Meanwhile, JJ finally made her way to the mail room, located in the bowels of the building. This area wasn't all that exciting. But JJ had history here.

A man at the main counter greeted her when she entered the mail room. "JJ! What brings you down here this morning?"

"Has the general mail been collected yet?" JJ asked.

"No." Lyle gave her a scrutinizing look. "You were one of us, once upon a time, and the morning collection time has literally never changed."

"Monday blues—what can I say?" JJ gave a nervous laugh. "I need to get something out in the mail, but I didn't make it to the mailbox. It's a full house right now."

"And it slipped your mind." Lyle deduced. "Forgetfulness can happen to the best of us. What do you have?"

JJ produced her letter, all ready to go. "This. It's going to an establishment in town."

Lyle took the envelope. "It isn't every day that people send personal notes anymore. Did you have a nice weekend?"

"Yes." JJ stood tall. "Saturday night was crummy, but Sunday more than made up for it because my family really came through for me."

"That's quite splendid." Lyle placed JJ's letter in the nearby box of outgoing mail. "Is there anything else you need?"

JJ shook her head. "Not today."

"Alright." Lyle said cheerfully. "Then I will see you around."

"See you around."

And with a parting wave, JJ left to go back upstairs.

But then she checked her watch. It was hardly ten minutes past nine. Hopefully she could find something to do until then.

'Politely puzzled' was the tone when the rest of the team joined Emily, JJ, and Penelope in the conference room at the top of the hour.

"What's going on?" Tara asked as they took their seats.

"There is no trouble, or crisis." JJ closed the door. "But we do need to talk."

Rossi turned to Penelope. "And I suppose you know about it? You are being super fidgety."

Penelope immediately sat still. "Consider me the second half of this gathering, sir. Our fearless leaders are the are the first act."

So one half of the room turned to the other.

Emily cleared her throat. "I'm well aware that I never talk my life beyond this unit, but now there are some things I do need to share. Every item falls under 'unavoidable.' There's no other way to explain it, other than to just level with all you."

"We're all ears." Rossi told her. "Go."

"For the past few months until recently," Emily began. "I was in a relationship with someone. We've called it quits now. It doesn't matter who it is. It's over now. He accepted a reassignment without telling me."

"Where is it?" Spencer asked tentatively.

"In the United Kingdom. He's probably on the way there as we speak." Emily paused for a beat—she was already at the hardest part. "The whole reason I'm bringing this all up is because I've also just found out that I'm going to be a mom. Come summertime, all of you are going to have a niece or nephew from me to dote on."

Dead silence filled the room. Other than JJ, everyone was incredibly surprised. Emily's words were a lot to digest. While the woman was not cold or stoic, she really wasn't the type to openly broadcast what was going on in her non-BAU life. This was a lot to hear in one go. But the end was wonderful.

Penelope hugged her friend as around them, everyone else began to chatter excitedly. "How exciting! Are you doing alright?"

Emily smiled and allowed herself to relax. "Yes. It's a lot to take in, but getting this response from you all makes the coping easier now."

"We're a family more than we are a team." Rossi said kindly.

"Totally true." Luke and Tara said together.

"That fact is my favorite thing about us." added Spencer.

"And mine." Matt chimed in. "Whatever you need, Emily, we're here for you."

Similar statements of agreement were made by everyone else around the table.

"Thank you, all." Emily said graciously. "I have some other news to share."

Spencer voiced his thoughts first. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"The apartment building where I lived was first tented for fumigation, and then twenty-four hours later, I learned that the place on the whole had been seized upon for foreclosure."

Luke wrinkled the bridge of his nose. "I'm so sorry—that's incredibly unfortunate. Where are you staying now?"

Emily finally perked back up. "I'm staying at the LaMontagne house."

The group response to this was for the others to turn to from her as one, look at JJ.

"What?" the blond said in amusement. "It's true. She moved in last week. My house is very full, but everyone is happy."

"That's really awesome." Spencer looked back to Emily. "If you're happy, then I'm happy for you."

Emily smiled at him. "Thank you, Spencer. That really means a lot."

Once again, everyone else expressed similar congratulatory thoughts. Emily's home-front announcements had run their course now. But JJ noticed that her partner hadn't said a word about her new love.

So JJ cleared her own throat and took charge. "When I was admitted for the panic attack, I learned that I am also expecting. Our cherry on top is that I'm carrying twins. To make things even more exciting, the rest my family and Emily already knew. So did Matt."

"How?" chorused Rossi, Penelope, Spencer, Tara, and Luke as one about the last part.

The man laughed. "I actually guessed."

Luke surveyed him with amusement. "When?"

"After the Dunn Loring case." Matt said casually. "I drove JJ because we live three blocks apart. Home life came up when we were talking during the ride, and I really did guess. Call it a twist of fate. I just happened to be perfectly on the nose."

"Wow..."

In a small whirlwind of noise and kind words, everyone gave more congratulations to JJ and Emily. The atmosphere was warm. Happy. It was a pleasant offset of the usual grim things discussed between these walls.

"Thank you so much for your kind words. It all means a lot." Emily said to the group at large when they had settled in their seats again. "We now need to get to the real heart of the matter. It's quite serious."

"Must be," Matt remarked. "Since JJ closed the door. That never happens."

JJ was now the one sighing. "We've stumbled upon something 'off-book.' Penelope has been in the know, but not for as long. There is one more party in the matter."

"Who?"

"It's Will." answered Emily. "This is actually about him. Uh... we've encountered a mystery about his past."

JJ took them helm again. "My husband's mother completely vanished from his life when he was about two years old. He doesn't remember anything about her. At all. Recently, though, he decided that he's going to try to find her."

"And has anything been found out?"

JJ opened the iPad in front of her. "Time to yield the floor to the tech guru."

Penelope stood beside her presentation monitor with her trusty remote in hand.

So they each looked over to Penelope, once more, as she now came to stand beside her presentation monitor.

"Forty-one years ago this past week, the world was made a better place because the one and only William Isaac Jesse LaMontagne Junior was born in New Orleans." Penelope pressed a button on her remote, activating the man's police record photograph. "Our math says that Will's mother was around until at least 1979. The total bummer is that Hurricane Katrina took anything useful in the way of records. Will's father—Senior—died because he was hit with storm debris in his own house."

"Why was he even there and not at some place like the Superdome?" asked Matt.

"He had just discovered a very important clue about one of his cases, and was too stubborn to leave. It was was that important." Spencer informed him.

Nodding, Penelope went on. "This is him in life."

And she called up a record picture of William Senior. He had ben very handsome. It was also easy to see that he had been Will's father. For good measure, there was also an image of his commendation list.

Emily spoke again. "Accolades aside, the missing link here is Will's mother."

Luke interjected what he was thinking. "Pardon me for asking the obvious, but why not check Senior's marriage records for his wife's name?"

Penelope made a humming sound that told them she was frustrated. "Occasionally, sometimes things in this world are just easier said than done. This mystery is one such instance. I'm being laughed at by God or the universe because even though I can find those records, I ran into a hiccup. There is nothing there."

"Oh, no." said Luke. "In what way?"

At the head of the table, JJ was completely thrown by this revelation. "Excuse me?"

"What I mean," Penelope pressed the remote button for a third time and overlaying the service record pictures was an image of a marriage record. "Is that it's totally blank where the name of Senior's wife should be. I've never seen this before. Even when people end their marriages and put them on file, there's always a record of their former spouse. Not here."

Spencer mused, "It seems that the name has been scrubbed. That's a thing?"

Tara nodded as she thought of her own failed marriage. "Yes. I was given the option when I was divorcing Daryl, but I didn't go there."

"Why?"

"Mostly the price. I can't imagine what Will's father must have gone through to feel that it was a necessary measure." Tara looked across to JJ. "Has Will ever told you anything concrete about those years of his life?"

"No." JJ admitted. "Will remembers really random tidbits because we have old photo albums, but I've always had a feeling that he's blocking things out. My heart would break for him if there's more trauma besides being a child of divorce."

"Then we still don't know that much about this part of Senior's life." Penelope said. "We're almost at a dead end. Over this recent 'bench time,' Emily and the LaMontagnes discovered a clue in the form of one person. I give you June McCann."

"She's incredibly beautiful." Tara observed when Penelope displayed the past and present photographs of June. "She was also really young back then. Wow."

Rossi looked from Penelope, to JJ, to Emily, and back again. "What's her tale?"

JJ, Emily, and Penelope tag-teamed in explaining it.

The team was completely intrigued.

By the end, they were simply stunned into silence.

"Wow." Rossi murmured. "That's wild."

Matt nodded. "And that's just one word for it. 'Intense' is another."

JJ quickly looked to Spencer when she noticed that he had his thinking cap on. "What's going on up there?"

Spencer looked at her. "Is there any indication of how old Will's mother was during this period?"

"Not that we've seen yet. The estimation we've made about June is that she was in her early to mid-twenties."

"Hm..."

His words trailed off because he was doing some fast thinking.

"Cough it up." JJ told him.

Every other set of eyes in the room was on him now.

Spencer spoke again after a pause. "Every now and then through our work, we sometimes find that a determining factor during an affair can be age. Sometimes it really is everything. What if June was the older woman in this power struggle?"

JJ shuddered. "Spencer, if age really was the determining factor in this mess, then that means that Will's mother would have been a bit younger."

"Which is exactly what I've realized."

"I have seen pictures of my father-in-law. He was on the older side when he died. If his wife and June were both younger than him, he would have also been older back then. What if the original LaMontagnes got some unexpected news? And what if that was what drove them apart?"

Penelope let out a soft, "Oh!"

"What is it?" JJ pressed.

"Well, what is one major plot twist in an affair that causes one of half of a duo to sometimes just freak out?" she asked carefully.

Matt gave the answer first. "You mean a surprise child."

"Mhm."

Spencer contributed to the conversation again. "I've been reading ahead in the file, here. Has there been any indication that June had another child? Apart from the son he has now?"

Penelope shook her head. "Not that I've seen."

"But those photographs and book passages are very indicative of a close, intimate relationship." Spencer continued. "I would say that with what we've uncovered, there was absolutely an affair going on. Our only way to know for sure would be to ask June."

"She's off-limits." Emily and JJ said together.

"Yes, but if Will's mother was the younger person, then a record scrub would make sense."

Tara spoke up again. "Spencer's right. What if Senior was hurt so badly that he was ashamed about it?"

JJ spoke in a tone of waxing a philosophical. "Will did say that he figured Senior broke his wife's heart, but is now thinking that June broke Senior's."

Matt seemed to be cottoning on. "But what if that actually is true? Shame is a powerful motivator to act... or stay silent. A bad fallout from a secret between June and the original LaMontagnes could what drove things to the point of a divorce."

"And that very well could be." Spencer agreed as he recalled the secret surrounding the end of his parents' marriage. "But we're back at the 'what if' scenario surrounding a possible secret child."

Penelope checked the notes that she had on hand. "There is nothing that hints of even the possibility of June having another child at any point."

Emily voiced another sudden thought. "Then what if it was Missus LaMontagne who had another child?"

JJ rubbed her temples. "I don't know where to take that."

"But it does make sense." Luke said to everyone at large. "It's a solid something that counts for a lot. Even if we don't know what it is."

Rossi backed him up. "Erasing all traces of a marriage and a divorce to cover up a secret child sounds like the actions of a man teetering on the brink of desperation."

Luke nodded. "They also sound like the actions of a man having an affair."

"Will's mother could have also left of her own volition." Emily noted. "If I was hurt that badly by a spouse, there's no way that I would give them another chance."

Matt gave the conversation a slight re-direction. "We're all on some kind of roll right now. Hell, we could even be holding all the correct cards. I just have one big question."

"Please continue." Tara encouraged.

"If we have gotten everything right, I want to know just what could have possessed Will's mother to leave him behind?"

Nobody could think of an answer for this.

Emily spoke in a finality-type tone. "That's all we have right now."

"Mhm. And we wanted to let the rest of you in because it felt wrong to leave all of you out." JJ looked to Spencer. "How familiar are you with Paradise Lost and For Whom The Bell Tolls? Be honest."

Spencer did his best to keep it simple. "They're on my top favorites list."

JJ offered him a smile. "Then take time to ruminate when you can, but there is one more thing of note."

"Do tell."

"Will said that his father never set foot in a church before, but we found that the margins of the Paradise Lost copy were filled with religious ramblings."

"Hm." said Spencer. "That's really interesting. Senior had a lot going on back then. All that's coming to me at the moment is that he must have taken all of this really hard because those quotes were in the end, the ultimate expressions of his and June's feelings towards each other. Plus..."

His words trailed off as he thought of how to phrase his next words.

"It's okay." JJ encouraged. "Tell us."

"First of all, this other person would be in their forties by now, and they would have been born into the turmoil. That's already a lot." Spencer said. "Second is which particular parts of the text that have been covered: if there is an offspring, then it goes without saying that all the feelings in the air were more intense than originally thought. Age can be a determining factor in the event of an affair. So can passion."

"That is a very keen observation."

"And a good one." Emily praised. "If any new thought hits you, come share it."

Spencer nodded in acknowledgment. "Understood."

"We've encountered a mystery, and if it takes awhile, I want us to get to the bottom of it. With Will. For Will." Emily stuck her hands in her pockets. "For family."

JJ looked at everyone around the table. "We appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you for coming along on another adventure. Even if we are coloring so far out of the lines again that no one can find us."

"Of course." Rossi told her. "It's ride or die."

Penelope, Spencer, Luke, Matt, and Tara nodded in agreement. JJ was filled with an immense rush of gratitude. She also couldn't wait for her first free moment to share these updates with her husband.

"Then that's that." Emily told them said in a gentle but authoritative tone. "We still have paperwork and reports to get through. Let's just focus on that as our main priority. Dismissed."

The rest of the team filed out.

JJ exhaled noisily and framed the underside of her bump with her hands. "Whew. I'm extra glad that everything is on the table now—these kids of mine are growing fast."

"Do you think that you'd be able to cover it up much longer?" Emily asked her.

"I know that I wouldn't."

"Hey," Emily said comfortingly. "At least everybody knows what's going on. They're also in 'ride or die' mode."

JJ's gratitude grew. "They'd follow us to the bitter end if we asked them."

"Absolutely." Emily patted JJ's shoulder. "Off to my office. It's time to be FBI agents now."

And they spent the rest of their day back in reality.

Little did they know that the universe wasn't quite done with them just yet.