Serendipity

chapter 16

Emily stood watching Isabella essentially annoy their suspect until she broke him. The man did not take well to being called a coward, and it had him confessing in a flurry. Emily enjoyed watching Isabella during interviews, she made it look like art. Emily thought that, in another life, Isabella would have been a great actress. Her heart stopped briefly when Angelo attacked the woman, why wasn’t he cuffed?, but Isabella had him on the floor before they made it into the room. She felt an odd sense of pride at the interaction.

Telling the team about her and JJ was extremely easy, since they already knew. Telling them about Isabella was a whole lot more complicated. The only person she ever told was JJ, and even after meeting Isabella, it was still painful to talk about. She felt JJ and Isabella take her hands, and she got an immense amount of strength from them. “Holy shit.” Morgan had said when she was done talking, followed by more silence. “Yes, it was completely unexpected, and we took a long time coming to terms with it ourselves.” Isabella explained, “Which is why we didn’t tell you earlier, we were struggling with what it meant for us.” “What about Strauss?” Hotch asked, his expression was almost impossible to read, “Interpersonal relationships isn’t something she’s going to let slide.” He sounded genuinely concerned, it warmed her heart. “There isn’t actually any rule against fraternisation in the FBI.” Spencer commented, “Although, I don’t know how they feel about family relations.” Isabella squeezed her hand, “I will handle Strauss. They have been together for two years, without incident, proving they can keep their private relationship separate from the job. Emily and I have known about our link for a year, same thing. We’ve proved that it doesn’t influence our ability to do our jobs.” Isabella stated. Hotch seemed to accept her explanation, but he did not look any less concerned. “You don’t have to worry. We’ll all be fine.” Another minute or two passed in silence before a round of cheers erupted. The rest of the flight was a lot more cheerful.

***

“We should talk to Penelope. She’s going to have a million questions.” Isabella had said as they got off the jet. “How much did you tell her that night?” JJ asked, Emily wasn’t entirely sure what they were talking about. “Just that meeting my birth mother had gone badly. Nothing else.” Emily’s eyes went wide. “What?” “Yeah, after Albany. I didn’t take it well, to put it mildly. Pen took care of me, and I had to tell her something. I didn’t mention you, but I was so mad and sad. And also drunk.” Isabella looked at her with pleading eyes, she wasn’t mad, she just never thought about what Isabella had gone through that day. “It’s fine, but maybe you should talk to her first then?” “Yeah, that might be a good idea.” Emily knew Penelope and Isabella had grown close over the past year, and she was a little bit afraid of what the techy might do to her with the little information she had received from Isabella. “Scared she might wipe you from existence?” JJ asked with a wink, Emily didn’t hesitate one second to answer, “Yes.”. Isabella laughed, “I didn’t say anything bad, relax. I just said it wasn’t a good meeting. I might have said you hated me though, I’m not sure about that one.” “Isabella!” She chastised the red haired agent. “I’ll go talk to her, it’ll be fine.” Isabella moved in the direction of the IT lab. Emily felt both relieved and more tense about the situation, JJ briefly brushed against her hand, and she immediately decided she was more excited about being able to hold JJ’s hand than she was scared of anything else.

****

Isabella was greeted with a bone crushing hug upon entering Garcia’s office. “I get why you couldn’t tell me it was Emily, but why didn’t you tell me!?” “It wasn’t my secret to tell, Pen. And, at that point you were her friend more than mine.” Garcia hadn’t let go of her. “So what exactly happened when you found out?” “We freaked the fuck out.” Isabella chuckled nervously, remembering how stupid they had been, “We didn’t know how to handle it, so we just…didn’t. Emily figured it out while we were in Albany, my very first case.” Garcia let her out of the hug, but kept holding her hands. “When we got back, I saw her handwriting for the first time. I knew it from the letter. The next day I was going to talk to her, but she ran. That was the afternoon JJ called you. We just never talked about it again.” Garcia pulled her back into a hug. “Oh Kitten, it must have been so hard to work with her every day!” “At first, but it got easier. Until the Lara Truman case.” Garcia gasped, she had also been listening to what Emily had said in that group. “I figured that was what upset you, when JJ asked me to trace your phone. But all this time, it was actually Emily! That’s horrible!” “She didn’t mean any of it, and none of this was only her fault. Both of us handled it extremely poorly. You wouldn’t say that we’re both grown adults. She came to see me that night, we finally talked it out. Admitted how moronic we’d both been.” Garcia looked like she might cry, “I am so grateful for your support, P. Emily had JJ, and I don’t know how I would have managed without you. Also, Emily may be a little scared that you’ll erase her identity off the face of the earth, or something.” Garcia squinted at her for a moment before answering, “I might have thought about it.” “Penelope!” “I wouldn’t actually do it, I love her too much. I’m kinda happy you didn’t tell me, I don’t think I would have been able to handle a secret that big.” Isabella laughed, “You work for the FBI, keeping secrets is 90% of our job.” Isabella answered some more of Garcia’s questions, assuring her that everything had been worked out.

Xxx

It was after dark when Isabella got home, but she knew her uncle would still be up. He picked up on the second ring, “Hi, Snappy. How’s my girl?” Snappy was short for Snapdragon, the code name she had chosen for herself for their spy game when she was little. He was Chrysanthemum, Chris for short, her four year old self had been chuffed with the ingenuity. The names had stuck. “Hi, Uncle Chris. I’m great, thank you. How are you?” They chatted for a couple minutes before Isabella got to the purpose of her call, “I know I’ve never asked you to intervene in work related matters, but I have a huge favour to ask.” She explained to him about Emily, and JJ, and Strauss. “Strauss doesn’t like Emily, she’d love to send her somewhere obscure. And that would be the most logical option to sever her ties to both me and JJ, but we’ve proven that we can work together and not have it impact our work.” “So, you want me to tell Strauss to keep your team together?” “Well, you can suggest it to her…forcefully.” James laughed at her, “Of course I’ll help you. When are you planning on talking to her? I’ll call her while you’re there.” “She's still on leave for the next two months or so, so we need to wait till she’s back. I’ll let you know.”

“Sure thing, Snappy. You’re still coming to your aunt’s birthday dinner next Wednesday, right?” “Yes, Dad and I will both be there.” “Good. You should invite Emily, we’d all love to meet her.” “Really?” “Yes.” “And I take it I can’t exactly say no, given the favour I just asked for.” “That would be correct. She can bring agent Jareau.” Isabella rolled her eyes, she knew he was only joking about not being able to say no, but he wasn’t wrong. “I’ll ask her, but I’m not making any promises.” “I guess that’ll do. I love you kid.” “I love you too.”

***

“I spoke with my uncle, he’ll help.” Isabella had announced the next day. “But, there’s a price.” Emily squinted at her, “Meaning?” “Meaning, it came with a dinner invitation.” “A dinner invitation from the Director?” Emily had gone white as a sheet. “Yes. It’s Aunt Lorainne’s birthday next Wednesday. We’re having dinner, he asked me to invite you.” JJ snickered, “You can’t say no, Em. He did just agree to keep you here.” Emily looked like a deer in headlights. “Good luck with that.” JJ added and headed for her desk. “No, you misunderstand, the invitation is for both of you.” “What?” “It’s a family dinner, you’re family.” Isabella shrugged. Emily thought for a moment, “Okay, we’ll go, but then you come to brunch with my mother tomorrow.” Both Isabella and JJ looked like they might faint. “We have to talk to her soon, she’ll know the minute we talk to Strauss.” JJ squeaked out, “You two want me to meet the Director of the FBI, and your mother, all in one week?” Emily answered first, “You’ve already met my mother.” “And he’s not going to be the Director, he’s just going to be my uncle.” Isabella added. JJ was leaning against her desk, Isabella wasn’t sure anything they were saying would make her feel better. Thinking about meeting Emily’s mother was making her throat close up.

“It’s going to be equally horrible for all of us, my mother included. But she should hear it from me directly.” Isabella let out a sigh, “Fine. Brunch with your mother. How is she going to take to being a grandmother?” “About as well as she’s going to take to me having a girlfriend.” “Oh boy.”

***

Emily had been dreading the call to her mother. She had to inform the Ambassador that they will be having two more guests for brunch. “Emily. Are you calling to cancel brunch tomorrow?” Emily cringed at the tone. “Hello to you too, mother. No, I’m not calling to cancel. I want to let you know that I’m bringing some friends I’d like for you to meet. Well, JJ and another friend.” Elizabeth was quiet long enough that Emily thought she might have hung up. “Friends, Emily, this is a family brunch.” “I know, mother. They are my family.” Elizabeth let out an unimpressed huff, “Fine dear. See you tomorrow.” Emily sank down on the couch, her mother had the uncanny ability to suck the life right out of her. “How did it go?” JJ asked, emerging from the kitchen with two cups of coffee. “Great.” Emily exclaimed, then buried her face in a cushion and let out a scream. JJ pulled her into a hug, “It’ll be fine. I’ll be there, and Isabella will be there. We’ll protect you.” Emily sunk into JJ’s embrace.