A/N: I don't really know why there aren't that many Blake/Prentiss fics out there because I could totally see them as a couple, lmao. If only we had more scenes with them honestly. Maybe Jeanne should come back as a guest star in future seasons?

Of course, this will be an AU. The Ethan storyline never happened; in fact, Ethan doesn't exist in this story. I just don't want to dwell on that topic since the writers never tinkered with it more due to Jeanne's departure as Alex Blake. Set in Season 9, right after '200' since that's when Prentiss and Blake first meet, and it's the only canon meeting they ever had. Ugh, I just really wished they had more scenes together!

Shit, I'm just really really excited for this.

I don't own Criminal Minds or any other characters from other fandoms that are used and mentioned here. Rated M for extensive amount of language and suggested sexual themes. (Also, there's a lot of angst in this prologue. Maybe even more in some other chapters. Just get ready with your Kleenex because this might break your heart a bit!)

Alex Blake is tired. More so than usual. More so than she would've liked.

She thought that this would finally give her the peace she'd wanted for so damn long. 17 years, 9 months, 261 days, 8 hours, and 43 minutes to be scarily precise. Wow, I even timed how long this marriage fell apart. She rolls her eyes, somehow scouting out dry humour in her struggling, goddamn awful love life. It wasn't even a marriage, now that she ponders about it with more intellectual. It was more of a safety net for both of them, even though they hated to admit it. Alex was the first to give in to their façade, knowing that they would eventually have to deal with this broken marriage. Of course, James Blake never conceded anything because he was just that damn stubborn. He was the only one who could compete with Alex; they were basically each other's rival. More so than lovers.

There was one time, however, that Alex felt that there could've been something more to this. Something more than just a promise to block out personal issues to focus more on their professionalism. It happened 20 years ago, when they first started 'dating.' Of course, they had to make the relationship seem like a legit one, so after they'd make that pact the year before, the two had started the relationship that—they'd sadly predicted—would eventually wear them both down in the years after.

Still, the thought didn't bother Alex since she was too focused on her career rather than deal with her personal life. She didn't want to deal with more shit than she'd had to put up with besides her goddamn family. Scott had been too much for her, and only Danny's reasoning 'convinced' her to stay near family. Sure, she'd been close to her family—as tight as her late grandmother's Christmas sweaters, perhaps—but her career path had meant that her personal life would be reduced to a hairbreadth of a moment.

So she sat at the dinner table across from James all those years ago, a staged smile forming in her face as they played out their ruse. The waitress assigned to them, Alex remembered to be a college student studying to be a nurse—a piece of info later revealed in a rapport they had, complimented on her classic, knee-length dress that she quoted, "my mother would kill me if she saw me wearing that!" as she took their orders. She vividly remembers James ordering a red wine steak with quinoa and asparagus; it was an meal that he'd enjoy eating years later as she'd learn how to cook.

The most memorable part of the evening, and the moment that Alex knew she wanted to fall in love with James, came in the form of a confession from the man himself. The words he spilled embedded in her for so long it practically haunted her. "Alex," he started, wiping off his mouth with a handkerchief. "We both know that this is wrong. This is going to drive us insane later on, but it just feels so right at the moment. And we both know you're going to say, 'we will cross that bridge when we get there' because I know I would say the exact damn thing." He sighed before taking another sip of his red wine. "So I need you to understand this now before we do anything else. We are running away from who we really are, and we are making a temporary safe place that going worsens our feelings afterwards because we are too damn stubborn to deal with them. Are you sure you're ready for that kind of life? That kind of commitment?"

Alex almosts laughs at the reminiscence. I was so fucking committed at not being commitment at all. She might as well keep his surname though; it wasn't much of a painful reminder to the stupid mistakes she made in the past. It was still her safety net—a haven she and James built to comfort each other. She really did love James, but she wasn't exactly in love with him. Oh, how she wanted to prove him wrong when he had confided that she would never fall for him. It doesn't confuse her as to why she wanted to though; growing up in a Catholic community had worn her down. Her family didn't agree with the community, however, but the harsh words they spewed took a toll on the younger woman back then.

In a more direct way, yes—she is gay, and she couldn't deny it any longer.

"You finally got your answer?" James's husky voice chirps through the other end of the line. Yes, she had called him, knowing that she needed to do this (even if it meant being defeated by him). "I'm gonna take that awkward silence as a yes."

She rolls her eyes. "Okay, James. It's time." A sigh of realisation exhales from her mouth. "Fuck. It's really time."

"So you finally admit it," James concludes, nodding head as he silently celebrates in triumph. It twists to a sudden dreary awareness that this is really happening. "Although I don't want to, even now what the hell, we both know that this is the end. The endgame to our ploy that we both realise was going to end badly. Frankly, it doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would be, but it's sad that we're letting this go after so long. I was so sure that I'd die in the middle of it, and you'd be able to inherit everything I owned."

Alex scoffs. "What would I do with two million dollars, James? You know very well I'm not a woman that likes to go out shopping." She hears the man chuckle when she emphasises the last word. "You really do know how to amuse me at the worst times, do you? It almost makes me forget what we're actually about to do." A sigh. "I hate that."

"Stop this, Alex. This is what we both want—what we wanted from the very start." He sighs, trying to hold back his tears. "We are both stupid, and now we're ready to pay the price for that stupidity, right, Alex? I know it's very hard—even if we never really felt that romantic breeze with each other. There's still guilt, but we'll manage better than others. This was still a relationship, just not the traditional type. I should tell you this; I love you, Alex. I really do. I'll love you so much that it'll probably send me to my grave. But we both know we're not going to give what we need for each other. Just know that," he chokes back another tear, "that I'll love you more than I've ever been in love with you, Alex Blake. Or Alex Miller. Whatever you prefer."

"Oh," Alex chuckles, wiping off a salty tear from her cheek, "I'm still keeping the surname. It's one of the good things that came out of this. I'll never be able to forget my first love. This is just a way of remembering that our bittersweet relationship isn't that sad. Sure, maybe we missed out on a lot of great memories, but we're finally settling down. Down to where it was going to eventually."

"Do you think you'll ever find love like you always dreamed about?" he inquires, after a moment of silence between them. Then, he realises how heart-wrenching the question was. "I'm sorry—I'll just sign the papers and travel back to Virginia to give them to you so you can finalise—"

"James, stop. Don't do that to me. I'm not that type of woman, remember? I'm not as fragile as you think I am, and you always seem to forget that." She sighs as she softens up again. "To answer your question, no, I don't think I'll ever find love like I did in those dreams. Expectations always ruins the results. I can't let my lovesick heart decay more of my reality than it already did."

The man nods. "Alright, Alex. Whatever you say." He smiles—sadness and joy mixed into such a small expression. "Thank you, Alex. Thank you for being with me for all those 20 years, even if it wasn't the ideal marriage that you'd usually expect. Or anyone, really."

The brunette almost laughs. "It's amusing how you think that I expected my first marriage would be like the others. James, I know the divorce rates in this country, you should know better than that." She receives a chortle from the other end. "Call me a fucking realist, I really don't give a damn. I am not your stereotypical middle-aged woman. But you should know that, you're my ex-husband now, right?"

"You are too cruel."

"See, we're already getting along better than over divorced couples!" she muses in her sarcasm. "If we were like those couples over at Judge Judy, I would've hopped on the next damn plane just to scalp you."

"Love you too, Alex Blake."

"And I really don't love you all that much, James Blake."

"We are going to be a great divorced couple!"

"The very best." The line disconnects.

So now, Alex just sits on her chair, staring at another report that had been overdue for the past week since the team has to work cases non-stop. It's like the unsubs wanted to fuck with the BAU, just to tire them more than from their usual routine. The FBI Agent sighs; she's already accepted that she's very tired, but it's not because of the amount of bullshit she had to put up with the cases. Something else had bothered her more than anything else.

The problem comes in the form of a text, the message coming from a Prentiss. They started to bond more after the noirette agent flew over from London to save Jennifer Jareau from captivity. Truth is, they'd managed to slip each other's numbers into their contacts right before one had to hop the plane back to where they should've been working. Alex was amused at how much Prentiss would vent so much about how many rules she broke when doing the heroic deed, more so than they usually did casual texting.

The rants ended rather quite humourous; the Interpol agent would drink her sorrows away while the FBI agent watched from her tiny phone screen how the other would embarrass themselves from drunken texts. The morning after, Blake would find 247 messages detailing how sorry Prentiss was and giggle lightly before texting her a simple message, saying that it was a normal thing and that she had done it with James many times in the past. She wasn't lying; the man also had his issues.

What seems to be the complication through all of this was that: one, Alex is very gay, and two, she's definitely falling for Emily. She should've confessed to James about the tiny crush, and she certainly would never tell the team about it. What would she be thinking? 'Hey guys, I'm falling in love with the agent I replaced on this team. Did I mention that I'm really gay?' No. Hell no is she ever going to say that in front of them.

Prentiss: Hey, heard you'd just gotten back from three consecutive cases. Have you been on energy drinks lately??

Alex chuckles while she types a reply: Haha, no, I'm never resorting back into those until I'm that desperate. I just chugged down 6 cups of coffee last night, however.

Prentiss: Shit. If I tried to do that, I would drive myself to insanity. This is why I went back to tea, even though a lot of my British friends here seem to think it's because I'm trying to be like them!

"What's so funny?"

Alex's head shot up to see a usual chirpy Garcia, mug rested on both her hands, standing mere feet away from her. She flips her phone down before flashing a weak smile back.

"Oooh, is that a text from your husband? Is it a naughty one?" the blonde woman suggests, getting suspicious of her fellow gumdrop.

"Alex Blake? Funny? In this economy?" the rhetorical questions come from JJ, who was catching up to the other blonde as she sipped her instant coffee. "Nah, I'm kidding. Is there any scandalous info about you and James that we, your dear female agent friends, need to know?"

Alex furrows an eyebrow at the younger agent. "JJ, you are scaring me more than usual considering the fact that you sound more like Garcia than Garcia herself." Said woman couldn't help but snort at the smug comeback from the older agent. "And as for James, we are done. We've reached into that agreement that 50% of American couples resorted to in the past few years."

Garcia's smile drops. "Oh my God, sweetie are you okay? Is there anything you'd want me to do? Do I have to tell James how much he hurt you? Oh, did he do anything physical to you?! I'm calling my chocolate thunder!" she rambles on as Alex lightly laughs at the bright woman's concern for her.

"No, no, Garcia, I'm not sad about this decision. Surely, I'm heartbroken, but this has been something we both wanted to do for a very long time, and we just didn't have the time—hell, we didn't even know how to discuss it!" Alex explains. "I really am humbled and happy about this divorce, guys, I truly am. I feel more free than I'd ever been before in my whole life!"

"Are you sure?" JJ tries to reason. "Many divorced women I've encountered have said the same thing, and they end up pretty messed up. I mean, we have victims and unsubs like that, Alex. I'm a particularly good listener, trust me on that."

Alex shakes her head. "No, JJ, I'm absolutely fine. James and I—our marriage was different. It isn't your typical 'I want to spend the rest of my life with you' sort of deal; we married each other because we were both so invested in our work that we didn't want our personal life to be in the middle of it. So we tied the knot because we were tied with our work. We did it so we wouldn't have to be bothered with our lives."

"Aw, Alex, that's just," Garcia breathes, resisting to roll her eyes as she cursed herself that she spoke too soon. "I don't know what to say. You guys deserve love—"

"But we didn't want love. We just wanted to do our work," Alex admits, cutting off Garcia's babble. "We thought that having a band on each other's fingers would solve this issue, even though we both knew it wasn't going to work. We did it because we were young, and frankly, I understand what I did because my stubborness practically runs through my entire family."

"Okay, I see a fair amount of logic in that mess," JJ notes, nodding along to Alex's explanation. "Considering that you're a very private person, this is a very surprising moment that we're having at the moment. Is there a deeper meaning to all of this than just a complicated marriage?"

Goddamn profilers, Alex snides to herself as she sighs. "Yes," she confesses, feeling a surprised two sets of eyes glancing at her. "It's not just because we wnated to do our work with more effienciency; we also wanted to run away from who we really are."

Garcia gasps as the realisation comes quick in her mind. "You're both GAY?!" she throws a hand over her mouth after she notices that she had said her thought out loud.

Before JJ could protest at the ridiculous claim, Alex nods. "Actually, James is bisexual, but we both knew he wasn't interested in me. I actually wanted to fall for him, y'know? It was just a tiny spark of a moment when we were having a date in a restaurant. He gave me a challenge, perhaps. A challenge that I miserably failed at."

"Despite both our families being supportive of who we are, we kind of resented it at first," she continues. "We'd use to vent all the time at how much we wished we could stop having these feelings for the same gender; then, when we were in the middle of our marriage, we stopped pretending and gave in to our sexualities, but that was right before the Amerithrax case, and that case really took a toll on me. Details coming along in a later time, it was really messy at the time, and James couldn't just leave me even though I'd insisted that he did for his own good."

"Wow, now that's a love story," Garcia states, which leads to smug smirk on her lips. "Wait, so when you say James and you are done...?"

"We're finalising the divorce tomorrow," Alex informs, but then her eyes widen when she realises what Garcia meant by the question. "You are not—"

"This is great!" JJ exclaims, catching on with Garcia's brilliant idea. "Alex, you need this. You're free, nothing's holding you back now. You are a 47 year-old, fresh straight out from the closet, and you are ready to mingle, whether you wanted to or not! I already know some women who would be interested in you!"

"But—"

"Up, pup, pup, pup! You're not bullshitting your way out of this one. Not this time, gumdrop!" Garcia insists, glaring daggers at the older woman. "We're going to be your finest matchmakers, and whether you agree to this or not, we're going to set you up on fantastic dates!"

Alex sighs in defeat. "I'm not escaping this, am I?"

"Nope, never!" JJ chimes in as the two blonde women walk out of the brunette's space. The older FBI agent could feel their excitement raging on as they were about to unleash hell on the woman. Oh hell, she's never coming out of this.

She flips her phone back and quickly skims through all of the missed texts from her one and only.

They're going to be the death of me.

Prentiss: Wait, so JJ is in it on the matchmaking business now?

Apparently.

Prentiss: Wish I could help you with that, Blake, but I don't want to deal with those pacts ever again.

You're enjoying my pain and suffering, aren't you?

Prentiss: It's safe to say so.

Alex shakes her head. "You're the one that's going to send me to my grave," she murmurs to herself.

A/N: What a fucking mess of a prologue! I hope I didn't confuse you guys too much in the beginning. While angst may be a theme that write about a lot, I'm really terrible at it. I tried to be subtle while maintaining a detailed approach to it, so I hope it doesn't bother you guys too much. I felt like Alex and James were too good of a couple since they practically don't see each other for like months at a time. Also, I rushed the ending again. Hopefully that issue will be fixed in the future /

Anyways, I'm really excited to be writing this considering the fact that Blake/Prentiss is a ship I'd like to dwell around a lot. I have so many other oneshot ideas that involve Blake in it as well, and as some of you can tell, I really love Blake so much.

Thanks for reading! Favourites and Alerts are appreciated and recommended as well!