"Here, I'll help you with the bag," Derek said while we were entering the bullpen next Monday.
"I'm good," I said and walked in.
"Oh, you're here," David said, "And you're almost not late."
"That's thanks to me," Emily said.
"See? At least one Prentiss can be responsible," he said.
"Ha!" Emily exclaimed, "Told you."
"Please, the only reason you got me to wake up is because you locked your key in your apartment and instead of making a new one, you sold the apartment," I said.
"Why does that not surprise me?" Rossi sighed.
"Look, Maya. As your best friend," he started.
"You're not my best friend," I said.
"As your best friend, I wanted to back you up, but I guess not anymore," he said.
"JJ is Maya's best friend now," Emily said.
"JJ is not my best friend," I told her rolling my eyes.
"JJ was my best friend once," Garcia said walking in with Jennifer, "But then Maya stole her. Then she gave her back and stole her again."
"I didn't steal anyone and first of all she's a person, not a toy you can steal or give back," I said.
"Ooh, she got mad. Protective girlfriend," Derek said.
"Shut up," I said and went to the kitchen.
I started a pot of coffee and sat on the counter waiting for it to be done. I was scrolling on my phone for a while before I poured myself a cup and was about to leave, but Jennifer stopped me.
"Hey," JJ said.
"Hey, pretty girl. Coffee?" I asked.
"Sure. Did they upset you?" She asked.
"No. Why?" I asked.
"By calling you my girlfriend," she said.
"I'm good if you're good," I shrugged.
"While we're at it, I was thinking about something," she said.
"Yeah? What's that?" I asked and poured her a cup.
"Thanks. Remember when we talked about relationships on that last case?" She asked.
"Yeah," I said taking a sip.
"Do you think I could be in a relationship again?" She asked.
"Of course, why not?" I asked.
"I don't know, I guess I'm a little skeptical after the last one. You don't think I would like, mess it up?" She asked.
"Come on, Jayje. Do you have a few things you need to work through? Sure. But of course you wouldn't mess anything up. You're great, anyone would be lucky to be with you," I said.
"You mean that?" She asked.
"Always," I said.
She smiled, "What about you?"
"What about me, what?" I asked.
"Do you think you could be in a relationship?" She asked.
"With the right person, sure," I said.
"Yeah," she nodded, "You think you'd wanna be with someone in the same line of work?"
"Probably, yeah. But you should get out there, really. I mean it would be easier if it was someone on the inside, like we said, but don't limit yourself. Go get yourself a girl, or a man, whoever you want," I said.
"Right, whoever I want," she mumbled.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Nothing," she smiled, "Thank you."
"No problem," I smiled and we went to actually do our job.
That's pretty much how most of my days looked like now. I'd go to work, I'd get teased about JJ and then go back home with her. Either for a sleepover at her place or a girls night at mine, since Emily sold her apartment and crashed at mine a lot.
I got used to it to be honest. If a few months ago someone told me I'd be practically sharing my apartment with Jennifer I would laugh in their face. Crazy how life can change so much in such a short amount of time.
Today wasn't any different. After work we went back to my apartment. We planned to go to sleep early and sleep in tomorrow morning.
That didn't work out. Our plans had to be changed when we saw Emily already sitting on my couch. Emily and I are alike when it comes to sleep. We like to stay up late and sleep longer in the morning so JJ stays up longer too when Emily is over.
"Oh hey. We gotta stop meeting like this," Emily said.
"Yeah, maybe we would if you stopped breaking into my apartment," I smiled.
"You know what? Thank god your apartment is so big. Now that we're all living here," JJ said.
"Of course it's big. She's a trust fund baby," Emily said.
"You know that's rich coming from you," I told her.
"Pun intended," JJ nodded.
Emily chuckled and I gave her a look, "It's true. What's so funny?"
"Just the way you two always think the same. And you're starting to talk alike," she said.
"Get over yourself," I rolled my eyes.
"You're all seeing things that aren't there, I swear," JJ said.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Emily said, "Oh wait, that's Maya."
"Oh wait, that's Maya," I mocked her and threw a pillow at her, "Stop or you're gonna be homeless."
"Okay. Food," Emily said.
"Sure," I looked over at JJ, "What do you want, champ?"
She smiled, "Pizza?"
"Pizza it is," I said and turned to Emily, "But you call. I don't like calling people I don't know."
"Such a baby," she said.
"Sorry. I forgot to teach myself human interaction while I was trying to raise myself without any parental figure," I said, "It was my first time, y'know."
"The way you use humor to deflect trauma is certainly a choice," JJ said.
"Thank you," I smiled.
"I don't think she meant it as a compliment," Emily laughed.
I shrugged, "All I heard is that she thinks I'm funny."
Emily ordered the food and I went to take a shower in the meantime. I decided to have a little concert and performed a few songs for my shampoo bottles.
While I was singing I thought about what Emily said before about me and JJ. Then I thought about what everyone else is saying and I tried really hard to see what they see, but I just can't.
Did I like JJ at some point in my life? Of course. I mean just look at her. But that ship has sailed a long time ago and neither of us got on board. That's why I figured they say things like that to mess with me and I let it go.
I washed my body, then my hair and dried it with a towel a little. I put on a sports bra with an unbuttoned flannel and shorts, then went back to the living room. When I got there the food was already on the table so I took my piece before there was nothing left for me.
I grabbed a can of coke from the fridge and leaned against a counter taking a bite of my pizza. I noticed Jennifer looking at me and I smiled.
"JJ can you pass me the remote?" Emily asked.
She didn't get the remote, nor an acknowledgement that she was heard, "JJ," she repeated.
"Sorry," JJ looked at her, "What?"
Emily chuckled, "Nothing, totally nothing," she said and looked at me, "I have no idea how you managed to pass the tests for being a profiler Maya."
"I beg your pardon?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Then beg," she said taking the remote.
"I'm not even gonna engage in that," I said and sat between them on the couch, "Put my show on," I told her while opening my drink and took a few sips.
We finished eating during the episode. When it ended we cleaned up a little and JJ decided to go to bed.
Emily didn't wanna go to sleep yet and asked me to stay with her for a while so I did. We put music on and I grabbed her a can of coke too. We talked and listened to the music. We discussed her selling her apartment and decided she could move in with me for now.
About an hour later we decided to go to bed too. I took a bottle of water from the kitchen for JJ and went to my bedroom. When I walked in, I noticed she wasn't asleep yet.
"You're not sleeping," I said, getting in beside her.
"No," she said quietly.
"Why?" I asked.
JJ shrugged so I moved closer to her and she put her head on my shoulder. She was definitely making progress, but the nights were still pretty hard. Some more than others.
This one seemed to be one of the bad ones. It was around four am and she woke up for the third time tonight. I woke up too because I felt her move. I opened my eyes and saw her sitting up with her hand on her chest, panting a little.
I sat up, "Nightmare?"
She nodded and I asked, "Wanna talk about it?"
She nodded again, "Okay. Whenever you're ready."
"The same one," she whispered, "The one when he's laughing in my face. This time he talked about the baby."
"I'm sorry," I said and rubbed circles on the back of her hand with my finger, "That you have to relive it like that."
"He took everything," she whispered and her eyes filled with tears, "I have nothing left. He broke me."
"He didn't, Jayje. He didn't break you," I whispered.
This wasn't the time for any motivational speeches. It wouldn't help right now. I knew that what she needed right now was just to know she's not alone.
I moved closer to her and sat against the headboard. I wrapped my arms around her from behind and pulled her in so she was leaning back against my front. She put her hands over mine and I kissed her head.
"You'll be okay," I whispered.
She nodded, a few tears escaping her eyes. I moved my hands from under hers and put them over.
I held her and rubbed the back of her hands with my thumbs, pressing a small kiss on her head every now and then.
Some time later I fell asleep and I thought she did too, but I was mistaken. Next time I woke up, about half an hour later, her eyes were still open.
"Did you wake up or not sleep at all?" I whispered.
"I didn't sleep," she whispered back.
"Why? You're scared you'll have another nightmare?" I asked and she nodded.
I observed her for a second, "Okay, what is it?"
"What you said," she said.
"Yeah, but there's something else," I said.
She sighed, "I don't wanna have another nightmare because I'll wake you up again."
"Okay, and?" I asked.
"You barely got any sleep because of me tonight," she said.
"Doesn't matter. You didn't either," I said.
"But that's my fault not yours," she said.
"Okay, none of that, Jennifer Jareau. It's not your fault that you have nightmares. I don't mind waking up. I want to wake up. Hell, I don't even like sleeping," I said.
She chuckled, "That's not true."
I giggled, "It's not. But what I said before that, is true. Seriously, I want to wake up when you can't sleep. And for the record, I get more sleep with you even when you have nightmares than I do when I sleep alone," I said.
"That is true. Because you lack self control and can't put your phone away at night and then you hate yourself for it in the morning," she said.
"Okay, I was trying to be helpful. You didn't need to list my issues," I said.
"That wasn't even the beginning of the list," she said smiling.
"You know what? I take it back. You deal with it yourself," I said and rolled over on my side.
She chuckled tiredly, "Okay, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She said rolling me on my back.
"Thank you," I smiled.
She made herself comfortable basically on top of my body, her head nuzzled in my neck and her arm wrapped around my waist. I wrapped mine around her too and closed my eyes.
"I was right though, Maya Prentiss," she said proudly.
"You, pretty girl, are something else," I shook my head smiling.