It had been an hour since JJ had told Emily to leave, she hadn't been paying much attention to the noise and couldn't tell if Emily had left or not. As JJ walked out of her room, she wasn't sure if she wanted Emily to be there or not, she had kicked her out but there was a part of her that hoped Emily hadn't listened and had stayed.
There was no evidence of Emily still being there in the living room, and after checking the guest room for Emily's bag it was official that Emily was gone. The only trace that Emily had ever been there was the pillows in not quite the right spot. JJ didn't know why she felt a pang of sadness- she had gotten what she wanted- for Emily to leave.
JJ adjusted the pillows to her liking and went to check on Ben, luckily, he was still fast asleep in a blanket JJ recognize from the pile Penelope had bought. Moving closer JJ knelt next to the bunkbed, the blanket was a soft grey and JJ thought it seemed familiar, when she moved to swipe her hand over the fabric JJ knew exactly what it was.
It was Emily's weighted blanket s
he would use on girl's nights; Emily must have given to him to use during his meltdown, the blanket smelled like Emily. In that moment JJ realized how much she wanted Emily back- in more ways than one.
JJ left the room wanted to forget about the blanket, and in the process forget about Emily- though that would be impossible.
……………………….
It had been 2 days since Emily left, JJ hadn't old Ben why she just told him Emily was gone- it had led to another meltdown which JJ had no idea how to deal with, and she didn't want to call spencer- in fact she didn't want to call anyone but the team apparently had different ideas.
In just the past 2 days she had ignored calls from: Hotch, Penelope, spencer, and, Elle? Elle hadn't called JJ personally in years- there was no drama after the divorce but it did seem a bit strange to be calling your Ex-wife for no apparent reason, the more she thought about its JJ realized it was probably Pens doing.
She didn't even consider calling anyone on the team back, but something in the back of her mind told her to call Elle, so against her better judgement JJ dialed Elle's number, and just like when they were married Elle picked up after two rings.
"Hey JJ" there was nothing in Elle's tone that implied this would just be a short and friendly conversation.
The second JJ heard Elle's voice tears welled in her eyes, by no means was JJ still in love but that didn't take away from the fact that Elle was second only to Luke for years and knew exactly what JJ needs and wants- and more importantly knows how to set JJ straight.
"Jen you there?" JJ realized she hadn't said anything since the start of the call. JJ panicked and hung-up mumbling something.
Calling Elle was a bad idea, it would just turn into a therapy session, at least that what JJ thought. JJ was in no way in her right mind, everything she did every decision she made was controlled by Bro Jesse and 'The Downstairs' that's what it had been like her whole life, even before she was taken.
What if somehow, they didn't completely get rid of the downstairs, there might be other campuses, what if they were watching JJ, what if they wanted to hurt her, or worse hurt Ben. If she didn't do everything right and perfect, she would be taken again, and JJ really didn't want that for a third time.
Logically none of this made sense, but it made sense to JJ.
……………………….
As soon as Emily left JJ home, she called Hotch, she couldn't just leave her, they needed to get through to JJ before something bad happened. Ben needed a stable adult if he was going to heal, but taking him away from JJ was the last thing Emily wanted to do. On top of all that JJ cannot heal on her own.
The team didn't have a case at the moment so they were all at Quantico, hotch told Emily to meet them there so they could all decide together how to go about the situation.
Once Emily was there and everyone was sitting at the round table it was time to start talking and making decisions but so far no one had said a word.
"Okay fine let's start by stating the obvious" Rossi said "Jennifer clearly needs help and is grieving and likely had PTSD but doesn't want to feel like she is being babied"
"I don't think I was babying her though" Emily said
"You probably weren't but JJ lost a lot of control when she was taken and I think she just wants some of it back, I know I would" Morgan said leaning forward at the table.
"I think Morgan's right, but I don't think we need to just leave JJ alone." Hotch said "We need to keep her and Ben safe without making feel out of control, if she feels out of control again there's no telling what will happen"
That was true, there was no way to know what JJ would do. Something like this had never happened before, after the Hankel case JJ took a few days off, and there had been moments where JJ needed time to recover but nothing like this. But now JJ had a kid to take care of even if she was only his sister, and on top of that she was dealing with PTSD from all her life and was grieving the death of her best friend.
"I know we can't go back into her house for a while" Emily was hurt at JJ kicking her out but she could compartmentalize until there was a better time to process it.
"I could see if she had security cameras I could hack into" Garcia suggested
"Let's use breaking the law as a last resort" Rossi said.
Emily rubbed her eyes; she knew JJ was hurting and she knew she needed space but she wanted nothing more than to rush back to JJs house and just hold her. "Is there anyone she trusts other than us we could- maybe another friend"
Hotch and Garcia looked at each other both thinking the same thing, Hotch nodded lightly once to let Garcia know it was okay to say it.
"Elle"
"They were pretty close" Spencer who had been sitting in silence said.
"Not only that" Penelope started "They were married"
There was a long period where no one spoke, the only people who knew about the marriage were Penelope and Aaron so finding out the coworker you had known for years was married was a big shock.
"Were?" Emily knew that had been together but not married, she had to stop herself from being overly jealous.
"The got divorced when Elle left, no hard feelings involved, but Elle might know what to do" Penelope explained
"Let's see if we can get into contact with Elle and go from there" Rossi said and Penelope started typing on her laptop.
……………………….
2 days later Elle was back at the BAU, Hotch had explained everything, Elle knew better about JJs childhood then the others from what JJ had told her. The team had been trying regularly to call JJ but they were always sent right to voicemail.
Elle had the idea that if things got much worse, they would call Aunts Rebecca and Mabel, they had known JJ all through childhood and might be able to get through to her if the team couldn't, but they hadn't got to that point yet.
Emily expected things to be awkward between her and Elle- okay that a lie Emily expected her own self to be awkward around Elle. Elle had no reason to be awkward. In reality things were great between the two, they worked well together and both had JJs best interest at heart.
Despite Hotch not thinking it was a good idea Penelope hacked into JJs cameras in every room except the bathrooms and the bedrooms since there weren't cameras in there, but they could be every other room. They didn't see a whole lot of JJ during the day unless she was cleaning or cooking and they only ever saw Ben during meals or waling to the bathroom.
Everyone was working while Elle was sitting in Penelope's office when Elle phone rang with a familiar phone number, she got Garcia's attention and answered.
"Hey JJ" Elle made sure to let JJ know she meant business with her tone. A few moments passed and Elle could here JJ taking Deep breathes. "I Know you don't want to talk right now but we are worried."
Several more moments passed with no response "Jen you there?" without warning JJ hung up.
"Well, what did she say" Penelope asked
"Nothing, she just hung up." Elle said and sighed
……………………….
JJ set down the phone she didn't want or need to talk to anyone, she would take some time off then would be back at work good as new she didn't know why the team was so worried about her.
Her phone rang Elle's name popping up, JJ ignored it and left her phone alone in the kitchen and went to go sit in her office. She pulled up her email and one email immediately caught her eye. "Security Warning"
Upon further inspection JJ found it was from the company she using for the cameras in her house warning her there had been a breech. JJ thought it had to be 'The Downstairs' who else would be watching her.
JJ was panicking, she was being watched she should have known they didn't really get rid of it; they would always be in her life no matter what she did. Even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, she ran back to her Kitchen and called Garcia.
"JJ honey is you ready to talk, I can get someone else on the phone if you want" Penelope's voice was surprised.
"No. Not that, I just got an email saying someone was watching my cameras, and I don't know what to do" JJ was frantic and could hear Ben coming down the stairs. "God I'm going to have to move or something."
Back at the BAU Penelope had put JJ on speaker in the round table room. No one knew what to do they could bite the bullet and tell JJ the truth that it was them watching her, or lie to her and risk her being madder just at a later date.
"JJ I'm so sorry" Emily made the decision for them.
Everyone held their breathe waiting on JJ to responded and when she did no one thought they had ever heard JJ so mad.
"It's Y'all isn't it" JJ spat "See this is what I talking about, you are all babying me! you wont even let me be at home without somehow trying to babysit me! Fuck you" JJ threw her phone against the nearest wall affectively hanging up and breaking her phones screen completely off.
………………………….
A/N: i have so been neglecting the authors notes so my bad, i want you all no know i take suggestions VERY seriously no if there's something you really want to see let me know and i'll see how i can fit it in
stay hydrated folks
reviews are appreciated but not required;) (are y'all getting bored of that