Serendipity

chapter 17

TW: Elizabeth being a horrible mother. Some homophobia.
Little angsty…or maybe a lot angsty…sorry, not sorry.
*****

Isabella arrived at Emily’s apartment at 9:30am. Emily wanted to drive together, she didn’t want to have to leave either of them alone for any reason. They pulled up in front of the large colonial style building that housed The Ambassador. It was one of the more modest residences Emily had ever seen her mother in. Emily turned off the ignition, but no-one moved to get out of the car. “Maybe we can just leave. Tell her something came up.” Emily was suddenly terrified. She felt 15 all over again. “We could, but we’ve already been spotted.” JJ pointed at the front door, where Elizabeth Prentiss was staring oddly at them. Of course Elizabeth would be at the door herself that time, instead of having staff see her guests in. Emily took a deep breath, “Well then. Let’s get this over with.”. They got out of the car and walked up to Elizabeth. She looked as unimpressed with their arrival as was humanly possible. Fuck. “Hello Mother.” Emily gave the Ambassador an awkward hug. “Agent Jareau.” She stated, only affording JJ half a second of attention before moving on. “And you are?.” She directed the question at Isabella with an unhealthy amount of disdain for someone she had scarcely met. “Isabella Cartwright. Nice to meet you.” The redhead introduced herself, Elizabeth just looked her up and down. Emily saw Isabella clench her jaw for a moment, she was sure Isabella had been having an internal argument with herself about behaving nicely.

“Can we come inside please?” Emily said, rather than asked. Elizabeth wordlessly stepped aside and JJ and Isabella followed Emily into the house. Once they were seated in the lounge, Emily did what she went there to do, “So, mother, you know JJ as an agent, I wanted to introduce her to you as my girlfriend.” “Excuse me?” Emily tensed at her mother’s voice, but she stood her ground. “You heard me.” Emily took JJ’s hand, she needed a tether. Elizabeth looked like she had been doused in ice water, and Emily had to fight the urge to run. “Emily, don’t be ridiculous. We’ve had this conversation. I really thought you’d stopped with this nonsense. You just need to find a nice man, I can introduce you to some friends’ sons. It’s probably too late for children, but that’s probably for the best. You aren’t mother material, regardless, there will be someone who can look past that.” Emily tensed more with each word her mother spoke, she was using all of her energy to keep from falling apart. She clung to JJ like her life depended on it, and eventually, JJ had had enough. “Stop!” She heard the woman say, she almost didn’t recognise JJ’s voice. “Stop saying those horrible things! You are a terrible mother.” “I made her what she is.” “No. She is who she is, in spite of you. She survived, and thrived, despite everything you did to break her down. She is the strongest woman I know.” JJ looked at Emily with a burning question in her eyes, Emily nodded. “And talking about children,” JJ pointed at Isabella, “Isabella is Emily’s daughter. Your granddaughter.”

***

The Ambassador displayed all the warmth and cosiness of a cactus. Isabella had to fight hard to remain unaffected by the woman. She oozed power, and Isabella was sure she could turn her to stone with a single look. She was taken aback by the up and down gaze she received in response to her introduction; she had done exactly nothing to the woman, yet she was treated like a lesser being for god only knew what reason. It pissed her off. She didn’t want to be associated with the horrid person in front of her at all, least of all as family. Unfortunately, she huffed to herself, she had no choice in the matter. If she wanted to be in Emily’s life, she’d have to deal with Elizabeth at some point. They followed Elizabeth into the manor, the interior was just as warm and cosy as the occupant. Isabella briefly wished she’d brought a jacket. She watched the Ambassador closely when Emily introduced JJ as her girlfriend; she caught the microaggressions running through her eyes, disgust followed by anger, then sheer indifference. She dismissed Emily in such a manner that Isabella wasn’t sure if she’d heard her correctly. Isabella was dumbfounded, she had never known a mother could be like that. Her heart ached for Emily, no-one should have to go through that. She flinched at the sudden aggression in JJ’s voice, and it almost frightened her. Let’s not get on her bad side, she made a note to herself.