The first day back to school is the first day they are able to get a doctors appointment, and they are both thankful to be allowed their afternoon off. Emily and Aaron walk out of class when the lunch period begins and meet each other in the hall after leaving behind notes for their substitute teachers. "Hey," Aaron says softly. "You ready for this?"
"As much as I can be," she says as her hand stretches over her stomach.
The drive to the doctor's office is quiet. They hold hands as they stare out the window. They are both afraid and excited and so tense. Aaron parks the car, and he gets out, walking over to Emily's side of the vehicle. She is already climbing out, and he takes her hand, with the true engagement ring and fake wedding band, in his own. They walk determinedly into the doctor's office. Emily is immediately struck by the smell of the place when they walk through the door. It's like the hospital, but the smell is a little gentler and still a little overwhelming. There are images of babies and happy mothers and diagrams of the biology of pregnant women over all the walls.
Reaching the check-in desk, Emily says, "I have an appointment for Amelia Harrison."
The kind woman smiles from behind the desk, looking between the two of them. No doubt she can see the complex emotions on their face and has seen it a million times. They're anxious to get the appointment over with and learn all that they need to. "It will just be a few minutes. If you wouldn't mind filling out this paperwork and bringing it back up to me when your done? You can sit over in those chairs while you do the paperwork and wait." Emily accepts the paperwork, and she and Aaron take seats next to each other. Emily reluctantly extricates her hand from his to hold onto the papers and fill them out.
"Amelia Harrison," the nurse calls into the waiting room a little while after Aaron brought the papers up to the desk. Emily only realizes the nurse was speaking to her when Aaron took hold of her hand and stood up.
They get into the doctor's office and share about the pregnancy as the nurse and then doctor looks over paperwork and takes various tests. When the doctor leaves saying she will be back soon with the results, Aaron squeezes Emily's hand and says, "Whatever the doctors says, we'll—"
"—be fine. I know, Aaron. I love you," she says.
Just as Aaron is about to respond, the doctor comes back into the room quickly and sits down in front of them. "I know you're anxious, so I'll come out with it. You're definitely pregnant and the trauma done to your body will not have an impact on it."
"Really?" Emily asks, already beaming.
"Yes, really," the doctor says kindly. Emily wraps her arms around Aaron quickly and then pulls back from the hug as the doctor continues, "Now, I don't understand how a car accident could cause the injury you have. Your paperwork from the U.S. hospital said that you had hit a fence and a wooden picket came through your window?" the doctor asks with a hint suspicion in her voice.
"Yes," Emily says. "And that injury, as absurd as it was, won't have any effect on our baby?"
"No, all of your injuries missed your reproductive organs. I would think the worse possible impact of that injury on your pregnancy could be the irritation of the scar tissue as your stomach expands. Overall though, your pregnancy will be a normal one. You can schedule for your next appointment when you leave. Congratulations," the doctor says, escorting them from the room.
That afternoon, they pick up Jack from school and spend the evening together as they always do, except now they are happier than ever before. They decide to wait a little longer to tell Jack as the weeks pass them by. With each week, they see subtle changes and symptoms.
Now, at nine weeks, Emily stares into the mirror at night. She is washing her face for the second time that day and staring at the acne that has made an appearance. "Emily, we're home!" Aaron calls from the living room.
She walks out, already changed into her pajamas because she is exhausted after a long week of work. She doesn't like to be so physically tired. It makes her feel vulnerable. It's not like she's having to run into houses and take down serial killers anymore, but still, the lack of energy makes his frustrated and uncomfortable. "Did you get what I asked for?" she asks as she walks down to them.
Aaron places a kiss to her cheek as he asks, "How would you like these, Em?"
"I'll just eat them now," she says, taking the plastic bag from his hands and settling down on the couch next to Jack.
As she eats between the pickles, peanut butter, and chips, Aaron watches her with a smile as Jack and Emily watch the movie intently. "So how is all of that, Emily?" Aaron asks, just a hint of teasing on his face.
"Shut up, Hotch," she says with a bit of irritation, but as she meets his eyes with a dollop of peanut butter on her fingers, that irritation turns into a smile.
Later that night, they put Jack to sleep and then go to bed themselves. It's another difficult night of sleep for her while she tosses and turns, making it impossible for Aaron to sleep as well. He doesn't complain or really say anything in that time until she finally settles with her head on his chest, and he says, "I love you, Emily."
"And I love you. Thank you for getting me the food earlier," she murmurs.
"Anything for my girl and our baby," he says. She hums a smile into his chest as she falls asleep, and he holds her close. She is dealing with a lot of pregnancy symptoms, and he can only help so much. He holds her close, and he holds their baby close too. He has a terrible time falling asleep because he can't stop watching her and watching over her, but he is happy to do it. Happy to hold her close to him. It's terrifying to think about how there was a time, if for only a few minutes, where no breath escaped her beautiful lips.
Aaron does fall asleep eventually, picturing her lips as he does, but is woken up just as the sun rises by retching coming from the bathroom. He stands from the bed quickly before he is fully awake and runs to the bathroom where he finds Emily kneeled over the toilet hurling. "Emily," he gasps as he runs up behind her, pulling back her hair.
The vomiting is over soon though it seems to last forever from Aaron's perspective. It's awful to watch her ill. She sits back on the floor leaning against the bathtub as Aaron gets her a wet wash rag to keep her cool and wipes it on her face. "Morning sickness," she grumbles.
As he presses the cool rag to her face, he asks gently, "Why didn't you wake me?"
"I didn't really have a moment," she says harshly and then continues in a lighter voice, "And I didn't want to bother you."
"Come on, Em. You gotta know that it's not a bother," he says.
"I don't like being sick," she says with a shrug.
As Aaron wipes the rag on her forehead about to say something, another voice speaks up, "Are you okay, Emmy?" Aaron and Emily look up to find Jack wrapped in a towel with a scared look on his face.
"I'm fine, kiddo. I promise," she tells him.
He stays in the doorway, staring at her. "You aren't going to have to be in the hospital again, are you?" he says so scared. They can see that this is about a lot more than Emily sitting with a wet towel pressed to her face or even her previous vomiting if he had heard that. This was about all of the times that people he cared about were in the hospital and the one time someone he loved didn't even make it to one. "Oh, Jack. I'm okay really," she says pitifully while looking between the scared child and his father. In that look with Aaron, they decide.
"Why don't we make breakfast and let Emily get cleaned up and then the three of us can talk? Emmy and I have some good news," Aaron says, and Jack nods though he clearly isn't convinced. "Run on ahead. I'll be there in a minute."
When it is just the two of them in there again, Aaron runs her a bath as she asks, "Are you sure about telling him?"
"I am if you are," he says as he closes the bathroom door and helps Emily from her the nightgown she had slept in.
"I just hope he's happy," she says as Aaron helps her to stand and she is thankfully not met by another onslaught of nausea.
"Me too," he says as he provides her with the stability of his arm as she steps into the bathtub and settles down in it.
Aaron slides out of the room and into the kitchen where his son waits, sitting at the table and playing with his toys. They make breakfast quickly while Aaron does everything he can to make Jack laugh, but hiss worries are still clear when Emily arrives at the table just as the food is finished. "Hey, boys. Looks delicious as always," Emily says as she sits at the table.
Emily and Aaron try to get Jack to talk about the usual excitements of school, but he is quiet. Once they finish breakfast, they settle in the living room where Aaron and Emily sit to either side of Jack. "So Jack, your dad said that we have some good news," Emily begins.
"And we're really excited about this," Aaron continues for her.
Emily smiles at the boys as he looks between them anxiously. "And I promise you that I'm not sick. My stomach a little upset, but I'm not sick."
"You aren't going to have to go to the hospital?" Jack asks.
"That's not exactly the case, Jack. Emily will go to the hospital several months from now, but we will go to, and it will be for happy reasons," Aaron says.
Jack looks confused and asks incredulously, "Happy reasons at the hospital?"
"Yes, kiddo. Really happy reasons," Emily says.
"You know that we're a family—me, you, and Emily," Aaron says.
"Yes," Jack says positively.
"But our family is going to grow," Aaron says. "Emily is pregnant."
"Really?" Jack says looking between them. The fear changed in a moment to hope and excitement.
"Yes, you're going to be a big brother. How do you feel about that?" Emily asks.
"That's…awesome!" he says, jumping up to hug Emily. Emily looks over his shoulder at Aaron in time for a tear to fall from his eyes, making it so that there is no way that Emily can hold in her tears either. Emily waves him towards them, and Aaron scoots closer and into the hug. In this moment, they are happy. None of the past pains or fears touch them. They have their family. They have their future, and nothing can stand in their way.
As the weeks pass, the pregnancy experience continues, and even with each new symptom, they become more excited. Emily stands in front of the mirror with her hands on her stomach in her soft blouse and a pair of dress pants with a stretchy waist. Aaron walks up behind her, wrapping her up in a hug as his hands pressed over her expanding stomach and their growing baby inside.
The baby bump isn't big, but it's easily visible in the tight-fitted blouse. All of their coworkers and students know that they're having a child, and today they got the day off. At eighteen weeks pregnant, it is finally time for a special doctor's appointment, and they are ecstatic. "Are you excited?" Emily asks him.
"So excited," Aaron says, beaming.
"Do you want a boy or a girl?" Emily asks, expecting the same response she has gotten each time she asks.
Aaron just shrugs like everytime and says, "I will love our baby either way. What do you want?"
It is her turn to shrug as she turns towards him, pulling him into a hug. "I have all that I want here with you. Why don't we go get that sweet boy ready and find out if he's going have a brother or a sister?"
Jack's excitement means that he gets ready quickly and doesn't allow them to dally long before setting out for the doctor's appointment. The time in the waiting room is long and tiresome, making Aaron and Emily just as fidgety, if not more so, than Jack. "Amelia Harrison," the nurse calls again. The walk there is easy though, and soon enough, it is time for the ultrasound. Emily's stomach is cold as the technician begins. Emily squeezes Aaron's hand tight as their baby's form comes into view in the black and white screen. "Are you ready to know?" the technician asks.
"Yes," Emily says calmly while Jack says it simultaneously with all of the excitement in the world and Aaron nods.
The nurse looks between them happily and says, "It's a girl."
"A girl," Emily repeats as she looks up at Aaron with a smile already on her face. She finds an even bigger smile on his. "What do you think, Jack?" Emily asks as she goes on to look at him.
"I'm gonna having a little sister," he says quietly before shouting, "I'm so excited!"
"So am I," Emily says, pressing a kiss to the top of Jack's head. Aaron leans down towards her and whispers, "I have a little secret, Em. I wanted a girl."
"Me too," she says back as he places a quick kiss on her lips.
For the rest of that day, they go out around Paris upon Jack's insistence, and they buy so many things for their baby girl. They got a variety of onesies in many colors with cute sayings that Aaron kept pointing out. They now have a collection baby shoes that Emily could not help but purchase as well as so many stuffed animals and baby dolls and storybooks that Jack was sure she would love. At night, they fall asleep easily from the exhaustion of a long and eventful day with all of the things they purchased still in bags on the countertop.
The next day, they get up and off to work and school as they always do except Emily is hit by more than one dizzy spell. Sitting before her class now, Emily finds that even when dealing with the symptoms of occasional nausea, regular dizziness, and seriously painful back aches, she is happy to be teaching. Her students are understanding, which had definitely surprised her originally, but they are doing their work without complaint and listening to her even though she can't stalk around the classroom like she had at the beginning of her work there. She enjoys it really. She enjoys teaching though the whole "molding the minds of tomorrow" always sounded ridiculous to her before. She loves the way that a student's eyes light up when they understand something they had been struggling with, and she is fascinated to learn all of their personalities and talents. Plus, she hasn't been told that is terrible at it, and the student even seem to be excelling with their understanding of English. That truth applies to Aaron as well, who has grown to really enjoy teaching math, and according to his students, he is the best math teacher they have had in high school. Emily thinks maybe all of the girls she hears saying that also find him attractive because, after all, she did luck out with the hot fiancé.
Emily sits at the front of her last class of the day now, watching as they complete their test. "Mrs. H?" Emily looks up to her door and smiles when she sees one of the office ladies standing there.
"Hi. Do you need someone?" she asks as the woman walks over to her desk.
"Yes. The principal needs to see you. I'll watch over your class," she says.
When some of the student's ooo 's at her getting called down to the principal's office, she says, "They're taking a test, and once they are done, they can work on their project." Then, turning towards the rest of the class, she continues while looking sternly around the room, "Now, I know that you guys can focus on this test, can't you?"
"Yes, Mrs. H," they say as the other noises they were making completely stop at the look of determination in her face.
"You guys got this!" Emily says with a kind smile as she walks from the class and down the hallway. "Hey!" she calls out when she sees Aaron walking down the hall in front of her.
He turns back to her and jogs back to join her side. "What do you think this is all about?" he asks.
"I don't know, but I never liked being called to the principal's office," she says.
"And I bet you spent a lot of time there," he says as he opens the door to the main office for her.
She smiles at him and says, "So much that I definitely never expected to enjoy being in a high school ever again."
"And yet," he says as they walk back to the principal's office.
Emily grins. "And yet."
"Come on in," their principal, Mrs. Dubois, calls through the closed door and waving at them through the window. "Have a seat," she says as they walk in, and she walks around closing the blinds behind them.
"Is everything okay?" Aaron asks their principal.
As she takes her seat back across her desk from them, she says, "Well, I'm not sure. I got a phone call from the FBI."
"Really?" Emily asks, unsure what is going on here, but definitely not going to give anything away prematurely.
"Yes. I put an Agent David Rossi on hold. He insisted on bringing you both in here before explaining," she says, pressing the button on her desk phone.
"Are they there?" David's voice comes through the phone, prominently and perhaps a little concerned. The principal gestures for them to answer as she clearly tries to evaluate the situation.
Aaron swallows while grabbing hold of Emily's hand, and then he says confidently, "Yes. Amelia and I are here, but I don't understand what this is about."
"I'm sorry. I know you probably don't want to do it this way, but it's time," David says urgently.
"Time for what?" the principal asks.
"Extraction," David says. "Declan is in trouble. We need Emily back."