My Heart's Been Borrowed

Chapter 4: Illicit Affairs

The next morning, JJ wakes to find Elle gone, just like the first time they shared a room on a case. It feels different this time, though, foreboding. Elle's bag is gone, which is odd since they expect to be here at least another night. Maybe she took it out of habit.

Elle isn't in the lobby with a coffee. She isn't anywhere in sight. "Morning, Princess. You sleep okay?" Derek calls from the tacky yellow chair in the corner of the lobby.

"I slept fine. Have you seen Elle? She was gone before I woke up this morning."

"Hotch said she went to the station about an hour ago."

"Makes sense. Were you about to head that way?"

"Yeah! Reid should be down in a minute, and we can all go together if you want."

"Sure, sounds good." JJ sits down in the equally tacky blue chair next to Derek and pulls her phone from her pocket. She's hoping for a text from Elle, craving it. Instead, all she finds is a message from Hotch letting her know she'd need to set up a press conference for the afternoon.

"You okay?" Derek asks when JJ sighs for the fifth time in as many minutes.

"Just tired."

"Sure. If you want to talk about it, you know where to find me." He reaches over and squeezes JJ's shoulder affectionately. She leans into the touch and flashes him a small smile.

Reid rushes off the elevator, giving JJ and Derek a small wave. "Hey guys! Sorry I'm late. I ran into a lady on our floor who was afraid she had been bitten by a bed bug. It turns out that it was an ant bite, which is really reassuring because if she had bed bugs in her room, statistically speaking, the likelihood that our rooms would also be infested is–"

"That sounds like something I really do not want to know, Spence," JJ says, quickly cutting him off before she can develop another new fear because of his "fun facts".

"Right. Sorry." He blushes, offering JJ an apologetic smile. "Ready to head to the station?"

"Absolutely. I've already got a press conference to set up."

"Yikes. Let's catch this son of a bitch so we can get back home." Derek leads the way out of the lobby and into the last black suv waiting in the parking lot. On the way to the police station, Reid and Morgan bounce profile ideas off of one another, JJ chiming in occasionally with her own thoughts.

As soon as they park, JJ hops out of the car, eager to get started on work and to talk to Elle. She should finally be able to relax and get out of her own head once she confirms that everything is fine between them.

She ignores the lingering looks from the local officers she passes as she makes her way to the small conference room they've temporarily taken over. Elle has her back to the door and doesn't turn around when the rest of the team enters the room. JJ slides into the empty chair on Elle's right while Morgan and Reid head straight to the map taped to the chalk board to work on the geographical profile.

"Hey," JJ murmurs with a smile when Elle still doesn't look up.

"I'm busy, JJ," Elle says instead of meeting her eyes.

"Oh. Want a coffee? I can grab one for you. You left pretty early this morning, so you must be tired."

"I'm good." Her tone isn't exactly cold, but it's also not the one she typically uses with JJ either.

"Alright. I'll leave you to it." JJ moves to the opposite end of the table, trying to put as much distance between herself and Elle as possible. Confusion clouds her mind as she analyzes every second of the night before, trying to figure out what went wrong. The only thing she can settle on is that sleeping with Elle was a mistake.