Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
Author's Note: I am really sorry about the long wait. I blame insufferable writer's block and parent-forced computer-less vacations. Read and review! This part of the series will be coming to an end fairly shortly, and then I'm going to write a prequel of Aftermath of Minimal Loss. I would love your ideas about either story. I always like to know what my readers think. Also, where do you think our two lovely ladies should take a vacation?
"Abs?" Hayley hesitated as she knocked on her older sister's door.
"What?"
"Can I come in? I uh…" the ten year old stuttered. "I need your help."
"What's up?" Abby asked, opening the door to let the blonde child in her room.
"I need to learn self defense or something," Hayley responded, starring at the floor.
"Why?"
"There's this girl at school, and well, she's a bully."
"Is that why you stopped wearing pigtails?"
"Yeah, she's mean. She pushes me over at recess and pulls my hair and calls me names. I just wanted to know how to make her stop."
"Why not ask Uncle Derek? You know he's all macho-judo-kick-butt."
"Because you always know how to fix things. Also, because he'd just go shoot her. I don't want her dead. I just don't want her to pick on me."
"Okay, we can take a crash mat in the backyard. Let's go teach you some tricks of the trade. Shall we?" Abby said, putting her hands on Hayley's shoulders and angling the young girl towards the stairs. "Derek would shoot her. You're definitely right there."
"Did you know?" JJ shrieked at Emily as the three women drank coffee during their lunch break.
"Possibly," Emily shrugged noncommittally. "But it's only been two or three days. When you sent Morgan and I to that consultation, I kind of ambushed him. I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, including you." Emily defended herself.
"Four years?" JJ couldn't wrap her head around that length of a time span. "None of our kids were teenagers. That's a long time, Pen!"
"I know. I know. At first we wanted to see what we were before we told anyone, and then, it just became second nature to not say anything. We acted like we always did, and it worked for us. I'm telling you now though!" Garcia said, explaining the time frame.
"I'm happy for you. Don't get me wrong. That's just a long time. I'm surprised you kept it a secret. I'm surprised I didn't pick up on it. How are you going to tell Strauss? Dragon woman seems to have a particular disdain for human emotions and actual relationships."
"Well since I'm more of a departmental asset than a team member, she legally has no grounds. That doesn't mean she won't make it annoying. However, I tend to pride myself on my ability to manipulate people's lives with a couple of clicks on a keyboard. Basically, she can bring it."
"Oh boy," Emily laughed, shaking her head. "My money is on you, PG."
"Good choice, kitten," Garcia agreed with a radiant smile.
"So my married beauties, you two need a weekend away."
"Where did this come from?"
"No idea," Garcia winked. "May want to talk to your boy."
"Now I'm worried," JJ commented, tilting her head to address her wife. Garcia just smirked and took another sip of her coffee.
Stumbling in the house balancing her coffee on a stack of piles with her go-bag and purse hanging dangerously off her limbs, Emily shuffled through the living room where Henry was flipped upside down on the couch watching TV. "Henry," Emily started. "One second. I need to put this down before I drop all these files and your mother shoots me for disrupting the organization of her folders." Pausing slightly to drop everything unceremoniously on the desk, the brunette turned around to face her son. "First of all, why are you upside down?"
"TV's more interesting this way."
"Your face is as red as a tomato."
"Yeah," Henry responded, shrugging awkwardly. "How was your day? You brought home more files than usual."
Emily made a disgusted face as she glanced back towards the paper-covered desk. "That will be fun for me tonight. How was school?"
"Jack puked on the coach, so coach made us run for like 50 miles. My legs are dead. Like you may have to feed me like this, Momma, because I can't move," Henry joked.
"Jack Hotchner?"
"No, number 46 on the soccer team."
"That would make more sense," Emily replied. "Doesn't that hurt your head?"
"Nope; try it," Henry challenged. Smirking as Emily shrugged out of her blazer and sat on the back of the couch. Falling backwards and landing on the soft, worn seat cushions, Emily tilted her head over the edge and focused on the TV, her dark hair casually brushing the floor.
"Not bad actually. What are we watching?"
"Mr. and Mrs. Smith."
"Nice choice, kid," Emily responded before they fell into a comfortable silence.
"Who do you think has better aim: mom or Angelina Jolie?" Henry debated as his shaggy blonde hair ruffled from side-to-side.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you just compare my deadly aim to an actress who pretends to be an agent." JJ rebutted as she walked in the door. "What are you," she started. "Never mind, I don't want to know why you're both upside down. And why is the crash mat outside?" The blonde spit fired questions as she headed towards the study.
"Abs was beating up Hayley earlier," Henry replied nonchalantly as if it was obvious.
"Hayley," Emily called as she rolled herself off the couch and onto the floor.
"Well that was graceful," JJ smirked. "You know we had an interesting conversation with Garcia today. Know anything about that Henry?" JJ prodded.
"Hmm, no idea. Shh, it's the good part," he replied, leaving JJ to grumble silently.
"Okay, so let me get this straight. You needed the crash mat because she read your diary and you decided to teach her some of the more painful tricks of karate," Emily repeated as she tried to clarify the situation.
"Tae kwon doe, but yeah pretty much," Abby confirmed. Hayley nodded as well as Emily tilted her head, assessing the situation.
"Wow, either you're both awful liars or I'm really good at my job."
"I vote the second one," Hayley piped up, flashing her brunette mother a smile.
"Uh huh. You know, I don't buy it," Emily replied evenly, her hands on her hips. "This is going to be fun. I actually get to profile my children." A giddy smile erupted across Emily's pale face.
"Oh my god, just tell her, so we don't have to listen to the profile. Don't encourage her, Hales. Just say it," Abby said, nudging Hayley supportively. Hayley dramatically turned to her sister and glared.
"I needed Abby to teach me self defense because there's this girl at school who pulls my hair and pushes me and says mean things," Hayley rushed out, still glaring at Abby, who shrugged her shoulders.
"She's better at problems than I am, Hayley. I learned it from her," Abby responded.
"Munchkin, let's go get some ice cream. Okay?" Hayley nodded and took Emily's offered hand as the mother-daughter couple headed towards the garage.
"Abs, come here," JJ requested as she started pulling ingredients out to make dinner.
"Yeah, Mom," Abby answered easily, leaning against the countertop of the island.
"What's that about?"
"Hayley has a bully. Momma's taking her out to talk about it, I guess."
"Okay," JJ drawled. "Want to help make dinner?" After Abby nodded, JJ continued. "How was your day?" The conversation continued as Henry finally migrated to sit at the barstools as the wafting smells tempted him. Nate jogged in, sighing heavily as the aroma of the home cooked meal assault his senses.
"Yes, Mom's chicken," he hummed as he waltzed into the kitchen to join everyone. "Where are Hayley and Momma? Since they aren't here do I have time to shower?"
"Please, please shower," Abby, mocked as she threw at dishrag at her twin.
"Yeah, dude, you smell," Henry teased, which received him a smack to the back of his head as Nate hit him with the thrown towel.
"Children," JJ warned with a small laugh as she swirled her wine with practiced ease. "Nate, go shower. You aren't sitting on our nice new upholstered chairs with your sweaty behind."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm going," he called as he stomped up the stairs. "Don't let Henry start eating without me. It will all be gone, and I'm starved."
"It's called family dinner for a reason," JJ returned as she heard him reach the final stair.
Forty-five minutes later found the Prentiss family of six sitting around their large dining room table sharing stories from their days over baked chicken and vegetables. As Emily sipped her wine, she watched their four kids make eye contact with each other from opposite sides of the table. Scrunching her brow in curiosity, she took another generous sip and watched the looks play out.
"Moms," Abby started.
"So we may have had Garcia hack into our trust funds to use some of the money for something kind of big and important," Nate continued fluidly.
"Probably wasn't the right thing to say," Abby commented on her breath as both women's eyes widened. "Henry?"
"Ignore what Nate said, even though it's kind of true. We wanted to give you a special anniversary gift. We know your anniversary isn't for a month or so, but Garcia said this would be the best timing due to work related stuff."
"Someone just get to the point please," JJ begged her children.
"We planned a vacation for you and Momma. You leave the day after tomorrow."
"PG made one of her legendary organized binder things with all the plane information, hotel reservations, all that jazz. She's going to give it to you tomorrow," Abby informed her flabbergasted parents.
"Can we go back a little bit? You four actually put something together and agreed on all the parts together," Emily said emphasizing the last word as if it were as rare as natural perfect diamond.
"We are capable of being mature adults," Nate rebutted, amused by his mother's comment.
"Trust funds?" JJ asked, still a little blown away by the completion of such a great plan.
"Yeah, we just hoped you guys would be so overwhelmed by our kindness that we could just skip over that whole hacking thing," Henry said looking around for support for his older two siblings.
"You're in the clear for that. Don't do it again. But Garcia, she's not as clear as you four," Emily responded, soothing their worry after she exchanged knowing glances with her wife. "One more question though," she started.
"Where are we going?" JJ interrupted, excitement clear in her voice.
