I'm not going in order of the list, just rolling with whichever one gives me inspiration at the moment :) hence, only giving numbers as the chapter titles. More will be coming...

13.

Fluorescent lights burned through Emily's closed eyelids. She pressed the heels of her hands into them in an attempt to stifle the brightness, but it did nothing and only seemed to amplify the sounds around her.

Beeping machines hooked up to people clinging on for dear life. Murmured voices discussing painful or joyful news. Echoing footsteps belonging to strangers she would never know or talk to. Silent prayers being offered to whatever higher power might exist up there.

Emily opened her eyes with a sigh and stared straight ahead; someone had tried to cheer up the atmosphere of the waiting room with a painting full of bright colors. The sudden urge to rip the art off the wall and tear it up into countless pieces coursed through Emily at rapid speed. It had no business being cheerful while hanging in a place notorious for bated breaths and broken hearts.

A check of her watch told Emily she'd been sitting in the plastic chair for nearly three excruciating hours. She tried to ignore the fact not a shred of information had come her way since arriving at the hospital.

Shot. Missed her vest. No exit wound. Pools of blood.

These facts – the only few of which Emily was actually aware – cycled through her mind as though they longed to become a life mantra. Every time Emily pushed them away, they came back louder and more stubborn.

Emily thought of a flight to Paris and Scrabble and worried eyes and dreams she couldn't quite explain. All just fleeting chapters in her life, but when read together, made for the most important parts of Emily's story. The memories, though slightly calming, sparked another fear Emily hadn't had to think about in a while: all of the things she could've said, should've said, still wanted to say.

Words had never been Emily's forte – heartfelt speeches even less so. The result was bottling thoughts and feelings up until they manifested in ways that were neither productive nor efficient, and never fully eroded the thoughts and feelings. A thousand times she had contemplated laying her heart out there on the line simply so she could relieve herself of the emotions which haunted her. And a thousand times Emily looked into shining blue eyes unable to vocalize what was boiling under her surface.

For as fearless a person as she was, Emily felt a chill of terror at even the thought of professing her long-felt love to the person she considered her best friend.

A vibration in her back pocket broke Emily from her reverie. She slid her phone out and pressed "Answer" without even bothering to look who was calling. "This is Prentiss."

"Emily," Tara's voice on the other end said, "I'm sorry to bother you while you're at the hospital."

"Don't worry about it," Emily assured her.

"No update yet?" Tara asked, correctly interpreting Emily's short response as constant concern.

"Not yet," Emily sighed. "I'm trying to adopt the idea that no news is good news but…"

"Easier said than done, I totally get it. Keep us posted." Tara paused before adding, "Ah, there's something else I need to tell you."

"What happened?"

"The ballistics on the gun used to…well, we got the report back," Tara said in a tense voice.

"And?"

"And we think Grace was the one who fired it."

"What?" Emily asked, incredulous.

"Ballistics match the gun we saw being taken from the Marshall on surveillance," Tara explained further. "The one Grace had."

Emily ran a hand through her hair as she processed the development. "So, Grace has progressed past the point of just being a pawn in Lynch's big game."

"Yeah," Tara agreed, "it appears all this time she's been growing some nerve of her own and is beginning to act on it."

"That does not bode well for this case."

"It doesn't. And local PDs keep complaining Lynch is the perfect unsub, which also isn't helping," Tara said. Her voice softened when she continued, "But, Emily, we've gone up against the – for lack of a better term – best before, and we've come out on top. We'll do it again this time. We'll get him."

Emily felt heartened by the conviction and a small smile played on her lips. "You're right," she said. "We'll get him."

"Damn right we will," Tara responded and Emily could tell she was smiling, too. "I'll let you go, I just wanted to keep you in the loop. We're going to continue canvassing to see what else we can find."

"Thank you, Tara, I appreciate it. Everything."

There was another pause before Tara said, "She'll pull through, you know that, right? I know you two are…I just, I can only imagine how you're feeling right now, so just know that I'm here if you need to talk or vent or punch something. I'm really good at holding punching bags steady."

"I might just take you up on that offer, so be warned," Emily replied, and Tara chuckled.

"I'll be here if you do. Just remember: the situation's tough, but JJ is tougher. She'll come back to you."

Tara hung up before Emily could say anything in return, and there was something in the words, or maybe how Tara said them, that sent Emily's heart and mind into overdrive. Just how perceptive was Tara? She couldn't possibly know, could she? Emily had harnessed every ounce of self-control into not giving anybody any kind of indication of how she felt.

She'd been turning over Tara's words in her mind for all of two minutes when Will came hurrying into the waiting room. Emily shot up from the chair the instant she saw him and made note of the grin on his face.

"She's awake," Will said through a shaky laugh. He grabbed both of Emily's arms in his excitement. "She's alive and she's awake and she's," he hesitated, "asking for you."

Emily felt her heart grow ten sizes in the matter of a second but managed to keep her voice under control. "She is?"

"Yeah," Will replied, and Emily thought she saw a flash of some other emotion, anger perhaps, across his face, though it was gone just as quickly. "She wants to see you. I'm going to pick up the boys from home. I'll be back in a little while." Emily watched him stride out of the room and towards the elevators.

She took a deep, steadying breath before starting towards JJ's room. Emily ran through a list of potential greetings and exclamations, but by the time she'd reached her destination she was no closer to selecting one.

JJ was lying on the hospital bed, dark circles under her eyes. She looked exhausted and perfect.

"Hey," JJ said in a hoarse voice. She sat up straighter and grimaced in pain, but the sigh of relief when her eyes met Emily's didn't go unnoticed by the latter.

"I thought you were dead."

Emily flinched as she realized the words escaped her mouth. They had been at the forefront of her mind from the second she got the call about JJ, and they came out weak, brimming with pain.

"I was," JJ stated, her lips pulled up in a smile. "Medically speaking, that is. And only for a few seconds. My heart stopped, so, you know, that counts as being dead."

"That's not funny," Emily said; tears were beginning to fill her eyes and she willed them away.

"Come on, that was definitely a good one. I'm not talking to you again until you smile and admit it."

Emily stared at JJ without saying anything. A rush of relief and a wave of gratitude flooded through her that were so overwhelming they forced the tears Emily was trying so hard to hold back to stream down her face.

When JJ saw it, she immediately fell serious. "Hey, I was just kidding. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"

"No, no," Emily waved her off with a shake of her head. "Do not apologize. I'm just…" She struggled with how to best encapsulate her feelings, then settled for the simplest way, "really glad you're alive." She wiped at her eyes with her sleeve and sat down in the chair beside the bed, reaching for JJ's left hand in the process.

"I'm glad I'm alive, too," JJ answered. She gave Emily a reassuring squeeze and threw a smile at her. "It's going to take more than a little bullet to get rid of me."

"Yeah," Emily concurred, "I should've known that."

"Thank you for being concerned," JJ murmured.

Emily took in every inch of JJ's face, once again vowing to commit it all to memory. It was not something she could live with knowing she had forgotten the creases around blue eyes or the faint scar above an eyebrow from a car accident years ago.

"Do you know how badly the world would suck without you?" Emily eventually inquired. She wasn't sure if JJ knew just how pivotal her existence was to making the universe run smoothly.

"The sun will rise and set whether I'm around to see it or not," JJ countered. Her tone was joking, but Emily knew, deep down, it came from a place of sincerity.

"Maybe. But I know 7 people plus your family who would all admit it does so much more happily knowing you're around."

"I guess I can hang out for a couple more decades."

"Good. Besides, you can't leave me, Garcia, and Tara behind. We'd be outnumbered, and we cannot, under any circumstances, let the male species win in any way, shape, or form."

A comfortable silence drifted over them for a few minutes. Emily stared at their intertwined hands and thought about everything they had survived. Regardless of what it was, she and JJ had gotten through, and had done so together.

"I couldn't remember the last thing I said to you."

The admission was abrupt, and even JJ looked surprised she had said it. She'd been staring intently at the ceiling, but turned her head to look at Emily with an intense gaze.

"I'm sorry?" Emily answered.

JJ took a moment to gather her thoughts before continuing. "I was lying on the ground of that godforsaken parking garage. There was blood – my blood – everywhere and I really, truly thought I was going to die." Emily instinctively inched the chair closer as JJ's grip on her hand grew tighter. "Everything was blurry. It was so hard to breathe."

"But…" Emily prompted, noting the look on JJ's face that said she had more to say.

"But," JJ picked up, "there, as any fight I had left started to disappear, all I thought about was that I couldn't remember our last conversation. I'm sure it had something to do with the case and not anything earth shattering, but in that moment it's all I cared about. I didn't want to go without remembering."

A spark originating at joined hands roared through Emily's arm and raged to every part of her being. She tried not to read too much into the sentiment but couldn't help thinking it was significant in her and JJ's dynamic.

Emily cleared her throat. "'Keep an eye out. Be safe.'"

"What?" JJ's eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"Our last conversation," Emily clarified. "That's what I said to you. You were in the car with Reid. I told you to keep an eye out when you got to the US Attorney's office. And to be safe."

"Hmm," JJ hummed thoughtfully, "I guess I didn't do so well on either of those accounts."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Emily let out a laugh. "You made it through. That's what counts."

JJ squeezed her hand again, and Emily's heart soared. She thought of everything she had ever wanted to say to the woman lying before her. And while she was tempted get everything off her chest then and there, Emily figured a hospital room probably wasn't the best place to do it – especially with Will and the boys on their way back.

Emily took comfort in sitting beside JJ, holding her hand as though they were each other's anchors in life. They had developed a safe haven together, a place that had seen the best and worst of the women. It was the only place Emily could be her true self, and it was because of JJ it was even possible in the first place. She basked in the glory of that sanctuary and realized what she had right then was enough. For now.