Sweet Dreams- a Criminal Minds fanfic

Chapter 8

JJ pulled her knees tighter to her body and rested her chin on top of them while she waited for Reid. She had managed to calm down enough to get through the day and even if the sight of Emily made her blood boil, she had pushed that aside for the sake of their job. She knew she couldn't go home yet. Even if Will had been honest with her, he had still cheated on her. She could find it in her heart to forgive him since he'd been drunk, but she couldn't forgive Emily for seducing him and then lying about it. Because that's what it was. A lie.

"Here you go, Jen," Reid said as he came back out to the living room with a cup of coffee.

"Thank you," she replied when the hot cup warmed her hands. "And thank you for letting us stay here. I didn't know where else to go."

"You're always welcome here, so is Henry and Julia." Reid smiled. "Now tell me what's going on."

"You know what's going on. Will cheated on me with my best friend," JJ said, the despise for Emily evident in her voice.

Reid nodded, looking down at his coffee cup, while thinking about what to say next.

"What did she say when you confronted her?" Reid finally said, his eyes going up to meet hers again.

JJ's eyes darkened slightly at the thought of Emily's excuse. She had to take a minute to answer so that she wouldn't sound too angry and possibly raise her voice.

"She said he raped her," JJ spat, her hands tightening around her cup, making her knuckles turn white.

Reid wasn't able to hide the shock on his face. Whether it was because Emily had told such a lie or that Will had done such an inhuman thing, she didn't know. The younger man had to be on her side on this. She knew that her husband wasn't capable of what Emily said he did.

"And you think she's lying," Reid stated more than asked.

"Don't you?" JJ asked incredulously and when Reid didn't answer right away she continued. "I know Will. He would never do that. He couldn't hurt a fly. We both know how good Will is to me, Henry and Julia."

Reid shrugged and waited a couple of seconds before he replied.

"But you also know Emily. Would she really lie about something like that?"

"She's lied before," JJ grumbled.

"To protect us," Reid mentioned, neither of them believing that Reid for the first time excused Emily's behavior back then. "She wouldn't lie to save herself like this."

"Are you taking her side?" JJ asked, angrily.

"No, I'm just saying that the Emily we both know wouldn't lie about rape. We both know she has been acting different this last week... Maybe that's why?" Reid shrugged, not daring to meet JJ's dark eyes.

"No, because she's had an affair with my husband," JJ said, her voice an octave higher. This time she wasn't so sure if it was Reid or herself she was trying to convince.

Reid quietly watched his colleague and friend as she was battling with her own mind. If she really thought about it, she knew that what Emily said might be true. Emily had been wearing more make-up... Was it to cover up what Will had done? And the bruises on his face that he'd supposedly gotten in a bar fight. Or the time when Emily needed to talk to her but froze when Will spoke. It was all in front of her, so clear.

"But why?" JJ shook her head. "Why would he go after my best friend?" Her eyes met Reid's. "I really hope you're wrong here. I hope that they had an affair because that means Emily hasn't gone through..."

JJ couldn't finish the sentence, tears welling up in her eyes. Reid put his cup on the table and took JJ's out of her hands so that he could hold them.