daylight (jemily)

Chapter Twenty Eight

JJ was laying upside down on the couch with her knee propped up on some pillows. "I'm bored!" she whined, letting her arms flop to the ground.

Emily took her hands and pulled her up right. "What would you like to do?" she asked.

JJ was out of work indefinitely, and Emily was too because JJ couldn't be home alone. That meant they were both bored a lot.

"I don't want to do anything," she sighed. Emily rolled her eyes. "Don't complain that you're bored if you don't want to do anything," she replied.

"Have they found Collins yet?" she asked, shifting her leg uncomfortably. "As soon as they find him, I will tell you," Emily said. She kissed JJ's knuckles gently. "How bad is the pain?"

"My knee hurts a lot," she said, leaning back into the couch. "What about your throat?" Emily questioned.

"Not that bad," she shrugged. JJ over the last couple weeks her speech had come back almost fully, which was great. It only hurt if she spoke too much.

"Would you like to talk about anything?" Emily asked her. JJ shook her head no. They hadn't really talked more about what happened.

Emily brushed a few strands of hair out of JJ's face. She gently ran her thumb over the bruising under JJ's eye. "How about a movie night? I'll go get some candy, whatever you want. And we can make popcorn. It'll be fun. I'll even let you pick the movie," she smiled.

"Okay," JJ agreed. "All right. What kind of candy do you want?" asked Emily.

A small smile formed on JJ's face. "All of them," she responded.

Emily laughed. "Every single kind of candy?"

"Mhm," she nodded. "You said whatever I want. That's what I want."

Emily shook her head laughing, pressing a kiss to JJ's head. "I'll be back soon."

JJ grabbed the remote and started scrolling through movies. Emily left the house and drove to the store. She was back in about 20 minutes with a heart attack's worth of popcorn, soda, and candy.

She walked back into the house holding two bags stuffed to the brim with candy. JJ grinned when she saw her. "What's that?" she asked.

Emily sat down next to her, setting the bags in her lap. "What you asked me for. A bag of every single candy the story had."

"You really got them for me?" JJ asked, riffling through the variety. "I said I would," Emily nodded. "Although, this may take us a couple years to finish."

JJ stared into Emily's eyes for a second. In all the pain and suffering she'd faced recently, she'd forgotten how lucky she was to have Emily in her corner. How amazing of a partner she was.

"I love you," JJ said softly. "I don't say it enough."

Emily let JJ cuddle into her side, helping her prop her knee up on the coffee table. "You don't need to say it all the time. I know," she said, kissing JJ's temple. "I love you too."

JJ played the movie she picked. After it was over they played another, and then another one after that. They made themselves sick with candy, and stayed up until midnight watching the dumb romcoms. Both Emily and JJ fell asleep on the couch and stayed there all night.

___

The next morning when Emily and JJ woke up they immediately regretted the amount of sugar they'd had the night before.

JJ laid on her back on the couch, staring at the ceiling. It was still morning, and it's not like she had anywhere to be.

"I'd like to talk to you about something," Emily said, kneeling down next to her. JJ looked up skeptically. This was odd.

"I was talking to Hotch yesterday. The whole team is going out for dinner tonight. They want you to come," she said softly.

JJ gave her a look. "Why didn't you tell me yesterday?" she asked. Emily shrugged her shoulders. "I forgot, I guess. That's not the point. Will you go?"

The truth was Emily hadn't forgotten. She'd chosen not to bring it up because yesterday JJ was in a decently good mood. That night was one of the first ones that she hadn't scowled the whole day and refused to talk.

It was a random spark of luck, that'd she'd suddenly been happy. She even ate a weeks worth of chocolate and candy. However that hardly made up for the days before when she'd barely touch her plates of food.

"I'm crippled," JJ said, rolling over. "You're disabled," Emily corrected her. "Temporarily."

"I can't walk right," she scoffed. "I don't want to go."

"JJ, look at me," Emily said. She waited as JJ remained still. "Look at me, please," she repeated.

JJ slowly turned her head and made eye contact. "I really want you to try and go. I think that it's going to be good for you. If you're uncomfortable we can leave before the food even comes out. But I want you to go," Emily said.

She thought about it for a while. She didn't want to go, but she wanted to make Emily happy. Emily said that she needed to go, so she should just go.

"Fine," she murmured. "They're all going to treat me weird."

"No they won't," Emily told her. She didn't know that, so it was cold comfort.

"Yes they will. They did it after my abduction. They did it after Mia got taken away. Now that my own fucking baby died? They're sure as hell going to do it tonight."

Emily sort of knew what she meant. Nobody knew what to say at first, so it was slightly awkward.

"Okay, maybe it'll be a little different. But they're your family, and you're going to see them eventually. It'll go back to normal soon enough," Emily said.

"Fine," JJ said again, turning away.

"Can I get you some ice for your knee?" Emily asked her. JJ didn't respond, so she just took it as a yes.

She went to the kitchen and grabbed an ice pack out of the freezer. She took it over to the couch where JJ was laying.

She helped JJ sit upright and lifted her leg onto the coffee table. JJ winced in pain as she moved, but tried to make it unnoticeable.

Emily carefully undid the brace on JJ's knee, and placed the ice on top. "You have to keep your leg really still, remember? You don't want to mess with the healing, it's still fragile."

"I know," JJ muttered. She wasn't deaf, she'd heard everything the doctor said. Did Emily think she was an idiot?

JJ grabbed the remote and turned on the television. Emily sat next to her, watching her face more than the actual screen.

"Everyone in this movie is dumb. Nobody would ever do something that stupid," JJ scoffed, rolling her eyes at the movie playing.

Emily laughed softly. "What happened to the JJ I was talking to last night? She loved these movies."

"Well maybe you have the wrong idea about who I am. If you want someone who's happy all the time, then you should go marry someone else. Maybe, we should just get divorced!" JJ shouted. "This movie is fucking stupid!"

She took the remote in her hand and threw it against the wall, causing the tv to shut off.

Emily stared at her. This had escalated quickly.