heart like yours (jennifer jareau)

3. twenty one

AN: hey guys!!

so good news! we're officially at the end half of this arc! things will go downhill yet again from here, but it does not last long, i promise! (and it's so worth it!)

just a few TWs:
mentions of injuries
descriptions of blood
mentions of knives
mentions of abuse

i am just giving everyone a heads up a few weeks in advance! i will be taking a two week break from updating at some point in april because i have my final uni deadlines for this year and i need to graduate before that place sends me to an early grave!
but! because s3 is turning into a monster of a season, we can treat it like a mid-season break so there could be a bit of a timeskip in chapters when i post again?

i'm not sure yet, just giving everyone a heads up in advance! will get back to you all with the specific dates, but i hope you enjoy this for today and i'll be back on monday with, arguably, the most important chapter of this book yet!

enjoy guys <3

•

"if there's anything i believe in, it's you." - nicky page

•

JJ had gotten used to seeing the worst things in the world, because she couldn't exactly avoid them when she was the one who picked the cases for the team to work on. She saw dead bodies, crime scene photos, autopsy reports, videos of brutal murders and rapes.

She had developed a thick skin to it. Of course, it always bothered her, but she was mastering the skill of compartmentalisation while at work, and she let herself be human when she went back to her apartment, or home to Delilah's apartment. 

Everything changed for JJ when the worst things in the world were happening to Delilah.

JJ had found the tape of Dylan and Delilah's last day alive, had watched it without realising it was planted there by Elliot. She'd expected it to be a home video of them when they were younger, but within seconds of pressing play, she saw that devil mask that Elliot wore and she just knew what she was going to see.

Except, it had happened to the person she wasn't expecting. Elliot had not gone for Dylan in that basement. He had gone for Delilah. 

Isobel. 

JJ couldn't think of her as Isobel. It almost felt like a twin situation, where they were both fundamentally the same, just so different. Delilah had done everything to erase Isobel from the world, but Elliot was dragging her out of the grave and parading her around for the team to see.

He wanted them to know the truth about Delilah. He wanted them to hate her for it. 

JJ couldn't hate Delilah for what she was, for who she was. Delilah was always her Lilah, her moon, her soulmate. Nothing in the world could change JJ's opinion of Delilah, because she had seen Delilah's heart and she knew it was good.

It was her father who was evil. He had continued the cycle from his own father, but Delilah was doing everything to break it. The only thing she could not change was her DNA.

Delilah was her mother's daughter in looks. JJ wondered how much of Violet was left in Delilah, how much of Violet's suffering had taken root inside her daughter's soul while Violet was still growing her in her stomach.