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It was the end of the day, the night had just fallen. It was still warm but it was nothing compared to the oppressive heat they had all day. JJ was exhausted, all she wanted was to go back to the hotel and sleep for the night.
But when she left the police station, she saw him. He was facing the road and couldn’t see her. He was on the phone, probably talking to the victim’s wife. She thought about leaving without talking to him, but it wasn’t the right thing to do. So she waited until he hung up to approach him.
“Hey” she said, softly.
He turned around, surprised to see her.
“Hey…” He waited for her to say something but nothing came out. “Sure is warm in the Bayou, but at least it cools down some at night”
Again, small talks. It was the only thing they were having for the past three weeks. They didn’t communicate, just talking about the weather or their day at work. He looked at her “What, are you leaving?”.
She sighed “Yeah, I’m beat”.
“Without saying goodbye?”
She shrugged “I didn’t know where you were.”
“Did you look?”
She didn’t answer, she looked down.
“Should I be worried? I mean, it doesn’t take a profiler to see that you got one foot out the door in this relationship.”
“Can you just please keep your voice down?”
“I don’t care if they hear us.”
“Hey, yo, I’m crazy about her” Will started shouting “You know, I don’t have a problem with people knowing about it.”
“Well I do.”
“Why?”
JJ raised her voice too “Just because, alright? It’s my business.”
“Are you ashamed of this?” If at first he was just sad and worried, he was now pissed off.
She answered without hesitation. “No”. She wasn’t ashamed of this relationship, it was not about that.
“Did I offend you?”
“No”. Tears appeared in her eyes, she hated that she was hurting Will. Their relationship was terrible, but he was a really good guy.
“I say something wrong?”
“No”
“You seeing another guy?”
“No”.
“You want to see another guy?”
She hesitated, her heart started racing. But she answered “No”.
The hesitation made Will realize where this was headed “You want to break up?”. His voice was shaking.
Without thinking, she started saying “Y—“ but she stopped.
They both looked at each other.
“Y- You do?”
She shrugged, trying to hide the tears in her eyes. “Yeah” She had no idea that the next thing she was going to feel was relief. It was over, she wasn’t with him anymore. It was the first time in months where she felt completely free.
“Ok” said Will, walking away before she could see that he was crying.
“I’m sorry” she whispered. But he was already gone.
She closed her eyes for a second, thinking about that conversation, about her hesitation when he asked her if she wanted to see someone else. The truth was that she did, she wanted to see someone else, but not a guy. She just hadn’t realized it until that very moment. She knew something was going on, she knew she wasn’t supposed to feel that way about a simple friend. Emily was more than that to her, she just needed something to finally understand it, and that something was Will.
She hated herself for hurting him, but it was better for the both of them. Will was going to get over it eventually, and he’d meet someone else, someone that would love him truly, without someone else in the back of their mind. She opened her eyes again and left, she needed to get some sleep.
The next day, after they arrested the unsub, JJ joined Emily in the hall. They didn’t say anything, they just looked around. Derek was visibly hitting on the detective, and she seemed to be pretty receptive to his advances. They chuckled, Derek was the cliché of the heartbreaker. Then Emily’s eyes landed on Will, who was on the other side of the room.
She said, out of the blue, without even looking at JJ “You should go for him”
JJ turned her head, surprised “What?”
She pointed at Will. “You’d make a cute couple”.
JJ’s head started spinning and her heart sank. If Emily was pushing her towards someone else, it was obvious that she didn’t feel the same way about her. Emily frowned when she saw that her friend was almost crying.
“Did I say something wrong?” She asked, worried.
“No, no you didn’t, I just- it’s nothing”.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, don’t worry”. JJ turned around, she didn’t want Emily to look at her.
Emily promised herself to talk to JJ about it later. She looked at her friend one last time before walking away and leaving the building.
JJ looked at her walk away, and as soon as she disappeared from her field of view, she said to herself “You know what?”.
She just started running, she ran outside and saw the brunette walking across the parking lot. When Emily heard someone behind her, she turned around. She seemed surprised and confused.
“Are you okay?”
JJ stopped and took a second to catch her breath.
“I don’t like Will”.
“Yeah, I figured, I’m sorry I tried to force you into this, I just thought you-“
JJ interrupted her and repeated “I don’t like Will, I like you”.
JJ shuffled her feet uncomfortably, waiting for an answer from Emily, who was just standing still, without even blinking.
“Emily?”
Emily opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“I really need you to say something, like right now”.
It was already dark outside so Emily couldn’t see the red making its way over JJ’s cheeks.
“I like you too” she finally said, whispering.
“You do?”
“…yeah”
“I don’t- I don’t understand, why did you tell me to go to Will?”
“Because I just want you to be happy, and I thought you liked Will”
JJ started crying. She couldn’t believe what was happening, the fact that Emily was ready to suffer for her to be happy comforted her in her decision. Emily was the one for her, she was now sure of it.
She took a step forward and softly asked. “Can I kiss you now?”
“Please, please do”.
They both smiled, looking at each other. JJ cupped Emily’s face with her hands and brought her closer to her and finally closed the gap between their lips. Emily wrapped her arms around JJ’s waist, lifting her up. JJ’s feet left the ground as they kept kissing. For the first time, JJ didn’t care if people could see her. She didn’t want to hide from anyone. Of course it was her private life, but she wasn’t ashamed of Emily, and she’d never try to hide her using the excuse of wanting to keep her private life private.