A/N: Shorter chapter today, but I can promise that I'm still far from finished with this story. I hope everyone still enjoys reading. Please let me know what you think.

Chapter 22

The rest of the weeks until Christmas went by rather quiet. Even the serial killers out there seemed to have decided to take a break, and the team stayed mostly at their headquarters in Quantico. Especially Rossi was quite happy about that, because it meant staying closer to Jennifer.

JJ began to feel more and more comfortable with him again. They used their lunchbreaks for long talks, and JJ was pretty happy that Rossi was getting back to being the person he used to be before her pregnancy. Still, there was this small voice of doubt in the back of her mind, which constantly reminded her of everything that had happened between them, and it made it quite hard for her to fully trust him again. There was always the possibility that he pulled back from her and their baby again, just as suddenly and unexpected as he had before, and as much as she wanted to believe in him, for as long as she still had these doubts, she had to guard her heart, because there was no way she would survive such a rejection for a second time.

The team had turned out to be wonderfully supportive of both of them, which was something JJ really appreciated. She was especially pleased to see that the tension between them and Rossi seemed to have faded. While she never knew exactly how bad they had treated him, she'd always sensed that things had been pretty difficult among them ever since they knew the truth. It was good to see that they had obviously worked out whatever kind of problems they had, and were now functioning together again. They had spent a couple of evenings all together after work, having dinner at a restaurant, and simply relaxing for a few hours, being able to focus on other things than the atrocities of their job.

As she and Dave were sitting in the cafeteria for lunch once again, JJ wondered not for the first time if it had been the right decision to keep things from them for so long. Who knew if she and Rossi wouldn't have been able to come to peaceful terms a lot earlier if they'd had the support of their friends from the begin on? They couldn't change it anymore, though, and JJ knew she had more important things to do than to agonize over what ifs.

"Penny for your thoughts," Rossi said, breaking the silence that had been between them for a few moments.

"Huh?" JJ's head jerked up.

"You were pretty far away. What were you thinking about?" He asked with an amused smile.

"Oh, nothing," JJ answered, too quickly to be believable, and tried to focus on the food in front of her again.

"Don't nothing me, JJ. What's going on in your mind?" Dave persisted softly.

JJ sighed. "It's just that I still haven't told my parents about us. I told them briefly on the phone that you and I are trying to work things out, but they still don't even know your name, or that we're working together. I just didn't have the nerves for a discussion yet that will certainly follow once they know everything."

"Do you want me to be with you, when you talk to them?" Rossi wanted to know.

"Do you want my father to shoot you?" JJ asked back. Rossi grinned. Surely it wouldn't be that bad, would it?

Seeing his unbelieving face, JJ explained: "Seriously, Dave. I'm sure it's better if I talked to them alone. They're quite conservative people, and it's bad enough for them that I'm expecting the second child from the second man without being married. My Daddy certainly wouldn't hesitate to kill the man who hurt his little girl so much, if he was sitting right in front of him when he hears the news. It will be better to give them some time to absorb everything and calm down before they'll meet you. And believe me, they will want to meet you at some point!"

"Jennifer, I want to be there for you. And if your parents are going to give you a hard time-," Dave started, but was interrupted by JJ.

"They won't! They're wonderful people, Dave. They just didn't entirely approve of the way I chose to live my life, and that's a thing we will never agree on, but they've always been a hundred percent supportive of me."

"Okay, JJ. But if you need any help, you can call me and I'll be there as soon as possible." Dave gave in.

"Thanks Dave, I appreciate that," JJ smiled at him. It was getting harder and harder to ignore the warm feeling in her stomach that he seemed to be able to create with a simple look. One day she would have to have a serious conversation with her feelings, and decide what she was going to do with them, but not now. Not before the baby was here. The more urgent problem at the moment was to bring her parents up to speed.

JJ knew she couldn't put off talking to them for much longer, and she felt guilty for having kept things from them for so long. Especially since Rossi's mother knew everything, she felt it was only fair if her own mother and father got to learn about it as well. She was briefly toying with the idea of not telling them until after the baby was born, hoping that maybe the joy over their grandchild would overlap their anger towards Rossi, but she also knew that if they found our that they'd been kept in the dark significantly longer than everyone else, they'd be truly and rightfully disappointed.

Perhaps Christmas would be a good time to catch them up with everything.