Author's Note: Wrap up of their night at Smokey's, now with JJ and Will.

Prompt Set #37 (February 2012)

Show: Above the Law

Title Challenge: Friendship First

Hug & Tell

Emily was cringing with fingers crossed as Hotch lined up the final shot. And then the white ball connected with the black one with a crack . . . and as Hotch had predicted . . . the black ball went flying into the left side pocket. She yelped.

"YES!" She jumped away from the wall to throw her arms around his neck and smack a kiss on his lips for the winning shot, "good job, sweetie!"

It wasn't until she was breaking off the kiss . . . and she saw Hotch looking down at her in a somewhat shocked amusement . . . that Emily remembered they weren't alone in this bar teeming with people. JJ and Will were now there with them.

RIGHT there.

Emily winced as she turned around, her hand still on Hotch's chest.

Yeah, okay this was bad. Both sets of eyebrows had hit their respective hairlines . . . and Will's mouth had just started to quiver. Emily's face began to burn.

Shit.

"Ummm . . ."

It was as much as she got out before she felt Hotch's arm slide around her waist. Then he was pulling her against his side. Tucking her close. Her eyes dropped down to the dirty floor.

Maybe she could just melt into it.

"Good game, Will," Hotch said as he leaned forward with his free arm to shake the other man's hand. "Want to go best out of three?"

Although it was on some level quite amusing that Emily had just inadvertently outed their relationship in such a 'boisterous' fashion, he did know that she had very specifically been planning to keep that aspect of their lives private for a few more weeks. Granted, JJ . . . and by extension, Will . . . had socialized with them one or one (or two on two really) in the past, just as they were again tonight. So they clearly had a better gauge on their level of off duty 'familiarity' than the others did. And it was quite possible that they did have their suspicions about the true nature of their relationship.

Certainly assessing their behavior from an outsider's perspective, Hotch would have had his suspicions.

Now, that said, he and Emily had been careful not to actually do anything that would BLATANTLY give way the fact that they were now sleeping/living together. Which meant no referring to their collective home as 'home,' no on the mouth kissing, no nuzzling of any kind, and the sweethearts/honeys had been off the table since the other couple had arrived.

Until now that is.

Now when Emily had just called him sweetie and sucked his face in the corner of the bar. It was actually kind of funny.

It was just so 'Emily.'

But then suddenly remembering that Emily's actual reasons for keeping their relationship private, were connected to her cancer, sucked the remaining humor out of the moment.

There was nothing funny about the cancer.

So he just patted Emily's hip as Will nodded and took a step back.

"Uh, yeah, good game man. Let's go again," Will said as he tried to hide his surprise . . . and amusement . . . at Emily's unexpected mauling of Hotch. It was obvious the mauling was accidental, and she had worked up some mighty good color since then, so he tried to play it cool.

No reason to make her feel more uncomfortable about disclosing a relationship he and JJ had already deduced was on the down low.

"Hey, darlin'," Will turned to look at JJ with a raised eyebrow, "do you want to play again this round, or sit this one out?"

Both she and Emily had played the first round. And as to whether his woman was going to play it cool about Emily's behaving like a Price Is Right contestant, well, that was another story. He was guessing not. Either way he was definitely getting an earful on the car ride home.

"Um," JJ bit her lip as her gaze snapped back and forth between her fiancé and her best friend. "I, I uh think I'll sit this one out. I kind of have to go to the bathroom."

Then she focused all of her attention on Emily.

"It's probably a bit sketchy in there," she continued with a soft smile and a jerk of her thumb over her right shoulder, "did you really want to play again now? Or do you want to be my wing lady?"

Though JJ could clearly see that Emily was embarrassed over the inadvertent outing of her relationship with Hotch . . . a relationship that had become obvious to JJ and Will at the Christmas party last month . . . JJ wasn't quite sure why that was. She could appreciate that last month things would have most likely still been relatively new, and perhaps they were still settling in together, but some weeks had passed now.

It was literally a new month and a new year.

And Hotch was without a doubt, one of the finest men that JJ had ever known. Unlike so many of Emily's previous 'paramours,' the man was a real catch. So she couldn't figure out why Emily would be so obviously distressed at them finding out that the two of them were together. At work yes, of course that was one thing.

That was a world with rules.

But . . . JJ felt a little twinge of unexpected hurt . . . this wasn't work. This was just them out alone as friends. They were just having fun. And though JJ knew that she too had been guilty of 'relationship secret keeping' in the past . . . that had been a long time ago. And feelings had been hurt by her actions . . . JJ took in Hotch's protective hold around Emily's waist . . . Hotch's feelings in particular had been QUITE hurt by her actions. It had taken some months for things between them to get truly back to normal again.

So she'd rather hoped that they all would have learned from that mistake on her part.

Didn't they trust her to keep their secret?

"Uh," Emily bit her lip as her gaze slowly came up from the floor . . . it locked onto JJ's. And she knew then without a doubt, they weren't just going to the bathroom to pee.

"Okay," she whispered, "sure."

Well . . . she bit back a sigh . . . time to face the music. But, she reminded herself, this conversation was inevitable. They were planning on telling the team about things in a few weeks anyway. So JJ was just getting a sneak preview of conversations to come.

That's all.

Right, that's all. So the real problem was that she just hadn't planned to do this TONIGHT. Tonight was just supposed to be fun, and now there had to be serious talking. So it was messing up Emily's nicely timed little schedule of life events.

And all because she'd screwed up.

Just then she felt Hotch press his lips to her ear.

"It's probably for the best, sweetheart."

Then he kissed her cheek, and when she turned to look at him . . . he winked.

And suddenly . . . her stress level began to drop. Because he'd just reminded her . . . this was GOOD news. Hotch, was good news. Hotch was all good. And though she'd wanted to keep their relationship quiet for a reason, it wasn't for the same reason that they were keeping the cancer quiet. That was because the others were going to be upset, and they were going to treat her differently once they found out she was sick.

But this . . . she gave Hotch a soft smile of thanks . . . this was just a matter of simple privacy.

And privacy . . . she let out a breath . . . she could let that go. It ranked right up there with pride on the list of things that were liable to get her riled up for no good reason.

They were luxuries that she couldn't always afford to maintain.

Like tonight.

And realizing then she was already in for a pound, Emily patted Hotch's chest . . . and then she leaned up . . . and she kissed him again.

"Back in a ten," she whispered against his lips. Then she turned to JJ with a little smile.

"Let's go."

Hotch watched Emily and JJ walk away, cutting through the crowd as only beautiful women can . . . with heads turning behind them.

But fortunately, aside from some bawdy come-ons that Emily responded to with a good natured, "fuck off boys," nobody really bothered them. And more importantly, as far as Hotch was concerned anyway, everyone kept their hands to themselves.

And seeing that things were going smoothly . . . i.e. he didn't have to go break anybody's face . . . he was just about to turn back to the pool game, when something caught his eye.

His girl had just gotten stopped by Smokey down in front of the bar.

Hotch's jaw hardened slightly.

Obviously he didn't think that the older man would 'do' anything to the women . . . in fact it was quite the opposite, Hotch had seen in the past how Smokey looked out for Emily's safety . . . but he still didn't like the guy.

And he didn't want Emily, or JJ for that matter, associating with him.

The women only paused for a few seconds though, enough for Hotch to see Emily say something in response to whatever Smokey had just said to her. And then she gestured towards JJ, most likely alerting him to yet another 'feeb' onsite, before JJ tipped her head in a clear hello. Then they kept walking.

As they disappeared back into the crowd . . . now too far gone for him to keep tracking them . . . Hotch heard Will's drawl from behind him.

"They're fine, Hotch. And you do know that when the ladies get to the bathroom, that JJ's goin' to ask Emily about the kissin', right?"

"Yes." Hotch responded drily as he turned around, "yes, I do know that, Will, thank you."

Will's lip curved up.

"Just checkin'." Then he paused for a moment before adding slyly, "just so you know, I wasn't goin' to ask."

It was fun . . . and a true rare gem . . . to get to bust Hotch's balls about anything.

"That's good," Hotch continued in the same flat tone, "because that is not a topic up for discussion with me. You can speak to your fiancée later. Now," he walked over to grab the rack off the wall, "let's get some balls on the table."

Realizing that came out slightly more 'sexual' than he had intended . . . certainly more GRAPHIC than he had intended . . . Hotch turned back to Will.

"That was a figure of speech."

"Yeah," Will cleared his throat to cover the laugh bubbling up, "yeah, I got that. Thanks though for clarifying that we weren't whippin' out our testicles."

Seeing Hotch's mouth quiver slightly in amusement, Will shot him a toothy grin.

"All right brotha," he bounced his pool cue on the ground, "let's shoot some stick!"

/*/*/*/

Emily came out of the stall with the sound of the toilet flushing behind her.

As she crossed across the cracked tile floor and over to the vanities, she saw JJ already standing there washing her hands, while simultaneously giving a slightly hairy eyeball to the woman at the sink next to her.

The woman was wearing a black leather bustier with matching black leather Daisy Duke shorts.

Fortunately she had the body for it.

Though JJ was still clearly non-plussed to see that body being flaunted so openly. But Emily knew JJ well, and as she walked over to turn on her own faucet, she knew that her friend wasn't offended at the show of skin . . . which was oh so plentiful . . . but instead, simply the idiocy of wearing such an outfit in the middle of January.

Which was admittedly pretty stupid.

And as Emily started washing her hands . . . still watching JJ in the mirror . . . her expression softened.

Suddenly she desperately missed the old days. Back in the beginning when she was still fairly new to the team, but after the point where she had started hanging out with JJ and Garcia on random Thursday nights in random bars around the city.

They'd had so much fun then.

And part of her wished for just one trip in the TARDIS. One trip back to another night, to a time when their scars weren't so deep.

Or so plentiful.

A time before Great Falls, before Colorado . . . New York. Pen's shooting, Gideon's tragedy . . . Reid's abduction.

The cancer.

Just one night to . . . no . . . Emily shook her head slightly as her teeth sunk into her lip . . . no, she was taking back that wish.

It was wasted.

Because as she thought about it, most of those bad days had one thing in common . . . she'd been alone. No Hotch. No Jack. No family of her own.

Back then Hotch had a different family.

And she wasn't sending him back to Haley for anything. Not even for one night.

So she pushed the melancholy away, reminding herself that she could still get together with her girlfriends. Just later.

After JJ was back at work, and Emily herself was well again. So sometime this summer probably. Summer would be good. She turned off the faucet.

Summer would be good for all of them.

Hearing a shuffling right before the door opened, Emily looked over to see the third woman finally stepping out of the bathroom . . . she had a square of toilet paper impaled on her left spiked heel.

JJ huffed from her side.

"Ordinarily I would have said something about the toilet paper, but serves her right for being stupid enough to wear that outfit in the dead of winter."

Then she turned, her eyes catching Emily's in the mirror.

They stared at each other for a moment before JJ's stance shifted. And then she asked the million dollar question.

"So," she whispered, "are you guys happy?"

Though she wanted to ask her other questions too, why they were hiding it, whether or not they trusted her, she had decided that those were bullshit questions.

Which meant that they were none of her business.

All that really mattered was whether or not they were happy, the rest of it was just curiosity for curiosity's sake.

A bittersweet smile touched Emily's lips . . . she was thinking about the secret that she still wasn't ready to tell. Not tonight anyway.

It would ruin the memory of a good time.

"Yeah," she answered, her voice soft as she swallowed over the lump in her throat, "yeah, we are happy." Then she looked up.

"Are you?"

The question had a hint of surprise to it. Almost like Emily herself wasn't expecting the words to come out of her mouth.

Although as she thought about it, Emily realized that she WASN'T expecting those words to come out of her mouth. She'd been so wrapped up in her own life these last few months, she hadn't really been giving much in depth thought to anyone else's. Like JJ's.

Like if she and Will had found parenthood had strengthened their bond . . . or weakened it. And was she really happy being at home all the time? Did she really like being a mother?

Or was it harder than she'd expected?

Emily had never asked her these questions before . . . and she was starting to feel rather ashamed about that fact.

She'd been a bad friend.

"Yeah," JJ immediately nodded, "we're really happy. I'm happy. I love Will, I l love Henry, and I love being a mom. It's the . . . best."

JJ's voice trailed off at the end, and then she was quiet for a second. And seeing Emily's eyes watching her closely in the mirror . . . she'd noticed the hesitation of course . . . JJ's own eyes unexpectedly began to well up.

"It is hard sometimes though," she added softly as her voice thickened, "I think it's just the post-partum hormones thing."

Seeing Emily's eyes now widening in concern, "oh Jayj," she said as she put her hand on her arm, "why didn't you tell me before?" JJ quickly shook her head as she patted Emily's hand.

"Oh no, it's okay. It's not like a post-partum depression, or," she felt a little shudder go up her spine, "or psychoses, nothing like that. It's not even that serious. It's just sometimes, maybe a couple times a week in the beginning, I'd get really sad for no reason. And then I'd get kind of weepy." She rolled her eyes, "it's more annoying than anything else. But it's getting better. It happens less often now." Her lips curved in a proud smile.

"I haven't cried since last Wednesday."

Okay, that sounded kind of pathetic when said aloud . . . it had only been eight days for Christ's sake . . . still though, she felt less silly when she saw Emily giving her a gentle smile in return for what she'd said.

"That's great hon, really. I'm glad you're feeling better. And if you ever need to talk, if you're feeling down or whatever, please don't hesitate to call or text. I'm sorry that I haven't, well," both her smile and voice faded as her gaze dropped for a moment, "I'm sorry I haven't been a better friend. I should have made more of an effort to check on you."

Even if getting diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor did count as a 'good' reason for her inadvertent neglect of JJ . . . and before that, the fallout from Montana hadn't exactly been happy fun times . . . Emily still felt kind of shitty now knowing what her friend been going through. With all of their psych training, she should have seen that possibility coming.

And she should have called more often to make sure she was okay.

"No, no!" JJ quickly moved to alleviate the guilt she could see on Emily face, "no Em," she patted her friend's back, "I didn't mean it that way. It's just, you know," her arm fell back to her side, "we've all been busy. The phone works both ways. I certainly could have called you more often too. Actually," she huffed slightly, "maybe if I had, then I would have known about you and Hotch earlier."

Okay, where the hell had THAT come from? Not only had she not meant to say those words at all . . . the past on that point was a done deal . . . but she certainly hadn't intended to make them sound like a little dig either.

But she had.

And she could see from the way Emily's eyes snapped back up to hers, that she'd heard the tone there.

And she didn't seem to appreciate it.

But before JJ could apologize, she really hadn't meant anything by it . . . apparently it was just some latent foolish hurt feelings bubbling up . . . Emily's gaze dropped away again. But JJ could still see her reflection in the mirror, the twist of pain on her features. It was just a flitter, but it was enough to make her stomach hurt.

Oh! She'd hurt her feelings!

Just as she opened her mouth to say that she was totally out of line, and that she was sorry for being snarky, Emily cleared her throat.

"Hotch and I have other news besides just getting together," she whispered, "but I don't want to talk about it tonight."

JJ's brow wrinkled.

"What kind of news?"

Emily's expression softened as she stepped away from the sinks.

"The kind that can keep."

Then her expression brightened again as she turned to JJ with a soft smile.

"We are really happy though. Sometimes," her voice caught as tears filled her eyes, "sometimes," she cleared her throat, "I wake up and I think for just a second that it's not real. That I'm just still in this great dream where I got the perfect guy who treats me like a princess. But, it's real. I got my Prince Charming," then she gave JJ a watery smile as she huffed, "he's got the dimples and everything. Just like the book said."

"Oh, Em," JJ's latent hormones kicked up as her own eyes began to water in solidarity, "that's so great." She leaned in to pull her friend into a hug, "I'm so happy for you. And for him." She rubbed her hand along Emily's back.

"You both deserve the best, and that's what you got," then she whispered, "I love you guys. Lots."

"Thanks," Emily smiled into JJ's hair as she squeezed her tight, "we love you too. And even though it's hard for me to admit," she whispered back, "Hotch probably misses you even more than I do. You're his right hand."

Feeling JJ's breath hitch, right before she started crying, Emily held the hug a moment longer, just patting her friend's back. And in that moment she was torn about whether or not she should tell JJ the rest.

Just tell her about the cancer and be done with it.

But then she decided, again, that it would keep. It was just a couple more weeks. And besides . . . she finally loosened her hold and leaned back . . . she didn't want to tell the poor girl such crappy news on her ONE fun night out in weeks.

That would just be a sucky thing to do.

But seeing that she now had JJ full on tears trickling down her cheeks . . . though at least she knew it was happy crying . . . Emily decided to share one more piece of their good news.

"Hotch moved in last month." She added with a sniffle as she wiped the makeup she could feel smearing on the corner of her eye.

Given this was the second crying jag tonight, she should probably just wash her face and put it all on again. But unfortunately she didn't even bring so much as a lip gloss with her.

So she'd just have to suck it up.

JJ's watery eyes popped open in shock.

"Really?" She asked in surprise, "oh my God!" She wiped her hand across her face as she sniffed, "Em, that's awesome!"

Wow! She and Will didn't move in together until like a year after they started seeing each other. And Emily and Hotch weren't exactly the impulsive type . . . more like the exact opposite . . . which meant that they were MUCH farther along in their commitment to this relationship than JJ would have dreamed!

"Yeah," Emily's eyes crinkled as she turned to get a paper towel from the dispenser, "it is pretty awesome. It's also pretty much under wraps, so," she turned back to JJ miming a zipper closing over her mouth, "mum's the word for now, k?"

"Of course," JJ nodded firmly as she reached over to grab her own paper towel, "absolutely. That's what I was expecting. And I certainly won't say anything to the team. It's your business. So," she finally changed the subject as she turned to look back in the mirror, "are the guys going to think that we had a total sobby chick fest in here, or what?"

Eh . . . she wet the paper towel and dabbed the corners of her eyes . . . it wasn't too bad. Fortunately they'd gotten the tears under wraps before there was any serious bawling. That would have resulted in eye swelling and nose reddening.

And THAT would have been VERY unattractive.

Emily gave them each the once over in the mirror. Then she smiled.

"I don't think they'll disavow any knowledge of us as their dates." Then she grinned as she bumped JJ's hip.

"We are pretty hot chicks."

"Yeah," JJ burst out laughing as she looked at Emily in the mirror, "they should totally be thanking us for picking them!"

"That's EXACTLY what I'm saying!" Emily agreed as she tossed the paper towel into the trash behind them, "lucky bastards!" Then she looked back at JJ, both of them with their mouths quivering before Emily smiled.

"I've really missed you," then she huffed, "more even than I realized, I guess. But you know you kind of accept your new day to day world, and you weren't in it anymore so I had to just deal with that. But," she reached over to pick up JJ's hand, "I don't want to deal with that anymore. I want us to get together at least a couple times a month. You can come to our place if you want to get out of the house. We can have coffee and talk. And if you bring Will then we can do dinner with the families." Emily's eyes crinkled, "I can hog the baby, and you can spend some time with mini-Hotch."

JJ laughed, "Jack? Yeah," she squeezed Emily's hand, "I'd love to see Jack, I haven't seen him since he was a baby. And we'll definitely come over and hang out. I'd love to spend time with your family."

Then her nose wrinkled.

"Sorry," she chuckled, "that sounds so funny. I mean no offense of course, I'm just adjusting to your new status. I'm used to you as a single entity. Not a stepmom in training with a live in partner."

God that did sound weird when she said it out loud. Not that she wasn't happy for Em, she was ecstatic really, it was just going to take some adjusting to.

Same in hanging out with Off Duty Hotch.

He was VERY different from Work Hotch. And she had to imagine him in daddy role was even more of a downshift.

Huh. And now JJ was actually REALLY looking forward to having dinner at the Hotch/Prentiss abode. It would, she thought with some amusement, be like a sociological experiment.

Seeing Hotch in his natural habitat.

"Yeah," Emily's lip quirked up, "it is a brave new world. Now," she dropped JJ's fingers so she could reach up and fix her tangled blond tresses, "come on," she brushed back a piece of hair sticking to JJ's cheek, "let's get back to the men folk. I don't like to leave Hotch alone for too long at this place. He tends to get into trouble." She started walking towards the door, "and I can't imagine that Will would really be any better on that front than Hotch is."

Leaving the two of them out there, armed, in a room at least half full of ex-cons, yeah, what could go wrong?

"Right," JJ started out, catching the door Emily was holding open for her, "that is a potential tragedy in the making. Hey, and Em," she called out just as Emily stepped into the corridor.

Emily turned back.

"Yeah."

"Good talk," JJ said with a smile. And Emily grinned.

"Good talk indeed."

/*/*/*/

After the women got back to the table, the four of them spent another hour at Smokey's. The guys finished their best of three with Hotch coming out on top by one game. Will said that he'd get him next time, and Hotch said nothing . . . though he smirked slightly as he handed his stick off to Emily. She discreetly slapped his hand so he quickly schooled the wayward grin.

It wasn't in the spirit of 'good sportsmanship.'

So then he settled against the wall with Will while they watched the girls play two sets alone. That time JJ took the crown. And given that the first game they'd all played together, Will felt that this was vindication for the family name, and declared a tie for the night. And Hotch was having too good a time to be his usually competitive self . . . that self would have pointed out Will lost when he was operating completely on his own . . . so he waved his hand and said, "fine, we'll call it a tie."

And then Emily kissed him and whispered that she was very proud he was being such a big boy about the whole thing.

It took everything in him not to swat her ass as she leaned back with a smirk. But, although they might have now put all (okay, most) of their cards on the table with JJ and Will, Hotch still obviously wasn't THAT comfortable, being THAT loose in front of them. Perhaps he never would be.

But he was willing to give it a shot.

Because it was nice having couple friends to spend time with like regular people did. Not that Hotch was much for 'social gatherings,' but he wasn't immune for the need to have SOME social interaction, and Will and JJ were just the ticket on this front. It might have taken him a little time to warm up to Will initially, but now that he had . . . and he could see for himself just how well he treated JJ . . . Hotch did consider him part of their extended family.

Plus the guy did make him laugh.

So he was actually a little sorry to see the two of them go home. But as the clock rolled towards 9:30 . . . and Big Slim came back to claim his table . . . the foursome headed for the door.

Given that none of them were drinking alcohol, and it was really too loud to sit down and just talk conversationally, there wasn't much else to do even just to drag the evening out another ten, fifteen minutes.

Of course they could have taken the women out to the dance floor, but Hotch had noticed Emily trying to hide a series of yawns which had started up a little after nine. She was getting tired.

And that meant it was definitely time to go home.

As they stepped out on the sidewalk in front of the noisy bar, the silence was almost overwhelming.

It was broken a second later by the sound of a siren screaming down the street behind them.

By rote, Hotch noticed that the siren caused them all to automatically reach up to touch their holsters.

Such was the life that they'd chosen to live.

And because of those choices they'd made, Hotch and Emily decided to walk the other couple down to the end of the main block. Four armed was safer than two. So they watched as the others crossed the street and headed farther down to the next light pole.

It was the closest parking that they could find given the time that they'd arrived.

So Hotch and Emily waited to make sure that they got into their car safely before they waved and turned back to their own just a half block from the bar's entrance.

"So," Hotch whispered as he kissed Emily's temple, "are you just tired, or is there a headache starting too?"

"Just tired," Emily looked up at him with a sleepy smile, "I had a really good time tonight though. I want to have them over for dinner soon. You know," she shrugged as they walked along, "before I start getting too worn down to uh, 'entertain.'"

Feeling a little dig at the reminder those days would be coming before they knew it . . . and that they would linger for months . . . Hotch nodded.

"Okay, let's do it at the end of the month. Maybe that Saturday. We'll have them over for spaghetti, and we can talk about things that aren't work," he patted Emily's stomach, "sound good?"

"Yep," Emily smiled as she flopped her head onto Hotch's chest.

"Sounds perfect."

A/N 2: Originally I thought I'd do a bit more of them just all hanging out at the bar, maybe the ladies getting hit on or something, but then I decided the focus for the chapter really was more JJ and Emily's relationship, and just them reconnecting as friends. So I kind of pushed the other broader thoughts aside and just focused in on the conversation that I thought they needed to have. Because I think even in canon it's realistic that JJ would have been somewhat isolated during her maternity leave, (it was a big deal when she brought the baby in for a visit) so I wanted to show them actually spending more time together as normal couples do. At least as much as possible given Emily's sick.

And if you're reading Things We Didn't Plan, this story leads into that one timeframe wise, and writing Will here, (and starting to become quite fond of him and amused at his interactions with Hotch), I'm beginning to feel like a real SHIT for what I did to him over there. So, I MIGHT end up clarifying that other story as an AU offshoot so that Universe A can continue free and clear to be the ONE place where everyone lives and everyone gets their happily ever after. Then I won't have to feel depressed every time I write him in this story :)

Thanks for the feedback kids!