Emily was judging. Hard. She had full right to, especially when it looked like that. It was atrocious. A state, even. Oh, Lord she was turning into her mother if she was using phrases like that. Though it really was an apt description. She poked it, giving it an additional crease, which didn't even make it look any worse. There were already plenty of creases to go around. Paired with the odd tear and twisted paper for good measure.

Turning her head to one side to see if it would look any better (it didn't), Emily wondered how it had got so lopsided. It just didn't make any sense. None of this made sense.

She sighed heavily, wondering how many attempts it had taken just to get to this point. Probably too many. She didn't know. Counting would have been too depressing after the second time. She had some pride after all. And far too much tape apparently.

She looked at the dispenser in askance. It was empty due to all her efforts. She hadn't even realised she had been using so much and there were still so many to go. Not to speak of this one that needed fixed. Desperately. Where was she supposed to get tape this late in the season? It was more precious than gold dust. Emily had seen fights quite literally break out over it the shops. Seriously. She wouldn't be too surprised to have tape be the MO of their next case. Maybe she should tell JJ to keep an eye out for reports with that in them. Though, Emily felt like she didn't want to be enlightened on the multiple ways tape could probably be used to restrain and or murder someone. She was quite happy remaining blissfully unaware of that. Anyway, she bet that Spencer could tell her all about it without her having to see anything.

Emily brought her attention back to her miserably wrapped parcel. The only good thing it had going for it was that the whole thing was covered in the garish paper. Not even an inch of the original box could be seen. That was down to her unravelling an entire roll of paper in an attempt to cover up her mistakes.

How could she be this bad at wrapping? It wasn't supposed to be this difficult! She didn't even have the excuse of the present being an awkward shape. It was a box. A normal sized box. No odd protrusions or weird flaps. Just a box. The easiest shape to wrap.

Then why was said wrapped parcel not a box shape anymore? Emily didn't know how she managed that. She didn't think that it was possible to add shapes onto something you were wrapping. You shouldn't be able to. You were literally following the shape of the present you were wrapping. But she managed it. Of course, she managed it.

Emily poked at one of the protruding shapes. It wobbled. Maybe she could tape it down the side and it would look okay? A dubious look was directed at it as she turned the box over in her hand. Anything was worth a try at this rate.

So that's what she did. Or tried to do. It did sort of work. Big emphasis on the "sort of". There was no longer a bit of paper inexplicably sticking out from the side but it didn't exactly look neat either. Now her present had this big lump on its side. Which just looked stupid. Like it had swollen up or something.

Yeah, this definitely wasn't working. It never worked for her. Emily cursed again and pushed the parcel away from her in disgust. This shouldn't be this difficult. It was just a box for crying out loud! She couldn't be bested by a box, no way.

With that last stubborn thought, she pulled the parcel back towards her and tried to figure out a way to make this work. Maybe if she pushed against the lump of wrapping paper it would flatten out? With the help of lots of tape, of course. She gave it a long look and another poke. Duct tape maybe. Glue for sure. She didn't care about how anyone was supposed to get it open, all she cared about was keeping the damn thing shut.

She pulled at the wrapping paper and, surprisingly, it seemed to work. The lump was slowly but surely being pulled somewhat flat. She was nearly there... nearly...

'Rrrrrip.'

Emily swore and threw the tape and remaining paper down with a loud clatter. That's it. She'd had it. She wasn't doing it anymore. Nope. No. Never. It had won. The wrapping had won and she had failed. Again. Why did she put herself through this every year? It wasn't like she was getting any better at it! Practice definitely did not make perfect in her case. She just ended up with an empty tape holder and hundreds of tiny paper cuts.

Speaking of paper cuts, she apparently had enough of them to leave small splotches of blood on the wrapping paper on top of everything else. Because nothing was to go her way today apparently. Of course, it wasn't. She was surprised she hadn't managed to stab herself with the damn scissors or suffocate herself with the wrapping paper or something.

Irritably, she shoved her hands under the tap and hissed as the little cuts stung. Great. She was going to have to deal with that as well.

You know what? Emily was done with all of this. Every single bit of it. It was stupid and ridiculous.

She snatched her car keys from the table and stormed towards the door. Time for Plan B which should have really been Plan A in the first place.

Gift bags for everyone it was. With an unholy amount of scrunched up tissue paper on top. And maybe some of that infernal tape. Just to be sure. Hell, she might even tie bows on them. Might as well go all out.

As long as it didn't involve thrice-damned wrapping paper.