Meant To Be
Chapter Two (02): The Darkness
Almost a month went by since the return of Prentiss and the arrival of Grey. Everything between the two agents was a little too professional, for everyone's taste; even Hotch found it disturbing, and that's saying something! They would sit as far from one another as possible. If Emily drove then Jessie would sit in the back, behind the front passengers seat.
Today was another day in the bullpen, Emily deep in her work when Hotch stepped out of his office and asked the brunette to come in his office. Thinking that it was about an overdue file, she was expecting a small, stern speech from her superior.
"Can you come on over to my office? … Alright thank you" the stoic leader said as he put his office phone back in the receiver.
"You wanted to see me Hotch?" Prentiss questioned, looking a bit confused.
"Yes, please take a seat Emily. Just waiting for someone else to arrive and then we can get on with this and get back to work" Hotch explained, his eyes gave nothing away, as usual.
"Sorry I'm a tad late Aaron" Rossi said as he walked in with a cup of coffee in his hands.
"Alright, now can get this over with?" Emily asked out loud as she stood from her seat.
"Dave is here with me, Emily… Come in, Jessie" the team leader spoke, as he watched Prentiss flinch.
"What can I do for…" Grey spotted Emily, "for you sir?"
"Both of you take a seat, we need to talk about your professionalism" Dave said, as he saw both agents sit far apart. Emily sat on the couch while the new agent leaned against the closed door.
"You're both acting too professional" Hotch told both women.
"I thought that's protocol? Acting and behaving on a professional level?" Jessie asked, but her tone was a bit sarcastic.
"Shut it Costello" Rossi told his field partner, "Your professionalism is so strict and frigid that even the police departments we've helped were a bit freaked out… Hotch is freaked out!" This made the two brunettes look at their team leader, with a confused facial expression.
"He's… He's right. Which is why that starting from now on, you're both field partners, Morgan will be Rossi's new field partner"
"… Yes, sir" Emily answered in a ice cold voice, as she glared daggers at her boss.
"Understood. I'm taking my lunch break now" Jessie finally answered, before walking out of her superior's office and back to her office to get her gym bag.
"What the hell was that for Hotch?"
"You can't seem to work out your personal issue, and you haven't worked together, so maybe you'll both find a way to work in a more human fashion by working together. This also includes sharing rooms at hotels Agent Prentiss"
Emily didn't answer back, but just walked out of Hotch's office to finish her file. Then she'd go beat a bag, with her name written on it, at the gym.
"I hope you know what you're doing Aaron" Dave warned his protégé.
"… I hope I know as well, Dave" Aaron sighed out in exhaustion.
BAU~CM~BAU~CM~BAU~CM~
Flashback: Almost a month ago, in Garcia's lair…
"Baby girl?" Derek Morgan knocked on the slightly ajar door, before walking inside the "bat cave", "Guess she already went to get her tea"
Morgan sat in her chair and watched the screen that showed the inside of Jessie Grey's office and the outside. Second later Emily burst in the room and that's when he saw, but couldn't hear the argument between the two women.
Derek's fist grip tightened the moment he saw his best friend strong statue crumble on the screen, while the stare Grey was giving sent shivers to his spine. He might not know what the argument was about, but he sure as hell didn't approve of how hurt and sad Emily looked at that moment.
He vowed to himself that he was going to confront Jessie and make sure that no one gets away with hurting his family in any way.
"Aah!" Derek jumped and turned around, only to see a scared and now slightly upset Garcia, "Are you trying to kill me!?"
"I'm sorry baby girl" Morgan said as he hugged her, "I was going to asked if you wanted to go get some real tea and coffee with me, but you were already making yours in the break room, huh?"
"Oh my poor hunk of molten chocolate! We'll get to sneak off and fool around during our lunch break" the blonde techy openly flirted and winked at him, making him laughed out loud.
"It's a date, Baby girl" but in the back of his mind Morgan was planning to confront Jessie Grey on why she was targeting Emily.
End of Flashback: Present time, FBI Gym…
Morgan had just finished running five miles on the treadmill, when he spotted Grey finishing at the chin up bars and making her way to the bench press.
'Now or never' he thought to himself, as he made his way to her.
Jessie was halfway through her first set, when she saw the silhouette of someone standing over her; she realized that it was Morgan.
"Hey Morgan" Grey said as took a break from finishing her first set.
"Hey Jess… We need to talk"
"About what?"
"Not what, but who" she had an idea were this was going.
"Morgan, this has nothing to do with you"
"It does, actually. I saw the two of you arguing, on the security feed, last month in your office" the slightly older agent answered.
"It's not your business, so butt out!" Grey said more sternly.
"Let's box it out" Derek challenged.
"What are you 12?" the younger agent told him, as she walked away from him.
Emily had walked in and saw Morgan and Jessie were having a heated conversation and went to check on them. Prentiss saw Jess walk away, when Morgan roughly grabbed Grey's shoulder.
The moment Derek laid his hand on her shoulder; Jessie had a flashback to being kidnapped by a terrorist cell group.
Flashback: Unknown Underground Location, in the Desert…
A man grabbed and yanked Sgt. Grey backwards, landing on the cold sandy ground.
"I'll make you talk" he told her, with an evil grin on his face, as he heated a soon extremely hot piece of metal.
End of Flashback: Present time, BAU Gym…
"Don't touch me!" Jessie snapped, automatically turning towards Derek and punched him in the face, but being the self-defense teacher at Quantico, Morgan was able to land a quick hit on her nose. Luckily her nose wasn't broken, but it was bleeding.
"Jessie are you okay?" Prentiss immediately asked, after placing a clean towel to Grey's nose.
"Why are you asking her? She attacked me!" Morgan said as he rubbed his now sore jaw.
"You yanked her backwards, Morgan! What the hell is wrong with you!?" Emily said angrily.
"I'm getting out of here" Jessie said, as she stood and walked out of the gym and the staring crowd of agents.
"I know about your argument last month and I confronted her" Derek explained.
"… I can't believe you. Why cant you mind your own business?" the brunette asked, with disappointment in her voice, "What happened all those years ago with agent Grey is personal and she has the right to hate me. So back off" with that she left and went after the younger brunette.
CM~BAU~CM~BAU~CM~BAU~
After quickly changing back in her normal work clothes, the spiky haired agent grabbed a small box of first Aid and put some torn cotton balls in her nostrils.
"Jess, are you okay?" a worried Emily asked.
"I'll be fine… I've had worse" Grey answered calmly, after seeing the concern on her face and let go off her anger.
"Let me take a look" the long hair brunette offered as she approached her injured colleague, making the younger agent turn to her, "Doesn't look like your nose is broken… again" Emily smirked, when she saw the small smile Jessie gave at the "again" comment.
"Ha ha," Grey sarcastically laughed, "Smartass"
Prentiss' right hand cupped the side of Jessie's face, their brown eyes locked and staring at one another. The injured Sergeant lightly leaned into Emily's gentle touch; two of her fingers grabbed hold of Prentiss' belt loop and slowly pulled her closer, their lips only millimeters apart. Emily quickly closed the gap and finally met the lips of the person she had missed so much.
As they pulled back for air, JJ walked in the women's' locker room, making them jump apart.
"We have an urgent ca—what happened?" JJ asked.
"Accident" Jessie said, "Got carried away"
"Ouch… We need everyone in the conference room in ten, alright?"
"Sure" both brunettes answered in unison, as the blonde agent walked back out and to the conference room to get ready to present the case to the team.
Emily quickly changed, but never took her eyes off of Jessie, who was deep in thought.
"Jess—"
"We have a case" she cut her off, with a cold voice. She was avoiding eye contact.
"Please don't do this… You know why I had to right, back then?"
"Doesn't change the fact that you used the most personal secrets as ammo…" Grey tried to walk away but was pushed against the nearest wall by Prentiss.
"I understand that, but what just happened before JJ came in… what do you call that, huh?" the long hair brunette agent asked.
"We got carried away, that's all"
"Bullshit!" Emily finally snapped, "I've seen you get carried away and that wasn't even remotely close to how you get carried away" this caused Grey to blush, knowing what she meant. The slightly older female agent kissed Jessie again, only this one was slower and was full of emotions.
Grey first thought was to pull away, but the moment she tasted something wet and salty, the military sergeant couldn't fight back her own emotions anymore. So she returned, deepened and dominated the kiss, while gently caressing Emily's face and back before pulling the woman she still deeply loved tightly against her. Soon her own tears were escaping her eyes and going down her face.
CM~BAU~CM~BAU~CM~BAU~
Meanwhile in Penelope's lair, the TA had just finished downloading the new case onto the team's tablet, also printing out Reid's case file, when JJ walked in.
"You have an extra 10 minutes Garcia, Hotch is talking to Morgan about what happened in the gym" The blonde field agent told her Tech goddess friend.
"Did he do something Naughty and not tell me?" Garcia joked, but when she saw the small smile on her BFF's face, she knew that it was serious, "What happened?"
"Morgan yanked Jessie backwards so hard and fast that I'm surprised she doesn't have a dislocated shoulder right now" JJ answered.
"There has to be a mistake, my hunk of chocolate would never hurt a fellow agent, especially a woman"
"From what the security cameras in the gym picked up, she told him that it wasn't his business, that's the only thing you can hear. Anyways, they've deactivated the cameras in the gym and locker rooms until Jessie decides whether to press charges or not."
"… I'll have a talk with my hunk of burnin' love and spank him in a way he won't enjoy!"
"… suuure. Have fun with that Pen" JJ said with a not surprised face and smile towards her friend, "Can you hack in the women's locker room? Jessie and Em aren't here yet and we have to get briefed before we leave"
"On it, sugar bear!" the overly joyful Techy said, as she typed away and hacked into the right camera, "And here weee… Whoa!" Garcia said out loud and was now gawking at the scene playing on her computer screen.
"No… way" was all Agent Jareau could say.
In the security camera feed, playing on Garcia's computer screen, were two fully (work) dressed Emily and Jessie, who were kissing and holding one another really close.
"We need to talk Jess" Emily said, after breaking the kiss.
"I know… Emily I'm still deeply in love with you. But a relationship is also built on trust… and I don't know if I can ever trust you after what happened" the slightly younger agent said, as she slowly pulled away from the brunette she loved and cherished with a loving yet still hurt look in her eyes.
"I did what I had to do to keep you alive! You would have done the same fucking thing! SO stop this BS!"
"You weren't the one who was backstabbed by the love of your life, oh wait that's because you were the stabber!"
"Maybe you were that night in your room… you're too fucked up to be loved… because I've never regretted being with you until now. You have no idea what happened after I left Interpol… and you never will. I'm going upstairs Agent Grey" a teary Emily fled the women's locker room.
Jessie had no idea what happened to Emily years ago, after Doyle had escaped. She had no idea that Prentiss had been taken, beaten, stabbed and the Doyle had burnt his clover mark onto her skin.
Grey pushed that to the back of her mind and tried to collect herself before grabbing the rest of her stuff. The issue wasn't that Jessie didn't want to be with Emily, it was the fact that it was better for Emily to find and be with someone that was better than her. In her mind, Prentiss was better of without a too damaged good like her.
Even when she worked on Katie Cole's team, Grey was still struggling and fighting her PTSD, since her meds weren't working, she had given up and went off her medication, and had lately started feeling a repeat of what had happened years ago was approaching; she was going to make sure that she wasn't going to burden and ruin Emily's life for a nobody like her. It was better this way, in her mind. Then again, she's still at war with that same mind and could feel the darkness destroying her all over again, it was just a matter of time.
Jessie snapped out of her thoughts and left the locker room.
This left two speechless women BAU blonde women. JJ was the first to snap out of it and immediately shook Garcia out of shock.
"Erase that, now"
"… Right! On it, Baby cakes!" After a minute or so of magic typing, Garcia was able to make the original footage disappear and replaced it with the footage of a very empty locker room.
Just as Garcia had logged out of the FBI system, Aaron Hotchner walked in, "Everyone in the conference room now. Is everything ready Garcia?"
"Yes, my liege! Even Dr. Reid's pain in the butt case file is ready" The tech smiled at her supervisor, while JJ held back her own laughter. The blonde's laughter was mainly due to shock. The fact that not only their supervisor but their friend had almost caught them as well, which would have made matters a bit… awkward.
"Perfect, let me just deal with Morgan and Grey and then we'll focus on this case", their fearless leader said, before quickly walking out of the TA's lair and was now making his way to his office.
CM~BAU~CM~BAU~CM~BAU~
In Hotch's office, Morgan was pacing non-stop, when Aaron and Grey walked in the room.
"Because of the footage we have, I need to know what happened. Morgan told me his side of the story, now I need your side" the team leader sternly ordered.
"Let me guess, Morgan said that it was his fault at how I told him that it wasn't his business right?" she received a nod from Hotch, "Well he thinks he did something wrong when he didn't" Jessie told her superior, "What happened was that I wanted to show Morgan a move, but before I could tell him which shoulder to pull me back, he grabbed a shoulder that had a really bad injury and my reflex kicked in. I swung at him and his reflexed kicked in and he swung back at me. We hit each other, because I didn't tell him about my left shoulder. It's my entire fault Sir. Not Morgan's"
Grey's statement left Hotch utterly confused, and from the stare Morgan was giving the female agent he was just as confused.
"Agent Morgan, is what Agent Grey just told me what really happened? And that you felt really guilty for what happened, so you decided to take responsibility?"
"… Yes, Hotch" Derek nodded, but he still gave a confused look to Jessie.
"Then, this was nothing but a one time thing that will never happen again… am I clear?" Aaron asked sternly.
"Understood Sir" Grey quickly answered back.
"Yes, Hotch" Morgan said.
"Alright, we have a very important case to get briefed on and then we're leaving. Let' go"