Title: The Reason
By: LoraLee2
Pairing: JJ/Reid
Rating: PG-13
Series: 1) First Fight
Disclaimer: Usual disclaimers, I do not own any CM characters, I'm just borrowing them and will return them in the same condition as I found them.
Summary: Why JJ was so angry with Reid.

***

Hotch approached JJ's closed door cautiously; yes, he was an FBI agent, and yes, he'd faced down men with guns trained on him, but no man wanted to corner a pissed-off woman on her own turf. He tapped on her door in warning, and entered without waiting for a response.

JJ looked up from a file she was writing in, "I didn't say 'come in.'"

"I know."

"Oh, Hotch. I --." She paused, most of the time he treated everybody on the team as an equal, but technically he was her supervisor, and you did not kick your boss out of your office.

"You two put on quite a show. You wanna tell me what it was all about?"

JJ knew it wasn't really a request, but she tried anyway, "It's personal."

Hotch snorted, JJ looked at him, "Yeah, I'd say that what you did to Reid qualifies as very personal. Spill anyway."

"Hotch --" she just looked down at her desk shook her head.

"I know you don't want to talk to me about this, but you have to give me a reason to not write you up."

JJ gasped, "Write me up?"

"Both of you. Reid crossed the line the minute he grabbed you. But you crossed one, too, when you retaliated out of proportion. You could have slapped him, you could have punched him, hell you could have kicked him in the shin and I would have called it defense. And I will write him if up if that's what you want. He was definitely out of line. Technically, I should be writing him for violence and sexual misconduct. If I do, I'll have to write you up for the knee, of course you'll get off because of mitigating circumstances, including the fact that Gideon or I could have put a stop to it when he was following you around the office."

"Why didn't you?" Not accusing, just curious.

"It's your first fight, we didn't want to interfere. It's better for your relationship if you can work it out yourselves. You and I both know Reid's not experienced with arguments, or with dealing with women on a one-to-one basis. You weren't actually bothering anyone; amusing them, yes, but not bothering them. And we certainly didn't expect Reid to do something that stupid."

Hotch leaned forward, putting his forearms against JJ's desk, "Talk to me. Let me help."

&&&&&&

Morgan and Reid were back at their desks, "So, what did you do to piss her off like that?"

"Morgan, if I knew that, I wouldn't be sitting here waiting to die."

"Okay, let's walk through this. You spent the night together?"

Reid nodded. They'd spent almost every night together for that last six weeks.

"How was she last night?"

"Fine, we watched a movie, went to bed."

"You, um, do anything between the movie and sleep?"

Morgan managed not to laugh as Reid lit up like a stop sign. Boy still wasn't used to the fact that he was having sex, forget about the fact that other people knew he was having sex. "Yeah."

"Anything unusual there? You didn't try anything new or weird or kinky?"

Reid turned his chair away, "I'm starting to think letting you try to help me was a mistake."

"Reid, we're just going step by step. I'm not asking for details, you don't have to tell me what you did, but I'm trying to help you figure it out. When you fell asleep was she mad at you?"

"No, we snuggled, had a little pillow talk, went to sleep."

"Okay, so that means it's something you did this morning.

"I know that. But I still can't figure out what I did."

"You went to sleep last night, everything was fine. When you woke up this morning, what did you do?" Another blush from Reid.

"Okay, that answers that. Again, anything you haven't done before?"

Reid mumbled something Morgan couldn't make out, but assumed was an affirmative. "Okay, I'll take that as a yes. When you got out of bed was she acting mad?"

"No. She got up and got in the shower, and I went to the kitchen and made coffee and toast."

"So, when she got out of the shower what happened?"

"Then I took my shower. Then we came to work."

"Okay, after you got out of the shower, how was she?"

"Mad. That's when she got mad." He huffed, "How am I supposed to figure out what I did if I wasn't even in the room? How the hell could I make her mad by taking a shower?"

"Okay, let's work this through. Did you hear anything unusual? Did she catch you --?"

"No. No, she didn't catch -- I didn't -- shut up."

Morgan got his laughter under control and said, "Okay, so she didn't catch you at shower Olympics. What else could have happened while you were in the shower?"

"I keep telling you, I don't know, man."

"Well, was she listening to the radio, watching the news? Maybe your name was mentioned."

"She had the radio on, but I haven't done anything to make the news."

"Google yourself."

Reid felt weird typing his own name into a search engine, but did so adding the day's date. "Nothing recent."

"Okay, maybe you didn't do it today, maybe she just found out about it this morning. Wait a minute, were you at her apartment or yours?"

"Mine."

"Could she have found something?"

Reid was puzzled, "Found something? Like what?"

"It's your apartment, what have you got? A closet full of Playboys?"

Reid shook his head.

"A journal, pictures of Lila?"

"No, I don't keep a journal and I only had one picture of Lila and I got rid of that weeks ago."

"How about a letter to your mother? Did you mention JJ in one of them?"

"No, I keep my letters in my bag and JJ's never gone in there. I mean there's no reason she can't, but she just doesn't. But even if she did, I haven't written about anything she'd be mad about."

"Okay, let's try something different. Let's put that photographic memory of yours to work."

"Eidetic," Reid responded out of habit.

"Who cares? Picture JJ right before you got in the shower, what she was wearing, what she said, where she was, what she was doing."

Reid closed his eyes, "Got it."

"The apartment, too. Get the whole picture in there." Reid nodded. "Now, when you got out of the shower, what was different?"

Morgan sat and watched Reid, his eyes moved under his lids like he was looking back and forth between two pictures on a wall. Reid might insist photographic memory was the wrong word, but that's what it looked like to Morgan. Suddenly Reid's eyes stilled, opened. "I got it."

&&&&&&

"I can't, Hotch."

"Come on, JJ, you don't really think you're going to be able to come up with something that's going to shock me, do you?"

JJ smiled, just last week, they'd worked a case in a downtown brothel, they'd seen things, she hadn't even known were anatomically possible. No, there was definitely nothing she'd ever done that would shock any of her coworkers. It's nothing like that, it's just --."

Hotch waited patiently, silently, that's when she knew there was no hope. Hotch could outwait the most determined unsubs; there was no way she was leaving this office without telling him.

She took a deep breath and blurted out, "He keeps ripping my blouses."

Hotch sat up straighter, Reid? "Honey, he's young and impatient, he'll learn, just give him time."

"No, that's not the part that got me mad. He keeps replacing them."

"And that's bad because --?"

"I told him to stop. I dress for the TV cameras, I get a clothing allowance, a big one, there's no reason for him to be spending money on my clothes."

"I'm sure he's just trying to take responsibility."

"Exactly."

Hotch just gave her a puzzled look, some things you couldn't train for, and the inside of a woman's mind was one of them.

"What makes him more responsible for my clothes than me?"

"JJ, that's just the way Reid is. He keeps replacing the coffee cups in the break room, too. I doubt he sees it as any different. He breaks a cup, he replaces it; he rips your blouse, he replaces it."

"He didn't even ask; he just started doing it. The exact same thing every time. We talked about it, I explained to him I get more than enough in my clothing allowance to replace a few blouses and I don't necessarily want the same blouse again. I mean, maybe if it's a favorite, but not every time. I thought he got it. He promised to stop."

"And I take it he didn't stop?"

JJ pulled at the front of her blouse, "This shirt. This shirt I have been trying to ruin for two years. My sister gave it to me for my birthday. She's color blind, or color stupid, I don't know, but I hate it and I have to wear it, because she gave it to me. So, I get the bright idea, I put it on before Reid and I went out to the movies." Hotch nods, he sees where this is going, "No more shirt."

"So, I take it he replaced it?"

"We talked about this two weeks ago, he promised to stop, but this morning the doorbell rings and there's it is. The Goddamn ugliest shirt I have ever had the misfortune of owning is now back in my wardrobe."

"So, why are you wearing? Just send it back."

"I was going to."

"But --?"

"I wanted to confront him about it first."

"So, you put it on and waited for him to see it?"

"Yeah."

"JJ, honey, Reid may be a genius, but he's still a man. The chances that he even saw what you're wearing is pretty slim. And if he even realized it was that shirt, he probably thinks you're wearing it because you like it. Which would mean you should be happy, not mad. He's never going to figure this out on his own."

&&&&&&

"Hmm-mm." Hotch and JJ looked to the door when Reid cleared his throat. "Actually, he's right, JJ. Morgan helped me." He stepped into the room, "Can we have a little privacy, Hotch?"

Hotch looked at JJ, who nodded her consent, and left the room.

Reid waited near the door and closed it behind the older man and flipped the lock.

"JJ, I bought the shirt three weeks ago, before we talked about it, it's been on back order. I was planning to send it back as soon as it arrived."

He walked around her desk so he was towering over her, "I believe that means, you're the one who owes me an apology. Actually, make that two; one for opening a package addressed to me without asking first, and the second for not talking to me about it."

"You're right. I'm sorry, I --."

Reid placed his fingers to her lips, "I don't care about 'sorry,' I don't need to hear that." He took her hands and tugged upward and she stood in front of him, "All I want to hear is that you'll give me a chance to explain, the next time you think I'm being an idiot."

She wrapped her arms around his middle, placed her head on his chest, "I really am sorry," she paused for a second, "for everything."

"Yeah, well, you're going to be even sorrier when you don't get any tonight, 'cause it's still broken. Which also means you're going to have to wear that ugly shirt at least one more time before I can rip it off you."

JJ groaned. "That's probably the worst punishment for being stupid you could ever come up with."

"Well, maybe we can just take it down to the Salvation Army and donate it? Then neither one of us has to look at it again."

"What? You don't like it?"

"JJ, I hate that shirt, it looks like a circus threw up on you."

She just laughed. What more was there to say?

***