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When Luke escapes from what he’s sure is the longest meeting he’s ever been a part of in his life, he does not, as one might expect, head for Garcia’s office. Instead, he goes to the bullpen, makes a beeline for JJ’s desk. The second she sees him coming towards her, she tilts her head, her lips thinning in a sympathetic line.
He doesn’t need to be a profiler to know what that means.
“How is she?” he asks instead and JJ chuckle without humour as she shakes her head. “Unspooling rapidly last time I checked,” she says. “But trying very hard not to show it.” Luke nods, because it’s about what he was expecting, steeples his hands over his lips as if he’s praying and maybe he is – twelve years of Catholic school mean that some things don’t have to be said aloud. The sympathy on JJ’s face only deepens. “How are you?”
It’s Luke’s turn to shake his head. “Unspooling rapidly,” he says. “But trying very hard not to show it.”
JJ’s eyes narrow even as they glint with amusement. “Stealing my lines?”
“Hey, I only steal from the best.” He sighs, looks around the bullpen that’s been home and family for the last few years. When his eyes come back to JJ, he sees understanding in her face and he remembers the things he’s heard through the years, the off the cuff comments, the stories Garcia has told him. “You’ll take care of her for me, right?”
“Of course.” She sounds almost affronted that he’s asking her that. “When do you leave?”
“Tomorrow morning. They wanted tonight but I spun them a story about needing to find someone to take Roxie…”
JJ steps towards him, pulls him into a hug. “Don’t waste your last night with me,” she orders and he knows a dismissal when he hears it, is happy to do as he’s told.
When he reaches Garcia’s office, he lets himself in, closes both the outer door and the inner one firmly behind him. “Hey,” he says, but she doesn’t turn around, continues to type furiously, her eyes on the screens in front of her and her shoulders a tight line of tension that makes his jaw ache. “What are you working on?”
“You.” Her voice is even tighter than her shoulders and he would have said that that wasn’t possible. “I’m giving you the best backstory that my hacking skills can possibly come up with. Anyone goes looking for anything on you and they’re not going to find anything about Luke Alvez, FBI Agent. All that’s going to come up is Lucas Delgado… I’ve tied it in to your previous backstory, the FBI were nice enough send me over the files, I think it helped that the person I spoke to knew who I was and knew I’d be able to get them myself but it would be quicker for them to send them to me…”
She trails off as his hands land on her shoulders, rub gently. “Chica…”
“Don’t.” Her hands fly up and he can hear the start of tears. “I don’t want to hear whatever you have to say right now.”
“I have to do this, Penelope.” He comes around to kneel down beside her, lays his hand on her arm. “I already have an in with them, they think I’ve been in prison for the last five years… if I don’t do this, a lot of innocent people are going to die.”
“I know that.” She turns her head to look into his eyes and his heart aches at the thin film of tears he sees. “I know that, and I know it’s the job but I hate it. Every time you guys get on a plane I worry that one of you might not come back, I worry that one of you will get hurt or worse… and now you’re going off undercover for who knows how long and I won’t be able to see you or track you and I won’t know…”
Maybe kissing her isn’t the best way to stop her right now, but it’s the best way he knows so it’s what he does. He’s prepared for her to push him away, maybe even to slap him, but instead she kisses him back, winds her arms around his neck and pulls him in close.
When he pulls back, her cheeks are wet and he thinks his might be too. “I will come back to you, Penelope,” he promises her, his hand cupping her cheek and wiping her tears away. “I will always come back to you… I promise.”
“You’d better.” Even with tears on her cheeks and a smile on her face, she makes it sound like a threat and he knows it is, even if it’s a light-hearted one. Her eyes narrow slightly and she says, “You know I lied a second ago when I said I wouldn’t be able to track you, right?”
He laughs. “I did, in fact, know that.” He kisses her again, soft at first, then with mounting desire. “Now… how long is it going to take you to finish creating the most kickass backstory for me…” He runs a finger down her arm, loving how goosebumps rise and her breath catches. He does it again, just because he can. “Because I have some other plans for us…”
Her eyes glitter and this time not with tears. “Give me five minutes.”
It actually takes her ten but he doesn’t care. He’s going to enjoy every second of this night with her, because morning will come all too soon.