I Intend to be Your Last (Jemily)

71.

It's getting late... I should get back to the hospital...
Emily thought to herself as she unload the last of their laundry.
She quickly folded the colored clothes and ran to the bathroom to get tidied up before heading to the hospital.
She soon left the house and ran down the porch in a hurry as she carried the Cheetos, flowers, pictures, and photo album for JJ because she wanted them to arrange the album together. And of course during the ride, she turned up the radio. She was having a great time, apart from the couple times she forgot she has a nasty cut on her face and proceeded to touch it, multiple times. Wincing in pain she finally took the bandage to check it before replacing to keep from getting a lecture from JJ as soon as she walked through the door.

Finally finding a parking spot on the street, she went find some quarters to put in the meter before heading up. As she searched the center console, her pockets, even the glove compartment but only found about three. She figured if she couldn't find anymore, she'd just ask one of the girls to put some in before they left. Just as she was about to leave the car, her phone rings. She looks down and sighed a breath of relief as she saw Penelope's name pop up.

"Hey Garcia, what's up? Is JJ awake?
"I-I uh... I-" she stuttered not knowing how to even start the conversation.
"Penelope? Are you ok? Did you just wake up too?"
"Emily...?"
"Yeah, Penelope what is it?"
"Where are you?"
"In the car..."
"Are you driving?"
"Uh, no? I'm outside of the hospital... Why?
"Oh ok good. You're off the road."
"You're worrying me Penelope. What happened?"
"Um... uhh"
"Garcia."
"JJ's not doing well."
"What?"
"Uh, she just had surgery. her lung collapsed, something about blood clots. Maybe I should've had Amelia call yo-"
"No..."
"Emily? Are you still there?"
Emily didn't say a word. The only thing Penelope could hear was heavy breathing from the other side as Emily sat staring into the road as tears began to blur the city lights ahead of her.
"Emily?"
But it was too late. Emily had hung up the phone as her lips quivered as she tried her best to hold in the tears that were hanging on the edge of her waterline.
But she quickly gathered herself together and eventually made it out of the car and across the street with the bag of surprises hanging on her arm.
As she walked slowly towards the hospital, scared of what she  might see if she walked in, memories suddenly started to flood her head. She stood in front of the doors waiting for the tears to stop falling as she tried to push those memories away because if they were coming back, that meant that it was real. JJ was dying and she knew deep down that if the memories were coming back, it was because her mind is trying to keep her alive. Denial. If only Elle was there, in her head, she would've known that she was right. That Emily was reacting the same exact way that was upstairs in the room.

Emily stood there in the snow, feeling it brush up against her face and it reminded her of when she and JJ had visited the tree with the carving when she had no idea who JJ was. Every part of her body felt numb as she stood there terrified and freezing until she felt something drip from her nose. She looked down and was met with a little red dot sitting on her finger.

fuck.

The stress and anxiety mixed with the cold atmosphere triggered a nosebleed and she hated it. She wiped it away and waited another minute or two until she started walking up the stairs. Her phone rang again but she didn't answer it. She silenced it as she made her way into the hospital towards the elevators. She threw on a fake smile as she passed other visitors and doctors in the building, holding on to the last piece of hope she had for JJ.
It took a second for her to finally step of the elevator but she did. And as she did, she was met with two pairs of brown eyes staring at her.
"She's waiting for you," Elle whispered as she wrapped her arms around Emily.
"Sweets, your face... are you ok?" Penelope asked pulling the two into her arms.
"I'm okay," She whispered.
Emily cried on Elle's shoulder as they told her what had happened to JJ.
"I should've been here," She said as pulled away from the two and bang walking down the hall.
"There's no way, no way you or any of us could have seen this coming," Elle said grabbing her hand.
"Yeah, I mean she was asleep when you left and asleep when we arrived. She looked as fine as she could've, considering..." Penelope said referring to the wedding.
Elle looked behind Emily at Penelope, giving her the "seriously? now?" look knowing she meant no harm.
"Sorry," she mouthed to Elle.

"Is she awake?" Emily asked as she stared blankly at the closed door in front of her.
"Yeah, sugar, she is."
Emily quietly knocked on the door before coming in to see Amelia holding JJ's hand to calm her down.
"Hi," Amelia whispered as she got up to leave the two alone.
"We'll be outside if you need anything..." she said before closing the door behind her.

JJ's eyes were closed so she didn't realize that Amelia had left. Emily brushed the hair out from her face as she listened to the ventilator breathe for her. Knowing that JJ couldn't even breathe on her own brought tears to her eyes.
Slowly, she let her hand travel down her face to her neck and eventually stopped right on her chest.
She counted the beats as she laid her palm flat against her chest.
JJ, feeling the warm sensation on her chest, knew that Emily had finally made it back because the heartbeat thing was theirs. Her eyes slowly opened and the first thing she was met with was Emily's soft and gentle face. Her mouth covered by her hand trying to hold back tears and cries as she heard the little shaken whispers from behind it counting the little beat against her hand. She thought that if she moved her finger, she could get her attention but Emily was too focused on the beat to look elsewhere.
She tried again by slightly moving her hand but that didn't work either. Feeling a little strain in her wrist she let out a groan creating a low vibration to move through her chest, which caught Emily's attention.
She looked up and found her lover's icy blue eyes staring right into her glossy brown ones.
"Hi baby," she whispered as she brought her hand up to cradle her, now, skinny face.
"I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. I'm sorry I left. I know you didn't want me to go but being as stubborn as I am I couldn't just leave it alone. I'm sorry JJ, I'm sorry," she cried as she ran her thumb along the side of her cheek.
JJ took all of the strength and grabbed the hand that was rested in her face and snuggled into a little more.
"I brought you some things that I thought would cheer you up but we can open them later, okay?"
JJ blinked once, yes, as she let a tear shed from the corner of her eye.
"I love you, JJ," she whispered as she brought JJ's hand up to her mouth and pressed a long kiss into the front of it.
She blinked slowly three times, I love you, as she lightly ran her finger against the bandaid on Emily's face.
"It's just a cut, baby. You should've seen what I did to her," she smiled.
Emily let out a little giggle as she watched the corners of JJ's lips turn upward as she tried to smile against the tube.

The rest of the girls watched from behind the blinds, which Elle had opened before she and Amelia left the two alone.
Emily knew that there were watching so she waved them back into the room.
"Can you guys spend the night with us?" Emily asked.
"Of course we can," Penelope said as she stood next her.
"I can tell Hotch and the others what happened and maybe they can visit in the morning?"
"Sure, that's fine."

The three spent the night on the couch and Emily spent it in a chair next to the bed holding JJ's hand to lessen the chances of hurting her more if she had laid in the bed with her.
"What happened to your face, babe?" Elle asked as they sat there in the dim light as JJ slept again.
"Elle!" Penelope loudly whispered as she smacked her shoulder.
"It's okay, Garcia. Jade slapped me."
"Isn't she suppose to be cuffed to the table?" Amelia asked as amber face scrunched up in confusion.
"Yeah, but I took the cuffs off..."
The three stared at her from the couch as if she had just committed a crime.
"What? She asked. I didn't know she was going to smack me acros- Actually, no... it was more like I didn't know when she was going to smack me," Emily laughed.
"And let me guess, your short tempered ass hit her back," Amelia and Elle laughed.
"And then some..."
"What did you do?" Penelope questioned, wanting to know every detail.
"Well if you must know... I tackled her after, maybe or maybe not, having choked her against the wall. Oh and I got in a couple punches while she was under me. Until Hotch had to ruin it and pulled me off," she smirked watching the different reactions she got.
Amelia was left shocked but impressed and Penelope was left a little terrified while Elle sat there snickering as she could just imagine it happening.

The girls talked and talked until every one quickly fell asleep. Elle laid, splayed across Penelope and Amelia did the same on Elle while Emily rested her head peacefully against JJ's thigh with her legs pretzeled on the chair. Their fingers were interlocked tightly which surprised everyone since JJ was extremely weak and frail.

They slept expecting an easy night but they were definitely mistaken.