Chapter 2: Invitations and Conversations

Monday went off without a hitch, as did Tuesday. The team was taking it easy after the last case. The days were mostly filled with paperwork and consults via phone and in house meetings. The big cases were given to the other BAU teams for the week and, as long as one of the other teams remained available, the rest of the week would remain that way. So, it was no surprise when Wednesday went by without pause as well. Hotch even allowed the team to leave early if their paperwork was done. And Emily's was.

She was planning on surprising Charlie and picking her up from school. Charlie always loved when her mother did that, but even at her young age, she understood that her mother's job was important and time consuming, so it was ok that she couldn't be there every day after school. But when she was there, Charlie was that much happier.

"You came to pick me up today!" The little girl yelled running into her mother's waiting arms.

"Does that make you happy?" Charlie nodded.

"It does. You don't have to go away again, do you?" She asked with sad eyes.

"No, I'm all yours. In fact, I was thinking we'd stop by the store and you could help me pick out the invitations for your party."

"Really?" Her entire face perked up. Since Emily told her about what she was planning, Charlie couldn't stop talking about it. She loved that she could do something that made her daughter so happy.

"Really. But homework has to be done before we work on them."

"Ok. But I get to pick the ones I want?"

"Of course you can. It's your birthday."

After an hour shopping, another hour on homework and household chores, and then dinner, they finally got down to the invitations. She was so excited. Emily asked one of her friends that worked at the aquarium to help her out with the party. She just meant to get some suggestions to make the party special, but Mike had other ideas. He arranged for the kids, along with Emily and Sarah to spend the day in the aquarium and then go to one of the private areas where they could pet some of the creatures they housed there; nothing dangerous of course, just some turtles, starfish, that kind of thing. But for little kids, and even some adults, that was more than exciting. When Emily explained that to Charlie, she never saw the girl so excited. She practically tackled her mother down to the ground and squeezed her tighter that she ever imagined possible.

"I love you mommy! You're the best and my party's going to be the coolest!" She giddily yelled before her mother could even finish explaining. Emily was excited for her. Just seeing the smile brighten her daughter's face made her day better and washed her of all her troubles.

When they went to the party store that afternoon, Charlie just had to pick the design with the fishes on the front. There was a whole wall of different designs to choose from. She could've went with her favorite color, the ones with the dogs, or the fairy tale ones she loved so much, but she said that the fishes showed what an awesome party she was going to have.

"I'm going to fill in the inside. You just have to tell me who you decided you want to come."

"I know exactly who I want to come." Emily finished up the inside of the invitations and stuffed them in their envelopes. Charlie declared that she wanted to write her friends' names on the outside since she couldn't do the insides by herself. Her mother agreed and, together, they wrote the names of six of her closest friends, Henry being one of them.

"Sarah will be there with you tomorrow to help you give them out after class."

"I'm a big girl mommy. I don't need help."

"I know, but just in case." Once they were finished, Emily placed the cards into Charlie's back pack for safe keeping before getting her up and into the bath. After that, continuing their ritual, Emily read her a book and put her to bed. She still had some cases she wanted to look over, so she did that before heading to bed herself.

The next afternoon, once school was over, Charlie came racing out. She gave out almost all of her cards before her friends left for the day except for Henry. He left so fast and she was busy handing out the others that she didn't even see him go. In hopes of finding him, she went sprinting out, barely stopping to grab Sarah's hand when in the lobby and racing out to the entrance pathway where she saw Henry walking hand in hand with a blonde woman she'd later know as JJ.

"Henry wait!" She yelled getting their attention. JJ turned around to face the smiling little girl as she bolted toward them. Catching her breathe, she stopped in front of the pair and stuck out her hand.

JJ accepted the hand and shook it. "My name is Charlotte, but please call me Charlie. You must be Henry's mother, Miss…?" JJ couldn't help but laugh. There was something about this precocious little girl that was so familiar. She seemed way too smart for her own good.

"Miss Jareau." She answered bending down to her eye level. "What can I do for you sweetie?"

Before answering she turned to Henry. "You left so fast I couldn't give you this." Pulling out the card, she passed it to Henry. "It's for my party. I'm turning five." She turned back to JJ and in the most grown up way she could, and she said, "My mommy is having my party at the aquarium. It's going to be very fun and I hope you'll let Henry come. I have to go now, but it was nice meeting you Miss Jareau. Bye Henry." With that and a simple wave, she left the mother and son duo behind, both with smiles on their faces, and ran over to Sarah.

JJ took the card from his hands and looked at the child's writing on the front. It was pretty good for the young girl. Henry tugged on her jacket to get her attention.

"I want to go to the aquarium. Can I go to her birthday?" He pleaded, his eyes excited by the mere thought. He wasn't going to let his mother say no. Not only was it his best friend's party, but it was at the aquarium and he loved all animals.

"We'll talk about it when we get home." She answered taking one last look at the invitation and a quick glance at their surroundings. Charlie was with a taller woman, blonde, not at all like her. "Who was that Henry?"

"That's Charlie mom. She's one of my favorite friends."

"How come you never told me about her?" She saw how happy he looked when she made an appearance and how his face lit up when he heard her calling. If they were older, JJ would've thought they were in love. She'd wait for the hair pulling and rock throwing to make that assumption.

"I did. But you kept calling her a boy and I got angry so I stopped."

"Oh, well I'm sorry I thought Charlie was a boy, but you never told me she was a girl." He completely ignored her statement, no longer caring in the least. He was more focused on the invitation in her hand that he was tugging at.

"So can I go to the party?"

"We'll see. We'll talk to daddy and make sure we're not busy first." Putting the card in her purse, JJ took Henry's hand once more and walked with him to the car. There was no way she'd get away with saying no. He was already so excited. And as long as they didn't have a scheduling conflict, then there'd be no reason to say no.

The next few days rolled by pretty quickly and Friday came around before they knew it. Emily dropped off Charlie at school that morning where she was asked if anyone called to say they were coming to the party yet. Emily tried to explain that it had only been a few days and they had to give her friends some time. But time is a hard concept to explain to a child. JJ's morning went much the same. She drove Henry to school and listened to stories about recess with Charlie. She didn't understand how she missed her son's obvious interest in this friend.

When she arrived at work, the team was joking around in the bullpen. They were still doing the light caseload and Reid decided to show off a little more of his physic magic. The entire team enjoyed some levity that they knew would be short lived. Sooner rather than later, they'd be sent away to track a serial killer's trail, and they just wanted to make the most of the time they did have. Eventually though, they did have to get some work done. Some had paper work, some were creating profiles to send out to those that put in requests, and some were doing phone conferences. It was more busywork than anything else, but it was work nonetheless.

Around lunch time, Emily came walking back into the bullpen and saw JJ sitting at her desk. "Hey Jayje, you done?"

"For now. You?"

"Yeah, want to grab lunch with me?" She stood from her desk.

"Sounds good. We could get Garcia and make it a girl's day."

"Let's do it." Emily agreed grabbing her purse from the desk and waiting for JJ to head to the lab tech's sanctum.

The three women headed to a local café they often frequented. It was a spook joint. Whenever they had the time, that was where they went to lunch. Mostly, it was convenient, but the food was pretty good too. They spent a good amount of time laughing and joking, just talking about meaningless things. It was a change from the usual serious nature of their conversation topics. Murder, rape, arson… that could all get a little heavy.

"So I met this little girl the other day at Henry's school." Emily's focus immediately shifted as she became more interested. She knew Charlie had invited Henry. Charlie told her she made sure he got the invitation. She didn't say that she met JJ though. Yet, the comment still grabbed her attention.

"Does the Jareau boy already know how to charm all the girls? A real lady killer at the ripe age of five." Garcia joked eliciting quiet giggles from the other girls.

"She was the most adorable little thing ever."

"Awe. What's the squirt's name?"

"She came up to me, shook my hand, and said, 'My name is Charlotte, but please call me Charlie.'" Emily just sat back and listened to the conversation up until that point. She was in the middle of sipping her water when she got the confirmation. Charlie's Henry was indeed the one and only Henry LaMontagne. She nearly choked on the simple liquid.

"Are you ok Em?" Her friends looked at her concerned. They'd do the Heimlich if need be.

"Fine." She coughed one last time and took a deep breath. "Please, continue."

"Tell us more about this little girl wonder. Like what else did she say? What did she want?" She knew there was a point to the story somewhere. At the very least there'd be some cute anecdote.

"She informed Henry and me that she was having a birthday party and needed to give him his invitation. But here's the cutest part…" Like she was pausing for dramatic effect, JJ took a long sip of her beverage that seemed to take forever.

"Don't leave us hanging Jayje, the suspense is killing us."

"Like she was fifteen she said, 'It was nice to meet you Miss Jareau, I hope you'll allow Henry to come.' I don't know. It was something like that. But she was four years old. Not even five yet and she speaks like a well mannered adult and writes pretty well too." That sounded just like Charlie to Emily. The girl was a younger version of herself, and the most well mannered kid she'd ever known. Then again, she was a little biased, and she didn't know too many kids.

"She sounds as cute as Morgan in footie pajamas… or, without." She quipped.

"Garcia." Both Emily and JJ said in unison.

"What?" She asked innocently, her friends both giving her a look.

"Anyway, she seemed so familiar to me. She reminds me a little of you Em."

"Why do you say that?" She asked nervously. A part of her was curious to see what she thought of her baby girl and the other part was just anxious to change the topic. She was more than proud of her little creation. She wasn't ashamed in the least, but she couldn't tell. There are some secrets that, if you keep them too long, seem impossible to let go of. Charlie was one of those secrets.

"There was something about her, not just the way she looked either. Although she did look a lot like you, but the way she acted too. I swear she could be your mini me. And Henry told me stories about her which made me think of you even more." Many people have told Emily that Charlie was the spitting image of herself, and Emily had to agree, although Charlie was more beautiful than she ever thought herself to be, but Emily could see the girl's father in her too. No one else could see it, but she could. And she should know; she saw the man almost every day.

"Do share…" The tech analyst goaded her on. Her curiosity was piqued. Emily's was too. She heard some stories about Henry as well. Apparently they were both very fond of each other.

"Henry told me that one day at recess one of the other first graders was picking on their classmate and saying some mean things. And when Charlie heard the boy, she punched him in his stomach and told him to get lost or her mom would lock him away with a bunch of serial killers." A sense of pride washed over Emily. That was her little girl. She should've been upset, and she made a mental note to talk to her daughter about violence and when, if ever, it was appropriate, but at the time, she couldn't help but just feel the pride swell in her body. "I just thought of you when I heard that."

"She does sound like our E here." Emily, being Emily, needed to press the issue further. At the very least she'd get a RSVP or a 'sorry can't come' to share with Charlie.

"Are you letting Henry go to the party or do you think she's a bad influence?" She was sure JJ didn't condone violence to deal with bullies, but she didn't think that her friend would cut off contact with Charlie over one minor incident. She wasn't a bad influence, but she had to ask. It seemed an appropriate way to gage it further.

"If I told Henry he couldn't go he'd be devastated. He can't stop talking about her or the party. I was planning on calling tonight so Henry would stop asking. Every second he isn't busy he's asking if he could go." The boy was persistent. Emily was sure he got that from JJ.

"She'll be glad to hear that." She slipped up. She knew it as soon as the words came out of her mouth and both her friends looked at her funny, but she'd recover; she knew that too. "I mean what little girl wouldn't want him there? He's so… Henry." Nice… She recovered from the slip flawlessly.

"So tell me more about this gem of girl that stole my godson's heart."

"Oh here." JJ smiled excitedly as she looked for something in her purse. "Will sent this to me the other day. He took it when we were on that case in Colorado." She pulled her phone out of her purse and passed it to Garcia first. "Doesn't she look just like Emily?"

"Oh my god! She does. They're both so adorable you just want to eat 'em up." She turned toward Emily and handed her the phone. "So E, something you want to tell us?" Emily knew she was joking, but the truth was that she did want to tell them. She wasn't ashamed of daughter, and she didn't want to keep the most important people in her life from knowing about each other, but it seemed like she didn't have a choice. Among a few other reasons, she was doing it for Charlie's protection, or maybe, more selfishly, for her own.

"Nope, not at this time." She joked in response to Garcia's question. "But I do love this picture. They look so happy together." And that made her happy. If her daughter and Henry could be good friends like she was with his mother, she wasn't going to prevent that. Her daughter deserved that and she wanted that too. As long as her daughter was happy, she was happy too. Honestly, if it didn't look suspicious, she would've asked for a copy of the picture, but eventually she'd take some of her own; like at the party.

"So, the invitation says that parents are welcome to stay for the party and since Will is going to be in New Orleans that weekend, I'm thinking about staying. I'd like to see them together, know his friends a little better." Emily's eyes went wide as she looked down to her plate rather than at either of the other table occupants. She forgot about that. How could she forget about that?

"S-so you're going to stay?" That was the first time her teammates ever heard a stutter pass through the Prentiss' lips. But they let it slide. Maybe she was choking again.

"Why? Is that weird?"

"No sugar. I don't think it is. Given what we see every day, you have to make sure little Henry isn't being left to a family of psychopaths."

"She's not a psychopath Pen, but I do want to go. I know it's a kid's party, but he seemed so happy and I want to spend as much time with him as I can. I used to love the aquarium as a kid."

"Then you should go." The words left her mouth before she could even process them. And it surprised her. But it was too late to take them back. She'd deal with it when the time came. If JJ showed up with Henry, then the truth would be out. She'd hope JJ would keep it to herself if asked. But she'd deal with it either way. She'd kept it a secret for five years. For five years she didn't brag about her perfect, brilliant little girl. For five years, she enforced a no toys in common areas on the off chance that someone from the team would spontaneously stop by. For five years she kept her mouth shut, she kept her from him, from everyone. For five long years she'd excuse herself from the team to talk to Charlie in private, away from spying ears. She had been meticulous, hyper vigilant, careful about every little thing she did and did not say about her life. She didn't want that. She never wanted that, and maybe it was time to share. He was bound to find out someday. Secrets were her specialty. Lying was once her job. It was a hard habit to break and a harder skill to unlearn, but maybe it was about time she started trying.

As promised, Friday night update. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the response, or lack thereof, that I got. But I don't write for the reviews. They are an amazing bonus though, so please feel free to add your two cents. I love hearing what people have to say, even if it's about something you don't like.

Again, I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors. Infallibility is not a trait of mine.

Opinions are much appreciated; feedback, input, whatever. Constructive criticism also welcomed. I hope you enjoy. Until next time…

Merry Christmas, happy Chanukah, happy holidays… Whatever you celebrate, enjoy it.