The planets bend between us

Chapter 1

"Prentiss, what has that tequila done to you?" Derek Morgan asked as he took a seat next to his friend and colleague.

The profiler, who had been sitting at the bar for hours, rolled her eyes. "Morgan, please, don't. I really just want to be alone."

Derek frowned. "Emily, I know you don't like to talk about your feelings, but we just got home. You should be drinking in celebration that we solved that case and finally got out of that heat. Not moping around like you just got your heart broken."

Emily flinched at those words, and Derek noticed the change in her body position. He reviewed all of the past few hours and Emily's change in mood and demeanor, and the realization dawned on him.

"I'm sorry, Prentiss. I didn't know you, er- had feelings for... JJ." He waited for a reaction from her.

She remained still and looked back at him. "It's fine. She's with Will. He makes her happy. That's alright with me."

"Did she even know how you feel about her? I thought you were the one that convinced her to go to him?"

Emily did another shot. "Look, Morgan, you're a good guy. But I'm not just going to drink here and talk about my feelings. I don't do that. You don't do that. We don't do that. So you are just going to walk away and keep this to yourself, yeah?" She didn't want to hurt his feelings. She just wanted him to go away.

"I know we don't talk about our feelings. We're work partners. We spend all of our time together. I get that you don't want to talk to me about this kind of thing. But I'm here for you. If you ever need someone to talk to you, I'm here." He smiled at her and got up to leave her alone.

She felt guilty for pushing him away. Before he turned away, she muttered, "Wait. Stay. Maybe I do need to talk about this with someone. I don't want to be all... feel-y when I see JJ next."

Derek sat back down and ordered a beer. He took a sip and asked, "Why didn't you tell me, Emily? I mean I think we all knew that you're gay. You've never shown any interest in men. Hell, even me. But you could have told me."

"I don't tell anyone. It's not a big deal. I don't do relationships. It's probably a good thing JJ is straight. I wouldn't be able to handle a relationship anyway."

"You're not giving yourself enough credit, Emily."

She sighed. "Really, Morgan? I haven't been in a relationship longer than a few months since college. Besides, you don't do much better. You do what I do. Hit it and leave it. No emotions. The system works."

Morgan glared at her. "It doesn't work when you want to get over someone. Look, if you want to get over JJ, then you need something real. You can't just have sex with whoever you meet at the bar. You'll never get over JJ. Because you won't have feelings for anyone else. They will still all be there for JJ."

"But you know relationships in the BAU don't work! Look at Hotch and Rossi!" Emily argued passionately. "No one understands what we do. They don't get our hours or our nightmares."

"That may be true, but maybe it just takes a little more work from some of us. Look, you need to find someone that you can come to at night. I know you like to be a lone wolf, but you have to tell someone about those feelings of yours. It isn't healthy to keep it all inside. And it's even less healthy to follow JJ like a puppy. Besides, if she does have feelings for you, she'll be jealous if you're in a relationship."