MUST READ: when this idea came to me, I had not seen the episode that sounds a lot like the scenario I painted here. Please don't attack me with accusation of stealing the idea & whatnot.

Finally, what you've all been waiting for: some sisterly bonding! This is a pretty long chapter that I've ready for over a week now. I was just waiting for some more reviews! Reviews are like hugs of encouragement that make my fingers work MUCH faster...get your mind out of the gutter :P

Chapter XXXVIII Healing

Leila desperately tried to slow her breathing as the nightmare disintegrated and reality took hold again. She could feel the stitches over her heart tugging, suddenly trying to come free, as she placed a hand over them. Feeling the rough edges of her once flawless skin, Leila sighed and winced. Taking in her surroundings, she was only slightly surprised to see the blonde-haired woman, Jennifer, curled up into a ball on the chair next to her bed. Leila remembered perfectly well that this woman was her sister-her family, and that she owed her life to her. She unwillingly conjured up the memory of Jennifer getting shot and a blonde-haired man kneeling over her, desperately trying to keep her alive. Leila was snapped out of her daydream as the woman shifted and groaned. She stood, unaware that Leila was watching her, and stretched. Leila saw her wince and place a hand to her side.

"Does it hurt?" the teen asked meekly, startling the blonde. Slowly, the older woman approached the bed.

"Not really." Jennifer cleared her throat and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I need a shower." Leila picked up a strand of raven hair as if it were infected with the plague. Jennifer chuckled and Leila found herself enjoying the sound.

"Yea, I know what you mean." The blonde dragged the chair she had previously occupied closer to the bed. "Doctor Avery says you can get out of here once the stitches heal."

"How long have I been here?" Leila asked with a frown on her face. The older woman's features went blank as she tried to think of the correct answer.

"A week?" she guessed. "To be honest, I haven't really been keeping track of the time." Leila nodded and shifted, trying to reach for the cup of ice that Avery had left for when she awoke. "Let me." Jennifer reached over and placed an ice cube in her hand.

"Thanks." Leila mumbled as she worked the cube over, relishing the feeling as the water made its way down her throat. An uncomfortable silence crept over the two women, as neither once knew what to say.

"You shouldn't have done it." Leila told the woman. She frowned instead of replying. "Go down there, alone."

"It was the only way." The blonde explained. "If we would've come in, guns blazing, and forced him to give you up then either you or both of you would have died. I wasn't going to take that chance."

"At least then he'd be dead." The teen mumbled. JJ frowned, confused as to how Leila had learned of the outcome. "I heard them talking about it outside my door. Heard you shot him too."

"Some good that did." JJ grumbled.

"At least it hurt." Leila rationalized. Both women glanced at one another as they chuckled. Before it could last long, Leila winced and placed a hand over her chest. JJ was out of her seat and hovering over the girl before she knew it. "It's fine."

"Do you need me to get Avery?" JJ asked as she righted the girl's pillows and covers. "Are you cold?"

"No, I'm fine. Really." Leila smiled at her and JJ stared. The smile didn't light up the girl's face as she had imagined it would. It didn't reach her eyes but then again, nothing probably created genuine happiness for her anymore.

"I'm sorry about your family." JJ said before she could stop herself.

"Yea," Leila sighed. "Me too."

"I-I know it's not as…real as what you had but," JJ stammered. "But for what it's worth, you have a new family now. Well, actually two."

"Thank you but," JJ's throat closed up as she pictured the next words coming out of Leila's mouth. "I don't think it's a good idea for me to be around people."

"What are you talking about?" the blonde asked, not hearing what she had expected at all.

"Everyone I…grow to care for gets hurt. I just don't think it's a good idea for-"

"That has nothing to do with you, Leila." JJ leaned closer to the girl. "What happened to your family was an accident, a tragic accident. And this? This was my-his fault. Nothing you did caused any of your suffering."

"You're wrong." Leila looked down as if embarrassed. JJ remembered how Alex Withers, Leila's studio coach, told Emily and Hotch that she had been plagued with guilt since the accident, eventually leading to an early stage of alcoholism. And that was without taking into account the fact that she had hospitalized her boyfriend.

"Why am I wrong Leila?" JJ pushed, gazing intently at the girl in hopes that her profiling skills could help.

"None of this would've happened if I just-" Leila's silky voice cracked along with her resolve and the events of the past six months finally crashed down on her. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, staining her face, and her body shook uncontrollably with racking sobs. Caught by surprise, JJ simply watched for a moment before springing into action. She sat on the side of Leila's bed and reached out for her. Surprisingly, Leila didn't resist as JJ wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close. Reminded of the times Henry woke up crying, JJ stroked the girl's ebony hair as she felt hands clinging onto her for dear life. No words could comfort the girl and JJ knew this, so instead she hummed to her. At first, she couldn't remember where she had heard the melody before but then it hit her: the song that made Emily cry; the song Leila had written for her brother after his death. A few minutes past and before long Leila's body had ceased trembling and the tears had finally stopped flowing. A part of JJ didn't want to let her go and Leila indulged the woman a little longer, savoring the sound of another human's heartbeat.

"Sorry." She mumbled into JJ's shirt only to receive a shake of the head from the blonde.

"Don't be. You have every right to be upset and you don't have to hide it…especially from me." JJ added the end at the last second, liking the sound of it as it left her lips. After a few more seconds, Leila finally unwrapped herself from the woman and JJ passed the tissue box that had been waiting to be used since they got here. "You don't have to tell me."

"I want to." Leila admitted quietly. JJ placed her hand over her sister's and waited. "It was a Saturday. One of my friends had called me and told me about a party this guy was having. I went to go ask my parents if I could go and they said no. They told me I had to babysit, that they had already made plans and it was too short notice. We fought. When they left I put Henry to bed and snuck out." Leila wiped away a few stray tears before continuing. "We had a great time, half of us went home plastered, and when I got home it was around seven in the morning. The house was quiet so I just assumed everyone was asleep and no one had noticed I was missing. I was wrong."

"What happened?" JJ urged as Leila grew silent once more.

"I woke up to a cop at the front door about four hours later. Granted, I was completely hung-over so it took at least an hour to get me to understand what had happened. He told me that my parents and Henry had been hit by a drunk driver at 1:44 in the morning and that my mom and dad had died before the paramedics could get there." Leila choked on her own tears and furiously wiped at her eyes.

"And-and Henry?" JJ was almost too afraid to ask. Leila cleared her throat before answering.

"They got him to the hospital, this hospital actually. They told me that he had...asked for me before he…" Leila took in a shaky breath as JJ squeezed her hand. "My baby brother asked for me on his deathbed and I was sleeping off a hangover." Her voice rose.

"You couldn't have known that was going to happen, Leila. It was a freak accident." JJ tried to persuade her. Leila simply scoffed.

"You think it was an accident that they were out at 2 AM with a sleeping five year old in the backseat?" she practically yelled. "They went out because they were looking for me. They realized I was gone and got worried, because that's what they did best, and ended up getting killed because I was too much of a bitch to do what they told me!" JJ sat in stunned silence as she processed the information.

"That-that doesn't make it your fault." She pressed.

"If I didn't have to go to that stupid party, they would still be alive and Parrilla would have never been able to get in, kidnap me and shoot you!" Leila cried as she released the blonde's hand.

"You're wrong." JJ stated calmly. "Parrilla would have gotten what he wanted no matter what. If anything, he would have killed your family himself to get to you. I know that's not a comfort but you need to understand, just like I did, that there isn't anything we could have done to avoid this. Sometimes, our futures are laid out for us; their predetermined from the day we're born and there's nothing we can do to escape fate."

"You-you believe in fate?" Leila asked as she snatched more tissues from the Kleenex box.

"If I didn't before, I sure as hell do now." JJ confessed earning herself a confused look from the teen. She told you JJ. Now you tell her. "Leila, you aren't the first sister I've had."

"What do you mean?" the dark-haired teen asked.

"When I was eleven, my older sister, Andrea, committed suicide." JJ let the information sink in before continuing. "Just like you, I went through a…phase after it happened. Thought it was my fault, convinced myself that I should have seen the signs and done something about it, the whole shebang."

"But you were eleven." Leila persisted. "There's no way you-"

"Just like there's no way you could have predicted that not only did your long-lost sister have a sociopathic, manic stalker chasing her but that there would be a drunken idiot at that exact intersection at the exact moment your family was passing on the same night you decide to go to a party instead of babysit your brother." JJ rationalized quickly. "It took me a long time to get over my guilt and to move on but when I did I went on to have a normal life; a good life."

"Then this." Leila added quietly and JJ nodded.

"Don't get me wrong, this doesn't affect the 'good' part of the description."

"Just the 'normal'" Leila understood and offered the blonde a smile and nod.

"Exactly." JJ nodded in return. "Now I find out that my parents took away my second chance at being a good sister. I could have been everything Andrea was and more since I knew how I felt as the younger sister but they denied me that chance just as much as they denied you the chance at a normal life." JJ's resentment towards her parents grew more apparent by the second and did not go unnoticed by the younger Jareau.

"I take it they know how you feel?" Leila asked and JJ scoffed.

"Not as well as they're going to." The blonde practically growled.

"I'd hate to be Parrilla." Leila stated out of the blue. "If you can get this mad at your parents, I'd hate to see what'll happen if you get your hands on the man who shot you."

"When I get my hands on him," JJ corrected, "I'm probably going to make him wish his parents never met." Leila chuckled and JJ couldn't help but smile at the sound.

"No objections here." She agreed. Before either woman could continue the conversation, the door burst open and the room filled with the patter of little feet.

"Momma! Guess what Daddy-" Henry stopped short as he realized Snow White had finally awoken. JJ thought quickly as she picked up her son and kissed him on the head. Leila smiled at the scene, not surprised in the slightest that Jennifer was a mother.

"Honey, can you wait for-"

"What's your name?" the little boy asked Leila and she chuckled.

"I'm Leila." She told him and Henry blushed as she extended her hand to shake his.

"You're pretty." He informed her and she laughed, this time genuinely.

"You're very handsome yourself." She told the little boy. "What's your name?" Before JJ could stop her son from answering, he wriggled out of her arms and proceeded to sit on the edge of Leila's bed.

"I'm Henry!" he mimicked Leila's introduction and watched as her expression turned from one of joy to one of pure hurt. "What wrong?" Henry eased closer to the girl and she shook her head, willing the tears to go away so as not to scare the child.

"Nothing, nothing. Your hair is just so shiny that it hurts my eyes!" Leila exclaimed with a laugh. Henry quickly picked up one of the blankets over Leila's legs and covered his head.

"Better?" he asked the teen and waited quietly for an answer.

"Mhm, much. Thank you…Henry." Leila managed to choke out before JJ scooped up the boy and brought him to the door. Emily and Derek apologized for not being able to stop the boy and had the situation not been so emotional for Leila, JJ would have laughed at the two federal agents unable to catch a five year old.

"I'm sorry." She whispered as she stood by the door, far enough away from Leila. The girl just shook her head and continued to wipe away the tears she had allowed to fall.

"It's alright. It's okay." She seemed to be telling herself. JJ approached cautiously.

"I was going to wait to tell you. I didn't know how you'd react." She admitted.

"I understand." Leila smiled as she gave up trying to smear all the tears away. "He's adorable."

"He's got great manners too." JJ grumbled sarcastically. "Will and I have been trying to teach him how to knock for months. I don't think it's working."

"Will?" Leila lifted an eyebrow at her sister. "Is that your boyfriend?"

"Husband. As of May." JJ corrected with a smile.

"And how old is Henry?"

"Almost six." JJ responded.

"Well, if I didn't believe in fate before…." Leila trailed off and JJ chuckled. As silence overtook the room again, JJ realized that Leila's eyelids were drooping. "I think I'm gonna….sleep now." JJ nodded and pulled the covers up to her sister's chest.

"Goodnight Leila. I'll see you in the morning." JJ promised as she pushed a strand of hair out of the girl's eyes.

"G'night Jennifer." Leila muttered before allowing sleep to claim her once again. JJ sat in silence for a few moments, watching the steady rise and fall of Leila's chest as she slept, before rising and placing a kiss on the girl's forehead. As JJ left the room, the only thought going through her mind was that she had to find Henry and instill proper etiquette in the six year old... and that the boy's father could use a lesson or two while she was at it.

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