They sat together for a little while longer.
Than the nausea took over.
"I need to get out of these woods" she said to her superior.
"Why?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
"I don't like the woods" she looked to hands a bit embarrassed "I'm afraid of them."
"Oh? That's interesting" he said.
"Interesting? Why?" she didn't understand why he would say that.
"Because your mom told me that you used go to the woods a lot when you were young."
That sounded familiar. For a brief moment a memory came back from her playing in the woods.
"Can you remember that?" he asked sharply as always.
"Yes, I can. I see myself lying in the grass, listening to the sound" she smiled at the memory, it was a long time since she thought about it "and I used to make treehouses and hiding places."
Hotch smiled along.
"So when did your fear came?" he asked.
"I don't really know, it was just there. I mean the trees became scary and the wood is so large.." she tried to remember something but her mind blocked and went blank.
"JJ I think this might be important.." Hotch said slowly.
"You think so? So what do you want to do to refresh my memory, the cognitive interview?" she asked with a smirk.
"No, we both know that the success rate of that interview is like 5 %" he smiled back "I just thought we could go for the original way."
"And what might that be?"
"Photo albums."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She could hear her parents laughing and talking downstairs, her mother's laugh loud and cheerful and as always it was the hardest.
She heard the door peep and looked up. Her sister was standing in the doorway. She smiled, but there was something off. The spark had disappeared out of her eyes. She sat down next to JJ on her bed, and stroke her hair.
"Jenny.." she almost whispered.
"Yes?"
"I want to give you something.."
JJ's curiosity grew, she looked at the hands of her big sister.
She opened it and showed JJ her palm. It was a beautiful necklace, her favourite one. The one with the little heart.
JJ smiled insecure at Ros. She smiled back reassuring.
"It's yours, I want you to have it."
JJ's eyes became big, "but it's your favourite.."
She couldn't believe her eyes.
Ros grabbed JJ's hand and gently put the necklace in it.
"I love you JJ."
...

JJ was running, running away from her house. From her father and the painful look in his eyes every time he looked at her.
Every day she started to look more like Ros, and she couldn't escape her own reflection. She ran in the forest, and climbed in their favourite tree, the tree that she and Ros used to climb. And from which they used to spy upon passengers. The leafs offered her privacy, the strong trees gave her comfort, the memories made her sad and happy all at once.
Still she loved the woods, the trees, the sounds, the scents. It was more her home than her house was now.

She was almost at her house when she realized something awful had happened. She could hear the cries from her mother outside the door.
Before opening the door she knew what had happened. Her mother didn't expect her, she turned around fast, her eyes red. She tried to stand tall as she walked towards her and hugged her.
"He's gone" she whispered in her hair.
...

It was after school. She ran, not to their favourite tree this time, but to a little creek hidden in the woods.
There she sat down, she grabbed a book she had to read for school. The pages of the book yellow. Normally she could concentrate very well in the woods. It's the place where she would work on her homework but this time it was different. She felt uneasy, almost nervous..
But why...

"Hotch!" it was as if someone had pinched her with a needle.
Hotch saw the confused, scared look on her face.
"What is it?" he asked concerned.
JJ shook her head.
"Nothing, I .. I don't know..." she said confused. It was as if her mind suddenly went on lock down.
"You told me that you felt uneasy that day, nervous. JJ you knew these woods, something was different this time, something that made you nervous" he said.
"I can't remember.. I feel sick" she wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Hotch nodded. Her body reacted to the memory that they needed to connect with the conscious brain.
"Breathe in deep" he told her.
She looked suspiciously but then, after a while, she breathed in.
"Okay, hold your breath for 5 seconds. Now breathe out" he could see her body relax a bit
"good, again."
They repeated this a couple of time and JJ seemed to get her control over her body back again.
"Now close your eyes, and go back to that day.."

She felt nervous. Then as if she had anticipated it, she heard some noise coming from the bushes and there a tall guy appeared.
"Oh sorry!"he gave her a cute, apologizing smile "I didn't mean to scare you."
JJ felt how she relaxed.
"That's okay, you didn't scare me" she said, and she put her book back in her schoolbag.
He gave her a last smile and walked on. Then he suddenly stopped and turned around.
"I really hate to bother you but.." he blushed a little bit "you're Rosaline's sister right?"
JJ felt how she froze. She only nodded.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to upset you. It's just..." he sighed ".. I miss her sometimes.. and it would be nice to talk with someone about her."
"You knew her?" she said in a small, breakable voice.
"Oh yes" he sat down next to her and stared at the creek for a while. "We used to hang out a lot" he looked away, JJ couldn't tell whether or not he was ashamed or sad.
"She uhm.. she meant a lot to me.." he continued "she uhm, she was my girlfriend. But she probably didn't tell you." He smiled, a sweet smile.
JJ's mouth almost dropped.
"Haha, no I thought so that she didn't tell you. We were just a couple when she.." he didn't finish that sentence. His smile faded away and he looked bitter.
"No.. she never even mentioned.." JJ stuttered.
He shook his head.
It was a quiet moment.
They both stared at the water. A small insect caused wrinkles in the water.
"You know, you really look like her" he said, she felt his eyes looking at her, scanning her, observing her. The nervous feeling she had before returned.
She swallowed.
"I really don't want to talk about it" she said.
For some reason that made him smile again.
"Oooh Jenny" he hissed slowly.
Out of the blue she felt his hand around her throat that pushed her down on the ground. She was too overwhelmed to do anything. He pushed his lips hard on hers. She let out a scream but it was smothered by it.
The grip on her throat tightened. She couldn't breathe.. she had no air.. her head became very light. She vaguely noticed how his other hand went over her body, scratching her arm.
"Jenny, Jenny, Jenny" he kept whispering in her ear.
She closed her eyes, and with her last energy she prayed in her head.
Then his grip loosened, she gasped for air. The oxygen filling her lungs. Her vision became more clear. He looked at her with a dark grin.
Then his hand, that was around her throat earlier, reached for something behind his back. She was blinded by a light for a moment, then she saw it was because of the reflection of the sunlight on the blade that was dangling before her eyes. The knife came closer and closer to her face. The top of the blade slowly touched her face. He taunted her.
"You don't know how long I've thought about doing this.." his eyes came very close to hers.
She slammed her fists against his chest but that only made him laugh. With a force she couldn't fight, he grabbed her wrists and put them on the ground. She stretched out her hand. Her fingers were running through the grass... until she felt something hard. She clenched her hand around it, the best that she could.
"But how should I do it...?" he acted as if he wondered.
Then she gathered all the strength that she had left and put it all in her slam. The rock in her hand hit the temple on the side of his head.
He screamed and in a reflex he pressed both of his hands against his temple. He stood up but lost his coordination as if he was drunk.
In that moment she rolled from her back to her side, stood up and ran. Ran as she never ran before. She could hear his screams for her, but didn't look back. She heard his footsteps behind her. Still gasping for air, and with tears in her eyes from the pain, she ran through the bushes, the leafs slapped her, her heart pounded wildly.
She could hear how he was catching up with her. The sounds of the footsteps came closer and closer.
With a scream that came from the bottom of her being she gave herself a last boost to run. She gasped and gasped, but there was no air.
Two hands grabbed her shoulder and she ran right into his arms.
"JJ!"
She looked up, bewildered, confused.. it wasn't that boy.. it was detective Smith..
"JJ, are you alright? What happened?" a younger Smitty looked worried at her.
She couldn't speak, she only lay her head on his chest.
He looked at her arm, at her clothes, at her face.
"JJ, how did you get hurt?" he asked.
She blinked a couple of times, and without really knowing why (or thinking about it) she said "I fell out of a tree and an animal was chasing me.. but I don't know what it was."
His armed around her tightened a little bit.
"Oh sweetheart that must've been really scary" he comfort "can you describe me what it looked like?"
"It was like a big cat.." she answered mechanically.
"Must've been a lynx" he said.
She dared to look at him and pushed herself a little bit away from his chest.
"I'm really tired" she said.
"I'll bring you home."
When she was home she told her mother she wasn't feeling good and she slept and slept for hours and hours, and days and days. And when she woke up she never thought about it again.

JJ opened her eyes, tears streaming down her face.
She looked at her boss.
He didn't say a thing, stared with an absent look on his face and kept blinking. Finally he broke free from his shock and his eyes sought hers.
JJ scraped her throat.
"It's him" she said "he is the one chasing me."