Long shadows of the evening pooled together as night approached. Soon the only shadows were ones cast by the dim light of the moon. Angela tried not to let herself be scared, she had long since grew out of her childhood fear of the dark, but she could feel her anxiety growing inside her as the sun set.
Talking to JJ had helped Angela, it was good to have someone to talk to, but after she left Angela felt even more alone.
…
Walking through the house later that night, running her hand along the wall guiding her through the dark hallway, Angela's mind was racing.
The grandfather clock was ticking loudly from across the room. It offered a slow rhythm contrast to her racing heartbeat. With wide eyes, pounding pulse, and shallow breaths Angela took cautious steps into the living room. She picked the half empty bowl of chips left over from Miranda's snack up from the table and turned to the kitchen.
Still the grandfather clocked ticked and Angela took a deep calming breath as she tried to focus on the sound rather then her paranoia.
She thought she heard something behind her, but when she turned there was nothing. Miranda was asleep and her husband would not be home till tomorrow, no one was in the house but the two of them. Then she heard the floorboards groan and she knew she was not imagining anything. No one was there, yet she could still feel eyes on her.
Dropping the bowl onto the counter she turned to the fridge for a glass of water.
Miranda watched from the dark living room as she drank the tall glass of water, frightening eyes narrowing in on her back
The problem with investigating a supernatural creature, that she still hasn't identified, was doing it while maintaining a day job.
JJ loved her job at the BAU, the trials and tribulations that her job brought shaped her into ho she was today. She did what she loved and it made her a better person, a better mother, a more compassionate and strong human being. Unfortunately, while she was helping the team identify another serial killer Henry and Will were home with god knows what kind of monster living just across town.
…
"You're sure everything is alright. How is henry?" JJ questioned into the phone as she paced in front of one of the wooden desk in the police station.
"He's fine, everything is fine. If you could just tell me what's on your mind." Will New Orleans accent seamed more pronounced than usual, and even through the phone JJ knew how her behavior recently had started to worry him.
"No, Will its nothing. You're right, everything is fine." She said trying to drop the subject.
"Jennifer." Will started hoping her full name would be enough to rattle a confession out of her.
"I have to go." JJ cut him off as Hotch approached her.
"Everything alright?" Her unit chief asked as she quickly hung up the phone. As always Hotch was perfectly composed and professional, with almost a cold demeanor about him, but JJ could hear the concern in his voice as he spoke.
"Yeah." JJ nodded with her most convincing smile hoping it would be enough to fool the seasoned profiler. It wasn't, the apprehension looked in his eyes told her that.
"If something is bothering you, you can tell me." Hotch responded.
"I know." JJ smiled and this time it was genuine. Hotch, as stern as he could be, would take care of the team.
Nodding silently Hotch turned around to speak with Emily leaving JJ to her thoughts once again.
Letting out a shaky breath JJ slumped down in her seat with her head in her hands. All the information she had gathered over the last few days about supernatural creatures began to mix with the facts of their current case, and it was preventing her from thinking straight. Her head was pounding due to her inability to focus, and a painful feeling in her chest began to form at the thought of Henry and Will being put in harms way.
"Alright spill." A voice stated causing JJ to look up at a concerned Derek hovering beside the desk.
"Spill what?" JJ questioned feigning ignorance.
"Don't play innocent with me." Derek said crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Tell me whatever's got you so worked up."
"Really Derek its nothing." JJ said as she stood up, buried her anxiety with a professional demeanor, and tried to walk away.
Derek blocked her path before she could even take a step.
Letting out another sigh JJ quickly looked around the room. Most of the local officers had been to focused in their work to take notice of her, and with the rest of the team at the recent crime scene it was only Hotch and Emily who were watching them.
"Come with me." JJ said quickly before leading him out of the open area of the police station and into a private office. Closing the door behind them and drawing the blinds of the small windows closed so no one could see them.
Derek stood there confused but allowed her a moment to collect her thought and articulate what was bothering her.
"I've just got a strange feeling. Ever since the incident with the Winchesters I don't know what to think anymore." She started and suddenly Derek understood. They were the only two who knew what really happened with the Winchesters, with Lilith… Her name still sent a cold shiver down his spine and the healed bruises on his wrist, where he had been pined to the wall with an invisible force, to pain.
"Talk me through it." Derek pressed as he tried to force back the unexplainable memories and focus on what JJ was feeling.
"I was at camp with Henry and there was this little girl." She started but suddenly her voice broke off as her voice cracked and she landed back against the door. She brought her hands up intertwining and untwining her finders. Derek recognized it as a nervous habit, but the profiler in him interpreted more than that. The way she held her arms close to her body as she moved her hands as if trying to hold herself together.
"Alright tell me about the girl." Derek said gently trying to guide the conversation.
"She's just a normal little girl, but I felt as if something was wrong with her .. like she wasn't human, Derek." The exclamation caught him off guard and had anyone told him such thing a year ago he would have thought they were crazy but after the Winchesters he had to give some creditability to JJ's statement.
"I went and spoke with her mother and I know, I know, something if wrong with her. I started researching about-"
"Stop, hey JJ, stop right there." Derek cut her off as he took a step forward. "If you're right about her then you're putting yourself in danger, and if your wrong and she's just a little girl-" This time Derek cut himself off letting the sentence trail off.
"I wouldn't hurt her." JJ answered the unasked question.
"Then what would you do, what did you find out?" Derek asked. "Turn her in for being a vampire?" He asked sarcastically.
"I don't know." She answered ignoring the vampire comment. Truthfully, JJ had thought this would be simple. That she would figure out what was wrong with Miranda the same way she had tracked the Winchesters. That by applying the same profiling methods to the situation she would be able to identify the creature- it was a foolish assumption.
JJ was not a hunter; she was not born into the lifestyle. She had not suffered through he blood soaked road, which created obsessive or revenge-driven hunters. She had grown up in a small town with nosey neighbors, not a different motel room smelling of stale cigarette smoke. She spent her days ridding her bike down the road, not watching trees pass on one-lane highways. She grew up thinking monsters only existed in campfire stories.
Raised like solider with the mentality to shoot first and ask questions later, those were foreign concepts to her.
The worst thing to happen to her was her sister's suicide. As life altering and painful as that was it was a normal human occurrence, whereas the even that leads most hunters into the life was entirely different.
"Don't you still have that number?" Derek asked carefully.
JJ didn't have to ask what he was referring to, she had the ten digits memorized from the countless nights she had staring at the crumpled piece of paper wondering if it was time to call. It was the number Sam and Dean had given her on their last encounter, they said the person would be able to help.
"Yeah." She answered calmly.
"Maybe its time to give them a call." Derek suggested.