The first night apart from Emily and her kids wasn't something that I was looking forward to, but it must have been successful on her end, for morning is here and I haven't heard a peep from the Prentiss household. Jack, on the other hand, is going to to be so ready for nap-time today from how little he slept last night. The most sleep he got was in my arms and in my bed. He's not usually this restless, but maybe Emily was right. Maybe we did get our kids too used to each other too soon and having a break from one another will be a safer thing for the next bit of time. Getting Jack re-accustomed to his own room is going to be a thing it seems and coffee is going to be a major thing as I try to make it through the day today. Rolling over this morning, the first thing my arms did was search for Emily, so that's another thing about this being at separate apartments that we didn't think through. If I can't say hello to her in the way that we have said good morning for the past few weeks, we need to find a way around the politics of it all. The team knows we're together, that's not the problem, but Strauss still doesn't know. So as much as a kiss good morning would not only be unprofessional, it also could get us both fired.

I pull a new set of clothing out for Jack- a tshirt and little jeans or the closest he has to jeans- before going to grab out a new suit for myself while I ponder this. Out of nowhere it comes to me. If I were to drop Jack off at Emily's in the morning, he would get to see his friends and I would get to see Emily. I'll have to talk to her about it at the office. Laura is already on her way here and I'm not going to throw off her plans just because I want to see my girlfriend.

"Jack, buddy we need to get up." Pulling Jack's sleepy body off the bed and into my arms. "Up and atum buddy."

"Sleepy." Jack mumbles out the one word and cuddles into my shoulder.

"I know buddy, but Laura will be here soon and we need to get you dressed and eating breakfast before she gets here."

"No."

"Yes buddy we have to get ready before Laura gets here."

"No Laura. Want Mama." Haley? He wants Haley? And suddenly it clicks. Jack called me Mama. He wants Emily.

"I want her too buddy, but she's getting ready for work right now."

"Want Mama…" Jack whines her name out. Out of any other ideas, I grab my phone, not knowing what else to do.

"Don't tell me we have a case right now."

"Good morning to you too." I let out a laugh at her greeting.

"Sorry, Melissa has been singing Frere Jacque since she woke up and it's driving me up a wall and I'm trying to get the twins ready at the same time. Good morning."

"Frere Jacque? Why?"

"Sarah taught it to her to teach her more French and apparently it's stuck in Melissa's head or something." Emily lets out an aggravated huff. "But that's not what you called to hear about. Do we have a case?"

"Not a work case." I don't even have to see her face to picture the puzzled look on her face.

"Not a work case?" Emily repeats, her interest piqued.

"A sad little Jack case."

"What is Jack upset about?" Suddenly concern is the only thing in Emily's voice.

"I think the Hotchner boys miss a certain brunette female."

"Ah. Natalia." I laugh at how easily I set myself up for that one.

"Well yes, but I don't think Jack would tell me he wants Mama, just for Natalia."

"Really?" Her voice is suddenly quiet as she says this, but she sounds extremely happy at the same time.

"Really. He won't let me get him ready for Laura, saying he wants Mama and I figured the best bet was to call and see if his Mama would talk with him for a few minutes."

"Of course."

"Jack, someone wants to talk to you." I hold the phone out to him and he grabs it towards him.

"Mama!" He says quickly after hearing her say something to him. I let him babble away with her for a few minutes, giving me time to start his breakfast and turn the coffee pot on. His English and French run together and even with my high school level French, I can only understand half of what he's saying, but my bet is on Emily for knowing exactly what Jack is saying. She really has a way with knowing exactly what all our children mean, even when they slip into Franglish. But it shouldn't surprise me seeing as she is our translator as well as she is their Mama. I finish doctoring my coffee as Jack comes running towards me with my phone. "Mama wants to parle avec you."

"Thank you Jack." I decide to strap Jack into his high chair and feed him breakfast before changing him since it's easier as we're already in the kitchen. "Hi."

"Hi. I didn't know how much I needed some Jack time right now too so thank you."

"No, thank you. He's actually sitting and eating his oatmeal now and that's thanks to you."

"Can we do dinner all together if we don't get pulled away on a case?"

"Of course."

"Fair warning, you'll hear Frere Jacque over and over again most likely."

"If it means I'm with you and your kids, I'm ok with that."

"You summed up my feelings about it too. Ask me in three weeks when she's still singing it but until then I'll be ok, or I'll start looking into teaching her Une Souris Verte or some other children's song to get her singing something else."

"I'm not even going to pretend I know what green thing you're talking about." Emily giggles.

"It's a song about a green snail that gets turned into a hot snail after being dipped in oil and water."

"And you want to teach that to a three year old?"

"She's going to be three and a half soon." He can hear the smile in her voice as she corrects him slightly. "But it's more that it teaches the present, imperfect and imperative as well as it alternates between reported speech and dialogue so it's similar to Three Blind Mice, but French. Remind me not to tell you about the translations of Alouette when Sarah or I teach that to the kids."

"What's wrong with that one?"

"I'll tell you out of the range of little one's ears. Better yet, maybe Reid will translate for you." Emily's voice turns away from the phone as she says the last little bit and Aaron can bet she's about to feed the twins, meaning he needs to let her go. "Natalia and Nathan are getting hungry and seeing as the last time I let them feed themselves breakfast someone threw it across the room," he could almost imagine her teasing smile as she places the kisses on Natalia's head, "I need to focus on them right now."

"Go. I'll see you at the office in a bit."

"Give Jack a kiss for me before you go?"

"Give the twins and Melissa one for me." It had only been a little over 12 hours since I had left her place last night, so it shouldn't feel this hard being away from her. Yet it felt as though it has been days since she has been in my arms, weeks since I was able to kiss her and years since we have been in the same place. I'll see her again in less than two hours. But my heart wishes they were together already.

"I love you." Three little words were enough to get me through until I can see her again in a bit.

"I love you more."

"I'm hanging up before you try to rope me into that battle." Emily laughs once more before disconnecting. One hour and forty seven minutes to go until I see her.

The day flies by at a decent pace. Emily ducks out early to take care of something, but she texts me that she'll come meet me back at the office and we can head back to her place together. We spent one night apart so one night together should make up for that I think. However the rain soaked girl standing in my door frame isn't what I expected.

"What's wrong?"

"Um... I just found out that an old friend of mine died."

"I'm sorry." Emily nods. She seems so different from the person I talked to this morning. "Do you need to take some time?" She lets out a breath and I can see the tears in her eyes that she won't let fall.

"Um...There's a chance that he could have been murdered. And there might be a second case."

"What do you need?"

"Just some leeway to check it out."

"Of course. Anything." I want to offer her more, but I don't know what else to offer her.

"Thank you."

"Emily, if you wanna take a few days and let us look into it..." I trail off, letting her make the decisions.

"Matthew was incredibly messed up. And I hadn't seen him in a long time. But he was important to me."

"At least let us help."

"Thank you." I walk across the office and pull her into my arms. She's hurting and I don't know what else to do. "Let's head home. I'll drive. Seeing the kids will help."

"Jack's at your place." She whispers and her voice cracks ever so slightly.

"I'll have Laura meet us at your apartment."

"Ok."

"Let me grab my stuff and we can go."

Author's Note: Some of this dialogue was borrowed from Season 4 episode 17 of Criminal Minds. I feel like it's such an important episode to Emily's character that it was needed to be added to her story line. So here we go-Demonology.

-Lizzy