I don't own Criminal Minds. Saying that I do, sadly does not make it true.
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JJ leaned back against the headboard of the bed in Will's hotel room only half listening to Will and Spence as the sorted out the food and beverages. She knew she should be paying attention… but she was tired and hot and really not feeling all too well. She was also worried about Will. She sighed as she remembered back to the events of the previous few days…
JJ heart had broken when she'd opened the case file from Miami and read about the most recent victim New Orleans Police Officer Charles Luvet. If it was really Charlie who'd been found floating in the marina, Will was going to be crushed.
Spence's eyes went wide and he glanced at JJ when he saw Charlie Luvet's photo up on the monitor and then he focused on maintaining a professional, thoughtful look upon his face while JJ presented the case.
"Is it always this hot?" Spence asked as the climbed out of the black SUV.
"Everyday. All day." Morgan said as he watched a couple of women walk by in low cut tops, short skirts, and stilettos.
"That's South Beach" Dave said as he too enjoyed the view.
"That's not what I'm talking about." Spence replied, squinting his eyes in the sunlight and averting his eyes from the girls Rossi and Morgan were watching walk away.
"They know." Hotch said as he walked around from the driver's side of the second SUV to join the team.
"FBI" Detective Lopez said as she walked across the parking lot to greet them.
"Yes" Morgan said.
"Detective Lopez, Miami PD." She said.
"Oh, um Morgan, Derek." he said reaching out to shake her hand.
"Tina" the detective replied as she shook Morgan's hand.
"So thank you for coming down so quickly." She said as Agent Morgan pulled back his hand from the handshake.
"Agent Jareau, JJ, we spoke on the phone." JJ said leaning in to shake Detective Lopez's hand.
"Yes" Detective Lopez said shaking her head.
"These are Agents Hotchner, Prentiss, Rossi, Derek, and Dr. Reid." JJ said introducing the team.
"Well I hope there's no test, 'cause I'm lousy with names." Lopez said.
"Agent will be fine." Rossi said.
"Hey, isn't that?" Emily said as she pointed over to where Detective William LaMontagne Jr. from the NOLA PD was getting out of a car across the parking lot.
"Detective LaMontagne just arrived from New Orleans to ID the cop they pulled from the bay last night." Lopez said as Will walked across the parking lot to join the members of the BAU.
"Will, how are you?" JJ asked as she reached out and shook Will's hand.
"I've been better" Will replied. "Charlie Luvet and I worked together for seven years. We haven't formally ID'd him yet, but we believe it's him." Will said wincing at the thought.
"Sorry for your loss, man." Morgan said.
"So, you all know each other?" Detective Lopez asked.
"Yeah, the BAU helped me out on a case a year ago. But, just for the sake of clarity, I'm not here to investigate. Charlie was um, supposed to be married this August." Will said. "So if they guy who floated up last night was him, I guess I have the honor of notifying his fiancé. She gonna need some answers, closure, and I'm just here to get that for her."
Will closed his eyes in sadness as the coroner pulled the sheet back revealing Charlie's face. . "Yeah," he said in a tight thick voice "that's him. That's Charlie Luvet."
JJ reached up and covered her mouth with her hand. She felt for Will. After everything that she and Spence had been through it was all too easy to put herself in Will's shoes and imagine herself having to someday identify Spence's body.
"We had to ID more than a photo before we could ship him." The coroner said. "You're not family, but I can cut through the red tape."
"Thank you." Will said.
"If you need help making arrangements, uh, liaising with families is part of what I do." JJ said softly, wishing there was something more that she could do to comfort her friend at the moment.
"I might just take you up on that." Will said as he glanced back at his friend's body laid out on the morgue table. "Excuse me, I'll, I'll be outside." he said emotionally overwhelmed by the moment.
JJ watched concerned at how Will was going to deal with Charlie's death as he walked out the doors of the morgue.
"For you." JJ said as she walked up to Emily and handed her a large, ice cold bottles of water.
"Thank you, you read my mind." Emily said as she twisted off the cap.
"I don't understand how it can be this dry, when it's this humid." JJ said as she took a sip of water.
Emily swallowed her large sip of water. "You sweat all your fluids out outside and then come into bone dry air conditioning." she said.
"Well, if I could just hook this up to an IV, then…" JJ said as she lifted the bottle to take another sip.
"At least we have something fun to look at." Emily said curious about how JJ would react "Keep us on our toes."
"What do you mean?" JJ asked.
"LaMontagne" Emily said with a tip of her head towards the other side of the room where Will stood looking over Charlie's case file for something, anything that would tell them what happened to Charlie.
JJ glanced over her shoulder at Will and then turned to look back at Emily. "Huh, you think so huh?" She wondered if Will was interested in women at all anymore. He apparently had a thing for tall brunettes… maybe she could set him and Emily up on a date the next time he came to DC to visit.
Emily chuckled. "Don't you?"
JJ looked back over at Will. "Yeah, yeah, I guess he's" JJ turned back towards Emily. "he's got a thing." JJ said with a smile at Emily as she remembered how she'd initially been attracted to Will.
"There is definitely a thing." Emily said with a nod of her head.
JJ slowly walked across the precinct to where Will stood scrubbing his hands over his face, with the bag holding Charlie's shield and gun. "Detective Lopez signed this into your custody."
"Thank you." Will replied "I still can't believe it."
"Believe what?" JJ asked.
"That Charlie would rather hide and come down here than admit who he was and…" Will paused as rubbed his hand across his face again.
JJ could hear the silent 'be with me' that was missing from the end of Will's sentence where he'd trailed off. She nodded silently, unsure of what she could possibly say that would make Will feel better.
"He was my friend… and I loved him." Will said in a soft almost broken voice.
JJ leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Will in a hug and held him as he sobbed over the loss of his friend and former lover. She shushed and rocked from side to side as she tried to comfort their heartbroken friend. She rubbed soothing circles on his back as she whispered softly in his ear. "Whatever you need, you know all you have to do is let Spence and I know, right?"
Will nodded his face against JJ's shoulder where his face currently rested.
Emily stood watching JJ comfort Will with a smirk on her face and her hands tucked in her pockets when Morgan stepped up behind her.
"Well, finally." Morgan said as they watched JJ holding Will.
"Mm hm" Emily muttered in agreement. "I thought she was never going to admit it." Then she turned and walked off to gather her things, followed by Morgan.
A few minutes later Reid came down the precinct hallway and noticed JJ comforting Will. He nodded in thought to himself. If Will felt half a strongly about Charlie as he, himself, felt about JJ, then Will was going to need all the comfort he could get. He made a point not to disturb JJ and Will. He'd catch up with them at the hotel.
JJ's thoughts were broken as Spence sat down beside her and rubbed her thigh to get her attention. "Hey, you need to eat and have something to drink." Spence said as he handed her a sandwich and a bottle of water.
"Thanks Spence." She said as she turned to sit beside Spence and face Will.
"You know, I kept thinking that eventually Charlie would realize that we belonged together and break the new to Allison that he was in love with someone else… now it's too late… that's never going to happen." Will said as he picked at his sandwich.
JJ could tell just by looking at Will that he was devastated by losing Charlie. It was going to take him some time to recover from losing Charlie, even though they hadn't been a couple at the time.
"What am I supposed to tell Allison?" Will asked as he looked up at JJ and Spencer. "I don't want to hurt her any more than she's already going to be. I… I never told Ch… Charlie that I loved him… do… do you think he knew?" Will asked, his voice cracking with emotion. "And why the hell did he have to come down here anyway… why couldn't he just admit to who he was?" Will continued as he gave voice to all the random thoughts rolling through his head in the midst of his loss.
JJ's heart broke for Will as he stood up and started to pace as he worked through his emotions and tried to come to terms with having lost Charlie, this time forever.
Will scrubbed his hands through his hair as he paced trying to decide what to do. His father had died in Katrina. His best friend and partner on the force, and the man he loved died because he couldn't bring himself to tell the truth about who he was. Maybe it was time he made fresh start somewhere else and began telling the truth about who is, before it's too late for him as well. Well, he'd work his way up to telling the truth about who he was. In order to tell the truth about who he was, he'd first have to figure out just who exactly that is.
"I think I need a change of scenery in my life. As long as I'm in New Orleans, I'm just going to keep on being who everybody expects me to be. Would you mind if I stayed with you for a little while? Just until I find a place of my own in the DC area?" Will asked as he stopped pacing in front of JJ and Spencer.
"Sure… you're welcome to stay as long as you need." JJ replied. "But what about your job… what about your life in New Orleans?"
Will shrugged. "My family's all dead. Charlie's dead. There's nothing but ghosts for me in New Orleans cher. And as far as work goes… well I have a lot of money saved up between insurance and sellin' my Daddy's land. I'll be okay for a while. I just need to sell my house and I'll be all set. Besides my two best friends live in the DC area."
"Okay if you're sure" JJ said and then her eyes went wide as the emotional day, the heat, humidity, and dehydration apparently got to her. She shot up of the bed and headed for the bathroom, making it just in time as she got sick.
Spence followed to bathroom in concern and held her hair back for her as vomited the little bit she'd eaten into the toilet. Once she was done he filled one the plastic cups on the vanity with water so that she could rinse her mouth out and ran a wash cloth under cold water to place on the back of her neck.
"Here" Spence said kneeling down beside her and handing her the cup of water as he held the cold compress against the back of her neck.
"Thanks baby" JJ moaned and then took a sip of water, rinsing as much of the vile taste from her mouth as she could.
"You okay now?" Spence asked with a concern tinged voice as he helped her to her feet.
"Yeah," JJ nodded and then rested her head on Spence's shoulder as they walked out of the bathroom together.
"Are you alright?" Will asked in concern for JJ as she and Spencer left the bathroom.
JJ nodded. "I think it's just the emotional few days combined with the heat and the humidity… and I'm probably a little dehydrated." She replied as she sat back down on the bed and picked up her bottle of water.