I got into the Bureau at a bit after nine, which was late for me. But I was unsurprisingly still the first person on the team to arrive at work. Without Hotch or Gideon being in their offices the BAU had an eerie feel to it. Not even bothering to go into my office, I went to the kitchen to get a much needed coffee. I was sure I had bags under my eyes, and every other indicator that I was running on a lack of sleep.

I let the deep aroma of coffee, fill the air around me, giving me a small pick me up before taking my first sip. This was certainly not my first coffee of the day, and it would not be my last. I was jet lagged. Was it possible to be jet lagged from a two hour flight? My plane had gotten back at about midnight, and then it took another half an hour to get a taxi and get home. I tried sleeping on the plane, but the person in front of me had reclined fully back and there was no possible way to get comfortable. Then when I finally got home, I called Will and we talked for almost an hour, until he realized how late it was for me, and told me to go to bed.

I unfortunately forgot that work started early, but my alarm went off even earlier. The comfort of my bed and the warmth of the sheets called out to me not to leave, I would have obliged if I didn't think the rest of the team would find it strange that I came in late.

I heard the glass doors open behind me, and I turned around to see who had just come in. Walking through the doors Emily greeted me before heading over to her desk in the middle of the bullpen. Picking up my bag in my free hand I follow her over.

"Wish we didn't have to be here," Emily said as she placed her bag under her desk.

"Preaching to the choir," I replied.

"But why would Strauss want us to be anything less the efficient," she seemed to tense up a bit with the mentioning of Strauss.

"If she wanted that she shouldn't have suspended our leader." I half joked

"Well I'm sure in her mind she had her reasons." That woman's mind was complete and utter wasteland to me. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, even though it was usually bad. She was too serious, but I guessed that came with the job. And it was either her way or the highway, she wasn't very open-minded.

"Do you know something?" I asked.

"What? No?" I didn't have to be a profiler to tell she wasn't saying everything. "I just mean, who knows how her brain works"

"Uh huh."

"So how was your weekend?" She asked switching subjects rather quickly.

"You know. Same old."

"Really? You seemed eager to get out of here on Friday."

"Wasn't everybody? I mean after a case like that, don't you just want to leave and get a way for a while?"

"Definitely, I was just hoping you had some goss to get me through the day."

"Sorry, my life's is not one for tabloids."

"Tell me about it, the most exciting thing I did this weekend was have Chinese and watch re-runs."

"Thrilling stuff," we both laughed knowing how relatable it was. That was my life on weekends three months ago.

"Morning Derek," Emily said and I turned around to see him walking up to his desk.

"Hello Ladies."

The three of us conversed for a couple of minutes, mostly all complaining that the next two weeks could have been used as a well deserved holiday. I started to hear heels clicking on the upper level. Strauss had come out her office. This was going to be good.

"Emily, can I see you in my office please," she asked looking down on all of us.

"Uh, sure ma'am."

"Don't you two have work you could be doing?" she said to Derek and me.

Emily quickly followed her up to her office, thankfully getting Strauss out of eye sight. "So where were you this weekend?" Derek asked, and I remembered the phone call he made early yesterday.

"I told you, I was at home," it was going to be a lot harder lying now that I was standing right in front of him, and didn't have the protection of the phone.

"Eight O'clock?" I didn't know if he would bring that up, but I had been thinking of a believable excuse.

"Yeah, well my apartment building had a black out while I was a sleep. So when I woke up I didn't realise the time was wrong," hopefully that was enough to get him off my back about it.

"Well Okay then." He seemed like he believed it, but I couldn't be too sure.

"Guess it's time to start working," I said looking down at my watch, hoping for excuse to leave this conversation.

I pick up my bag off of Emily's desk and started to head to my office. On the way there I saw the last of the team walking in, a bit late. But I guessed it didn't really matter, it wasn't like we had anything to do.

"Morning Spence," I said walking through the glass door.

"Good Morning JJ," he said to my back.

I unlocked my office door not expecting to see anything different, and there wasn't, but the piles seemed to be bigger and my desk seemed messier than I left it. How could that be? I walked over to my desk and took an all too familiar seat. I turned on my computer and picked one of the files off of the top of the piles behind me, and got down to work.

…

A few hours later, I was only a few files into my work. They seemed to be taking longer than normal; I decided to take a deserved break.

'Free to talk?'

Hitting send, I leaned back in my chair and waited for a reply. Within a minute my phone was vibrating. But it wasn't a message.

"Hey," I said answering the phone.

"Morning."

"Nope afternoon," I said looking up at the clock, and seeing it was just past midday.

"Just. So what can I do for you?"

"I'm bored."

"And you want some entertainment?"

"Would love some."

"Well I'll try not to disappoint, but nothing really interesting has happened in the last eight hours."

"That's fine by me."

"Are you having fun at work?"

"I tell you I'm bored, and you think work is fun?"

"Was just asking. So no case?"

"Nope, just paperwork. But after that's done I get to do more paperwork. To say I'm looking forward to the next two weeks would be a lie."

"I'm sure it won't be too bad. And if you get bored again, call me."

"So I'll be calling you a lot then."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"So are you working on anything?" I asked.

"We got called to a crime scene earlier this morning, but all leads are being followed up, and we're waiting for the autopsy results before defining it as a homicide."

"Well I guess you have work you have to do," I said sadly.

"Not yet, and like you, I can take a break."

"Good, but you can kick me off the phone, if you need to get back to work."

"Back at ya." I looked out the window to the hallway for a second and saw Garcia walk pass, she did a double take, waved and kept walking. Before she was out of sight I waved back. If I wasn't on the phone I would have been sure she would have stopped to chat. I must have gone silent for a little longer than I believed because the next thing I heard was Will calling me. "JJ? You still there?"

"What? Yeah. Sorry I just zoned out for a second."

"Okay, something interesting happening there?"

"Nothing worth talking about."

"Can you hold on for a second?" Not waiting for a reply I started hearing some muffled noises on the other end of the phone. After a minute Will came back on the phone. "Sorry JJ, I just got the autopsy report back, guess I have to do some work now."

"Yep guess my break is over too then."

"I'll call you later tonight."

"You better."

…

I head down to the bullpen needing to give some case files to the rest of the team. It was strange being the only one in an office. At least when Hotch and Gideon were working it didn't feel so weird.

"Can you guys do your thing, with these ones?" I said placing the files on their desks.

"Sure thing," Emily said. She didn't seem unnerved by her conversation with Strauss, must not have been bad, probably something about pay, or something administrative like that.

"Garcia said you were on the phone when she walked passed. Who were you talking to?" Derek asked.

"Just a detective. He gave me his case file a few months ago and was just checking in," it wasn't a lie. Sure I hated when I lied to them, but it was necessary to me at this point in time.