So, the next chapter. I know it took me really long to publish this, but it's December. That's my month of parties... birthdays, balls, Sinterklaas, Christmas... A celebration heaven, lol.

Anyway. Thank you for all the reviews! I can't think of much else to say now, so instead of making a mile-long Author's Notes like I usually do, just read the story and please review xD

"JJ, we're leaving for dinner!" JJ rolled around in her bed at the cheerful voice. She wanted to sleep; she'd been having such a wonderful dream…

She was sitting on the pier, her feet in the water, looking out over the lake peacefully. It was a warm night. The moon was clearly visible over her head, a round white shape that seemed to glow.
She wanted to stay here. It was nice, peaceful and quiet. No problems, nothing to think about but the lake in front of her.She started when she felt two hands on her shoulders.

"Hey, Shel," Scott said cheerfully, and she turned around to give him a quick peck.

"Hi," she answered him, smiling as he sat down next to her.

"What're you thinking about?" he asked her, and she shrugged nonchalantly.

"Nothing," she finally said, looking ahead of her.

"Okay," he said, nodding. He grasped her hand and together they sat there.

"You know I love you, right?" Scott suddenly spoke. She looked at him surprised; where had that come from?

"I know," she confirmed. "You told me." She paused for a second. "I love you too."

He smiled broadly and leaned in for a kiss, which she gave to him, enjoying the soft feel of his lips against hers.

"I'm coming," she grumbled when Garcia called her again. Opening her eyes, she saw the bright colours of the tech girl right in front of her face. Surprised by the proximity, she sat up straight and rubbed her eyes tiredly. "What time is it?"

"Seven pm," Garcia told her. "It's getting dark honey; you slept for quite a while."

Standing up, JJ swayed a little as her stomach rumbled. "I'm hungry," she concluded, surprised.

"Well, that's why we'll get dinner," Garcia said, grinning at her barely-awake friend. "Do I need to wake you up with anything?"

"No, I'm fine," she said quickly, standing up properly and looking around for her shoes. Garcia's waking-up methods were well known, and not something she wanted to encounter unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Okay, then. We're going to get some delicious jambalaya!"

JJ grinned. Garcia turned out to be a fervid fan of the typical New Orleans food, and she'd been dragging JJ along every night to find some nice place to eat the Creole dishes.

They all went out to dinner together, so that if they were called they were already assembled.

Soon the team was talking about music, determined to avoid the current case.

"See, this kind of music-" Reid indicated the speakers above him "-is what I like. Did you know that skilled jazz performers never play the same composition exactly the same? Depending upon the performer's mood and personal experience, interactions with fellow musicians, or even members of the audience, a jazz musician may alter melodies, harmonies or time signature at will. It is believed to be the result of the origin of jazz, where-"

"Enough, kid," Morgan said, laughing. "We didn't come here for a lecture on jazz. I don't even like it anyway."

"Let me guess," Emily said. "Pop, dance, R&B… hip hop," she said after a pause.

"Well, yeah," Morgan grinned. "I mean, who doesn't like the rhyth,?"

"Yeah well, you can dance on it," Emily said. "And you're pretty good," she said, winking.

JJ looked at Emily surprised. It almost sounded as if she was flirting… was she? But nobody else seemed to have noticed, so JJ said nothing about it.

"I like those too," she said, earning some looks from her colleagues. "What? I can party," she continued.

"We're gonna go clubbing some day, you know," Morgan told her, and Emily nodded.

"Sure," JJ shrugged. "I haven't said I'm any good at it…" she trailed off.

"We'll be the judge of that, Jay," Morgan said grinning.

Their conversation dragged on lightly. JJ found herself beginning to lose interest as the guys starting talking about some new basketball player. Basketball had never been her choice of sports.

The dream JJ had had still lingered in her mind. She had dreamt of Peter, Daisy, Scott, even David, ever since she'd moved away from that place. It had become less after a couple of years, when her job began to consume most of her time. She had only gotten the occasional dream, and it had been mostly vague. But now they were coming back again, as well as the other nightmares. The ones she'd had before.

She thought she was healing. She thought she was in the process of moving on, letting go of her past in order to survive the present. And yet she still got the dreams.

Not that she hadn't enjoyed this one. After dreams like that she only realized how much she missed them, Scott in particular. They hadn't officially broken up, just moved away from each other as they both had realized it wouldn't end like they wanted it to end. She could not deny she'd wanted more, nor that she still thought about him. But going back to him, meeting again – it was a scary prospect. She had a new life now, one she'd been having for a while now. Was she ready to let those two worlds collide again?

"JJ, what do you think?"

She shot up as if she had just been woken up. "What?"

"Wow, you were far away," Emily laughed. "Where were you?"

A better place, she thought but she didn't say it. "Just thinking," she said instead. "What were you asking me?"

"Is rap a music genre or not?"

"It is," she said immediately, trying to get her mind off Scott. "Just a different one."

"Hah!" Morgan said triumphantly. "Looks like you lost girl," he continued, indicating Emily.

"I did not lose," Emily said undignified. "It's an opinion."

"Sure it is," Morgan said patronizingly.

"It is! Jeez Morgan, I thought you were fair…" Emily said mockingly.

"Well don't judge before you know me," Morgan grinned.

"Then maybe I should get to know you," Emily retorted suggestively.

JJ looked back and forth between her colleagues. Everyone else had disappeared, she had no idea where to. Maybe the conversation, turned to music again, bored them, maybe they had other things to do. In any case, it was just Morgan, Emily and her now. And Emily sure looked like she was taking advantage of that situation. The atmosphere was just too flirty for it not to be coincidental.

JJ was torn between staying her and making sure nothing happened, or leave and let them have some fun. She was definitely going to talk to her friend later, because she had never even suspected this.

She compromised by excusing herself to go to the bathroom. She really did need to go, anyway.

When she returned, she was surprised to see Emily and Morgan still at their table. She picked up on the mood immediately when she sat back down, the tension was definitely there.

"We've been finished with dinner for half an hour now. Why are we still here?" she asked, trying to ease the tension.

"Guess we lost track of time talking," Morgan said, looking at Emily as he said so. "It's time we go, anyway. The others will think we've been abducted or something, if we stay away for so long."

"Why'd they leave, anyway?" JJ asked, frowning.

"You didn't even notice, did you?" Morgan teased. "Reid got a hunch; they wanted to check it out before he lost it again."

JJ nodded, accepting the explanation. "Let's go," she said.

Emily and Morgan both nodded and stood, sobered up by JJ's seriousness. They paid and left the restaurant.

It was already dark outside, but it seemed like the city never slept. Bright lights were everywhere and it wasn't silent in the least.

Crossing the infamous Bourbon Street, JJ was once again gripped by the feeling of the city. She really wanted to go back here someday.

"What about we do that clubbing here," she shouted in Morgan's direction, trying to overcome to noise on the streets. "I kinda like it."

Morgan looked surprised, but nodded. "If the case is over," he confirmed.

They walked the rest of the way back to the hotel in silence, all lost in their own thoughts.

Reaching the hotel, they found the rest of the team sitting in the patio, talking. It seemed they had already checked out the hunch: judging by the mood, it had been a good idea, but there was nothing they could do at this moment.

"So how did it work out?" Morgan asked, looking from one to another.

"Garcia is going through the files right now," Reid said from his place at the back of the patio.

"What was the plan?" JJ whispered to Emily, who was standing next to her.

"Missed it, huh?" Emily grinned. JJ gave her one of her famous don't-toy-with-me glares, and Emily hastily backed off.

"Unsub might be killing because someone close to him died, probably due to Katrina. They got Garcia looking for any males who fit the profile who lost someone in the storm."

"There'll be a lot of them," JJ mused.

"Yeah, which is why we pinned it down to a Lower Ninth Ward resident, seeing as the storage place was in that neighbourhood."

JJ nodded in agreement. "And they had to leave for that?"

"Apparently," Emily nodded. "What's it to you, anyway?"

"Nothing, just curious," she said hastily. "Guess I'm a little disoriented."

"Right," Emily said. She was about to continue when Hotch called her, and with a quick smile she disappeared.

JJ looked around, seeing everyone around her engaged in conversation. She looked around once more before signalling to Morgan that she was going upstairs, then walked the stairs to her and Emily's room.

The dream had affected her more than she was willing to admit. She'd been having these dreams about Scott every now and then, yet this one somehow seemed more significant. This one had been strong enough to defeat the nightmare that had been hiding around the corner.

She truly did not know what her mind tried to tell her. Well, maybe she knew, but she didn't want to admit it to herself.

They wouldn't want to see her; she'd left without a note, without a call, just left. Disappeared into nothingness. She couldn't expect –

"Hey JJ, are you okay?" Emily walked into the room worriedly, interrupting her thoughts. Emily'd been checking up on her every now and then ever since they had found out about her past. It was sweet, really, and she enjoyed the gesture.

"I'm fine," she said to Emily. "Don't you have someone else to be with?"

Emily's face changed from worry to surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Oh don't give me that, you know it was pretty obvious, once Reid, Rossi and Hotch had gone…"

"Me and Morgan?" Emily guessed. She grinned sheepishly.

"Yes! What… I mean, when did this happen?"

"When did what happen?" Emily asked, feigning confusion.

"You… you like him or something?" Usually she wasn't this clumsy with words, but for some reason she couldn't find the right words.

"He's nice," Emily said nonchalantly. JJ eyed her, she being the worried one this time.

"You know nothing can happen right? The fraternization rules, and Garcia…"

"What's with Garcia?" Emily said quickly. Too quick to pretend she didn't care.

"Well, they have this… bond," JJ said carefully. "It's pretty thick."

"Yeah, but it's only playful, isn't it?" Emily replied rhetorically, knowing what JJ was referring to.

"On Morgan's part it might," JJ said thoughtfully. "I don't really know much about him."

"It's more to Garcia?"

"I think it is," JJ said, careful again. She didn't want to betray her friend's secrets.

Emily, noticing the look on JJ's face, leaned forward and touched her hand.
"Hey, JJ. He's fun to hang around with. Maybe he's fun to do other things with – I don't know. But I won't do anything if you –or Garcia– don't want me to. Hell, I haven't even figured out what I want, much less what he wants."

This uncharacteristically serious speech from Emily soothed JJ's conscious a bit – she knew Emily was speaking the truth.

"Good," she nodded. "'Cause you don't want to know how many women out there would want to kill you for taking him off the market!"

"I know," Emily said, laughing. "He's pretty popular isn't he?"

"Yup," JJ replied. "You should put a sign around his neck with 'taken' on it. That way he might get… harassed less."

"He's not taken," Emily reminded her.

"Whatever," JJ yawned. "I'm sorry, I'm really beat. Mind if I go to sleep?"

"Why would I? It is night, after all." Emily looked at her more closely. "Are you okay?"

JJ debated internally for a moment. Should she tell Emily? She knew she could trust her.

"I'm fine," she finally said. "I had a weird dream, that's all." Weird wasn't exactly the right word for it, but she couldn't bring herself to say the right words. Lovely. Addictive.

Emily eyed her again. "Are you-"

JJ cut her off before Emily could finish the sentence. "I'm fine," she repeated. "It wasn't a nightmare."

She left it at that. She really was tired, and they all needed their sleep. She looked towards the bathroom door demonstratively. Emily got the gesture.

"Okay," she said softly. "I'm going back down for a minute – Reid's really on fire tonight."

"Sure," JJ said, a teasing edge to her voice. "Have fun."

Seeing as fun wasn't exactly the right term for trying to solve a case, Emily caught on.

"I will," she said, and with that she left. JJ looked towards the bathroom door again, sighed and got up. It was going to be a long night.

NO idea where that came from. I guess I've been reading too many fanfics. What do you think?