Just a little drabble that I thought of after re-watching the Season 7 finale. It takes place almost immediately after the credits start rolling. I don't own Criminal Minds or any of the related characters and concepts.
After finishing her dance with Derek, Emily stepped away from the dance floor and towards the refreshment table. After asking one of the wait staff for a glass of ice water, she shot a glance back toward the floor where her friends continued to enjoy themselves and celebrate Will and JJ's wedding. Emily allowed a small smile to flit across her face. Despite her earlier admission to Derek that she was likely leaving the FBI to take the Interpol job in London and her knowledge that similar conversations with the rest of the team would soon follow, she was genuinely enjoying herself for the first time in recent memory. She'd managed to force her thoughts about leaving as well as her recurrent bouts of anxiety to the back of her mind and just have fun celebrating JJ's night. For once her compartmentalization skills proved useful for something other than work.
As she gratefully accepted the water from a waiter who looked to be in his late twenties, Emily felt someone touch her shoulder lightly from behind. She turned to see none other than the new bride herself, looking beautiful in a wedding dress Emily had a hard time believing had been worn by JJ's mother in the 70s.
"Oh hey Jayje," Emily said happily, beaming at her friend.
"Hey Emily, can I, uh, talk to you inside for a second?" JJ asked.
"Of course," Emily replied. "Anything."
Emily followed JJ into Rossi's kitchen. She quickly realized that she and JJ were not alone. Will stood at Rossi's island counter, nursing a glass of wine in his left hand, which occasionally gave off a glint of gold as the light from the yard reflected off of his new ring. He was clearly waiting for their arrival.
"Have a seat, Emily," Will said, indicating one of the bar stools at the counter. "You've been standing in those heals all night, I don't know how or why you ladies do that."
"Typical guy," JJ teased as Emily accepted Will's offer and sat down.
"Okay guys, uh, what's this about?" Emily asked. "Shouldn't you be out there celebrating some more? It's your wedding night."
"That's the thing, Emily," JJ interrupted. "We wouldn't be having this night at all if it weren't for you. You saved Will's life yesterday. And we got so caught up in the stress of yesterday an the excitement of tonight that we never thanked you."
"There's no need, really," Emily insisted. "That's what we do. I was just doing my job."
"Emily, you did a lot more than that," Will countered. "You risked your life for me. You literally came within a second of dying. You didn't have to do that. You could have left. Hell, you should have left. I told you that. I begged you to leave. But you didn't. You stayed. That's the only reason I'm alive right now, because you stayed."
"I told you Will, I couldn't just leave you there. Anybody on this team would have done the same," Emily said.
"Maybe, maybe not," Will answered. "I find it hard to believe that anybody could keep their composure in a situation like that and figure out how to defuse that bomb so quickly. That was incredible. Maybe somebody else could have pulled it off. I don't know. What I do know is that I got the chance to see my son again and to spend the rest of my life with my wife because of what you did, and I will never be able to thank you enough."
"Well," Emily replied. "I'm just glad we made it. For both of our sakes. But honestly, this is your night. You two should still be out there celebrating."
"Alright," Will said. "But I think JJ and I owe you a few drinks sometime."
"That I won't say no to," Emily smiled.
"Go on," JJ told Will. "I'll be back out in minute."
"Alright," he said, giving JJ a quick kiss and Emily a heartfelt squeeze on the shoulder.
"So," JJ said after Will was safely out of earshot. "Why did you really do it?"
"What do you mean?" Emily asked incredulously. "I just told you why. I couldn't just leave him there. I wasn't about to walk away and let him die."
"I believe that," JJ said. "But there's more to it than that. I can see it in your face."
Emily bit her lip and nodded. She could see JJ wasn't about to let her weasel her way out of an honest answer.
"I guess, it's just…I know what it's like to be alone and about to die," Emily admitted, her voice lowered to almost a mumble. "I couldn't let that happen to Will. He didn't deserve that. Nobody does."
Emily was caught off guard by her own admission. They were getting into dangerous territory. She had no desire to discuss her true feelings and state of mind regarding the Doyle incident with anybody on the team, even JJ. She was wary of making herself vulnerable or picking at the slowly healing scars of the rest of the team. That was the reason why staying at the BAU had become unbearable. Staying meant that she had to live a lie and pretend she was okay. Revealing the truth would mean having to deal openly and honestly with the fact that Doyle had forever changed her state of mind as well as the way she related to the rest of the team. It would mean admitting that, in some ways, part of Emily Prentiss did die on March 7, 2011 and that the Emily Prentiss who came back was a slightly different person. If that happened, she was afraid the bonds of trust and confidence crucial to the team's ability to function would be compromised. So she played the roll of the old Emily Prentiss just as she once played the roll of Lauren Reynolds. But the roll was getting harder to play with each passing day. But she couldn't let JJ know this. Not yet anyway. So she tried to lighten the tone of the conversation.
"Besides," Emily smirked. "I owed you. I mean, you did cover my ass for seven months. I had to pay you back somehow."
"You didn't owe me anything," JJ said matter-of-factly. "But, if you want to think of it in those terms, I'd say you paid me back and then some."
"So," JJ continued, "when are you leaving?"
Emily was taken aback. She still had no desire to discuss the issue tonight, least of all with JJ. But the look on JJ's face told Emily that there would be no avoiding the conversation.
"Did Morgan tell you?" Emily pressed.
"No," JJ answered. "Garcia let slip that she walked in on a conversation between you and Morgan and thought something was wrong. I figured the rest out on my own. Your backing out of buying the house in Georgetown. Your phone conversation with Clyde Easter yesterday. The fact that you've spent half of the evening circling the dance floor and staring at everybody like it's the last time you're ever going to see us. It all added up. I am a profiler now, you know."
"I know, and a good one too, although clearly we forgot to tell you about the moratorium on inner-team profiling," Emily replied.
"I think that went out the window when you nearly got yourself killed," JJ retorted. "But you're avoiding my question. When are you leaving?"
"I don't know," Emily admitted. "Clyde offered to put me in charge of Interpol's London Office. If I take it I'll probably have to be over there in a few weeks. But, honestly, I haven't decided for sure yet. I'm only considering it at this point."
"Emily, you and I both know that you're going to take that job," JJ said bluntly. "And as much as I hate to say it, I think it's a good idea."
"You do?" Emily asked incredulously.
"Yeah, I do," JJ admitted. "Obviously I don't want you to leave. I'll miss you like crazy, again. And you're so damn good at your job. But you need this, Emily. You haven't been the same since you got back. You're my best friend – I can tell. What happened to you wasn't fair. And the fact that you had to come back and almost immediately brush it off wasn't fair. You need to do something for yourself for a change."
"Even if that's true, I'm not sure if it's the right decision," Emily said. "Part of me wonders how it can possibly good for me to leave behind all of my friends and move halfway around the world."
"Because I want an excuse to take a vacation to Europe," JJ teased. "But seriously Em, you need to be able to speak honestly about what you went through, and maybe even work with a therapist for real, because if I know you half as well as I think I do I'm sure you told the Bureau-mandated therapist whatever you needed to in order to stay on the job. You'll never be able to do any of that as long as you're here," JJ assessed.
Again, Emily simply nodded rather than bothering to protest. JJ had cut closer to the truth than she probably knew.
"That being said," JJ continued, "you better not think you're going to leave without talking to me about some of those things first. I know you don't want to, but you need to. I should have made you do it sooner."
"I will," Emily conceded. "I promise, but not tonight. It's your night, and you've already been in here far too long. Go back out there."
"Only if you come back out with me," the blonde insisted. "This isn't just my night. It's for all of us. Besides, you look way too fabulous in that dress to be staying inside. For the rest of the night, you're going to have fun and not worry about any of this. Deal?"
"Deal."