Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV series, Criminal Minds.

Summer

By
N. J. Borba

"Hello, anyone home?" Derek called out as he dropped his duffle bag and moved through the house. He felt a little bit like some sixties TV dad, coming home to the wife and kids after a long day at work, although he'd actually been gone for two long days. Truth be told, a part of him liked the notion of being the provider while Emily stayed at home with Kacey and Lulu. But he knew if Emily ever caught wind of that chauvinistic side, no matter how miniscule it was, she'd pulverize him.

Kacey flung open the back door and leapt into his arms. "Daddy, its summer break!" she exclaimed.

"I know, kiddo," he kissed her cheek and realized she was dripping wet, soaking his clothes. "Let me guess, after the last day of school you went swimming?"

The girl smiled and nodded. "Mommy and me are still swimming, Lulu too."

"Oh yeah?" he asked as he walked with her toward the door. "And how is Lulu doing, she a good swimmer?"

"Well, mommy won't let her go in the pool, because she's too little," Kacey revealed in a slightly hushed tone, as if it were some big secret to be kept between the two of them. "So, she's not really swimming," the girl continued. "But I think she likes looking at the water."

Derek put the girl down and watched as she headed straight for the pool and jumped in. His eyes then gazed upon the port-a-crib set up nearby, which was sporting a beach umbrella attached to one side, rather ingeniously. He squatted down in front of it and snuck a peek at the baby inside. "How are you doing, peanut? Enjoying your little cabana?" Lulu kicked her legs as she slobbered on a fist. She was just a few days shy of being six weeks old, but Morgan was pretty sure she looked about three months already. And she seemed very advanced for her age, at least in her daddy's eyes.

When he caught sight of Emily swimming toward him, Morgan sat down along the pool's edge, rolled up his pants and dunked his feet in. She swam in between his legs and rested her wet arms against his thighs. "That's a rather sexy t-shirt and shorts combo you've got going on there," he teased.

"Yeah, well I've got at least ten more baby pounds to lose before these thighs and tummy go anywhere near a proper bathing suit," Emily replied.

"I think you're gorgeous just the way you are," Derek whispered as he leaned down to kiss his wife hello.

They were interrupted much too soon by Kacey's excited voice. "Daddy! Watch me!"

Kacey stood at the end of the diving board and then jumped off, performing a cannonball that splashed her parents. Derek clapped when the girl re-surfaced, and he faced Emily with arched brows. "You sure you didn't have an affair with a dolphin to produce that one?" he chuckled.

"Maybe there was a mix-up at the hospital," Emily played along. "I knew I shouldn't have given birth next door to that aquarium," she joked. They both chuckled for a moment. "So, how are you doing?" she asked in a silly, yet sexy, voice while pulling Derek toward her again to give him a proper welcome home kiss.

His eyes fluttered open again several moments later when they both came up for air. "I'm good. I missed you the last two days."

"Missed you, too," Emily replied. "I'll show you just how much later tonight when the kids are asleep," she promised.

Morgan's cheeks felt warm, and he was pretty sure it wasn't from the sunshine. "How did the last day of school go?" he changed the subject to something much more mundane to take his mind off their future nighttime activities.

She moved to his left and pushed up with her arms, emerging from the pool and taking a seat beside him. "Okay, I guess. Kacey loves school so she was actually a little sad, which is why we're having this pool party," Emily explained. "But next week she'll have swim lessons starting up and art day-camp. She'll be fine."

"In my day, we spent summer days playing ball and roaming places we really shouldn't have been roaming," Derek recalled.

Emily nodded. "I did plenty of roaming myself."

He noticed a strange look on her face and had a feeling something was up. "Did anything else happen today? Because you look a little, I don't know, out of sorts?"

A sigh escaped before her words. "Maybe it's nothing," she shrugged, pausing a second to turn and check on Lulu. The little girl had fallen asleep, even with her big sister yelling and splashing about. "When I went to pick Kacey up today after school," she resumed. "I overheard her talking to some of her friends about what happened to Morris. She was telling them about how I killed him and she kept calling me a hero. It sounded kind of like she was bragging about it."

"She's six years old, Em. You are her hero," Derek didn't think there was anything wrong with that.

"But I didn't want to kill him," Emily protested. "On some level I did want him dead," she admitted. "And I know he hurt us a great deal, but he was mourning the loss of his little girl. And if there'd been any other way to stop him…" she tried to shake the conflicting thoughts from her head. "I just don't want Kacey to think that killing is the only way to resolve conflict."

"Hey," Derek reached over and gently took one of her hands in his. He held it against his chest, near his heart. "Morris had a gun pushed up against my ribcage that day, and if he'd fired… I wouldn't be here sitting with you right now. You knew there was no other choice to be made, Em. You saved my life that day. You're my hero too," he insisted, kissing her forehead. "But you're right about Kacey. I guess we've never properly talked to her about what happened that day."

Emily sighed. "We just wanted to forget it."

Morgan beckoned the girl out of the pool and had her sit down between them. "How was your last day of school?" he asked.

"It was good," Kacey softly splashed her feet in the water as she spoke. "We got to eat popcorn balls that Daniel's mom made for the whole class. And we watched a video about the animals of the rainforest."

"Well, I'm glad we're paying a fortune for you to watch TV and eat junk food," Derek reached out and tickled her side. Kacey squirmed away from his touch, but they settled down quickly. "Kace," he pulled on his serious voice. "Your mom said you were telling your friends about how she shot Morris."

The girl nodded. "She made the bad man go away."

"Yeah, she did," Morgan agreed. "But mommy didn't want to have to hurt that man."

"But he hurt us," Kacey protested. "Isn't that why you and mommy carry guns, to hurt the bad guys?"

"No," Emily finally jumped in, looking her daughter in the eye. It was not the sort of conversation she ever wanted to have with her child, at any age. "Your daddy and I have to carry guns in case someone tries to hurt us or someone we're trying to protect. But we try really, really hard not to use them," she explained. "We do our best to talk to the bad guys and make them understand that what they've done is wrong."

"I heard you try to talk to that bad man, Paul," Kacey spoke up again. "He wouldn't listen to you."

"You're right, he wouldn't," Emily agreed. "He was too sad and too upset for me to be able to talk to him, so I didn't have any other choice than to hurt him. But what happened that day is private stuff that you don't need to be telling your friends. Okay?"

Kacey nodded, getting to her knees and wrapping her arms around Emily's neck. "I'm sorry, mommy."

"I know you are, Kace," she whispered back.

In the next instant Kacey turned to her daddy and asked, "Can I swim some more now?"

Derek gave his approval and looked to Emily when the six-year-old was out of earshot. "How much do you think she understood?" he asked.

"I'm really not sure," Emily shrugged. "But hopefully the more time that passes, the more she's going to forget about that day all together." She took a deep breath of the warm afternoon air and let the sunshine rejuvenate her. "I know I would like to forget it all, at least for the rest of the day. Because it's a gorgeous summer day in which we should all be swimming." She looked Derek up and down. "That means you need to get your swim trunks on and join us."

Morgan watched her jump back into the pool to join Kacey. He quickly went into the house to change and was outside again ten minutes later performing a side-by-side cannonball with Kacey that sent a mini-tsunami across the pool. The wave slapped Emily in the face, and Derek swam toward his wife, pretending to save her. He held her cradled in his arms and kissed her chlorinated earlobe. "Maybe tonight when you're showing me how much you missed me…" he whispered in the same ear. "It could involve a swim without our suits on," he suggested.

Emily glanced over to see that Kacey was oblivious to their conversation. "In that case, I think two little girls are going to bed extra early tonight," she declared.

End