"Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret."
- Jean de La Fontaine

Secrets

-X-

Will had lived alone for a while, but he'd had his share of roommates in the past. There'd been girlfriends, friends, and six memorable months spent sharing a rather small house with four other people. He was well versed in the adjustment period necessary for everyone to learn each other's quirks.

He'd seen a few strange ones too: one who organized all his books by size; another who had to double check every lock in the house before going to sleep, including the windows and inside-doors; and one ex-girlfriend's snores could wake the dead.

Most of the quirks that Will noticed right away were as he'd expected. JJ always did a quick, casual sweep of the house when she got home, and she always had her bag packed in case the BAU had to leave (that was a habit that stuck around well into her maternity leave). He had not expected the salt.

JJ always had a lot of salt in the house. Not just table salt, though she made sure they were well stocked in that too, but she'd also bought rock salt in bulk as soon as it appeared on the shelves. He'd asked her why out of curiosity at the time, considering it was nowhere near cold enough for ice yet, and she'd said it was on sale. He'd let it go; maybe winters were worse than he thought up here.

Then, less than a month before Henry was born and during one of the few times JJ had not travelled with them, the team came back from South Dakota with a large package. Garcia had quickly enlisted Morgan, Prentiss and Reid to help her deliver it, practically trembling with excitement. Curiosity was contagious and, despite the late hour and general post-case exhaustion, everyone but Garcia (who smiled like she had secret sitting on her tongue) crowed 'round to read the short note. In blocky scrawl it explained that its contents were crafted from rowan and it was signed 'The boys (and Bobby)'. It meant nothing to Will, but JJ had shot Garcia a stunned look.

Inside the box they found the pieces to a plain but well crafted crib. Her mother had gifted them with a newer styled one, but at JJ's insistence the six of them made quick work of packing it away and replacing it with the wooden one. Will thought the pale wood looked better in the newly-painted nursery, anyway.

Four months later, Will had finally been able to (help) persuade JJ to take a night off and accept an invitation for a well deserved girls' night. He'd just put Henry down to sleep and was alternately humming and singing to help him settle down, when he noticed the slight grooves in the otherwise smooth wood beneath his fingers.

It didn't feel natural, it was too even. So he found a small penlight and checked the undersides of the railing; then under the crib itself. Tiny symbols lined the wood in intricate patterns. Some Will thought he recognized from old books of his father's, they might have been Norse or Celtic, but he wasn't sure, and others he'd never seen before.

"What in the world?" he muttered, careful not to wake the finally sleeping baby.

Later, JJ came home to find Will fast asleep on the couch with an open laptop and a notebook full of runes and sigils on the coffee table. She closed the laptop silently, spread a throw blanket over him, and, with a mixture of guilt and relief washing over her, she stepped outside to do something she'd hoped to put off as long as possible. JJ called Bobby Singer for advice on how to shatter someone's world-view and tell them about the things that went bump in the night.

-X-

NOTES:
- the majority of these one-shots will not be in order
- (to answer LeeMarieJack) a lot of these do have a basis in larger fics I just don't feel like I'd be able to finish right now, but maybe someday
- Dean came back to life around Sept. 18, 2008; Henry was born Oct. 26, 2008
- the rowan tree and its wood are supposed to be a powerful ward for protection both on its own and in ritual
- I also realised while doing timeline research that JJ probably should not have been traveling so close to when she gave birth. I swear, that woman is a tank

As always, reviews are welcome and appreciated (as are prompts and requests)