This story is dedicated to VioletteParis who was kind enough to help me with the French phrases in my 'Miracle' story. Thank you so much VioletteParis, I really hope you enjoy this story. The prompt was Hotch, Emily and Jack on summer holidays.
Disclaimer: As always, I do not own anything related to Criminal Minds and no infringement is intended.
P/S. Does anyone besides me think Thomas Gibson looks hot with a beard? And I am SO not a beard fan normally ;P
"Good morning, sleepyhead."
Emily blinked sleepily, then slowly turned onto her back to find her husband sitting on the edge of the bed. As always, she felt her heart perform a little somersault at the tender smile on his face as he looked down on her.
"Morning." She returned his smile as she stretched luxuriously. A second later, a familiar aroma reached her nostrils and her eyes shot open. "Is that coffee for me?"
"God forbid that the coffee I have in my hand might actually be for my own consumption," Hotch replied drily as he reached out to help her into a sitting position on the soft bed.
Emily reached for the mug and took a big sip, sighing her satisfaction as the dark aromatic liquid came into contact with her taste buds. "This is so good, thank you, honey." She flashed him a brilliant smile of appreciation. "I'm super glad that you were so prepared that you even brought a bag of my favourite hazelnut coffee for our trip."
"It's probably a good thing I was, seeing the state of your memory at present."
She tried to frown a reprimand at him, but was too blissfully happy in her coffee appreciation moment to do a serious job of it. "It's not my fault my memory's bad, in fact, I believe that it's actually your fault."
"What?" Hotch laughed in protest.
"My recollection is quite clear. It was completely not my idea to do it four times that night." She gave him a superior look, at least she hoped it looked superior. It was hard to give a superior look much justice with rumpled hair and a still somewhat sleepy face.
"Hang on a minute. I believe you decided to go off the pill without telling me about it before that four times. Or even the week before that." He looked at her, eyebrow raised.
She tried to smother the smile that threatened to break through. "You did say it might be a good idea to try for a baby before they threw you a retirement party. So I thought what the hey, no time like the present."
He rolled his eyes. "It's only a life changing decision, no need to bother consulting your partner in life." He bent down to her swollen tummy. "Your mommy is naughty, isn't she?"
"Hey, don't bad mouth me to our daughter," Emily protested, unable to prevent herself from giggling as Hotch pressed a string of kisses on her tummy. "Aaron, don't! That tickles. Stop or I'm going to spill the coffee." She held the mug to the side so he didn't bump against it accidentally.
He gave her tummy a last kiss. "Daddy loves you, butterbean." The nickname had stuck after Hotch had commented at Emily's first ultrasound that that was was what the foetus resembled.
He straightened up reluctantly. "I know, I know, if anything happens to that cup of coffee, I'm not going to hear the end of it."
Emily shot him a look of reproach. "Well, it is the only cup of coffee I'm allowing myself to have for the day, so you have no idea how much I treasure it."
"You're right, I'm sorry sweetheart." He got up from the bed. "You sit there and enjoy your coffee. I'm just going to help Jack get into his swimmers, he's super keen to get down to the beach." He walked to the bedroom door and looked back at her. "Do you want me to get you some breakfast?"
"Thanks, honey, but I'm okay for now, you go ahead with Jack down to the beach, I'll join you in a little while."
Emily leisurely finished her coffee and got out bed, wincing a little as her back twinged in protest. She was glad she was seeing her chiropractor next week, as the baby grew she was getting more and more painful twinges in her lower back. The baby was due in two months and she and Hotch had decided to take Jack away for their last holiday together as a family of three.
They had rented a little cabin right on the beach for a week. Emily had fallen in love with it when she saw it on the 'net. It had a shared dining lounge area, two bedrooms and a surprisingly large bathroom which was conveniently located next to the master bedroom. This was an important consideration seeing that she was now visiting the bathroom as least three times a night. She definitely didn't want to be traipsing through the cabin that many times in the dark.
After doing all she needed to do in the way of grooming herself, she changed into a pair of pale pink capri pants and a white tank top which moulded over her tummy like a second skin. Over this she slipped on a thin, billowy white cotton shirt which she didn't bother to button. After making sure she had covered every possible exposed skin surface with sunscreen, the price she had to pay for her pale skin, she went into the kitchen and made them each a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Jack had just had breakfast a little while ago, but he was going through a growth spurt and seemed to be hungry all the time. She put the sandwiches in a cooler bag plus a bottle of chilled water and slipped on her large straw hat and sunglasses.
As she walked down to the beach towards Hotch and Jack, she could hear Jack's squeals of excitement and she smiled when she saw Hotch splashing him with water. It had not taken her much time at all to fall in love with the little boy and she had for a long time now considered him as her son. To her absolute joy, Jack had recently decided to call her mommy, brought on no doubt by Hotch telling him that this was what the new baby would be calling Emily. She could still feel tears welling as she remembered the first time he had called her Mom. She had thought her joy was complete when she found out that she was pregnant, but Jack calling her Mom was the moment that made her feel like they were finally a family in the complete sense of the word.
"Mommy! Mommy!" Emily looked up from setting her bag on the sand under the large beach umbrella to see Jack running up to her.
"Hi sweetie." Jack barrelled into her legs, plastering his soaking wet body into her pants, throwing his arms around her.
"Jack! You're getting Mom wet," Hotch called out as he came up to them.
Emily laughed, putting her arms around his small frame. "That's okay, it's so hot today that I'll dry in no time. Did you have fun swimming with Dad, sweetie?"
Jack released his hold on her legs and looked up at her. "Well, we weren't really swimming. Dad just kept splashing me so I ran away." The unimpressed expression on his little face was so adorable that Emily had to bite her lip to stop herself from smiling.
"Well, that's not very nice of Dad, was it? You need to say to Dad, stop it, Dad, I'm trying to swim."
"Yeah." Jack turned to Hotch and said in a very serious voice, "You need to stop splashing me when I'm trying to swim Dad."
Emily grinned when she saw that Hotch was now trying to smother his own smile. "You're right, buddy, I'm sorry, I'll try my best not to do that again."
"Don't just try, Dad, you have to do it."
At this, Emily burst out in laughter. This was exactly what Hotch had said to Jack when he had told Jack not to lose anything when he was playing with the contents of Hotch's wallet during the final stretch of the drive there.
"All right, smarty pants, come on, sit down over here. It looks like Mom's packed us some food."
"What did you bring, Mom?" Jack immediately brightened up at the mention of food.
"Your favourite, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."
"YAY!" Emily watched in amusement as he bit enthusiastically into his sandwich the moment Hotch handed it to him.
She smiled her thanks at Hotch when he came over and helped lower her into her lounge chair.
"Are you comfortable?" At her nod, he sat down next to her and reached into the bag for a sandwich for her.
"I was thinking we could have some BLTs for lunch, what do you think?"
"Sounds great. You're making them though, right?" She flashed him a mischievous grin when he shook his head in resignation.
"How did I know you were going to milk this pregnancy for everything it's worth."
"Hey, that hurt my feelings," she said, pouting dramatically. "Any time you want to take over lugging this baby around including the back pain, swollen ankles, constant need to pee and the feeling of being so hungry in the middle of the night that I could eat an entire cow, feel free to do so." She gave him a narrowed look.
"Dad, don't hurt Mom's feelings, that's not nice." They both looked over at Jack to see him frown. Emily's heart melted immediately. Jack had Haley's features, but his personality and facial expressions were all Hotch. It made it very hard for her to discipline him when he gave her his sad brown eyes look.
"It's all right, sweetie, Daddy's just teasing me. Just like when he teases you sometimes. Mommy was just teasing him back. Dad didn't really hurt my feelings, I promise. Okay?"
"Okay." He stood up, having already wolfed down his sandwich. "Can I go play in the waves now?"
"Sure, buddy. Wait, hat on, please." Jack stood impatiently as Hotch put his sun hat on. "Now, only in the shallow part of the water like we talked about, right?"
"Yes, Dad." He skipped off and they watched as he ran down to the water's edge, kicking his feet when he reached the water and laughing as it splashed around him.
Hotch reached over and entwined his fingers in hers. "Would you be angry if I said that this is the best holiday I think I've ever had?"
"Do you mean would I be angry because you think this holiday is even better than our honeymoon?" She smiled at him. "No, of course not. I happen to agree, actually. This really is the best holiday we've ever had."
Hotch smiled back and leaned over to give her a kiss. The kiss they shared was sweet and tender, although Emily couldn't resist giving him a teasing touch of her tongue on his bottom lip just before he pulled away. She giggled when his eyes narrowed at her.
"Don't start something you can't finish, Mrs Hotchner."
"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself."
"It's incredible how often you say that. I'm amazed you manage to have such self-control at work," he remarked.
"My powers of compartmentalisation are second to none," she replied in a majestic tone. "Although, if I remember correctly, I wasn't the one who let go of my self control that night you kissed me."
Hotch smiled, a wicked look coming in his eyes at the memory of their first kiss and what happened after. "I'm glad I did, because I can't imagine what my life would be like without you."
"Oh honey." Emily tightened her grasp on his hand, reaching out with her other hand to touch his bearded cheek. "I'm so glad you let that incredible self-control of yours go that night too. I love you so much."
He took her hand from his cheek and pressed a tender kiss into her palm. "I love you. So much that sometimes I'm afraid that this is all a dream and I'm going to wake up and find myself alone in bed."
Emily's heart clenched at his admission. "It's not a dream, and I'm right here." Their eyes locked as they tried to convey how strong their feelings were for each other.
"DAD COME HERE!" They looked over at Jack simultaneously at his yell. "DAD, come swim with me!"
Hotch gave her a rueful look. "I better go. We should probably start driving back at around three at the latest. I don't want us to get home too late."
Emily sighed at the reminder that this was the last day of their holiday. "Okay. I'll go back in a bit and start packing."
He gave her a peck on the lips and ran down the beach. She grinned when he picked Jack up and threw him up in the air before catching him again.
"Again, Dad, again!" Jack screamed in laughter when Hotch repeated the action.
Emily felt the baby move, a little hand or foot pushing into the right side of her stomach and she placed her hand on that spot. "Hi sweetheart, that's your big brother that you hear. He's playing with your Daddy." The baby moved again, a gentle motion that Emily could see rippling her stomach under her tank top. "You are going to have such fun playing with them, yes, you are. We just can't wait to meet you."
She leant her head back on the lounge, hand rubbing her tummy as she watched the two most precious men in her life dive into the waves.
Hotch made lunch as Jack helped Emily pack the last of their things. They sat on the front steps of the cabin, laughing and joking as they devoured the BLTs that Hotch had stuffed with a double amount of bacon, which, according to Jack was his favourite food in the whole entire world.
Later that afternoon, they were back in their brand new SUV, windows cranked down, and Cliff Richard's "We're All Going on a Summer Holiday" cranked up, singing at the top of their lungs.
Emily smiled in contentment as she looked at her now sleeping son in the back seat, and then at her husband as he drove steadily, his frown of concentration almost, but not quite hidden by his sunglasses.
As if sensing her look, he turned his head towards her. "What is it?" he asked softly.
She shook her head, smiling. "I was just thinking that this has been the perfect ending to a perfect summer holiday."
"Best summer holiday ever?" He grinned.
She grinned back. "Best summer holiday ever."
As I said, lots of fluff, but I thought this was SUPER sweet. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I'd be grateful if you can review and let me know what you thought. Thanks!