TITLE: Rest Stop (PART 01 / ?)
RATING: FRT
CHARACTER: E. Prentiss / J. Jareau / Whole Damn Team
SUMMARY: With the rain and the darkness and the miles that stretch out before us on this desolate road, I wonder exactly what it is I've gotten myself into.
WARNINGS: Just the usual...adult content, mild violence, femslash, and maybe some minor adult language. But that's it for now. That's right, nobody dies in this one! Groovy, huh?
NOTES: Okay, well, I started this last night. This whole story is loosely based on a Matchbox 20 song called Rest Stop, hence the title...but I don't consider this a "songfic." I have a basic outline of where I want it to go, but I don't know how often I'll be able to find the time to update...so please, be patient with me. I apologize for the length, I know it's not much, but hopefully the next part will be longer.

Raven, you. Light traveling through a solid to form shadow, you.

- Stanley Gemmell

We pass the rest stop with its neon lights and bleary-eyed truckers, and I watch the gentle rain pelting the windshield of our rental car. I don't really want to be driving back, but with Prentiss injured, we know she isn't cleared to fly. No one argued with me when I suggested that I be the one to drive her back, but still, with the rain and the darkness and the miles that stretch out before us on this desolate road, I wonder exactly what it is I've gotten myself into.

I grope for the radio dial and turn it up just a notch the second I hear Guns 'N Roses begin to sing about a cold November rain. Perfect, I think, except that July is a long way off from November and I'm positive that if I were to stick my head out the driver's side window, the downpour wouldn't exactly feel cold either. Still, those minor errors can't extinguish the nostalgia creeping up the back of my neck. I haven't heard the song since highschool and yet, I still don't feel any older now than I was back then.

I turn my head to glance at Emily before returning my eyes to the slick highway. She sleeps heavily with her head resting against the rain-splattered window, using my coat as a pillow. I carefully place a hand on her back, just so I can feel the breath swirling around inside her lungs.

I try not to think too much as I feel the sharp inhale and exhale of air; I try not to think about the bomb, the explosion, the shrapnel embedded into her face and neck - the thought of losing her. I attempt desperately to hold onto the memory of her laughter, that very same morning, and the way her hips felt in my palms when she kissed my forehead.

She shifts suddenly and I quickly pull my hand away and put it back on the steering wheel. No one has ever woken Emily Prentiss from a deep sleep and lived to tell the tale. I hear her groan and turn down Guns 'N Roses until they are only a low hum in the back of my mind.

"What time is it?" she murmurs into my coat and then begins to sit up, thinking better of it as a hand shoots to the side of her head where she's still seeping blood through the gauze.

I'll have to re-dress it for her later, if I'm ever able to find a vacant hotel room at this time of night. My eyes already feel as though they're bleeding, screaming for rest, and there is no way I'm going to allow Emily to take over driving. Not after the two Vicodins she swallowed as soon as she was settled in the car, and the weather being as uncooperative as it is.

"Take it easy," I say gently, "it's nearly one in the morning. You've been out for three hours."

"I remember Lake Erie, and then..."

"Then you were pretty much down for the count," I finish with a sardonic smile. "How are you feeling?"

Snickering, "Like I just had a bomb explode in my face."

"Funny. And embellishing. Luckily you and Morgan were far enough away. Any closer, and I'd probably be planning funeral arrangements right now."

She tries to laugh, but it breaks off somewhere deep in her throat. I start to wonder if she could hear the sadness in my voice, masked by a clever quip. She grows quiet for so long that I give her another sideways glance. She's looks back at me with a soft expression and I have to bite my bottom lip as I avert my eyes back to the road.

TO BE CONTINUED...