A/N: As always, thank you so much to everyone who read and reviewed the last chapter.

Chapter 42

When she heard someone knocking, Emily turned to look at the door with a furrowed brow. "Who could that be?"

She wasn't expecting anyone. Hotch had just barely gotten there. He brought dinner over; and, as far as she knew, they were planning to spend a nice, quiet evening in.

If she had thought about it more, she might have found it odd that Hotch maneuvered to come to her apartment when they usually stayed at his house, but she'd just been happy that she was going to get to see him. She hadn't thought that she would see him that weekend.

It was Mother's Day weekend, and Emily didn't know how Hotch or Jack would feel about her intruding on a weekend that should be about Haley. That was Jack's mom, and Haley had died protecting Jack from Foyet. She deserved to be remembered for what she did for Jack and how much she loved him. Emily didn't want to get in the way of anything they might want to do to honor Haley's memory or remember her.

That was why Emily wasn't expecting to see Hotch, but she was glad he called. She didn't really overthink it when he asked if he could bring dinner over to her place. She was just happy she would get to see him. She'd only just gotten back from Des Moines, Iowa, where the BAU was helping the local police find a serial killer who was working across state lines in the Midwest and hadn't seen Hotch for the last six days because of it.

Out of habit, Emily looked out the peephole before opening the door. She was floored when she saw her fourteen year old standing there and immediately opened the door for the girl.

"What are you doing here? Please tell me you didn't run away," Emily said, only half-kidding. Her eyes had gone immediately to the very full-looking duffel bag in the teenager's hands. There had only been two times that Hannah had spent the night with Emily, and neither time had involved Hannah just showing up out of the blue with a bag.

"I didn't," Hannah assured her with a small smile. "My dad dropped me off. Can I spend the night?"

"Oh," Emily said. She was pleasantly surprised, but she threw a glance over her shoulder at Hotch, who had only brought dinner for two.

At some point while she was talking to Hannah, Hotch had come over and was now standing right behind Emily with his keys in his hand. It looked like he was about to leave. Unseen by Emily, he had given Hannah a sly smile. "That's my cue to get out of here," he told Emily.

"You don't have to leave," Emily said quickly. She was happy to have Hannah for the night, but she didn't want Hotch to feel like he had to leave. She wasn't just going to kick him out after he brought food, even if there wasn't enough for all of them. There was always pizza.

"It's okay," Hotch assured Emily. "I knew Hannah was coming."

"You did?" Emily questioned in surprise as she looked from Hotch to her daughter. How could he have known that?

"I did. Hannah wanted to surprise you," Hotch started to explain. "It was my job to make sure you were here so she could do that. The food is for the two of you."

"Hannah," Emily scolded gently. "If you asked Hotch to help you, the least you could do is ask him to stay and have dinner with us." A little embarrassed by the situation, Emily shot Hotch an apologetic look. Hannah was usually much more polite than that.

"She didn't ask," Hotch said, immediately jumping to the teenager's defense. "I was the one who suggested it."

He didn't say it, but when he found out what Hannah had planned, Hotch was worried that her surprise would be ruined unless there was something – or someone - to keep Emily at her apartment for the night. Emily spent more nights at his place than her own now. Without his intervention, there was a very good chance that Emily would have been at his house when Hannah showed up at Emily's apartment to surprise her.

With a little help from Penelope Garcia, Hotch had reached out to Hannah at the end of April to find out what, if anything, the girl had planned for her first Mother's Day with Emily. It was a delicate conversation to have with a teenage girl that he didn't know very well. It felt like there were a lot of land mines to avoid.

First, Hotch tried to be cognizant of the fact that Hannah was adopted and may be spending the day doing something to remember the adoptive mother who raised her or even celebrating with her adoptive grandmother or Steve's sister. Hotch couldn't assume that her plans included Emily, but he also didn't want to assume that they didn't.

If, for whatever reason, Hannah couldn't spend the day with Emily, Hotch knew Emily would be hurt and disappointed. Hotch knew it would likely be the adoptive father's doing if that happened, and there wasn't anything he could really do about it except try to make the day special for Emily himself. He knew nothing he could do would make up for Emily not being able to see Hannah on Mother's Day though.

Regardless of what Hannah may or may not have planned, Hotch wanted to do something for the woman who had been doing so much for his son. He had to tread carefully there, too, because Emily wasn't Jack's mother, and Hotch didn't know how Hannah would feel about Hotch and Jack wanting to spend any part of Mother's Day with Emily. Would Hannah be willing to share her time with Emily?

Fortunately, Hannah responded well to being consulted. It made her feel important and reinforced the fact that however close Emily was to Jack, Hannah was Emily's daughter.

Hannah told Hotch that she was going to ask her dad if she could surprise Emily by spending the night on Saturday and spending all day Sunday with the woman.

Hannah might have felt a little defensive or been unsure about sharing Emily with the Hotchner men that weekend if Hotch hadn't played it the way he did, but she didn't ever feel like he and Jack were trying to change the plans she'd made or take away from her time with her birth mother. In fact, Hotch offered to help make sure Emily was at home at the pre-arranged time on Saturday – something the teenager hadn't even thought of, to be honest. She was grateful for his help.

They agreed that Hotch would help Hannah surprise Emily, and after Hannah and Emily spent the day together on Sunday, all four of them would go out to dinner together.

Although he acknowledged that Emily wasn't Jack's mother, Hotch explained that she was a part of their life and Jack would like to do something to thank Emily for everything that she did for him. He made it clear that Jack would have a present for Emily, just so there were no surprises. Hannah didn't act upset by that.

"Dinner was a set up," Emily realized as it suddenly clicked for her.

"For tonight it was," Hotch confirmed. "Tomorrow night Jack and I are taking you and Hannah out. We'll pick you guys up at seven."

With that, he gave Emily a quick kiss goodbye and patted Hannah on the shoulder tentatively before leaving Emily's apartment.

"Since when do you and Hotch talk?" Emily asked curiously, following Hannah into the apartment. Hannah was heading straight for the guest room that she had slept in every other time she stayed with Emily.

"Since he called me to ask me what I was doing for you for Mother's Day," Hannah answered as she set her bag down on top of the bed. She shrugged nonchalantly. "Apparently he got my number from-"

"Penelope," Emily said knowingly. She didn't need Hannah to tell her that.

"Yep," Hannah said.

"Well, do I get a hug?" Emily asked expectantly now that Hannah wasn't carrying her bag anymore.

Hannah stepped forward into her birth mother's open arms, allowing the older woman to hold her close for a moment while wrapping her own arms loosely around Emily's waist. After dropping a kiss on the crown of Hannah's head, Emily let go of her daughter.

"What do you have planned for tonight?" Emily wondered.

"Dinner and presents," Hannah announced.

"Presents?" Emily questioned with raised eyebrows. "Mother's Day isn't until tomorrow."

"I know, but I think you're going to want to open them tonight," Hannah responded mysteriously. "Let's eat. I'm hungry."

Without waiting for the older woman to agree, Hannah made her way into the kitchen, knowing Emily would follow. Hannah was already taking the to-go containers out of the plastic bag on the counter when Emily arrived right behind her. It was from one of Emily's favorite restaurants – a little French restaurant in her neighborhood. Emily had never taken Hannah to the restaurant, so she knew it was Hotch's doing.

Suppressing a smile as she thought about how sweet it was of Hotch to do this for her and Hannah, Emily took silverware out of the drawer and handed Hannah a napkin.

They ate in front of the TV, with re-runs of Modern Family on in the background. It was what came on after the news, which was what Emily had on before Hannah got there. Emily would normally have offered to put a movie on, but she didn't want to start a movie because she got the sense that Hannah had something else planned.

Emily had talked to Hannah via text while she was away for the case, but she felt like she hadn't really talked to the girl all week. She asked Hannah how her week was and listened as her daughter filled her in on everything she'd missed.

When they finished eating, Hannah insisted on cleaning up, which was easy since it was just a matter of throwing out the empty take-out containers and putting the silverware in the dishwasher.

After that, Hannah made a quick detour to the guest room and then returned to the living room where Emily was waiting for her. The girl had a large gift bag in her hands and looked self-conscious as she handed it to Emily.

Emily took a purple envelope out of the bag. She opened it first, knowing she would find a card in it. Before reading the card, Emily glanced up at Hannah in concern.

Hannah hadn't sat back down. She was still standing in front of Emily, blushing and looking down as though embarrassed by whatever she had written in the card.

Emily didn't understand. Hannah had seemed so excited for Emily to open her presents at first, even insisting that they couldn't wait until it was actually Mother's Day. Now, Hannah was almost acting like she regretted doing this.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait until tomorrow?" Emily asked, trying to give the girl an out.

Hannah looked torn for a moment before answering with a small amount of obvious reluctance, "No. Go ahead."

The front of the card was a typical design, with "Happy Mother's Day" in gold lettering above a pretty bouquet of flowers. Inside the card simply said, "You always let me know how much I am loved. Today it's my turn to tell you that."

It was a sweet sentiment, but one that was written by the greeting card company. Underneath it was the message that came from Emily's daughter, and, unless Emily was wrong, whatever it said was what had Hannah so shy and uncertain.

As soon as she read the first line, Emily knew why Hannah was acting like this. Where Emily expected to see her own name scrawled in Hannah's neat handwriting, Emily instead saw "Maman" – the French word for Mother.

Feeling like she might burst with happiness and joy, Emily looked up at Hannah again. The girl had never called her anything except 'Emily' to her face. Emily knew she might always be Emily to her daughter. Another woman – Hannah's adoptive mom – was and would always be 'Mom.' Emily told herself it was okay. As long as she got to be a mother to Hannah, Emily didn't need the title. Emily knew this was Hannah's way of acknowledging that Emily was her mother without taking anything away from her adoptive mom. French or English, it didn't matter. It meant everything to Emily.

Hannah was staring intently at the carpet, doing everything she could to avoid Emily's gaze. When she filled out the card, Hannah thought it would be good if she used the French word for mother. It was a way of calling her birth mother 'Mom' without actually saying the word. It seemed like a great idea until after Hannah sealed the envelope. At that point, Hannah started to second-guess herself. What if Emily thought it was stupid? Or, worse, what if Emily was hurt or disappointed that Hannah went with the French word instead of just calling her 'Mom'? Hannah was so close to throwing the card away and just giving Emily her presents. She didn't, but she couldn't watch in case it ended with Emily's disappointment.

"Hannah," Emily said gently, willing her daughter to look at her.

"What?" Hannah asked, her voice coming out low and almost defensive.

Emily sighed. Setting the card down, Emily stood up and closed the distance between herself and her daughter. It was only when Emily's feet entered her line of vision that Hannah finally looked up, knowing Emily was now standing right in front of her.

"Hannah, I love the card," Emily said simply, trying not to embarrass the girl. Wrapping her arms around the girl, Emily pulled Hannah into her embrace. "Thank you," Emily murmured softly into Hannah's ear.

"I love you," Hannah mumbled.

"I love you, too," Emily said, positively beaming as she smiled down at the top of her daughter's head. The woman felt such an overwhelming amount of love for her child in that moment that she didn't think it was even possible to love anyone more. Emily felt like she could stay right there with Hannah in her arms forever. She never wanted to let go.

"You still have to open your presents," Hannah told her birth mother. She was feeling more confident again and was excited for Emily to open her presents. Okay, maybe she was also trying to avoid talking about the card any more, but it was just a card. The presents were the real gift.

"Come help me," Emily instructed, taking Hannah's smaller hand in her own and leading the girl over to the couch to sit down next to her.

"Open this first," Hannah told Emily as she plucked a box out of the gift bag and handed it to the woman. "It's a digital picture frame," Hannah supplied while Emily was still looking at the front of the box. It was the original packaging, and it had a photo of the picture fame on it. "You can set it up so anyone you want can send pictures to the picture frame by email," the teenager started to explain. "I thought I could, like, send you pictures from my phone, and that way you'd have more pictures of me. When you were taking pictures before winter formal, you said you needed more pictures of me."

"Thank you, sweetheart," Emily said to stop the fourteen year old's nervous rambling. "I like the idea of you sending me pictures."

Even though she had her daughter back in her life now, Emily knew she was still missing out on so much of the girl's life. Hannah didn't live with Emily. The girl spent holidays and special occasions with her adoptive father. Family vacations were with Steve and his family. There were also just the little everyday moments. The digital picture frame would be a great way for Hannah to share some of those missed moments - now and in the future - with her birth mother. Emily already knew she would be pestering the girl to email her pictures of everything from now on.

Hannah smiled proudly before getting shy and nervous again. "The next thing is kind of stupid. It was my dad's idea." Biting her bottom lip, Hannah took a pretty yellow leather photo album out of the gift bag. "When I told him what I was doing, he said we should make copies of all of my old baby pictures for you."

It didn't end up being just baby pictures. Steve had pictures of Hannah over the years. Most of them were from when she was younger, but there were several of her as a little kid and even a few odd ones from when she was in middle school. They had the pictures scanned and professionally printed on a high resolution printer, and Hannah put them in the photo album in chronological order.

"It's not stupid," Emily assured her kid as she flipped the photo album open to the first picture. Emily felt her breath catch in her throat. It was a picture of Hannah as a newborn in the hospital.

Emily had only seen her baby for precious seconds before the nurses took her out of the room that Emily was in. Emily remembered how hard it was for her to let them take her daughter away when she could hear her crying. It felt unnatural for Emily to do nothing to comfort her daughter, but she had known that Steve and Sarah would be out in the waiting room. They would give her baby girl all of the love and comfort that she needed. If Emily wasn't sure of that, then she never would have been able to go through with the adoption.

But this picture…it was what Hannah looked like when she was born. It was exactly how Emily remembered her before she was taken away. The only difference was that in the picture Hannah was wearing a little pink hat to identify her as a girl. It brought back all of the feelings that Emily had back then, and it took Emily a minute before she felt like she could speak again without sounding over-emotional.

"Remind me to thank your dad," Emily said as she stared at picture, completely transfixed by the baby - her baby…Hannah.

Now, Emily knew why Hannah thought she would want to open her presents right away. The entire photo album was full from front to back, and Emily knew they could spend hours looking at the pictures together. Before she went back home to her dad, Emily wanted Hannah to tell her about every birthday party, every Halloween costume, and every Christmas that was documented in the album.

They made it through all of the baby pictures and most of the pictures of Hannah as a toddler before both mother and daughter were fading fast. The last picture they looked at was of Hannah dressed up for Halloween as the cutest little witch Emily had ever seen at age three. After that, they decided to call it a night and pick up where they left off the next morning.

With a big yawn, Hannah went to get brush her teeth and wash her face. Emily decided to pick up the tissue paper and throw it away before retiring to her room for the night. As Emily cleaned up a little, her eyes fell on the long-forgotten card that had been set aside hours ago. Emily realized that she never finished reading what Hannah wrote. Deciding that it was probably better that she read it when Hannah was otherwise occupied to save the girl from any further embarrassment, Emily waited for Hannah to go to bed before opening the card again. There, in Hannah's handwriting, it said:

Maman,

Happy Mother's Day! This is just the first of many. You're not allowed to die so try not to get stabbed by any more crazy people, okay?

Seriously though I know that most people who lose their moms don't have a back up mom. I know I'm lucky to have you. You're an awesome mom. Thank you for everything you do for me. I love you, and I hope you have a great day.

Love,

Hannah

Emily smiled when she read it. Somehow, it managed to strike the perfect balance between being funny and being heartfelt. It sounded just like Hannah.

Sunday morning found Emily and Hannah back on the couch, looking through more pictures before they went to brunch. Hannah was dutifully telling her birth mother about the mermaid-themed pool party she had for her seventh birthday as Emily looked at a picture of Hannah wearing a swimsuit with a big striped beach towel draped around her shoulders as she blew out the candles on the large birthday cake in the shape of a mermaid. Hannah happened to glance at Emily when the woman was looking particularly wistful. The girl let her voice trail off.

"Are you okay?" Hannah asked with concern.

"I'm fine, sweetheart," Emily assured her.

"You look sad," Hannah pointed out skeptically. She was going to say that Emily looked like she was going to cry, but the young teenager had a little more tact than that.

Emily tried to pull herself together. "This just makes me realize how much I missed," she said honestly.

"I'm sorry," Hannah started to apologize. "I didn't think it would make you upset."

"Don't apologize," Emily told her daughter. "I'm so glad you're showing me everything I missed. I want to see it. I want to know everything there is to know about your life growing up. It's just bittersweet, you know?"

"Do you ever wish you would have kept me?" Hannah asked, her voice soft and vulnerable. The tone was so different from the way she had questioned her birth mother about why the woman gave her up, why the woman couldn't have kept her safe all those months ago when they first started getting to know each other. Now, there wasn't the slightest hint of accusation in Hannah's tone of voice. There was no hurt or anger. It was just an innocent question borne of natural curiosity as she watched her birth mother struggle with her emotions.

"Sometimes…" Emily admitted, growing thoughtful as she tried to find the right words to answer her daughter's question. Emily knew that there was a wrong answer here, and she couldn't get it wrong. It was too important. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt her child's feelings. "Sometimes I do, but then I think about how incredibly proud I am of you. You're a good kid, Hannah. Your adoptive parents did a great job with you. And I know that you wouldn't be the same person you are today if you'd grown up with me."

From the small, self-conscious smile and accompanying blush on Hannah's face, Emily knew that had been the right answer. And every word was true. Emily took a deep breath and continued.

"Most of the time, I'm just so glad I get the incredible privilege of being a part of your life now," Emily said sincerely, trying to keep her voice even and strong even though she was starting to get choked up. "There's no one else that makes me laugh the way you do. When I'm having a bad day, just the sound of your voice makes me feel better. I wouldn't change anything about you, kid."

"I can't believe it's only been, like, five months since we met," Hannah told her birth mother.

"Me either," Emily said, nudging Hannah's shoulder gently. "We've come a long way since then, haven't we?"

"Do you remember the first time we met?" Hannah asked.

Emily chuckled softly. "How could I forget? You ran off, and I had to track you down at a Metro station in Bethesda."

"No! That's not what I meant," Hannah was quick to tell Emily, not liking the look her mother was giving her. She could tell the woman wasn't mad, but the mock-stern expression was still making Hannah flustered. "That doesn't count because I didn't even know who you were. I thought you were just some random FBI agent," the teenager tried to rationalize. "I meant the first time we actually hung out."

"Oh, that first time," Emily said slowly and a little sarcastically when she realized Hannah was trying to re-write history to conveniently leave out the time that she ended up stranded at a Metro station. "Yes, I do," Emily told the girl.

"That's where we're going for brunch," Hannah told Emily.

They usually tried different places around the city for their mother-daughter brunches, but Hannah had chosen the place from the first time they really hung out for this special Mother's Day brunch.

Emily knew they were going to brunch, had known that even before Hannah showed up at her apartment to surprise her, but she didn't know where they were going. All Emily knew was that Hannah had made reservations somewhere, and it was going to be a surprise. Apparently, Hannah was big on surprises.

Emily offered Hannah a small smile. "That was when I could barely get you to talk to me," she reminded Hannah, more to tease the girl than anything else.

"I was not that bad!" Hannah said defensively.

"Right…"

"What? I wasn't!" Hannah cried out in protest.

"You keep thinking that," Emily told the girl, patting her leg in a deliberately patronizing manner before getting up from the couch. "I'm going to go get ready."

It was funny, having brunch in that same restaurant really brought home the fact that they'd come an awfully long way in the last five months or so. They had talked about it just that morning, but the way their conversation flowed easily and everything felt so natural between the two of them was a sharp contrast to the first awkward meal they shared there. Whether Hannah wanted to admit or not, she had not made it easy for Emily to talk to her at first. They had gone from strangers to having some semblance of a real mother-daughter relationship, one that was very rewarding for them both.

After brunch, they went back to Emily's apartment.

"Emily?" Hannah said tentatively, almost as soon as they walked back in. There was a question she had been waiting to ask until they got home. Talking about the first time they met got Hannah thinking. "Why did you wait so long? I mean, I know why you gave me up," she said quickly to assure Emily that wasn't where she was going with this. "But…why did you wait until this year? You didn't want to meet me before?"

Emily gave her daughter a long, measuring look and then started to steer the girl over to the couch with a hand on her shoulder. "That wasn't it," Emily told Hannah after they were both sitting down. "When I gave you up for adoption, I lost any right I had to see you. That's how adoption works, honey." Emily decided not to delve into the difference between a closed adoption and an open adoption or her reasons for wanting a closed adoption – to keep Hannah's existence a secret from Doyle and his enemies. For the purposes of this conversation, that wouldn't really be helpful. "I didn't ask your parents if I could see you because I didn't think they'd say yes."

"My dad said yes," Hannah pointed out.

"I know. And I'm so glad he did. And sometimes I wonder if he would have let me see you when you were younger," Emily admitted. Sometimes she wished she would have kept tabs on her daughter. Then, maybe she could have been there for the girl after her adoptive mom died. But, whenever Emily got caught up in what could have been, she always came to the same conclusion - she didn't think either Steve or Hannah would have been as accepting as they were of her when they were still grieving the loss of Sarah Johnson. She thought that all of Hannah's initial worries and fears over what her adoptive mom would think of her forming a relationship with Emily would have been amplified at a time when emotions were running so high. Emily didn't believe that she would have the relationship she did now with Hannah if they'd been reunited earlier.

"So why did you finally decide to ask him?" Hannah asked curiously.

"There was a case that made me think of you," Emily told the girl honestly. "A little girl who was adopted died from a terrible disease. There was nothing that could have been done to save her, but the biological father couldn't accept that. He thought the adoptive parents were to blame." Emily stopped there, knowing Hannah could probably guess what happened without Emily going into the whole horror story. "After that case, it was driving me crazy that I didn't know if you were okay. I had to find out. When I did, I saw your mom's obituary." Emily glanced at Hannah worriedly, but the girl didn't look like she was upset by the mention of her adoptive mom, so Emily continued. "I hated thinking that you lost your mom at a young age. I thought that if there was anything I could do…anything you needed from me, I had to make sure you knew where to find me."

"I just need you to be you," Hannah told her birth mother. "You got a late start, but you're still really good at being a mom." Hannah tilted her head to the side, allowing it to rest on Emily's shoulder for a moment. "You're kind of nailing it."

"Thank you," Emily said dryly, not trusting herself to say any more than that without getting choked up. That was happening a lot that weekend. What was her kid doing to her?

They spent the afternoon going through the rest of the photo album together before getting ready for dinner with the Hotchner men. Hotch and Jack came up to the door to get them, with the youngest Hotchner handing Emily a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

"Thank you," Emily said to Jack before meeting Hotch's gaze and holding it in a way that told him she wasn't just thanking Jack. Emily knew Jack probably wanted to give her flowers - after Hotch put the idea in his head. Jack was always very sweet and appreciative of her. But Emily would bet that it started out as Hotch's idea. He was romantic that way.

"They're pretty," Hannah complimented.

Emily let Hannah play hostess while she put the flowers in a vase in the kitchen. Hannah and Jack met once before, and they quickly discovered that they knew a lot of the same people. Jack knew some of the boys that Hannah went to school with through soccer and football, and Hannah used to play club volleyball with some of the girls that Jack knew. Being the same age and going to schools that played each other in sports gave them a common ground to start from.

They were both nice, polite kids who were making an honest effort to be friendly for their parents' sake. Hannah started making small talk about upcoming finals, which led to the two teenagers commiserating over how much homework they had.

Emily came back into main entryway as Hannah was saying that she couldn't wait for school to be over. Emily rolled her eyes at her teenager's dramatics and decided that she was not looking forward to Hannah's final exams any more than Hannah was. Having been through that once before already, Emily already knew she would be dealing with a stressed, over-tired kid. Maybe Emily would be away for a case that week, and Steve could deal with Hannah by himself. It wasn't a serious thought for Emily, who knew she would help Hannah study for French if nothing else.

Hotch took them to a nice steakhouse. He had reservations, so they were seated promptly in a booth, with Emily and Hotch sitting together on one side and the kids sitting together on the other.

"Do you have volleyball camp?" Jack asked, continuing the conversation that he and Hannah were having in the car about their plans for the summer.

It had been an interesting conversation for Emily, who hadn't known that her fourteen year old spent a month of the summer every summer in Chicago with her adoptive mom's family. Emily didn't know how she was going to get through an entire month without seeing her daughter. Maybe the windy city would have a serial killer, and Emily would have an excuse to go to Chicago…

"No," Hannah told Jack in response. "I'm not playing volleyball next year."

It wasn't the first time Emily had heard Hannah say that, but she had never really gotten a reason why out of the girl. "Your dad said that you're really good at volleyball," Emily interjected. "Why aren't you playing?"

Trying to appear nonchalant about it, Hannah shrugged. "I'm going to do cross country instead." It was something she'd told both Emily and her dad before, but they kept asking about volleyball, her dad especially. He thought she was too good to quit.

"Do you like to run?" Hotch asked Hannah, glad to have found something that he might have in common with the fourteen year old girl.

"It's okay," Hannah said, not sounding overly enthusiastic about it.

"My dad does triathlons," Jack offered up, just as proud of his dad as ever.

"That's hard core," Hannah told Hotch, suitably impressed.

Hotch smiled wryly. "It is. I think I'm getting too old for it."

"Liar," Emily said playfully. "You're still in pretty good shape."

"Just pretty good?" Hotch questioned in mock-offense.

"Um, can you guys maybe wait until after dinner to flirt?" Hannah asked, making a face that both of the adults at the table actually found quite comical.

"Sorry," Hotch apologized lightly as he tried to suppress a small smile that was threatening to form.

Hannah, who hadn't spent anywhere near as much time with the two adults as Jack had, looked at Jack questioningly. "Are they always like this?"

"Pretty much," Jack answered. He knew what Hannah was talking about. Hannah put a stop to it right away, but Jack knew that his dad and Emily would have kept flirting otherwise.

Unlike Hannah, who was weirded out by seeing her birth mother flirting, Jack actually liked seeing his dad with Emily, even if that meant flirting. Jack couldn't remember ever seeing his dad his smile or laugh as much as he did when he was with Emily.

Jack's response had both adults feeling mortified as they tried to think back on whether they had ever taken things too far in front of him. The reality was that they were both very private people, and they never did anything inappropriate in front of Jack. He had probably only seen some banter that may or may not have had some undertones of underlying sexual tension, and then some innocent kisses and cuddling on the couch. Anything more than that was reserved for when they were alone. Still, neither of them ever wanted to make the boy uncomfortable in his own home, and Hotch resolved to talk to Jack about it later.

"Well, this is awkward," Hannah observed in a dry tone.

"Only because you made it awkward," Emily told her teenager. "Just wait until you have a boyfriend," she warned the girl playfully, her tone promising that she would get Hannah back for this when that moment came. Now, Emily even had embarrassing baby pictures that she could use to torture the girl. Emily's face broke into a wicked grin as she thought about the endless possibilities.

"No," Hannah protested. "I'm sorry. Please, continue flirting," she gave them her permission. "I won't say anything, I promise."

"It's too late now," Emily told her daughter, having fun with this now that she'd turned the tables around on her smartass teenager.

"Emily," Hannah complained, her voice taking on a slight whine.

Hotch had watched the exchange with a small smile. It wasn't often that he got to see Emily with her daughter, but it never failed to bring a smile to his face. She was just so good with Hannah. She was a good mother, and Hotch found himself in awe of the natural ease with which she interacted with kids – all kids, really, but especially her own.

Emily was wonderful with Jack, but the relationship she had with him had less of the playfulness that he was seeing now between Emily and Hannah. That was probably because Jack was missing the dry sarcasm gene that Emily had clearly passed down to Hannah. Jack didn't talk to Emily the same way that Hannah did, and, in return, Emily didn't tease him the way she teased Hannah. They were two very different kids, and Emily seemed to just know inherently what each of them needed from her.

The waiter came, and Hotch ordered a bottle of wine that he knew Emily liked and two appetizers for the table – a shrimp cocktail and spinach and artichoke dip. They were appetizers that had been big hits when the team went out to dinner back when Hotch was Unit Chief, and he knew Emily would eat them. They also went ahead and ordered their main courses.

When the appetizers came, there were four large shrimp in the shrimp cocktail, which Hotch thought would work out perfectly since there were four of them. Hannah didn't eat hers though, and eventually Jack asked, "Aren't you going to eat that?"

"Oh," Hannah said. "No, it's okay. You can have it."

"I already had mine," Jack replied easily, too polite to take the last one. "We each get one."

"Thanks, but I can't have seafood," Hannah said, looking a little embarrassed to now be the center of attention. She hadn't wanted to bring attention to the fact that she wasn't eating the shrimp because she didn't want to make a big deal out of it. She didn't want Hotch to feel bad about ordering something she couldn't eat.

"You can't?" Emily asked in a surprised tone, frowning slightly. Just when she thought she knew Hannah pretty well, Emily learned something new about her – and this was something Emily felt like she should have known.

"I'm allergic," Hannah explained.

"Hannah, I'm sorry. I didn't know," Hotch said apologetically.

"No. Really, it's okay," Hannah assured him. "As long as I don't eat it, I'm fine. And there's more than enough other things for me to eat," she added, thinking of the side dishes the man had ordered for them all to share. "Please don't feel bad."

"How did I not know about this?" Emily asked, speaking more to herself than to anyone else. The mother in her was still stuck on the fact that she didn't know about this allergy. "What if I gave you fish by mistake?"

"Um…I wouldn't have eaten it because I don't have a death wish," Hannah deadpanned. "Besides, I think the chance of you giving me fish by mistake is slim to none since it would involve you actually cooking," Hannah pointed out with a nonchalant shrug. "Obviously, I'm not going to order fish when we go out or get takeout."

"She has a point, Emily," Hotch said with a wry smile.

It was decided that Emily would get the last shrimp since it was Mother's Day, and she was the only mother at the table. Their steaks came out after that, and the waiter topped off Emily and Hotch's wine glasses and promised to return with refills on the soda for the kids.

Wanting to make up for the whole shrimp debacle, Hannah made a point of telling Hotch how good her steak and mashed potatoes were and thanking him profusely for taking them there. He assured the girl that it was his pleasure and thanked her for allowing him and Jack to join them for dinner.

It was, overall, a great dinner. Hannah and Jack got along well. They were all comfortable enough with each other to really relax and enjoy themselves.

Hotch credited the Mother's Day plans – and plotting – with helping him get a little bit closer to Hannah. He thought helping her with her surprise earned him some points with the girl and hoped she knew now that he would never get in the way of her relationship with Emily. In fact, he would do everything he could to encourage it because he knew how important Hannah was to Emily. And, at the end of the night, when Emily told him that it had been the best Mother's Day ever at the end of the night, Hotch decided that he and Hannah made a pretty good team.

"You deserve it," Hotch told her sincerely. "Happy Mother's Day, Emily."

A/N: Thank you for reading. I know Hannah's gift of the photo album is very cliché in this kind of story. I also know that this chapter as a whole was super cheesy. What can I say? This was my best attempt at fluff. It's not my strong suit. I'm more of an angst kind of person.

Just so you all know, this was probably the last of the faster updates. I won't disappear again now that I've gotten past that one chapter that was giving me such a hard time, but I still don't have a ton of time and I think I'm going to work on the next chapter for my other story next.