New York Chapter 3
Disclaimer: Not Mine
A/N – Sorry meant to have this up earlier…
One week later…
"JJ, can I see you please?" Hotch stood outside of his office overlooking the bullpen. It'd been a week since she'd spoken to him. It was driving him nuts. He realized that he missed her horribly. Jack he'd made headway with but JJ remained remote.
JJ shared a glance with Emily and stood. "Sure." She walked towards his office with little enthusiasm. When she arrived at the office she knocked briskly to announce her presence. Hotch was seated at his desk and waved her in.
"Have a seat." He offered a small smile but even after a week she refused to meet his eyes. He sighed, she was sitting in front of him and he still missed her. "So, have you decided that we're no longer friends?"
"No, lately I question whether we ever really were." She replied calmly.
"Damn it, JJ." He growled. "This is ridiculous."
"Did you have something work related that you needed to discuss with me? Because I have an inbox full of consults." She told him.
"Jack is still ignoring me too. He's not quite as good as you are at it, I think he forgets that he hates me and every so often he lets me in. It was going okay last night until I mentioned Beth." He waited for a reaction and got nothing. "You know, he used to like her. I'm not sure when that changed. She thinks you're to blame." He said, trying to bait her but still nothing. "I'm dying here, JJ, this isn't fair, we used to be the best of friends now you don't even want to talk to me. I miss my friend."
She finally looked at him and he was surprised by the bleakness in her eyes. "You are the one that made the decision to move to New York. You didn't even so much as hint that you were even considering it. And you know why? Because you weren't, it was something that Beth came up with and now you are so worried about failing in another relationship you're willing to jump through any of the hoops she throws at you."
It angered him that she was partially right. Part of his failure with Haley was due to the fact that he stopped putting any effort into the relationship. "That's not fair, JJ."
"No, Hotch, what's not fair is the fact that you would so willingly relocate your son from the stability that he has come to rely on to move to another city for a woman you've been dating what, sporadically at best, a year."
She stood, needing to get out of there before she did something really embarrassing like cry. "Did you have anything that involves my job that you wanted to talk to me about because if not I don't think we have anything to say to one another."
"Is this because you're jealous?" He blurted, needing to test what both Morgan and Rossi had intimated, and watched as the color left her face.
Her eyes met his hotly. "Don't flatter yourself. I've come to realize over the last couple of days that maybe you're not the man that I thought you were." She opened the door and walked past Rossi who'd been attempting to eavesdrop.
"That looks like that went well." He mumbled strolling into Hotch's office.
Hotch sat frowning at his desk. "What the hell did that mean? The man she thought I was? You know, I think you and Morgan were wrong. JJ…well, she's not interested in me that way." He looked at Dave questioningly. "Seriously, what the hell is that supposed to mean? I don't even understand half of what she said." His attempts to get JJ to talk to him had backfired painfully, he was pretty sure he made it worse and he had no idea how to fix it.
Rossi glanced over at the man he respected more than any other of his acquaintance and wondered how it was that he was so dense when it came to the fair sex. "Oh Hotch." He sighed loudly.
Hotch looked at him a little shell shocked, he was not handling JJ's defection well.
"Aaron, do you even want to move to New York?" Rossi asked as Hotch looked up at him blankly. "It's a simple question." Rossi sighed. "I know that you may not believe this, or I should say, you may not want to believe this, but it's entirely possible that Beth is not the right woman for you. You're putting a lot of effort into a relationship that might not be right for you."
A week ago he would have argued that point. Now he wasn't so sure.
"You need to really step back and consider what you're doing here, Aaron. This move is going to seriously impact a lot of people. The team will be sad but they'll get over it. Jess and Henry are going to miss Jack horribly and he them. JJ, well…you see how she's reacting."
A muscle twitched on the side of Hotch's cheek.
"Look, I get that you didn't intentionally set out to hurt JJ. I understand that you didn't realize that she had feelings for you that ran a little deeper than friendship. Honestly I don't know how you could have missed the fact that she idolizes you but that's neither here nor there." Rossi shrugged, "You know what? Actually this is probably good for JJ." At Hotch's curious glance he continued. "I think she always felt that you were interested in her too that one day something was going to happen to make you realize it. Now she'll be able to move on."
Hotch wasn't sure what to make of the little flutter of fear at that statement. He was still struggling with the way she looked at him, so devoid of the warmth that was usually directed at him. He knew that last bit of Rossi's speech was to try to get a reaction out of him but he was just numb. "I don't know what you want me to do." He said honestly.
"Get your house in order. Speak to your son. Speak to your sister-in-law. Pull your head out of your ass and fix your relationship with JJ. Above everything she is your friend, you need to remind her of that."
"Yeah, I don't see that last one happening." Hotch grumbled.
"Don't be an ass. She'll forgive you most anything." Rossi winked. "Keep that most part in mind."
"I hate that she's hurt." He admitted softly. "I hate that I'm the one that hurt her."
"Then fix it." Dave ordered, before asking. "How'd your weekend go?"
Hotch shrugged, it sucked. He missed hanging out with JJ and Henry. He and Jack had an okay weekend but it was clear that they both missed the two people they usually spent time with. "It was alright. Jack helped me clean house, we went to see Monsters University. He was upset, he wanted to take Henry but JJ had other plans." He looked at Rossi sharply. "Do you think she blew me off because she's mad at me? She won't even answer when I call, she hands the phone to Henry." Having an adorable four year old mad at you wasn't any better.
Rossi frowned at him. "She'd blow you off, but she wouldn't blow off Jack no matter how angry she was at you." He pointed out.
Hotch slumped at his desk. "Yeah, that's what I figured. She dropped Jack off cookies while we were gone. She wrote him a note. He wouldn't let me read it." He remembered the way his son clung to the paper. "He called her and whispered on the phone with her for ten minutes." And Hotch had been embarrassingly jealous to be left out.
"So Beth didn't come down?" Rossi asked, already knowing the answer.
Hotch gave a wry smile. "You know that she didn't." She called him contrite on Friday full of apologies. She said that she was going to try to come on Tuesday. She'd already left him a voicemail that Tuesday wasn't going to be possible either. Couldn't he just sneak away? Even for a day trip.
"How does that make you feel?"
"Well, Freud, it kind of pisses me off." He stood and walked over to the windows looking down on the bullpen and announced. "It also kind of worries me that I'm missing JJ a little more than I am Beth."
Rossi grinned at the admission. "And how does that make you feel?"
Hotch turned and glared at him. "Like I want to hit something. Your being here is a bonus."
CMCMCMCM
The knock on the door had taken her by surprise. She was home alone as Henry was spending the night with his dad. She looked through the peephole and frowned. "Hey Dave, what's up?"
"Can I talk to you?" He asked.
"Sure." She stepped out of the threshold to allow him entrance into her home. "What's this about?"
He smiled, "Oh, sweetheart, you know what it's about."
She frowned. "I don't want to talk about your asshole friend."
"Well kiddo, I'm sorry, but we're going to." He grabbed hold of her hand. "For someone who is so clearly astute in all things Aaron Hotchner you're playing this one wrong." He led them into her kitchen and sat her down at the table then moved to the stove to put the kettle on.
JJ just raised a brow at his impudence.
"You so clearly see that this thing with Beth is only temporary."
She had thought it would have been over by now. "Sure. Except now he's talking about relocating to be near her. He's in love with her." The comment still turned her stomach.
"Is he really? Other than making a statement that he was going to interview with Missing Persons he hasn't done anything. He hasn't even attempted to connect with my real estate agent." Rossi commented, taking down two cups from the cupboard. "Nor has he made an appointment with MPU, even though they have been desperately trying to connect with him."
"We did have a case last week." JJ automatically said in his defense.
"Please." Rossi scoffed. "He hasn't been so busy that he could not fit in a fifteen minute phone call."
JJ agreed, but they both knew the truth. "The job is as good as his. You know that as well as I do, so does Hotch."
Rossi looked at the dejected woman in front of him. "You've been so smart up to now. You need to pull it together."
JJ looked at him oddly. "Have you been drinking?"
"No but honestly the two of you are driving me to it." He sighed. "Look I get that you couldn't just announce to Hotch that you were in love with him. But you might not have been so good at hiding that fact from him."
"Oh, you think I should have told him when he dropped Jack off with me so he could go have a sex filled weekend with Beth? Offered my services instead?" She was beyond even trying to deny her feeling for the man.
Rossi chuckled at her tone. "That would have been something. Probably would have worked too."
JJ snorted. "Yeah, sure."
"JJ, this is Hotch we're talking about. Before Beth his only serious girlfriend was Haley. He's not really very sharp when it comes to women or relationships. And while I think he knew that you had a little crush on him, I don't think he thought it was really anything you would have ever acted on. You're both too much alike on that front. You're not just going to give up without a fight are you?"
JJ's jaw dropped. "What do you mean? What did you do, Dave?"
He smiled as he dropped two tea bags into their cups and poured the hot water. "He misses you JJ. He's confused. He doesn't want to hurt anyone." He looked at her pointedly. "JJ, he didn't know that this would hurt you so badly. He honestly didn't know how you felt about him."
"He's still an asshole." She grumbled as he sat the cup in front of her.
Rossi smiled at her and gave her a minute to compose herself. "I need for you to support him, like you've always done, rather than pull away from him." He said softly.
JJ shook her head. "I can't do that." She said over the lump in her throat.
"Yes, you can." He assured her. He reached over and grabbed her hand. "He needs to see the same loving, supportive JJ that he's worked with the last eight years, he needs to see that you love him enough to want him to be happy, even if it's not with you."
"Well, that would be a lie. I don't want him to be happy with someone else." She said heatedly.
"JJ until today Hotch didn't realize that you really were in love with him. I think he realized that you held him in a high regard, but he never considered that you'd be willing to let him see you naked."
JJ snorted.
Rossi shrugged. "If you were both a little less moral like me neither of you would have tried to fight the feelings that you have for one another and you'd have already crawled in bed together."
"Dave, Hotch obviously sees me like a sister or something." JJ bit her lip.
"Trust me, he doesn't. You have a big neon do not touch, against the rules sign hanging over you. But, it's killing him that you are disappointed and angry with him. He realizes that he misses you more, seeing you daily, then he misses Beth. This is forcing him to face some hard reality.
"So what does that mean?"
"It means tomorrow you're going to walk into his office and apologize for your behavior…"
"The hell I will." JJ interrupted.
"You're going to apologize and tell him that you can't imagine life without him and Jack, because you love Jack." He watched her eyes fill with tears. "Yeah, make sure you do that tomorrow. But then tell the stupid shit that if moving to New York is what he really wants you'll support him."
"But?"
The older man sighed. "JJ he's already doubting that his feelings for Beth are as strong as he thought. On one hand is a woman that can't be bothered to make a trip to DC to see him when he's the one with a job that flies him all over the country and a small boy. Then there's you, a woman that has been supportive of him in so many ways over the year, who is continuing to be supportive and is also as madly in love with his son as his son is with her."
"Huh." It surprised her that his logic actually made pretty good sense.
Rossi grinned. "I'm not just another pretty face, kiddo. Hang in there. Hotch isn't going anywhere."
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