Teaching jj

Chapter 27

Emily leaned in and kissed her. Hard. Trying to communicate with her lips all the revelations she'd never be able to admit out loud. Not until this assignment was over, at least ... or maybe not ever. After all, how would she have reacted if someone had knowingly placed her life in danger out of a selfish, manipulative desire to win her love? Any rational person would claim that if Emily truly loved her, she would have done everything in her power to keep JJ far away from this case. And any BAU member who discovered just how irrationally she'd been blinded by her love for JJ would do everything in their power to keep her far away from any and all cases in the future.

"You really know how to make a girl want to stall ..." JJ murmured, glancing upstairs at the bedroom.

"Later, baby. I promise. But for now? Just a walk around town to check out the stores and meet some people. Sound good?"

JJ nodded hesitantly, shooting one last mournful look at the sanctuary of their bedroom atop the stairs before handing over the keys. "You drive."

The town itself was like any small town, save for the LGBT flags hanging outside of a local bookstore and the lesbian-friendly bar and café they'd been told about. In need of some reading, Emily suggested starting with the bookstore.

The two attractive guys behind the counter were openly flirting with one another, ignoring Emily's presence until she interrupted sweetly, "My partner and I are new in town, looking for a few books. Lesbian fiction - and not the gratuitous kind - but fiction with actual plots. We're also looking for a book on lesbian erotica. Do you have any of those?"

"Oh, sweetie," he replied. "It's too bad for all those gorgeous straight guys in this town that you're a dyke. And your partner! My gay-dar definitely did not go off on that one. Anyway, I'm Michael, and this is Tim. We've lost a lot of customers to the Barnes & Noble in the next town, but we are the place to be if Sapphic literature is your style. Come on, I'll show you some books."

Emily had read most of the fictional novels years ago, when she was still in the process of self-discovery: recalling in detail the plots involving unexpected lesbian love affairs that bloomed out of an initial, forbidden attraction, but she added them to her purchase list regardless, hoping that JJ would read them and see that her feelings about Emily could be more than a mere anomaly, that their relationship could be more than just a transient lustful tryst. Momentarily lost in her thoughts, in her memories of shamefully touching herself underneath the covers after pulling out those well-hidden books as she imagined herself doing all the things so vividly described on the printed page, it took a few minutes before she noticed JJ biting her lip as she flipped through a book entitled A Guide to Lesbian Sex (2012 Edition).

Emily quietly made her way toward JJ, peering over her shoulder as she stared, transfixed, at the images and text in chapters such as "Tribbing 101" and "Orgasm Denial: The Best Orgasm You'll Ever Have?" This was certainly not a book that had been on the shelves during Emily's coming-out days, and she couldn't help herself from shifting the four novels she'd chosen onto her right hip and gently reaching out to touch JJ's shoulder with her left hand, her thumb stroking the soft cotton of JJ's white button-down shirt.

JJ jumped and turned around suddenly, stammering, "I - I was just ..."

"Let's get it." Emily murmured, leaning forward to whisper in her ear, "I'm always willing to try something new, if it excites you." She grabbed the book from JJ's trembling hands and brought the stack up to the front, JJ trailing behind.

"So girls, you do know about Ladies Night at Kitty Corner, right?" Michael asked as he rang up their purchases. "Totally safe space to meet other couples in the area and a terrific mix of straight, gay, lesbian ..."

"You should tell them, Michael," Tim interrupted in a serious voice, looking up from his book-keeping. "They just moved here and you have a responsibility to tell them."

"Tell us what?" Emily asked innocently, collecting her change and reaching for the plastic bag on the counter.

Michael sighed, his green eyes flickering between Emily and JJ as, in a hushed voice, he disclosed, "I'm sure you've heard about the murders, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Emily responded, waving her hand dismissively. "But we're from New York City. Whoever he is, we can handle him."

"That's the thing," Michael said worriedly. "Rumor has it that the killer isn't a guy. It's a woman. And despite what the papers claim, the locals all know that they're more than just random home-invasion killings."

"You mean, the surveillance stuff?" JJ questioned, keeping her tone neutral. "It's OK. We already know about that."

"But what you might not know is that the only people who have been killed were lesbians. All couples. Usually new to the area by a matter of weeks or months. Because this state doesn't recognize gay marriage, the reporters made it seem like it was just a strange coincidence that two women were living in the house. They emphasized the owner of the property and wrote her partner off as a friend who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Us locals know better. And every time we've tried to write to the paper to get that detail published, we've been threatened with trying to 'incite homosexual panic'. This is not New York City, girlfriend. So while your presence here is tolerated -"

"Even if ours isn't," Tim grumbled.