A Little Help From A Friend- xover Joan of Arcadia, Supernatural, Criminal Minds - Part 05
Title: A Little Help From A Friend
Rating: R/FRA
Summary: Everyone needs a little help from time to time. In this case the Winchester boys find help in their search for God the Winchesters find him in the most unusually normal place, Arcadia Maryland.
Crossover: Supernatural, Joan of Arcadia, Criminal Minds
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds belongs to Jeff Davis and The Mark Gordon Company. Supernatural belongs to Eric Kripke and Wonderland Sound and Vision. Joan of Arcadia belongs to Barbara Hall. This is a work of fiction, done for fun, no money gained.
Word Count: 18,860
Spoilers: Both seasons of Joan of Arcadia. Up to the end of season 4 of Criminal Minds. All of Supernatural just to be safe.
Authors Notes: AU from Common Thread (2x21) with some information from Something Wicked This Way Comes (2x22) of Joan of Arcadia. Ryan Hunter still makes his appearance and still saves Adam but I’m regressing his age a bit so he’s closer in age everyone else making him 24 instead of however old he was in the show. AU from To Hell…And Back (4x25/26) for Criminal Minds, if you know what happens in the end of 26 basically for this story that never happen. AU from Lucifer Rising (4x22) for Supernatural but with Dark Side of the Moon (5x16) being thrown in because it works for this fic. These are in all honestly mostly arbitrary decisions on my part so don’t look to closely into them.
A side note any facts Reid sprouts are probably horribly incorrect as I made them up for the point of this story so don’t take any of them as value.
A special thanks to ficfinishing for prompting me through this because without them I totally would have dropped out. To Rebecca who doesn’t watch any of these shows but still beta’d for me anyway.
"Mom, Dad I'm home," Joan called as she slammed the door behind her.
"In here," her dad called back.
"Why did I get a job again?" Joan asked as she walked into the kitchen, "People don't ever read the signs when they," Joan trailed off when she saw the assembled guest in the kitchen was more than just her parents.
"Um, Hi," Joan said waving slowly to the people sitting around the dining room table.
"Joan would you please sit down?" her mom asked from where she stood leaning against the counter.
"What's going on?" Joan asked looking between her parents and the two people sitting at the table.
"Joan this is Special Agents Hotchner and Jareau," her dad motioned to the sour looking man and blond women sitting in the kitchen.
"Um, hi?" Joan said confused dropping her bag by the stairs.
"Joan, we'd like to ask you some questions about the Winchester brothers," JJ said smiling at Joan.
"The three guys I told my dad about?" Joan asked thinking fast because there was no way she was going to be able to lie to her dad let alone the FBI.
Mentally Joan cursed God for putting her in this position before plastering a smile on her face and taking the empty seat across from the two agents.
"Three?" Hotchner asked.
"Yeah?" Joan said.
"Can you describe them for me?" JJ asked, her pen posed to take down notes.
"Um, yeah," Joan replied looking down at the table, "One of them was really tall, like taller than my dad tall, there was a shorter one but the way they acted it was sort of like how Kevin treats Luke you know what I mean?" Joan asked looking up at her father.
"Like he was an older brother?" Will supplied.
"Yeah, I mean when I saw them they were arguing about something, trying to find someone and the shorter one was mad because he thought the taller one knew where whoever they were looking for was but apparently he didn't."
"You heard all of this? They didn't notice you?" Hotchner asked.
Joan blushed, "I kinda just stood there, Arcadia's pretty small, its not every day two really hot guys are literally standing in your way."
"You said there was a third man with them?" JJ prompted.
"He was sort of standing off to the side of them, the way people do when they're embarrassed sort of, when he saw me standing there he told the other two to just ask me," Joan explained.
"And what exactly did they say to you?" JJ asked.
"They were looking for someone," Joan said, "They weren't too sure what he looked like though, old, conspicuous, loiters or shows up at odd places and times but not scary," Joan described.
"And you told them?" Hotchner prompted.
"I had no idea who they were talking about," Joan lied, "It was really vague and I asked them if they had a picture maybe of what the person looked like or a name and they looked at the guy in the trench coat and he said he hadn't ever seen him."
"What happened next?" JJ asked jotting down notes then passing the pad to Hotchner who read what she wrote and nodded.
Joan unsure of what had just passed between the two agents looked from them to her father who nodded at her to continue.
"Nothing really, they apologized for bothering me and left," Joan shrugged.
"Did you notice anything about them? Anything strange?" Hotchner asked.
Joan shook her head, "No I mean I wasn't really looking," she blushed again and looked down, "My best friend almost got lost in the woods the other day, I was late for school and to random hot guys where talking to me, I was sort of distracted, I'm sorry."
"No, you did good Joan," JJ said reaching across the table to take Joan's hand, "Had you not told your dad you'd seen them we wouldn't have been called out here."
"Have you seen them since that first meeting?" Hotchner asked Joan.
"No," Joan lied.
Hotchner gave her a hard look which caused her to want to squirm but she didn't knowing that would give away her lie.
"Are they really that dangerous? I mean that the FBI are involved?" Joan asked looking up from behind her hair.
"The Winchester brothers are wanted to questioning for various reasons connecting to a series of cases everything from identity thief, to grave desecration to murder and breaking and entering," Hotchner replied, "We don't know if they're dangerous or not because we don't know what they've done or what's rumors, that's why we're here."
Joan nodded her head. JJ looked between Joan and Hotchner for a moment before letting go of Joan's hand.
"Joan, we need to talk to your parents for minute," JJ said.
Joan nodded again, "I'll just go up to my room I guess, I have tons of homework to do anyway," she said as she got up and grabbed her bag.
The four adult sat in silence while they waited to hear Joan's door close before speaking.
"She's lying," JJ said the second they heard Joan's door slam.
"Wait what how do you know?" Helen asked moving forward.
"Gut feeling," Hotchner replied.
"About what? That's the same thing she told me when she first mentioned it."
"About not knowing who they were looking for and about seeing them again," Hotchner responded.
"Why would she lie?"
"The Winchesters are known to have regular people protect them," JJ said gathering up her notes.
"And you think my daughters protecting them?" Will asked.
"I know all parents what to think the best of their children but its not always the case," Hotchner said.
"But why? Joan knows they're dangerous, Will told her, you told her that, why would she protect them?" Helen asked wringing her hands in frustration.
"We don't know," JJ replied honestly, "As we said
"We need to go back to the station and talk to the rest of the team, find out what they learned today," Hotchner said as he gathers up the last of his things.
“I'll go back with you," Will said grabbing his own things following the two FBI agents.
Turning to Helen he said, "Don't hold dinner for me."
Helen nodded as she watched the three of them make their way to the SUV parked in front. Closing the door Helen leaned against it for a moment to compose herself. As she stood there she heard quite footsteps sneaking down the hall followed by a door closing. Helen frowned knowing that the only person upstairs was Joan. As she walked back into the kitchen she thought about what the two agents had said as well as the fact Joan had been eavesdropping on the conversation.
~*~*~*~
The BAU team sat around the conference room table sipping coffee reading over each others reports not speaking. They sat in silence reading until Reid made a small humming noise in the back of his throat causing them all to look up at him.
"You think she was lying?" he asked looking between JJ and her notes.
"I think she was withholding information," JJ corrected.
"So she lied?" Morgna asked looking down at JJ's notes.
"Yeah," JJ conceded deciding not to fight it.
"Why? Doesn't she understand how dangerous they are?" Morgan asked.
"She's a teenaged girl, they're attractive, who knows" JJ put out.
"No, that's not it, it was something else, I can't put my finger on it, but whatever she lied about she only lied because her parents were in the room," Hotchner said.
"How could you tell?" JJ asked.
"Because she looked at both of them when we asked what they spoke to her about," Hotchner said.
"So she acknowledged seeing them but lied about what they talked about?" Reid asked wanting clarification.
"Yeah and Chief Girardi told us after she'd left that she told us the same thing she'd told them," JJ told him.
"So she's consistent with the lie, do you think she'd say something different if her parents weren't around?" Morgan asked.
"Maybe," Hotchner said though he didn't sound convinced.
"What did you guys find out?" Rossi asked speaking up for the first time.
"Get this," Morgan said putting down the notes in his hand, "When Prentiss and I were talking to one of the hotel clerks he said, though he wasn't sure, that he'd seen two guys matching Dean and Sam's directions that morning, that they'd asked for directions to this book store.
"A book store?" JJ repeated.
"Yeah and guess who works there?" Morgan said smugly.
"Joan," JJ hazarded a guess.
"That's right,” Prentiss said smugly.
"We aren't suppose to be investigating the girl Derek," Dave said looking at Morgan over the top of the papers.
"We were just following up on a lead and it panned out,"
"To what?" Hotchner asked cutting off the argument that was brewing between Morgan and Rossi.
"We went by the bookstore asking if the owner had seen the Winchester which he hadn't but he mentioned he was suppose to be working, that he'd hired some high schooler to handle the customers but she came in late then had the nerve to skip out early on him too," Morgan said smugly.
"He just told you that?" JJ said raising her eyebrows.
"He was pissed, about having to handle annoying customers," Prentiss explain.
"Did he have anything else to say?" Hotchner asked.
"Yeah, we asked him if he knew why she was late and he didn't know but that she had been in the diner a few blocks down so we went to talk to someone at the diner," Morgan explained.
"And one of the waitresses remembered seeing Joan come in with quote two extremely hot pieces of man meat unquote," Prentiss said using air quotes, "We showed her pictures of Dean and Sam and she recognized them, said they came in with Joan, stayed long enough for them to have a conversation then according to Hilde, Joan got a call and bolted, the brother stayed finished off five slices of pie and left."
"So she lied about what they talked about too," Hotchner said putting down standing up to pace and think.
Hotchner turned to Rossi and Reid, "Did you find any reason that the brothers could be in town?"
"No, I read through the old file we had on the Winchester and read through Hendrickson's notes on how he tracked them down," Reid said, "There haven't been any strange murders, kidnappings, injuries or storms that would have caught the brothers attention."
"What if they were looking for Joan?" Prentiss asked.
"What do you mean?" Rossi asked.
"I mean they've been in town what a week?" Prentiss asked, "And every time they show up Joan is involved, what if whatever they're doing it involves her?"
"Even if it is true that still doesn't tell us why they're here," JJ pointed out.
"We need to talk to Ms. Girardi again, without her parents," Hotchner said.
"How are we going to explain that to her dad?" Rossi asked nodding his head slightly towards the frosted glass window where
"Let me handle that," JJ said standing up making her way towards the door.
"JJ," Hotchner called after her.
"Yes sir?" JJ responded turning around.
"Find out if there's anything about Joan that we need to know," was all Hotchner said.
JJ nodded before leaving. The team watched as her shadowed form stopped in front of the assumed shadow of Chief Girardi. Through the glass the team watched as JJ lead the man away hands making small gestured as they went.
"What do you think he's going to do?" Morgan mused to no one in particular.
"If he's anything like our mom he's going to go home and lecture her on the errors of her way, then demand as her parent that she tell him the truth," Rossi replied.
"Do you think its going to work?" Morgan said.
"You know usually when older children are confronted by parents after a lie they are more than likely to compound the original lie with a newer more thought out lie and this second lie is
"So you think she's going to lie again?" Morgan said.
"I think that whatever she's lying about she going to continue to lie about to her parents no matter what her dad says," Reid said with a shrug, "But then I haven't talk to her so I don't know."
"You and Morgan go talk to her in the morning, somewhere where her parents won't be around," Hotchner said.
Reid and Morgan both nodded their agreement.
"And what should I do?" Rossi asked looking at Hotchner.
"Find out whatever JJ doesn't find out," Hotchner replied.
"You don't think he's going to tell her everything," Rossi said skeptically, "JJ's pretty convincing."
"There are things that people only tell family, you're family use it," Hotchner said simply.
~*~*~*~
"The FBI agents you spoke to you think you're lying Joan," her father said to her walking into her bedroom without even knocking first.
Looking up confused at her father Joan muted her music.
"What?" she asked.
"The two FBI agents, Hotchner and Jareau think you're lying about knowing who they Winchesters where looking for," her father says glaring down at her.
"I'm not," Joan responded.
"Joan they're professional profilers and they think you're lying," Will said, "I think you're lying."
"Dad," Joan said unsure of what to say.
"I thought we were past this Joan" he said, "I thought when you came home from Gentle Acres we were past that."
Joan sat up fully now pushing herself up against her head board so she could look at her dad.
"Gentle Acres has nothing to do with this," Joan said trying not to glare at her dad for bring it up.
"Then talk to me, please Joan," Will asked.
"I told you everything that I know," she said looking down CD player clenched in her hand. With a concentrated effort she unclenched her fingers from it before looking back up at her dad. She hated lying to him but she knew if she told him she'd end up back at Gentle Acres or some place worst.
"Joan," her dad said sternly.
Joan stayed silent looking at a spot above his head.
"Fine," he said huffing, "You're grounded then."
"What?" Joan cried, "That's totally unfair."
"Until the Winchester brothers are in custody or known to be out of Arcadia you can go from here to school to work and back here," Will said, "Got it?"
Joan glared, "Yeah I got it."
"I don't want to do this but if you refuse to talk to me this is what I'm force to do."
Joan didn't say anything simply glared at her dad. Finally he sighed and turned to leave giving her a pleading look. He paused at the door before he left.
"Have you seen them since the time you told us about?" Will asked.
Joan set her face stubbornly, "No."
Will shook his head disappointed, "Hilde told the FBI agents that she saw you with them earlier."
Joan flinched but pressed his lips together and didn't say anything. Will sighed and left unsure of what to do. He'd heard the BAU team, he knew that Joan was the biggest chance of finding the Winchester and she was refusing to tell them anything. He knew there was nothing he could do to make her talk and it frustrated him. Sighing again he headed towards his bedroom where Helen was waiting, all he wanted now was to lay in his wife's arms and not think about any of this.