Little Reminders

March 7, 2015

On Saturday morning, Emily found herself at work, sitting behind her desk and staring out the window. From the top floor of the Interpol building, Emily had a perfect view of a park across the street and she often found herself gazing at the children playing there. Today, there were no clouds in the sky but the trees were being thrown around by the wind. It was a relatively nice day, but there was still a chill in the air since it was only March. March seventh to be exact. It was the day Ian Doyle had killed her four years ago. The day she lost everything and everyone she cared about. She didn't like thinking about it; she had gone to great lengths to avoid thinking about it. That was why she was sitting in her office on a Saturday trying not to think about it, trying to busy herself with work. Though she found herself gazing out the window at nothing in particular. There was a little boy running around the park who looked to be about six or seven years old that caught her eye. His baseball cap had blown off his head and the wind was carrying it around the playground, and the boy was chasing after it. A smile spread across Emily's face as she watched the boy run around and she even chuckled when a little girl joined in.

"So you do have a heart."

Emily was startled by the voice behind her and quickly turned around to see Jacob Keever leaning against the doorframe. She was so focused on the two children that Emily hadn't even heard him come in. He stood there wearing his usual tailored suit, his short, dark, wavy hair perfectly gelled and his brown eyes gleaming in merriment.

"Contrary to popular belief," Emily replied.

"I figured you'd be here," Keever said and walked further into the spacious office.

"Because...?"

"Because it's March seventh and you always burry yourself in your work on the seventh," he replied with a shrug, not knowing the havoc he was reeking on Emily by simply acknowledging that fact.

Emily cleared her throat before saying, "What are you doing here on a Saturday? I thought you had weekends off..."

"I do," he said. "I was sick last week, so I'm a bit behind on my paperwork."

"And you can't do that at home?" Emily asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I find I'm a bit more productive here."

Emily scoffed. "I find that hard to believe."

"You might be right," he said with a wink, as a smirk spread across his face.

They fell into a comfortable silence as Emily turned slightly and gazed back out the window again. The little boy had finally retrieved his hat and he was playing with the little girl.

"I see the flowers came," Keever said, pointing to the bouquet of yellow daffodils displayed on Emily's bookshelf to her right. "Just like clockwork."

A faint smile appeared on Emily's face as she looked over at the flowers.

"So are you going to tell me the story this year?" Keever asked. He planted himself down in one of the chairs in front of her desk and waited for her answer.

Emily pursed her lips as she thought this request over. Every year he would ask this question and she would always refuse to answer.

"Come on Emily," he all but whined. "For the last three years you've been getting daffodils on a day you're almost always lost in your head. I'm not the only one who has picked up on this."

"Four years," Emily mumbled and looked down at her hands. "I've been getting them for the last four years."

"I've never seen a card," Keever remarked, attempting to keep her talking. "So then you must know who they're from. Is it a secret admirer? An old flame perhaps?"

Emily laughed at what he automatically assumed, as the image of the sender sproutted up in her mind. "No, definitely not," she answered.

"Well we both know it's not a current boyfriend," he said with another smirk.

She glared at him as a blush spread across her face.

"It was one night, and we were drunk off our asses," Emily scolded him, trying to suppress a laugh. "Are you going to hold that over me forever? It happened a year ago for Christ sake."

"You're cute when you get frustrated," Keever replied.

Emily sighed in defeat and looked down at the paperwork in front of her. There was no way she was going to get any more work done with him sitting across from her. Though it wasn't like she was getting much work done anyway.

"Emily ," Keever called quietly. She glanced up to see the sparkle in his eyes gone, the smirk wiped off his face. "You can trust me. If it means that much to you, I swear, I won't tell a soul."

Emily was still hesitant to tell him. It wasn't that she didn't want him to know who was sending her the flowers. It was the reason she was getting them that made her keep her mouth shut. Not many people at INTERPOL knew that she was the one who took down Ian Doyle. They didn't know she faked her own death for six months. Emily just didn't want to explain it all. But seeing Jacob sitting in front of her, concerned for her well being, made her rethink her decision.

"If you really want to know and if it will get you off my ass about it, then fine, I'll tell you," Emily grumbled.


March 7, 2012

"As part of protecting your identity, your team had to burry you. They lost someone they loved; maybe you did too. Think about it."

The words Dr. Meryl had said to Emily a few months before rang in her head as Emily stepped into the elevator that morning. She had told the woman she would think about it-mourning her own death-but Emily told her therapist a lot of things. She gazed at her distorted reflection in the metal doors before her as the elevator moved up through the building. The woman staring back at her looked like Emily Prentiss, she sounded like Emily Prentiss, but she wasn't the same woman who walked out on her team one year ago. She had changed in the last year and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring that Emily back.

The dinging of the elevator brought Emily out of her thoughts. The doors slid open, revealing the sixth floor, but Emily didn't make a move to step out into the hall. Saying she didn't want to be at work today was an understatement, but taking the day off just wasn't an option. The others would have definitely thought something was wrong and that she wasn't okay. They would have thought that she was weak, and she couldn't let them believe that. Though as much as she didn't want to be in the office, Emily also didn't want to be sitting alone in her apartment all day, wallowing in guilt. She had done enough of that when she was in Paris. And the night before with too many bottles of liquor.

The elevator doors began to close, so Emily pushed the button to open them back up and she finally stepped out into the hallway, leaving her thoughts behind her.

"Emily!" Reid exclaimed from her left. "Hey; I-uh, didn't think you'd be coming to the office today..."

"And why is that Reid?" Emily asked with a raised eyebrow. She knew he meant well, but since he made her uncomfortable, she did the same to him. Her logic was foolproof.

"Oh, uh..." he trailed off and looked down sheepishly at his hands.

At the sight of his red face, Emily let a smile spread across her face.

"It's okay Reid," she told him. "I'm sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. I'm just not in the best mood today."

"I see," Reid replied. "I'm going to get some coffee," he mumbled and skirted around Emily into the bull pen.

Emily sighed and was about to head to her desk when she heard Morgan and Garcia's voices floating down the hall.

"...Baby Girl," Morgan was saying, "I know you have good intentions but I don't know if she'll like this."

"As much as I love and respect you Derek Morgan, I don't give a flying monkey what you think," Garcia said. "I just want today to be-" Garcia stopped talking when she caught sight of Emily.

"Hey guys," Emily said cautiously. "What's going on?"

"Hey. Hi. Nothing. Why? What do you think is going on?" Garcia replied. She was hiding something. Emily could tell, not only because she answered a question with another question, but also because Garcia had a fake smile plastered on her face.

"I don't know, that's why I asked," Emily said and glanced at Morgan.

He flashed that brilliant smile of his and headed toward the glass doors.

"So, how was you night last nigh, Prentiss?" he asked casually as he held the door open for Emily and Garcia.

"It was fine. Paperwork, television and wine; what more could a girl want?" she replied sarcastically.

At the sight of her desk, Emily stopped dead in her tracks. She heard Garcia squeal behind her, but the she couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene before her. What was once her relatively neat and orderly desk, was currently covered in bouquets of flowers. Big Bird yellow daffodils to be precise. Emily couldn't even see the surface of her desk.

So much for having a normal day at work, she thought.

"So, what do you think?" Garcia asked as she wrapped an arm around Emily's shoulders. "I wanted to throw a party in the conference room, but Derek said that might not be a good idea. He suggested flowers but one bouquet just wouldn't be enough. And yellow is a smiley, happy, sunshine colour and daffodils symbolize new beginnings and rebirth and spring and prosperity and I figured today could be like a second birthday instead of, um… Anyway, I made cupcakes for everyone too. So, what do you think?" Garcia asked again at the end of her little rant.

Emily didn't exactly know what to think. On one hand, she didn't want anybody making a big deal about today, but on the other she couldn't help but love what Garcia had done for her. She stood there for a little longer, trying to come up with something to say that wouldn't make Garcia cry, because if Garcia started crying, Emily wasn't sure if she could keep her composure either.

"Emily? Please say something," Garcia said as she took Emily's hand.

"Did you empty out a whole flower shop?" Emily finally asked, still dumbfounded by the number of flowers on her desk.

"Two actually," Morgan replied from his spot beside her. Garcia looked down sheepishly at her hands.

"How did you get them all up here?" Emily moved closer to her desk, her two friends following closely behind her. There were even flowers covering the seat of her chair.

"We had to carry them all," Morgan said.

"You helped her with this?" Emily turned to look at him, surprised that Garcia roped him into her nefarious plot.

"Well who do you think stopped her from going to the third flower shop?" he asked with a grin and a laugh.

Emily finally let a smile break out across her face and a laugh escaped her lips.

"You like it?!" Garcia exclaimed, happiness lighting up her features.

"Yes Garcia, I love it," Emily replied.

Garcia pounced on her with those words, wrapping her in a tight hug for a bit longer than Emily would have liked. "I'm so glad you like it! Today is going to be a great day, I'll make sure of it."

"Thank you Garcia," Emily replied and pulled out of the embrace. "And thank you too, Morgan."

She pulled him in for a hug and this time he was the surprised one. He quickly returned it and when they pulled apart, all three friends stood gazing at her desk. Emily caught movement from Hotch's window and saw him and Rossi watching them from the office window. She smiled up at them before returning her gaze to Garcia.

"As nice as this looks, I do need to use my desk today. What was your plan for after I saw these? Do we have somewhere to put them?" Emily asked and watched Garcia's expression fall. "You didn't think that far in advance, did you?"

"Not exactly," Garcia answered with a glance in Morgan's direction.

"Don't look at me Baby Girl, " he told her. "These aren't going in my office, and they're certainly not going back in my truck."

"How about we put them in the conference room," Emily suggested.

"That sounds perfect!" Garcia replied. "And when we're done we can all have the cupcakes I brought!"

Emily chuckled as she began picking up the flowers and moving them to the other room. As much as she wanted the day to be normal, she knew that wouldn't be happening with Penelope Garcia around. And she was okay with that.

She might have changed, but she knew that with the friends she had, she would be okay, she would heal and be better than she was before. This was her new beginning and she was determined not to waste it. She would find a way to be happy again, it just might take longer than she thought it would.


Emily looked over at the bouquet of flowers on her shelf as she finished her story, leaving out some of the details. She couldn't help but smile as she thought about Garcia and Morgan, bickering as they moved the flowers for the second time that day.

"Well that's not as bad as I was thinking it would be," Keever said from his seat.

"What were you expecting?" she asked, looking back at him.

"I thought someone died, but nobody did, so that's good," he told her with a smile on his face.

"Yeah," Emily said with a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "nobody died."

"I'll leave you to it then," he said as he rose from his seat.

"Yes, you better go finish that paperwork of yours," Emily replied with a smirk.

As Keever opened her door, he turned back to her. "If you want to get a drink later or talk some more, just let me know."

"Thank you," said Emily with a nod.

Keever left then, returning to whatever it was he was doing on a Saturday. Surprisingly, Emily did feel a bit better than she had before. She forgot how hopeful she was that day, how content she was while surrounded by her friends. She missed them, but this was her new life. This was what she decided would be her new beginning. She was happy here, she really was. She just needed to be reminded of it on days like today.


A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it.