Say It Again

Chapter 23: I Am Not Okay With This

"Nothing yet," she says, taking my hand and squeezing it once before dropping it.

"What do you mean?" I cock my head curiously.

"Hotch wants to see the two of us in his office," Emily brings her fingers to her mouth and begins biting her nails.

"Hey," I reach forward, pulling her hand away from her mouth. "It's going to be fine. We don't even know what he wants to talk to us about yet."

"True. But I have a sinking feeling that it's about our relationship. I hope no one has mentioned anything to him..."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," I say, sounding much more confident than I actually feel. "But first, coffee."

Emily nods and smiles a little as the rich smell fills my office the second I open the door.

A few minutes later, the two of us walk into Hotch's office. I brought him a cup of coffee too. Being a little bit of a kiss-ass never hurt anyone.

Hotch wears his usual serious, unreadable expression. He doesn't look pissed, which is probably a good sign, right? Emily and I make eye contact for a brief moment before focusing on our boss again.

"Please, sit down," Hotch's tone gives nothing away, and we both sit in the chairs in front of his desk.

"Oh, we brought you some coffee," I say a second later, setting it down in front of him.

"Thank you. I haven't had time to get any this morning. It's been a little busy." He pauses while he takes a few sips of coffee, looking down at his hands before making eye contact again with each of us in turn. "Do you know why I called you in here today?"

"To congratulate me on not dying when I got shot?" Emily says, and I can't help but smile at the humor in her tone despite her nerves.

The corners of Hotch's mouth turn up just a little bit, but he regains his serious expression quickly. "Not exactly. Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad you survived, but I actually have something more serious to discuss with you."

"More serious than me getting shot? Wow this'll be fun," Emily grins, still trying to lighten the tension in the room. I really do love her.

Hotch ignores her comment and continues speaking. "I've noticed that you two are spending a lot of time together. Didn't you stay with JJ while you were recovering these past few weeks?"

"Yes, I did. Mobility was a bit difficult my first week out of the hospital because of the pain, so it was good having Jennifer there to help me," Emily's voice is even, and I only know she's nervous because of the moment we had in my office earlier.

"That makes sense. But I also have a feeling that something deeper than friendship is going on between the two of you. JJ, I saw the way you looked at Emily after she was shot." Hotch looks at me, cocking an eyebrow before turning back to Emily. "And Emily, I saw the way you looked at JJ when you jumped in front of that bullet. Neither of those looks were platonic."

I swallow, trying to slow my heart rate. Freaking out will not help this situation at all. "What are you implying, Hotch?" my voice sounds much more steady than I feel, and I'm thankful for that.

"I'm implying that you two have some kind of romantic or sexual relationship. Which, as both of you know, has to be disclosed to the Bureau," Hotch's tone is serious, and I hear a little bit of sympathy there as well.

"Okay, Emily and I are dating, and it doesn't affect our ability to work together. We actually broke up for a while, and we were still able to function just fine as part of this team. I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner, but we didn't want to say something too prematurely," I explain.

"I understand that, JJ, but I've gotten questions from Strauss. And she wants to talk to the whole team now. I'm happy for the two of you and have no problem with you being together. Unfortunately, I don't know if Strauss feels the same. I really called you in here to give you a heads-up. There's going to be a meeting after lunch. Prepare yourselves," Hotch leans back in his seat after he finishes speaking, and we take that as a dismissal.

"Fuck," Emily says as soon as she shut's Hotch's office door behind us.

"My thoughts exactly," I respond with a frown. "I'm ready to take my lunch. You want to run to the cafe down the street? There's not really any way for us to prepare for this meeting, so we might as well try to relax."

Emily nods and smiles at me softly. We grab our stuff from our respective desks before heading to the elevator. The second the doors close, our fingers are intertwined.

...

An hour and a half later, the entire team is seated around the table in the conference room. We haven't told anyone what Hotch talked to us about, and I can tell that he didn't tell them either based on the vague confusion on the faces of the majority of the team.

Strauss walks into the room, irritation written all over her features. Morgan glances at me with a questioning look, but I just shake my head slightly.

"Do you all know why we're here today?" her voice is clipped, and she's already staring daggers at me and Emily.

"Do we have some kind of case or something?" Spence asks, running a hand through his hair.

"No, we do not. What we do have is two of your team members having a relationship without informing their superiors." Strauss hasn't stopped looking at us since she opened her mouth the first time.

I feel my face redden slightly, and Emily reaches for my hand under the table and squeezes it reassuringly.

"Who, Emily and JJ? Pretty sure we all already knew that," Gideon says with a chuckle, and I look up, surprised. "There hasn't been a single issue, so I don't really understand the purpose of this meeting, Erin."

"I have decided that it is not in the best interest of the BAU to have two team members be romantically involved. Thus, I just have one question," Strauss turns her attention back to us. "Agent Prentiss, Agent Jareau, which one of you would like to transfer?"