WARNING: 'Lauren' spoilers.
Summary: JJ was the only person who really and truly knew the woman who lay beneath all the false identities.
A/N: The thought that came to mind was 'Who is Emily, really?' and I started to consider the idea that Emily Prentiss was also a false identity. This story is from JJ's POV and is set directly at the end of 'Lauren'. Please R&R!
"I love you."
The words slipped through Emily's lips as her eyes bore into her lover's for the last time. JJ fought back the urge to cry as she handed over the documents which contained Emily's new identity. She'd had enough of tears – there had been too many of those at the hospital and she wasn't even technically grieving.
However, the guilt of what she'd had to do had torn her apart as she'd looked into the eyes of each of her former team members and told them that Emily Prentiss was dead. It seemed sick to cause these people, her closest friends – family even – so much pain when in reality Emily was still alive.
Then again she supposed she was the only one who really knew Emily. Prentiss wasn't even her real last name, it was just the new identity she'd taken on once she was done with Lauren Reynolds. The Ambassador had been happy to cooperate and play the role of the mother who didn't get along with her daughter in order to complete her back story of a political upbringing.
Her real name was Watson. Emmeline Watson. She was known as this by JJ alone, but even she'd gotten into the habit of calling her Emily, so as not to blow her cover.
No wonder Emily was so private. Her life had been complicated from the start.
Much earlier on in her life she'd worked a case for Interpol which had been so dangerous that she'd been forced to shed her identity in order for her protection. JJ knew this because she'd worked the same case, before she'd joined the BAU, only she'd worked it from the outside so there was no need for her to flee in the same way. Shortly after, JJ left for the BAU and Emily joined a few years later, after Ian Doyle.
Now they were forced to part again and Emily was beginning yet another life with her fourth identity. Wherever she went there was not a soul who would get to know her for who she truly was. She'd gotten in far too deep for that. With so many groups of people now after her, it would be impossible for her to ever settle down and just be herself.
JJ's heart broke for her.
There would be no going on dates and getting married and having kids. There would be no close friends to tell about her past or to confide in. There would be no room to have a casual conversation and remark about how someone she once knew said exactly the same thing because she had to keep her cover lest she be killed. There would be no freedom for Emily to really and truly live her life the way she wanted to.
The bad guys had dictated her path for her.
It wasn't fair.
For all the good she had done in the world, Emily had to suffer for it.
JJ badly wished that she could go with Emily this time, but she knew too well that she couldn't. Her presence could mean Emily's actual demise, and she'd rather the woman was alive, even if it meant never seeing her again. Perhaps, as she'd looked into the faces of her colleagues and broken the devastating news, she'd been grieving in her own way. Her tears mourned that she, too, would never see the love of her life again – that she'd even been the very person to send her off into her new start and lie to the rest of the world about it.
Maybe the team didn't know her so well either.
"I love you too, Emmeline."