(g) jelle // what do their love letters look like?
jelle // what do their love letters look like?
so when they’re dating, they don’t send letters because writing letters takes a long time and energy and honestly jj has so much work even after hours, but they do text, or at least text as much one can with an early 2000s era flip phone. internet slang isn’t a thing, so their texts are very professional, with perfect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and like also, their texts are full fucking paragraphs because they’re federal employees, they don’t have the money for spam messages. they also know garcia isn’t above searching through their phones if she thought something was up, but when they slip, jj sends a <3 and elle signs herself off with xoxo.
(they make up for it in person.)
and in a timeline where elle doesn’t leave the team, she and jj briefly separate because elle is caught up with everything, she doesn’t want to drag jj down with her. she ends up going to therapy after “aftermath” and jj showing up at her house and begging elle not to leave, and her therapist asks her if there’s anyone she wants to apologize to, and the first person elle thinks of is jj. and her therapist suggests writing her a letter. elle thinks it’s stupid, but she finds herself writing one anyways. elle isn’t good at emotions, it’s all simple sentences, hard facts, I am sorry, I messed up, I still love you, and I am sorry for that, and elle ends up crumpling it in her purse before going to work that day.
but in one of those hallmark movie miracles, the paper falls out of her bag in the bullpen and gets kicked around until jj herself kicks it into her office, and when she bends down to pick it up and throw it away, she sees at the top of the crinkled corner To JJ in elle’s signature straight print. and jj reads it.
(reid stops by later to ask her a question about one of the reports, but he leaves when he hears jj sobbing.)
(she doesn’t talk about it.)
the next day, there’s a neatly folded piece of paper on elle’s desk with To Elle scrawled in jj’s incoherent scribble, and with a frown, elle picks it up and it’s Elle, you did nothing wrong, I am the one who is sorry, I miss your laugh and your sighs and your eyes every single morning, and I promise I never hated you for leaving when you needed to heal, I still love you, more than you will ever know and--
jj watches from her office as elle very delicately folds the paper up, places it in her purse, and squeezes her eyes closed for a very long time before opening them again and going to work.
(jj notices elle won’t look her in the eye for the rest of the day.)
the next morning, elle drops by her office, says she has files for jj, and jj says sure, she takes them and when elle leaves jj finds another piece of paper with To JJ in what is undeniably elle’s handwriting and jj reads it and it’s I had forgotten how blue your eyes were. I enjoyed watching you tease Morgan Reid yesterday.
elle has another piece of paper on her desk the next day, in iconic jj scrawl, it’s Last night’s traffic was bad, but I remembered how you sang with the car radio (you always told me you hated modern pop, but your voice was clear as a bell and watching you bathed in golden sun, it felt like you were in love with the music itself) and I tried it out myself, and it reminded me of the nights we spent together just listening to music and holding each other. this one is placed carefully in her purse, right next to the letter from two days before.
this goes on, elle and jj exchanging letters in the morning, hotch knows there’s definitely something going on but he also knows they still won’t look each other in the eye and so he leaves it to them, and elle tries writing more romantically, her letters still stumbling a bit, and jj writes her entire heart onto her page. elle’s therapist notices she’s willing to talk a little more during sessions, but still won’t open up about her.
and one night on a flight back from a case, the only free seat is next to elle, so jj slips in quietly, and well, they’re tired, the entire team’s tired, and jj’s so exhausted her hand is shaking on her reports and her head is dipping forward and elle can’t take it anymore, she moves the armrest separating their seats and tilts her body so her back is to the window, and she takes jj and pulls her into her chest. jj is too tired to be surprised and accepts it immediately, curling into her warmth and falling asleep immediately, and elle dozes off as well, hand still weaving through jj’s locks (they’re just as soft as she remembers).
(morgan sends garcia a pic. garcia sends back a recording of her screaming.)
they still drop off letters for each other, but hotch sees them holding hands and looking at each other like they’re the only one in the whole entire universe.