Author's Note: This story is in my Labyrinthine and Serenus universe, a few years later. It will make more sense if you've read those, but can muddle through if not. I'm going to warn you that this one gets dark. Just remember I love my Demily, and hang on for the ride!

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Serena Morgan smiled in excitement at the candles on her cake as the guests at her eighth birthday party sang to her.

In the three years she'd been with Derek and Emily, she'd blossomed into an even more beautiful young girl. Some of the roundness in her cheeks had disappeared, giving her a much more mature appearance, but the bright eyes and the wide smile were still the same. She'd decided she wanted to grow her hair longer a couple of years ago and it now hung in loose curls to her shoulders, the natural blond highlights she'd gotten from her birth mother giving her medium brown hair a truly unique appearance all her own.

She was in second grade at Walden Country School, though she spent a few hours a day in a resource room. Back in first grade, when the school switched from a play-based, exploration program to a more academic one, Emily and Derek had worked with her teacher and the director, Kathryn, to come up with a plan. Because two hours a week of parent volunteering in the classroom was a mandatory part of the school, Serena was no secret to anyone; everyone knew she was brilliant. But the highly educated parents who now knew their family so well handled it, never singling Serena out or acting shocked by her academic capabilities that went well beyond her years. The resource room at the school had always been there, for kids who needed extra help in subjects, or for kids who were more advanced and needed more challenging work. Serena spent art, music, PE and social studies with her class always. She would meet with her teacher at the beginning of the week and look at the lesson plans for different projects the class was working on, and together they'd decide which ones Serena would like to participate in. She enjoyed the small-group collaboration projects even if the material was far below her level, so she usually stayed for those activities. The rest of the time she went to the resource room and worked on her online classes in math and science. If she struggled with something or had questions, she often talked to Spencer. He was a frequent visitor at their house, helping Serena, enjoying her company.

They avoided online literature classes. Though she was capable of complex material, they wanted to keep her an innocent little girl. Reading and writing were no problem for Serena; Emily carefully selected age-appropriate books and came up with lesson plans for that coursework. They weren't sure Serena was going to make it through eighth grade at that school before needing something more, but for the time being, they all appreciated the close-knit community that felt like a safe place to learn and grow.

Emily never returned to full-time work as a consultant after Caleb was born. She never put her website back up. She worked her contracted ten hours a week at the BAU, and put in an additional ten to twenty hours a week doing cognitive interviews for local law enforcement, but her reputation was all word-of-mouth. It kept her just busy enough to feel satisfied with her career, but not so busy that she couldn't fully enjoy her children and be home to pick up Serena after school every day.

Emily started working with Serena, teaching her different languages, just because Serena's mind seemed to constantly want to absorb something new. It also opened a new world of books for Serena, who could now read and speak fluent Spanish. Emily was relearning and brushing up on her Russian with Serena now.

They had not had her IQ tested; they didn't want an official label attached to her. Though Serena knew what and IQ test was, she didn't care, and they didn't care because the other side of Serena is that she wanted to be a child, and she was one. She was kind to everyone and all of the adults who knew her called her "delightful." She did not flaunt her knowledge, she understood that she was very advanced academically, but she never talked about that much at all with her friends. She always made sure people felt included and she loved to play certain things at an age-appropriate level. Her close friends were children like her in many ways, who didn't like dolls or average kid toys, but enjoyed things like art, play-acting and riding bikes or exploring outside. Her best friend, though, was Henry. They were like siblings and he came to their house every day after school now.

The only difficult thing to balance with Serena was that her empathy and understanding of people and the world was that of an adult in many ways, but she was still a child. Emily and Derek and Serena's other trusted adults in her life could normally find that balance, except when it came to the exact nature of Derek's job and the BAU. They desperately wanted to keep that darkness out of her innocent life, but it became impossible as she aged. She came to them when she was six years old, having put two and two together, coming to the conclusion that her previous foster mother was actually one of the bad guys Derek helped track down in his job. She would ask such insightful questions that they would have to remind themselves that they were talking to a child before being able to answer her. They were honest without getting into gory details. She started watching Derek when he came home from working on a case. Derek, who always bounded in the door with a happy smile and hugs and kisses for his children and Emily would sometimes get a far off look in his eye at a certain point later if a case had been particularly difficult. Serena noticed this when it happened and would come to give him an extra hug and say things like, "I'm sorry it was a hard case, Daddy."

But she didn't give the darkness much room in her life. Her powers of compartmentalization were as good as Emily's. When Derek left for a case, Serena was confident that he would come home, that their family would be as amazing as it always was.

If you asked Serena what her favorite thing in the world was, she would tell you, "Caleb."

Sweet Caleb with his light caramel skin, wavy black hair, and Derek's face, except for the eyes and eyelashes; those were still all Emily. Caleb started smiling just shy of turning two months old and hadn't really stopped much in the two and a half years since. He embraced life with gusto, loved anything to do with trains, loved his parents and his wonderful mesh of a family, and adored his big sister.

His first word was "Nena," for Serena. And though he could now say her name correctly, he still called her Nena. He was a little advanced in the language department, simply because Serena read to him so much. And because he heard Emily and Serena talking in Spanish frequently, he had some of those words, too. But for the most part, he was just your average, happy two year old.

The weekend before Serena's birthday, Derek came home on a Friday evening to a slightly defeated Emily. "I barely escaped death several times over the years, but potty training is going to kill me, Derek," she'd said wearily, but with a small smile on her lips, because she could never stop smiling when she talked about their children. "I think I'll stop for awhile, maybe he's just not ready. He totally understands, but he's quite content to just use a diaper and keep playing."

Derek had gone into the living room where Caleb was playing with his wooden trains and said, "Caleb, my boy, tomorrow we are getting it done."

What transpired there was some deep male bonding mystery that Emily didn't understand. On her end, Derek was doing essentially the same thing she had tried, except she didn't have a penis. Whatever the reason, that was the end of diapers in the Morgan household.

Caleb excitedly told every adult he knew at Serena's birthday party about his underwear, but he sought out JJ first. The two of them had a bond that started the moment she helped deliver him. After Caleb started saying "Nena," "Mama and Dada" followed. Shortly after that, "Nana" spilled from his lips, for Derek's mom who now lived close and saw him several times a week. And then "Udi," for Judy, their friend and neighbor who watched him during the day. But after that, he started saying, "Ma-ga-ga," frequently. They were perplexed for a couple of days at what he was trying to communicate, but one evening JJ showed up to say hello and Caleb had toddled over to her on unsteady legs and exclaimed, "Ma-ga-ga!"

My JJ, realized Emily, with tears in her eyes. And he still called her that. Not JJ, but My JJ. "My JJ! I have on big boy underwear! No more diapers!" he exclaimed to her the day of the party.

If life could be told in pictures, the pictures in the Morgan household told an epic tale of an unbelievably happy family. Their lives were so good that sometimes Emily doubted herself, that this much contentment couldn't be real.

As the "Happy Birthday" song ended, Serena took a deep breath, then looked to her side, where Caleb was sitting in the chair next to her, Derek's hands on his shoulders, preventing an excited-looking Caleb from trying to help with the birthday candles. She looked at her little brother and laughed her special little giggle. "You can help me, Caleb!"

Derek released Caleb's shoulders and both of their children smiled as they blew out the candles on that cake together.