"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."
- Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
JJ let out a sigh of relief as she finished packing up the last of the case files. The BAU had been in LA for the past four days dealing with a serial bomber. They had just wrapped up the high-profile case and JJ couldn't have been more ready to head home to her son.
She was exhausted after running on very little sleep and high amounts of caffeine. What little time she did have to get rest had been spent with worries of a new attack, and nightmares of one year ago that still haunted her to this day. The blonde shuddered at the memories that threatened to resurface, and her hand instinctively brushed her side that held the scars, permanent reminders of that day and failure.
"You okay?" Reid stood in the conference room doorway, and JJ managed a small smile.
"Yeah, of course… just ready to go see Henry." Hotch had sent the rest of the team to the motel to get their bags and deal with checking out, but JJ and Reid volunteered to finish at the precinct. They would all be wheels-up in forty-five minutes.
"Agent Jareau?"
JJ and Reid both spun around at the voice, seeing that it was a young intern they had met earlier in the week. JJ offered a small smile to the seemingly nervous man.
"I know you're set to leave soon, but one of our agents would like to speak with Agent Hotchner."
"He left already, but is it something that one of us can handle? Does it have to do with the bombings?"
"I'm not sure, ma'am, but I can take you to him."
JJ turned to Reid, and nodded that she would handle it. "Thank you." She was led to another conference room two floors up, then waited as the intern knocked on the door and addressed the only other person in the room.
"Sir, Agent Hotchner wasn't available, but Agent Jareau is here." He quickly made himself scarce as JJ stepped further in.
The agent looked up from a stack of files, then stood from his seat and extended his hand. "Brian O'Conner. Thanks for coming." He was handsome, tall with sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes, but JJ could see an underlying sadness written across his features.
She shook his hand. "Of course. Is this pertaining to the bombings?"
"Uh, no, actually." He gestured for her to sit at the table and he took the chair across from her. "This has nothing to do with that. Let me ask you, does your team deal with cartels?"
JJ was slightly thrown off guard by the question. "Uh, that's not usually the BAU's field. We've dealt with cartel cases before, but the few times we did were concerning special circumstances."
"That's what I was afraid of." O'Conner wrung his hands together while glancing over at a closed file on the table.
JJ could tell something was really bothering this agent, and the way his body language read made her think it was personal. "Agent O'Conner? What's this about?"
"It's okay. I'm sorry to have wasted your time. I know you're headed back to Quantico soon anyways." He stood up and started reaching for the files, but JJ placed a hand on his arm to stop him.
"I said that's not usually our field. We can still offer advice or consults. Tell me what's going on."
O'Conner looked up, his eyes firmly locking on hers. He thought for a minute before nodding and re-taking his seat. "Arturo Braga… he's the leader of one of the biggest cartels in Mexico. He's been running heroin across the border, and is now residing here in L.A." O'Conner slid a file across the table to JJ.
She opened it, skimming over several of the documented reports.
"The thing is, we have no photo ID, no prints, nothing. Anyone that's gotten close enough to ID him never made it out alive. We've been working this case for two years, and so far all we have is a street race that's used for Braga to recruit drivers. Most recently, we put an informant, Letty Ortiz, undercover." He looked away, uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation. "One of Braga's men wrecked her car, and she, uh, she was killed. Before that, two of our agents were killed in the same operation."
JJ was silent for a moment as she read over one of the files containing details of the undercover workings. Brian let her absorb the information while he sat fidgeting in his chair.
"Letty Ortiz… you knew her personally, didn't you?"
His stunning eyes snapped up to hers and he appeared to be surprised by her question. "I, uh, I'm the one who sent her in. It's my fault she's gone."
JJ could sense there was more to it than that, but now wasn't the time to pry. The guilt was radiating off of him in waves and JJ felt compelled to reassure him. "Agent O'Conner, you couldn't have known this was going to happen."
"I knew there were others before her… but I sent her in anyways."
"You were doing your job."
"Not well enough." He mumbled that part more to himself than to her, but she heard it regardless. "We can't leave Braga out there, or more lives will be lost. Our approaches so far haven't worked, and we need more to go off of. I didn't know if this was something you could help us with, but when I heard your team was here in L.A., I knew I at least needed to try."
It wasn't really a BAU case… but something about the desperation in the young agent's eyes made JJ want to help. At the least, she could offer advice on how to proceed, but that didn't seem like enough here. "I'm going to talk to Agent Hotchner about this."
"Really?" The hope gleaming from his tone nearly made JJ smile.
"I'm not saying he'll agree to it, but I'll see what I can do."
"I appreciate that, but I know it's a long shot. I can understand if he doesn't go for it."
She stood from her seat and handed him the files. "Do you have a number, where I can get back in touch?"
"Yeah." He stood as well and reached into his pocket, retrieving a business card and handing it over to her. "Here you go."
"Thanks. I'll let you know what he says. I'm not making any promises, but I'll do my best to sell him on this."
Brian walked with her to the door, shaking her hand again. "Thank you, Agent Jareau. Either way it turns out, I appreciate you taking the time to listen."
"Of course."
Despite the confidence she displayed to O'Conner, JJ knew it wouldn't be such a simple task to convince Hotch that they needed to stay. This really wasn't their field, and there were other cases that could use their attention… but JJ truly believed that they were needed here.
She made her way back to the floor where Reid was still waiting.
"Hey, everything okay?"
"An agent wanted to talk about a potential case. I told him I'd talk to Hotch, but I don't know. I'm going to call him, then I'll explain." She grabbed her phone and dialed the familiar number. Once he picked up on the other end, she dove into the situation.
"JJ, the cartel? There are stacks of cases, that are within our field, sitting on my desk right now. What makes you think we need to take this one on instead?"
"Hotch, agents have died… agents and informants have been killed because of this man." She knew Brian was right. As long as this man was free, he would continue to wreak havoc on L.A… and someone needed to pay for those murders.
"JJ," Hotch sighed, and she knew what was coming. "Does this have anything to do with last year?"
"This isn't about last year, Hotch. This is about feeling like our team can really help here."
There was silence on his end and JJ figured she would be ordered back to Quantico… but Hotch surprised her. "I can't let the whole team stay, but I will let you and Blake as long as there's an official invite on my desk as soon as I return to Quantico. The two of you can work with O'Conner, and the rest of us will fly back as planned. I'll give you three days, but that's all we can spare."
"Three days, got it." She wanted to ask if he could leave one of the guys with her, but that would be pushing it. Blake hadn't been on the team for long, but JJ wasn't sure that the woman trusted her. Sure, JJ hadn't been a profiler for as long as the others, but Blake seemed to undermine her every time they were paired together. It really got under her skin, but she was willing to make an effort with the other agent. She guessed this would be the first test. "Thank you, Hotch."
"I want to be informed all the way, JJ, and that's non-negotiable."
"I understand."
"Good. Send Reid to the airstrip, and I'll send Blake to you. I'll call you this evening."
"Okay. Seriously, Hotch, thank you."
"I trust your judgement on this." With that, he ended the call.
His trust meant a lot to JJ, especially after last year. She wasn't going to let him down on this one. She turned to Reid. "Hotch wants you back at the airstrip."
"You're not staying by yourself, are you?"
"No, he's leaving Blake."
Reid lightly chuckled. "Is that such a good idea? I've picked up on some tension between you two."
"It's only three days. It'll be fine." She hoped that was the truth. She never liked tension within the team, but ever since Blake joined, it was obvious the two weren't on the same page. Hopefully, that could be resolved during this investigation.
"Okay, well I better join the team. Please be careful."
"I will. Thanks, Spence."
Reid left for the airstrip, and JJ grabbed Agent O'Conner's business card. She was about to dial the number when she decided to go on up to his unit instead. Brian met her at the front desk.
"I'm going to take this as a good sign. You probably would have just called if Agent Hotchner said no."
"I managed to convince him we need to take on this case."
He looked at her with intense eyes. "Yeah, I feel like you could be pretty persuasive."
JJ gave him a wry smile. "Only when I need to be. There is one thing though.. You're just getting two of us. Everyone else is flying back."
"That's okay. I appreciate any help I can get."
"Of course. Blake will be joining us shortly, and Agent Hotchner needs the request from your unit."
"Okay, I'll handle it. Come with me. I'll start showing you everything we have, which isn't much, but I've got us set up in the conference room."
She followed him to the room, and noted the crime board that displayed pictures and handwritten information. Three of the pictures, she assumed, were the profiles of the undercover assets. Then there were other pictures displaying crime scenes and known associates linked to the Braga Cartel.
"Like I said, it's not much." He gestured to the board, then the small stack of files sitting in the middle of the table.
"It'll be okay. We'll find something to work with." She pointed to a note up on the board, a name without a picture or info. "David Park. Who is that?"
Brian shook his head. "He's a recruiter for the street race that I mentioned. The problem though, all we have is the name. There are over five hundred matches that we're trying to narrow down." He gave her a recap of the past two years, and the failed attempts at infiltration. He told her everything they had on the street race and that it would probably be their best shot at a ticket in.
"Okay. I will call our tech analyst about Park… see if she can maybe speed along the process of finding him.
"That would be great, thank you."
She pulled her phone from her pocket just as a text came through. "Blake is down in the lobby. I'm going to go grab her, then we'll call Garcia." She moved towards the door, but O'Conner spoke up.
"Agent Jareau?"
JJ stopped and spun back around to face the man. "Yes?"
There was a little more softness to his gaze than when they first met, and JJ knew she did the right thing in fighting for this case. "Why are you helping me? This isn't your responsibility. You could be on your way home right now… so why aren't you?"
She paused, choosing what to say without revealing more than she should. "Because I understand your guilt, Agent O'Conner."
Curiosity flickered in his eyes, but JJ only gave him a soft smile before leaving to find Blake, her own issues needing to be buried for now.