They all woke up at exactly 9 AM the next morning due to the ringing of Emily's cell phone. She groaned and rolled over, reaching over Hotch to grab it.
Incoming Call: The Oracle of Quantico
"D'you guys have a case?" Declan mumbled tiredly.
"Probably," Emily said regretfully. She answered the phone. "Hey, PG. Where to now?"
"Good morning, Gumdrop," Garcia greeted her in a voice that was way too excited for this hour on a Saturday. "To JJ and Rossi's for a spontaneous gathering this afternoon? We haven't had a get-together with the whole family in ages."
"Really? No case?"
"Nope! Just some good old fashioned family time. Can you make it? You have Declan for the weekend, right?"
"Yeah. Yeah, sure. We'll be there. What time?"
"JJ said one. Tell Hotch and Jack."
"Okay," Emily mumbled, still half asleep. They hung up. She turned to Hotch. "Everyone is heading to Rossi and JJ's later. Garcia wanted me to tell you and Ja – why would she ask me to tell you? Oh my God, did she find out that we're... "
Declan and Jack looked a little guilty, but their parents weren't watching them.
"I'm sure she doesn't know," Hotch reasoned. "She probably just meant you should call me."
"Yeah," Emily agreed slowly. "Yeah, you're right."
But Hotch was wrong. Garcia knew exactly what was going on. Declan and Jack had texted her last night, both asking about Emily's love life. Even though they'd texted at around 2 AM, Garcia had gotten up – she woke Kevin in the process – and went out into the hallway to call JJ. JJ answered, groaning about cases popping up in the middle of the night. When Garcia said she wasn't calling about a case, she heard JJ telling Rossi to go back to bed, and then JJ asked her what was so important that it couldn't wait until 9 AM, which was considered the reasonable time to call someone in the morning, according to the Code.
"I think Emily and Hotch are together," Garcia had told her in a hushed, excited voice.
"Okay, same. But why now? Did Emily say something to you?"
"She would never. But... Declan and Jack might. And I mean I think they're together together. Like, right now. Sleepover style."
That piqued JJ's interest. "What do you mean?"
"I'll tell you more tomorrow. Big party at your place?"
"Sure," JJ had agreed eagerly. Anything to find out if there was anything going on between her team members. She'd been trying to set those two up for years.
"Okay, so here's what I was thinking…"
Now that the two of them were plotting, it was only a matter of time.
#
Emily pulled into the cabin/mansion's driveway at 1:23 pm. She and Declan had been running late, and she'd expected to get some teasing about it – but to her surprise, there were only three cars there so far. JJ's Mazda, Rossi's BMW, and Hotch's Camri.
She narrowed her eyes. This was suspicious.
Would JJ and Garcia really plot to get her and Hotch together, in a casual setting where they could easily be observed, by inviting them to the party an hour before everyone else would arrive?
Yes. They absolutely would.
Declan decided to stay outside with Jack and Henry, who were playing soccer in the front yard. Emily let herself in the front door – she used to knock when going to Rossi's, but now that JJ lived there, it seemed way too formal.
Mudgie, Chance and Bachelor were the only ones to greet her as she entered. She patted each of them in turn and shrugged off her sweater.
"Hello?" she called, venturing farther into the house.
"Hey," she heard Hotch call from the living room.
Emily went in and found him sitting on the loveseat holding both of the now three-and-a-half month old twins on his lap. He bounced them up and down on his knees, and they were both giggling.
Emily smiled and bit her lip, resting a hand on her baby bump.
Hotch looked extremely sexy playing with those babies – she found herself even more attracted to him than usual as she imagined him bouncing her baby on his knee.
"Hi, boys!" she cooed to her best friend's sons as she sank onto the couch next to Hotch. She held out her arms. "Can I?"
"Yeah, of course."
Emily took the baby on the right from Hotch, and carefully looked him over. Then she looked at his twin… Yeah, no idea.
"Which –" she began.
"That's Alex," he told her with a tiny smile. "If you watch them, you can see that their personalities are already a little different. Alex makes a lot more noise, and Luke smiles way more often. When Alex does smile, he looks way more like Dave, and Luke is all JJ."
Bouncing Alex on her knee, Emily looked at Hotch and asked, "Do you think the fact that we're the only ones here right now is a coincidence?"
"Not a chance," he replied certainly. "They're trying to feel us out. Either that, or they have no idea, and they're both trying to play matchmaker. Which is definitely a realistic possibility."
"Where are they, anyway?"
"JJ said she had to finish cleaning –"
"I'm supposed to believe JJ is cleaning?" Emily scoffed. JJ never cleaned. She liked to live in an organized(?) mess. Rossi, on the other hand, needed everything to be perfectly orderly. Their relationship worked out in that JJ never had to clean because Rossi did it before she even got the chance.
Hotch nodded, his eyes crinkling. "I didn't buy it, either. And I haven't seen Dave. They're both probably hiding somewhere, waiting for us to say something revealing."
"How do you want to play this?" she asked quietly.
He hesitated. "I don't know if I want to tell yet."
"Me neither," Emily said, relieved. "I mean, I'm not like embarrassed or anything, and I know they'd – well, JJ and Dave at least, they'd be supportive, but –"
"—It's nice that it's just us right now. I would like more time for us and the boys to get used to things before we let everyone else know."
"That's exactly what I was thinking. I told Declan not to say anything."
"And I told Jack. But I don't know how long eight and eleven year olds can keep a secret."
"Well, if they find out, they find out. But let's not tell them."
Suddenly there was a little creak from the floor in the hallway. Emily's eyes snapped up to meet Hotch's.
"JJ?" she mouthed. He nodded.
"So," Emily said loudly, attempting to fake small talk. "The weather has been great lately. What is it, like 22 out there?"
Hotch looked at her funny, amusement twinkling in his eyes.
"Oh, sorry," she said. "I still think Fahrenheit is stupid. 72?"
"I heard 77, actually," he replied, his voice barely concealing his smile.
"Oh, wow. That's pretty warm for this time of the year."
"Mhm."
They sat there laughing silently for a good fifteen seconds, trying to regain their composure and hoping their friends would mistake it for an awkward silence. Faking small talk wasn't actually this fun – they just liked messing around together.
"So… do you have a lot of… Paperwork?" Emily asked him.
"Well, you know. Paperwork."
"Yeah," she smiled.
Another pause, and then Hotch said, "I like that clock."
Emily almost lost it. There was about ten seconds of silence as she bit hard on her lip to keep from laughing.
"Yeah," she said finally. "It's a good one. Is that colonial?"
"Could be."
Another pause.
"Have you seen any movies lately?" she asked him.
"No. You?"
"Nope."
"How's your… cat?"
"Oh, he's good. I started him on this new diet last week."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. His old food was making him crazy. They changed the ingredients for some reason and it made him super energetic. He scratched all the furniture up. I had to get a new mattress."
"Oh, no. The old one was beyond repair?"
"Yeah. It was totally destroyed."
"That's a bummer. I liked that one."
"Me, too. The new one isn't as good."
JJ, who was eavesdropping from the hallway, couldn't believe her ears. The implication hit her like a freight train and her jaw almost hit the floor. Hotch had been on Emily's mattress?! She turned to where Garcia usually stood on her left, but to her dismay, the technical analyst hadn't yet arrived.
She couldn't resist peeking into the room – and when she did, she saw both Hotch and Emily looking flustered as they realized they'd said too much.
"Shit, I'm sorry," Hotch said under his breath.
"Not your fault," Emily replied just as quietly. "Do you think they heard?"
"I don't know…"
The doorbell rang just then, and all three of them – Hotch, Emily, and JJ – jumped up to answer it. JJ tried to play it casual when they found her right outside of the living room door.
"Honestly, Derek, you don't need to ring the doorbell like we're some sort of tax collectors or Jehovah's witnesses – Hi Gumdrop!" Garcia squealed as she rounded the corner and saw Emily. "Hello, hello," she greeted Hotch and JJ. "I brought gifts for all the kiddos!" she added upon spotting the twins in Hotch's and Emily's arms.
Morgan came in behind her, carrying not only Kendall and some sort of dish for dinner, but also half a dozen gift bags and Garcia's purse. Garcia carried nothing.
"What do I keep telling you about all the gifts?" JJ scolded Garcia as she took Kendall from Morgan.
"I am the fairy godmother!" Garcia yelled defiantly.
She and JJ disappeared mysteriously for a while, taking Kendall with them and leaving Emily with all of the boys – Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Alex, and Luke, along with Henry, Jack, and Declan, who had followed Reid inside because he brought a gallon of chocolate milk.
Emily still had Alex in her arms, and Hotch still had Luke, and Henry was trailing around after his "Uncle Spence". When Alex suddenly started screeching and flailing his limbs around, Emily quickly passed him off to Hotch, rubbing the spot on her baby bump where Alex had kicked her.
"You okay?" Hotch asked, his eyes full of concern, now holding both of the twins again.
"Yeah, it's fine. He didn't kick me that hard."
Henry looked up at them then and said innocently, "Alex is the evil twin."
"Henry, don't say that about your brother –" Rossi started to scold him, but the little boy's 'cool uncles' interrupted him.
Reid's eyebrows shot up. "Is he the evil twin, or the eviler twin?"
"Here we go again," Morgan muttered.
"Eviler twin," Henry specified.
"Oh – Henry," Emily said, shaking her head. "Honey, your brothers aren't evil – and Reid, seriously, you're still on that after what, six years?"
"It's only been five months," Reid said, frowning.
"Five mon– you were talking about that when we were working the Angel Maker case! That was not five months ago –"
"Oh, that's not what I was referring to. I was talking about Wallace Hines and Jesse Gentry."
Emily's brow furrowed. "Okay, fill me in. I don't think I was around for that one."
"Well they were a set of twins separated early in childhood. Wallace started killing as a result of a psychotic break – he killed his stressor first and then kept her body around long enough to feed parts of her head to the rest of his victims – torture with forced cannibalism. It was based on the mating ritual of the praying mantis. Anyway, eventually his twin brother Jesse found out about him and came to the city, and JJ and Morgan arrested Jesse instead of Wallace, and then we had to let him go but we still couldn't find Wallace, and then they started killing women together –"
"Okay, Reid, little ears!" Garcia yelled at him as she reentered the room with JJ. Morgan's hands were already blocking Henry's ears, but Declan and Jack were starting to pay attention now and they both looked mildly concerned.
"That is fucked up," Emily said slowly, eyes wide and her eyebrows pushed together.
"Little ears, Emily Ann!" Garcia shouted. "Do I need to wash your mouth out with soap?"
"Sorry!" Emily cried, slapping her hand over her mouth. She still wasn't used to having kids around all the time.
Emily never figured out what JJ and Garcia had snuck away to discuss, but for the rest of the night they exchanged suggestive eyebrow wiggles every time Emily so much as looked at Hotch.
Which was actually pretty often.
Soon Blake, Kevin, and Savannah arrived, and the whole family was there, minus Seaver, who was on a case, and James Blake, who was teaching at Harvard.
Into the house with Savannah came all of the dogs – Mudgie, Chance, and Bachelor were joined by Morgan's three dogs and Savannah's two – Clooney, Morgan's elderly pitbull, and Winston and Boris, his bulldogs, along with Savannah's pug, Rusty, and her new puppy, an English pointer called Ted. JJ's cat saw this and went running for shelter.
Rossi quickly kicked the entire pack, plus the boys, back out into the back yard, and the adults sat around with drinks making small talk as they watched them all romping around together.
Jack looked like he was in heaven playing tug-of-war with Ted and Boris. There was an expression of pure delight on his face as he yanked on the rope.
Emily nudged Hotch. "You need to buy your kid a puppy," she said quietly.
"It's starting to look like it, isn't it?" he said somewhat regretfully. "I just don't know if we have time for one. Or room."
Emily grimaced. "Yeah, it does take a while to train them up. But you could get something small."
"Maybe. I don't know. I do sort of miss having a dog in the house, though."
Her eyebrows went up. "You had one?"
"Yeah, when Jack was a baby. A Golden Retriever named Maudie. She was the greatest dog I've ever met. Really well-behaved. She almost never barked, and if we told her to sit and stay, she'd sit for hours and hours until we specifically told her she could move."
"Aww, that's sweet," Emily said, envying Hayley a little as she imagined being married to Hotch, living in a pretty little house with baby Jack, a Golden Retriever, and probably a white picket fence – the American dream.
Although, she thought as she watched him happily watching his son, it might not be the American dream, but living with Hotch, Declan, Jack, and the baby in a tiny, cramped apartment – with Sergio, and Jack's hermit crab, and (maybe) a little puppy – that sounded pretty damn good, too.
Actually, living anywhere with Hotch sounded great.
This thought surprised her. She'd only ever lived with two of her boyfriends before (not including Ian) and moving in together had certainly never been her idea. And she'd only been dating Hotch for about a month, but… she was already pretty sure that this relationship was going to last for a long time.
She chewed her lip, eyes smiling. Their relationship was already getting serious – actually, it had pretty much started serious. There was too much at stake for them to even start dating without genuinely wanting it to go somewhere. And lately she'd found herself missing him if they were apart even for a few hours. She wanted him close to her all the time, even when they weren't on a date or at work or on a case.
Yeah, she made a mental note to give him her extra key.
It wasn't quite moving in together, but it sent the right message that she was serious about this, that she wanted him in her life.
Probably clearing out a drawer for him, and maybe part of her closet, was long overdue. He certainly spent enough nights with her. Maybe she could have a drawer at his house, too –
"I need to talk to you," Garcia said under her breath, coming up behind Emily.
Emily froze, the possibilities rushing through her head. What could she possibly know about now?
"Okay," she said slowly with a not-so-subtle glance towards Hotch, who looked mildly uneasy at the tech's announcement. "About what?"
"Come, come," Garcia chirped, commanding. But she was quieter than usual. Emily's eyes narrowed, but she was a little relieved. If the technical analyst was hiding something, too, she could possibly use it to her advantage.
Emily followed Garcia upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms – and then she followed her into the walk-in closet.
So it was one of those meetings.
"Okay, what's the deal?" Emily began as the two of them sat down on the floor of the closet – they were surrounded by even more pairs of JJ's shoes, as though her own closet wasn't already overflowing with them. Garcia moved a pair of red heels over before sinking down next to Emily.
"I did a thing," Garcia admitted.
Emily's eyes narrowed. "What thing?"
Garcia took a deep breath. "Okay. So I don't think this is a violation of the Code, because – well, maybe it is, but I didn't mean for it to be –"
"Pen, spit it out," Emily whined. "Do I need to go get JJ so we can put you on trial?"
"No! I don't think so. Well, maybe. But I wanna give you my side first."
There was a pause, with both women blinking at each other.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Emily asked, growing restless.
"Okay, okay, fine. So last week – when you left early on that Monday, when Clyde called – well, Hotch left early that day, too."
Emily felt a blush creeping onto her face and her heartbeat picked up. They know.
"And Hotch, as you know, does not leave early," Garcia continued, oblivious to how flustered Emily was getting. Thank God she wasn't a profiler. "So Reid thought that was weird. So he went to tell Rossi. And Rossi called me. And he asked me to look into it."
"And?"
"And I did. And I found… Well, I found some stuff that… Listen, whatever you and Hotch are doing, I love it, I'm totally supportive, even if it's nothing – you don't have to tell me right now –"
" –oh my God, what did you do?" It had to be pretty damn bad if she wasn't going to grill her for information on her potential relationship with Hotch. Garcia freaked out any time she suspected Emily so much as went on one date with any guy, and now she'd found enough evidence to know with certainty that Emily and Hotch were seeing each other, and she wasn't even going to ask about it? This could not be good.
"I wasn't even looking for you initially! But Rossi told me to watch Hotch so I watched Hotch and then I saw you with Hotch… But anyways, now I don't know what to do because Rossi keeps asking me if I found anything, cuz he's still worried about him, but I don't know what to tell him because he's a profiler and I'm a crappy liar, so I have to tell the truth, but if I tell the truth then I'm breaking the Code cuz I'm not supposed to use my magical computer skills for evil, and we have the confidentiality rules so I can't tell Rossi anything involving you –"
"—But if you don't tell him, he'll know it has something to do with me or JJ and he'll get even more suspicious," Emily concluded for her friend as she realized it herself. This was bad. Catch-22.
"Exactly!" Garcia exclaimed, rubbing her hands dramatically over her face. "I don't know what to do! So I've just been avoiding Rossi like the plague this whole time, but he's starting to give me funny looks – so do I tell him anyway and break the Code? Or do I tell him I can't say anything because of the Code, and then he knows it has to do with you or JJ – and he also knows it's not JJ, for obvious reasons – I mean, either way, he figures out what's happening. So I guess what I'm asking you is would you like me to tell him, or should we let him work it out for himself?"
Emily pursed her lips for a moment, considering, and then she sighed dramatically. "I'll tell him."
This definitely surprised the technical analyst. "Really? You will?"
"Sure," Emily agreed somewhat reluctantly, anxiety bubbling up inside of her. She started picking at her cuticles (her fingernails were chewed down to nubs already).
"You're not mad, are you?" Garcia asked worriedly.
"No, it's okay," Emily assured her. She wasn't mad, really – of course, it wasn't ideal that she was being pretty much forced into telling their secret, but the team was going to find out anyway, right? And realistically, if Rossi had already asked Garcia to look into it, he probably already knew.
She started to get up off of the closet floor – and fuck, it was starting to get difficult. Garcia grabbed her elbow and pulled her up.
"Thanks," Emily said as she steadied herself with a hand on the small of her back.
"No problemo, my friend," Garcia chirped. "One time when I was having Kendall, I got stuck on the floor for like two hours, before Savannah came home and found me."
"Yikes," Emily replied, wincing in sympathy. "How far along were you then?"
Garcia shrugged. "I don't remember."
"Why didn't you call somebody?"
"I did. I called Derek."
"And he didn't immediately swoop in to save you?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"Cuz… because I was wearing my pumps and refused to take them off, so he refused to come help me off the floor."
Emily laughed. "And if you'd taken them off, you would've been able to get up on your own?"
"Maybe. I dunno. I didn't try. I thought I'd never hear the end of the Life-Alert jokes, though."
Emily started to say something, but Garcia cut her off. "Don't worry, Gumdrop, I won't tell anyone – wouldn't want to subject you to the cruelty of Derek Morgan and Jennifer Jareau."
"I could've gotten up on my own," Emily pointed out defensively, rubbing her baby bump.
"Uh-huh. Sure you could've."
"I could've! But seriously, please don't say anything – Aaron would take me out of the field so fast if he knew –"
"Aaron?" Garcia repeated, a full-blown satisfied grin growing on her face.
Emily rolled her eyes, trying to pretend she wasn't blushing. "Please don't say anything, okay?"
"I won't. Gah, I can't believe you two are really together! This is the best thing that's ever happened. I ship it so hard. You're my OTP."
Emily wasn't going to bother asking what an OTP was – she was sure it was some sort of fangirling phrase. "So does JJ know, too?"
"No." She paused. "Well, she thinks she does, but I didn't tell her."
Emily winced. "Is it against the Code if I tell Rossi before she knows?"
Garcia considered. "No, I think in this specific situation – of course Rossi would find a loophole without ever reading the binder – you have to tell him, you don't want to. But honestly, Em, how long are you two planning on keeping this a secret? Cuz secrets generally don't last too long in our particular social circle. Remember when JJ and You-Know-Who thought they had a secret relationship?"
"Yeah, I remember." It'd been so painfully obvious to the rest of them that the only surprising thing about it was that the couple truly believed they'd kept the secret. "Is anyone ever going to fill me in on what happened between those two?"
"Not me," Garcia said quickly. "Topic off-limits."
"Penelope, was it really that bad?" Emily asked, putting a hand on her friend's arm.
Garcia nodded gravely.
Emily searched her face carefully, rolling her bottom lip between her teeth. "Is JJ okay?"
"She is now."
That still wasn't the answer Emily was looking for, but it was vaguely comforting. "Okay. I'm gonna go back downstairs and have a little chat with Rossi, I guess."
"Good luck!"
#
"Aar – Hotch," Emily hissed from the hallway, not quite sticking her head through the doorframe to where much of the team was gathered around the kitchen island, snacking on the plentiful appetizers that they'd all pulled together.
He turned around to look at her, raising his eyebrows. 'Hotch' sounded funny coming from her now. She made a come-here motion with her pointer finger. He mumbled something about going to the bathroom and followed her back upstairs to the guest bedroom where she'd just talked to Garcia.
"Garcia knows," she said simply.
His mouth pressed into a thin line. "How?"
"Long story short, Rossi asked her to check up on you."
"Ah. I see. So now what?"
"I don't know," Emily admitted. "But I do think we need to tell Dave. Because Garcia is freaked out that she has to keep this secret from him. You know she's terrible at keeping secrets."
He nodded, considering. "Okay. I think you're right. Do you want to tell him now?"
"Should we? And just get it over with?"
"It's up to you, sweetheart."
She stretched up on her tippy-toes to give him a kiss on the cheek, and he gently ran his hands up and down her arms, giving her goosebumps. He squeezed her hand.
"I love you," she told him.
"I love you, too."
A sad little smile crossed her face.
"What's wrong?" he asked immediately.
"I just… I wish we didn't have to tell yet."
"We don't have to," he told her quickly.
"But Garcia –"
"I'll tell Rossi to leave her alone."
"Really? Do you think he'll get suspicious?"
"Not about us. He'll just think I don't want him digging in my personal life. Which isn't entirely false."
"Yeah, that's –"
Just at that moment, she was interrupted when the bedroom door flew open. They both jumped and their hands flew to their hips, where their guns usually rested – but then they sighed in relief, hearts still racing. It was just Henry.
He was looking up at them, surprised.
"What's up, buddy?" Hotch asked him, recovering first.
"We're playing hide-and-seek," Henry explained, looking confused. "What are you guys doing in here?"
"Um," Emily began uncertainly. "We were just looking at this painting," she made up, looking at the one on the wall.
"Oh," Henry said, and the adults were once again relieved. It was clear that the child saw no reason to doubt that claim. "Well I'm going to hide under the pillows. Don't tell Jack!"
"We won't," Hotch promised. "We're going back downstairs. Do you us want us to bury you?"
"Yeah!"
They carefully arranged the pillows on top of Henry so that he was invisible – except when the pillows bounced up and down when he giggled – and then they left, shutting the door gently behind them to make sure Jack didn't hear any sounds that would give Henry's position away. Hotch went back downstairs to rejoin the party, and Emily waited a few minutes at the top of the stairs before doing the same thing.
Their secret was safe(ish) for now.
#
"So we have some news," JJ said after they all finished dinner. She reached out and grabbed Rossi's hand.
Pretty much the entire team prepared themselves to hear that they were expecting another baby, but that actually wasn't what they were going to say.
"We have been trying to find a day for our wedding," JJ began, "And we really wanted to be able to pick a day that everybody could come, and we didn't want to have to move it a million times when cases pop up, because somebody refuses to get married in a courthouse," she said with a sideways glance at Rossi, "So we talked to Cruz, and he agreed to put the team on stand down for one day."
"When she says 'we' talked to Cruz," Rossi said, "She means just her."
"Wait," Morgan said. "You actually got us on stand down? We haven't been on stand down in like ten years!"
"Nine years, three months and nineteen days," said Reid excitedly. "But we got pulled in on the Fisher King during that one, anyway."
Even Hotch looked surprised now. "Was that really the last time we were guaranteed a day off? That's insane."
"It's still not 100% guaranteed," JJ cautioned. "We picked June 21st, which is a Sunday. If a case comes up on that week Wednesday to Saturday, they'll send Cooper's team. But if it's before that, and we go, we do have to stay and work even if it means missing the 21st."
"That better not happen," Garcia said darkly as though she would personally make sure that it didn't. "I can't believe my sweetums is getting married!" she cried.
"I hope 'sweetums' means you," Rossi said under his breath to JJ.
JJ ignored him. "So the wedding is about six weeks away, so I'm going to need extra help from my maids of honor for planning," she said, looking at Emily and Garcia.
"Yay!" they exclaimed.
"And we want Kendall to be the flower girl," Rossi added, bouncing the babbling little girl on his knee.
Garcia gasped. "Did you hear that, Kendy? You get to be the flower girl for Uncle Dave and Auntie JJ!"
Kendall was ten months old now, and while she was beginning to understand some of what people said to her, she gave them a big smile now simply because she could sense her mother's excitement.
"Oh, this is so exciting!" Garcia said happily. "We'll get to look at flowers and color swatches and dinner menus and dresses and –"
"Mumma," Kendall said suddenly, the smile still on her face as she reached out to Garcia to be held.
Garcia's jaw dropped. "Ohmygod, did she just say –"
"Mumma!"
Garcia lifted her daughter into her arms and hugged her tight. "Kendy-Boo, my sweet little sugar plum fairy, can you say that again for Mommy?"
"Mumma," she said a third time with a smug little smile. She was eating up the attention that she was now getting from the entire BAU.
"Say daddy," Morgan said, leaning in towards them. "Can you say daddy, Kendall?"
"Derek Morgan, you let me have my moment or I swear to God –" Garcia scolded him while Savannah smacked him over the head.
JJ was staring wistfully at her boys, as though she was dreaming of the day when they'd start to talk. Emily's hand fell onto her baby bump as she thought about the same thing. Although she certainly had quite a ways to go before she'd get to that point.
Reid cleared his throat. "Well, um, while we're all making announcements... I know you'll all find out soon anyway, so... Ashley and I are dating now."
JJ beamed at him, Rossi ruffled his hair, and Morgan clapped him on the back.
"Reid, that's great!" Emily congratulated him, and Garcia looked just about overwhelmed with happiness.
"Aaron, that makes you the only bachelor left!" Rossi exclaimed as though he was implying something. "We might have to have a boys' night pretty soon. Take you out to the bar, fix you up with someone nice –"
"I don't know about that," Hotch said as his eyes flicked to meet Emily's for a millisecond. Her jaw tightened, but there was a little amusement in her eyes: she didn't like the idea of him with another woman, but she trusted him not to take the bait.
Rossi had been watching carefully for Hotch's reaction, and JJ for Emily's. The Italian and the blonde made eye contact and exchanged tiny smirks and nods.
Yeah, their friends were definitely together. Or very close to it.
"So, are you boys ready for summer?" Savannah asked Henry, Jack, and Declan.
"Yes!" they all exclaimed.
"What grades will you be in next year?"
"Sixth," said Declan.
"Third," said Jack.
"First!" said Henry.
"Very nice," Savannah smiled. "First grade, Henry, wow! And Declan, is that middle school for you now?"
He nodded. "I'm excited because we get to do more off-campus trips and we get to choose our classes now and we can take extra. I'm going to learn Latin!"
"Latin? That's really cool. Isn't that supposed to be one of the harder languages to learn?"
"Yeah, but I already know a bunch and it gets easier every time you learn a new one."
"Really? Which ones do you already know?"
"Well I'm fluent in Spanish, Italian, French, and Russian," he said, counting them on his fingers. He frowned. "And... There should be one more... Oh, duh. English."
"Don't you remember Gaelic, Dec?" Emily asked.
He grimaced. "Some, but they don't have it at school, so I haven't really been able to learn it officially. I think I can probably still understand most of it, though."
"You should try to relearn it," she suggested. "Your dad would be really happy if you kept it... in the family," she said, trailing off at the end when she realized what she was saying.
Morgan and Rossi had sort of dirty looks on their faces, and Reid had a small frown. Garcia bit her lip. JJ shot Emily a sympathetic glance, and Hotch reached under the table and gently squeezed Emily's hand.
"Um, Mom," Declan said, noting the tension and trying to diffuse it, "I think you're getting much better at Russian lately!"
"Yeah, it's getting a little easier," Emily said, glad that he had changed the topic.
"I wish I knew more languages," JJ whined. "I only remember half of the Spanish I learned in high school."
"Me, too," said Savannah. "I don't get how you people can keep them all straight in your heads. How many do you know, Emily?"
"I'm fluent in six," she said, thinking, "I can usually work through Latin, Greek and Portuguese. My Russian isn't very good, and I know bits and pieces of Gaelic, but that's all."
"That's all," Morgan repeated mockingly. "How about you, Blake? Reid?"
"I can read sixteen, but I can't really pronounce them," Reid admitted.
"I know four, plus sign language," said Blake.
"That's more impressive than mine, though," Emily said. "My mother raised me speaking English and French, and my nanny only spoke Spanish. So I knew three from the beginning. And we lived in Germany, Turkey and Italy, so I learned all of those by submersion. Had to either learn it or understand nothing. It's much easier to pick it up that way."
Declan nodded. "I've known English, Italian, French and Russian since I started talking. Spanish is the only one I actually tried to learn."
"I'm just so happy that my little Kendy actually talked!" Garcia squealed, giving her daughter another tight hug and placing a kiss on top of her kinky hair, which was tied in pigtails with big bows.
"What languages should we teach the baby?" Declan asked Emily innocently.
"I haven't thought about that, actually. French and Italian?" She wished she could teach them Gaelic – Ian would be so proud if his kids knew how to speak the Irish language –
"And I can teach it Russian!" Declan exclaimed.
"Ugh," Morgan said. "That's no fair. That kid's gonna be smarter than me by the time it's five."
"Not that that's particularly impressive," JJ teased. Morgan elbowed her in the ribs.
"Mommy, can I help feed Alex and Luke?" Henry asked.
"Sure, baby. After they wake up, okay?"
Henry nodded. "Auntie Penelope, can me and Jack and Declan play with Kendall?"
"Of course! Kendy, your big cousin Henry is gonna play with you, okay? Can you say Henry?"
Kendall stayed quiet, but she turned to look directly at Henry.
"Hey, she knows my name!" he exclaimed happily.
"She knows all of your names," said Garcia. "We do flash cards. Kendall, where is Uncle Reid?"
She looked at him.
"Where's Auntie Em?"
She pointed.
Garcia went through everybody at the table, and Kendall got all of them right.
"She knows all her shapes, too," Morgan said proudly. "Where's that book?"
They pulled out a board book, and the boys huddled around the baby and asked her to point out different shapes. Squares, circles, rectangles, ovals. They cheered every time she got one right, making her giggle.
"Where's the triangle, Kendall?" Jack asked.
She pointed to it.
"Good job!" Henry and Jack told her.
"Wait, Jack," Declan said in a low voice. "Are you sure that's a triangle?"
Jack frowned. "What do you mean? Of course it's a triangle."
"Really? I must be confused then," he said with a mischievous smirk. "Because I thought it was a house," he said, referring to Emily and Hotch's Pictionary fail.
"Declan!" Emily scolded, but she couldn't hide her amusement as her eyes crinkled.
Jack burst into laughter and looked at his dad, who was smiling and shaking his head.
They'd never let it go.
JJ and Rossi exchanged knowing glances, and then JJ looked over at Garcia – the technical analyst, seeing that JJ and Rossi were getting suspicious and not wanting them to draw any conclusions, quickly said, "Hey! Let's let the kiddos open their presents now!"
The three boys perked up instantly. Even Kendall turned her big brown eyes to her mom, a tiny smile growing on her chubby little face. She knew what presents were, too.
"Presents?" Henry repeated excitedly.
"Yes! Can one of you go grab them? They're in the family room."
Rossi, sufficiently distracted, got up to go retrieve the gift bags. He brought them back and Garcia carefully looked at the names on each of the tags before handing them out – the twins' bags went to JJ to be opened later, and Henry, Jack, and Declan were each given one. And, to her surprise, so was Emily.
"What…?" she asked, looking up at Garcia, confused.
"For Baby Prentiss. Duh."
The boys opened their gifts – the newest Nerf gun pistols with the darts, some model airplanes they could build, and – in another, separate box outside – a hover-board for the three of them to share. Which led to the greatest gift of all – a video of Morgan wiping out while riding the hover-board, falling onto Reid and taking the genius down with him.
Kendall opened her present, too – a fancy little cloth doll which she didn't let out of her sight for the rest of the day.
But Emily's present was the most surprising.
Onesies, baby wash cloths, tiny little sneakers, a few blankets, some bibs, and a little teddybear. The gift was sweet – but Emily just stared at it, a little crease forming between her eyebrows.
"Garcia," she began slowly, looking over all of the items. "Why… Why is this all pink?"
"Why's it all pink?"Garcia repeated quickly, equally confused. "It's all pink because –" A look of genuine horror crossed her face. "Oh, my God –"
"Did you snoop through my medical records?" Emily asked evenly in a quiet, hollow voice, too surprised to be angry.
"I'm sorry! I thought you knew!" Garcia cried guiltily.
Emily's hands moved downward to cradle her bump, and her lips parted slightly. She was rendered temporarily speechless, but then her eyes flicked upwards to meet Garcia's, and she uttered softly, "I - it's a girl?"
Garcia's hand was now clapped over her mouth and she nodded almost imperceptibly. Emily's eyes dropped down to her swollen stomach, and she rubbed her thumb over the baby lightly - and then a tiny smile crept onto her face.
For a nanosecond Lauren surfaced and thought of how Ian would've absolutely worshipped the ground his daughter walked on - she'd be his sweet little princess -
But then Lauren was gone and it was just Emily again, a single mom in the middle of a family gathering who had just received some of the most important news of her life. She was going to have a little girl.
She knew but didn't even care that the entire team was watching her, waiting on her reaction - her eyes, full of tears, excitement, and an undeniable brightness, flicked upwards to meet Hotch's. He was the one she wanted to share this moment with, not Ian.
Hotch was beaming at her proudly, the same feeling of elation rising up in him that he'd felt when he and Hayley had found out that Jack was a boy - there was something so undeniably real about the baby once you knew what you were expecting.
He wasn't exactly sure when he'd started thinking of himself as an expectant father again.
"Congrats, Emily," he said softly, longing to pull her into his arms and kiss her, but he knew he couldn't right now, not with the whole team there watching. Maybe he'd plan a little celebration later on, though.
Soon the whole team was congratulating her with hugs, and, of course, Italian kisses on the cheek from Rossi.
"I'm jealous," JJ whispered in her ear with a wink. It was no secret that the blonde wanted a girl.
Declan looked so excited it almost brought tears to Emily's eyes - Bean would be his little princess, too, no doubt about it. As Morgan pulled her in for a bear hug, she realized how grateful she was to have him as her 'big brother' now, and how much easier her childhood would've been if she'd had him by her side for her whole life - and Bean would have two big brothers to look after her.
Aaron pulled her in for a hug then: a formal, friendly hug that wouldn't arouse any suspicions - but he was resisting the urge to press his hands against her baby bump and feel those little kicks from their baby girl.
Neither of them noticed that they were thinking about each other's kids as their own.