Work Text:
When JJ wakes up that morning, something feels off. Nothing is wrong and she’s not forgetting anything; everything is seemingly normal. Yet, JJ can’t help but scrunch her nose at the churning feeling in her stomach.
Pushing it to the side, the liaison gets ready for work, buttoning up her white blouse, slipping on a pair of black slacks. JJ grabs her travel coffee cup and her blazer before heading out for work.
On the drive over to Quantico, that odd feeling still nags at JJ, as if something bad is gonna happen.
Pulling into the parking lot, she mutters to herself, “Everything’s fine, Jennifer. Get it together.”
JJ enters the elevator, pressing the button to take her to floor five. JJ’s worries begin to flee, the thought of seeing her girlfriend bringing a smile to her face.
As JJ walks into the precinct, she immediately looks over to Elle’s desk but is disappointed, and slightly worried, when she sees the brunette and her stuff are absent.
Trotting up the stairs, JJ enters Hotch’s office to find out where Elle is.
“Hey,” she greets.
Aaron briefly looks up from his phone call, “Hey.”
“Thank you,” Hotch ends the call, and JJ asks, “Uh, where’s Elle?”
“Uh, Texas,” he answers and he looks back down paperwork.
“Texas?” JJ furrows her brows, trying to remember if her girlfriend had mentioned anything about going to Texas.
“Yes, she went to do a custodial interview with William Devries,” Hotch explains.
“The child murderer?”
“Yeah, he agreed to participate the VICAP questionnaire.”
“You’re letting her do custodials by herself already?” JJ asks hesitantly, almost doubtfully. It wasn’t that JJ didn’t believe in her girlfriend, but the blonde was worried and she wanted to make sure Elle was ready.
Hotch looks up from his paper, sensing JJ’s hesitancy. “She’ll be fine.”
JJ could only hope so.
—
About fifteen minutes later, JJ gets a call from the Dallas police chief, saying they need help with a hostage situation on a train.
She gathers the team, and within seconds, Derek, Spencer, Hotch, and her are gathered in the conference room, reviewing the security footage.
“Okay, this is from one of the security cameras inside the train. Five hostages in a car stopped on the tracks. We have one security guard dead from the initial gun fire,” JJ briefs.
“Is this going on right now?” Spencer asks.
“Yeah, in west Texas,” JJ responds. There’s that feeling again. A knot begins to form in her stomach. Texas. That’s where Elle is.
“Why are they asking for us?” Derek shrugs his shoulders.
“Because of a particular psychological aspect of the hostage taker, which we’re especially equipped to handle,” Hotch explains.
“Can you back that picture up a few frames?” As JJ does so, Spencer walks closer to the TV screen, squinting his eyes to get a better look. After a moment of observation, the genius nods. “Tardive dyskinesia.”
“Once more for those of us without an encyclopedic memory?” Derek quips, causing JJ to chuckle.
“Several facial tics,” Spencer elaborates. “The kind that develop after years of taking anti-psychotic medication.”
“So this guy’s a psychotic?” Morgan scoffs.
“A psychotic with hostages,” Hotch answers.
“And two guns,” JJ adds, tilting her head, slightly exasperated.
“Hostage situation on a train?” Gideon swiftly enters the room.
“Yeah. In Texas,” JJ nods towards the TV.
“A train in Texas,” Gideon mutters and turns to face the screen. At one look, he sighs, “My god.”
“What?” Derek asks, wondering what the older agent sees that they didn’t before.
“Elle.”
“Elle?” Morgan quickly moves to the TV to get a better look.
“What?” JJ barely voices, scrunching her nose in disbelief. Her stomach churns and a knot forms in her throat; JJ feels like she wants to throw up.
Elle, her Elle, is on a train with a psychotic, a psychotic with hostages, one of whom is Elle, her Elle, a psychotic with hostages and two guns.
So that’s what that feeling had been.