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Derek was talking – he and Spencer were debating motives. Somewhere across the room Rossi was making notes. Outside Hotch was fielding police as much as JJ was fielding the press. And Emily? Emily was staring at the corpses…at one of the corpses in particular… zoned out, tuned out to the world around her. She felt sick. And lightheaded. And she turned on her heel and damn near ran from the room, shoulder barging Spencer in her rush to get outside before she threw up all over the crime scene.
“Prentiss?”
That was Hotch. She heard his voice as she charged from the building and headed to the street corner. Unfortunately, the press were still there, and they abandoned JJ as she read out the official statement, and instead followed Emily, their cameras flashing in the dark, taking photos of the Agent ‘fleeing the scene’, all the while shouting questions to her.
“No comment.” She gasped, trying to shake them off. “NO COMMENT, GODAMMNIT!”
Hotch inserted himself between her and the journalistic vultures as JJ took Emily by the arm and led her half a block away.
“Emily?” she asked in concern.
Emily waved a hand at her, the other braced on the wall as she fought to keep the contents of her stomach contained.
JJ frowned in concern. In the two years that Emily had been with the team, JJ had never seen her lose it like this. She’d seen Emily at crime scenes and autopsies. She seen her gun down suspects and mop up the wounded. Hell, she’d even seen Emily herself beaten to a pulp in Colorado – but she had never seen her affected like this.
“Oh God.” Emily groaned, a hand plastered over her eyes. “What an idiot.”
“What do you mean?”
“The press are having a field day with me losing my cookies like that.”
JJ chuckled. “They’re gone now – and I think Hotch confiscated each and every roll of film and threatened them with a lawsuit if they print anything.”
Emily thumped her forehead against the bricks. “What an idiot.” She moaned again as JJ gently rubbed her back.
“Yo Prentiss! What the Hell was that?” Derek boomed, striding down the street, gesticulating angrily. “You straight up left us in there, man.”
JJ shot him a deadly glare. “Give her a minute, Derek!”
“Hey mama bear, she doesn’t need a guardian.” He snarked back. He knew he shouldn’t snap, but it had been a long, tiring day.
“My bad.” Emily scowled at him, pushed herself away from the wall and stalked off into the night.
“Hey, the SUV’s are the other way!” he yelled after her. “What’s up with her tonight?”
“Jesus Morgan – can’t you see she’s upset?!” JJ hissed.
Derek raised an unimpressed brow as he scoffed. “She’s a professional, JJ – or supposed to be. And she flew outta that room like some greenhorn.”
“Well maybe if you had an ounce of brains up there, you’d realise that something upset her. And maybe if you were any kind of friend, you’d be worried and not pissed at her!”
Derek sobered and looked in the direction Prentiss headed. “She was really upset, huh?”
“DUH!”
Derek frowned. “It was a regular hit job – bullet to the head. Nothing weird or freaky. What upset her?”
JJ scoffed and shook her head. “Maybe if you’d given us a few more minutes I would have gotten an answer for you. But now? Now who knows where she went.”
“Emily’s gone?” Spencer asked as he and Rossi walked over and joined the group.
“Yeah. Stormed off in a mood.” Derek replied, his patience all but spent.
“What about the debriefing?” Spencer asked bluntly.
“We can worry about that later, kid.” Rossi decided, brows knitted in concern. “Right now, we ought to go get our Agent.” His voice calmed the tension somewhat.
“If we can find her.” JJ sighed.
“What’s going on?” Hotch demanded, as he rejoined the rest of the team. “I could hear you yelling all the way back at the crime scene.”
“Emily’s wandered off.” Spencer ventured.
“She’s upset.” JJ insisted.
Hotch sighed. “We need to secure the scene now that the press are suitably restrained. JJ you go find Prentiss – the rest of you, get back there and do your jobs.”
JJ shook her head. “I don’t know where she went Hotch.”
He raised a brow. “If she is anything like she was at eighteen, try the nearest bar. Failing that, get Garcia on the street cameras and find her.” He turned his eyes to the others. “The rest of you, let’s get back there and start building our profile. Morgan – talk to me about victimology on the way…”
JJ nodded gratefully to Hotch for refocusing the guys, before calling Penelope to locate Emily.
“Hey mama – what up?” Penelope greeted, a ‘street’ twang to her voice.
JJ chuckled. “What up?!”
“Too youth?”
“Yeah!”
“But better than ‘wassuuupppp’?”
JJ shook her head. “Rain check on that question, P.”
“Okey dokes, my love. What do you need?”
“I need you to check street camera feeds from my location.”
“On it. What am I looking for? Stolen cars? Robberies and other acts of villainy?”
“Nothing so exciting. I need you to get a locale on Emily for me. She’ll only be a few minutes from my location, Pen.” JJ sighed. “I just need to know where to head.”
“Emily? What’s happened?”
“That’s what I hope to find out.”
There was a hitch in Penelope’s voice. “Should I be scared? Because I’m getting scared here.”
JJ smiled softly. “No need, Pen. It’s all good.”
Penelope blew out a breath. “If you say so.” There was an audible clacking of computer keys. “Easy-peasy my sweet girl.” Penelope cooed. “Tracking one rogue agent….aaaand….Got her!”
JJ smiled. “You have the fastest fingers in the West.”
“And the East, South and North.” Garcia crowed.
“That too. Where will I find her?”
“She’s headed towards the Park. I’ll send the GPS to your phone.”
JJ’s phone buzzed almost immediately and she smiled in awe. “You’re the best PG!” She hung up and took off at a jog – Emily certainly couldn’t be too far away. Sure enough, after only a few minutes, JJ caught sight of Emily. She sped up until she was pretty much beside her.
“It’s a bit late for jogging.” Emily sighed, as JJ became visible alongside her.
“It’s a bit late to go walking off by yourself, too.” JJ noted.
“I have a gun and a badge – I think I’ll be safe.”
“Sooo…where are you going?” JJ asked, falling into step with Emily.
Emily shrugged, gesturing ahead. “I just thought I’d watch the river for a while.”
JJ nodded. “That’s quite a walk.”
“Yeah.”
“Why the river?”
Emily sighed and stopped walking. “It’s natural. Simple. Unlike back there.”
“The crime scene?” JJ frowned.
A shake of the head. “The whole place – designed for the wealthy.” Emily clarified, distaste in her tone. “Security gates; ID sensors; guards; alarms, lasers – you name it. And still it didn’t save them. All that money spent and the assholes still got to them.”
JJ listened patiently. “Not a fan of the gated communities?”
Emily sighed. “It isn’t that, I just…” She sighed again. “You met my mom, right?”
JJ chuckled at the memory. “The Ambassador? Yeah. She made no bones about telling me I was far too young to be a media liaison!”
Emily smiled ruefully. “That’s her.”
“You grew up in a place like this, right?” JJ asked.
“Many places like this.” Emily nodded. “Sealed up and airless.” She turned to look at JJ – JJ the girl who grew up in a relatively humble way. The popular soccer star. “I mean, I had things most people would give an arm for.” Emily explained. “Money; opportunities; education; the privilege of seeing the world.”
JJ nodded. “Sounds good on paper.”
Emily laughed. “Yeah. And I don’t take it for granted, you know – the chances I was given in life… but material things don’t help much when you’re growing up and feel alone.”
JJ smiled ruefully. “I get that.”
Emily’s eyes widened, remembering the sister that JJ lost when she was just a kid. “Oh, I didn’t mean to bring that up…”
“It’s okay.”
“I guess we both missed out on closeness with our moms, huh?”
JJ blew out a breath. “We’ll swap horror stories the next time we get drunk.”
“You, my friend, have a deal.”
JJ smiled, happy to see a smile on Emily’s face too. “This place must have brought a few memories back.” JJ noted. “Is that what shook you up today?”
“No. Well…not the place exactly.” Emily sat herself on the grass at the side of the road, her heart warming as JJ joined her, their shoulders brushing. “I never was close to my parents. We loved one another, of course... but we never liked one another. Or maybe it was just that we were never alike. But when I was a kid and mom was assigned somewhere that had troubles – wars or revolts or terrorism – I was always terrified that she’d be killed.” She glanced at JJ. “I’d watch the news all the time, just to reassure myself that wherever she was hadn’t imploded or exploded.”
“You cared.” JJ nodded. “That’s natural.”
Emily nodded wistfully. “Mom had this Chanel suit. It was her favourite and she’d wear it a lot. Her hair was dark, but it shone red in the right light. She was slim and beautiful and her hands were very dainty.”
JJ nodded, wondering where Emily was going with this.
“When we rowed, I’d sometimes take off to the closest park and just sit there, in the quiet, and watch the water. I’d wish I was a stick or a leaf being taken away by the current to somewhere else.”
“Yeah. I used to do that too.” JJ said softly, understanding now why Emily came here.
Emily exhaled. “That victim tonight? She was wearing Chanel. She had dainty hands, dark hair… and I – just for a second – I was eight years old again and seeing my worst nightmare come true.” She laughed at herself. “So crazy. I couldn’t stand to be in there for one more second.” She frowned at her own reactions. “I guess I need to ask Spencer why the brain does shit like that, huh?”
JJ laughed softly. “If you have four or five hours to spare to listen to his answer.”
Emily laughed along with her. “Damn, you are a mean girl!” she teased.
“HEY!” JJ rolled her eyes and jabbed Emily with her elbow.
“Oof!” Emily groaned in exaggeration, rubbing her arm. “Deadly soccer elbows you got there. Red card, Jareau!”
JJ reached across and squeezed Emily’s knee. “Hey why don’t you call her – your mom?”
Emily scoffed.
“Why not?” JJ asked with another playful nudge.
Emily shook her head. “It’s late. She won’t want to hear from me.”
“Who cares how late it is. And who cares if she wants the call or not - it’ll make you feel better if you can hear her voice; to know she’s okay.”
“I know she’s okay.” Emily replied irritably.
“Trust me, Em. Call her.”
“I feel like an idiot.”
JJ grinned. “Would it help if I told you that you are an idiot?”
“Jeez, yeah I bet it would.” Emily deadpanned with a roll of her eyes. She took a breath and looked into JJ’s eyes. “If she kills me for calling this late, I’m coming back to haunt you, Jareau!” She grinned at her friend and dialled the number. “I must be crazy.” She whispered as it rang.
“Prentiss.” Her mom’s clipped tone answered.
“Mom – it’s me.” Emily winced in anticipation, her thumbnail between her teeth.
“Emily?! It’s late. Are you alright?!”
Emily smiled, her shoulders relaxing. “Yeah I’m okay mom. I just wanted to check in, say hi and to hear your voice.” She could almost see the confused knotting of her mother’s brow.
“Well, it is good to hear from you, Emily. We must have lunch soon. Even better – the French Ambassador is hosting a gala next week. Maybe you could come. Bring Hotchner with you.”
Emily sighed in relief and listened to her mother for a moment before grimacing towards JJ. She muffled the phone with her hands. “She’s trying to get me to a gala. Well…she wants Hotch there and is inviting me as a way to do it.”
JJ pulled a face. “Can you talk her out of it?”
Emily shook her head. “Uh, I’m sure he’d love to attend, mom – that is if we haven’t got a case, and, you know, we’re pretty much always on the road or in the air and –“ She closed her eyes in resignation as her mom pressed the issue, and seeing as she was the one to call, Emily surrendered. “Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay.” She muffled the phone again. “Shit.” She muttered, before retuning to the call. “Oh, hey, that sounds great mom, but I, uh, I have to go. Agent Jareau needs me. Yeah. That’s her; the one too young to be in the job.” She grinned at JJ, whose jaw dropped in shock. “Yeah. Me too. Love you, mom.”
Emily hung up the call with a groan.
“You feel better?” JJ asked, still a little put out at the Ambassador’s words.
“No, actually.” Emily said, folding her arms. “I now have to tell Hotch that he is ‘required’ to attend some head-up-their-asses dinner and dance.”
“But we’ll be ‘called away’, right?” JJ grinned, making air quotes around the words.
“I think anything less than ‘out of the country’ won’t be far enough away to escape her clutches.” She deadpanned.
“Hotch is gunna kill you.” JJ grinned.
“Yeah.” Emily sighed. “And don’t you forget what I said about haunting you, Jennifer Jareau!”