CHAPTER 8

The door to the interrogation room flew open, waking up Flannery. "Sean Flannery, you are under arrest for the murders of Victoria Lawrence, Mildred Sidney, Cleo Bartholomew, Samantha Powers, Traci Layne, Sofia Gardner, Rachel Black, Sue Bauer, Emily MacMurray, and Lisa Harding. You are also under arrest for the kidnapping and attempted murder of a federal agent, Jennifer Jareau." Gideon told him, glad to finally say it at last.

The slack look on Flannery's face turned into utter shock, then anger. "No, no, no!" he began screaming. "You weren't suppose to find her! No, no, no!" Suddenly he was kicking and screaming, red in the face. It took four officers to handcuff him and carry him to a cell to await arraignment.

"I want the arresting officer put down as Jennifer Jareau, got it?" Gideon demanded of the nearest officer.

"Yes, sir!" The officer looked almost afraid of Gideon.

The next morning, Reid and Elle went to pick up JJ for the flight home. The doctors had decided, since the only major injury JJ had was a broken arm, she might as well go home to rest as opposed to staying in the hospital. As they entered the hospital, Reid was suddenly afraid to go up to JJ's room. He didn't know much about women but he was quite certain women did not like male co workers seeing them in hospital gowns that barely covered the backside.

He told this to Elle, who laughed. "JJ knows you're coming. Besides, I brought her clothes last night, remember?"

"Yeah." Reid was not convinced and could not make himself step into that elevator. He looked around and spotted a gift shop. "You go on up, I'm going to go to that gift shop over there." He ran off before Elle could say anything.

Elle shook her head and stepped into the elevator by herself. Reid could be so strange sometimes.

Inside the little gift shop an older lady looked up as Reid entered. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Um, I don't know. Maybe. I'm looking for something for my friend."

"And how old is your friend?"

"Um, I don't know. Twenty seven maybe?" Reid was flustered. He had never asked JJ how old she was although he thought she was older then him.

"Oh, a lady friend, is it?" the lady asked, nodding.

Reid looked relieved and nodded,too. "Yeah. Her name is JJ and she likes the Washington Redskins and butterflies. Got anything like that?" He glanced around the room. Mostly it was glass figurines and stuffed animals along with popular paperback novels.

"Well, I don't know. Not anything for the Redskins. We mostly just have California teams merchandise. Hmm, what about one of these?" she held up a handful of popular paperbacks.

Reid shook his head. "Maybe something else." He wandered over to the stuffed animals, the lady following.

"We have t shirts you can customize for the stuffed animals." she suggested as they looked over the selection.

Reid shook his head slowly. "Isn't something more like a child would want?

"Lots of grown women like them."

"Well, maybe a bear. Bears are good, I think." Reid looked unsure of himself. He picked up a medium sized panda bear. "Is this one good?"

"Sure it is." And before Reid could blink, the bear was wrapped and in a box. "That'll be 14.99, please."

"For a stuffed animal?"

"Plus gift wrapping."

He sighed and handed over his credit card.

"Sign here, and have a good day." The lady looked pleased, making a sale in what was usually a pretty quiet gift shop.

Slowly, Reid made it up to the second floor where JJ and Elle were waiting. Suddenly, he felt like a fool, bringing a present like he was and wished he could hide it. But he knew she would like it, if he could just get up the courage to give it to her.

The hallway to her room seemed extraordinarily long to poor Reid as he walked it. "225, that's what Elle said," he repeated to himself. He turned the corner and there was 225. He raised his hand to knock when he heard a voice call out to him.

"Spence, you don't have to knock." JJ said.

"Oh, um, okay." He pushed the door open. "Where's Elle?" He tried not to look at JJ.

"She went to get a cart for all these flowers and balloons." Indeed, the small room was being overrun with flowers on every available space and balloons in every corner.

"I guess you're popular." Reid attempted to hide the box. He tried to reason with himself, "she already has a bunch of stuff, she doesn't need this,too." But JJ saw what he was doing.

"What are you hiding?" JJ tried to hide a smile.

"Did you, uh, did you know that Gideon had you put down as arresting officer?"

"No. I didn't know that. Wow. That was nice of him." JJ wasn't sure what to say, she had never arrested anyone before.

"Yeah. I guess he just wanted to do something for you."

"Is that all?" Painkillers or no, JJ could tell Reid was hiding, or more accurately trying to hide, a box behind his back.

"Oh, uh, uh, this is for you." He thrust the box forward, hoping he wasn't making a mistake.

JJ gave up hiding her smile and reached for the box. Slowly she pulled the lid off the box to reveal the stuffed animal, wrapped in blue tissue paper. "It's adorable, Spence! Thank you very much."

"It's really cute, Reid. Really, I like it." JJ was certain he felt uncomfortable buying a girl a present and thought she should try to reassure him.

"Really?" Reid smiled, he hadn't been such an idiot after all. And JJ actually seemed to genuinely like the ridiculously expensive stuffed animal. He suddenly felt rather proud of himself, for getting her something different then the others had. Gideon had bought her flowers, Hotch balloons and Morgan a big box of candy,and Elle had brought a book that JJ had been talking about. Then again maybe a stuffed animal was stupid and she was only being nice. He knew she would be nice to him even if she hated the present.

"Hey, it really is nice. I like pandas. I've never had a stuffed panda bear before. They're hard to find." JJ reached out with her good hand to reassure him.

Slowly, Reid began to smile again. "Good. I'm glad you like it."

Elle knocked on the door then, breaking up the moment. "You ready to go now?"

"Yeah, we're ready. Here, I'll take that." Elle reached for the overnight bag JJ had started to pick up. "Reid, you put all the flowers and stuff on that cart, okay? JJ, we'll take care of it all." The two busied themselves with gathering the flowers, balloons, and other odds and ends around the room. JJ sat on the bed and watched, feeling kind of useless but knowing that just the walk to the car was going to wear her out.

"All's well that ends well." Gideon said, taking a seat next to Hotch. He had just been talking to JJ, making sure she was comfortable for the long flight home. "JJ's safe and we're all heading home relatively in one piece."

"There's still a long road ahead for her though. Broken arms heal a lot faster then memories fade." Hotch answered.

"True." Gideon nodded. "But those tickets I bought for Reid on his birthday, it worked out well."

"What worked?"

"My matchmaker skills." A rare smile lit up Gideon's face.

Hotch turned around and looked toward the back of the place where JJ and Reid sat, talking quietly.

"It did indeed." Hotch grinned,too. "If Reid doesn't scare her off with all his facts, maybe it'll even last a while.'

"You never know. At least she'll have someone when the nightmares begin."

'I don't want to think about that."

"I didn't say they'd be together like that, they both have telephones, you know."

"Much better scenerio." Hotch agreed, relieved. He did not want to even begin to think of two of his agents like that.

Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden commotion. Both men turned again to look toward the back of the plane to find Elle and Morgan trying to fit balloons,cake, and themselves through the narrow doorway.

"It's party time!" Morgan was shouting.

JJ was smiling, Reid looked slightly confused, and Elle was laughing.

It was the perfect ending to the week.

well,was it worth the wait? i've had surgery (during my hospital stay is actually when i got the idea for this story), lost my job and moved a thousand miles during the writing of this, but somehow kept coming back to this story. it's the first fanfic i've actually finished and it is all because all of you guys kept pestering me for the ending. thanks for all the comments, i hope it is as good as you hoped. sarah