A/N: Yes I know I am starting a new story with two unfinished others but I couldn't shake this. I don't know how often I'll update it because it is sad. I will warn ahead of time it is a character death story and the events that happen after and that lead up to said event. I literally had a dream about this happening and therefore had to write it out. So here it is. Love it or leave it! Many thanks to diaza44 for the encouragement to actually put it to paper!
One phone call was all it took for Jennifer Jareau's world to come crashing down. She hadn't been the same since that night, the night JJ became broken, hollow, and jaded. She faced each day knowing she'd never hear, smell, touch, or feel the one thing that had held this crazy life together. This one phone call was the end of life as Agent Jennifer Jareau knew it. That night her life, and many other lives unraveled because the flue that held them together was now gone. The one person who reminded the team of the reasons they fought monsters would no longer be able to do so. Now all JJ had left were the memories, the left over passion, and the haunting of knowing she'd never love again nor would she ever be the same.
Emily and JJ had been the couple of all couples. Passionate and heated but no one could ever underestimate or deny the love and respect between the two star-crossed lovers. Now, ten years after they had been married, all JJ could do was cry.
To start at the end, no one could see it coming. Everyone in the BAU had started to take their safety for granted; nearly a year after the Reaper had nearly destroyed their Unit Chief and ultimately their family. It hadn't been an easy task for the unconventional family to get back their groove but slowly and carefully they had, but they had still been fragile. It had been Hailey's death that had caused everyone to survey their current relationships and make changes accordingly. Morgan had finally confessed his love for Garcia. Emily and JJ had been a couple for nearly 3 years when Hailey was murdered and it had been the straw that broke the camel's back in Emily's decision to propose to JJ.
The night JJ's world came crashing down, Emily had been on a case that had only required her and Derrick. It was a local case in their areas of expertise. Tall brunettes were being stalked and then shot by what an unsub had simulated as a firing squad, only the victims were only shot once, execution style. The night it happened, Emily had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"Emily, you knew something was wrong that night. Why?!" JJ cried out. Every October 7th and every anniversary JJ found the strength to make the trip to the Quantico cemetery. Emily had discussed the feeling with Morgan and even called her wife to say I love you and to check up on her. JJ and Emily were rarely apart even on cases because the two agents were a dynamic duo, working in sync on and off the field. This case had only required the two agents and fatefully it had been Morgan and Prentiss.
Morgan had drawn his gun a second too late that night, when a single bullet had pierced straight through Emily's abdomen. She said only one word before slipping into the abyss of unconsciousness. As Morgan radioed for help and fought to save her life. Emily's last word conscious was "Jennifer". Her blood stained Morgan's hands as he applied pressure but the damage had already been done. Garcia received the radio call simultaneously as paramedics received it. Shock rose in her body as she thought of her best friend, most likely sleeping at home in what may have seemed like an empty bed. That night she made the phone call that caused Jennifer Jareau's world to come crashing down.
That night after JJ had talked to her wife about the case and her feelings in the pit of her stomach, JJ finally rested her mind and fell into a fitful sleep filled with nightmares of monsters that they had chased before. The two had always feared being on the receiving end of that fateful phone call being notified that the other one had been hurt but part of JJ had naively thought that her Emily was strong and stoic and therefore would never get hurt. She woke up from her fitful nightmare by the sound of her cell buzzing on the stand next to the bed where a picture of the two stood.
"Emily?" JJ had said into the phone groggily.
"JJ, it's Pen. You need to get to Memorial Hospital right away," Garcia had said barely being able to keep her composure knowing the condition Emily was in.
"Garcia, what's wrong?" JJ said as she sat upright and felt a pain in her chest as tears welled up in her eyes.
"It's Emily," it was all Garcia could manage to get out and JJ was hanging up her cell phone and out the door.
Emily hung on for what seemed like hours before the blood loss had been too much. JJ never left her side and her expression never changed from the moment she got there. Her body was in shock. She wanted to feel pain, wanted to collapse into tears, punch, kick, scream at Morgan, tell him he didn't do enough, didn't do his job, but all she felt was the ever consuming feeling of numbness. Her wife, the love of her life, the one person she connected with on a level so deeply she didn't know how she could live without, was now gone. Gone was such an empty small word but dead carried so much stigma and JJ refused to use it. That night her entire world came crashing down. She would never be the same. And now all she had left were the haunted memories of the love they shared. The love and the fire that burned so hot, that held so much passionate, that most would assume would only last a short while but their love had lasted 5 years and was still burning hot when Emily let go and slipped into the abyss.
It wasn't that Emily hadn't fought to hold on. She had fought with all her might but she knew there was a time to let go. She knew leaving Jennifer wouldn't be a good idea, knowing the blonde would be absolutely devastated but she had lost her battle when it came to fighting and hoped that her family, the family they had leaned on in times of need, discrimination, and in times of love, to pull Jennifer through her leaving. Little did she know that the entire team would fall apart before they would be able to come back together and that JJ would never be the same ever again.