Jemily(Unexpected Love)

Prisoner

JJ POV 

I was sitting in my car right outside of the prison. Will had been transferred to a maximum security men's prison as soon as he was seen well enough. I had held off from visiting him in the hospital due to fear. I thought I would feel safer if there were guards around us preventing him from even thinking of trying anything. But as I sat here gripping the steering wheel of my car, I've come to realize that that fear had nothing to do with the place but the person. 

I took a deep breath and exited my car and walked towards the entrance of the correctional facility. As I waited in line waiting for my turn to check in, I saw mothers and their children coming in and out. It gave me chills realizing that I might be one of those mothers bringing her child in to visit his father. I don't want my son in a place like this being surrounded by all these criminals. The sole purpose of my job is to put the demons, the monsters behind bars and now I might have to put my son in a position to be around these kind of people on a week by week basis. 

I gave my identification and they checked me before I was escorted to a singular room with a glass partition separating the other side. Because Will was a newly transferred inmate, and with a request I made, we were given a non-contact visit. The door from the opposite side opened and Will was brought in followed by a correctional officer. As Will sat down the officer removed Will's cuffs and stood by the door. He was all bruised up, I'm assuming from fights with other inmates. 

"You look like hell." I said. "You should ask to get moved to protection. You're endangering your life by being out in general population." 

He answered back, "Why do you care? You got what you wanted. Seeing me at my lowest point and knowing I will now rot in this place for the rest of my life." 

I looked at him with anger. I couldn't believe he was going to try to play the victim and blame me for his actions. "You think I wanted this? I loved you, you and I were married and we had a son and I loved you. We may not have been able to work things out between us romantically, but we always worked well together. I don't understand where it all went wrong Will. You not only hurt me but you hurt Emily, you threatened Penelope."

He scoffed at me. 

"And our son!" I yelled. 

That seemed to have made some impact on him because he looked at me with sorrow. "I never laid a hand on Henry."

"No, but you put him in a position to question his values, the trust he had in you, and his understanding of what is good and what is bad. He loves you but you've made him question everything he had ever known. You must have known that your actions would have severe repercussions." 

"I never meant for him to get caught up in any of this. I love my son."

"Do you? Because you have spent all of this time mad and angry at me and Emily when you could have been using that time and effort in loving and caring for your son. That would have spoken volumes to me instead of you using violence to get what you wanted."

"I'm sorry Jennifer."

"All those women, the ones you hurt. Did you ever feel bad about that?" I asked angrily.

"Of course I did."

"Then why keep doing it? How could your hatred of Emily go so far to make you commit these crimes?"

"She took you from me!"

"No, she didn't. You and I were already over by the time she and I started. There was never a possibility of us getting back together, you know that. We tried the counseling, it just didn't work."

We sat with a deafening silence over us. I just wanted this nightmare to be over with already. 

"Look, Henry is still your son. I won't stand in the way of him coming to visit you, even if I don't like it. But, that all depends on him. If he's not ready then I won't force him." I stated.

"What does he know...about all of this?" He asked worriedly. 

"He knows that you did some bad things. He doesn't know what or why. I still don't even understand why. I know that you two will have that discussion one day, but I ask that you respect me enough to tell me first before that time comes so I can prepare him. And I am also telling you, that you are not to put any blame towards Emily. You have to be responsible for your own actions and I won't have you tarnishing his view of her over your jealousy. That's not up for discussion or negotiation."

He nodded and looked up towards the correctional officer. The officer came closer to put the cuffs back on. 

"Wait." The both looked at me. I wiped my hands on my jeans and looked at Will sternly. "This may not mean much to you but it does to me so I have to say it. I can't spend the rest of either of our lives or Henry's hating you. It's draining and exhausting and I'm not going to do that. I will not let you have the power over me. So, I forgive you Will. I forgive you for what you did and hope that you can use this time to become a better version of yourself."

He looked at me with confusion, "I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. That was for me, not you. Goodbye Will."

Emily POV 

I was nervous. I could only imagine how draining it must have been for JJ to have to see Will again. I'm pretty sure I have cleaned every spot in this house just to keep my mind occupied. I was re-wiping the counter when Henry gave me a quizzical look. 

"What?" I asked.

"You've done that already. I think I stopped counting how many times." He laughed.

"Houses should be clean."

"Okay Snow White."

"How dare you. Take it back."

"Nah." 

"Oh yeah." I got closer to him. "Take it back."

"Nope." He grinned.

I proceeded to tickle him until he was on the floor. "Stop! Emily please. Okay okay, I take it back I take it back."

I stopped and laughed at him. He got up off the floor and looked at me again. He mumbled, "Snow White." He started to run around the kitchen and living room.

"Oh that's it!" I chased after him and saw the door open. JJ was home, Henry ran to his mom. 

"Mom, help me. She's trying to tickle me." He laughed.

"He called me Snow White!" I answered back. 

"What an awful insult." She laughed back at me with a questioning look.

"What?" I shrugged. 

"Sweetheart go upstairs and get cleaned up.  I stopped for some sushi." She told Henry. 

"Cool!" Henry ran around me still laughing. 

"I see you two had fun." She smiled. She came around to give me a kiss. 

I kissed her back and looked her in her eyes, "How'd it go?"

"As well as expected. We argued but it ended all right. For me that is."

"Meaning?"

"I got closure. Even though I feel terrible for how things happened, I'm at peace with myself."

"Baby, that's great." I kissed and hugged her. "What's going to happen with Henry?"

"I'll talk to him and see if he's ready to see his dad. If he's not, then we'll wait till he is. It's all at his pace and his comfort."

"That's a great idea. Let's eat." I kissed her again as we moved towards the table to have dinner.