The flight out to New York was two hours long, and when they entered the second hour, they'd finished all of the important things, meaning that they had free time. That's how JJ came to sit with Emily on the couch and have a chat with her.

"Emily?"

The brunette looked up from an email on her phone and smiled at JJ, immediately moving over to make room.

"Hi!"

JJ smiled at her cheerfulness as she sat with her friend. "Hey, I have a question for you."

"I have a question for you, too, but you can go first."

"What was that before we left? With Strauss?"

"Oh, that… I was catching up with her for a minute."

JJ raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Emily sighed. "You were bound to find out eventually, but there's never been a time in my life when I didn't know her."

"Excuse me?" JJ repeated, feeling stunned now. "Please explain."

"Strauss and my parents were all at the same boarding school in England together from the time they were eleven, all the way until they were eighteen. They all even went to Oxford together, too."

"Wow…"

"She was also the maid of honor at their wedding… and she's my godmother."

"You're kidding."

"I wish I was." Emily laughed nervously. "The way the story goes is that my mother and Strauss made friends with each other just before the first lesson started, and in one of their classes, they needed groups of three."

"And then Strauss picked your dad?"

Emily nodded. "He was the last kid standing because nobody knew what to do with the kid from Italy who had a very heavy accent, and I've always found that amusing because Strauss is English, and my mother is American. But I digress, though: Strauss took pity on my dad, called him over to where she was with my mother, and the rest is history."

"That's really cute." JJ smiled. "All of this history means that Erin Strauss is your parents' best friend?"

"Oh, yes. A lot of my childhood memories involve that woman."

"I can't imagine how strange it must be for you to have her as a CO."

"It's very strange."

JJ decided to quit pushing Emily's buttons and changed tracks. "You said you have a question for me?"

"Yes: do you have any plans for Christmas?"

JJ gave a sigh of dejection. "Not this year, no. Everybody else is busy."

Emily was immediately curious because she wondered about JJ as much as JJ wondered about her. "Who exactly constitutes as 'we' in this instance?"

"Just my mom, Sandy, and my big brother, Archer. My dad and my sister have both been dead since I was eleven." JJ said bluntly. "I always go home to Pennsylvania to see my mom, and Archer and his family join us every other year."

"What does Archer and his family do in the off year, then? And where do they live?"

"Archer, Cho, and Kaida live in Drexel, Missouri, now. Cho comes from extreme wealth in Japan because her dad runs a Japanese Fortune 500 company in central Tokyo, and because of all of the money he makes from it, their family has had a timeshare at Tokyo Disneyland over Christmastime since the place opened in 1983. That's where they go in the off year."

"Have you ever been to Tokyo Disneyland?"

JJ nodded, smiling at the memories. "My mom and I were invited along the last time they went, and we had so much fun because we were there for two straight weeks."

"Two weeks in Japan at Disneyland sounds like a dream come true." Emily remarked. "I take it that this year is a Tokyo year, though?"

"Yeah, so he and Cho and Kaida won't even be in the country next week, but neither will my mom, for that matter. She's going with four of her friends on a Disney cruise to the Caribbean."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." JJ confirmed. "She and her friends have always wanted to do this, and now they finally all can. I'm glad I already opted to stay stateside, though."

"The babies giving you grief?"

"No, thank the Lord," JJ glided her good hand over the taut swell that was her middle. "But I'd be scared to be on the train out to Pennsylvania and then get hit with nausea, or something."

"I guess that is a perk." Emily remarked. "Have you ever been alone at Christmas before?"

"No."

"Well, then you might not have to be."

JJ felt her heart lift in hope. "Why's that?"

"This ties into what I was going to ask you, but I just got an email from mother asking me to come stay with her and my dad at their house in Quantico over Christmas, which I plan on doing, but there's also an invitation to bring along any of my friends who don't have a place to go. I just so happen to know now that everyone but you has a Christmas plan. Would you like to come home with me?"

"Yes." JJ answered immediately. "I would love to come spend Christmas with you and your parents."

Emily's heart leapt because she was excited, but also because she wanted to kiss JJ and had to restrain herself. Kissing her in front of Penelope was one thing because she could keep a secret, but if they did it in front of the boys, they would all tease them (lovingly so, of course), but neither of them wanted that. JJ was a little bit less practiced at maintaining her composure because she was shaking like a little puppy that could barely contain its joy.

Wondering if this was a side effect of being under Baylor's thumb, Emily beckoned to JJ.

The blond immediately wiggled closer to Emily and then gave a small squeak of surprise when the brunette stretched out on the couch and pulled her in with her so that the two were cuddling with each other.

JJ wasn't against it at all because being in Emily's arms was very comforting, but she still said, "Emily, everyone is here."

"So? Let 'em look."

Amused by the sassiness, JJ settled against Emily, resting her head against her shoulder. JJ watched as Emily composed a response email to her mother, and even posed for a picture with her so both of the elder Prentisses would be able to see them.

Once Emily was done with that, she let JJ adjust herself until she was comfortable and continued to hold her. Both were wrapped up in their own little world, and neither said anything because nothing had to be: as long as they were together, and both of them were being gentle, they were both at peace… and that was a value that JJ was in the process of relearning because Baylor had robbed her of it, almost completely.

Unsurprisingly, JJ and Emily fell asleep in each other's arms.

Upon seeing this, Hotch found a blanket and spread it over them before sitting back in his chair, passing Rossi, Derek, and Spencer, who were all absorbed in a game of euchre.

Penelope was in the chair across from Hotch, knitting the beginnings of a baby blanket and staring out of the window next to her, looking lost in thought. Hotch hated to interrupt her, but he needed to talk, and as wacky and off-the-wall as Penelope was, she was a very good listener.

"Penelope?"

She looked over at him without breaking pace in her knitting. "Sir?"

"JJ glossed over what happened to her last night; do I really want to know?"

"I can't really say, because I still don't know all the details, myself."

"What about Emily?"

"She found JJ and they've been inseparable ever since, but I think even she only knows ninety-eight percent."

Hotch raised an eyebrow. "And what's the other two percent?"

"The few details that JJ won't share, even with us, until she's completely ready."

"Everyone has their demons." Hotch mused. "Then what is Emily doing?"

"Rehabilitating JJ. Those two are the sisters I never had, and they know it, but when it comes to the two of them, they've got a bond that's in the space between friendship and lovers. Do you understand what I mean?"

Hotch nodded. "That was actually the nature of mine and Haley's bond not long after we met—and we met in high school."

Penelope smiled as she continued to knit; private person though Aaron Hotchner was, he always opened up to her because she was very easy to talk to.

"Then you get that Emily and JJ need each other and are very good for each other and have a bond that I can't touch?"

Again, Hotch nodded. "I completely understand that. Do you think JJ will be okay?"

Penelope resumed looking out the window, remembering her own recovery process from the fallout of the tragedies she'd experienced in the past. Even still, she felt the scars from the losses of her children and her parents.

"In time."


As was the way when they arrived in the city that would be their home for the week, the team rode in SUVs together to the police precinct that would be hosting them. And because it was an unwritten rule now, Hotch, Spencer, and Rossi always rode together in the first car while JJ, Emily, Derek, (and Penelope, when she was with them) rode together in the second.

Today, Emily and Penelope rode in the back while Derek drove, and JJ was in the front passenger seat. Emily and Penelope were carrying on a conversation with each other while JJ was quiet and rubbing her middle at intervals with her good hand.

"JJ?"

The blond jumped slightly when she realized that her name had been said. "Sorry, what?"

"You're not going to get sick, are you? You've been quiet for awhile."

JJ smiled in amusement. "I'm not going to be ill, I promise you. I was just thinking."

"About what? Baylor?"

"Some of it's about him, yeah."

Derek gave his friend a brief glance before focusing on the road again. "Listen, JJ: you just say the word, and I'll take him down for you, alright?"

"Okay, Derek." JJ said sincerely. "That means a lot."

Matching the sincerity, Derek added, "Is there anything else you want to share?"

"Yes, actually: Penelope gave me that framed photo of Zooey yesterday; it's one of the nicest things anyone has ever given me. Thank you for it."

"I'm happy that you like it, and you're very welcome."

"I'm going to put it on my desk as soon as I can."

Glad to see that his friend was in a better, less distant mood, the dark-skinned agent made happy, casual conversation with the communications liaison all the way to the precinct.


Once the team got to the station and set up camp in a war room type area just off the bullpen, the one thing that JJ had been both dreading and expecting to happen happened.

"Agent Jareau?"

JJ looked up from her spot at the main table to see that the captain of the precinct, John Aquino, was before her.

"Yes?"

"It's my understanding that you have personal ties to Baylor McMath."

JJ nodded and stood, purposefully framing the shape of her already-noticeable midsection. "That's correct. Would you like to talk to me about him?"

"Yes," Aquino nodded, taking heed of what JJ was doing with her hands. "But only if it isn't any trouble."

"No trouble at all." Well aware of her team watching the exchange and waiting for a certain invitation, JJ tacked on in afterthought, "Is it alright if my colleagues listen in?"

Knowing that the seven visiting FBI agents all outranked him in authority and that they were all on edge because the case directly involved one of them, Aquino made the wise choice of not refusing her.

"Of course, agent. Please follow me."

They all followed him to the area of the division where the interrogation rooms were housed and JJ entered the room first when the door was held open for her. As JJ got settled in her chair, she already felt relieved knowing that just on the other side of the mirror were six people she dearly loved and wouldn't judge her for the things she was about to say.

She'd already been keeping secrets from them for almost half a year, but now she was ready to come clean.

"How did you meet the suspect, Baylor McMath?" Aquino asked as he sat across from JJ.

"It was five months ago the local fitness gym. I'd just ended a relationship less than an hour beforehand because I caught my partner cheating, and the gym was my first choice of places to go because that's where I always go to blow off steam."

"I see." Aquino noted. "What happened after? Did you start a new relationship with McMath right then?"

JJ shook her head. "We became friends with benefits first. The relationship aspect didn't come until a little bit later… and so did the bad things."

"Will you please elaborate on that?"

Although it hurt to talk about the ways that Baylor had abused her (especially the sexual ways) and how he had broken her arm, JJ got through all of it with zero tears and her head held high.

"Thank you for telling me all of that, Agent Jareau; I imagine that getting those things out in the open can't have been easy." Aquino told her. "Would you like to take a break, or perhaps have a drink of water?"

JJ said yes to the question about water, and when a cup was given to her, she drank the refreshing liquid gratefully.

"Do you have any more questions for me?" JJ asked as she set the now-empty cup down on the tabletop in front of her.

"Not many."

"Then go for it."

"I like your attitude." Aquino complimented, mostly very thankful that JJ was being so cooperative with him. "Do you have any idea why McMath would go from Quantico, Virginia to New York City in less than a night?"

"It's probably because he was mad at me and wanted to get away. I don't know too much about his past, and things of that sort." JJ said honestly. "At least, I don't know much past what he told me."

"Can you tell me what he did tell you?"

"He was born here in Manhattan, and he has a twin sister, but they've been orphans since birth because they never knew their father, and their mother died in childbirth."

"No grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins?"

JJ shook her head. "Not that I know of."

"Is there anything you can tell us about McMath's twin, like maybe a name?"

"Baylor never told me her name, but he did say that she's in the NYPD and that she's been without her children or her husband since 9/11."

Aquino began to say something else, but whatever it was, it never got out because the door banged open and Hotch hurried into the room, looking like someone had lit a fire under him.

"Hotch?" JJ questioned, standing immediately.

"McMath struck again," he said, speaking directly to her. "And he hasn't done any killing, but there was a mother was carjacked up in the Upper East Side, near the East Harlem Border."

JJ put her good hand over her heart as she felt fear begin to mount inside it. "Has an Amber Alert been issued, and how many children were involved?"

"An alert is being put out as we speak, and there are two children involved: a three-year-old girl, and her baby sister, but JJ, you'll never believe who the mother is."

JJ's brain already hurt too much to even warrant a guess. "Dear God, who?"

"JJ, it's Elle."