Disclaimer: I own nothing.

I may have fudged some dates and ages, but bear with me.

*****************

JJ stood on the balcony looking down at the scene before her. Taking in the sight of a happy Henry playing with his father, she chokes back a sob.

Why couldn't everything in her life be okay?

'Hey.'

Turning her head, she notes the arrival of David Rossi as he leans down on the balcony next to her.

'You okay?'

Cursing the tears that have pooled in the edges of her eyes, she brushes them away angrily. 'I will be.'

'What's wrong?'

Hating that she looked weak, but feeling the need to speak to someone about what she'd been bottling up for months under her guise of 'Capable JJ', she whispered so softly that Rossi had to drop his head to catch it.

'Henry's deaf.'

Hearing no response, she looks up and braces herself for a look of pity. But instead, she finds herself looking into Rossi's shocked, but understanding and sympathetic, eyes.

'I found out for sure last month – but I've had suspicions since August – and then work got out of hand, and Will doesn't believe it, and so I only got the confirmation three weeks ago – he can't hear a thing, he's profoundly deaf – then that case came up and... what kind of a mother does that make me?'

Grasping JJ's hand, Rossi drew her attention to his face. 'Look at me Jennifer. You are not a bad mother. You're a fabulous mother. Henry is going to be absolutely fine.'

'But what do I do now? There's so many appointments the doctor's told me to organise, so many things I have to think about. Communication, technology, education... everything. It's just too much.'

'Hey honey, we're here for you. I'm here for you. Whatever you want to do – whatever decisions you make – I'll back you.'

JJ took a deep shuddering breath. Maybe things would get better?

Over the next two months, it is David Rossi who steps up to the plate. He didn't want to push Will out of the picture, but if that man wasn't going to do anything, he sure as hell wasn't going to let Jennifer face this alone.

He accompanied her to the doctor appointments, the specialist appointments, the audiology appointments, the speech therapy appointments. Whatever appointment there was – he was there.

He took the phone calls at random hours of the night from a stressed JJ as she worried about another decision she had to make for her son and his future.

And when she told the team about Henry's deafness, he stood there by her side in support.

**************

A friend of Rossi's had a deaf niece, and so one day in January, not long after Christmas, he took JJ to meet them.

She'd spent so many restless nights next to the sleeping Will wondering what to do for her child. Should she get a cochlear implant? A hearing aid? Learn sign language? She was wary of invasive surgery for her young child, but the doctors seemed particularly supportive of this method.

Standing on the doorstep to the Yarling household, JJ held Henry close as she prepared herself.

Smiling wanly at Rossi's assurance of 'you'll be fine', she takes a deep breath and kisses her son's head as Rossi pushes the doorbell.

Rowena Yarling was a perfectly 'normal', well-adapted teenager. She was happy, studying and had a great relationship with her hearing sister Lucia. She used sign language, and wore hearing aids sometimes.

Talking with Rowena's parents and listening to their journey, JJ decided that American Sign Language could be a path for Henry. Who was she to change her little boy and force him to try and hear? At the end of the day he was still deaf. He was going to need a language he could communicate in, and why not make it one that wouldn't be such a labour for him?

Rowena's stories about fellow students at school who didn't sign, but couldn't really talk and so were stuck in 'limbo land', and other students who had ditched their cochlear implants and were now trying to sign and find a place to belong, made her wonder. And when she heard Rowena's comments about how the really deaf kids who didn't sign and really struggled with speech and lip-reading had a pretty crap relationship with their parents because neither could understand each other, she felt shattered.

Would this happen to Henry?

The final deciding point for her was seeing Henry's face light up at the sight of signing. Her normally active child sat stock still in her lap and watched the hands flying in front of him. He'd even tried to mimic Rowena's actions at one point.

She would do this for him - she would go down the sign language path. 'It was going to be tough, it was going to be hard, but it was going to be worth it,' she vowed to herself.

When Rossi dropped off JJ at her place that night, he hoped like hell that Will would step up to the plate and support JJ in her decision. She was going to need all the support she could get.

************

ASL lessons began soon after. Rossi sourced a program that taught sign language in the home, and used his contacts to organise classes for the team. After all, they were family.

JJ had never really, truly appreciated her BAU family until then.

Emily and Hotch had a newborn, and sometimes a rambunctious five year old Jack Hotchner, but they still came to every class.

Reid got his hands on all the literature he could find on deafness, and was never shy about reeling off random facts.

Garcia, their resident technical genius, searched the net high and low looking for the best tools for learning ASL. There was only to be the best for her godson!

Morgan was Morgan, providing the light relief and humour when it was so desperately needed, and the seriousness when the time called for it.

And god bless David Rossi, her rock through it all.

By the time Henry turned one on 13 February 2010, he knew four signs: Mummy, milk, ball and bath.

By the end of March, JJ was confident that she'd made the right decision. The medical professionals may look down on her, but she knew this was right for Henry. She had a happy, bright child who was flourishing. What more could she ask for?

But unfortunately, this conviction came at the demise of her relationship with Will.

***************

Next Chapter: Will.