emily knocked on the apartment door of y/n l/n and stood patiently.

she couldn't help but chew on her bottom lip as she waited.

she hadn't seen y/n in two weeks.

aaron demanded she take an absence of work after her near death experience with a case.

the sound of shuffling feet snapped emily out of her thoughts.

the door then finally opened to reveal y/n,

who looked as normal as ever to the untrained eye,

but emily knew y/n better than she assumed,

and could see the hurt swelling in her eyes.

"hey,"

emily spoke softly,

holding up the coffee cups as a signal of hope.

y/n cracked a smile.

"come in."

emily stepped inside y/n's apartment for the first time in a long time.

they'd hung out almost every night before the accident.

yet,

something lingered in the air that emily couldn't quite name.

the only word she could think of to explain the darkness was melancholy.

she gave y/n the coffee cup and sat down on her couch,

where it looked like she'd been sleeping recently.

"i miss you,"

y/n finally spoke,

giving emily that infamous dazzling smile of hers.

emily could only nod.

"i miss you too. we all do."

"i'll be back soon. hotch is overreacting. says i need a few more days."

"is he, though? i mean, y/n, you went through a lot."

y/n shrugged and sat back into her couch,

looking out of the window as she stared into space.

"it happens, emily. it's the job."

"that doesn't mean anything. it's traumatic one way or another."

y/n began to recall the events for the first time since it happened.

chills ran down her spine as the screams of the people around her echoed inside of her mind.

she felt the debris of the explosion pierce themselves into her skin,

and the ringing intensify as she laid motionless on the ground.

"that was the worst of it,"

she suddenly spoke aloud without realizing.

emily looked to her with worried eyes.

"what was?"

"feeling helpless. i couldn't move."

"you survived an explosion, y/n. it would've put any of us down. you're can't blame yourself."

y/n's eyes began to water as she recalled her week spent in the hospital,

where she spent hours trying to revitalize herself to live again.

"i barely made it, huh?"

emily got up from her space on the recliner and took a seat next to y/n,

wrapping her in her arms.

y/n laid her head to emily's chest and inhaled deeply,

allowing her perfume to mollify her.

emily had provided y/n the first shred of serenity she'd felt in months.

"but you made it. and that's all that matters."

"when i was in the ambulance, barely able to open my eyes, all i could think about was you.."

"me?"

"mhm. i thought i was going to-"

"don't. don't talk like that, y/n."

emily could barely handle hearing y/n talk about losing her life.

if emily didn't have y/n,

she didn't have a life worth leading anymore.

"i just...couldn't stop thinking about you. nothing else mattered, which is...interesting, you know? not my family, not my career, not the things i haven't accomplished yet. just you. all i could see was you, me, and sergio living one happy life together."

emily let out a heavy laugh and stroked y/n's hair as her words reverberated against her skin.

"that'd be quite the life, hm?"

"oh, yeah. you should've seen it."

the two of them laughed together before y/n looked up at emily,

eyes wet with tears but a smile so warming that emily shivered.

y/n could feel the girls hand wipe away the remainder of her tears before caressing the soft skin on her cheek.

"god, i can't do this without you, y/n."

"neither can i."

y/n inched her head a little closer to emily's to indulge in a kiss that was tinged with sadness,

but nothing could hide the bliss that bloomed inside of them.

emily had never felt so at home like she did in this moment.

most of her life had been spent wandering and looking for somewhere to belong,

only to find it in the embrace of her coworker.

y/n felt the coldness inside of her break free and become replaced with the warmth of emily's lips.

her taste cracked at the hurt inside and reminded her that her life wasn't over it.

it'd only just begun.

emily pulled back with a smile to her lips and laughed at their sudden comfort in one another.

y/n couldn't help but laugh along with her.

"so, what do you say to a happy life with me and sergio?"

"i couldn't ask for anything better."

emily and y/n would soon move into an apartment they'd found together,

where they spent most of their time laughing as loudly as one could without receiving noise complaints.

they decorated it to fit both of their tastes perfectly,

and drank a lot of wine in the process.

but there was no doubting this simple fact:

y/n and emily were happy together.

they had never been so in love.

y/n had found love in her darkest moments.

the explosion that almost cost her her life had been all the courage she needed to pursue her love for emily.

and she'd never appreciated the bad in life more than she did right now.

as for emily,

y/n l/n had become home for her after a lifetime spent wandering around trying to find somewhere to belong.

—

an:

i decided to add emily prentiss to these bc bae <33

but yeah,

love you all.

hope you're doing well and staying safe and healthy.

remember you're so loved!

-e