AN/ I don't own Criminal Minds. I forgot to mention in the last chapter that it's thanks to SSBAILEY that these have come up so quickly. She's awesome. Izzie's idea, so she's great too :)

Hotch stared at the doors to the Sacramento Police Department in thought. The case had been a particularly bad one, and Agent Green's announcement that he was asking for a transfer after this case came as no surprise.

"You know, Sacramento is 483 miles away from Portland. The average jet can make the trip in 58 minutes--faster if the BAU jet was taken and the team took a personal day in Oregon." Reid piped up, ruining the unit chief's tense silence.

"Reid..." Hotch began, becoming annoyed at how often he had discussed this with the team.

"My point is, basic logic dictates that if you find something pleasurable, and it is universally in your best interest, it's your responsibility to pursue happiness." Reid began to explain. "Also, the team was 93.2% more effective with JJ as our liaison, so you could argue that it is in the best interest of the country to go get her." He said before walking off.

Hotch had never been the epitome of spontaneity, he had always played life cautious, never allowing himself to get burned, but suddenly taking risks seemed to make sense. For months he had convinced himself that he couldn't go get her, that she wouldn't want him. But he'd never actually know until he tried. The entire team was sure that he could get her to come back, maybe he really could. He thought for a moment, wondering what would happen if he did go to Oregon. Even if she said no, he'd be back on the jet in two hours, and no one would ever have to know. Taking a leap of faith that was so out of character for him, he decided to go after what he really wanted.

As Hotch walked into the Oregon field office, he could feel adrenaline pulsing through his veins. He worried about whether he was about to do the right thing, but knew that even if it wasn't, it didn't matter. He had made his decision back in Sacramento, he would try to bring back JJ, and the closer he got to her unit, the less it seemed like he was going to take 'no' for an answer. As he got into the elevator, he noticed a woman gawking at him.

He looked at her questioningly, not knowing if he knew her or why she was staring at him.

"Your the ex-husband!" The blonde woman gasped. "You ran her out of town and now your crawling back to her?"

"Excuse me?" He asked, completely confused at what he could have done to the woman in order to invoke that reaction.

"JJ. You treated her like garbage and now you want her back." The woman shouted triumphantly. "I knew it!"

"I'm here to talk to JJ, but I'm not married to her." Hotch said, raising his eyebrow a little.

The woman shook her head to herself, muttering defeat. "You're probably confused. I tend to do that to people, I'm Agent Maxfield--Max, to everybody..." Max began to ramble. "I just noticed you from a picture that is on JJ's desk, and we have a little bet on why she doesn't date or seem to even want to, and my money was on crazy ex-husband."

Hotch stared at the woman with a blank expression. mistaking the lack of apparent emotion as interest, she continued. "We know that she has a son, but she hasn't talked about his father. Then there's the picture I've already talked about, where she's with her son and you're sort of in the background, so I thought that you were baby daddy. But with the look you're giving me I think I must've been wrong." The woman said, unabashed.

"Um..." Hotch began, unsure of what to say. He knew the picture well, Prentiss had taken it last year during an impromptu BAU picnic. It was one of his favorite photos of JJ, it was the first time he'd seen her smile since Will died. His thoughts were interrupted yet again by the talkative agent.

"So your here to win back the girl wonder? Good. Not that I don't like working with her, because she's great. But you seem to want her for more than professional reasons, which I think the girl needs a good sordid romance." The woman said as the elevator doors opened. "Go get her." She added, as she walked into the bull pen. Hotch noticed as a few agents glared at him, one even standing up intimidatingly.

"Relax Daniels, he's JJ's casanova." The girl squeeled happily, she turned to Hotch and motioned over to a door. "That's her office."

As he walked closer to the door, he saw as JJ's new coworkers inched forward in order to get a better view. As he knocked on her door, he waited awkwardly for a response. After a few seconds, he knocked again. He tried turning the doorknob. Locked. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.

He heard as another agent--a redhead--sighed pathetically. "Where is she?"

The mood in the room dropped significantly. "Here we are, all excited for a moment that rivals the Notebook, and we get left with him knocking on her door. JJ is the worst chick-flick heroine ever!" Max piped in. Finally annoyed at the situation, she hollered over to an office. "Micheals, where did JJ go?"

Their unit chief came out of his office, ignorant of what had transpired. "Her boy is sick, she went home to go take care of him. Why?" The man said in his thick Brooklyn accent. His entire unit looked at each other sadly. He couldn't understand why there was a strange man knocking at his new profiler's door.

As Hotch walked out the door, now more determined then ever, the man's face contorted into a confused expression. "Wait, whose that?"

"Wait, was that the boyfriend who got a kidney transplant?" Agent Daniels called out, hoping to win the bet.

Hotch had no problem finding the small, blue house that JJ was renting. Walking up the path, he began to smile to himself. At least now he knew he'd tried everything to win over JJ, including making a fool of himself in front of all of her coworkers. Knocking on the door of JJ's house, he prayed for any kind of a response.

As JJ opened her front door, Hotch felt his heart skip a beat. In the months since she had left, he thought of her often, remembering her as the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Now, he realized his memories hadn't done her justice. He was now positive that she was the most beautiful woman anyone had ever seen.

JJ looked up startled. Of all the people she had been expecting to show up on her doorstep, Hotch was definitely the last on the list. "Hotch, what are you doing here?" She asked, not knowing what to expect. She had shut the book on Aaron Hotchner the day she left the BAU, knowing that he'd never think of her as anything other than a colleague. She wasn't sure she could handle that point being reiterated.

"Can I come in?" He asked, the cold weather not encouraging his emotional outpouring.

"Sure." JJ said startled, letting him in. "What are you doing here?" She asked again.

"I came to see if you'd come back." He stated, then seeing her quirked eyebrow, suddenly became nervous, "We're 93.2% less effective without you." He blurted out, then kicked himself mentally Did I really just use a Reid statistic?

"Let me guess, Reid?"

"Yeah." Hotch laughed slightly, trying to hide his nervousness, "he pointed out that for the good of the country I needed to ask you to come back."

JJ felt awkward and uncomfortable. She had been trying to convince herself for weeks that the only thing between her and Aaron Hotchner was a friendly relationship between coworkers. As much as she missed Garcia and Emily, it wasn't enough to move cross country again while not significantly helping her career, her love life, or her son's life. "Oh." She said unsurely, "well, the United States seems to have gotten along for the last 200 years without my help, so I'm pretty sure that my presence in Virginia is not required."

"That didn't come out the way I meant it." Hotch admitted, stumbling for some unknown reason.

"Hotch, it's really nice to see you again, but Henry's got the flu and he's going to be waking up from his nap any minute. Tell everyone that I miss them and I'll call them soon." She said politely, feeling like a chunk was being removed from her heart.

"JJ, I--"

"No, really, it's okay. Oregon is good for me." She lied shamelessly as she looked out the window and fought a grimace at the freshly falling snow. I hate the snow.

"JJ, I miss you. I want you to come back. Not for the job, for me." Hotch said, cringing at how selfish and childish he sounded.

JJ stood dumbfounded at the revelation. Did he just say what I thought he said?

"Do you want to know a secret? I couldn't say goodbye to you because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to handle it when you left. I've woken up every day for the past 46 days wondering when the next time I saw you would be. I need you Jennifer Jareau, and I'm not giving up." The words came out eloquently as he stared into her blue eyes.

JJ simply blinked at him, as though comprehension of his speech was far past her current ability. Her silence prompted him to continue, "JJ, I need to be around you. So if you want to spend the rest of your days on the west coast in Portland, Oregon, then I will quit my job and move out here. I--"

"Hotch?" JJ interrupted his soliloquy, "Do you want to know a secret?" He nodded, permitting her to continue, "When I heard about the transfer, I wanted you to say something to encourage me to stay, but you didn't." She could see the pain in his eyes, "And after those two weeks, I was grateful to be moving across the country so that I could be as far away from you as possible. But even here, every time I see a park or a small coin collection, I think of you. I can't get away from you, and I don't want to. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

He quickly closed the distance between their bodies, the electricity that seemed to have build throughout the years shot through both of them, creating an impassioned wave of emotion that overcame both of them. The fire between them seemed to grow as they stood entranced in each other's arms. Finally JJ pulled away, grinning like a five year old that stole a cookie out of the jar.

"Hotch?"

"Yeah?"

"Get me out of here. I hate Portland."

"Done." Hotch smiled as she closed the gap between their two bodies, engulfing him once more in her beauty.

AN/We're not done yet, though we probably only have one more chapter--an epilogue. So, I hope you liked it! Let me know what you think!