CHAPTER 3
As a profiler, Jo was an expert at reading the people she came in contact with, be it colleagues, witnesses, perps or just everyday people. What people often forgot was that she was equally good, if not better, at reading herself, and sometimes she truly hated it.
At 42, she couldn't say she was dissatisfied with her life. She had a job she loved, worked with people she cherished like a second family, had a wonderful son who was almost a grown man now… and therein laid the problem. She was starting to feel lonely.
She'd had Tyler when she was very young, barely 20, completely unprepared to take care for a child. As a consequence, she had married Russ, the child's father, and for a few years they had managed, they had been happy even. She had wanted a career for herself, though, and there had started her problems. Russ had gotten a position at the New York Crime Lab by then, so they had all moved there, where Jo herself started at the FBI. In Russ's eyes, she had become more accomplished than him, because although she was a rookie, she was already extremely good, and the Bureau looked more glamorous in people's opinion than the Crime Lab.
They had started fighting. Nothing major at first, but Russ had started to take out his increasing frustration on her, and Jo felt she didn't deserve it. She was a good mother, a good wife and a good cop, surely not perfect, but not as Russ was making her out to be. She had tried to smooth things out between them by agreeing to come to work at the Crime Lab with him, since she was actually fascinated with the job to begin with; at first things had actually worked, everybody had welcomed her warmly and nobody seemed to really care if she was married to the boss.
The first years at the Lab had been great. She had made fast friends with Sheldon, Danny and Lindsay, and finally Adam, the lovable lab rat. He had been cause for new tension with her husband when the higher ups had asked him to fire several employees, Adam being one of them; she had firmly opposed him on his choice to go ahead with their plan, and from then on she had become the champion of all the lab rats, much to Russ's chagrin. He had accused her of undermining his authority; that was the first time Jo had actually thrown him out of their apartment.
Soon Russ resigned from his position as Head of the Crime Lab, and a few months later, when it became apparent that his new position in the NYPD would not do their relationship any good, Jo had asked for the divorce, deeming Tyler, seventeen back then, big enough to understand. He did, mostly. Dr. Langstone had come and gone, leaving a bigger mess than when he'd arrived, and she'd been left picking up the pieces of the team ever since.
Meanwhile, Danny and Lindsay had gotten together, fought, made up, conceived a daughter and married, had Lucy and got targeted by a mad killer, until Lindsay had put a bullet in him. Sheldon had dated some. All Jo had managed since her divorce had been a sweet if terribly awkward date with the resident ME, Sid Hammerback, straight outta his second divorce; they had decided, by mutual accord, to remain friends and never repeat the experience.
It was all very unfair, Jo mused as she prepared for her evening out with Mac. Not only was she single, all her friends, either from the Bureau of from the Lab, were either avoiding her as a result of her complicated relationship with Russ, or just too busy to spend time with her. With Tyler now moving to his own apartment, shared with other students, she felt more alone than ever, a feeling she was not accustomed to.
Those were all the reasons why she was almost convinced to jump Mac Taylor's bones as soon as their dinner was over. He seemed trustworthy, and she'd already established she was physically attracted to him. It didn't have to mean anything, just fun between two adults. Except…
Except she didn't do anything. He immediately noticed her melancholy mood, and forced her to talk; at first she refused, but after gentle prodding she gradually opened up to him. He told her he could relate before engulfing her in a hug. She broke down then; so much for seducing him! His embrace proved to be equally, if not more, therapeutic than sex, however. He gently rocked them as Jo cried her eyes out, and after half an hour, she almost felt like her old self. He smiled gently, kissing her on the cheek before saying goodbye.