4Back from the Grave.
I don't own Criminal Minds, just playing. This idea came to me after watching Cold Comfort s4 ep14
Reid limped alongside Emily's coffin; he was gutted that he couldn't be part of the solemn procession of carrying Emily's coffin. Emily and Reid were very close, she treated him like her little brother and always made time for him no matter what.
Standing at the edge of grave Reid felt a tear slip down his cheek and to distract himself, he ran his gaze over the gathered mourners.
He found his gaze landing on Hotch, the team leader was looking as stoic as ever. Hotch was the perfect example of an FBI Agent, never showing any emotion on his face. Although Reid noticed that something seemed slightly off, it was almost like he was hiding something.
Reid's eyes moved onto Agent Derek Morgan standing beside Hotch, he looked devastated, Reid knew that Morgan had found Emily in the warehouse and rushed her to the ambulance begging her to hold on. Morgan was feeling guilty that he hadn't been able to save Emily. Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia was clutching Morgan's arm as she unashamedly sobbed her heart out as Emily's coffin was lowered into the cold hard ground.
As the priest drew the eulogy to a close Reid slid his gaze along to JJ, she was wearing sunglasses. Reid imagined it was to hide her red rimmed eyes and tearstained cheeks. Although her body language was slightly off. Reid was jarred from his thoughts as David Rossi nudged him to step forward to lay a white rose on the coffin.
Slowly the mourners moved away until it was only Emily's FBI team left standing by her grave. One by one they all stepped up and said their personal piece to Emily's coffin. Reid noticed that JJ and Hotch were the quickest to finish their piece to the coffin.
Reid found it odd that JJ had been so quick, he knew the two ladies were super close. He thought that their close bond had occurred as they were the only ladies to travel out in the field and they often shared a room when FBI budgets couldn't be stretched to a room each.
After Reid got home to his book lined apartment and stretched out on the couch, to distract him from his grief, he found himself replaying todays events and analysing them from a profiler's perspective. He found JJ's and Hotch's behaviours slightly off from mourning a friend's death. They were just a tad too slow with their micro expressions when someone mentioned Emily's passing.
Reid was suddenly hit with a memory; they were all on the plane to Washington to hunt a killer who was embalming his victims. Emily had expressed extreme distaste at the idea of being embalmed and buried. She had wanted to be cremated. It was highly likely Emily had written that wish down in her funeral arrangements as she was an extremely organised almost to the point of being OCD.
Reid's mind was whirring, all these little things were adding up, something was going on and to his highly educated mind he was starting to suspect something wasn't right with Emily's death, he felt his hopes flicker back to life, maybe Emily wasn't dead…
Strauss had enforced a week's bereavement leave for all the team members knowing how close the team were, they weren't just colleagues but a family. With this time off, although the team wanted to be out hunting Ian Doyle, they knew they were too close to be able to hunt him effectively.
JJ stepped into the hospital room, sat down beside Emily's bed and took the hand that was lying on the bed, she cradled the hand against her face and gave the palm a kiss. Emily and JJ were in a relationship and had been ever since JJ had left for the Pentagon. Will had upped and left when he felt he was always the one dealing with Henry.
Emily had been the one to step up and help JJ out. Henry adored the dark-haired agent and would usually do anything she asked of him. JJ had always been attracted to Emily but the timing for them was always wrong.
One night after putting Henry to bed, the ladies had sat down on the couch with a glass of wine and one thing lead to another. After some truly spectacular sex, the two had decided to give being together a real shot.
After a few months, Emily and JJ had moved in together, some might say it was too soon, but they knew better than anyone how short life could be. Henry had started calling Emily Momem. JJ had laughed at Emily when she started crying after Henry had called her that for the first time. Emily was always such an Agent I-take-no-shit at work and a 2-year-old toddler had brought her to tears after a simple word at bedtime.
Emily slowly opened her eyes when she felt her hand being taken, it took a moment or two for her eyes to focus on the blonde by her bed. "JJ" she breathed out, almost too quietly for JJ to hear.
"Baby, sorry I didn't mean to wake you"
"You didn't, I need to wake up anyway, can't spend all my time sleeping" Emily said flippantly as she struggled to sit upright on the bed.
JJ stood up and carefully helped Emily to a comfortable upright position. "You know, hospital is the one place where you can sleep the day away, you know why? Because you need to rest to heal!" JJ said almost exasperatedly. She knew how much Emily hated hospitals.
Emily patted the space next to her and motioned for JJ to join her in the bed. JJ gingerly slid onto the bed, not wanting to jar Emily's injuries but desperate to snuggle into her girlfriend, she was finding it hard to sleep without the steady sound of her girlfriend's heartbeat under her ear.
After spending hours with Emily, JJ made her way to the house they shared. At least she didn't have Henry this week, after all the upset, JJ had asked her parents to look after the little boy. She shucked off her shoes and spread herself out on the couch. Hearing a knock at the door, she groaned and pulled her weary body up to answer. To her surprise Spencer was at the door.
"Spencer, what can I help you with?"
"I just needed someone to talk to" Reid said quietly. He had decided to come to JJ's to see if he could worm any answers about his suspicions out of her, knowing she would be the weaker link than Hotch.
JJ opened the door wider and reluctantly let him in, no-one knew that Emily and her were together and she was pretty sure, some of Emily's books were lying on the coffee table and well it wasn't a type of book that JJ would read, for one it was in French.
Reid started the conversation, saying how much he missed Emily and upon researching tips on grief, had seen that talking about memories of the deceased would help ease the loss. He could see that JJ was composed but nervous about something. He glanced around the room and saw a few of his favourite books in French sitting on the coffee table. He also saw a blazer Emily had been wearing last week hung up by the bannister. He sat up straighter and confidently said "Emily's not dead, is she?"
JJ tried to bluster but when Reid laid out the facts, she hung her head and went to call Hotch.