Emily's POV
"So you want to talk to your two best friends about what happening earlier?" JJ throws out, running a hand over her belly as we sit on a bench while we watching the kids playing in the sandbox with Aaron.
"I don't know what you're talking about JJ."
"Well there was the very emotion filled Emily who was sitting on the floor when we came over this morning or there was that moment when Aaron went to bring you Natalia and then you both stayed in the cozy nursery for longer than it should have taken to switch babies and change diapers." Penelope takes a sip of the way overpriced iced coffee that she had picked up from one concession carts. "I'll take either one of those two for 400 Alex." I can't help but roll my eyes at my two best friends.
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to Emily, but you just seem different today, like something is running through your mind and we happen to be very good at listening." JJ adds with a smile as she takes a sip of her iced tea.
"The twins are getting into their terrible twos and it reminded me of their birth father. Nathan shoved Natalia earlier and it just kind of scared me I guess. Their bio-dad isn't the best kind of person. Definitely not a man I would have chosen to have kids with, but it happened and I love my twins, but seeing some of him appearing in Nathan who's usually so sweet and loving just made me worry. I just want him to stay my little sweetheart forever."
"It's not like he's planning to overthrow a government or something. He's a toddler. They get frustrated and don't know how to show it. That's all super normal, or at least that's what I'm learning from all my what to expect books. And you're doing twice the raising at the same time. But you have someone who can help you through it all. You just need to lean on him."
"I am, he's been great. But we're also getting ready to change up our living situation again and I think that's stressing me a bit too."
"Ha! I knew it! You owe me 20 bucks JJ!" Wait, Penelope had bet we were going back to our own apartments? That doesn't sound like her.
"Wait, what?"
"I knew you two would make your living together more permanent!"
"Hold on, no. You're misunderstanding me."
"So you're not permanently moving in together?"
"The opposite actually. Our kids are getting too used to having us being together. So we're going back to I guess normal people dating where we're not raising our kids together 24/7. We need to have a more normal situation for our kids to get used to. Especially for Melissa. She almost threw a temper tantrum when Aaron didn't come home with me the other night. It will be healthier for all of them to get used to normal again." Penelope's face has fallen completely as I walk them through our logic. "Come on Pen, don't look like I killed your dog or something. We're just living in our normal apartments, it's not like we're breaking up."
"But I figured this had been your test run and you would just decide to jump into it full time. Like come on! You two are perfect for each other!"
"Even so, I have three kids that I need to be able to run through a night time routine without relying on another person."
"Why?" JJ is the one questioning me this time and it takes me by surprise. "Don't get me wrong. Will and I are still trying to figure out what is going to fully happen when this one gets here so it's completely your choice if you want, but I kind of agree with Penelope on the you two are perfect for each other. Remember that she and I both worked with him before you came and after. There's a difference when you're there. So if he's in it and you're in it, why do you need to be able to take care of three kids by yourself? Because if he's planning on being there in the long run, why not let him?"
"Did he put the two of you up to this? Because a lot of this sounds like his arguments."
"No one put anyone up to anyone, you're just happier with him, he's happier with you, the math makes a lot of sense." Penelope says quickly and JJ nods along with her. I look over to where Natalia has picked up a sand toy to show to Aaron and he has his rarely seen smile on his face as he looks at the toy almost as if he has never seen one before just because Natalia is showing him the toy.
"Plus it seems like both your daughters have him wrapped around their fingers, so think how much easier it will be if he can take care of the tasks that you don't want to." JJ adds with a smirk. "Must just be having the qualifications of being a female with the last name Prentiss."
"Shut up." I say, my eyes not leaving the kids and Aaron. "And if you must know Nathan has Aaron wrapped around his finger too." I say knowing I'm never going to win this one, so I walk away from these too and go over to where our kids are playing, sitting myself next to Aaron. "You know if you paid those two to reargue your points of us not staying at separate apartments well it's time to pay up." Aaron's eyes find mine, his filled with confusion and it takes a moment for him to realize that I'm joking.
"I could have easily kept arguing the points if I thought it was worth it. You're stubborn enough to keep saying no though. But they're on my side?"
"Very. Down to even arguing that if you're in it for the long run, I should just let you be in because there's no reason to needing to be able to but the twins and Melissa down on my own. And they even said you're a different person since I joined the team? Makes me wonder what that could mean." I throw a smile towards him and he grabs my hand lightly. "I do hear the points, and I'm not saying any of them are wrong. But I-"
"You need to prove to yourself you can do it. I get it Emily. You don't have to explain it to anyone if you don't want to." He smiles back at me softly. "I believe in you and us. If you need to do this, you need to do this. Now I think we should get a soft pretzel or something for the kids to munch on from all this playing."
"For the kids? Or for you?" I can't help but joke to him, but I know that he's probably right and we need to get something into the kids.
"Oh definitely both. I can definitely hear Jack's stomach rumbling all the way from here." Aaron says with a smile.
"Sure you can Super Dad." I joke back easily. "I think I saw a sign for dinosaur shaped mac and cheese at the food court near here when Pen and JJ wanted to get drinks. That's probably the easiest place to get food for all the kids. Nathan and Natalia will both eat mac and cheese and some fruit if they have it."
"Jack will eat that as well most likely. Melissa's our wildcard." Aaron adds looking over at the four of our kids playing together. Between all of our kids there is only six months to a year and a half in age difference between all of them so it's normally fairly to find kid friendly food for all of them now that they are all eating solid foods. The guessing game was whether or not we could get the kids to eat it or not. "Should we do a bathroom run before we go eat? Wash hands too?"
"Probably not a bad idea." I decide the easiest way is to probably split by gender. "You take the boys and I'll take the girls?" Aaron nods. "If I'm lucky, Melissa will go while I change Natalia."
"If not, she'll chatter away while you change Natalia."
"Take the two seater stroller. Knowing JJ, she has to pee since the baby is most likely sitting on her bladder so I will have a second set of hands."
"What baby?" Melissa's voice breaks us from our conversation and I realize she had been listening at least a little bit.
"In Aunt JJ's belly. She's going to have a baby in a few months and then you'll have a cousin."
"There's a baby in there? Will the baby be as big as Natalia and Nathan?"
"No honey. The baby will be little."
"Can I see it?"
"When the baby comes, sure. But right now the baby has to stay safe in Aunt JJ's belly so it can grow."
"Is the baby a boy or a girl?"
"We don't know yet."
"When will we know?"
"We might not know until the baby is born."
"Will you have a baby in your belly soon too?"
"Probably not." Dear God, please not right now. I need to know I can handle the three, well four kids I have right now. "I carried Nathan and Natalia like Aunt JJ is carrying her baby though. One day though I might have another baby but that baby would be your younger brother or sister instead of being a cousin like Aunt JJ's baby."
"Can you have baby please?"
"Not right now Melissa. I think our family is just the right size. But you know what I think it is time for? Lunch." Aaron catches my eye and nods in agreement. Does that mean he doesn't want more kids? He said he does right? So maybe he's just nodding that it's not the right time. We do have four under four between the two of us. It's just not the right time right now, that's all he's agreeing on, it has to be. I scoop Natalia up and offer a hand to Melissa, who grabs on quickly. "Let's go to the bathroom really quickly and then we can go eat ok?" Melissa nods in agreement. Aaron pulls Nathan into his arms and offers a hand to Jack, before we walk back over to the strollers. Strapping the boys in, Aaron looks up at me.
"We will be back in a few moments." I nod, before turning towards my two best friends.
"Either of you want to join us on a bathroom mission?"
"I will. The baby is using my bladder as a toy at the moment and it feels like I'm having to go ever like five minutes. Plus," JJ shakes her now empty iced tea cup, "this has gone through me as well."
"I'll come too. I don't want to sit here by myself. That's when unsubs show up."
"What's an unsub Aunt Pen?" Melissa asks, of course hearing the one thing I wish she hadn't. Pen looks to me for direction on how to take this, so I step in.
"Aunt Pen was making a joke towards me."
"You're an unsub?"
"No, she was using a word that we use for bad guys at work."
"There are bad guys here?" Melissa's arms let go of my hand only to wrap around my leg.
"Sweetie, we are fine. No one is going to get us here." I try reassuring Melissa, thinking once again of the nightmares that are plaguing her.
"I don't want to go away." Melissa's big brown eyes are staring up at me, scared and confused about what is going to happen now.
"You won't honey. We're just going to go to the bathroom and then meet Aaron, Nathan and Jack for lunch time." I lean down to push a loose curl that had gotten loose back into her space buns. "And then we will go look at more animals, like maybe some elephants or the tigers?" I choose the two that she had been so excited about that we haven't gotten over to see yet.
"Promise?" Her lip pulls between her teeth and I can almost see a bit of myself in her, even though she's only been my daughter for a month.
"Promise."
"Mama, mange." Natalia's voice announces her thoughts before Melissa can say anything else on the matter of unsubs or otherwise.
"Are you hungry ma petite?" I offer a hand out to Melissa again trying to unwind her from my legs so we can walk towards the bathroom again. "After we stop at les toilettes, we can go eat le déjeuner."
"Emly, what's for déjeuner?"
"Do you remember how to ask that in French? We were working on that last week." Melissa purses her lips as she tries to think.
"Qu'est-ce qu…" She trails off, her voice getting quiet as she doesn't remember the end of it but I'm still super proud of her for what she has remembered so far.
"Almost! Good job! It's qu'est-ce qu'on mange?" I smile at Melissa. She's picking up French quicker than I thought she would, but it makes sense since she's so young. "I think they have nuggets de poulet, macaroni au fromage, peut-être pizza et sandwichs."
"Pew echra?" Melissa sounds out a set of words I haven't used with her before.
"Peut. Etre." I say the two words separately and with more emphasis so she can catch them before putting them together again. "Peut-être. It means maybe."
"You've been her guardian for a month and she already knows more French than I will probably ever know." JJ comments over her head.
"Tell that to Aaron. He'll find it funny especially since Jack is picking up more French the more he spends around my nanny Sarah."
"Sarah parle Français avec moi!" Melissa says quickly smiling really wide with pride at the first sentence that she got down in French.
"Oui, Sarah et Emily parlent Français avec Melissa et Jack et les petites."
"Les petites?" Garcia asks, following ever so slightly with the bit of French she knows.
"Nathan and Natalia. It's easier to call them the babies or the littles as a term of endearment sometimes when speaking French with Jack and Melissa." I shrug, "Otherwise, there are a lot of kids to name." JJ and Penelope park the strollers by the entrance to the bathroom and Penelope slings the diaper bag over her shoulder.
"You look like you could use a hand." Pen says with a shrug as she shoulder's the bag. "Plus it's not that much heavier than my laptop bag."
"Melissa, Aunt JJ is going to use the bathroom. Would you like to join her? I have to change Natalia's diaper."
"No, I want to stay with Emly. I don't want to go!"
"Emily, I can change Natalia. I should get some practice before this one comes anyway." JJ's hand rubs her own bump.
"You sure?"
"Definitely. Plus it won't be the first time I've changed a diaper. Just show me where everything is kept in here."
"Ok, wipes and lotion are in the side pockets and diapers are in the back pocket. She'll want Ms. Duckie while she's being changed. It'll also keep her hands away from where you're working." I run through everything quickly. I also grab a binkie out of the bag and pass it to Natalia before I even pass her off. "Allons-y Melissa!" I say leading Melissa towards the child size bathroom stall.
Author Note: This was supposed to be the wrap up of the zoo chapter but I had too much fun writing Emily, Pen, and JJ so the wrap up of the zoo day will be the next chapter. There's a few more things I was hoping to address in this chapter but it was getting too long for how long I like to keep my chapters.
-Lizzy