Chapter 36

Don't Poke the Bear

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"Emily, you need to relax."

At seven months pregnant, and with Christmas only days away, Aaron had been treated to his wife as he'd never seen her before. Or maybe it was simply that she was pregnant that had him on the edge of his seat while she bought and wrapped more Christmas presents than he'd ever seen before. And she was good. He woke up some mornings to find gifts under the tree for him he'd never seen before.

"I am relaxing," Emily replied, making quick work of cutting the perfect square of wrapping paper. "Aaron, I'm wrapping presents, no stress involved."

"Honey, you have tomorrow to do that."

Emily shot him a short glare. "I cannot. We are having people over tomorrow and this house is a mess."

"Probably because you've wrapped Christmas gifts in every room," Aaron pointed out, his hand rubbing up and down her back. It was one thing he knew bothered his wife, along with her swollen ankles. Those had actually been the catalyst to her reluctant agreement to work from Quantico at the beginning of her seventh month. She would go on maternity leave at eight, but he knew she'd be going into the office at least three times a week, more when they were away.

"I can't have you boys seeing everything," Emily replied, leaning back into her husband's touch.

He kissed her temple. "You're spoiling us," he said, kissing her temple, her cheek, sucking her earlobe into his mouth.

"Aaron... you're distracting me..."

"Mmhmm... That's the point."

"I need to – oh! – finish these. These are the team gifts."

"I'll help you wrap them tomorrow," he taunted, moving behind her and trailing kisses down the column of her neck. He grinned when her hands faltered on the wrapping.

"Aaron..."

"Emily." He injected all of the heat he was feeling into her name and grinned when she shivered.

She tilted her head back, accepting his ardent kiss. "You are going to be the death of me."

He would never make that mistake again. As much as he enjoyed making passionate love to his wife, the next day... well, he wasn't sure it was worth it. He'd woken at seven and his wife was no longer cuddled against him. Quick inventory of the house told him she was back to wrapping. His attempt to coax her back to bed had proven dangerous and so, he'd gone back upstairs to shower. And been interrupted by a stressed and hormonal Emily Hotchner.

A twenty-minute stressful crying bout later, he was trying to juggle his now-awake son – trying to explain what was wrong with Emily to a fearful Jack had been its own challenge – and the end of the gift wrapping. Emily had begun working while simultaneously trying to vacuum, put all of Jack's toys away and clean the downstairs bathroom. Finally, unable to take watching her any longer and aware there was the distinct possibility he could lose a limb. So he called in the cavalry.

"Merry Christmas!" peppy Penelope Garcia greeted.

Aaron glanced quickly around the guest bedroom hoping Emily wasn't in the process of trying to hunt him down. "Garcia, we need your help. Well, Emily does."

"What's wrong? Is the baby okay?" Penelope asked, immediately concerned.

"She's running everywhere."

"While pregnant with high blood pressure? For tonight?" Penelope asked.

"Yes."

"Why is Mama-Bear not resting?"

Aaron blew out a breath. "She won't let me do anything and she insists there's too much to do for her to relax."

"I'll be over in forty-five minutes with Derek and Gabi. Make sure she doesn't kill herself or you in that time," Penelope ordered.

He could already hear her moving around. "Thank you," he said, relief and sincerity strong in his voice.

"Always, Boss Man!" she replied happily. "See you soon!"

Emily wrinkled her brow as the doorbell rang. Her jaw all but dropped when she pulled open the door. "Pen?"

"Merry Christmas!" the blond exclaimed, wrapping her arms tightly around the brunette as Derek, arms filled with presents, smiled his greeting. Gabi was standing innocently beside him with a small gift bag in her hands.

"You are... very early," Emily said, confusion lacing her voice, watching as Penelope took some of the presents from Derek.

"I am," Penelope agreed. "And I brought reinforcements."

Emily blinked. "Why?" she asked, picking up Gabi, snowsuit and all as the little girl came to stand by her leg.

Penelope pushed the door closed with her hip and followed Derek's path into the Hotchner living room. "Because you, Mama Bear, are going to kill yourself."

Suddenly, it started to make sense. "Aaron called you."

"He did," Penelope agreed. "He's worried about you."

"I'm fine, there's just so much to do."

"And you are seven months pregnant with high blood pressure. You need to relax, Em," Derek finally spoke up, guiding his best friend to the couch.

"You need to spend some time with your goddaughter and step-son, let me and Derek and Hotch handle the cleaning," Penelope ordered. "And I will take nothing but yes for the answer to that. Go downstairs to the play room and help Gabi bake cookies."

Emily had sat Gabi on her lap when she'd dropped to the couch cushions and was going about removing the snow-wear from her goddaughter. "Pen, I couldn't ask you to do that."

"You're not. I'm offering, with your husband's help," Penelope replied. "And I'm drafting Derek, you cannot turn me down."

That much was true. "Where's Fran?"

"JJ and Reid are going to pick her up on their way," Derek answered. "I wasn't going to ask her to come now."

"Guys, really..."

"Em'ly?"

Jack sounded so terrified that Emily felt tears welling in her eyes. "Yes, Jack?"

The eight-year-old climbed carefully up onto the couch beside her. "Can you tell me a story?"

Emily wiped the tears that were leaking from her lashes, smiling at the little girl in her lap.

"A' Em, kay?"' Gabi asked in her little voice.

"Yeah," Emily said, standing and holding out her hand to Jack. "Let's go up to Daddy and my bed and I'll tell you two a story."

Hours later, Aaron made his way up the stairs, leaving Penelope and Derek arguing in the living room. He hadn't heard a peep from Gabi, Jack or Emily since they'd headed upstairs for story time. What he found touched his heart, the same way it had years ago when he'd first come across the sight. Gabi wasn't around at the time, but the way she and Jack were playing together on the floor of his bedroom while Emily, tucked under Jack's simple blue comforter – he'd decided he was too old for the cartoon one he'd had, though he continued to sleep on Batman sheets – was fast asleep.

"Hiya Daddy," Jack greeted.

"Unca A-on," Gabi smiled, carefully pushing herself up with a hand from Jack and waddling her way to his side.

"Merry Christmas, Miss Gabriella," Aaron replied, pulling her up into his arms. "Were you a good girl this year? You think Santa will come visit?"

"Sanna!" Gabi agreed, bouncing on Aaron's hip.

"Em'ly fell asleep," Jack said solemnly.

Aaron nodded. "I see that. Why don't we go downstairs and leave her sleep for a little bit longer?" He had no intention of doing that at all. On the contrary, he knew that if Emily didn't get up soon, waking her would be a rather unpleasant experience. It was on a good day, but if Emily discovered that she'd fallen asleep two hours before guests were set to arrive – his parents and hers among that number – she would probably be back to that stressful state he'd been worried about earlier.

"Okay," Jack agreed, diligently putting his toys back in their box while his father waited.

Aaron smiled at his son, aware that Emily's explosions earlier in the day had made him a little afraid of the brunette woman. He'd tried to reassure his son that this wasn't normal and Emily was just feeling a little stressed, but he wasn't surprised that Jack made sure to clean up after himself.

After settling the children in front of Rudolph, Gabi's Christmas movie of choice this year, Aaron made his way back up the steps and into his son's room. Emily was still sound asleep, one hand over her stomach, the other curled under her head. "Emily, sweetheart, it's time to wake up."

"Hmm?"

He perched himself on the edge of the bed, one hand running through her hair as he leaned down to press a kiss to her cheek. "It's time to get up."

"I fell asleep?"

"You did," he agreed, smiling into the groggy dark eyes that fluttered open. "You know, you are just as beautiful now as the first time you woke up in Jack's bed."

"I'm in Jack's room?"

She seemed so confused that Aaron almost tucked her in again. It was obvious that the stress was getting to her and he was thankful that tomorrow's Christmas celebrations would only be the two of them. Jack was set to go back to Haley's while the rest of the team had their own little plans. "You are, sweetheart," he replied, stroking her hair. "You were probably playing with Gabi and Jack."

"I was," she remembered, pushing the blanket off of herself and slowly sitting up.

Aaron helped, knowing it was getting more and more difficult for her to move. Still, he loved her baby-belly and told her almost nightly. "People will be here in an hour."

"An hour?!"

"Relax, Emily," he told her, stern but soft. "Everything's done. The bathroom's clean, both upstairs and down, we've vacuumed almost every room in this house – I'm pretty sure Garcia made Morgan vacuum the living room twice – all of the presents are wrapped and Garcia's got the turkey in the oven already. The rest is the fixings that I know you wanted to do with JJ here. You just need to make yourself even more beautiful and come downstairs."

Emily seemed to relax at that, at least a little. "I'm sorry for being so unbearable."

"You weren't unbearable, honey." The look she shot him had him backtracking. "You were stressed. A little bit of yelling isn't the end of the world."

"And Jack?"

"Concerned and maybe a little scared, but it's nothing to worry about, Emily." He smiled when she sighed and leaned against him.

"As much as I'm enjoying pregnancy-"

"You are?" he interrupted cheekily.

"Do not poke the bear, Mister Hotchner," she replied, though he saw a smile playing at the corner of her mouth. "I am enjoying pregnancy. Most of it, anyway. Except the hormones, the sore back and the swollen ankles."

"Mmm, tomorrow," he began, mouth against the side of her head. "We will have a relaxing bath, a quiet dinner and we will sit down and watch whatever you'd like and I'll massage those poor sore feet of yours."

"That sounds fantastic," Emily replied, leaning up to kiss him.

There was no way he could resist her deepening the kiss, but he was the one who pulled away. "People, Emily," he reminded her. "I can hold down the fort for another ten minutes while you get changed." He stood, holding out his hands to her.

"I love you," she said, as they parted ways in the hall.

"Love you too," he replied unable to stop the wide smile crossing over his face.

Updated fast enough? I'm kidding, I love this story. This was my baby series so it's a little close to my heart. In fact, it's very close to my heart. I love this series, I really do.

I welcome ideas. Here's the thing though, I'm tossing around the idea of really focusing on Aaron and Emily since this series really started out with them. At the same time, I know that Pen and Derek deserve to (finally!) get engaged and if my child story is going to work out... well, lets just say there are BAU children in the future, definitely. What I'd like to know, is whether you'd like to see each of those things happen (Pen and Derek's engagement is second to only the birth of Em and Aaron's baby, by the way).

I'm debating just doing the bits and pieces in the middle (the birth of all the children, Pen and Derek's wedding day...) as a series of oneshots grouped into one story instead of doing them here, simply because a) the children story I've got written takes place when Gabi's 18 and b) then it won't be so jumpy in this story. It would still exist in this universe, but I'm thinking that would be the easiest way to do it. I'd throw some holiday stuff in there, maybe a vacation or two, but it wouldn't be such a close timeline. Things would happen months and years after each other in the shots.

I'd love to hear your opinions.

Loves to you all and I hope you had a great Christmas/are having a good holiday!