Disclaimer: I own nothing, but the DVDs. I don't own "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" either.

Author's Note: Special thanks to kdzl, deeda, TinaraXx, and Flames101 for your reviews! And thanks to everyone who's reading and alerting these.

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Worrying, Hypocrisy, Monthly

"Little star. What you are."

From her position in the bathroom, perched on the edge of the bathtub, JJ let out a nervous laugh as she listened to her son sing through the nearly closed door. His young voice, while making her swell with pride, did little to stop the pit of worrying fire settled deep within her gut. Her leg bounced nervously despite her best effort to control it as she held the tiny white stick in her hand. How had her life come down to this?

She was only suppose to be helping a friend. She was getting into her car after a long week in the BAU when her attention was pulled away by an engine trying to start. JJ glanced over a few spaces to see Hotch frowning as he got out of his car. She walked over to find out what was wrong and stood back amused as he pretended to check over the car for a few minutes before admitting he had no idea what he was looking at. Laughing, she offered to drive him home so he didn't have to wait for a cab.

The ride to Hotch's apartment was comfortable. Their conversation meander from work to the team to the boys to JJ's break-up with Will to the coming spring to the last movie without cartoon characters that they had seen. They had always gotten along well, but since her return to the BAU last year, they fell more into a a mentor-mentee relationship then the close colleagues they had been before.

What caused him to invite her into his place for tea, she wasn't sure. She suspected it was the prospect of facing an empty place as Jack was spending the night at Rossi's. At least, her empty apartment is what caused her to accept his offer. Henry was with Will for the weekend. She felt nervous about sitting across from her boss on a Friday night for about all of five minutes until Hotch choke on a sip of hot liquid causing JJ to burst into peals of laughter. They were just two friends enjoying each other's company after that.

After tea, they moved to the couch in the living room. Some channel was showing old slasher films from the '80s and JJ begged Hotch to watch them. He laughed at each jump she made every time the killer leapt out at another teenager. He waited until an eerily quiet moment in the middle of the second movie before poking her in the side. JJ jumped ten feet in the air with a yelp. She grabbed a pillow, attempting to smother him in retaliation while he continued to tickle her.

By the time he called "uncle," he was laying on the couch with her straddling his waist. One of her hands was pressed into his and her other was on his chest, feeling the strong beat of his heart. Hotch reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. She leaned down towards him as if drawn in by an invisible tractor beam. The second their lips touched, JJ felt her entire body come in life. She drank in kiss after kiss as if she had been lost in the desert and he was the only water for miles. For the next few hours, there was no thought, no consequences, only the feel of his body sliding against hers.

They awoke tangled in his bed the next morning. JJ avoided his gaze, afraid to see shame and regret in his eyes. She stopped him before he could say anything, assuring him that it was a one time occurrence and that they didn't need to talk about what had happened. JJ quickly gathered her clothes and belongings together before scurrying out of the apartment, leaving him no time to say anything. For the next several weeks, she worked hard to get their relationship back to the mentor-mentee one it had been before that night.

When she missed her once monthly period the next month, she didn't think much of it. In fact, she didn't notice it at all. They had been on back to back cases and she was dealing with a move into a new apartment and Will considering returning to New Orleans. After the second month, she began to worry, but forced it out of her mind. The hypocrisy of ignoring her own situation while forcing others to acknowledge theirs was not lost on her. It was a large part of their job, after all.

As she was approaching the third month without her period, she began to have rolling bouts of nauseousness in the morning and knew she could no longer ignore the fear growing in her head. She stopped at a drug store on her way home from work the night before. She got up in the morning, begging off an impromptu trip to the farmers' market with Garcia, and made Henry breakfast. She settled him down with his favorite children's show before slipping into the bathroom to take the test. Now, she sat, holding the tests, seconds away from finding out her fate.

The kitchen timer she had brought into the bathroom with her dinged. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her limbs froze as she cast her eyes down to the pregnancy test. There it was, her future, in two lines in the tiny window. JJ gasped, the test falling to the floor. She reached the toilet seconds before heaving what little breakfast she had eaten down the pipes. Henry heard the commotion and came wandering in. Seeing his mother hunched over the toilet, he rubbed her back gently as she had so many times for him.

The next week at work was hell as the impending second bundle of joy had her distracted on every level. She misplaced several case files, drove to the wrong crime scene, nearly took Morgan's head off, and burst in tears every evening as soon as she was alone. She was determined not to tell anyone about the pregnancy until she confirmed it with her doctor. She had an appointment the Friday afternoon, which only affirmed what the test had already told her and her stomach reminded her daily.

JJ returned to the office with the intention of picking up a few case files to review that weekend. She avoided as many of the curious stares of her fellow teammates as she could while giving only short answers to questions she was asked. She had gathered her things and nearly made it to the door when Hotch called out her name, asking her to step into his office.

Her footsteps were heavy as if she were walking through mud. She dropped her bag by the chair, pulling her jacket in front of her stomach as if using it as a shield. She focused on a pen on his desk as he sat down in his chair. He began to lecture her lightly about her performance during the past week, but JJ barely heard him over her pounding heart. Hotch had to call her name three times before she realized he had finished speaking.

JJ raised her eyes to his, seeing only concern and affection in them, not the anger she had been expecting. She could feel bile rising in her throat as she tried desperately to come up with a reason for her actions. The tension began to weigh on her chest and her breathing became burdensome. She saw black edges closing in on her vision, causing her to blurt out her pregnancy news before the world caved in on her.

Hotch sat there, dumbstruck. JJ laid her face in her hands, willing herself not to cry. She had gotten through the week without crying in front of anyone and wasn't about to break that now. She jumped when she felt his hand on her knee. She hadn't heard him move beside her. JJ removed her hands from her face to see him kneeling beside her. Hotch used his thumb to wipe away her tears, leaving a tingling trail wherever his skin touched hers. He tucked her hair behind his ear as he had done that Friday night and cupped her cheek. Hotch leaned up and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

She didn't know exactly what the future held for them, but in his kiss she felt that everything would turn out perfect.