Okay, so, new chapter, after who knows how many months. If anyone was reading this, I'm sorry about that. I'm working on it, though. And even if it might take a while, I'll finish this. So thanks for sticking with me. : ))

And btw, it wasn't reviewed, so all the mistakes are mine (hopefully there aren't many).

Disclaimer: I own nothing, because if I did, things would be different. ;p

Enjoy!


Chapter III

FBI Headquarters,

Quantico – Virginia

Emily made her way to her desk on the bullpen, eyes barely open, a cup of steamy coffee in one hand and her bag in the other. It was relatively early, especially for the brunette, but she had a lot of paperwork to do, consequences of her recklessness during the holidays.

The office was unusually quiet, and she found herself actually enjoying all that peace. Waking up early had its perks, after all. Emily had never been one for crowds and noise; she liked to be on her own, sometimes. Lately, the only reason being that she could think about her blond co-worker without having to worry about hiding it.

She liked to think about JJ, and for the past few months, she had been doing that a lot.

Sipping on her coffee – black, two sugars – the brunette began to work on the documents in front of her, but not really paying attention to it. She wondered how JJ's holiday had been. It was a known fact that the Press Liaison was spending Christmas on her hometown, something that didn't seem to please the younger agent very much. Still, Emily wanted to know how it was.

She felt like a hypocrite, trying to pry on JJ's privacy like that, when she would tell practically nothing about her holidays to anyone on the team. She wanted to; she wanted to share all of that with the blond, she just couldn't seem to find a way to do so. How was she supposed to tell JJ that she had kids? Just go all like, 'Hey, Jennifer. How was your holiday? Mine was nice, though my daughters woke me up at 4am on Christmas Eve. Oh, I have two girls, by the way. Twins.'

Yeah, right. Because that would go real smoothly.

She just didn't know. How could you tell someone, that you consider one of your best friends, you forgot mention a huge part of your life? For the past two years? Emily had a feeling that it just wouldn't go too well.

Jennifer Jareau was probably the most understanding person Emily knew, but people had a limit. The brunette knew that trust was the one thing JJ appreciated the most, and whilst she would trust the woman with her life, she didn't know how to tell her that. Whenever she felt like she had the perfect opportunity to do so, something would happen and she'd give up.

Emily Prentiss considered the possibilities of JJ ever liking her in more than a friendly way to be as close to nonexistent as possible, but she knew that if ever came the day that the blond would want her, there shouldn't be secrets between them, especially something like that.

JJ deserved more, or at least, the truth.

"Oh, shit! Am I late?!" the voice came from behind Emily, efficiently pulling her back from the thoughts running through her mind. "Where's everyone else? Hotch got a special case? Shit. Shit. Shit."

"Uh, Jennifer?" the brunette asked, biting her lips softly to stop herself from chuckling at the scene in front of her. "What are you rambling about?"

JJ raised an eyebrow at her.

"You're here. That means I'm late. Shit!" running her hand through her hair, she sighed softly. Emily chuckled, no longer being able to help it. JJ looked so cute when she started to ramble.

"Wow. What's that supposed to mean? You're not late. It's 7am." the brunette explained, rolling her eyes. "Why me being here means that you're late?"

The press liaison snorted. Emily crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the blond. Sighing again, JJ moved to take a seat on the corner of the brunette's desk, her black pants hugging her thighs tightly, and for a moment, Emily got side-tracked.

"Em, honey, you're never on time for work." she patter Emily's back and smirked. "Let alone, early."

"That's not true!"

"Uh, okay. Tell me one day, just one, that you got here and didn't find the whole team already sat, and working?" JJ asked, a smug look on her face as the older Agent opened and closed her mouth like a fish. "Thought so."

"I hate you, Jennifer Jareau." Emily said between her teeth, but JJ knew better than to believe in her.

"Ah, you wish, Emily Prentiss. You wish."

Swinging her feet, JJ began to watch Emily as she filled all the papers in front of her. The brunette was so entrancing and she wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch her smooth face; bring her close and press those pink lips against hers. But she couldn't. All she could do was watch.

"How was your holiday?" the brunette asked, eyes still focused on the papers in front of her.

"It was really good." JJ answered, a smile showing up on her face. "Mom cooked all my favorite dishes, Dad and I watched all our favorite Redskins' games he has recorded and I finally got to talk properly with my sister after three months. It was good to talk to her, I missed it."

The sound of the pencil scratching the paper stopped, and Emily turned to look at JJ, her own smile appearing as she saw the blonde's expression. JJ had all the little things she missed as a kid, and she didn't take it for granted; she treasured it the way it should be done, and it was one of the many things she loved about the younger Agent.

"When I was a kid, I'd always wanted a sister. Or even a brother." Emily confessed. "When I told my mother that, she looked at me and asked, and I quote, 'why on earth would you want someone to share your things with'?"

"Ouch." JJ said, her eyes flickering with sadness. "How old were you?"

"Seven." the brunette answered, smiling sadly. "My mom is an only child too, and so was my grandmother, I suppose it's how we're raised."

Biting her lip softly, Emily wondered if that would be a good time to mention Alex and Sophie.

"Bless my soul, Emily Prentiss is early for work!" came the voice of Derek Morgan behind them, and Emily sighed. She didn't know whether to be relieved or not. "Did someone change your alarm?"

JJ tried to suppress a chuckle, and Emily glared at her.

"Haha, very funny, Morgan." Emily said, rolling her eyes at him. "I had paperwork to do."

Derek raised an eyebrow at the woman.

"You? You had paperwork do?! As in, you didn't do it over the holidays? As in, Emily Prentiss is behind on paperwork after one week at home?!" he smirked and Emily knew what was coming next. "Damn, girl! You sure kept yourself busy!"

"Oh Morgan, leave her alone." JJ said, but the amused smile on her face didn't match her request.

"No, no, no, sweetie," he said, and Emily grunted. "I wanna know everything. Spill it out, Prentiss. Who is he?"

Emily's head snapped up so fast that she could swear she heard her neck crack. JJ's smile faded as soon as the words came off Morgan's mouth.

"He? What the hell are you talking about, Morgan?!" she asked, her eyes completely focused on the blond sitting next to her, who apparently had found something very interesting on her nails.

"C'mon, Prentiss..." Morgan pushed, as the glass door swung open behind them.

"Stop torturing the girl, my ebony god." Penelope Garcia, the technical analyst of the BAU, made her way into the room and Emily let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. She winked at the brunette and smiled, a knowing look on her face. "If you don't, I might as well tell them what you did over the holidays."

Wrapping his arms around Garcia's waist, Morgan placed a kiss on her neck and grinned at the other two agents.

"Oh babygirl, you can go ahead and tell them. I had the best holiday ever and I sure as hell won't mind bragging about it."

JJ's eyes widened.

"No way!" she squeaked, hands covering her mouth in a mix of shock and excitement.

Garcia nodded, her own grin matching Morgan's.

"Well, that was about damn time!" Emily said, playfully punching Morgan's shoulder. "I thought you're never gonna make a move."

"Maybe now you'll make a move too, Emily..." Garcia said, winking at the brunette.

Emily choked on her own saliva, and her face became a crimson red.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Penelope." she said, hanging her head down. JJ shot her an inquiring look, which Emily purposely ignored.

"Yeah, whatever floats your boat, my dear."

"Ohhh, I wanna know." Morgan teased.

"Whatever it is, it's gonna have to wait." JJ said, as Hotch, Reid and Rossi walked into the bullpen.

"I trust you all had a nice holiday." Hotch said, nodding at the room occupants without actually looking at them. "JJ, you got something for us?"

"I do, sir." The Press Liaison answered, the atmosphere quickly changing; the holidays were over, it was time for business.

"Okay, you can start the briefing as soon as everyone arrives." The Unit chief said, heading towards his room.

"Uh, Hotch? We're all here." JJ said, winking at Emily, unable to hold a smirk.

"Even Prentiss?" his eyes glanced around the room, widening a bit at the sight of the brunette. Emily sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, well, then whenever you're ready."

The press liaison nodded and walked off, towards her own room.

"Did someone change Emily's alarm?" Reid asked, making Garcia and Morgan chuckle, while the brunette groaned.

What was so surprising about her being on time?!

~*~

"Johnathan Taylor, Robert Smith and Christian Cooper," JJ said, as the pictures showed up on the screen. "male, early forties, Caucasian. Taylor disappeared over two months ago, his body was found two weeks after the abduction. One week after that, Smith was reported missing, the police found his body one week later, over a mile away from the first dump site. Again, one week later, Cooper was missing, and four days after that, his body was found. His body was dumped on the same area as the last two victims."

"No signs of sexual assault?" Reid asked, flickering through the files, though they all knew it was more out of habit then actual need to look up the information.

"None, and no foreign DNA either." JJ declared, pressing a button and changing the images on the screen. "Clean clothes, same haircut style and even contact lenses in two of them. The D.C. Police thinks the unsub is changing their appearance to fit a delusion or something like that."

"Well, that wouldn't be unusual," Emily said, studying the images carefully. "Lots of serial killers would use their victims to realize some sort of distorted fantasy and then simply get rid of them when the fantasy was broken."

"The one thing I don't get, though, is why would the unsub go through such great lengths to protect the bodies?" Morgan asked, leaning back on his chair and facing his team members. "If the fantasy was broken, then most likely the unsub would be really mad at the victims…"

"Not feeling any kind guilty or remorse." Rossi completed, nodding his head slightly. "It doesn't really make sense."

"Well, we'll get to that later." Hotch said, taking his files and getting up. "Emily, I want you and JJ talking to the family victims. Rossi and Morgan go to the dump sites, see if you can find anything. I'll go to the Station with Reid, get set up and start working on the geographical profile and see what we can come up with. Garcia, you can start checking on the victims background, see if you can come up with something they all had in common. Don't let anything pass."

"Right on it, my general." Garcia said, and left the room as quickly as possible to start working on her magic, as she liked to call.

The other occupants nodded at the received task and went off to do their work. They had less than one day to catch the unsub before another victim was taken, and that was if they worked on the possibility that nothing would happen to change the pattern their killer had fallen into. If something did happen, though, it was most likely that they would have a new victim soon, and that was something they didn't want to consider unless it was absolutely necessary. Changes in the time frame usually meant changes in the unsub's behavior, which would make them all that hard to find due to variations on the profile and on every other thing they had been working based on.

Emily wanted nothing more than to go back a few hours, where everything was teasing and fun, and she could talk to Jennifer without having to worry about someone's life on the line. It had come to a point where she really wanted to tell the other woman everything that she had going on in her life, all of her secrets and deepest fears, but again, she had missed the opportunity. Or maybe there never really was one, though she found that hard to believe. Now, however, she had to let go of those thoughts; let go of the warmth she was feeling radiating from JJ's form, sitting next to her in the Bureau SUV that suddenly felt so small. So, with her work in mind, Emily pushed JJ and all thoughts and feelings related to the blond into one of the many boxes she kept to compartmentalize everything, though she knew quite well that she would never be able to find a box big enough for the woman by her side. It was a futile attempt, though a sincere one nonetheless.

It felt as if she had been working on autopilot for the rest of the case. She would come home on the evenings, and leave everything behind, but still wouldn't let the blond Press Liaison take over her mind. Good thing that her daughters kept her busy when the case didn't. They were working non-stop to get the guy, and finally, when the fourth day rolled off, and Emily felt as if she was going to pass out from exhaustion, Garcia gave them something that lead to the place where the unsub was hiding the victims.

As it turned out, a female was responsible for all the killing, which was quite unusual for them, though not entirely impossible. The woman had accidentally killed her fiancé after a fight, which led to the abductions and fantasies, until one of them would do or say something wrong, and end up dead. The clean dump sites were a result of the remorse the unsub felt for killing her fiancé, that she believed to be alive in the victims she took. They had been able to save the last person abducted, and were free to go home as soon as they had finished the paper work for the case.

Since it was a Friday, Emily was glad that she would get to spend the weekend home with her daughters. It had been a good week, after all. It wasn't always that she got to stay home during a case, and having a weekend off after that was always something she greatly appreciated. She was halfway through the parking lot, when a familiar voice got to her ears, making her stop dead in her tracks.

"Hey!" JJ yelled, catching up to her as she turned around and waited for the blond Liaison. "The team is going out for drinks, you in?"

"Wish I could, but I gotta go home, actually." Emily said, gathering every ounce of willpower inside her to resist the beautiful smile that had taken over JJ's features. "Some other time, maybe?"

"But why not? It's early; you don't have to stay too long. Just one drink, Em." Jennifer tried again, tilting her head to the side and grinning at the brunette.

"I honestly can't, Jennifer. I'm sorry." It broke her heart in a million pieces to see the smile fade from JJ's face, and she wanted nothing more than to change that, but Alexis and Sophie were visiting the Ambassador, and if Emily knew her daughters, then it was quite possibly that they would either be going crazy, or driving her mother crazy, and she knew that it was her responsibility to end that. Her mother loved the girls, and the twins loved their Grandmother, but she knew how hard it could be to handle her daughters.

"Why not?" JJ asked, quietly, as if she couldn't think of a reason why Emily would turn down her invitation. Maybe, well, she really didn't.

"I—" Emily stopped herself, not sure what to say. Taking a deep breath, she hung her d and whispered just as quietly as the blond had done before. "I just can't."

She felt like a coward. Worse than that, really. How could she claim to love the woman before her if she couldn't even tell her the truth? She felt horrible for doing that, especially when she had spent the entire week wanting to tell JJ everything. And now, when she had the chance to do so, she found a way to run away, clearly hurting the blond in the process.

"Was Morgan right?" JJ asked, after a few moments of awkward silence between them, her voice sounding a little apprehensive.

"What?" Emily asked, the question clearly confusing her. "Right about what?"

"Is there someone?" Emily couldn't pinpoint the emotions behind JJ's voice, and it took her a while to understand what the woman in front of her was talking about. The fact that JJ couldn't stare at her in the eyes, though, made her heart clench inside her chest in a way that she never thought it was possible.

"JJ—" She started, but the blond cut her off, her voice tired and defeated.

"Just-- Nevermind, Emily." She said, and Emily flinched at the sound of her name; she had gotten so used to the nickname the blond used that the change almost gave her a whiplash. "Clearly our friendship isn't as strong as I thought it was."

After that, she turned on her heels and started to walk, leaving Emily alone in the cold parking lot, clueless as to what had just happened. One thing she knew, though, was that the woman she loved, the woman that meant the world to her was walking away because she had been too stupid to tell her the truth; to be honest with her. She couldn't let that happen. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she let Jennifer Jareau walk away from her because she was too much of a coward to do something. So she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

"Lunch!" She yelled, making JJ stop dead in her tracks, turning to face her with an inquiring look. 'Okay, that didn't make much sense,' she thought, and began to explain. "My place, tomorrow. I'll explain everything to you; answer all of your questions. No more secrets."

"No more secrets?" JJ asked, her voice hopeful. "You promise?"

"I promise." She said, releasing the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Tomorrow, I'll pick you up at 11am."

"Okay, tomorrow." JJ said, smiling a little as she rocked back and forth on her heels, before starting to walk away again.

"Oh, and Jennifer?" Emily called, making the woman stop again, though she didn't turn around this time. "Never doubt our friendship."

The Press Liaison simply nodded, before walking away, though the smile on her face was the brightest anyone ever saw.