A.N. In honor of the final day of filming , and the ending of an era.

Parting Thoughts

"Do you ever think about us looking back on all of this one day? Sitting around, talking about 'our last case'?"

JJ had perched herself on the edge of his desk, clearly not in the mood to work.

Welcoming the distraction, Reid pushed away from the desk, and leaned back in his chair.

"What brought this on?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I guess I was just thinking that nothing lasts forever. And I was thinking about all of the people who have left the team. A lot of them left around this time of year. Maybe that's what got me thinking about it."

Reid's eidetic memory issued a correction. "Actually, Gideon left in the fall. So did Elle. And Stephen…"

JJ nodded soberly. "Yeah."

"And you." Waiting for her to look at him. Which she did, with eyes filled with regret, for far too many complicated reasons to recount. But there was no recounting necessary, because he already knew all of them.

"And me. But I came back."

"In the spring. But then we lost Emily."

Now that they'd delved into the topic, Reid embraced it, moving right past that thing that had once hurt both of them so deeply. They'd healed those wounds, and would not reopen them.

"It was the first time we lost her. But, you're right, we lost her for the second time in the spring, too."

"And Kate, and Morgan."

"And Hotch."

They'd both said it together, with the same tone of regret. That particular loss had been one of the most painful, and diabolical, and it had gone unrepaired.

"Wow, I guess I never realized it before you brought it up," said Reid.

"Yeah, I don't know what made me think of it. The air, maybe. Or the colors."

Reid nodded knowingly. "Yes, we form our perceptions, and our memories, in part, from our senses. That's why we always start our cognitive interviews with bringing the subject back to the environment they were in when the event occurred."

He'd fallen into professorial mode, and the look on JJ's face told him that his class hadn't had need of the lesson.

"Sorry, bad habit. Too much teaching at the academy."

JJ accepted the change of subject. "Do you think that's what you'll do?"

"What I'll do?"

"When it's over. When we leave the BAU."

Reid brought his feet back to the floor, and leaned in toward his companion, the better to study her.

"JJ, are you thinking of leaving?"

Hazel eyes boring into hers. He'd had so little to hold on to, these past few years. She'd been his major lifeline. If she were to leave….

She hadn't answered him yet, and it was making him feel off kilter.

"JJ?"

Whether she was simply emerging from some errant internal thought process, or had begun to realize the effect her lack of response was having on him, JJ finally gave him an answer.

"Me? No! No, I …. I guess I was just wondering. I mean, how will we know? When it's our time, how will we know?"

Not ready to get mired in the emotional toll of actually making a decision to leave, Reid decided to treat it as an academic exercise.

"Well, let's think about it. The people who left in the spring…..most of them did it by choice, right? I mean, Kate left to have a baby, and she'd been wanting one for a long time. And Morgan left because he'd just become a father. They left because they had something to look forward to."

"Hmm. And the people who left in the fall ….. they left because they had to. And that includes me."

He nodded. "But a lot of people joined the team in the fall, too. So, it was an ending for some, but a beginning for more."

JJ took that in. "I joined the team in the fall. The first time, I mean. And so did you."

He smiled. "I was right behind you, as always."

She grinned at him. "I prefer when you're right beside me." On impulse, she reached out and squeezed his hand. "I really am grateful that we've been together through this whole thing….well, most of it."

He squeezed back. "I am too. And I was even more grateful to know you would still be here, waiting, when I had to be away."

JJ shivered. "That…. that was winter." And I've never been so cold. "And you came back in the spring."

"You brought spring to me that day." He waited until he had her eyes. "A warm blonde breeze."

She grinned now. "I guess we've got a lot of history, haven't we?"

"I'm kind of hoping we're not done creating it."

The tone of his voice repeating his prior question.

"We're not. I told you, it just came to me to wonder. I mean, it isn't going to last forever, that's a given."

"Maybe we should ask Rossi about that."

"Ha. You know what I mean. One day, this will be a memory, and I just wonder what it will be like. What our last case will be, and whether we'll realize it at the time. Whether we'll be 'spring people' or 'fall people'."

"We."

"Huh?"

"You keep saying 'we', like whatever happens, we'll go through it together. And I just want to say that I'm in."

"Oh, I didn't mean that you have to…."

"I want to."

"You do?"

"Yes. This is hard work that we do. To do it without someone to support us… I don't think it would work. Not for me."

JJ played devil's advocate. "There are other people on the team."

"Exactly. They're other people. They're not you. Trust me, I know what it's like to try to do this without my best friend. And I don't intend to try it again."

She smiled her gratitude for the sentiment, and told him that she shared it.

"Me either. But I'm thinking…. whenever we go, maybe we should take Garcia with us. I mean, look how hard it was for her to lose Derek. I don't think she could ….."

"Well, if we take Garcia, we're going to have to take Emily. And Rossi…."

She laughed. "Rossi will beat all of us out the door."

"Haha. You're probably right about that." Reid considered their options. "So, the big thing we need to figure out is whether we're 'spring leavers' or 'fall leavers'."

"Well, considering what it seems to mean, I'd like to be a 'spring leaver', but I don't want it to end, so….what if we decide in the spring, but don't leave until the fall? Or summer, or winter, for that matter. What does that make us?"

"Well, one way or another, it makes us former agents of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. But, really, considering that you started all of this by asking about us looking back, together…..I think it makes us lifelong friends."

She smiled again. "Feels like more than that."

A memory came to Reid, as they were so often wont to do.

"BFFs."

It took another moment, but the memory came to her, too.

"That case. Yeah, I think I got it wrong that day. BFF….I think it really means BAU Family Forever."