PROLOGUE

"JJ, are you sure? you know Emily, and she will push you away," Garcia told her blonde friend. Emily had been really down lately and they wanted to help her or at least cheer her up.

"I know Garcia, but I need to do something, I mean, look at her!" the brunette was doing paperwork in her desk, she was staring at the file in front of her not even flinching, her shoulders down in defeat, her once shiny dark hair was careless tied up into a ponytail, her eyes had lost their sparkle and it also seemed she had lost a lot of weight.

"What about you, Reid? are you sure about this?" the genius had offered them the cabin Gideon owned and said that they were always welcome to use it, it had always helped him to be there after hard cases.

"I'm going to talk to her guys, wish me luck," JJ left her two friends and headed towards the brunette. She placed a hand on her shoulder but either way managed to startle her. "Em, relax, It's just me," she told the upset woman, "I want to ask you something."

The brunette looked at her like a scared child, and all JJ wanted in that moment was to enveloped her in a hug, but knew that the other woman would freaked out. So, instead, she lowered herself at the brunette's level, and took her hand between hers.

"Listen, I'd like you to come with me to the cabin for a few days, just to relax a little, you know?" the dark haired agent didn't respond, just kept her gaze down. "I know last year was hard for you, but you need to understand that you have people who love you and would do anything to see you happy," the blonde squeezed her hand, waiting for a reply.

"JJ, we have work to do. I'm not going to leave and I'm fine!" she snapped at the younger woman. But the looked on her friend's face made her heart hurt, she hadn't meant to sound so harsh. "I'm sorry... I'm just really tired and can't wait to be home," she added in a softer tone.

"It's ok Em, but I'm worried about you, we all are," she said moving her arms to make a point. "We're going to Gideon's cabin, he gave us permission to use it whenever we want to," she told her.

"Ok, go, I'm sure Henry will love it," she said while playing with the bottom of her t-shirt. She loved JJ, but right now she needed to be alone.

"He's in New Orleans with Will, and Em, I want you to go with me. Come on, what do you say?" she asked giving her a sweet smile.

"JJ, please, I know that you mean well, but right no I just want to be alone, ok?" she was becoming increasingly frustrated with every question. She just wanted to go home, drink a bottle of wine, curl up on the couch with Sergio and sleep. But the blonde kept insisting and before she knew it, they were arguing.

"Relax Emily! Don't yell at me," she said following the brunette to the bathroom. "I hate seeing you like this. I don't know what's wrong with you, just talk to me," she said while the brunette locked herself in one of the cubicles.

"Just go Jayje, leave me alone," the sadness in her voice only worried her more and made her realize that she couldn't leave her like this. So she forced the door opened and what she found inside broke her heart.

"Oh, Em!" tears had made their way down Emily's cheeks and her chin was shivering. "Come here," she knew her friend needed comfort right now but would never ask for it, so she pulled her into a warm hug, rocking her softly and whispering sweet things into her ear. She didn't care her shirt was wet, only that right now her friend needed her more than ever.

"Shhhhh... what is it sweety?" she asked the sobbing profiler.

"I... I don't know!" she said with such sincerely that only made the blonde tightened her hold on her.

They stood like that for a few minutes, until they were interrupted by a familiar face.

"Oh gumdrop! Are you ok?" the tech asked the tear strained profiler, sensing that she had interrupted something but couldn't leave right now, she gave a hug to the other woman and patted her arm. "Gumdrop, you should take a week off, just to clear your head. I know you and JJ will have a good time there, Kevin and I sure did!" she grinned at her two best friends, trying to ease the tension that was rising there.

"Too much information Garcia, too much information!" JJ complained and they laughed and relaxed for a moment,

Emily had an arm wrapped around Garcia's shoulders and her other hand between both of JJ's.

"Come on Em, what do you say?" the tech asked her and playfully poked her side.

"Ok, ok, I'll go, but JJ..." she glared at the blue eyed woman, "don't make me regret it."

"Yayyyy!" the blonde exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around the brunette's body.

Emily thought how strange the blonde's behaviour had been the last few weeks, specially now, she enjoyed it but didn't mean she wasn't curious.

A few hours later, the blonde was driving Emily to her apartment to prepare her bags. She took charge of everything and started packing the clothes that she thought the brunette would need. Emily complained but did nothing to stop her. After the bags were full, she went to the kitchen in search of food.

"Is this all you have?" motioning to the almost empty refrigerator. It was a lot bigger than hers, but only had an old piece of cheese and a few carrots inside. "We'll make a stop at the market."

After an hour or so, they were parking at Garcia's street, where Sergio would be spending the next seven days. They took the cat and his accessories to the front door and waited for the eccentric blonde to greet them.

"Oh my dark haired beauty! I've missed you so much!" the bubbly blonde said stretching her arms towards her friend.

"Me too Garcia!" Prentiss replied with a smile on her face.

"I'm talking to the cat!" she corrected as she made her way and took Sergio from Emily's arms. "But I've missed his mummy too," she said and squeezed her hand, earning another smile in return. "You two should go, and remember, have fun and relax."

The duo gave her a smile and climber into the SUV, to reach their next stop before driving to the cabin.

"What do you prefer? Chocolate ice-cream or vanilla?" the blonde asked in a serious tone, like it was a matter of life and death. "We also need more wine, beer, oh! and chocolate, we can't forget chocolate."

"JJ! Relax, you're turning into a control freak!" Emily stopped her friend's rambling.

"I'm not!" she said shoving the brunette lightly with her hip. "Look! Cheetos! I can't believe I almost forgot them!"

"How about some real food?" the brunette asked, as much as she loved chocolate and wine she also wanted to eat something healthy.

"Go get some pizza, milk, eggs, bacon, cheese, whatever you think we'll need! And don't forget coffee!" yhe yelled once Emily left her side. She knew the brunette would came back with ten items top, so she grabbed the supermarket cart and filled it with lots of things.

She wanted to make her friend the spaghetti that Rossi thought her to cook and the last thing she needed was tomato sauce.

"Excuse me Sr, I need that sauce," she glared at the tall man holding the last item.

"Too late blondie, I need this for my lasagna and there are no more bottles."

She jumped to get the sauce from his hands and knocked him, he felt and sent the entire section down with him.

"Oh my god! I'm sorry!" she said.

"What's going on here?" the manager asked them.

"This woman is crazy, she punched me for a freaking sauce!" he said pointing at her.

"I'm SSA Jennifer Jareau from the FBI," JJ showed him her badge but it didn't work.

"I don't care who you work for, honey, but you have to pay for this and leave. SECURITY!" he called an two big men showed up almost automatically.

"SSA Emily Prentiss, please go to reception."

What the hell? the brunette thought. Reaching her destination she caught sight of her blonde friend, who had her arms crossed over her chest and was pouting like a five year old. Two guards were standing next to her.

"Excuse me ma'am, this woman cause lost of nearly five hundred dollars. She's refusing to pay and claims this..." he lifted his hand that held the bottle of tomato sauce to show her, "…is matter of national security," JJ watched the item and blushed. Emily gave her a look and handle him her credit card to pay for everything.

"What about the sauce?" the blonde asked.

"As long as you pay for it, you can have it."

"I can't believe you did that for a stupid tomato sauce! I'm going to make Garcia hack the security cameras," Emily said laughing at the blonde, who was still blushing.

"No, you won't!" JJ said punching her arm.

She looked at her friend and notice she was smiling widely and it made her heart flutter. "Hey... It's nice to see you smile, it's been a while," she told the bunette woman.

"I know, I think I just needed a reminder of the good things we have in life." Emily looked down, but the smile stayed in her deep brown eyes.

JJ gave her a warm smile and took the brunette's hand in hers. "I'm glad, Em. Now, you're going to have a week filled with it."

Emily looked at her and then yawned loudly. "Why don't you take a nap? I'll wake you up when we reach the cabin," the brunette nodded and made herself comfortable in her seat.

She was hypnotized by the beautiful landscape. The trees dancing with the wind, the colour of the flowers contrasting with the sky.

In any other moment, her mind would have automatically thought about how easily an unsub would found shelter in a place so big. But this time she saw something different: hope.

She saw everything the world had to offer, and for the first time, she saw life from another perspective.

JJ parked the car on the side of the cabin and looked at her sleeping friend.

"Wake up Em. We're here," she said shaking her shoulder slightly.

The brunette opened her eyes and smiled. "Hmmm What time is it?" she asked with a sleepy voice.

"Almost 7 pm, let's go inside, it's getting dark."

They entered the place and were amazed by it. It was a one store cabin, the living room was equipped with a big comfortable leather couch and a small table facing the fireplace. The dinning room had a table that was enough for the two of them and was directly connected to the kitchen, it wasn't to big, but had huge cupboards, right what they needed to put all the food they had bought.

The bow-window gave them the impression that the forest was inside, as long eucalyptus trees were covering the entire length of their sight. Amazed by this visual illusion, they checked the other windows, they weren't as big as the one in the living room but still made them feel like the outside was inside.

They walked around the house taking in every feature. JJ realized there was only one bedroom which had only one bed. She unconsciously smiled to herself.

"I just hope she doesn't kick."

Meanwhile, back in the living room, Emily watched the pictures that hang in the wooden wall. A few of them were the team's, after and before she joined them.

Suddenly realization came to her. In the five years that had passed since Gideon left, Reid had been the only one that ever mentioned him, and it was the same with Elle. She had never met her, but knew she was a good example of what their job did to people.

A lot of questions came rushing to her mind, would the team still consider her family if she ever left? would they talk about her? mentioned her even? Or would she turn into another Elle or Gideon?

She didn't realized she had been staring at the frames for about five minutes until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Em, what's wrong?" JJ asked worriedly at seeing the melancholic look on the brunette's eyes.

"Do you think about him? I haven't in a long tine, I always consider him the guy that worked with us before Rossi came back," Emily asked her.

The blonde just nodded in understanding. She hadn't think of Gideon much in the last years.

"Would you still think of me as family if I ever left the BAU?" she asked without thinking. The blonde could feel the insecurity and sadness in her friend's voice. She nodded with a smile and pulled her into a hug.

"I always think of you, Em," she said smiling into the other woman's neck.

She knew there was something bothering her, but she let it go for now, they had seven days to figure it out.

They took the groceries from the truck and went back in to store them in the kitchen.

"Is this all we got?" she asked looking to the ten bags, half of them only contained cheetos inside. "JJ I'm going to kill you, I'm going to be ten pounds heavier when we get back!" she complied to her blonde friend.

"Relax Em, you can work it out in the pool, but you really need to gain some weight," she said poking her in the stomach. The brunette squirmed away and gave her a confused look.

"Wait. There's a pool? That sounds so out of character coming from Gideon."

They walked outside to check on the pool, it was made in glass fibre, a slight inclination could be appreciated. It seemed like the perfect spot to hang out, so they decided to filled it up in that moment so the water would warm up during the day.

"We should get some sleep, tomorrow we'll have the whole day to enjoy," the blonde said and wrapped her arm around Emily's shoulders as both women made their way inside the cabin.

"JJ, there's only one bed," the brunette said once they entered the bedroom.

"I know, you better not kick me Prentiss," she said teasingly. They had shared beds before during cases and were comfortable around each other.

"At least I don't snore," she whispered but the blonde heard it anyway.

"What did you say?" JJ asked and feigned being hurt. The brunette just gave her a big smile and went to the bathroom to change into her pjs.

After putting on her favourite t-shirt and pants, she opened the door to find the blonde wearing only her pants.

"Oh my god JJ, I'm sorry!" she said blushing and walking back inside. The blonde just put on her t-shirt and motioned her to come back, also blushing.

Both women climbed into bed and made themselves comfortable.

"Goodnight," the blonde said.

"Night Jayje," Emily turned the light off and closed her eyes.

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