Two weeks and three more dates later, it was Christmas.
Derek had gone home to Chicago for a few days and Lia spent the day with Will, JJ, Henry and JJ's mum who had come down from East Allegany for the holiday.
Lia and Will didn't really have any Holiday traditions, Will was planning on taking Henry to New Orleans for a few days between Christmas and New Years and after much begging from both, Lia was still refusing to go.
However, Lia did have some traditions she liked to follow with the kids at school. On the last day of November she asked them to write a list for Santa as she had his personal phone number to pass on the list for them (it was actually just parent-teacher conference night). Then on the last day of term they would spend the day watching Christmas films and eating popcorn before she sent them home with a bar of chocolate each and a packet of sweets for the dairy-free kid.
To Lia, Christmas Day itself carried mixed emotions. She had the happy memories of Christmas mornings when she was little; opening presents with Will whilst both of their parents watched with a smile but now she's older she can see that her mother was in pain. Then there's the Christmas's after their mother had passed; William LaMontagne Sr tried to make it as happy as he could for his kids and most of the time he succeeded but then as the siblings got older and money got tighter, he began working on Christmas day so Lia would make Christmas dinner and the three of them would eat it in his office.
But the worst Christmas's by far were the ones after Will moved to D.C. to be with JJ because Justin didn't like her visiting him so they would spend the day at home.
And that's the memory that came to mind as they sat around the living room after dinner, JJ's mum quizzing Lia on her personal life and asking if there was anyone new in her life, a question she asked every time they saw each other.
The noise of the bauble hitting the hard wood floors wasn't particularly loud, Henry had just knocked it off accidently whilst playing with his new toys with his mum. Lia however, jumped like someone had fired a gun in the next room. She could feel her chest tightening and her heart beginning to race so she followed the advice JJ had given her the first time it happened and removed herself from the situation.
"Did I say something wrong?" Sandy asked as they watched Lia almost run out of the house and into their back garden.
"No, Christmas is just a rough day for her." JJ explained.
"Is Shel okay?" Will asked, rushing into the room after seeing his sister running across the garden and sitting under a tree from the kitchen window.
"Yeah, she just needs a minute. Alone." JJ said.
Christmas 2 Years Ago
Lia sat on the floor of the living room she shared with her fiance Justin, surrounded by the smashed glass baubles that had once belonged to her parents. The tree was on its side, Christmas cards from friends and family were scattered around the room like leaves on an autumn day. A few feet away from her was the angel that once adorned the top of the tree, that had survived Katrina, destroyed by the rage of a single man.
Tentatively, she began to crawl towards one of the cards that had caught her attention, cutting her hand on a piece of glass in the process. She couldn't help the small, sad smile that crept onto her face as she was met with the faces of her brother and his wife holding her 4 year old nephew between them, all wearing matching Christmas jumpers and a large smile. She didn't even have to open it to remember what it said as she had read it hundreds of times since it had arrived the other week, the message about how they wished she was there, how much Henry missed her and that they were forced to take the photo by one of JJ's work friends, Penelope.
A tear slid down her face as she thought about what it would be like to have work friends as she had stopped working when she had gotten pregnant around the same time Henry had been born.
After the miscarriage, she never returned to work and eventually it got to the point where she barely left the house.
The sound of her phone ringing in her back pocket pulled her attention away from her thoughts but it still took her a second to realise where she was, that she was in Will's garden in D.C. and not her old house in New Orleans.
"Hello?" She said as she held the phone to her ear, using the back of her other hand to wipe away the tears that were on her cheeks.
"Lia? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." She said, her fingers beginning to tap out a pattern on the leg of her jeans.
"Where are you? I thought you'd be with Will and JJ."
"I am, well, kinda. I'm sat under a tree in their back yard." Lia said, realising as soon as the words left her mouth that he would know something was wrong for certain now.
"I can tell you've been crying Li." Derek said, his voice soft as he tried to coax her out of the panicked state he could tell she was in. "What happened?" He asked.
Despite having never spoken about it, Derek was a profiler and he could tell there was something she was trying to hide from him and he knew it was something horrible. He figured there was an abusive person in her past and as he had heard Will speak highly of their parents, he had narrowed it down to an ex.
"Henry knocked a bauble off the tree and I was back in my old house in New Orleans." She explained the bare minimum, the fear of him running away once he found out she was nothing more than some other guy's damaged goods plaguing her mind.
"He's the reason why you always apologise for everything right?" He decided to bite the bullet and ask the question he had wanted to ask from the start.
"Yeah." She said, closing her eyes and resting her head against the tree. "His name was Justin, we were together for six and a half years and he's the reason I didn't believe in love." It wasn't until the words were travelling through the phone that Lia realised what she'd said. Didn't. Not don't. Didn't implied something had changed that.
"Didn't?" Derek said, unsure whether to tease her or be serious about it once he also realised what she had said.
"Is that really what you choose to focus on?" Lia said, trying to deflect the attention away.
"It made you smile didn't it?" He teased.
"I hate you." Lia said with a chuckle.
"I hate you too."
"When do you get back from Chicago?" Lia asked.
"The day after tomorrow, I would say we should do something but we're having a BAU Christmas party at Garcia's."
"I really need to meet her, everyone's always talking about her." Lia said, the image of the Christmas card coming back into her mind.
"Oh she's desperate to meet you too. They're trying to get me to bring you to Rossi's New Years party." Derek said.
"Too bad I already have plans: Netflix, my sofa and a hot chocolate."
"I don't know how much longer I can stop her from pulling your number from my phone for. She's already threatened to do it twice."
"She can do that?"
"She could probably find you because we have memberships at the same gym."
"Hey, I've got to go, JJ's coming to check on me."
"Okay, text me when you get home."
"Will do."
"I thought you might be cold." JJ said, offering Lia the blanket she had brought out with her.
"Thank you." Lia said as she took it and wrapped it around her shoulders, she hadn't realised how violently she was shivering until now.
"Who was on the phone?" JJ asked curiously as she sat cross-legged opposite Lia.
"Oh, um, just a friend from work wishing me a merry Christmas." Lia lied.
"That's sweet." JJ said, going along with the story she knew was a lie. "You know you can tell me anything right?"
"I hate that you're a profiler, like, why can't you just be as gullible as Billy?" Lia joked.
"So it wasn't just a friend from work?" JJ pushed, a smile on her face as she did.
"Shut up." Lia whined.
"So... when can I meet him?" JJ asked.
"You already have, you work with him actually."
"Um.. I don't know. We've only been dating a few weeks and I don't need you going all FBI and Billy doing the overprotective brother routine." Lia made up her excuse on the spot.
"I can't speak for your brother, but I can tell you that I will play nice." JJ promised.
"I'll think about it okay?"