Courageous, Criminal Minds 1. Chapter 1

"I really hate Georgia," Reid commented sourly to no one in particular as the team looked over their newest case while on the jet heading towards Albany, Georgia.

"I second that," JJ agreed, leaning back against the seat beside Reid where she sat.

"I think we all hate Georgia at varying degrees," Emily said from the other side of the table, leaving that Henkel was the reason unsaid. "But I try not to connect areas to the cases where they were; it makes going back there easier if the need ever arises."

"Are you telling me that there's no place that you avoid going?" Morgan asked from where he sat beside her.

"No, of course not; I just don't have an aversion to any particular state in the US. I still avoid Italy like the plague."

Rossi glanced down at her from where he stood behind Reid and JJ. As the only person on the plane who understood the story behind her statement, it had obviously surprised him. Emily bit her lip, wishing that she could retract the statement. Thankfully, no one else on the jet seemed to think anything of it, and the team turned their attention back to the case at hand when Hotch came back from getting a mug of coffee.

"Who in the world does something like this to teenage girls?" Emily asked, flipping through the pictures of dead girls that Garcia had uploaded to their tablets.

"They each had their uteruses cut open postmortem," JJ read off of her own tablet.

"They were all three pregnant but had recently had abortions," Hotch added.

Reid sat back, thinking out loud as he asked, "Maybe we're looking for someone who wants a baby so badly that they would kill an expectant mother to get to that unborn child and just don't realize that the pregnancies have already been terminated?"

Emily shook her head, refuting, "If that had happened only once, then maybe I'd buy it, but not three times. Besides, none of these girls were far enough along for the baby to survive outside of the womb."

"The unsub appears to have stalked these girls, so he would've known all of that," Rossi said.

"Hey, here's something interesting," JJ commented. "All three girls underwent the abortions within a week before the date that they were killed."

Emily bit on her thumbnail, her thoughts going to the idea of an angel of mercy unsub, someone who believed they were performing mercy killing. Considering the emotional toll that Emily knew from personal experience an abortion had on a woman, perhaps there was something to her theory. If the unsub – it would have to be a woman, if Emily was correct – had gone through an abortion herself, she might be trying to save these teenage girls from going through the same emotional pain that she had experienced once they had underwent the same procedure.

The problem was that Emily didn't know how to voice her thoughts without letting her own personal experiences slip out along with it, and that just wasn't something that she was willing to let happen, so she kept her mouth shut as they prepared to land.

Sheriff Brandon Gentry met the team as they walked into the sheriff's department.

Hotch stepped forward and shook his hand, saying, "I'm Agent Hotchner; we spoke on the phone."

A quartet of deputies stepped up behind the sheriff as Hotch introduced the rest of his team.

"These," the sheriff gestured at the four deputies. "Are the guys that I've had working on this case so far. Corporal Adam Mitchell, Lieutenant Nathan Hayes, and their partners, David Thomson and Bobby Shaw. I'm afraid that I've got so much to do right now that I'm going to have to leave you all in their capable hands."

After the regular round of handshakes, they got down to business.

"Everything that we have on the case is over here," Lieutenant Hayes said, leading them back into a side room of the department. "We cleared this old room out and set this all up when we heard that you Sheriff Gentry had taken my recommendation about calling you here." He further explained, "I worked as a cop back in Atlanta a few years ago, and I'd heard of some of the work that you did there, so when this happened a third time here, I thought of you guys."

Hotch nodded at the man and continued their conversation as the rest of the team went over to survey the boards that had already been set up and to add their own information to them. As they worked, Emily looked at the four deputies out of the corner of her eye.

The corporal was above Lieutenant Hayes in rank, but he seemed ready and willing to let the other man take over leading this case. The other two guys – Thomson and Shaw – both looked like they were fresh out of the academy, although Thomson had gotten over the jitteriness that Shaw had – the mark of any inexperienced law enforcement office. The former had probably been on the job a little over a year, and the latter was too young to be anything but as green as you could get. Poor kid; this probably wasn't the initiation into his job that anyone had been hoping for.

Well, maybe they could catch their unsub quickly and then get out of dodge – or Albany, Georgia, as it were – for all of their sakes, before this really started getting to any of them anymore than it already had. As it was, Emily already had a feeling that this case was going to bring things back up that she, at the very least, didn't want to think about.

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><p><strong>I'm not sure where this came from but I do know that it's going to be very Emily Prentiss-centric in the first chapters. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter; I promise it does get better! Reviews (and votes on my poll) make my day! Thanks!:)<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

Emily groaned as she sat down at the card table that had been set up in their room of the sheriff's department. She almost knocked over the third cup of coffee that she had gotten that evening as she flopped her head down into her hands. She knew that they needed to find this sick serial killer, but right now all she really wanted to do was finally go to the hotel and sleep for the next twelve hours, even if it was still a little early for such an attitude.

It was already past six pm here, and they were still sifting through the tips that they had gotten from off of the tip-line that they had set up. So far they had all been from a bunch of conspiracy theorists, or idiots just pining for their fifteen minutes of fame.

"You know," Hotch said, addressing Corporal Mitchell and his three guys as they alternately sat or stood around doing work of their own on the case. "We completely understand if you want to go home to your families. We'll be fine here if you want to go home."

"I'm staying;" Deputy Thomson said without a second thought. "I don't have any reason to go home."

"Same here," Deputy Shaw replied.

Corporal Mitchell seemed to be thinking this over, and into the silence Lieutenant Hayes inserted, "I've been one step ahead of you, and if you guys don't mind toughing it out for about seven more minutes, I'm sure you won't regret it."

The corporal looked at him a little strangely, but agreed with a wary, "Okay."

Five minutes later, they all turned when someone knocked on the doorjamb of their hideout. All ten people in the tiny room turned to look as an African-American woman in her mid thirties who was carrying a casserole dish said, "Knock, knock. Can I come in?"

"I would rather you didn't, actually," Lieutenant Hayes said, moving so that he blocked the woman's view from any of the photos hanging up on the evidence board. "Why don't we go into the muster room and push some of the tables together before everyone else gets here and comes back here seeing all of this stuff. That's the last thing I want for the boys and Jade and Dylan."

"Dylan?" Corporal Mitchell perked up at the mention of whoever Dylan was.

"Yeah," Lieutenant Hayes looked back over his shoulder as he herded the woman back out of the room. "I invited a few family members over for a potluck dinner in the muster room."

Thomson raised his eyebrows as Mitchell asked, "Did the sheriff approve that before he left?"

"Of course," Hayes said with a smile that seemed so out of place. "We can't have these poor agents losing faith in the southern hospitality of our fine city, can we?" Corporal Mitchell just shook his head as Hayes gestured towards them all saying, "The gang's all coming in. Let's get away from this for an hour, and then we can come back to it with fresh minds and full stomachs, alright?"

Emily looked in mystification at Hotch as the deputies began to smile and follow Hayes out of the room. Even Hotch looked a little surprised at this unusual occurrence, but even he smiled a little as the sound of a growing number of talking people reached their ears.

"It looks like we're going to a potluck," Hotch said, heading out of the room.

One by one, the rest of the team followed him out as well. Grabbing her coffee and a case file before she stood and went as well, Emily was the last one out of the room, and, remembering Hayes concern about others seeing the photos, she shut the door firmly behind her as she walked out. Considering that everyone but the people who had been working in that one room had all already gone home for the night, it was easy for the team to follow their ears to the muster room.

Once there, Emily saw the four deputies mingling with what appeared to be two women and four children. Then the same woman that had been back to their evidence room called out cheerfully, "You came! I'm so glad you finally decided to come meet us all!"

A pretty brunette blushed as she came into the muster room carrying a crock-pot. A blonde preschooler on her heels was looking out at all of them with wide nervous eyes.

"I figured it was the least I could do for Albany's finest," the woman said with a light shrug and a small smile on her lips. She was obviously nervous, but had meant what she had said as a bit of a joke anyway.

"And Washington, D.C.'s finest, too," the same African-American woman said, gesturing at the group of profilers standing in a line along one side of the room.

The brunette smiled, nodding at them as a greeting.

"Um, okay," Thomson slapped his hands together, approaching the duo that still stood in the doorway. "This is Amanda Williams," he gestured to the woman, "and this is Olivia," he said, sweeping the little girl up into his arms. "This is my partner..." he gestured towards Hayes, and his partner introduced himself.

"Nathan Hayes."

As the round of introductions went on, Emily catalogued each name for future reference.

After this, Nathan's wife, Kayla Hayes, took charge again, saying, "Why don't we get these desks shoved together so that we can get the food set up and get to eating, alright?"

The BAU team pitched in to help the Albany natives and they soon had everything set up just the way Mrs. Hayes wanted it. A few desks lined up against a wall for the food and most of the others pushed together in the middle of the room to make one big, long table to sit at while they ate.

Emily's mouth was watering by the time that they were done getting it set up, and she was more than ready to dig in when Corporal Mitchell raised a hand in the air, asking for silence as he turned to Hotch and asked, "Do y'all mind if we say grace before we eat?"

"Of course not," Hotch said instantly, speaking for the whole team.

The four deputies had each prayed over their lunches earlier in the day, Emily had noticed, but she had thought nothing of it at the time. Now as she closed her eyes along with everyone else in the room, she found that she rather liked listening to the reverent timbre of Lieutenant Hayes' voice as said a prayer. Despite what they had just left behind in that tiny room of the department, he sounded peaceful – like he was talking to a friend - and Emily found that – even though she had never put much stock in prayer, or even religion since leaving the Catholic Church - for some reason it soothed her as well.

"D.C. guests go first!" Mrs. Hayes called out once her husband had said "amen."

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><p><strong><strong>I'm not sure where this came from but I do know that it's going to be very Emily Prentiss-centric in the first chapters<strong>. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter! Reviews (and votes on my poll) make my day! Thanks!:)**


	3. Chapter 3

After loading her plate down with some of the best cooking that she had seen in a long time, Emily turned from the food-laden desks to survey the room for a place to sit. If nothing else, she could go back into the room that they were running their investigation out of, but then she spotted a desk to suit her needs. Two desks had been left in their original spots towards the back of the room, away from all of the noisy hubbub that was currently taking over the rest of the room. Emily tightened her grip on the case file that she still held, and aimed for the desk farthest from everyone else. Considering the memories that this whole abortion angle of the case was bringing up, she was in no mood to be good company tonight. Instead, she sat down, flipped the case file open, set her plate on her lap, and, after taking a bite of green beans, set to work.

She was absorbed in her work, and so she was startled when ten minutes later, Mrs. Hayes came over and putting the chair of the other desk from one side to the other so that she was facing Emily, slapped down with her plate. The woman brazenly reached across her desk and slung the case folder closed when Emily did her best to ignore Mrs. Hayes in hope that she would get the message and go back to join the others.

"You know, your coworkers are all over there relaxing," Mrs. Hayes pointed out gently.

Emily glanced out at them. They were all mingling, and really did seem more relaxed than they ever had on another case.

"I know," Emily sighed. "It's just this case… I want to get it done."

Mrs. Hayes cocked her head to the side, asking, "What's wrong with this one in particular?"

Emily glanced across the room towards the back of Lieutenant Hayes' head. He and Thomson seemed to be engaged with Morgan and Rossi in a friendly debate of Cubs vs. whatever-baseball-team-was-Albany's-favorite, because really Emily didn't know or care enough to ask.

"What has your husband told you about the case, Mrs. Hayes?" Emily asked, not wanting to tell her something that she couldn't handle or didn't want to.

"Please, call me Kayla. He hasn't told me anything; Nathan tends to try and leave work at the door. But you know how men can be." A smile eased onto her face as she added, "I can handle more than you think if that's what's worrying you."

That seemed like a funny statement to Emily, because the lieutenant's wife had come across as a very strong woman so far as she could tell.n

"It's not even the case really," Emily said, resigning herself to the fact that she was going to get into a conversation with the woman across from her, she dropped the case file onto the floor and put her paper plate on top of the desk.

"What is it then," Kayla inquired carefully. "If you don't mind my asking?"

Emily bit her lip and looked past her, taking note of where each member of her team was. Morgan and Rossi were still debating, Hotch and Corporal Mitchell were swapping cop stories, JJ was doing the mom-talk thing with Ms. Williams, and Reid – _really, Reid? _– was helping Dylan Mitchell with something on the homework that the boy had brought. All of them were distracted enough or far enough away that they wouldn't hear her confession.

She took a deep breath and decided to delve in and trust the woman with the motherly brown eyes.

Keeping her gaze fastened onto her plate, Emily confessed, "My mom is a politician, so we moved around a lot – all around the world. When I was fifteen, we were in Rome for a little while, and while we were there… I got pregnant." She paused, suddenly fighting the tears that came whenever she broached the subject. "Um… and then I… I got an abortion."

"Oh, sweetie…" Kalyla reached across the desks and clasped her hand. Emily looked up at the other woman then, surprised to see tears in her eyes, but even more surprised by the two words that she whispered, "I understand."

Emily sniffed, eyeing her carefully for a second. And then it clicked. This woman had gone through an abortion as well. Emily closed her eyes, mentally begging herself not to cry. Her team would definitely notice if she did. Kayla took her chair and moved it so that she was sitting beside Emily.

"Nineteen years ago, I was a wild and immature teenager who didn't report to anyone and never had to pay the consequences of my actions. When I found out I was pregnant, I thought that I didn't have to go through with it. I hadn't had to pay for anything else that I had done, so why start now? So I went through with that abortion… and I've been paying the emotional toll for it ever since."

Emily looked into the woman's eyes, noting something there that she didn't understand. Peace. How could she talk about something that Emily knew to be so difficult with such serenity? It wasn't that Kayla didn't care – the tears in her eyes belied the fact that she cared very much – but she was genuinely at peace with it, and Emily wanted to know why. So she asked.

"Honey," Kayla asked softly, returning the question for a question. "Do you know Jesus?"

Emily shrugged. "I grew up in church, but I don't go anymore. Jesus can't want anything to do with me anymore, and not just because of the abortion. My whole life after that…" Emily shook her head as she remembered.

"See, that's where you're wrong, Emily. Luke 19:10 says that 'the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.' And, no offence, but you, sweetie, seem a little lost to me right now."

"You really believe that," Emily asked tearfully.

Kayla nodded with certainty. "I do… and you could too. It's the promise that I brought to God the night that he saved me, and I doubt that He'd turn you down if you do the same and turn your life over to him."

Emily stared at Kayla for a second before she slowly nodded her head, whispering, "Okay."

One minute. Sixty seconds. That was as long as she and Kayla prayed; Emily checked. But those seconds made up the most life-changing minute in Emily's life. Because in that minute, she too found "the peace that passeth all understanding."

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><p><strong><strong>I'm not sure where this came from but I do know that it's going to be very Emily Prentiss-centric in the first chapters. <strong>Hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter! Reviews (and votes on my poll) make my day! Thanks!:)**


	4. Chapter 4

Emily felt jittery. Downright _joyful_. Above all, she felt peace and relief. She felt _loved_. Jesus Christ had just come and taken away the burden of guilt for her sins, and He loved her still.

Once she and Kayla had calmed down – despite their state of quiet excitement, they still hadn't drawn anyone's attention – Kayla asked, "Can I share a story with you?"

Taking a bite of her now-cold food, Emily nodded.

"There was a hymn-writer in the 1800s – a blind woman named Fanny Crosby. In 1859, she and her husband had a baby. Later that year, the baby died. Soon after, Fanny wrote the hymn, "Safe in the Arms of Jesus." That hymn has been a helpful reminder to me about where my baby is now; maybe you should look it up."

Emily nodded. "I will; thanks."

"You're welcome," Kayla answered with a smile. "Now, let's get you over here with everybody else."

Emily was still smiling as she stood and grabbed her plate, abandoning her case file as she let Kayla drag her over to Victoria Mitchell.

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><p>"What are you doing?" JJ asked curiously as she settled on the second bed in their shared hotel room later that night.<p>

Emily looked up from where she was sitting cross-legged on her bed with her phone. "Looking up a hymn."

"A _hymn_?" JJ repeated.

Emily nodded.

"What sort of a hymn?" JJ asked, crouching on the bed beside Emily.

"'Safe in the Arms of Jesus.' Kayla suggested it."

"'Kayla?' Lieutenant Hayes' wife?"

"Mm-hm."

JJ leaned over her shoulder, mumbling the lyrics of the song as Emily read them silently. Once they had both read it, JJ asked, "Why did she suggest that one?"

Emily bit her lip, finally saying only, "It's complicated."

JJ looked surprised at her secretiveness, but she said, "I saw the two of you talking a lot tonight; what about?"

Again considering her options, Emily eventually settled on admitting, "God."

"Religion?" JJ asked, seeming more confused and intrigued. "I noticed that they all prayed before they ate. Are they pretty religious, then?"

Emily nodded. "Baptists."

"But you're not, right?" JJ asked. "Religious or a Baptist?"

"I don't know…" Emily mused, leaning back against the headboard. "Before today I wasn't, no, but… something happened to me there when I was talking with Kayla. I think it's what they call salvation by grace…" she squinted, trying to remember Kayla's exact words. "…through faith in Jesus Christ."

"Yeah… I was friends in high school with a girl who believed like that. What was it like, the… experience you had?"

"I can't explain it," Emily said. "It was just… like a weight was lifted right off of my shoulders. Like my past didn't matter anymore."

"Really?" JJ asked curiously.

Emily nodded again, not knowing how else to describe it.

"Huh, maybe I'll look into it then."

"You really should," Emily encouraged her eagerly.

JJ nodded, and Emily noted the odd look in her friend's blue eyes. It occurred to Emily that her friend might well be wierded out by their conversation – after all, she knew it was highly unusual, basically unheard of, for her to talk about anything even remotely related to spiritual matters.

JJ left Emily's bed and headed for the bathroom with her pajamas, saying, "Well… good night, Em."

"'Night, JJ."

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><p>When JJ emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, she jumped in surprise. Her raven-haired friend was on her knees at the end of her bed, head bowed in prayer.<p>

Her eyebrows drew together in confusion as JJ crawled in bed and turned off the lamp beside her bed. Emily praying was a very unusual occurrence, and it made her wonder all the more what actually had happened to her friend in that muster room. Whatever it was, JJ got a feeling that it must have been life-changing.

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><p>"Can I come in?"<p>

Emily and JJ were alone in the back room of the sheriff's department the next morning when a voice that they had become familiar with the previous night landed on their ears again.

"Kayla!" Emily said. "Your husband isn't here right now."

"I know; I came to see you."

"Oh. Okay," Emily looked surprised, but after a split second, she said, "Just hold on a second, okay?"

The African-American woman rolled her eyes as Emily and JJ closed all of the open case files that littered the room and then turned the evidence board around so that Mrs. Hayes couldn't tell what was on them before she gave her the go-ahead to come into the room.

"What can I do for you?" Emily asked, as JJ took a step back and subtly watched the two of them interact.

"I just wanted to make sure that you had one of these."

Emily and JJ both instantly recognized the book that Mrs. Hayes held out as a Bible, albeit a worn one. JJ kept quiet and watched, wondering how her friend was going to handle this and if she realized how expensive a Bible she was being offered. Once before, she had seen the way her friend had handled things when two young Church of Christ men had stopped by her house while JJ was there, and it hadn't been pretty. Would this be any different, perhaps because of what she claimed had happened the night before?

Apparently so.

Emily reached out and took the book, happily saying, "Thank you so much!"

"You're very welcome," Mrs. Hayes replied with a friendly smile. "You know… today's Friday, and if you're still here on Sunday, we'd love to have you come to church with us."

"Well, hopefully we'll be gone by then." Emily paused before bursting out as she realized what she had said, "I mean that in the best way, of course!"

"Of course," Mrs. Hayes nodded graciously.

"But if not…" JJ watched curiously as Emily thought it through, and decided that her friend must be trying to find a way to turn Mrs. Hayes down without hurting her new friend. But then Emily said, "I think I'd like that."

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Hayes said cheerfully. "Well, I guess I'd better let you ladies get back to work. I just came here to give you that Bible."

"Thanks," Emily said once again as Kayla disappeared around the corner.

Still standing in the middle of the room, Emily flipped through the Bible, smiling to herself. The smile suddenly began to slide from her face, and JJ watched in utter bafflement as she hurried out of the room.

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><p>"Kayla, wait!" Emily called out, catching the woman at the end of the hallway.<p>

"What's wrong, Emily?" Kayla asked in confusion.

Emily pointed to one highlighted passage with plenty of notes in the margins, and then another and another. "This is really well-loved. Is it yours?"

Kayla shrugged. "I gave it to you, so it's yours now."

"Kayla, I can't take this from you," Emily said with a frown. "Not when it's obviously been so important to you."

She tried to give it back, but Kayla shook her head, gently pushing the outstretched hand away. "Listen, Emily… do you know where there's a Baptist church in D.C.?"

"No."

"That's what I figured. Considering your job, your schedule isn't very conducive to regular church attendance either, is it?"

Emily frowned as she shook her head. She hadn't considered that yet.

"Then that's why I want you to have that Bible. It's got a great reference section in the back, and I've put in more than enough of my own notes in the margins over the years. Even though nothing can replace actually sitting in a congregation, if you take it with you on trips, you can read it even on the Sundays where you find yourself unable to attend a church service or two. Consider the margins sort of words of advice from yours truly if you want to."

Emily smiled as she found herself reaching forward to hug her new sister in the faith. "Thank you, Kayla," she said sincerely.

"You're welcome." With a final squeeze of her hand, Kayla walked out of the sheriff's department.

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><p><strong><strong>I'm not sure where this came from but I do know that it's going to be very Emily Prentiss-centric in the first chapters, although we're now getting more into JJ's part of it. <strong>Hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter! Reviews (and votes on my poll) make my day! Thanks!:)**


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey, Hotch," Emily asked, nervously stabbing her hotel-breakfast eggs early Sunday morning before the team headed into the sheriff's department.

"Yes?" the SAIC replied, looking over from where he sat with JJ between the two of them.

"When we're on cases, are we legally required to work every day, or could we take Sundays off?"

"Legally, you're allowed your weekend wherever you are; we've just never opted to take them when on a case. Why do you ask?"

Emily took a deep breath before answering the question. She knew that her coworkers had noticed that she had taken up the habit of praying before she ate – there really was no way that they _couldn't _have noticed it considering the fact that they almost always ate together, or at least in shifts, when on a case – and they hadn't cared, but how would they take this request?

"I was thinking that I might go to church with the Hayes instead."

Derek almost spit out his coffee. "_Church_? No offense, princess, but I didn't think that was your sort of thing."

Emily shrugged, saying simply, "I think it's going to be different for me now."

"Since you were saved?" JJ asked.

Emily raised her eyebrows at her friend, surprised that the blonde knew that terminology. Emily was just learning it herself.

It was JJ's turn to shrug as she said casually, "I've been doing a little bit of my own research this weekend, and looking at your Bible when you're in not in our hotel room with me."

Emily nodded slowly, debating whether or not she should before she offered, "Do you want to come too? We may have to take a vehicle of our own, but Kayla told me how to get there."

JJ turned to look at Hotch, but Emily still saw twin glimmers of interest and indecision in her blue eyes before she did so.

Hotch mulled this over, thinking aloud as he said, "Well, the unsub seems to be taking a month in between each kill, so we're not really in a time crunch… we're now well aware of what sort of a person that we're looking for… so it shouldn't be a problem if you two want to take the day off."

"Thanks, Hotch," the two women chorused.

Exhilarated by the fact that JJ wanted to come along and seemed to be curious about what had happened to her, Emily quickly finished her breakfast so that she knew she would have plenty of time for her and JJ to get ready before they had to leave to meet the Hayes at Sherwood Baptist Church. JJ took her lead, and within the hour, Kayla was by their side in the church entryway.

"JJ! I'm so glad to see that you came too," Kayla said, leaning in to hug them both.

JJ just smiled, and Emily got the feeling that the blonde wasn't entirely comfortable here. Kayla had been right; it was rare that they were able to go to church, and so, when they did, they didn't always feel comfortable in the setting. Emily knew all too well what her friend was feeling; this was the first time since she was fifteen that she had felt comfortable in a church building. As a matter of fact, when Emily took stock of emotions, she realized that she was genuinely excited to be here.

Once the service had started, even though Emily didn't know the songs that were being sung, she read out of the songbook that she and JJ shared and happily sang right along. During Sunday school and Pastor Hunt's message, Emily soaked it all up like a sponge, often even forgetting her surroundings, she was paying such rapt attention to what she was learning from the Word of the God Who had taken her into His Shepherd's fold.

When the service was over, Emily and JJ exchanged fond goodbyes with the Hayes family and then headed to the sheriff's office. It was during those goodbyes that Emily noticed the odd look in JJ's eyes.

As Emily drove them back to the sheriff's office, she brought it up carefully, asking, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," JJ said, and there was a tone of happy mystification in her voice that caught Emily's ear.

"Then what's up with you?" Emily asked.

"I, um…" JJ paused, saying almost sheepishly. "I need to tell you something."

"Okay….?" Emily answered, not sure what to expect from her friend's impending confession.

"I didn't actually have a friend in high school," JJ admitted.

"What?" For a second, Emily didn't get it, and then she did. "You mean your Baptist friend?"

JJ nodded. "That girl… was me." She sighed wearily, looking out her window as she explained, "My parents were very strict Baptists. We prayed at least four times a day, had devotions every morning and evening, my sister and I even had to wear skirts every day, only during soccer practice was I allowed to wear shorts, or even pants. My father was even the pastor of the church wherever we lived, and my mom was a Sunday school teacher. I was saved when I was ten years old. Everything was fine; I was the model good little church girl for about a year, but then we moved; my father took over a different church. This church was different from the one into which I had been born, unbelievably strict, and since Ros and I were the pastor's kids, they put totally unattainable expectations on us. I just started getting tired of it all, but it was worse on Ros since she was the pastor's _elder _child. To this day, I blame those church people as being one of the main reasons that she committed suicide. That day that I found her dead was the day that I just quit. I quit God, and I quit church of any sort. For the next seven years, I fought my parents tooth and nail every day not to have to do things their way, to not have to be a religious person, and the day I turned eighteen was the day that I left my parents' house for good. Finally, I had gotten my way; I no longer had my parents' rules or religion to deal with, so I took my freedom and ran with it without a backwards glance… until today. As I was sitting there beside you in that service, I just started remembering all the great things that I associated with that first church, and the closeness that I had felt to God during that year before we moved… and I wanted it back. So I prayed…" As Emily parked the vehicle in front of the sheriff's office, JJ turned to her friend with the same look of sheer joy that Emily knew she must have been wearing Thursday evening after she was saved, and she said, "And, Emily, my Father in Heaven took me back!"

"Father?" Emily echoed, not understanding the reference.

"Yeah!" JJ said enthusiastically. "We, Emily Prentiss," JJ said, reaching across the console to grab her hand. "Are now sisters in Christ, since we have both become children of the one true King."

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><p><strong>This story was not supposed to become half as JJ-centric as it did, along with being Prentiss-centric, but, oh well, I've long ago learned to just role with what my muse gives me, and I do like it this way. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this story! Reviews (and votes on my poll) make my day! Thanks!:)<strong>


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Courageous, Criminal Minds, Friendship, Spiritual