Chapter Text
Arizona is more than warm.
“It’s hot as Satan's ass out here.” Emily complains, her hands tightening on the steering wheel. “Well, that’s a new one.” Elle says mid-laugh. “For your information, Satan's ass is very hot. Second only to you.” Emily gives Elle a wink that makes her roll her eyes. “Only you could make a pickup line out of that.”
“We could always take the doors off.” Elle suggests, not missing the way Emily’s face changed. “What, you’ve never ridden in a Jeep with the doors off before?” Elle asks. “Well, no I haven’t but even if I had that’s not happening. I’ve got precious cargo in here.” Emily’s voice is firm.
“Like what?” Elle says, nearly scoffing as she looks around the mostly empty vehicle. Then she stopped, Emily’s meaning dawning on her. “Emily, pull the car over.” Emily looked at her, a bit confused, but managed to do so easily. Arizona’s desert roads were hardly ever crowded. As soon as Emily had pulled over Elle’s seat belt was off and she was leaning over the console, kissing Emily as though her life depended on it.
“Hey now.” Emily whispered with a laugh, taking a breath between their kisses. “What’s with the impromptu makeout session? Not that I mind but, maybe we could wait till the hotel?” She had just finished her sentence when Elle was kissing her again. After a few more moments Elle pulled away, settling back into her seat. “Sometimes I don’t think you realize how much the things you say mean.” Elle says with a smile.
“So?” Emily questions.
“So I have to take every chance to remind you.” Elle responded while buckling her seatbelt. Emily just lets out a laugh, driving back onto the road as Elle reaches out a hand to turn the radio up louder, changing the song on her phone with her other hand. “Stevie Nicks?” Emily asks, before laughing. “I should have known.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Elle asks, fake offense on her face. “Nothing. She’s great. I just don’t really have much of a gauge on your music taste.” Emily says, and it’s true. In Paris, they had still tiptoed around each other in trivial ways. When Elle listened to her music, she kept earbuds in. When Emily watched the shows she liked on Elle’s TV, she switched the channel over when it was around time for her to come home. They had shared so much with each other already, they needed some little things to be private.
“What, were you expecting something like Selena?” Elle asks. “Is it bad if I was?” Emily says, a half concerned look on her face. “I’m just teasing you, Techno Cumbia is next on my playlist.” “And after that?” “Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac.” Elle concludes.
“Typical.” Emily says, laughing at the pout on Elle’s face. “You agreed to give me the aux on the way down. You get it on the way back to the airport.” Elle pauses. “Besides, I guarantee your playlist is half The Cure and half Evanescence.” Emily takes one hand off the steering wheel, slapping Elle on the shoulder.
“So I’m right then?” Emily rolls her eyes. “Maybe.”
Elle gives a triumphant smile. She rolls the window down, tying up her hair before the wind could tousle it too badly. She had cut it recently. Elle’s hair, as it had been, was too long and impractical for an agent. At least that's what she argued with Emily. Now, it fell around the same length it did when she had first joined the team. She looked nearly the same as the agent she was before she was shot, but Emily knew Elle was a different person now. They both were, and while the road to getting there was hard, it was something to cherish.
As promised, Strauss had offered Emily back her position on the team as soon as Doyle’s case was settled in court. Hotch had picked the moment immediately after to reveal he was asking Elle back as well, and she had already said yes. Emily’s eyes lit up, perhaps the brightest Elle had ever seen, and Emily’s smile was so wide it took Elle’s breath away.
It was fast work then, for Elle to retrieve her things from Paris and wrap up her job there, as well as resign from her current position at the organization. They had been saddened to see her go, but had figured it was only a matter of time. Elle had too much passion and conviction to be kept out of the field. Emily helped Elle move out of New York and into her new apartment in Quantico. As much as they had enjoyed living together in Paris, they wanted to take things slow now that they were able to, and that included living separately. Though, it didn’t stop them from having sleepovers at each other's places quite frequently.
Elle had also promised to keep in touch with many of the people she worked with, both in New York and Paris. Emily understands, after all, Elle had been mentioned for her compassion and empathy with victims almost as often as she was mentioned in regards to William Lee. Still, it worried her when she’d feel Elle slip out of bed in the middle of the night to take a panicked phone call. There was an important balance between work and personal time, and Emily just hoped they could help each other find it.
Neither of them were particularly good at prioritizing their wellbeing after all.
That’s why Emily had the idea for a weekend trip before they both officially started back at the BAU. She had left the destination up to Elle, and when Elle had suggested they go get tattoos together Emily happily agreed. All of Elle’s work was gorgeous, and she wouldn’t mind adding to her own collection of tattoos.
It was an odd sort of healing for Elle to head back into Arizona. Much of her time spent there was riddled with blurred, bad memories. But not all of it. The quaint tattoo shop, in the first town outside of a long stretch of desert road for example, was one of the good things.
The rest of the ride passed quickly, as they told jokes back and forth and Emily complained about the AC not going any higher while Elle tried once again to convince her to take the doors off the rental Jeep. The answer was still no.
Finally they arrived, and Elle walked into the shop to be greeted by a squealing girl behind the front desk. She reminded Emily of Garcia, with her bright blue pigtails and neon makeup. “Ryan, Elle’s here!” The girl came closer to pull Elle in for a hug, lowering her voice considerably. “Is this the special someone you mentioned a few months ago?”
Her eyes shifted to Emily as she thrust a hand forward. “I’m Megan by the way!” After shaking Emily’s hand, She turned to Elle again. “She’s gorgeous! You weren’t kidding!” Elle shrugged. “You didn’t think I would lie to you did you?”
“Back for more already?” Emily turned at the sound of the voice. The man in front looked like something straight out of one of the alternative magazines she had read as a teenager. He gave Elle a clearly fond smile, turning his eyes to Emily. “Ah, this is the lucky woman I see.”
“You knew?” Elle says, arching an eyebrow. “Megan told me.” He replied, while Megan just gave a smile. Emily found herself thinking that Megan and Garcia would definitely get along. “So, what are we getting done today?” Ryan asked them both. Another condition of the trip was that Emily and Elle had kept their chosen designs secret from each other.
Elle went first, looking much more at ease in the chair than Emily knew she would. Emily tried to hide her surprise as Ryan lined the stencil up against Elle’s arm, adding a seventh flower to her sleeve. “Is that one for me?” Emily asked.
“Of course it is. The red rose, a little basic, I hope you don’t mind. But it fits. True love, passion, determination and resilience. I could go on.” When Elle finishes, Emily feels the urge to kiss her. Clearly the same urge Elle had in the Jeep earlier.
Emily doesn’t though, she just watches as Ryan completes the tattoo. Before she knows it, he is cleaning off the tattoo and placing saniderm over it. “You know the drill for healing.” he tells Elle, and she nods, before waving Emily over.
Emily’s chosen design was the silhouette of a girl's side profile, filled in with Van Gogh’s Starry Night. A memory of her gallery girl, the day in Paris when things started changing for the better. She gets it on her upper arm, thankful it is not too painful, and breathes out a sigh of relief as Ryan cleans off the finished piece.
“You’ll have to come back and get another one soon, Megan’s been dying to tattoo you ever since she finished up her apprenticeship.” Ryan says towards Elle. “You can come too, I like you.” Emily laughs as he says it, unsure why his approval makes her feel good. But it does.
She grabs Elle’s hand after they tell Megan goodbye and exit the shop. “What does it say about us, that we both picked tattoos meant for eachother?” Elle asks softly. “That we’re still in our honeymoon phase, and that we’ll regret these in a few months.” Emily deadpans.
Elle looks worried for a moment, but Emily speaks again. “Or, maybe it’s that we’ve got something really good going here, and it’s only just beginning.”
-
Emily wakes slowly in the hotel the next morning, wrapping one of her arms tighter around Elle.
Later, they are going to explore the area. Elle is going to show Emily some of the places she remembers fondly. Emily is sure she will see so much of the girl she first fell in love with, the girl who traverses streets like she made them herself and admires everything, seeing the beauty within it.
Later, they will do just that. Later.
But for now, Emily snuggles back down next to Elle, pulling the blankets closer around them. She relishes the warmth, the feeling of sleeping in and being in a hotel for something other than a case. She buries her face in Elle’s hair, that still smells of lilac, and pulls her closer still. Always closer.
When they lay like this, it is not hard to fall back to sleep.
As Elle dreams, she is hiding, when a beautiful raven haired woman comes to save her from the darkness.
As Emily dreams, her monster is about to devour her when a beautiful woman with flowers wrapped around her arms shields her.