Chapter 11

"Stop it, Morgan!" Hotch yelled at the younger man when he tried to attack Rossi again. Rossi simply stood there without moving a single bone, staring down on the floor, knowing exactly that he deserved every single punch.

"Hotch, are you seriously defending him? Didn't you see what JJ's been looking like in the past couple of months?" Morgan glared at his boss with dark eyes.

"Believe me, Morgan, I am not. But we're in a hospital here, if you haven't noticed!" Hotch answered in a warning tone, throwing a look at the nurse, who came out of JJ's room.

"We can as well take it outside then," Morgan replied, taking a step toward Rossi and grabbed him by the neck. "What is wrong with you, man?" He hissed dangerously, surprised that Rossi wouldn't even try to defend himself, that he didn't even bother to look at him.

"What, now you don't even have one single word to say about this?" Morgan shook his head contemptuously before he continued. "I always thought you were a decent man, but obviously, I was wrong." Loosing his grip on Rossi's shirt, he added: "You know what? You're not worth for me to get my hands dirty on you." He turned away and walked back into JJ's room.

When Rossi wanted to follow him, Hotch held him back.

"Maybe you should go out and take a walk until everybody's calmed down a bit."

Rossi nodded silently, and trudged away slowly, followed by Hotch's concerned glances, passing Garcia, who just came back with Henry on her arms. The little boy immediately squeaked out for Rossi again, but he only gave him a weak and sad smile, before going out of the building.

*********

Back inside JJ's room, Prentiss was just starting to interrogate her on Rossi, when Hotch, Garcia, and Henry came back in.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier? I mean, we all saw how hard the last months were for you, and we asked you all the time if you're okay. Why didn't you say something? We would have done anything to help you!"

JJ sighed deeply. She was relieved that the truth was finally out, but she knew it would not make things easier. Far from it! She was sure that it would bring an immense amount of tension into their close team unit that would complicate matters even more.

"Em, this is between Rossi and me. It had and has nothing to do with the team."

Morgan frowned. "Excuse me, JJ, but I think it does. Don't you think it affects us, too, when two people on our team suddenly share more than just work?"

"Derek, I understand that, but please, let me explain, okay?"

Seeing them nod in agreement, she went on.

"Hotch, Rossi and I agreed that it would be for the best if we didn't tell you. We have to work together, and we can't afford to let tensions between us ruin our success in solving cases."

"Wait," Emily interrupted, turning to Hotch. "You knew about this?"

The Unit Chief nodded.

"Why did he know, and we didn't?" She went on, clearly annoyed about it.

"As your boss and head of this team, I'm sure you all understand that it is my right and my duty to know what's going on among my staff," Hotch tried to explain.

"Right, but we're all friends, not just colleagues, we're like family. Don't you think we have the same right to know?" Prentiss wouldn't give up so fast, but JJ intervened.

"Emily. Please. It was not Hotch's fault that we didn't tell you. I had asked him to keep it quiet."

"But why?" Reid asked, speaking for the first time since they were all back in the room.

"I wanted to keep you from harassing Dave. We still have to work together!" JJ said emphatically.

"What exactly did he actually do?" Reid wanted to know then.

"Yeah," Morgan agreed. "What is it? We surely wouldn't be standing here like that if you two were excited at the prospect of becoming parents."

JJ looked away. For some reason, she didn't want to give Dave away to them. There was no way that Morgan would let him live if he knew the exact events and the exact words that Rossi had said.

"Guys, please. Can we just say that my pregnancy wasn't exactly planned and that we have certain disagreements about this child, and leave it at that?"

"What are you saying Jayje? He doesn't want to have this child?"

JJ let out another deep sigh.

"Jayje, I think we deserve to know!"

Now, also Garcia spoke. "I think they do. It's only fair that you tell them what you told me, gumdrop. We're only here to help you, and I think we can do best if everybody's aware of the entire circumstances."

Closing her eyes for a few seconds, JJ finally agreed. "On one condition, though. You have to promise me that you won't hurt him. Because, when we're speaking about family here, you shouldn't forget that he is a part of this team, this family as well."

"Just spill it, JJ," Morgan pushed impatiently.

"I have a feeling that he won't be a part of this family anymore before long," Emily muttered under her breath, which didn't go unnoticed by her blonde team member in the bed.

"Em, you started insisting to know the whole truth because we're all family. I agree on that, but I also have to say that you can't just throw someone out of a family, just because he did something wrong."

Hotch listened in surprise. Already knowing all the details, it was really astonishing that JJ would defend Rossi so much. It also told him that her feelings for his friend ran still deeper than she would probably admit, to herself or to anyone else. And it was also a sign for him to realize with quite a bit of relief that there was a good chance they would all make it out of this mess alive, stronger and closer before. But first they would have to go through the pain of learning the truth.

JJ took a deep breath and then began to explain everything. With every word she said, her teammates' faces grew angrier and darker. There was a long silence when she ended.

"Son of a bitch!" Morgan blew out loudly after a while.

"I can't believe how Agent Rossi could do this," Reid muttered in disbelief, unconsciously switching to the formal address of their colleague currently fallen in disgrace again, even though it had been quite a while since even Reid had overcome his hero-worship complex with the older man and had started using his first name.

"I'm going to kill this guy when he comes back," Prentiss pressed out.

"Guys, please, listen to me," JJ began to speak again. "I don't want you to harm him."

"How can you defend this bastard after all he's done to you?" Emily couldn't believe her ears.

"I'm not defending him!"

"Sounds like it," Morgan threw in.

"Again, this is between Dave and me. We are going to work something out, and until we do, I beg you to leave him alone. I don't want this to destroy our unit, our family," JJ pleaded them to understand.

"JJ's right," Hotch finally interfered. " We can't afford losing another member of this team. Just look at it from the point of view of our work. We've never been more successful at solving crimes than with this team, in this constellation. We won't be able to keep that up if we let our anger on one of us overwhelm us."

Deep down they all knew JJ and Hotch were right.

"I don't like this. At all!" Prentiss said. "I can keep working with him, I'm professional enough. But let me be very clear that he will know where my loyalties lie," she added. Morgan and Reid agreed.

"I appreciate that," JJ smiled for the first time during this discussion. "But I ask you to let me and Rossi work things out alone. I promise that I will tell you if I need your help, but as the parents of this child, we will have to find a way to get things straight, all right?"

They all nodded hesitantly.