Jemily: A love story

nine

The women had just arrived at the carnival and bought their tickets from the sales booth to enter.

 "Alright, dear. Where should we start?" JJ asked, hooking her arm around Emily's to add to their appearance as a couple. 

"How about... I try to win my girlfriend a stuffed animal?" Emily questioned. 

"Girlfriend, hu?" JJ asked blushing right away and felt her heart triple in speed. 

"Well yes lovely, tonight you're my girlfriend," Emily smiled looking at JJ and pulled her towards the game area.

 "Okie dokie, so we've got a blue elephant, a giraffe, or... that purple thing." Emily laughed. "Which would you like Jayje?" 

"Mh, let me get the giraffe, I've always loved them." JJ said as she reached over and grabbed the stuffed animal from the worker who had pulled it down for her. 

Although it was a silly stuffed animal that would probably fall apart before they even made it home, JJ was over the moon because she felt so normal and happy. Her every day routine was anything but to say the least, and she sometimes lost sight of what was important and lost sight of her future. Every day, hundreds of photos and files with dead bodies and mutilated children filled her room, and she had to be the one to disregard some and decide who was the most important. It often made her feel like this might be it, and that she would look up one day years from now and still be stuck fielding graphic images instead of having her own life. But here, right now with Emily, it felt like the most comfortable and normal thing in the world. She could really get used to this, but then again she had to remind herself that this too was just another case and soon they would be returning home to reality.

 "Come on, let's grab some food." Emily said, awakening JJ from her thoughts.

After the agents had grabbed some fried dough and cotton candy to share, they found themselves stopping to catch the end of a magic show presentation. When everyone clapped at the finale, the crowd began dispersing.

 "It's already 10:30 and I haven't noticed anyone that looks out of place or even remotely isolated." Emily sighed.

 "The fairs' closing soon, we don't have a ton of time. Hey, why don't we take a ride on the ferris wheel? That'll get us up high enough to hopefully spot anyone unusual, and a bonus is your girlfriend here happens to love the ferris wheel!" JJ said brightly. 

"Alright, your wish is my command." Emily said laughing as they walked over to the line for the ride. 

Handing over their last four tickets to the machine operator, Emily whispered to the man, "Hey, can you stop it at the top for us? My girlfriend really loves the view." 

"Ya sure, just don't tell anyone I'm making an exception." he winked and walked over to check the seat belts. 

Slowly, they started rising into the air and JJ squealed excitedly and grabbed Emily's hand. 30 more seconds passed and they reached the top where the ride stopped. 

"Hey, why'd we stop?" JJ asked nervously.

 "Because I asked him too." Emily smiled looking down at her hands.

 "You did?" JJ asked in a tiny voice but blushing with an enormous smile. 

"Ya I know you love the view and the stars, and it can't get much better than from up here." Emily said, finally looking up and meeting JJ's eyes. 

The moon was out now and shining brightly down on the fairgrounds. Even more beautiful to Emily though was the way it beamed on JJ's face. It was very dark around them, but from the moon, Emily was able to see her features perfectly. Her eyes were glistening in a way Emily had never seen before. They were full of hope, and what felt like desire. Emily wondered right then why JJ would be feeling desire. For her, she wondered? A flood of thoughts came into her mind at that moment, causing her to question all of their interactions leading up to this moment. All the soft glances, gentle touches, I love you's, were they more on than they had both thought? Emily couldn't help but move her eyes down to JJ's lips which were perfect in every way. They looked so soft, and pink and at that moment, Emily had the overwhelming urge to lean in and kiss her. Emily reached up and touched JJ's check gently, and breathed out heavily. 

"JJ I, I love you so much." She said softly. 

JJ's heart was ready to explode from her chest, and she now was beginning to question whether or not their relationship was just friends. She fought the urge to close her eyes at Emily's soft touch. Right then, when Emily looked as if she were about to continue speaking, she looked over at the ground and gasped "Oh my god. JJ look! That man, he's sitting down on the bench taking pictures of us! He's got to be the unsub!"

 The man had clearly seen them looking down and he stood up and quickly began walking away.

 "Shit he's going to get away. Call Hotch, tell him we think he's leaving the fairgrounds now." Emily said as the ferris wheel began to move again.

 "Hotch, it's JJ. We think the unsub was just here taking pictures of us. White male wearing dark jeans and a black hoodie. I couldn't get a good look at his face. He had a hat pulled down low." JJ yelled into the phone as they exited the ferris wheel and took off running on the ground.

 "He's gone." Emily said panting a few minutes later. "We lost him." 

"It's okay, we're going to get him. There's a security camera at the entrance he has to be on it and we know what he looks like now enough to ID him." JJ said. 

"Let's go home, he knows we're out here." Emily said protectively, grabbing JJ's hand and heading to the parking lot.