Teaching jj

Chapter 1

Woo-hoo! A toast to Girls' Night Out!" JJ screeched, lifting her shot glass in the air and clinking it against Garcia's and Emily's before shaking her blonde hair out of her face, tilting her head back, and downing the contents in one swift gulp.

"Why is it that this one eats like a buffalo all day long and yet still manages to look like a Victoria's Secret model with absolutely no tolerance for alcohol while I have one protein shake for lunch, don't drop a pound, and require half a bottle of vodka before I even approach her level of wasted?" Garcia grumbled after swallowing her own shot.

"Well," Emily replied, using her best Dr. Spencer Reid impression voice, "some people lack the enzyme to properly metabolize alcohol, thereby lowering their tolerance dramatically."

"Nice!" JJ laughed, high-fiving her friend. "How about one more round?"

Garcia and Emily exchanged looks behind her back as JJ leaned forward to call the bartender over.

Emily sighed in dismay. It was her turn. It was her turn to bring up Will.

"Um, sweetie?" she offered gently, placing one hand on her friend's blue sweater. "Remember how angry Will gets when you come home drunk? Remember what happened last time?"

Last time. It still made Emily shudder to think about it, about the phone call she'd received the next morning when JJ was sobbing about how Will had forcefully grabbed her arm and pulled her into bed, nearly waking Henry with his bellowing about "needing to fuck his drunk wife to make sure she hadn't fucked anyone else."

Of course, the very idea was absurd: JJ was more faithful than anyone Emily had ever known. No previous transgressions, no non-monogamous relationships, not even a single one-night stand clouded her past. And yet this was just one more layer of violence in what Emily had long characterized as an emotionally abusive, controlling relationship.

"Well, we can't send her home like this," Garcia remarked pointedly, her bright pink lips frowning so uncharacteristically it momentarily threw Emily for a loop.

But Garcia was right. Knowing what might await JJ at home, they couldn't allow their friend to return to Will in this condition, even if JJ's own intoxication had apparently left her indifferent about or oblivious to the potential consequences.

"I'm definitely over the legal limit myself," Emily admitted. "What if we just got a hotel room upstairs and I called Will to let him know she'll be staying with me?"

"Yeah," Garcia snorted, watching the bartender as he moved toward the three women with another round. "I'm sure Will would be overjoyed at the idea of his wife spending the night with a lesbian."

JJ froze and choked on her vodka, nearly spitting it out all over the table in front of them. "A what?" she asked incredulously, her ocean blue eyes flicking back and forth between Garcia and Emily.

"Not everyone knows, Garcia," Emily managed to utter through gritted teeth, shooting her an angry look.

"But - I thought - I mean, it's JJ ..." Garcia sputtered, before placing her glittery-fingernailed hands over her mouth. "Oh, Emily. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to -"

Despite the initial vehement flash of betrayal that had surged through her, Emily knew deep down that it wasn't Garcia's fault. After all, Emily had come out to her almost immediately, followed by Morgan, and then Reid, and then Rossi, who she was fairly certain had told Hotch. In fact, probably the only one who didn't know about her sexual orientation prior to this point was JJ.

But there was a very good reason for that. A reason that no one on the team was aware of, not even Garcia. A reason that Emily herself hadn't become aware of until JJ married Will and she experienced - for the first time in a very long time - a feeling she couldn't fully identify at first, a feeling she didn't even want to identify at first.

Because that feeling was heartbreak.

"How long have you known?" JJ asked quietly, looking down at her shot glass.

Emily wasn't sure how to answer. "Um, my whole life?"

"Not you," JJ said dismissively, raising her head to stare at Garcia. "You. How long have you known?"

Garcia's eyes widened under her sparkly green glasses. "Um ... for a while ... Like, since Emily joined the team ..."

"Why didn't you tell me?" JJ wanted to know, still unable to meet Emily's gaze. "I thought you were my best friend. All those nights we spent eating popcorn and watching movies in hotel rooms, all those nights we stayed up talking until dawn, why didn't you just tell me?"

"I wasn't sure how you'd react," Emily responded gently. "I had a feeling you'd react like this."

"I'm not 'reacting like this' because you're a lesbian," JJ spat out, her voice choking on the word 'lesbian'. "I'm reacting like this because you lied to me!"

"I never lied to you," Emily insisted. "Whenever we talked about my past relationships, I always said 'they' instead of 'him' or 'her'. I didn't lie ... I just didn't tell you the whole truth."

"I need to use the bathroom," JJ mumbled, nearly falling as she stood up unsteadily, holding onto the wall for leverage as she made her way toward the ladies' room.