Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds.
AN/Sorry, this idea was given by 'Izzie . ss', FF doesn't like me, so I don't know what happened there :) A lot of you guessed JJ's secret, and probably even more than the PMs that I got guessed it right. So, without further ado, Enjoy!
JJ smiled. It had been almost a month since the entire unit made it their mission to discover her secret, and she was fairly certain that they were no closer than they had been a month ago. With only three people in the entire unit (herself being one of them) that knew her secret, she felt relatively safe. It wasn't that she wanted to tell David Rossi or Penelope Garcia, but they would have found out anyway and it was better for her to be able to swear them both to secrecy than to worry about them blowing the entire thing.
She looked over her shoulder, making sure that she was not facing another impromptu 'Stake out', and entered the FBI academy. She saw Agent Anderson walking down the hall. If he knew what JJ was up to, her secret would be lost. "Hey Anderson."
"Hey JJ, what are you doing here?" He asked happily, hoping to walk her to wherever she was going. Something that wasn't a secret in the BAU was Anderson's crush on the blonde liaison.
"Oh, I just had to talk to Rossi, he is teaching his class tonight and I need his signature." JJ lied easily, she'd told more lies to cover up what she did on her free nights than she did her entire time in the FBI before it.
"Do you want me to come with you?" He asked hopefully.
"No, I'll be just fine." JJ said, walking quickly away from the junior agent. "Have a great night."
"Bye JJ." Anderson said, turning around to say something else but she was already long gone.
"Today's lecture is on Gary Ridgeway, commonly known as---" Rossi left the statement hanging, hoping that one of his profiling students would fill in the blank.
"The Green River Killer." JJ filled in.
"Very good Agent Jareau." Rossi smiled encouragingly. JJ was truthfully the top of the class, even without being Rossi's obvious favorite. In David Rossi's opinion, JJ should have been a profiler years ago, she was showing extreme talent. "What was his victim type?"
"Women, nearly all prostitutes." JJ said again, continuing, "But this is not surprising because prostitutes tend to be the most common victim type."
"Correct." Rossi said, adding under his breath "--as always." JJ beamed slightly, she was glad that she was good at this profiling game. "If someone was going to copy Ridgeway's crimes, what would you look for in a profile."
JJ knew the answer, but sunk down in seat anyway. She had promised herself that she would restrict herself to a three question maximum. JJ knew it was juvenile, but JJ really didn't want to be classified as a suck up. The class remained quiet for a few minutes before Rossi interrupted the loaded silence. "Agent Jareau, what would you look for?"
"Well, most copy-cats aren't those that you'd normally suspect. School-shooters, those that have suicidal tendencies and usually in their late teens or early twenties…" JJ explained, "So, I'd probably look for school records, recluses and loners. I'd probably look at the newest crimes, trying to see what the copy-cat fixated on—like if all of the victims were prostitutes, he would likely be a male, 18-25."
Rossi nodded, impressed. "That was kind of a trick question, it's hard to profile without actual victims, you make a very good point."
Rossi continued the lecture, and JJ once again found that she didn't have to take the copious notes she was used to. Most of the applications of profiles were things she had experienced with the team several times. Finally, at the end of the class, Rossi approached her.
"JJ, nice job." He said sincerely.
"Thanks." She blushed slightly, "Now, the others are starting to wonder about my personal life, so if you can just make sure—"
"Make sure I don't tell them." He finished for her, and added, "You'd think we had only had this conversation for the first time. But here's another topic that I'm sure you're sick of--"
She rolled her eyes and spoke before he could finish. "Don't even start. I don't want to be a profiler, so I don't need to be certified. I just want to be able to do my job better."
"But all you need is to have a senior profiler review a profile for a case!" Rossi pointed out, this discussion seemed to happen after every class.
"Don't you think I know that? I'd have you do it if I could, but you're the teacher, so I can't. I'm not asking anybody to look over my shoulder while I know how much other paperwork they've got to do." JJ insisted again.
"Paperwork can wait—" Rossi continued the too familiar argument.
"Like I've said a million times. I do not want to join the BAU profiler's club. I just want to be able to help more. I want to be more than 'eye-candy' for the team." JJ rebutted.
Rossi's eyebrows shot up in surprise, this was a new development. "Who ever called you 'eye-candy'? You do a lot for the unit—"
"Rossi, I'm not saying that I don't do my job at all, I just want to do it better."
"JJ, why are you so content to be living below your potential?" Rossi asked, using the concerned teacher rouse.
"Don't you even start that!" JJ shouted incredulously, "First you are telling me that I do my job fine and now I am living below my potential?" JJ shook her head in laughter. "You are so stubborn!"
"Says the woman who will not finish the profiling program because she doesn't want to ask her coworkers for help." Rossi shot back.
"This isn't about asking for help." JJ tried to persuade, "I. Do. Not. Want. To. Be. A. Profiler." JJ said, annunciating every word.
"Then why are you taking the class?"
"We've already been through this! I am taking this class because I love my job, and I want to do everything that I can to do my job the best I can." JJ tried to explain. When she fought with Rossi, it was always like she was running around in circles. "You know what? I'm going home so I won't have to hear the rest of your sermon. See you tomorrow." JJ said, turning to walk out the door.
Rossi groaned loudly, not understanding what Hotch saw in the stubborn woman. He wasn't blind and he definitely saw the attraction between the two, even if they were both too stubborn and jaded to make a move on their own.
"Hey, Rossi." Emily knocked softly on his office door the next morning.
"What can I help you with?" Rossi asked kindly, carefully manuvering the profiling class list far from her view.
"Hotch said you might be looking for someone to come in and do a guest part for your class tonight, I just wanted you to know that I'm free." She offered kindly. Rossi remembered the discussion with Hotch that it would be a good idea for his students to see different methods of arriving at the same profile, but he knew that a certain student wouldn't be too happy that her secret was blown.
Then again, Rossi thought to himself, if Emily knew, then JJ might be able to finally pass his class after almost six months--twice longer than most students, though she had covered the material in a quarter of the time. "Come by the academy at ten after five." He instructed, keeping his face impassive and added deviously, "All the students should be there by then."