Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, and alerted to this story. I understand how this subject could be personal both to victims of abuse and to those who may have second hand experience. For that reason, I welcome anonymous and signed reviews. Constructive criticism to this story, and any others, is genuinely appreciated.

Sorry it took me a while to post new chapters, had a little bit of writer's block.

Hotch frowned as he watched JJ fiddle with her waffles, as if completely unaware of the others surrounding her. He noticed Henry's careful gaze watching his mother as well as if trying to interpret this shift in her mood.

Sensing all eyes on her, JJ lifted a forkful of pancakes to her mouth before attempting to smile brightly as evidence that everything was going to be alright.

She could see that neither Henry nor Hotch bought it.

"Dad!" Jack exclaimed suddenly, sensing the tension in the room but unaware of its severity and the reason behind it. "There are four of us!" He exclaimed excitedly.

Hotch turned his focus away from the blonde picking at her breakfast. "Um, yeah Jack there are four of us." He agreed. "It is also Saturday."

The young boy rolled his eyes, aware that his father was oblivious to the exciting development that Jack had just discovered. "Games are best with four people." He explained as though it was the most obvious train of thought in the world. "We could play games all day." His face exploded into a wide grin that reminded Hotch instantly of the boy's mother.

Hotch cocked his head to the side. "Who told you that? You and I play games just fine. We don't need four people."

"Everybody knows that." Jack rolled his eyes exasperatedly, looking far older than his nine years.

"Yeah Aaron, everybody knows that." JJ smiled, this time the joy reaching up into her eyes at the prospect of a respite from the heavy situation that weighed on her soul.

"So can we play?" Henry asked, picking up on the excitement in the room.

JJ stopped, stunned as she stared at her son in surprise.

"Please?" Jack asked, unbothered by Henry's sudden words.

JJ recovered quickly, not wanting to disrupt whatever magical atmosphere that had encouraged her shy son to assert himself. "Of course we can play. Why don't the two of you find us some games to play?" She suggested, smiling as the two boys bolted from their seats at the kitchen table.

Turning to Hotch, she gaped. "Did you see that?"

He nodded. "Maybe everything is going to be okay after all?" He theorized, pleading within himself that the woman that often graced his dreams would come to the same conclusion.

"Maybe."

After a game of Clue, Operation, Apples to Apples, and half a game of Monopoly that ended with a 'Merger' and the declaration of a tie, the group played a quick game of basketball before settling down to watch a movie.

As the characters came on screen, JJ's hand entangled itself in her son's thick blond hair as she contemplated the next steps in her life.

She didn't have anything.

And though this day, this one perfect day, had been full of joy, excitement, and an easy-goingness that she couldn't quite describe, she knew that this was not her life.

She was a mother.

And everything she owned, every heirloom, trinket, toy, article of clothing, all of it was back at her apartment with Will.

She felt Henry snuggle up against her and his breathing slow softly as he drifted off to sleep, guilt plaguing her as she thought of all the things her little boy would never have because she left his father with nothing but the clothes on her back.

There was an easy solution of course, she had to go back.

Not back, she corrected knowing that she could never return to Will's embrace. But she needed things: money, clothes, food. All of it in order to start a new life for her and Henry. She had already screwed up Will's life enough, she didn't need to press charges.

But as the movie wore on, she became more and more certain. She had to go back and end it once and for all.

She wasn't quite sure when the movie ended, but wasn't surprised when Hotch offered to take both sleeping boys upstairs.

She was going back.

He knew her mind was elsewhere as he returned to the fluffy couch, but at least for right now, for tonight she was here. Here where he could make sure nothing bad ever happened to her. Here where he could protect her.

"Neither of them woke up." He said softly, wondering if the vague allusion to her son would snap her out of her melonchaly mood.

"Oh." She shook her head as she forced herself not to think what horrors could await her. "Thanks."

"Is everything okay?" He asked, worry evident in his voice as he sat down next to her.

"Yeah, it's fine." She smiled, and without thinking grabbed his hand in her own. "Thanks for everything, you don't know what this means to me."

He smiled, unable to voice the spark of excitement that raced through him as her skin touched his own. "It's nothing." He shrugged eventually.

Looking up at the dark orbs that seemed like windows into his soul, she shook her head. "It's not nothing." Lifting her hand to cup the back of his head and keep their gaze interwoven, she added, "It's everything."

For one moment, everything stopped as the pair sat in silence, drawn to one another like a magnetic force pulling their hearts onto the same plain. "JJ we shouldn't..." Hotch murmured, trailing off as his mind tried to come up with a reason why this shouldn't happen.

Because it felt so right.

And truthfully, he'd fantasized this moment for far too long.

But the last thing he wanted to do was take advantage of her while she was vulnerable.

"Shhh." She shook her head as she drew him closer, unwilling to let anything get in the way of something her heart yearned for. Later she could come up with an explanation of why this was wrong. But for the first time in a long time, she was doing something for herself. Something that felt right and good and made her feel loved. And for a moment she felt like she deserved it.

Hotch dipped his head and closed the gap between them, JJ's soft lips only inches apart from Hotch's when the soft buzzing interrupted the pure true moment.

And that moment ended.

Snapped from the magical power that seemed to have been drawing her closer and closer to the security and safety Hotch provided, JJ looked down at her phone, unsure of whether she should feel grateful or upset that the device had prevented her from stealing an intimate moment she had longed for with a good friend.

Will.

"I'd—" She hesitated, looking at Hotch with a yearning she couldn't describe. "I'd better go."

He frowned, wanting with everything inside of him to stop her from leaving.

"JJ, don't. Don't go." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"Aaron." She sighed, "I have to go. I need to go." Sensing the rage boiling within him despite his normally stoic face preventing her from seeing the emotions inside of him, she stopped, "What's wrong?"

"You're going back."

She bit the inside of her lip, knowing full well what was about to happen when she went home. She wasn't stupid. And she couldn't live in blissful denial anymore.

But she didn't have any other options.

"I am." She frowned slightly. "But I just…" She searched for some way to explain. She wasn't afraid anymore. Not really. But she had to say goodbye. She had to let Will know that it was over. "I have to say goodbye."

"At least let me come." He offered. "The most dangerous time for a victim of abuse is when she is trying to leave."

JJ bristled slightly at the classification as an abuse victim, but let the comment slide.

It was abuse, she reminded herself, wondering why it was so hard to admit that. It was hard to think of herself as a victim, but a victim of abuse? She'd have to keep wrapping her head around it.

"I'll be fine Aaron." She smiled, wondering when exactly she had switched to calling him by his first name. It just felt right. "Will and I might have our problems, but we are both adults, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, he's not going to do anything."

He looked at her, biting back the point that he obviously had no problem smacking JJ around for no reason. Now she was at least giving him a reason, which made Will all the more dangerous.

"Don't go." He said again, and for just a moment she felt her heart soar with the possibility, just to feel it crushing back down to earth. She knew Hotch. Truth be told, she loved Hotch more than she'd care to admit. But he deserved better, and one day he would wake up and realize that.

It was better for her to end this before it started.

She had to tell Will it was over, and then she'd spend the rest of her life alone. Just like she deserved. "Aaron—" She sighed in an attempt to explain.

"I would give you everything," He pled, his eyes boring into her with fierce intensity confirming the veracity of his words, "and you go back to him?"

"Hotch—" She cringed as he winced visibly at the 'friendly' term, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't let herself pretend he meant it in any way but their sibling-like friendship. It hurt too much when she was reminded that her life would never be the happy 50s sitcom that she could only envision happening with Hotch. "Aaron, you don't understand. Henry's father…I owe him more than slipping out in the dark of the night."

"JJ, I can't take this anymore!" Hotch groaned obviously disgusted at the thought of her returning to that monster. "I can't be your safe haven for you to run to whenever things get bad, and then be forced to let you go. Every time you leave, I die inside."

"You do?" JJ asked, her voice above a whisper. He couldn't mean that he loved her.

Because as much as she'd like to believe it, Hotch deserved better.

"I stay up all night, I can't sleep, I worry that something will happen or that you won't be able to come back." He admitted, hesitating for only a second, he pulled out the last card he had. "I love you JJ. I can't let you do this."

She gaped, simply not able to comprehend his words. "I—" She stopped for just a second, her heart surging.

"Stay here." He pled once he was certain she couldn't find the words to finish her sentence. "Stay here with me, and Jack." His tone was almost desperate—frantic—as he begged her not to go. "Just stay."

Time stopped as her heart seemed to leap at the chance for true happiness. Visions of picnics and family night football games danced before her head and she couldn't explain the joy that radiated through her at the thought of spending the rest of her life with Aaron Hotchner by her side.

Sensing that she was on the verge of agreeing, he pressed forward, "We both know that if you go back now, even to say goodbye, that he won't let you leave. JJ, please." He took her hands in his own and stared into her soul, "Stay."

She gulped as she saw the honest pure love in his eyes. But he couldn't be offering her that. He was too good, too kind, too Hotch. And envisioning something that could never happen would only hurt her more.

She shook her head, as if by so doing she could shake away the choice before her that she felt she didn't deserve. "Aaron, I can't."

Hotch's face fell, devastated.

"I should go." She kissed her fingers and pressed it to his lips, allowing herself just for a brief moment to imagine what it would feel like to allow Hotch to love her—to take her in his arms and protect her—to joke with her during Monday Night football games—to argue without a punch or a slap—to apologize without hidden motives.

It would feel wonderful.

Pulling her fingers back as if they had been burned, she stood.

"I love you and I'll be here when you're ready." Hotch repeated softly as he watched her back away slowly.

"Hotch, I am sorry." JJ bit her lip, as she tried to force her emotions down.

She moved quickly, certain that if she lingered she would lose her nerve.

But Hotch deserved someone who could make him happy.

Not someone with issues.

And boy did she have issues.

As she reached the staircase, his voice stopped her. "Let Henry stay here. I'll bring him to the soccer game tomorrow." He asked, not bothering to add that it would be better for the boy to be away from what Hotch knew was going to be a volatile argument.

If only he could convince JJ to stay away.

"Okay." She agreed, her voice small as she tried to keep it from betraying how very close she was to teetering on the edge of her very carefully managed control.

She ascended the stairs and slid into the extra bedroom and kissed a sound asleep Henry, somehow managing to keep the tears from gushing down her face and waking the boy.

She could cry later. Later she could mourn the death of a happiness that could never exist.

Now, she had to get home and gather up everything in her life that had meaning before she walked out Will's door forever.

She couldn't look at Hotch who watched her as she descended the stairs. Wordlessly, she floated toward the door as if dragged by some heinous cable toward the nightmare that awaited her. Just as she placed her hand on the doorknob, Hotch's soft voice sounded in her ears.

"When you're ready to leave, to really leave, I'll be here." He promised. "But until then, I can't do it anymore."

JJ choked down a sob as the tears poured down her cheeks unabashed. Without turning around she opened the door leaving the only man, who she had ever truly felt loved by, sitting devastated on the couch.