Seeking comfort

Chapter 2

She hurried into the conference room with her briefing files, and nearly jumped out of her skin when Reid was already sitting at the table. He was the absolute last person she wanted to run into first. Not because she didn't like him-in fact, she liked him a little too much seeing as how she had a boyfriend and all that. But he was the hardest person for her to lie to. First of all, he was a profiler which made it nearly impossible anyway. Secondly, he was one of her closest friends. She felt guilty not telling him the truth, but how could she? Then there was the third reason. JJ had always had a crush on Reid. They went on that date, but neither of them tried for another one. It wasn't like the date when poorly. In fact, JJ had had a lot of fun. She was slightly annoyed when Spencer didn't approach her for another, but she had gotten over. He was a smart, attractive guy. What would he want with her anyway? Then she had met Will, and she had forced herself to stop looking at Reid that way. Or at least, she had tried.

"Hey, Reid," she said, setting her briefing files on the table and avoiding eye contact.

"Hey, how are you?" he asked. She heard him sit his book down on the table, but she continued to flip through papers like there was something important in them. There wasn't, but she thought that if she kept her gaze from his he'd be less likely to see through her lies.

"I'm good," she said, hearing the hesitation in her own voice before she said "good". She realized that avoiding his gaze was actually a dead giveaway, seeing that he was a profiler and those were the types of things that he looked for. She looked up at him and tried to give him the most genuine smile she could muster, but she noticed the smallest change in his expression that led her to believe he hadn't believed her. He opened his mouth, as though he were about to ask her a question she wouldn't be able to answer. Luckily, Emily walked through the door carrying a coffee and her jacket, and took a seat next to Reid at the table.

"Hey guys," she said, offering one of her easy smiles and breaking the tension that had just started to rise. JJ replied with a smile of her own, and as though on cue the rest of the team arrived, leaving no time for Reid to worry about her.

Three days later, they were all sitting on the jet heading home from Philadelphia. They had just closed a case involving a serial killer with an affinity for young adults. It had been rough, as usual, and the team was taking the time on the jet to unwind. JJ hadn't gotten a chance to call Will much over the trip, but she had two voice mails waiting for her that she was worried about listening too. Usually he sent her a text message if she didn't answer. She looked around the cabin at her team. Hotchner was dutifully pouring over paper work. Derek had fallen asleep listening to her MP3 player, his headphones askew on his head. Emily was deep in the middle of a thick book. Reid was nowhere to be seen. Now was a good a time as any to listen to it.

Taking a deep breath, JJ called her voicemail and dialed in the code. The first message was from the day before, and sounded fairly normal. It was a little terser than usual. "Hey babe. Just wondering why I haven't heard from you...I miss you." He sounded tense, but otherwise it was fairly normal. She deleted that one and moved to the next one.

Will's voice slurred, and he was yelling harshly about JJ being stupid, and unappreciative of everything he had done for her. Her mouth had fallen open, and she didn't hear Reid come out of the bathroom until he announced his presence with a simple hey. JJ closed her phone quickly so he wouldn't hear the yelling in the message and gave him a smile.

"Hey, Spence," she said, scooting over so he had room to sit down next to her. He took a seat and gave her a quizzical expression.

"Are you ok?" he asked. She blinked a couple times, trying to phrase a response that wouldn't sound so fake, especially after the message she had just listened to.

"Yeah, of course. It was just a hard case," she said, noticing that her voice was a little too high at first and bringing it down accordingly. She made sure to keep up the eye contact so that maybe he would remain in the dark.

"Ah," Spencer said, giving her an unconvinced nod. It didn't pass JJ's notice, but she pretended that it did.

"How about you? How are you holding up?" she asked, bumping his arm with her elbow. Spencer smiled at her and nodded.

"I'm fine. Murder involving children is becoming more common in the US. Between the year 1976 and 1994 approximately 37,000 children were murdered in the US alone. In most cases, however, the offender involved-"

JJ let him ramble on about gruesome facts involving murdered children only because it kept her from having to talk about herself. Spencer caught himself and stopped mid-sentence.

"Sorry, I'm sure you don't want to talk about the case," he said, rubbing his hands on his cords.

"No, it's fine. It's interesting," she said. As soon as she said it Reid got a suspicious look.

"You usually can't stand my random statistical facts, are you sure nothing's wrong?" he asked, making a joke out of it. JJ laughed. A real laugh, she didn't have to force it. She looked a Reid then. Really looked at him. His genuine smile, his blue eyes that looked like an abyss of knowledge. The way he kept nervously jiggling his leg and wiping his hand on his cords every once in a while. God, how could she have been so stupid to not pursue him after that first date? She settled back into her seat and leaned her head back, watching Spencer's animated expression as he continued to quote statistics. It wasn't the information she was listening to. It was his voice.

When they got back to the BAU, instead of racing home like usual, JJ lingered in the break room, filling a cup of coffee at a leisurely pace. She was so out of it that she didn't here Emily come into the room.

"I figured you'd be speeding off to get back to Will," she said with her usual smile. JJ jumped when she spoke, but then returned the smile to the best of her ability. It was late, she had no excuse ready for why she wasn't running home to her boyfriend.

"I just couldn't resist the call of the coffee," JJ said, attempting casual but coming off forced. Emily raised an eyebrow with a smirk as she poured herself a Styrofoam cup the liquid.

"Really? I always thought you said the coffee here tastes like tar," Emily said with a laugh, dumping three packets of splenda into her cup. JJ refrained from snapping, because Emily would see through it instantly and she would not give up as easily as Reid had. JJ smiled an amused grin.

"It's better than in Philadelphia," she said, smiling and turning to face Emily. Emily laughed and nodded in agreement. When she looked up, the fluorescent light for once revealed something that was worth being seen. There was a pinkish spot on JJ's right cheek bone that she hadn't noticed while they had been busy with the case. Emily Prentiss was smart though. She drew her attention away from it immediately and laughed about the coffee so that JJ wouldn't shut her out immediately.

JJ's phone blared a ring tone, and the only person who would be calling her at midnight is Will. Emily was confused when JJ didn't pick it up automatically like she always did. Instead, JJ leisurely fished her phone out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. I can't answer this in front of Emily if Will is going to yell at me again. She'll hear it, JJ thought, considering whether she should answer the call or not. If she did, she might be pleasantly surprised and Will might be apologizing. But usually apologies after violent messages didn't happen at midnight. JJ clicked the button on the side of her phone to stop the ringer.

"Telemarketer?" Emily joked, taking a sip of her coffee and cringing before adding more cream.

"No, just Will. I'm about to leave, so I'll just call him in the car," JJ said, slipping her phone back into her pocket. Emily nodded, but she wasn't convinced. Trouble in paradise? It would be like JJ to not bring it up. She wasn't much of a talker when it came to her personal life.