"Sorry I'm late."
It had been an extremely rough year. Emily's past had come back to haunt her in the form of Ian Doyle. He hadn't made it out of that warehouse where the final showdown took place alive, but Emily had just barely made it. She had been tortured, a cloverleaf burned forever into the skin above her heart, she had even been impaled just before Morgan showed up and shot Doyle in the chest. The physical recovery was miserable, but the psychological recovery was worse. She had been doing a lot better lately, partially thanks to JJ. JJ who had literally left an important posting that she'd been transferred to in order to come to Emily's aid and afterwards, instead of going back to work, she took a partial sabbatical to help her recover and managed to get back into the BAU. Emily was grateful that she had decided to give the team her location after hearing Garcia's impassioned plea on the voicemail of one of her old phones. It had probably saved her life.
Now though, was the time for another step in her recovery. It had been JJ's idea really, to cover the clover brand with a tattoo. She'd suggested something transformative, like a phoenix but on seeing Emily's reaction to that idea, changed her mind and said a blackbird. Emily had always liked the song, identified with it in a melancholy sort of way. It fit her perfectly.
She was currently sitting on the plush red couch of a brightly lit tattoo parlour, nervously chewing on her thumbnail and tapping a foot. She wasn't particularly worried about the tattoo itself, she already had one on her upper right ribcage and one on her lower back, so she knew what kind of pain to expect, but this was different. It was special. It was something she didn't want to do alone, now that she was really learning what it meant to not be alone. Emily checked her watch, not knowing what time she was looking for. She had already approved the artists sketch several days before and her appointment had technically started three minutes ago. Her artist had said he was ready to go whenever, but she wanted to wait.
As if in response to Emily's thoughts, JJ rushed into the tattoo parlour and Emily's whole demeanor opened up. "Sorry I'm late!" JJ said, still a flurry of movement until she stopped in front of Emily, panting slightly. "The babysitter cancelled on me last minute!"
"It's okay, you're here now, right?" Emily responded with a smile.
JJ nodded. "Right." She agreed, holding out her hand. "Ready?"
Emily felt her heart flutter. How close had she come to losing a chance like this? To never being able to tell the people she cared about how much she cared? "Will you let me take you to dinner some time?" she blurted while she still had the nerve.
"Like a date?" JJ asked, uncertain if she was inferring meaning where there wasn't any.
"Yeah, like a date."
JJ grinned. "I'd love to go on a date with you."
"Okay, then I'm ready." Emily said with a matching grin, pulling herself up by the proffered hand.