Penelope finally stops her in the middle of the next week. She summons JJ down to her lair, fixing her with a meaningful stare the moment she sits down.

"Okay, Agent Jareau," she says authoritatively. "Spill it."

JJ crosses her legs. "What are you talking about?" She asks. She sounds strained even to her own ears.

Penelope rolls her eyes. "Don't play stupid," she says dismissively. "Everyone knows that there is something going on with you and Emily. Now spill."

JJ sucks in her breath. "Nothing is going on between Emily and me," she says quickly.

Penelope leans back in her seat. "Okay," she says. "I guess we'll have to do it the hard way."

"The hard way?"

"Yep," Penelope says spinning to face her computer. "You're even more tight-lipped than your brunette companion."

"She's not my companion," JJ says, too quickly. "Just...you talked to Emily?"

Garcia is looking at her critically. "Yes," she says slowly. "I overheard her talking to Derek about leaving, so I asked her what was up."

JJ frowns. "Leaving what?" She asks dumbly.

"The BAU," Penelope says, as though this should be obvious. "Whatever happened made her feel like she isn't welcome here any longer."

JJ doesn't know how to answer this directly. Emily? Leave? JJ had not considered that this was a possibility.

"What did she say when you asked her what happened?"

"She said she messed up," Penelope says doubtfully. "I mean, she didn't say that - Emily would never say 'I messed up'- but she said that she hurt you without meaning to, and she's not sure it's something she'll be able to get past."

JJ lets these words wash over her, trying to absorb them.

Not sure she'll be able to get past it.

"Right," Penelope says, making JJ realize she's spoken aloud, "so tell me now, or I'll be forced to start digging. And I am not responsible for what I - Oh, my God!"

Penelope has been typing rapidly while speaking, but now she just stares at her computer, mouth open.

"What?" She asks, suddenly panicked. "Penelope, what did you find?"

"Huh?" Penelope asks, distracted. "Oh, no, nothing. I mean, it's not nothing. It's…" but she trails off, reaching to grab her phone off the desk.

She punches in speed dial and puts the phone to her ear.

"Your mother," she says when the person on the other end of the line picks up. "Yes," she says after a moment, "here, approximately 32 seconds ago."

"Penelope what is hap-" JJ begins, but Penelope holds up a hand to silence her.

"Okay, sugarplum," she says into the phone. "You're welcome."

Penelope hangs up and turns back to JJ, and for a moment they just stare at each other warily. Sizing each other up.

"Who was that?" JJ asks, just as Penelope asks, "what is going on between you and Emily?"

They narrow their eyes at each other.

"Emily's mother is here," Penelope says slowly, clearly hoping that this piece of information will serve as bait to get JJ talking.

It is very tempting. "Her mother?" She asks, surprised. "Why? I didn't think they were close."

"They're not," Penelope says, eyes still narrowed. "Do you know why she would show up?"

JJ counters with her own question. "Why do you have an arrival alert for Ambassador Prentiss?"

"Emily asked me to set one up," Penelope answers easily. "I set one up for a couple of people so that she wouldn't be surprised."

JJ tries to digest this information and all of its implications. "I...didn't know that," she says after a moment.

"JJ," Penelope says carefully, "You don't know everything about Emily, you know."

"Yeah, I know," JJ says defensively. "I just thought…"

I just thought I knew the most about her.

"She's just really private," JJ finishes lamely. "I didn't think she'd ask you to do something like that."

"Apparently her desire to always know when her mother is approaching outweighs her desire for secrecy," Penelope says.

"Apparently," JJ echoes. "I...Pen, I don't know if I should talk about it."

Penelope studies her for a long time. "This is really getting to you too, isn't it," she asks.

JJ nods. "Yes," she says. "I guess it is."

"You know the best medicine for that, Jayje," Penelope says pointedly. "I can promise not to share what you tell me with anyone."

"Not even with Derek?" JJ raises an eyebrow.

Penelope seems to truly consider. "Yes," she says finally. "You're my best friend, JJ. If you want me to keep quiet, I will."

And so JJ swears her to secrecy two more times and tells her.

…

She wakes up alone in bed. She remembers falling asleep naked, but when she reaches her hand up to rub her eyes, she sees the cuff of a long sleeve shirt.

She is wearing a long sleeve shirt and a pair of soft cotton shorts, and if she strains her memory, she can feel hands on her thighs and her hips, fingers against her ribcage as they smoothed the fabric down.

She sits up, looking around the hotel room, pale in the early morning light of the room. It is empty, the bathroom dark, the door slightly ajar.

Emily is not there.

JJ hugs her knees. She feels sluggish and hungover like she'd been drinking all night instead of…

Instead of having sex with a woman.

The thought brings a rush of heat to JJ's cheeks. She feels the burn of tears at her eyes, though they are not borne of regret.

Or at least they are not due to the type of regret she'd anticipated. She reaches over and picks up her phone, dialing Emily's number without thinking.

"Prentiss."

"Em. Where are you?"

"I...left for the hospital." God, the woman is hard to read over the phone.

JJ rubs her eyes. "You dressed me," she says. It's not what she means to say, and she is immediately sorry for the tone of her voice. She knows it's going to be misinterpreted.

"I…" Emily seems truly lost for words at this.

"I'm not upset," JJ says, just as Emily says. "I'm sorry."

More strained silence.

"Corinne's parents are due here in about ten minutes," Emily says finally. "After I see them, I'm just going to grab a train back to DC.

JJ frowns. She isn't sure that's what she wants but her brain is full of contradictions at the moment. "You're...sure?"

She doesn't know what keeps her from protesting.

"Yeah. Hotch said he'd send the jet back for you. I spoke to him this morning."

"Emily-" JJ begins, because this feels decidedly like a brush off. "I didn't want-"

"I know," Emily says firmly. "I know. I'm sorry, Jennifer."

"What?" the sincerity in Emily's voice, the way she sounds like she's going to cry, that is what throws JJ the most. "No," she says, disconcerted. "I just meant...Don't you want me to come to the hospital and be with you?"

A pregnant pause in which JJ can only hear the last three words of her sentence.

"No," Emily says finally. "No, thank you. I'm fine."

"Em-"

"Honestly, JJ. Don't worry about me. I...just take the jet home."

JJ doesn't know why she feels so relieved. She doesn't know why frustration is prickling there, just at the corners of her consciousness.

"Okay," she says. "If you're sure."

"I'm sure," Emily responds firmly. She disconnects the call before JJ can answer. It only occurs to her later, as she stares around the empty cabin of the jet, that maybe Emily hung up before she could change her mind.

…

"Was it good?"

Penelope is unfazed by her story. She seems to have taken this event as an eventuality.

"Pen! Have you listened to any of the stuff I said besides that Emily and I slept together?"

"Of course I have. But that stuff is all incidental? Do you hate her the way she thinks you do, or are you gonna jump her bones again tonight."

JJ almost chokes on her own tongue. "Is there a third option?"

Penelope raises her eyebrows. "Yes," she says simply. " Just go talk to her."

"I...wouldn't know what to say."

"Maybe start with, 'don't quit?'" Penelope suggests.

JJ nods. "Yeah," she says. "Okay."

She hadn't seen Emily until she got back to Quantico, and she doesn't see her to talk to until she forces the meeting herself, cornering the other woman by an out of the way coffee machine on the floor above them.

"Emily," she says, waiting until the other woman's gaze rises to meet hers. She had means to admonish Emily for avoiding her, but she's thrown by what she sees in the brunette's face.

"You're not sleeping," she says without thinking.

Emily frowns at her. "I'm fine," she says simply, moving to step around her. "I have to-"

"No," JJ reaches out and grabs her arm. "No, wait. I...You have barely been at your desk all week."

Emily doesn't answer, she shakes her head minutely, a little tell that JJ can't read.

"I wanted to talk to you...about New York."

"We don't have to talk about it," Emily says quickly. "I'm sorry. I was-"

"Sorry?!" JJ's rising voice catches the attention of a couple of passing agents, and a pink tinge appears in Emily's cheeks.

JJ lowers her voice. "What do you have to be sorry for?" she asks.

Emily pulls her arm away from JJ. "We shouldn't have done what we did," she says quietly. "I shouldn't have asked you to-"

"You didn't ask me to do anything," JJ interrupts. "And I'm not a child."

Emily doesn't answer and doesn't lift her gaze to meet JJ's.

"Penelope says you're thinking of leaving," she says, voice close to a whisper. "If you think that's what I want...you're wrong."

Emily looks up at her now, eyes searching. "I don't want to hurt you," she blurts.

"You didn't hurt me," JJ assures. "I make my own decisions. That's what I decided I wanted at that moment. I don't...I don't regret it. "

Emily looks at her like she doesn't fully believe this.

JJ isn't sure she does either.

"Look, Em, I'm not saying we're gonna go steady, okay? I'm just saying this shouldn't be the thing that you quit over."

Emily bites her lip for a moment. "You don't want me to go?"

Something about the way she asks the question makes JJ truly consider. "No," she says after a moment. "No. I don't want you to go."

This time, when she reaches out to put her hand on Emily's arm, the other woman is more relaxed.

"Okay," she says finally.

JJ smiles. "Okay. Now when was the last time you closed your eyes?"

It is the wrong thing to say. Emily stiffens again at once.

"I'm fine."

"You're not fine," JJ argues. "And I don't mind-"

"That's not the point," Emily says, sounding irritated. "I'm not -I mean I'm….I won't do that to you."

JJ frowns. "Do what?"

Emily opens her mouth to respond, but at that moment her phone buzzes insistently in her pocket and she pulls it out. Her face goes slightly grey at the sight.

"What is it?" JJ asks, standing a little closer so she can see the screen.

"My...mother," Emily says slowly. "She's here."

"Again?"

Emily looks up at her with narrowed eyes and it takes JJ a minute to realize her mistake.

"Yes," Emily says darkly. "Again." She turns to head back toward their desks. "Stop talking to Garcia about me, would you?" she calls over her shoulder.

JJ stands where she is, trying to get her bearings. She doesn't answer before Emily has disappeared.

.

But she makes it back to the atrium of the building in time to see Emily with Ambassador Prentiss as they finish their conversation.

It seems that despite Penelope's warning, Emily has been unable to avoid her mother this time, and JJ watches as the normally stoic agent almost cowers under her mother's tirade.

"...I mean honestly, Emily," The Ambassador is saying as JJ draws nearer. "You couldn't have expected them to be happy to see you. I don't know how many more people have to die for you to realize that you are-"

"Don't!" JJ has spoken before she really knows what's she'd doing, She strides forward to stand next to Emily. "Don't talk to her that way."

Ambassador Prentiss regards JJ with a cool, appraising stare. "A Jareau," she says finally, an aside possibly meant only for herself.

"Mother-" Emily begins, but JJ cuts her off.

"Don't speak to her like she's incapable of emotion," JJ hisses. "Just because she's good at turning them off. If anything that means she deserves more compassion not less."

Elizabeth Prentiss raises her eyebrows. "You've seen my daughter express an emotion that you felt was genuine?" she seems genuinely perplexed

Emily, with her hands in JJ's hair, tears dripping down the sides of her face faster than JJ could kiss them away.

"Don't stop. Jesus, please don't stop. I'm sorry."

"Several," JJ says simply. "But I won't stand here and debate them with you." she turns to look at Emily. "And I don't think you should either."

Emily is staring at her. Blank shock and nothing else is reflected in her expression.

"Agent Jareau," Ambassador Prentiss begins, but JJ is turning away from her, gesturing that Emily should too.

"Save it," she calls over her shoulder. "You're not my mother, I don't have to listen to you degrade people."

"No," The ambassador says it softly, maintaining her tone just enough that JJ can hear her. "No, your mother has a completely different agenda, I would expect."

Next to her, Emily flinches.

…

When JJ shows up to Emily's house three days later, just before midnight, Emily opens the door before she can ring.

They've never slept in Emily's bed, not since this whole arrangement began, and Emily's nervousness is visible as she steps aside to let JJ in.

"You were asleep with your eyes open over your paperwork this afternoon," JJ says as they climb the stairs. "You think I didn't notice? I think even Reid noticed."

Emily hesitates before answering. "There is a lot that you don't know about me, JJ," she says finally.

She deliberately doesn't make eye contact.

JJ toes her shoes off at the end of the bed, remembering how soft Emily's sheets are, how welcoming.

"Okay," she says sleepily, crawling up the bed.

She waits until Emily has situated herself on her side before rolling over to face her.

"Tell me in the morning," she says.

Just before she closes her eyes, JJ could swear she sees Emily smile.