Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is the property of CBS.

Upstairs, Rossi was holding Henry and watching the micro-expressions that were crossing JJ's face; her expression had begun shifting only seconds after Hotch had left the room. He'd become fond of the feisty blonde in the last year and it was clear that something was on her mind. Considering the events of the past forty-eight hours, it could be one of any number of things and while he could make an educated guess, he'd rather not assume. She'd looked as if she was going to say something twice already, only to change her mind and remain quiet, uncertainty clear on her face each time. While they weren't overly close, they were friends so once they'd exhausted the small talk and she'd fallen silent for fifteen minutes, he decided to ask.

"JJ, you look upset. Is there anything you want to talk about?" He'd bet his house that there was and it was clear she hadn't talked to Hotch about whatever it was, or she wouldn't look so troubled.

That was apparently the opening she'd needed because her blue eyes finally met his; she bit her lip, picked at the blanket (which were the officially the most uncertain gestures he'd ever seen from her) and asked in a worryingly small voice, "Dave, have you ever had the feeling that you'd screwed your life up beyond all recognition? Or wondered just what the hell you were thinking when you did it?"

"More times than I care to admit to kiddo: there's a reason I have three divorces under my belt. Do you want to talk about it?"

"If you don't mind; do you know anything about the Henkel case we had about two years ago, where the guy spied on the investigation after the murders…when Reid got kidnapped? It happened about six months before you came back to the BAU." Try as she might, she couldn't disguise her cringing at the very mention of the case in question.

"A little bit," he hadn't read the whole case file but knew the basics of what happened and its repercussions on Reid, "What about it?"

"Well, it's sort of the beginning of where I started fucking things up." She told him what had happened on the case, how she and Reid separated, how she'd been attacked by the dogs, and the mess with Reid…and her own flashbacks. Those he hadn't known about and he made a mental note to read the full case file as soon as he could get his hands on it.

When she finished, he took a moment to let it sink in and asked, "Jayje, did you talk to anyone…at least talk to Hotch? I can't imagine…"

She shook her head and interrupted gently, "No…and don't blame Hotch. He checked on me after we found Reid but I brushed him off. And afterwards…well, it was easy to avoid the issue. You have to remember that at the time, not only was he worried about Reid, who was spiraling into a full blown addiction but we'd just lost Elle and had Prentiss join the team in her place, and also that things were going south with Haley, fast…not to mention losing Gideon soon after that. I didn't want to give him one more thing to worry about or something for Haley to use against him. She hated it when he talked to me for any reason, so I thought going to him about that would have just made things with her worse for him. And I thought I was handling it all just fine."

'Thought' being the key word in that sentence, "But?"

"But now that I look back on it, I wasn't; I admit that now." Once she'd started talking it was hard to stop; everything spilled out: the Louisiana case, the relationship with Will, its ups and downs, her own doubts, the tirades she'd been receiving from Haley on a weekly basis before and after the divorce, the pressures from Will, the chaos of the changes in the unit, Frank, worrying about Hotch, her own revelations and worries….everything. There were a few times where she stumbled, when it was hard to meet the older man's eyes, plenty when she blushed, but she kept going. And to Rossi's credit, he listened to it all without judging or even the hint of a snarky remark, just holding Henry and letting her ramble.

When she finally fell silent Dave got to his feet, handed her the baby, sat on the edge of the bed and to her surprise, enveloped her in a hug, "Jayje, you've got to stop holding so much in. It's not good for you? You haven't told anyone any of this?"

"Who could I tell? I don't talk to my family much. Garcia…I love her but she's not the person to discuss this with. Reid isn't either, even when he isn't dealing with his own issues. Morgan, forget it; same goes for Prentiss. Hotch…well, I told him about my worries about Will and the potential custody issue, yes but the rest, are you out of your mind? No!"

Well, he supposed he couldn't blame her on that score, "Well, I'm glad you told me then; you need to let this shit out kiddo. I know you're the team mama and all but even you need an outlet sometimes."

"Don't say that too loudly, you'll ruin my reputation. And that's what the range is for," she smirked for a moment before her tone became, to his ears, that of a scared little girl, "You don't think I'm a total fuck up then?"

"JJ, I'm the last person who can call someone else a fuck up when it comes to personal shit. But that aside, no. Not perfect, yes, but a fuck up, not even close." He squeezed her knee in sympathetic support, "How can I help you?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Just letting me vent helped a lot. I just feel so…confused isn't the right word…lost, off balance? Not sure what to do next or how to pull my life back into some semblance of normally functioning?" She tucked Henry up against her shoulder and sighed, "This little guy is my priority right now, there's no question about that. But I need to get some things taken care of soon, legally speaking."

"Well, I can give you the name of a good Family Law attorney that I know, if you want; he'll get things rolling for you in that regard." And if she ended up receiving a 'discounted' rate for his services, no one else needed to know that, right?

"Thanks Dave, I'd appreciate that. Hotch was able to clarify a couple of things for me but he said right out that it wasn't his area of expertise."

"No problem kiddo, I'm happy to help however I can." He smirked and went on, "Of course, if you'd prefer, I can call up a couple of my less than savory contacts instead…"

That won him a giggle, "That's alright Dave, I don't want him dropped in a bayou somewhere; even the alligators don't deserve that! I just want a custody order in place before he decides to cause trouble. But thank you for the offer. I don't know how I'm ever going to thank you all enough; you've all been here for me these last couple of days, with all this crap…"

Rossi could see the tears threatening to form in her eyes and hastened to head them off, "And you'd do the same for any of us bambina, we both know that. You know, I didn't really understand what Strauss meant when she told me how close the team was when I came back. But it's hard to miss…it's a family. And family takes care of each other. You always take care of us, now it's our turn to take care of you."

Henry stirred against his mother's shoulder so Dave patted her knee once more and moved to the doorway in order to give her some privacy to settle the baby to nurse…and to think about what he'd said. It also gave him some time to review what she'd told him as well. Her admission about her suppressed feelings for Aaron was no real surprise to him; in fact, what surprised him was that she'd admitted to them to him, of all people. The feelings themselves…well, he'd known about Aaron's since his first day back in the BAU and the fact that they were mutual was obvious within a week. He'd honestly wondered why JJ was doing the long-distance boyfriend thing when it was clear that her heart wasn't really in it. But now that he knew the underlying circumstances at the time, it was much clearer. He just hoped that his best friend would get a clue and act on it soon. If not, he might have to resort to drastic measures.

Alright, yes, it couldn't happen overnight, if for no other reason than the fact that Aaron was too damned principled to do anything any time soon. But if things went as he strongly suspected they would over the next few weeks…well, let's just say that if they weren't together by Valentine's Day, he'd have to do something about it. In the meantime, he'd just start cutting through some of that red tape for them…

The prolonged quiet drew him out of his thoughts and he turned to see that Henry had fallen back asleep and JJ looked halfway there herself. A small smile crossed the profiler's face as he went and picked up Henry to settle him in his bassinette before lowering the head of JJ's bed and pulling her blanket up around her shoulders.

"Get some sleep bambina, before the horde comes in later. You need it."

A sleepy, 'Thanks Dave,' was all the response he got before the blonde curled up on her side and finally gave in to the sleep that had been pulling on her. Rossi allowed himself a quiet, fond laugh before he pulled out his phone and laptop; he had a few calls to make….

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A/N: My apologies for the long delay in between updates for this fic. Unfortunately, my paternal!Rossi muse decided to take an extended vacation and snarky!Rossi took his place for a while, so the conversation needed for this chapter was severely delayed. The good news is that the next chapter is already in progress, so hopefully regular updates will resume.