Jemily: A love story

sixteen

Hours of work and multiple pots of coffee later, the team had not uncovered nearly enough information to lead to JJ's kidnapper and Emily was on the verge of hysterics. No one knew that her and JJ had been romantically involved, and she didn't want to tell them now so she had to limit her emotions from hysterical girlfriend to concerned team member. 

After the last few hours of doing this though, she couldn't take it anymore and found herself locking the door behind her in JJ's office and crying uncontrollably. How could she have let this happen? Emily was supposed to be the protector, the brave partner that stopped evil from even coming near the most important person in her life. But she hadn't even known something was wrong. What kind of a girlfriend did that make her?

 Emily sat in JJ's chair, knees pulled up to her chin and let it all out. She looked up to see the pictures JJ had scattered across her desk. Almost all of them were of Emily or the two of them together. Seeing the photos finally got the agent to break a smile and wipe her tears away from her face. 

Her phone buzzed in that moment and Emily opened it, expecting it to be from Hotch about an update. She couldn't have been more wrong. Emily's heart started racing as she read the message on her screen.

 "You've been looking in all the wrong places, Agent Prentiss. Agent Jareau's past work has nothing to do with this, but yours does. I'm willing to make you a trade: you for her. Every minute I spend with your girlfriend is another minute she's crying out your name in pain. You know where to find me." 

Emily's heart almost stopped beating in that very moment. She dropped her phone on the desk, realizing what had happened. She knew exactly who had JJ, and she was going to give herself up if she had to so that JJ would be safe. The team couldn't know about this though, she thought. They'd all be put at risk also and if Emily brought back up, JJ would probably die. It was her they wanted, and her they were going to get. 

She took a deep breath, fully realizing at that moment that there was a good chance she would walk out those doors and never walk back in. Emily stayed quiet and hurriedly walked along the outskirts of the bullpen to avoid any attention, but paused when she got to the doors. She turned and looked back, and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Her team, her family really, all working together to try to bring one of their own home. Emily knew that they would be bringing JJ home, even if it meant she wouldn't be. She smiled gently and a tear rolled down her face as she turned and walked out the door.

______________________________

Emily was driving into D.C. to the place where she knew JJ would be. Emily's work at interpol years back was complicated. She had taken down hundreds of international criminals and had access to high level security clearance that put her at the top of the list of targets if you wanted information. But this, this was her biggest case ever. 

Michael Donahue ran one of the world's most deadly mafia circles. His family worked out of Italy, but he imported and exported drugs and weapons at hundreds of locations on 5 continents and ran drug trafficking and prositution rings throughout his family. He was literally worth millions and so protected that it took over a decade for interpol to infiltrate the family. 

Emily had joined when they were about seven years into the case and headed the investigation for the finale few years and ultimate take down. Things had not turned out exactly how they had expected, though. Interpol had used hundreds of undercover agents to stop the movement of imports and exports and apprehend as many of Donahue's associates as possible. When that was happening, Emily gave the order to take Donahue's operational headquarter warehouse right here in D.C. Donahue was apprehended along with his wife and other family members, but in the process his 8 year old son was shot and killed.