Author's Note: This is back in the Labyrinthine/Serenus/Fata Morgana world. You don't have to read those first, but you might be lost if you don't. Especially Serenus...you can muddle through without the rest, probably. Just know that Emily and Derek have two children, Serena and Caleb. Emily still does contract work for the BAU, but Derek no longer works there. We're well into the future with this one - 2022.

I've got the next two chapters sketched out, but I really don't know where I'm going to take it from there - many options! So we'll see! I also could only choose two genres, but I would definitely choose a third, friendship, if I could. This one is going to have a lot of Serena at the beginning, but don't worry, you'll get many doses of Demily, and the rest of the team. :)

Serena Morgan dressed quickly in the locker room after her last period PE class. In the months since she'd turned twelve, her body had changed dramatically, and she preferred to get out of her uniform and into her regular clothes as quickly and as alone as possible. She never participated in the conversations that went on during the walk from the fields or gym into the locker room. Most days she was able to at least change her shirt before anyone else was around; if she got really lucky, she could be fully dressed before anyone took notice of her.

When her friends asked her what the rush was about, Serena told them, "I like to walk Caleb over to the afterschool program." This was true, she did like checking in with her little brother at the end of the school day, but that wasn't the real motivation for her hasty locker room behavior. The explanation satisfied her friends, though.

It wasn't like she was keeping any secrets from anyone about her obviously maturing body; she just wasn't quite that comfortable with it herself yet. It felt like it was just another thing that separated her from her peers, so she changed alone and tried to make it less glaringly obvious. She was halfway to her thirteenth birthday, she was five feet, seven inches tall, her hips were well-defined, and her mom was pretty regularly having to take her out to get new and bigger bras. All in all, with her long curly hair that still had the natural blond highlights, her more mature features and her height, she looked far older than twelve years old, far older than any other girl in seventh grade at Walden Country School. Far older than the vast majority of the eighth graders, even.

The changes with her body did have one benefit - at least now she didn't look so outlandishly young when she attended her classes at GW.

Towards the end of fifth grade, when she was eleven, she and her parents realized that there were very few online course options left for Serena anymore; her real interest was turning towards biology and chemistry and she wanted to get into a lab and take more advanced classes. Serena had never wanted to be labeled as a super genius, a kid in college, but she also knew she academically needed more and it was time.

She and her parents had met with the head of undergraduate admissions at George Washington University that April. Serena had her transcripts from all of the online community college courses she'd taken over the years, where she'd accumulated more than enough general education credits. She was confident and articulate in that meeting, along with the meetings that followed where she was interviewed and tested by several deans and program directors.

That summer she was permitted to take the chemistry course that was the prerequisite to the biochemistry classes she was most interested in. The students in the class were a lot like the teenagers her dad worked with - they didn't quite get her at first and were a little put off by how smart and how young she was, but then they realized that they could relate to her and she to them. Like everything else, the material came easy to her, and the professor quickly realized the class was no challenge for Serena. It became a bit of a contest for her chemistry professor along with another biochemistry professor to figure out where exactly the material would start getting challenging for Serena. She spent the majority of that summer learning lab procedures and operations and taking final exam after final exam in the undergraduate biochemistry program.

In the fall of sixth grade, she was allowed to enroll in a graduate level biochemistry course that met three mornings a week. It was harder work; still relatively easy, but it wasn't a course where she could skim through the textbook in a day or two and pass a final exam either. Serena loved it. Her mom dropped her off in the mornings, and, after class, her dad brought her back to Walden Country School so she could be with her peers. She had the same close group of girlfriends she'd had since preschool and happily joined them and her other classmates for French, PE, Art and other electives. She used the resource room at her school during the day to do her biochem homework, along with homework from her online psychology class. Her sixth grade year went well for her overall with this system, and she downplayed the fact that she was taking classes at a college.

Two things changed for her after sixth grade ended, though, and Serena, for the first time, was wondering if it might not be better to just give up the charade of being in a regular school.

The first happened before school was over the year before. A guest lecturer at GW, Dr. Brian Lamont, who had met Serena on several occasions and was the Director of Research at Inovax in Maryland, called one night to talk to her parents. He was interested in offering Serena the opportunity to be at their labs during the summer. She wouldn't be allowed near anything dangerous, but she would still get some great exposure to the field, especially on the research side. Serena eagerly accepted that offer, not expecting anything except learning new things to come of it.

She was eating lunch in Dr. Lamont's office her second day at Inovax, and flipping through online images of slides, looking at the organic structures of a new and far deadlier strain of Ebola Inovax was trying to develop an antigen vaccine for. The Ebola strain hadn't claimed the lives of many yet, the incidences had been pretty isolated in one part of Africa, but the world-wide implications were frightening and fatal.

Dr. Lamont looked at Serena as she looked at the slides. Serena felt the gaze and turned her eyes on Dr. Lamont. "A chimera?" asked Serena.

He smiled and shook his head slightly in amazement. "Is that what it looks like to you, that this was a strain created by man rather than naturally occurring in nature?"

"It's hard to tell. My instinct says yes. But I know why you're not have having much luck with an antigen vaccine."

Dr. Lamont stood up from his desk, his eyes wide, and came to stand next to Serena. "We haven't spent much time with it, to be honest. It's lower on our priorities right now, but I'm curious as to what you think."

Serena pointed at the computer screen, "See here? The slight shift in molecular structure when the temperature of the sample reaches 99.2 degrees? You can barely see it. But I think that's your problem. The first side effect of the vaccine is a low-grade fever. And that onset is before the the antigen vaccine goes to work. The strain mutates and turns the vaccine useless, at best. At worst, you're actually infecting people with the mutated strain."

"What is it like in your head, Serena? How do you see these things so quickly?" he asked incredulously.

Serena looked at him pensively. "It's hard to explain. When I see something like this and close my eyes, I see myself standing in a room of numbers or molecules or elements. Everything is three-dimensional and I can move things into the right place. Does that sound weird? "

Dr. Lamont laughed and put a hand on her shoulder. "No, it sounds brilliant."

The molecular structure she'd pointed out that day without giving it any thought was the most promising advancement they'd made towards a vaccine, and by August, it was looking like they might have a working sample. Serena really didn't want any acknowledgement for what she'd done, but then someone at Inovax had leaked her name and age to a reporter at The Washington Post.

That started as series of phone calls from the press. Serena was protected by a confidentially agreement her parents had signed with Inovax before she started, prohibiting her from talking with anyone about what she saw or did at Inovax, Still, that didn't stop Inovax from giving a statement, and it didn't stop her picture from appearing in the paper. It was her school picture from the year before; no one knew how the newspaper got it.

All of it might have blown over when school started that September, if not for the arrival of one Jacie Pritchard in their seventh grade class. Serena tried to have patience with the girl who had only ever had private tutors before, but whose father insisted she have a regular school experience that year. Jacie's father was a senator, an oil tycoon of billionaire status who turned his attention to politics ten years before and quickly worked his way up the ranks. Serena's parents greatly disagreed with his political views. His daughter had never been around kids her own age much. Jacie hadn't been with Serena since preschool, she didn't know how Serena loathed talking about her academics. And even when Serena told her that she'd prefer not to talk about it, Jacie kept right on pestering her. Jacie's social skills left a lot to be desired.

Jacie's favorite two topics to question Serena about were Serena's IQ, and Serena's relationship with Henry.

Henry LaMontagne was the quintessential heart throb of the seventh and eighth grade girls at Walden Country School, and he was nice to all of them, but as far as girls went, he mostly only paid attention to Serena. They'd been best friends since Serena came to live with Emily and Derek, and that friendship only ever got stronger.

Serena sighed and came back to the present as the rest of the girls filtered into the locker room. She sat down on a bench to tie her brown boots.

"Hey, Serena," said Lexi, her friend since preschool. "Are you studying after school or are you going down to the fields to watch soccer practice?"

Serena smiled at her friend. "Probably soccer practice."

"Of course she's going to soccer practice," said Jacie with an eye roll. "It's Henry practicing after all. The two of them are always together. Why is that Serena? Do you think he likes you for your brains or your boobs?"

Jacie looked around like she expected laughter for her statement; she got none. The girls around them in the locker room glared at Jacie and smiled understandingly at Serena.

And Serena did the thing she'd done for the past five weeks, ever since Jacie arrived at their school: She ignored her. Serena smiled at Lexi, "I'm going to go check in with Caleb. See you at the field!"

Serena let Jacie's words go as she quickly walked across the school grounds to the second grade classrooms. Caleb emerged moments later with a smile on his face. He ran right up to Serena. "Nena! I fed the chickens today, and one chicken chased me. It was so funny!"

Serena smiled at her little brother. She couldn't help smiling when she was near Caleb. She couldn't help smiling when she was anywhere near anyone in her family, actually. But Caleb was a little different. He was the perfect combination of her parents, Derek's face, but Emily's eyes. Not only that, but he raised his eyebrows like Fran, their nana. His facial expressions were often perfect copies of the other members of their family; his half smile was sometimes Rossi and sometimes Hotch, and Jack; when he opened his eyes wide, depending on the situation, Serena was reminded of either Spencer or Penelope. Sometimes he'd squint his eyes like Will and Henry could. And when he laughed loudly and threw back his head, it was all JJ.

When she was with Caleb, she felt like everyone that mattered the most to her was right there with her.

"Sounds like it was a good day, Caleb!"

"It was!"

Serena put her arm around Caleb's shoulders and walked him towards the aftercare program at their school. "Remember, Will or JJ will be picking us up this evening. Daddy is taking Mommy out for her birthday,"

Caleb laughed. "My JJ's house!"

Though Caleb had stopped referring to JJ as "My JJ" for the most part when he was about five years old, every once in awhile it still slipped out.

"That's right, Caleb," Serena said with a smile on her face as she lead Caleb into the aftercare building, "Your JJ's house. I'll see you in a couple of hours. I'm going to go down to watch Henry's soccer practice."

Derek Morgan arrived home in the afternoon on the day before Emily's birthday. He found Emily sitting on the couch, surrounded by paperwork, watching CNN.

"Have you heard about this?" she asked, pointing at the television.

Derek had, on the radio on his drive home. He knew what was going on in Georgia. Three people who had gone to a hospital for flu-like symptoms had up and vanished without a trace.

"Has the BAU been called?" he asked Emily. She was putting in 25-30 hours a week at headquarters now, primarily working for the BAU doing background work on cases and helping Penelope when the team traveled. She would know.

"Yes, by a police officer in Atlanta who refused to give his name. That's the part that's freaking me out. Hotch was told by the Section Chief not to touch it. Ordered, actually. As in, 'You take the jet to investigate and all of your careers are over.'"

Derek felt goosebumps on his skin. He'd been working with disadvantaged youth rebuilding houses for the almost four years now, but things like Emily just said still made his adrenaline kick in. Something strange as hell was going on, just like it had been for awhile now. The country was in a larger political divide than ever with two extreme parties clamoring for control of the government. There had been historic government shut downs in the previous few years, so much so that Emily had actually done work at the BAU for free for a couple of months when funding for everything except the most essential positions had been frozen. Still, he couldn't do anything about it, and he hadn't arranged for the kids to go home with JJ and Will to sit and brood about potential government conspiracies. Tomorrow was Emily's birthday, and tonight she was all his.

He gathered up her papers and set them in a pile on the end table, then reached over and took the remote gently from Emily's hand. He turned off the TV. "It's your birthday, Em. Let's let it go for now, okay?"

And Emily, like she was so good at doing, shut down the thought process of possible conspiracies and smiled at him. "When are our dinner reservations?"

"We've got about three hours, actually. What on earth could we possibly do for three hours?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Emily laughed and leaned forward to grab the buckle on the front of his belt. She started undoing it as she murmured, "I have quite a few ideas."

Serena sat on the bleachers at the soccer field at Walden Country School and watched Henry completely shred every defense the coach threw at him. Henry was a left-footed striker, a term that had only come to mean anything to Serena a year before. when Henry was in seventh grade, and private high school coaches started showing up at practices and games. Technically they weren't supposed to recruit. They still did, though. Twice this year, even college coaches had shown up at Henry's games, just to get a look at him playing. He was a marvel on the field.

Serena herself was an absolute klutz on the soccer field and she was happy about that. Henry needed something that he excelled at just his own. It was part of the reason their friendship just got stronger - they each had their own triumphs.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Serena saw a flash of movement in the woods behind the soccer field. She smiled and stood on the bleachers. "I need to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a bit," she said to Lexi.

She made her way down the bleachers and behind them, to a place that was out of view for most people. She felt Henry's eyes on her as she was walking and glanced back. They shared a smile. She reached the gate at the edge of the field and found Jack Hotchner standing there in the tree line.

Serena took in the black clothing, the thick black eyeliner and slightly infected piercing in Jack's ear before turning to lean with her back against the fence so it didn't look too obvious that she was talking to someone lurking in the woods behind her school.

"You could just come on the grounds and watch in the bleachers with me, you know," said Serena while staring at the soccer field in the distance.

"Can't do that, Serena." He never came in the gates anymore. He'd drive over after his high school let out for the day and watch Henry's games and sometimes his practices from the woods. If Will or JJ or Serena's parents saw him there, it would get back to Hotch that Jack was actually showing an interest in something, and right now Jack was working very hard to pretend he wasn't interested in anything.

"How many people at your high school are you fooling with that facade?" asked Serena.

"Most of them. People change in high school."

Serena laughed lightly. "You've got this whole dark, brooding thing going on, but you suck at putting on eyeliner, your ear is infected, and it would be better for everyone if you just told your dad you were pulling this crap so he'd actually show up for dinner with some regularity."

Jack laughed. "Curse the day Emily and Derek let you take psychology classes. What about you? You could fit three of you in that sweater."

Serena glanced down at her boots and jeans and the baggy wool sweater that did a fair job of hiding her shape and masking her chest a little. "I guess we've all got our issues. But, seriously, Jack. You're giving your dad an ulcer."

Jack's voice was a little sad. "I know. But he's home much more when I'm like this, because he's concerned. If I told him the truth, I think he'd go right back to staying at work half the night. You're not going to say anything, are you?"

"Jack Hotchner, the three of us made a pact five years ago with needles and blood and fire and tons of other childish nonsense. We keep each other's secrets. They are profilers, though, and I'm sure they've all considered that this is an act. Just don't screw up your grades. You promised you'd apply to GW and we could go together."

"I'm not going to screw up my grades, but you're going to have your PhD before I get there in two years," said Jack.

Serena knew if she turned around, she would see the patented Hotchner half-smile. She smirked. "Then I'll get another PhD. You stay here and I'm going to go get something for that ear. It really is infected."

Jack laughed again and Serena felt his hand gently pat her shoulder through the gate. "Thanks, Serena."

Emily threw her arms out and grabbed onto the sheets as she screamed through her second orgasm of the afternoon. After catching her breath for a few seconds she felt Derek still his hips and lift the upper part of his body off her. She opened her eyes and found him smiling at her.

"You are the sexiest damned thirty-nine year old on the planet," he said with a wink.

Emily laughed breathlessly, "That's sweet, but it's fifty-two years old."

"Not until tomorrow, and you're still rocking the body of someone decades younger. Think you have another orgasm in you?" Derek asked while waggling his eyebrows.

Emily grinned and tightened her thighs around him. She put her left arm around him and pushed on the bed with her right hand, propelling his body to flip over onto his back. Derek rolled over with ease, keeping his hands on her hips, keeping them connected, a smile on his lips.

"I'm surprised you're still going, old man," she said with a grin when she was settled on top of him.

Derek laughed. "Hey! I'm younger than you."

"By eight months. Don't get cocky."

Emily felt Derek move his hips. "That's exactly what I am."

"Ha ha," laughed Emily. She pushed herself into a more upright position and started moving on top of him with a satisfied sigh, effectively cutting off any more conversation for the moment.

She did manage a third orgasm, right when he was letting go and after, she could do nothing but collapse on top of him, exhausted. She felt his hands on her back and managed to move her head to kiss his cheek. A minute later she huffed out a laugh and murmured, "Holy shit."

She felt his body under hers as a laugh moved through him. "Happy birthday, Em. I love you."

"I love you, too," she said as she rolled off him and collapsed on her back.

When her breathing had returned to completely normal and she opened her eyes a couple of minutes later, she noticed Derek looking at his watch. "Time to get ready for dinner?" she asked.

"No. We still have plenty of time. I was just checking my watch. I'm assuming Will picked up the kids and everything is fine at this point."

"Of course he did, or he would have called. Why would you be worried about that?" asked Emily.

Derek rolled on his side to face her. "I'm not. Not about that. I almost called Penelope, though, to ask her if she'd take Serena for the night, instead of having her go to JJ's."

No further explanation was needed. Emily reached out her hand and touched Derek's chest. "Serena and Henry are like brother and sister, Derek. Stop worrying about that. Plus, I'm pretty sure she tells us just about everything. Not only that, but, well, she's Serena. I don't know how to describe it any better than that. She's at college taking classes with people in their twenties and thirties, and she's at school with kids her own age. I just don't worry about things like her and boys. Yet, anyway."

"Henry's going to be fourteen in a couple of weeks, and Serena's almost thirteen. Do you remember fourteen year old boys?"

Emily laughed. "I do. But it's Henry. And it's not like they're unsupervised over there. Relax. They're our family."

Derek sighed. "OK. I'm going to trust you on this one."

Emily smiled at her husband. "You're cute, you know that? Care to join me in the shower?"

Derek laughed and leaned forward to kiss her. "I can think of nowhere else I'd rather be."