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A/n thank you all for your kind reviews. I genuinely appreciate your support. Here we are after "Somebody's Watching."

Misunderstandings

JJ paced the length of her living room as she tried to work off the sparking anger that refused to let her sit still. She cursed Lila Archer under her breath and had a few choice words for Spencer, as well.

Her eyes fell on his last letter. She'd found it in her mail the day after their return from California, and she hadn't opened it yet out of stubborn irritation.

JJ finally snatched up her phone and dialed Spencer's number. She had something to say to him. She thought as her eyes found the tabloid sheet on her coffee table that showed Spencer and Lila on the front page. The headline screamed in giant letters. Who is Lila Archer's, New Man?"

"JJ," she heard him answer, and the question in his voice further stoked her temper.

"Spencer," she said and heard him take in a breath of shock at her tone. "You saw the tabloids? Nice shot. You look intense."

"Why are you so angry?"

"Because I heard all about it from Morgan, and I saw you talking to her. You were quite cozy."

"Then you didn't see what you thought you saw. We were talking. Lila asked me to call her, and I refused firmly. I told her more than once."

"Really."

"Yes. If you'd let me explain as I've tried to do for three days, you'd know that Lila pulled me into the swimming pool. I didn't jump in with her. She kissed me, but I pushed her away and told her that I was seeing someone else, someone that I care for deeply.'

"Spence –"

"No, don't start calling me that again, not after three days of addressing me as Spencer or Dr. Reid."

JJ finally heard the unhappiness in his voice, and she tried to apologize. "Spencer, I'm so sorry I was – "

"What, JJ? Were you jealous? You judged a situation before you knew the details. Yes, I was attracted to her. She's my type, in looks only. In personality, not at all. I was flattered at first and then annoyed with her attitude."

"I'm sorry."

"Do you want to know about every girl I've ever found attractive?"

"You don't have to –"

"No, you're the one that made assumptions. Let me dispel them for you. The first pretty blond I liked was Stacey Barakowski. She was the girl next door. I was eight, and she was ten. We didn't go to the same school, but I always saw her after school and on weekends. She had long wavy blond hair and green eyes. She was two inches taller than me. When I wasn't taking care of mom or the house, we'd hang out. She kissed me on July 7th, 1991, then she moved away three weeks later. I was devastated.

"Spencer, I – "

"The next one," Spencer went on as if he didn't hear her and her hands began to tremble as she held the phone. "Was a girl in high school. Her name was Alexa Lisbon, and she was the definition of a high school mean girl. Actually, it was a hundred times worse than that, but I don't want to talk about the details. One day, maybe I will tell you, and you'll understand. She was seventeen, and I was twelve. She tricked me into thinking she liked me, and it ended – horribly. She was blond, blue-eyed, and beautiful."

"Spencer, I'm sorry."

"Then I met Stardust Clementine Peters. Her parents were flower children, and she hated her name. Everyone called her Star. She was so beautiful and brilliant. She was my lab partner at Cal-Sci when I was eighteen. I had no idea she was engaged until it was too late."

JJ didn't speak again because the anger in her had fled, and she felt only sadness and pity.

"We had a chemistry project together, and one afternoon we finished it, and she decided we needed to celebrate. It was the first and only time I got drunk and high. The next thing I knew, I was waking up naked in my bed, and there was a note on the bedside table."

"God, Spencer. I am sorry."

"She was blond, blue-eyed, funny, and I thought I loved her."

"What do you want me to say?"

She heard him sigh. "I want you to tell me why you're so mad."

"I'm – I don't know. I guess I was jealous. I thought we had the start of something, and then I hear Morgan talking about finding you soaking wet, and I see you talking to Lila with all those reporters around, and you looked – I'm sorry I don't even know anymore."

"JJ. I was talking to her, but I was telling her from a distance, I might add, that I couldn't stay in touch. I told her that I had someone at home and that I – God, I don't want to say this on the phone, JJ. I need to see you."

"All right. I want to see you, too."

"Before I say goodbye, I need to ask you something. Did you read the last letter I sent you? The one I wrote from California. Because if you did, I don't understand how you can be so upset with me."

JJ put aside her phone a few minutes later after agreeing to meet Spencer later for a meal and a talk. She went to the letter opened it. Tears fell as she read it, and she threw herself down on the sofa for a good cry.

Later, after their supper date, JJ sat up in bed with a pillow at her back and her laptop table over her legs. She pondered what to write to answer his letter and the revelation he'd made when they'd ate in candlelight and soft music.

"Dearest Spence,

I'm so sorry for getting so upset with you. I was wrong. I forgot that this is new to you and that you're not used to attention from pretty girls.

JJ stopped and crossed out that line. That was very condescending and a bit passive-aggressive.

He is the one looking at another girl.

She ignored the voice in her head that tried to rile her. JJ crumbled the paper and tried again. After several attempts to get her words right, she sighed and said to the room. "Stop it. Just tell him what you said to his face tonight, and everything will be alright."

JJ sat up straight, wiped tears from her cheeks, took a sip from the bottle of water sitting on her bedside table, and began to write.

Dearest Spence,

I am so sorry. I read your letter before we met for supper, and the contents made me see that I was wrong to prejudge you. I hope you know that I reacted irrationally, and it's something I have to work on.

I hope you believed me when I said I love you. When you told me you loved me tonight, I was glad and scared because sometimes it feels like everything is happening too fast, but then I think about it, and it feels like we've known each other forever.

Please forgive me for my petty jealousy about someone that doesn't mean anything to you. I can see that now. I don't want us to end before we have another chance.

Once again, I do love you, Spencer Reid.

Yours faithfully,

JJ

PS The next time you guard a beautiful woman, I'm going to insist on backing you up, so you don't end up like a drowned rat.

JJ smirked over her last line and put the letter and her laptop table on the floor. She felt like three years had passed between their phone conversation and now. She shut out the light and, for the first time in days, fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.