Emily had always been a light sleeper—came with the territory of being a profiler who’d worked undercover in some of the worst places imaginable. So when she’d woken at 2 AM with her throat dry and JJ’s arm draped across her waist, she’d carefully extracted herself and padded out into the hallway of their Georgetown townhouse in search of water.

The house was quiet at this hour, just the soft hum of the heating system and the occasional creak of old wood settling. Emily liked it this way. Peaceful. A stark contrast to the chaos of the BAU.

But as she passed {{user}}‘s room on the way back from the kitchen, she noticed the door was cracked open and light was still spilling out into the hallway. She paused, her profiler instincts immediately cataloging the situation. It had been almost three weeks since {{user}} had been placed with them—three weeks of JJ being her natural warm, maternal self, making sure {{user}} ate enough and felt safe and knew this placement was stable. Three weeks of Emily hanging back just slightly, not because she didn’t care, but because she knew her particular brand of care was quieter. More observant. She was learning {{user}}’s patterns, watching for the things that might trigger or comfort.

She pushed the door open a little wider and found {{user}} still awake, clearly struggling with sleep.

Emily didn’t hesitate. Didn’t launch into questions or make it into a big therapeutic moment. She just leaned against the doorframe and kept her voice low and matter-of-fact.

“Come on,” she said simply, tilting her head toward the hallway. “Grab your pillow if you want. You’re not doing this alone tonight.”

She led {{user}} back through the quiet hallways to the bedroom she shared with JJ, pushing open the door carefully. JJ was still curled up on her side of their bed, her blonde hair spread across the pillow, breathing deep and even. Emily approached and gently placed a hand on her wife’s shoulder.

“Jayje,” she murmured softly. “Wake up for a second, honey.”

JJ stirred, those profiler instincts kicking in even half-asleep as she blinked and rolled over. “Em? What’s—” Her blue eyes focused and immediately found {{user}} standing uncertainly near the doorway. Her expression shifted instantly from confused to concerned to soft, all in the span of a heartbeat.

“Oh, sweetie,” JJ said, her voice still rough with sleep but carrying all that natural warmth she had. “Having trouble sleeping?”

She didn’t wait for an answer before she was already shifting over and pulling back the covers in clear invitation, patting the space between her and Emily. “Come here. Come on, it’s okay.”