Hey guys, sorry its taken so long to get another of these up I had an accident at work at the beginning of last weekend and landed myself in hospital for a few days. I'm home now but have a cast on my one hand which will make writing these a little slower but still possible, I promise to update these one shots at least once a week for you.
My muse for this one shot popped up and I just couldn't ignore it, so I'm afraid its not a request one this time, but it I promise it will be for the next one!
Thank you again for all who are reading and reviewing, its great to hear your thoughts on these, I hope you enjoy this one!
Thank you as well to all that have sent in requests, as promised there will be one of those requests in the next one shot, please do keep sending them as they come to you though, I would love to try them all.
One Shot Name: Fears.
Synopsis: An interesting conversation take place on the flight home from a case bringing out some truths of what certain team members fear.
Rating: K+.
Eight: Fears
It was late at night after a long case when the whole team, including Garcia, were on the jet up in the air on their way back home.
It was a long flight which meant the team was getting restless, just wanting to get home and rest.
JJ was getting restless and nervous, she hated being on the jet, she hated the feeling of being locked in with no way out.
Garcia was also getting restless, she hated flying, she hated being on any plane, she hated being on or in anything that had to go high above ground.
Currently Emily couldn't tell who was more nervous, Garcia with her non-stop talking on the two seater opposite her, or JJ who was sat next to her with leg bouncing up and down her head looking from the window to look outside then back again towards Emily every few minutes.
"My god!" Garcia yelled suddenly half way through Emily's reply to her last question effectively cutting off her reply as well as startling everybody on the jet, including JJ who had been looking out the window at that moment in time.
Garcia's sudden booming voice had caused her to jump visibly in her seat, which in turn caused Emily to look at her concerned for a moment before chuckling to herself afterwards at the blonde's reaction.
"How much longer is this going to take? I hate flying!" Garcia exclaimed further earning some amused looks from Hotch and Gideon who were currently playing cards a few seats over at a table.
"Aw Penelope, what's the matter? Are you scared?" Morgan jokingly mocked as he came to sit next to her on the two seater across from Emily and JJ.
"Don't worry I'll protect you." He continued with a chuckle his arm thrown around her shoulders, laughing harder as Garcia smacked his arm in retaliation for his teasing.
"Shut up, Derek." Garcia said folding her arms across her chest in annoyance.
"Oooo he just got 'Dereked', someone's in trouble." Emily whispered to JJ causing her to smile as she watched her friends banter in interest.
"You know you are actually ten times more likely to be hurt when traveling by train or car than you are by flying." Reid said from the other side of plane not looking up from the book he had been reading.
"Well thank you for that nugget of wisdom, Dr. Reid. Even though it does absolutely nothing to make me feel any better." Garcia sassed her arms still crossed.
"It's strange though, that more people are afraid of flying than they are of riding the train or bus or driving a car." Reid said putting his book down now, something had caught his attention.
"They say fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm, which makes it a completely rational feeling to be afraid of something. Yet people fear things that can cause them no harm, pain or danger the most making it at times completely irrational." He continued lost in thought.
"Are you trying to tell me what I'm fearing here is irrational! Let's hear your fear then, I bet its more irrational than mine is." Garcia spat angrily at the younger agent.
"No! Not at all, I'm saying what you fear is rational, it's true that it is less likely for you to be injured from flying compared to other means of transport, but it can still happen." Reid said quickly cutting her off before a full blown Garcia rant could happen.
"You didn't answer my question smarty-pants." Garcia said.
JJ had tried, unsuccessfully though, to hide her laughter at that one, the look on Reid's face when Garcia called him smarty-pants was hilarious.
"My fear. Well I guess it is irrational to some. I fear the dark. I don't like not being able to see what's in front of me." Reid said honestly.
Gideon and Hotch both looked over at this, dropping their cards to the table.
To them this conversation had just got interesting.
"My fear is rational like Garcia's." Morgan pipped up after a few moments of silence.
"I fear danger, pain and harm from my fear all in one go." He continued a slight mirth to his voice that did not go missed by any one on the jet.
"My fear is Emily Prentiss, that woman is deadly." He said ducking as Emily threw an empty plastic water bottle at his head in retaliation.
"I'm not that bad!" Emily exclaimed as her team mates around her laughed at her reaction.
"You better watch you back, Derek." Emily muttered under her breath.
"As scary as I'm sure Prentiss is, she can't be as bad you're driving Morgan. That's what I fear, every time I have to get into a car with you I fear for my life." Gideon said, his poker face on, the agents couldn't tell if he was serious or not.
"There is nothing wrong with my driving." Morgan insisted confused.
"Tell that to those pigeons." Gideon replied, an eyebrow raised.
"Oh come on! That was one time, and I did honk the horn to try and move them." Morgan replied, as the rest of the team watched the interaction with amusement, none of them having heard about this before.
"After you had already ran two of them over." Gideon finished smiling as his team burst out in laughter at his retelling of the tale.
"What about you Hotch?" Reid asked intrigued after the laughter had died down.
"Me? I guess, if answering truthfully. My Fear at the moment is not being around to see my son grow up." Hotch said truthfully.
"Prentiss?" He asked moving the attention away from himself.
The jet was silent for a moment as everybody turned to look towards Emily awaiting her answer, she was one of the hardest person on the team to read at times, they all were interested to see a glimpse of what Emily truly feared.
"I think my biggest fear is that people won't accept me for who I am, they will just see me as an ambassador's daughter, or a rich girl, or an FBI agent. They won't see me." Emily said truthfully with a sigh.
"I'm working on my fear though, in fact I received some pretty good advice recently. I think the exact words were – screw them, if they can't accept you for who you are then they are not worth it." Emily finished with a smile.
"You know that's pretty good advice, whoever told you that is a keeper." Garcia said across from Emily a twinkle in her eye as she watched a small smile light on up JJ's face as well as Emily's.
"What about you JJ? Everyone else has told us something that they partially fear. What's yours?" Gideon asked, intrigued to see how she would answer.
Would she play it safe and make a joke like Morgan and himself had?
Or would she be truthful like the other members on the jet had been?
Gideon had expected the joke from Morgan, he didn't trust easily, trust with him had to earned and he rarely gave it.
Gideon had decided to give a joke fear as well to take the light off of Morgan for doing so, knowing the team would accept the jokes more if he himself did the same thing.
"There's lots of things I'm scared of, but I guess one thing I really fear is the woods." JJ answered, it was truthful, she did fear the woods it wasn't her worst fear but it was still a fear all the same.
"Didn't you grow up in a small town surrounded by woods?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah. JJ answered simply.
"Damn, your childhood must have sucked." Morgan replied jokingly, not knowing how truthful that joke had really been.
"I couldn't get out of there fast enough." JJ replied trying to play along with the joke, shuddering at the thought of her home town, though not for the reasons that the team thought.
"What is it about the woods that scares you?" Reid asked intrigued, the woods on its own was an ambiguous answer, the real truth would come from the reason behind why JJ feared the woods.
"The feeling I get being there. It is so open, yet so closed in at the same time. It's so vast and open that you could get completely lost, yet no one would be able to find you because you're locked in one tiny area they cannot get to and you can't get out of." JJ replied honestly before she could stop herself, it was as though her mouth had a mind of its own.
The jet was silent again as everybody mulled over her answer, Garcia mumbling a thank you for ruining the woods for her forever now.
Emily and Morgan looked to each other as JJ turned to look out the window again, the profilers in them knowing that answer had more meaning and insight than JJ may have intended to give.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Twenty minutes later JJ was at the back of the jet making coffee, something that helped her relax when feeling closed in and confined, which was ironic considering the space in which the small kitchen was on the jet was incredibly small.
JJ thought it was the task itself that helped ease her mind, being able to concentrate on something else other than the feeling of being closed in.
"So, the woods huh?" Emily said from behind her startling JJ, who recovered quickly before turning to face Emily who had jumped up to take a seat on one of the counters.
"You know, a profiler might say that your reason for fearing the woods is in fact your real fear." Emily said picking at her nails before looking to JJ.
"I think it was the no one would find you because you're locked in one tiny area part in particular that tells your fear." Emily continued gently.
Emily had had her suspicions about JJ's strange behaviour on the jet for some time.
The way she always got nervous on long flights, the way she would continuously look at windows and doors all the time while on the jet.
The way she would always make sure she was last on but the very first off.
The relief her body showed as soon as the door reopened and she could leave.
It wasn't just on the jet either, Emily had noticed JJ never closed her office door completely.
When they shared rooms on cases she always had the window open and the bathroom door left ajar no matter what the temperature outside was.
When riding in the SUV's she would always have her window down ajar, even if it was pouring down with rain.
"I don't like small spaces." JJ admitted quietly.
"I know." Emily replied softly.
"Does the team know?" JJ asked embarrassed.
"No, they don't have to either, not if you don't want them to. I only just put it together myself, I've suspected it for some time but wasn't sure until you said that about the woods." Emily replied honestly.
"Fearing something doesn't make you any less of an agent than the rest of us, you know that right?" Emily assured her hating to see her so self-conscious and embarrassed.
"I know." JJ replied with a small smile, it was weird to JJ, Emily always knew what to say to make her feel better in a situation like this.
It was why she always went to Emily before anyone else on the team, she felt at ease with her, something she hadn't felt for a very long time.
With Emily everything was completely natural.
"I wish you had told me sooner, I could have helped you more." Emily said simply.
"You know now." JJ stated.
Emily nodded.
She did.
It was only now that she realised how private and quiet JJ really was.
She was glad JJ had let her know this about herself, even if unwillingly so.
"Are you okay with me knowing?" Emily asked watching JJ closely.
The question confused JJ at first, she wasn't used to being asked if she was okay with others knowing things about her, no one had asked her that before.
Before they just knew, everywhere else she had been before joining the FBI academy people knew everything about her, they knew her fears, her past, her demons.
They either tried to help with it in some rare cases or, more often than not, they used it against her.
She had tried hard not to let people get too close to see who she used to be, she had wanted a fresh start here.
There were somethings that she couldn't change about herself though, and one of those things was what she feared.
"Yeah, I'm okay with it." JJ replied after a moment's thought.
She realised she was okay with Emily knowing.
Emily was one of the rare few people that had tried to help her, and that was before even really knowing what the problem was.
Her fears, or this one anyway, were safe with Emily, just like Emily's were with her.
She was okay with that.
AN: Dont forget to review and let me know what you thought of this one, as you may have noticed it ties in heavily with Connected as One the main story, and The First Case one shot from a while back.
