A/N: What an awesome episode last night! Kudos to Rick Dunkle for writing such a powerful script. This installment of "365" is a post-ep to 8x15 "Broken". There will be spoilers. This is a very short piece but I hope it strikes a chord with you.


365: Day 52

Characters: Jennifer Jareau, Alex Blake

Rating: T


Conditions of Love

"Are you okay?" Blake asked as she took the seat next to JJ, setting a mug of hot tea in front of her. While the team had gone to arrest Paul Westin at his father's home, JJ and Blake had gone to the conversion camp. They took great pleasure in bringing down the camp and bringing those who ran it into custody. But opening that padlocked door... those images would haunt them both for a while. JJ had been very quiet ever since they returned to the police station.

"I don't understand," JJ's voice was little more than a whisper as she continued to look out the window of their makeshift conference room. Her emotions were a tangled mess. She was both vehemently angry and devastatingly sad. Every time she thought about what Paul Westin had been through, what all the boys at the camp had been through, she wanted to cry.

"I don't understand how a parent can give consent for their child to be tortured. Beaten. Drugged. I'll never understand how a parent can stand by and watch as their child is raped. Hell, John Westin even encouraged it! And all because his child was gay. I don't understand how any sane parent thinks they can punish their child into being straight. It makes me so angry when I think about everything that Paul Westin and Doug Warn, and so many others endured. I see red when I think about what was done to them. How can any parent condone that?"

Blake couldn't say anything. There was nothing to say. She had asked herself those same questions over and over again since Paul Westin's arrest. It was no wonder the man had become a killer. He had been physically and emotionally broken by every person who should have cared for him and protected him. They were the ones who condoned his abuse. They had ingrained into his psyche that his idea of love was wrong, evil, dirty. He'd tried to please them, tried to love in the way they expected, the way they demanded. And when it failed, all he could hear was his father telling him how disgusting he was, what a failure he was as a man. The only way to make it stop was to kill.

"When I look at Henry," JJ continued after a long moment of silence, "all I can think of is how fiercely I would protect him against anyone or anything. I want him to always know that I will always love him. I will always stand beside him. I want him to love and be loved, and I want him to know that love doesn't have to only come in one form. I don't understand how any parent can intentionally cause their child so much pain." A single tear rolled down her cheek. "And the fact that there are so many of them..." she shook her head in disbelief.

Blake put her hand on JJ's shoulder. "This planet needs more parents like you, JJ. It's sad how many parents turn their backs on their children because of who they choose to love. I'll never understand it either. We're supposed to love our children unconditionally. When did love become the condition?"

It was a question neither of them could answer.


02/21/2013