A/N: I do not own Criminal Minds! (Don't hate on me, y'all)

Chapter 13

The next flight to Atlanta was in a few hours so Emily spent the next few hours reading 1984 for the millionth time. Her flight was shorter than the amount of time she wasted at the airport. So when she actually arrived in the city, the team had already gone to a hotel for a night's rest. Morgan told her that she had to share a room with JJ due to not being enough rooms. Though, Emily doubted that. She guessed that Penelope had something to do with the situation.

She knocked lightly on the hotel door just in case that JJ was still asleep. But apparently, she wasn't. Only after one knock, the door opened and the blonde pulled her into the room and in her arms.

"Oh, Em, how are you doing?" JJ asked as she held her tightly, trying to be a source of comfort for the woman.

"I'm fine," Emily told her as she let go of the liaison's arms. When she noticed that JJ looked at her with disbelief, she added, "I'm serious, Jen. I'm okay. We ended things amicably. She's happy leaving and I'm happy staying. Everything is how it should be." Emily walked into the room and placed her stuff next to the one twin size bed.

Even though JJ still wasn't sure if she should believe her friend, she said, "Well, we were all worried about you. Hotch would have given you the case off if you had wanted it. He knows what it is like to end a serious relationship. Hell, we all know what it's like. It's just part of the job, unfortunately."

Emily nodded as she sat on the corner of the bed, awkwardly. "The job really wasn't the reason why we ended, though. We just… couldn't make it work, no matter how much we wanted to."

JJ nodded and sat down next to her, a good foot in between them, and replied, "Did you… er… tell her about Rome?"

The profiler shook her head. "No. I didn't- She didn't need to know about that. I don't know, it wasn't necessary. There wasn't a good time to tell her in between the whole 'breaking up' thing. And I didn't want her to feel bad about what happened with Maia. It was already too much to handle."

"I'm sorry that you had to hold that in for so long. I wish… I wish you could have told me earlier. I feel that way with you about my sister. I wish I talked about her earlier with you. She's an important part of me that not many people get to know about."

Emily looked into the blue eyes and whispered, "I don't let people in. That's why it ended. Our relationship that is. I just… I don't get to know people long enough for them to care enough to know things about me. I'm not used to having…"

"People care about you?" JJ finished for her. Once she saw the brunette's slow nod. "Oh, Em. I understand that. I never let anyone in after my sister died. She was my best friend. When she died, I felt like a part of me died."

Emily understood what she had meant by that. "When my dad died, my mother didn't let me mourn. She told me to hold it in. She told me to let it go. That's when I learned how to put my feelings and memories into boxes. Every single traumatic moment lives in a little box inside of my head. The walls are tall and it's hard for me to remove them. And then sometimes… they come out without me meaning them to. That's… that's when I used to take the sleeping pills. They'd help me forget and numb everything."

"Did your friend's murder bring back old memories?" JJ asked with curiosity.

Emily nodded and bit her lip, trying to hold in the intense feelings she had had since Matthew had been murdered. "I don't want them, though. I've been able to put them back into boxes, and Remi being there for me helped, but they are pulling me towards an edge. I mean I'm happy, I am. I know I made the right decision about Remi. But I can't keep holding everything in there." The profiler tried to hide her face from the blonde by laying down onto the bed.

JJ wanted her to know that she was there for her and she laid down next to her. "Have you ever thought that maybe you don't have to compartmentalize all the time now and that's why the memories are coming back? Maybe deep down, you know that you don't have to hold it in."

The brunette considered the blonde's point. "But compartmentalizing is what makes me so good at my job."

JJ shook her and cupped Emily's face. "Oh, Em, no. You being able to compartmentalize has only been for your benefit. But that doesn't make you good at your job. What makes you good at your job is how you to want to save people and the unwavering and unselfish kindness that you have for people. Em, you being able to put things in boxes helps you sleep at night, but it doesn't save all the people that you have saved with your bravery and courage. Not compartmentalizing, feeling, that's what makes you human. That's what makes you want to be alive."

Emily's lips quivered as her eyes watered at the brink of tears. "I don't know how to not live in my own head. I don't know what it's like to be myself."

JJ's heart broke for the woman in front of her. "Em, I think you are going to like who you are on the inside. I know that I do."

"But you d-don't know me. My past. What I have done."

"I don't need to, Emmy. I know who you are. Your past isn't who you are." JJ whispered closely to the woman.

At JJ's use of the nickname that her father had once used for her, she started to sob. She knew that JJ didn't know that "Emmy" was the name her father called her. Emily let the blonde wrap her arms around her. She let herself truly be comforted. She let herself be the real Emily. For the first time since she was a kid, for the first time since she had learned how to compartmentalize, she was truly herself.

Emily woke up early in the woman's arms. The blonde was still sleeping (and snoring) when she took a deep breath. For the first time since she could remember, she didn't dream about anything that night. She woke up refreshed like there wasn't a weight pressing on her.

She breathed in JJ's scent and she couldn't help but feel a little intoxicated. Last night, she let JJ in. Last night, she let herself be loved. And she couldn't feel better. She knew that it was a long shot with JJ. But she no longer minded loving her. All she knew was that she felt healthier, stronger, and happier in the blonde's arms. Even if all it could ever be was platonic.

The brunette felt the blonde stir and she said, "Hey there, sleepyhead. I'm guessing that it is time to wake up. I'm surprised the team hasn't come to get us."

"Well," JJ muttered before she yawned and opened her eyes. "I think they knew that we needed some alone time. They know that you are going through something. They just want you to be okay."

"I feel okay," Emily admitted before pulling apart from JJ's limbs and getting up. "I didn't have any nightmares and I feel clearer. I mean, I felt better after ending the relationship with Remi, but now… I don't know. I feel more like me."

JJ grinned at her friend and said, "I'm so glad, Em. Nothing makes me happier to know that you are feeling better. But you are right. We should probably head to the police station. Are you ready to go to work?"

"Hell yeah."

"I always felt better after getting divorced," Rossi told Emily on the way back to DC. He laughed when he saw the horror on the rest of the team's faces.

"Thanks for that comforting statement," Emily responded to him sarcastically as she rolled his eyes. She turned to the rest of the team and said, "I promise you guys, I'm doing okay. Better. Just ask JJ."

The profilers all turned to the blonde liaison. She nodded and said, "She's not lying, guys. We talked. She sounds good. She sounds like herself."

"See!" Emily cried out playfully as she received smiles from the team. "In fact, I think I'm going to host a game night. You are all invited. I will have to tell Garcia when we land. I'm thinking Friday?"

"If we don't have a case," Hotch replied, looking happy that his subordinate looked better. "I think that sounds like a great idea."

"Thank you so much, Emily!" Spencer cheered as they got out of the movie theater. "You were right about Untouchables. It was pretty good."

"See! Now you believe me. Next up, we have to watch Counterfeiters," Emily promised him as she held onto his arm as they walked down the cold streets of DC. "It's a foreign film! And I know you love your foreign films!"

"That I do!" Spencer agreed happily. "Will it make me cry?"

"It's a holocaust film, so… yes."

Reid nodded, taking her suggestion into consideration. "When are we going to watch a movie that I pick?"

Emily snorted as if he said something preposterous. "Who do you think you are? An equal member in this friendship?"

"Oh, haha. Just drive me home."

She laughed at his pretend annoyance. "Alrighty, let's go, Reid. I have a glass of wine to go home to."

"Yeah, don't want to be around for that."

The second that Emily walked into her large apartment, her phone rang. The one word that came to her mind was, "Typical."

She answered the phone by saying, "Emily Prentiss."

She heard a crackling sound and the noise of a glass clinking. "You whore."

Emily raised her eyebrows. Not only did she not recall whose voice was on the phone, the comment was a little discerning. "Excuse me? Who are you?"

She heard the man on the phone chuckle. "Who am I? Well, Bitch. I certainly know you. You stole my woman."

"Who the hell-" She stopped talking once she realized that the voice was familiar. "Shit- Will? Why are you calling me?" She put the phone on speaker and took her recording device out to tape his words. If he ever wanted to have a relationship with his son, Emily was going to do what she could to make sure that he wouldn't see Henry or JJ ever again.

"JJ was mine, woman. All mine. I had her wrapped around my f-finger. I'd make sure she would stay. I wanted that piece of ass to stay with me forever. And my p-plan even worked! That ditz got pregnant! And she still chose you!"

Emily was speechless. She could tell the southern man was drunk. But he could still be telling her the truth. "I am an FBI agent, Will. I can end your career with a phone call. I suggest you hang up and never talk to me or JJ ever again."

He laughed and hiccuped. "How the hell could I have known that the beauty queen was a dyke? How the hell was I supposed to know when I propose, she would admit to me that she's in love with you? How was I supposed to know that she wouldn't want to marry the father of her child and be with a woman?"

"Will-"

"How the fuck could she choose you over me? How could she love you?"

Emily hung up the phone and stared at it. Her hands were shaking. She stopped the tape recorder and she fell to her knees. She was horrified and confused. She couldn't handle having so many unanswered questions.

She grabbed her phone and stood up, her legs still wobbly. She walked to her door and picked up her keys. She felt so lost. She needed answers. She needed to be found.

She knocked on the door rapidly and loudly until the door opened.

JJ, holding Henry, was startled by the sight of Emily looking so ghostly. She didn't even have the chance to tell her to come in, Emily walked right in through.

"Emily, what's—"

"I just ended a call with Will." Emily waited for a reaction.

JJ gaped at her. Her skin paled and her heart dropped. She suddenly couldn't look her friend in the eye. Her voice cracked when she said, "What did he say?"

Emily paced around the room. "He said something about him asking you to marry him and then you told him that you loved me? Please tell me that he's lying."

JJ's lips quivered as tears bubbled up her eyes. She slowly walked over to Emily and sat down in the nearest seat. She stared off into nothing and shook her head.

"Why? Why would you tell him something like that? Did you want him to leave you?" Emily asked, not understanding the blonde's motive for what she had said.

Tears ran down her cheeks. She looked empty and hopeless. "I couldn't marry a man when I was in love with someone else."

"Then why didn't you tell him you were in love with that person instead of lying and telling him you loved me?" Emily asked agitatedly. But her question was answered when she saw the blonde's head turn to look at her. Emily gasped. "I didn't— why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know until it was too late. You were happy with Remi, I couldn't ruin that," JJ explained sadly, watching her son sleep in her arms.

Emily's face became less dark. She was no longer angry. She was just… she couldn't believe what the blonde was telling her. "But you like men."

"I do," JJ breathes out, trying to stay in control as she felt Emily approach her. She watched as the brunette sat down next to her and look at her with such lovely eyes. "But then came you. I didn't know that I was attracted to women before you. But I know what I feel for you. I've been feeling it for a long time."

Emily blinked at her. JJ was everything she ever wanted and she was an inch away. Her eyes softened. She delicately presses her hand on JJ's cheek. "I didn't think you could ever love me."

"Funny," JJ replied, her blue eyes drowning in the dark ones. "I thought I could never deserve you."

Emily lost all control. One second she was staring at the liaison and the next, she was kissing her. Her lips pressed on hers. Tasting her. Loving her. It was new and passionate. And better than anything they could have ever imagined.

They only pulled apart when they heard Henry coo. They laughed and looked at the curious baby, who looked fascinated by the two women kissing.

"I think Henry approves," JJ joked lightly, looking from her son to her lover.

"I hope he does, I'm kissing his mother," Emily responded, looking into the blue eyes of the baby.

The blonde nodded and whispered, "This feels right to me. The three of us. Like it was meant to be."

Emily looked up into the hopeful eyes of her colleague and said, "You don't think we are rushing it? Especially after Remi just left?"

JJ shrugged as if it was meaningless. "I think we have waited long enough, don't you think?"

Emily smiled and nodded. She leaned in and kissed her again. When the baby made more noises, she muttered, "Maybe we should put Henry in his crib and we can talk about this."

JJ nodded in agreement. "We have a lot to talk about."

Lots of Jemily in this chapter! They are finally together! I know it probably seems too soon, but I wanted them together and happy so bad. I love em so much.

Will's an ass. Sorry about him. But don't worry, there is no more him in my story. And to all the fans who like him... sorry. I hate saying Dyke, but I thought it was important to his character.

Thanks for reading and reviews are welcome and appreciated! XX