A/N: Hey all. So, as you can see this is a JJ/Rossi fic. I know, shocker, right? Lol. I wrote this as an entry for the Chit Chat on Author's Corner All the Colors of the Rainbow Challenge. My chosen character was JJ and my assigned character was Rossi. This first chapter will contain the sentence I was also assigned in its entirety (in bold). The sentence was suggested by Fanatical Writer.
Since, this is the first time I've ever written JJ and Rossi together, romantically, I needed some major help. So the premise of this story comes from ilovetvalot. Thank you so much for your help.
And with one last warning that I've never written JJ/Rossi together romantically before, here you go, the first of several chapters. Let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
Chapter 1: And We All Fall Down:
"Damn it!" JJ exclaimed loudly.
Luckily, she was all alone in the basement storage room of the Bureau. Absolutely no one was around to hear her colourful cursing. And just what was she cursing at? Well, at the moment, the box she needed to reach that so happened to be tucked away on the top most shelf, furthest from reach. But in general, her whole life seemed to be something to curse at.
She rolled her eyes at her self. Ok, that was an exaggeration. Some things were bad, but she had her perfect angel of a son to counteract it all. If she just focused on Henry, lived every moment for her baby, then things were perfectly peachy. It's when she attempted to look outside of her Henry-colored-glasses that things began to show their actual crappiness.
JJ let out a long-suffering sigh. "Come on JJ, you came down here to do a job, not to wallow in self pity."
But she couldn't help it. If there was ever the perfect place to wallow it would be the dimly lit, dingy storage room that housed the hard-copy files of past Bureau cases.
Hotch had assigned her to help Penelope put some of the older, pre-computer age, files into the system. As the newest Profiler to the team, she didn't get to do the cool jobs like Emily and Morgan got to do when things were slow with the BAU. No, they got to be off interviewing serial killers while she got to hold up papers as Pen furiously typed away.
But first, before she could become a paper stand, she needed to get at that damned box. She stood on the top rung of the ladder on her tip-toes, only just realizing that maybe keeping her black pumps on in case of spiders was not her brightest idea.
She gave a mental shrug, Oh well, I'm almost there…
Extending both arms, she was almost in reach of the lip of the box's lid when a squeak from down below had her almost jumping in fright.
The almost jump was what did her in. It was enough of a jolt to send her rickety ladder teetering and by the law of physics: what goes up must come down… she in turn was teetering dangerously. She had just enough time to colourfully curse her choice to wear heels that day, before she found herself plummeting to the hard concrete floor.
Her eyes squeezed shut of their own accord and she braced herself for the bone-breaking impact.
Man, just when I was getting back into the swing of things…
Two seconds later, however, instead of hearing the crack noise she'd been expecting, she heard the rush of air followed closely by an "Oof" sound. And instead of the hard, hard concrete she'd expected to land on, she'd landed on something quite a bit softer, sturdy, because it caught her weight, but definitely softer than the hard floor.
What's going on? Why isn't my head split open and my brains littering the floor? she wondered, her heart racing from fright. Only one way to find out, Jay, open your eyes!
She took a deep breath, bracing herself—maybe I died on impact—and opened just one eye. What she saw there did not compute, so she opened the second eye and blinked a few times to make sure she was seeing what her brain was telling her she was seeing.
After several rapid fire blinks, he was still there. She was up close and personal, face to face, with an amused looking David Rossi.
"Does your mother know you swear like that?" he said, voice full of humour.
She breathed in and out, staring directly into his dark brown eyes, trying to figure out exactly what had just happened. Ok, brain, let's hurry up and catch up, please…
She had been reaching for the box in her damned black high heels when she'd heard something.
A mouse…
Her eyes widened at that. She hated mice as much as she hated spiders.
"JJ, you ok?" Dave questioned, his amused look gone, replaced by concern.
Process, JJ, she demanded of herself.
And then she jumped, well not really, but she did move enough to send her flying in the air and…
She took a moment to break eye contact to glance down the length of her unbroken body.
…and apparently straight into the arms of the older agent.
He caught me, she thought in wonder. I was falling, I was… going to die… and he caught me.
"JJ?"
The sound of his voice saying her name, so gentle, so sweet, had her looking up at him instantaneously. Locked in an intense gaze, she breathed out, "You saved my life…"
His low, husky chuckle caught her completely by surprise. "I don't know about that…"
She shook her head slowly; ready to pronounce that her life was indebted to him and so on, when the sound of voices coming down the hall cut her off. She couldn't really make them out, she was so focused on Rossi and how dark his eyes had suddenly gotten. They were coming closer, that much she knew.
"She's down here," a deep voice said.
"What's she doing down here?" another male asked, voice full of disdain.
"I sent her to grab some files… Rossi should be helping her. I sent him down to check on her. They should be just around—"
Now that the voices were closer, she knew that one of them belonged to Hotch and the other was—
"JJ!" Will exclaimed.
She tore her gaze away from Rossi's to see a furious looking Will, standing there with her boss—was that a smile on his face?
Oh God! she thought, frantically looking back and forth between her partner and the man who's neck she had her arms around and who, in turn, was holding her so tightly. This was bad, she surmised.
Never in her life had she been caught in such a compromising position; she could feel her cheeks turning fire engine red under his intense stare and wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole!
The words that came out of her mouth next didn't do a thing to save her, either.
"Will, this isn't what it looks like!"
Well that's the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed. Please let me know what you think! Thanks! Next update should be pretty soon!
Oh and just a little note from the moderators at Chit Chat on Author's Corner: The Second Annual Profiler's Choice Awards are up & running at "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" forum. The nomination ballot IS available! Please, please, please READ the rules and category descriptions before casting your noms. First day to send us noms is 9/1! HAVE A BALL! We're SUPER EXCITED!