A/N: Massive authors note so you can skip over if need be.
Firstly so much has changed in the show since I began this I can't even begin to describe it! It's based around season 2 with Gideon still on the team and (obviously) with JJ still in the show. No Ashley.
Secondly so many apologies must be made for the delay. Major writers block, then exams + major problems at home and issues with CM not airing in Australia and the list goes on and on as to why I didn't update. But it is no excsue and I am sorry. Thank you to all who have read/reviewed! I owe you all so much! Thank you! Thank you! I hope you enjoy this! The second last chapter!
There are way to many thank you's to be said, but I owe a major one to everyone who has read/reviewed/or added to any favourite or alert. You inspire me so much! Secondly to my friends (Josh, Terri, Ava) for their continued support and push for this story! Josh in particualr, I don't knwo what I would have done without you! And thirdly, to my beta, who I know has had the hard job of fixing this up for me. I knew I had mistakes only I didn't relaise how bad they actually were so... I'm sorry, and thank you so, so much! I owe you everything!
Couldn't reach my beta at all to go over this chapter though, so all mistakes are my own, and please let me know what they are!
Warning: A little language in this chapter...
"That's not possible," she screamed, pacing the room angrily. "It's not fucking possible." Standing in her way, the male reached out, gently touching her on the arm to try and calm his sister down. She stopped pacing the room. "She's been lying to us. She's a fucking undercover FBI agent. I'm not just going to sit by and let that bitch ruin everything. I've worked way too hard for this to give it up now."
Hotch was blaming himself. As acting supervisor for the team he should have thought this through. An undercover operation was the best thing for the case, but he should have looked closely at JJ and whether or not she would have been okay to undertake the case. He should have done his job and supervised her. Instead, he'd been taking calls from his wife every thirty minutes. He was going to be getting some serious heat when he got back to Quantico.
Having the team split up in various states meant that he could not keep an eye on all of them at once. He'd been out of contact with most of his team for various times and so he had not been able to get an update on how JJ was doing.
It would have been worthwhile to ask every once in awhile, to call her, ask how she was, even ask Emily or Morgan how she was doing, yet he'd been too preoccupied with his own thoughts and problems to do so. And now he was paying for it.
"Don't stress Aaron," Gideon put his hand gently on Hotch's arm, resting on the table in front of him, "Nobody could have predicted this. She is strong, she will be okay."
"And what if she is not Jason?" Hotch looked his friend directly in the eye, "What if she is not okay. It is my fault. And you can not tell me otherwise. I know I am responsible for anything that happens here on out."
Following the blonde's instructions, turning left; the silence began to get to Chad. After a minute he finally spoke. "You want to tell me where we are going?"
"To the hotel," JJ spoke, never once looking away from the window.
Fighting hard not to pull the car over, keeping his attention on the road, Chad could not keep the anger out of his voice. "Are you crazy? Going back to the hotel? Everyone will probably be there looking for you, hell, the FBI might even be there looking for you."
They will be. Sighing, JJ turned away from the window to face Chad, whose hand was squeezing the wheel so tight that it was going white.
"I need to pick up something that I left behind."
Slowing, Chad turned right, waiting for JJ to explain further but she didn't. He wanted to talk to her, ask her what she needed to get, but he realised that she probably would not answer him. For the fifteen minutes they'd be in the car, with the exception of a second again, she had not said a word.
That seemed really unlike her, but Chad knew she was upset. That she'd need time. He just hoped that she would not push him away.
Pulling up down the street from the hotel JJ used Chad's phone to call Kelly. "Hello?" the teen asked as a greeting.
"Kelly," JJ spoke, being cut of by a small scream.
"Oh my god! Where the hell are you? Everyone is so worried about you, the FBI is trying to track you down and -"
"Kelly," JJ cut her of, sighing, leaning back in her car seat. "I need a massive favour."
"Okay," Kelly replied slowly, "what's this favour?"
Looking at Chad, who gave her a re-assuring smile; JJ pushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear and spoke directly into the phone. "I need you to get my passport for me."
"I'm in the room now, you took everything of yours. You didn't leave anything behind."
"No," JJ shook her head, wishing that Chad was not here so she could speak freely, "Kelly, I need you to get my passport for me," she put emphasis on the word my. Chad raised an eyebrow at the blonde, who shrugged it of.
"Are you out of your mind? You want me to break into a hotel room, an FBI agent's hotel room, to grab your passport?"
"I'm sorry about everything okay. I never meant for any of this happen. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."
Hearing how sad, the woman who'd become her friend sounded, Kelly sighed, knowing she only had one option. "Where is it? How am I supposed to grab it for you?" Sitting down on the bed, Kelly sighed gently, "This is one hell of a favour you know."
"I will pay you back, but please, do this for me. And don't let anyone know you spoke to me."
Reaching across to JJ, Chad grasped her hand in his, giving her hand a gentle squeeze, re-assuring her that it would all work out and be okay. Drawing strength from him, closing her eyes, JJ listened to what Kelly was saying.
"I'm out in the street, in Chad's car. Just drop it of here when you get it," JJ hung up the phone, handing it back to Chad. Smiling, the smile not quite reaching her eyes, JJ said, "thank you."
Accepting the phone, Chad slipped it back into his pocket. "I know this may not seem like the best time but is it wise for you to be running away like this? Flying to… who knows where?"
"I have a plan, you don't need to be worried, and I'll be okay."
"Of course I worry Kate," he spoke, looking deep into her eyes, hoping to convince her. "You are the first decent person out here in Miami, someone who I can trust. I know I can tell you anything, and I know you will tell me your secrets, even if it takes you a little longer to trust me with your secrets."
Looking away JJ felt so guilty. Here was someone, confessing his sole, telling her he could trust her, tell all his secrets to her and she was not even being honest with him. About anything. He didn't even know her real name.
This was killing JJ. She'd fallen victim to her alias and it was eating away at her. Elle had given her advice last night on the phone but she didn't know if she should listen, and take the advice given. She loved Elle, with all her heart, but Elle's track record wasn't the best when it came to judgment in the field.
Sighing, JJ hung her head in her hands. This was starting to give her a headache. She wished that there was an easy way to deal with all this, that there was an easy way to understand what she should do next, a sign, to point out which path she should be taking.
The blonde was in no condition whatsoever to be making this life altering decisions but no one else could make them for her. She had to make them. Placing a hand protectively on her stomach, the blonde knew that whatever decision she made next, would not be for her, but for her un-born child.
"Sorry to call you all in on such notice, but we've got a situation," Hotch briefed the group of detectives and uniforms sitting directly in front of him. "One of our agents, Jennifer Jearou who has been undercover for the last few weeks, is currently MIA."
"You think she was taken by Stacy right? The director of the camp?" one of the uniforms asked, looking between Hotch and Morgan, both standing out the front.
Sighing, Hotch allowed Morgan to step forward and speak, the older man finding it difficult to speak right now, the guilt getting to him. "We believe it to be a little more complicated than that."
Morgan saw the confusion amongst the group and tried to clarify the situation for them without making it seem like the FBI had no idea what they were doing. "We believe that JJ ran off by herself and has fallen victim to her alias."
"I'm afraid I don't understand," one of the detectives raised his hand, "what are you saying? That she, an FBI agent, ran from an undercover assignment?"
"There are extenuating circumstances, but that is exactly what we are saying," Morgan sighed, not liking where this meeting was about to head. As the questions and the accusations began to fly left, right and centre, he began to wander what would have happened had the BAU never stepped in.
"We need to get an APB out on her. We need to find her. And fast. We believe that she was the next intended target. That Stacey is going to go after her. We need to find her before she does."
"This is insane," one of the detectives muttered.
"For you and me both," Hotch told the man, "one of my best agents is out there in a city she barley knows, lost, alone and afraid, trying to escape both the FBI and a murder who has marked her as the next target. I never thought anything like this could happen to her. But it has, and it's my fault. I am doing all I can to fix the problem."
The banging on the door continued for five minutes. When there was no answer, the man pulled his sister back, pausing, just a second before kicking the door in. Storming into the room, the two made a quick sweep of the room. It was empty.
"Damn it," she cursed slamming her fist against the wall.
"She took most of her stuff," the male, the more rationale of the two noted looking around the room that was now empty of almost everything. "It means she's running."
"Your point?"
Smiling gently, he took a step closer to his sister. "We've got her cornered. She's running."
Within five minuter Kelly was down at the car, handing the passport across to JJ through the window. Noticing her tear streaked face, Kelly felt a wave of emotions. She'd really come to enjoy the blonde's company over the stretch of the undercover operation. She knew how tough, how strong the FBI agent was, yet to see her in tears right now, so weak and vulnerable made her see the agent in a while new light.
The blonde pushed her messy blonde hair away from her eyes, looking to face the teenager she felt of as a close friend. "Any problems?" she hoped that her voice was even, not giving away how she felt, though just by looking at it, it must have seemed obvious. Even to those who did not know it.
"None," Kelly shook her head, giving the blonde a tight smile, "are you going to be okay?"
"I hope so," she reached out the window for the teenager's hand. Squeezing it gently, she gave the teenager a true smile, her first one in what felt like a life-time. "Thank you - for everything. I could not have done any of this without you. I owe you so much Kelly."
"My pleasure!" she returned the smile, "Besides," she added a second later, "it was kind of fun. Well, you know, right up until the end of course."
"Kelly, promise me, promise me no matter what happens you won't let anyone know you spoke to me."
"I can't," she whispered, tears beginning to build in her eyes, "please don't make me."
"You have to. Please. I need you to do this for me. You have to promise me that you will not let anyone know about this. Any of this!"
"But what if the FBI…" she trailed of, tears falling. What if the FBI asked her directly if she'd seen their agent? Should she lie, to protect her, her tell the truth.
"Lie to them. Do you understand me? Do not tell them any of this!"
Knowing she did not really have much of a choice, Kelly gave in. It was killing her, all of this. "I promise," she whispered a second later, tears falling heavily now.
Giving the blonde's hand another gentle squeeze, she dropped it, pulling back from the car, wrapping her arms around herself. She watched, as the car pulled away a second later, tears falling down her own face. She'd come to think of the blonde as her sister, and didn't want to see anything happen to her. "Be safe," she whispered to the car now out of sight.
"We need to profile JJ in order to work out where she could have run to," Hotch spoke as his entire team sat in the small conference room. Garcia was on a video conference with them, and was the first to speak up.
"Sir, I looked at this Chad guy you mentioned. I've got nothing on him. Nothing you didn't already know."
"There has got to be something Garcia," Hotch snapped, instantly regretting his harsh tone seeing the technical annalist recoil form his harsh tone. "Garcia, I'm sorry."
"I'll keep looking sir," she promised.
Morgan leant heavily against the wall. "There has got to be something. She can't just disappear like this."
"So look at it this way," Reid spoke a second later, breaking the silence, "where does she feel most safe, in the entire world? Look at where she feels safe, who she would feel safe with. She's scared right now, running on adrenaline."
"Your right," Emily spoke softly, "we know that she felt safe with Chad."
"But rule him out because he's too obvious," Morgan added.
"Right," Emily continued on, "And I think it is safe to assume she will not stay in Miami too long."
"BAU?" Reid suggested.
Emily shook her head. "Again, it's too obvious and I'm sure she won't go running to the FBI knowing we are trying to find her. We need somewhere else…"
"How is it a good thing she's running?" the female screamed at her brother, glaring at him.
"She's taken everything hasn't she?" he smiled cryptically at his sister.
"What's your point?"
"My point is she is on the run… more than likely, headed to safe destination, which is probably not Miami and I bet anything she'd have two passports on her."
"Two?" Stacey questioned, a little confused. Why would an FBI agent on the run, undercover as a seventeen year old be carrying two passports?
"Grabbing all her things from the hotel room, she would have picked up Kate's passport. I'm betting anything though she knows it's being watched, so she'll use her passport. I have a guy down at the airport, an old buddy of mine. I can get him to keep an eye on them for us. Let us know the second one of them has been used."
"In the meantime, talk to my son," she spoke a second later, "he's become good friends with her. He'd know if she was heading the airport."
"Indeed… let's go see if my nephew has anything to say."
Pacing the room, Morgan placed a hand on the brunette's shoulder, stopping her in her place. Turning to face him, Morgan could see the tears silently streaming down her face. "I knew she wasn't okay Derek, and I didn't pull her out."
"Oh baby," he whispered, wrapping his arms around her tightly, pulling her in for a hug, holding her protectively. There was nothing else to say. He could say it was not her fault but he knew Emily Prentiss and she would blame herself for this, no matter what he said.
He could try to say something else, but he might say the wrong thing and make things worse so instead, he just chose to hold her tight, and to hold her close, knowing she was not alone.