Author's Note: I have the feeling that I'm going to get a lot of angry reviews once people have read this chapter. But don't worry, he won't be around for long. Maybe. Happy reading. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.

LET'S PLAY PRETEND

4 Days Ago

On the flight home from their most recent case, JJ and Emily sat in silence in separate areas of the plane. It had been a particularly tough case, and all they craved was each other, but being in the presence of their co-workers, they kept their distance and awaited the end of their journey home - knowing that they didn't have the energy to consciously keep up the purely platonic pretence, hoping that sitting apart wouldn't strike their colleagues as odd.

Luckily, the case seemed to have taken it's toll on everyone, and no one bothered to question Emily and JJ's silence and distance - they were too busy lost in their own rituals, trying to escape their own minds as they were slowly plagued with images of all that they'd seen over the previous three days. It never got easier, there was never a point where they became used to seeing tortured victims or stolen innocence. Never. So they took any moment of respite that they could get, however brief that may be.

As the two agents said their goodbyes to their friends and headed to the bullpen to pick up some of their belongings, it was JJ who spoke up first and asked the question that Emily was expecting. The question that she needed so desperately and yet, at the same time, was hoping wouldn't come. She couldn't pretend tonight; not after the days that they'd had.

"My place tonight?" It had become such a normal occurrence that JJ knew there was no need for formalities, no need to pretend that their meetings were anything but what they were; even if there was a slight bitterness in her chest over the prospect of simply being Emily's toy.

"I thought you'd never ask." Emily faked a smile, already planning which methods she would use tonight to keep unwelcome admissions from accidentally falling from her lips as JJ played her like an instrument.

It was always more difficult during her own orgasms to keep her thoughts at bay. Of course, it was difficult during every moment, but those in particular these days seemed to be almost unbearable. Even as that state of bliss became so within reach as JJ lapped at her sensitive clit or thrust purposely inside her, she still found herself fighting, afraid that she didn't have the strength to ignore the overwhelming admissions that threatened to explode along with her climax. But JJ was nothing if not skilled, and she could never hold off for long. Whilst knowing that, along with the days that she had had, did she really have the strength to fight it tonight?

"Great." JJ smiled just as her phone rang.

Emily watched JJ pull out her phone and answer with her surname, and purposely turned to head to her desk with a heavy heart as the blonde's face lit up and one word fell from her damn perfect lips.

"Will?"

As she reached her desk, she couldn't help but look back to JJ; the look on the blonde's face something that she didn't recognise but it shattered her heart nonetheless, even more so than the silent words, I'll be right back, that JJ mouthed right before disappearing into her office with a sudden skip in her step.

Though it could of only been minutes, it seemed like hours to Emily as she waited for JJ to return, her mind racing enough to leave her wholly angry at herself. This is sex, Prentiss. Nothing more, and you know that. You knew it all along and you chose to ignore it, so now you have no right in criticising what she does and who she does it with.

When she heard JJ's office door reopen, Emily subtly grabbed the nearest file from her desk and pretended to be busy; and when JJ finally approached her, it took all of her strength to swallow down her jealousy and refrain from asking too many questions, but instead casually smile like nothing was out of the ordinary as she peaked up from the document that she hadn't even read one line of.

"Sorry about that." JJ offered, unsure as to what to expect from the brunette; unsure of what the etiquette of having no-strings sex with someone was, unsure if the idea of Will had even fazed Emily. A part of her was sure that it had, but the small glimmer of jealousy that she'd seen in brown eyes had disappeared no sooner than it had appeared and now she genuinely didn't know.

"It's fine." Emily replied, more harsh than her conscious mind had intended or expected, and she became suddenly aware that if she kept that up, JJ would know how jealous she actually was at just the mention of that damn detective's name.

Emily had met Will just as JJ had on a case, and knew from the blonde's admission that they had dated. He seemed like a fairly decent guy, but her jealousy simply wouldn't allow her to admit this. In her mind, she'd created him as a monster and that was immediately added to the pile of reasons to hate herself. It couldn't possibly be true what they say - that if you genuinely love someone, all you want is their happiness even if it isn't with you - because right in this moment she was more than painfully aware that she was completely in love with JJ, just as she was more than painfully sure that the prospect of JJ being happy with someone other than her twisted her stomach in knots until she was sure it would burst. She wanted JJ to be happy with her; she wanted to be the reason for the smile that she had seen twinkling in the blonde's eyes just minutes ago. But if that was so, perhaps she didn't actually love her at all; perhaps this was just lust. She was hopeful.

Forcing a smile before closing the file and standing, Emily walked towards JJ and, after checking that no one was around, she perched herself against the desk and pulled the blonde a little closer, her lips already ghosting across the sensitive skin of the blonde's neck. "So, what did he want?"

"He.." JJ hesitated, confused by Emily's reaction and somewhat lost to the lips that she couldn't help but remember were teasing her in a room full of cameras, and she reluctantly pushed away. "He wants to know if I wanna go for a drink tomorrow night. He's in town for a couple of days."

Emily's stomach clenched once more, both at the new revelation and the way in which JJ had pushed her away. Of course she understood why she had done that, and briefly scolded herself for not thinking rational, but her ability to think rationally had abandoned her the moment that she allowed Jennifer Jareau to seduce her into this fantasy that she wasn't even certain she wanted to be a part of anymore.

"Okay." She nodded with a forced smile before grabbing her go-bag. "So, you ready to go?"

JJ was hurt. She watched Emily for a second as it dawned on her that she didn't really seem bothered at all by the possibility of her with someone else, and a sudden anger and stubbornness washed through her. "I told him to pick me up at seven." She blurted out as she picked up her own bag from Emily's desk and headed towards the elevator. "Let's go."

Emily lagged behind for a second, fighting back the urge to throw up as graphic, taunting images of JJ and Will coursed through her mind. Shaking them off and storing them along with her feelings in the compartments of her brain, she caught up to the blonde agent.

It didn't take long for them to begin their usual ritual after they made it passed JJ's front door, but there was something different this time; something a little more carnal, desperate, forceful. Like they were searching for a release far greater than they had ever needed, an escape that lay just out of reach in a place that was dark and bottomless and threatening.

Emily was struggling to keep her thoughts at bay; it just wasn't working anymore. As every mental image that she thought she'd locked away came pouring out, she pushed herself against JJ with a little more force than usual, kissed her with a little more ferocity, and nipped unapologetically at delicate skin. She was flailing in this escape that had suddenly become a brutal reality check.

And if JJ wasn't so lost in her own anger, she may have noticed the change. But she was lost; her thighs parting eagerly as she resigned herself fully to the fact that she was simply Emily's toy, her actions encouraging the untypically rough brunette as she did the very same thing that she had on that first night and forced Emily's fingers where she needed them the most.

And if Emily wasn't drowning so badly in her own mind, she would have noticed the correlation too. But the movie reel in her mind was relentless. As Will ran his stubbly mouth over the blonde's neck, she bit there almost hard enough to draw blood; as eager, tan hands wondered south and stroked at Will's cock, she pinned those hands to the mattress; and as JJ parted her thighs for the detective and smirked with fake innocence at the make believe camera in her brain, she added a third finger and thrust with relentless abandon.

It wasn't make believe anymore. This was excruciating and so fucking real.