Disclaimer: see chapter 1
A/N: Not much to say this time around, so I guess I'll just say, "Hi there!"
…
"That was good. I'll give you 10 names for that." Downes quickly began scribbling on the notepad. "All right! My turn."
JJ tried her best not to cringe outwardly at his overly cheerful demeanor. It had become overly obvious that good for him meant very bad for her.
"As you know, East Allegheny called in the county sheriff's coroner office because maybe baby you actually walked in on a murder, and they didn't know how to deal with that. And since it was a tiny town of no big importance, they sent me: the youngest, newest medical examiner they had. I didn't want to drive to the middle of nowhere, but well, life has a way of surprising us, doesn't it? When I got there and saw your sister, I just thought, 'Wow, she's beautiful girl,' but I didn't actually think she was anything special. It wasn't until I started working on her that I…" Downes trailed off dreamily.
JJ took the opportunity to build, rebuild, and reinforce as many mental barriers as possible.
"I was a virgin too. Touching her was –" Before the details came, JJ quickly tried to tune out Downes' voice. She kept a façade of unwilling attentiveness on her face, but inside she tried distracting herself with
Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad
Fortunately for JJ, she tuned back in after Downes finished detailing his time with Annie. "And I figured: well, that was fantastic! Maybe I've been missing out on live people. So I tried having sex with living people for a while, but it was never as good. Wasn't even close actually. I disappointed the girls, and they disappointed me."
…
Downes spent the next couple hours telling JJ about his trials with various types of female corpses – different ages, races, hair colors – and jotting down names as he had promised to do. "After all that," Downes said, twirling the pen in his hands and speaking with mock reflection. "I realized I really did have a type: blonde girls in their late teens. Dead, of course."
Suddenly he paused and looked intently at JJ.
"Did you ever consider it?"
"What?" JJ asked incredulously. Is he seriously asking me if I've considered having sex with dead bodies?
"That your sister had the right idea."
JJ stared at him, caught off-guard.
"You know, suicide."
When she still didn't respond, he continued, "I think you did. I spent some time watching you after the funeral. You were miserable."
"I was eleven," JJ said as if that was all the explanation needed.
Downes countered, "It's not unprecedented for young children to commit suicide."
JJ looked away.
"I obviously couldn't be in town too much. You small town people certainly are very suspicious of outsiders, but I still heard plenty. Your parents could barely stand looking at you. You look too much like your sister. Your brother was gone, off on his military something or other. Your friends decided they didn't want to be your friends anymore. The other kids started picking on you."
JJ had to concede that life had been miserable. But consider suicide? The answer wasn't 'yes,' but for some reason 'no' didn't feel completely true either. She'd been very confused, angry, and hurt after Annie died. She spent so much time trying to justify Annie's choices to herself that she wasn't sure which thoughts were hers and which Annie's.
Hotch opened the interrogation room door, interrupting the conversation before JJ could figure things out and respond. "JJ, can I see you out in the hallway?"
JJ quietly joined him in the hallway. She looked withdrawn, and Hotch was glad he'd decided to interrupt.
"I don't want to direct things too much, but I think it's a good time to take a break. I figure you didn't eat much at breakfast, so now would be a good time for some food."
"Yeah sure," JJ said, her tone empty.
She turned to walk down the hallway when Hotch grabbed her arm to stop her. "JJ, you told me you'd let me know if it got to be too much. Make sure you do."
She looked him in the eye and said, "I'll be fine, Hotch."
He felt a surge of pride at her strength and stubbornness. "Yeah, you will be."
Hotch poked his head into the observation room to tell the team JJ that had agreed to the break.
As the team walked towards the bullpen, a voice just beyond the end of the hallway said, "Ma'am, you can't go back there."
"Can't go back there?" The team heard Garcia's voice ring out. "My angelfish is back there. Try to stop me again, and I will hack into your bank account and redirect all your money to the Presents for Henry LaMontagne Fund."
"Penelope, what are you doing here?" JJ asked as the team rounded the corner and Hotch waved the officer away.
"It's nice to see you too, gumdrop."
"Sorry, I just didn't expect to see you here."
"When my hunk of delicious chocolate told me what was going on, I decided I had to be here for you."
JJ shot Morgan a look, but he just shrugged and said, "Someone had to tell her."
"That's right," Garcia said. "And btw, you're forgiven."
"Thanks?" JJ said, confused. "But what exactly am I being forgiven for?"
"For not telling me yourself."
Before JJ could respond, Rossi asked, "Anything in particular you want to eat, JJ? Prentiss and I are going to get food."
"Not in the mood for much of anything," JJ shrugged.
"Cheetos it is then," Emily joked.
"Emily Prentiss!" Garcia swatted at her. "You will get our Jayje some real food."
…
The team sat around the case room eating their lunches and shooting concerned looks at JJ.
JJ looked up from her food to glance at her team warily. Their protectiveness really was nice, but she didn't want to have to deal with it at the moment.
"All of you, be gone!" Garcia said, waving everyone away. When she and JJ were the only ones left in the room, Garcia turned to JJ and said, "I kind of figured you'd want to be alone, but I also didn't want you to be alone, so here I am. At least I'm not a profiler, right?"
JJ's lips quirked up into a small smile. "Thanks."
They sat in silence until Garcia couldn't stand it anymore. "Sorry, Jayje, but I can't do this whole brooding in silence thing."
"You really don't have to be here."
"Not what I meant, my pretty. Let's talk about something, anything. We can talk about Henry's latest antics, or you can rant to me about the Women's World Cup. I promise I'll try to follow along with the midfielder, forward, strategy stuffs."
"I don't really feel like talking, Pen," JJ said apologetically.
"That's ok," Garcia said brightly, trying to keep the mood of the room from crashing through the floor. "I can tell you about my pen drama. All you have to do is listen."
JJ couldn't help but smile at that.
Encouraged, Garcia began her story, "So it started off when we thought Gilbert was dead. Gilbert – just in case you don't know – is the purple one with the big hair and banana on top. Susie, the pink pen with the very cute pig on the end, was devastated. I could tell because the ears were drooping. Anyway, that's when Mr. Manly-Man Karl decided to step in…"
…
"Sorry to interrupt," Emily said, sticking her head into the room. "The guys thought I'd be the safest person to send in."
Garcia did not look amused. She had gotten into her element and was in the middle of explaining the love dodecahedron that had resulted from Gilbert's return from the dead. JJ, on the other hand, was torn. She had gotten into the drama but was glad to be saved before truly ridiculous things happened like Natalie becoming pregnant with triplets, all illegitimate and of different fathers.
"It's time to go back in?" JJ sighed.
Emily looked at her apologetically and nodded.
When the women joined the men in the bullpen, Morgan said, "Baby girl, why don't you stay out here with me?"
Garcia started to protest, but JJ placed a hand on her arm and said, "It's probably better that way. You really don't want to hear the details. Besides, you guys can start looking up the names we've gotten so far."
Garcia acquiesced and stayed behind with Morgan as the team went back towards the observation and interrogation rooms.
As JJ was about to step into the interrogation room, Rossi stopped her. "You're doing good, kid. Remember that you're in control. You direct how it goes."
JJ nodded her thanks and entered the room.
…
"As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted –"
"And I'm going to rudely interrupt you now," JJ cut Downes off. "If you want to continue telling your story, you stay on point."
"But I was being on point," Downes said smugly. "You see, I was waiting for you."
JJ forced herself not to react.
Downes continued, "I was hoping you'd follow in your sister's footsteps and end up on my table. You were on the young side, but I didn't know my preferences yet. I just knew that your sister was fantastic, and you looked like you would be too. This is terrible. I'm telling you everything out of order."
JJ didn't care in what order she was hearing any of this. She'd rather have not heard any of it at all. "Just get on with it."
Downes wrote down a name and said, "Something changed, and your life seemed to get better. Did you know that having sex with corpses isn't a federal crime? I'm sure you knew that. Anyway, what matters is that it's against the law in Pennsylvania. When I figured you weren't going to be slashing your own wrists anytime soon, I decided to move to a state in which my 'hobbies' weren't illegal. It was still hard to settle down though. The work places I ended up in were either so busy that people were always around and I never had the privacy to explore or they were so uneventful that being around too much was suspicious. That's why I moved around a lot.
"When I started killing, it didn't matter where I was. I figured murder would be illegal wherever I ended up, so why not just make my way back to the place of my sweetest memory. And here we are now in a nice Pennsylvania town not too far from East Allegheny."
Downes paused and wrote down another name.
"I have to admit. I considered things like genetics and whatnot. Some talents are inherent in families, right? I know your niece is a brunette, but I'd like to see if she's as good as your sister. She's – what? – thirteen? She'll be ripe for the harvest soon. I was too timid with your sister, but the things I'd do to with your niece…"
The thought of Downes and her niece was the last straw for JJ, and before she could register her own actions, her right foot had reached out to kick him between the legs. She bolted from the room, leaving Downes hunched and gasping in pain.
"JJ?" Reid said, as the team caught up with her in the bullpen.
"I'm going for a run."
"Jayje?" Garcia turned from her laptop to see what was going on.
"Don't come after me," JJ directed towards the team.
JJ gave Garcia an apologetic glance and quickly disappeared through the door.
…
A/N: I suppose I should mention that I don't own Sound of Music either. That fact is NOT one of my favorite things.