"Do you think this is going to count towards our time off rotation?" Morgan asked idly, pressing down on the gas pedal a little more firmly. "Because someone promised us we'd be on stand down for a while."
In the front passenger seat next to Derek, Rossi smirked but didn't answer, knowing the question was rhetorical. They had indeed been promised a break; they were supposed to be on stand down for what was left of the month but a rash of kidnappings in Elkton Maryland while the other teams were otherwise engaged had them not only making the trek, but staying in the area so they would lose as little time as possible. Six excruciatingly long days later, they had caught the guy with the help of the LEOs and were now gladly making the two and a half hour drive back to Quantico, Morgan's typically lead foot keeping him ahead of the other SUV carrying Hotch, Reid, and JJ. They rumbled over a small rough patch in the road and Morgan snickered when Emily groaned uncomfortably from the backseat.
"You doing okay back there, Crash?" he asked, glancing in the rearview mirror to grin at her supine form sprawled across the seats.
Emily nodded tightly, her left hand lightly pressed to the side of her head where their unsub had managed to get the drop on her with a shovel. "I'd be better if you didn't insist on going warp nine over every goddamn bump in the road."
Morgan chuckled but didn't let up on the gas. "Don't worry, Princess, I'll getcha home in one piece." He promised. "Take one of those vicodins the local gave you and mellow out." He glanced at her in the mirror again where she had sat up slightly to meet his gaze with a black look that would have been intimidating if she didn't look so petulant. "Oh that's right," he said, glancing merrily at Rossi as his voice took on the kind of tone one normally reserved for small children and adorable animals. "We've got to get some food in you first since vicodin makes your tummy so upset."
"Fuck off, Morgan." Emily grumbled perturbedly, moving her hand away from the lump hidden by her hair to punch the back of the driver's seat which only made him laugh.
"Now children," Rossi reprimanded with a smile in his voice. "Play nice, we still have almost a whole hour before we get back."
"Sorry," Morgan mumbled automatically, not sounding the least bit apologetic.
"I'm not; you're an asshole." Emily replied, punching the back of Derek's seat again.
Morgan chuckled with a shake of his head, understanding that Emily wasn't as irritated as she sounded but that was her way of coping with the pain she most certainly was in without outright expressing it. "How is your head though, Prentiss?" he asked sincerely, knowing from experience he was going to get a stock answer but compelled to ask anyway.
"Fine." She sighed predictably, wincing as they hit another dip in the road. "I am actually starving though."
The statement seemed to have been added as an afterthought but Morgan knew vicodin really did mess with his partner's stomach and likely it was less that she was hungry and more that she wanted to take her painkillers, which let him know she was hurting bad at the moment. Half the time when the team's star head injury collector was prescribed any painkillers, the only way she'd take them was if someone (usually JJ or Garcia) guilt tripped her into it. Emily giving any indication that she was going to take them on her own, even wrapped in as vague a statement as being hungry, meant that she was in a lot more pain than she was letting on.
"Me too." Morgan replied, letting her keep her façade. "You got anything at the castle?"
Emily rolled her eyes. "We've been gone for a week." She pointed out, reclining again. "I'm sure the only thing I have that isn't covered in penicillin by now is wine."
"That's fine for me, but no alcohol and no driving for you for the next forty-eight hours; so where do you wanna go, Miss Daisy?"
"I swear to god, Morgan…" Emily grumbled, her voice nothing short of a sincere warning.
"Alright, alright." Derek acquiesced with a boyish grin before glancing over at Rossi to ask, "How long is the debriefing going to take?"
Rossi shrugged and subtly gripped the armrest set into the door as Morgan skated the line between just driving fast and auditioning as a getaway driver. "Depends on how much you guys goof off on the preliminary paperwork and initial statements." He replied, holding back a small smile when Emily let out a weary groan from the backseat.
"I second that." Morgan said firmly. "But hey, maybe the three of us can get a head start on the case report and leave those slow losers to stew after the debriefing?"
"If you hit one more pothole at this speed," Emily threatened. "I'm telling Hotch you called him a loser."
"I'll make sure I catch two more just for you, Princess." He replied jovially, betraying his own statement by slowing down to only slightly over the posted limit. "Whaddya say, old man," he continued, addressing Rossi. "Wanna grab something with me and Crash after the briefing?"
"I'm putting in for a transfer." Emily grunted in irritation.
"Watch those old man comments, Derek." Rossi said in admonition, but his tone belied his reprimand as he glanced over his shoulder with a smile at Emily who had her eyes squeezed shut and her hand still pressed to her head like that was going to stop the ache from spreading. "Unfortunately, I am otherwise engaged this evening, but I'm sure you could find a willing third. JJ, perhaps?"
Morgan cut his eyes over to the older profiler, knowing there was an implication in his tone, but not one hundred percent certain he wasn't inferring meaning that wasn't there. Garcia had told him all about JJ and Emily's 'accidental' date and the zaftig hacker had also filled him in about JJ's revelation in regards to her feelings for his partner. On hearing it, Morgan had thought that was a great development, but he could see things shifting between his friends. JJ was definitely a little more guarded around Emily. She was doing an incredible job of hiding it, but the looks on her face when she thought no one was paying attention to her were nothing short of heartbreaking. It wasn't as if the whole team weren't aware of the attraction between the two agents, but both of them were in deeper than initially thought and if Rossi was giving his tacit approval, Morgan knew that would go a very long way once he and Garcia could manage to get them to lay things out on the table.
Derek grinned, unwilling to acknowledge the undercurrent of Rossi's statement since Emily hadn't reacted to it. The poor woman was half concussed as it was; there was no sense in embarrassing her on top of that. Not too much anyway. "Maybe," he agreed, glancing in the review mirror at his friend again. "What do you think, Prentiss? I'm sure JJ could get you to stop being a hard ass and take your damn pills before we even leave the office."
Emily lifted her free hand from where it had been resting on her stomach and thrust her middle finger in the air without opening her eyes, figuring she'd managed to hold it high enough to be seen in the mirror by the snickering from the front seat. "I'm fine." She insisted. "I'm just hungry is all. Didn't anyone tell you to never be an asshole to a woman who just had her head used for batting practice?"
Morgan scoffed. "But I'd never get to pick on you again and then how would you know I care?"
"JJ's got plans with Garcia anyway." Emily continued as if he hadn't spoken.
"She does?" he smirked, holding back the comment that Emily was better than a PDA when it came to JJ.
"She was supposed to go out with Garcia last Friday, but then we got the case, so…" Emily trailed off by way of explanation.
"Oh and you weren't invited? I'm offended on your behalf."
Emily groaned again, this time the sound having nothing to do with the thudding pain radiating from the back left side of her head. "I was supposed to be meeting Andi for drinks."
"Drinks on a Friday?" Rossi cut in with mostly concealed disappointment in a paternalistic tone. "Emily, surely you're not,"
"No." Emily promised before he could finish the thought. "Absolutely not. Why's everybody so worried about that?"
"Beats me;" Morgan said easily, his shoulders bobbing once as he shrugged. "There's no way you can be that stupid twice, let alone twice in a row. I've always believed in you, buddy."
"Thanks." Emily said in a way that made the statement sound nearly identical to an irritated 'fuck you;' more sure than ever that if Derek knew the whole story behind the break up, she'd never hear the end of it.
"You know, Prentiss," Derek continued, ignoring her rising frustration with him. "If it's just a matter of taking the edge off, I know a couple women who'd be more than happy to," he cut himself off with a loud laugh when he felt her punch the back of his seat again, the thick cushioning at his back jerking gently forward with the action.
As predicted, Morgan got them back to Quantico before the rest of the team, Penelope breezing out of her lair once they entered the bullpen to fuss over Emily and her latest head trauma.
"Go away, Garcia." Emily grumbled, waving off her friend's repeated attempts to get her to eat some of the snacks she kept hidden around her office so Emily could take her medication.
"Sorry, my sweet," Garcia chirped happily, patting Emily's shoulder fondly while the profiler cradled her head in her hands with her elbows resting on her desk. "But that's never going to happen. You could get me to stop pestering you if you just eat this and take your pills." She tapped Emily on the forearm with the small pack of sandwich crackers she was teetering on the edge of force-feeding her.
Emily was obviously in pain—anyone would be after getting beaned in the head by a grown man as physically imposing as the unsub had been. It had been a small miracle she hadn't lost consciousness or needed stitches. Penelope figured that Emily got whacked in the head enough that her poor broody baby was building a resistance to being rendered unconscious but why she insisted on muscling through such obvious discomfort was beyond her. Maybe it was a tough girl thing, she didn't know, but she wasn't above pulling out the big guns to make Emily take care of herself.
"Listen up, Wonder Woman," Garcia continued from her perch on the edge of Emily's desk. "Eat this and take your meds and I promise I won't exaggerate to JJ how much pain you're in and let her convince you to stop being a stubborn child for ten seconds, how does that sound?" she grinned widely when Emily looked up to glare at her and snatch the crackers out of her hand, opening them with an overstated flourish. JJ was the worst (or best, if you asked her) about mothering her teammates when they were injured; especially when it came to Emily and Reid.
"I hate every last one of you." Emily informed them around a mouthful of cracker and treating them all to their own annoyed glower.
"Hey," Rossi defended from his position leaning against Reid's desk, not looking up from the file in his hands. "Leave me out of it, I didn't do anything."
"That's the problem." Emily grumbled.
Rossi glanced over at her and offered an unapologetic smile. "Sorry, kiddo, but it's for your own good." He shrugged genially. "At least save the vitriol for later in the week. Tuesday is pretty early in the game to hate everyone."
Emily frowned and looked like she was going to offer a retort when the glass doors to the BAU swung open and Hotch strode purposely towards them, JJ and Reid trailing behind and laughing. Morgan chuckled as the perpetual grimace Emily had been wearing since they'd gotten into the SUV disappeared and she leaned back in her chair casually in an attempt to downplay the effect her injury was having on her.
Hotch made his way over to Rossi to discuss something in low voices while JJ and Reid joined the others.
"How's your head feeling, Emily?" Reid asked kindly, tucking some of his hair behind his ear.
Emily groaned inwardly, hating being fussed over but she offered him a sincere smile and shrugged. "Fine," she assured. "It's really not as bad as you guys seem to think."
"You're lying." JJ asserted, her tone confident but un-accusatory as she reached over to grip Emily's chin and tilt her head to the side as if trying to assess if any more damage had been done since they parted ways to return to Virginia. She nodded at the detached look in Emily's eyes as if that confirmed her statement and dropped her hand to address Garcia. "Did you get her to take the vicodin?"
Garcia nodded gleefully toward the half empty package of crackers. "In the process as we speak, Sunshine. No worries, you know how stubborn she is."
JJ rolled her eyes and smiled. "She's so grumpy when she's in pain and she thinks if she's extra surly, we won't notice."
"She is also right here." Emily pointed out darkly, only barely managing to resist shuddering when JJ threw her a teasing wink.
"My point." JJ said, gesturing to her injured friend with one hand like she were trying to draw attention to a game show prize and she laughed when Emily swatted her away, pushing back against the brunette's hand before she had time to fully withdraw it. "Eat your damn crackers, Prentiss." JJ ordered, the edge to her demand softened by the laugh still in her voice.
Emily rolled her eyes and muttered something in Arabic under her breath but did as she was told, flicking a nearby errant paperclip towards Garcia when she looked like she was going to say something as soon as she was done giggling.
"We gonna do this debriefing or what?" Morgan said from his position at his own desk where he'd been leaning back and watching the women with amusement.
Hotch sighed and pulled himself out of his conversation with Rossi to look at his watch for a moment, silently weighing his options. It was already well after five and while he knew that if he did the time consuming process of the debriefing now that they would stay without any genuine complaint, they had been promised stand down and had similarly taken off to Maryland without any guff. "It's almost six," he acquiesced. "Let's call it a night and we'll do it first thing in the morning."
Morgan let out a pleased little whoop and rose to his feet when Penelope strode by him. "Baby Girl," he called to get her attention as he caught up to her. "Can I get a minute?"
"You can get several, Hercules." She replied with a nod as they walked off toward her lair.
"What do you think they're so cozy about?" JJ asked curiously, taking Garcia's vacated position on Emily's desk without forethought.
"Dunno." Emily shrugged and scooted her chair off to the side so she could rest her elbows on the desktop and so JJ's crossed legs weren't directly in her line of sight. She smirked lowered her voice slightly. "Maybe he's gone to ask her out."
"They're way beyond that." JJ demurred, leaning her weight on one hand and unable to pass up the opportunity to invade her friend's personal space by plucking a bit of lint from her shoulder.
Emily reluctantly took the bottle of water JJ handed to her with a raised eyebrow—a shorthand for 'don't think I didn't notice you're still trying to get out of taking your pain meds and think you were going to be left alone just because you ate the damn crackers' delivered in the no nonsense tone of the determined set of her mouth and the stern look in her eyes that brooked no argument.
JJ watched Emily move at a childishly stubborn pace as she popped one of the pills out of the bottle in her pocket, making a show of putting the white tablet on her tongue before drinking down the water, the objection at being coerced clear in her eyes as she stared at the blonde. JJ ignored the silent complaining and elaborated on her previous statement; "at this point, I accept nothing less than a proposal."
"That's awfully demanding of you, Jen." Emily pointed out, resting her chin in one hand and tilting her head slightly so she could look at her better.
"I'm awfully demanding, Em." JJ teased, nudging the brunette gently with her foot.
"Tell me about it." Emily grumbled good-naturedly, bypassing the low hanging fruit the opening had provided.
JJ rolled her eyes. "I have to be if I want any of you to do anything."
"Hey," Emily objected with affected offense. "I am excellent at taking direction, I'll have you know."
JJ snorted and shook her head. "Since when?"
"Okay," Emily shrugged and leaned back with an unrepentant grin. "Let me rephrase that: I'm excellent at taking direction depending on who is giving the direction," she had been holding JJ's gaze up until that point when her eyes flicked subtly over her before meeting blue again. "And what the direction is."
While the innuendo was deliberate, JJ wasn't sure if Emily's appraisal was purposeful and she was absolutely certain that the lower octave of her voice wasn't. She couldn't imagine that Emily would let herself sound like that if she had any idea what that did to her. JJ tried to ignore the feeling of heat trying to grab her attention from the inside out but was unable to tear her eyes away from her friend. It was because they were locked in some silent, subconscious conversation happening in their eyes that she noticed something trying to break the surface of Emily's expression, which had been set to playful smugness in light of their banter. Whatever that something was barely had the chance to flicker across her face before it shifted into the briefest look of panic and then Emily must have gotten a rein on the unbidden emotion and JJ could almost hear the lid of the compartmentalization box slam down as Emily cleared her throat.
Emily turned away from the blonde who was studying her far more closely than comfort allowed and her gaze fell on Reid who was packing his leather satchel and regarding them thoughtfully. Normally, she'd be suspicious of such a look, even embarrassed that someone might have caught what she was having increasing difficulties in keeping buried but…it was Reid. He always looked at people like he was thinking because he was always thinking. She smiled at him as he slipped his bag over his head.
"Morgan and I are going to go grab something as soon as he gets back from his quality pervert time," she informed him, nodding in the direction of Garcia's office. "You in?"
Reid smiled slightly and he shook his head, looking at the floor. "I actually, uh," he tucked his hair back and looked up at her. "I actually have a date if you can believe that."
"Is this a date with a person,"Emily grinned widely. "Or a Tolstoy novel?"
JJ shoved Emily's shoulder gently, ignoring the profiler's perfunctory 'hey, injured woman!' "Be nice to Spence," she scolded gently, knowing that there had been nothing but fondness in Emily's teasing and she turned her attention to Reid, who was smiling. "That's great; is it this mysterious Caroline you keep going off to lectures with? Are we going to get to meet her?"
Reid blushed a little and nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to ask her today if she wants to go to the party Garcia's having before we go back on rotation."
"Can't wait." JJ replied sincerely, returning his slight wave as he made his way toward the elevators, shaking his head as Emily's childishly singsonged 'Reid's got a girlfriend' followed him.
"So what do you think, Baby Girl?" Morgan was saying, as Penelope moved through the routine she had when she left for the day. "Is this doable?"
Garcia hummed and nodded. "I'm so proud that my knack for espionage is starting to rub off on you." She looked up from shutting down her personal laptop and grinned lasciviously at him. "Not that that's the only thing I'd like to rub off on you."
Morgan laughed loudly, shaking his head. "Oh I don't doubt that." He replied with a wink. "We good on the plan then?"
"Yep. We 'unexpectedly' end up at the same restaurant, I'll beg some fabulous excuse as to why we can't eat there, you and I get the hell out of there leaving Jayje and SSA Concussion to have a nice dinner, yes?"
Morgan nodded. "And we all know how much JJ enjoys a doped up Prentiss."
Garcia snorted. "Are you kidding? We all do; medicated Emily and drunk Emily are adorable. If I weren't so dead set on those two gorgeous idiots grossing everyone out for eternity with a Disney level happily ever after, I'd stay with them just to watch the show."
Derek chuckled in agreement and moved across Garcia's office space when she let out a little squeal to look over her shoulder where she was pointing excitedly at part of one of her screens. "What's up?"
"Look at that," she said excitedly, drawing Morgan's attention to the security feed that was trained on the bullpen. With Rossi having left for the night, Reid shaking his head as he made his way out of the bullpen, and Hotch in his office, the only people left to focus on were JJ and Emily; the blonde sitting on Emily's desk almost bent over from laughter while Emily was clearly trying to look annoyed and failing spectacularly. Even with the slightly grainy quality of the video, Emily's expression of adoration was easily discernable. Garcia sighed and glanced up at Morgan who was hovering near her shoulder with a smile on his face. "I don't understand how two people can be that into each other and be that clueless about it."
Morgan shook his head, resting his weight on the back of Garcia's chair with one hand and pulling his gaze away from the monitor to look at Penelope. "I don't think they're really clueless." He admitted, his tone serious. "They're both scared and it's blinding them to the obvious." Morgan returned his eyes to the screen when he had the sudden realization that he wasn't just talking about Emily and JJ. "They're insecure and so scared of what they might lose that taking the risk for what they might gain is too unthinkable."
Garcia had been looking at Morgan the whole time, watching the profiler watch the screen and she was getting the distinct impression that there was more experience than observation in his assessment. Part of her wanted to ask, but she weighted her own words instead, deciding to let him take what he wanted from it. "Everyone has a breaking point, Derek."
He glanced over at her, expression slightly confused. "What do you mean?"
"They're both waiting for the other to do something." She pointed out. "One thinks they're protecting the other from them; that they're not going to be good enough, that they're going to screw up the precious thing they already have, that they're so…" she paused thoughtfully. "Consumed by what they feel that they convince themselves they're reading into things because it's what they want to be true but they're scared that it could be that simple." She shrugged. "So they get deadlocked in an emotional Mexican Standoff where no one's going to pull the trigger."
Morgan hummed attentively, mentally telling his internal voice to stop dwelling on the fact Garcia hadn't used any specific pronouns in her reflections. "So if no one's gonna pull the trigger," he said, still not looking at her. "Then is what we're doing useless in the long run?" He finally slid his gaze towards her when she chuckled amusedly, shaking her head.
"Everyone has a breaking point." She reminded him. "If we keep giving them reasons to realize it, one of them is going to cave." Garcia nodded toward the monitor to narrow their two-layered conversation back to one. Emily's incredibly lax pose at her desk indicated that her painkiller had kicked in, one hand weaving lazily through the air as she was talking and the other propped under her chin. JJ was shaking her head in indulgent amusement, the fondness on her face obvious. "I think sooner, rather than later."
Morgan nodded with a little smile and a sigh of relief that had more than a little to do with the unambiguity the conversation had returned to. He was about to take his leave since the plan was laid out when there was a light knock on the doorframe of Garcia's lair, causing them both to turn toward the noise.
"Boy Wonder," Garcia cooed at Reid with a smile on her face. "What can I do for my favourite doctor this evening?"
Reid returned her smile, digging around in his bag as he replied. "Do you still have the thirty I gave you for the pool last month?"
Garcia nodded enthusiastically. "You know I do, babycakes. Why, has the angel on your shoulder finally showed up and you want your money back?"
Reid pulled his wallet out of his bag and shrugged while shaking his head. "Just the opposite, actually." He informed her, handing over a twenty-dollar bill. "I don't feel any sort of moral quandary with betting odds on an ineluctable situation when the situation itself is gratifying for everyone involved."
"Can't argue in the face of Vegas logic like that." Garcia teased, pulling a lockbox out from under her desk and slipping the twenty into the neat bundle of money held together with a rubber band that was already in there. She flipped open the little notebook inside and crossed out the '$30' next to 'S.R. Favour: Emily.'
"I want to change my bet to JJ as well." He said, leaning forward slightly to watch Garcia scribble in the notebook that had a collection of names crowding the little lines.
"You giving up on Prentiss, Reid?" Morgan asked with amusement, crossing his arms. He himself had some money tied up in the now three month running 'who's going to initiate something' office pool. It had started as a complete joke with two-dollar bets on JJ and Emily but in the last month, the betting had become serious and even competitive among the half dozen agents throwing money in. "You seemed so sure before."
Reid shrugged. "I was, but I realized that I not only underestimated Emily's ability to keep her feelings to herself indefinitely but exactly how driven she is by her pertinacious nature in the face of what she thinks is best."
"She's stubborn as hell." Morgan summed up with a nod.
"I just said that." He protested.
"So you're just hoping that Jayje is gonna dark horse it for you? You know you can only change your bet once, right?" Derek looked over at Garcia to confirm and she nodded absentmindedly while she scribbled in the tiny notebook.
"The phrase 'dark horse' implies that the person being referred to has some kind of unexpected edge and whom little is known but it's exactly because of what I know, or rather what I observed, that I want to change my bet." Reid knew that things escaped his attention sometimes because he was too focused on a number of other things, but he certainly wasn't as clueless as people assumed him to be. Not always, anyway.
Garcia raised her eyebrows and looked up at the lanky genius interestedly. "Oh yeah?" she prompted, depositing the little metal box back under her desk. "And what exactly did you observe watching the JJ and Emily Show then?"
Reid hiked his thumb behind him and smiled at his friends. "I've got to get going, I'm going to be late. See you guys tomorrow."
"I think Pretty Boy just played us." Morgan said with a laugh once the other man was out of sight. He stepped away from Garcia's desk. "Well you ready to get this circus on the road?"
"Sure am." Penelope switched off the last of her monitors and stood up to follow him out into the hall. "Ooo, does this make me the ringmaster?" she pulled the door shut tightly behind her. "Or a lion tamer?" she grinned and arched an eyebrow at Morgan. "You can be the lion."
"The lion, huh?" Derek replied thoughtfully before looking over at her with an impish smile. "I don't know how I feel about that whip though."
Garcia rolled her eyes and pushed open the glass doors on their way toward the bullpen. "Wimp."