PROMISES, emily prentiss

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

December 1st
present day
auroras apartment
7:15 A.M.

It's been nearly a month now since Emily and Aurora went on their first real date together, and since then they've been just as inseparable as before. They spend at least five nights a week at each other's houses, drive each other to and from work, share hotel rooms on cases, and just when everyone thinks they'd be sick of each other they overhear them making plans to go get dinner or talking about catching a movie. If they were joint at the hip before their date, no one would even know how to describe their relationship now. Not that anyone knew about their date, nor their relationship. But, a select few suspected something secret was going on with the two women.

In the long time the team had known Emily they had never seen her as happy as she was now. She hardly ever snapped at them, or gave them attitude, and she was almost always smiling. They knew something was different about her, they just couldn't quite come to the conclusion that the something different was the blonde agent who sat less than a few feet away. The team liked seeing Emily like this, but not knowing the cause was driving them all slightly insane.

When Aurora woke up this morning without Emily beside her she was painfully aware of the date. It was December 1st, also known as the beginning of the worst month of the year. The month that brings back all the foul memories. The month where it's a chore to get out of her bed in the morning to take a shower and get herself to work.

It was the month that her mother had died.

This month was always unbearable for Aurora and the only person who knew it was Alexander. She would never take care of herself during the month of December, she didn't sleep, or eat, or shower. She definitely didn't celebrate Christmas. The death of her mother during this cold and dreary month has poisoned the well, ruining all Decembers for the rest of her life.

Since she's been running around with Emily for the past few weeks she had lost track of time, she had no idea that December was going to jump out at her from behind a dark corner as quickly as it did this year. She felt empty and overwhelmed with memories, both good and bad.

The memories are the hardest pill for her to swallow. The good memories, the ones of her and her mother, the last perfect moments of their family, those happy memories were actually the ones that always made her so sad. Because that last December all those years ago was the final time she ever experienced it, the last time her family was happy. But the bad memories are just as saddening, they show that not only was December the end of their happy, picture perfect family, it was the beginning of her own personal nightmare with her own father playing the role of the monster under the bed.

She didn't want to get up and go to work, she didn't want to move, or eat, or breathe. She wanted to walk out into the freezing cold December air and lay there until eventually her entire body froze over and she was put into a deep sleep until this month eventually came to an end.

But, deep down she knew she had no choice but to suck it up and get her ass into the BAU. She had already missed so much work because of her mental health on top of being kidnapped, she knew that she needed to be there. Plus, she felt guilty staying home mourning the loss of her mother who's been in the ground for nearly 17 years at this point when there were people out there dying in present time that she could be saving.

She wasn't feeling completely up to getting completely ready today like she usually would. So instead she just put her hair into a messy bun, stray hairs fell out all around it and framed her face, and she didn't put on any makeup on at all. She put a gray turtleneck on under a big black sweatshirt. On the bottom she wore a gray skirt with black tights. It still passed off as looking professional, but it was also minimal effort and comfortable which is exactly what she needed on a gloomy and depressing day like this one.