Borealis [ Jennifer Jareau x Reader ]

Secrets

Will met up with us at the BAU, smiling sadly at me and Henry as we walked in. Esme had fallen asleep on my shoulder, and I felt so bad for taking her out this late. But I couldn't leave them at home when JJ was in trouble, and we could be next.

"Y/N."

"JJ's cell still hasn't shown up. I'm telling you, Hotch, she's in trouble."

"Garcia's tracking her car now. Agent Sharp, will you take Agent Jareau's son and foster daughter to my office? It's an emergency. Thank you."

I looked down to Henry. "Can you go with her?" he nodded. "I'll be in to check on you soon, okay?" I looked over to Agent Sharp. "Soon as Esme wakes up, you get me, okay?"

Garcia ran up to us, panting. "I found it. It's on the south side of the street. They're here. JJ's car's parked on Constitution. Morgan and Reid are on their way."

"Find Matt Cruz. He'll know what's going on."

"Section Chief Matt Cruz?"

"Wait, who?"

"The new section chief."

"We got a new section chief? What happened to Strauss?"

"I'll tell you later."

"Okay." I turned to Will. "Anyway, you didn't think to tell your ex-wife's kind of fiancée that she was in danger? We have a child together, Will."

"I couldn't tell you. JJ made me promise. She was afraid someone was listening, but what does Cruz have to do with JJ's disappearance?"

I followed Will and Hotch into the round table room, confused as all hell. Who was this Matt Cruz guy, and what did he have to do with JJ? What did I miss in my time off? And where the hell was Strauss?

"They worked together at the State department. Neither one has mentioned that. They couldn't. Their assignment was classified."

"No, past tense." I spoke up. "JJ worked at the State department years ago."

"Y/N, do you have JJ's phone?"

"Yeah. Nothing weird on it. What about her work phone?"

"Garcia's working on going through it right now. Y/N," Hotch turned to me. "Has anything changed around the house?"

"Um... she asked me to marry her. And started randomly complimenting me the other night. We had talked about it but we said we were going to wait. But we have been in love with each other for six years, so I didn't think anything of it."

"You've been huh?"

"Not now, Will." I held up a hand to silence him. "Like I was saying it came up originally back in Michigan. But I told her we should wait, since we haven't been together for that long. And she agreed. Hence us being almost-fiancées."

"She never told me that."

"Because we said we were going to wait." I turned back to Will. "Can you not meddle in my love life for maybe like, five minutes? JJ is missing. What we do in bed is none of your business."

As if on cue, Garcia's computer dinged. "Oh- She's been having encrypted conversations with Cruz. At least a couple of weeks. Something about integrity?"

I sat down in one of the chairs, rubbing my face. This was not good. Whatever she had gotten into at the State Department clearly was still affecting her, to the point she went missing over it. I fought back the tears that were threatening to fall, racking my brain to figure out if I could remember anything that had been out of place recently. The only thing I could think of was her asking me to marry her twice, which was definitely different. I mean, I won't be the first to admit- when we're not on Quantico grounds, we're lovey-dovey as hell. Small touches, always holding hands, whispering sweet nothings when I wasn't being a brat... that kind of thing.

Garcia and Hotch went through JJ's texts while I made my way back to Hotch's office, relieving Agent Sharp of watching the kids. Esme was curled up on the couch, a blanket draped over her as her head laid down on Henry's lap. Henry was snoozing as well, doing his best to not wake Esme up. I sat in one of the chairs by Hotch's desk, trying my best to not cry. I couldn't cry in front of the kids. Henry was smart enough to know something was wrong- we had taught him that unless we specifically said otherwise, we would only be coming here if either JJ, Will or I were in danger. Esme, on the other hand, we hadn't had that talk with her yet. She didn't know how dangerous our job was, and I definitely wasn't ready to have that talk with her yet.

Emily poked her head into the door, beckoning me out into the hall. I stepped outside, leaving the door cracked just in case either of the kids needed me. Emily pulled me in for a hug and let me cry on her shoulder, letting out all of my tears. When I finally stopped crying long enough to form a sentence, I pulled away.

"So, the texts?"

"Completely encrypted."

I cursed under my breath. "That's not surprising if they work for the State department. But if that assignment was a backstop, then JJ's transfer as D. O. D. Liaison was her cover." I paused. "So what was she really doing that year?"

"Strauss was pressured by the Executive branch to push JJ's transfer through in 2010, so she would have known the reason why."

"Any assignment Strauss authorized would be archived in the SCIF." I bit my thumb. "But, that facility is code word classified."

"Ok, but Anderson can get us in. He archives those reports."

"I like your thought process, but JJ couldn't have used the SCIF without drawing attention."

"Yeah, you're right."

"She's smart. She probably has it foxholed right here in the BAU. We just need to find it."

Emily flagged down one of the agents. "Kate, I need you to watch JJ's kids."

"Of course." Kate looked up at me. "I'm sorry we had to meet this way."

"Same. Formal introductions later?" she nodded. "Great. Em, let's go."

Emily and I went to JJ's old office, and I shut the door behind us. They had started using this place as storage, but JJ kept a lot of her old files in here. And there were a couple of other memories in here that I wasn't about to divulge in. I looked around, trying to think about where JJ would hide anything she didn't want found. Emily went through the boxes on the other side of the room while I sat down in her old chair, trying to put myself into her shoes. I closed my eyes, letting my hands take me to where my mind thought anything would be hidden. My hand hit the safe she kept in here, and I lifted it up, putting it on the desk. I punched in her password, pulling out a stack of files. That were all redacted. Great.

Emily came to look over my shoulder. "What's integrity?"

"I don't know. But someone does."