"You don't have to say anything."
They were staying at a hotel outside of Dover, Ohio while investigating a string of mysterious disappearances. JJ was happy the motel was so small that they had to share a room; she hated sleeping apart from Emily when a case was going on, but they had both agreed that if they were assigned separate rooms, they would stick to them. The blonde was lying with her head on Emily's chest, lazily tracing the outline of the iris tattoo high on the right side of Emily's ribcage while Emily carded her fingers through JJ's hair; both of them trying to unwind enough to go to sleep.
"Emily," JJ started, her voice seeming loud in the face of how quiet they'd been thus far.
"Mmm?" Emily responded, not bothering to open her eyes.
"I've been thinking a lot about this, and I want you to do something."
"Anything."
JJ took a deep breath. "I want you to adopt Henry." She felt Emily's body tense in surprise beneath her, her fingers stilling in JJ's hair.
"You want me to adopt Henry?" Emily's voice was quiet.
JJ propped herself up on her elbow to look at her girlfriend who was watching her carefully and nodded. "It's just…if anything were to happen to me,"
"JJ," Emily interrupted, her grave tone indicating she didn't like where this conversation was going.
JJ cut her off by pressing a finger to her lips gently. "If anything were to happen to me," she repeated. "Or to our relationship, it would crush Henry to lose you too and you're such a good mom to him." She pressed her finger more firmly to Emily's lips when the brunette opened her mouth to protest. "You are." She emphasized before removing her finger.
"What about Will?" Emily asked skeptically.
"I already talked to him about it, actually." JJ admitted. "He wants to move back to New Orleans and understands that means he'll be in Henry's life much less. I'm never going to keep him from his son, and he knows that so he's willing to concede parental rights to you."
"JJ, I…" Emily trailed off, overwhelmed with emotions.
"You don't have to say anything." JJ assured her. "I'm not asking for an answer right now, just promise you'll think about it?"
"I promise." Emily vowed, already knowing she'd say yes but not wanting to make such a decision lightly.