So this is the final chapter, I hope you all enjoy it.
And thank you to everybody who ever reviewed/favourite, it means a lot, especially everyone who reviewed after each chapter you are especially awesome!
As always I do not own Criminal Minds, and the story is unbeta'd but I do hope that you will enjoy it and let me know what you think.
Emily stood at the podium and took a deep breath before she began to speak, "Today everything changes..." Although she was not the valedictorian Reid had asked her to give the speech in his place, he chose rather to sit in the front row with a giant grin on his face. Emily understood why he did it, and was honoured to take his place. As she spoke, her mind filled with moments from their senior year...
She and JJ sat on her bed with two piles of unopened mail in between them, "Whatever happens, we'll find a way to stay together." Emily promised the blonde before they both began to open and read the letters bearing their names, they understood that they might not get into the same colleges, but they had also promised each other not to give up on their own dreams. But as she ripped open the last letter, she prayed they would not be forced to separate. She looked up into blue eyes swirling with hope and fear before she spoke, "So, what you got?" she asked shakily. "BCU, Penn State, Miami, USC, NYU and Georgetown. All full or partial scholarships. You?" She asked, praying that they would have two that matched or were at least close together.
"Harvard, Columbia, Chicago..." she paused to grin at her girlfriend, "USC and Georgetown!" she cried before launching herself at her girlfriend, crushing all of the letters which lay between them...
Emily smiled at the memory as she continued her speech and began searching the crowd for those same blue eyes. After many hours spent discussing their options, between themselves and with Emily's parents, the two girls chose to go to New York, JJ at NYU and Emily at Columbia. Garcia and Reid had both gotten into Caltech and Morgan had gotten a football scholarship to UCLA.
The three girls cheered from the bleachers, Reid was on the bench acting as a sort of tactical coach for the team and helping them win, watching the last quarter of the game as Morgan tackled one of the players from the other team preventing another touchdown. There had been a moment during the game when Morgan himself had been tackled and hadn't been able to stand up by himself, Garcia sat in the bleachers shaking with worry as her boyfriend was helped off the field but then had been the loudest to cheer when he returned for the final play of the game. Afterward he had been offered scholarships to UCLA and Miami, choosing California so he could be closer to Garcia... and Reid.
As Emily finished her speech and the Dean came up to say a few words, Emily headed back to her seat, shooting a wink at the young genius as she passed him. Overall she had had an amazing year, her and her mother were talking more, she felt less resentment to her parents when they were away and had been able to see them more often, she had three amazing friends that she planned to keep for as long as possible and a girlfriend whom she loved and planned to hold onto forever.
JJ's parents had never tried to contact her and though she had been upset for a long time she knew that it was better this way than if they had had stuck around trying to change her, hating her for who she is. She still missed her family, her brothers especially and worried about what they would think of her, but for now she understood that there was nothing she could do but wait until they were older, until she could have a chance to tell them that she had not just left, and forgotten about them. In fact she carried a picture of them in her wallet, taken on the day they won their first little league game; she planned to keep that picture until she had a chance to take a new one.
Five Years Later
Standing in a line of people dressed identically in black caps and gowns stood a blonde with a mixed look of confusion, worry and upset as she fiddle with the sparkly new ring on her hand and pondered a message sent to her earlier. Late. Go without me. I'm so proud of you. Love Em. She shuffled along in the queue as more names were called as she began to climb the stairs she searched the sea of faces for the messenger. As she glanced over the audience she was easily able to spot a woman with pink streaks in her hair waving frantically, sitting next to her was a handsome man with dark skin and bald head next came the young man dressed in a scarf and sweater, his hair hanging around his shoulders, next she found the person she was searching for, her dark hair shining in the sun and her eyes twinkling with pride... and something else. As she looked to the side of the brunette she frowned when she noticed two strangers sitting between the brunette and her parents, however before she had time to work out who they were or what they really looked like her name was called and she shifted her focus to cross the stage and collect the piece of paper that validated the last few years of hard work. She smiled proudly as she shook the Deans hand, everybody she cared about was here to support her today as she got her Honours degree in Journalism and Communication, "You are meant for great things Jennifer." He said before passing her the scroll, "Thank you Sir." She replied before walking off the stage to take her seat. She wondered about the people sitting with her friends, her family, but quickly brushed it off assuming they had come with Ambassador and Mr Prentiss.
After all of the speeches and formalities had ended the blonde went in search of her family, launching herself into the arms of her fiancée, "Where were you, I was worried, and that message was pretty much the definition of vague." She demanded. "I'm so sorry babe but I had to organise something and it couldn't wait." Emily apologised, speaking into the blondes ears as she kept her arms wrapped tightly around her back. "But I never would have missed this, not for anything." She said, placing a kiss on JJ's cheek. "Thank you Em, I mean I know that I did this for myself and I'm proud of what I've achieved, but today when I looked into that crowd and saw the look on your face, on the faces of all the people who helped me get here, there is nothing in my life that could match that feeling." JJ said looking into the brown eyes that were looking straight back into her soul. "I love you JJ, come on lets go say hello to everyone else." Emily said and JJ noticed the hint of nerves in the brunette's voice as they turned to find everyone standing behind them.
"My Pennsylvania Princess, we're so proud of you!" Garcia squealed. JJ laughed into the mess of blonde hair now covering her face, "Thank you Garcia, and thanks for com..." she paused as she heard a vaguely familiar voice come from next to her, "Pennsylvania princess?" the voice said.
"I have found that in the case of Miss Garcia its best not to ask questions." She heard Elizabeth's amused voice before she turned to look at the person to whom the voice belonged. Two teenage boys stood in front of her; one with blonde hair and brown eyes the other with dark hair and bright blue eyes.
"Oh... my... god..." she barely managed to get out.
"Jen," the two boys said with tears in their eyes, "It's true." The blonde said, while the darker one spoke at the same time, "They lied." Before they both stepped forward, wanting to touch the blonde woman who was standing in front of them. JJ wrestled herself free of Garcia before wrapping her arms around the two boys that she hadn't seen for almost six years.
"What are you? How did you? Who?" JJ was unable to finish any of the questions that were forming in her mind. "Oh god." She said again, "I can't believe you're here. Both of you. And you're all grown up... and I missed it. I'm so sorry I missed it." JJ began to sob as her mind processed what she was seeing, her little brothers were standing in front of her, but they weren't little boys anymore. They towered over her as she clutched them both tightly, making sure they didn't disappear.
"It's ok Jen. We know that it wasn't your fault." The dark haired boy said.
"Jack, how? How did you even get here?" she asked before looking back to her youngest brother "Jason, you're both so... you weren't supposed to grow so much without me there." She cried.
"We caught the bus. And it's been a long time Jen; we aren't the little brothers you used to chase around the garden anymore." This made JJ cry as well, of course her brothers were different, she had left two innocent young boys and before her stood two young men she knew little about.
"How about we go grab some food, and then we can have all of the serious conversations Morgan suggested when he noticed his blonde friend's distress. "Uh, yeah... ok let's do that." Emily agreed.
Once the group had reassembled the two boys looked to Emily, "Maybe you should explain." Jack suggested.
"Em... what?" JJ asked from her position in between her brothers.
"Well you see I... I always knew how much you missed them and you wanted a chance to talk to them. So last week, after I finished my exams I drove down to East Alleghany, I asked at the school office and I found out they were out on the sports fields. Anyway I watched them play for a while, they're just as athletic as you are Jay, and you should see it. I eventually got up the nerve to go talk to them when they finished practice and I told them who I was and why I was looking for them, I told them what happened when we were in senior year and they told me your parents version of the why you left. I know, I know that you wanted to explain it to them when you got a chance but I thought they were old enough now to understand and I wanted them to be here today, to see who you really were. Anyway we spent a long time talking and I asked them to come up here today, and well, here they are." She finished.
"I'm not mad Em, it's amazing, that you went there, that you guys came here. Can you forgive? For being gone for so long? For not telling you why? For not coming back?" She asked uncertainly looking between them.
"There is nothing to forgive Jen. Sure we had a lot of questions over the years, we asked mom and dad but as we got older we figured out they weren't telling us everything and they weren't going to so we stopped asking. When Emily came to talk to us, it started to make sense, why mom and dad were always hassling us about girlfriends and school and staying in East Alleghany, it's like they were afraid of something. Jen we don't care that you're gay, that you chose a life outside of East Alleghany, it actually helped us growing up, knowing there was a way out even if we never knew where you had ended up." Jason said, wrapping his arm around his sister, pulling her into his chest.
"When did you get so smart Jazz?" She asked.
"I got it from this blonde girl I; in between hitting me in the head with a soccer ball she was always telling me about how important school is." He grinned down at her, "I missed you big sister." He mumbled into her hair, trying to mask his tears.
"But, how did you get here then? What about," JJ swallowed the lump in her throat, "what about mom and dad."
"They think we're on a school field trip, the rest of our class is in DC, looking at museums... and colleges." Jack answered sheepishly.
"Well, I can't say I'm upset about you missing that, I'm so glad you guys are here."
"So are we Jen, there is nowhere else we should have been today." Jason said, "You are our sister and we love you, we always have, we missed you every day you weren't there, and sure there were days we were angry about you not being there, some days it was easier to believe you really had taken off and weren't coming back instead of hoping to see you walk through the front door like you'd never been gone, but we never stopped loving you Jen." He grabbed JJ under the chin as she looked down at the ground trying to hide her tears and turned her face up to look at him, "We love you, and nobody is going to keep us away from you again, you understand?" he finished wiping the tears from under her eyes. Before he kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her as Jack moved to join in after wiping his own tears away. Jack then let go of his siblings and moved next to the brunette who had given him back his sister, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and felt her stiffen briefly before relaxing into the embrace, the seventeen year old looked into the watery brown eyes of the women who he could see loved his sister unconditionally and had been there to support her when he and Jason could not, he looked into her eyes and found someone he would be forever grateful to, "Thank you Emily." He said before turning to watch his brother and sister as they continued to hold each other.
Wow, so that is the end. I don't really know what else to say.
I hope you all enjoyed this story. And to everybody who asked I'm sorry but there is not likely to be sequel however I do have another story rattling around my head if anyone is interested, it will be them in the FBI. If I do it the updates might be less regular since I have to fit classes and studying in as well. So let me know if anybody is interested.
It was an honour to write for all of you, thank you.