They say the truth hurts. To Emily, truth is like liquor.
It's been eight months since the team has returned from being held captive by modern-day pirates, on what was supposed to have been a vacation to the Seychelles. Emily and the rest had spent just two months with their captors, and yet those two months haunt her in a way nothing else can. She remembers the August Christmas party, which was supposed to somehow supplement what they had missed. It hadn't.
And the truth remains, making the ground shake beneath her, just as it had on any boat. Even after all this time, Emily cannot get herself together. Less than a year after taking regular beatings, she has begun to lose herself. So, when the invitation comes for the office Halloween party, she almost doesn't go. But the thought of Rossi giving her a hard time, and the rest talking about it Thursday morning without her is too much. Even back when her life had been a series of nightmares, she at least had the comfort of knowing that somewhere else, the rest of her team was suffering, too.
So, Emily shows up.
She endures all of them smiling. Emily watches as they all make small talk about things that don't matter. She knows they aren't faking exactly, but the approximation to normalcy is jarring when Emily still sleeps in a nest of blankets on the floor, rather than in bed. When she still jerks awake multiple times a night sure that JJ has died, that Hotch is going to be beaten to death, or that Emily herself might die alone. How many times does she feel her wrist for metal - for the cuffs that kept her and Rossi together when the men with guns were separating them?
Still, the truth remains, burning like the liquor she carries. Emily feels more alone here, among her coworkers than she ever did when they were all held prisoner together. It is unsettling, but it is fact. Here is another: Emily is not coping. In fact, she feels very much like she is drowning. A thought floats through her mind as she watches Garcia, dressed as a fairy, and Kevin, a frog: no man is an island. And a subsequent question takes its place abruptly.
Is every woman?
And is it any wonder, then, that Emily spikes the hot apple cider and pours herself a cup?
The End.
A/N: If you are curious about Emily and the team's time in captivity, check out the story, Seychelles.