Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss had a great life these days.
She'd been with the Behavioral Analysis Unit for six months now, and was excelling in everything she did, once the initial hiccups and bumps had been hammered out. Her most favorite thing about the job was that she had the best friends, too: Derek Morgan, Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Derek Morgan, Penelope Garcia, Spencer Reid, and Jennifer "JJ" Jareau.
They all had special places in her heart, JJ in particular. But that was another story.
Emily loved her friends and her life, and she wouldn't trade it for anything at all.
However...
There was one thing that was always at the back of her mind now. Only JJ and Penelope knew about it.
When she was fifteen, she had been living in Rome with her parents because her mother's occupation was that of ambassador. Because of that, Emily's childhood consisted of her living all over the world, and she had loved it. To a point.
That point was Rome.
Emily was a wild child in her teen years, and she loved to give her parents hell because she got an actual thrill from it. That being said, she was wild because she wanted to fit in. One night, she took things a little too far with one of the local boys, and in the end she got pregnant. She didn't even know the boy's name, and she never saw him again after that.
Needless to say, Emily was very freaked out and had no choice but to tell her parents. To her great surprise, while they were disappointed in her for getting pregnant while in high school, they still helped her decide what to do about it. She wanted the baby so badly, but even with the family money she was born into, Emily wasn't sure if she would be able to raise a baby and finish school. She also didn't want to put the burden of raising her child on her parents, either. They didn't deserve that.
Emily had seriously considered an abortion, but backed out at the last minute, so that left her with one real choice: adoption.
On the night of the fourteenth of February the fourteenth in Rome, Italy, Emily gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Aurora Hope. When she was born, Emily held her, although only for a few minutes and as she gave her hugs in kisses, she promised that she'd find her one day, no matter how long it took.
Well, 'one day' turned into twenty-five years. Emily thought of her sweet Aurora all the time, and still wanted to find her, but since the adoption had been closed and Aurora was an adult now, that meant that she could be anywhere in the world. She could even be married with kids. Emily could very well be a grandmother now.
She would do anything for a chance to even see Aurora again, even if it was just for a few minutes.
Little did Emily know that her chance was very close at hand and about to present itself.
"Okay, but why me?" Emily protested. "It's almost time to go home!"
"You're the one he's the squirrliest around, he shut Derek down, he beats around the bush with me and JJ, and Hotch and Rossi were the ones who recruited me to figure out what's wrong in the first place!"
"And by your logic, PG, even though though Spencer acts like he's got ants in his pants when he and I are doing something together these days, I'm still the one he'd open up to first?"
Penelope nodded. "You betcha, gumdrop! Now go find him!"
Emily sighed and gave her friend a mock bow before leaving Penelope's techno lair for the hallway.
For the past few weeks, everyone had noticed that Spencer was acting increasingly odd, and more-so than usual. When they were out on cases, they'd just catch him on the tail end of a phone call to someone he knew and from the nature of the call, it was actually personal.
Then there was last Tuesday, when they were back home (the day after solving a case in South Dakota) that they saw him sign off on a package delivery for himself that had come up from the mail room. Only because Doctor Spencer Reid wasn't the kind of guy that got packages at work, his friends asked him what it was, but he avoided answering the question, putting the package in his desk and changing the subject. He was also drinking more coffee than usual, something that the others were leery of because it was like hanging out with an extremely chatty version of the Energizer Bunny.
The biggest change in Spencer's behavior, though, was that instead of looking for reasons to stay late and put in extra hours as he liked to, he actually left at decent hours.
And now, for some reason, Spencer had a very hard time behaving seriously when he was with Emily. The word that came to mind was flighty.
At any rate, it didn't take long for Emily to find Spencer that evening, mostly because his nose was buried in a book, and he almost walked right into her.
"Easy there, cowboy." she put her hands on his shoulders to physically stop him. "Watcha reading?"
Everything happened so fast that it took Spencer a moment to realize who he was talking to, and when he saw it was Emily, he became flustered.
"Emily, hi! I... uh, sorry about that..."
Emily raised an eyebrow. "You still didn't answer my question."
Spencer tried to play dumb, but he was very bad at it. "Question? What question?"
Quick as lightning, Emily plucked the literature from her friend and took a step back to examine it. After she processed what it was, she looked at him, eyes wide.
"Spencer, this is a book on child psychology!"
"Keep it down!" he hissed, taking his book back as he looked around quickly to make sure that nobody overheard them, but the hallway was empty. "I like to read; is that a crime?"
"Of course not, no, but you reading a book on child psychology? I know you believe in expanding your horizons through knowledge, but even this is a little outside of your wheelhouse!"
Spencer tried again to say something, but things were getting lost in translation. "I..."
Emily rolled her eyes. "That's it, buddy! You and I are overdue for a talk!"
"But—"
Emily took Spencer by the wrist and dragged him into the nearest empty room, which also happened to be JJ's office. When they were inside, Emily gave Spencer a shove in the direction of the couch as she shut the door and turned on the light. The momentum of Emily's push had so much force to it that Spencer had no choice but to use the couch to break his fall.
He felt like he was in elementary school again and being sent to the principal's office.
Emily stood before Spencer, eyebrows arched expectantly. "Start talking."
"I've been keeping this quiet because it's brand new territory for me, and I really don't want you guys teasing me, but I have a girlfriend now."
Emily's tune changed immediately and she softened up, feeling almost maternal. "That's wonderful!"
"Thanks..."
At that tone, Emily's tune changed yet again, but to concern. "Spencer, I totally get wanting to keep something like this to yourself, but come on: you should at least sound happy! How long have you been with her?"
"For almost three months now, and I'm so in love with her, Emily."
"Well, strike me down right now." the brunette remarked, trying to make light of things. "I never thought I'd hear the day when you straight-up admitted that you're in love with someone."
That actually drew a smile from Spencer. "Is it alright if I ask you something personal?"
That raised even more flags, but she said, "Sure. Go ahead."
"Twenty-five years ago, did you have a baby girl in Rome?"
In the blink of an eye, Emily felt like she'd been doused in cold water and was experiencing shortness of breath as her heart began racing incredibly fast, as it last had on the day that she and JJ had found out that they were going to be parents. On that day, she'd felt joy, but now, she was experiencing that alongside love, hope, fear, and shock.
"Y-You found Aurora?"
Spencer was already on his feet when he saw the color drain from Emily's face, but once she stuttered, he began moving slowly towards her, so as to catch her if her legs gave out.
"Uh-huh, and she's perfect, Emily. So perfect."
"What's going on?"
In all of the activity of the moment, Emily and Spencer had failed to notice that JJ had returned and was on the threshold of her now-open office door. She was feeling very confused.
"All I did was go to to the bathroom. What are you two doing in here?"
Emily turned to face her girlfriend, and she opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. When JJ realized that she was crying, she immediately rushed forward and helped Emily sit on the couch. While she did that, Spencer hurried out to the hallway. Not far from JJ's door, there was a water cooler, complete with disposable paper cups.
He hadn't meant to send Emily into a spiral, especially because she no doubt felt Aurora was a ghost, but he was determined to help his friend get back to her usual self.
Emily didn't start talking until after she'd downed the water, although it was with Spencer sitting on a chair in of her, and JJ was beside her on the couch. Their fingers were intertwined, and JJ even had her free hand just below the crook of Emily's elbow.
"Seriously," the pregnant blond addressed her companions. "What the hell is happening?"
Emily turned to her love. "Spencer has a girlfriend, and uh, it's Aurora. My Aurora."
JJ's own heart flip-flopped as she leaned back against the couch cushions and held her hands to her middle, where her offspring lay inside, not ready to be interrupted by the world for many more months yet. Doing that kept her sane as she thought of Aurora. She learned about her on what was already a very emotional day at the end of a case that hadn't ended well for one of the people involved.
JJ had already been feeling sick to her stomach, not realizing until after it was all over that an IVF treatment she'd undergone privately a few weeks earlier, just before deciding to start a relationship with Emily, had actually taken. After stopping at a drug store and paying for a box of what looked like the best pregnancy tests, she went back to the hotel and straight back to the hotel room that she shared with Emily and Penelope, intending to use them right away. Her plan was derailed when she found Emily curled up on their bed, crying her eyes out. The case had had involved the death of a young mother, and everything about it had reminded Emily of Aurora, and she'd spent the week telling herself that she wouldn't cry, but on that last day, the dam finally broke.
Penelope wandered in while JJ was trying to get Emily to consider breathing properly, but she immediately joined in the effort to help calm her down. Emily told them about Aurora after that, but swore them to secrecy about her.
Even still, JJ wanted to meet Aurora as badly as Emily wanted to be reunited with her.
"Oh, my God." JJ finally said as she turned to the man opposite her. "How in the world did that even happen? She's local?"
Spencer nodded. "Aurora lives in Capitol Hill, a few blocks over from the Hotchners, actually. I met her at a coffee shop on a rainy day, and I noticed her because she had all of the materials on her side of the table for a research paper, but she'd stopped to take a break and read."
"What was Aurora reading?"
"Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment, ironically, and it was in Russian."
Next to JJ, Emily finally spoke. "That's my girl, taking after me after me without even realizing it. I read a lot to her when I was pregnant, and I really loved Russian literature."
"Aurora was thoroughly enjoying her book."
"Did you strike up a conversation with her?"
"Actually, she spoke to me first because she said that when she looked up to see who had joined her at the table, the first thing she noticed was that I was reading Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. The rest, as they say, is history."
Emily held her hands in the timeout position. "I'm tracking with you so far, but how did you make the connection between Aurora and myself? Is she a dead ringer for me?"
"No, but she's got your eyes, Emily, and your hair color, and the shape of your face. There are other little things, here and there, but that's why it took me this long to realize it. I didn't believe in love at first sight before I met her, but... now I do."
Emily was dying to know what her daughter did for a living that would make a guy like Spencer fall for her on the spot, but she had a slightly more pressing inquiry.
"Spencer, do you have a picture of Aurora?"
Nodding, Spencer pulled out his wallet and pulled out a small wallet-sized picture and handed it to her. Emily was brought to tears all over again. Aurora did look like her in the ways that Spencer had mentioned, and had touches of her father here, but both of them together had made this wonderful woman. In the picture, she looked like she was dressed for a special event, but even with how she dressed (formal, with her some accessories for flair), all the way down to her glasses, she even looked like someone you'd want to get to know.
"You can keep the picture, Emily." Spencer told her. "She would want you to."
Passing the picture to JJ, she asked him, "What does she do for a living?"
"She teaches kindergarten at George Washington Elementary School, and she loves it."
Emily felt her heart swell with pride. "I love that she's a teacher. Does she know that she was adopted?"
"She does."
"I know she's in her twenties, but does she ever wonder about me?"
Spencer just nodded.
"Is she pregnant?" JJ asked, gesturing towards Spencer's book. "You wouldn't read something about child psychology unless she was... or unless she already has a child."
Spencer nodded bashfully. "That's also a long story that she should be the one to tell, but she has a three-year-old named Alice Rose. She's incredibly smart and loves when we read to her."
As the profiler spoke about his girlfriend's daughter, it was easy to see that he adored her.
"Do you have a picture of Alice?" Emily asked.
"Just this one," Spencer took another photo out of his wallet and handed it to her. "But here."
Emily's heart filled with love as soon as she saw her granddaughter. With her rounded face, fair skin, and big brown eyes and long brown hair, dazzling smile that Emily actually recognized along with a familiar shaped nose, Emily felt like she was looking at a little doll. She wore glasses like her mother did, and she was dressed in what Emily guessed was a preschool uniform, but even still, she looked very happy.
"She's beautiful." Emily complimented as JJ nodded in agreement when she saw the picture. "You said she likes books?"
Spencer nodded, taking back the photo and putting it away when Emily handed it back. "Yep, and her favorite stories are Matilda and Alice In Wonderland. Aurora said she named her after that Alice, actually."
"Is her father in the picture at all?"
"No, but that's a story I'd rather let Aurora tell." Spencer said. "Alice has never known him, though. She, uh, she actually calls me daddy."
"Awww." Emily and JJ cooed in unison.
"But I actually do love Alice like that, so I don't mind it."
"Spencer," Emily said in a sudden semi-warning tone. "If you ever break my grandbaby's heart, or my daughter's, I will kick your ass."
"And I'll help." JJ added.
Spencer caught their drift quickly. "Neither of you have to worry about that because I love Aurora and Alice too much to even dream of doing that. Those two are the whole world to me."
Emily briefly wondered just when Spencer was going to become her son-in-law (boy, was that a weird thought) because the writing was on the wall, but instead of asking about that, she asked something that she hadn't had the courage to ask until now.
"Do you know if Aurora would want to meet me?"
"She would, but I'd have to explain things to her first. I'm sure you understand."
Emily nodded. "I do, and after twenty-five years, I know I can wait a little bit longer."
Spencer smiled, seeing light in Emily's eyes that he'd never seen before.
"Actually," he glanced at his watch and stood when he noticed what time it was. "I'm about to head over there, and since it's Friday and we have the weekend off, I'll be hanging out with my family until Monday."
Both Emily and JJ noticed when he said the words 'my family,' but didn't comment about it.
"Maybe something will happen and Aurora will call you before then."
As Emily and her girlfriend stood, she said, "I really hope so, but remind Aurora that she shouldn't feel obligated to agree to anything."
"I will." Spencer said before looking from him to JJ and back again as he gathered his things up. "Will you two promise to not tell anyone about this until Monday, at least?"
Again, the women spoke in unison. "We promise."
"Thank you."
"Spencer?" Emily said his name in a question.
"Thank you." she threw her arms around him in a hug. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
He hugged her back, a surprising move for someone who had never been into that kind of thing. "You are very welcome, Emily."
Twenty minutes later, after collecting his jacket and scarf off his desk, Spencer was in his car and on his way to Aurora's house.
This was already shaping out to be a very interesting Friday night.