Author's Note: So now that this story is complete, I'll level with you: I am very aware that at some point along the way, it stopped holding any kind of substance and simply became words on a page that didn't really amount to a great deal. I'm not entirely certain when it became something that it wasn't supposed to be, only that it did and I want to apologise for that.

I very much believe that the final product (no matter what it is) will be so much better if you enjoy creating said thing. I write because I really couldn't imagine doing anything else and I actually relish the fact that it takes it so much of my time/mental energy. Unfortunately, with this story (and now I think about it, it probably started when I hit a temporary rough patch five months ago) it got to a point where I began sitting down to update when I wasn't necessarily in the mood to enjoy doing so. I think it stopped holding any substance because I only added to it when I wasn't holding much substance. Make sense?

Anyway, oddly enough, the fact that it deteriorated is actually the very reason that I didn't delete it two months ago though I seriously considered it- so that it can serve as a lesson for me to not update a current story of mine when my mind isn't fully on it. It is what will remind me of the difference between writing because I'm in a rut, and writing because I'm feeling particularly creative.

Honestly, I'm kind of relieved that it's over. And for now, it is. I do definitely plan to amend it at some point, and I've purposely left several loose ends because it's somewhere at the back of my mind to (once I've fixed the first installment) write a sequel. The part of my mind that permanently lives in the gutter wishes to elaborate on JJ's 'list', and also expand on just where they go from the point I leave them at in this final chapter, but I'll tackle that when I know I'm not going to botch it.

Thanks for joining me on this (too) lengthy ride. Things got pretty sucky somewhere in the middle, so I want to thank those of you (mostly people who I have never even spoken to, which is amazing) who tossed several much needed words of encouragement my way- you reminded why I enjoy writing for FanFiction so much despite how time-consuming it can be. So, thanks again and I hope you enjoy the 'final' chapter. Peace, and love, and all that fun stuff!

One more thing: I have another story for you guys that I'm so excited to share with you. I've been writing it for several months now and, lucky for you, it has only been added to when the mood struck me rather than because of a 'bad day'- thus, I feel pretty confident in promising you that it won't suck. It's also written in full (just needs cleaning up a little) so you won't be waiting three weeks between each update. I'm gona take a couple of days to get adjusted to being a first time dog-owner (she's adorable, but clearly has far more energy than me) and then I'll get that story out to you guys. Hopefully you haven't written me off after what this one became, but I guess we'll see. Thanks again!

Chapter Thirty-five: Fairytale of DC

"I've got a feeling, this year's for me and you. So, Happy Christmas. I love you, baby. I can see a better time, when all our dreams come true."

- The Pogues ft. Kirsty Macoll (Fairytale of New York)

"There's still an hour 'til midnight, Jayje." Morgan began compassionately. "She'll be here."

"I know." JJ nodded quickly, a smile forming instantly on her face before she could even consider who she was talking to; but she allowed the expression on Morgan's to linger without address- the expression that told her that he knew she was lying.

And she totally was lying. Truth was, she had spent the past twenty minutes running through the checklist of the ten thousand possible reasons as to why Emily wasn't here yet – her flight was delayed, she got held up in traffic, she'd stopped to help a damn cat down from a tree - and the moment that Morgan had abruptly disrupted her mental spiraling had coincided exactly with the moment that she had reached the bottom of that list and the idiocy and frustration that presented itself there in the form of the possibility that she had been trying so hard not to entertain: Emily had changed her mind.

"Do you?"

The warm, caring voice was comforting in a lot of ways, but frustrating in others. It wasn't the voice she wanted to hear in that moment. Perhaps she had read too many romance novels, but wasn't this the part of the story where the lover turned up at the very moment where all hope was lost, represented the twist in the tale and ensured it ended with happily ever after? Wasn't this the part where reason fell into place and ended the whole tragedy with beautiful, hopeful swirls of pastel and rainbows? Weren't the good guys supposed to win?

But then, actually, were they really the good guys after everything that they had put their friends and each other through? Did they really deserve this happily ever after?

With a defeated sigh, she nodded with purposeful nonchalance and replied. "Of course I do. Flights get delayed, she'll be here. Now-" She grinned. "-I think you owe me a dance."

And dance they did. For fourty-five minutes, a very aware Morgan twirled JJ around the function room dance floor and tried his upmost to distract her from her, well, distraction. He could see that his efforts were far from successful though, could see that the blonde's gaze lingered and searched each time the opportunity presented itself, and he himself was beginning to worry that this moment was going to end exactly the way he could see JJ feared it would.

He knew Emily, knew her well. He knew that she would never hurt a damn fly, but he also knew that she was very good at convincing herself that doing right by someone meant being cruel to be kind- meant abandoning them when she trusted herself the least. Something like that didn't just change overnight. It didn't go away with a few perfect words and it didn't vanish solely because it had outstayed its welcome.

And he knew it would be too late after tonight… If Emily didn't show up like she had promised the blonde she would, it would be the end of them entirely. They were dysfunction at its finest, and yet they were the epitome of functional, logical, perfect- the last thing he wanted to see was for either of them to hurt any more than they already had. The last thing he wanted to see was for the whole mess to hold absolutely no rhyme or reason. But maybe Emily was right- sometimes cruel to be kind was the best option and his own heart lurched with a sudden belief in fairytales when he looked up and met smiling brown eyes over JJ's shoulder.

He felt like a schoolgirl, whose crush had just shown up to the dance when all hope was lost and it wasn't even his story. His smile was obvious, and caught JJ's attention even before he stepped back and spoke cryptically. "On that note…"

"You're ditching me?" JJ questioned with a mock pout as Morgan bowed gracefully out of the next song.

"Something tells me I'm not the one you want to be shaking your booty with, baby girl." His smile was implicative; his eyes trailing behind her before he disappeared with that smile lingering on his face.

Her own eyes fixed on him in confusion until he was out of sight, and even when he was, they still lingered there. Perhaps she was afraid to see- afraid to find that that hope in her chest that she might just get her fairytale ending would be cruelly crushed as soon as she looked behind her. But she didn't need to look- she felt warm, familiar arms snake around her waist and a comforting scent fill her nostrils before she'd mustered up the courage, and she couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, you." She whispered as she finally turned and laced her arms around the older woman's neck.

"Hey, yourself." Emily returned the blonde's smile. "Surprised to see me?"

"No…" Her answer was instant but clearly dishonest- a dishonesty she didn't even try to hide, and after a few seconds, she chewed the inside of her lip and acquiesced. "Okay, fine, maybe a little."

"I told you…" Emily whispered, her arms slinking around the blonde's waist as they moved oddly slowly out of time with the quick-paced music. "I made you a promise."

CM-CM-CM

It was 1am when the hotel's function room began to empty- groups separating off either to go on to more flamboyant parties, opting to turn in for the night, or a few even so drunk that they were probably passed out in the lobby somewhere. It had been a surprising night when you took into consideration just who the guests at the party had been- FBI agents, low and high-ranking, but still definitely supposed to hold some kind of morals, all acting like teenagers in some way. But it was strangely pleasant to see. These guys risked their lives on a daily basis and to witness them in such a free setting was one of the many things that had Emily smiling right now, as she subtly danced her fingers with JJ's and rested her free arm along the back of her chair.

"That was… an interesting night." She laughed, breaking the exhausted and somewhat stunned silence that had descended on the over-occupied eight-seater table in the centre of the large hall.

"You're not wrong there." Morgan agreed, taken aback by the odd dance moves that he had been witness to during the past six hours and the memories and visuals he hoped to god would be erased from his mind come morning.

"Oh come on…" JJ began. "It's nice. How often do we, in this job, witness actual fun?"

Emily smiled to herself as JJ unknowingly returned her own sentiment; the moment just another shred of proof that there really was something different about the woman that she couldn't take her eyes off of.

"So what are you gonna do, Emily?" Hotch interrupted their semi-debate and unknowingly Emily's daydream; took a swig of his beer in a way that came across strangely undignified and relaxed when you considered what he was like on the daily.

"I…" Emily pursed her lips and shook her head once. "I guess I'm going to grovel at the feet of every law-enforcement agency within a 100 mile radius."

She was laughing, but it wasn't a far-fetched option. It wasn't that she hadn't considered what she would do now that she was back in DC - she would never be so careless with her career - but at the same time, she wasn't all that deterred by the prospect of some time away. Some time to regroup. Some time to get used to this new path she had taken in her life- the path that was actually more terrifying than waking up every morning and not knowing if she'd live through the day. Perhaps she'd write, or something equally cliché. Perhaps she'd just lounge around in her sweats all day and watch Law and Order marathons- she didn't know. The possibilities were somewhat endless- she didn't know for sure what she would do and in that moment she found herself stunned that that didn't scare her as much as she would have expected.

"You can have my job." Leah smirked from her spot beside Morgan before taking a sip of her own drink- the irony of her offering Emily a job that was actually once hers not lost on any of them and several soft chuckles emanated from around the table.

They all knew it wasn't a possibility, but it was nice to be at a point where something that had once sent them into to silently bitter reflection now caused them to laugh.

"You could." Hotch shrugged, surprising them all. "We're going to be an agent down again when Leah leaves. You could have her job."

Emily laughed silently, brief before she recognised the lack of humour in his words and she frowned. "Hotch, we talked about this." No one else at the table knew of the conversation they'd had last week in JJ's yard, but he knew what she was referring to; and she addressed the whole team when they all looked to her with some kind of concern on their face. "Guys, I'll be fine. This isn't a bad thing. I think I actually want this time to just… to just be."

JJ squeezed her hand at her last words. The rest of the group didn't know its significance, but she did. Emily hadn't taken the time to just be - to just enjoy the moment - any day in her life. Everything had to happen instantly or not at all; sped by at 100mph or remained frozen in time until it withered away. So whether this down time lasted a week or a month, whether she spent it sleeping, or spent it job hunting; it was going to have a lasting positive effect. Hell, she could spend it scrapbooking for all she cared, as long as she enjoyed doing so.

"Yeah well-" Morgan began, unknowingly interrupting the silent conversations and praise currently being exchanged between his two friends. "-if I come over and find that taking time to "just be" actually means sitting around in your sweats drooling over Mariska Hargitay I'll be dragging your ass back to work."

"Would I ever?" Emily smirked. "It never crossed my mind."

"Uh, actually, I second that." JJ chimed in, presumably put out by the thought of Emily drooling over another woman, but when she spoke again it was with a lowered voice and an unexpected smirk. "If there's any drooling over her in your sweats going on, I expect to be invited."

"And that-" Emily grinned, somewhat proud of the woman she had 'bagged'. "-is why I'm the luckiest woman on the planet."

"My god, what has she turned you into?" Morgan joked, but inside he was so happy for his friends- even the vomit-inducing public display of affection was fine by him in that moment.

And Emily would have seen it too, if she wasn't distracted by the soft lips that brushed subtly across her ear, and the only-audible-to-her words that whispered-

"Oh you haven't seen lucky yet. I promise you."

-consequently leaving her highly intelligent brain resembling nothing more than mush.

"Is Emily Prentiss blushing?" Rossi laughed, seemingly the only member at the table who had noticed the pair's subtleties.

"Never." Emily cleared her throat.

"You know what?" Morgan took a swig of his drink and cut in as something occurred to him. "I think I need to be a lesbian." Several astonished looks were shot his way and he quickly defended himself. "What? The only couples around this table are you two-" He pointed to Leah and Heather, currently as cozied up as the other two he turned his attention to. "-and you two."

"That's not true…" Emily rebutted. "Kevin is around here somewhere."

"Oh-oh." Garcia laughed with a combination of fond anger and amusement. "Don't even mention him. He's somewhere passed out in the bathroom because he couldn't handle his shots. My chocolate god here is right… lesbian is clearly the way to go."

JJ couldn't help but laugh. "Garcia… you forced him to drink them."

There was a genuine warmth in Emily's chest as she watched the scene unfold, a genuine smile on her chuckling lips that was for far more than that very moment- a genuine smile that abruptly faded as Hotch stood to leave. "Where are you going?

"It's time to call it a night."

"Jack and Henry aren't due to be back until Tuesday." JJ frowned, lost as to why Hotch was really leaving when the boys were out in New Orleans with Will, and too the fact that they were all – for once – enjoying some real downtime.

But Emily wasn't confused- Emily could see it in his eyes, and as he walked away, she made her excuses and followed. "I'll be right back. I need to ask him about an ex co-worker of his." She smiled as she kissed JJ and stood. "Perhaps she could help be out on the job front."

It took her several attempts to get Hotch to actually slow his pace out in the lobby; his face as stoic as ever when he finally turned to face her. "What do you need?"

Looking quickly across to the bar several feet from them, she responded. "Don't need anything. I'd just like to buy you a drink."

"At 1am? When they're free in the next room?"

"I never have been good with money. Part of being a spoilt little rich kid." She shrugged, the words a total lie but they certainly worked, and just two minutes later saw both of them sat at the bar in an oddly awkward silence. A silence that she felt compelled to fix, but before she could even decide how to do such a thing, Hotch gave her an answer to a question that she hadn't even posed yet.

"You never let me help you then, you never trusted me to. And you're not letting me help you now."

She hadn't looked at it that way- had rather, and justifiably so, looked at it with the mentality that allowing him to get her her job back would be placing further and unnecessary burden on him. With the mentality that she absolutely did not have that right, because she had put him through enough. There was an odd bond between them, one that was often left unaddressed and even less than that recognised because they were so similar. Their mysterious, closed-off personalities were so on par that oftentimes they were like ships in the night with their interactions- silent and almost unrecognisable. But there was a bond between them, and she felt somewhat foolish and guilty in that moment for not even considering that she may have hurt him when she left. He had been her boss, but he was her friend too and she had neglected to remember that in amongst his authoritative façade.

"I'm sorry." And she was- not only for not letting him help, but for not being honest with him all those months ago. "I am so sorry, but what could you have done? I made the mess, I needed to fix it."

"Emily." He sighed and turned to face her. "You didn't make a mess. Well, you did. You definitely did. But I know you, we all know you, and we know you would never do such a thing if the reason wasn't so strong. You'd never do such a thing for lust. There is only one reason you would ever cross those lines, and I saw that clearly in there." He looked down and then back to her. "That is why I want to help you get your job back, not because I feel obligated but because I don't. There is no obligation there, it's just clear to see that you would never cross that line again. You showed me that by coming back. You showed me that with how you handled the situation since then. And I have absolutely no qualms in telling Strauss that."

Her head shook silently, giving her answer even before she could verbally. "No. If I ever get my job back, it'll be because I earnt it, not because you forced the issue. Besides, I meant what I said. I kind of like the idea of the unknown and if you knew… If you knew the places I've been to recently, Hotch, you'd know that that is actually probably the best thing for me."

All Hotch could do was nod. "Well… it was worth a try. Anyway…" He pushed himself away from the bar. "I'm gona turn in."

"Hotch, wait…" She pushed herself up. "Are we… I mean, are we okay? And if we're not… Will we be okay? I don't mean as ex-colleagues, I mean as friends."

"As ex-colleagues? We won't be okay until you let me give you your job back." He stepped forward with a very faint smirk on his face. "As friends? We'll be just fine." And with an odd smile and a quick embrace, he spoke again before disappearing. "Goodnight, Emily."

CM-CM-CM

"I love wearing nice clothes but-" Emily began as she wandered out of the bathroom. "-there is nothing better than taking a shower and then-" Her words stopped abruptly as she noticed the oddly organised but definitely different disarray of the room. "Did we get burgled?"

Smirking, JJ shut off the TV and pushed herself up off of the bed to walk towards Emily. "Call me crazy, but I'm fairly certain people don't break in solely to reorganise the place." Her hands moved to the ribbon holding her robe together whilst her eyes remained fixed on Emily's and her voice was low when she spoke again. "I'm also fairly certain that they don't then wait for you in little to no clothing to return."

Emily released a shaky breath at the very moment that the blonde released the material covering her almost naked form; her jaw almost hitting the floor just as the garment did and revealed a partially-naked blonde, save for an oversized t-shirt that bared one shoulder and stopped somewhere mid-thigh. "Wow…" It was one word, and yet it was still perfectly enunciated; so damn proper even in that moment. "Did I ever mention how sexy you look in that shirt?"

"Once or twice." JJ smirked and laced her arms around the older woman's neck. "So I did good?"

"You did… very good." Emily responded, the tail end of her words turning to an appreciative groan as – just like three days ago back in JJ's hall – she ran her fingers along bare thighs and met absolutely nothing. No underwear, no restricting material keeping her from what she really wanted to feel; just flesh, waiting to be devoured, savoured.

Perhaps most would want underwear; something flashy and lacey, a gift to unwrap. But not Emily. To Emily, there truly was nothing more beautiful and erotic than this, the right now, the combination of comfortable and sexy. It wasn't even the fact that JJ wasn't wearing panties- it was the confidence it took to do such a thing. It was the pride in her chest as she realised what that meant - as she recognised fully just how far they had come, how far JJ had come – and she only hoped that one day she could make the same progress. The strides long enough to be what JJ deserved.

And the shirt… Well that was everything- it was comfort, both literally, and in the sense that they had that. They had those tiny details that were only relevant to them– who else in the world would know that Emily much preferred that over sexy lingerie? Who else in the world knew that she didn't hold the same preferences that most people did? Who else in the world knew-

Suddenly, the reason for the disarray of the bedroom dawned on her. It wasn't disarray at all. Disarray defined as untidy, chaotic- but the positioning of the furniture was actually purposeful, strategic, deliberate. It wasn't untidy, just altered- altered in a way that was metaphorical as well as literal. Just like they needed and had altered to accommodate each other – her running towards her fear rather than from them, and JJ doing much the same – the room was altered to accommodate something she had almost forgotten even mentioning.

Of course, the desk wasn't the same and neither was the chair– there were no giant flags behind them or a window that looked out onto a lengthy, beautiful view of a darkened city. But it was somehow much better. Because it represented something she had never really experienced, or rather allowed herself to- love. Someone loved her enough to do this. Someone had loved her enough to not only see through her walls, but barely even flinch at what she found beyond them. Someone loved her enough to change her whole damn life and face every fear that had stuck with her since childhood, just because they wanted to be with her that much.

And that someone was currently in her company, in her embrace; staring up at her with expectant, dark blue eyes and she just smiled. "You did this for me? You… You remembered me telling you that?"

"I remember everything you tell me, Emily." JJ responded honestly. "Because I know how lucky I am to hear those things in the first place. And yes. I did this for you. You know what else I did for you?"

Emily shook her head slowly; her eyes naturally scanning the room to find what she had apparently missed. "What's that?"

Leaning in to whisper in Emily's ear, JJ responded. "I didn't finish when we got off the phone the other night." She smirked at the shaky breath that Emily released; the one that turned to a whimper as she pushed away her towel and splayed her palms flat against a toned abdomen, used her leverage to direct the brunette towards the mock office area that she had created. "I promised to be waiting for you when you came back. Which means…" She trailed off, encouraging Emily to take a seat at the chair that she had placed behind the average sized desk that she had, with some mild difficulty, dragged away from the far side wall that it was situated against and placed it by the window. "Sit." She digressed, staring with mock dominance until Emily complied; and as she did, she turned her back to her, lifted her shirt ever so slightly and sat, legs parted, on the older woman's lap. "Which means… I am very wet right now."

Emily groaned again; her mind all but imploding with the combining forces of JJ's admission and the way that, with her hands gripping at her knees, she arched her back and consequently ground her definitely wet pussy against her thigh. "What are you doing to me?"

"I'm…" JJ lost herself for a moment to the friction against her clit. "Thanking you."

"For what?" Emily breathed; her eyes closed as her hands gripped at the blonde's waist to guide her slow, languid movements.

"For being you. For..." She lost herself again, but not to the feeling so much as her next words. "Loving me. For forgiving me."

"Forgiveness played no part in it." Emily replied solidly as she tightened her grasp on JJ's left hip and used the leverage to pull her flush against her; her words now falling directly into the blonde's ear. "Understanding was." She thrust her hips up one time and bathed in the needy groan that fell from JJ's lips; her breaths shaky as she continued- nothing had happened, not really, and yet she felt as though she was being touched and caressed from all angles, felt every single emotion coursing throughout her and for the first time in a very long time, didn't fear them. "Understanding that… not everything that is easy comes with a catch… and that… not everything that causes intense emotions is going to… to destroy you."

"Fuck…" JJ's mind mushed and blurred as every other sense in her body became highly acute; her pussy almost hurt with her arousal and the dire need to feel more than Emily's thigh there. But before she could even verbalise such a need, Emily interjected.

"It's a shame…" She whispered as she encouraged JJ to thrust a little harder against her. "It's a shame we have nothing to… help this moment."

Her lower back still arched as she ground against Emily's thigh, JJ turned just her head to whisper with an implicative smirk. "What if we did?"

Emily stopped her movements instantly, her excited and aroused eyes wide. "Really?"

"Really, really." JJ smirked. "I told you, you don't know luck yet. And besides… I have that list, remember." She turned and nipped at Emily's lip. "Plus, like I said… I like to be prepared."

As JJ stood and abruptly walked away, all Emily could do was look on as she reached into a small suitcase and returned with something that caused her to lick her lips in anticipation. It wasn't the object though, it was the way that the younger woman dropped instantly to her knees in front of her, her blue eyes staring up at her as she pulled the new appendage up over her legs and attached it in place.

But the sudden change of expression on the blonde's face once she was donning the strap-on caused her to frown. "What's wrong?"

JJ looked down guiltily. "I… I don't want you to think that this is because I need a… I mean, it's not a substitution for- I don't need…"

Emily smiled instantly in relief; reaching out to pull the blonde to her feet and pressed their lips together. "I wasn't concerned."

"Really?" JJ questioned with some kind of preempted apology as she rested her arms against the brunette's bare shoulders; giggling when that same brunette abruptly turned her and forced her back into the same position she was in before and felt soft lips brush against her neck.

"Really, really." Emily breathed as she thrust once against JJ, encouraging the blonde to part her thighs- a message which she eagerly took and complied. "Do you have any idea how amazing it is to be able to-" She reached between them and positioned the toy cock at JJ's opening; thrust gently and basked in the wondrous sound that emanated from the blonde's lips as she sank down around the intrusion. "-do that, and still be able to…" She made her point with her hands – the hands that were free – and allowed one to trail up beneath the cotton shirt to the blonde's breast whilst the other encouraged full pink lips to meet her own. She didn't kiss her, only whispered against those lips as she thrust slowly inside her. "I love you, and I love making love to you. And really… I imagine this-" She thrust purposely hard. "-is as much for me as it is for you."

"Somehow I doubt that." JJ replied with a lust-filled grin; her eyes closed as she whimpered at the quickly building pressure between her thighs. "God, this is surreal."

"Surreal?" Emily stopped, entirely unsure whether to take such a word as a compliment or not.

"No I mean…" JJ giggled, her hips natural coaxing Emily to give her what she needed again. "Just this. You. Us."

"That's what I thought." The brunette grinned; her hands settling firmly at the blonde's hips as she picked up a more deliberate pace; her lips lingering at her ear to whisper. "Usted siempre será mío, Jennifer. Y yo soy siempre tuyo."

JJ laughed through her whimper at those entirely familiar words; her hips rocking almost greedily against Emily now. "I never… fuck, I never thought I'd... hear that again."

"I'll remind you every day." Emily groaned as she thrust; the pressure of the toy against her own clit almost unbearable and she couldn't help but reach between them to rub at JJ's. It wasn't that she wanted this over with, it was simply that she was feeling rather impatient- impatient for the very sound that she never thought she'd hear again. "Now come for me… I wana hear… the sound that… I never thought I would again."

And as those words wrapped around her, as Emily made tight, deliberate circles at her clit, as her fingers gripped harder at the older woman's thighs as she thrust with abandon, she did- hard. Her fingers cutting almost painfully into Emily's knees just like it had been described to her days ago, her body shuddering against the older woman as the tremors of her orgasm left her body, only to quickly double-back when Emily didn't cease her thrusting, but continued with more vigor and caused that wave of pleasure to thread almost seamlessly into another.

She could picture the smirk on Emily's face once her orgasm had ceased to a faint hum, as she purposely drew sporadic circles against her sensitive clit with the sole purpose of feeling her jump in her arms- imagined it to be much the same as her own as she giggled and grabbed her wrist to shove it away. "Stop that…"

With a genuinely content grin on her face, Emily complied with the exhaustingly given demand and instead wrapped her arms around the blonde's trim waist; rested her chin on her shoulder ran her lips along the soft expanse of skin there as her mind wondered. "Do you want more children?"

JJ's eyes widened instantly, and the laugh that fell from her lips clearly depicted her nerves and surprise for such a question. "That's the last time you're wearing that thing… clearly it's gone to your head."

Emily smiled and reached between them to gently withdraw from the blonde; nudged her to stand and discarded it before coaxing her over to the bed. She pulled back the covers, allowed JJ to climb in and followed her; pulled the younger woman to her chest before she elaborated on the thoughts that had initially caused her to ask such a question. "First of all… that is not the last time I'm gonna wear that thing. Trust me. Maybe one of these days we'll even have you wear it too." The obvious darkening of blue eyes that was only very mildly tinted with nerves caused her insides to twist in the most wonderful way. JJ was the epitome of femininity- the thought of her donning a strap-on was very nearly capable of blowing her mind. But with a shake of her head, she banished such thoughts and got back to the point. "The reason I ask is because… Well, obviously the feelings are mutual between us. But…"

"But we never really discussed whether we're compatible more logically than that?" The small preempted apology that graced Emily's lips gave her her answer and she pushed herself up on her elbow to give an answer to every possible question she could think of that the older woman may ask. "I love Henry, and there is not a damn thing on this planet that would ever make me regret him… but I also never set out to have children, it was never in my plans. So I guess the answer is no, I don't want more children. I also don't particularly want to get married- I struggle to see the point in it. I mean, financially and legally it makes sense, but those shouldn't be reasons to get married. My dreams don't include a quaint cottage in the middle of nowhere, nor do they involve a white picket-fence and a dog, and I will never be the person who wants set bedtimes or engrained routines of when we can and can't ditch a healthy dinner for pizza. We have too much rigidity in our line of work without forcing more."

"Well… that was a lot of information." Emily laughed when she was sure JJ was done. "Anything else?"

"Um… I'd much rather lay in bed with junk food and watch Dexter reruns than go to a fancy, pretentious, over-priced restaurant."

The grin on Emily's face was almost painful, and only grew when the expression on the blonde's turned to one of confusion.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing." She whispered, pushing JJ onto her back to place several soft kisses against her lips. "I guess I'll cancel my reservation for Thursday then and subscribe to Netflix instead."

JJ's cheeks flushed instantly red when she found herself certain that she'd insulted the brunette. "I'm sorry, I didn't… I mean… you don't need to-"

"Jayje-JJ… I'm joking." Emily reassured. "I've never been one for pretentious… that's more my mother's thing. And a show about a serial killer who only kills other serial killers… what could be more interesting than that?"

"Are you mocking me?" JJ frowned, trying to decipher the answer to her own question in the brunette's eyes alone.

"Not even remotely." Emily replied honestly as she brushed a strand of blonde hair from the younger woman's face and smiled. "I think you were right…" She ghosted her lips along JJ's and whispered her final words there. "We're gonna be fucking amazing."