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A/n thank you for your kind remarks, everyone. Here is the next chapter set at the of Hi-Fi.

JJ attempted to keep her mind off gunshots, exploding vehicles, and terrorist suicides, by packing her bags. In a couple of hours, they'd be on the jet back to Quantico, and back to normalcy.

What does normal mean?

For JJ, her normal of the past several weeks getting to know Spence in a new way. They hung out together at their favorite coffee shop, and sometimes they took walks together and talked of everything. They played poker on the jet. Still, there were things she didn't understand, like why she was upset if he didn't answer the phone in the evening, or times when he was distant and had the look of someone fighting a vast inner battle.

JJ shook her head and picked up her toiletries bag and zipped into her go bag. She looked around and realized that she was ready to leave, but she still had over an hour to wait. She stood in the middle of her hotel room and tried to decide what to do. New feelings careened around in her head, and she wanted to scream with frustration over nearly losing Hotch and Morgan. And what about Spence, she thought as she began to pace the room. She'd seen the unhappiness and the fear in his eyes after he'd witnessed the suicide of a fanatic. Now, one of their own was dead, and Hotch was nearly deafened.

Talk to him!

"Now's not the time," JJ said to an empty room. "We're expected to fly home in an hour."

Still, her feet took her to the door because when she'd seen the surveillance video of Hotch's SUV blowing up, and she'd realized it could've been any of them, but most importantly it could've been Spence, she couldn't stop the realization that he was the reason she'd broken things off with Will. She loved him the way she'd never loved another man, and it threatened to overwhelm her like the incoming ocean tide.

JJ grabbed her bags and keys and hurried from the room. It was time to confront the one thing she wanted more than breath or water or even life. She rushed to the elevator and prayed he'd say the words she longed to hear.

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Reid entered his hotel room and shut the door hard. He tried to get his breathing and his shaking hands under control. He stared at his living area and wanted to remind himself that once again, the team had prevailed, but oh the cost. The loss of a fellow agent and Hotch nearly deafened, not to mention, Morgan almost blowing up in an ambulance full of explosives. Reid held up his hands and thought about holding his gun on a terrorist and watching him cut his own throat.

"Kill him, Daddy! Please!"

"Jack, when does it end?"

"Tomorrow."

The roar of the gunshot and the smell of gunpowder layered over the coppery stench of blood and the sight of brain matter splattered over the bathroom walls and floor, bloomed in his brain as he stared at his shaking fingers.

Why?

Hotch and Rossi would tell him that saving the terrorist from committing suicide and thus ensuring his status as a martyr was impossible. If only that were what bothered him the most. Rage, at the death of four Secret Service Agents, and innocent people gunned down to bring in the FBI and spring the trap for their target, poured acid into his stomach.

Why did so many people have to die? When does it end?

Reid blew out another long breath and realized that his hands had stopped shaking and his heart no longer acted as though it wanted to leap out of his chest. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the hotel door and was startled out of his thoughts when someone knocked on the door. He jolted, then turned and opened it to find JJ standing there with her bags.

"Can I talk to you?"

Reid stared at her, and she saw that his hands trembled. He took in her gaze and shoved both them into his pockets. His lovely eyes shifted again, and he sighed. "After you."

She preceded him into the room and stood just inside the entrance to the tiny living area that held a love seat and a table in one corner with two chairs and a lamp. A window, covered with blue curtain panels and a television on a wooden stand completed the room. A door lay to her left and right. She assumed they were a bedroom and bathroom. Another door just inside the entrance was a closet, she presumed. Everything in the room, matched and decorated in blue and gold tones, including the carpet and the upholstery. It was the same layout as her room, but a different color scheme.

"So, um, what did you want to ask?"

JJ gestured to the small sofa. Reid hesitated, then sat as she took one of the chairs at the table and turned it to face him. JJ sat and studied him with eyes that saw too much, then she said. "Spence, um, God, this is so difficult to say."

Reid wanted to touch her hair and feel it's texture while he said the right words to encourage her. "JJ, it's okay. We said we're friends, remember."

"I know that we said we'd be friends – but I want more."

Reid sat stock still as a marble statue tucked away in an obscure corner of a vast city museum. His brain raced with confusion, sadness, hope, and love. He couldn't force his mouth to move and ask for clarification from her.

"I realized something that I should've seen months ago. I can't believe it took this case and possibly losing you to make me realize it. Now I do see, and I wanted to say it before I lost my nerve. I'm falling in love with you."

Reid continued to resemble a statue. He had to be dreaming! Soon, his alarm would ring, and he'd wake up with the same despair that had plagued the aftermath of his dreams about JJ since the day he'd met her nearly four years ago.

"Spence?"

Her voice finally penetrated the cloud around his vision and his hearing. He focused on her face and saw what he'd always hoped to see in her eyes – love.

"I, ah, I'm not good at expressing how I feel JJ, but if you mean it –"

"I do, Spence. I thought I broke up with Will because he wanted too much from me, but now I realize that I love you. I want to be with you, Spence and I couldn't hurt you by pretending to love another man to fill a void."

"JJ…"

"No," she rose from her seat and joined him on the tiny sofa. She was so close he could feel her body heat reaching out to him, and the scent of her perfume, like vanilla and roses, overwhelmed him. Her blue eyes stayed glued to his face, and one of her hands gripped his fingers. "Call me Jennifer, Spence."

"Jennifer," he savored the words like fine chocolate. "I like calling you Jennifer."

"I like hearing it."

She leaned in, and her hair slid forward to caress his cheek. It was as soft as silk, and he wanted to tangle his hands in it and tug her forward for a kiss. "I love you." He breathed and gasped when her lips met his.

They kissed each other like two people who'd never touched, or felt, or loved until that moment. Her warm tongue touched his lips, and he parted them to allow her entrance to his mouth and tongue. She tasted like the coffee they'd consumed and like something he couldn't identify but was pleasant and arousing.

"Jennifer," He groaned, then let her go and sat up straight. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

"You weren't, and that's a good thing. You need to get out of your head once in a while."

Reid blew out a breath. "I guess you're right. I should thank you because all I can think about is what might've happened –"

"Hey, we're all fine. No one is going anywhere, Spence."

"I guess I don't have to ask how you know what I was feeling. You always know."

"I understand because I feel the same way. I finally realized that I love you because I was so afraid of losing one of us. I don't want to continue to live in denial."

"I'm glad. I don't know how much longer I could've played the understanding friend."

"I'm sorry I made you feel like I don't care."

"I get it, Jen. Let's go from here, okay."

"I'd say that's a great idea."

Reid kissed her forehead and stroked her hair. "Thank you. Now, how are you?"

JJ sighed. "I'm tired, upset and ready to go home. I want to forget about New York City for a while. You want to go out on a proper date?"

Reid nodded his head. "Yeah, I think that sounds wonderful."

"Good, because I have an idea that'll make you smile."

"Tickets to Comic-Con," Reid asked with a smirk. JJ smacked his arm. "Ow."

"Then stop with the sarcasm, Spence. Even if I wanted to go, it's not the right time of year for Comic-Con."

Reid eyed her then he grinned like a kid who'd just received the greatest gift of his life. "How do you know that? I thought you hated the idea of Comic-Con."

JJ narrowed her eyes, then she shook her head and laughed. "I walked right into that one."

"Yes, you did," replied a happy Reid.

"I read up on it, okay. That doesn't mean I want to go with you."

Reid quietly chuckled at her annoyed expression. "I thought you said you loved me."

JJ tried to look irritated, but Reid's eyes made her sigh and shook her head. "I do love you, Spence, but that love doesn't include standing in a line that wraps around two city blocks and subjecting myself to CosPlay."

"You'd make a gorgeous Doctor's companion. Polly comes to mind."

"Stop it," JJ pushed him away. "We're going to be late. Do you want Emily, Garcia, and Rossi wondering why we're the last to arrive at the jet?"

"No," Reid said. "I'm not ready to tell anyone, yet."

JJ nodded in agreement. "You're right; I like having a secret. Anyway, I haven't had a chance to explain to them about Will. You think that will distract them from realizing that we're together."

Reid shrugged his shoulders and went to grab his bag from his bedroom. "I don't know," he called back over his shoulder. "We'll find out in a few minutes."

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Reid fidgeted in front of his bathroom mirror. His hands went to where his tie usually hung at his neck, but it wasn't there. JJ had said for him to dress casually for their date. He'd put on a light purple dress shirt, and some blue slacks with his usual sneakers and mismatched sock. He hoped he'd dressed appropriately, then decided that it was too late to change. He ran one of his hands through his new haircut and wondered if JJ would like it. He concluded that he looked ridiculous and was just about to go back to his closet when a knock sounded at his door.

Maybe if you don't answer, she'll go away, and you won't have to make a fool of yourself.

The knock sounded again, and Reid realized that if he didn't answer, JJ would find some way to make him suffer. He sighed again, pushed a lock of hair behind his ear and hurried to the front door. He hesitated and jumped when JJ said. "I know you're in there, Spence. Open the door."

Reid decided that he didn't want the neighbors to hear her, so he opened the door. JJ began to speak, then her eyebrows went into her hair, "Well, hello," she greeted and slipped past him into the room. JJ shut the door and tugged him into her arms. She kissed him until he couldn't breathe, then pulled away and began to circle him as he blushed bright red. "Jennifer."

"Shh, I want to take it all in," JJ said as she looked him up and down. "I was right," she smirked.

"Right about what," Reid asked as he tried to stop blushing.

"I knew if you got a haircut, you'd rock the look. You are smoking, Dr. Reid."

"Smoking," Reid asked in confusion.

"Hot," JJ explained, "As in handsome, good looking, aesthetically pleasing to the eye, a total babe."

"You're exaggerating. It's a haircut that I decided to get this morning because I was tired of the length and I wanted a change."

"Babe, there is a reason Morgan calls you Pretty Boy."

"Really."

JJ walked up to him and kissed him again. "Yes. Why do you think I greeted you so enthusiastically?"

"You hated my hair?"

"Spence, I love your unique sense of style, especially your purple scarf. I love everything about you, including your hair, but you have to admit that it did need a bit of a trim."

Spencer sighed loudly. "You're right; it was getting out of control. I just wanted to see if you'd say anything if I cut it."

JJ began to laugh. "Oh, you."

"Come on, I'm looking forward to what you have planned," Reid said with enthusiasm.

"All right," JJ agreed. "Let's go."

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"That was awesome," Reid said two hours later as they strolled down K street. "How did you know I hadn't taken the Haunted DC tour yet."

"Perhaps your profiling skills are rubbing off on me."

Spencer stopped her as people passed around them like water around stones in a stream bed. He took in the brown leather jacket she wore over a royal blue tee shirt and a pair of jeans. She'd pulled her golden hair into a high ponytail and for some reason, baring her face emphasized her incredible eyes. He'd once heard the girls talk about colors of clothing and how it could change eye color. Her shirt made her eyes darken to the shade of polished sapphires. She was so beautiful it hurt his heart. Still, all her beauty paled in comparison to her brilliant mind, and her gentle, but tough nature, and what aroused him the most about her had to be how she did her job. He loved watching her handle the press like an orchestra conductor with a beautiful piece of old, classical music.

"Jennifer," he whispered as his thoughts raced in and out of his head in an instant. "You're a terrific profiler, because you're the one that chooses what we do. Don't you know we understand that, and I love you for it? You're amazing."

He had the satisfaction of watching her blush. "Thank you, Spence. Come on; the day's not over yet."

Reid took her hand, and they resumed their walk until JJ indicated a small café. "Let's get something to eat, and then I think we should go to a movie and make out in the back."

Reid smirked at her. "That's something I've never done."

"Good," JJ leaned up to kiss him. "I hope we enjoy many first times together."