JJ was the first one in the office the next day, flipping the switch on the coffee pot she passed as she made her way to her desk. Her head was pounding, and at 8:15 in the morning she was regretting the three glasses of wine she'd had when she got home from the bar the previous night. Of course, it hadn't helped that once she finally dragged herself to bed, she didn't sleep well; she had tossed and turned in a dreamless fit all night.

JJ stared at her email inbox, willing her eyes to focus on the screen, when a steaming coffee cup being plunked down on her desk to her left startled her out of her mindless concentration.

"Oh, sorry, JJ. I didn't mean to startle you," Simmons said.

"Oh... no... no, it's not your fault. Thanks for the coffee. I guess I really need this-I'm only half awake," JJ responded.

"Are you feeling any better?" he asked. JJ stared at him blankly. "From the tequila shot last night?" he prodded.

"Oh, yes! Yes. I feel fine. Just a bit tired is all, thanks," JJ smiled as she took the first scalding sip of her black coffee. Matt gave her a smile and walked around to his desk, his own coffee cup in hand. Slowly, the rest of their colleagues trickled in over the next hour, Garcia and Morgan loudly bickering about one thing or another as they got off the elevator together.

"Yeah, yeah... we will continue this later, mister!" Garcia piped as she passed through the bullpen towards her tech cave. "I'm hoping for it, baby girl!" Morgan called after her with a grin on his face.

JJ was now on her second cup of coffee and a bit more awake, calmly chatting with Tara about some paperwork they still had to file on the school bus case when Rossi popped his head out of his office.

"Has anyone seen Emily yet?"

They all looked around the room, confused. "Now that you mention it, no," noted Reid. "It's almost 9:30... it's really unlike her to be late," he finished.

JJ felt a chill run down her spine. "Has anyone talked to her since she left last night?" Everyone shook their heads no. JJ whipped out her phone and pulled up the Facebook app, wasting no time navigating to Monica Garces's profile again once she noted that Prentiss hadn't posted anything herself recently. JJ immediately felt sick again, the same pit in her stomach that she'd felt the night before. An hour before Monica had posted a photograph of bar, intertwined arms amidst crumpled bed sheets with the caption "And good morning to you, too." Just as JJ was trying to figure out exactly what to tell the rest of the team about the post, the elevator doors opened with a chime and out rushed a hurried Emily Prentiss. The pit in JJ's stomach rotated on its axis.

"Good. I'm glad you're all here," she stated coolly, "We have a case. Conference room in five." She blew into her office and shut the door behind her. JJ watched her through the blinds of her windowed walls as she dropped her briefcase beside her desk and started typing away at her keyboard. Minutes later, JJ was trying to focus on Garcia's presentation of their new case, while not focusing on the obvious hickeys she'd noticed on the left side of Emily's neck. There had clearly been a failed attempt to cover them with make-up, but they were unmistakable, and JJ couldn't make her brain focus on anything else.

"Will you call him, Jennifer?"

"What?" JJ mumbled, trying once again to turn her attention to the case presentation.

"Will you call Detective LaMontagne?" Prentiss repeated. It was only then that it really sunk in that their new case was in New Orleans, where a Detective they all knew led the major crimes unit.

"Ummm, yeah. Yeah, I'll call him from the jet," JJ finally responded.

"Good," Emily stated. "Wheels up in twenty. JJ, can I see you in my office?"

JJ just nodded. As everyone stood and went to their desks to grab their go-bags and prepare for another case, JJ shadowed Emily into her office, where Emily closed the door.

The two agents stood there, staring at each other for a few moments until Emily finally spoke.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Ummm, yeah, why wouldn't I be?" JJ responded, confused.

"You just seem really out of it today. Rossi texted me last night that you went home early not feeling well; he thought you may call out sick today."

"No, no, I feel fine. I'm fine," JJ said, defiantly.

"Are you sure?" Prentiss prodded, stepping closer to JJ and placing a hand on her shoulder.

JJ's breathing stilted when Emily touched her, but she quickly played it off. "Yeah, I feel fine. I just needed some sleep."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, yeah," JJ exhaled a laugh, "I'm fine, Emily."

"Okay, okay!" Emily chuckled. "You'll let me know if that changes, right?"

"Yeah, of course," JJ lied.

On the jet, the agents settled in, each casually and silently skimming their case files. After several minutes passed, Tara broke the silence.

"So, Prentiss, are we going to have to interrogate you or are you going to tell us about your date last night?" Almost everyone's head snapped up to watch her reaction.

Emily's cheeks tinged red as she shook her head. "You're on thin ice, Lewis," she said with an entirely unenforceable threat. Tara simply smiled.

"Come on, boss-mama, you know you're gonna have to tell us some time. May as well be while it-or she?-is still hot and fresh on your mind?" Morgan chimed in.

"Alright, fine," Prentiss audibly sighed and took a breath. "It was... amazing, okay? We had a wonderful night. She was smart and funny and kind and I'm really hoping we can close this case soon so I can get back and see her again," she paused, glancing around the jet to almost uniformly interested and grinning faces, "Is that enough for you vultures?"

A few chuckles filled the plane before being gruffly cut off by JJ.

"Shouldn't we be briefing about this case? The flight to New Orleans isn't very long."

Reid coughed very unsubtlely and everyone glanced around at each other before Emily quickly broke the silence, "Yeah, JJ's right. Let's get to work."

Three days later, the BAU's jet took off from the New Orleans airport at about 1:00 a.m. All of the agents were fully spent, having worked around the clock to track down a serial rapist that had killed his last victim when he felt the FBI closing in. It had been a really rough, exhausting case for all of the team. And after all of it, JJ had had to once again fend off unwanted advances from Detective Will LaMontagne. She regretted having been so blunt with him before boarding the jet, but she couldn't handle another 6 weeks of unrelenting messages from him following another New Orleans complaint. Now, as she slumped into a window seat, she quickly dozed off before the jet even took off.

What seemed like moments later, the plane was touching down in Quantico and the lights were slowly brightening.

JJ groggily came to, trying to reorient herself to her surroundings, until she felt a slight puff of breath and low whimper of an exhale on her neck. She turned slightly to her left to see Emily's head resting on her shoulder, face buried into her neck. JJ instinctively stiffened, feeling both warmed and entirely uncomfortable all at once.

"Ummmm... Emily..." she said, softly. "Emily, we're back. Time to get up." JJ started to tap Emily on her thigh, but stopped herself, intentionally poking her forearm instead. Emily slowly came-to with a bit of a laugh. "Did I fall asleep on you? My bad, Jayje."

"Yeah. No problem," JJ said. As the plane came to a stop, JJ hastily stood up to grab her go bag and was the first one off the plane. As she walked off towards the parking lot, she missed the hurt and confused look on Emily's face.