Author's Note: Not sure what the newest member of the teams name is and didn't have time to look it up. Am very busy and am writing this between doing some damn term papers that three of my teachers gave us and studying for an exam that will decide if I pass my foreign language class. So please just bare with me on this one.-KC

Chapter 3: You Found Me

Jason lay near the foot of the bed and ran his hand up Elle's leg. He stopped at the tattoo and rose up a little to examine it better.

"Is there any significance to your tattoo?" He asked her as she ate half of the chocolate ice cream she'd gotten when she'd went out to get Chinese for dinner. They had worked until neither of them could stand it anymore, when they'd began to look through the phone book she had changed her mind about the pizza and asked if they could get Chinese instead. Of course Jason had agreed. But she hadn't wanted to order out but instead insisted that she could pick it up when she went out for ice cream. So he'd waited on her to get back and they'd gone up stairs.

They hadn't made it to the watching TV once they'd finished what they wanted of the food they'd made love and now they were just laying on the bed. He was watching her eat the ice cream and studying her piercing and tattoo. The new Elle was a whole lot more laid back and not as tense as she had been when she'd worked with them at the BAU.

"No, it was just the first thing that I saw that I liked. The tattoo guy looked at me like I was crazy but I told him that's what I wanted and he did it." She raised her leg up a little and looked down. "I never really looked at it. The next morning when I got up it hurt like hell. Once it healed I just kind of forgot it was there." Jason ran his hand over it and she shivered. He could turn her on with just the simplest touch of his hand.

"Do you have to work tonight?" He asked and Elle shook her head.

"No, I only work at the bar three nights a week. The rest of the time I work at a consulting firm as a secretary. It's just a nine to five job so it's not really all that bad. I get Saturday's and Sunday's off every week. It's nothing like when I worked at the BAU. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it but I missed having time off for myself." She looked at him and he could see the sadness in her eyes. "When I quit, at first, I didn't miss any of it but then after a while I started to miss you. I wanted to take back quitting and not going to that see that damn psychiatrist but after a while I told myself that it didn't matter anyway. I thought you weren't interested." Jason moved back up the bed and stretched out beside her.

He took the half empty ice cream container from her and put it on the night stand. Elle had cleaned their food mess off when she'd gone to get the ice cream.

"I was always interested Elle, I just didn't think you were interested." He pressed a kiss to her lips and pulled back putting his hand over her cheek. "Let's face it I'm not exactly a spring chicken. I thought that there was no way someone as young and beautiful as you would want to be with me." Elle smiled and rubbed her nose against his.

"How could I not want to be with you? I felt something different with you from the start. You made me want to laugh when I shouldn't have and I trusted you. I'm sorry that you though I wouldn't be interested but I was." She ran her hand over his back and gave his ass a little squeeze surprising him. "Very interested." She whispered and kissed him rolling over on top of him.

Elle woke up the next morning wrapped in Jason's arms and felt a smile tug at her lips. He was so handsome when he was asleep. It took about ten years off of his face. The seriousness wasn't there and he looked more relaxed. She shifted on the bed and rolled toward the edge. His arm came out and wrapped around her waist pulling her back to him.

"Where do you think you're going?" He asked his voice husky with sleep. Elle smiled and pressed a kiss to his bicep. God she could really get used to waking up beside him every morning.

"To take a shower then I was going to make breakfast and finish painting the guest room." She said as she rolled toward the edge of the bed. Jason groaned and pulled the pillow from under his head to cover his face.

"Can't it wait?" He mumbled. "I thought maybe we could stay in bed today and just make love." Elle stopped digging in her drawer from a pair of panties. She rose up and considered it. It would be nice to just spend the day in the bed with him and forget about her responsibilities for a while. But she knew that if she didn't get it done soon it wouldn't get done. That was one of the few things she didn't like about herself, she never finished anything she started.

"I'm sorry baby. If I don't get it done it won't get done." She grabbed a pair of panties and walked to the closet for something to wear.

"I'll do it." Jason said sitting up in the bed and watching her as she flipped through the clothes. He noticed that all of her conservative outfits had been replaced by things that showed a little skin and were made to make a woman look sexy.

"When Jason? Between work and flying off at a moments notice to the next city or town that needs your help." She didn't know why suddenly it made her mad that he would have to leave at odd hours and be gone for days at a time. It wasn't like she hadn't at one time done the same thing and she knew that he would be fateful. He loved her, she could feel it in the way he touched her, she could see it when he looked at her, and she could taste it when he kissed her. But suddenly she realized they hadn't had a serious conversation. They'd enjoyed their romp between the sheets but she'd wanted more. There was still that nagging little voice in the back of her mind that told her she couldn't be happy. That she didn't deserve to be happy after she'd killed that man.

"What?" Jason looked at her as if she was speaking some foreign language he didn't understand. "Where is all this coming from?" Elle turned away and grabbed the first thing she saw. She took off out of the room toward the bathroom and locked the bathroom door on the way out. She didn't want to talk to Jason, not right now, there wasn't any reason for her to have brought up all those things but it was just there, in the back of her mind. So she'd had to give it a voice.

She turned on the shower and stepped in under the hot water. She washed vigorously working out her anger and then she leaned back against the shower wall and cried. Just broke down, she cried and cried until the water ran cold. She had no idea how long she'd been in the shower and she didn't really care. She kind of hoped that Jason was gone when she got out.

Sure enough when she walked out she found a note taped to the bedroom door.

I had to go out and I don't know when I'll be back.

We'll talk when I get back though.

I really want to make this work El.

Love,

Jason

P.S. Call my cell phone if you need anything.

She wadded the piece of paper up and threw it in the garbage can. She found the bracelet he'd bought her in Texas and shoved it back in the box then into the back of nightstand drawer. She didn't want to look at anything he'd given her; she didn't want to think about him. He had just up and left. That's what her life would be like if she stayed with him. She would leave to run to the store and come back to find him gone and putting his ass on the line for some dead people he didn't even know. Maybe it had been a mistake to even start to get involved with him.

God, she was so messed up. One day she was madly in love with him and the next she was counting all the pros and cons of being involved with him. He was right they'd have to talk when he got back, seriously talk, no sex or kissing, just talking.

Jason sat on the plane and looked out the window. Hotch sat a few feet away beside AJ discussing their case. Reid and Derek were playing chess and the new girl was watching them. He was sitting alone looking out of the window, left with nothing but his thoughts and his cell phone lying on the table in front of him. He prayed she'd call him but he knew better than to get his hopes up.

Hotch looked over at him and frowned. There was something wrong with Jason; he could tell it by the way he'd turned Derek down on a game of chess. He was only half listening to AJ the other half of him was worrying about the man who was his best friend. He knew about Elle and his relationship he'd told him not long after it had first happened. He could only guess what was wrong with the other man. He turned his attention back to AJ and silently prayed that whatever it was it would blow over quickly. Jason deserved to be happy. If anyone of them did it was him. He needed that hope and that stability.

TBC

Read and Review. Can't wait to hear from you. My e-mail has changed, I now have limited internet access at school. My address is: tiffany. so send any private comments there. Thanks for reading.

-KC