"Some bullets aren't meant to kill. They're meant to leave you bleeding just long enough to watch everything fall apart." —Jennifer "JJ" Jareau
Quantico – Federal Safehouse – 1:27 PM
JJ's gun was drawn, two hands locked around the grip. Her eyes scanned the corridor, every breath measured.
She took in the scene: one guard down, unconscious but alive. No blood. No broken glass. Just surgical precision.
Then her gaze snapped to the shadow at the end of the hall.
Ash stepped out.
No body armor. No weapon visible. Her hands were open. Relaxed.
JJ aimed square at her chest. "Don't move."
Ash stopped, head cocked, that eerie, calculated smile forming.
"I could've killed him," she said. "I could've killed you. But I didn't."
JJ's voice was iron. "Because you want something worse."
Ash laughed. "You're smarter than they give you credit for."
JJ kept her aim steady, finger just over the trigger. "You're not getting in my head."
"I'm not here to get in your head, sweetheart." Ash took one small step forward, daring. "I'm here to hand you the truth."
JJ hesitated. That was the crack Ash was waiting for.
"You've been questioning it, haven't you?" Ash said. "Ever since you stepped off that platform. You keep wondering if those words were yours. If maybe, deep down, you believed what you said."
JJ's finger twitched, but she didn't fire.
Ash kept coming.
"Jason Cole doesn't bleed like the rest of us. You saw it. You felt it. And you've been carrying it in your gut like a loaded chamber ever since."
JJ lowered her aim to Ash's leg.
"One more step and I drop you."
Ash smiled wider. "Do it. You won't. Because you want to hear what I have to say."
JJ gritted her teeth.
"What did you do to me?"
Ash's voice softened—just enough to mimic empathy. "I made you face what you've always known. That trust is fragile. That loyalty is conditional. That the people you protect will always, always lie to you for what they think is the greater good."
She took another step.
JJ fired.
Ash's leg buckled—the bullet tore through muscle, clean shot, non-lethal.
She dropped to her knees, gasping but laughing.
"See?" she rasped. "I knew you were stronger than he thought."
En Route – BAU SUV – 1:35 PM
Jason rode in the passenger seat of the lead SUV, blood dried into his shirt, his hand pressed against the gauze at his ribs. Hotch drove in silence.
"I should've seen it," Jason muttered.
"She planned the whole thing to distract us," Hotch said. "The fake surrender. The chase. Just to isolate JJ."
Jason stared out the window. "No. Not just to isolate her. To test her."
Hotch glanced over. "Test her for what?"
Jason's jaw tightened. "To see if she could be broken… and turned."
Federal Safehouse – 1:39 PM
JJ stood over Ash, weapon trained on her. The silence between them was electric, pulsing with unspoken questions.
Ash lay back on the cold floor, one hand pressed against the bullet wound. Her breathing was shallow, but her eyes still danced with amusement.
"I was never going to kill you," she whispered.
JJ stared. "Then what was the point of all this?"
Ash coughed. Blood flecked her lips. "To give you a choice."
JJ frowned.
"You think Jason would hesitate if it were you in his sights?" Ash continued. "You think he hasn't already calculated the cost of losing you? Or sacrificing you for a greater outcome? He's a strategist, JJ. He doesn't love people. He uses them."
JJ didn't blink. Didn't answer.
Ash leaned her head back, grinning through the pain.
"You think I'm a monster? Fine. But at least I'm honest about what I am."
Seconds Later – BAU Team Arrival
The tactical team swept through the house in seconds.
Morgan burst into the hallway with Reid behind him. Jason and Hotch followed, weapons drawn.
"Clear!" Morgan shouted from the rear.
Then they saw JJ—standing like stone.
Jason's heart nearly stopped when he saw Ash bleeding on the floor.
JJ turned slowly.
"She's alive," she said, voice detached. "Shot her through the thigh. She wanted to be caught."
Jason lowered his weapon.
JJ looked directly at him.
"She told me I didn't trust you."
Jason took a step forward. "You don't have to believe her."
"I don't," she said. Then after a pause, "But I'm still not sure I believe you, either."
Those words struck harder than any bullet.
He nodded once. Accepted it.
Reid knelt beside Ash, applying pressure to the wound. "We need a medic."
Ash looked up at Jason with that familiar, knowing smirk. "Told you. She'd choose herself over you."
Jason stared down at her, emotionless.
"She chose not to become you."
Quantico – Holding Facility – That Night
Ash sat cuffed to a steel table, her wound treated, her body wrapped in a blanket. But her eyes still glittered.
Jason sat across from her. No glass. No guards. Just them.
"You lost," he said quietly.
Ash leaned forward, face close to the table. "No, Jason. I proved my point. I showed them who you are. And I showed you who they are."
He stared at her in silence.
She whispered, "They'll never trust you again. You might save lives, but they'll always wonder what you were trained to take. You're not one of them. You never were."
Jason leaned in.
"I never wanted to be."
He stood and left.
Ash watched him go, and for the first time, her smile faded.
BAU Headquarters – Roof – 11:14 PM
JJ stood at the edge, wind catching her hair. Jason approached quietly, moving like he was afraid to break something fragile.
"Garcia's got a full psych profile on Ash," she said. "She's going to be locked down in a triple-max facility in Colorado."
Jason nodded. "She won't get near you again."
JJ turned to him, eyes tired. "That's not what I'm afraid of."
He waited.
"I keep replaying it," she said. "The moment I pulled the trigger. I didn't hesitate. Not for a second."
Jason looked at her. "You did what needed to be done."
JJ shook her head. "No. I wanted to shoot her. Not to stop her. To hurt her."
A long silence passed between them.
Then Jason said, "That doesn't make you weak, JJ. That makes you real."
JJ met his eyes. "Are you still real, Jason?"
He thought about it.
"I'm trying to be."