It was the week after Derek's birthday. He was putting Serena to bed and Emily was sprawled out on the couch reading. Derek came downstairs and sat on the ottoman in front of her. He reached over and lifted her shirt and bent to kiss her stomach.
"Hey, my baby," he said to her belly. "Did you have a good day in there? You enjoying that steak your Mommy pounded at dinner?"
Emily laughed and put her book to the side. Derek sat up straight and looked at her.
"Can we talk?" he asked.
Emily pushed herself to a sitting position and put her feet on the ground, facing him. "You look very serious. What's up?"
He let out loud breath. "There are some openings at Quantico where I could transfer. All of them involve some travel, though a lot less than I do now. But there's an opening in the DC field office. It would mean no traveling. What do you think?"
She stared at him for a few seconds and took his hands in hers. "Honey, no. Unless you really want to, but I don't think you do. I think you'd be doing it because you think I'd be happier."
"Would you be happier?"
She smiled at him. "Do I look unhappy now? I don't think you could find a happier person than me, Derek. I know you miss us when you're gone, and I know that feeling will increase after the baby is born, but you also love your job. There's a part of me that wants to tell you to take the DC job, stay local. But I know you'd be miserable. I'd rather have a happy, whole you three or four days a week than more time with a dissatisfied you. Besides, that field office job is no less dangerous than what you do now, and I currently have five people I know and trust with our lives watching your back."
He shook his head slowly. "But what if it's all more than you can handle after the baby comes?"
Emily cupped his cheeks with her hands, "Since we've had Serena, when you're home, you walk on clouds. Every part of you is satisfied and happy. That's the Derek Morgan I want. And if it feels like too much for me to handle after the baby comes, we'll talk and figure something out. There are always options. If you ever want a career change for you, I'm behind you all the way. But don't take a preemptive strike that will make you unhappy just because you're worried about something that may or may not happen in the future."
"You're sure?"
"Positive." Emily stood up and pulled on his hands, coaxing him into a standing position. She wrapped her arms around him and whispered in his ear, "You are the sweetest, most wonderful man on the planet. I want you to know that I think our future is going to be even more amazing than our present. I have faith in that."
She felt him smile against her neck before he kissed a path up to her lips.
"Do you think Serena's asleep?" she asked.
"She was out before I left the room."
Emily took his hand and led him to the den, the only real room they had at the moment with a door.
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That summer, Serena alternated weeks between the summer camp at her school and time with Judy and her kids. Judy offered, and Emily and Derek wanted to test the waters on how it felt to pay a friend and neighbor for childcare before the baby arrived.
Back in April, during Serena's birthday party, Judy had talked about the summer swim club they joined every year. Emily and Derek signed up right away. Michelle Stone and her family, and JJ and Will also joined. Thus began the quest for a maternity swim suit for Emily. The problem was not her belly; her boobs decided they wanted to get in on the action, too, much to Derek's delight. By the time the end of June arrived, she was up one cup size. Finding a swim suit with appropriate support was difficult, but she finally located one that worked, and they started hitting the pool whenever they could.
On July 4th, the pool held an all-day festival that concluded with a small firework display. They were a happy bunch at the pool that day - JJ, Will and Henry, Judy and her family. Michelle's husband was on a business trip, but she came with her kids.
Serena loved splashing around in the shallow end with her friends. Emily had started her in lessons at the pool two weeks before and she was getting to be a bit more of a confident swimmer.
All of the adults were sitting in lounge chairs watching the kids playing in the pool when Serena shouted, "Daddy, come swim with me!"
Derek smiled and stood up, removed his t-shirt and walked to the pool steps.
Michelle, who was a lounge chair over from Emily, lowered her sunglasses, looked at a shirtless Derek and said, "Damn, Emily."
Both Emily and JJ laughed.
Judy piped up, "I give Bethany Young thirty seconds before she attacks."
The other women looked over at her and Judy explained, "She's always at the pool and on the prowl, trying to find any man who will take her bait. That's her over there in the hot pink bikini."
They looked at a woman in her thirties in the shallow end with bleached hair and a clearly fake tan. Sure enough, as soon as Derek entered the water, she was right next to him. Derek did a good job of trying to ignore her while he played with Serena, but she was relentless.
After a several minutes of being pestered, Derek made his way over to the side of the pool nearest Emily and mouthed the words, "Help me."
Emily laughed and took off her swim coverup, joining him in the water.
Later that afternoon, the kids were sitting on their towels on the pool deck enjoying ice cream cones while the adults sat around a table, playing a friendly game of Texas hold 'em, betting with pretzels. Serena came over and crawled onto Derek's lap. Emily smiled at her, curious about what she might say or do now that she understood this game. She didn't do anything at first except observe, watching people bet and seeing people go out.
Emily and Will went out when Judy's husband, Alan, got an incredibly lucky river card and drew a straight. Only Alan and Derek remained in the game. They played a couple of rounds, each taking turns folding their bad hands. Then a round came where they both were betting. Serena's face was unreadable as she looked at Derek's pocket cards. Both he and Alan continued to bet as the flop and turn came out. When the river card was played, Derek reached for his pile of pretzels, ready to go all in. Serena put her hand on his before he could do that.
"Don't, Daddy. Alan keeps tapping his finger on the table. He does that when he has a really good hand, better than what you have."
Statistics lesson my ass, Spencer Reid, thought Emily.
JJ laughed, "Spencer's teaching her to look for tells?"
Derek chuckled and checked. Alan looked at him and Serena, knowing Derek would probably fold if he bet. He checked, too, and shook his head. Derek turned his cards over, showing his pocket pair of nines, giving him three nines since one was in the flop. Alan turned his cards over; it was a straight.
Serena turned her head and smiled at Derek, "I told you, Daddy!" Everyone at the table laughed.
Henry came up then and said, "Serena, let's swim!" Will stood and said he'd go with them.
The conversation at the table centered around poker and Serena for a bit. A few minutes later, Bethany showed up and took Will's vacated chair. She introduced herself and tried to participate in the conversation, laughing a little too much whenever Derek said something, blinking at him slowly, hanging on his every word. Emily actually wanted to laugh at loud at her obvious desperation. Derek reached over and took Emily's hand and Bethany gave her a brief harsh look.
Emily looked at JJ, giving a slight roll of her eyes. JJ winked at her.
"So, Emily, what exactly do you do for work?" JJ asked a little bit louder than necessary.
The group quieted and Emily smirked at JJ. "Well, right now I'm a consultant for local law enforcement and the FBI. I used to be the head of the Interpol in London. And before that, I was an FBI agent. Prior to that..." Emily scrunched up her face for a second, seeming to consider the group, "Well, it's one of those situations where I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."
JJ looked at her in mock shock. "You mean you carried a gun? Did you ever shoot anyone?"
"Yes and yes."
"Wow," said JJ, shaking her head.
Emily shrugged and put her elbow on the table. She rested her chin in her hand and sighed, looking around the group and settling her eyes on Bethany. "Sometimes I really miss that gun."
Bethany stood and excused herself, saying there was something she needed to do. The group let her get a bit away before they couldn't contain themselves any longer and started laughing.
JJ tipped her beer towards Emily. "Well played, Em."
Emily grinned and tipped her water bottle back at JJ, "Nicely orchestrated, my friend."
They enjoyed the rest of their afternoon and the barbeque dinner at the pool. As it grew dark, a very tired but very excited Serena laid with them on a lounge chair, waiting for the fireworks to start. Emily was sitting between Derek's legs, leaning back against him and Serena was snuggled with her head on Emily's shoulder, her body pressed against Emily's side.
Emily felt the baby kicking hard and Serena popped her head up and smiled, having felt the kicks against her thighs where they rested on Emily's middle. She scooted her body down, placed her hands on Emily's stomach and exclaimed, "You're excited about the fireworks. too, aren't you?" Emily felt a few more kicks and Serena grinned at her and Derek before sliding back up and resting her head on Emily's shoulder again. "I think the baby likes my voice."
Emily squeezed Serena with her arm and Derek brought his hand up and placed it on Serena's head, "Of course the baby does, Serena," he said.
The first firework burst in the sky and Serena sat up in awe, scooting to the edge of the lounge chair and looking up.
"Is it weird that I'm on the verge of crying, Em?" asked Derek.
"I'm right there with you. It's a holiday and we're a family and it's wonderful."
Derek laughed. "We better invest in Kleenex and life jackets before Christmas. We'll have two kids then and the tears will be a flood."
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They ordered baby furniture online and it was delivered and stored in their garage, which was very full at the moment. They made quick final decisions for the finishing touches on their home addition. The only thing they pondered over was the color of the baby's room, finally settling on a nice sage green that would go well with the one thing Emily and Derek had ordered that they wanted to incorporate in that room.
On July 24th, about twelve weeks after the construction began, it ended. The team came back that weekend and helped them move their bedroom furniture, the old spare bedroom furniture and the baby furniture back into the house.
After they'd all eaten dinner together, after the team left, after Serena was in bed, Emily and Derek entered the baby's room holding the package that had come in the mail a couple of weeks before. They worked together to put the large tree wall decal up. Then they added four mockingbird wall decals to the branch that stretched over the baby's crib. The Morgans were all singing pretty music for the world to hear.
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Emily declined a traditional baby shower, despite much eye rolling on the part of Penelope and JJ. But on the last Wednesday in August, when Emily was about 34 weeks pregnant, she walked into the briefing room at the BAU and was greeted with a shockingly huge pile of gifts and six happy people who didn't really care if Emily liked being the center of attention or not. She was getting a baby shower.
Annette called that evening with a court date for Serena's final adoption hearing, the next Friday, September 4. Emily had talked with Serena when she changed her name, and she and Derek had had conversations with her about her own last name. Serena had no reservations in this area - she wanted to be a Morgan, too. Fran flew in for the adoption hearing and she and Serena had a happy reunion. The pictures from the courtroom that day say it all. Radiant, that's how Emily would describe the looks on their faces. In Emily's favorite picture, snapped just after they'd signed the final paper, Derek was holding Serena in his arms, a smile on his face, looking at Emily who was turned towards his body. Serena had one arm around his neck but was leaning towards Emily, with her little hand on Emily's cheek. They were smiling at each other. Emily will never forget that moment, not just because of the picture, but because of what Serena had said just a second before it was snapped: "Forever, Mommy."
The following Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, she returned to school as Serena Morgan, a very excited and happy Kindergartner.
Emily had gradually been cutting back on taking on any new job assignments as her due date approached. She intended to put in her ten hours a week at the BAU until she felt like she couldn't anymore, or until she went into labor - whichever came first. But she only had a full day to put that Thursday with Linda Horton in Fairfax, and then she was done consulting. She had Garcia pull her website for the time being and told her regular clients that she'd be in touch after the first of the year.
Derek was going off travel duty once Emily reached 38 weeks. He'd still be working cases, but doing so from the BAU. He was not going to risk missing the birth. The new agent, Byron Goldstone, who they'd brought in from a different unit was gradually acclimating to the BAU. He was still finishing up some cases from his old unit so wasn't with the BAU everyday yet, but he had traveled on a case with them the week before and all reports so far were that he was going to fit in just fine. Emily liked him. She could see herself learning to trust him to watch Derek's back as well.
That Friday, when she was 36 weeks pregnant, she had an appointment with Dr. Rodgers. Everything still looked perfect. Dr. Rodgers advised her to rest, listen to her body and get ready. It wouldn't be long now. Emily's heart fluttered in excitement. It really wouldn't be long now.
Dr. Rodgers scheduled her to return at the same time the following Friday, but Emily never made it to that appointment.