A/N - I suck, I suck, I suck, I suck. I know this. Gosh I can't believe I actually haven't written so much as a word of this story since Gay Day. I'm so sorry. Reading through the story to kind of catch up on what I've been writing, I realised that my chapters for this fic are stupidly tiny compared to the chapters for my other fics. This needs to change, so from now on I will be writing chapters around 2000+ words, and I'm going to try to upload something every five weeks, writing whenever I have a chance. I need to get into the habit of regularly writing for each of my fics, so please accept my humblest apologies. I'm so sorry for abandoning this, it won't happen again ~ R.
JJ woke up to the sound of Agent Hotchner's fist pummeling on the door of Emily's room. Groggily, she got up and searched for her glasses on the nightstand, almost falling off of the decidly small bed as she picked them up. Silently, she cursed herself for leaving her contact lenses in her own room. Emily, by some miracle, was still fast asleep, completely dead to the world, totally oblivious to the deafening noise filling the room.
"That woman could sleep through an Earthquake." JJ chuckled to herself as she stood up from bed, put her feet in her slippers and shuffled over to the door that Hotch was still banging on
"AGENT PRENTISS," Hotch shouted, uncharacteristically angry as his fist continued to hit the door "GET UP THIS INSTANT. YOU'RE GOING TO MISS THE MORNING BRIEF." As JJ thought about it, she realised that she had never heard Hotch yell like this before. Something must be up with the older man. JJ hurried the remaining distance to the door and quickly lifted one of her slippers off and threw it towards the brunette, who was still laying face down, on the bed, her top riding up to reveal the light, soft skin of her back. As JJ unlatched the door, Emily sat up with a confused grunt, looking around for the source of the slipper. JJ smiled at her girlfriend before fully opening the door to reveal a very angry Hotch.
"Alright, Hotch, what crawled up your butt?" JJ asked, having absolutely no filter at this time in the morning. This was normally a quirk that the team would tease her about over breakfast, but now was the worst time for it to raise its head. Hotch turned even redder, if that could've been possible, and JJ was sure that if this had been a cartoon, there would be smoke billowing out of his ears at this moment.
"AGENT JAREAU, WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU ALL MORNING, AND YOU WERE IN HERE DOING WHAT EXACTLY WITH AGENT PRENTISS?" Hotch questioned, his anger accelerating by the second, saliva spraying out of his clenched teeth, before he was able to take a breath and calm down slightly. "Look, we all know what was going on between you, the long stares that have been shared across the bullpen haven't gone unnoticed, you do work with a team a behavioral analysts after all, but I will not have my case compromised." His face fell stern as he turned to the agents before him, shaking his head in disbelief. "I want both of you dressed and at the precinct in 15 minutes, I want to have a long talk with you about what is and is not appropriate relations between team members."
"Yes, Sir." The women said in unison, closing the door on him and rushing to get ready
"I'm so sorry, Em." JJ said solemnly. She knew how much this job meant to Emily, and she couldn't believe that she would be dumb enough to let the brunette put that in danger. "Look, if one of us has to leave the BAU, I'll do it okay?" She spoke with a lump in her throat as she searched for her own room key.
"No." Emily replied shortly, buttoning up a blue blouse, JJ had to take a second to appreciate how beautiful Emily looked. "I'll leave, maybe it's for the best." She continued, pulling up a pair of pants while simultaneously shoving her feet into her shoes. "You need to go, okay? Go get ready. I'll meet you outside in 5." JJ looked at Emily in disbelief. "Go, quickly, Jennifer." she hurried JJ out of the door before brushing her hair, pulling on a jacket, grabbing her gun and badge from the nightstand and hurrying out of the door herself. She took the elevator down to the parking lot and quickly spotted the SUV among a swarm of the mini-vans and sedans belonging to the other guests. She quickly jogged over to it, unlocking the door and pulling herself into the drivers seat. She put her hands onto the steering wheel, gripping it so tight that her knuckles turned white, before letting her head fall against her hands, tears beginning to roll down her face. She let the sobs wrack her body. Everything she had ever worked so hard for was about to be taken away from her, and she felt like she was flailing. She knew that she would Jennifer and Henry over the BAU a thousand times over, but it would be hard to leave one loving family, even if there was another waiting. Just as the sobs began to die down, and she was able to regain control over her body she heard a brisk knock on the passenger side window. "Jennifer" She thought to herself, sniffing and wiping the rogue tears from her eyes before opening the door.
"Hey." JJ started "Baby? Have you been crying?" She asked, concerned and pulling Emily into a warm embrace.
"I'm sorry." Emily whispered into JJ's neck.
"Why on Earth are you sorry?" JJ asked, sitting back into her own seat.
"Because I jeopardized your future." Emily answered, hanging her head in shame
"No, you ridiculous, gorgeous woman," JJ started laying a soft kiss on her girlfriend's lips "you are my future. I love you, Emily Prentiss, so much."
"I love you too, Jennifer Jareau." Emily answered tearfully, drawing a sharp breath before kissing her girlfriend.
"Right." Said JJ, "We had better get going, baby." Emily smiled and nodded, entwining her fingers with the blonde in the passenger seat before the car began to slowly roll onto the road.
The precinct was a hub of buzzing activity. There were police people of all ranks, mixed with a handful of FBI agents and suspects filtering through the doors, into cubicles and interview rooms. It had been a while since the team had been in such a bustling environment, and they would be lying if they said that they didn't enjoy the anticipation of a case to some extent. JJ and Emily had arrived at the station about fifteen minutes ago, and they were still searching for Hotch. They had instinctively asked a few passing officers if they had seen the man, but none of them provided much more than a shrug or grunt in any direction before continuing with their work. JJ noticed, as they stood in the middle of the chaos searching for Hotch, that Emily was completely rigid with fear. She hated seeing her girlfriend like this, but it seemed that there was nothing that she could do to fix it right now, especially since they had a substantial audience.
"Emily? What's wrong?" JJ asked, turning to face the beautiful brunette beside her.
"Hmm?" Emily answered, slowly moving her head, but not letting her eyes cease in their search for Hotch "Um, nothing, why?"
"Emily please tell me what's wrong, why won't you look at me?"
"Hmm?" Emily asked again, finally turning to meet JJ's eyes. "I'm sorry... I'm just nervous." She answered, softening slightly as she saw JJ's beautiful face. She smiled weakly as JJ leaned over and rubbed her arm. The blonde stepped closer, shifting her coat over her forearm so that they could hold hands without rousing any suspicion. JJ gave Emily a look that said "I love you" and the brunette was glad that she didn't have to go through this alone, she would've crumbled under Hotch's harsh gaze this morning, but JJ had stood firm, standing up for the brunette, and she had never bee so proud, or so grateful. She had never been loved in the way JJ loved her. She had never felt as safe as she did in JJ's arms. She knew, she had to know by now, that she was going to marry JJ. She just had to. It was a question of how to ask really.
Just as Emily was getting lost in her mind, with a thousand and one ways to ask Jennifer Jareau to be her wife, Hotch walked through one of the doors from the street into the precinct. He marched over to the woman, and chuckled to himself silently as they jumped apart.
"Follow me." He instructed them, walking over to a currently empty office and letting himself inside. They smiled at him politely before nodding and following him to the office. Once they had let themselves inside, they sat down beside each other on two surprisingly comfortable leather chairs across an oak desk from Hotch. For a few moments, they simply sat in silence, each of the more junior agents working themselves up into quite an agitated state.
"Look," The man started, being the first to break the awkward silence that had settled across the room, "I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I didn't know something was going on with you over the last few months, but I will not have you two sneaking into eachother's rooms in the dead of night and disrupting my case. Therefore, JJ I have decided to suspend you from the case."
"What?" JJ asked, shocked at what Hotch had just told her. Of course she had expected it to be bad, but not like this, she was truly anticipating a slap on the wrist, nothing more.
"Agent Jareau, you have been formally suspended from the case. Please don't make this more difficult than it has to be."
"Yes, Sir." JJ answered him solemnly, hanging her head in shame. Emily was suddenly overcome with anger. She couldn't what was happening, it seemed as if she had blacked out, before she stood up and went ape on her boss.
"More difficult than it has to be?" She yelled, her fingers pointing into Hotch's face and shaking with anger. "HOW DARE YOU? You petty little man." She continued, her hands now falling to her hips as she shook her head. "We all know that Garcia and Morgan have been sleeping with eachother for years! And then you have the damn AUDACITY to yell at JJ and I for sleeping in the same bed? What, is it because we're lesbians?" She paused for breath, and JJ started to speak into the silence.
"Em, it's okay. It's my fault." The blonde grabbed her girlfriend's arm to try to calm her down, but Emily seemed to be possessed.
"NO, JJ. It's not okay. I will not have you spoken to like that. You do not deserve a suspension, you didn't even do anything wrong for Christ's sake. You, sir, have no right to insert yourself into our lives in any way other than professionally. You may not accuse us of jeopardizing your case, and you can consider your friendship revoked. It's alright for you to get in fist fights with George Foyet in the course of duty but-"
"AGENT PRENTISS. THAT IS ENOUGH." Hotch finally stood up to defend himself "YOU ARE BOTH SUSPENDED FOR THE REST OF THE DAY. GO BACK TO THE HOTEL AND PACK YOUR BAGS."
"Look, Hotch, I'm sorry." JJ started, standing up and shepherding Emily out of the door "Please, let's just talk about this again later when we've all had a chance to calm down. Okay?" Both of the other agents nodded in response. The girls left the room, and as Emily was about to shut the door on Hotch, he smiled a watery smiled and called after her.
"You know, if you had let me finish, I would've congratulated the both of you on your relationship. I will not, however, if you wish to remain strictly professional." The older man let a single tear fall silently at the loss of two of his greatest friends. Emily saw the tear fall, and she had never felt so guilty, or regretted her words so much as she did now. She knew she would have to make it up to Hotch, someday, somehow, but for now, the two of them just had to watch from the sidelines as a case unfolded.