Disclaimer: I don't own the song or CM. If I did, things on the show would be quite different... Such as Emily and JJ's relationship, for starters...
A/N: So, I'm trying to dip my toes into the water that is Criminal Minds fanfiction. This is my first CM fanfic, inspired by Alan Jackson's "Here in the Real World," so all reviews are greatly, greatly, greatly appreciated - but then again, they'd be just as appreciated if this was my 100th CM fanfic, haha. Anyways, enjoy, and if I get some good feedback on this, expect to see some more of me. =D
Here in the Real World.
Tonight she sits, nursing a glass of scotch and wrapped up in barely-used blankets on her barely-used couch as she tries to immerse herself in a movie she's been watching play across the barely-used TV in her barely-used living room. She's trying to keep her mind off of the other things that always plague her mind. Work. Her family. Her past. The team. People out there suffering, with no one knowing. And, more than anything, one person in particular (she can see the blond hair and blue eyes as if she's standing right in front of her). But it isn't working as well as she had hoped it would.
This movie is just reminding her of all the things she'll never have, the things she'll never be. The hero just took a beating worse than she ever has - a thousand times worse than Cyrus - and didn't even shed a tear. No, he walks right out of the ruins easily without the smallest ounce of concern towards his injuries, after losing more blood than anyone ever should, while the clearly stronger and less hurt villain lies somewhere beneath the rubble. And the very second this hero - she can't even remember his name, though she's trying so hard to figure it out - steps out onto the street, the woman he's been pining after the whole movie comes running up to him. She kisses him, despite the injuries that may as well be non-existent because, miraculously, they aren't hurting him. And that engagement ring she was wearing earlier? It's nowhere to be found. Because she wants him, the hero, not that other man. Because she realized that and that made it so easy to leave that other man and run into the hero's arms. Because it's just that simple.
Emily wishes her life was like that movie. She wishes she could be a hero. She wishes she could sustain any injuries. She wishes that good could win against evil every time, that she could catch every sadistic serial killer out there without the slightest problem. She wishes she could live her life without shedding a single tear. She wishes she could get the girl. She wishes JJ would just wake up one day and decide, hey, I want Emily, and end whatever her relationship is with Will (Emily isn't so sure - are they just dating, staying together for Henry, engaged, or what?) and run right into her arms. (And then everything could end the way she wants it to, the way it should.)
But no. Her life isn't like that movie. She isn't a hero. She can't survive any injury. Good doesn't always win, and they'll never catch every killer out there. She's not always strong enough to keep herself from crying. And more than anything, she isn't going to get the girl.
She is the one who needs to wake up. She needs to wake up and realize that all of this false hope she has been holding onto with a death grip is just that. False hope.
Because she's not in a movie. She's here, where nothing is that simple. She's here, where real hearts get broken and that has real consequences. She's here, where real tears fall and not everything is fixed in an hour and a half.
Because she's here, in the real world.
And in the real world, nothing ends like it should.
"But here in the real world, it's not that easy at all. 'Cause when hearts get broken, it's real tears that fall.
And darlin', it's sad but true, but the one thing I've learned from you is how the boy don't always get the girl."
- "Here in the Real World," Alan Jackson.