AN: I am so happy with the super sweet reviews I received after posting the 1000 word fic which I had written for the picfor1000 challenge on lj. It was kind of nerve wrecking to post my first fic for this fandom and I am glad that it was received so well. The reviews really made me think of turning this into a real fic instead of just a one-parter, and in order to do that I took a couple of days to figure out what I wanted for this fic.

Chapter 2

**Flashback**

Ever since she was teenager she wanted to get out of East Alleghany, the faster she could get out of the small town the better it would be. She couldn't remember a time where she didn't feel like the small town mentality was suffocating her. She tried to get out as fast as she could, and a scholarship to the college of her choice was the fastest way. Becoming a FBI agent had been the path she wanted to pursue for herself, her parents didn't approve of her choice. Especially since they felt like they where loosing yet another daughter, this time though it hadn't been a suicide which took her away from her parents. They were loosing her to the outside world, the world beyond the small town pursuing a job which put her in danger instead of embracing small town life where her husband would provide for her while she raise the children at home.

But that was not what JJ had in mind for her own future, in fact her job had always been more important then her personal life after all she was young and she had a goal she wanted to reach. In her eyes there would be enough time left to pursue other things in life. First she wanted to be the best at what she did and being the media liaison of the BAU was what she wanted. She wanted to work with legends like Gideon and Hotch and despite the often horrendous nature of the cases they worked she found pride when the families of the lost ones could find some form of closure when their team caught the unsub.

While she had declined Hotch's offer to follow the profiler training she often did wonder about the unsubs behavior; what drove them to their horrendous acts of violence. Was it their past, the way they grew up, had they never known anything but violence or did something just made them snap. She knew that her closest friends and colleagues possessed the ability to study these people and get inside their minds to find that one clue which could lead them to the unsub and in her years of being a FBI agent she too had learned a thing or two about the mind of a killer. But never in her life could she imagine to ever kill someone herself; that was until she had Henry. When he was born she swore that she would always keep him safe from harm and that if anyone tried to harm him she would go to extremes to safe her little pride and joy. He wasn't supposed to know the dreadful things his mother saw on a daily bases.

Having Henry had changed her perspective; she was now convinced that every person in the world could turn into a killer if the conditions where threatening enough to make them snap. And here she was standing in the garden of her supervisors house talking to his small son who was thanks to the quick thinking of Hotch safe from harm and had no idea what really happened in the house behind them. How Foyet had killed his mother while his father and his team listened over the radio until the dreadful sound of the gun hand cut Haley's life short. And how his father had beaten Foyet until Morgan pulled him off the lifeless body. Hotch snapped; his life, which had already crumbled had now fallen apart completely by the hands of another human being. And there she stood in the bright sun, in a beautiful garden with a little boy who was proud that his daddy told him to work the case with him and that he did a good job. A stark contrast with the scene inside the house that he once called his home. JJ smiled at him as best as she could under the circumstances and told him that he had been a good junior agent and that they could use such brave boys at the FBI. Jack beamed at her compliment, nodded his head and smiled brightly.

The day Haley Hotchner passed away would forever be the day that changed the teams dynamic. From that day on; even though no one would say it out loud there would be the time before Foyet and the time after. Even more so then with the departure of Elle and the disappearance of Gideon the team changed. And unknown to the others that was the day that JJ made a choice regarding her own life; she had to figure out what she wanted; where she expected her life to go and especially who would be with her.

Seeing what happened to Hotch and his family made her realize how fragile life could be and she didn't want to waste any more time. Either she could settle for what she had or she could pursue what she wanted and possibly get burned in the process. JJ couldn't just continue living the life she had seemingly settled for when she realized how easily it could all be taken away in a mere second, she knew that the choice was in her hands and her hands only.

At first JJ struggled to make a choice; deep in her heart she already knew what she wanted but she was not quite ready to admit it out loud. And she knew that there would be consequences, not just for her but also for the people around her, who in this case were innocent bystanders and she was still coming to terms with the fact that she was no longer the only person who would be affected by her choices. There was Will of course and then there was Henry, could she pursue the alternative of what she had now knowing that her choice in one way or another would affect the life of her young son.

JJ knew what she wanted but actually getting to the point where she was going to take actions to pursue that goal took her a while. Making a decision and actually following through were two completely different things. She knew that if she followed through she would need someone who knew what was going on; someone to fall back on if she needed too, someone who would be there for her regardless the outcome.

A review is a writers' best guide, please let me know what you think of my story.