CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

7x02 Proof

"I still have a couple of things to bring over, but this is most of it."

Emily looked around the box-filled house. She looked at JJ apologetically. Emily really did appreciate this. After she 'died,' they sold her old apartment, but when the Ian Doyle case suddenly came to an end, Emily found herself with nowhere to go. JJ hadn't hesitated.

"Are you sure about this? I don't want to be a -"

"You are not a burden!" JJ interrupted her before Emily had a chance to finish her sentence. "I told you - this is what I want."

"Yeah, I know, but at least let me pay half the rent or something."

JJ dropped what she was doing and walked over to Emily confidently. She didn't stop until she was kissing her passionately. Emily fell gently into the wall behind her. Her head was spinning. JJ finally pulled back and kissed her nose. Emily smiled slowly. JJ wanted her. At times it still didn't make sense to her. JJ smiled mischievously.

"I'd rather you just pay me in sex," she replied, resting her forearms on Emily's shoulders, her hands locked behind Emily's neck.

The brunette smiled bashfully and nodded her head, "Hm - that's a lot of sex…" Emily said, faking a conflicted look. JJ dropped her jaw and shoved her lightly but Emily reached and tightened her grip around JJ to keep her close. Emily closed her eyes, laughing unreservedly. It made JJ's knees weak.

"You better be careful, Prentiss."

"You know what Hotch told me?" JJ looked over at Emily, interested. They were walking down the hallway quickly, making their way to the bullpen. "He's never seen a rookie profiler analyze and write up cases as well as you."

"He said that?" JJ smiled shyly.

"Yeah. Well, after all the cases you presented over the years, I'm not surprised."

Things seemed like they were finally calming down. Both Emily and JJ were back working at the BAU and every evening they got to go home to the same place together. It was so normal, it was almost boring. And it was a relief. They rounded the corner and ran right into Spencer, who was getting off of the elevator.

"Hey, where have you been? I wanted to do brunch this weekend," JJ asked him happily. He immediately opened a file in his hands and looked down at it. His stride never slowed.

"I had to deal with some stuff with my mom. Have you seen Garcia?" He was gone as quickly as he came. They both stopped walking and watched Spencer.

"He hates me," JJ said sadly.

"Mm - he was just busy. Let it go." Emily said supportively. But she didn't believe her own words.

JJ knew better too. She knew Spencer better than anyone else and she knew what it looked like when he was hurt. And it didn't end there. She tried smiling at him on the plane but he just looked away. Then there were some not-so-subtle comments he made at the crime scene. Even when she tried to confront him head on about it - he just completely ignored her. He hated her. And she understood his anger. But they needed to talk about it. They couldn't just keep going like this.

JJ was following him again. All day Spencer had made a point to walk a couple of steps in front of her. His stride was longer than hers so she had to walk uncomfortably fast to catch up with him. But she finally did as he entered the conference room.

"Spence. Look we gotta talk about this."

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"I get it, okay? You're disappointed with the way we handled Emily."

"Listen, I have a lot going on, all right?"

"What? You know what I think it is? You're mad that Hotch and I controlled our micro-expressions at the hospital and you weren't able to detect our deception."

"You think it's about my profiling skills? You know what I did figure out, Jennifer? That you didn't visit your parents that weekend you went away. Listen, the only reason you were able to manage my perceptions is because I trusted you. I came to your house for 10 weeks in a row crying over losing a friend, and not once did you have the decency to tell me the truth."

"I couldn't." Her eyes were red from the strain of trying to control her tears. Spencer knew she couldn't have told him that Emily was alive. She just wanted Spencer to understand that. That it was eating her alive to lie to him - to see him in pain.

"You couldn't? Or you wouldn't?"

"No, I couldn't." JJ felt herself getting angry. Spencer was acting like she wanted to lie to him. Like she enjoyed it.

"What if I started taking dilaudid again? Would you have let me?"

"You didn't."

"Yeah, but I thought about it." JJ froze on the spot. She knew he was hurting. She knew he was in a bad place - but she never imagined it was that bad. While she was in Paris laying in Emily's bed, her friend had almost relapsed. And simply knowing that made a wave of self-loathing wash over her.

"Spence." He turned around and raised his arms, silently asking what else she wanted from him. "I'm sorry," JJ said, desperately. She was unsure of what else she could say.

"It's too late, all right?"

As he left, JJ looked past him to see Morgan, Emily, Hotch and Rossi watching.

"Reid," Emily said, but Spencer never looked back.

They all turned their attention back to her. JJ felt self-conscious. She had just had a very loud and very public fight in front of all her colleagues and a bunch of random strangers. She looked away. Emily's eyes flashed between JJ and Spencer. She hadn't known it was this bad. It killed her that Spencer was taking this out on JJ. JJ was only doing what she had to to keep Emily safe from Ian. And, ultimately, Ian was only a danger because of choices Emily had made eight years ago. JJ was paying for choices Emily had made. The guilt was eating away at her. Emily knew she had to make it right.

Emily stood from her seat beside JJ. She had been staring out the window the whole flight, seemingly uninterested in talking. That was fine with Emily. But she knew JJ was hurting. And that wasn't fine.

Emily tentatively took a seat across from Reid. He had isolated himself purposefully. He was reading a book - although everyone knew he wasn't really reading it. After all, it normally took him around five minutes to read one from cover to cover and he had been staring at the same page for the last fifteen minutes.

"I heard Mr. Bradstone wants to watch the tape."

"People have an innate curiosity to see things in order to confirm them," Spencer responded politely. Emily looked perplexed. He seemed so much more angry with JJ than he was with her.

"Oh, that explains why I'm going to Rossi's tomorrow night. I want to see if he really can cook." She laughed a little but Spencer didn't. "You coming?" She added.

"I don't know. I'm not so sure I can make it."

"Look, Reid, I know you're mad at us because we didn't tell you what really happened, and I understand that. But I promise you, we had no choice." He continued to look down at his book and Emily took in a breath. Emily paused to study his face. "Is this about - you're not mad that JJ and I are -"

"No, of course not," his voice was small, much like a little boy, but it was certain too. Reid wanted to make it clear that he didn't have an issue with their relationship. Emily relaxed a little bit.

"You mourned the loss of a friend. And I'll never be able to take that pain away from you." She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "This whole thing gave me an ulcer. Please don't give me another one."

Spencer finally met her eyes and the ghost of a smile played momentarily across his lips.

"Are you gonna go to Rossi's tomorrow?"

"We'll see."

JJ remained unusually quiet. As they drove over to Rossi's house, she stared out the window and watched the scenery flash by. Emily grabbed her hand and JJ welcomed it. When they arrived at the house, JJ pulled her hand away to unbuckle her seat belt. Emily opened her mouth to say something but couldn't think of anything. When JJ rang the doorbell, Emily ran a comforting hand across her back. It made JJ turn to look at her. Emily smiled tightly.

A moment later the door opened. "Ciao, Emily! JJ!" David greeted them energetically. Emily smiled at Dave's enthusiasm. They followed him into his house. He wasn't lying when he said he lived in a mansion. Penelope greeted them both with a warm hug.

"There are my two lovebirds! Have I mentioned how cute you two are together?"

Emily blushed and JJ laughed rolling her eyes, "Yeah, Pen, you've mentioned it once or twice."

Derek threw his head back laughing. Emily made brief eye contact with Hotch but his face was inscrutable. Dave waved them over and began his demonstration.

"Cooking is the most sensual art form," Rossi began. "And these are my paints," he gestured to the ingredients laid before him on the kitchen counter.

"So your hands must be brushes," Garcia replied, clearly trying to learn as much as possible.

"Don't interrupt."

JJ turned to her girlfriend laughing quietly. Emily smiled back and raised her eyebrows in amusement. JJ lifted her wine glass only to be stopped abruptly by Rossi.

"Uh-uh-uh!"

JJ slowly put her glass back down on the counter as Derek went to answer the doorbell. JJ could hear Emily chuckling beside her. She swatted a hand at her playfully.

"Sorry I'm late." JJ spun around at the voice. It was Spencer. Emily smiled at the look of happiness on JJ's face. Spencer came to stand on the other side of JJ. Emily watched as they smiled at each other. He gave a small nod to Emily over JJ's shoulder. Emily thanked him silently. She leaned over resting her lips against JJ's head, breathing her in, softly. She felt JJ lean a little of her weight against her. Emily was never one for PDA, but this was nice.

It was a relief to be able to do this surrounded by their friends. Apparently coming back from the dead made people braver - Emily no longer cared about the consequences of their friends knowing. All that mattered was JJ.

Emily briefly wondered what Hotch was thinking. He hadn't explicitly commented on their relationship - but apparently he hadn't told Strauss either. They would know if he had. But Emily still had a feeling their days might be numbered. Like they were waiting for the other shoe to drop. She made a mental note to have a private meeting with Hotch. She could worry about that tomorrow. For now - she just enjoyed being with her family.