The killing hadn’t been completely random at all. In fact, though it took them another couple of days to narrow down the true point of the crimes, once they had, things snowballed from there. And Emily, for one, was glad.
Emily, JJ, Derek and Aaron boarded the plane to head home in at least slightly high spirits.
“Alright, JJ, wheels up.”
Emily looked at Aaron with the same confused expression JJ did. “Aaron, Reid isn’t here.”
“He’s going to finish up his leave days. We had to cut them short when we came to Vegas.”
Emily’s eyebrows rose as she darted a glance to JJ. “He’s staying here?”
“He is,” Aaron responded, opening his file in an attempt to start some work.
Emily knew that action. He wanted alone time. Which, normally, was fine with her, but with her nightmares over the past couple of days she wasn’t as open to the possibility. When the team was around it was easier to deflect his attention. When it was just the two of them, he was more likely to get her secrets out of her.
“Reid’s staying here, with Becky,” Derek said, a small grin starting to creep across his face.
“Well, I don’t know about whether or not he has plans with Detective Chard,” Aaron said honestly, “But he is staying behind.”
Derek chuckled. “Go Reid.”
Inwardly, Emily agreed. Reid needed some time with someone who didn’t put any pressure on him, who seemed to actually enjoy hi absolute geekiness. She also knew, however, that it bothered JJ. There was a part of her, the part that was friends with Reid, that wanted to let her suffer, let her stew, but Emily was JJ’s friend too and in all honesty, probably had more loyalty to the blond than the genius.
So she made her way to the back of the plane where JJ had moved. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.”
Emily sat patiently. JJ always gave in to silence.
“How am I supposed to fix things when I can’t even talk to him?”
“Honey, he deserves to finish his personal days,” Emily said carefully.
“I know. Logically I know he deserves a break I just... I screwed up,” she replied quietly, brokenly. “I want to fix it.”
“I know,” Emily promised. “Sometimes these things take time.”
JJ looked up at her, her eyes vulnerable. “Did I lose him?”
“I don’t know, Jayje,” Emily said honestly, the same thing she’d told the other woman the night her relationship had ended. “I really don’t know.”
Spencer sighed as he watched the jet take off. He’d taken a gamble, asking Hotch to make up the days he missed, but it had paid off. He turned when he felt a hand on his arm.
“You sure you don’t want to go back with them?” Becky asked in concern.
“Yeah,” Spencer replied. “It’s too late now anyway.”
She tilted her head to the side slightly, considering him. “Why are you staying?”
“My mother lives in Vegas.”
“No, Spencer, why are you really staying?”
“I need a reason other than my mother?” He started back towards the exit, hearing Becky’s heels click against the floor behind him.
She grabbed his arm and pulled, using momentum to spin her to face him. “Look, usually I’m not one to pry into others private lives, okay? I just… You’re different.”
“I’m different?” He’d been told that his entire life, but never quite in that tone of voice.
“You’re a genius, yeah, but you’re sweet. You don’t look at me and see a female then a cop, you see a cop, then a woman.”
“Have you seen my team? Emily and JJ are fantastic agents.”
“You’re missing the point,” she said rolling her eyes. “You’re a great guy, with a great, almost superhero life, a group of people that absolutely adore you-“
“They see me as an annoyance!” Spencer squawked.
Becky raised an eyebrow. “What planet are you on? It’s obvious, at the very least, that Agent Morgan and Agent Prentiss look at you as a sibling.”
“Yeah, their annoying kid sibling that asks annoying and pointless questions about everything!”
Becky rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sound. “You’re being dense.”
“You’re being unreasonable.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You know what? Fine. I’ll leave you to your own stewing. I can see why things didn’t work out with Agent Jareau.”
By the time his brain caught up with what she’d said, Spencer had to run to catch her before she got in her car. “What about me and JJ?”
“Oh please, the tension between you was ridiculous. Either you want to screw each other or you used to and now you’re not.”
“Becky!” He wasn’t used to such blunt wording.
“Look, Spencer, I’d like to believe we’ve formed at the very least a friendship, right?”
They’d worked together almost all week and he’d probably told her more tidbits without realizing it than he’d told most of the team in ten times that period of time. “Yeah.”
“Then give me a break, okay? I watched you guys. All of you. I may not be one of your profilers, but I am a woman. We can tell those things.”
Spencer sighed, debating. Finally he met her eyes. “Want to go for coffee?”
Emily was gasping and panting as she shot upright in the bed she now shared with Aaron. She hated nightmares, had thought she’d banished them to the deepest corner of her brain never to come out again. Apparently, she’d been terribly, horribly, and completely wrong. She dropped her elbows on her thighs and her head in her hands as she tried to get her breathing under control.
“Emily?”
She jolted as Aaron’s hand made contact with her shoulder, inadvertently throwing it off. She took a deep breath. “Sorry.”
“You’re having nightmares.”
It was a statement, not a question, but she nodded anyway.
“Since we left for Las Vegas.”
She should have known he’d notice. That was his job, not to mention they were often hyper-aware of each other’s movements and emotions. “The stabbings…”
He sat up and pulled her into his chest. She curled against him, feet coming to rest on the other side of his legs, knees almost to her chin. He snaked an arm between her torso and her legs, wrapping his other one around her back and pillowing his chin on her head. “We should have known.”
“I made JJ promise not to tell.”
He kissed her hair. “You should have come to me.”
She blew out a breath. “I thought they were gone.”
“We all get nightmares, Emily.”
“I know. I do. I just…I couldn’t.”
They sat in silence for a moment, Emily listening to his steady breathing, feeling her own changing to match.
“You had one tonight.”
His words startled her slightly and she dislodged his chin where it rested on her head to look at him. “I did.”
“You’re in our bed. With me.”
Damn. She hadn’t thought about that. Her eyes slid closed, an attempt to hide the pain that was in them. How was she supposed to deal with the nightmares when he didn’t help anymore? Her first tear slipped out of her closed lids and she wouldn’t have known had Aaron not brushed it away with his thumb.
“Shhh,” he said soothingly. “They go away.”
“I want them to go away now,” she whispered brokenly. “I don’t want to be scared.”
He kissed her head and smoothed down her hair. “You have nothing to be scared of.”
“Except my dreams.”
“Even if your dreams don’t know it, I’m right here Em. Right beside you. I will not let anything happen to you. I love you too much.”
The tears were cascading down her cheeks in earnest now, but she did look up. “I love you too,” she said through her tears.
“Then we’ll do this together.”
There was so much conviction in his voice that Emily had no choice but to believe him.