A/N: Here's next chapter. I hope you all like it!

Special thanks to jenny crum, 2Addicted2YourLove, snuggleUP, Christiangirl and my Cullen vampires!

I don't own criminal minds!

Chapter 49: Revelations

As always life went on. Time hadn't stopped. And for both JJ and Hotch it had been an agonizing week since the truth came out about JJ. Hotch had been replaying his relationship with JJ over and over again in his head. He realized there had been red flags, but he never cared because he believed she was actually different. He believed she would never hurt him. But she had done it. He was a mess. He was living in his office after returning to DC from the Chicago trip and he refused to go home to his apartment if there was any chance of seeing JJ there. He couldn't deal with her. His every thought was already about her. He had been looking up her name in databases, and once he looked closely he realized even her name was fake. He had even went so far as to contacting someone within the CIA to verify that she was even with the agency. But no one seemed to know her name, and after showing a picture to his contact he struck out. No one knew her, which was probably what her job was.

But even with the hate he was feeling, a part of him wondered. Wondered why she was CIA. Why she even told him. He had so many questions, but in the end he just needed to know that their relationship was real. That the best six months of his life weren't a lie. He needed to know because not knowing was slowly killing him already. He had been in a haze. He had become cranky and distant from his co-workers as he tried to deal with the truth, but nothing seemed to be helping.

Nothing would possibly be able to cure his growing headache, not to mention his broken heart. It was filled with betrayal. And deep down, even under the hate and lack of understanding, he still felt his heart speed up when he looked at a picture of her. It was almost as if he couldn't hate her. Hating her was impossible because no matter how hard he tried he still loved her. He couldn't deny that, and he didn't want to. But if there was a chance of them moving forward, he needed the truth. He needed to who she was, and what drove her to be CIA. It had to be something big.

So after two hours of laying down on his office couch, he took the first step. He went home to the apartment they lived in together. But when he walked inside, he felt his heart skip a beat. Her belongings were gone. So he ran into the bedroom and opened up the closet to find her shelves completely empty. She was gone and had taken everything with her. He didn't want to believe she would leave without a word, yet she had.

He turned around and caught a glimpse of something white on the nightstand. There was a small piece of paper on his side of the bed, and he picked it up. He recognized the handwriting instantaneously. It was JJ's.

I will always love you. Love, JJ.

The note was simple, but the words were the complete opposite. They meant the world, and in that moment he believed them to be true. If they weren't his life would be ending. He had to believe that he and JJ were real and that their relationship was worth fighting for. But he had no idea where she could be.

So he picked up his phone and dialed her number without hesitation, but it went straight to voicemail. ''This is JJ. I can't come to the phone right now, so please leave a message.'' The voice in the message was happy and joyful, and it made his heart ache for her. The more days that passed the more miserable he became, and maybe it had nothing to do with the betrayal but more with his separation from JJ.

He dropped down on the bed in defeat when he suddenly heard the apartment door fall shut. So he rose from the bed, and before he could take another step he was looking right at her. She looked like she hadn't slept in days. She was wearing skinny jeans, boots and a cream-colored oversized sweater. She looked like him. Broken up about what had happened between them. ''Hi!'' he croaked out.

JJ couldn't hold back the tears as she looked at him. She felt shame and regret towards him. He deserved so much better than her, but he was still standing in front of her. He wasn't running away or yelling at her. He was just standing across from her and looking back at her with the same pain that filled her own eyes.

''There's a place outside of town that I would like to show you.'' she began with a shaking voice. ''I have a lot to explain, but I can't do it here.''

''Of course.'' he agreed in a whisper.

After a two hour drive, JJ pulled up her car in a street with large family homes. She parked right in front one of the houses that looked to be empty. No lights in the house were lighting up the darkened street and it looked abandoned.

And without an explanation, she stepped from the car and heard Hotch follow her onto the pavement. She stepped in front of the yard of the abandoned house, and she finally turned to him. ''You want to know me?'' she asked in tears, swallowing back the lump that had formed in her throat. ''Who I am is right inside that house.''

Hotch watched JJ closely and noticed that she was barely holding herself together as they stood on the empty street. He had no idea what they were doing all the way in Pennsylvania. ''Did you live here?'' he asked with compassion as he faced away from her to take a good look at the house.

''This is my childhood home.'' she began with a great deal of difficulty. She opened the small gate and stepped into the yard, causing her to flash back to moments she spent playing soccer with her sister, moments of playing hide and seek with her father and where her mother taught her how to ride a bike. All the good and bad memories were tied to the house she was walking towards.

Hotch followed JJ through the front yard and up the porch. He watched as she took a key from her pocket and put into the lock. Her hands were visibly shaking and it only caused his concerns for her to grow, so he carefully stepped forward and gently took the key from her hand. He put it back in the lock and opened the door with ease. They both walked inside and JJ turned on the lights in the hallway. She walked back to Hotch, ready to answer any questions he had. ''I bought this house after I joined the agency.'' she began to explain. ''No one has lived here in fifteen years. Not since I last lived here.'' she continued on. ''My name, my real name is Jennifer Caitlin Jareau. My parents were Andrew and Katherine Jareau, and my sister was Rosaline Jareau.'' she revealed.

''Jareau?'' Hotch repeated, getting used to the name. Fact was that her name wasn't really that different. What he didn't understand was why JJ had dragged him all the way out to the house she grew up in. ''Where are they now?'' he asked, not knowing if the stories that JJ told him about her mother and sister were actually true.

''Come with me.'' she suggested as she walked towards the stairs. She walked up and once they were upstairs she turned right and opened the second door. She turned on the lights in the room and walked to the closet where she took out a small box. She walked back to Hotch and stepped right in front of him. ''This. This is who I am.'' she said as she held the box. She opened it up and took out of a picture that lay on top. She handed it to Hotch and walked to the other side of the room.

''Your family.'' he breathed out in surprise as he looked down at the picture. The mom and dad were in the picture with two blonde girls. The youngest he immediately recognized as JJ, and the other girl seemed to be about five years older. The two girls were holding onto each other tightly as both parents surrounded them. The smile on JJ's face in the picture brought a smile to his own expression. ''You look so happy.''

''I was.'' she whispered. ''The truth is that I grew up in a happy family. I had an amazing childhood and I always had the unconditional love of my parents. I always felt safe and loved.'' she went on. ''And as a kid that's all you really need.'' she said as a tear cascaded down her cheek. She tried to wipe it away, but more fell so she stopped.

Hotch knew there was something terrible about to come, and he couldn't help but feel scared for JJ. ''What happened, JJ?''

''When I was eleven my sister took her own life for no apparent reason.'' she cried out. ''I was so young that I didn't understand what had happened to her, and every day I expected her to walk back into this house but she never came back.'' she explained sadly as the tears streamed down her face. ''A few weeks later my father left us and we never heard from him again. No calls or cards, just nothing.'' she went on. ''He took off without a word and abandoned us. And then a few months later…'' she began, but Hotch beat her to it.

''Your mother died?'' he asked, his heart breaking for JJ. She had lost so much and from the look on her face and the way her body shook softly, he knew she never dealt with the tragedy.

''My mother was killed before my eyes, Aaron.'' she went on. ''She didn't die in a car accident, she didn't commit suicide, she didn't die of natural causes. She was gunned down before my eyes.'' she said, the image still haunting her. She had been able to push it away, but not far enough. She was a little girl when it happened, but she still remembered very vividly that a largely build figure stood across from her mother in the living room and shot her twice. ''She was murdered right in front of me.''

Hotch took a step closer to JJ as he held onto the picture in his hand. ''I'm so sorry, JJ.''

''It's hard for me trust, Aaron. And it's even more difficult for me to share memories from my past.'' she croaked out in tears. ''What we have is real and I never lied about that. I love you so much!'' she cried out. ''You saved me from a darkness I didn't even know I was in. You saved me!''

Her pain was slowly killing him. He was so angry and so sad at the same time. But no matter what, he still loved her all the same. His feelings didn't change after he discovered the truth. He was incapable of not loving JJ. She was everything he had hoped for and searched for throughout his life. She was it. So he took one last step as he stared back into her ocean blue eyes, filled with dread and agony, and he pulled her into his embrace. And in that moment he promised himself he would never let her go. Not for anything. He couldn't. He could move past JJ's job. He could do that if it meant that he had her. He'd do anything to have her in his life.

''I love you, JJ!'' he breathed out.