How to Woo a Single Parent

Chapter 6

July 4th, 2047

. . . . .

A handful of days later, Chris pulled his car up to The Cottage. Really, it was more like a giant house, a property owned by his Aunt Emily's side of the family. He'd spent a number of summers here growing up and they used it now for most of the large family gatherings, when the family wasn't using it for vacation purposes.

Regardless, Chris knew it was an intimidating structure and glanced over at Ashley as he parked behind his father's SUV.

"This place is huge."

"Aunt Emily's mother was an ambassador," he offered, keeping his tone nonchalant. "There's money on the Prentiss side. And the Hotchner side."

Ashley looked over at him, wide-eyed. "How many sides do you have?"

"Do you really want to know?" He turned off the ignition and opened his door.

"Yes," Ashley answered, doing the same. She could hear the whoops of children, screaming laughter and someone yelling for Alex to stop pushing his sister.

Chris strolled around to her side of the car, watching Bryce vibrate at his mother's side. He leaned down. "'Round the side there," he said pointing. "Sounds like Alex is already getting in trouble."

Then Bryce was off, leaving Chris and Ashley behind. Chris reached for her hand and she let her fingers tangle with his. For support, she told herself, because she was facing what amounted to a small army. It had nothing to do with the way his hand felt warm and strong in hers.

"We've got the Hotchners and Prentisses," Chris said, picking up their thread of conversation. "Then the Morgans and Garcias, my parents. And the Reids and Jareaus. Grandpa Dave passed on almost ten years ago now."

"I'm sorry," she said automatically, though she squeezed his hand in support.

"It was time," Chris offered with a shrug. "We used to have my grandmother too, but she's gone now. And I have 2 paternal aunts. They won't be here. They're in Chicago."

"And they have kids?"

"They do."

"Were you ever alone growing up?"

Chris flashed her a grin as they rounded the house. "Nope. Got kind of frustrating after a while."

And then Ashley was faced with a chorus of yelled greetings and broad smiles. Chris pulled her over to a circle of older adults, all calmly observing the goings on with content faces.

"So, you've got my parents," he said, motioning to a dark-skinned man reclining on a loveseat, his wife's feet in his lap. "Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia-Morgan."

"Pen, please," the woman insisted and Ashley found herself blinking at the bright red of the woman's hair. "Garcia-Morgan's a mouthful. And your son's picked up Aunt Pen from the kids anyway."

Ashley couldn't help the blush that stained her cheeks. Her son had already come into contact with these people. They knew her son, and from the affection in Chris' mother's voice, already loved him.

"And my Aunt Emily and Uncle Aaron."

The man was distinguished, that was for sure, with severe lines around his mouth and eyes. They would have been intimidating, if there wasn't a hint of mirth dancing in the dark depths. His wife set a glass at his elbow and offered Ashley a smile. "I'm glad you could come. Pen's told us a lot about you."

Ashley blushed.

"Good things," offered the last woman, her white hair cropped in an adorable bob. "Jen." She offered Ashley a hand, which Ashley shook. "My husband Spencer."

Ashley murmured a hello, her hand sliding back into Chris'. This was intimidating.

"There you are!"

The woman who approached had the same skin-tone as Chris and seemed just a little harried. "My son has been trying to get up that oak tree since Seth stupidly told him you used to climb it as kids. Get him down."

"My sister," Chris murmured into Ashley's ear before flashing the woman a smile. "Hello to you too, Gabs."

"Idiot," she said, reaching out and slapping his arm. To them, it was as good as a hug. Then she turned all-seeing chocolate eyes to her. "You must be Ashley. Gabi. It's a pleasure. I promise I'm not always a harpy."

"Chris does bring that out," Ashley found herself replying with a grin of her own.

"Hey!" Chris exclaimed indignantly. "Just for that, I'm going to teach Nick how to climb that tree."

"Do and die," Gabi threatened in that easy way siblings have. "I won't have him breaking another bone because of some scheme you and your cronies put in his head."

"That was one time and if he'd listened to Nate we wouldn't have had the volcano exploding all over the kitchen, and he wouldn't have rammed his wrist into the edge of the counter," Chris argued. "Plus, climbing that tree is a right of passage. We all tried to get to the top as kids."

Ashley watched the banter in amused fascination. It was different, seeing Chris with his family. He let some of the heavy responsibility go and she could see tension leaving his shoulders. There was an easy feeling about the yard, even with the screams and yells of children and scolding parents.

"Tell him to get out of the tree," Gabi said, bringing Ashley back to the conversation at hand. Then she was breezing inside the house.

Chris chuckled, even as he tugged her along down the grass. "Even growing up it was always my fault," he told her as they headed towards the tree line. Sure enough, Ashley could see a gathering of children, her son included, circled around a large oak tree. Two men supervised, hands on hips, eyes sharp.

"Not that branch, Nick," the blond-haired man called up. "It's not sturdy. You might have to come down one and try again on the other side of the tree."

"Vaughan," Chris murmured into her ear. "Married in. AJ's husband. Nick's my blood-nephew. Gabi and Jack's."

"Jack?"

Chris shook his head as he followed her finger to the other man watching the boy climb. He looked around. "Jack's manning the barbeque it looks like. With Eric. I'll take you over in a minute."

"Hey man."

"Seth," Chris returned. "This is Ashley."

"Bryce's mom? It's great to finally meet you. You've raised a hell of a kid."

"Hell's a bad word," came the sing-song voice of a petite redhead.

"Well, let's not tell your mom then, huh?" Seth answered, ruffling her hair. The girl flashed a grin and hugged his leg. Ashley blushed at Seth's offhand compliment, even as she noticed the bandage wrapped around his wrist.

"You get shot again?" Chris asked, taking the question right out of her mouth. Well, maybe not the exact question, but certainly the sentiment.

Shot? Ashley found herself thinking in horror. This man was shot at?

Seth flashed a grin that, while nice, Ashley found herself thinking wasn't as nice as Chris'. "Nope. Rookie mistake. Would you believe I tripped down the stairs during a takedown? Thank God it ended up being just a sprain or there's no way Uncle Derek would let me hear the end of it." He fixed his gaze on Ashley. "FBI."

She whistled an impressed breath out from between her teeth.

She was introduced to the children next, Charlotte, his blood-niece, then Tessa, Brad and Alex, his cousin AJ's children with the blond-haired Vaughan. Then came Leah and Isabella Kerns – "Kate and Landon's," he'd said, though it seemed like mom and dad were nowhere to be found – and finally Allyson, his cousin Calleigh's, clinging to Seth's leg. Nick, Charlotte's brother, was eyeing a branch above him, the height of which made Ashley's stomach churn. None of the men crowded around seemed particularly perturbed.

"I'm never going to keep all of this straight," she moaned when he tugged her towards the barbeque after guiding Nick up two more branches.

"No one expects you to," he promised, offering hearty handshakes and greetings to the three men around the grill.

Jack was his sister's husband, she learned, and the son of Aaron and his first wife. Eric was single and loud about it.

"When you're done with Chris, give me a call, yeah?" Eric had said with a wink.

Ashley had spluttered out something she hoped was denial but the whole thing was so overwhelming she couldn't be sure what had come out of her mouth. Chris just laughed at her as he pulled her into the house. She was immersed almost immediately in happy chatter and an uproarious greeting when Chris stepped through the door to the kitchen. Ashley counted five women, including Gabi, and two men.

"You must be Ashley," one of the women said, wiping her hands on a nearby dishtowel. "AJ. Tessa's mine. She talks nonstop about your son."

Ashley offered a self-conscious laugh, clinging tighter to Chris' hand. God, this was overwhelming. "He certainly likes spending time with her."

AJ grinned. A moment later, Ashley had been introduced to Kate and her husband Landon, as well as the chemist/cook Nate, Nate's best friend Erin, and finally, Calleigh.

"Good gracious there really are a lot of you," she found herself saying. The room cracked up in laughter as Gabi reached for her, wrapping an arm around her.

"Welcome to the family."

Ashley started, her eyes flying immediately to Chris. He was wearing an odd sort of smile, quiet, serene, like he really did like seeing her there. Like she belonged there. But Chris had promised there were no ulterior motives, nothing beyond wanting her to take a break.

It was just a figure of speech.

But you like it, a traitorous voice in her head taunted. You like the idea of being part of this family.

Too bad they were way out of her league.

A few hours later, Ashley escaped from the very loud confines of the house. The night air was cool on her face as she wandered down to the long dock overlooking the lake. She sighed, wrapping her arms around herself, looking at the myriad of stars that weren't visible in the city.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Ashley looked over, partially in resignation, to find Calleigh wandering down as well. "You don't see a sky like this in DC."

Calleigh hummed her agreement. "Am I interrupting?"

"No," Ashley admitted with a little bit of a laugh. "Am I that obvious?"

"Even I need a break from them every once in a while," Calleigh replied. "And I grew up with that."

"Really?"

"All the time," the blond said, nodding. "Every birthday, every holiday. There was someone at every recital or game or science fair. Maybe not a parent, but an aunt or an uncle."

Ashley blew out a breath. "Wow."

"You've been on your own a while."

Ashley found herself flushing, a bit in embarrassment, a bit in anger. "Chris told you that."

"No," Calleigh disagreed immediately. "Chris and I aren't really that close. And if Chris told Gabi, Gabs didn't pass it down the line. Part of the problem with a family this big is that gossip is rampant." Calleigh looked over, and chuckled a little. Rattling off names like that was easy for Calleigh, even normal, but it was obvious that Ashley found it a bit much. "No, you just look like someone who's used to loneliness."

"What are you, psychic?"

"Nah. Actually, I'm usually utterly terrible with people outside of my bedside manner," she admitted. "I just… I know that look."

Ashley glanced over her shoulder significantly.

"Well yeah. But they're not there for the midnight feedings, are they? They don't have to feel guilty when you can't make it to pick him up on time or when plans get ruined because you get called on-shift."

"What?"

Calleigh laughed. "Did Chris tell you anything about us before tossing you in? I had Aly ten years ago and it was just me. Yeah, I had the whole family but it's different when you're the parent, even if you know your kid's never going to be alone."

"You're a single parent."

"Her whole life," Calleigh agreed.

Ashley watched something shift in the other woman's posture, watched some of the exhaustion creep into her face, tension slipping back into her shoulders. "Wow. You're good."

"I have to be. I'm a doctor. Running myself ragged essentially comes with the job. But I have Aly too and I wouldn't change her for the world. Sometimes it means I go weeks on three hours of snatched sleep and a catnap or two in the on-call room, just to make sure I'm spending time with my daughter."

"I have this bride. Well, her mother really. I'm supposed to be at her beck and call, at all times, without fail or we lose the contract. I'm glued to my phone. And Bryce spends a whole lot of time with Chris."

"What about your parents?" Calleigh asked.

Ashley sucked in a deep breath. "They haven't seen me since the day I told them I was pregnant."

Calleigh sucked in a sympathetic breath. "No siblings?"

"No."

Calleigh hummed a little but didn't ask anymore. Ashley was glad. In her experience, when people realized she was a single parent, they also asked about the father.

And that was a whole different ballgame.

"Can I give you a piece of advice?" Calleigh asked quietly.

Ashley looked over, debating. But Calleigh didn't have a know-it-all look or a flash of superiority in her gaze. It was clear and intense, tinged with regret. "Okay."

"You can't actually do all of this on your own," the blond said carefully. "Well, you can, but you'll lose something in the process. Maybe it's your job, maybe it's your son, maybe it's your sanity, but you can't do it all. I can't do it all. I lean on my family more than I'd like when it comes to Aly. But at the end of the day, it's not about who is and isn't in my life or my daughter's life because my kid is loved so much and by so many."

"But you have a family."

Calleigh laughed a little. "You know none of my aunts and uncles are related by blood, right? My mom married my dad, so yeah, we're the traditional definition of family, but my parents aren't related to Aunt Jen, Aunt Emily, Uncle Aaron or Uncle Derek. And none of us were related to Grandpa Dave. We adopted each other. All of us. We picked this. Well, my parents picked this, and now we all work at it, every day." She tilted her head to the side. "You could pick this too."

Ashley blinked. She'd just kind of taken for granted that they were all related. She hadn't even really considered the idea that they weren't. And 'pick' her family? 'Pick' Chris' family?

Calleigh shrugged, looking back out over the lake. "Well, okay, maybe not 'this' as in 'this family' – though we're pretty great – but a family. Build your own. And we'd love you to be a part of ours but… You don't have to hide. You don't have to protect yourself. And take it from someone who's grown up with this, when you have one of us, you have all of us, and we don't let go easy."

"Is that a threat?"

"Sounds like it, huh?" Calleigh said with an unoffended grin. "But I wouldn't be able to do this without them. I wouldn't have been able to raise Aly the way I did without them. More than that though, I couldn't imagine doing this without them. I don't want to be doing this without them."

They fell into a comfortable silence for a few moments. Ashley's heart beat hard and loud to her, though, all of Calleigh's words floating around in her head.

"Chris is dangerous."

Calleigh turned her head. It was a family thing, just that quiet question, wordless but definitely listening.

"Chris gets under my skin. He's close with my son, he cares about my son and he doesn't have to. He never had to." She laughed though she knew it sounded a little bitter. "He would probably even put Bryce first, given the choice, and I've never met another person willing to do that. And he doesn't push me, he doesn't ask more than I'm willing to give and he calls me out when I'm being ridiculous."

"And that's new."

"New. Scary. Different. Dangerous."

"Because?"

Ashley blew out a breath. She couldn't believe she was confiding in Chris' cousin of all people. "Because there's the serious potential that if I accept this family, if I let myself be part of this family, if I let him in as far as sometimes I think he wants, I'm not getting out on the other side."

"So you're not letting yourself try?"

"What if it doesn't work out?"

"What if it does?" Calleigh shot back. "What if by closing yourself off, you're letting the best thing you could ever have get away?"

"That's my son."

Calleigh shot her a look and Ashley grimaced. Okay, so she'd been splitting hairs.

"I'm not going to lie and say it's easy," Calleigh said quietly. "I know it's hard. For me, it's still hard. I'm a single woman with an almost-eleven-year-old daughter and one of the most unpredictable jobs. On top of that, there's this insanity and everything I've already gone through. So trust me, if anyone knows how difficult it is, it's me. But that doesn't mean I've stopped hoping."

Ashley turned her head, arms folded around herself to ward off the chill but listening intently.

"And maybe I'll be lucky. Maybe he'll just drop into my lap."

Ashley blinked. Because that was exactly what had happened to her, hadn't it. Chris had just dropped into her lap. There had been moments, more than a few, where Ashley had been pretty sure Chris wanted more than their friendship-for-the-sake-of-Bryce arrangement, but he hadn't said anything. He didn't make a secret of the fact that he cared, for her or for Bryce, and, well, he was still there.

He brought them to see his family. He let her stay the night. He cooked for her, took her son to the museum or the park, made sure she took time for herself, even if it was just television on his couch. He watched over her, took care of her, and while yeah, she'd noticed it, she hadn't really taken the time to think about it. Nor had she taken the time to realize just how much Chris had been doing over the last few months.

"I have to head back in, I'm freezing. And if I'm gone too long, Aly starts to worry." The blond rolled her eyes, offering Ashley a look of exasperated affection. She paused though, at the end of the dock, calling Ashley's attention back. "Whether you decide to be with Chris or not, I'm really glad we got to meet you."

THREE!

And I've got 3 in reserve and still going! If I'm super lucky, I'll have finished this whole story before I go home. Then I can cross another kid off my list!

I feel like something's off, or I'm writing Ashley as contradicting herself, but this is where she wanted to go. Trust me, I had no control.

Thank you to those of you who have reviewed the last couple of chapters. Happy, happy, happy writer!