A/N: Hope I find my muse again soon, I've only got a few more chapters written and I'm having trouble getting the next one started. So if you see him, tell him he's in trouble and send him home please.

I truly adore you guys…you stick with me when I put my characters through hell and then you say such wonderful things when I send them back to the happy place. Many thanks for my latest reviews go out to SouthunLady, Hazmatt, MissShawnaAlice, Wtiger5, Daisyangel and HGRHfan35.

Unfortunately RL has again caught up with my beta, so any mistakes are my own; especially after I just re-wrote half of the ending. Love you sweetie, and I'll try and be more patient to wait next time, because I totally miss you from the process too…you just make things so much better!

WARNING: This chapter is rated M and is just a touch graphic in parts.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds at all, although they do own me. And the list of those I do own is getting so incredibly long that I am just going to say that I own anyone who does not come directly from Criminal Minds.

Chapter 14

Christmas Day 2016

Emily peered through the thick snow, her nose almost to the windscreen as a flash of colour caught her eye.

"I think this is the driveway entrance."

Aaron slowed the vehicle further and peered out with a nod of agreement. "I think you're right."

They exchanged the briefest of smiles as Emily settled back in her seat. They'd gotten a late start on their Christmas holiday due to ice on the roads, but after a couple of particularly sunny days, they'd decided to make a break for it. They'd had a fairly easy run of it until it had started snowing again a couple of hours ago. Now the snow was so thick they could barely see the front end of the vehicle and they had begun to wonder if they should try to turn back to the inn they'd passed half an hour ago or whether they needed to push through to see if they could make it.

He made the turn carefully and they slowly moved down the long driveway to reach the country house that had been a part of their Christmas celebrations since their marriage five years before. As Aaron was only close to his brother, and would have nothing to do with their mother, the open invitation to celebrate the season with Elizabeth and Thomas whenever they were without plans had simply become tradition.

And no one was complaining.

After what seemed an interminable period of time, the house finally appeared through a break in the snow and not wanting to risk running into anything, Aaron brought the car to a stop.

Emily sighed. "I really don't want to get out of this car."

Aaron chuckled softly. "Me neither, but just think about how warm it will be once we get in through the door."

"That's certainly true. Though considering how thick the snow is on the ground, we're going to end up making quite a few trips to get kids and suitcases moved inside. That's the part I'm not looking forward to; trudging through this weighing more than I do naturally and trying not to dump both of us in the snow while I'm at it."

His smile in her direction was full of sympathy. "Don't worry kitten; as soon as the snow clears, we'll start running together again and I'll work with you to get that weight off."

"Thank you," she said softly as she fought with her mind. She tried hard not to dwell too much on her behaviour after the miscarriage of her sixth child, but sometimes she just couldn't keep her thoughts from returning down a truly dark path.

Shaking her head hard to clear her thoughts and return her to the now, she turned to the back of the vehicle and snorted softly.

"Let's get this lot into the house before we worry about luggage."

"Agreed."

Opening the door, Emily slipped off the seat...and sank almost two feet.

This is so not going to be a fun fifteen minutes.

A minute later, Thomas appeared at her side.

"Here, try these," he said as he held out a pair of snow shoes.

"Bless you," she said with a grin and a quick kiss on the cheek before taking the shoes and trying them on.

"They're your mother's, so I was assured they would fit. She said to just take the kids straight up to their rooms; let them sleep until they wake."

"That works for me, though we may wake them in an hour just so that we aren't up all night with them."

He nodded agreement and reached in for Jack. Emily followed with Micah, leaving Aaron at the car in case the kids woke up while they were gone. She'd just reached the front door when her mother appeared. After a quick embrace and an agreement that the weather was atrocious, Elizabeth headed out to the car to collect another of the children. Between the four of them, they got the vehicle completely unloaded in ten minutes and the women left Aaron and Thomas to make sure they got the vehicle garaged before it disappeared completely under the still falling snow.

Emily took a few minutes to change into something dry before she joined her mother in the kitchen for a coffee and catch up while they waited for the guys to join them. When Thomas and Aaron came in, the discussion turned to food as Thomas mentioned that the current storm was probably going to trap them in for several days.

Then the kids woke up and the afternoon was filled with fun and laughter as the games came out. Dinner was a hearty stew that Thomas had been cooking slowly over the course of the day and then exhausted from the long day, the kids only whined a little bit when Aaron suggested they have an early night ahead of the busy day of presents they had in front of them.

Coming to a stop at the top of the stairs, Elizabeth eyed her daughter closely.

"You look like you could use an early night yourself. And you only picked at dinner; is everything alright?"

"Honestly? I'm feeling really unsettled and out of sorts, and it doesn't help that I've had some sharp cramps coming and going most of the afternoon. My monthlies are probably going to start overnight knowing my luck."

"You've always been somewhat regular though, and I don't recall you ever bleeding at the end of the month."

"I actually discussed this with my counsellor and my doctor and they agree that it is most likely brought on by the stress and depression I was suffering. Whether my monthlies stay as irregular as they have become or settle down as I continue getting better will just have to be a wait and see endeavour."

Elizabeth hesitated a moment before asking tentatively, "Does the stress and depression also count for the additional weight I noticed?"

Emily smiled dryly. "The depression made chocolate in particular, but most junk food in general look and taste like the sweetest ambrosia, which would cheer me up for all of a few minutes at a time before I would start to crave more. And when I stopped going out with my friends and participating in family activities, I also ceased to exercise."

"So it all boiled down to you being as unhealthy as I have ever seen you."

"Unfortunately. I'm just grateful that Aaron stuck it out with me. I wouldn't have blamed him in the slightest if he'd kicked me out."

"I very nearly did," Aaron admitted as he joined them on the landing. "I'm actually glad those idiots took over the mall because I'm not proud of the man I had become." He wrapped her up in a tight hug and she snuggled close. "When I fell apart, Emily became my rock. When she fell apart, I became the quicksand that made everything ten times worse for her. I'm truly grateful she didn't give up on us when I came to my senses, but it again forced her into the role that I was supposed to be in. I've been working on that over these last months while spending more time with my psych sorting out what went wrong so that it never goes this wrong again."

"So everything's alright now?" Thomas asked, having joined them a minute before.

"Not perfect," Emily admitted softly with a smile up at her husband.

He grinned down at her. "No, not perfect, but definitely growing stronger and better daily."

"I'm glad to hear that," Elizabeth said.

Emily nodded agreement, then winced again. "Okay, I'm heading to bed. I need energy for the kids tomorrow and if I'm dealing with my monthlies too, I'm going to need all the help I can get."

"Would a hot water bottle help?" Thomas asked.

"That's a great idea."

He nodded and headed down to the master bedroom as Emily arranged with her mother and husband to sleep until one or more of the kids woke them in the morning. Then Thomas was back with the bottle and she hugged Elizabeth and Thomas, and kissed Aaron heatedly before heading off to bed.

New Section

Unsure of what had pulled her from a deep sleep, Emily stared up at the ceiling and waited for some sign to clue her in. The night was still around her, only the sound of the wind whipping up the snow still falling outside broke the quiet inside the house. Aaron's soft breaths tickled the bare skin above her singlet where his head rested on her shoulder, but otherwise he too was still and quiet. A silent sigh escaped her as she closed her eyes.

I hate it when that happens. Now it'll take forever to get back to sleep.

She was just beginning to drift off again when the painful cramping from earlier in the evening came back, this time with enough sharp edges to cause her to gasp softly and try to ease out from under Aaron's weight so that she could curl up on her side.

He must have been up later than expected, because he didn't even stir just now. Probably the stress of the snow-laden drive out here also helped put him out cold.

She wondered if the hot water bottle was close by, or if Aaron had returned it before coming to bed. But as another sharp pain extended through her with even more ferocity, feeling like something familiar, she thought somehow that the bottle was not going to aid in what ailed her.

It's just not possible...

Breathing deeply as the pains began to run into each other, she reached a hand down to her underwear and slipped it inside. Feeling around for a minute as realisation solidified itself in her mind, confirmed by the knowledge of the wet patch on the bed she could suddenly feel under her and the hole that just shouldn't be forming, the words screamed through her head just as the intense need to push gripped her body and had her following through on the motion before she could stop herself.

Oh god, I'm having a baby!

"Aaron," she gasped out softly, trying hard not to thrash as she forced her body to curl enough to get her underwear off. "Aaron, wake up."

He stirred slightly beside her as she pushed a second time and then it was too late for her to wake him gently because the cry of a baby shocked her into a momentary stillness before her brain reminded her of what she needed to do.

"What on earth?" Aaron demanded groggily from her side as a lamp came on.

The light had her blinking at its brightness, but her eyes adjusted quickly because she had been looking so intently at the suddenly loud space between her legs.

"Oh god," Aaron breathed as the bed shifted behind her.

Her hands shook as they reached down for the tiny infant screaming where it lay. That it was healthy wasn't in doubt if the strength of the cries was anything to go by, but the oh so tiny size of the child scared its mother witless. Turning the baby over carefully, she found that she was holding a tiny little scrap of a girl in hands that were beginning to steady as her natural need to nurture and protect took hold.

She pulled the little girl to her chest as Aaron jumped up to grab the soft throw rug draped over the back of the rocker in the corner of the room. Tears slid down her face as the folded blanket was placed over the both of them. Looking at her husband, she shook her head in wonder as his hands cupped her face.

"How did we not know?" she demanded shakily.

He shook his head slowly. "I've no clue. You read and hear about things like this happening all the time, but I've never known anyone it happened to until now. Are you alright?"

Emily didn't answer him right away. She was too caught up in trying to calm the angry cries that somehow sounded so loud in the quiet night. Wondering if anything was impossible in that moment, she shifted her singlet out of the way and put the tiny rosebud of a mouth to her nipple and waited. She didn't have to wait long, though it was quickly clear that they were a little too late in achieving the quiet she had sought.

"Oh my god."

She looked up at the door as Aaron stated dryly, "There's a lot of that going around at the moment." He shifted his body back a little and hooking a hand in the comforter, pulled it up to her waist as Elizabeth walked into the room followed by her husband. Both of them looked like they'd been sucker punched.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Thomas demanded.

Emily gently wiped away some of the drying gunk she could see around her new daughters eyes as Aaron replied. The conversation fell away from her as she thought back over the last year of her life.

Well that certainly explains the weight gain and the why of not being able to get it to drop off once I got my act together.

She looked over the tiny features she could see, feeling relief at the strength of the little mouth rhythmically pulling at her nipple. As tiny as she was, everything looked perfectly proportioned, and the volume of her previous cries told the story of just how well developed her lungs were.

"Emily?"

Startled out of her contemplation, she looked up to find all the adults looking at her closely.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

Aaron frowned. "I was just about to ask you that. You winced just now."

"Did I?" She thought about what was happening as she felt another pain that caused another wince. "It's probably just the afterbirth. I doubt we'd be having a third set of twins. I mean, how lucky/unlucky could we possibly get?"

A few minutes later that question was answered to everyone's utter shock.

Aaron took his newest daughter into his arms now that they'd snapped out of their initial shock and used string and scissors to cut the cord, as Emily moved to comfort their youngest son, who was thankfully crying just as loudly as his sister had been a few minutes earlier. A moment later, they were again bathed in quiet as the baby boy took to feeding just as quickly as his sister had.

"Any more in there?" Aaron joked weakly as he watched Emily closely.

Despite the sudden weary grin on her face, Emily replied quickly, "Bite your tongue sir. Seven children, with three sets of twins, is more than enough for anyone."

He shook his head in wonder. "There were almost no signs, and the weight gain was simply attributed to your depression and overeating. How is it the doctor missed it?"

She shrugged and shifted back against the pillows behind her. "I wasn't feeling physically unwell, and like you said, the depression caused me to eat a lot of very unhealthy foods. There was just no reason to think there was anything more going on." She sighed softly. "I should have had the doctor examine me anyway; then this wouldn't have been as much of a shock as it has been. If I'd known, we could have avoided all the drama, pain and grief we've suffered over this past year."

Conversation halted as she delivered the afterbirth, then Elizabeth and Aaron helped her into the bathroom with the children to clean up while Thomas took care of changing the bedding and getting the soiled load in to wash. An hour later, she was back in bed, and Elizabeth and Thomas had returned to their room leaving the shocked couple to get what rest they could if at all possible.

"We need to come up with names," Aaron said with a yawn as he cuddled his daughter.

Emily nodded agreement as she watched her son sleep, his little mouth moving as if he was still feeding. They had improvised cloth and safety pins for nappies, and used soft blankets to wrap them up snugly to make up for the lack of clothing they had on hand for the new arrivals. Elizabeth had mentioned that there might just be a cradle up in the attic, but Emily had talked her mother out of sending Thomas up to look for it just then. Daylight would be soon enough to check for it and anything else they might be able to find in a trunk of Emily's things from when she was a baby.

"I've given this no thought whatsoever. I mean, I figured I was done with newborns after the boys were born and then with the miscarriage. I am well and truly out of my depth at the moment. And we definitely need to stop this right here and now. No more babies after these."

"Isn't that what we said after Micah and James?" Aaron teased softly.

She shot him a dry smile as she stroked the soft skin around her son's mouth. "Can we name him Michael?"

"I like that a lot. How about we make it Michael Patrick?"

She smiled softly at the baby. "How about that little one? Do you like Michael Patrick?" The baby ignored her, his tiny mouth still working, so she lifted her eyes to Aaron's and smiled. "I love that. Michael Patrick Hotchner it is."

He lifted her hand and kissed the palm, holding on to it as he looked down at the baby in his arms.

"What about her...any ideas?"

She studied the girl she was sure already had her father wrapped around her little finger.

"I keep coming back to Renee and Josephine."

"So, Renee Josephine or Josephine Renee?"

"Um…"

They watched the baby continue to sleep peacefully as she tried both combinations in her head, but in the end, they both figured it out at the same time.

"Josephine Renee," filled the silence from them both at the same time, causing them to laugh softly before sharing a warm kiss.

"Josephine Renee Hotchner and Michael Patrick Hotchner, welcome to the family," Aaron said softly.

"You know," Emily mused softly, "the kids are going to be shocked. Are they going to understand that we didn't deliberately keep them in the dark about this?"

"Here's a better question for you; is the gang going to believe we didn't deliberately keep this a secret?"

She winced at that. "Good point. Except for Jack, it's doubtful the kids will question us if we say that we were surprised, and he'll be fine once we pinky swear that we were indeed ignorant until the very last minute. The group is going to be another matter to deal with entirely. I was moaning about my weight a few weeks ago and about how much more I'd be putting on with the Christmas feast and Penelope joked that the weight might mean I was pregnant."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. There was a pretty stunned silence until she suddenly realised what she'd said and apologised profusely, and it was okay. I was still a bit hurt, but I knew she wasn't being vicious so I let it go and joked that I was completely certain that I was done with the baby making."

"Well you definitely are now. I know we talked about it loosely after the last time, but I'm going to look more closely into what's involved in having a vasectomy. I won't ask you to go through a hysterectomy, because we've both witnessed firsthand how Teresa struggled in the aftermath. If I can have myself fixed without the emotional issues, I think that just might be a good idea, since we seem to get pregnant even when we are specifically trying not to."

She laughed softly. "It's only because you're such a stud."

He snorted humourlessly. "Hey, you're hands down the hottest woman I know; it is totally not all my fault."

They looked at each other indignantly for a moment, then laughed softly together before spending a few minutes kissing and then shifting themselves down to attempt to sleep for the few hours they had left before the early morning bombing run that was a chaotic Christmas morning tradition.

Indeed, it seemed that they had just drifted back to sleep when the door burst open and the shrieking started. At three and a half and four and a half, the four youngest Hotchner's weren't always that observant, particularly when excited. But when Jack came to an abrupt half just short of the edge of the bed, the other four followed suite and peered around their big brother, eyes round with shock and all five mouths hanging open as they stared at their parents and the small loads they held in their arms.

Finally Jack cleared his throat and squeaked, "Where did they come from?"

New Section

"Hey guys, I think the Hotchner's finally managed to unbury themselves; looks like their car is pulling in now."

Dave stepped up beside Derek and checked his watch. "Just in time too. There's only 15 minutes left until midnight."

Teresa settled a light hand on his back and peered out the window between them. "It's still snowing lightly out and they're going to have sleeping kids in the back seat. Maybe you should go give them a hand so they can bring them in all at once."

Dave took Teresa's hand and kissed it lightly as he shifted away from the window. "I knew when I married you that you'd end up being the beauty and the brains of this outfit."

She laughed and shoved him gently towards the front door. Derek followed and they walked out behind Brad and Kelly, who had obviously had the same idea about helping out that Teresa had.

Emily and Aaron shot grins at the four of them as they approached.

"Anyone would think you were anxious for us to get here and had been standing with noses pressed to the glass," Emily teased with a laugh as Aaron got the sliding door along the side of the van open.

"Derek almost was for the last half an hour, though Dave was there a couple of times for a few minutes too," Kelly teased right back, laughing also as Derek and Dave protested her description of their behaviour.

The two guys took the girls and turned to take them inside as they stirred sleepily in the sudden cold. Kelly took Micah from Aaron's arms and Brad had moved to collect James when something further in the van caught his eye as Emily climbed in.

"No way," he breathed, shooting a shocked look at Aaron only to find the older man looking at him with amused understanding written all over his face. "You didn't know?"

"No clue whatsoever. Emily got woken up by the pain Christmas morning; I got woken up by a healthy set of lungs announcing sheer displeasure of the sudden change in circumstances."

"That's a double though."

"Yeah well, by the time the second one popped out, all four of us adults were well and truly awake and paying attention."

"Incredible. Have you seen a doctor yet?"

Aaron got James out of his seat as Jack climbed sleepily out behind him, and Brad put a steadying hand under Emily's elbow as she stepped down out of the van with the double carrier.

"We were actually hoping you would be willing to look the three of us over. We were quite literally snowed in until just before lunch this morning, so the only thing we really have that is new is the carrier, purchased at the first Walmart we passed on the way back. We don't think there's anything wrong, but just to be on the safe side, it would be great to get your opinion today before we stop in at the hospital tomorrow to be sure."

"Of course," he said immediately, continuing to support Emily in case she found a patch of ice as they made their way up the walk and into the warmth of Dave and Teresa's house. Waiting at the front door to close it up after them, Teresa could only stare in shock at Emily's handful.

"Again?"

They all turned to look at Penelope, and the hall filled quickly as everyone came to find out why she was shrieking so late in the evening. Of course, then all they could do was stare as Emily squirmed in embarrassment.

"What happened to you definitely not being pregnant?" Jordan finally asked dryly.

Emily blushed. "I swear to you that until I pushed the first one out, I had absolutely no idea that I was pregnant."

"Perhaps we should move into the living room for this conversation," Dave said, recovering his senses enough to note how pale Emily looked and how tired Aaron was.

As they all trooped into the living room, Sean clapped his brother on the back and joked, "You guys need to stop shelling out babies. Otherwise you're going to need a bigger house, and the one you've already got is huge."

Aaron rolled his eyes at his brother and put him in a headlock as Emily sat on the floor beside Brad with the carrier, immediately undoing the straps holding her daughter in place before handing the baby over as everyone else found places to sit.

"They're very tiny," Brad observed now that he had light to see.

"Hey, how come he gets first cuddles?" Sean demanded in mock annoyance as he smoothed his mussed hair.

"Because they haven't been seen by a doctor yet," Aaron replied.

Emily grinned at him. "Do you want to come and hold him while Brad finishes up with her Uncle Sean?"

Sean grinned eagerly and hurried over as Derek asked, "You had one of each?"

"Yes. Brad is examining Josephine Renee, who was born first." When Brad nodded his acknowledgement of that information, she continued as she gently handed Sean her son. "This is Michael Patrick, the new youngest son of the Hotchner clan."

"Seven children is going to be a handful. How're you going to cope?"

Emily shot an amused smile over at Jack, who was talking quietly with Toby before answering Carrie's question.

"Jack kindly offered to stay home from school to help me out." She waited for the soft laughter to dissipate before continuing. "Once I got my mirth under control because I could see that he seriously wanted to help me out, I gently vetoed that idea. I explained that India, Chloe, Micah and James are at day care for a couple of days a week already, and that Aaron and I have discussed increasing the days India and Chloe are there in preparation for the start of school in the fall. So they'll be there now four days a week, while I put the younger boys in for three days instead of the one or two of before. This will all help and for the rest, I'll just be leaning more heavily on Carrie for assistance."

"I'd be happy to come hang out and give you a hand on the days you have all of the kids if you'd like the additional set of hands," Jordan said quickly as Brad and Sean swapped babies.

Emily grinned at Jordan. "I'm pretty certain our husbands moan whenever we get together."

"Let them moan," Jordan said with a challenging smile. "How much mischief we get up to is absolutely none of their business.

"I could be up for more girl time if you can deal with more company," Teresa spoke up tentatively. JJ, who was on maternity leave after having Aiden Sawyer a month before, quickly indicated she'd be there too if it wasn't too much trouble and Austin nodded eager agreement.

"The more the merrier," Carrie said with a smile that encompassed the entire room. "Especially since I'm pregnant again."

When the delighted congratulations died down, Penelope pouted. "That all sounds like so much fun, it makes me wish I was pregnant again just so I could take the time off of work and join you."

They all laughed just as Dave noticed the time and lunged for the tv remote. Somehow he managed to turn on the tv and pump the volume all the way up at the same time just as the fireworks heralding the beginning of the new year began. By the time he managed to get the volume to a more manageable level, Brad was able to get a clear idea of the strength of the youngest Hotchners lungs as they cried their shock at being woken up so abruptly. Dave was the recipient of some dirty looks as the adults moved to check on children who were now well and truly awake when they should be sleeping.

Emily rolled her eyes, laughing softly as Teresa sent Dave off to check on Isabella and Nathaniel in punishment for waking everyone up and looked back down at the babies she'd just brought into the world.

"You okay?" Brad asked her softly as he handed Michael to her to comfort. Josephine was already calming under Sean's touch.

She shot him a tired smile and nodded, happy despite her utter exhaustion.

"There is no possible way I could be happier. But this is definitely it."

He grinned as Sean stated, "I'm not in the least surprised."

Brad laughed as he added, "You'll be happy to know that they're fine as near as I can see without taking bloods or using diagnostic equipment."

"Good. I'd hate to have gone through what I've been through only to have more suffering heaped upon my healing heart."

"You've definitely earned some happiness," Brad agreed.

She nodded slowly and watched as the adults trickled back in to the room. "To 2017, a year filled with happiness."

"Here here," they agreed softly as all three raised imaginary glasses in a toast.

End

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