Running her hand over her daughter's soft head of hair the brunette woman kept up her pace, her running shoes stepping hard against the gravel that made up the mountain's path. She looked over the edge to see the sun shining high above the peak they were hiking up to. It was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen.
Huffing at the thought, she smiled down to her little girl. Make that second most beautiful sight.
Emily had given birth to her baby Phoenix just over a year ago, and she had done her best to spend every moment with her. She still had her job, it was her favorite that she had ever had other than being a mother, but every time she was able to get a small amount of time off she would take Phoenix from daycare and bring her out to the park or bring her out to her favorite hiking spots.
Phoenix loved the outdoors. If she wasn't with her mother at home or out in the sun, the one year old girl barely spoke a word. Out in the fresh air and in her mother's arms, Phoenix blossomed.
"Look at that Hawk," she whispered, pointing up to the flying bird and trying to get her daughter to look up. Smiling, Emily watched as the animal circled the trees up to their right before swooping down. "Did you see that, Nikki?"
Looking back down to the one year old Emily watched as those big eyes looked out to the flowers they were passing, and the baby gave a grin. "Aren't those pretty?" Stepping to the side of the path, Emily knelt down and picked a violet from the ground. She handed it to the little girl in the carrier she strapped on, watching as Phoenix looked up to her mother. "A beautiful flower for my beautiful baby."
The one year old laughed heartily, her hands clutching the pretty new flower.
"You hungry, baby?"
Phoenix's eyes were glued to her flower, feeling her mother stand up and her body shift against Emily's chest. "No!"
Emily looked to the little girl with wide eyes. "No?"
The baby girl with dark brown eyes, hair and the most beautiful little dimples grinned back up to the laughing woman. "No!"
She pressed a kiss to her daughter's head and continued down the path, feeling her backpack shift as she walked. "Well ok then. Mommy will save it all for herself. I'll eat it without you later." The look of surprise on her daughter's face was enough to have the FBI agent in hysterics.
"Mama no!"
Emily laughed, her hand to the back of her daughter's carrier as she looked out to the water of the river that ran next to the mountain she was climbing. Her daughter had started speaking at eight months old, but even now most of her conversations with the FBI agent were words blabbered together in her own language she had come up with. Thankfully, spending so much time with the one year old, Emily had gotten the hand of their conversations.
She felt her foot slip slightly on a rock that she hadn't seen in her way, and her arms immediately wrapped around the carrier she wore to protect her daughter. Thankfully she was quickly able to steady herself and stand straight, her hand running over Phoenix's dark head of hair before they carried on.
It was a nice sunny September day, but because of the altitude they were climbing to Emily had dressed in her heaviest windbreaker and a beanie so her ears were covered, and her daughter was in her new fall coat with a baby scarf Garcia had gotten her three months before for her birthday. If Emily had planned everything correctly, they would be back down to the bottom of the mountain just after dinner time which was perfect.
There was a dinner planned at Rossi's for seven o'clock, everyone's relatives getting together for their last Saturday of the month meal.
"Mommy."
The whispered words from the little girl strapped to her chest had Emily's eyes drifting down to her. "Hi baby" she smiled, tickling Phoenix underneath her ear to get her to give her her favorite laugh.
Phoenix grabbed her mother by her cheeks and brought her face down, kissing her chin. "Mommy."
Emily took a long moment to share a smile with the little girl, feeling her small body so close to hers that their heartbeats started to synch. Dragging the pad of her index finger slowly down Phoenix's soft cheek and watching as the one year old smiled up to her like she saw the most magnificent thing in the world. Little did her baby girl know, Emily was looking at hers.
Once she was done for the moment staring up at the woman who had given her life, Phoenix's head bent, looking around her for the flower she had let go of to grab onto her mother's face.
"Did you lose your flower?"
Phoenix looked back up to her mother with a pout, clenching the air between her fingers trying to find her flower.
Emily nodded, letting her daughter take one of her fingers. "Ok, we'll find it." Walking up the path, the single mother did her best to look for a flower just like the one Phoenix had dropped to make sure her daughter was as happy as she could be. She could hear her daughter murmuring in her own little language into her jacket as others on the trail started heading back down to the bottom of the mountain, paying no mind to the mother and daughter scowering the edges for flowers.
"You have a beautiful baby."
The agent looked up at the voice, smiling to the older woman holding onto her son's hand to help her back down the mountain. "Thank you," she smiled, hearing Phoenix speaking to the butterflies that came up from the side of the mountain. "How's the weather up there?" Emily asked, nodding up to the mountain's path.
The bundled up woman shook her head. "Very chilly. Good thing your little one has a scarf."
"We'll be careful," she assured the woman with a smile, waiting until she disappeared before looking back down to the girl she held. "Wasn't she nice?"
"Mommy," the brunette girl whined, taking Emily by the material of her windbreaker and doing her best to shake her with all twenty pounds she had.
Emily smirked, walking up the path with her eyes on the little girl. "I'm going to find you a flower, baby. Ok? I promise."
Phoenix's lips gently pouted as she tried to repeat the complex word.
"I promise," she repeated, smiling to her daughter.
With her eyes downcast and her hands once again set to the back of her daughter's carrier strapped to her chest, the FBI agent missed the eroded edge of the path she was coming up on. She stepped forward expecting the same graveled pathway she had been following for over an hour, but instead her foot missed the edge and fell, her body following and tripping over the edge.