Emily tapped her fingers against the bar top, patiently waiting her turn, but nervous all the same. She felt like she'd been here longer than last time, but pulling out her phone to check for messages, Mallory still hadn't messaged her. She couldn't trust her perception of time, all day she'd felt like everything was taking forever. When the bartender approached her, she ordered a double shot of Grey Goose and a cocktail. He nodded and poured her shot quickly while she gave him the tab name an he set about preparing her cocktail. Usually she'd try to usurp whoever was paying for the group and pay for it on the sly, but Rossi had more money than God due to a best selling book series he'd written that fictionalized some of the cases he'd been on so she didn't mind helping spend some of his gains.

JJ made it to the bar and immediately noticed the woman from the Previous Today. "Shit." JJ mumbled. She knew she messed things up by not texting Penelope about ordering her a drink and a shot. She'd never made it to the bar in the Previous Today, she'd had her order waiting for her when she'd gotten to the table and then Rossi and Spence left to help them carry bottle service to their table. The woman from outside must have just stepped out for...she watched the woman check her phone anxiously and put it back in her pocket. A phone call, JJ guessed. Well, if she'd already screwed up enough that the day was going to repeat, she may as well get to know the beautiful brunette. JJ put all thoughts of the repetition in her future out of her head, smoothed her hair down and made her way up to the bar next to the brunette.

Emily shook her head after checking her phone yet again and cursed the fact that she hadn't even sort of remembered what time Mallory text her. Calm down. She told herself. Worst case scenario, she'd just do this over again. Damn, her arms and legs ached just thinking about doing all that stupid drywall again. Though she had a good argument to refuse to help Derek tomorrow. Today. Whatever. She resolved to not look at her phone for at least the duration of her cocktail and if Mallory still hadn't text her by then, she would text her first to ask about Sergio. Nodding to herself, she took downed her shot, feeling the vodka warm her face immediately. She smiled her thanks at the bartender when he set her mixed drink in front of her and he nodded before moving off to help someone else.

"I'd ask if I could buy you a drink," a sultry voice said next to her. "but you already have one, so how about you buy me a drink?"

Emily smirked, the timbre of the other woman's voice sending a shiver through her. Maybe she'd blow Mallory off, just this one repetition. "Sure," she replied, taking a drink of her cocktail. "What're you-" she cut herself off as she turned to face the woman and immediately recognized the petite blonde from before. She frowned and reached into her pocket to check her phone. Mallory still hadn't text her.

"Wow, that's the fastest I've ever been blown off by anyone, of any gender." the woman said though she sounded amused, not offended.

"Oh!" Emily started, embarrassed. "No! No, it's just," she looked up from her phone to apologize, the last thing she wanted this woman to think was that she was blowing her off but she'd messed up the day somewhere. The blonde was looking at her expectantly as Emily fumbled for words when their gazes met instead of checking each other out and every coherent thought Emily had been entertaining, promptly flew out of her head. First the din of the crowd fell away, and all she could hear was music but it sounded like it was far away and underwater. Then that too disappeared and was replaced by a hum of silence that wasn't unpleasant. Emily felt her lips form a smile, the action mirrored by the blonde woman as everything came back into focus, it was like the dimmer switch had been turned back up on reality.

"I've been looking for you all day." the blonde said, leaning her elbow onto the bar.

"God, I thought I was going to have to do this for months." Emily admitted with a laugh.

"Me too." the blonde replied with a smile. She held out her hand. "My name's Jennifer."

"Emily." Emily offered back, taking Jennifer's hand to shake. The second their hands touched, they both jerked them back and stared at them like they'd never noticed they had five fingers before. Emily was going to punt Derek into the sun for describing that feeling as a simple "flash." She felt like the blood in her veins had been replaced with warm electricity and it was still humming through her. "That was..."

"Something." Jennifer finished in agreement.

"Yeah...Oh! The window!" Emily exclaimed as the realization hit her.

Jennifer looked bemused but entertained and she raised an eyebrow. "The window?"

"Yesterday. Today. Whatever. I left the window open before I came here and my cat got out. My neighbour got him and text me so I left early to get him back, and I saw you outside, but only for a second before my Uber showed up. But today, I didn't open the window when I came home."

"Hence no text." Jennifer said, nodding along. "I feel kind of bad you did all the work. I ran around frantically most of the day but haven't really done anything different."

Emily grinned slyly and waved to the bartender. "Worth it." she said. "Are you here with anyone?"

Jennifer nodded. "Yeah, it's actually my birthday."

Emily lifted her eyes to the ceiling in an I-can't-believe-this gesture. "Do people call you JJ, by any chance?"

JJ laughed and quickly placed her drink order when the bartender slid up to them, mentioning Rossi's open tab. "Yeah, no one calls me Jennifer. You must be Morgan's friend from Chicago."

"Go figure." Emily replied. They looked at each other for a long moment before bursting out laughing at the absurdity of it all. "If no one calls you Jennifer," Emily started once they'd gotten themselves under control. "Why'd you introduce yourself like that?"

JJ shrugged and toyed with the little plastic sword in the drink that was set in front of her. "Dunno." She pulled the sword out of her drink and popped the cherry on the end into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully before swallowing. "I just felt like I'd like the way you'd say it." She cocked her head to the side in a gesture that suggested they not park at the bar and take up space. Emily took the hint and nodded, collecting her drink and walking with JJ back to their table.

"And? What's the verdict?"

"I could definitely get used to it."

"You're still here, Princess?" Derek asked curiously.

"Why wouldn't she be?" Reid interjected.

"She, uh, had an appointment." he attempted to cover.

"Don't worry," Emily assured, sitting down between Rossi and JJ. "I ended up making an even more important appointment."

"My girl!" Derek crowed, holding out his fist which Emily tapped with hers while laughing.

"Hello? Confused here!" Penelope said accusingly, looking back and forth between her fiancé and Emily. She hated being left out of the hot gossip.

"I'll tell you later, Baby Girl, it's JJ's birthday." Derek replied.

"No, it's okay, Morgan." JJ insisted, grinning into her glass as she took a drink.

Derek looked over at Emily who understandably looked entirely too pleased with herself. She made a go head gesture with one hand and he shrugged, saying: "Prentiss has been in the Echo." he announced. "And now it seems, she's out of it."

Reid offered his congratulations, along with his condolences since "I'm not sure how long you've been doing today" while Rossi raised his glass and said something in Italian that made her laugh and shake her head. Derek figured he might as well ask who it was, now that the cat was out of the bag and JJ looked like she didn't mind at all that someone's Echo Breaking was during her birthday party but Penelope cut him off before he got the chance.

"Shut. Up." she squealed, clapping her hands in delight. "Shut up! Am I not the Seer of All Things Vast and Unknowable or what?" she slapped Derek's shoulder several times and pointed at JJ as if she needed to be pointed out. "Derek, did I not say they would be a perfect couple? Did I not say those exact words?"

"Yeah, Baby Girl, but" he looked at his girlfriend in confusion for a moment before what she was getting at hit him. "JJ? You've been in the Echo today too?"

"Until I met Emily anyway." JJ confirmed.

"Salute!" Rossi toasted, patting Emily gently on the shoulder.

Reid's face lit up and he offered congratulations again and retracted his previous offer of condolences.

"Well," Thomas spoke up. "This'll certainly go down as the most memorable birthday a Jareau has ever had."

They all laughed and clinked glasses, Emily exchanging a smile with JJ. She wanted to know everything about her, wanted to discover things with her, and for the first time, Emily felt no hesitation about the idea that JJ would want the same of her. She couldn't wait to get started.

"Yeah, me too." JJ murmured as if she'd read Emily's mind.

Emily grinned and stood up, offering an outstretched hand to JJ. "Dancing first, Jennifer?"

"Dancing first, Emily." JJ agreed, enjoying a subdued version of the electric jolt she'd felt the first time they touched as their hands fit together. As Emily spun around so she could pull her closer, JJ had the brief thought that it was a pity that the Echo only happened until you met, if it were up to her, she'd relive this part of the day a little longer. She smiled broadly when Emily grinned at her, moving to the rhythm of the music. Yeah, maybe it was okay the Echo only happened until they met, she couldn't wait to wake up to a brand new day of possibilities with Emily.

"Yeah, me too." Emily mouthed and JJ knew that people in the Echo together couldn't read each other's minds, but she knew Emily had just seen her thoughts written on her face. And while being so readable would have bothered her in the past, she felt safe. She felt like she was in the Right Place at the Right Time. And she was. They were.