16

The following day Reid showed up on the doorstep. It was his first stop on his way home from the airport. He had been planning to go and see Emily and JJ since before his flight had taken off.

Seeing his mother had done him some good. The woman had been brilliant. When he was young, he had sought companionship in his mother. Her presence was enough to make the bad things in his world not seem so bad. His mother was doing really well, and spending time with her had been relaxing. And surprisingly, when she was in the present moment with him, she was able to offer some quite good advice. It calmed him, and centred him to get away. But at the same time he was very glad to be able to see his friends.

Before ringing the doorbell, he took a deep breath. He was glad to finally be back.

Penelope answered and immediately pulled him into a tight hug.

"Wonder child! You are back. Oh, it is so good to see you. We've all missed you so much. Let me look at you."

She held him back.

"Oh you look so happy. You look so good. Come in. Come in. We're all in the lounge."

She guided him inside and shut the door.

"Guys, Reid is here!"

Reid awkwardly followed Penelope into the lounge, where he was met by two smiling faces, and one of utter concentration.

"Pretty Boy. You're back. Good to see you man." Derek said from behind JJ.

"Thanks Derek. I'm glad to be back. Emily you look really good." He told her as he reached down to hug her. Looking up he saw Derek steadying a slightly off-balance JJ.

"Jayje, you look so much better."

Her eyes were closed. As she opened them to reply, she swayed slightly, resulting in Derek guiding her slowly back to sitting on the recliner.

"Thanks Spence."

"You're already up on your feet?"

She laughed haltingly as she held her hand to her face. "Hardly Spence. Today is the first day. And that is literally all that I am doing. Standing. Not even walking, just standing."

"That's great though JJ. One thing at a time."

"Yeah. So everyone keeps telling me."

Reid could sense the unintentional hostility. Everyone could.

Emily spoke up first. "So Reid, how is you mum doing?"

"She is doing really well actually. She goes on field trips at least once a month. She loves it. And she seemed really happy while I was there. Most of the time. I mean, she still has some bad days, but they don't seem as bad or seem to last as long like they used to."

Everyone smiled as Reid spoke.

"Aw kid, that's awesome."

"Yeah Spence. I'm… I'm really happy for you." He looked up to lock eyes with JJ.

"Thanks."

"Are you going back to work this week?"

"No. I called Hotch. I am going to start on Monday next week. I'll just take the next few days to readjust and catch up on some reading."

Everyone smiled. By 'catch up on some reading' he probably meant 20 – 30 books.

The group sat together. Conversing for the next few hours. They had missed Reid, and he had missed them. JJ was engaged in the conversation and seemed to enjoy his presence. That was something that they all made note of.

…

Penelope had gone to take a shower, and Morgan went to buy groceries at the supermarket, leaving the two ladies alone in the lounge.

"Do you want me to put some music on or something in the background Jayje?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Okay. You good? I'm going to go to the bathroom. Is it cool if I use yours?"

"Yeah, of course. It's your house."

"Do you need anything before I go?"

"No, I'm fine. Go."

Emily looked her friend up and down. She had been too easy to please all day. JJ was by no means a high maintenance type of person. But as of late, she hadn't been that agreeable either. Something was definitely up. Emily just wasn't sure what it was.

She had felt much better since taking the time to talk to Penelope. It was okay to admit that she was struggling. It was okay to want to talk to someone. She considered he want to talk to Rossi. But then she wasn't certain that he could ever really understand her. About the way that she was struggling and grieving. But at the same time she did miss her time with Rossi. He was an easy man to talk to. At for her. He treated her like he would treat a daughter. And she as thankful for that. It was nice to have someone in her life looked out for her and cared for her in that way. It was a relationship that she never really got to experience with her biological dad. Rossi seemed to enjoy the role and she was willing to endorse the fantasy every now and then.

She also wanted to talk to someone who could understand what was happening on a more personal, and emotional level. She knew that JJ was feeling useless. Unnecessarily so. She just needed to accept her limitations and slowly work through them.

After successfully managing to use the bathroom unhindered, she exited JJ's room and passed closed door to the communal bathroom. Penelope was singing in the shower and it made Emily smile. The women knew how to make the best of every situation. And she could lift anyone's spirits without even trying.

Emily took a few moments to herself, alone on her bed. It was centring. Grounding in a way that I gave her the strength to keep going until normal was a word that didn't seem so far out of reach.

As she walked back into the lounge, she noticed the pitter patter of the shower had stopped. But some other noise was taking over her hearing senses.

It was coming from the lounge. JJ was the only person that was in the lounge… what was she doing?

Prentiss started to walk faster as she worried about what her friend was doing.

The groans of frustration, or pain, or both became loader as she got closer.

Rounding the corner, Emily was stunned into silence. For a split second she didn't move as she was JJ. Her back was to the entrance to the room as she stood up straight. She took one and a half painful steps in Emily's presence before beginning to sway.

Prentiss was off like a rocket. She moved as quickly as she could despite her own limitations, over to where JJ was standing.

She wasn't able to move quick enough.

"JJ!" Emily yelled before she had the thought to call out for Penelope, telling her to come quickly.

She made it close enough to watch clearly as her friend fell to the floor. But not close enough to do anything to stop it.

JJ was shocked. She had been fine. She had been fine earlier, so she thought that she wouldl be fine now. She didn't need to have anyone watching over her. She was not a child. Alas, that was obviously not true. Whilst she was not a child, she still needed the support of others.

She had landed on her side. Her hands holding up a portion of her body had prevented a whack to her head.

"Ahh!"

Caught somewhere between anger and shock Emily didn't quite know how to react. She was acting like a child, not taking heed of the necessary advice.

Emily stopped where she was and looked behind her for support. Penelope nor Derek were there. Therefore Emily was left to handle this on her own. Before she could process her emotions she started.

Moving closer to her friend she started to yell "JJ! What the hell?! What are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself hurt?"

She waited for an answer, but none was given in reply.

"Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself? Hmm. JJ?"

Still nothing.

"For goodness sake JJ. You can't keep doing this to yourself. You can't keep doing this to us. We are trying to be here for you. We are trying to be here to help and work with you through your recovery. But we can't do that if you keep acting like this. You are acting like a child. You aren't listening to anybody. Not to us, not to the people who are offering you advice. Even the word from professionals didn't sink in. You shouldn't have been doing this unless someone was with you. What is going on? Why are you acting like this?"

She paused, folding her arms in the process, waiting for any sort of reply. Penelope and Derek were nowhere. She was on her own. This was up to her.

JJ refused to look up. She refused to open her eyes. She was biting her lip in an attempt to hold it all in. Never had she been spoken to like that. Never by any of the colleagues that she classed as family. Was she really acting like a child? She just wanted things to be better than they were. That was all that she wanted.

She was breathing in short sharp breaths, closing her eyes together tighter so that could keep the tears at bay. She didn't want to cry not now. The pain, the humiliation, neither of it mattered. She needed to hold it together right now. Because Emily wasn't in a mood to be messed with.

She continued to say nothing, breathing through the pain that had settled in her body and prayed that she wouldn't let anything show.

Emily listened to JJ. There was a subtle change in her breathing, and it sounded as though she was holding back sobs. She could feel her resolve breaking and she was fighting a battle. To go and see if JJ was okay, or stay angry.

Taking one more moment to look at her friend she couldn't do it. She was too close to JJ to allow her to hurt like that.

Leaning on the coffee table, Emily lowered herself down next to JJ.

JJ was hiding her face as the tears quietly flowed down them.

Emily reached out carefully, touching her shoulder as she heard the soft sobs of her friend. JJ shook her off and proceeded to curl further into herself. She was not doing this right now. She couldn't deal with this right now.

The guilt was starting to sneak up on Emily and all that she wanted to do was console her.

Reaching out again, her body followed and she moved closer to her friend.

"Honey… honey I'm sorry. I really sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

JJ was still refusing to play ball and she attempted curl up into a tighter ball. Prentiss on the other hand wasn't having a bar of it.

"JJ, sweetie. I am sorry. I can't understand where you are right now, but I can empathise with you. Please believe that." She reached and prodded at JJ again until the blonde snuck a glance in her direction. She was sitting on the ground next to her, and the brunette had moved as close as she could.

"Please. Please JJ." Using the strength that she had she started to sit her friend upright. JJ complied begrudgingly with the woman's movement of her, until she was eventually close enough to really feel her friend. To feel the reassurance that her friend was trying to offer.

JJ's head was on Emily's shoulder as the brunette snaked her arm around JJ's body as she continued to cry.

"I'm the one who should be sorry. I am… so frustrated. I just want normal."

"I know that you do JJ. We all know that you want normal back. But normal is not going to happen if you continue to take stupid risks like that. What if you had gotten seriously hurt? What if your recovery was put back days or weeks? Then where would you be? Even more angry than you are right now. That's where. None of us want to see you in that situation sweetie."

JJ had persisted in avoiding eye contact.

"I know."

"We worry about you honey. We worry a lot. And it is even more necessary when you keep doing things like this."

"I know."

"You need to think about things before you do them. Please. It is just too important."

"I know."

"JJ?"

"I kno- yes?"

"Are you even listening to me?" Emily asked with a laugh.

"I… yes?"

"So that would be a no then."

Emily looked down to see JJ biting her lip.

"Are you okay hun?"

JJ thought about how she ought to reply.

"So that would be a no then. What happened?"

"I… it's-"

"Don't even try that. Don't you go there. Communication is important. Tell me right now or I am going to keep jabbing you until I find out what hurts."

JJ played with the hem of Emily's top, rubbing it between her fingers. It's nothing. I think I just might have bruised my hip and maybe my legs."

Emily raised her brows. And her voice with it. "Now see? This is what-" But as she looked at JJ's expression she thought better of it. "Okay JJ. Let me have a look."

"No no. It's fi-"

A third voice joined in as Penelope made her way over to them.

"Now now, my little lovebug. If you won't show her you'll show me. What if we need to ice it?"

Slightly hesitantly, she lifted her shirt up a bit.

"Oh, ouch. My sweet. You're already bruising. That looks like it hurts. You must have hit the corner of the table."

"I… yeah, I guess."

Penelope helped Emily up to her feet and she headed off to get the ice as Penelope helped JJ up. That took a wee bit more time. She was tired and clearly sore.

Garcia got her comfy on the couch, lying down so that she could really relax. Emily put the icepack on her side and the woman hissed quietly at the cold.

Penelope kissed her brow, and covered her with a blanket. Her conversation with Emily was then quiet background noise as JJ slipped off to sleep.

So the bit near the end between Emily/JJ was a request from OurWorldStage. More of a mothering chapter. I hope that it's okay! And I thought Reid needed to come into the story as well. It was suggested that Emily talk to JJ. I have been thinking, and I feel like that is a good idea. I will do it. But I will probably also bring Rossi in to comfort sort of as a father figure. Please let me know what you thought of the chapter, and of what I said about who Emily talks to. And also requests for things like this. I wouldn't have thought of it, but it was a really nice idea and fun to write. So thanks for that! And anyone just let me know in a review / PM and I'll aim to get it up ASAP. Thanks for the lovely reviews and follows / favs! The reviews make me want to write faster for you guys. And I am wrapping up my other story so I will be able to focus more on this one soon. Thanks again!