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The team was already halfway home from New Orleans, and Emily hadn’t said a single thing to JJ. When they boarded the jet an hour ago, Jennifer noticed how quiet she’d been, but let it slide under the assumption that her brunette friend was tired. However, as the flight went on, Emily never tore her eyes away from the window, as if she couldn’t wait to land. Normally, if they weren’t talking on the way home it was because one of them fell asleep, but Emily appeared lost in thought and JJ couldn’t possibly sleep if there was something wrong with her friend.
Glancing around the cabin, the blonde noted what the rest of her team was up to. Morgan’s head was sandwiched between his bulky headphones, asleep, with Spencer resting the next seat over. Hotch, per usual, was hunched over a stack of case files and Rossi sat across from him, ice clinking against the sides of his whiskey glass.
Seeing that she could catch Emily alone, she leaned forward and rubbed her friend’s knee, “Hey.”
The brunette jumped, getting pulled out of a deep trance. Shaking her head lightly, she responded, “Hey.”
“What’s wrong? You’ve been quiet this whole flight.”
Emily still hadn’t made eye contact with her. “Nothing’s wrong, I’m just tired,” she brushed it off.
“Why don’t you go to sleep, then?”
“Maybe I could if you’d stop bothering me,” the brunette finally met her friend’s gaze.
Startled by Emily’s sudden passive-aggressiveness, JJ winced, “Oh, um- sorry, then.” She turned away this time, only to be met by Rossi’s concerned gaze as he turned around in his chair. JJ shook her head at him ever so slightly, and he nodded, returning to his seat. He didn’t need to be a profiler to know that he shouldn’t get involved with the two of them.
The rest of the flight went by with no conflict, mostly because JJ didn’t want to annoy Emily, especially not with the rest of the team in such close quarters with them. Once they landed, Emily was quick to get off the plane and got inside the bullpen before JJ even had a chance to catch up with her. When the blonde strolled into the parking lot, Emily’s car was nowhere in sight. She sighed, tossing her duffle bag into her trunk. JJ leaned against her car and dialed the brunette’s number, one she knew by heart. Her phone dialed for barely 5 seconds before she was sent to voicemail.
Emily’s voicemail greeting played, one JJ rarely ever heard, “Hey, you’ve reached Emily Prentiss. Please leave a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
After the beep, JJ took a breath, “Hey, Em, you know who it is,” she twirled a section of hair around her left pointer finger, a nervous habit she’d picked up as a kid, “I know there’s something up, and it’s fine if you don’t wanna talk to me, but I don’t know if I did something wrong? Whatever it is, I’m sorry,” JJ was silent for a moment, trying to figure out what to say, “I don’t know what to do, you’ve never really been mad at me before. I love you, though, okay? And I’m worried about you. This is just kind of unprecedented,” the sound of approaching footsteps pulled her away. Looking up from the ground, she was once again greeted by Rossi. “Um- I’ve gotta go. I love you, Em. Call me back please.”
“Guessing that was Emily?”
“Yeah,” JJ sighed.
“What do you think is wrong?”
“I have no idea. She always tells me stuff like this, but all of a sudden she was angry with me and I don’t know why.”
“Do you think it was the case?”
The woman furrowed her eyebrows, “Honestly, no. Usually, that’s a safe bet but I mean, she and I were fine until the ride home. We even cleaned up at the station together and everything seemed normal.”
“Did anything happen between cleaning up and boarding the plane?” Dave asked.
“No, at least not between us. After we cleaned up I talked to the detective but other than that, nothing.”
“The detective who’d been flirting with you the whole trip?”
“Detective LaMontagne? Yeah, he asked for my number, that’s why we were talking.”
“Did you give it to him?” Rossi seemed to be leading somewhere.
“...Yeah? But I’m not really interested. I mean he seemed nice, but I don’t plan on dating him,” she shook her head, “Why is this relevant?”
“Did you ever consider that Emily might be jealous?”
“Why would she be jealous?”
“That’s something you have to ask her.”
JJ looked confused, “I still don’t get it,” she paused, but he didn’t respond, hoping she’d pick up on what he’s thinking, “And besides, she’s not answering me.”
“Then go to her,” she was still clearly confused, but he couldn’t hand it to her on a silver platter, “Look, I’ve gotta go. But you’re smart, you’ll figure it out. Just go to her place.”
She was still just as confused, but before she had a chance to say something else, Rossi was already halfway to his car, and JJ knew he was too stubborn to answer anything he didn’t want to.
Jennifer slid into the driver’s seat, unsure of what to do. On one hand, she didn’t want to provoke Emily, who seemed to be mad at her. But on the other hand, Rossi clearly knew something JJ didn’t, and she wanted to figure out what that was.
Her curiosity proved to be stronger, and instead of turning onto her street, she sped past it. JJ didn’t care if Emily was mad at her right now. Even if she slammed the door in her face, she had to at least try and figure out what was going on. Her knuckles turned white, gripping the steering wheel as tight as possible like she was trying to hold onto Emily’s friendship. Whatever it was, JJ needed to try and fix it. Emily was the most important thing in her life, and she couldn’t stand her being upset.
Before she knew it, she’d arrived at her friend’s building in record time. Thank god I didn’t get pulled over, the woman thought as she sprinted up the stairs to Emily’s door.
Only after she rapped on the door three times was when she realized she may have been overreacting. Chances are Emily’s already gone to bed, and she’s gonna be even more pissed at me now that I’ve woken her up- God, why did I do this. When has Dave ever been right about anything? This was such a stupid idea-
“JJ?”
“Emily! Oh, God, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have come-” she responded, speaking so fast it was essentially incomprehensible.
“Jayje, it’s fine,” Emily’s tone said something different. She was still visibly upset, and she seemed annoyed that JJ had come at all, but she hadn’t been asleep. There was a glass of red wine in her hand, filled halfway but with purple undertones all the way to the top. She wore a fluffy black robe, hastily tied around her waist, and JJ guessed that there wasn’t much underneath. She wondered if Emily slept in only underwear when she was alone, or even if she slept naked. Biting her lip, her mind drifted elsewhere as she noticed how low down the robe crossed over Emily’s-
“Jennifer?”
Snapping out of it, JJ apologized, “Sorry, what did you say?” Jesus, Jennifer. What the hell were you thinking? Since when have you thought about girls like that?
“Why are you here?”
“Um- It’s nothing, I shouldn’t have. Enjoy your night.”
“JJ, why are you here? ” Emily repeated, almost looking concerned.
“Listen, I honestly overreacted. There was clearly something wrong on the plane but then you snapped at me and-- basically: did I do something? I don’t know if you listened to my message or not, but whatever it is I’m sorry. Your friendship means too much to me to lose for even one night. So, please, can we at least talk?”
Emily swallowed and nodded, slowly, “Yeah, we can.”
She opened the door fully, and JJ stepped into the apartment, unsure of what to do. The brunette gestured to the couch and the two of them sat down farther apart than usual.
“Was it because of Will?”
Emily adjusted a bit, not expecting this question, “So what if it is?”
“I don’t get it, I really, really, want to but I can’t. Why would you be jealous of him? Yeah, he was flirting with me, but I wasn’t into it.”
“I saw you give him your number.”
“That was just to keep a good relationship between us and his station, and-- since when does it matter who I date?”
“Well, you.. you haven’t dated anyone in a while, and I don’t want you to rush into anything,” Emily scrambled to answer without seeming suspicious.
“Really? Well, then what are you mad at me for?” JJ practically begged for an answer, “Why’d you have to get all passive-aggressive on the jet, leaving me to worry about you, because you’ve never acted like this towards me before. I know it was basically nothing, but you’re never like that. Not with me. And I was scared that I did something awful, Em. I don’t want to jeopardize our friendship, because it’s the most important thing to me.”
Emily stood up, starting to pace lightly, “Shit.”
“What?” JJ was desperate to figure out what was going on.
The brunette sighed, and stopped pacing to face JJ, “I noticed it a few months ago, I guess. And I never planned on saying anything, because I thought it would pass like these kinds of feelings usually do. But with you, it’s different, somehow,” she stopped for a breath, but continued before a still-confused JJ could say anything, “You’re my best friend and I don’t want to jeopardize it either, but clearly, this has gone on too long without you knowing. And it’s been bad for me, but I can’t keep it from you now that I’ve hurt you too.”
They held eye contact for a few moments, with JJ still trying to piece together what Emily was saying.
Noticing that the blonde was clueless, Emily sighed, and continued, “I didn’t mean to be rude to you on the jet. Obviously, you had no way of knowing, but watching you with him , watching him flirt with you, and knowing that it would never be me. That hurt me so badly, and I took that pain out on you when I shouldn’t have. You’ll never see me in that kind of way, and it’s fine, but God does it suck,” she wiped a tear off her cheek, before finally stating the obvious, “JJ, what I’m struggling to say here is that I’m falling in love with you.”
Emily, breathing hard and teary-eyed, stared at JJ, waiting for a response.
The blonde’s heart was racing, unsure of what to do next, so she choked out the only word she could, “Emily.”
The brunette looked back at her, preparing herself for the heartbreak that was about to follow.
JJ stood up from the couch and walked over to her friend. Now only inches away from her face, she repeated, “Emily.” Before she could overthink it, she slipped her fingers into her friend’s hair and pulled Emily’s face into hers.
The second her lips met the brunette’s, she knew she made the right choice. Nothing else mattered. All she wanted was to feel Emily. She wanted to keep reliving her lips on hers and Emily’s hands in her hair and on her waist. Being pulled into her body sent shivers down her spine, and she wanted more. JJ was practically blacking out, and they were only kissing. She wanted this every goddamn day.
Jennifer’s chest finally felt full. This is what she’d been missing in every relationship before. Not once had she craved a man the way she did Emily. She’d gotten used to kissing them, feeling nothing, and assumed that’s just how it was. But Emily showed her how it’s supposed to be. That the world was in color, and it was whatever Emily wore that day.
When they finally pulled apart, they noticed JJ had begun to cry as well.
Emily released her hand from the blonde hair and wiped her thumb against JJ’s cheek. She pecked JJ one more time, “I’ll take that as an ‘I feel the same way’?”
“Yes, I didn’t know I did, but yes.”
“Thank God, because I don’t know if I could survive without kissing you again.”
“You’re so cheesy,” JJ laughed and pulled her back in. Every time they touched, now, it felt like they were melting together. She wanted to live in that feeling, and so she did.
JJ and Emily walked into the BAU together Monday morning with intertwined pinkies, so as not to be obvious about their newfound love. Rossi, of course, noticed and smiled to himself; it took them long enough.