AN1: Sorry this took so long to post...work and writer's block delayed the update but it's here now. Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Emily glanced at the opening door and was surprised to see Garcia standing there. She looked to JJ and realized how they were standing. It wouldn't take a genius to know there was something more than friendship between them, since Emily was standing between JJ's legs and, now that she took a moment to notice, JJ's legs were slightly curled around her thighs. Emily looked to Garcia and saw that their friend didn't miss a thing, even as JJ uncurled her legs.

Emily tried to ignore the obvious and said, "Hey Garcia, what's up?"

Penelope Garcia needed all of one minute to realize that there was something going on between her two friends and she couldn't be happier for them. She'd been hoping they would stop dancing around their feelings for two weeks now and she saw they had. She grinned, "that seems to be my question Emily. What's up with you two?"

The knowing look on Garcia's face made JJ flush with embarrassment. She knew in that moment that her friend knew about her and Emily. Their cover was blown. JJ turned to Emily and whispered, "you ready for this?"

Emily just nodded, knowing this was unavoidable now.

JJ turned to Garcia, who had stepped closer to them. "Garcia, Emily and I are together...as of last night."

JJ waited for her friend to say something.

Garcia took in the confirmation of her suspicions and smiled as she walked closer and hugged them both. "I am so happy for you both! It's about time too I might add. When are you telling the others?"

"Not yet, we were hoping to keep this quiet for now." Emily said, hoping Garcia got the hint.

Garcia nodded, "gotcha. Well I'll keep quiet until you both are ready to tell them. But don't wait too long, life is easier when you can be open about who you're with." Garcia added, speaking from experience as she thought about her relationship with Derek and how, if the gang knew about them, they could be open around them and she wouldn't have to hear about any other girls who were crushing on her boyfriend.

Emily and JJ smiled, Emily wondered about Garcia's words about being open about who you were with and she suspected her blonde friend was speaking from experience but she would have to wait for another time to investigate.

JJ didn't think too much about Garcia's words beyond her promise to keep quiet about her relationship with Emily.

JJ and Emily thanked their friend and then they left the restroom, leaving Garcia to do what she'd originally gone in there to do.

Emily and JJ joined their friends and Emily grabbed the teddy bear that JJ had won for her. She hugged it close as she realized that her reaction to Jo Marlowe could've cost her, her blonde girlfriend.

After a few minutes, Garcia returned and the gang decided that it was time to leave the fair, the revelations about the Pack and knowing the other kids were still there had soured the day.

The gang got into their cars and this time, Emily placed the teddy bear between her and JJ in such a way that it blocked the view from the back seat. Alex and Olivia were soon lost in their own world again, taking comfort in each other as they allowed the specter of Jim Steele and Becca Hendrix to fade out their minds.

With the bear blocking the view, Emily reached out and laid her hand on the toy's left leg and waited patiently for JJ to notice. JJ saw the movement out of the corner of her eye and she glanced to her right. When she saw Emily's hand resting on the bear between them, she glanced in the rear view mirror and saw her friends were...occupied and so she lowered her right hand and placed it in Emily's hand, holding on in a loose grip. JJ smiled as she made contact with Emily.

Emily was suddenly really glad that JJ had won the teddy bear, it had made it possible for her to hold JJ's hand without risking Alex and Olivia seeing them.

The car ride was made in silence as Emily and JJ savored the contact.

JJ pulled up to Alex's house and Alex got out, followed by Olivia.

The gang hadn't made plans for the rest of the afternoon but they had agreed to meet up in the evening to go see a movie.

"JJ, can you pick us up here tonight?" Alex asked, wanting to make sure she wouldn't have to ask her dad for a ride again.

JJ just smiled, "Yeah no problem."

"Thanks JJ...see you later!"

"Later!"

JJ pulled away from Alex's house and glanced at Emily, "Alone at last...how ever will we pass the time until the movies?"

Emily grinned because she knew how she would've answered that if it had been anyone else asking. But this was Jennifer and she wanted to take things slow with her. It was the only way to build something that would last. So, instead, she asked, "is it too early for Cook's Cliff?"

JJ grinned, "not for our spot, no. No one knows about it or goes there so we could go there...if you want."

"Do you have anything you need to do?" Emily knew that JJ usually helped out at home.

JJ shook her head, "nope, mom gave me the whole day off. I am all yours."

"Then let's go to Cook's Cliff and, um...test that statement."

Without a word, JJ turned left at the next corner and headed for Cook's Cliff...trying not to think about all the things she wanted to do with Emily, at least not while she was driving.

JJ parked the car at their spot from the night before and turned off the engine. She took a moment to look around beyond the windshield. This was her favorite spot in the whole town and, until she'd met Emily, there hadn't been anyone she could picture herself bringing here. But now, it just felt right having Emily here with her...knowing that this would now forever be known as 'their place'.

While JJ was looking around, Emily carefully reached down and pulled the lever that allowed her seat to recline. She leaned back until she was almost completely horizontal. She then grabbed the bear between them and, after giving it a quick kiss on the nose to say 'thank you' for blocking the view from the backseat, Emily placed him on the backseat, facing away from them. She didn't know why but the thought of the stuffed toy watching them as she made out with her girlfriend kind of creeped Emily out.

JJ noticed Emily's actions and smiled, "comfy?"

Emily looked at her girlfriend and grinned, "not quite but I will be...if you come a little closer."

JJ looked at how Emily was reclined and she soon picked up on what Emily meant by 'a little closer'. JJ licked her lips and then shifted until she was straddling Emily, in the same position she was in last night. A few seconds of shifting around and soon they found a comfortable position and just relaxed.

Emily lifted her hands to JJ's waist and held the blonde girl close to her as she looked up from her reclined position. Emily smiled as she saw JJ leaning down.

Just before their lips made contact, JJ remembered their earlier conversation and stopped moving as she said, "you never answered my question."

Emily, her mind in a haze from the nearness of the blond goddess on her lap, had to take a few moments to focus on what JJ was saying, "huh? What question?"

JJ leaned back a bit before reminding her girlfriend, "I asked you earlier, before Garcia interrupted us, if you were still in love with your ex-girlfriend, Gina. You never answered me."

Emily thought back to their conversation in the restroom of the fair. She closed her eyes as she recalled the conversation, and the question and her own promise to never lie to JJ. She wondered how she could explain that while she'd thought she was in love with Gina, it was nothing compared to how she felt about JJ. Gina had been more of an infatuation than real love. Emily was well and truly over her infatuation with her ex-girlfriend but she knew that there was still something there if her reaction to seeing Jo (who looked a lot like Gina) was anything to go by. But how could she explain that to Jennifer?

JJ waited as Emily thought of her answer. She felt that Emily was starting to take too long to think about her answer which, JJ thought, meant she was coming up with a lie. JJ didn't want to think like that and she really didn't want to be the kind of person who couldn't or didn't trust her girlfriend but, she didn't know how she'd react if Emily lied to her...or worse, told her she was still in love with her ex.

Emily noticed the worried look in her girlfriend's eyes and realized she'd been silent too long. Emily lifted her hand and cupped JJ's cheek as she spoke to her, trying to explain, "Jennifer, I can say with absolute confidence that I am not in love with Gina. I honestly don't think I was ever in love with her." Emily saw JJ's confusion and hurried to explain, knowing she was going to have come clean about everything in order for JJ to understand. "Jen, Gina was older than me by two years. I was more infatuated with her than in love with her. She knew how I felt and she used my infatuation to get me to do things that I knew were wrong but I did them anyway because I thought I loved her. She's actually part of the reason why I'm not with my mother in Italy right now."

Emily stopped then, not sure if she was ready to tell JJ about what she'd done but knowing that she was going to have to suck it up and tell her.

JJ listened to what Emily told her and her curiosity got the better of her, despite how obvious it was that this was a sore subject for the dark haired girl, and she asked, "what do you mean? What did she make you do?"

Emily misunderstood the tone in JJ's voice and thought that JJ was thinking something worse than what she'd actually done. Emily took a breath and sighed as she resigned herself to telling Jennifer everything...she just hoped it wouldn't drive the pretty blond away.

"Let me say first that, it wasn't anything sexual." Emily leaned her head back, avoiding eye contact with JJ as she told her the rest. "Gina had a group of friends, and her twin brother, who ran a little wild. They were the typical wrong crowd that you hear about. I was hooked from the moment I saw Gina and, like I said, I would do anything for her because I thought I loved her...and that she loved me. We dated for about three months and it was fine until...the week after Gina's 17th birthday. Her friends had convinced her to join them in robbing a bank. Apparently, one of her friends needed the money to get his father's car fixed before daddy dearest came home from a business trip. She agreed right away, since all they wanted her to do was be the lookout...at first. She managed to convince me to join her as lookout. I agreed, thinking it was so exciting and daring. The day of the robbery though, one of the guys got the flu and couldn't make it so Gina stepped into his role and I was lookout on my own." Emily paused a moment to breathe. She hated looking back on this dark moment in her past. "anyway, it all went smoothly until I heard the sirens of the cops coming and I got scared so I started running away from the bank. I managed to get away but Gina and her friends were caught as they tried to escape. Gina was quick to name me as a member of their group and the cops came to the embassy. My mother made a deal with the authorities that would keep my name out of the papers and police report and still make sure I was punished. I never saw Gina after that. The deal mom made was that I leave Italy immediately and wasn't allowed to return until after my 21st birthday. It was fine with me because at first I stayed with my Uncle Jon. My mother ended her assignment in Italy and took another one in France. I was allowed to go to France as long as I stayed in France. This year mom got reassigned to Italy and, because I couldn't go, I came here." Emily stopped talking as she realized that her story had a happier ending than she'd first realized, "and I am so glad that I came here because I met you and..." Emily looked directly into her girlfriend's eyes as she said this last part, "Jennifer, I know now what love is supposed to feel like because I feel it every time I look at you. I know we only just started dating but, I love you and I have been falling for you from the moment I first laid eyes on you. I just hope that now that you know the truth about the darkest moment in my past, that you won't break up with me because...I don't think I'd survive it."

Emily fell silent as she waited for JJ to process it all and say something. She prepared herself for the worst (a break up) while silently hoping for the best (acceptance).

JJ thought about what Emily had told her. It was a lot to take in and she took a moment to really think about every thing she'd heard. It occurred to JJ that what she wanted to do right now more than anything else was find this Gina person and kick her ass all over the state for the way she'd hurt Emily. But she knew that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. She looked at Emily and saw the barely concealed fear in her eyes, lying just below the almost overwhelming look of love. JJ knew in that instant that Emily really did love her. She also knew that nothing in this world would ever drive her away from Emily, because the dark haired girl owned her heart.

JJ made her decision and leaned forward again, this time quickly, and kissed Emily. JJ put her whole heart into the kiss and when Emily opened her lips, she swept her tongue inside and tasted her girlfriend for the first time that day.

TBC...

AN2: So, now you know what the "Incident in Rome" is and the role "Gina" played in it. I am not an expert in international laws nor in how the whole diplomatic immunity (that Em's mom has as Ambassador) works so forgive me if I got the punishment wrong. That's why this is fiction! Garcia knows about Emily & JJ...how long can she keep the secret? Emily's birthday will be mentioned next chapter...hope you all liked this installment.

~Acathla