Disclaimed!

Hi hope you're enjoying the story so far.

If you have the time, let me know what you think.

...

Seattle, July 2004

JJ sat on the couch with her feet underneath her, her fingers running along her lower lip as she watched her boyfriend of nineteen months wander around their shared apartment wearing only his boxer shorts as he ran a towel through his short dark hair after their long indulged shower together.

Hotch caught her wanton gaze and smirked as his eyes fell on his black shirt that hung loosely on the blonde. "Did you raid my wardrobe again?"

"I love this shirt."

"Uh-huh." Hotch chuckled at her innocently wide eyes. "I'm going to get dressed before I start cooking."

JJ pouted in protest. "Can't you just cook butt naked instead?"

"I think that's a little dangerous babe." He kissed her lightly before straightening. "I'll be right back."

JJ groaned in disapproval as he made his way back to the bedroom. "I was thinking we could have a drive somewhere this weekend after your meeting with the lawyers?"

"Sure, where do you want to go?" Hotch called out from the back room.

The blonde agent rested her head on the back of the couch. "I don't know. I just feel like getting out of town for a few days."

"Sure babe, sounds like fun." Hotch kept on talking about the route they could take, ignoring the sound of knocking on the front door.

Pulling his Georgetown sweatshirt over his head, the trained profiler heard muffled female voices coming from the living room causing him to pause.

Wandering back into the living room, Hotch froze at the sight of a pale JJ facing his un-amused soon to be ex wife. "Hailey."

"Aaron." She met his eyes curtly before looking over JJ's appearance in disapproval.

Hailey stepped further into the apartment and smiled thinly at the younger blonde. "And you are?"

"JJ." She replied meekly, unable to take her eyes of the intruder, in shock of her arrival.

The older blonde woman gazed disapprovingly over the FBI agent's lack of clothes. "How long have you been sleeping with my husband?"

"Hailey, you have no right to be here." Hotch barked in response.

She held his gaze confidently. "I'm your wife. I have every right to be here."

"We're divorcing, Hailey." He retorted dryly.

"I'm sorry, but I can't lose you. I thought I wanted something else. I thought I needed more than you could give me emotionally. But I was wrong." Hailey announced softly.

"Hailey." He stared at his wife warily.

"I came to make everything better, Aaron. I can't go through with the divorce, I made a mistake." She pleaded adamantly.

Hotch set his jaw stubbornly. "Hailey, you can't do this."

"We've loved each other since we were seventeen. I don't want to throw it all away because I got a little lonely. I'm even lonelier now." Hailey quickly closed the gap between her and her husband by side stepping JJ. "Please, just come back with me, I want to make it work. I love you Aaron."

Hotch rolled his eyes unsympathetically. "Hailey, you were the one who ended things, you can't just show up..."

"I'm pregnant. It's yours." She announced softly.

"What?" Hotch's eyes automatically went to JJ's, who suddenly looked green. "No, no it can't be we haven't... JJ I swear..."

Unable to speak, JJ grabbed her coat off of the coat rack next to the front door and fled while her soon to be ex-boyfriend yelled after her. "JJ!"

New York, October 2004

JJ returned to New York once everyone was satisfied that the press would be kept at bay the day before the murdered FBI agent's funerals.

It was agreed JJ would stay in the Quantico division for the next three months much to her dismay and so reluctantly she packed her belongings into boxes.

JJ glanced around her New York apartment, feeling a swell of regret due to moving back to DC as well as moving back into having Aaron Hotchner in her life.

As she packed away her bedroom, JJ's hand faltered over a small box that was stuffed away with her jumpers. In a sigh, she sat on the edge of the bed dejectedly, as she opened the familiar wooden box.

A delicate outline of a butterfly was carved into the lid along with her initials and the inside smelled of oak. Smiling at the history behind slips of paper and ripped tickets, JJ felt a swell of emotion stuck in her throat.

Looking down at the photo of herself with Hotch's arms wrapped lovingly around her, JJ closed her eyes tight, attempting to quell the tears that threatened to fall.

It had been a perfect day, JJ thought.

The photograph was taken three months into their just short of two year relationship when they were celebrating Hotch's birthday in Seattle.

Their relationship had sprung out of a misunderstanding at work. JJ technically wasn't under Hotch's chain of command but he was definitely a senior agent and one strange remark taken the wrong way between the two had led to a late night apology drink and then nearly two years of a happy life together.

Right until JJ had answered the door of their shared apartment in Seattle three months ago. Then that promised future as a couple, the life they had begun to forge for themselves, was ripped apart by a woman who had once been his wife.

Truth be told, Hailey Hotchner was still the profiler's wife. But the unsatisfied woman had ended their marriage before Hotch took the position in Seattle, and as JJ's mother frequently told her, you can't help who you fall in love with.

The southern belle had filed for divorce and told her husband of over a decade she wanted something different from being the neglected Bureau spouse. Wanting his wife to be happy, so the profiler agreed to a separation and took the leadership position in Seattle, allowing his partner to move on with her friend from the gym, who apparently understood her plight.

Then came the divorce papers which kept being stalled by the lawyers.

That should have been the first inkling that Hotch wasn't necessarily available as he wanted to think of himself as being.

Rather, it took Hailey to invite herself into JJ and Hotch's home and to ruin any chance of a happy ever after between the pair.

Worse still, Hailey was pregnant.

Hotch believed her lawyer was the one who supposed to come to the apartment so he could sign the final divorce papers, instead, his wife informed him that she had gone through with the IVF treatment they had begun before he left for Seattle, back when they were attempting to rescue their marriage.

While Hotch and Hailey went on to argue about her neglect to tell him about the IVF, JJ slipped out of the apartment and waited for him to find her in the office.

There were no tears when he found her curled up on the couch in his office the next morning, dressed in her spare clothes she left in her go-bag.

JJ wouldn't let him see her vulnerability.

Instead the liaison took a step back and told him to go and be a family. She wasn't going to make him chose between her and his child.

Heartbreakingly, he left.

He didn't even fight.

There were no assurances that even if Hailey was pregnant, they could still love a child separated.

Hotch didn't even tell JJ that he loved her just that he would respect her choice, and go back to his family.

JJ watched him leave the office. Then she cried.

JJ's phone buzzing, forcefully dragged the blonde out of her reminiscing and back into the present. Seeing the caller ID, JJ sighed as she muttered under her breath, "so much for forgetting the past."

Placing the wooden box with her other belongings, JJ pressed the accept button on her cell. "Jareau."

"Hey, I'm just about to leave for the church. I don't suppose you know where the Collin's file is, do you?" Hotch asked, his breath huffed as though he was running late and was stressed.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, JJ leaned against her dresser. "Erm, have you checked under the pile next to the pile on top of the risk assessments?"

There was a pause as he checked. "Not there."

"Okay, then it'll be in the pile on the floor next to the stack of health and safety forms." JJ answered informatively.

There was another pause while rustling could be heard down the phone. "Got it. Thanks JJ."

"No problem." JJ rolled her eyes as he struggled to hang up the phone. "Was there something else Hotch?"

He cleared his throat quickly before replying. "No, I just... See you when you get back."

"Yeah, see you then." JJ ended the call and leaned her head back tiredly and muttered sarcastically. "Can't wait!"

...

Thanks for reading!