"Can I kiss you?"

"We can still back out." Emily joked, though her tone was hopeful. After JJ had made such a good impression at the Ambassadors gala and Emily had made it clear that she and JJ were going to be a couple for as long as she could help it, what Emily had warned would happen, finally happened. Elizabeth Prentiss requested (demanded) they have tea, just the three of them. They were standing in front of the Ambassadors ostentatious property in McLean, gathering their wits.

"We can't duck your mother forever, Emily." JJ pointed out sternly.

"We could try?"

JJ laughed softly and shook her head, grabbing Emily's hand when she stepped back after ringing the doorbell. Moments later, the huge oak door opened to reveal a tall man in a well-tailored butler's uniform. "Miss Emily," the man said, his voice warm. "How good it is to see you! With Miss Jareau, I presume?"

Emily nodded with a smile, tugging JJ behind her as she allowed herself to be ushered into the foyer. "It's been a while, Anthony; how's Hannah, has she graduated yet?"

"Yes, just last month in fact. Well remembered!"

"Pass along my congratulations, please."

"Of course, Miss Emily. Please excuse me, I'll announce you at once."

"Don't worry about it, we'll get her."

"Of course, she'll be in the drawing room."

"Thanks." Emily replied as she pulled JJ further into the house.

"I feel incredibly underdressed right now." JJ admitted as they walked through a spacious living room to a wide hallway on the other side.

"You look beautiful." Emily assured her, squeezing her hand and bringing them to a stop outside an ornate door.

JJ watched with no small amount of fascination as Emily's posture straightened impossibly further and her expression became unreadable. A process she and Garcia secretly referred to as The Ambassador Junior. Emily let go of her hand to slide the door open revealing a large room that reminded JJ of a simultaneously homier and upscale version of a waiting room.

Elizabeth Prentiss rose from where she was perched delicately on the edge of one of the couches reading a book which she put down on the low table around which the room focused and waited for her daughter to come to her, arms outstretched. Emily did so, moving with an almost unnatural and studied grace. They didn't hug, at least, JJ definitely wouldn't have called it hugging; they grasped each other's forearms and leaned their upper bodies towards each other to make it easier to press first one cheek and then the other together.

"Mother." Emily greeted, stepping aside as Elizabeth held her hand out for JJ to shake. "You remember JJ, I'm sure." JJ noted that Emily's voice had taken on a detached, carefully enunciated quality.

"Yes of course." Elizabeth smiled as JJ shook her hand with a firm grip but the gesture didn't reach her eyes. "Pleasure to see you again. Please, have a seat."

Emily waited until JJ sat down before she did as well, sitting close enough that they were invading each other's personal space, but far enough apart that they weren't touching. "I hear you're going back to Belgium soon." Emily said. "You must be pleased."

That was the opener to the stiffest hour and a half of conversation JJ had ever been involved in in her life. While the tone had remained polite, Elizabeth had been very prodding about how JJ felt about the amount of money Emily had, if she planned on having any more children, and if JJ had any intention of marrying her daughter, and truthfully, if she hadn't been so skilled at rerouting, placating, and deflecting the media, JJ would have been intimidated rather than irritated. Whatever unspoken test Elizabeth had forced onto her, JJ seemed to have passed as she requested JJ call her Elizabeth and leave her with her address so the next gala invitation she'd send to Emily would end up at her house.

The Ambassador and her daughter said their goodbyes just as impersonally as their hellos, but JJ knew by the set of Emily's jaw and the way she moved down the hallway back toward the foyer that she was livid. It wasn't until they got back into Emily's BMW that JJ realized just how pissed her girlfriend was. They sat unmoving, the engine still off, while Emily gripped the steering wheel tight enough to turn her knuckles white, her eyes shut and clearly forcing herself to breathe rhythmically.

Emily was so lost in her stewing that she actually jumped when JJ laid a hand on her knee after a few tense minutes of silence. "I'm sorry." Emily said quietly, her whole body relaxing and her expression open again. "Mother was completely inappropriate."

"Why are you apologizing to me?" JJ was shocked. "She was being horrible to you. If anyone needs to apologize, it's her."

Emily shrugged and chuckled humourlessly. "I don't think she can possibly fathom me in a relationship where the other person wasn't trying to angle something from the family name." she dropped her hands away from the steering wheel and held the hand JJ had laid on her knee in both of hers. "I'm sure Mother had a blast though since she's never met any of my girlfriends before."

JJ tried not to let her surprise show. "Never?"

"No, I've never been this serious about anyone before."

JJ felt emotion swell within her. "Can I kiss you?" she asked, closing the distance between them when Emily nodded.