The team had spent the entire time trying, without success to solve the case. They knew that what they needed was Spencer, not only for his brain and his knowledge of this case, but also because they felt like a piece of themselves were missing. The team wasn't just a group of trained agents catching bad guys. They had become family and when one of them hurt, they all did and they all worked together to make it better. They knew Spencer was hurting and they knew he needed them as much as they needed him.

JJ kept hoping that Spencer would change his mind and come back to them. However, the stress and worry was becoming too much for her and Hotch could see this.

"Go home JJ," he finally said.

"I need to be here-"

"That's an order," Hotch said, more gently than his usual stern voice, "we'll call you if we find anything or if he returns. I promise."

JJ reluctantly got up and packed up her things, feeling even more annoyed when Will got up too and followed her out.

"Will, I think you'd be more useful here," she told him as she walked out of the conference room.

"Don't be ridiculous JJ, you need me," Will smiled at her and JJ couldn't help but feel guilty.

He cared about her so much, and it wasn't like she didn't care for him too. She really did like him, but her mind and her heart were elsewhere. How did she tell him that without breaking his heart?

'Why would Spence want me anyway? I'm not as brilliant as he is, I'm not even a profiler.'

JJ let Will drive her home as she thought about this. About how Spencer would never actually feel the same way that she felt, and yet there had been a time when she had been worried that he had been interested. She had seen him as just a child, when he had been a newcomer to the BAU.

Spencer had been only twenty one years old, and he had acted so awkward and had seemed to innocent. JJ hadn't been able to see herself with him until later on, when she almost lost that awkward, innocent man to Tobias Hankel. Now JJ wondered if that was just an act, so that no one knew the truth about his past. She was starting to wonder how much of the Spencer she knew, and loved was real. She knew he was a genius and she was sure that he cared about the team, but how much of his personality was truly his? How many of the little quirks that she loved about him so much were real? The Spencer that she now knew she loved with her entire heart, was it truly him or was she in love with someone else? Someone that had been fake, and only an act in order to run away from his past?

When they finally got to her apartment she set her stuff down on the counter and told Will she was going to get changed. She went into her room and found her most comfortable pyjamas and threw them on, before going to brush her teeth and hair as she hadn't in the last couple days.

Will had never been in her apartment before so he took it upon himself to look around. He wasn't snooping around, just walking around and looking at the pictures on the walls and on the shelves.

There were pictures of a varsity soccer team. JJ with a woman and a man (Will assumed they were her Mother and Father) and a pretty young woman. A picture of JJ with that pretty young woman who looked no older than seventeen years old holding a newborn baby girl. There were pictures of that same baby girl growing up, the most recent picture of the girl looked like she was around eight years old. However, there were no recent pictures of the seventeen year old girl who Will assumed was her Mother. There were pictures of JJ with the girls Mother, but they were all pictures of them when they were young. There was also a picture of the little girl, with JJ and JJ's Mother and Father in the other photo, but none of the five of them together with the little girls Mother. There was also a more recent one with only the little girl, JJ's Mother and JJ, without JJ's Father.

'Did JJ have a sister? What happened to her?' Will wondered briefly, he knew that JJ's Father had died a few years ago, but he had never been told about a sister, or a niece.

It was while he was wondering about this that he noticed a picture of JJ with Spencer.

Will had only met Spencer once, during the Jones case and he hadn't seemed like a happy guy, but in this picture he seemed completely different. JJ and him seemed to be at a baseball game and they were both glowing. There were other pictures of the team also, but they seemed to primarily be of Spencer as the centre. It was obvious to Will how much JJ cared about her team, and especially Spencer.

JJ came out of the bathroom and walked over to Will as he looked at the pictures.

"Hey," she said in a monotone voice, unsure of how she felt with him looking around.

"Hey, I was just trying to get to know you better. I wasn't snooping, I promise," Will smiled and JJ couldn't be mad.

She sat down and sighed, wishing that she could just be alone.

"What's wrong JJ?" Will sat beside her and went to hold her hand, but she pulled away.

"I'm just missing Spencer, I'm so worried for him."

"You care about him a lot, don't you? He seems to be the centre piece for a lot of these photos."

JJ smiled, "he'll only let someone take photos of him if I ask, or if I'm in it with him."

Will nodded, he had noticed that all the photos with Spencer had JJ with him. Her arms were around him or his around hers, possibly in a platonic way, but Will didn't think so.

"He obviously cares about you a lot..."

"He does, at least I thought he did," JJ couldn't help the tears that came up into her eyes, "I feel like I don't really know him."

"I'm sure you do, he kept one secret JJ. A big secret sure, but he's still the man you know, and love, right?"

JJ looked up at Will and he smiled a sad smile, "you care about him a lot, you've been acting strange and have been so worried-"

"He's my friend! Of course I'm worried. I don't like where you're going with this-"

"Neither do I JJ, but it's obvious," Will said gently, "I don't need to be a profiler, or even know him to see it. You've never been one hundred percent into our relationship-"

"That's not true!" JJ stood up and looked at Will angrily, "I have always been one hundred percent in! I'd never play games with you or fake affection, I'm not like that! I really do like you and I've meant every word I've ever said-"

"I know, but you've never felt the same way as I do or at least not as much. You've alw-"

"We've only been dating seven months Will! You can't expect me to fall in love with you immediately! It's true that maybe I don't fall fast or easily, but I do care about you!"

"I know we haven't been dating that long and I don't expect that at all, but you've always held back. For the last seven months you've been holding back and I thought it might just be because of the Tobias Hankel thing, but now I know it's more. You're in love wi-"

"Don't say it!" JJ cried, "please, don't say it! I can't handle you and Derek doing this right now!"

"Agent Morgan knows top then? It's true what I'm thinking, isn't it? If he knows and you already know what I'm about to say," Will had remained calm, but he felt hurt as he watched JJ cry, "JJ, you haven't done anything wrong here, but we can't keep on trying to make this work when it won't."

"You don't know if it won't work!" JJ had sat back down and had her head in her hands, Will had sat beside her.

"Yes, I do because you can't make a relationship work with someone when your heart belongs to another. You don't deserve that JJ, and neither does he... neither do I-"

"I never meant to hurt you Will!"

"I know that, but this will hurt me if we try to force it and it fails, which it will. This will also hurt you, it already is. It'll hurt him-"

"He doesn't love me-"

"I think he does, you can tell by the way he looks at you in these pictures. The way he holds you close, and the way you look and hold him..." Will wished JJ would feel that way about him, but knew she never would.

He touched her chin and raised it so she was looking at him, "I'm going to let you go, because you aren't mine. You belong to him, and he belongs to you-"

"I don't even know him-"

"Yes, you do JJ, you know his heart because it's yours. I will always care about you and the team, but I can't hold onto someone whose heart is elsewhere."

JJ wiped her tears and sniffled, "Will... I'm sorry-"

"Don't be, you have nothing to apologize for. Just promise me you'll tell him how you feel and maybe if he doesn't feel the same, which I'm sure he does, we can give it a shot later when you've moved on because I'd be a lucky man to get to be with you."

JJ smiled, "if he doesn't love me, I think you're the next best thing."

Will smiled too and helped her stand up. He walked over to the door, never letting go of her hand.

"I don't want to be anyone's second pick, and I don't want to be with someone who'll always be wondering what their life would've been like with someone else. All three of us deserve more than that."

JJ nodded, "I never thought of you as a second pick, I didn't mean for any of this, I did-"

"I know, you only just realized how you felt for him, but I believe and I think you know now that these feelings have been there for a while," Will turned to her and wiped a tear off her cheek before kissing it.

"I hope that we can all be friends someday, but for now I need to return to New Orleans. I've got cases of my own to work on, but let me know when Spencer's home, okay? Just so I know that you're going to be okay..."

JJ hugged him and Will wrapped his arms around her tightly, but only for a moment.

"I'll call you, and I hope we can be friends too. Thank you Will."

Will nodded and left, trying to not cry as his heart broke. He truly loved JJ, but he had always known that she hadn't, and possibly couldn't love him, especially since Spencer left. Looking at those photos and talking to her only made him understand why she couldn't love him.

Richard Bach said "If you love someone, set them free; if they come back, they're yours. If they don't, they never were."

JJ wouldn't be going back to Will, but she also may never get the chance to tell Spencer how she feels about him either...

I tried my best to do a smooth change and show how Will looking at the photos made him realize JJ's love for Spencer, but I think it was a little blunt. Oh well, I wish break ups were that easy in real life, don't you?

This story has gotten a lot more followers than I had thought it would, and especially in the short time! So, thank you so much! I hope you're all still enjoying the story, I know it's getting mushy, but next chapter will be more... action packed? I left it on a cliffhanger, can you guess what's going to happen?

Please, review and let me know how you feel about the story so far! I'd love to know if you're enjoying it, and that I'm not going somewhere you guys don't like. Thanks again to all the people following this story.

Also, thank you Anna for prompting this story. I hope you're enjoying it!