Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics
Things get worse under pressure.
The Murphy Philosophy
Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.
Murphy's Law
Anything that can go wrong will.
Sitting down for what felt like the first time in weeks, JJ leaned back into her sofa and enjoyed the peace and quiet of her home. As she sat there sipping a glass of wine she reflected on her first week at the Department of Defense. It had defiantly not been a good week.
"Henry went down without a fuss as usual." Will said quietly as he stepped behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders and began to rub.
"Mmm hmm. He's a good boy, just like his daddy." She replied tilting her head forward and closing her eyes. As she sat there with Will massaging her shoulders she felt herself start to relax. That was until her cell phone began to ring.
"Just ignore it." Will tried, still rubbing her shoulders.
As she reached for her phone a smile crossed her face. "It's ok, it's just Garcia. Pen, Hi."
"Oh my gawd, you have no idea how much I missed you today. I don't know how you did it Sunshine."
"Did what?" JJ asked confused.
"Everything!" Garcia nearly shouted as though it should be obvious. "The people, the families, the reporters, especially the reporters – the sneaky lying little…arg!…and, and then there were the constant distractions, I don't know how you ever managed to get anything done. Oh! Do you ever feel like you're basically babysitting the local law enforcement officers? I mean really do they not know they're grown men?"
"Garcia! Slow down." JJ said with a hint of humor in her voice. "Tell me what happened."
"I talked Hotch into letting me help out, by filling in for you since he's not hiring a replacement I figured it was the least I could do."
"Oh Pen. You didn't?" Understanding filled the media liaison's voice as she was well aware of what the job entailed.
"I did. I'm afraid my Goddess Prowess doesn't extend to the world of media relations. To that I bow down to you my Blonde Media Savant!"
The 'Blonde Media Savant' let out a genuine laugh before continuing the conversation with her friend; "I don't know about that Pen. We all have our own strengths, you just need to…. Sorry can you hang on for a second Will's trying to tell me something." JJ turned to find Will standing beside her holding out the house phone. "Will I'm already on the phone." She joked with him. "Who is it?"
"Emily." He replied with his hand over the receiver. "She sounds," he paused for a minute trying to think of the right word. "Annoyed."
"Give it here." JJ gave Will a playful swat on the arm as he moved to sit next to her. "Emily?"
"Morgan's an ass!" Emily fumed through the phone. "I shot a hole in my very nice very expensive purse tonight and all he can do is make jokes."
"Emily. Why did you shoot your purse?" confusion setting in for the second time that night.
"I didn't shoot my purse JJ. I fired my gun that happened to be IN my purse at the time." She paused for a minute then added; "I really liked that purse."
"Em, hang on a second ok." JJ turned her attention back to Will who once again was trying to get her attention. "I don't think I can take any more calls right now." She joked with him once again.
"Why don't you ask them if they want to meet you at Ralph's for drinks tonight?" Will asked.
"Really? You don't mind staying in tonight?"
"After the week you've had I think you need this more than I need to meet the boys for poker." He lent in and kissed her on the cheek. "Go on, Henry and I will be fine here."
"Thanks," she said and kissed him before she watched him walk down the hall towards their son's room. She really was a pretty luck girl she thought to herself. "Emily?" she asked returning the phone to her ear. "You wanna grab a drink at Ralph's talk about this some more?"
"Uhh! I though you'd never ask. Meet you there in 15?"
"Yeah, works for me. I'm gonna ask Garcia to come too. She's on the other line."
"Girls Night, Yes!" Emily all but yelled into the phone. "See ya soon."
"Pen? You still there?" She asked hoping the Tech Goddess hadn't dozed off.
"Still here Sunshine."
"That was Emily on the other line. We're heading down to Ralph's Restaurant for a couple of drinks. Meet us there?"
"OMG Girls Night I wouldn't miss it. See you in a jiff." She squealed and hung up the phone.
15 minutes later Ralph's Restaurant.
JJ walked in to the cozy pub style restaurant to find her two friends already sitting at a small table near the back.
"I've only been gone for two weeks and already you two have mange to get yourself in trouble."
"Oh my god JJ! What happened? Are you ok?" Emily stood and took closer stock of her friend standing in front of her. Garcia was right on her heals waiting for an answer.
"What this?" JJ asked pointing to the cut and surrounding bruise on her head just above her left eye. "That would be a result of the week from hell." She stated dryly and plopped down in at the table.
"What kind of job have they got you doing to you over there at the DoD?" Emily asked.
"Yeah Sweetpea, are you hurt anywhere else?"
"Just my pride." JJ tried to dismiss her friends. "Really guys I'm fine."
"Oh no!" Emily pointed her finger at JJ. "You're not getting off that easy."
"Yeah – tell us what happened Jay." Garcia said backing up Emily.
"Do you want to hear about how I locked myself out of my office on my second day there and then proceeded to spill coffee all over my new boss. Or how almost everyone thinks I'm too young to do the job – including the guy in Counter Terrorism who calls me 'kiddo' or 'blondie.' Or maybe you'd like to hear about the 16 hours I spent on the phone with a wide array of CIA operatives trying to find out who would be the representative for a case we were working on so I could send him the agenda, let me tell you those people do NOT like to share information. I mean it's not like I was asking for the President's phone number."
"We were really just asking about that?" Emily said pointing to her forehead unsure of what else to say. It was rare for their blonde friend to go off on such a rant about work, so rare in fact it had rendered Garcia speechless and Emily at a loss of what else to really say.
"Oh yeah." JJ grimaced before continuing. "Was the highlight of my week; in the middle of a press briefing I got into a bit of a heated debate with a pushy arrogant reporter who didn't have a clue but thought he knew everything because he was a man."
"Oh tell me he didn't hit you because if he did there will be no place he can hid from me." Garcia said to her friend, already pulling out a pen to get the man's name.
"No he didn't hit me." She paused and then added; "Unfortunately." Noticing the looks on her friends faces when she added the unfortunately bit at the end of the sentence JJ rolled her eyes and then continued to explain. "In my eagerness to make a hasty retreat, I tripped over the mic cable and pretty much took a header off the stage."
As the 3 friends sat around the table, Emily and Garcia looked at their friend with sympathy. That was for all of 3 seconds until they both burst out in laughter. The blonde liaison was less than amused at first but then couldn't help joining in. "It's not…" she started between laughing fits; "it's not funny you guys. This has been the worst week ever." She continued to laugh.
And that was how the night had continued, just 3 good friends sharing some drinks and laughing at one another's series of misfortunate events, stressful situations and encounters with sleazy Unsubs.