It was noon on Friday, and Emily was sitting at her table, picking at a salad and watching a Harry Potter movie that happened to be on ABC Family. Her hair was down and messy, and she was wearing an over sized black t-shirt and sweatpants.
As Emily stared, focusing on the movie, her phone vibrated and rang on the wooden table, startling her. "Jesus Christ", she muttered after gasping.
"Hello, this is Emily."
"Emily, it's Hotch", Aaron spoke into his phone.
"Oh, hey Hotch!" Emily replied brightly. "What did you need?"
"Um, I have to meet up with a colleague tonight, and I have a lecture at Quantico tomorrow. Jessica is out of town, and I was wondering if you could stay the night here and watch Jack for me", he said a little sheepishly.
"Of course! I'd love to Hotch", she said with true excitement, "What time did you want me over?"
"Do you think four o'clock is okay?" he asked.
"I'll be there at three thirty", she quipped, shutting the phone. "Serg, come here!" Emily called to her cat. Sergio purred as Emily hugged him close. "You're going to PetCo for the weekend, okay?" she whispered into his ear. Sergio meowed in agreement. "Okay bud. Lemme get your stuff", Emily hopped off the couch and went to pack Sergio's things.
"Good God", Hotch sighed, looking at his messy living room.
"Daddy, are you talking to God?" Jack's tiny voice asked. Hotch turned.
"Yeah, buddy. I was just telling God how messy our living room was", he joked. Jack looked up.
"God, I will make you happy because me and Daddy gonna clean up the living woom", he said.
"God isn't the only one we're cleaning up for", Hotch told him.
"What you mean Daddy?" Jack questioned.
"Well, buddy, Miss Emily is coming over and she's going to stay the night and watch you until tomorrow afternoon", Hotch told his son.
"Yay!" Jack cried, clapping his small hands. Hotch smiled.
"Let's get you cleaned up, okay?" Hotch told his son. Jack smiled as his dad carried him to the bathroom.
Emily checked her watch. 3:00. It was fifteen minutes to PetCo, and she still needed to get ready. She ran to her room, grabbed pajamas, her toothbrush, comb, toothpaste, and makeup. Putting her hair up in a messy ponytail, Emily scrambled for her keys, grabbed Sergio, and raced as fast as she could out the door.
"Jack, you did a great job cleaning up", Hotch said to his son, handing him a cookie. Jack grabbed it and immediately began munching on it. "Jack, Jack, slow down!" Hotch grinned as he looped his tie. He checked his watch. "Miss Emily is going to be here soon, alright?" he told his son. Jack grinned happily with his cookie in hand and nodded.
The doorbell rang. Hotch opened the door to see a flustered Emily standing there. She was beautiful; her cheeks were slightly pink, her hair was in a messy ponytail, and her chest was heaving heavily. Could this moment be any worse? Thought Hotch. Suddenly, Emily flashed him a beautiful, award-winning smile. Her deep, warm, irresistably adorable brown eyes looked just as happy. Hotch was trying so hard to surpress his deep urge to just grab Emily by the waist and hold her. Unfortunately, that chance was taken by Jack. He raced to Emily and jumped into her waiting arms.
"Hey buddy!" Emily smiled at Jack. She carried him inside the apartment.
"Hello Emily", Hotch said.
"Hey! So, Jack and I will try super, super hard not to burn down the house, right Jack?" she smiled, looking at Jack. He blushed. "Okay Miss Em'ly", he said shyly. Hotch smiled.
"Looks like someone has a little crush on Miss Emily, huh?" Hotch joked. He held out a spare key to the house.
"Oh, thanks. Jack, say bye to Daddy", Emily said. She handed Jack to Hotch. He raised Jack over his head and spun him around as Jack squealed with delight. Emily leaned back on the kitchen table and smiled at the sight. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay bud?" Hotch said. Jack nodded as his dad walked out the door. Emily locked the door.
"Jack, what happened to your face?" Emily asked, stifling a laugh. His face was smeared with cookie dough and melted chocolate.
"I had a cookie, Miss Em'ly", Jack said shyly.
"Oh gosh Jack. Let's get cleaned up sweetie. Oh, and you don't have to call me 'Miss'. Just Emily would be okay", she smiled at the little boy. He raced off to the bathroom, leaving Emily to chase after him.
After cleaning up Jack's face, Emily was staring outside the window.
"Em'ly? Em'ly, are you okay?" Jack asked quietly. He noted the tear running down her face. She sniffed and wiped the tear off. "I'm fine, buddy." Jack frowned.
"No. You not fine. You're eyes leaking", he said.
"I-I'm just hurting a little bit", Emily said.
"Where Em'ly?" he asked. Emily took Jack's small hand and guided it up to her heart.
"Right here, Jack. Right here", she said softly. Jack's eyes widened.
"Em'ly, that your heart! What's wrong with your heart?" he asked worriedly.
"Don't tell anyone, but I love your daddy", she told him.
"But Em'ly, Daddy loves you too!" Jack exclaimed. Emily was surprised.
"What? Wait, how do you know that?" she asked him.
"He talks about you all the time", Jack said in a duh tone. A smile crept up and tugged at the corners of Emily's mouth.
"Really? What does he say?" she asked.
"He says that you are pwetty, nice, and that you make him happy", Jack said.
"Wow. I didn't know your daddy thought about me like that", Emily said. Jack grinned his little boy grin.
"Is your heart okay now, Em'ly?" Jack asked sweetly. She smiled at his adorable voice.
"Yeah it is, Jack. What do you want to do?" she asked him.
"Let's color!" he said excitedly. "I have paint, and mah-kus, and pencils, and bwushes, and-and all kinds of stuff!" he said, jumping up and down.
"Woah boy. Let's calm down a little, okay?" Emily said, chuckling. Jack sat down quickly and rested his chin in his hands.
"Can we color now?" he asked impatiently.
"Of course. Can you show me where all the stuff is?" she asked. Jack immediately stood up and grabbed her hand.
"My woom is this way", he said, leading her to it. Once out of the room with paint, paper, and coloring utencils in hand, they raced out into the living room and dropped everything on the floor.
"Here's some paper, Em'ly", Jack said, handing Emily sheets of white paper.
"Thank you, you're being a gentleman, aren't you?" she said nicely with a smile. He blushed and went on with his coloring. Emily selected a thin paintbrush and dipped it in light pink paint. She curved the brush and filled in the spaces. She cleaned off the brush and dipped it this time in red. She painted in the circle in the middle of the petals to complete her flower. Then, she painted a thin green stem.
"That flower is pwetty, like you, Em'ly", Jack said, blushing uncontrollably. Emily smiled. "Oh Jack, that is the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me!" she smiled. She pulled Jack in for a hug and kissed him on the forehead. He kissed her back on the cheek. Emily smiled at the cute little boy in her arms.
"What are you drawing?" Emily asked. She crawled over to his area that was cluttered with colored pencils scattered around him and his piece of paper.
"I was dwawing me, daddy, and you", Jack said. In the drawing, what looked like Emily and Hotch were holding hands, with Jack hugging Emily. This time, it was Emily's turn to blush ferociously.
"Jack, this is beautiful. I-it really is", she said to him. Jack smiled. Emily planted another kiss on his full, round cheek. She rubbed off smudges of Chapstick from his cheek with her thumb.
"Jack, you know what you should do?"
"What should I do, Em'ly?" he asked.
"Put your signature on it", Emily suggested.
"What a siggachure?" Jack asked, missing the 'n' and over-pronouncing the 't-u-r-e'.
"If you want to know what it is, you have to say it correct first, little man", Emily told him. "Sig-NA-ture", she said.
"Signature?" Jack repeated in question. Emily nodded.
"A signature is a way of putting your name on something", she explained. To demonstrate, she grabbed a pen and quickly swirled her name on the bottom right corner of her flower painting.
"But, Em'ly, I dunno how to write", Jack informed her.
"Um, okay, that's okay! Perfectly okay. I'll do it for you, alright?" She scrawled her name the way Hotch would.
"There you go", she said, handing his drawing out to him.
"Thank you Em'ly. I like it lots", Jack smiled, his small, pearly whites showing.
"Are you done drawing?" Jack nodded in response as he stared at his drawing. "Let's clean up then", she said. They scrambled around to clean up the living room. After they cleaned up, Emily found herself rummaging through the kitchen.
"Jack, babe, what do you want for dinner?" Emily called. Jack came out. "Em'ly, it's ony four fourty-five", he said pointedly. "I know, sweetie, but I need to know so I can make so that it's ready for dinnertime", she explained. Jack nodded. "Do you want spaghetti?" she asked. Jack clapped his tiny hands. "Yes please", he said politely. Emily smiled and pulled out the spaghetti noodles. After Rossi's little "cooking lesson" at his "mansion", she knew perfectly well how to make delicious spaghetti.
Emily twisted the dial on the stove to boil the water. Once the water was hot and bubbling, she dumped the still-stiff noodles into the pot. Earlier, Emily had sat Jack up on the marble counter of the kitchen so that he wouldn't get hit by the flying, popping, boiling water. She heated up a can of sauce and poured some over a plate of spaghetti.
"Come on, little guy. Your food is ready", Emily said, holding up his dinner. Jack looked at the clock. It read 5:15. "Yay! It's dinner time", Jack said happily, carefully jumping off the counter. He sat down on the couch as Emily pushed the coffee table closer to him. "Em'ly, I don't have a fork", Jack pointed out. Emily smiled. "I know. The plate was hot, and if I dropped the plate, I didn't want to drop your special fork", she said, returning to the kitchen. Emily pulled open the top left drawer under the sink and pulled out a thick, plastic fork. On it was Hotch's face. Emily smiled as she held the fork between her thumb and forefinger. She handed it to Jack. "Here you go babe", she smiled, bending down to give it to him. He smiled up at her in thanks and began to shovel spaghetti into his mouth. "Em'ly?" Jack asked through a full mouth, "Can I have some water please?" he asked, stretching out the 'e' in please. Emily reached out and gently lifted his chin to re-connect his bottom lip to his top one. "Okay baby. Just promise me you'll chew with your mouth closed, okay?" Jack covered his mouth with his little hand and nodded fiercely. Emily got up and watched as the clear liquid flowed quickly into the cup. "Here you go baby", she said, handing the glass to Jack.
"Em'ly? Can you please put in Cars 2?" Jack requested. Emily smiled as she tugged her hair out of it's restraining rubber band. She opened up the case, popped out the DVD, and placed it in the DVD player. Jack waited excitedly but patiently for the movie to load. Once the menu popped up, Emily picked up the remote and pressed "SELECT". "Jack, baby, I'm going to take a shower. Are you okay out here by yourself?" Emily asked. Jack nodded, focusing on the movie. Emily took her hand and gently directed Jack's face towards hers. "If you need anything, just come in the bathroom and call me, okay?" He nodded once more, redirecting his attention to the bright-red talking car that was moving on the screen. Emily shook her head and smiled at the little boy.
After grabbing two towels and her bathrobe from her bag, she opened up the glass shower door and twisted the knob all the way past "WARM". She sighed as the hot water pelleted her back. Emily massaged shampoo into her hair and rinsed. She squeezed a bottle of conditioner and the thick, white goo fell in her hand. After lathering and rinsing, she soaped up her body. There was a knock at the door.
"Em'ly, I need to use the bathroom", Jack's voice came through the white, wooden door.
"Don't you have a bathroom in your room?" she asked. She took his silence as a no. "Damn it", she muttered.
"What?"
"N-nothing, nothing. Um, go ahead Jack", she said. She heard the door open and heard Jack come to the toilet. She continued with her shower, but didn't hear Jack leave. "Jack, baby, I need to get out of the shower", Emily said.
"It's okay, I won't look", he promised. Emily stifled a laugh. "Okay. Are you turned around?" Jack said yes. "Okay, I'm coming out".
Once Emily was out of the shower, she saw Jack facing the toilet and covering his eyes. She covered herself with her robe and tapped Jack on the shoulder. "I'm done baby." Jack turned around and smiled at a robe-clad Emily.
After getting ready, it was about ten thirty. "Ooh, geez. Baby, it's time for you to go to sleep", Emily told Jack. "Okay Em'ly. But, before I go to bed, can you wead me a stowy?" Jack asked sleepily. "Of course. Which story did you want me to read you?" she asked. Jack pulled out a book called Baby Star. It was a smooth book and had a blue cover. A small, smiling star was snuggled into a larger star, obviously its parent. "This one, please", he said. Emily opened up the book and began to read softly. "Wait", Jack said. He slipped up under her arm and snuggled into her chest. He rested his head under her neck. "Okay. You can go now", Jack smiled up at her. Emily struggled to keep tears in her eyes. She continued reading in a quiet, soft voice.
"Once there was a baby star. He lived up near the sun.
And every night at bedtime, that baby star wanted to have some fun.
He would shine and shine and fall and shoot and twinkle oh-so-bright
And he said "Mommy, I'll run away if you make me say goodnight".
And then his mommy kissed his sparkly nose and said,
"No matter where you go, no matter where you are,
No matter how big you've grown, no matter where you are,
I'll love you forever, because you'll always be my baby star".
When Emily finished the story, Jack's eyes were falling closed. "Thank you, Mommy", he said. Emily's eyes widened. "Mommy?" she asked. Jack nodded slowly with his eyes closed. This time, Emily did cry. Happy tears flowed from her eyes. And because Jack was sleeping, she didn't bother to hold back.
