Her past catches up with her
I don't own Criminal Minds and/or Higher Ground. Might not be suitable for younger children. Mild viloence and some swearing.
10 years later…
A blond beautiful lady in her twenties is setting up the small drab briefing room for the FBI's BAU: Behavior Analysis Unit. The blond beauty, JJ is the FBI liasion and she has to get the team of seven up to speed on the current case. JJ realizes that she doesn't have the individual packs with the case information for each agent. In the past week, JJ has been off her mark. She's been late getting into work. She's misplaced important files. One day she shows up in her slippers. The rest of the team have been concerned about her. The team slowly file into the tiny room. As they sit down, JJ starts the meeting.
"Ok people, we have a new case. It's coming from a town called Hope Springs in Colorado. A little girl, Maggie, age six has been kidnapped on her way home from a neighbor friends house. She's been missing for forty-eight hours now. The mother has temporary custody. The father just got back from an out of town business trip and has a solid alibi."
JJ's pacing the brown colored office as she talks. Her blond hair is neatly groomed as always. Her outfit's professional, but there's something different about her appearance. Special agent Dr. Spencer Reid notices. He's had a secret crush on Special Agent Jennifer 'JJ' Jearau.
She finds this case urgent. She knows that this child needs their help and fast. She always takes the cases that deal with children a little more to heart. She believes that it's her guilt over not protecting a little girl from her child molester step father, Walt. The guilt's eaten away at her for over ten years. She's trying to right a wrong. Only it's years ago and a different life. JJ's brought back to the present.
"So do they have any witnesses or leads?" Reid asks.
"They have the neighbor girl, Molly, who saw a man pulling Maggie into a van. From what Mrs. Martin's able to get from Molly, the van was green. What shade's unknown. The man has dark hair. Someone else was driving. She says it's a lady with long blonde hair. That's all we have to go on. I'll have all the paper work and statements ready for you guys by the time you're ready to go."
JJ shuffling through papers. JJ seems to be disorganized and distracted. Everyone could tell.
"You're going with us. We're going to need someone to spin this in a way to calm and reassure the people to stay calm and help us get Maggie back fast." Aaron Hotchner, senior special agent, and her boss says, "Are you sure?"
JJ doesn't want to step foot in Colorado. If she did, she'd be stepping back into her old life.
"You're going." Hotch, that's what they call him, says.
"Yes sir. I'll be ready in thirty minutes. I need to stop off at home to pack a few things. Does anyone need anything else before I leave?"
"Yeah, I thought you always have a bag packed and in your office?"
"Normally I do, but I've been doing some…Spence, mind your own business. I'll be back in thirty minutes." JJ leaves in a hurry.
"Sorry, did I say something wrong?"
"No. She's been acting strange all week. It's like her mind's been on something else. Does anyone know what it might be? It could be love. It usually makes people act weird." Jason Gideon, FBI's psychologist and father bear to everyone.
"If she is, she hasn't told me. And I'm one of the first people she tells." Penelope Garcia, tech agent, says.
"Does anyone know when her birthday is?"
"I should know that, but I don't. I can find out."
Garcia rushes out of the briefing room and scurries into her office. She gets on one of her many computers to get into personnel files. She types in Jennifer Mae Jareau. When her file comes up, she sees all her personal information. Birthday, July 22, 1978. Birth place, Lansing, MI. Address of the small house that she's paid off already. Her parents still live in Lansing. She has two younger sisters, Sarah age 24 and Melody 17. JJ's emergency contact's a Mrs. Mason. Her address's close to JJ's. Garcia finds it weird that JJ never seems to mention anything about her family or past. She never recalls her prom, graduation or childhood anecdotes. Maybe she's upset no one asks her about her family. Garcia closes the file and heads back to the briefing room.
"Well, her birthday's July 22. So she's already had her birthday here. She never mentions her birthday. You think one of us would've asked."
"She knew my birthday and always seems to have a cake. How can she be so sweet, but then never mentions her birthday?"
"Maybe she celebrates her birthday in her own way. Just not with a huge party. A party for two." Morgan, another special agent says. Morgan tries to hint to something more adult.
"Ok, time to get our minds clean and back on track. We leave in an hour. Go do what you need to get done. Be back here to get to the plane by two. We'll pick up this clean conversation later. Go!" Hotch says.
They all scatter.
Meanwhile, JJ's at her house packing. She takes a short detour. She goes to the painting hanging in the living room, over her fireplace. She reaches behind it and pulls out a picture of the cliffhangers. The group she thinks of as her true family. She smiles when she sees Daisy and Ezra, Auggie and Juliet, David, Kat and Scott. She runs her finger over Scott's handsome face. She takes a deep breath and lays her eyes on Peter and Sophie. She's praying that they'd be proud of what she's doing. All the hard work she went through and the success she's achieved. It feels like just yesterday, but also like a lifetime ago. Her mind wonders back to Jess and her mom, Alice. Wondering what name Jess came up with. JJ thought it's probably Ashley because she used to play house and use that name. She imagines Jess with a nice young man and a few kids. Maybe a dog or maybe a cat. JJ smiles and then puts the picture back in it's hiding place behind the painting.
She grabs her bag and heads out of her house. She locks the house up and puts a note in her neighbor, Mrs. Mason's mailbox. She frequently did this so Mrs. Mason could watch for intruders. Mrs. Mason didn't mind doing it. JJ 's like a daughter to her. When JJ's off on vacation or just off duty, she spends time with Mrs. Mason. They spend holidays together.
JJ gets back to the FBI headquarters, drops her bag off in her office and then heads to Hotches office.
She knocks on the door. "Come in!" was the response.
JJ opens the door and walks in.
"Hey Hotch, I'm back. Is there anything you need me to do before we leave? I called the Hope Springs police department. An officer Brady Jensen told me he'd have an officer at the airport. The officer will then take us to the HSPD so we can set up. He also has the parents of Maggie on alert that we'll be there soon so we can talk to them. I have the copies for everyone to review on the way there. Am I missing anything?"
"Yeah. Sit down please. I need to talk to you."
"Sure. Is it Haley or baby Jack? I have no experience around babies. But I could get as much info as you need."
"JJ! It's not my family. This is about you. I'm worried about you. Is something bothering you?" Hotch is concerned.
"Uh, no. What makes you think that something's wrong?"
"Well, some of the others and myself have noticed that you seem distracted. Like you have something else on your mind. Would you like to talk about it?"
"There's nothing wrong. Thank you for asking and be willing to let me talk about it. Is that it?" JJ starts getting up.
"No. Is there a reason you didn't want to go to Colorado?"
"I'm sorry Hotch. I wasn't trying to get out of going to Colorado. I wasn't trying to second guess You. I'm truly sorry. It won't happen again. I just have paper work to catch up on. I'm also working on something for my neighbor Mrs. Mason. When I go out of town, she watches my house. So I try to do something nice for her. Did I miss anything before we go? I still have to get as much of my paper work done. Oh, I could take some with me on my laptop. Then I can…"
JJ's still talking and leaves his office without him dismissing her. That's so not like JJ. Normally she's so organized and on top of things. It's like her mind was scattered. That worries Hotch even more. He leaves his office to goes to talk to Gideon. Maybe he'd have better luck with her then he did. Hotch knocks on Gideon's closed office door.
"Come in!" Gideon yells while still doing some type of paper work. Hotch opens the door.
"Gideon, do you have a minute?"
"Sure. What's up?"
"I talked to JJ. I think something's going on. She's short with Reid, she didn't want to go with us to Colorado on this case, and she was just in my office. She's talking and just gets up and walks away without us finishing our conversation. Something's wrong. Please, could you talk to her. Let me know if there's anything I can do. Maybe she needs to take some personal time."
"Sure. I'll try to talk with her on the plane. Is that ok? That way she can't walk out on me. So we leave in fifteen minutes?" Gideon asks looking at his watch.
"Yeah. See you in a few minutes." Hotch says walking out of Gideon's office. He goes back to his office to grabs his bag, then heads to Garcia's office. He knocks on her door.
"Come in if you dare!" Hotch opens the door.
"Hey Garcia, can you do me a favor. While we're on the plane, could you do a back ground check on a Mrs. Mason that lives next door to JJ? I need to know anything you can get on her. I need to know about her relationship to JJ. See if Mrs. Mason has a family. See if you can find a criminal record. When you get anything, call me on my cell. And please, no mentioning it to anyone else. Thanks."
"Sure. No problem." Before she could say anything else, Hotch disappears. Garcia's feeling a little uncomfortable having to do this.
A while later, when the team's in the air on their way to Colorado, Gideon's watching JJ's behavior. She sits by herself. Reading papers and typing them into her laptop. She seems to be focused on one specific case and nothing else. She seems to be acting as if she's alone. Then she looks something up online. She's looking at the screen, then the color leaves her face. She stares for a few seconds, the she shuts the laptop and gets up to head to the lavatory. Once JJ's in the lavatory, Gideon gets up and goes to JJ's lap top. He opens it and looks to see what made JJ so effected. It's a screen for federal department of corrections. She'd typed in a name, Josh. The release date's for that Friday. Gideon pulls up the arrest record for Josh. Josh's convicted of unlawfully holding a hostage at knife point and attempted rape. Gideon's wondering what he has to do with JJ. He begins to think he's probably from previous cases.
JJ comes out of the lavatory and back to her spot. Gideon's still sitting there looking at the mug shot of Josh. JJ freaks, "What are you doing?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you'd finished. I was going to borrow your lap top to look up an old friend's address. If you don't mind me asking, who's Josh?" Gideon asks unfaultured.
"Well, if you must know. Josh's from my first case. I try to keep track of all the people that get convicted. That way I can inform the victims. A young lady by the name of Shelby. Josh hurt Shelby. So he got put away. I'm afraid he's going to try to hurt her. I don't even know where to find her." JJ looks like she's lost in her memory.
"Why don't you have Garcia look her up." Gideon says, not taking his eyes off of JJ. He can tell she's very effected by this.
"Maybe I will. Thank you. Could you be quick with my laptop. I need to get back to work."
"Oh, I'll look him up later, if that's alright. Sorry for the intrusion. Here." Gideon says handing the laptop to JJ.
She takes her laptop, "That's fine," and goes to the other side of the plane. Hotch watches the encounter between JJ and Gideon. Then his cell phone rings.
"Hotchner."
"Hey Hotch, it's Garcia. I have the info you want. Martha Mason's fifty-eight years old. She was born in Richmond, Virginia. Her parents died in a plane crash in 1979. She's an only child. She's never married and no birth children. She did adopt a young girl in 1987. Gwendolyn Mason was eight at the time of adoption. She had liver failure. She died in 1998. Martha was employed as a nurse at Richmond Regional Hospital for about thirty-five years. She moved to the house she's in now about ten years ago. She has no criminal record and she does a lot of volunteer work. She seems like the perfect neighbor and friend. I'll keep working until you get back. Later." Garcia says, hanging up.
At the Hope Springs police department, JJ's talking to the officer Brady Jensen about where their set up is going to be. "Have you got any new information?" JJ asks.
"No, nothing new. The parents are calling every half hour. Could one of you please go talk to them and try to calm them down. It's hard to get anything done with them calling all the time. I'm sorry their daughter's missing, but we're trying to find her."
"That's very insensitive of you! They just want to get updates! We'll talk with them, that way YOU can do what YOU need to do." JJ says, walking away in a huff. This is uncharacteristic of the JJ they knew. The sheriff Curtis Brown comes in and greets everyone.
"Hello. I'm sheriff Brown. You can call me Curtis. Is there anything I can help you with? Do you have all you need?"
"Yes, thank you. I'm special agent Hotchner. This is special agent Gideon, special agent Dr. Reid, special agent Morgan, special agent Prentiss and special agent Jareau seems to be in another place. I apologize for her behavior. I'm going to speak with her. If you'll excuse me." Hotch says, walking in the direction that JJ went. He finds her in the conference room they'd set up for the temporary headquarters for them. She's talking on the phone to Mrs. Fellows, Maggie's mother.
"Mrs. Fellows, we're going to come and talk to you shortly. I have to ask you not to call. We'll let you know if something changes. Is there anything you feel we need to know?"
"Yeah. She's an asthmatic. She doesn't have her inhaler. She could be having an attack and they could think she's faking. Please, let them know she's allergic to smoke. She's got to be scared." Mrs. Fellows says between sobs.
"I know ma'am. We're trying. I'll be coming personally to talk to you. I'll be there as soon as I can. Just stay put and I'll see you soon. Just stay calm. Bye." JJ says and hangs up. Hotch comes up behind her.
"JJ." She jumps.
"Oh, what is it Hotch. I have some information I need to write down about Maggie." JJ writes down the asthma and allergy to smoke in. "And then I have to go to the Fellows residences. Is it something that we can handle after I get back from the Fellows residences?"
"No. Wait! I need a word with you. It will only take a minute." Hotch says.
"Is it really that important? I need to start the follow up with Mrs. Fellows. She's expecting me." JJ says.
"Damn it Jareau! I'm your boss! Stop for a second and listen to me."