Enjoy!

Chapter four

The phone rang and for the first time in month the name that appeared on it didn't crush Emily's stomach. She didn't really know what she was feeling or where she was standing but since JJ and Will had broken up a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. JJ hadn't talked to her about it; she had just dropped the information and never acted like she wanted to say more. To her.

She hadn't made any moves on JJ, of course not, but hope helps even when it's vain. Emily didn't want to see this as her chance to have her. She could have tried when Will didn't yet exist or even when they were just dating but she hadn't. She couldn't figure out why but she couldn't get herself to act on her feelings. Probably because she cared so much she was scared to lose JJ as her friend by trying to have more.

"Yes?" Emily was suddenly feeling very stressed out. She didn't want to say anything wrong.

"Emily I'm so sorry to call you but I've tried… they are all busy" JJ's voice was oddly rhythm, like she was drunk or something.

"JJ, are you ok?"

"No… Can you come at my place? I need someone for Henry you know…"

No, she didn't know! Was JJ drunk with her son in the house?!

"Have you tried Garcia…?" The brunette immediately regretted saying that, she didn't want JJ to feel like she couldn't count on her. It just was that last time Emily had seen her drunk it hadn't turned out so well.

"She's at Kevin's parent's house… Emily please, I can't even speak properly."

"Of course, I'll be there in twenty minutes."

When she knocked on the door Emily had butterflies in her stomach. It was stupid, she knew it, there was nothing to be afraid of because nothing would happen. JJ was her were friends, sort of, and she had just asked for help with her son. End of the story.

"It's open."

Her voice hit Emily in the stomach. She pushed the door and entered.

"You shouldn't leave the door open like… What is the gun for?"

JJ was laying on her couch, facing the front door, her gun in her hand. Henry was on his colorful baby carpet, looking very bored until his blue eyes saw Emily and he started chirping.

"I'm sorry I couldn't reach the door…"

JJ's head fell back on the couch and she put her gun on her stomach. The brunette walked in the room, took the gun away, gave a plump kiss to Henry and sat down on the edge of the sofa. No JJ wasn't drunk, but she looked hell sick. Her face was so pale it was almost transparent, her eyes were red and her breathing fast. The blonde woman had one hand on her forehead, obviously fighting a headache.

"Are you ok?"

"No. Yea. I mean, could you get Henry to Miss Willows please. I don't want Henry to get sick." JJ's voice was weak and breathless. Emily stretched her arm to take her temperature but then she remembered that she was going to have to carry Henry and she didn't want to contaminate him. "I'm ok Emily. You can drop him of and leave, I'll manage. Sorry for making you come."

"No. I'll come back here and call a doctor."

"Who?"

Emily smiled at the geeky joke but JJ's simply looked confused. No she wasn't doing well.

"You stay here I'll be right back. It's just down the street if I remember well." JJ agreed and Emily got out of the couch. "Come on you little monster." She picked him up and went to the door. "I'm taking your keys and locking the door ok?"

JJ didn't answer. It looked like she had fallen asleep. Emily quickly brought Henry to JJ's friend who fortunately was here and happy to help and then rushed back to the house. The blonde hadn't moved a finger, un-peacefully resting on the couch. Emily kneeled down next to her and carefully put her hand on her forehead. She was boiling hot!

JJ slowly opened her eyes.

"You can go…" she whispered.

Emily had a second of hesitation. She didn't want to impose, and she certainly didn't want to look vulturous. Because she wasn't. Her feelings for JJ were still there but they had faded with time and pain. Locked up somewhere they would never see the light of day again.

"I'm not leaving you like that. How do you feel exactly?"

"Headache." JJ started, closing her blue eyes. "Can't eat. Feel very weak."

"Cramps?"

"No."

"It's probably not the flu then. I'll call a doctor."

When the bell rang Emily welcomed a fat black man in. She stood away from them as he asked his routine questions to JJ, sitting on a chair next to the couch, and she turned away when he asked the blonde to partly undress herself.

"Nasty virus." The doctor commented, making a sign for Emily to come back next to them. "Is the kid still in the house?" He asked, looking at the baby toys.

"No he's been dropped off at a sitter. Should I bring him back?" Emily suggested.

"No, if he was contaminated he would have stopped eating around yesterday. But better not tempt the devil." He turned back to JJ. "You're going to have to stay in bed for a good day at least. Not moving if no necessary. Someone is going to have to stay with you because the fever is going to increase before dropping and it mustn't get higher than 105°. Otherwise it's directly the hospital."

"I'll stay with her."

JJ made a sort of unpleased groaned but didn't protest more.

"Then I'll give you the prescription. By the way she's not contagious anymore."

Once Emily was back from the pharmacy she told Henry's sitter that JJ wouldn't be able to collect him before tomorrow, and that she could find someone else if it was a problem. Miss Willows had already seven kids at home and she didn't mind at all having one more to take care of so Henry stayed with her.

Then she gave JJ her medicine and laboriously made her climb the stair to lay her down in her bed. JJ's fever had almost knocked her out and as soon as she was under the familiar blankets she fell asleep.

Standing in the middle of the living room, Emily now felt oddly out of place. Night was falling and she wasn't quite sure what to do now that JJ was asleep. She wondered around the house for a moment, tidying the mess that Henry had left everywhere and finally sat down on the sofa to watch TV. She was regularly checking on JJ but the house felt to calm and unfamiliar.

"Guess where I am? At JJ's. She asked me to come to take care of Henry because she is sick and now I'm here to look after her." She wasn't really sure what she wanted by sending that to Derek but at least it would keep her busy a bit.

"WHAT? Why didn't she ask Garcia?"

"Wasn't available. No one was. Are you out of town?"

"Yes, in Chicago. You ok?"

"Yea. JJ didn't want me to stay but the doc said she needed surveillance."

"Keeping my phone switched on. You tell me if you need anything."

"I'm fine. You're not going to come back anyway."

"Will if you need me to."

Emily felt a warmth in her heart. That was what she wanted to hear. She wasn't alone in this.

"Told you, I'm fine. Thanks a lot!"

It was nearly 10pm when she heard a noise upstairs. Emily got up and walked to JJ's bedroom. The blonde woman had woken up and was looking at Emily with small eyes. Then she raised her arms and pointed a finger at Emily.

"Want some!" She said and her arm fell back on the quilt.

Emily looked around her, confused, and then walked to the bed.

"What do you want?" She asked, bending over the bed to put her hand on JJ's forehead.

"Sssssssssssssssssssome…Moooooooooooore…"

She was completely raving! Emily quickly took JJ's temperature but it was 'only' 103° high. She hesitated for a second but then decided that she would get JJ to the hospital yet. Looking at her she remembered that once her nanny had to fight Ninja Turtles in the garden because Emily's fever was making her have hallucinations. She smiled at that memory and gently placed a cold wet glove on JJ's forehead.

"Slug!" JJ ripped the fabric of her face.

"It's not a slug JJ. Here, keep it on your head."

JJ arched in the bed, apparently trying to see what was on her forehead without touching in. Emily sighed. If her nanny had to fight giant mutant turtles with a broom, she wouldn't get JJ to calm down just by talking reasonably.

"It's scary…" JJ whispered.

"It's just a glove." But the blond woman was starting to scratch herself, looking around her with wide scared eyes. "Do you want me to stay with you until you fall asleep?"

JJ nodded so hard that the glove fell on the floor once more. Emily patently put in back in place and climbed on the bed next to her friend. She didn't want to go under the covers, knowing the effect that JJ's body against hers would have on her.

"I'm here, now close your eyes and try to sleep."

JJ shook her head and started agitating in the bed.

"JJ? JJ calm down."

"No no no. Slug slug slug slug slugugugugug!"

Emily got the glove of her forehead but JJ was also fighting with the quilt. Cursing herself Emily slipped underneath it and pulled JJ against her.

"There's no slug JJ. I'm here. They are all gone."She rubbed JJ's back to calm her down. The blonde stopped fighting and curled up in Emily's arms. "Everything is fine." Emily slipped her arms around the blonde shoulders and waist, rocking slowly.

Gosh she hated that situation! She was having the impression that she was taking advantage of JJ and she was losing control of herself. It was the one place on earth she wanted to be, that bed, with her, but she knew that tomorrow morning it would be all over so she couldn't even get herself to enjoy it for a second.

"I want some like that. You could lend me… Will always didn't have enough." A wave of rage hit Emily. Him again! It was always all about him! She almost got out of bed but JJ started again. "He sucks like a moon rabbit you know. And they are all creamy and milky and sooooooo…" What the hell was she talking about? Suddenly Emily tensed when she felt JJ burying her face in her cleavage, rubbing her nose between her breasts. "Soooooooft and rouuuuuuuuuuuund and like a teddy bear…" Emily was now trying not to explode in a laugh. Moon rabbits and teddy bears, not quite as scary as Ninja Turtles. "Henry can't shoot you know? He needs a teddy bear. You be his teddy?"

This time she paused to listen to Emily's answer.

"Yes sure. I can be his teddy bear if you want."

"Because you know… with no more starfish he's going to be all slugy..."

JJ stopped talking and relaxed in Emily's arms. She had fallen asleep again. Emily put a hand on her forehead but the fever seemed to have dropped a bit. She thought of her nanny playing ninja in her garden. She was glad she didn't have to play teddy bear because she had no idea how she would have done that. She didn't want to analyze too much what JJ had told her but she couldn't help but think that the teddy bear thing was JJ's way to ask her to stay around for Henry. And save him from slugs…?

Well at least while she was trying to picture herself as a soft toy she wasn't thinking of JJ's breathing against her breast…

When JJ woke up she had the immediate desire to fall asleep again. It was warm and comfortable and safe. She closed her eyes but the pillow she had her head one was moving. Slowly rising and falling at a constant rhythm. She moved, just a bit, and took full conscience of where she was.

She head was resting on someone's chest. Her arms were slipped under a T-shirt, wrapped around a thin waist. One of her leg was folded above a thigh, making it collide with her lower belly. There was also an arm holding her tight and a white hand laying on her forearm. Why had Emily slept with her?

After a second of fear she relaxed, Emily was still sleeping, so she had a couple of minutes ahead to enjoy the moment. Eventually she would have to pull away; she had inflicted enough pain to the brunette like that. Or maybe her friend didn't have any feelings for her anymore and JJ could enjoy the position without it being awkward afterwards… That thought was horrible. She wanted Emily to have feelings for her! She wanted her to love her. She didn't want to be alone.

JJ closed her eyes and mentally slapped herself for that. She had hurt Emily once, she would never do it again.

She felt the hand resting on her forearm moving. It caressed her skin up to her shoulder, quickly flirted with her cheek and gently pressed itself on her forehead. JJ was paralyzed.

"Your fever has dropped. How are you feeling?"

How could she sound so calm when JJ's mind was buzzing with adrenaline and hormones? She should have moved while Emily was still asleep!

"Fine… I still have a headache but I'm feeling better." She swallowed hard not knowing what to say or do.

"Good. I'm going to get you your medicine." Emily moved and JJ rolled away from her so she could get out of bed. The brunette got out of the room without looking at her and came back a minute later. "Here you are." she said, sitting on the side of the bed and giving JJ her pills and a glass of water. She was looking so calm and in control…

"Thank you." The blond laboriously sat on the bed, feeling very weak. She swallowed her pills but her stomach immediately yelled at her.

"Do you think you can eat?"

"I… No… Even the pills are not…"

"Lay down."

JJ obeyed and started breathing deeply to keep her stomach under control.

The all day passed like that, Emily taking care of JJ who was fighting against her virus. The fever was gone but the blonde still couldn't eat. They finally managed to bring back some color to JJ's face by putting sugar in her water.

At the end of the day Will came to fetch his son, vaguely asking how JJ was, not really looking at Emily either. Shortly after that Emily left, her friend doing well enough to take care of herself. The maternal side of Emily wanted to stay to be sure everything was fine but she needed to get out of there. JJ had that special power of bringing all her inner walls down and she didn't want that to happen.

Three days later JJ came back to work. She still looked pale but the doctor had cleared her. Emily wasn't really sure of where she was standing. She was glad that her friend still relied on her and that she had been able to help but she also felt like she hadn't done enough. She was expecting, hoping, that the tension between them would wear off. She was so scared that JJ would freak out and see her as some sort of scavenger.

At the end of the day JJ walked to Emily's desk but stopped a meter behind the chair, not announcing her presence to the brunette. She didn't want to do something that would be wrongly interpreted but she had to find a way to make it up to Emily, or at least to make their relationship go back to normal.

"Emily?"

"Unh?" The brunette was reading the end of her paper. JJ waited until she put it down and sign it before stepping forward next to the brunette's chair. "Sorry. What can I do for you?"

"I think you've done enough for me already." JJ smiled, Emily was always so caring. "I wanted to thank you for staying with me this weekend."

"You've done that like ten times already." Emily was smiling too, that wasn't a reproach at all.

"Yea but… I'm getting Henry back on Friday night. Do you want to come over to see him and eat at my place or have a drink?"

Emily seemed surprise for a second but then she puckered her lips like when she wanted to control a wide smile and nodded.

"Yea sure."

"Ok, great." JJ walked out of the room, feeling happy and relieved.

Sitting in front of Emily, Derek looked up and pointed his pen at her.

"You be careful."

"Yes Sir."