Side by side || Emily Prentiss

8.

Emily looked at her with a terrified look, extremely worried. She was torn between doing something to help her or continuing to keep the distant boss side and hiding what had happened between them the previous week.

When her dark eyes met the bright and hysterical eyes of Daisy, who continued to cry, a hysterical, cold and cynical laughter also invaded the room, tormenting the ears of all the profilers: Daisy couldn't stop laughing and crying.

She had totally lost her lucidity, she felt like she was under the influence of drugs again. Everything around her had disappeared, there was only herself, the fear of never seeing her daughter again and Emily's dark eyes, who looked at her terrified and paralyzed.

"Maybe you should take a minute and breathe for a second." - Luke told her suddenly, bringing her back to reality

"No, I can't stop because in life traumas and losses don't stop. God doesn't work like that. Because you can do everything exactly the way it was supposed to be done and people still die." - Daisy shouted at Luke

Everyone looked at her bewildered and terrified. Nobody knew what to say or what to do, nobody understood the source of that sudden nervous breakdown. Daisy had lost her temper and nothing seemed to be able to calm her down.

"Go to sleep Johnson and consider yourself free on Monday too." - Emily said suddenly

Even though what Emily was telling her was absolutely nothing comfortable or gentle, her voice still managed to have a strange and unexpected calming effect on Daisy. Everyone was grateful for that new sudden change in mood, except Daisy, who wanted to continue screaming and crying for hours.

"I don't need to rest, Prentiss." - she said exasperatedly, looking for any excuse to scream again

"Yes, you need it. Go to sleep and the next time I want to see you must be on the jet tomorrow at four in the afternoon and then Tuesday morning in the offices. That's an order." - Emily said, raising her voice

"Fine!" - Daisy said leaving the room without even taking her things back

Emily was completely paralyzed after that whole scene. She couldn't understand what was happening, but one thing was clear to her: there was something about Daisy Johnson that wasn't right and she felt stupid for not realizing sooner that there really was something strange about that girl.

Emily wasn't sure what, whether it was too much beauty or perhaps too much kindness, the inexplicable talent or the ability to please anyone, but something about that girl was extremely off and Emily made it her personal mission to understand what was really happening.

"That girl will be the death of me." - she said sighing before leaving the room and getting knowing looks from all her colleagues

When Daisy returned to her room she immediately fell asleep. She hadn't realized she was so terribly tired. She slept for ten hours straight, waking up directly at eleven the next morning.

Like every one of her awakenings in the last period, that too came with a bitter taste, but that wasn't Penelope's fault, that time it was only her head's fault. The last of the dreams she had had that night, more properly a nightmare, had left her speechless.

In her dream Emily, her damned and cursed Emily, was holding her little Rose in her arms, who was crying, crying desperately and all Daisy wanted to do was pick her up and make her calm down because Emily couldn't.

But Emily was angry, furious and for no reason she wanted to give her daughter up in her arms. Emily had told her that she was not worthy of being Rose's mother, that she was a dirty traitor and that from now on Rose would be with her.

Daisy had screamed, she had tried to stop Emily, to stop her from disappearing with her daughter, but there had been no way to stop her boss who had gone away to who knows where with her daughter in her arms. Daisy's ears, however, did not stop being tormented by that cry.

It was like a dagger in the chest. She remembered being desperate, screaming so much and looking for Emily in every corner, but she and Rose had disappeared and all that remained of them were only tears and anger.

Coming back to reality, Daisy realized shortly after that she was terribly sweaty, that she had fallen asleep with her clothes on and that she smelled terribly. She still had five hours before she had to get on the jet and see everyone again, so she had to take a shower.

The realization of what had happened the night before suddenly hit her as the jet of boiling water relaxed every muscle in her body. She had totally lost control and couldn't explain how it could have happened.

She was sure that Emily and everyone else were immensely angry at her for making that scene and she didn't know how she could fix it. Her only way out was to blame stress and tiredness for what had happened, hoping that a group of six profilers would believe her umpteenth lie.

At four in the afternoon she showed up on the jet on time. Upon entering she noticed that everyone was busy happily taking and laughing with each other while drinking whiskey. Daisy smiled slightly as she realized what a great team they actually were.

What distinguished them was great professional respect when they worked, but the ability to laugh and joke like friends when off duty, breaking down all the barriers that work imposed on them. None of them had noticed her presence before Daisy walked up to the first empty chair next to JJ and sat down.

"Hey stranger, how are you today? Did you manage to rest?" - Tara asked, smiling at her and gently stroking her arm

Daisy immediately met Emily's gaze. She was furious, but what intrigued Daisy was that Emily wasn't furious with her: she was furious with Tara for daring to touch the youngest agent. Emily Prentiss wasn't furious, she was jealous and Daisy gave her a mocking smile, happy to have discovered how her boss's face lit up when crossed with a new emotion.

"Yes, I slept a lot. I'm sorry about yesterday, I don't know what came over me." - she said, trying to meet everyone's eyes

"Don't worry, this job can sometimes be particularly stressful, the important thing is to be able to clarify your mind." - said Luke

"Now just think about resting tomorrow too, you're lucky you can" - said Rossi in a desperate attempt to obtain a day-off for everyone, but without success

Daisy breathed a sigh of relief, she never thought that getting out of that situation could be so easy. But she hadn't calculated Emily Prentiss: she wasn't so easy, she wouldn't have given up as easily as the others.