Chapter 21

Emily almost froze when she heard the doorbell. This was it. There was no way she could run now.

This is not gonna be pretty, she thought as she saw JJ getting up and going to get the door. JJ managed to mouth 'I love you' towards Emily before she opened the door.

"Jennifer." Emily heard a voice that she only heard once before and soon she saw a woman the voice belonged to. Now she knew where JJ had gotten her good looks from. Mrs. Jareau was definitely a very beautiful woman, despite being over fifty years of age. Her smile seemed gentle and warm when she hugged her daughter.

"Hi mom." JJ smiled as she let her mother inside the apartment. Emily figured that it was time she made her presence known, so she stood up and walked up to JJ and her mom.

"Emily Prentiss I assume?" Mrs. Jareau suddenly turned to Emily and when Emily felt her eyes on her, she felt like the air around her was starting to lack oxygen.

"Yes, ma'am." She answered as she extended her hand. "Nice to meet you and welcome." She added after a moment as she felt Mrs. Jareau's hand shaking hers. She took it as a good sigh that JJ's mother didn't refuse to talk to her or touch her.

"Thank you." Mrs. Jareau smiled. "And thank you for having me."

"It's our pleasure." Emily said, still extremely nervous and not sure what to say or how to behave around JJ's mother. There was definitely some tension and Emily prayed to God that things loosen up a bit before the evening ends, or she was going to drive herself insane.

"I'm really glad you came, mom." JJ said as she took her mom's bag and lead her to the living room. Emily followed them. JJ and her mom sat on the couch and Emily decided to keep her distance, so she chose a chair.

"Well, what was I supposed to do when you refuse to come home?" Mrs. Jareau asked looking at JJ with reproach.

"Mom, you know I don't refuse to come home, I just…"

"I know, I know," Mrs Jareau sighed, "you have work."

"Mom, please." JJ looked at her mother meaningfully. She really was not in the mood for another lecture.

"OK, I'm not saying another word." Mrs. Jareau agreed. "I didn't come here to argue with you. I just wanted to spend some time with my daughter."

"I know. And I really am happy that you're here. It's been a while."

Emily watched mother and daughter talk and she was a little bit relieved that the two women were engaged in a conversation and she didn't really have to participate all that much. After a while she remembered that they had this huge dinner planned, so she proposed. "How about the two of you catch up and I'll take care of the food? There are still some things to prepare before we can serve it."

"Oh you didn't have to." Mrs. Jareau insisted.

"Of course we did." Emily smiled and went into the kitchen. She sighed deeply as she leaned against the kitchen counter. Things were not as bad as she had thought they would be, but she was still feeling extremely uncomfortable in Mrs. Jareau's presence. And she knew that JJ's mother wasn't completely fine with her either, but at least she was polite and didn't try to kill her.

The rest of the evening went pretty smoothly, despite of the obvious tension between Emily and Mrs. Jareau. The three women ate dinner, JJ and her mom managed to catch up a little bit, Emily and JJ told the older woman a little bit about their job, they watched some pictures. Things weren't half bad and when JJ would steal a glance at Emily, she could see that maybe the whole visit wasn't going to be such a painful experience.

Now the ladies were enjoying a bottle of wine after dinner, still making small talk and trying to be nice to each other, but Emily had a feeling that the subject she was so scared of was going to come up sooner or later. She just didn't know when.

Suddenly JJ's phone rang and when she looked at the number, she turned to Emily and her mom with an apologetic look, "I'm sorry, I have to take this." She answered the phone. "Jareau here… Yes… I gave them to him yesterday… No I did not… Right now? … OK, I'll call you back in fifteen minutes with the information." She hang up the phone and looked at her mom and Emily even more apologetically than before. "I'm sorry, I have to go through some files. I'll be as quick as I can." She said and disappeared from the living room. Emily looked around the room in slight panic before she finally looked at Mrs. Jareau. This was the moment she had been dreading and she had no idea what she was supposed to expect. She was waiting for another 'Stay away from my daughter' speech or a rant about how the lesbians are taking over the world. For a moment there was a complete silence in the room and you could cut the tension with a knife. Finally, Mrs. Jareau spoke.

"I'm kind of glad Jennifer is busy, because it will give us a chance to talk." She said and Emily's body tensed.

Here it goes, Emily took a deep breath and had to keep herself from saying that she really wasn't that glad at all.

"Yeah." Was all she managed to say as she felt Mrs. Jareau's eyes on her.

"I…" The older woman started and Emily could see that she was struggling with what she wanted to say. "I wanted to apologize." She finally said and Emily's eyes widened. Did she hear it right? Did JJ's mother just tell her that she wanted to apologize to her? Before she could react, Mrs. Jareau continued. "I am sorry for the way I spoke to you that one time we talked."

"Mrs. Jareau…" Emily tried to tell her apologies are not necessary, but the older woman wouldn't let her speak.

"I had no right to interfere with yours and Jennifer's lives, let alone speak to you in the manner that I did." She admitted and Emily could see how hard it was for JJ's mother to have this conversation with her.

"Forget about it." Emily suggested and she really wished they could just ignore that little conversation that they had had a couple of months before.

"I can't, Emily." Mrs. Jareau said and it was obvious that she felt really bad for the way she had talked to Emily in that phone conversation. "You have to understand where I was coming from." She added and looked at Emily to make sure that she was willing to listen. "All my life all I ever wanted for JJ was to find someone who would love her, someone who would look at her the way that you do." Emily smiled as she realized that her feelings for JJ were so obvious. "For some reason I always thought that this someone would be a man," Mrs. Jareau continued, "and the thought of it being a woman just felt wrong to me." Mrs. Jareau saw the expression on Emily's face, so she quickly added. "Don't worry, I'm not here to talk to you about gays and lesbians or any of that stuff. But I do admit that I freaked out when Jennifer told me that she might have romantic feelings for someone called Emily. And so I pushed her into the arms of that detective, because I thought that was what she needed to be happy. I thought that what she needed was to forget all about you and have a normal relationship." Mrs. Jareau took a deep breath. "Now I see that I was wrong, because it didn't make her happy, it made her miserable."

"It didn't make me too happy either." Emily admitted sadly.

"I can only imagine." Mrs. Jareau sighed. "Look, I just wanted to tell you that I've been here like five minutes and I see the way you look at my daughter. And trust me, when she talks about you, her voice changes and her eyes light up and I know that my daughter has never been happier in her life. Which was all I ever wanted for her, to be happy. And if you're the reason for that happiness, I can only thank you." Mrs. Jareau finally finished and Emily saw that she was becoming more and more emotional.

"Mrs. Jareau," Emily finally started, "I know that I may not be what you have imagined for JJ, but I swear to you I love your daughter, very much, and I would rather die than hurt her or let anything happen to her." She said and she had never meant anything in her life more than she meant those words.

"I know." Mrs. Jareau smiled. "I can see that in your eyes. And believe me, Jennifer feels the same for you. She's happy, you make her happy. That's all a mother could want for their child." Mrs. Jareau, now a little teary-eyed, covered Emily's hand with hers. "You take care of her."

"I will." Emily promised, feeling her own tears welling up in her eyes. It meant the world to her that JJ's mother was willing to give the two of them a chance and she knew it had cost her a lot to apologize and be so honest with her. She was happy for herself, and most of all for JJ, because she knew how much JJ loves her mother and she would hate for the two of them to argue because of her.

For a moment Emily and Mrs. Jareau sat in complete silence until Emily finally spoke.

"How about some more wine?" She offered as she remembered that there was still some left.

"I'd love to." Mrs. Jareau smiled and looked carefully at her daughter's girlfriend. And she felt that maybe it didn't matter what people thought, because something that made her baby girl so happy couldn't possibly be wrong.