AN/ I don't own Criminal Minds.

"So, JJ's really gone." Morgan said to Hotch, taking another sip from his beer, as they sat at the bar while the rest of the BAU had gone to play pool. The team had gone out for drinks after another long case, and it was the first time the entire team had been together since JJ's departure--the feeling of loss was overwhelming. They knew that their fluidity would take a hit when she left; it was to be expected when a valued member of a team left, and JJ was the glue that kept them going on most cases. But JJ's leaving had been much harder than anyone had expected; no one realized how much the team relied on her until she left. The temp agent was decent, she had done her job, but comparing her to JJ was like the difference between a candle and a forest fire. JJ was more intense, passionate about what she did. Agent Saunders just didn't have the brilliance nor the creativity that made JJ the best liaison the unit had ever known--ever.

"She's gone." Hotch nodded solemnly. He had been intense since JJ had walked out of the BAU, his anger rising at the smallest of situations and he often felt powerless to stop it. He knew it was wrong, and even when he had gone on a tirade and seen the formation of tears in Agent Anderson after the man failed to get his consult reports turned in correctly--Hotch knew he needed to back off, but he just couldn't find that middle ground that he always could when JJ was around. He wanted so badly to have JJ back, often daydreaming about her as she walked quickly from her office to the bullpen, telling the team cases before she had even had her first cup of coffee for the day. He thought of the times they spent together at the park, how she would laugh at Henry and Jack playing excitedly on the worn playground. He remembered the many meals they ate together--dinners eaten at ridiculous hours, and lunches that seemed far too short. He tried to purge his mind of the blonde, he couldn't live in a world of 'what ifs', wondering what would have happened if he had ever told JJ how he had felt.

"Have you talked to her?" Morgan asked, prying for any information that he could pass onto Garcia.

"No, why would I?" Hotch questioned, pretending like the thought of calling JJ hadn't been consuming his mind for the three weeks she'd been gone. He knew he was over acting, and that Morgan would never believe his facade, but it didn't stop him from trying.

"Maybe because you spent nearly every minute with her for the last year." Morgan pointed out the obvious. "If anyone is keeping in touch with her, my money is on you."

"What about Emily or Garcia? Those three were best friends." Hotch replied easily, trying to deflect from his friend's earlier question.

"They aren't stuck on her like you are." Morgan retorted quickly, not even having to think for a moment.

"Why does everyone keep on saying things like that?" Hotch asked rhetorically. He had thought that he'd kept his feelings for JJ a secret, but he was finding that maybe he wasn't as hard to read as he thought.

"Hotch, you don't smile--I've seen you do it six times in the entire time I've worked with you and four of them were when you were talking to JJ." Morgan leveled. "You know, she hasn't put down a down-payment on an apartment yet--it's just a month to month thing, I called her earlier. It's not too late to change her mind."

"The transfer's gone through, and JJ has no intention on coming back." If JJ was going to stay, she would have by now, Hotch was sure of it. He had watched her go, and while it had nearly killed him, he knew it was what she had to do.

"JJ, did you see the Blazers game?" Agent Anna Maxfield--Max--asked her excitedly as they chatted in the break room.

"Aw come on Max, we all know those East Coasters are football folks." A red-headed agent that JJ had just met—Agent Samantha "Sam" Gibbs--spoke up teasingly.

"Well that's a shame, I played basketball in college--it's the only real sport." Max continued.

"I played soccer in college; basketball was for the kids that couldn't make the soccer team." JJ teased, causing her coworkers to laugh heartily.

Her new friends were cut off from their retort by her ringing cell phone. "Agent Jareau." JJ answered, then rolled her eyes obviously at her coworkers who laughed at the angry reporter they could hear standing feet away from her. "I assure you; we'll let the media know the next time a violent crime occurs." JJ quickly ended the call as her colleagues looked at her in sympathy.

"I do not envy your job."

"Well, it's a tough gig, but I love the rush." JJ laughed, thinking of Garcia and what the woman would say in response to her. She would miss the BAU, but Oregon would feel like home soon enough. Her coworkers were fun and they got along, like the BAU. Her boss was a classic workaholic, just like the BAU. But she couldn't fight the feeling that while her new unit was similar, it would never be the same.

Looking down as her phone buzzed in her hand, JJ was shocked at the name that flashed on the screen. Erin Strauss.

"Agent Hotchner, could you explain to me why another qualified and competent agent has requested a transfer out of your unit after working with your team for less than a month?" Strauss asked accusingly as Hotch stood in her office, the two facing off for yet another battle of the wills.

"With all due respect, none of them have been competent. Agent Saunders was a gifted agent, but she struggled to gain the trust of the local officials and I was unaware of her desire to transfer." Hotch stated honestly and added, "though if I had been made aware, I likely wouldn't have done anything to stop it."

"The efficiency of the BAU has fallen dramatically in the last two months." Strauss stated, waiting for his reaction.

"Because you transferred an important member of our team." Hotch retorted. "We work as a family, and right now we're a man down."

"A man down who doesn't want to come back." Strauss said exasperatedly, then realized she had revealed more than she intended. She sighed, somewhat delighted to burst Aaron Hotchner's bubble, but upset at having to divulge her secret. "FBI Brass made it clear to me that they wanted the BAU functioning at full force again, they suggested I offer Agent Jareau a transfer back here and share responsibilities as a Senior Profiler and Unit Liaison. I spoke with her twenty minutes ago where she assured me that Oregon was a good move for her." She explained, loving the dumbfounded look that overtook her nemesis.

"She said what?" Hotch managed to ask.

"She said that it was made apparent to her that there was nothing left for her back in Quantico, but good friendships." Erin Strauss added, practically quoting JJ verbatim.

"Excuse me." Hotch left the room quickly, unwilling to show emotion to the woman who was so ready to plot his downfall.

JJ stood outside her car, scraping the snow and ice off her windshield. I hate the snow. She thought to herself angrily as Henry sat happily in the idling car, bundled up in his booster seat.

She wasn't sure what made her turn down the offer from the Section Chief. As much as she was getting along with her co-workers, she hated Oregon. It was the middle of February, the snow was cold and miserable, and she didn't even have football to distract her anymore. Not even the hope that it would get warmer soon encouraged her, knowing that the snow would just be replaced with rain. I hate the rain.

The move had been hard for Henry, he'd had a difficult time adjusting to a new daycare and time zone. She wasn't willing to do that to him again, not when he was just beginning to get settled. If she were honest with herself, she'd admit that the move was probably harder on her than it was on Henry. She couldn't do that to either of them again.

"Garcia, I need you to see if there's any correlation between Mitchell Reynolds and our victims." Hotch commanded as he walked into Garcia's office with his current case file in hand.

"Yes, sir." Garcia replied coldly.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, sir." Garcia spat out.

Turning as though to leave as he decided that Garcia would tell him when she got around to it, he didn't make it three footsteps before her tirade began. "I know that you're supposed to be all angry and mean faced to scare all the bad guys, but I can't believe that you wouldn't even tell my sparkling ray of Sunshine goodbye before she left. The whole callous, indifferent man thing is hot in all the old movies, but I didn't need to see it in real life. The moron actually likes you, and you weren't even nice to her. What's a girl to do when all men seem to be the sink holes of the human existence?"

"Garcia, she could have fought it if she wanted to." Hotch used the familiar excuse lamely.

"She didn't know there was anything to fight for!" Garcia cried incredulously, "JJ is the nicest person in the world, yet every man in her life has let her down. You just added your name to the list--a list that I am about ready to pulverize each member's existence."

"I don't know what you want me to do." He said quietly.

"Fight for her! You're supposed to be smart! Every man in JJ's life has given up on her, and just when I think she has a chance at happiness, you flake out on her like all the others. It took two years for her to get over Will! Will quit on her like everyone else." She seethed.

"Garcia, Will died." Hotch suddenly felt the need to defend the man's honor.

"In her arms! That stupid car crash hurt her in more ways than one! And as she held that jerk in her arms and told him to stay with her, the idiot left her like everybody else. And if he were still on this planet I'd kill him."

Hotch almost laughed at the impracticality of Garcia's argument. Will had no more control over what happened than Hotch did with what was happening now. But you COULD have fought for her, he thought to himself.

"But she was offered a chance to come back--she said no." Hotch offered the lame excuse.

"And you're an idiot if you can't see why." Garcia turned, refusing to acknowledge him.

AN/I promise, there will be a happy ending.