Title: Changes (8/8)
Author: sofialindsay
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: JJ/Emily
Disclaimer: As always, if I owned the characters, we'd be watching instead of reading
Rating: R
Warning: Spoilers for the upcoming episodes. Translated: If you don't want to know what's happening on the show, don't read this!
Summary: Lesbian Drama at its Finest
AN: Thank you to all who have put up with 8 chapters of drama. My muse has taken a vacation apparently, but I'm still in the mood to write (does that make any sense?), so if anyone has any prompts/ideas, feel free to send them my way.
AN2: Thanks to my beta, darkbardzero for putting up with my near-constant freak-outs, my Paget obsession and my complaints that there are no new stories to read.
AN3: Thanks to csiladies, calliopesmuse, Steppenwolf29 and all the others for your kind comments.
Archiving: P&P, others ask.
A Month Later
"EMILY!!"
The profiler bolted out of bed and ran towards the sound of her girlfriend's panicked voice, grabbing her gun out of habit on the way.
"Honey, what's wrong?" She immediately realized how brainless the question was, as JJ stood clutching her stomach in a pool of liquid.
"Em, my water just broke. I think this baby is coming now!"
"OH. Shit. I'll get your bag and call Garcia. Then we'll get you to the hospital."
An annoyed JJ watched with mild amusement as the normally collected agent ran around the condo in a frenzy. "Emily, the bag is in the hall, and your cell phone is next to your bed."
"Oh right. I knew that!" JJ shook her head as she watched her girlfriend run towards the bedroom.
"I love you Emily, but if you don't get me to the hospital for painkillers soon, I swear to God I'll shoot you!" She called after her.
"JJ, she's beautiful."
Emily paused from stroking her daughter's head and leaned down to kiss her girlfriend's forehead as she tried to keep the tears at bay. After seven hours of labor, their daughter had arrived, screaming at the top of her lungs to announce her presence. Her hand was still sore from JJ's death grip, and her arm had quite a few cuts from the younger woman's sharp nails, but now, watching her daughter sleep in JJ's arms, Emily knew it was well worth it.
"I know…she's perfect…C'mere, I want a real kiss after what I just went through!"
"What you went through? Honey, you cut me up and almost broke my hand! And I didn't have those nice painkillers you did!" Emily teased, before leaning down to give the blonde what she considered a real kiss.
A knock on the door made them pull apart, and Garcia bounced in, flanked by Hotch, Morgan and Reid.
"Hey Jayj! Let me see the little one!" Garcia wasted no time in removing the baby from JJ's arms and cuddling it to her, giving Morgan a glare when he reached for her.
"Don't give me that look, baby girl!" He replied, holding his hands up in mock surrender, "There's no way I'm trying to take that kid from you!"
"What name did you finally agree on?" Reid's voice broke through the bickering. JJ and Emily looked at one another and smiled, before Emily nodded to the younger woman.
"Sydney Erin-Elizabeth." JJ smiled at Hotch when he open and closed his mouth, apparently without anything to say. "Thank you, for everything."
"So when do I get a baby named after me?" Garcia broke in, causing everyone to laugh and effectively breaking the uneasy tension.
JJ scoffed, "Ask Emily, she's having the next one!"
Another round of laughter broke free, as Emily's eyebrows shot high into her forehead. "I don't think so!"
In the meantime, Morgan had successfully managed to pry Sydney out of Garcia's ironclad grasp, and was staring at the baby. "JJ, are you sure Prentiss isn't the father? She has your eyes, but her dark hair and face."
"Her eyes may change colors, most babies have blue eyes. Time will tell." JJ answered quietly, leaning back into Emily when she wrapped her arms around her. It had never been mentioned that Rick did indeed have several of Emily's features, and the blonde hated to be reminded.
"I don't care what your policies are! My daughter had my grandchild, I am a U.S. Ambassador, you and your trifling policies are not going to keep me out!"
The temperature in the room dropped at least ten degrees, as Emily's mother's voice carried throughout the hallway. The fear on Emily's face would have been laughable, had anyone taken time to notice. Leveling her gaze on the guilty-looking computer guru, she calmly spoke.
"Garcia…please tell me you didn't?"
"Um…." The eccentric blonde squeaked, "Maybe? Morgan give them the kid… let's get out of here! Good luck Jayj!"
Morgan quickly handed Sydney over to JJ, and followed Garcia out of the room. Hotch looked at his two agents guiltily. "I'm sorry, but seeing how the last confrontation with your mother went, I'm with them!"
Hotch quickly left the room, and JJ turned her attention to her girlfriend. "Honey, are you ready for this?"
Emily shook her head, secretly wishing she could join the rest of the team in escaping. Her mother's voice was getting closer, which meant a quick exit was impossible.
"Finally! You have no idea how hard it was to get a flight out of France on such short notice! I hardly expect to have as much difficulty getting in an American hospital to see my daughter!" Elizabeth Prentiss marched into the room, flanked by three nurses.
"Ma'am, we're so sorry. This…lady wouldn't stop until she found you. She claims to be your… mother?"
JJ smiled sympathetically at the embarrassed nurses, "Its okay. She's Emily's mother. But could you hold all visitors until further notice?"
The Ambassador gave the nurses a look that could only be translated as 'I told you so,' and Emily bit back a chuckle. The nurse nodded, and left hurriedly with her colleagues.
"I don't understand you Emily. I leave for not even six months, and in that time, you manage to get married and have a baby! Talk about being busy! How on earth did you manage to get JJ pregnant?"
"Mother, I know you don't understand it. You were in France, and I couldn't get past your guard dog of an assistant. You knew I was in love with JJ. The rest, quite frankly, is none of your concern, except to say that I'm adopting Sydney. JJ and I are raising her as our own. I've accepted the circumstances behind her existence, and you shouldn't worry about it. She's just as much my daughter as JJ's."
Having been teasing her daughter, Elizabeth obviously was not expecting her daughter to be so vocal and steadfast on the issue, "Emily Elizabeth, don't take that tone with me. I'm not here to fight with you. I'm here to see my granddaughter that I was told about."
JJ saw Emily's shocked expression and gently nudged her. The brunette stood and took a sleeping Sydney from the blonde's arms, before handing her off to Elizabeth. Careful not to jar the younger woman, she took her seat on the bed behind JJ, letting her tired, sore lover lean back into her open arms again.
The Ambassador looked up from her granddaughter to her daughter and back again. She was stunned that the baby had the same nose and dark hair that the Prentiss line carried. "Emily…Jennifer, she's beautiful."
"Wait till she opens her eyes." Emily said with a smile, "Mother…no offense, but why are you here? I'm glad you are, but it's not like you."
Elizabeth looked at the sleeping baby in her arms, and when she looked up at her daughter, there were tears in her eyes. "I know I wasn't the perfect mother to you, but you are my only child. I want to establish some sort of relationship with you and Jennifer, and be there for my only grandchild, if you'll allow me."
Sensing Emily wasn't going to say anything, JJ spoke up with a smile. "I think we're both willing to try that. And her name Sydney Erin-Elizabeth, so you don't have to keep saying 'grandchild'."
Elizabeth smiled, as Sydney began to get fussy. "Thank you. I think someone's hungry. I should leave…Emily I'll call you next week. You know that the three of us will have to meet with Bernstein."
Emily nodded and, still not ready to hug her mother, cradled the fussy newborn before handing her to JJ. "I know. We'll discuss it later."
Still smiling, Elizabeth left the room, leaving a curious JJ staring at Emily. "What were you guys talking about? Who is Bernstein?"
"Bernstein is the family lawyer…my lawyer."
"But honey, we already have the adoption papers. Why do you need your lawyer?" JJ's confusion was tinted with something else Emily couldn't identify.
"Baby, by adoption, Sydney is a Prentiss. Our daughter just gained herself a trust fund…so did you." Emily explained bleakly, hoping JJ wouldn't get angry.
"Oh." JJ replied while watching her daughter, "I understand her having one, she's your daughter. But why me?"
"Apparently Mother likes you, to her, we're married and you're her daughter too. As long as we're together, you'll have the same funds I do. It's how our family works with the in-laws that we know aren't after our money. You never have to touch the money, if you don't want to. But it's there should you ever need it. If anything happens to me, my trust goes to you, and then to Sydney."
JJ blinked a few times, "That's a lot to wrap my head around. Em, you know I don't want your money."
The profiler laughed, "Honey I know that. It's just how our family works."
A comfortable silence settled over them as they watched their daughter sleep.
"You know, we never talked about her last name." JJ stated softly.
"Huh? I just assumed it would be Jareau." Emily honestly answered. There was no contempt in her voice, she had thought about this and had an idea of her own, if JJ were willing.
"You're adopting her though. I want us to be a family."
"This is just a suggestion, but what about Prentiss-Jareau?" Emily bit her lip, hoping JJ would agree.
JJ laughed, "The poor kid is going to have so many hyphens in her name, she'll hate us! But I like it…Em? What is it? You're holding something back."
"When we meet with Bernstein, what do you think about me changing my name to it?" Emily quietly replied, not looking at JJ.
"I think it depends. What do you think about me doing the same?" JJ smiled as the dark head shot up to look at her, "Oh honey, don't look so surprised. I hate the idea of a split family just as much as you do."
Smiling, Emily leaned down to kiss her partner while her daughter slept. "I love you JJ. And you'll never know how much I thank you for giving me this. You've given me the family I always wanted."
"I love you too baby. I think I do know…you've given me the same thing."
