A/N: At this rate, each season of CM:E is going to spawn a new story out of me. So count yourselves lucky.

Or not. This one's gonna be a gut wrencher.

"I'm tellin' ya," was Jennifer Jareau's playful chuckle to Luke Alvez as the two of them walked towards the small kitchenette that lay behind the stairs to the round table room. "You can never underestimate the strength of a mother"

Luke was silent as she reached the sink and placed her mug down, but she could still hear his heavy footsteps trailing behind her. She reached for the nearby dish towel, habitually wiping her hands on it as her colleague came to stand beside her.

"Hey, I need to disobey some orders," he said, his voice heavy and gravelly as her nervously shuffled his weight over to his other foot.

JJ let out a little laugh, turning her head to look at him as she busied her hands with the towel she was still holding. "Oh yeah?"

Luke rocked forward, holding onto a tense silence for a moment before he spoke again. "BAUGate?"

Flicking her hair back over her shoulders, she turned once more to look at him. Surely he wasn't bringing this up again?

"I don't know what it was in 2014… but I know what it is now that Voit's network updated it," he said, his voice quiet, and somewhat pained. She watched him, her eyes scanning his face for a tell, but all she noted was his refusal to make eye contact. She made a slight movement, as if turning her body completely towards him, patiently waiting for him to finish speaking. "It's not pictures of other agents"

She frowned, turning and resting her weight against the corner of the little counter, her hands coming out either side to steady herself. "Wait, it's not?"

"No," Luke said, and for the first time, she noticed just how hard he was fighting to get the words out that he obviously wanted to say. There was a heavy pause, Luke rocking slightly on his heels. "It's pictures of you"

The words slammed into her with the force of a tidal wave. She saw Luke's mouth continuing to move through one or two more words, but nothing was making sense anymore. Heat was rising in her face at the same time as the ice cold chill that ran down her spine and seemed to drop into her stomach.

She tried to find her words, stammering for anything to say, while simultaneously hoping Luke was about to crack up laughing and tell her it was just a prank. She wouldn't put it past him. But all she managed was a disbelieving, "What?" as she shook her head.

"Like you said, you were the media liaison, you were on TV more than anyone else," Luke said darkly. "They made you the focal point of their porn"

She couldn't look him in the eye. Her grip on the counter was suddenly so tight she was sure her fingers were going to break, but she wasn't sure that she would stay upright if she let go. The ice cold chill was back, coursing through her veins, and whereas she'd felt heat rising before, she could now feel the colour draining rapidly from her face.

"Uh," she choked out, rocking her body weight back towards the counter and forcing herself to fix her eyes on the wall opposite her. She couldn't help the short, almost laugh that escaped her as she continued to speak. "It's… not anime, is it?"

"No, it's not," Luke breathed, an air of sadness in his voice as he forced himself to tear his eyes away from her.

She felt sick as her eyes travelled down to the floor, but her mind was running a million miles an hour, trying desperately to make sense of it all.

"Look, we've… all read the threat assessments of how convincing AI can be, and…," Luke stammered, his voice barely making it to JJ's ears, wavering dangerously as he spoke. "This is… this is pretty convincing"

She forced herself to breathe, shaking her head in something akin to raw horror. "Jesus," was all she could manage to say, escaping in nothing more than a shaky whisper.

Luke tilted his head towards her, trying to project some sort of comfort and protection. "Look… you've been happy not looking at it this whole time, right? You wanna go on not looking, I get it. But you should make that call… instead of having it made for you"

She was going to be sick. She was sure of it. Barely able to focus on what Luke was saying, now she was just concentrating on breathing… long enough to make it somewhere quiet, like a bathroom stall, where she could completely fall apart.

"There's an encrypted link in my report, and uh… you do whatever's best for you"

Finally, she pulled her gaze up to meet Luke's, finding nothing but… sorrow, in his eyes.

It wasn't a joke. He wasn't going to break into that trademark cheeky grin, and tell her he was pulling her leg. None of it was a joke.

And that meant it was real.

"I… uh, I… I ju… I need a minute," she stammered, habitually tucking her hair behind her ears again. She didn't know if Luke nodded or made any move to acknowledge her statement, and instead, she was left to stand there as he walked away, clearly not knowing what else to say.

Pictures… of her… on the Internet. Pictures that weren't real, but were convincing enough to be believed. Pictures no doubt meant to humiliate and shock.

Her mind was screaming, part of it trying desperately to remind herself to breathe, the other part seemingly running every possible outcome of what was going to happen. What was she going to see?

Standing there in the kitchenette, she felt cold… exposed. Luke had obviously seen whatever these pictures were… maybe he hadn't intended to, but he had. She couldn't help but wind an arm around her midsection, the fingers of other hand resting on the charms of her necklace as she turned away from the kitchenette opening.

If it was on the Internet… it was out there forever. There was no getting rid of it. And Internet pornography… god, it could ruin your life before you even had a chance to wrap your head around what was happening. Didn't matter if it was real or not.

All it had to do was convince enough people beyond reasonable doubt that it was.

She knew BAUGate was on the deep web… but if the network's aim was to humiliate, shame, and expose her, there was only a matter of time before it ended up on the surface, ready for anyone to stumble across it.

Like her fourteen year old son.

Retching at the thought, she doubled over, gagging into the sink she'd deposited a coffee mug into only minutes earlier. Coffee and bile splattered over the stainless steel, followed by a couple of dry heaves as her body tried to physically expel the awful reality she now had to face.

Thankful that it was late and there was hardly anyone around, she coughed weakly, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand as her other hand reached out to flick on the tap. She let the water run as she regained her composure, straightening up on shaking arms and once again forcing herself to breathe.

Picking up the mug, she rinsed it out under the running water, before dumping way more washing up liquid than expected into the receptacle. She knew she was numb… fighting off disassociating as she washed out the remains of her mess from the sink and the mug, wiping them down with a hefty spray of disinfectant before she dumped the cup on the dish rack and turned away from the sink, her hand fumbling behind her to shut off the faucet.

Emily was still here. She wondered briefly if it was worth going to her for more information.

But then she remembered the conversation on the drive to Delaware. That Emily had kept this from her… and ordered Luke to as well.

No… if she went to Emily now, she would explode. And as much as the angry, fiery side of her wanted to do that anyway, the rational side of her forced her to walk away from the kitchenette, out the double glass doors of the bullpen, and down the hall to the nearest ladies room. She let herself in, finding it gratefully empty before she locked the main door behind her.

That was all it took for her to completely fall apart.

She'd stayed holed up in the bathroom for close to half an hour, sobbing with reckless abandon as she continued to try and wrap her head around Luke's revelation, trying to work out what she was going to do next. Then, having pulled herself back together and ensuring she still looked presentable, she made her way back to the bullpen, ignoring the light in Emily's office as she walked up into the round table room. Her jacket was still sitting on the back of her chair, and suddenly, the feeling of exposure was back. Without hesitation, she tugged it back on, shielding her body from the outside world as she walked over to the window looking out over the bullpen.

She knew what she was going to do. She didn't like it. She didn't want to do it.

But she had to take some of the power back. It was her body… her face… her likeness.

She had to know exactly what she was dealing with.

Moments later, Emily was racing out of her office and out towards the elevators. JJ knew. This was her chance.

Reaching for the string that controlled the blinds, she tugged it down, closing the room off from outside view before slowly making her way back towards the chair she had vacated earlier when Sydney Voit walked in.

Dropping into the chair, she took a deep breath, clenching her hands tightly as she brought her eyes down to the laptop screen in front of her. The browser was already open, waiting for commands to be entered, and she found her hands moving towards the keyboard as if of their own accord.

"Injure… jean… fear," she muttered as she typed, before letting out the tiniest laugh. "God damn… they… used an anagram of my name"

And then, she hit enter. It took barely a second for the page to load, effectively wiping away her world as she knew it from beneath her feet. Image after image graced the page, cementing the horrific reality as it burned into her brain. God, there was even a picture from when she had been pregnant with Henry… twisted into something sicker than she could have ever imagined.

Balling a fist up against her mouth, she didn't know whether to vomit or cry. Part of her even wanted to burst out laughing at how absurd the whole thing was, but the convincing reality of the images before her had her completely frozen in place. She was seeing herself… distorted and warped and yet still so fucking real. Doing things she had only done with Will or a previous partner… doing things she would never do, full stop. Parts of her body that would never be on public display… were on public display. And while she knew they weren't real… they looked so real.

"It's not real," she spat in a gritted teeth whisper, the tears beginning to slip over her lashes and down her cheeks.

It wasn't real… it wasn't real… it wasn't real…

… but if it landed accidentally in the lap of someone she knew, who wasn't aware of the existence of this website… they would absolutely think it was.

And that would be all it took to destroy her.