A/N: I do not own Criminal Minds!

Chapter 7

Maia grinned when the profiler started playing peek-a-boo. Nothing made Emily happier than being with the baby. She wasn't her child, and she knew that. But there was still hope that one day. One day, maybe, Maia could be hers. She caught the glance of Remi and smiled at her. This was what she wanted. A family.

Their short moment during an episode of Psych was interrupted when there was a short, curt, knock on the door. Emily got up, baby still in hands, and opened the door. All the blood drained from her face when she was met with a familiar face. One she definitely didn't want to see.

"Emily, you look well."

The agent gaped at the woman. "Mother… you're here. Why?"

The Ambassador snorted. "A mother needs a reason to see her only daughter? So, are you going to introduce me to this child? Please don't tell me that you had a child without telling me. I wasn't told by Erin of any child. Though, she was the one who informed me that you changed residences."

Emily rolled her eyes. She hated the subtle nasty remarks. "She's not my child. I'm just taking care of her. She's my foster child. I mean- she's my girlf- partners'- foster child. Mother, this is my partner, Remi Ramirez." She moved to the side so that her mother could see Remi from the door.

The professor jumped up awkwardly and approached the door. "I'm so sorry for being rude, Ms.- I mean… Ambassador Prentiss." She put her hand out for for the woman to shake. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Remi Ramirez."

Elizabeth Prentiss let out a short harrumph before shaking the woman's hand. "The pleasure is mine." She turned back to her daughter. "Are you going to invite me in, Emily? Or are we just going to continue standing here like a couple of barbarians? Do you have any refreshments?"

Emily didn't have any time to be flustered. She was used to this behavior. But Remi wasn't. Emily stepped aside and waved her hand in the direction of the inside of their apartment. Elizabeth stepped inside and took a look around the apartment.

"It's… quaint."

The profiler rolled her eyes and grimaced. "I'm going to put the baby in the crib. Remi, why don't you get my mother some scotch."

After watching the baby drift into sleep, Emily returned to the living room to find her mother and girlfriend staring at opposite directions in the room. She was frightened. This was nightmare worthy.

"So, mother," Emily said as she sat down next to Remi on the couch, opposite from her mother sitting on the chair. "What can I help you with? Why are you here?"

"Would you believe it if I said that I just wanted to see my daughter?" Elizabeth asked, staring intensely at her daughter.

The ambassador's daughter snorted. "No. Why are you here?"

"Can you believe that I was just catching up with an old friend, you might know her, Erin Strauss, and she asked me how you liked your new apartment? You could imagine my confusion, for I had no idea my daughter had moved in with another person whom I had never even heard of. A mother should be updated with her daughter's life decisions."

Emily was already fed up with her mother's passive aggressiveness. "You never give a damn about my life decisions. You only care when you are embarrassed that someone finds out how little you actually know about my life."

Elizabeth glared at her daughter as if she was disappointed. "Don't be so dramatic, dear. This was how you wanted it, you know it."

"Fine, mother. You're right. You're always right. So why else are you here? You're embarrassed and disappointed by me all the time and you don't come to see me. What is it?"

The Ambassador cleared her throat and looked at Remi as if she didn't think the girl deserved to know what she had to say.

Emily rolled her eyes and groaned. "Mother, just say it. Remi can stay."

The older woman twitched. "Fine. The renters of your father's lake house decided to stop renting. You need to decide if you want to sell it, continue renting it out to other people, or use it. You've been delaying this decision for too long now."

Emily blinked several times, not expecting this. "Oh. Uh… oh. Um… I'll think about it."

"You always say that dear. I can easily pay for someone to remove the furniture from the house and sell it. You don't even have to lift a finger."

"That's never been what this has been about!" Emily exclaimed angrily. "I'm not lazy, mother. It's just that…" She turned to her girlfriend and remembered that she was there. Remi looked confused. She returned her attention back to her mother. "I can't just sell it, mother. Please, just give me some time to think it through."

Elizabeth opened her mouth like she was going to refute, but she closed her mouth. "Okay. I have to get going, but it was good to see you again. I'm glad to see you are doing so well." She got up and Emily and Remi followed. She turned to Remi. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Ramirez. I hope you and Emily will indulge me and have dinner with me. Maybe you could come to our annual parties. Maybe this time you won't invite a team member, Emily."

The daughter tried to contain an eye roll. "Okay, mother. Bye, now." She opened the door and her mother exited, without a hug or a goodbye. She closed the door and stared at the once open space. Her mother always had this effect. Especially with the reference to her father.

"Em? Darling, are you alright?" She placed her hand on Emily's back. She knew something was wrong, she just didn't know how to help.

Emily looked back at her girlfriend with a haunted stare. She looked gaunt and fragile. Very different than the normal Emily Prentiss.

"I have to go," Emily whispered, her body still frozen. "I can't be here."

"Okay, we'll go somewhere. Where do you want to go?"

The profile frowned at her girlfriend. "I have to go alone. I'm going to the bar." She finally started walking toward the door. "I'll be back soon."

"I—" She shut her mouth, not knowing what to say or how to get Emily to stay. "Alright. Come back soon, darling."

Emily didn't respond. One foot out the door and she already knew what she was in for. A night she wouldn't remember the next day. She was going to get wasted. Like she did when she was a teenager and tried to not give a fuck.

"One more," Emily slurred as she motioned her fingers to the bartender. She was drunker than she had been since college. She forgot how it felt like to not feel anything. She missed it, even though she knew how much damage it caused her.

The bartender raised an eyebrow at the drunk woman. "Ma'am, I'd not have another drink. It's unsafe—"

"I'm paying you, aren't I? God, I remember the old days when bartenders would try to feed you so much alcohol that… that… that alcohol poisoning was a guarantee." She laughed at her own statement. She hiccuped and smiled at him flirtatiously. "Oh, come on, baby. I can hold my alcohol. I can hold a lot of things."

The bartender didn't get a chance to reply to her risqué claim. He noticed the blonde standing behind Emily and pointed to her.

Emily wobbled around to find JJ staring at her.

"Really, Emily? Propositioning bartenders, now? How much have you drank?"

The profiler shrugged. "Not m— wha— what are you… you doing here?"

The liaison glared at her. "You called me, Em. You said, and I quote, 'Get your sexy ass over here, I need to tell you something.' What is it? Why couldn't you have called Remi to pick you up? You remember her? Your girlfriend?"

Emily frowned. "You're mad at me…"

"I am!" JJ exclaimed, agitated. "It's almost ten o'clock, it's my night off, and you drunk called me so that you could tell me some half-ass thing. I only came because I'm worried. But if you're fine—"

"Mommy yelled at me today," Emily murmured, looking down at the empty glass in front of her. "She just wanted to know if I wanted daddy's money."

JJ didn't understand what that meant at all, but she finally understood that something was really wrong. She sat down next to the brunette and grabbed her hand, trying to get more information out of her. "Your mother came to your place today?" At Emily's nod, she added, "Did she yell at you for being in a relationship with… with a woman?"

Emily shook her head. "She knows I'm gay!" She let out a laugh. "She caught me fucking a girl when I was eighteen. She just told me to hide it and left it at that. She's just happy I haven't married a woman. She'll draw the line at that."

Jj's eyes softened. She was no longer angry with her friend. "Oh, Em. I'm sorry. So what's the problem?"

"She wants me to figure out… out what I want to do with the lake house."

"What lake house?" JJ asked her.

"Dad's. I've never been. I got it in the will. I just rent it out, but the people who've been renting it doesn't want to anymore. Mother wants me to sell it."

JJ finally started seeing what was going on. "Do you want to sell it?"

"It's all I have of his. He never had material things. Didn't want to cling to anything for when he died. Always a good planner. His death was well planned." She turned to look at JJ, who understood what she meant by that. "I didn't say that." She furrowed her eyebrows and rubbed her eyes. "Hey, you're getting fuzzy."

JJ jumped up as Emily passed out in the blonde's arms. She pulled her up so that she could take her to her car. She drove to Emily's apartment. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door, holding Emily upright. The door opened.

"Thank you so much," Remi told her as she tucked the brunette agent into bed. "For bringing her here."

"She would have asked you," JJ lied, trying to comfort the professor who stared at Emily with worry. "But she didn't want you to have to leave Maia. She didn't want Maia to see her like this."

Remi smiled gently at the blonde. "I appreciate the thought, JJ. But I know that's a lie. Honestly, I'd be the last person she would call. She doesn't want me to see her. Every part of her."

JJ bit her lip, not knowing how to reply to that. "She's just very hidden."

"You mean secretive. And mysterious. I know. And I'm trying to give her space so she can tell me things, but I'm getting impatient. I don't know her."

"Yes you do," JJ argued. "You know what kind of person she is. You know her likes and dislikes. You know how she feels about you. She just has trouble explaining her past. That's just how it is with the BAU. You can't take it—"

"Personally," Remi finished. "Yeah, I know. Sometimes I think that only you all are capable of loving each other. I mean you're already a family. You save each other's lives. I know I can't acquaint with what you all have. But I had hoped that by now that Emily would trust me."

"She does! I know she does."

Remi shook her head. "She may love me. But she doesn't trust me. That's why she didn't call me. Because that's what you have that I'll never have or I'll spend all my time trying to have. Her trust."

JJ was speechless. "What do you want me to say?"

Remi chuckled as she took a sleeping Emily's hand. "Nothing, JJ. Nothing. Thank you for bringing her. I'll tell her you said goodnight."

The blonde nodded, knowing she was no longer welcome. She opened the door and turned around, facing Remi. "I know you think that she doesn't see you the way that you do. But she does. She's just afraid. That's all."

"But that's just the thing, JJ. She's not afraid of you."

Ouch. Poor Remi. She's starting to realize that there are troubles in paradise. Poor Em. She needs some help, don't you think?

Thank you all for reading! Reviews are welcome and appreciated! XX