✓ | sick of losing soulmates [SPENCER REID]

7.3

7.3
( henry. )

☆ ★ ☆

iris

"So, uh, labour sucks, huh?"

"Mhmm. That fun-sounding name? Very misleading."

With Emily ahead of them on the phone with Will, Iris guides JJ through the automatic doors into the hospital reception room, JJ holding — and practically crushing — her hand as she goes through yet another contraction, breathing heavily through her mouth.

"You planning on having any kids?" JJ asks after puffing out a heavy exhale, trying to keep the pain at bay.

Iris momentarily thinks of Spencer, who had asked that very question a few nights earlier, at JJ's party. "Maybe," she answers quietly, watching Emily head straight for the front desk. Just gotta find the right person first.

"Don't," is all JJ says, inhaling deeply through her nose. She pulls her clammy hand from Iris', instead swinging her arm around her shoulders and squeezing uncomfortably tightly. "Not worth it. Totally not worth it."

"Good to know," Iris quips with a heavy gulp.

Luckily, before Iris can decide she is never having children, JJ is soon taken off her hands. When Emily has spoken to the nurse at the desk, it's only a few minutes, maybe less, before some nurses arrive to take JJ off to a room. Iris and Emily follow along, up the staircase to the maternity ward, where a nurse stops them in a hallway.

"Are either of you her partner?"

Both of them straighten.

"Tragically, they're both heterosexual," says Emily, the first to realise what to say, considering Iris has just opened her mouth and let out a, "Uhh."

The nurse smiles awkwardly and directs them back the way they came. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait outside until she's delivered."

They share a pursed-lipped glance, then turn and reluctantly head toward a pair of plastic seats in the waiting room just around the corner of the hallway.

"Hey," Iris says once the nurse is out of earshot, wrapping an arm around Emily's neck teasingly. "I'd totally make an exception for you."

"Thanks," she says, wrapping an arm around Iris's waist in a similar mocking fashion, "that's sweet of you."

They spend the first ten minutes calling up the others and waiting for them to arrive: Will comes first, smiling and hugging them both, then going to check on JJ; Hotch and Garcia are next, both of them with wide smiles; the rest of the team aren't in sight.