Emily Prentiss One-Shots

Emily/Penelope

Title: Sense - SSAScorpSik (Ao3)

Summary: Set in S16

When Emily finds out that Penelope has bedded Tyler, she loses it.

Rating: General 

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"Damnit Penelope! What are you trying to do? Get yourself fired?"

"No." Penelope replied meekly.

"Then what? Get ME fired? Jesus CHRIST!"

Penelope hung her head as she let the tirade wash over her. Her fingers toyed with her bangles. She could feel her glasses slipping down her nose, but didn't dare push them up in case that riled Emily up further. Boy, she had never seen Emily so mad before! They'd been so close – all those visits to London, and the closeness they shared over the past fifteen years. But now it was like Emily couldn't even bear to be in the same space as her. Penelope guessed there was a lot more stress being Section Chief as opposed Unit Chief, but –

"Are you even listening to me?!"

Penelope looked up. Shoot. She totally missed whatever it was that Emily had said. "Uhm... yes?"

Emily hissed and shook her head. "Just tell me WHY. Why did you sleep with him? No – why did you sleep with him AFTER I explicitly told you to sever all ties with him?"

Penelope offered a small shrug. "I intended to. I went round there to –"

"We have these things called phones, Garcia. I know you're familiar with them." Emily snarked.

Penelope nodded. "I wanted to do it in person... but when he opened the door, he just looked so sad, and... you know me...I'm too soft, and –"

"I thought I knew you." Emily sighed angrily. "I thought I could trust you. I thought I could give you a direct order as a friend rather than a boss, and that makes me stupid and Goddamnit that's my ass on the line. Well once bitten."

"Am I fired?" Penelope asked softly.

Emily's eyes bored into her for what felt like an age. "I want to say 'yes'. God, you don't know how badly I want to say 'yes'. But if I do that, then this whole mess will come out and we'll all be thrown under the bus – you, me and the whole fucking team. That's what you've done, you know? You've put the ENTIRE TEAM in jeopardy. Jesus, all these years of work... and YOU are the one to close us down and for what? A fuck?"

Penelope blushed at the crudeness. "It wasn't just –"

"Don't, Garcia. Spare me the gory details." She shook her head. "I know you didn't want to come back to the BAU, Garcia... but this is one Hell of a way to prove it. You were happy away from the BAU – so why are you even worried about being fired now, huh?"

Penelope opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Emily interrupted.

"Actually, don't bother answering that. You might not like this job anymore, but I DO! It is my LIFE, Penelope. My whole fucking life." She sighed, her voice softening as the weight of that hit her. "My whole life." She looked across at Penelope. "Go. Just go."

Penelope swallowed. "Uh... f-for good, or...?"

"I need the night to think things through. I'll decide what to do tomorrow. But for tonight... just go. Please."

Penelope nodded and stood. She skulked to the door and paused. "I really am sorry, Emily."

Emily couldn't look at her, she just waved a hand in a manner that could have meant 'okay' just as easily as it meant 'get out'. When the door closed, and she was alone, Emily dropped her head into her hands. What a fuck up. What a total bloody fuck up. Tyler Green was a material witness, and by bedding him, Penelope could well have made sure that Elias Voit could walk on ALL counts. That son of a bitch murdered over sixty people, and he could walk because Garcia fell for Green. Of course, the buck would stop at herself. She was Section Chief, and in the end, the blame will lie with her, and rightly so. She should never have trusted Garcia to break up with Green. She should have made sure of it herself.
Damnit!