A short, rather useless chapter, but I'll explain why I wrote it at the end.

elisacollette - Thank you for your review! I really liked Daisy too and the way she just said the things the way they were... It took some time to appreciate her, but when I did, I didn't stop. Does that make sense? Oh, and I just wanted to throw some HG in...

Oh, and it's not mine. Do I actually have to repeat that in each chapter? I hope not. So, for future disclaimers, just look at a previous chapter, ok?

Anyways, enjoy!

That evening, the team got the data they had wanted. A new victim was found, a boy of 17 years old by the name of Kyle Mishkin. He hadn't been abused like Katie Miller, and he was in all ways a 'normal' victim: suffocation and a slashed throat. Still, it was a new victim, which meant that there were new possibilities to catch the unsub.

JJ stayed up with the rest, deciding she wasn't in the mood for some time alone with Emily; she'd have plenty of that tomorrow.
Therefore, she was relieved when Emily left with Reid and Rossi to take a look at the crime scene.

Morgan was calling Garcia for a search, and JJ listened in: she had always found the relationship between Morgan and Garcia, the way they interacted, amusing. Plus, she could always use some distraction.

"… Hey, baby doll, it's me… No, I'm okay, but I need some info... I know you can… Look for a man in his forties, who was once part of a group but they all moved away or something… Yeah, I know it's vague but we don't have much else… Oh yeah, and he might've had some bad experience recently, something that made him angry, like a death or a divorce… I don't know," he then said, looking at JJ. "Yeah, okay…" He handed the phone to JJ. "She wants to talk to you."

JJ took the phone: it was no surprise that Pen wanted to talk to her, probably to find out how her friend was.

"Hi Pen, how's life back at Quantico?" she asked, not surprised when she got only a short reply.

"Fine, but how are you? Everything okay with Em?" Garcia sounded genuinely concerned, but then again, she probably was. Being some of the few women in a man's job made them connect somehow, and it was a precious connection. JJ and Garcia had immediately accepted Emily as part of that connection.

"Yeah, we're fine," she replied, not reacting to the strange looks Morgan and Hotch threw her. "Have you found anything yet?"

"Huh? Oh, no, not yet. He's good at hiding, but I'll find him," Garcia said, determined. JJ chuckled: it was so like Garcia.

"Well, Pen, I'm going to give you back to Morgan 'cause he's dying to talk to you," JJ said, sticking out her tongue at Morgan, who pulled a face but took the phone.

She sat down on a chair, fully planning on working on the case. She pulled the case file towards her and started studying the locations where the bodies had been found, trying to see some pattern. She was interrupted when Hotch sat down next to her.

"JJ, can I talk to you for a moment?"

JJ looked up, dreading whatever conversation that would come. But she made a bright face, saying: "Sure, what is it?"

He stared at her and she was beginning to grow uncomfortable: it gave her the feeling he could unravel what she'd been trying so hard to hide from him and the others… She guessed it was only a matter of time. He was a profiler, and he was the boss.

"I want to ask you whether you are really alright, as you pretend you are." His voice was steady, like usual, and somehow that comforted her.

"I'm okay, really, as I said before, the case just got to me, some cases do, and this one was worse than others, because I was abducted and all, not that something like that has never happened but…"

"JJ," he simply said, effectively stopping her flood of words. She did that sometimes, when she got really nervous, and he knew how to stop it. "I'm not going to make you talk. We all have our secrets, and it's okay to have them. I just wanted to say that, if you decide to tell, I'll be here to help. We will all be. We won't judge you. You may think that we don't know how to deal with it, and I don't know, maybe we don't, but I can promise you that we will try."

Such a fatherly speech was unusual for him, and she was momentarily overtaken by surprise.

"Thanks, Hotch," she finally said. She knew she had to say something else, something to comfort them, but she couldn't come up with the right words.

Morgan sat down across her, uncharacteristically serious. "He's right, JJ. I'm here for you and so is everyone else. And if anyone hurt you, well, then they'd better run." He gave a short, harsh laugh. "Plus, with all our own problems, we might even be able to understand and identify with you." That last comment, coming from him of all people, made her a little nervous. Did he know? He would be the first to find out, having been through it himself… Part of it, anyway. He had never been on the streets, not the way she had. But he would understand the rest, and it might help them both to have someone else. It would be different than it had been with Scott or Jess, because that was so much closer, and it was in a different time, a different place… - a different person.

Aww, Hotch being fatherly is so cute, I just had to put some of it in. It'd really be like Hotch to do such a thing, I mean he may think she won't tell him but he wants her to know he's there for her, just like they all are. And I don't know whether Morgan is really that protective, but due to the enormous amount of CM fanfics I've been reading, he is now. Just go along with it.

Please review, by the way! How else can I improve my writing?