Someone To Stay

16

"Did you enjoy your break?" Spencer asked me as I sat down on my desk two days later. I nodded.

"Yes I did."

"What happened?" He asked me.

"What do you mean?"

"You were supposed to come for a half day two days ago and you never came. JJ left to go check on you and she took the rest of the day off and the next day." Spencer said.

"Oh...nothing." I said quietly.

"I won't tell anyone. I um...I know what it's like to need a break."

"Don't we all?" I asked him.

"I guess." I knew what he meant but I didn't want to tell him anything.

"We have a case." JJ called out. Spencer and I stood up and walked to the conference room. I sat next to JJ as she opened the file. "Three kids have gone missing in a span of three weeks in the suburbs of St. Louis. Kids were all taken in random places but we from what we can see it's the same unsub. They're on a schedule. All reported around 2 on a Tuesday." I took a deep breath as we all stood up to get on the jet. I sat next to JJ with the case file.

"Have you ever been to St. Louis?" I asked her quietly.

"Yup. A few times." She closed the case file and turned to me. "Have you ever been?" I shook my head. "I'll show you around." I smiled and put my hand over hers where no one could see. "I'm glad you're back at work."

"Me too. Thank you for staying with me. You didn't have to do that."

"As long as you're ok. Do you even remember what happened?" I shrugged.

"I remember feeling really scared a lot of the time. I remember good sex-"

"Why are y'all talking about sex?" Morgan asked as he walked by.

"We're not." I told him. He just shrugged and kept walking towards the bathroom. "Sorry." I whispered to her.

"It's fine." She whispered. "I know this might not be what you wanna hear but I think that you should see a psychiatrist." I shook my head.

"I've been down that road many times and it's not something I wanna revisit. I have one that I've seen...she prescribes my meds but I don't need to talk to anyone." I told her. "I can talk to you...right?"

"Yeah but I'm not a licensed therapist. I mean you can always talk to me. But I don't know how much help I can give you."

"I don't need you to fix my problems JJ..."

"I know. I just...I worry about you."

"I'm flattered." She laughed softly and kissed my hand when no one was looking. "I love you."

"I love you too." I wanted to lean in to kiss her but someone would see.

"What do you think the unsub is doing to these kids?"

"Well obviously...abduction, I would guess some kind of torture...maybe rape." I watched her intently and nodded. "This job does take some profiling. Don't tell anyone though." She squeezed my hand.

"You're secret's safe with me." I told her.

"Thank you."

"What's wrong?" I asked her, seeing her focus on the file.

"I just...I don't understand how some people can do such terrible things. And to kids! They can't even fight!" She told me.

"I know. It's sick." I agreed. She nodded and let out a big sigh. "But we're gonna do everything we can to find him. And we're gonna save them." I told her.

"What if they're dead?"

"Then we'll at least save the kids that he would've taken if we didn't stop him." She nodded and I put my head on her shoulder. I was tired and needed some rest. She turned off the overhead light and put her arm over my shoulder.

"Get some sleep. We really need to catch this guy."