It has been a long day.

No. It has been a long week. JJ nearly drags herself off the plane with the rest of her team. This last case had a decidedly ambiguous conclusion, and they are all feeling wrung out and pushed past their limit.

They straggle into the office one by one, and by the time JJ has dropped her case file back in her office, the rest of the team are all at their desks down in the pen. She glances out at them and then does a double take. Morgan and Reid are both looking up in the direction of Hotch's office, both with expressions of interest and curiosity.

"Hey," she says, stepping out of her office and heading to them. "What's up?"

"New girl," Morgan says, and JJ looks up to see a tall dark haired woman standing in front of Hotch, several files in her hands.

JJ watches the woman as she speaks, her posture straight and confident. There is something oddly familiar about her profile. It makes JJ think…of her sister.

"You are gonna burn holes in the back of her jacket if you don't cut it out," Morgan hisses at her.

JJ rolls her eyes. "Mind your business," she says.

"Look who's talking!" He shoots back. "What's up…do you know her or something?"

"I-" JJ tries to place her once more, but all she comes up with is a hazed over image of Roslyn, looking back over her shoulder, finger to her lips and a pleading look on her face. "I don't think so," she says finally. "She…reminds me of my sister for some reason."

She looks around in time to see the end of Morgan and Reid's shared look, and realizes her mistake. While the team all knows about her older sister's suicide, they've never heard her talk about anything to do with it.

"Wasn't your sister blonde like you?" Spencer asks carefully.
JJ nods, looking back at the woman as she leans forward to shake Hotch's hand. "Yeah."

The door to Hotch's office opens, and the two step out. JJ notices that the woman makes sure she lets him out first, and then she walks a step behind him, deferring to his authority.

"Morgan, would you grab Penelope, please?" He asks, drawing nearer to their desks.

"No need, my darling, I saw on the monitor we were gathering to induct a new member into the group!" Penelope Garcia appears out of the blue, an excited smile on her face. "Right? Am I right? Tell me I'm right!"

Morgan chuckles, but JJ thinks Hotch looks a little irritated. Gideon descends the stairs as their boss starts to speak. "Everyone, please welcome Emily Prentiss. She's been assigned to the BAU, and will be beginning her probationary period with us on our next case."

Emily's smile is wide, as she shakes everyone's hand.

"Emily, these are SSAs Derek Morgan, Jason Gideon, Dr. Spencer Reid, and this is our Public Relations Liaison Jennifer Jareau."

JJ sticks out her hand, looking up into Emily Prentiss' dark eyes.

"JJ," she says. "Friends call me JJ."

The smile drops off of Emily's face. She takes JJ's hand tentatively, her expression sliding into something akin to fear. As their hands touch, as that look crosses the other woman's face, JJ is visited by another burst of memory. Far more vivid and detailed than its predecessor.

It is raining for the funeral. The little church on the edge of town is packed. JJ sits with her hands in her lap, staring down at her fingernails, scrubbed clean for the occasion.

Suddenly, the low organ music is drowned out by the sound of screaming. JJ looks up, recognizing the voice as her mother's, and then her father's. They are yelling at something, at someone, JJ realizes, and they sound angrier than they ever have before.

She cranes around in her seat, straining her neck to see over all the other people craning their necks to see.
Her parents are shouting at a girl, and as JJ looks, their shouts materialize into words that shift into sentences.

"YOU KILLED HER. YOU KILLED MY BABY. YOU KILLED HER. HOW DARE YOU SHOW YOUR FACE HERE," her mother's voice is high and hoarse. She repeats the same words hysterically, until they aren't making sense anymore. "DARE YOU MY BABY KILLED YOU HOW YOU SHOW COULD YOU YOUR FACE YOU KILLED HER."

JJ's father is booming too, "I'LL BREAK YOUR GODDAMNED NECK YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING URCHIN." He shakes his finger in her face, and JJ shifts her attention to the girl.

A thin girl, with dark hair and dark eyes painted with too much eye liner.

And the look on her face.

The look on her face is

"You!" JJ says, and by the way Emily pulls her hand back like she's been burned, JJ know's that she's shouted. "You!" she says again, because it seems that other words have gotten stuck in her throat.

"JJ-" Hotch sounds like he's speaking over a walkie talkie.

"How can it be you?" JJ says, raising her voice. "How did you…Where did you come from?"

Emily looks back at her, blinking quickly like she's trying to bat away tears, but her eyes are dry. Her eyes had been dry in the church as well. What was it Mom said? Ros' died because Emily put those ideas in her head. Emily was the reason her sister could not go on living.

"Emily comes to us from Interpol," Hotch says. JJ can feel him willing her to make eye contact. She does not, she stares at the new comer like she could see inside her brain.
"Emily's mother is Ambassador Prentiss," Hotch says, trying again. "You two know each other."

This is not necessarily posed as a question, and Emily's eyes dart over to take in her new boss before dropping to the ground.

"I spent…I was a friend of Jennifer's sister Roslyn," Emily speaks so quietly that JJ sees Spencer lean in out of the corner of her eye. Somehow, this statement seems to wake JJ up out of her haze.

"No!" she says forcefully. "You were not her friend. And you will NOT be on this team. You stay away from me!" And with that, she turns and stalks toward her office, making sure not to look at anyone as she goes.

When she gets to her door, she turns to make sure no one is looking at her, and sees that Emily Prentiss is four steps behind her.
"I told you to stay away from me," JJ says, backing into her office.

Emily follows her inside, moving to shut the door.

"Leave it open," she spits. "What, does leave me alone mean, follow me and shut the door to my office where you come from?"

"Jennifer," Emily begins, but JJ doesn't give her a chance to finish. Emily has not called her by her nickname either time she has used her name. She does not consider them friends.

Something about this enrages JJ. "How many times did Ros tell you to leave her alone, hm? How many times did you hear whatever the hell you wanted to hear?"

If this dig stings, Emily is very good at concealing it. "I know it must be really jarring to see me after all this time. Honestly I had no idea you were working for the BAU or I wouldn't have-"

"Bullshit," JJ says. "It' been 20 years since Ros died, what…are you back for the anniversary or what?" She's pulled this out of nowhere, but once it is out, it seems plausible.
Emily blinks, but again, her face does not betray any emotion.

"Get out of my sight," JJ says evenly. "Get out of my sight."

Emily's eyebrows contract the tiniest bit. "I lost her too," she says quickly, so lowly that for a moment JJ can only stare at her in stunned silence, trying to work out if she's heard correctly. "I lost-"

"I lost my sister," JJ shouts, and she doesn't care if they can hear her. "You lost nothing!"

Emily stares back at her, and all JJ wants is to break that calm facade. She wants Emily to cry the way her parents did that day. She wants to see the other woman break.

"Who are you to anybody?" she shouts. "Who the hell would have missed you? You call your own mother the ambassador."

JJ sees Morgan stand up at his desk and look towards her office. Emily sees JJ looking and turns to look too, gesturing that Morgan shouldn't come up.

She turns back to JJ, her face still calm. "Jennifer," she says quietly, "I don't think you want to do this here."

JJ laughs, a little surprised to hear how high and derisive her voice has gotten. "You don't know a single thing about me, Emily Prentiss." She shouts. "You don't know anything at all."

"Jen-"

"You killed my sister," she yells again. This makes Spencer's head turn too, and draws Gideon out of his office.

Emily sets her lips in a straight line. "JJ," she says evenly. "I still miss Ros t-"

"Shut up," JJ spits. Somehow hearing her sister's name out of Emily's mouth is worse than seeing it on a headstone.

"She was my sister. Don't you dare compare your loss to mine. She was…what, your fuck buddy?" Some experiment? I don't give a damn about whatever pain you think you have. It should have been you to die that day. And everyone knows it. It should have been you dead, Emily."

"That's enough!" JJ hasn't heard Hotch approaching. She turns angrily to the door and is surprised to see that her boss is flanked by both Morgan and Gideon.

"Hotch," she begins, but Emily interrupts her.

"I'm sorry, sir," she says, her tone clipped. "It won't happen again." And with that, she strides out of JJs office. Morgan casts a look at JJ that the blonde could swear is angry, before following Emily, calling for her to wait up.

JJ leans heavily on the her desk, trying to catch her breath.

"JJ," Hotch says slowly.
"I can't work with her," JJ bursts out, unable to hold it in anymore. "I don't care if she is the best profiler in he world. She's a sociopath just like the monsters we hunt every day, and I won't work with her. I won't."

There is silence, save JJ trying to get her breathing under control. Finally Hotch says, "I don't pretend to know what it was like to lose your sister."

"I didn't lose her," JJ says bitterly. "She was taken from me. Emily Prentiss took her from me."

Aaron doesn't answer this directly. "JJ," he says firmly, "why don't you take the rest of the day?"

JJ shakes her head. "I don't need-"

But her boss adopts the tone that says he is not asking, and will not be defied. "Take the day," he says again.

"Yes, sir."

"And JJ," Hotch rests his hand on the door frame has he leaves, looking back at her over his shoulder.

"Sir?"

"Think about what you are accusing Agent Prentiss of, please."

JJ colors angrily, "Sir!" She starts, but he holds up his hand and she falls silent.

He turns and walks off without another comment, leaving JJ fuming in her office, alone.

The box with Emily's things is still on the empty desk in the pen when JJ arrives next morning. She'd spent a sleepless night plagued by dreams of her sister. She'd dialed her parent's number so many times, hanging up after the first ring, that finally her parents had called her, checking to see if someone was trying to get in touch with them about her safety.

"I'm okay, Mom," she'd assured over the phone. "I'm fine."

"Well good. I don't know how those operations you do go. I thought maybe you were trying to get in touch."

"Mom," JJ had asked distractedly. "Do you ever think of Ros?"

The silence that greeted this question had been a steely one. "What would make you ask that?" her mother had said, and her voice already sounded like tears.

"Nothing," JJ had said, holding in a sigh. "Never mind."

Now, JJ glares at the box marked E.E.P. on the desk, and the small carryon duffle shoved underneath, still with the tags on.

She can't work here, JJ thinks. She just can't.

She forgoes the stairs to her apartment and heads towards the back corner of the office where the coffee is, but as she draws nearer, she hears voices. She makes out Morgan's right away, and his deep laugh.

And then, much to her dismay, she hears the voice she now knows to be Emily's.

JJ hovers just around the corner, out of sight, listening.

"Still, she had no right to talk to you like that," Morgan is saying. JJ feels a blush heat her cheeks, even though there is no one there to see it.

"Derek," Emily sounds tired.

"I'm serious. She was way out of line."

"She was upset," Emily says curtly. "She was caught off guard and upset. I don't blame her. The last time she saw me, her father was threatening to break my neck, and her mother was screaming that I'd ruined her family."

"So…you were friends as kids?" Morgan does not even bother to hide his curiosity.

"No," Emily says flatly. "She was just a kid. I can count the number of times I met her on one hand. Probably only said about five words to her. Ros and I were rarely at her house, and when we were, no one was there. I wasn't exactly the Jareau's favorite person."

Morgan snorts. "That doesn't seem to have changed."

Emily makes a non verbal sound of agreement, and JJ is struck with the flash of a memory: her sister, out of breath, slamming the window shut as JJ pushed her bedroom door open.

Don't you know how to knock?

"I wanted this to work," the genuine despair in Emily's voice is what pulls her back into the present.

"Who says it's not working?" Morgan asks, and Emily must give him a look, because he continues quickly. "Look, just let Hotch work his his magic…let it cool off a little and then-"

"Do you know why I wanted to be a part of the BAU?" Emily asks, and JJ feels comforted somewhat by the fact that she is not the only one that Emily interrupts.

But Morgan seems happy to switch subjects with her. "Why?" he prompts dutifully. JJ thinks he must want inside her pants.

"I'd heard what an amazing team you all were. How you had each other's backs. How you trusted each other completely."

"Are we that mythic?" Morgan asks with a chuckle.
"Pretty much!" Emily exclaims. "You guys are the ones that the FBI - hell, Interpol even - compares other teams too. I…I wanted to be a part of that."

"You can be," Morgan says, sounding sincere. "You can be, Emily. You just need time to-"

"No, I can't," Emily says, finality ringing in her tone. "JJ holds me responsible for the death of her sister. That is not something you get over easily."

JJ leans her head back against the wall momentarily, trying to gather herself. She is just about to turn and tiptoe away from the duo around the corner, when Spencer calls her name.

"JJ! What are you doing hiding like that?" He asks cheerfully.

JJ shuts her eyes tight for a second, and then, deciding it's better to face things head on steps forward so that Derek and Emily can see she's been standing there. When she looks around, however, she see that Emily has already pushed through the wide glass double doors and is heading for the elevators.

Derek shake his head at her. "Really, Jareau?" he asks incredulously.

JJ shrugs, trying to look defiant rather than guilty. "What? I was coming around the corner, I heard talking…"

Morgan steps up to her, his face softening into a try for compassion. "JJ," he says softly. "Why don't you try and give her a chance?"

Spencer glances between them, looking pleasantly baffled at the interaction.

"So you'd give someone who murdered your sister a second chance?" She asks harshly.

"Your sister committed suicide," Spencer says quickly, his voice going up at the end indicating he is about to give her a factoid. "There has not been a documented case where a proven suicide has resulted in the conviction of a second party."

JJ stares at them, trying to find a kind way to say the two words that are floating around in her head.

"Look," Morgan says, shooting an annoyed glance at Reid. "I'm just saying that-"

"You don't have any idea what you're talking about," JJ says angrily. "You don't know what happened and you don't know-" but she breaks off quickly, because Jason Gideon has pushed in through the double doors into the pen, and behind him, Emily Prentiss.

"What is she-" JJ starts.

"We have a new case," Gideon says over her. "Prentiss and Reid are flying out with me to Guantanamo Bay. Hotch will brief the rest of you in the meeting room in three."

"Gideon?"

"We have less than 24 hours for this," he says gruffly. "Terrorism. Reid, Prentiss, car in two. Let's move." He turns on his heal and heads back the way he came, Spencer and Reid hurrying for their go bags."

Morgan catches Prentiss' arm as she hurries by him, snatching the sales tags off the side of her duffel. She shoots him a grateful look and then heads out the door after Reid.

JJ feels like she might pass out. "I'm not working with her," she hears herself say.

Morgan makes a sound between a laugh and a scoff. He turns towards the meeting room, calling to her over her shoulder,

"It doesn't look like you have a choice."