Author's Note: I have added a further section to Chapter Eight (it's right at the end, so no reason to read anymore than that.) I never really included anything about the team; I guess I was too focused on Emily and JJ's point of view - so thank you to rmpcmfan for questioning that and bringing it to my attention. :)

Author's Note 2: Also, if there are any mistakes in the time frame, please let me know. This chapter was originally set six weeks after JJ disappeared, but I wanted to bring it forward. I think I managed to catch all of them, but if there are any that suddenly imply that she's been gone for six weeks, leave me a note in a review or PM me.

Chapter Ten; Reality Check

3 weeks and 3 days later

"Shouldn't we tell Emily?" Reid's voice came quietly from the back seat of the SUV. It had been an hour since they'd gotten the call, and not one of them had yet seemed to have thought to tell the brunette. For all they knew, she was happily at home, none the wiser and he hated that they were keeping details from her. It wasn't that he was bad at keeping secrets, he just didn't want to. Emily was now, for all intents and purposes, Henry's guardian and she had gone miles out of her way to do right by the little boy in this sudden situation; didn't she have a right to know if there was a possibility that they'd found JJ?

"Not yet. We have to be sure first." Hotch spoke, his typical emotionless expression giving nothing away, but inside his mind was a convoluted mess. He had been the one to take the call, and as soon as he'd heard the words 'We've found a body matching the description that you gave us', his entire world had stopped spinning. It wasn't like he hadn't expected the call, but he'd been praying to every deity that might listen that it would never come. And now, even as he had been failed twice by these deities, he was still praying – praying that this body wouldn't be that of his missing agent and friend.

CM-CM-CM

"Oh buddy, you're meant to paint the paper.. not yourself." Emily laughed as she wiped the small boy's arms with a wash cloth.

Henry sat easily as Emily tried to clean the worst of the paint from his skin, a small satisfied grin on his face as he admired the remnants of his handiwork.

"I think someone needs a bath." The brunette threw the washcloth to the counter as she scooped Henry up in her arms, no concern for the small hand prints that she was certain were now plastered all over her designer shirt.

Her phone rang just as she turned for the stairs, and shifting the small boy further onto her hip, she reached across the counter-top to retrieve it, her heart shifting to her throat as the caller ID came into focus.

"Here sweetie," Emily lowered Henry to the ground, "why don't you go play with your truck for a moment, Emmy has to take this call."

She smiled as she watched the small boy run into the lounge, her concern for the paint that she knew was going to wind up on more than her shirt overshadowed by the buzzing phone in her hand. "Please tell me that you've got something for me."

CM-CM-CM

"What happens if it is her?" Morgan questioned.

"I don't know. I guess we'd contact Will. We're technically breaking the law already having not contacted him since JJ's disappearance. We'll have no loopholes to cling to if this is.." Hotch trailed off.

"Guys, we shouldn't even be discussing this. How can we talk about her like she's dead when we don't know for sure that she is?"

"Alright, boy wonder. Calm down." Morgan spoke calmly, though the thought of Will strolling back into Henry's life and taking him away made him anything but calm. Will was no man – he had walked out of his child's life without a second thought, and it would be a cold day in hell before he would allow him that opportunity again. "Whatever happens, we'll find a way to keep Henry, even if we have to do shifts." The dark agent forced a smile, before turning back to face the road ahead, grateful when their destination suddenly came into view beyond a veil of trees.

The four agents pulled up outside of the morgue, their hearts collectively sat in their throats as they took the seven strides from the car to the entrance of the building. Whatever happened in here, they weren't walking out with anything positive – it was either JJ, or another dead end.

CM-CM-CM

Clyde Easter's voice was laced with concern as he spoke – he didn't want Emily to get her hopes up, but he also valued his life more than just not telling her at all. "That phone you've been tracking was turned on this morning. For no more than ten seconds Emily, so you have to remember that it could simply be a glitch in the software."

The brunette's mind raced instantly with the revelation and she ignored the concern that was clearly evident in her friend's voice. "Where?"

"Emily, I need to know that you're going to think about this rationally. I need you tell me now that you know there is a possibility that it may not be her." He wasn't oblivious to the brunette's tendency to throw herself into deep water without the life line of her team - Doyle had been a perfect example – and he also knew that she'd tell him anything to settle his mind if it meant that he'd hand over the information, but his request for acceptance to the condition was more of a psychological thing than anything else.

Emily sighed and ran a hand through her dark hair. She was tired, beyond tired, and she didn't have time for this – if Easter had something, she needed to know now; this mind game was only wasting even more precious time that they really didn't have. "Yes, Clyde. I know this. Now tell me where."

"It came from the DC area. We got two locations today, and one yesterday, each available for no longer than ten seconds each, and each located no more than half a mile apart."

"Yesterday!" Emily's voice was louder than she realised, as was evident in the face of the small boy that was now distracted from his truck and staring directly at her. She softened her voice and soothed the boy. "It's okay honey, Emmy didn't mean to frighten you. I'll be done in just a second."

"Emily, we had to be certain. I'm still not certain, and you shouldn't get ahead of yourself."

"Where was the last location?" Emily purposely ignored her friend once again, somewhat angry that he had wasted a whole day of their time.

Sighing audibly into the phone, Clyde reluctantly gave up the details – Emily was going to do this her way, no matter what he advised. "The last location was received 23 minutes ago, a restaurant downtown-"

"La Bella." Emily cut him off.

"Well.. yes. How did you know that?"

"We went there with the team. It was the same night that we first.." Emily trailed off as her memories haunted her. "Where were the other two locations?"

He was afraid of that answer. He knew that Emily was likely seeing patterns where there weren't any, but his years of working with the brunette told him easily that her stubbornness would always win over. "There was one near the Capitol and the one yesterday was basically nowhere. Just a park, also in the downtown area."

"She's trying to get my attention. Oh my god.. she's alive." Emily spoke gently, relief visibly evident on her stunned face as what she genuinely believed to be truth set in.

"Emily you don't-"

"Thanks Clyde!" Emily hung up the phone immediately and dashed to grab her keys and jacket when a small voice stopped her.

"Emmy where ya going?"

Her heart broke in two and she silently berated herself as she realised her mistake. She had gotten so wrapped up in the possibility of JJ coming home that she hadn't stopped to consider what she planned to do with Henry whilst she went off chasing ghosts. "Nowhere, silly." She smiled gently, hating herself for the lie that fell so easily from her lips.

Scooping the young boy up in her arms once again, she hugged him tightly to her chest – more for her comfort than his. She was running out of time; if JJ was at the restaurant only 25 minutes ago now, there was a chance that she may still be there, but how could she take Henry into an entirely uncertain situation? The easy answer was staring her right in the face – she had to call the team – but the darkness that she had seen in JJ's eyes the last time that she had seen her still burned into her mind, told her that perhaps that wasn't the best of plans. If she was right, JJ was trying to contact her, not the rest of the team, and if she knew JJ like she thought she did, there would be a good reason for that.

10:56am, just over an hour 'til he has to be at daycare, she thought. It would have to wait. Shifting Henry onto her hip, she spoke again. "Let's give you that bath."

CM-CM-CM

"Hi, I'm Agent Hotchner, we spoke on the phone." It wasn't lost on the Unit Chief as he stuck out his hand to greet the detective that this was JJ's role that he was stepping into – the irony almost choked him as he continued. He gestured with his hand towards the agent's behind them, introducing them to the detective; an auto-pilot formality that he pushed himself through whilst his heart tried to push from his own body and in the direction of the body laying cold in the next room. "This is Agent Rossi, Agent Morgan, and Dr. Reid."

"Nice to meet you." The detective shook each of the agent's hands in succession before speaking again, reading their faces for what it was. "But I don't think you came here for pleasantries."

"Could you tell us where you found her?" Morgan spoke immediately, as though the question had been choking him.

"Off of a dirt track, about a half mile from Ferriton Prison. She was found by a local photographer. He was out taking pictures for a company that has plans to build on the land when he noticed a person in his viewfinder sitting against a tree. I guess they have to request permission for that sort of thing to avoid any kind of sudden lawsuit, so he went over to do just that."

"Can we see her?" Rossi asked the question that was burning at everyone's lips.

"Of course. Follow me." The middle-aged detective lead the agent's through to a long, dark corridor that had a large square of light spilling out into it from a room at the far end.

Each of the agent's walked in silence, an irrational hatred for that light buzzing through their wildly intelligent minds, each genuinely uncertain of what they wished to find in it's glow.

CM-CM-CM

Emily stood at the glass window overlooking the large room and the crowd of children that Henry was happily swimming in. He'd wriggled out of her arms the second that he'd seen his friends and ran off without so much as a goodbye – a far cry from the first week that he'd been back at day-care, Emily remembered. She had had to pry him from her body in those first few days, and each time, she had come very close to turning right back around and taking him home with her. But now, he seemed fine, more than fine; nothing like a child that had been snatched from everything that he knew.

She smiled warmly as Henry ducked and dived through and around the other children as a small dark-haired boy chased him, grins beaming from each of their faces. It was overwhelming to see him so happy, and for just one moment, Emily felt pure happiness - no worry over the things that she couldn't control, no over-thinking over what may be; she simply felt content.

"Which one's yours?" A short brunette walked up and stood alongside Emily.

"Oh he's not-" Emily cut herself off – it would be far easier to just answer the question than to explain that Henry wasn't technically hers and just how it was that he came to be in her care. Besides, she kind of liked the idea of him being hers; of being JJ's and hers. "He's the one that just crashed into the tray of milk cartons." Emily winced a little through smiling eyes.

"Oh, Henry LaMontagne?" The smaller woman asked.

Emily's heart clenched. She never had understood why JJ had given Henry Will's surname, but the reminder that she had slammed her right back into reality. This situation had been suddenly thrown upon her, but not only had she adapted wonderfully, she had actually found herself falling for the fantasy and nowhere in that scenario was Will LaMontagne Jr. "Yep, that's the one."

"But I thought his mother was Jennifer Jareau?" The young woman's brow furrowed in confusion.

"She is." Emily nodded slowly as she remembered the phone call that she had received this morning. What if JJ wasn't trying to get in touch with her? What if JJ was actually dead? This was all wrong in every sense of the word. How could she have fantasies about a simplistic family life with JJ, when JJ could be dead? "It's a long story. Listen, I have to go, but it was nice meeting you."

CM-CM-CM

Breaths had been collectively held as the coroner had reached over and pulled back the thin, blue sheet from the cold, lifeless body laid out before them, and each of the agent's hearts had sank with a velocity that made them want to vomit as the young woman came into view.

And now, as they wondered back into the BAU, as lifeless as the body that they'd just seen, each of the men remained wholly silent; a mark of respect as well as numbness that left them unable to form a logical and worthy sentence anyway.

Small nods were given as each of them parted ways, the desire and need to be alone with their own thoughts almost suffocating them. Morgan went in search of Garcia to give her the news; Hotch and Rossi each returned to their office; and Reid seated himself at his own desk, a sadness in his eyes that would break even the toughest of men.

CM-CM-CM

Her eyes scanned the room immediately as she walked through the glass double doors of the restaurant, searching for JJ or any indications that she had been there. Seeing nothing that jumped out at her, she pulled her phone from her pocket and stopped the nearest waiter. "Has this woman been in here?"

"No, ma'am." Looking closer at the phone, a small grin crept over the waiter's face. "Hey, wait.. isn't she the woman who murdered her own kid and then went on a killing spree?"

Wow, the rumour mill has been working overtime. "You'd do well to learn the facts rather than listening to rumours." Emily spoke calmly but venomously before the table in the far corner, currently being cleaned by a slim blonde girl, caught her eye.

"Wait ma'am." Emily yelled quietly as she walked over to the table. "Can you tell me who was sat here please?" She lifted her FBI badge inconspicuously as her eyes mindlessly surveyed the contents of the table whilst she waited for the young waitress to answer – nothing out of the ordinary, except one thing; the one thing that had caught her eye from the other side of the restaurant.

"Um, it wasn't my table. But the waitress just nipped out back for a smoke. It was a woman though, a little shorter than you. Slim build and she had dark hair, lighter than yours though. Oh and she was wearing aviators. I remember that because it looks like it's going to rain, plus the fact that she was inside just made it entirely weird. Only famous people and people running from the cops wear sunglasses inside-" Eying the badge shielded in Emily's hand, "-which I guess makes sense now."

Nodding her head slowly, Emily took the newspaper from the table and tucked it under her arm – both for the fact that it could lead her to wherever this mysterious woman had gone now, and also because if it actually was JJ, it would only take a quick glance at this newspaper for the seemingly intelligent waitress to piece everything together. "Do you know how long ago she left?" Emily finally made eye contact with the younger woman.

"About twenty minutes ago." Emily nodded slowly again and uttered thanks before turning to leave, but the young waitress stopped her. "Ma'am, if she is who I think she might be, you really need to find her. I've read every serial killer book you could imagine, and she doesn't fit the profile of any of them. I don't believe what the papers are saying about her and she didn't look to be in a good way."

Emily was intrigued, enough for it to make her forget for just a second what it was that she was there for in the first place. But she also had to ensure that no phone calls where going to be made to the FBI – she still didn't know if it was JJ trying to contact her, but if it was, the last thing that the blonde clearly wanted was to have the team involved or even notified that she was alive. "With all due respect, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm looking for a friend, that's all."

Scanning the room to ensure that no one was in ear shot, the young waitress lowered her voice and spoke again. "You dress like a bachelor, with crisp designer clothes, which tells me that you're officially single, and yet the paint on the back of your pants and the dark circles beneath your eyes tell me that you spend a lot of time around a child. You come across as calm and cool, so the way you spoke to Bobby tells me that he hit a nerve, that there's a very close relationship between you and the woman you're looking for. You claim that you're just looking for a friend, but you would have no reason to use your FBI badge if you were, and you certainly wouldn't hide that FBI badge if you were just doing your job. And all of this combined tells me that she means a lot to you. So of course you're going to try to shoot me down because you're afraid I'll tell someone that you were in here, but I want you to know that I won't. Just as long as you find her. She may have changed her hair colour, but I'm telling you, it's her. Find her before someone else does."

Emily's jaw almost hit the floor. Aside from official profilers, she had only ever seen those profiling skills in one other person, and she was frankly amazed at how well the young waitress had read her from the very little that she had said and done. Relenting – she really couldn't argue now – the brunette finally spoke, her voice nothing more than a whisper. "Did she really look that bad?"

Pursing her lips a little and nodding slowly, the waitress replied. "I saw her at an FBI seminar several years ago, and how she looks now is a mere shell of how she looked then. I'm sorry I couldn't give you any more than that, but I really hope you find her."

Me too. Remembering that she was on a tight deadline, Emily made her thanks and reached into her pocket for a card. "Call me if you remember anything else. And.." Purposely looking to the young woman's name badge, Emily added. "Lucy. You would make one hell of a profiler. You should consider it."

As she stepped out onto the street, Emily pulled the newspaper from underneath her arm and stared at the image and the headline on the front. The date showed that it was over three weeks old, and coffee mug stains littered the young face and obscured the simple headline; BAU KIDNAPPING: CHILD FOUND. It had to have been JJ who left this behind; a coincidence like that would just be cruel and inhumane. Though, the whole situation was just cruel and inhumane enough for Emily to believe that this may be no more than just a simple coincidence. Besides, could she really trust a random waitress who didn't know either of them really? And didn't that waitress say that the woman had been a brunette? Of course, JJ could have coloured her hair, which would be a logical thing to do under the circumstances, but she couldn't help but wonder if Clyde did have a point. Was she seeing patterns where there weren't any?

There was still the slightest possibility that it could be JJ though and that was enough for her; she couldn't walk away now. According to the young waitress' accounts, it had now been 25 minutes since JJ had left the restaurant, so she really couldn't have gotten that far – and if the blonde had gone through this much trouble to contact her, then she wouldn't go that far anyway.

Opting for the next location on Clyde's list, Emily's feet took a left, to the end of the block and in the direction of somewhere that held one of her fondest memories.