Eau De Sang-- Emily Prentiss x Reader

chapter four

Nearly two weeks had passed since that night in Emily's apartment, two weeks since you danced in her kitchen and held her hand on the couch as a movie went mostly ignored in favor of your mind wandering to the way Emily's pale skin glowed in the gentle light of the TV. Monday had come and gone with no word from any of the police departments out West where JJ's academy friend had initially asked the team for help. The case files started to collect dust on everyone's desks in the bullpen, including yours. Consults from consenting departments were flooding in from all across the country and each of the profilers was up to their necks with serial crime and criminal psychology. You had gotten in the habit of leaving Quantico well after dinner time and returning bright in the morning, as if the pile of vampire folklore, conspiracies, and legends sitting on your coffee table had effectively banished you from living in your own space.

The information was all there and your desire for answers was strong, but you knew that once you let yourself fall back down that rabbit hole, you wouldn't be able to claw yourself back out. Not with a real-life, FBI-sealed case file on your desk that could confirm that all of the information your father and therapist berated and invalidated decades ago was actually true. You couldn't face the reality in which the bloodsucking, night-creeping living dead walked among society, waiting to strike at any moment. You couldn't face the scenario in which the man blamed for your mother's death was actually innocent and the real monster was still lurking in the shadows, maybe coming back for seconds now that you were a living, breathing replica of the woman he took such pleasure in killing all those years ago.

Rubbing at your eyes, you signed your name on the last case file in the pile on your desk—a case of postpartum depression gone horribly, viciously wrong. Photos that at one point in your life would have made you vomit were burned into the back of your eyelids and the written account of several witnesses to the horrors were running on a loop in your mind, spoken in your own voice and sending a shiver down your spine. When a gentle hand was placed on your shoulder, pulling you from your reverie, it made you jump a little harder than it should have.

"Woah, it's just me," Emily said, her sweet, melodic voice a soothing balm to the aching, ragged pieces of your mind that were rubbing against one another relentlessly. You dropped your head onto the back of your chair, looking at the underside of Emily's chin, noting fleetingly that her jawline seemed to be chiseled from marble.

"Sorry," you said, pushing a deep breath out of your lungs. "These case files are really getting to me, and I haven't really been sleeping lately."

With a push of her hand, Emily spun you around to face her, letting her hand linger in your hair for a second before dropping it back to her side. The team didn't know that you and Emily had been seeing each other for the past few weeks and the two of you wanted to keep it that way, at least for now. Things were fresh, fragile, and almost more fun having your little secret. Penelope had been bugging you for days now about who you had been spending your free time with, but you were a lockbox—once Penelope knew what was going on, the whole BAU would know. Your closest friend on the team or not, Garcia was not to know.

"Why don't we get out of here for the night? Sergio misses you." Emily's smile was sinful, biting the corner of her lip enticingly.

"Oh, he does, does he?" you responded, pushing yourself up from your chair and grabbing for your bag and jacket. "And he's the only one missing me?" you asked, looking around at the empty bullpen before continuing. "Because I'm not sure trekking all the way across DC in the middle of the night is worth it for just my favorite kitty."

Emily chuckled and placed her hand on the small of your back as she guided you to the elevator.

"Hmm, well, I suppose maybe his owner is missing you, too. But just a little."