I had hoped to get this done yesterday, but I had more homework than I thought I would.

I was thinking about maybe making this JJ/Reid in the end. What do you guys think? Should I or not?

Thanks to and DeviousRobynno for reviewing the last chapter!!! :)

From Darkness to Light

A CM fanfic

Chapter 8

"A witness?" Aaron Hotchner questioned Derek Morgan, a glimmer of hope suddenly coming back into the almost hopeless case.

"Yeah, a little boy from across the street saw a man walk up to Kaylee after her dad went inside and somehow convince her to go with him." Morgan replied.

"Is that all you got from him? Did he tell you what he looked like?" Hotch asked.

"We're having his mother bring him down to the station so he can sit with a sketch artist." Detective Bowman said as he, Hotch, Morgan, and Emily climbed into the SUV.

"Let's go see if Reid, J.J. and Garcia found anything." Hotch said as he started the vehicle and drove back towards the police station.

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After J.J. left the room, claiming once again she was 'just fine' Spencer Reid had just sat there, wondering if he had done the right thing. He knew something was wrong with her and he just wanted her to know she could talk to him, like she used to do. He wanted to help her through whatever it was that seemed to have her world turned upside down.

She was no longer the same J.J. that Reid knew, that anyone knew. She used to be so full of energy and so happy all the time. Now, she looked and acted tired and it had been weeks since Reid had seen that smile of hers that could always put a smile on his own face as well as those of the rest of the team. He could remember countless times when he, Garcia, or even Morgan had gone to her when they needed to talk about something and there were times when she would go to either him or Garcia when she'd had a bad day. Now, she was quiet. She skipped nights out with the rest of the team and she never talked to any of them unless it had to do with a case. Reid was worried about her and he knew the others were too.

Hotch, Morgan, and Emily then walked through the door, interrupting Reid's thoughts.

"Hey, Reid did you find anything?" Morgan asked with a slight smile.

"No, but it looks like you did. What happened?" Reid replied, noticing the change in his teammate's behavior from before they left.

"We got a witness. A kid from across the street saw the man who took Kaylee. He's talking to a sketch artist right now."

"That's great." Reid said, still with somewhat of a frown on his face.

"Something wrong, Reid?" Hotch asked. "Where's J.J.?"

"I don't know." The young agent said. "I asked her what was wrong and why she'd been acting differently. I told her she could talk to me and she started yelling she was fine and walked out the door."

"You didn't see where she went?" Morgan asked, his happy demeanor gone, exchanged for a more worried one, concerned about his friend.

"No, she might have gone to the bathroom though."

"I'll go look for her." Emily volunteered.

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J.J. had gone into the bathroom after leaving Reid. It was the obvious hiding place, but she didn't know where else to go. She had to get away from the questions and the profiling which was Reid's nature. She knew sooner or later someone would start asking questions, but she had always preferred to think of it as being later rather than sooner.

After walking through the door J.J. had taken off her jacket, laying it on the sink. The cool November days had suddenly turned to unusually warm weather and it was even hotter in the police station. As the rest of the team, with the exception of Hotch, had walked around in their short-sleeved shirts J.J. had kept her jacket on, using it to hide the scars and red lines on her arms, the evidence of her new found addiction.

J.J. leaned against the sink, putting her elbows on the edge and running her hands through her hair after looking at herself in the mirror. She knew it was getting worse. She was getting worse and she couldn't stop it. Sleep was impossible, cutting was inevitable and J.J. started to think that maybe it was time to tell someone, to get help. But who would she tell? Garcia? Emily? Hotch? Morgan? Reid? He'd already said she could talk to him, but would talking to any of them really even help? Didn't they still blame her for Georgia? Did they really even care about what she was going through or were they just trying to be nice?

J.J. didn't hear the door open as Emily Prentiss came in the room. The older woman watched as J.J. stood there seemingly lost in thought and she walked closer to her, slowly.

"J.J." Emily said softly, trying to get the blonde's attention, without startling her.

J.J. jumped at the sound of Emily's voice and that's when she saw it. Emily's eyes came to rest on the small cuts running horizontally on her friend's arms. "You ok, J.J.?" she asked. "Reid said you just walked out on him."

"I'm fine." J.J. said, going back to her now extremely over used phrase that had apparently become her favorite without her ever knowing.

Emily moved just a little closer and attempted to get a better look at J.J.'s left arm while asking "What happened to your arm J.J.?"

J.J., suddenly realizing what she was talking about, jerked away from Emily, moving her arm out of her friend's reach and sight. She turned quickly, grabbing her jacket and putting it on as fast as she could. "Nothing happened. I don't know what you're talking about." She said. "I'm fine." J.J. then walked past the older agent and out the bathroom door. She walked through the sea of local cops and into the room where Reid, Hotch, and Morgan still sat. "I'm…uh…going for a walk." She said, quickly to Hotch. "I have my phone if anything happens." And she walked out of the police station and onto the sidewalk where she took off walking in any direction that would get her away from the team and their questions which threatened to expose her deepest secrets.

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Emily, after finally getting over the shock about what she thought her friend and coworker might be doing to herself, she left the bathroom and walked back to Hotch, Reid, and Morgan.

"Did you find her?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, she didn't tell me anything though." Emily said, choosing to keep what she saw and what she was fairly sure it meant to herself for a while. "She just said she was fine and left."

"She said she's going on a walk now." Morgan said.

"Let's get back to work." Hotch told everybody, worried about J.J., but not wanting to just sit around and talk about her, while they still had a little girl to find.