A/N: Thatks a lot for the two review I got! I appreachiate them very much so here's the next chapter. Again, it's rather short and I'm not too sure about it, but I'll be moving and starting University soon so I'm not sure when I'll have time (or Internet access) to update again so here's what I got so far.

As before, any feedback makes me happy so... yeah, please review?

We shall defend ourisland, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fieldsand in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

- Winston Churchill

"Hey Em", Morgan greeted as he entered the Diner he loved but rarely ever went to. The food wasn't too fancy but always good and he had used to enjoy hanging with Emily a while ago. But even though nothing here was exactly pricy it was way out of his salary class though. Weirdly enough, Emily had shared with him that her pay wasn't high enough to eat there either. She just took the coffee and sometimes some of the leftover food they hadn't sold but never actually bought some.

Emily gave him a weird look, noticing JJ, Henry and Jack in is company. "Did I somehow miss out on you getting a family?"

"Aw, you always knew I'm a busy man."

She winked at the two pale kids and smiled widely, noticing how JJ blushed at Morgan's comment. The situation seemed to be, at least for her, quiete awkward and it just wasn't Emily's way to not at least try making her feel less uncomfortable. Giving Morgan a sarcastic look she scoffed, "And apparently you're about as white as busy."

"I'm full of surprises, you ought to know by now."

"That I do not doubt." She filled two mugs with coffee and two glasses with orange juice. "But seriously... who are you guys?"

"I'm Jennifer", JJ introduced herself, "this is my son Henry and this, ehm... is Jack."

"They are staying with me for the next couple days", Morgan added.

"He told you his place is tiny, don't you? Back when i got to see him more often he kept complaining how he's too tall to really fit through the door and how he can't really breathe in there because the air gets fuggy after a few minutes and there's no window?" Emily was saying this in a joking voice but obviously with serious intentions. From what she had heard four people were at least four people too much for his room and while relatively healthy adults could probably handle the uncomfortable circumstances this wasn't an environments for children to sleep in. "But about one out of a hundred things he says can be pretty fun so I guess you'll have a good time", she scoffed and shoved the mugs and glasses towards them, "y'all looke a bit... worn out, if you don't mind, so you should really drink something."

"I can't pay for these", JJ quietly declined. Emily furrowed her brows, closely observing the small group for a moment, even though she had tried to not do it. JJ was pale and held one hand of either the two children tightly. She didn't wear much, despite the close-to-freezing-point temperatures outside, and shook lightly. The smaller boy was, well, small and wore a thik coat while the older one seemed to wear a pyjama and a heavy, large jacket which Emily recognized was Morgan's. Morgan and JJ, however, stood in quite a distance from each other and were obviously somewhat awkward... and she knew he had just been joking about being in a relationship anyways, so she had simply assumed they were good friends, just like Emily herself was with him. She didn't know what to conclude from their rather odd appearance and decided to leave it; for now.

"Don't worry about that, they are on the house."

The blonde looked at Emily with distrust. It had been a while since someone had been as nice for no reason. "Why would you even do that? We've never met before."

"Oh, sure, that was kinda rude, wasn't it? I'm Emily, Derek and I are old friends and... well, I consider his friends as my friends, too."

"She's saving my life every once in a while."

"That's sweet of you to say but you're exaggerating."

"Then, thank you. That's too kind", JJ said and lifted Henry to sit him on one of the chairs at the counter while Jack took a seat by himself. Both boys grabbed a glass of juice and quickly began to drink and JJ let out a quiete sight as she took her first gulp of strong, hot coffee.

"So how did you meet?"

It seemed to be time to start some small talk. Their reaction wasn't quiete what Emily had expected though. Henry kept drinking, not following the conversation, but Jack seemed to become even paler than he had been before. Tears filled his eyes within an instant and a salty drop of grief broke the smooth surface of his beverage. JJ pulled him in a light, soothing hug until he had calmed down, worriedly looking towards Morgan at the same time. This again unsurely looked back at JJ. She hadn't been comfortable around him but she had told him she used to be good with people and he figured it was probably best if she did the talking... even though she didn't seem to agree.

"Well, we don't have to talk about that if that's... difficult", Emily quickly added, frantically trying to come up with a better topic, "how old are your children then? I always wanted one with my husband but Dave and I aren't really sure if that would be wise, concerning our living circumstances..."

As none of them got any less awkward Emily felt as if she was just making everything worse by putting her foot in something she didn't even know was there.

"Okay, then... the weather, maybe? It's become pretty cold during these last days and I'm just-" As her eyes fell on a shivering JJ, Emily felt like burrying her head in the sand and giving up to try to talk about anything at all, sice she didn't seem to be capable of finding a topic of which they could talk that didn't come across as too personal, too uncomfortable or too... well, whatever it was that made this whole situation so damn awkward. She wouldn't be able to safe the situation anyways. "JJ, aren't you freezing?"

"Emily", JJ -ignoring Emily's devastating attempts of having a casual conversation- began, "we have only met a few minutes ago but you and Morgan seem to be good friends."

"We are close", Emily confirmed and already began to suspect that there was something more to this conversation than the small range of topics that could, ergo, qualify as suitable small talk. It seemed to be one of those nights that don't seem to hold joy for anybody but only memories, regret and the darker side of the unknown.

"And he trusts you."

The awkward interrogation wasn't quiete what she had aimed for. "I, ehm... I guess so."

"And vice versa?", JJ pressed and bended over the counter a little bit, staring closer at Emily.

This Emily could answer without giving further thoughts to it. "With my life; yes."

"And you seem like a woman who can keep a cool head."

Emily sighted. "Look, if there's anything you want to ask me - feel free to do it. Seriously, how bad can it be? As long as you haven't murdered anyone I'm not about to freak out and ripp your heads off." She paused for a second before she quickly, maintaining the sarcastic undertone though, added "and I'm not gonna tangle with the mob, just so you know."

"Okay, then... now, that is sort of a difficult situation-"

"Oh my fucking-! You didn't really murder someone, did you?" She gave Morgan a confused look, hoping to find the confirmation that there, in fact, wasn't anything dubious they were involved in. he was calm, smiling a subtle smile that didn't tell her anything at all. Great, just... great.

"No, no of course not! And would you please mind the children?", JJ tried to shush Emily a moment later, "to tell you the truth - I met Morgan like an hour ago, on top. Henry is my son, Jack isn't. We met him around the same time and he crashed right into us then. His mother got hurt and she's probably dead... he is in shock, so he coudln't tell us much and we didn't want to bring him to his father."

"Have you any idea in how much trouble you can get that way?"

"And what do you think - that when the mother gets hurt you should leave a frightened kid with his father without knowing anything about him?"

"Then bring him to the police!", Emily exclaimed, "but don't take an underaged possible homicide witness with you just like that! Morgan and... and you... Jennifer - are you out of your mind or what? Seriously, just what is wrong with the two of you? Do you wanna go to prison that badly?"

"Prison?", Henry suddenly squeaked and tears began to dwell his eyes. "Don't go to prison, mommy! Will I have to go to prison, too?"

"No, calm down honey, everything's gonna be okay", JJ quickly calmed her son and pulled him in a tight embrace, "none of us will go to prison; just don't worry. And some of us", she shot an angry glare towrads Emily, "will probably keep that in mind and think about if first."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, Henry, I didn't mean to scare you just... just give me a second." Emily took a deep breath and went around the counter to sit down. She burried her head in her hands and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to process what this strange woman had just told her. It was too much to take in all at once. But after all they stayed with Morgan and Emily knew him well. He was upright and everything but stupid. He wouldn't take somebody in whom he could not trust, would he?

"Who are you?"

Jack's eyes were of a dark colour, with a splash of hazel in them. "Jack", he timidly answered and Emily sighted inwardly, confident to probably get his last name and somehow find a way to get things back into order before hell would break loose.

"I'm sorry your mother got hurt", she slowly continued, "but you're in good hands with Derek and Jennifer. But... just taking care of you without telling anybody else about it can be bad for them, too. Somebody might think you are with them even though you don't want to be with them. Do you understad that, Jack?"

Jack slowly nodded. "Is it like stealing and bowworing aren't the same?"

"Yes... yes, that's about right. But if you steal a child it's called kidapping and is a lot worse and people could think that Jennifer and Morgan kidnapped you... which would be really bad, obviously, because they are good people."

"But I don't want to go back home. Mommy will be there."

"You don't have to. But we need to inform somebody, like the police, that you're safe and not kidnapped. And they won't make you go gome if this is dangerous place but they will find out all about your mother and who hurt her and take very good care of everything. So... I really need to know your last name and we can try to get things alright again."

"It's... it's Hotchner."

"Okay, then- what? You said Hotchner?"

Jack nodded.

"Your father... is your father Aaron Hotchner?"

Jack nodded and smiled, despite still looking awefully shattered. "That's him", he confirmed proudly, "how do you know my daddy?"

"We're... we're friends." Emily shook his head and glanced at Morgan with a conviction. "Aaron didn't do anything."

He gave her a worried look. "Emily, you can't know that, people fool each other; they betray their friends they-"

"My father's not a liar!", Jack interrupted Morgan, angrily glancing at that rude man who dared to talk bad about his dad, "he's the best and he's smart and he say people are not supposed to lie but to be honest and nice to each other so why would he tell lies to anybody then?"

"Look, kid... I understand that this is difficult but sometimes good people do really bad things and-"

"No, Derek, leave him", Emily said. Differently from Jack she had perfect controle of her voice and spoke calm, quiete and steady, "I'm telling you this as a reasonable thinking person. Aaron Hotchner is... well, he's not always as upright a man as I would like him to be but he's coming by for a coffee almost every evening. And yes, I know you're going to say how that's a rather brief friendship and yes, I know that I might know very little about him - but despite him being my friend he left only five minutes ago and since you know me well you will and have to admit that I am a reliable alibi."

Morgan sighted and bent down a little until he looked Jack straight into the eyes.

"Jack, I need you to be absolutely honest, okay?"

Jack only nodded and took another slow, long sip of his OJ.

"Has your father ever hurt you or your mom?"

For a moment there was nothing but thick silence and as Emily thought of Hotch's alcoholic tendencies she cursed herself for doubting his nature for a second. But she hadn't known him to be agressive back then; he had been overworked and lost in his life... but not the kind of man that hurt others just because he was devestated.

"No", Jack eventually said; his voice being soft but free of doubt, "someone else... someone cut her, I think. There was a really big knife. And she screamed. And she fought and told me to hide so I did and then it was silent for a long time and I went into the bathroom to wake her up... but she didn't and I didn't think she slept anyways because when I wanted to sleep there I couldn't because mommy said it's not a good place to sleep and that I would catch a cold but I tried to wake her up though and when she didn't I ran because it was so scary and nobody else was there..."

"That was very brave of you, Henry."

Jack shrugged. He wasn't crying but looked far worse though. JJ made sure Henry sat on her lap safely before she let go of him for a while to take care of Jack.

"Did you see the one who did this?", Morgan gently asked.

Jack shook his head no. "It was a man because he yelled at first and his voice was scary but I never saw him. I hid."

"Do you know how he came into your home?"

"Y-yes... he rang the doorbell and I think mommy let him in."