Emily was chasing the unsub out the building, she sighed in exasperation when he moved to scramble out from the fire escape, she ducked out after him, gun pointed, yelling to get him to stop, the unsub turned around and fired a couple of blind shots, Prentiss moved quickly behind a couple of trash cans that lined the ally, before firing a couple back and darting back out, quickly following the unsub, she watched as he climbed over the gate and she followed right behind him, she took the risk of launching herself off the top of the gate, trying to gain some ground on the unsub, her arm got caught for a brief moment and she landed with her arm stuck between a couple metal bars, for a second she thought she heard a sort of popping noise, but with the adrenaline causing through her she ripped her arm free and caught up behind the unsub, tackling him to the ground, she kept her knee on his chest and gun pointed at him while she spoke into her radio letting the rest of the team know she had caught the unsub. Moments later Derek appeared followed closely behind by Hotch,
"Good job princess," Morgan said impressed, the female agent just nodded, her arm was starting to not feel so hot, she moved aside to let the two men arrest and cuff the guy and began to talk to a couple of the local officers. Five minutes later Hotch re-approached her and took in her appearance,
"Prentiss are you alright?" he questioned, his normal stoic expression replaced with one of concern. Emily nodded and shook her arm a little, this only made the pain she had been feeling a million times worse, it was clear the adrenaline was wearing off now and she had actually injured her arm, shaking it had clearly been the wrong move. Hotch watched as Emily shook her arm and then turned almost complete white and then a little gray like she was going to be sick,
"Emily, are you hurt?" Hotch questioned again, concerned for his agent,
"Um, I think I might have hurt my arm," she said, not thinking clearly and shaking it again causing her to give a sharp cry of pain, "yep, definitely injured it," she mumbled to herself, glaring at the injured limb.
"There's an ambulance here, go and get yourself checked out," Aaron told her, the brunette nodded and walked to where the ambulance was situated, it didn't take long of prodding and poking to declare that they thought she had broken her arm and needed x-rays to be sure, sighing she walked back over to were Morgan and Hotch were standing and informed them,
"I'm heading to the hospital, they think I've broken my arm," she said, holding up her left arm loosely, "Will one of you let JJ know?" she asked, silently whishing that JJ had come to the scene with them and not have stayed back at the precinct,
"Of course, princess, do you want one of us to go with you," Morgan asked kindly,
"I'm alright thanks guys, I'll call you when I'm all patched up," Emily said already walking away and waving back at them with her non-injured arm.
Emily did not like hospitals, she always associated them with pain and death. They always felt so cold and lonely to her, partly because she had seen so many victims hurt in the hospital who had no one, and partly because anytime she ended up having to go to the emergency room as a child her mother would just get one of her drivers to take Emily to the doors and she would be expected to sit there for hours alone. The doctor with the casting had just approached, he was holding up different colours of casting and he wanted her to choose one, suddenly Emily hated hospitals more she was completely overwhelmed and making a decision felt to much right now, she shrugged and the doctor continued to encourage her to pick one, just as she felt she might cry, a rush of blonde hair flew through the door and a person sat down next to her,
"She'll take pink," JJ said, grinning at Emily's face that displayed both looks of confusion and horror, "Come on Garcia will love it," JJ said laughing a little, taking the brunette's pale hand into her own. Emily could only dumbly nod back, it was true, Garcia would be thrilled with her having a pink cast, even if it wasn't really her colour. After a couple of moments, the brunette seemed to find her voice,
"Um what are you um, doing here," Emily said her voice croaky,
"You're hurt baby, of course I'm here. I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner, it took the guys forever to get back and tell me." JJ told her gently,
"I would have called when I had been patched up so I could be picked up," Emily said still slightly confused as to why JJ was here now,
"Do you not want me here?" JJ asked also confused now,
"No, no of course I want you here," Emily rushed out, desperate wanting the blonde to stay and worried she had upset her,
"So here I am, try not to overthink it so much sweetheart. If I was injured, wouldn't you come straight to the hospital?"
"Yes of course,"
"So here I am for you, you don't deserve any less even if you sometimes think you do," JJ reassured her partner, who nodded and leant her head down on the blonde's shoulder.
Once the cast had been finished and the women had made their way back to the hotel they had been staying at, JJ got a text to meet on the airstrip in an hour,
"Come on baby, lets go grab our things and then we can pick up some food on the way back to the plane." The blonde said softly, noting that the brunette was still feeling a little over-stimulated and tired, nodding along Emily allowed herself to be dragged by her good hand up to the room they had been staying in and be helped with packing her things. Emily had a feeling the blonde was going to be a little overprotective for the next six weeks, not that she minded, but as she watched JJ take the shirt from her hand, she had a feeling she would not be doing a lot herself for the next little while. Shaking her head with a tired, amused grin she sat down on the bed and let JJ take over for her. When the blonde had finished packing both of their suitcases, she insisted on carrying them both down to the car, before buckling Emily in, who rolled her eyes slightly JJ only ever did that when she was little and drove off to grab some food and get back to the jet. The entire team was sympathetic towards the brunette as she crashed against the couch, Reid draped a blanket over her, and Rossi handed her a bottle of water. The agent recounted the events that led up to the injury and though when she got to the part about jumping from the top of the gate and not lowering herself, she was met by several unapproving glares, Morgan reached out and gave her a high five, with her good hand of course, complimenting her on her great leap of faith which ultimately led her to catching the unsub. This was met by even more disapproving glares, this time in Morgan's direction especially by a certain boss and a certain blonde.
During the ride back to Quantico Emily fell deep into her thoughts, she didn't mean to, but it wasn't something she really had control over at the moment, though it was something on which she was working. Her mind drifted back to the feelings of isolation and sadness she felt as a child, this wasn't the first time she had broken her arm, when she was eight she had fallen off her bike, her driver left her at the doors of an emergency room of a country she had only been in a couple of weeks and the small brunette had struggled with her language as she had tried to communicate what was wrong, she had been alone for hours, scared and alone the nightmare only ending when she had been all fixed up and she could call her driver to come pick her up. She hadn't bothered calling her mother when she began to have those feelings of loneliness and fear, she had learned that lessen when she was five and she had called her mother from the hospital and had only asked if she needed to be picked up and when she told her she didn't and started crying the older Prentiss hung up the phone, she had never called her mother hospital again after that. Emily's mind drifted again, maybe that's why she had been so confused when JJ had shown up, she was so used to going through pain alone and the thought of having someone who cared about her be there to comfort her was just too foreign. These feelings quickly became to big and overwhelming for the brunette and she felt the familiar feeling of her mind go foggy, a sign that she was going to regress, forcing herself to look at her phone she checked the time, only half an hour till the plane landed then she would say a quick hello to Garcia who she promised could be the first to sign her cast and then she and JJ could go home and she could spend time with her mama. She shot a quick look over to the blonde who was mindlessly scrolling through her phone,
"JJ," the brunette spoke softly, not wanting to attract to much attention from everyone else on the jet, the blonde looked up waiting for her to continue, "Come sit with me?" she asked, trying not to let the desperation of needing the blonde close show in her voice, after all she was in a jet full of profilers, JJ looked concerned for a second before giving a soft smile and nodding she moved so she could sit on one of the seats on the couch and then gently lowered Emily's head onto her lap so she could play with dark locks,
"Get some rest baby, we'll be home soon," Jennifer told her gently. Emily nodded a little and closed her eyes, gradually drifting off to sleep.
Garcia had loved the pink cast just as predicated she had signed it with a big cat face at the end of her name. Of course, then everyone else wanted to sign it so all queued up printing their names and drawing little images, even Hotch had. Once everyone had, including JJ who wanted to be part of the group even though she could have done it at home, the two were finally off. Hotch said they could do the paperwork at home from the case and Emily should come in next week to do the incident report then her shouldn't see her face for six weeks. He had also given JJ the next week of to take care of Emily. The blonde wrapped a secure arm around her girlfriend and led her to the elevator and to the car. She helped secure the brunette into the front of the car and began the drive home, the blonde sensed that Emily may be between headspaces, but she didn't want to push it until they got home. The brunette was quiet on the way back the only noise coming from the radio that was playing softly, it wasn't until they pulled into their driveway that Emily actually spoke,
"Jayj, I don't feel so good," the agent admitted her right hand coming up to her mouth where she began to bite the skin around her nails,
"I know sweetheart, lets get inside and we can have some dinner and get some rest," JJ told her, moving to grab the brunette's hand and pull it away from her mouth. The blonde helped the taller agent inside taking their bags and helping her to the couch, where she told her to sit and until she returned. As she sat there Emily began to slip fully into her little space, the tags on her clothes beginning to irritate her skin and she didn't like that she was alone, she wanted her mama and she made that very clear. Only a couple minutes after she had left her girlfriend on the couch JJ heard a cry and a call for her,
"Mama!" the brunette cried. Dropping their go bags on the floor of the bedroom, JJ decided that they could be delt with later and she rushed back into the living room where she saw her little struggling to take off her clothes,
"Hey baby, its alright mama's here," she quickly reassured the girl moving to crouch down in front of her, resting her tan hands on the girls knees.
"Mama, clothes hurt," the brunette whined tugging uselessly at the t-shirt that had been put on after her blouse had been cut so the doctors could access her arm,
"It's alright pumpkin, I'll help you don't worry," she said gently, picking the girl up in her arms and carrying her into the bedroom where she dropped her gently on the bed and moved to grab some of the brunette's little clothes. The little squealed happily when she saw some of her favourite clothes being pulled out and she reached out excitedly,
"Slow down little one, let's get your clothes off first," her mama told her gently, Emily nodded and allowed her pants to be changed but when it came to her shirt she whined in pain as the blonde gently pulled the shirt over her head,
"I know it hurts baby I know, only a few more seconds love bug that's right, you're doing so well sweetheart, there we go all done," JJ said kindly as the shirt was removed and she quickly put the other one on, trying to avoid putting Emily through any unnecessary pain.
"Mama, I hurt," Emily whined after she had been dressed, she looked down at the cast on her arm sadly and a couple tears escaped her before she began to blubber out apologies,
"I s-sorry, I-I so sorry m-mama." JJ glanced down at her girl confused, why was she apologising was she feeling guilty about getting hurt, even though JJ disapproved of how Emily jumped from the gate it wasn't really her fault she was just trying to do her job, and sometimes in their line of work they could injured it was an occupational hazard.
"It's alright pumpkin, can you try and take some nice deep breathes for me I'm not mad that you are hurt don't worry about that," Jennifer tried to reassure her girl, it didn't seem to work though as Emily continued to speak through pained cries,
"No mama, I complain, and you came to the hospital with me, supposed to be big girl and do it my supposed, not supposed to have comfort and help." Emily confessed. JJ's heart shattered, she could guess who taught Emily that and she was pissed, no way should Em have had to go through all that by herself, she scooped her girl into her arms and carried her back into the living room and she sat them down on the couch together, with Emily in her arms, gently rocking her side to side.
"Follow my breathing hun, no ones mad, you've got this, try and calm down for me, that's right nice and calm," JJ talked the brunette through her breathing until her pain cries were reduced to sniffles and Emily buried her head into the blonde's chest,
"Skin to skin mama," Emily asked, tugging at the bottom of the blonde's shirt. JJ was quick to move and take off her own shirt and Emily's with minimal pain caused. Once the brunette's skin contacted with the blonde's she felt her heartbeat begin to slow and any earlier feelings of panic began to drift away. Once JJ noticed that the sniffles had stopped, she decided to address Emily's feelings,
"Love bug can you tell me why you don't think you deserve comfort, or deserve having someone at the hospital with you?"
"Um…" the brunette began, reaching up to fiddle with the ends of blonde hair, "My mom didn't allow it, I was only to call for a driver once I had finished at the hospital," Emily confessed, pressing her cheek into the blonde's chest looking for comfort, a tan hand came up to rub soothingly on her back,
"Pumpkin, how old were you when you first had to deal with going to the hospital alone?" JJ asked, slightly dreading the answer,
"Five," Emily said, "But it wasn't so bad after that first time, I got used to it. I didn't like it though when I was in a country where I didn't fully know the language yet," the burette confessed, a small frown appearing on her face, "That was never fun." For a second the blonde thought about murdering Elizabeth Prentiss, but with a shake of her head she focused back on the Prentiss curled up in her lap,
"Baby I need you to listen to me," JJ said, reaching down to tilt the other agents head so brown eyes met baby blue, "You don't have to worry about that ever again, if big Em, or little Em is ever hurt and has to go to the hospital, you won't be alone, I will always try and be with you and if I can't be there another member of the team will go with you. You're not alone anymore baby I promise, and I promise that I will always get to you as soon as I can," JJ told her girl seriously,
"Pinkie promise mama," Emily asked holding up her little finger of her good hand,
"Pinkie promise pumpkin," JJ said wrapping her little finger around the brunette's and shaking firmly. Emily let out a little giggle and then snuggled back down in the blonde. They sat there for a few minutes just enjoying each other's company and allowing each other to feel their love, then Emily spoke up,
"Can we have pizza for dinner?"