Chapter 24:

"You want to know something?" Emily broke the silence with an almost amused voice.

"Hmm.. Sure."

"Three years ago I felt my life fall apart. I had just found my girlfriend cheating on me, in my bed, and I had just quit my job. I was staying at my mom's place in D.C. for awhile. One day I decided to explore Virginia, so I drove around until I found a park. I walked through the park, it was a Sunday and for once, the weather was nice.

So there I was, Emily Prentiss, sitting on a park bench, thinking about how beautiful the park was. Then out of no where this beautiful woman comes over to the bench and says:

"It's beautiful here. Do you mind if I sit?" When I didn't object she sat down. And for the next two hours all the crap in the world disappeared. It was like in kindergarden when you meet someone and you instantly like them and play with them, without knowing a single thing about them. So we sat there and chatted about normal things, like weather and politics.

The girl in the park made me see that there was more to life than I thought, and that following Monday I enrolled on the FBI academy."

JJ looked up at Emily. Her expression was shocked, but she tried to hold back a laugh.

"It was you?" Emily nodded.

"But you were a red-head!"

"I know! Not a smart choice. My ex-girlfriend, Joanne, thought it looked good." Emily shrugged her shoulders. To say that JJ was shocked was a mild underestimation.

"But, why didn't you tell me when you joined the team?"

"Darling, I wasn't the only one who changed! Your hair wasn't sandy blond, it was more light brown-ish. And you was a breath of fresh air in a difficult time for me. So after a week I couldn't remember exactly what you looked like."

"I guess you're right. I did think about you, though."

"Yeah? I did too. I even went back to the park a couple of Sundays, but you were never there."

"I know. After I teamed up with our team we caught case after case. And with me being new, there was a lot to learn."

"Well, I do prefer to get to know you the way I did. Even though I always wished I could thank you for what you did for me." Emily smiled down at the younger blonde.

As the two of them sat together on the couch, a plan began to form in Emily's head.

"Emily, where are you taking me?" JJ was a little annoyed. After getting dressed, Emily had dragged her out of the house in placed her in her car. Then she had blindfolded her, before moving back and forth between the house and the car. Now they had been driving for 10 minutes and the brunette would still not tell her where they were going or what she was doing.

"Patience my darling!" Emily couldn't hide the amusement in her voice. She turned on the radio and hummed along with some 80's pop song.

"Emily!" JJ whined, but she was only answered with a light chuckle. When the car stopped, Emily instructed JJ to sit and wait for her. JJ heard Emily exit the car, before popping the truck open. Then the brunette came over to the blonde's side of the car and opened the door.

"M'lady" Emily said as she tok JJ's hand. JJ got out of the car and let Emily lead her to wherever they were going.

They didn't walk for long, before Emily carefully pushed JJ down to sit on something.

"Okay, I'm gonna remove the blindfold now. Please don't kill me!" Emily removed the blindfold and JJ tok a moment to let her eyes adjust to the light.

"Emily, you brought me to our bench!" JJ's face lit up as she tok in her surroundings. They were back in the park, on the bench, where the two of them had met three years ago.

"You hungry, Jay?" Emily asked. Before JJ could answer, her stomach answered for her. The two of them laughed as Emily pulled out two sandwiches and two salads.

"Thank you Emily! When did you have time for all of this?"

"I was going to take you out on a picnic for our date yesterday, so the food was already in a cooler in the fridge."

The two of them ate their lunch in comfortable silence while chatted about various things. When they had finished their lunch they went for a walk around the park. JJ reached for Emily's hand, and the older woman smiled and intertwined their fingers together.

When they sat in the car, Emily's phone buzzed. She pulled it out and looked at the caller iD.

"It's Garcia, so if I don't answer, she'll keep calling." Emily winked and brought her phone up to her ear.

"This is Emily Prentiss, awesome itself speaking, how may I help you?" JJ couldn't help but admire the brunette. She remembered when Emily first joined their team. How shy and insecure she was. The way Emily had grown as a person was amazing.

"Hi Princess Awesome. This is THE goddess calling! Do you have my fairy queen with you?"

"You're fairy queen? Don't think so. But JJ's here. I'll put you on speaker." Emily smirked and placed her phone on the dashboard.

"Hello my loveliest! How are you this beautiful Saturday?"

"Hi Garcia. I'm good. What's up?"

"The boys and I are going out for drinks tonight. You guys should come too." Emily turned to JJ and looked at her.

"Do you want to go?" she mouthed to the blonde, letting her know it was up to her.

"Yeah, Garcia, we're game!" JJ answered with a smile.

"Great! I'll see you around 9 at the usual place! I must go and be fantastic now! See you later, ladies."

9:15 that evening Emily and JJ walked hand in hand into the bar.

"JJ! Prentiss!" They turned their heads at the sound of someone calling their names and saw Garcia, Morgan, Rossi, Hotch and Haley.

"Go on, Jay. I'll go get us drinks. Beer okay?" JJ nodded and made her way over to their friends.

"Hi guys! Where's Reid? I thought you all were coming!"

"Oh, Reid is here!" Morgan grinned his wolf smile. "He's over there on the phone with Dr. Draper!" The tall man gestured to an area where JJ saw Reid. The young man was holding his phone to his ear with a huge smile on his face.

"No way!"

"Are you jealous JJ?" Garcia teased. "You should've taken your chance when you had it!"

The friends laughed as Emily walked over with their drinks. She was quickly brought up to speed with the Reid situation and smiled.

"Aaww...! Looks like all the hot women want's the nerds these days!" She said, winking to JJ. JJ blushed and covered her face.

"What? Are you two!" Morgan looked from the smirking Emily to the blushing JJ. JJ lifted her head and tok Emily's hand.

"Yeah. Or we're nothing yet, but we're trying it out." The two of them got lost in each others eyes.

The rest of the evening the team spent with light conversations, drinking and dancing. JJ even played a round of darts, kicking some cocky man's ass when she totally crushed him.