JJ Solves a Mystery
A/N: Hello, everyone! Welcome to my first foray into JJ/Reid romance! I've read just about every story with this pairing out there and I've decided there must be more. Don't worry about Henry and Will, they've been sent to the Land of Dis-Existence where they will be well-cared for until I'm done screwing with the CM universe. This is an established relationship and the story's meant to be 'just plain silly.' Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognizable. Including, but not limited to: Criminal Minds, the characters, a pool, a hotel, or a tattoo.
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Without mysteries, life would be very dull indeed. What would be left to strive for if everything were known?
~Charles de Lint
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JJ knocked on the door of room 36, the hotel room Morgan and Reid were sharing during their case in Tennessee, and waited for someone to answer. After a minute or so had passed and no one did, she tried again. It was only 9:00, too early for anyone on the team to be asleep. She sighed and raised her hand to knock again when she saw Morgan round the corner dressed in workout attire. "Hey, JJ." He said as he approached her.
"Hey, I just came by to give you guys something the police department sent over for us. Why isn't Spence answering?" JJ asked, gesturing towards the door.
Morgan shrugged. "I don't know. I've been down at the gym. He's probably taking a shower or something." He slid his keycard in and waved her through the open door with a mock bow. "Maybe you'd like to join him?"
JJ smirked and shook her head. "Not during a case."
Morgan chuckled and shook his head as he sat down on his bed and motioned for JJ to have a seat on Reid's. "So, did the PD send us that list of local businesses?"
"Yeah, they…" JJ began to answer as the bathroom door opened, revealing Reid.
JJ's breath caught as she struggled not to laugh or stare at her boyfriend, who was clad in sweatpants and nothing else. He stood in the door way letting the steam out of the bathroom and rubbing a towel over his head, oblivious to the other occupants of the room. "Hey, Reid!" Morgan called his roommate's attention.
Reid jumped and pulled the towel off his head. His eyes landed on Morgan and he relaxed, blushing a little. "Sorry, Morgan. I thought you were at the gym." Reid began folding the towel up as he walked into the room.
"Well, I came back, and I brought company." Morgan gestured to JJ.
Reid saw JJ for the first time since he had come out of the bathroom and stopped dead. "JJ!" His voice raised half an octave. "I didn't see you there…"
JJ smiled back at him, holding back her laughter at his reddening face. "Do you make a habit out of walking around topless, Spence?"
Blush deepening, Reid's eyes flicked from JJ to Morgan and back again before he spoke. "I-uh, forgot my shirt." He muttered, bending over quickly to pull a t-shirt out of his ready bag.
JJ opened her mouth to respond when something caught her eye. As Reid bent over, she saw- no, it couldn't be, she thought. It looked like a tattoo on his shoulder blade. However, before she got a good look at whatever was there, Reid was upright and pulling his shirt over his head. Looking back at her, he realized she was still staring at him, a puzzled expression on her face. "…What is it?" He finally asked her.
JJ shook her head and brandished the paper in her hand. "The police faxed that list of local businesses to the hotel for us because we said we needed it ASAP." She handed the paper to Reid first, who read it within seconds and handed it off to Morgan.
Morgan, who had been watching the pair with apparent amusement, became business-like and read through the list as well. "Okay, this is a good start." He said, standing up. "I'm gonna hit the shower."
JJ took the paper back and nodded, watching Morgan enter the bathroom and shut the door before she turned to Reid. "Hey, Spence, did I see what I…" She began.
"I'm sorry, JJ, but I really want to get to the gym before it gets too late." Reid spoke quickly, pulling on his sneakers haphazardly.
"But you just took shower." JJ continued more playfully. "And since when do you go to the gym?"
Reid scowled at her, feigning offense. "I go to the gym." He told her.
Leaning over, he gave her a quick kiss, jumped up and headed for the door. "Anyway, I'll see you later."
"But…" Before JJ's protest got any further, Reid was already out the door and down the hall.
She left the room and shut the door behind her, watching boyfriend's retreating back, and shook her head. "That can't be right…" She muttered to herself. "Spence doesn't have a tattoo…"
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Three days later, JJ entered Garcia's office and sat down next to her friend. The team had returned the previous day, another unsub vanquished. "Hey, Jayje. Got some digging that needs doing?" Garcia asked, not turning away from her computers.
"No, it's lunch time. I thought we could go get something to eat." JJ said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.
"Oh, damn, is it lunch time already?" Garcia glanced at the time and snatched her bag out from under one of the desks. "Let's go!"
15 minutes later, the two women were situated at a table in a small diner headquarters, waiting for their meal to arrive. "So, what's up?" Garcia asked finally, watching JJ fiddle with her napkin.
"What do you mean?" JJ asked, not looking up at Garcia.
Garcia laughed a little before responding. "A profiler I am not, but I know there's something on your mind, Missy. You wanted to talk to me out of earshot of the team… maybe out of earshot of a particular member… hmm…" Garcia tapped her finger to her chin in an exaggerated show of thinking hard. "OH! You want to talk about Boy Genius!"
"Okay, fine, I want to talk about Spence." JJ had taken to calling him by her nickname for him all the time, save for in the field or around the local police.
"Not trouble in paradise, I hope. You two are so sweet together… I think I almost got diabetes that one night we went to the movies together."
JJ shook her head, choosing to ignore the second half of her friend's comment. "I just… when we were out on the case, I saw him without his shirt on…"
Garcia frowned. "That can't be a bad thing, can it? I mean, I know I usually focus my affections on Morgan, but I've always thought Reid would look pretty damn good…"
"No, it's nothing like that!" JJ shook her head, blushing a little bit. "I mean…"
JJ proceeded to explain about what she thought she had seen and Garcia was grinning like a madwoman by the end of JJ's short tale. "You know what this means, don't you?" She asked when JJ had finished talking.
"That I'm paranoid and I think Spence used to have a crazy life and he got a tattoo?"
Garcia blinked. "No! …Well, yes, actually, but I was thinking something else."
"Okay, what does this mean?" JJ wondered if she even wanted to know.
"You have to get him to take his shirt off again." Garcia waggled her eyebrows at JJ, taking on a sultry tone of voice.
"Garcia, no. We both decided we want to wait a while before doing that." JJ told her, adamant about her point.
"Well, there's more than one way to skin a cat, y'know."
JJ eyed Garcia warily as their food arrived. She thanked the waitress and then turned her attention back to the computer tech sitting before her. "Couldn't I just ask him?"
"Where's the fun in that?"
"…What did you have in mind?"
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This is crazy… I must be crazy. JJ thought to herself as she and Reid neared the pool. Garcia had suggested several scenarios in which she could get Reid's shirt off and a trip to the indoor pool near her apartment seemed like the most logical… and the only one that didn't involve an insane amount of planning and espionage. Despite her inner doubts, JJ turned to Reid, who was driving, and smiled. "This'll be fun, don't you think?"
Reid nodded a little, seeming unsure. "Remind me again why we're going to a pool in early March?" He asked, turning to look at her for a second before looking back at the road.
"It's an indoor pool, so don't worry about being cold." JJ told him.
"I'm not worried about cold, I'm wondering why our plans to go see a movie suddenly turned into a trip to the pool."
"I just had the sudden urge to go for a swim. Don't you ever get that?" JJ asked as innocently as possible.
"Honestly? No." Reid shook his head.
"Well, think of it as an excuse for you to see me in a bathing suit and stop complaining." JJ said, effectively ending the argument.
Once they arrived, JJ pointed him the direction of the men's changing room. "Let's go get changed." She told him, shouldering her bag and heading for the women's locker room.
Reid shrugged and walked into the room she had directed him towards.
JJ finished changing first and went to wait over by the pool, sitting in one of the chairs and tapping her foot. She wore a one-piece suite of emerald green with a halter neck and a low back. Finally, she spotted Reid coming out of the changing rooms and her jaw dropped. The first thought that rushed across her mind was, that's cheating! Reid was wearing a pair of dark blue trunks with a thick black stripe down each side and a white t-shirt. "Spence, what are you doing?" JJ asked, trying to keep her voice level as Reid neared her.
Stopping in his tracks, Reid looked quizzically at JJ before placing his towel on the chair next to JJ's. "I don't know… what am I supposed to be doing?" He asked carefully.
"You're supposed to be getting ready to go for a swim." JJ told him, as though she were speaking to a child.
"I really don't feel like swimming right now, but please don't let me stop you. I know you want to go, so go ahead." Reid said, sitting down next to her on the deck chair.
"No, the whole point of this was… I mean… argh!" JJ leaned on her knees, placing her head in her hands.
"What's wrong? You've been acting kind of… strangely today." Reid told her quietly, placing a tentative hand on her shoulder.
JJ sat up straight quickly, startling Reid. "I'm acting strangely?" She asked quietly. "What about you?"
Reid looked confused and she could tell he was going over his behavior from the last few days in his head. "I'm sorry, I really don't know what I did!" He said finally.
Sighing, JJ went for broke. "Do you have a tattoo?" She asked quietly.
Reid suddenly turned very red and managed to choke out a strangled sentence. "Maybe we could talk about this somewhere more private?"
Eyeing Reid quizzically, JJ nodded. "Okay, let's go back to my place."
Reid nodded, stood up, grabbed his towel, and left her without a word, confused and somewhat irritated.
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Both had been silent the whole way back to JJ's apartment. Finally, as she shut the door behind her, Reid spoke. "Why do you ask?" He sounded as if there hadn't been a 10 minute break in their conversation.
JJ took a breath and began to explain everything for the second time in as many days, leaving out her suspicions about him having a crazy secret life. Reid nodded, not saying a word throughout her entire explanation. Finally, red-faced, he told her something she hadn't expected to hear. "It's all Morgan's fault."
"What?"
"I- a little after we started dating, Morgan insisted we go out to celebrate, except no one else ended up coming. We both had a lot to drink and, well… I asked Morgan about his tattoos and before I knew what had happened, we were standing in a tattoo shop, ordering tattoos." Reid looked up at JJ for the first time since the conversation had started and saw that she was smiling. "What?"
"Can I see it?" She asked.
Turning a darker shade of red than JJ thought possible, Reid looked taken aback. "I-I didn't think you'd really be in to tattoos…"
"Well, I'm not, usually, but… you have a tattoo! I just have to see." She told him, still grinning.
Reid sighed resignedly, looking over at her. "You really want to see it?"
"Of course." JJ leaned over and gave him a reassuring kiss. "So come on, off with the shirt."
Blushing, Reid began to undo the buttons of his shirt very slowly. "Mm, not that this isn't kind of sexy, but I'm pretty sure you're just teasing me." JJ said, nudging his arm.
Reid looked up at her, grinning, undid the rest of the buttons, and shrugged his shirt off. JJ's eyes alit over his torso and realized that he hadn't just been making up excuses when he said he was going to the gym… however, there would be time to appreciate that later, she decided. "Turn around." She made little circle motions with her finger.
Doing as he was told, Reid pivoted on his spot on her couch and gave her a good view of his back. On his left shoulder blade, sure enough, was a tattoo. It was an owl, standing to its side, its head turned outward. It was mostly black, highlighted with brown, except for the eyes. The eyes were large pools brown, reminding her completely of the man whose back she was presently staring at. "Well… do- do you like it?" Reid finally got up the courage to ask, turning back to look at JJ.
"It's absolutely perfect for you." She told him, leaning in to kiss him.
The kiss deepened as their arms found each other and they only came up for breath when it became absolutely necessary. "You know…" Reid began, still gasping slightly. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable being the only one without a shirt on…"
JJ laughed and looked over her boyfriend once more, wondering if anything he seemed to be on the surface was the truth. He had proven her wrong enough times just today… And, she admitted only to herself, she liked it that way.
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For someone who likes tattoos, the most precious thing is bare skin.
~Cher
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A/N: Hm… that turned out kinda long. Ah, well, it was fun to write. I hope you guys enjoyed! You might be seeing some more JJ/Reid stuff from me soon… review, if you like, it makes me very happy!