Hey guys, thank you to everybody who is reading these, I hope you are all still enjoying them. Thank you so much for your review as well I love to hear your thoughts on these one shots and don't forget to let me know if you have any requests you would like to me to try and write in.
This one is more Emily based, but had some team interaction and Jemily moments as well, those that read Connected As One the main story should recognise part of this one shot as it has been briefly mentioned in the story, don't forget to let me know what you think.
One shot name: Birthday Surprises.
Synopsis: Emily's Birthday is full of surprises this year all of which are good for Emily but some of which are not as good for other members of the team.
Rating: K+
Eleven: Birthday Surprises.
Today was usually one of Emily Prentiss's least favorite days of the year.
Today was her Birthday.
Every year this day held disappointment.
As a child and young adult she was disappointed that her mother seemed to never have the time to take one day from her job to celebrate her Birthday with her doing something she enjoyed doing.
Instead her mother would always drag her along to one of her fancy political Ambassador parties and show her off.
Emily hated those parties, she hated the stuck up people she had to make small talk with, she hated that her mother always tried to set her up with some wealthy family's son.
She hated that there was always a massive fireworks display in her honor.
It was ironic her mother had always picked the one thing she hated the most to honor her Birthday with.
It just showed how little her mother knew her.
That fact became even more apparent when Emily finally had the courage to come out to her mother and tell her that she was gay, that she preferred to date women over men.
The two Prentiss's had had a massive confrontation about it with Emily accusing her mother of never taking the time to learn anything about her.
Her mother had been shocked at the learning this about her daughter and had taken it very badly.
The two of them didn't speak for well over two years after the confrontation, which even though it hurt her, Emily found better than having to pretend that everything was okay when it wasn't.
She didn't have to suffer through anymore parties or blind dates with dirt-bags that her mother set her up with telling her they would be a good suitor for her.
It wasn't until recently that they began talking again.
Elizabeth Prentiss had come to Emily and her team asking for her help for a friend of hers whose father bad been abducted.
The two had worked closely on the case, as well as with the rest of the team, and had managed to solve the case without any more victims having to lose their lives.
Emily had been surprised after the case was over that her mother had asked her out to dinner.
Not a flash party with lots of people, a dinner with just the two of them.
Her mother didn't try to show her off, she just spent time with her.
They had talked that night, more than Emily could ever remember them talking before in life.
Her mother had even let slip about how impressed she was with the younger members on her team.
She was impressed with Dr. Reid's intelligence at such a young age and Agent Jareau's ability to control the media so well.
Even thought they were talking somewhat now, she had still dreaded her upcoming Birthday expecting the phone call or party invitation to arrive by post like it always had every year before their confrontation when Emily had come out to her mother.
However she was pleasantly surprised when this morning came and instead of a party invitation awaiting her or a phone call with instructions that a car would be waiting for her by so o'clock, there was a Birthday card.
A Birthday card written personally by her mother wishing her a good day and asking her to call her when she had some free time not working on cases so they could arrange to meet up for dinner again.
Emily had been shocked, she could not remember ever receiving a Birthday card from her mother, especially not a hand written one.
Usually she would receive a fancy dress to wear to whatever party she was to be dragged to, her mother's way of making sure she dressed appropriately for the function.
It made her glad that she had had that confrontation with her mother in the first place.
Even though the rejection she had felt hurt at first and made her worry about telling others about her sexual preference, it made her glad that her mother seemed to be seeing her for who she was.
Finally seeing and accepting her as Emily, not Emily Prentiss the name, but Emily the person.
That was why this year was different to every other year.
This year Emily thought that maybe, just maybe her Birthday wouldn't be as disappointing as it usually was, it had already started out well.
She didn't mind didn't mind having to work on her Birthday, she loved the people she worked with dearly and she loved her job just as much.
She liked the good they were able to do, she liked the fact that she was needed and she was useful, and that she was good at what she did.
She found that today as she walked into the Bullpen with spring in her step she stopped to say thank you and smiled at every agent that wished her a happy Birthday as she passed them, rather than scowling and growling under her breath at them like she usually did.
Walking up to her desk to place her hand bag down something caught her attention.
On her desk was a small tuba-wear box with a green envelope placed on top.
On the envelope Emily's name was written in fancy writing, not recognizing the writing Emily quickly tore the envelope open wanting to see who it was from and what was inside.
Inside was another Birthday card making her smile, someone else remembered that it was her Birthday with enough pre-empting to actually go out and buy her a card and not just say Happy Birthday to her in passing or text her.
Opening the card she began to read the message inside:
To Emily,
I hoped to mislead you with the fancy writing on the front which is a lot different to my usual chicken scratch!
Wishing you a very Happy Birthday!
I Hope you get everything you want and more, you deserve it. You are a brilliant friend and an even better person and just remember if someone can't accept you for who you are, screw them!
Jennifer.
Emily smiled re-reading the card again, the writing was so distinctly JJ, in both the way it looked and the way it read.
She laughed remembering when JJ had first given her that piece of advice, and in truth it didn't surprise her one bit that JJ had written it in the card for her Birthday.
JJ was one of the only people that knew the extent of the hurt Emily's mother had caused her with her rejection.
Even though they were on better terms now Emily was still wary, and it looked as though JJ was too, as well as protective it seemed.
"Happy Birthday Sweet-Cheeks!" Garcia exclaimed as she waltzed up to Emily placing a kiss on each of her cheeks before handing her a medium sized gift bag.
Emily smiled in thanks, placing the card from JJ that was still in her hand down on the desk before opening the gift bag and pushing some tissue paper to the side to pull out a small clay candle holder.
As she inspected it she could see that it had been painted and had small star shaped holes in it for the light to flicker out from.
On closer inspection Emily could see it was handmade, Garcia had been attending evening pottery classes once a week the last few months and this was obviously something she had made for her during in this time. 6
"Thank you Pen, this is really sweet of you." Emily said genuinely.
"Do you like it?" Garcia replied with a smile, wanting confirmation that she had done well in her pottery classes.
"It's great, those classes are paying off for you." Emily assured her causing Garcia's smile to bloom larger.
"Oooo!" Garcia suddenly exclaimed.
"Who made you that? And why aren't we eating it yet!" Garcia said excitedly eyeing the cake in the tuba-wear box on Emily's desk. It was no secret that Garcia loved sweet things, especially cake with lots of icing on top like this one had.
"That's from Jayje, the card too." Emily said pointing to the card she had stood up on the desk when Garcia had given her the gift bag a few minutes ago.
"I didn't know our Gumdrop baked." Garcia said after a moment's thought.
"I'm not sure if she does either." Emily replied looking to the cake and opening the lid to take a better look.
"I'll get a knife so we can try some." Garcia volunteered quickly, turning to leave.
"I wouldn't if I were you." Emily said causing Garcia to stop in her tracks to look at Emily confused.
"A few weeks ago Jayje took me on a trip out of town and she made us some soup, you know those cans you boil for five minutes on the hob?" Emily started to explain as Garcia nodded in understanding.
"Well she burnt it, if that's even possible. It was meant to be chicken noddle, but the noddles were burnt and black, so the soup had little black bits floating in it." Emily continued.
"Jayje thought they were croutons." Emily finished causing Garcia to laugh.
They were both silent for a few moments, after Garcia's laughter had calmed down, just looking at the cake unsure.
"It might have just been a one off with soup." Garcia said hopefully.
"Maybe." Emily said sounding unconvinced.
"Do you really want to be the guinea pig that checks that theory out though?" Emily continued raising an eyebrow in Garcia's direction.
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An hour and a half later the team, minus Garcia who had stayed behind in Quantico, were on the jet on their way to investigate a new case.
When the team had got on the jet everyone had taken their usual seats for take-off, afterwards gathering around the center seats where JJ and Emily were sat to wish Emily a happy Birthday and to give her some gifts.
Reid had given Emily a Japanese linguistics dictionary and phrase book, saying he remembered her saying that her Japanese was rusty and how she wanted to work on it again.
Morgan had given her a photograph of her real present that was far too big to bring into work, he said he would drop it off at her apartment when they got back from the case. The photograph was of a mirror that he had encased in beautiful old wooden window shutters that he had finished off with varnish and carved. He had made the gift himself with left over materials from his renovation works.
Hotch and Gideon had given Emily Birthday cards from each of them, both of them promising to take the team out for dinner and drinks upon their return from the case to celebrate Emily's Birthday.
JJ had given Emily two more presents to add to what she had left for her on her desk this morning. The first of which was a small wooden cat carving she had brought from a market after seeing Emily eye them up when they had gone shopping a week ago together. The second of which was a book by Emily's favourite author that she had yet to read as she kept forgetting to buy this particular title.
Emily had thanked them all for the gifts and found herself touched at the thoughtfulness her team had shown in the making and finding of the gifts.
It seemed her team took more attention to her likes and dislikes than she had realized.
The team had then begun going through the case after this and had their assignments sorted for when they landed, they were now just waiting for the jet to reach its destination which was likely to be another half an hour yet.
As usual JJ was getting restless due the amount of time they had been stuck on the Jet.
She had spent half of the time sitting next to Emily fidgeting nervously while Emily tried to distract her, the other half making coffee for herself and her team mates to give her something to do.
Currently JJ was in the kitchen compartment of the jet making some more coffee, she could hear Garcia talking through the on flight system having just found out some more information on one of the victims, and she could also hear Morgan rummaging around in the fridge behind her looking for something to eat.
"What the hell!" Morgan yelled suddenly, clutching around his jaw, causing JJ and the rest of the team to turn and look at him in alarm.
"Who put this rock hard cake in here? I think I cracked a tooth on it." He exclaimed further as JJ narrowed her eyes at him noticing a piece of the Birthday cake she had made Emily on the side with a chunk missing out of it.
Hearing the commotion Emily looked up to the computer screen to meet Garcia's eyes almost laughing as she did so, before mouthing the words 'don't say anything' to her causing Garcia to have to turn her back to hide her laughter from the team.
"Morgan! That was Emily's Birthday cake." JJ said indignantly.
"What are you trying to do to her? Are you trying to make her lose all her teeth before she's thirty?" Morgan replied while rubbing his jaw, before picking up the tuba-wear box from the fridge with the cake in, adding the piece he had taken a bite out of, and throwing it in the bin to the side of him.
"This thing is not suitable for anyone to eat. Remind me to never eat anything you cook again." Morgan muttered under his breath before leaving the kitchen compartment and going back to his seat on the jet, JJ staring daggers at his back before turning back around to the coffee machine to pour herself a coffee, as the rest of the team on the jet and Garcia on the computer screen laughed at the scene the just played out in front of them.
"Morgan stop it!" JJ cried out having to side step Morgan's boot as she walked back out the kitchen compartment with her coffee, only just missing tripping over his purposely outstretched leg.
"What?" Morgan replied innocently.
"You did that on purpose." JJ insisted looking down at him as he shrugged his shoulders in response.
JJ glared at him before continuing her way down the aisle to sit down next to Emily again as Morgan watched smiling to himself before looking over to Reid who was sat opposite him reading a book.
"I'm getting her back for this, you in?" Morgan said.
"No way, Emily will have our heads if we do anything to her." Reid said declining instantly not even looking up from his book as Morgan huffed in response knowing it was the truth.
The whole team was protective of JJ and Reid to, to an extent, with both of them being the youngest members on the team.
Emily however was incredibly protective of JJ, Morgan had found that out the hard way after he had tried to set the blonde up and left her alone at a bar with one of his friends.
Morgan sat with his arms crossed watching as Emily and Garcia were talking to a sulking JJ causing her to laugh at something Garcia had said about croutons not being black, before she turned to Emily and apologized about ruining her Birthday cake.
"They knew about it!" He exclaimed quietly so only Reid could hear him causing Reid to put the book he was reading down and look over to Morgan confused.
"The cake, Emily and Garcia knew, they planned this." Morgan said.
"Now you are just being paranoid." Reid replied going to pick his book back up, stopping after Morgan insisted that he looked at the interaction the three girls were having.
Reid turned to watch them as Morgan watched as well, they could see Garcia on the computer screen imitating Morgan's reaction to having eaten the cake, they watched as Emily was almost crying in laughter and how JJ starting laughing as well at Garcia's re-enactment.
"You know, you might be right, they don't seem overly surprised about it, maybe they knew JJ wasn't great at cooking." Reid said turning back to Morgan now.
"Of course I'm right. Now are you going to help me or not?" Morgan asked.
"You do know this will become a war right?" Reid asked still unconvinced.
"Oh I'm betting on it, time to pick a team pretty boy." Morgan said with a smile.
Morgan loved a good prank war, he was the king of prank wars, he always won.
Those girls were going to go down and anybody else who choose their side, he would make sure of it.
AN: Let me know what you thought!
