Disclaimed!

So this is the last chapter, sorry I forgot to mention it in the last chapter notes...

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read, follow or review. I hope you've enjoyed this story.

It would mean a lot if let me know what you think!

Thanks!

...

JJ's eye line darted to Hotch's who was staring at her over the top of his glass.

The rest of the team were focused on discussing the condensed tale the former couple had unwillingly divulged, no-one seemingly noticed the sudden silence that had engulfed the two profilers and the other end of the table.

JJ smiled thinly at the Unit Chief before downing the rest of her wine. Hotch opened his mouth to say something to the quiet blonde when Prentiss interrupted. "Were you in love?"

JJ blushed as Hotch glared at the bottom of his now empty tumbler intensely.

Garcia scoffed loudly. "That's a big old yes."

"What about Hailey and Will?" Rossi asked curiously.

"Hailey knew about our life together in Seattle and even though she wasn't happy about it, we moved on, for Jack's sake. By the time our marriage ended, things had deteriorated because I placed her second to the job and that was on me. It had nothing to do with JJ."

"You all know what happened with me and Will." JJ said with a scoffed reminiscing of the very public break up her marriage had the previous year.

"But every relationship is different and incomparable. Also nothing ever happened between us once we worked together in the BAU therefore our past is ours alone, Hailey and Will didn't factor in to it." Hotch added softly.

"What I don't get, is how could you just start working together after everything that had happened?" Morgan questioned, his earlier anger seemingly dissipated into intrigue.

JJ returned her gaze to Hotch briefly. "Our relationship changed. Hotch became my boss because the BAU needed a liaison to deal with the press and he had no choice but to hire me after the Section Chief told him too. Besides he was married and then I had Will and Henry. There was also you guys to take into consideration, so we adjusted and moved on from one another."

"It was that simple? There were no awkward moments?" Prentiss queried in suspicion.

"We were together eighteen months. We broke up without actually saying it was over and then forced to work together. It might have been awkward at first but we got passed..." JJ stopped midsentence when she heard Hotch's familiar chuckling and imagined his grin as she avoided eye contact. "What's so funny?"

Hotch leaned back in his seat and frowned. "There were some difficult moments."

"Only because you made them difficult." JJ retorted cockily.

"I made them difficult." Hotch's fingers pointed to his chest as his eyes widened in disagreement.

JJ chuckled slightly at his sudden lightness. "Yes, you made things difficult. Don't you remember how you reacted after the Jacob Dawes case?"

Hotch shook his head softly. "What about when Henkel's dogs attacked you, you were the one who made that situation weird."

"Oh please, don't confuse your anger at the situation as being my fault. Reid was the one who chose you." JJ retorted with a scoff.

Reid spluttered in confusion. "Excuse me."

"She called me a bully." Hotch met JJ's pointed expression and smirked.

JJ sighed dramatically. "You can be a bully."

"What!" Hotch placed his glass back onto the table in mock annoyance.

The blonde mother of one narrowed her eyes accusingly. "Reporter Hal."

"He just wanted to get you into his bed." He retorted knowingly.

JJ rolled her eyes, remembering Hotch cornering her after a kidnapping case, when a reporter was being a little too friendly. "Did you have to threaten him in that way, or me for that matter."

"I didn't threaten anyone." The SAC stated confidently.

JJ shook her head once. "You have a very bad memory, Aaron Hotchner."

"What about you yelling at me..."

"I did not yell at you." JJ interrupted knowing what he was referring too without him finishing his sentence, whereas the rest of the team sat oblivious.

Hotch straightened in his seat defensively. "Yes you did."

"You're the one who wouldn't answer Hailey's calls, of course she was going to call me and you knew that was going to piss me off." JJ raised her hands defensively.

"Fine, I made those moments difficult," Hotch admitted finally. "I did not make New York difficult."

"Don't even start with me about that." JJ's eyes widened, forgetting that their team mates were sitting at the table, watching them closely.

Hotch rolled his eyes. "You're the one who didn't tell me you were pregnant."

"It was weird, okay. I didn't even know how I felt about that. Besides, I'm sure Kate helped you feel all better." JJ stated bitterly.

Hotch scoffed, feeling oddly comfortable at the familiarity of the argument with the petite woman, even if the topic had taken him a long time to come to terms with. "Kate and I never..."

"Oh please." JJ smirked.

The Unit Chief narrowed his eyes in humour. "Why do you even care?"

JJ crossed her legs and rested her hands on her lap. "You went to London when we were dating. You never once mentioned that the lead cop was the spitting image of your ex-wife."

"Nothing ever happened." Hotch defended truthfully.

"Riiiight." The blonde agent replied in disbelief.

Hotch inhaled sharply before repeating his earlier words. "Nothing ever happened."

"You saw the looks." JJ turned to her brunette friend.

Prentiss looked at her other colleagues, who were all relishing the sparring between their two colleagues. "I'm really not getting into the middle of this domestic."

"This isn't a domestic." Hotch tensed in retort causing his male colleagues to chuckle unbelievingly.

JJ nodded slowly. "This is nothing."

"This banter at best." Hotch added.

"Wow, you two were really a couple." Prentiss remarked with amusement.

"It's kind of obvious now." Morgan observed with a grin.

Garcia chuckled mischievously. "It's totally obvious, sweet cheeks."

...

Morgan whistled lowly as the two members of the team who were in the hot seat both blushed heatedly. "How did we miss this?"

"We weren't looking." Reid answered the rhetorical question.

The Chicago born agent rolled his eyes. "Figures that they'd be keeping another secret."

"Derek, this is different." Prentiss remarked knowledgably.

JJ cupped her glass between her hands and stood. "I need another drink."

"I'll come with you." Hotch stood abruptly, knocking the table with his knee.

Rossi snickered. "You can both run but you can't hide..."

JJ and Hotch wandered to the bar without giving their supposed friends a second glance. They leaned against the bar counter side by side in stunned silence.

Ordering the group drinks, JJ turned suddenly and faced the subdued profiler. "Eight years working together and the topic of 'us' has never come up."

Hotch closed his eyes briefly. "I know."

JJ turned again but still observed his profile out of the corner of her eye. "Why did you react that way back at the police station? You know I can handle myself when it comes to the pervs of the world."

"I'm never going to be comfortable when other men even look at you never mind make rude comments towards you JJ, you know that." Hotch replied lowly.

JJ turned and rested her elbows on the counter again, groaning inwardly. "The team are going to be annoying as hell."

"Probably." Hotch chuckled at her sombre expression. Sensing the mood change between them, he took a step closer to her to close the gap between them. "Have you ever thought about us?"

JJ smiled softly. "Of course. I loved you Aaron, those feelings don't just go away."

"No they don't." He whispered revealingly. "I regret three things in my life. I regret not patching things up with my Dad before his death. I regret not being able to save Hailey from Foyet. And I regret that we ended or should I say how we ended our relationship, especially the part where I mistreated you."

JJ gasped quietly. "You didn't mistreat me."

"Yes, I did JJ. I hurt you, and then I was a selfish ass when we started to work together. I put you though a lot, but I don't regret ever being with you. The last eight years working with you has been a privilege and those eighteen months were some of the happiest of my life." Hotch said lowly, hating that he couldn't see her eyes as she continued to stare ahead.

"Mine too." JJ replied quietly after a gauging pause.

"Do you think we would have worked out if we stuck together?"

"You mean, if your wife hadn't shown up to our home in Seattle and told you that she wasn't signing the divorce papers because she was carrying your baby. Sure, we could have worked in the long run." JJ retorted sarcastically.

"I miss how easy it was between us." Hotch continued softly. "I hate that I've been keeping my distance from you the last few years and that we can't go back to how it was."

JJ met his heated stare and shook her head. "We can't do this again. It was so hard the last time and eight years later the wounds still seem fresh."

"We've both been through a lot." Hotch stated.

"I know." JJ agreed. "But we're in a good place now. I don't want to ruin eight years of hard work."

The senior profiler smirked. "Is that what the last eight years have been? Hard work?"

"What would you call it?" She scoffed lightly.

Hotch's jaw tensed as he stared down at his onetime love. "Unbearable."

"Aaron." JJ gasped as she took in his expression.

"I shouldn't have said that." He back tracked quickly.

JJ agreed with a tight smile. "No you shouldn't have."

"We should talk... about this... Properly... at some point..." Hotch stumbled over his words as he gazed into her confused, blue eyes.

The newest profiler bit her lip as she glanced over his shoulder to their curious team who were watching the pair closely. "Not here."

"No, definitely not here." Hotch followed her eye line and shook his head.

They were both grateful when the bar tender interrupted the two agents with their order. As they made their way back to the table, JJ fell into step with Hotch and looked up at him. "You and Jack should come over for dinner on Saturday. We can talk then."

Hotch grinned down at JJ appreciatively. "That would be great."

"We're just going to talk." She clarified at the sight of his grin. "To clear the air between us after this unfortunate walk down memory lane with the team, something I never thought we'd do."

"Of course." Hotch agreed with a nod. "We wouldn't want things to get weird."

JJ smirked when she noticed the amusement in eyes. "No, that's the last thing we'd want."

The team's conspiring whispers stopped, in a less than subtle manner, when their colleagues handed out drinks before taking their seats again.

JJ caught her best friend's expression and groaned. "What now?"

"I can't believe we never saw this before. Or that you missy, never told me." Garcia exclaimed repeatedly in annoyance as the two profilers reached the table.

Hotch looked sternly at his team. "What JJ and I have told you is in confidence."

"Sure it is." Rossi muttered under his breath.

"What happened between us is none of your business." JJ sighed when she realised she was getting nowhere with her friends. "It happened a decade ago, there's no need for those smirks."

JJ pleaded with Hotch to say something more with her eyes. He shrugged in uncertainty of how to proceed.

"I've never noticed how they communicate with their eyes before." Garcia gushed.

Prentiss chuckled. "It's called eye-sex, PG."

"Seriously." JJ threw a napkin at her brunette colleague in frustration and ignored Hotch's laughing next to her.

Garcia rested her head on Morgan's shoulder. "They're so cute together."

"Did you people not listen to what we've just told you? We broke up. He got back with his wife and had a child. I had Henry. It's over between us, has been for eight years." JJ explained to no avail.

The five agents rolled their eyes in unison but only Garcia said what they were all thinking. "Please Sunshine, this is your time."

Hotch and JJ replied together. "What?"

"It's so time, for you two to live happily ever after, together." Garcia giggled gleefully.

JJ mumbled. "You're all crazy."

"Maybe, but you two are crazier for telling us about your relationship." Morgan continued with a huge grin. "You really didn't expect my baby girl to make it her mission to get you back together, right?"

The TA beamed. "Oh yeah."

"Listen to me Penelope Anne Garcia. Butt out of my business." JJ said pointedly.

The team began discussing the plan of action when Hotch leant over to JJ, so he couldn't be heard by the rest of the group. "If we didn't tell them, they would have hounded us for weeks, maybes even months. Then things would have been a lot worse if they had found out on their own."

JJ raised her eyes questioningly. "Are you trying to tell me I should just shut up and let them meddle into our lives?"

"I would never tell you what to do. But they are right." Hotch conceded.

JJ scoffed lightly. "About what?"

Hotch met her eyes lovingly. "It is our time for a happily ever after."

...

There may be some follow up for this story or some of my one-shots, it depends if people want more and if I have time.

Thanks for reading and following!