The planets bend between us

Chapter 19

"One more," Emily slurred as she motioned her fingers to the bartender. She was drunker than she had been since college. She forgot how it felt like to not feel anything. She missed it, even though she knew how much damage it caused her.

The bartender raised an eyebrow at the drunk woman. "Ma'am, I'd not have another drink. It's unsafe—"

"I'm paying you, aren't I? God, I remember the old days when bartenders would try to feed you so much alcohol that... that... that alcohol poisoning was a guarantee." She laughed at her own statement. She hiccuped and smiled at him flirtatiously. "Oh, come on, baby. I can hold my alcohol. I can hold a lot of things."

The bartender didn't get a chance to reply to her risqué claim. He noticed the blonde standing behind Emily and pointed to her.

Emily wobbled around to find JJ staring at her.

"Really, Emily? Propositioning bartenders, now? How much have you drank?"

The profiler shrugged. "Not m— wha— what are you... you doing here?"

The liaison glared at her. "You called me, Em. You said, and I quote, 'Get your sexy ass over here, I need to tell you something.' What is it? Why couldn't you have called Remi to pick you up? You remember her? Your girlfriend?"

Emily frowned. "You're mad at me..."

"I am!" JJ exclaimed, agitated. "It's almost ten o'clock, it's my night off, and you drunk called me so that you could tell me some half-ass thing. I only came because I'm worried. But if you're fine—"

"Mommy yelled at me today," Emily murmured, looking down at the empty glass in front of her. "She just wanted to know if I wanted daddy's money."

JJ didn't understand what that meant at all, but she finally understood that something was really wrong. She sat down next to the brunette and grabbed her hand, trying to get more information out of her. "Your mother came to your place today?" At Emily's nod, she added, "Did she yell at you for being in a relationship with... with a woman?"

Emily shook her head. "She knows I'm gay!" She let out a laugh. "She caught me fucking a girl when I was eighteen. She just told me to hide it and left it at that. She's just happy I haven't married a woman. She'll draw the line at that."

Jj's eyes softened. She was no longer angry with her friend. "Oh, Em. I'm sorry. So what's the problem?"

"She wants me to figure out... out what I want to do with the lake house."

"What lake house?" JJ asked her.

"Dad's. I've never been. I got it in the will. I just rent it out, but the people who've been renting it doesn't want to anymore. Mother wants me to sell it."

JJ finally started seeing what was going on. "Do you want to sell it?"

"It's all I have of his. He never had material things. Didn't want to cling to anything for when he died. Always a good planner. His death was well planned." She turned to look at JJ, who understood what she meant by that. "I didn't say that." She furrowed her eyebrows and rubbed her eyes. "Hey, you're getting fuzzy."

JJ jumped up as Emily passed out in the blonde's arms. She pulled her up so that she could take her to her car. She drove to Emily's apartment. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door, holding Emily upright. The door opened.

"Thank you so much," Remi told her as she tucked the brunette agent into bed. "For bringing her here."

"She would have asked you," JJ lied, trying to comfort the professor who stared at Emily with worry. "But she didn't want you to have to leave Maia. She didn't want Maia to see her like this."

Remi smiled gently at the blonde. "I appreciate the thought, JJ. But I know that's a lie. Honestly, I'd be the last person she would call. She doesn't want me to see her. Every part of her."

JJ bit her lip, not knowing how to reply to that. "She's just very hidden."

"You mean secretive. And mysterious. I know. And I'm trying to give her space so she can tell me things, but I'm getting impatient. I don't know her."

"Yes you do," JJ argued. "You know what kind of person she is. You know her likes and dislikes. You know how she feels about you. She just has trouble explaining her past. That's just how it is with the BAU. You can't take it—"

"Personally," Remi finished. "Yeah, I know. Sometimes I think that only you all are capable of loving each other. I mean you're already a family. You save each other's lives. I know I can't acquaint with what you all have. But I had hoped that by now that Emily would trust me."

"She does! I know she does."

Remi shook her head. "She may love me. But she doesn't trust me. That's why she didn't call me. Because that's what you have that I'll never have or I'll spend all my time trying to have. Her trust."

JJ was speechless. "What do you want me to say?"

Remi chuckled as she took a sleeping Emily's hand. "Nothing, JJ. Nothing. Thank you for bringing her. I'll tell her you said goodnight."

The blonde nodded, knowing she was no longer welcome. She opened the door and turned around, facing Remi. "I know you think that she doesn't see you the way that you do. But she does. She's just afraid. That's all."

"But that's just the thing, JJ. She's not afraid of you."