The Hotchner Household

Chapter 10: The Best Christmas Present

It was a few days before Christmas and the Hotchner household was a little crazier than usual; Emily was now eight-and-a-half months pregnant, and she was moving much slower than usual. She had officially stopped working at the academy a few weeks back and was trying to spend as much time as possible with her husband and kids at home. Aaron had promised her he would take a few weeks off from work after their son was born so they could all spend it as a family. She had decorated the house and tree with the help of Isabella and Jack, and they had done an amazing job. Aaron and Jack had also been in charge of the lights and decorations outside their house. The truth was, this season the family was very happy as the new member of their family was arriving soon. By now, the kids were well aware that the baby was going to be special, and they were going to love and accept him no matter what. Emily noticed the only one who wasn't as excited as the rest of the family was her younger daughter, Alexandra…she didn't take part of the decorations this year, and it was something she absolutely loved. Emily also noticed that she had become more distant from her, and she had an idea what was going on with her daughter, so she decided to take her with her to get the last Christmas presents and run some errands while her other two children stayed home with Aaron doing some house chores and helping to cook dinner. Emily and Alexandra went around the mall getting the few things they needed, and then Emily decided to get her daughter an extra present that she could select herself to see if that would cheer her up.

"Alex, baby, what do you say if we can get you an extra present this year…you can select it now…anything you want." Emily said, smiling at her daughter bending down to her daughter's height as much as her big belly allowed.

"I don't want an extra present." Her daughter replied, avoiding her mother's look.

"You don't? How come?" She asked, somewhat surprised and sad.

"I just don't, can we go home now, please?" Her daughter said.

"You want to go home? But, we aren't finished, and I wanted to go get ice cream somewhere with you." Emily said, pulling her to her for a hug.

"I don't want ice cream, can you take me home with daddy, then you can come back to the mall." Her five-year-old replied. Emily felt sad and heartbroken; it really hurt that her daughter was acting so cold and distant toward her. Emily stood there for a second as she watched her daughter's expression…Alex was upset, and Emily was sure it was about the pregnancy.

She stood up from the floor, took her daughter's hand, and they headed to another store before they went back to the car. On the way back, Emily decided to stop at a special place with her daughter. It was a park that Washington, around Christmas time, decorated with all kinds of different characters and shapes, from Santa Claus to a snowman and candy canes, it was absolutely beautiful and that got her daughter's attention for a few minutes as she watched her face light up. She smiled, unbuckling her seat belt.

"Do you want to come watch the lights with mommy?" She asked sweetly. Her daughter nodded, and although Emily noticed Alex was still being cold, she was happy Alex had accepted since she hardly wanted to be around her lately.

They walked around for a bit, then Emily decided to get them some hot chocolate and sit down at one of the benches for a little while. As she sat, she watched her daughter sip on her hot chocolate.

"Baby, can you look at mommy for a second?" She asked kindly. Her daughter nodded and put her chocolate down to look at her mother…with a frown on her face…she definitely had the Hotchner frown.

"Do you want to tell me why you are upset with me?" Emily tried to sound as soft as she could since she didn't want her daughter to think she was upset.

"I'm not upset, I just want to go home." She replied stubbornly, looking away again.

"Well, we aren't going home until you tell mommy what the matter is with you." Emily said firmly; Alex just crossed her arms and pouted deeper, looking angry.

"Why didn't you want another Christmas present, you didn't even help decorate this year, you've always loved Christmas, Alex…what's going on, what's upsetting you." Her daughter didn't respond, she just looked away.

"You are making mommy very sad, I love you very much, and I'm worried about you." Emily said, trying to get closer to her and brushing a strand of her curls away from her face.

"No, you don't, you don't love me, you only love that new baby, and when he comes, you won't care about me anymore, and you'll give me away." Her daughter said, with tears in her eyes.

"What! who told you that?" Emily asked, concerned.

"My friend Kyle from school told me every time a mommy has a new baby, they give their other little kid away, to another family. So when the baby comes, you're going to give me away and only love the new baby." Her daughter replied angrily with tears in her eyes.

Emily wanted to laugh so badly, but she tried to hold it in as she finally began to understand why her daughter had been acting the way she had. Not only was she really jealous about the new baby, but some kid at school had told her some crazy made-up story, and Alex had taken it much more seriously than she should have. Emily moved closer to her daughter.

"Oh God, baby, come here, please." She tried to grab Alex, but her daughter pulled away. Emily firmly held her and pulled her into her arms hugging her really tightly.

"Listen to me and listen to me very carefully." Emily said firmly, making her daughter look at her.

"Mommy could never, ever give you away to anyone, you're my little girl, and you'll always be, Alex." She said, kissing her and hugging her tightly.

"Alex, I'm not going to love the baby more than I love you or your siblings. I love you all with all my heart, and I could never live without any of you. I'll never, ever stop loving you, no matter what!" Her daughter just sat there on her lap, looking at her.

"You won't give me away?" Alex asked, with puppy dog eyes.

"Of course not, silly. I love you too much, and you're my little baby girl. I would die without you." Emily said, kissing her again.

"Alex, I don't want you to be jealous of the baby, mommy and daddy aren't going to love you any less because the baby is coming, you are all our babies, and we love you the same way. And Isaac is going to love you so much and be so happy you are his big sister, you have to love him and protect him, baby."

"But, you said he was going to be special, like your favorite one." Her daughter said, pouting, Emily finally laughed.

"Baby, that is not what I mean when I say special, your brother is going to be special because he is going to be a little sick, and he is going to need all of us to show him things and to love him very much." Emily explained kindly, as she felt the baby move around in her womb.

"Do you want to feel something cool?" She asked, excited finally that her daughter was finally nodding, excited, too. Emily grabbed her little hand and placed her it on her womb as her daughter's face lit up when she felt the baby moving around.

"That's your brother saying 'hi'." She explained.

"Really?" She asked, arching her eyebrows in surprise.

"Really, really, and he said he loves you very much, and he can hardly wait to meet his big sister." Her daughter smiled widely, and leaned down to place a kiss on her mother's stomach.

"I love you, too, Isaac." Emily smiled, as the finally stood up from the bench at the park and headed home happier than she had ever been.

Christmas Eve morning, Emily woke up early to get ready for the dinner she was going to cook. All the members of the team were going to gather together at her house, and she wanted everything to be perfect. She wanted to make an amazing dinner and have a wonderful time with her friends and family. Emily still had a few weeks before she was due, and she wanted to spend as much quality time as she could with her loved ones before she had to be crazy busy with a newborn.

JJ arrived around noon with Henry, Erica and Will to help Emily with dinner and everything else. Henry immediately headed to Jack's room and Erica to Isabella's room leaving the adults alone in the kitchen. Will offered to help organize the presents around the Christmas tree and run to the store for a few things they needed. Everything was wonderful and almost ready for everyone to arrive. Dave was going to show up with a new date he had been seeing for a while. Spencer was still dating a girl named Summer and he had told Emily she was going to stay for dinner with them, too. Morgan and Garcia were, of course, going to show up together. They weren't technically dating, but they were very close. Aaron was still at the office; he hated to work on Christmas Eve, but there was some paper work that needed his immediate attention. JJ and Emily were working on the rest of dinner when a sharp pain hit Emily in the stomach making her cry out in pain.

"Oh god!" She cried.

"Em, are you okay, what's going on?" JJ asked, scared.

"I don't know, but it really hurts." She cried, as her eyes filled with tears.

"Oh my God, do you think?" JJ asked scared.

"No, no, he's not due for another two weeks, and its not a contraction pain…trust me, it's my third child." Emily said, beginning to cry.

"Okay, okay, just calm down, we need to get you to the hospital." JJ offered, calling Will to come help.

They both managed to get Emily to the car. JJ didn't want to wait for an ambulance…she wanted to take Emily immediately to the hospital. Will wanted to come with them, but JJ insisted that it was better for him to stay home with the kids and watch the rest of the cooking and greet the guests. JJ drove as fast as she could to the hospital; she didn't care if she got pulled over, technically, she was a federal agent, and this was an emergency.

"God, JJ, I can't lose him, I can't." Emily cried, when another sharp pain hit her abdomen.

"You aren't going to, just try and relax, please, we're almost there." JJ said, concerned. JJ managed to call the hospital to make sure they were waiting for her at the entrance. She also managed to call Hotch to tell him she was rushing Emily to the hospital. Hotch immediately stopped what he was doing and rushed to the hospital, too.

When they arrived at the emergency ramp, the doctors were already waiting, and they managed to take Emily inside on a stretcher, disappearing behind the door with Emily. JJ gave the nurse all the information she had about Emily, but nobody could give her any information, and JJ was very concerned.

JJ knew very well how dangerous Emily's pregnancy had been and the risk that came with it, especially since she was having a baby with special needs. Everyone was very happy about the news, and JJ was sure everyone would love her baby the same way they loved each of her other kids, but she was more concerned about the safety of the baby and Emily's safety. She knew the complications that could come and both the life of the baby and Emily's life were at risk right now. JJ was pacing around the emergency room worriedly when Hotch came running inside and rushing toward her.

"JJ, I got here as fast as I could, where is Emily?" He asked, concerned.

"They took her inside, and they haven't told me anything since." JJ said angrily, Hotch also shook his head angrily and walked over to the front desk where the nurses were.

"Excuse me, I'm Aaron Hotchner, I need to know what is going on with my wife." He demanded angrily.

"We will let you know as soon as we know something. She's in surgery at the moment." The nurse said coldly.

"What! Surgery for what, what's going on! I DEMAND TO SEE MY WIFE!" Hotch shouted.

"Sir, please calm down and lower your voice, we'll let you know as soon as we know more." The nurse said again. Hotch grabbed his badge…he hated to play that card, but right now, he just didn't care.

"I'm a federal agent, in fact, I'm the Director of the FBI, and I demand to talk to your boss, so he can tell me what in the hell is the matter with MY WIFE!" He barked.

The nurse stepped back and called someone on the phone; a few minutes later, a doctor came out of the doors.

"Agent Hotchner, I'm Doctor Frish, your wife is currently in surgery, there were some complications with her pregnancy, and we're doing the best we can do." He explained, as gently as he could.

"What kind of complications?" He asked, terrified.

"We don't really know, Agent. I'm sure you were informed your wife's pregnancy was a very high risk one due to her age and the situation with your baby, and we're doing our best, but I can promise you as soon as we know something else, we will let you know." The doctor said sympathetically and walked away.

After an hour or so of pacing around, Emily's ob/gyn, Doctor Collins, came out through the doors. There was some blood on his scrubs, and Aaron felt as if he was going to faint.

"Agent Hotchner?" He asked gently. Aaron could hardly respond, his mouth was completely dry, and he seemed to have lost his speech. He felt like his knees were giving way on him.

"Sorry about the wait, there were some complications; we had to do an emergency C-section, but everything turned out okay."

"What!?" He asked with a dry voice.

Your wife and your son are both fine, you'll be able to see them in a little while, as soon as the nurses are finished taking care of them." The doctor smiled gently.

"Congratulations, Dad." The doctor added, patting his shoulder and walking away.

JJ smiled and hugged Hotch and congratulated him. After that, she stepped away to call everyone at Emily's house to tell them Emily and the baby were both fine.

Thirty minutes later, Aaron walked into the room when the nurse called him, he had a big bouquet of flowers he had gotten and the gift shop and a big blue balloon that said, "It's a Boy." He walked in carefully and saw his wife holding a pink baby wrapped in a blue blanket and smiling widely. She looked up when she heard her husband walking in.

"Congratulations, Agent Hotchner." She said, with tears in her eyes. Aaron quickly approached her and pulled her gently in for a hug, kissing her forehead and then her lips as his eyes filled with tears, too. Then, his eyes landed on the infant in her arms. Their son was just perfect, he didn't see anything wrong with his baby, he had never seen a baby with down's syndrome, and he was sure that some of them had abnormalities and malformations, and although he didn't care about that, his baby looked perfectly fine. He looked as healthy and as beautiful as any other infant would.

"He's perfect…Aaron, he's just perfect, and he's all mine." Emily said, as tears rolled down her face. Aaron gently wiped her eyes and smiled.

"I believe he is ours, baby." He smiled, running his thumb over his sleeping baby boy.

Emily carefully placed the infant in his arms undoing the blue blanket some so he could see the baby better. The baby was wearing a red onesie that said "My first Christmas". Aaron smiled widely, he had completely forgotten it was Christmas.

"He smiled widely at Emily. He was born at 12.04, so, technically, he was born on Christmas." She said, happier than she had ever been.

"This is absolutely the best Christmas present I have ever received." He said, as tears rolled down his face.

"The doctor said he is perfect, he doesn't think he has Down's Syndrome completely…he might just have some difficulties learning when he grows up, but he won't look any different or completely develop the illness." Emily said, crying happily. Aaron pulled her in for a hug with her son in his arms. This was absolutely the best present he could ever have, and now that he knew his son wouldn't be completely ill either, it was a much nicer gift.

"Thank you, Em, for giving me this angel and for making me so happy for the past fifteen years…I love you so much." He said, kissing her.

"I love you, too, Aaron." He said returning the kiss. Aaron placed the infant back into his waiting mother's arms and sat next to her on the bed. He would call the team soon to check on the kids and to make everyone aware Emily and the baby was fine. But, now he just wanted to enjoy this moment a little while longer.

"Merry Christmas, sweetheart." He said, kissing his wife's forehead and pulling her and the baby into his arms.

"Merry Christmas, Honey." Emily exclaimed happily, as both of their eyes were locked onto the infant sleeping in her arms.