Say It Again

Chapter 2: The Office

I wake up feeling very well-rested, but for a moment, I have no idea where I am. I open my eyes, and it only takes a few seconds for me to realize I'm in my supervisor's office.

In the same moment, I also realize I'm lying in someone's lap. When I look up, Emily Prentiss' dark brown eyes meet mine. She smiles softly, but I pull away quickly, embarrassed that I ended up on top of someone I barely know.

"JJ are you alright?" Emily's smile is replaced with a look of concern.

"Yeah. Yeah I'm good. Sorry I ended up in your lap. I must've moved in my sleep." I can feel my face redden, and I can't quite look her in the eye, so I look at my watch instead. 7:30.

"It's okay! Sorry I didn't wake you. You looked really peaceful, and I'd only been up a couple of minutes."

I feel even more embarrassed knowing that she must have watched me sleep. I silently hope that I wasn't doing anything embarrassing.

"I hope we don't have a new case today. I would really like to have 24 hours where I don't have to travel," Emily picks up her phone from the table as she speaks.

"Me too. I want to take a shower in my own apartment for once." I stand up and stretch slowly, trying to act like I'm not looking for the best way to end this conversation. "Before everyone else gets here, I'm going to try to make it look like I didn't sleep in the office." I grab my phone and walk out the door, not looking back. I still feel pretty embarrassed about the whole sleeping thing. Good thing I have an insane amount of work to do today.

Once I make it into the bathroom, I splash cold water on my face and run my fingers through my hair. I realize I probably should've grabbed my bag from my office so I could change and brush my teeth before work starts, so I run back to get it.

Half an hour later, I'm sitting at my desk going through the still mountain-high pile of cases. Some are fairly easy to sort through. I single out a few to give extra attention to. One in California, one in North Carolina, and one in Vermont. Unless we get a more pressing case, we'll probably be flying to one of these locations within the week.

I call and speak with the detective in charge of each case to try to get a bit more input for my decision. I decide to throw out the case in California, as they got a tip from a reliable source just an hour before I called.

That leaves North Carolina and Vermont. It's difficult to choose, but by lunch, the Vermont file is put on top of the others. Hotch told me last night that we probably wouldn't take a new case for a few days, so I'll give him a short briefing about the Vermont case tomorrow morning.

The rest of the day passes fairly quickly as I finish up paperwork from our last case. When I close my office door, I'm thankful that we don't have to travel anywhere over the next couple days. Even though I avoided Emily for most of the day because of last night's sleeping situation, I hope she didn't notice. It isn't really her fault, but I still feel awkward.

I'm thinking about how ready I am to head back home for a much-needed shower and glass of wine as I step into the elevator, already starting to relax. Then, Emily slips in just before the doors close.

Shit, I think to myself, and I close my eyes for a moment. When I open them, Emily is looking at me, concern on her face again.

"Are you okay, JJ? You seem a little off today," Emily says after a few seconds.

"Oh, um, yeah. I'm good, Emily. I just need to drink a glass of wine and get some sleep, I think."

"I was thinking about going to the bar for a little bit. Want to come with?"