Five months later…

Prentiss whimpered in her sleep, struggling slightly against the now-tangled sheets. JJ woke up when the dark-haired girl started talking. "I don't…stop! I don't want this!" The blond touched her face. It was wet. They had been curled up next to each other in Prentiss's bed. Her nightmares had begun about two months before this, but she hadn't told JJ about them until one night the previous week when she had one when they were sleeping together.

"Em," JJ said quietly, wiping her partner's tears off her cheeks. Prentiss probably didn't even realize she was crying. "Wake up."

The dark-haired girl's whole body went tense, and the dim moonlight glinted off her terrified eyes. "Did I…oh, it's you, JJ. Please, turn on the light," she whispered.

The blond clicked the lamp on the nightstand on. Prentiss threw back the sheets, rolling up her sleeves, then her pant legs, and anxiously patted her body down. She sighed.

"I didn't…do it, did I? Am I bleeding?"

JJ's eyes flicked over her. "No, you're okay, I promise. It was just another bad dream."

Prentiss was so panicked she was almost gasping for air, and the blond could feel her shaking, her heart beating rapidly.

"It's okay. Just breathe, all right? Remember what you did in counseling not too long ago? Relaxation strategies? When you start to feel like this, remember, you're supposed to breathe in for four seconds, or as long as you can, then out for four. Just try," JJ coached.

It took several minutes after they lay down again, but Prentiss's breathing eventually slowed, then became more even, less deliberate. She'd fallen back asleep.

These nightmares had been happening two, sometimes three, times a week. Although Prentiss's brain had been able to somewhat readjust itself in the first few months without cutting, now that it was no longer influenced as much by the endorphin and opiate "high" doing that produced, the psychological cravings remained. Dr. Lake had explained that, unfortunately, she would probably never be completely free of the urge to cut herself, though by learning to manage it, she could live "normally." Whatever "normal" was. And right now, those cravings were manifesting themselves subconsciously, through Prentiss's dreams.

One thing was clear; Prentiss was trying, more so than she had done with anything else in her life before, to stop. What she had done filled her with regret every day, and she was almost terrified that she might one day start again. Hence the nightmares. In them, she would hurt herself quite badly- there would be so much blood she'd feel like she was drowning, and she would have to turn on the lights when she woke up and check that she was uninjured. They were that real.

She was learning, though, and knew this pain wouldn't last forever. She had hope.

One year after that….

Prentiss and JJ threw their graduation caps in the air as the school band creaked out "Pomp and Circumstance," sweating in their polyester uniforms. Prentiss had gotten into law school, and JJ into graduate school, on the same university campus in a large city three hours away. They would live together. One thing was certain about their future in the face of all the uncertainty; they would stand by each other.

Prentiss knelt down as they shared a quiet moment together, looking around their undergraduate campus one last time later that day. "JJ, will you marry me? I know we made a promise to each other…but now I want to get engaged."

JJ, of course, agreed.

Five years after that…

Garcia was crying in the first row of chairs that stood before the altar and the white wood arch covered in orange tiger lilies and white roses. Reid was wiping his eyes, and even the macho Morgan and Hotchner looked moved.

JJ had walked down the aisle first, and now it was Prentiss's turn. They were wearing matching white strapless dresses with small veils. And their friends were so moved not because they were sad, but because of Prentiss's strength and happiness. One could still see her scars; Prentiss had refused makeup to cover them. She actually had grown to like them, as they showed how far she'd come. But they were completely outshone by her smile. She was almost literally glowing, a warm silvery light emanating from her very self, a light that shimmered over and enhanced the beauty of not only her, but everyone around her. And next to that, her mistakes, her pain, could hold no more power.