It had been chillier that night than it should have been for that time of year. And yet, Emily had just stared at the spot where the cop car had pulled away with Susan Jacobs. She didn't shiver or shake, or try to warm up her body by moving around. It had been something JJ had actually teased Emily about months earlier- why rich people never seemed to get cold. The truth was that Emily didn't feel cold because in that moment she didn't feel a whole lot of anything.

She was still. It was always those cases for her. It was always those cases that were the hardest. Those were the cases that lived inside her head. Those were the cases she just could've ever seem to brush off or get used to. It was the second case in a row that had worn on her.

She hadn't been thinking about anything in particular- not even Katie or Carrie- as she stared out at the roadway leading away from the mall. She hadn't really been thinking about anything at all, completely zoned out as she just stood. Law enforcement officers had began to disperse, but Emily couldn't do anything but just stand there. And that's when she felt it. It was the slight brush of an arm against hers.

"Hey you," JJ whispered as the two discreetly stood at the mall side curb. She noticed Emily slightly nod to acknowledge her presence. A few beats passed before the younger woman spoke again. "You know, you saved her. Katie is going to be okay."

Emily's eyes drifted down to the ground and she began to scuff at her boots on the concrete. "It doesn't feel like it."

JJ stood there for a few more seconds with Emily before she whispered, "I know how hard these cases are for you." It was a sharp inhalation from the brunette that had let JJ know Emily had heard her, and that was when JJ had said it under her breath. It was so low that if Emily had been another few inches away, she wouldn't have been able to hear it. "Let's go home."

And that was when Emily Prentiss was sure she had fallen in love with Jennifer Jareau.


"I just don't see why it would be so weird?" Ashley questioned with a raised eyebrow. She had been lounging around on their hotel bed, wondering aloud why she was not invited to Emily's 'meet the wife dinner.' "Isn't a present wife required for a 'meet the wife dinner?'" Ashley called out as Emily briskly walked from their bathroom back to the bedroom and pulled a clean navy v-neck sweater over her head.

"It's not a 'meet the wife dinner' it's more of a…"

"There is a wife dinner," Ashley finished. "You're a prisoner of your own making."

"So I get no sympathy then?"

"No!" Ashley yelled out at Emily, who had run to grab something she forgot from their bathroom. "You're being a control freak….And I still don't see what the big deal is. They know me. It's not as if you're going to be yelling 'come on down' to some stranger like on the 'Price is Right.' I know them all. I like them all. It won't be overwhelming."

Emily stopped and sat own on the bed with the pair of jeans she was going to change into in her hands. This was why Ashley- no matter how talented she was as an agent- this was why she wasn't in the BAU. She didn't seem to pick up on the fact that she wasn't the one Emily was trying not to overwhelm. However, Emily didn't want to get into a fight, or even worse hurt the other woman, so she goes along with Ashley's assessment of her motives. "You don't know them all," Emily responded in an even tone as she started to finish getting dressed again. She was confident Ashley knew she wasn't coming. The redheaded woman wasn't even showered or ready, but it was more about Ashley wanting Emily to want her there.

"Okay," Ashley challenged. "I like Garcia."

"You like Garcia."

"I like Reid."

Emily laughed, "You don't like Reid."

"I do like him!" Ashley shot back. "I don't baby him twenty-four seven, and apparently that means I don't like him."

"Ash," Emily groaned with a smile. She turned back to look at the other woman, laid out comfortably on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She was in no mood to have dinner with the BAU. She wasn't kidding anyone. "This is a team dinner. No one is bringing anyone else. We've all been running around on adrenaline in a haze. This is to take a minute and catch up with each other, reintroduce each other. There's a new agent I'm trying to sway over, and even he's not coming. We're just going to catch up this time, and there will be other dinners you can come to. Just like in London."

Ashley nodded in reply. If she was going to be brutally honest with Emily, she would tell her she already missed their life in London. She didn't want to pack up their things and bring them to the one place where it seemed like they had never worked- D.C. But she was sure Emily was under pressure. She had admitted she had reservations about the position she now held, and Ashley didn't want to make it worse just because Emily was spending their last night with the team instead of her. "Just let them know when we find a sublet they're invited for dinner."

"I will," Emily reassured with a nod herself. "I know you're leaving tomorrow before I get off, but why don't you come to lunch."

"Sure you don't want to keep me hidden away?" Ashley teased good-naturedly.

Emily leaned down on the bed to give the younger woman a kiss on the cheek before she walked to the room's dresser and pointedly held up her wedding band in the air. "I'm bringing it." Ashley gave her a thumbs up, which made Emily laugh. She called out a final time before she walked out the front door, "And I have the perfect picture of you for my desk, Scottish Christmas!"

"Love that one!" Ashley called back before the room was quiet again.


The team, see Rossi, had picked a quiet Italian place downtown for their catchup dinner. It was small and dark, the lights were all red-hued. It had a bit of a bordello vibe, which didn't surprise Emily considering who picked the restaurant. Emily walked in to find Rossi seated in a booth at the back. She had kind of hoped they could have their own room, as Garcia and Tara could get a little loud, but the place was too small for that. Also, Emily hated booths. Any chair that trapped you in the corner without letting you leave was not ideal to her.

"Before you say it," Rossi ordered as he held a hand up, signaling he was not going to take Emily's interruptions, "Chief gets a chair."

Emily looked over to the sad, little, wooden chair Rossi had pulled up to put on the free end of the table, you know, where their feet were typically supposed to go. "Chair but no leg room, I'll take it," She joked.

However, getting to be booth-free did leave her in the awkward position of waiting around for everyone to show up. It was either that, or she would have to keep getting up every time someone showed up. Rossi had excused himself to go grab at drink at the restaurant's small bar, and while he was gone Emily looked up to see Reid and Tara were both headed towards her. "Hey," She greeted as they began to complain about the traffic on the way over.

On the other hand, JJ had purposefully shown up a little late. She knew that Emily was always on-time or early, and that showing up late would have been the best way she could avoid sitting by the brunette. It wasn't that JJ wanted to keep avoiding Emily. She had just wanted to that one night. That one night when she had to endure another episode of 'Guess who got married?' Then, they could go back to normal, their new version of normal.

It was odd. The other day Emily had worn a pink sweater, and it brought JJ back to 2006 all over again. That was the normal JJ had grown to miss the most. It was when things were less complicated. In JJ's mind there had been three Emily Prentisses. The first had shown up in 2006. She was confident, competent, a little secretive, always a little dark, but she was strong. If you were to envision an unbreakable FBI agent during that time, the image you would have conjured up would have been of Emily Prentiss. At her core, that was who JJ had believed the real Emily was, but that Emily had disappeared with the reappearance of Doyle. Even after he had been killed, Emily was still gone. The next Emily who had taken her place was broken. She was tired and defeated. She had lost the confidence in herself. She had acted like she had something to prove in an even more overstated way than she had before. That was the Emily that had scared JJ. It was the first time she had ever seen the other woman as being frail and breakable, and it pained her to see Emily like that. The final Emily that had come back had seemed more grounded. She seemed more alive, and little by little her need to "prove" and "make up" for the things she should have never felt guilty for in the first place seemed to dissipate. It showed JJ a glimpse of Emily again. The real Emily Prentiss, the Emily Prentiss she had fallen in love with. Except it wasn't 2006 anymore. They were both so far away from that.

The way she could best describe Emily to anyone else, if she were to describe her to someone else, would be that Emily was the scab that never went away. Just when things between them seemed to be done- seemed to be healing- one of them would have to pick at it to see what was going on underneath. Then they would be at square one all over again. Everything would be fresh and painful all over again. It had become toxic, their inability to forget each other. Maybe Emily was right. Maybe it would be best for them to be unstuck.

But, she had wagered wrong. If she had shown up to the restaurant early she could've slipped into the U-shaped booth in the spot farthest away from Emily. Instead, JJ observed a few feet from the table that Reid was sitting in the far back in the middle. Garcia, Tara and, new guy were sitting to the left of him, and Rossi was sitting to his right. The only available seat was the booth's outside seat, closest to where Emily had pulled up her chair. JJ steadied her nerves before she walked up to the group, "Sorry I'm late. The boys were crazy." Lie.

Emily got up and pulled out her chair so JJ could slip into the empty spot in the booth. Their legs almost brushed when Emily went to sit back down.

"Now that we're all here," Emily began and flashed a smirk to the late JJ. "The team has been through a whirlwind lately. I know there has been a lot of overturn lately, and with Hotch leaving it's been a lot to handle. He's been a stabilizing force on the BAU and I know that's hard to lose, especially after just reeling from Derek. And this time together- no cases, no planes, we don't have this often. I thought it would be a good time to check in and touch base. What's going on with you guys?"

"Great idea," Rossi replied with a smile as the rest of the team nodded. "I, for one, might have a lead on number four," he winked, which had made Alvez confused. Emily mouthed 'wife' to the younger man as Spencer had said something about how he was just focused on work and his mother. Garcia had mentioned something about doing research on pet turtles. JJ opted to just shake her head 'no,' to Emily's question about new life events. Tara was officially 'done with men,' and Alvez admitted he had nothing going on besides his dog. Emily had to admit this was the sorriest group of personal lives she had ever seen, but that was to be expected. Aside from Morgan's retired 'thot'ing,' as Garcia had called it, Emily felt the BAU was pretty boring when it came to dating and love. And then it just left the Unit Chief. Their salads hadn't even come out yet and it was already her turn.

Emily picked at her fingers under the table. It was 'now or never.' She might have been okay with 'never,' but Ashley would be completely done with her if she put it off again. "Well, I think a few of you know I had been seeing someone back in London."

"Oh, no, Emily we're so sorry," Tara offered in a semi-positive voice. She, and the rest of the table save for JJ and Garcia, had assumed that Emily was going to say they had broken up.

Emily found herself laughing at the implication. "No, nothing like that. Before I got the official call, Hotch gave me a little heads up that I might be needed here. It felt like a good time to sort out some things before they got BAU-hectic again. So my girlfriend and I got married before I moved down here."

"Wow."

"That's great!"

"Hot damn!"

Reid, Tara and Rossi all responded at once. It took Alvez a second before he too responded with a "Congratulations."

Emily nodded back at the group, a little embarrassed to have the spotlight all on her. She was also especially conscious of the feelings of the blonde woman sitting to the right of her. "Thank you all. I want to apologize for taking a while to tell you. I wanted to wait for the right time."

"Ask who it is!" Garcia ordered in a giddy voice, before looking over to a quiet, pale JJ. It was obvious, to both her and Rossi, that JJ would have wanted to be anywhere but there.

Emily went on to talk about how she married Ashley Seaver. Reid had asked if she were now two agent Prentisses, remembering about Ashley's complicated relationship with her surname. Emily had answered 'no,' but not much more. Rossi could notice that with every detail Emily's eyes would dart over to JJ. After the one detail Ashley had asked Emily to share had been said- the invitation to dinner with them when she was back in 10 days- mercifully, Garcia changed the subject from Emily to hazing Alvez. It was something JJ was eternally grateful for.

It had taken nearly two hours, but the night was finally over, almost. The final gut punch was in the form of the goodbyes in front of the restaurant. In the past, any hug from Emily to JJ would've been a little tighter and a little longer than the ones she gave to anyone else. Except this hug, on this night, was a little looser than the hugs Emily had given to Tara, Reid and Garcia. Emily's arms hadn't feel strong and tight around her. They were merely draped for a second before the brunette quickly pulled away. That was probably the worst part of the night, for both of them.


She had heard the footsteps behind her as she briskly walked to her car that was parked around the block. She wasn't worried though. She knew those boots had belonged to Rossi.

"Did you get blindsided, kid?" Rossi had asked as soon as they had both made it to her car. His car wasn't parked by her, but he knew. They all knew, the old BAU team: "the Golden era." Rossi was just the only one who had the guts to say anything about it out loud.

"No," JJ sighed. "No, I knew beforehand."

"I don't what is worse: getting a heads up, but you have to hear it twice, or getting blindsided?" Rossi questioned as he raised both his hands, psychically weighing both options. "It's tough," He offered, knowing the blonde couldn't answer his rhetorical question. "It's a tough thing when the people we think will always be around for us, aren't around for us. Not the way we're used to, anyway."

"Yeah," JJ signed and leaned against her car door to look above to the clear, dark skies. The night was abnormally chilly and you couldn't see the stars, but at least there wasn't a cloud in the sky. She couldn't bring herself to look at the man. She couldn't compartmentalize anymore. Yesterday morning and that dinner had drained her of that. "I thought you'd be happy for her. You're the one who brought Seaver on board to begin with."

"I am. I'm glad for them. I'm glad Emily's just not 'put on ice' anymore. A ring is good. I like a ring. I've bought quite a few of them myself…" He trailed off before he flashed her what could best be described as a fatherly smile. "Doesn't mean I can't sympathize with the bartender."

"I'm the bartender?" JJ half-laughed.

"In this scenario? That you are."

"It's been about a day and a half, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. I think it'll be fine in another day though."

"I hope so," Rossi had said with a pat on JJ's arm. The city was quiet and it was a beautiful night. These type of things always happened on beautiful nights. "People need people, JJ."

"Hm?"

"People need people. It's just a reality with most of us in the BAU- the things we see everyday…People need people. So you either find a way to be happy for her or…"

"Or?"

Rossi laughed at the advice he was about to give. Objectively, he shouldn't give this advice. He had seen this merry-go-round, and he wasn't ever sure it was ever truly 'merry.' But the man also knew that life was a long time to spend near-happy. As far as David Rossi was concerned, the two women were almost happy, but not quite there yet. It was actually an improvement for Emily- to go from miserable to almost happy. It was a real lucky jump, but JJ had seemed stuck in this purgatory since her transfer all those years ago. JJ had changed. She had seemed to lose a part of herself after she left the team- after she had left Emily. That's when it all got real, and that's when Rossi noticed that the two's happinesses had evolved from constant to flashes, and then from flashes to seldom, and then for a while- while Emily was gone- there just wasn't any happiness there at all.

He liked Ashley Seaver a lot, but he had been around the other two women for nearly ten years. He had seen what they had given each other. For all their faults, the two had secrets they only shared with each other. He had seen the things they had only trusted with each other, and he doubted that even their spouses had been privy to that knowledge. So yes, he liked Ashley Seaver, and maybe that's why he decided to give the advice that wasn't in the best of taste, because it wasn't all rainbows and sunshine to be the backup either.

"Listen, kid. I'm married three times, and not opposed to number four. I'm not the proponent of the sanctity of marriage."

"So, you find a way to be happy for her or?" JJ repeated and stared intensely at the man in front of her.

"Or, or you find a way to be happy with her." And that was the last thing Rossi uttered over a chuckle before he walked off.

Or. The word sticks in her head all the way home.


Are there any Peaver fans out there or is everyone rooting for Emily/JJ?

It's a slow buildup.