Chapter 29

The BAU team entered the bullpen at Quantico, their go-bags hung heavy on their shoulders while they made the way towards their desks and chairs. Reid and Morgan dropped down in their chairs and both inhaled deeply; tiredness was etched on their faces.

Similar looks were visible on the faces of the other team members. Emily followed the example of the men and dropped down in her own chair. Hotch and Rossi climbed the steps towards their offices, while JJ didn’t even bother to go that far. She dropped her bag on the floor and slumped down on the edge of Emily’s desk. The brunette smiled at the blonde who returned it.

“Tired?” Emily asked softly, the blonde didn’t reply but nodded instead, her hand absentmindedly rubbing against her head. “Me too.” The brunette admitted, it was only seven in the evening but the past few weeks had been filled with one case after another and the team was exhausted. The only reason they were at the office right now was because they were too tired to drive home.

Morgan got up and walked towards the kitchen area to pour some strong coffee into a mug. “Does anyone else want coffee?” He asked over his shoulder. A couple of relieved sighs erupted from his team members mouths, and he laughed in that all too familiar deep throaty laugh; “I take that as a yes for everyone?”

“Coffee, that sounds good.” Rossi hummed while he closed the door to his office and made his way to other team members. The older man looked tired as well; he sat down on a chair from one of the other teams. He leaned back in a relaxed way, his hands placed behind his head as he watched his team members.

Reid got up from his chair and followed Morgan into the kitchen to help him. Hotch emerged from his office just in time to take a steaming mug of coffee from Morgan. Soon they were all sitting around the desks nursing a steaming mug of coffee in a comfortable silence.

At that moment a very perky Garcia swung the glass doors open carrying Henry into the BAU. They all snapped their heads up in her direction, no one having expected her to be there. They just figured that she went home when they closed the case.

“Garcia!” JJ’s face lit up at the sight of her best friend and her son. The small child was sleeping on Garcia’s shoulder, so JJ approached them cautiously. Garcia handed Henry over to his mother and smiled at her; “I am so glad that you guys are home again, I missed you all so much.” The red head said with a chuckle.

“Will called me; he asked me if I could pick Henry up from day care. He had an appointment he couldn’t reschedule. When I heard that you were coming home tonight I decided to come back and meet you here so you can all go home and enjoy the weekend.”

“Thanks so much.” JJ hugged Garcia before she reached her hand up and cradled her sons head against her shoulder, her fingers entangled in his blonde silky hair.

Hotch watched the interaction between mother and son with a half smile, no doubt he was thinking about his own son and probably his late wife. Just like JJ, he hadn’t seen his son either; the young boy was staying with his aunt like he did whenever they had to travel out of town. He wasn’t the only one who was watching the young mother and her son, the rest of the team too had their eyes focused on them. Emily stood from her chair and offered it to JJ.

“Thanks.” The blonde smiled and sat down; readjusting the small boy on her lap into a more comfortable position, Henry was still sleeping while JJ soothingly rubbed his back. Both Emily and Garcia retrieved a chair from some of the other desks and sat down as well. Emily was sitting next to JJ; unconsciously she leaned forward and brushed through the boy’s blonde locked affectionately.

Hotch cleared his throat, gaining the attention of his colleagues, he placed his now empty mug on the table in front of him; “When I was in my office I received a phone call from Strauss.”

For a second the faces of his exhausted team members fell, they were no longer able to uphold their professional faces; they all knew that a phone call from Strauss never really meant anything good; “She informed me that we’ve been taken out of rotation for the next week. She doesn’t expect us back to work until Monday morning.”

“What!” and “Really!” were common expressions coming from several of the team, that was until Garcia hushed them as she pointed to her sleeping Godson.

“I wasn’t aware that we were up for a week out of rotation?” Rossi questioned the decision made by Strauss, he too knew that usually when the woman gave them something she wanted something else in return; he had seen it happen too many times before to just believe that Strauss would do anything without asking for something in return.

“That’s because we weren’t.” Strauss had actually sounded human when he spoke to her on the phone; “She told me that she gave us the week off because of the recent solve rate on our cases, and since we worked a couple of high profile cases back to back. I don’t think that it was really her choice, I think that the decision was made by someone higher up in the chain of command.” Hotch shrugged, a half smile on his face; “I think that she was just informed to give us the week off.” He was probably already thinking of all the things he could do with his son during his week off without interruptions.

“A week off.” JJ said softly, the content of her words hadn’t quite sunken in yet.

“My lovelies, what are you all going to do with all that spare time?” Garcia asked with a smug smile on her face.

“Spend it with Jack, I think I might take him camping. He’ll love it!” Hotch said a fully fledged grin on his face.

“That is a great idea, bossman. I am sure that Jack will love it.”

“Chicago, I’m going home.” Derek leaned back in his chair placing his hands behind his head; “I’m going to see my mother and sisters, it’s been way too long again.”

Reid nodded his head in agreement; “I’m going to see my mother, check on the new treatment plan they put her on. I don’t really give it much of a chance, but she’ll only get worse if we don’t try everything there is to try. I’ve written to some doctors who set up a new treatment plan and made sure that she got into the first clinical trials.” Reid contemplated for a while; “Other than that I think I might read some books.”

“Of course sweetie, what else would you do besides read a couple of books.” Garcia said with her voice layered with sarcasm; “Sweet cheeks, in a week’s time you could read an entire library.”

“No, actually even for someone with my reading speed it would be highly unlikely that I could read an entire library in a week. For instance the DC Public Library has an average of…”

“Reid!” The team exclaimed in unison before the young genius could explain how untrue Garcia’s claim was according to some mathematic equation that no one wanted to hear about; “It was a joke!”

Garcia immediately turned towards JJ to move onto the next person and to hear what her plans were. “Jayje, what will you be doing, or should I ask who?” She asked with a cheeky grin. Every now and again, since JJ and Will broke up, Garcia had been teasing her about dating someone else. Most of the time the blonde just ignored it and moved on. This time however, she noticed that the brunette snapped her head up at the technical analysts question, though she didn’t say anything.

The blonde ignored the comment as well and moved on to answer the first part of the question; “I think that Henry is due for a visit with his Grandparents in East Alleghany. Though I might have to discuss that with Will first because he was supposed to have Henry this weekend. If I’m going to see my parents I want to leave as soon as possible.” The blonde shrugged trying not to get her hopes up, she hadn’t seen her parents in a while and she wanted to go home. “Maybe we can switch weekends or something.”

Emily’s face fell for a second before her SSA Prentiss face appeared, the one that was unreadable. She bowed her head and looked down at her hands; she swallowed hard before she looked back up again, and the smile she had been wearing earlier was planted firmly on her face again. No one seemed to notice what had happened except for Garcia, who quickly directed the same question she had been asking everyone at Rossi to give Emily a little more time to regain her composure.

“Rossi?”

“My publisher would probably like me to work on my next book, but I think that I’m going to my cabin. That sounds like a much better plan; I’ll hunt some ducks, drink some age old whiskey and maybe work on my book if I feel like it.” He added with a confident smile.

“I really like that rebel side you’re showing there, Special Agent Rossi!” Garcia exclaimed with another cheeky grin, she flirted with the older man before she turned her attention to the one agent she hadn’t asked the question. “So honey, one week off, what’s your game plan?”

Garcia grinned deviously; this time around it was JJ who flashed the green eyed monster before she turned her attention to her son, who was still cradled in her lap. Luckily for JJ, Henry chose that moment to wake from his slumber, taking up all of her attention.

“Haven’t really thought about it, maybe I’ll take a trip or go to a spa or something.” The brunette gave them a non-conclusive answer hoping that it would satisfy her team mates and friends. “What about you, PG?”

“Oh my pretties, while you are all away to refill those batteries, I’ll be here holding down the fort so that everything will be okay when you get back from your well deserved vacations. Besides that, there are other teams who need me.” Garcia smiled; “I will be here in my lair, imagine what the FBI would be like if I take a week off. If I weren’t here to answer all of their questions…” Her final words trailed off with a smile.

Henry, who had so far been sitting patiently in JJ’s lap, escaped from his mother’s embrace and quickly made his way towards Emily; “Hi Em’ly!” He cried out happily, both women held their breath hoping that Henry wouldn’t say anything that they would have to explain, and which would cause awkward situations amongst them. Neither of them had ever considered Henry outing them to their friends.

“Hi buddy!” Emily exclaimed just as happily as she bent over and picked him up. The small child settled on her lap in the same way he sat on JJ’s lap just moments before. His face buried in the crook of her neck resting against her shoulder. He put his thumb in his mouth and absentmindedly played with one of the buttons on Emily’s shirt. “I missed you, Em’ly!” He said loudly, loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Emily has been helping out a lot since Will and I broke up.” JJ smiled affectionately; “I guess they got attached to each other.”

“How about a ‘family dinner’ before you all go home? We all need to eat, so why not do it together, give you all some time to recover a little more before the drive home.” Garcia smiled while she looked around the small circle of friends.

“Sounds good to me, Jessica’s taking Jack to a movie so I won’t see him till tomorrow anyway.” Hotch agreed.

“Well as long as we go to a place that’s not too fancy I am all for it, since I have Henry.”

“Honey, he’ll be fine.” Garcia brushed away any concern JJ had with a smile. She quickly stood, ushering the others to follow her so the team grabbed their go bags. Emily stood cautiously; she didn’t want to disturb the sleeping child in her arms. JJ picked up her bag and rushed to Emily’s side; “Do you want me to take him?”

“Not necessarily, only if you want to carry him?” Emily said softly.

“Go ahead.” JJ answered with a smile, she wanted to turn around and grab Emily’s go bag instead. But when she turned around, Morgan was already standing behind her holding the bag.

“My chocolate hunk, always the perfect gentleman.” Garcia exclaimed as she hung onto his strong muscled arm.

Soon the whole team piled into the elevator, patiently waiting while the cart brought them downstairs to the employees parking deck. They discussed shortly where to go, and within seconds Garcia was making a call to see if they had room for a table for eight.

JJ and Emily walked towards JJ’s car, where Emily placed Henry in his car seat. “Emily, if you want I can drop you off at home after dinner, I have Henry with me so I can’t drink anyway.” JJ asked with a wink at Emily.

“Sure, thank you.” Emily replied with a genuine smile.

“Since boy genius and my chocolate hunk live in the same area as me, Esther can bring them home.” Garcia said with a grin, while she pointed at her old but trusted car.

“Esther?” Rossi asked, wondering if he had missed something.

“Her car.” Morgan explained to the older man with a grin on his face while he shrugged; “She named her car Esther.”

“Hmm.” Rossi hummed while he turned towards Hotch; “I guess that leaves you and me then?”

Soon, the whole team, including Henry, was seated in the restaurant of their choice trying to figure out what they should order from the varied menu. Light conversations were carried between them while they waited for the food to arrive.

Chapter 28

It was hard for JJ to concentrate on the road. Okay, hard might have been a huge understatement, it seemed to be almost impossible to drive. Her driving got so bad that Emily offered to drive, but the blonde was stubborn and promised that she would get the two of them safely to her house.

Neither of them had felt the need to talk, and the brunette had turned toward the window, her eyes focused on the streets that passed them by. The media liaison would glance at Emily every now and again, and had wondering if, like her, the profiler was nervous, or if she just didn’t want to be a distraction during the drive. JJ pushed the thought to the back of her mind and focused on the road ahead while she waited for the light to change.

As she parked in front of the garage, JJ released a breath that she had unconsciously been holding, secretly relieved that she had actually managed to park the car. Steadying herself, the blonde looked across at the older woman, and in this case, the more experienced woman.

Emily looked back at her girlfriend with a confident smile. She leant over the center console to kiss JJ, and soon her hands were entangled in the long blonde tresses.

Some of the nervousness flowed from JJ’s body as the seconds ticked by, but no matter how long the kiss lasted, when it ended despite feeling confident enough to exit the car, JJ could still feel those pangs of anxiety mixed with anticipation.

After slipping out of the car Emily followed her closely, but as soon as they reached the door a new wave of apprehension took JJ by surprise, causing her to fumble with the keys before she dropped them to the ground with a loud thud.

However, before JJ had a chance to recover and pick up the keys, the brunette had bent down and grabbed them. She stood back up again and closed whatever room there was between them. The taller woman wrapped her arms around the blonde from behind and pulled her close, her chin rested on the blonde’s shoulder before she spoke.

“Jayje, I love you. No matter what happens or doesn’t happen tonight will change that. I’ve seen you do incredible things, press conferences which any other person would have found intimidating to say the least, but I have never seen you this nervous. Sweetie, it’s just plain ol’ me.” The brunette said with a shrug before she placed a kiss on JJ’s cheek. She then continued to unlock the door with a steady hand before she pushed it open.

As JJ watched the door open in front of her as she felt the comfortable warmth of Emily’s body behind her, the sweet words echoed in her ears, and the usual confidence of the blonde returned to her features. She straightened her back instantly and turned around to face the older woman.

“I love you too, but don’t ever call yourself plain!” The blonde raised herself on her toes and looked up at Emily with a smile before she passionately kissed her. Something inside of the blonde clicked at that exact moment, all the nervousness that had previously occupied her flowed from her body.

Emily was surprised by the sudden change in demeanor, especially when both of JJ’s hands seized a hold of her collar and pulled her inside the house. Her foot hit the end of the door and slammed it shut in one swift move.

JJ kissed Emily a couple of times, tiny butterfly kisses filled with love, on her lips and down her throat before she stepped backwards. A soft moan escaped from the brunette’s mouth at the sudden loss of contact.

“Take off your coat and follow me upstairs but take your time, I need a couple of minutes.” JJ smiled affectionately, but a determination was obvious in her tone of voice as well. She turned around and quickly ascended the stairs, at the top she turned around and smiled at the brunette over her shoulder seductively.

Emily stood at the base of the stairs looking up, coat still on her shoulders as she watched the blonde at the top of the stairs disappear around the corner. She smiled and turned toward the coat rack, doing as instructed and hanging up her jacket before locking the door and placing the keys in the drawer where JJ always kept them. Still smiling, the profiler proceeded toward the kitchen to retrieve a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses. The brunette then ascended the stairs quickly after her girlfriend with a cocky smile on her face, softly calling out her name.

The blonde opened the door to her bedroom and held her hand out towards the profiler. Emily reached out and waited for the younger woman to grab a hold of her hand. As soon as their hands made contact she was pulled closer to the blonde and their lips crashed together in a heated kiss.

A warm yellow glow was cascading shadows across the room, which was the first thing Emily noticed when she opened her eyes. The younger woman in front of her was still holding her close. Soft sounds of music filled the room, and the delicious smell of flowers filled her nostrils along with the smell that was distinctly JJ’s perfume; a smell which she loved.

“Sweetie, this is perfect. You are perfect!” Emily confessed with a smile, she meant it with all of her heart. She’d almost added ‘just the way you are’ but that would have sounded completely cheesy, especially with that Bruno Mars song playing on the radio every hour or so.

JJ reached her hand out and took the glasses of wine from the brunette’s hands and placed them on the cabinet next to some of the candles she has placed around the room.

“I’m not perfect, a far cry from perfect even.” The blonde laughed it off while she pulled the brunette closer. Their lips crashed together in a searing kiss, JJ’s hands roamed over Emily’s body. Her fingers started to fidget with the buttons on Emily’s clothes. While they moved through the room, towards the bed at the center of the opposite wall, pieces of clothing were unbuttoned and unzipped. Shoes were scattered on the floor when they dropped to the bed in a heap of tangled limbs.

Emily gazed at the blonde as if she wanted to make sure that she had her consent, but JJ didn’t waste any time. Her fingers finally managed to open all the buttons on the brunette’s top and pushed the loose fabric off her shoulders. Her appreciative blue orbs eyed the newly exposed skin before she placed a couple of butterfly kisses along the brunette’s collarbone and neck. A moan erupted from somewhere deep inside of Emily when the blonde’s mouth sucked on her pulse point, no doubt leaving a mark on the exact spot where JJ’s lips had latched onto her.

The profiler wasted no more time, they had both wasted more than enough time, and she still blamed herself for not taking action three years before, when she just started to work at the BAU. So now she felt like any second she wasted was a second too many.

Emily’s hands reached for the hem of JJ’s knee length dress and she exposed the blonde’s thigh inch by inch. Her fingers ghosted over the newly exposed skin, receiving an immediate reaction from the younger woman when her hips bucked slightly. No words were spoken between them but they both knew what the other wanted.

The brunette pushed herself up from the mattress and held her hand out to JJ; the blonde quickly placed her hand in the brunette’s and let herself be pulled to her feet. As soon as they were standing Emily started to work on getting JJ out of her dress while the blonde did the same to her.

Within seconds they were standing in front of each other, only dressed in their underwear, admiring eyes gliding over their bodies. Of course they had seen each other in their underwear before since they were practically living together, sleeping in the same bed. But since they had decided to take things slow they had both made sure that they kept a certain level of decency around each other so that they wouldn’t provoke each other into things they weren’t ready for. But now all sorts of reservations had left their mind and they both let their eyes and hands wander.

“You’re beautiful.” JJ whispered the words under her breath, barely audible.

The hushed words caused Emily to shiver, not because she was cold, but because they stirred something deep inside her, she had never seen herself as particularly beautiful. She was more like an average looking woman in her own eyes, but the heartfelt and honest way in which JJ spoke made her feel all warm and tingly inside.

She stepped closer towards JJ; “You’re the beautiful one, sweetie.” She whispered her mouth right next to JJ’s ear, the media liaison laughed and pulled Emily into a passionate kiss.

Feeling Emily’s much smaller and softer hands, compared to a man’s hands, all over her body had an exhilarating effect on the blonde’s skin, the brunette’s fingers left a trail of goose bumps. One thing was for sure, none of JJ’s dreams had done any justice to the real effect Emily’s hands and mouth had on her body and mind.

Emily eased the two of them down on the bed and showered JJ’s skin with kisses while her hands roamed over the blonde’s skin. The media liaison’s black lace bra was the next clothing item to drop to the floor somewhere next to the bed.

The younger woman wrapped her hands around the profiler slowly, unclasping her bra and releasing her full breasts to her appreciative eyes as if she were unwrapping a gift. Emily smiled at the expression in JJ’s dark blue eyes; “I love you.” The words were spoken in complete awe at the woman beneath her.

JJ glanced up at Emily, whose eyes were almost black with passion; “I love you too.” She replied, the same type of love visible in her eyes. The blonde reached her hands up and entangled them in Emily’s dark tresses, as the older woman kissed a path from JJ’s mouth, down along her jaw line and neck and to her breast. She slipped her tongue out and twirled it around the blonde’s nipple, causing her to release a moan and arch her back closer into Emily’s touch.

JJ’s involuntary movements underneath Emily’s hands, and the soft moans escaping from deep within her, spurred the dark haired woman on even more. She let her fingertips wander over the sensitive skin of JJ’s abdomen before she hooked them in the lace panties the blonde was still wearing.

The brunette placed several butterfly kisses along the line of the panties before she moved down the blonde’s legs, taking the panties with her. JJ untangled her fingers from the dark tresses and grabbed the sheets underneath her in a death grip. Once Emily was standing at the edge of the bed, she dropped them on the floor.

The blonde’s eyes snapped open, and she watched the brunette standing at the end of the bed. Emily bent down and wanted to place her knee on the bed between JJ’s legs, but before she could the blonde opened her mouth and stopped the brunette dead in her tracks.

“Don’t…” Emily’s head shot up to watch the other woman in utter confusion, seeing dark blue eyes watching her intently before she continued talking. “I want you to take off your own panties, you got me completely naked, it’s only fair that you do the same before you get back into my bed and make love to me.” The blonde’s face broke into a devious smile.

The brunette smiled back; “We’ll see who laughs the longest, sweetheart!” She exclaimed while she placed her knee in between JJ’s legs and moved up the bed to kiss the blonde. One of her hands trailed up JJ’s long, well toned legs until they reached her center. JJ hissed between kisses when Emily’s fingers gently touched her bundle of nerves; her body’s reaction was instantaneous.

As Emily’s fingers curled inside of her, a flaring heat settled in her belly, a moan escapes her lips and she clenched her fists in the sheets, trying to keep herself from cuming too soon. She wanted this moment to last for as long as she could possibly take it, but once Emily moved down her body, placing kisses on her exposed skin along the way, JJ knew that she was a goner.

She wouldn’t last long, she could feel the orgasm building inside of her, and then suddenly Emily sat up and stared down at her, giving her a chance to catch her breath, waiting patiently for the nearing climax to subdue a little.

Although Emily wondered whether JJ would see it right away or not, she didn’t stop because she was teasing her. She stopped because she didn’t want it all to be over so quickly either. The blonde’s eyes snapped open to stare at the brunette, her ragged breaths preventing her from forming the words on her lips, but the question obvious in those beautiful eyes anyway.

Emily leant down and kissed the blonde slowly; “Jayje, I just want it to last a little longer.” She mumbled between kisses. Satisfied with JJ’s tiny nod as an acknowledgement, Emily moved down the blonde’s body again, trailing kisses along her skin and leaving goose bumps in her wake.

When she reached JJ’s core, the profiler slipped her tongue out teasingly, caressing the bundle of nerves while two of her fingers once again slipped into the blonde’s folds.

JJ’s hands, which had previously taken to caressing her, now fell limply to the mattress, only to clench the sheets again when the brunette started to move her fingers. The older woman moved in and out of the blonde as her tongue and mouth began to work on JJ’s bundle of nerves.

Soon, JJ’s involuntary movements and muscle twitches took over her whole body, and she came undone underneath Emily’s hands and mouth. The brunette made a show of cleaning her fingers with her tongue before she kissed JJ’s lips. The blonde smiled, tasting herself on the profiler’s lips.

Emily laid down next to the still rapidly breathing blonde, and absentmindedly stroked her hand over the her stomach while she watched the woman next to her come down from her orgasm.

After a couple of minutes the blonde turned on her side and watched Emily with a smile on her face. No words were spoken between them, but they didn’t have to talk to know what the other person wanted to say, it was visible in their eyes.

This time, JJ took the lead when she gently eased Emily onto her back and straddled the older woman. She took her sweet time caressing, kissing and worshipping the brunette’s body. This time it was Emily who came undone under JJ’s hands.

JJ lowered her body onto the brunette’s while she tried to even out her breathing, and Emily’s arms wrapped around her body, holding her close before she placed a gentle kiss on her temple. The blonde listened while the profiler tried to steady her breathing; she contently rested her head on the brunette’s shoulder. Both of them were exhausted but in a good way. Emily reached down to pull the blankets to cover them before they fell asleep.

JJ’s eyes fluttered open, and for once they easily adjusted to the light filtering through the curtains. She was instantly awake, not like usual when she needed a little while to wake up. Today everything was different. The feeling of last night returned instantly, she felt completely content where she was, and especially who she was with.

She turned her head towards the brunette who was still sound asleep next top her. The relaxed look on Emily’s face was one they hardly ever got a chance to see, and JJ was glad that she was here to witness it, and in a way be the cause of it. She stretched her hand out just above the profiler’s face.

She wanted to push a strand of hair behind Emily’s ear so that she could have a better look at her; however, her hand hovered over Emily’s face for a second longer before she pulled her hand back. Instead JJ placed it on the mattress next to her own body, in between the two of them in what little room there was.

JJ lost track of time as she watched the older woman, and it wasn’t until she heard the familiar buzz from her phone that she reacted and snapped back into reality. Quickly, she got up from the bed and grabbed the phone from her bedside table.

The young woman smiled when she saw the name flashing up on the screen, and as she picked up quickly, JJ whispered that she needed a second. She turned towards the older woman and smiled when she noticed that she was still asleep.

JJ quickly retrieved her bathrobe from her closet and left the room before she brought the phone back to her ear. “Hi.” The blonde media liaison descended down the stairs while she spoke softly. She dropped down on the couch and snuggled into the corner.

“Don’t hi me, and don’t play coy with me either. Details girl, details!” The red headed technical analyst laughed.

“I am not giving you any!” JJ exclaimed with a chuckle.

“Right, so either nothing happened or I’m going to have to pester our raven haired friend.” A chuckle erupted from the other side of the line. “But somehow, I don’t believe that nothing happened so I’m guessing that I’ll have to call Emily if I want to know last nights details.”

“No! Don’t!”

“Why? Are you afraid that she’ll dish out all of your embarrassing secrets?” Garcia sneered on the other side of the line.

“No, she’s still asleep in my bed upstairs, that’s why I couldn’t talk to you immediately when I picked up the phone, I didn’t want to wake her up.” The blonde admitted reluctantly.

“Aha, so you wore her out! Good for you!” Garcia exclaimed on the other side, making JJ quickly pull the phone away from her ear. Nonetheless, she was still able to hear the other woman’s loud, high pitched squeal. At that moment, the phone was pulled from her hand, and as the blonde snapped her head up at her partner her face colored a dark shade of crimson.

“Pen, we wore each other out and it was amazing, I hope that answer satisfies you enough to give us a couple of hours peace before we come over to pick Henry up?” Emily pulled the phone away from her ear without listening to the answer from the technical analyst, pushing the button to disconnect before she handed it back to the younger woman. The blonde still sat looking up at her, her cheeks still a deep shade of red.

Emily smiled at the blonde and motioned for her to move forward before she sat down behind JJ. She pulled the blonde closer to her and wrapped her arms around her; “You weren’t there when I woke up.”

“PG called and you looked so content and relaxed, I left because I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“Well, I woke up anyway because I missed you. I’m not used to sleeping alone anymore you know.” Emily replied between kisses. “Let’s get something to eat?” The brunette smiled while she nudged the smaller woman in front of her to get up from the couch.

“I’m not hungry, Em.” The media liaison claimed, but her own body soon betrayed her when a loud rumble erupted from her stomach.

“Right, Jayje, tell that to your stomach.” The smirk on Emily’s face couldn’t have been broader. Both women started laughing but finally they got up and retreated to the kitchen to prepare something to eat.

Chapter 27

JJ was nervous. This was it, the night that would change everything. She felt as if she was a teenager again, on one hand she was eager for it to happen, while at the same time she was wishing that it would all be over so she could leave the nervousness behind and just enjoy being intimate with Emily.

Garcia had picked Henry up, this was one night she didn’t want to deal with Will. It would just be too strange to ask him to come pick up his son so that she could have sex with her new lover. Him knowing that she loved Emily was one thing, rubbing it in his face would just be cruel, which is why she asked the technical analyst instead. The redhead loved her godson, and she didn’t mind watching him at all.

Garcia had been teasing JJ all week about the date and the media liaison had mostly ignored it, or at least, tried to ignore it as best as she could, which had been incredibly hard and a true test. There had been moments where she wanted to tell the others just so that Garcia would stop teasing her, or at least would make it possible for her to get through a meeting with the team without the redheads comments trying to get her to mess up.

She quickly ran upstairs to make sure that everything was in order before she took a shower and got dressed. She had exactly an hour and a half before she had to leave to pick Emily up at her apartment.

She checked the bedroom, everything seemed to be in order, well maybe not exactly in order like it usually was but everything was exactly the way she wanted it to be. Candles were placed on the bedside tables and rose petals scattered across the bed.

Yes, she was a sappy romantic! She just hoped that Emily would appreciate it, but to be honest she had no idea, the whole situation was making her nervous and she was starting to doubt everything she had planned. She wanted to bring romance back into her life, with Will there never had been much place for it, but she needed it. The Southern man might have had his charm, but he was no romantic. JJ had the potential to change the status of romance in her life with Emily, so she was taking the opportunity.

As soon as she was satisfied with everything, she gathered her clothing and disappeared into the bathroom. She appeared an hour later showered and dressed in a black, knee length dress. She took her necklace from the dresser and put it on, along with her ring and watch. The media liaison used the mirror above the dresser to touch up her make-up, and she returned to the bathroom to blow dry her hair.

Soon, she was ready to go; she pulled the front door closed behind her and locked it. A smile flashed over her face, thinking about the next time Emily and her would enter the house. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind as she got into the car, knowing that she would never get through the evening if she kept thinking about the end of it.

So she started her car and was soon on her way to Emily’s apartment, having turned up the sound of her iPod which she sung along to as she drove. Once she reached the apartment building she parked and made her way to the entrance. The hallway was guarded by a door man who sat behind the reception desk. “Ah, the lady who snatched away Miss Prentiss.” He said with a broad smile on his face.

“She’s home, right?” JJ smiled widely at the man across the reception desk.

The Latino man answered back with a smile of his own; while he straightened out his jacket as he got up; “Yes, she came home about two hours ago. She was really busy, normally we always chat but today she said that she had to run. Seeing you here all dressed up I get why.” He said while his eyes travelled up and down JJ’s body with an appreciative glance, though not in an too overtly manner. The man was a flirt but he would never cross the line, he acted the same around Emily. In fact the man was happily married and he had a couple of kids.

The blonde smiled politely; “Well, then I better get up there.” She quickly made her way to the elevator and waited patiently for it to arrive. Once the doors opened she slipped inside and pushed the button to Emily’s floor. Seconds later the doors opened again, and she walked down the hallway quickly, she didn’t want to waste any more time. She wanted to kiss Emily and take her to dinner, and afterwards … Don’t think about afterwards! She mentally slapped herself for thinking of what would happen later that evening.

Knocking on Emily’s door, JJ waited patiently for the brunette to open it for her. She could have used the key the profiler had given her, but she had yet to use it since they never stayed here, mainly because of Henry. JJ wasn’t going to use it now, either. However, as she waited she was getting pretty impatient and for a split second she considered using the key anyway, that was until she heard the distinct sound of high heels on a hard wood floor. She knew that her lover was approaching on the other side of the door.

Momentarily, the door swung open and JJ found herself temporarily mesmerized by the brunette across from her, and Emily was standing with what she could only assume was a similar look on her face. JJ grinned before she pulled Emily in for a searing kiss, which the brunette happily returned. “You look absolutely beautiful!” The blonde said between kisses with the grin still on her face.

“So do you, babe!” The brunette answered with a matching smile. “Let me just grab my coat and I’m ready to go.” Emily stated happily as she stepped backwards, both women immediately missing the contact they previously had and both women knowing they needed some space between them or they would never leave the apartment, to grab the said coat from the coat rack.

JJ smiled while she watched Emily as she gracefully moved through the apartment, shutting down the lights and grabbing her purse from the kitchen counter. “Ready.” She said with a smile while she pulled the door shut behind her and locked it. JJ leaned into Emily, she grabbed a hold of the brunette’s arm while the two of them walked down the hallway to the elevator.

Normally, JJ was glad with the fast elevator ride to or from Emily’s floor, but today she hated it. The door had barely closed when she leaned up against the brunette, kissing her once more, taking advantage of the time they had in the enclosed area. But she had barely had chance at all before the elevator dinged again. and she had to pull away from the brunette before the doors slid open.

The two women greeted Mike the doorman on their way outside, and upon approaching JJ’s car, Emily pulled her close again for another kiss before she opened the door and got inside. JJ lightly touched her lips and smiled before she made her way around the car and got inside the vehicle.

JJ and Emily were seated at a table in the center of the new restaurant, neither one of them had been there before, it was after all, the newest and hottest place in town. Emily knew that she could pull strings with her connections and her mother who worked as an Ambassador, but even she doubted that she would have been able to get a table at this place, she was impressed; “How did you get this table?”

JJ smiled smugly; “Impressed?”

“Well, yeah …” The brunette smiled back; “Yes, I am impressed! I mean this place is filled up each night. I don’t think I would have been able to get a table here now … not even if I throw around my mothers’ name!” The profiler watched her girlfriend in awe.

“Sweetie, it’s all about connections. And as you might know I am a media liaison, I have my fair share of connections! Although I have to admit that this is a special one. You see the hostess over there?” The blonde pointed at a woman who was obviously in charge of the place across the restaruant; “She’s one of the very few, but best friends I have outside of work.”

“Caroline?” Emily asked with a frown, remembering the blonde mention her before.

“Yes, that’s Caroline. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her, she’s been busy with this.” JJ waved at her friend who noticed her and nodded at her; “Her husband is the cook, James.” At that moment Caroline approached their table.

“Well I’ll be damned, Jennifer Jareau!” The dark haired woman hugged the media liaison who had gotten up from her seat. “I was so happy when I saw your email. This is great.” She released her hold on JJ and stepped back to introduce herself to the profiler.

JJ quickly stepped in; “Em, this is Caroline Beauford, Caroline this is my girlfriend Emily Prentiss.” Emily smiled widely when JJ used the word girlfriend to introduce her, it was the first time she had and it felt good, right. Caroline shook her hand and told her it was a pleasure to meet her, which the brunette returned.

“It’s really nice to meet you but … well, duty calls. We need to catch up soon, I’m so sorry but this place doesn’t run on it’s own, one of my waiters has been trying to get my attention. I’ll make sure that someone comes over to take your orders, but I can really recommend the ‘Chef’s choice’.” The tall dark haired woman smiled; “We need to catch up soon Jennifer, and Emily.”

“Thank you, Caroline. We’ll see you soon.”

“That’s a promise.” The woman quickly left their table pointing a couple of her waiters to certain tables while she took back control of the restaurant which was incredibly busy.

One of the waiters was sent to their table with a bottle of wine, he filled their glasses with compliments of the house and asked them if they wanted to order. “Caroline recommended the ‘Chef’s choice’, so I’ll take that.” The blonde answered the question with a smile.

“And I’ll take the same.” The brunette replied before she turned her attention back to her girlfriend; “It was really nice meeting Caroline.”

“Yes, it was. I told her about you and she said that she would make sure that we had a table. She forgot to mention that we would get the best table in the place.” The blonde smirked as she sipped her wine and looked around. The place looked absolutely marvelous.

As JJ turned back toward Emily, a devious smile appeared on her face when she thought about the rest of the night, unable to stop herself. She was still both nervous and excited about everything that was still ahead of them.

Emily’s brow shot up when she saw the look on JJ’s face, a question forming in her eyes immediately, inquisitively. The blonde simply giggled, actually giggled, but didn’t answer the question that was so obviously clear in the brunette’s eyes. Emily stared at her almost blankly, then a matching smile started to appear on her face as realisation really set in.

“Did Henry like it when his Aunty Pen picked him up today?” Avoidance was the best thing she could do since they still had to get through a meal and a ride home. Plus, she needed to distract herself from the fluster that rolled through her as the anticipation began to build.

JJ smiled, she knew exactly what Emily was doing, she was picking a relatively safe subject because she had figured out what she had been smiling about. “Henry was happy, but he did ask about you.” The blonde replied to her lover.

“Really?” Emily smiled happily; “I missed him too, it was strange being at the apartment. It’s too silent when I’m not around you and Henry. It’s strange how easily you adjust to something you never had before.”

JJ reached her hand over the table and placed it on top of Emily’s; “The feeling is mutual, we both missed you.”

At that moment, the waiter returned to their table with their meals and the conversation halted for a moment as they tasted the delicious food. Soon, their conversation of ‘safe topics’ started up again. The evening was filled with small talk and laughter and then came the time to go home. The nervousness JJ had previously felt returned with a vengeance.

While they walked back to the car she fumbled with the keys and dropped them on the floor, she bent down to pick them up and giggled nervously. Emily smiled and grabbed JJ’s hand to spin her around, moving the blonde back toward the care and moved in closely. Gently, she kissed JJ on the lips, running her hands up and down her sides in a soothing manner; “Jayje, we go as far as you want to go. We’re not forcing anything.” The brunette kissed the blonde with more passion this time; “There’s no need to be nervous.”

“Me? Nervous? Where did you get that idea?” JJ squeaked out.

“Yeah, me and my silly ideas.” Emily drawled sardonically with a dry smile and a roll of her eyes. She let go of JJ and stepped back; “Let’s just go to your place and see what happens.”

JJ looked up at the brunette with her big blue eyes and smiled, a little bit of the nervousness went away when she saw the look in the brunette’s eyes. She nodded and leaned in for a quick kiss before she pulled the car door open and quickly sat behind the wheel.

Chapter 26

Their lives together as a couple took form over the following weeks in which they both became more and more comfortable sharing every silly little detail of their lives together. JJ learnt that Emily was secretly a very romantic person who loved singing to every song on the radio. While the brunette found out that the blonde was a horrible cook, making Emily wonder how she ever survived when she had no one around to cook for her, and that JJ also loved taking photographs, something Emily had never known about the blonde either. But in the few weeks the two had been together, many pictures had been made and a couple of them found a place around the house.

JJ had decided that she had to come clean with Will, and two weeks after the nerve racking phone call, she had called him back and set up a time to meet up with him.

They had met in a diner nearby, sharing a meal together while JJ told the Southern man about her relationship with Emily. The brunette had stayed at the blondes house with Henry while his parents talked. Will had been mad, furious even, he had questioned JJ’s honesty about the start of their relationship and he insisted that he ask Emily the same questions he asked JJ.

At first the blonde didn’t want him to talk to Emily, but she knew that it was important for him to get some kind of closure. He would have to come to terms with the fact that their relationship was over. JJ had expected that he would not believe her since he had told her before that he thought that the brunette was gay and wanted to be in a relationship with JJ, which she, at the time, had brushed off as untrue. And at that time she had been convinced that it was indeed untrue.

Therefore, having expected the possibility of Will’s reaction and the need for him to talk to Emily, the blonde had brought it up the night before, figuring it would be the quickest way to resolve things. Thankfully, her girlfriend was on the same page as she was and agreed to talk to Will if necessary.

JJ sat at the diner with Will across from her, waiting for his initial anger to subside. It had taken a while before he had calmed down enough for JJ to even consider taking him home with her to talk to Emily, but eventually he simmered down enough, and the blonde hoped that he would be able to get his issues with the dark haired profiler out of the way once and for all.

If not, then at least the both of them could act civilized around each other, because in the future the two of them would have to meet face to face, that was inevitable if JJ wanted to continue seeing Emily. It hadn’t been an easy conversation, but in the end Will seemed content with the answers he got, even though he made it very clear that the brunette would never take his place in Henry’s life. The dark haired woman had nodded and told him that she could never replace his daddy, but that he would have to accept that she would have some kind of a role in the little boys life also. Will had agreed – though it was clear that he didn’t like it one bit – but he would take what he could get. That day Will had spent some time with Henry before he went home to the apartment he had recently found.

Since that day, except for some random times when he had either picked Henry up or dropped him off, neither woman had really talked to him. JJ felt like she could finally breathe again, the worse case scenario she had anticipated had never happened, and relief settled in as the strain on her relationship with Emily had been lifted. It had become a lot easier now that Will knew about them, and the blonde didn’t have to hide things around him in fear that he would try to take her son away, the difference between she and Emily was significant.

Most of the brunette’s clothes had found their way into the large closet the blonde had in her bedroom, and Emily, who had once been proud of her expensive apartment across town, now had to remind herself to go to her place every once in a while to check on her mail and water the plants. Usually, at the end of the day both of their cars were parked on the driveway outside of JJ’s two-story house.

But no matter how comfortable they were in their relationship together, no one at work was any the wiser, except for Garcia of course. The now red headed technical analyst took great pleasure in teasing the other two women into outing themselves to their small dysfunctional family, but she would never tell their secret to anyone without their consent.

Both Emily and JJ were worried about what might happen when they outed their relationship at work. Would they be allowed to work together while they stayed on the same team, or would one or both of them be transferred? They both knew that the FBI was not really open to inner-office relationships in most cases – though there had been exceptions in the past. Though to be quite honest, neither one of them believed that they would become that exception, since Strauss wouldn’t be open to allowing such a thing when she had tried so many times before to wreck their team.

Emily especially feared for her job, given that Strauss had tried to get rid of her before, when she didn’t agree to spy on their team. The stone cold bitch seemed to favour JJ, probably because she had a purpose for keeping the young media liaison around, the bureau chief never did anything unless it was in her best interest, after all.

However, no matter how worried about her job she might have been, Emily knew that she would never have to worry about money and she was well enough connected to find a new job if she needed and wanted one. She had told the blonde that if it came to one of them leaving the BAU it would be her who would leave. JJ had protested with all that she had, but in the end Emily’s arguments had been strong, too strong for her to counter them.

First of all, JJ needed her job to provide for her and Henry since the blonde insisted that she didn’t want to be dependant on Will, or on Emily for that matter. And as the brunette had put it, there were more profilers on the team and only one media liaison, so Hotch needed her more. They had a heavy discussion on the subject, yet still up to this moment, they still hadn’t agreed on whether or not they should tell their friends about their relationship. So for now they had agreed that they would just continue on the way it was right now until they could find an answer.

All in all, as their relationship blossomed and seemed to work, other related stuff had kept them on edge and then of course there was the intimacy issue. Though they had become more intimate, they still hadn’t gone all the way.

The date that JJ had been planning meticulously for tonight would change that, however, with the blonde knowing she had to let Emily know that she was ready. Not one detail had been left to chance, everything had been planned to be perfect.

She had made sure that Garcia could babysit Henry, and she had booked a table at a fancy new restaurant. She’d insisted that Emily go home to her apartment tonight to get ready for their date, stating that she would pick the older woman up.

Having the house to herself meant she would have enough time to prepare everything and get dressed for the date without the brunette’s knowledge of what was going on, though she was sure that Emily might have had an idea of what could be happening later that night, but she didn’t need to know everything beforehand.

The media liaison was excited and she had an extremely hard time concentrating on her job, hoping that every phone call she received was only a request for a consult or something that didn’t require the team heading out of town or even the whole team. She was relieved when it was finally time to go home.

Nothing could stand in the way of their date, not tonight.

Chapter 24

Sitting on the couch next to Emily, JJ pushed some buttons on the remote control before settling down into the cushions. “I hope you like this.” She said with a smile while the dvd started to play.

Emily chuckled, chewing her food and swallowing before she opened her mouth to reply; “I’m sure that right now I will like anything you make me watch.” She smirked, her next bite interrupted by a squeal from the blonde next to her.

“Em!” The brunette snapped her head towards the squealing younger woman; “I never figured you to be so cheesy!” JJ elaborated with a shrug, the tone of her voice was still raised higher than it usually was.

“You’re one to talk, you’re squealing! I mean Garcia has that one down to a tee, but you? I never knew you could do it too!” The brunette smiled; “Besides, I might be cheesy but I’m speaking the truth.”

“Right …” Was all the blonde said before she returned to stabbing at her food with the chopsticks. She felt nerves begin to rush through her while she pushed the food around her plate. They sat in silence for a while both of them engaged in their own thoughts.

But as the time ticked by, Emily became more and more worried about JJ, who appeared to be getting increasingly less comfortable and was nervously picking at her food. “Jayje? What’s going on?” The brunette watched the obvious anxious blonde.

“What … ehm, what’re you talking about?” The blonde said leaning forward – knowing that the older woman would not be able to see her face, and she would not be able to read her – while she reached for her glass. She swirled her red wine around, watching it intensely while the dark red liquid moved around in perfect circles.

“Jayje, you’re obviously nervous about something. I can’t remember ever seeing you this nervous, and I’ve seen you in quite a few different occasions in which any person would have been nervous as hell, but you didn’t even break out in a sweat and took care of the situation. So seeing you this nervous is actually quite worrisome.” Emily spoke softly, speaking each word carefully while she contemplated them before actually uttering them.

JJ’s movements halted and she looked up, swallowing hard; “So we’re actually going to do this?”

“Do what?” The profiler asked confused.

“Have sex…” The blonde said softly, the last word was barely audible before she took a sip from her wine and gulped it down hastily.

Emily laughed softly; “You don’t have to be nervous about that! We won’t do anything you’re not ready to do.” She elaborated, hoping that it would explain her laugh – she hadn’t meant to laugh at JJ’s fears but the laugh had escaped from her mouth because she was glad that it wasn’t something more serious that had JJ so worried – the brunette looked back at the blonde.

She moved closer, making sure that she had JJ’s attention before she continued; “I would never do anything you weren’t ready for, and as hard as it might be that includes any form of intimacy. I want to be in a relationship with you, this is not just a quick roll in the hay.”

The blonde let out a shaky breath, which she hadn’t known she was holding before she even dared to glance up at Emily. “I’m glad.” She answered softly before she rested her head on the brunette’s shoulder, finally relaxing the tense muscles in her body.

She pulled her legs up on the couch and placed the plate on the table, sure that she was done eating even though she had barely touched her food. Emily smiled and wrapped her arm around the blonde. The two women sat in silence for a while watching the movie – though neither one of them really seemed to follow what the movie was about.

“What if I’m no good at it?” The media liaison muttered after a while.

Every thought process in Emily’s mind came to a halt at that simple question. “What if you are no good at it? At what? Sex? With a woman? There is no good or bad at it, Jayje. First times are never easy but I’m sure that it’s not something you should worry about. Who says that I’m any good at it?”

“Oh please, as if you have something to worry about. At least it’s familiar ground for you, while I’m rediscovering … new found land.” She added with a devious smirk.

“That’s just … really Jayje, could you not have found a different way to express that thought?” The brunette asked with a grossed out face. “Besides that, why would I not have anything to worry about?” Emily asked the blonde – the movie was long since forgotten as it continued to play on the flat screen television across the room.

“Well, let’s just face the facts here, you know what you’re doing, there is no way around it.”

“That might be true, but who says that I’m any good at it?” The brunette countered again.

“Oh come on, Emily! We both know that you are quite the player when you want to be. And we both know that you have used it to your advantage.”

“Yes, maybe, but usually I don’t stay around long enough to ask if I was any good.” Emily huffed; “And second dates are hardly ever on the menu.”

“So what you’re telling me is that I’m getting all worked up for nothing?”

“Yes, basically. Let’s just enjoy what we have and take it day by day and if we have to, hour by hour. We’re in no rush; I have waited so long for this, I’m sure that I can hold off on sex a little longer. Although I personally prefer the term lovemaking when it comes to you. Sex is what I had with those other women. This is different.” She knew that her confession could be interpret as basically saying ‘I love you’ without actually saying those three dreaded words, but she felt like she had to say it, she needed to make sure that JJ got what she was telling her.

The blonde smiled and leaned her head against Emily’s arm, her hand wrapped around the older woman’s midsection, and the smile on her face was one of utter content. The brunette’s smile matched the blonde’s, and finally their eyes came to rest on the television screen, staring at the movie neither one of them had followed.

A few minutes later the brunette choose to speak up; “Does it make sense if we continue watching this movie right now, seeing how we’ve already missed half of it?”

The blonde yawned before giving an answer and looked up at the profiler who chuckled; “Well I guess that answered my question, maybe you should get some sleep while I go home.” She had trouble hiding the sadness when she mentioned the word ‘home’.

“No! Please stay.” The blonde answered quickly while she pushed herself up and kissed Emily; “Please stay, I want you to stay.”

“It’s getting late-ish, maybe I should go.” The older woman said with a smile while she tried to get up however the blond was relentless and she wouldn’t let go of her.

“No! Are you really going to make me beg!” The media liaison watched the brunette with her big blue eyes. “I’d like it if you would stay here tonight. I’m not ready for … well the whole … ehm take it to the next level intimacy thing but I … eh, would really like it if you would stay here so that in the morning I can wake up in your arms.” The last words were rambled off quickly while she inspected her nails intensely.

Emily smiled at her obvious nervousness regarding the question she had just asked; the brunette leaned in and kissed the blond. “Okay.”

The one word answer was spoken softly between kisses.

Chapter 23

After their lunch break they continued their walk through the Zoo and Emily continued to tell Henry all about the different animals. The blonde listened intensely, and she couldn’t help but wonder why the brunette had closed up when she had asked her about her knowledge. However, she decided not to broach the subject again anytime soon.

Later on when their day at the Zoo was coming to a halt, Emily had insisted that they should go to an ice cream parlor which sold original Italian ice cream. It was the best in all of Washington according to the brunette. Soon there after they strolled back towards the car and the blonde drove back to her house.

“What about pizza, or Chinese … No, I know, Thai food, and then we can have a quite night…” The last sentence was spoken softer than how she had spoken before. She seemed a little nervous as she turned her head towards the brunette for a moment. “That’s your favorite right?”

Emily smiled; “You know me all too well.”

“Well, how about it?” JJ questioned with a smile, again paying attention to the road ahead of her.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” The brunette agreed with the blonde.

“Good, I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.” The younger woman confessed, glad that she could focus on the traffic around her instead of on the profiler next to her. She wasn’t sure if she would have been able to make that confession looking straight at Emily.

“Me either, Jayje. Me either.” The profiler turned her gaze out the window, and a smile played on her lips. The occupants in the car fell into a comfortable silence for the rest of the drive, until JJ parked the car in her driveway.

“Em, I’m sorry to ask you this but could you maybe get our things, well mostly my things, out of the car while I get Henry upstairs? I’m pretty sure that he’s out for the count. And when I come back downstairs you and I can have a quite evening together.”

“Anything specific you want me to order?” Emily asked the younger woman while she watched her carefully.

The younger woman moved closer towards Emily, she kissed her softly before moving backwards with a teasing smile; “You’re the profiler, figure it out.” She made a swift move and blonde hair brushed along Emily’s hands as she spoke with a chuckle before she quickly got out of the car.

Emily watched, stunned that the other woman was such a tease. She never would have figured that JJ kept this side of herself hidden so well, but then again in their line of work there wasn’t really any room for teasing. Besides that there was of course the fact that it was hard to trump Garcia’s teasing.

She got out of the car, nodding her head in disbelieve. She never would have pegged JJ to be such a tease, but she had apparently be wrong. She held her hand out and asked JJ for her keys. The blonde handed them to her before she bent into the car and picked up her sleeping son.

Meanwhile, the brunette opened the trunk and gathered the diaper bag and the stroller. She closed the trunk and followed JJ towards the house while she locked the doors with the remote. Once she opened the door JJ took her young son upstairs. Emily placed the bag and the stroller underneath the coat rack and made her way into the kitchen. She picked a menu from the fridge and sat down at the kitchen counter. Her eyes flew over the menu and she made a choice, dialed the number and placed their order. She sat at the breakfast counter in the middle of the kitchen patiently waiting for JJ to return.

Absentmindedly, Emily went through her phone menu until she reached the gallery; she glowed at some of the pictures she had taken during their trip to the Zoo. She stopped flipping through the pictures when she reached a particular one that showed JJ and Henry and herself.

They had asked a woman who was visiting the Zoo with her family. It had been JJ’s idea; she had claimed that there also needed to be a picture of the three of them, given that it was either JJ who took a picture of Henry and Emily or vice versa. The woman had smiled and agreed if they would take a picture of her and her family too, which of course the two agents had agreed to do. When she handed the phone back to Emily she had commented on what a cute son they had.

Emily had wanted to set the woman straight by telling her that Henry wasn’t hers, but JJ had just grabbed her hand to silence her and thanked the woman. It had been a strange situation but neither of them had said anything about it since it happened. The brunette was still thinking about it when JJ suddenly appeared behind her. The young blonde wrapped her arms around Emily and startled the woman; she placed her chin on the profilers shoulder and murmured sorry.

Emily chuckled; “You just startled me, no need to say sorry. I was just lost in thought and hadn’t noticed you walking in.”

“That is a cute picture.” JJ commented while she watched the picture on Emily’s phone. “Can you send it to mine?”

The brunette placed her hand on top of JJ’s, which was still gently placed on her middle. “Sure I can. Thanks for taking me with you, I loved it.”

“Good, I had a great time as well, but it’s not over yet. Today I mean.” She added to be certain that the brunette got what she meant. The blonde placed a kiss on the profiler’s cheek, she reluctantly let go of Emily and turned around.

She placed her back against the breakfast counter, while Emily turned in her seat. She placed her hands on the media liaisons hips and pulled the blonde closer to her. JJ moved in-between Emily’s legs, gently placing her hands on the brunette’s thighs and moved even closer towards her.

JJ leaned in and kissed the older woman, their kiss rapidly turning into something more, an exploratory kiss which soon turned into a battle for control. Emily wrapped her arms around the younger woman; she reveled in the warm closeness of their bodies. The only thing that tore them apart was the bell signaling that their food arrived.

The blonde pushed herself away from the brunette with reluctance. The profiler pulled her closer and kissed her briefly before she released her hold; “The faster we answer the door the faster we can continue this. And I promise you we will continue this.” She said; her voice holding a confidence of a promise she would collect on later.

JJ smiled, and pushed herself away again; “Hmm, that sounds good. I better go and pay the delivery boy then.”

“Oh, I think you should … quickly.” The brunette said with an undertone in her voice, one the blonde had never heard before, at least not from her brunette counterpart. She swallowed hard before she watched the brunette turn around and search the cabinet for plates and glasses.

JJ quickly spun on her feet and made her way into the hallway to answer the door. She was sure that by her flushed looks the deliver boy could guess why it took her so long to answer the door. He handed her the bag of steaming hot Thai food, which she placed on the floor next to the door before she proceeded handing over the money, she tipped him generously. He couldn’t be more then sixteen years old but before she had a chance to close the door he wished her a good evening with the most cheeky smile she had ever seen on a boy that young. Well at least not since she herself had been that young.

JJ closed the door with an amused smile, and when she turned around to move back towards the kitchen she caught her own reflection in the mirror. Indeed she did have a flushed appearance, but that was not the only thing that gave her away. What stood out even more was the smudged evidence of lipstick, which wasn’t only her own color but also Emily’s. She traced a finger along her swollen lips while a smile appeared on them. She turned around to move back towards the kitchen, where she found Emily leaning against the door frame with a devious smile on her lips.

“You let me answer the door looking like this?” JJ asked the question she didn’t need to ask, the answer was written all over Emily’s face.

“Yes, I wanted to tell you how good my color of lipstick looked on you, but I figured that the poor delivery boy had been waiting so long already, so I planned on telling you after he left.” She told the younger woman while she tried to contain a serious face but failing miserably. The sparkle gave her away the second JJ raised her eyes and watched the brunette.

“Tease, you can be sure that payback’s gonna be a bitch!” The blonde claimed before she tried to pass the older woman in the doorway, but Emily hadn’t stepped back as JJ assumed she would do.

She squared her shoulders and embraced the younger woman; “Sorry Jayje, I just loved the way you looked and before I could say anything you were already out of the kitchen…”

“Right, just so you know you aren’t the only one who enjoyed it.”

“Whaddya mean?” The brunette asked between kisses, slightly stumbling over the words.

“The delivery boy, the barely sixteen year old immature delivery boy, enjoyed it as well.” The media liaison elaborated; “He wished us a good evening, he even had the nerve to give me a wink when he said it with his way too confident cheeky smile!” At the end of the sentence her voice had raised a few octaves.

“Oh, let him have his fun, it’s not like he actually saw anything. I would have had to kill him if he had.” She answered with a smirk.

She wrapped her hand around the handle of the bag and took a hold of it, she setting the food down on the table to start to unwrap the containers, filling her plate with all of her favorite Thai food.

JJ joined Emily at the kitchen counter and grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge and poured it into two glasses. The blonde watched on as the brunette moved confidently through her kitchen to grab some utensils from the drawer and back to the cabinet for another plate. Emily turned around back to the counter and noticed the look on JJ’s face; “What?” she asked a little confused.

“Nothing.” She said with a faint smile playing on her lips. She liked the confidence with which Emily moved through her kitchen, taking control of the situation. It had taken Will a long time before he moved that freely around JJ’s house. When he first moved to DC, everything had been new and strange, she understood that but the fact that he had been so uncomfortable in her house had made her feel uncomfortable as well. It had almost made her agree that they should find a new house, now she was glad that they never made the move, she was happy here. She had paid for this house by working as hard as she did.

While JJ was thinking about all of this Emily had fixed her a plate as well. Emily had watched her with a concerned look, and when the blonde didn’t reply to her question she was even more concerned. She moved closer towards the younger woman and gently touched her arm, JJ seemed to startle at her touch and snapped her head up at her. “Em’ly.” She said softly.

“You are not really mad at me, are you?” The brunette asked the younger woman, getting a little more worried with each passing minute.

“Me? No, why would I be mad at you?” The media liaison was slightly confused by Emily’s question and her apparent insecurity.

“Well, for one you didn’t respond when I asked you what you wanted to eat, so I prepared a plate for you and secondly, you were thinking about something … reminiscing maybe …” The brunette was rambling and she knew it. She was aware that she was doing it, between profiler’s there was the unspoken rule that you would not profile each other, but she was also well aware that she wasn’t able to read her as well as she would be able to with other people.

“I am sorry, I didn’t think that I was gone for so long. I was just thinking, I just noticed how easy you are moving through my house. With such confidence… and I like it.” JJ confessed a little shyly.

“Oh, ehm I am sorry I didn’t mean to intrude.” Emily said while she nervously dragged her fingers through her long dark hair.

The blond moved closer towards the profiler; “Didn’t you hear what I said, I like it. I was thinking about when Will first moved in how out of his comfort zone he seemed, he would always ask if he needed something. It made the whole situation at first really stressful because we didn’t feel comfortable around each other. Of course there was also the added stress of a less than planned pregnancy, don’t get me wrong I don’t regret that now but it did put a lot of stress on that relationship. I was thinking how much different things are with you, now.” The blond said while she moved closer towards Emily and kissed her. “I am not mad at you, I have no reason to be mad or anything of that nature. Common’ let’s take our dinner to the living room maybe we can watch a movie or two.”

Chapter 21

As JJ woke up she glanced at the clock and stretched out in the bed, realising that she missed having someone besides her, she missed the warmth of a lover. She missed being woken by their gentle kisses or in turn watching them as they woke up.

JJ reveled in the feeling of the sun playing on her skin as it shone through the curtains. For the first time in what felt like forever she was feeling well rested. Suddenly she realized that Henry hadn’t woken her up which was in it’s own a rare occurance and while she glanced at the clock again, she was surprised to see that he had apparently slept through the night. With a start she got up and went to check on him, only to find him contently lying in his crib wide-awake. JJ smiled at him and leaned down to pick him up. “Hey baby, did you sleep well?” The blonde asked as he threw his little chubby arms around JJ’s neck and gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

“Yes!” He exclaimed happily, not quite able to temper his volume in his excitement.

JJ talked to Henry as she cleaned his diaper and got him dressed before she took him down to the kitchen to prepare their breakfast. She sat Henry down in his high chair with a couple of toys and talked to him all the while she was talking to him while she was cooking. Every now and then the little boy would say something back to her, but often it was something completely unrelated and random. She was looking forward to the moment that his vocabulary and understanding of what was being said would improve to a level were she could really interact with him. The young woman smiled while she watched him take the little pieces of bread and stuff them into his mouth one after another. Every now and then she had to remind him to slow down. While she watched him a plan started to form in her head.

“Henry, would you like to go to the Zoo today? So we can see all the animals I showed you in the book daddy bought for you?”

“Yes, I wannasee elephant!” Henry clapped his hands happily, and then he asked the dreaded question. “Is daddy coming?”

“No, honey, daddy isn’t coming.” JJ answered with a sad smile, it was the one question you never wanted your child to have to ask. It should be normal for a dad to be around and to go with them on a trip. That was why she kept trying, why she had been so persistent to not give into her feelings for Emily when she was still living with Will. For a while she had thought that she owed it to Henry to make it work with his father, but now she could see that it didn’t work. “Maybe I can give aunty Em a call, would you like that?” The blonde asked her young son, knowing that he loved his aunty Em and maybe … surely also for her own personal reasons.

“Yes! Aunty Em, she come to the Zoo?”

“I’ll have to give her a call.” JJ picked up her phone and looked down at Henry who was already engrossed in his cars. She dialed the number for Emily before she lost the nerve to do so, it was strange how she never questioned calling Emily before and now she was wondering if she should disturb her on a Saturday morning. However, before the agent could question whether or not to call Emily any further, the line connected and she could hear the brunette say her name. JJ realized that she hadn’t said a single word but that through her caller ID Emily knew exactly who it was that called her.

Emily repeated her name; “Jayje? Are you there?”

“Yes, sorry Emily. Yes I am.” The blonde smiled; “Sorry, I was distracted by something Henry was doing.” She explained softly, utilizing her young son to explain her silence. “I wanted to thank you for last night.”

“No problem, I’m glad that you gave me a chance to take you out on a date.” The brunette smiled as well; “I’d like to do it more often.” She confessed softly while she played nervously with the hem of her tank top before she moved on to a loose thread on her shorts. Her voice sounded steady but her nerves were running havoc inside of her. Instinctively, Emily knew that nothing went wrong, that their date had been comfortable, but at the same time she feared that after all the drama their date had been too easy.

“Emily?” The blonde replied softly, and Emily’s heart dropped in her chest. Here it was, she was sure of it. JJ was going to let her down easily. She sucked in a breath and held it. “Em, I would love to go on more dates with you. I had a great time last night.” She watched her son, who was still playing with his cars on the floor in front of her. She was surprised when she heard Emily release a breath, which she had obviously been holding. “Em, did you expect me to say something else?” JJ inquired gently.

“No, no of course not!” The brunette replied with a nervous chuckle.

“Well, either you’re really confident of yourself or you’re not being truthful to me, please don’t do that.” The blonde replied sternly. “I was worried too, I almost didn’t call because I didn’t want to seem…I don’t know…”

“No, don’t worry about that. I think that I’ve picked up my phone at least half a dozen times to call you but I didn’t and then you called me.” Emily admitted.

JJ chuckled, relieved that she wasn’t the only one who wanted to call the other one. They had it bad, that much was obvious from their phone conversation. To be quite honest, she had never felt more comfortable on a date then she had with the dark haired profiler, once Emily arrived at her house that was. She had really been serious when she wanted to call the date off yesterday when she was getting ready. It had been Garcia who kept her sane and made sure that she wouldn’t do anything stupid before Emily arrived at her house. And one look at the brunette had melted all the nervousness away because she saw the same look in her eyes. “Em, the reason I’m calling is that I was planning on going to the Zoo with Henry today and he’d like it if you’d join us?”

The dark haired profiler chuckled; “Who’s lying now, Jayje? Henry would like it if I would join you? I sure hope that you would like it as well?”

The usually so well-spoken media liaison had to attempt three separate tries before she was able to speak up; “I would love it if you would come with me and Henry to the Zoo. I don’t want to overwhelm you, or push Henry on you…”

“Jayje hush.” Emily’s words halted the blond from continuing the sentence she had started. “Don’t finish what you were about to say. I would be offended if you would finish what you were about to say, I know that you have Henry to think of. But Jayje, I choose you and Henry is part of that package, besides I love the little man and I think that it’s a great day for a trip to the Zoo.” Emily rambled on while the blonde listened breathlessly.

Tears appeared in the FBI agents’ eyes, emotions were running high and she swallowed hard to calm herself down; “Emily, really. You mean that?” JJ turned her attention to her son; “Henry, Emily is joining us on our trip to the Zoo, isn’t that cool?”

“Yes, cool!” The little boy yelled happily, before he launched himself into JJ’s lap to grab the phone and let Emily hear his ‘yes cool’ screamed through the device for good measure as well. He was silent for a second before he turned to his mother with a questioning look on his innocent face; “Huh, no one is there?” He said with a questioning look on his face.

“Hi Henry!” Emily said with a smile on her face at the little boys antics. But Henry held the phone away from his ear while he looked up at his mother.

“You have to keep the phone by your ear, otherwise you can’t hear anything, sweetie.” JJ coached him to hold the phone by his ear, while the child listened with an intense look on his face.

“Hi Henry?” The brunette said again, after all she was able to hear what the blonde had told her son.

“Hi Em’ly. You come to the …” He snapped his head up at his mother for help. ‘Zoo’ JJ told him, he nodded his head before he tried to repeat it; “Sssoooo?”

The profiler kept the chuckle that threatened to escape from doing so and waited patiently for the young child to finish his question; “Yes, Henry I would love to go to the Zoo with you and your mom.”

“Cool!” Henry answered with a smile; “Here, mommy.” He said while he trusted the phone back in the blonde’s hand before he moved back towards his cars. He was already completely focused on his game before JJ even managed to get the phone back to her ear.

“Well, that settles that then. Doesn’t it?”

“Yes it does. I’m glad that he likes the idea of me joining the two of you.”

“Of course he does, he’s crazy about you and Pen. Well he’s crazy about all of you. If I say that I am going to see you he always wants to come with me. Anyway, I need to get some things ready and make sure that I have all of Henry’s stuff, I think that I need about thirty minutes tops. Would it be a problem for you to come here? We can take my car to the Zoo but it gives me just a little bit more time to prepare.” JJ asked the profiler while she tried to think of all the things she could possibly need for a day out.

Emily got up from the couch and walked towards the window, she looked out over the Capitol while she listened to JJ with a smile on her face. “It’s no problem at all, I will be there in thirty minutes.” Both JJ and Emily said their goodbyes and disconnected their phone call.

Emily pushed herself away from the window and made her way to the stairs, she took them two at a time and was upstairs in a matter of seconds. She rummaged through her closet for a good five minutes to pick out her outfit before getting dressed.

Soon, Emily was in her car driving towards the media liaisons house. She was nervous. Sure she had spent some time with Henry before, but it had been different then, she was a co-worker and a friend of his mother. Now she was a love interest who might in the future potentially become a huge influence in the boy’s life, of course depending on how their relationship would develop. And even though Emily had said that she choose the package including JJ’s son when she choose her, the mere thought of spending time with the little boy made her a tad bit nervous. She was not used to being around kids.

For the third time in less then twenty-four hours the brunette parked her car in front of the blonde’s house and made her way to the front door. The door swung open and a brightly smiling JJ was standing in the door opening. Emily smiled, a little shyly, when she saw that the younger woman was holding her son in her arms.

At first she had wanted to lean in and kiss the media liaison but being confronted with Henry threw her off a little. JJ seemed to notice the hesitation; she took matters into her own hands and pulled the brunette close to her. She kissed the older woman passionately; “I’m glad you could join us.” She lingered closely to Emily and gently trailed her fingers along Emily’s jaw line.

Emily wanted to step back, but a small hand tugged on her short sleeve; “I wantssa kiss too!” Henry said to Emily with a cheeky smile. The brunette smiled and leaned towards the small boy, she kissed him on his cheek. In response Henry wrapped his small chubby arms around her neck, he leaned closer to Emily making it harder for his mother to hold him. Instinctively Emily reached her arms around him and slowly JJ let go. The media liaison watched her lover and her son together for a few seconds; she let the feeling of utter happiness warm her heart. She hadn’t felt this alleviated in a long time.

“Seeing how you’re holding Henry, it gives me time to put everything we need in the car. That is if you don’t mind holding him a little longer.” JJ asked while she bit her lip.

“We’ll be fine, won’t we little man?” Emily asked the boy in her arms. “Besides, I better get used to this.” The blonde grabbed the bag she had placed underneath the coat rack and stepped outside. Emily followed her lover outside; before she could stop Henry he had grabbed and pulled the oversized sunglasses from her dark long hair. He turned them and put them in front of his own eyes. “Those look good on you buddy, what do you think should we maybe see if we can get you some cool big boy sunglasses?”

Before Henry could answer his mother stepped in; “Em, you better get those away from him, lately he has a knack for throwing things. God knows I had to replace mine three times in just as many weeks.” JJ smiled while she placed the bag in the back of the car, while the brunette took the glasses from the small child’s grabby fingers.

She knew that Emily had never been around children much to begin with and therefore she wasn’t used to their antics. However, she was convinced that Emily would soon find her footing; if their relationship went the way the media liaison hoped it would progress. And therefore she decided that it was better to let her handle this situation on her own. Finally Emily managed to retrieve her sunglasses and she hooked them into the back pocket of her jeans away from Henry’s grabby hands.

She then took it upon herself to put Henry in his car seat, which was easier said then done. JJ watched on, biting her lip to prevent the chuckle from escaping. Emily stepped back and looked up at the blond with a confused expression on her face; “Apparently you have to be a mere genius like Reid to figure this car seat out.” She said with an apologetic smile. JJ stepped in and it took her skillful fingers merely seconds to strap him into the seat. Meanwhile, Emily sat down in the passenger seat waiting for JJ to take them to the Zoo.

Chapter 20

“Emily, what’re we doing here?”

The profiler parked the car and turned off the ignition; “You’ll see soon enough.” The brunette stated simply with a smile. She got out of the car and quickly moved around it and opened the passenger side door.

“How chivalrous.” JJ said with a genuine smile as she got up from the leather-clad seat. She leant over the door and kissed Emily softly, having a sneaking suspicion of where they were. “Now, are you going to tell me where we are, or why we’re here for that matter? Because this looks a lot like the Smithsonian, and if it is, wouldn’t it be closed at this time of evening?”

This was not exactly where she had expected to be for the place of their first date. But she knew that Emily was going to surprise her, never the less, and their unlikely venue made her even more curious as to what the older woman had planned for them.

“Yes, you’re right. It is the Smithsonian, the Museum of Natural History actually.” The brunette told the younger woman.

“And why are we here?” JJ asked a little more confused and curious with each passing minute.

“You’ll see.” Emily answered softly though mysteriously, locking the car before taking JJ’s hand in hers. She led them both down the pavement toward the darkened historic building, smiling confidently, knowing that the blonde media liaison would love the surprise she had in store for her.

As they reached the stairs, the brunette took out her phone and dialed a number, then waited for the call to connect and smiled at the reaction she got on the other end of the line. Seconds later, a light illuminated the entrance from behind the glass door and a woman appeared behind it. She waved at Emily who waved back as she guided JJ up the stairs.

Within seconds, the door opened and the woman greeted them with a warm smile; “Emily Prentiss, I couldn’t believe it when I saw your name flash up on my phone this afternoon!” She quickly made her way toward Emily and hugged her tightly.

“Yes, yes! I know it’s been far too long, and I am so sorry.” Emily smiled apologetically when she let go of the dark haired woman. “Helena, I want you to meet Jennifer Jareau.” She turned toward JJ who stepped forward and took the other woman’s’ hand. “Jayje, this is Helena Chamberlain, she and I go way back.” The profiler explained, making a gesture with her hand.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” Helena spoke with a thick English accent.

“Finally meet me?” JJ questioned the woman, immediately picking up on the fact that Emily evidently had talked about her before today.

“Yes, finally. Don’t act so surprised, you managed to leave quite an impression on my friend here. For the past … what was it again, Em? Almost 5 years she has been rambling on about you.” Helena revealed, turning back from Emily toward JJ; “Come on, lets not stand here in the door opening, there is so much more to see inside.”

Helena enthused, ushering both of the women inside. Emily’s face had turned a deep shade of red, and she was glad that they were still standing outside where the light could not illuminate her face enough to show the others how flushed she looked. Leave it to Helena to spill her secrets.

For a second JJ wondered if in the past these two women were more then just friends, but she pushed the thought to the back of her mind. She was sure that there would be more than enough time to question Emily about it at a later point. A small tug on her hand brought her back to the here and now, and she followed Emily and Helena inside the Smithsonian; “But isn’t this museum closed?” The young Agent asked, wondering who the Englishwoman really was, so far she only knew her name after all.

“Not if you are one of the resident scientists who owns a key and likes to work during the night, because she gets awkward when all the people are walking around.” Helena answered with a half serious smile as she stepped into the old building, allowing the other two women to pass her before she closed and locked the door behind them. “I’m going back to my office, you know where to find me when you are ready to leave, right?”

“Yes, we’ll come to your office before we leave.” Emily promised with a smile as she watched as her friend retreated in the direction of her office. Emily had been here a couple of times before, ever since Helena landed the job at the Smithsonian they had picked their friendship back up, and generally saw each other at least once a month. They had tried dating for a little while but that hadn’t worked out for the two of them.

The two FBI Agent’s watched as Helena disappeared down the hall. JJ turned toward Emily and gaped at her, half excited half exasperated; “Oh my God! What did you do Emily? How am I ever going to top this date?” The blonde exclaimed with a smile.

“Sweetie, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” The brunette smiled and reached her hand up to cup the blonde’s cheek. “Besides, you deserve it.” For some reason, whenever Emily thought of the perfect first date with JJ, this had been what she had in her mind and she was excited that finally she could let that dream come true. She was finally here on a date with JJ and nothing could stop her now, she leaned in and kissed the younger blonde.

“Thank you.” The media liaison whispered softly between kisses.

“You don’t have to thank me.” Emily said as she took JJ’s hand in hers and lead them toward the exhibit she wanted to show her. The hallways were illuminated enough for them to find their way, bathing them in gold coloured rays. The second they stepped inside the room, JJ knew what they were doing there, a butterfly exhibit. A huge grin appeared on JJ’s face and she instantly turned toward Emily and kissed her passionately.

They spent the next hour or so walking between the several parts of the exhibit to end up in the butterfly garden. A beautiful place filled with trees, plants and many different coloured butterflies. JJ was in complete awe of the beautiful environment they were in. The beauty of the garden around them made the two women feel privileged, especially in their line of work with all the horror they see on a daily bases they enjoyed the silent refuge.

Emily guided them to a bench in the middle of the garden and sat them down. They looked all around them, at the butterflies flying from one tree to another, shimming in the yellow glow of the lights that were scattered around the garden area. For a few minutes neither woman spoke, instead just comfortably basked in the scenic and peaceful atmosphere, until the brunette opened her mouth to break the silence.

“Jennifer?” She asked, using JJ’s full name, which immediately got her complete attention. She had a feeling that whatever Emily was going to say was something important as the mood shifted slightly to a more intense one.

“This is what I wanted for so long, and I’m so happy that I finally have the chance to be open with you about my feelings. This place just seemed like the perfect place for a first date.” Emily endeavoured to explain before she leant in and gently kissed the younger woman. Tears were brimming in the blonde’s eyes; she closed them and kissed Emily back.

“This is perfect.” She agreed between kisses, voice thick with emotion as she placed her hand on Emily’s neck to hold her close. She herself however, moved back to allow Emily to see the emotion etched on her face and the tears in her eyes. Good tears, happy tears; “Thank you so much, this is truly perfect.”

“Oh sweetie, don’t cry.” Emily pleaded quietly, beginning to absorb JJ’s emotions as they affected her own.

“These are good tears! I am so happy right now.” JJ leaned in and hugged the older brunette, wrapping her arms around her and feeling completely content. Right now in this moment, she knew that she had made the right choice. They sat there for a little while longer, softly talking, enjoying their company and the environment before they headed back to Helena’s office to tell her that they were leaving. Helena smiled when she saw them and insisted that they would have to go on a lunch soon.

Hand in hand, the lovebirds walked back to the car, and even though it was something new in their relationship, it felt good, a natural progression. Upon arriving at the car, Emily announced that she had made a reservation at a restaurant. Curious as she was, JJ tried to figure out which restaurant they were going to, but like before the brunette wouldn’t even give her a hint.

The younger blonde even tried to get an answer by leaning in to kiss Emily when they stopped at a traffic light, and when that didn’t help, she innocently placed her hand on Emily’s knee, inching it up her leg ever so slightly. It was something that had always gotten Will to spill his beans, but either it didn’t work on Emily, or she was better at resisting the teasing. Though she did feel pride boil to the surface when she noticed the blush colouring Emily’s cheeks when a nearby lamp post shone on her face.

Emily, on her part, was more determined than ever to keep her mouth shut, simply because she didn’t think that she would be able to speak a full sentence without stumbling due to the advances JJ made on her. This was a new experience, she had never seen this side of JJ and she was somewhat surprised. This side of JJ hadn’t even been noticeable when everyone had known she was with Will, the only real display of affection anyone had caught was the kiss she’d initiated in Miami, the kiss that had of course almost killed her.

But that was all in the past; Will was not in the picture anymore, not as far as JJ was concerned anyway. Of course he would, in a matter of speaking, always be around because of Henry. But the media liaison was with Emily now. And this was a thought that made the goofy grin on her face grow even wider.

Soon however, much sooner than Emily would have liked, they arrived at their destination; JJ’s favourite Mexican restaurant. The blonde media liaison’s face lit up immediately upon the realisation. “Emily! This is just perfect! This is an absolutely perfect night. Thank you so much!” JJ could barely hold her excitement in as Emily parked. As soon as she cut the ignition the blonde leant over and pulled the brunette close to her, yet again flushing her with passionate kisses as she thanked her once again.

“Stop thanking me!” Emily ordered with a smile between the kisses; “It’s what you deserve.” Again came the flattered insistence that JJ deserved nothing less than the best she could possibly give her. She took a quick glance at her watch and noticed the time. “Let’s go inside before they give our table to someone else.”

The two women made their way towards the restaurant, where they were soon seated at a small table near the back of the room. A waiter took their drink order and handed them both a menu. They sat at the table talking softly to each other. In a way, it was much like the way they would interact with each other on a girls night out, and at the same time it was also very different.

JJ had been in awe to say the least. She had known Emily for a long time and they had been on many girl’s nights out, but the brunette had always kept certain aspects of her life private. And one of those things had been the way that she was when she was in a relationship with someone, or at least working towards a relationship. JJ never figured the profiler to be the romantic type, but she was. She had made sure that their date was absolutely perfect. From the Smithsonian to the restaurant, then the way that she had insisted on driving by Garcia’s house to pick up Henry so she wouldn’t have to worry about picking him up in the morning.

Garcia had been surprised to see the two of them at her doorstep even though JJ had called ahead to let her know they were coming for her son. She threw the door wide open and grinned at the two women in front of her. They had both been gathered in a huge bear hug and she had squealed in their ears, JJ had been sure that she had suffered some permanent hearing loss.

Kevin offered to place Henry’s seat in Emily’s car, and she reluctantly handed him the key, informing him that she would hunt him down and kill him if he scratched or damaged it inside or out. Kevin swallowed hard, after seeing JJ shoot the guy who tried to kill Penelope, he had known never to mess with these women. And though the blonde was known for her shooting accuracy, he didn’t doubt that Emily could do the same. “I… ehm, I will… I’ll be careful.” He stumbled over his words. JJ jabbed Emily in the ribs with her elbow as she smiled in amusement. Emily though, just shrugged and smiled back; “What? It’s an expensive car!”

“You just scared the living daylights out of my boyfriend! He was already scared of you two big bad FBI ladies with guns.” Garcia exclaimed. She was so happy for her friends, she had dreamed of the day they would be able to admit to each other what she had seen a long time ago. JJ excused herself and disentangled her arm from around Emily’s waist while she went over to the travel crib that held her sleeping son. She hated to do this because she knew that he would wake up, but she knew that he would go back to sleep soon enough. He started crying as she picked him up out of his warm and comfy bed, but cradled him close. “Sweetie, it is just mommy, go back to sleep.” She soothed the small boy, who upon hearing, feeling and smelling that it was indeed his mother, soon drifted back to sleep, slumped against her shoulder. Emily grabbed a hold of the bag with Henry’s belongings in it, which Garcia handed her before they returned to her car.

When Emily parked the car on JJ’s driveway, she had quickly gotten out of the car to help the blonde, who was already gathering her son in her arms. Emily waited till the blonde lifted her young son out of the car seat and started for the door. A moment later, Emily followed her with the bag and the car seat.

She placed the car seat down on the floor and closed the door, JJ was waiting at the bottom of the stairs; “I am going to bring Henry upstairs, I’ll be right back. Will you still be here?”

“Of course I will be here.” Emily spoke softly, barely audible.

JJ nodded with a smile and turned around to make her way up the stairs with her son who was already asleep on her shoulder. He was weighing heavily on her arms and she was relieved when she placed him in his crib. Luckily his fairy Godmother had already made sure that he was dressed in his pyjama’s. Barely minutes after JJ’s disappeared upstairs she was descending the stairs to join Emily in the living room.