Confidant

Chapter 1

"…and so, now, he's after me." Prentiss finishes speaking feeling as if she will never utter another word again. There was shuffling on the other end of the line and then the phone went dead.

She'd finally told someone. She'd finally unloaded her fear and made it someone else's.

Reid's reply still hung in the air around her. Untouchable, tasteless, undetectable in every way yet a hundred times more real than the coffee maker in front of her or the chair she has been sitting in for the last four hours. Even more real than the cold metal of the gun sitting in her lap. I'm coming Prentiss, I'm coming.

Coming to her house. Coming to sit with her so that she doesn't lose her mind in the darkness. Putting himself in danger for her.

Putting himself in danger because she isn't strong enough to last another night without sleep or human contact. Because she is weak. Her left arm lashes out sending a vase propped up on the edge of her kitchen table smashing to the floor. She doesn't more, doesn't jump, doesn't acknowledge. In her mind, it is already forgotten.

She shouldn't have told him. She should have told Hotch, Morgan, Garcia, anyone but him. Anyone but Reid. Because, sometimes, Reid could be stupidly loyal like a lap dog. Because he knew what it was like to have a secret you needed to let out and had to keep.

She also knows, without question, that he will not tell the others. Not if she asks him not to.

A knock at the door made her heart pound. She tries to force herself to breathe but it isn't working.

"Emily, Emily, it's me." Relief washes over her. Her voice starts working again and she quickly lowers the gun she hasn't realised, until now, that she raised.

"Just a moment!" She leaps up and, ignoring her shaking hands and stiff body, quickly undoes several locks and deadbolts securing the door. She opens it and feels no embarrassment when the sight of the lanky, dirty blonde profiler almost makes her cry. It takes a moment to register that he's wearing his FBI bullet proof vest and that his gun is in his hands outstretched. He blushes slightly as e sees her and puts it away struggling to shove it into his holster without breaking eye contact.

"Sorry, I wasn't…I-"

"You weren't sure what you'd find when you got here." He nods evidently relieved she understands. She does. She wants to laugh, wants to call him pretty boy and tell him in a loving way that in his hands a gun is dangerous to only one person, himself. Instead she motions him inside. They sit at either end of the kitchen table watching each other in silence. She can't help but profile him a little, even though she doesn't want to. She knows he is doing the same. The drumming of his fingers on the glass means he is tense, restless. That is understandable given the circumstances. What she doesn't like is the red eyes. It seems as if he's been sleeping as little as she has. A twinge of guilt twists her insides morphing them. She hasn't even asked how he is.

"You shouldn't have come – I shouldn't have told you."

"I think you should stay with me for the next little while." Prentis feels her whole body go cold. She opens her mouth to tell him he's crazy but he holds up his hands in protest. "You can't stay here Emily. You told me about the rose, who else could that have been? And you can't deny that by now he's probably done with France and in the city-"

"Reid, I can't let you-"

"I know what I'm doing, okay Emily? I even know what a statistical improbab-" he grimaces, "I even know the statistics. Now go pack what you need."

"No."

"Emily look around you. I've never seen anything you own out of place before." He gestures around himself where dirty dishes and the smashed vase meet his eyes. "You must not have slept in a week, at least you'd have a chance to rest."

"If anything happens-"

"If anything happens, you'll probably have my crappy shooting skills to blame." He fills in for her. A moment of silence occurs where something shifts in her. She feels herself breaking and there's nothing she can do about it.

"Alright, I'll be ready in five."

She is ready in three.

Let me know what you think! I know not much has happened yet but I promise it will!