating another conversation.
JJ watched as Hotch leaned against the large storage cabinet at the back of her office as she shrugged off her coat and switched on the dated computer. "I got a call this morning."
"You got a call?" Hotch prodded slowly.
JJ nodded once. "Senator Collins, the senator I was investigating that funded the trip of US citizens to train to be terrorists, was found dead in Bermuda. It looks like suicide."
"Was it suicide?" The sceptical supervisor questioned.
The former liaison shrugged before sitting behind her desk. "Not according to my friend at the agency."
Hotch frowned seeing the strain on the young woman's face. "What happens now?"
"The terrorist threat level has been increased, the case I was working on will be reviewed and life will continue on until something bad happens." JJ informed the standing agent nonchalantly.
Hotch ran a hand through his short hair, feeling his nerves rising with the conversation. "Maybe it'll have stopped with the treacherous senator?"
"Collins was the financer, sure he had brains, but I don't think the buck will have stopped with him." JJ mused while logging in her password.
Hotch watched the Pennsylvanian's less than expressive reactions. "What can we do?"
"Nothing, let's just hope it doesn't come to the worst." JJ smiled thinly, uncertain about involving her team once again in the mess State had created in her life.
Hotch stepped towards the desk, aware that they were at work and not in one of their homes. "You're stressed."
JJ met his warm eyes and smiled again. "I'm okay."
"You need a distraction." Hotch stated with a small smirk.
The sitting agent eyes suddenly sparkled in amusement. "What did you have in mind?"
"Dinner tonight, I'll cook?" The neatly suited profiler suggested with a raised eye.
JJ sat back in her seat, crossing her stocking covered legs across one another. "I thought we had a case?"
"Dinner once the case is done?" Hotch retorted quickly, forgetting his case briefing the previous evening as he looked into her shining blue eyes.
JJ smile widened as they stared at each other wantonly. "That sounds great."
The pair turned their attention to the doorway where Garcia was beaming brightly at the relaxed demeanours. "Good morning gumdrop, boss-man."
"Morning Garcia." Hotch nodded ignoring the gleefulness swimming in the technical analyst's eyes.
JJ stood slowly fully aware of her friend's amusement. "You're in early."
"I came in with Kevin, he had an early meeting." Garcia replied hiding her smirk as Hotch excused himself awkwardly.
"I'll see you both at briefing." He raised his eyes behind Garcia's head causing JJ to chuckle.
Garcia closed the door behind the exiting Unit Chief and took the seat opposite JJ's desk. "Sit sunshine."
JJ sensed the uncharacteristic serious tone in her friend's voice. "What's up?"
Garcia inhaled quickly and nodded as she begun to speak. "It's no secret that you and the boss-man have been sharing googly eyes recently and I for one am happy that you two are starting to get your acts together."
"But?" JJ raised her eyes expectantly.
Garcia frowned slightly. "But?"
The profiler smirked at her colleague's confusion. "I'm assuming there is a 'but.'"
The T.A. stopped to carefully choose her words as she approached a difficult topic. "But you have both been through so much lately and I want to make sure you're fully committed to making this work because loosing you could push him over the edge and it could ruin you. You said it yourself. I mean, you were really reluctant to even talk to him just last week and now..."
"Pen..." JJ attempted to stop her friend's rambling.
Garcia reached across the busy desk and took hold of the younger woman's hands. "JJ, I love you and I love Hotch, but both of your previous experience in the relationship department is iffy at best and there are external risks at chance here. Jack and Henry would be caught in the crossfire if you split and the team would be wrecked..."
"Garcia, Aaron and I are taking things slow. I want this to work and so does he. Trust me, I tried not to feel this way about him, I tried to keep my distance." JJ reassured softly.
Garcia tilted her head to the side and smiled. "How do you feel about him?"
"I guess I probably love him." JJ's eyes darted to their hands awkwardly.
Garcia squealed slightly before letting go of JJ's hands to clasp her own happily. "Good, I'm glad you realise that and have finally told him so."
"We haven't exactly exchanged the 'I-love-you's' properly yet. Well I haven't." JJ frowned at Garcia's enthusiasm.
"Why not?" The eccentrically dressed blonde demanded.
"It's only been a week, Pen. " JJ stressed adamantly.
Garcia shrugged her shoulders. "So."
"So I don't think it's the right time to..."
"Here you both are. What is up with the traffic in Quantico this morning?" Prentiss walked into the room without knocking, interrupting the conversation.
"Its craptastic, sweetie," Garcia nodded to the brunette before casting her eyes back to the silent blonde. "Why are you holding back?"
"Garcia, can we just drop this?" JJ begged quietly.
Prentiss looked between the two women before taking the only empty seat in the room. "Drop what?"
"JJ and Hotch." Garcia informed the curious profiler with a smirk.
Prentiss's eyes widened suddenly, in genuine surprise. "JJ and Hotch, seriously?"
"Pen!" JJ moaned while running a hand through her hair.
Garcia poked her tongue out, childlike. "Oh like it's a secret."
"I thought nothing was going on?" Prentiss turned to JJ accusatively.
JJ slouched down in her seat. "Nothing was going on."
"But something has changed." Prentiss pushed with a raised eye.
Garcia sniggered. "I caught them this morning."
Prentiss's jaw dropped. "You what?"
"We were talking and nothing happened." JJ corrected Prentiss's racing mind.
Garcia chuckled shaking her head. "Oh it looked more than just 'talking'."
JJ rolled her eyes at her friend's suggestiveness. "We were making dinner plans, okay."
"So have you and Hotch..?" Prentiss's voice trailed off suggestively as her eyebrows wiggled.
JJ shook her head at the unasked question. "We're taking things slow."
"Slow is good I guess." Prentiss shared a glance with Garcia.
"Slow is what we need." JJ replied confidently.
Garcia shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "Slow gets old, real fast."
"Penelope." JJ groaned softly.
The technical analyst smirked coyly. "I'm just saying, maybe that dinner you both were planning could be a catalyst for quickening things up?"
"Don't we have briefing to get to?" JJ glanced at her watch as she stood.
Prentiss chuckled as they moved out of the blonde's office. "Avoidance is so unlike you, Agent Jareau."
"I'm going to briefing." JJ ignored the brunette's sarcastic mocking.
Garcia and Prentiss hung back as JJ made her way down the corridor. "Oh you can't get away from us that easily, Peaches."
JJ walked through the bullpen doors, leaving her two colleagues in the corridor alone. Garcia looped her arm through Prentiss's and sighed. "So when are you going to tell her?"
"Tell her what?" Prentiss asked innocently.
Garcia stopped them walking and turned so she could meet her taller friend's eyes. "You know what I'm talking about, missy."
Prentiss exhaled slowly, closing her eyes to compose herself. "I'll tell her soon, okay."
"Emily, she needs to know." Garcia urged quietly.
The brunette nodded and turned to face the bullpen. "I will tell her soon, I promise."
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Thanks for reading!