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It was the night before Thanksgiving and JJ was stressed beyond belief. The team was coming over to her house for Thanksgiving dinner and she had no idea what she was doing. The stress didn’t seem to bother Emily, who was lightly snoring in the bed next to her.
JJ rolled over and stared at the ceiling in the dark. Did the have enough food? Was the turkey big enough? Would PG like the tofurkey? How was she supposed to get everything cooked in time with just a double oven and a stove top? There were too many questions to sleep.
She rolled out of bed and trotted downstairs. She grabbed Emily’s laptop and took up a spot on the couch. She started to endlessly browse recipe sites to find the perfect way to cook a turkey. Once satisfied with a method for the meat she moved on to how to prepare Pen’s vegetarian feast. All of the tofurkey recipes simply offered different basting options and said to “cook thoroughly”. JJ went to Google and started to type in ‘how to tell when tofurkey is cooked’ but the auto suggest of recent searches caught her eye.
‘How to tell your girlfriend you love her’
JJ looked around the dark room as if she was being watched. Once she confirmed she was alone she clicked on the search and began ready sappy articles one after another.
Suddenly Thanksgiving faded from her mind and she got lost in a click hole of creative ways to tell someone you love them, which lead to YouTube videos of wedding proposals which ended up distracting her for two hours.
“Jayje?” A tired voice asked. “What are you doing down here?”
JJ jumped and slammed the laptop shut. “Hey, I was just looking up some stuff for tomorrow. I couldn’t sleep”
“Babe, I told you not to stress. I’m actually a really good cook” Emily stated seriously. “Now come back to bed”
JJ did as she was told. She took Emily’s hand and they made their way back to bed. JJ thought about bringing up what she had seen on Emily’s laptop but decided to save that conversation until Emily wasn’t half asleep.
The next day Emily proved true to her word as she effortlessly cooked up dish after dish.
“I don’t understand,” JJ said as she looked around the kitchen at the menagerie of foods. “You live off coffee and candy. You don’t even eat food unless I force you. How on Earth did you learn to cook like this?”
“I grew up helping the kitchen staff, I guess I picked up a thing or two. I just hate cooking for myself so I usually just get take out” Emily shrugged like it was no big deal.
JJ scoffed, Emily had been holding out on her. “Well now that I know your secret I’m going to make you cook dinner more often”
“I know,” Emily said in defeat. “I suppose you’re worth it” she sighed dramatically. “Just don’t tell anyone my secret or they’ll start showing up for dinner”
JJ rolled her eyes and pulled Emily in for a kiss. The door bell rang and JJ went to answer it. Penelope and Morgan entered with a cake and a bottle of wine. JJ ushered them into the living room and turned on the football game. The rest of the team wasn’t far behind and soon the house was full of friends and laughter.
Emily called everyone to dinner and they took their places around the dining table. Truth was the team had a back up plan, thinking dinner would be inedible they already had searched out the nearest take out place that would deliver. To their surprise the table was set with dish after dish of beautifully displayed foods.
“Princess, since when do you cook?” Derek asked. “I need to come over here to eat more often”
Emily looked at JJ with an “I told you so” look. Before she could reply JJ butted in, “Elizabeth’s chef prepared the meal and brought everything by this morning ”
“Dragon lady let you borrow her personal chef?” Pen asked, “Nice! And is that tofurkey I see?”
“Got ya covered,” Emily said as she passed the plate towards PG. They all enjoyed dinner until they were too full to possibly eat anything else.
Before everyone left Rossi pulled Emily aside, “You are an amazing cook. Thank you, it was delicious”
Emily tried to play dumb but Rossi continued, “your shirt is creased where your apron was tied, there are two bandaids on your fingers and a burn on your arm. Oh and you have a little stuffing in your hair”
Emily laughed, “Never try to fool a profiler, I guess”
“Never try to fool a chef,” Rossi corrected.
The team headed out leaving JJ and Emily finally alone. JJ sat on the couch with a glass of wine and Emily laid her head in JJ’s lap. It was the perfect way to unwind, just the two of them.
“Thanks for everything today, Em. You were amazing”
“Thank you for inviting me to host with you. JJ, I lo…” Emily stumbled over her words. JJ looked at her expectantly, waiting, longing to hear those words. Emily finally continued, “ I loved that pie you baked”
JJ looked at her and frowned. “Pie?”
“Yeah, it was really good”
“You know what I love?” JJ asked impatiently. Emily looked at her wide eyed.
“Turkey?” Emily asked.
“You, you idiot. I love you.” JJ sighed in frustration.
Emily paused before smiling from ear to ear, “Oh god JJ, I love you too”
JJ leaned in and kissed Emily passionately. “But yes, I also love turkey.”
[A/N: The title of this fic was inspired by: 'You Picked Me' by A Fine Frenzy
Find this song and all of my other song inspirations on my Spotify: w00t4ewan CM Fic Titles]