Emily's Profile
Summary: Emily Prentiss finds herself approached by a university student who's seen her on TV and ends up considering certain aspects of herself.
Emily pulled her coat tighter around herself and continued the walk home. It was close enough to the grocery store that she'd decided to walk but the fact that it had started snowing heavily meant she was now trudging back, groceries in hand, in cold, sludgy, snowy weather. She didn't hate snow per se, but as she made her way, she couldn't help thinking how inconvenient it was that the snow just couldn't have waited another ten minutes before unleashing itself upon the city. She sighed and shivered. Not too far to go now.
The street looked fairly empty, unsurprisingly as most people had retreated indoors to the warmth and comfort of their homes, or if they had to go out, they drove. Emily longed for her car. She could feel the snowflakes catching in her hair and thought, irritated, how she would have to wash it when she returned. She didn't see what everyone else might have seen if they saw her just then: a beautiful woman whose hair blew gracefully in the wind, the snowflakes dancing around her in a picturesque whirl. She didn't realize that there was someone who did see exactly that, someone who had spotted her from just across the street, who had recognized her from TV and who couldn't believe their eyes when they realized it was her.
As she brushed a loose strand of hair from her face, she heard footsteps approaching and wondered which other unlucky sod had also managed to get caught outside in the harsh weather. Crossing the road was a girl who looked to be maybe eighteen years old, her long, blonde hair poking out of a furry hood and blue eyes that, for some reason, were fixated on Emily herself. The girl stopped in front of her, her eyes unmoving, but not saying anything. Her body language told Emily that the girl was nervous. It was in the way her arms were wrapped around her in a defensive position, and her legs were parked tightly together.
"Emily Prentiss." The greeting was soft and shy, and for a brief second the girl's eyes flickered towards the ground. She shook her head to compose herself before once again looking up at Emily. "S - sorry," she stammered. "It sounds silly but I've seen you on TV a lot."
"It's okay," Emily replied, slightly amused. There was something cute about the girl, and something genuine which said this wasn't an "Oh my God I've spoken to a celebrity" moment. Not that Emily considered herself much of a celebrity, but being in the BAU did mean the press were onto you a lot. The profile of the girl told Emily that this was definitely only a chance meeting: she seemed surprised to have bumped into the FBI agent.
"You should get inside, it's freezing out here," Emily advised, before catching herself: she didn't want the girl to think she was brushing her off, though secretly she did want to get a move on so that she could get warm as well.
"My house is just over there." The girl pointed towards her house.
Emily nodded.
"You care about people." Emily arched an eyebrow at the statement. "You care so much that you would even put a complete stranger before yourself, no matter what the circumstance. You stopped and talked to me even though you're dying to get home. You're wearing a thin jacket, yet while you stand there shivering, you're telling me to go home and get warm even though I'm wearing a thick, furry coat, gloves and a scarf."
It was as if a dam had broke and the girl's shyness had vanished. Emily stood wide-eyed, suddenly very curious. She might have expected this from one of the team, but this girl was a complete stranger, and yet she'd just profiled her!
"It's why you're so good at your job," the girl concluded.
It took Emily a moment to be able to reply. "I'm flattered. And very impressed. Were you thinking of this for a career?"
She nodded her head eagerly. "I'm studying criminal psychology. I watch you doing your job on the news and think 'That's where I want to be. Saving lives and putting criminals away'."
"It's not easy."
There was a momentary silence as the girl thought about the statement.
"You put on a tough persona but even you struggle sometimes. It's okay to admit things you know. Though I suppose with a political family it's natural to have a façade in place 24/7."
Wow, this girl has been doing her reading.
"What's your name?"
"Grace Crawford. Nice deflection by the way."
Emily couldn't help but allow a smile to grace her features. It really was something, being profiled by a teenager.
"Grace, you keep studying and one day you will be an incredible profiler."
"Really?" Grace beamed at the compliment.
"Of course."
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. Now get home. It's freezing out here."
"It was nice to meet you, Agent Prentiss," Grace replied.
"You too."
As Grace walked away, Emily stood there in thought. Underneath the amusement she was actually slightly scared. The girl had exactly hit the nail on her head about aspects of herself that Emily considered extremely personal. She wondered if it was this obvious to her colleagues that half the time she wasn't as okay as she pretended to be.
"You put on a tough persona but even you struggle sometimes…"
There had been cases which were so tough that Emily never wanted to think about them again. Cases so horrible and disturbing that she found it hard to keep up her professional mask in front of her colleagues. So tough that, as soon as she got back home, she had no choice but to let her guard down and allow her tears to drain away the horrors of the case. She only ever did this alone. She didn't need her colleagues thinking she couldn't handle her job. She wasn't that pathetic.
"I suppose with a political family it's natural to have a façade in place 24/7..."
Much as she tried to distinguish herself from her heritage, she knew deep down that she was a Prentiss to the very core. The facades, the constant need to conceal her true feelings all the time - it was all learned behaviour from her difficult childhood. She'd grown up being told again and again that it would look bad if she showed any signs of weakness in front of other people. And crying was definitely a sign of weakness.
Emily had learned very quickly that in order to get her way in life she had to be strong and defiant. As a woman who hated politics, she'd learned her strength in having no choice but to stand up to her family knowing full well that they would not support her in her life decisions. She'd beat it into herself constantly that she was a survivor and that she could get through anything by herself. She'd told herself time and time again that she didn't need anyone else's help; that she was fine on her own.
That wasn't about to change. Out of the entire team she was probably the most mysterious. She was definitely the only one with zero history of letting her emotions get to her. She prided herself for it, not that she blamed the others for doing so. She knew it was unhealthy, but it was so deeply rooted in her that she couldn't bear to let herself go in front of the others.
One teenaged girl, a complete stranger, had understood all of that just by looking at her.
It terrified her.
A/N: That was my first Criminal Minds fic, hope you liked it and that I got Emily in character. Please R&R!