Tell me something about yourself I don't know" JJ asked lying her head on Emily's lap, the movie long since forgotten. "What do you want to knowJayje?" Smiling down at the blonde in her lap, Emily tried to suppress the feelings she had bubbling inside of her, she could just tell her now, get it all out in the open, no more secrets. She could always feel the same right? "Idunno, how come I've never seen you with anyone?,I've even met Morgan's dates, but never yours. Anyone in the picture?"Tell her, she's asked the question, just tell her.What's the worst that could happen? She could hear me?! "Em?" " Um, yeah... yeah, well there is someone Ikindalike" " Yeah? Who is he?"Do I know him? Does he work at the FBI?" "Um, no" "No?" "No, its um, uh, its" This was turning out to be harder thanEmily first thought. "Come on,Em. You can tell me." Emily looked over at her friend, making instant eye contact and in that moment deciding that the if it was meant to be it would be. Leaning in, she was somewhat surprised to see no hesitation in the eyes of herco-worker but as she got within breathing distance of her face, something, somewhere began to ring, the closer she got, the louder it got until...
Emily woke with a start. Opening her eyes and seeing it was still dark out, she cursed whoever thought it was appropriate to commit such a crime that would require her to be awakened at such an hour. Deciding that she couldn't put off answering her phone any longer, she blindly searched for it on the nightstand, smiling slightly when she saw who was chosen to make the calls.
"Prentiss" " Hey, Em its JJ. We've got a case, we're meeting on the jet." Frowning slightly, Emily could hear the strain in her friend's voice, a tell-tale sign that it was a bad one, most likely involving children in some way. "Bad one?" She asked, slightly concerned for the woman she had grown to like in a way that could be seen as unprofessional. JJ sighed before answering, "Yeah, they're taking kids Em, and killing their whole families, kids Em" Taking a breath, Emily thought before replying to the obviously emotional woman. "I know Jayje, want a ride to the airstrip? I'll bring coffee from that café you like round the corner?" "No, Em, its fine, I don't want to put you out, I'll be fine, it's just these cases get to me. I wish they didn't but they do." "Its fine Jay, I've got to go that way anyway." Wanting nothing more to comfort her friend when she so clearly needed it. "Well, yeah. That sounds nice then. I've still got to make some calls, we've still got about an hour before we're due to take off anyway." "Great, I'll be there in about 45 then? That okay with you?" "Yeah, sounds great and thanks Em" " It's no problem Jayje, really, what are friends for? I'll see you soon" "Bye Em". Both woman hung up their phones, feeling a little down at the use of the word friend to describe their relationship.
40 minutes later, Emily was pulling up at the media liaison/profilers house with the promised gift of coffee. As she made her way out of her car to knock on the door, she was met with a sight that made her stomach flip, JJ was making her way out of her house, go bag over her shoulder, briefcase in one hand whilst she balanced a large number of case files in the other as well as attempting to lock her door. Even in her clearly dishevelled state, Emily couldn't help but think that she was the most amazingly beautiful thing on earth. Quickly gathering herself, Emily jogged over to JJ and took the files and her go bag, returning the smile when JJ turned. "You are a lifesaver Em, and you brought coffee!" Taking the offered cup from the taller agent, JJ gave Emily a grateful smile before gesturing for her to make her way down the driveway to the car.
As Emily made her way to the back of the car to put JJ's go bag in the trunk with her own, she smiled when she heard JJ sigh as she settled down into the front seat of her car. Making her way to the driver's side, she mentally scolded herself for being so happy when the case was obviously getting to JJ.
"Ready?" She asked her blonde companion as she slipped into the driver's side, shutting the door behind her. "Yeah and thanks again Em, you really didn't need to pick me up." " It's no problem Jayje, at least this way, you have someone to vent to about the case before we get together" Emily replied giving her friend a knowing look as she put the car in reverse and made her way out of the driveway and onto the main road. "What happened to no inter team profiling huh?" "It's not profiling Jay, I'm your friend and I know how much these cases get to you, especially since Henry. You don't have to talk if you don't want to, just know that I'm here if you want to talk, whenever." Briefly taking her eyes off the road to smile at her passenger. "Thanks Em, I might just take you up on that offer, later though, if you don't mind." Reaching over to squeeze her friends hand as way of response, Emily switched her focus onto the road as a thought came to mind. "Hey Jayje, where is it we're headed? I don't think you mentioned it in your early wakeup call?" With a hint of a smirk that JJ couldn't help return as she looked through the file again to find the name of the small town requesting their help. "Um that would be Archer City, Texas. The blonde replied with a somewhat confused expression on her face, I've never heard of it, have you?" "Um, yeah I think so, it's like really small though, Reid could probably give you like a million statistics about it." "Yeah, I'll be worried when we go somewhere he can't give us statistics on. If it's so small, shouldn't that make it easier to find the unsub?" " Not necessarily, small towns like this might stick together, make it more difficult, let's not talk about that now though, we've still got like 10 minutes before I have to think about that, tell me how's Henry?" "Good, he's with Will. I had to call and ask him to keep him, he sounded really happy on the phone but I miss him, y'know" It had been almost a week since JJ had spent quality time with her son, ever since she had split from Will and they agreed to joint custody, she had seen much less of him between work and his time with his father in New Orleans. As much as she knew he needed to get to know his dad, a part of her wished that he was there when she got back from a bad day at work so she could just hug him and put him to bed, she just wanted a piece of normality to be present in her life.
Looking over at the older brunette, who was part of the reason her relationship with Will failed in the first place, she gave a sad smile as she saw the compassion in the usually hard to read, closed off eyes she had grown to love. Emily knew that a simple look could convey everything she was feeling and so made no attempt to reply except to give a squeeze of the hand that she hadn't noticed until that moment was still in JJ's lap before removing her hand and signalling as she pulled into the airstrip. Putting the car in park, Emily pulled the keys out of the ignition and made her way to the truck of her car to retrieve the two go bags. Making her way to the jet, she looked over her shoulder and saw that JJ was still sitting in her car, turning around, she made her way to the passenger side and looked through the window to see what the problem was. Seeing JJ looking at her phone, she placed both bags on the ground at her feet and opened the door carefully so as to not startle the woman. "You okay?" Concern evident in her voice. Obviously not realising she had been looking at her phone as long as she had, JJ wiped her eyes before smiling at her phone, tilting the screen to show the video to her friend. "He said a new word today. He's growing up so fast and I'm missing it Em" Smiling slightly at the video of the infant babbling, Emily though carefully before replying. Deciding that her friend needed something positive to focus on during the case she asked "When we get back, how soon do you think you could get him back?" Taking a minute to think, she replied "I dunno, he'll only be in the next state so he'll actually be closer than normal which is going to suck more, I guess I could rent a car and then fly back with him commercial, save Will the trouble, why?" Smiling at the blonde as she helped her out of her car, a plan already formulating in her head to cheer the blonde up, Emily picked both bags up and throwing them both over one shoulder, looped her arm through one of the blondes and they made their way up the stairs of the jet.
"So, what do we think?" Looking around at his team, Hotch could see the stress already evident on their faces. He wanted to get the brief over with and give them time to relax before they landed.
''Typically unsubs with this amount of rage would be older, having experienced more pain in life but the brutality of the kills and their ability to overpower the males suggests that they're younger.'' Reid responded barely lifting his head from his book.
''Great, so we're looking for a guy in his late 20's to early 30's who's experienced a lot of pain in his life. In a small town Texas, this should be easy.'' Morgan replied, getting up to refill his coffee.
''Actually Poteet has a population of 3,260. It's one of the smallest towns in Texas, 44.3% of families in the area have children under the age of 18, not all of these families will fit the victim profile which should help narrow our pool of potential victims.'' Reid looked up from his book to see looks of utter bewilderment on the faces of his team ''What?''
''Nothing Pretty boy, absolutely nothing'' smirking slightly, the rest of the team split up, each heading to different part of the plane to try and relax, or in JJ's case do some work before they land.
Emily watched her blonde friend make her way to her usual seat at the back of the jet before making her way over and taking the seat in front of her, moving the files off the desk away from the younger agent and placing them on the seat next to her.
''Em I've got work to do, give them back''
''We've all got work to do Jay, that doesn't mean we're going to overwork ourselves before we even land.'' Giving JJ a look that she knew she was right, JJ sighed and rested her head on the window, watching the clouds pass by.
Getting up Emily looked at JJ before making her way to the kitchenette and making them both some coffee. On her way back, Morgan gave her a look, asking if everything was okay with JJ, it was obvious to the rest of the team that something was bothering the young agent but they all knew different cases affected agents differently and when she's ready to talk, she would. Emily gave a smile in way of response before placing the cup in front of JJ and moving to take her own seat. She was stopped in her path by a hand grabbing her wrist. Looking at JJ, she was shocked to see an array of emotions run across the normally calm and professional face. Sitting next to the blonde, Emily turned and gave the blonde a questioning look, taking her hands in her own and giving them a comforting squeeze allowing her co-worker the knowledge that she was there.
''You ever feel like you're just way in over your head?'' The blonde asked
''Sometimes, it all gets a bit too much for us all eventually. That doesn't mean that we can't do our jobs though, you know that right.'' Getting slightly more concerned for her friend. Emily had seen many agents burn out in her time at various agencies, she couldn't imagine going to work and not seeing the usually happy blonde
''I know, it's just... I don't know...''
''Henry?''
''Huh, yeah, amongst other things, I just feel like I'm missing so much, you know. Things a mother shouldn't miss. He's growing up Em, he's growing up so fast and I'm never there.'' Trying to not sound so pathetic, JJ moved in her seat to look out at the sky, smiling slightly at the thought of being closer to her son. She was brought out of her thoughts by a hand on her face, it was then that she realised she was crying, turning to face her darker haired friend, the young agent gave a watery smile before pulling her legs up and sinking deep into the seat.
''Get some sleep Jayje'' Emily reached up and grabbed a blanket to throw over the blonde before moving to sit in her previous seat, a plan formulating in her head.
AN/ So, that's the first chapter of my first story, how exciting! Im not from America so some areas may not be as accurate in this respect. New chapter up soon