I'm definitely struggling with this story, but I'm doing my best to stick with it. I decided to write a bit of a light chapter before I dive back into some drama! Hope you all will appreciate that!

Thanks for reading! -J

Chapter 9

By the time the jet touched down the next afternoon JJ was anxious to get home. Feeling a constant worry about not only Alex, but about Emily as well, JJ wasn't sure how she was going to manage being away from Emily through her pregnancy even though she knew it was likely to happen quite a bit the further into Emily's pregnancy they got.

Knowing everyone was exhausted and ready to get home, Hotch had dismissed the team, telling them he would see them all on Monday; no one needing to be told twice as they headed for their separate cars, hoping their phones would remain silent through the weekend.

Since Emily had promised to prepare dinner for the family, JJ made a quick stop before heading home, arriving at the house 45 minutes later and making her way inside to the sound of music blasting from the kitchen. Smiling, JJ dropped most of her things in the foyer, taking quiet, careful steps into the kitchen to find Emily dancing around the room while she prepared dinner, Henry following close behind as he tried to mimic her movements.

JJ couldn't help but laugh, eventually catching Henry's attention as he whirled around to face her. "Mama!" The little blonde exclaimed, immediately toddling towards her. "Mama! Home!"

"Hi Sweet Boy," JJ grinned, bending down and catching, the little blonde, revealing the bouquet of flowers she had purchased for Emily on the way home. "Are you having fun dancing with Mommy?"

"Mommy funny," Henry giggled as JJ placed kisses all over his face.

"Hi there. These are for you," JJ smiled, handing Emily the flowers, not missing the pink on the brunette's cheeks. "Nice moves," she leaned in for a kiss. "How are you feeling? You look good."

"Well I spent most of the morning throwing up," Emily told her with a laugh. "But I'm feeling a lot better. I gave Jessie the rest of the day off and Henry and I are making dinner. I'm glad you're home," she leaned in for another kiss. "Thank you for these."

"I thought you deserved something. I missed you," JJ replied, tucking Emily's hair behind her ear. "It smells really good in here. What are you making?"

"You will have to wait for dinner to find that out," Emily said, glancing at the clock. "You have perfect timing though. Think you could pick Alex up so I can keep going with all this? She had practice after school and I was on pick up duty."

"I would love to," JJ was quick to agree, anxious to see their daughter. "Want me to take Little Man with me?"

"Nah he can stay," Emily shook her head, a smile on her face. "We weren't quite finished with our dance party yet. Were we Henry?" She tickled the little boy's stomach. "You wanna keep dancing with Mommy?"

"Dance Mommy! Dance!" Henry began bouncing in JJ's arms, wanting to be put down.

"Well then I will leave you two crazy dancers to it then," JJ laughed, giving Emily another quick kiss. "I'll be back soon," she said, taking one last look back before heading for the door; smiling as Emily and Henry were already back to their little dance party. "It's good to be home," she smiled to herself. "So, so good."

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As JJ pulled up to Alex's school, she couldn't help but laugh as she got closer to the building and a young couple came into view; the pair in a rather serious lip lock. It didn't take long for the blonde to realize that it was her daughter and Spencer making out in front of their school, completely oblivious to their surroundings.

Rolling her eyes JJ laid on the car horn, startling the teens, as they pulled apart to see who was honking at them.

"Hi Honey," JJ yelled when she rolled down the window, waving with a big smile on her face.

"Mum!" Alex grinned; clearly unembarrassed to have been caught making out as she jumped into the car and immediately threw her arms around JJ's neck. "When did you get back?"

"Not too long ago," JJ smiled as Spencer got into the back seat. "Mom's working on dinner already. Hi Spencer," she turned towards the back. "Did you two have a good day? Looks like you were enjoying yourselves."

"School was good. We were just passing some time while we waited for you to get here," Alex shrugged, while Spencer's cheeks turned red. "My soccer coach said she thinks she's going to make me captain this year."

"What?" JJ sounded excited as she pulled the car out of the parking lot. "Honey that's amazing!"

"I mean it's not a for sure thing yet. The season hasn't even started yet but she said since I've been doing so well with the indoor team and everyone seems to like me and what not that she thinks I would be a good captain," Alex explained. "I'm pretty excited about it."

"You should be. That's so awesome," JJ nodded enthusiastically. "I'm so happy for you. And you know I was captain of my soccer team in high school. Helped me get my scholarship."

"I know," Alex smiled. "I figured it would look good on my college applications for sure. Never too early to be thinking about that. Right Spence?" She grinned as she turned back to look at her girlfriend who simply rolled her eyes in response.

"Are the girls coming over tonight?" JJ then asked, hoping to spend some time with the other teens, especially Olivia whom she hadn't seen since she started staying at home again.

"They'll be over after dinner," Alex nodded. "Although Olivia tried to snag an invite to dinner. She said Mom's cooking is the best."

"She's right about that," JJ laughed. "I hope you girls aren't too upset about missing out on dinner though," she eyed Spencer in the rearview mirror.

"Don't even worry about it, we totally get it," Spencer was quick to respond. "You guys should get to spend some quality time with each other. Plus Zoey invited Liv over to her place for dinner so she's fine," she laughed. "I'm gonna get started on my homework before I come over too. I want to get it done early so I have my Sunday free."

"Such a good little student," Alex teased, sticking her tongue out at Spencer who simply shook her head, obviously amused, while JJ watched on with a smile on her face.

"Yes well when you're still trying to do all your work on Sunday you'll wish you were a good student like me," Spencer stuck her own tongue out. "And I won't even feel bad for you at all."

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"Okay are you guys ready?" Emily called from the kitchen as JJ, Alex and Henry waited around the dining room table where Emily had instructed them to sit.

"Yes Emily we're ready," JJ couldn't help but laugh. "I really wish you would let me help you."

"Jen I'm pregnant, I can carry dinner in from the kitchen," Emily sounded annoyed, making Alex laugh. "Let me just spoil my family for a change," she said, coming into the dining room carrying a dish with a casserole that both JJ and Alex thought smelt heavenly.

"Wow, what is that?" Alex asked, trying to see better. "It smells so good!"

"Just a little something I whipped up," Emily shrugged. "It's got all your favourites though; pasta and cheese and chicken. I just kind of went with whatever looked good."

"Well I hope it tastes as good as it smells," Alex replied. "Thanks Mom!"

"Yeah thanks Em, this is great," JJ smiled, allowing Emily to dish out her plate for her. "Even Henry looks pretty excited," she said, looking at the little blonde who was clapping happily in his seat.

"So do you guys want to watch movies and stuff with me and the girls tonight?" Alex asked as everyone happily began eating. "Liv wants to do a Disney marathon and Zoey wants to keep up with our knitting lessons."

"Oh I want to learn to knit!" Emily exclaimed, surprising JJ who simply raised an eyebrow in question. "What? I can make things for the babies."

"Zoey would probably love to teach you," Alex laughed. "And she has already mentioned making something for the babies so you two should make some plans. Actually this is great because if Zoey is busy helping you she'll leave Liv alone."

"Olivia isn't big on the knitting?" JJ asked with a laugh.

"She's terrible," Alex shook her head in amusement. "She gets all tangled and then gets mad. I'm not even sure how she does it but sometimes I wonder if maybe she does it on purpose just to drive Zoey crazy."

"Somehow that wouldn't surprise me," Emily nodded, smiling as she thought about the bubbly teen who was always doing something to make her friends laugh. "I will just have to monopolize Zoey's time tonight."

"And I will entertain Olivia with nail polish and fashion magazines," JJ smiled. "You and Spencer can spend the night making kissy faces at each other."

"We don't make kissy faces," Alex rolled her eyes. "Not any more than you two do at least," she added, laughing as Emily and JJ immediately began making kissing noises at each other.

"So you had a good day at school today I take it?" Emily asked once the laughter had died down. "No problems or anything?"

"I didn't get any messages today," Alex replied, sighing as she began picking at her food, a sure sign that she was worried. "I wish I knew what I was doing to make someone want to mess with me like this," she said. "Because if it's supposed to be a joke it's not funny and if it's because of my relationship with Spencer…" she paused, obviously guessing this was the most likely motive. "I just hate that people think they should have some sort of opinion about our relationship. I mean why does it bother people when it has nothing to do with them?" She looked up to find both her Mothers watching her with understanding looks on their faces. "Do you guys have to deal with this kind of stuff?"

"Well first of all we aren't really sure this has anything to do with you and Spencer," Emily reminded the teen. "But yeah," she looked to JJ who nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately that happens. I think we've both been dealing with people judging our relationships since we were young and we still get people who give us dirty looks or who don't want to deal with us when they find out we're married."

"But we don't let it bother us," JJ shrugged, reaching out for the teen's hand. "We're happy and we have an amazing family, so that's all that matters to us," she continued. "But no one has the right to threaten you or make you feel unsafe because of it, which is why we are going to figure this out. We are going to make sure you feel safe again."

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"Hey, so I heard there's a party tomorrow night," Olivia whispered to the other girls while JJ and Emily were busy in the kitchen getting snacks later that night. "One of the girls on student council's house. Did you hear about it Spence?"

"Yeah, it's at Alicia Knowel's house," Spencer nodded; glancing at the kitchen to make sure Emily and JJ weren't coming back. "She invited me and said I could bring you guys, but I didn't really think it was a good idea right now," her eyes darted to Alex, who immediately understood, her eyes falling to the rug they were all sitting on in the middle of the family room.

"What! You got an invite and you didn't even tell us," Olivia continued on, oblivious to the glare that both Spencer and Zoey were giving her. "We have to go! It will be so fun guys. How could it not be a good time right…oh," she suddenly realized what Spencer meant, her cheeks reddening. "Sorry. I didn't mean…it was…it's probably going to be totally lame anyways," she tried to back pedal. "We should just do something else tomorrow night. We can hang out here again or something. Sorry Lex."

"Don't be," Alex shook her head. "And you don't have to lie Liv. The party will probably be great," she said, knowing Alicia and how much she enjoyed planning events. "There's very little chance my Moms would let me go right now, but you guys should go. You'll have fun!"

"What no way!" Zoey was quick to object.

"Not happening," Spencer grabbed Alex's hand. "There's no way we would go without you."

"Where won't you go without her?" Emily asked, returning to the family room with a large bowl of popcorn and a bag of M&Ms. "You girls have big plans tomorrow?"

"Oh no," Zoey was the one to reply. "We were thinking of maybe just hanging out here again tomorrow night if that's okay," she lied, a fact, which Emily immediately picked up on as JJ joined her on the couch.

"That's fine," Emily answered slowly, looking at each girl in turn, knowing they were obviously talking about something else before she came in. "But what are you four up to? Was there something else you were hoping to do?"

"There's just this party tomorrow," Alex sighed, knowing from experience that lying to her Mother was useless. "With everything that's going on I figured I wouldn't be allowed to go so I told them they could go without me," she explained. "Which I still think they should do."

"We don't even want to go," Spencer tried to assure her.

"Yeah, I don't know what I was even talking about before," Olivia said, hating the obviously sad look on Alex's face. "It will probably be totally lame."

"Oh," JJ nodded in understanding, watching Alex, who clearly wanted to go out and be a teenager with her friends. "You know we might be able to discuss it," she looked to Emily, who was trying very hard to hide her nerves about the idea. "I mean we can talk about it, can't we Em? If Lex wants to go?"

"It's okay Mum," Alex shook her head sadly. "I don't have to go."

Considering her options for a moment, Emily resisted the urge to simply object, feeling that it was unfair to her daughter that she constantly had to deal with threats and fear in her life. "Will there be parents at this party?" She finally asked, casting her own fears aside.

"Alicia's parents are going to be home," Spencer nodded. "It won't actually be that big of a party either. Just some of the kids from our grade."

"And there wouldn't be alcohol," Olivia felt the need to jump in. "And we would all stick together! It would be perfectly safe."

"Do you want to go?" Emily turned to her daughter who was chewing her lip anxiously.

Shrugging, Alex sighed. "I just don't want to skip things because I'm too busy being worried or scared about what could happen," she told the older brunette. "But I also don't want to worry you guys. If you don't think I should go, then I won't go."

"Em," JJ looked into her wife eyes, assuring her that everything would be okay.

"We'll drive you," Emily said, surprising Alex whose head shot up, giving her Mother a questioning look. "And if there's any problems…"

"We'll call right away," Alex nodded, finally smiling. "Thanks Mom!"

"Of course," Emily nodded, appreciating the reassuring squeeze that JJ gave her leg. "Now come on, I thought you guys were picking out a movie," she pointed to the TV, ready to change the topic, knowing that there would be time for worrying tomorrow. "And I will be ready for my knitting lesson as soon as I have some of this popcorn," she said, surprised she was still so hungry after eating such a big dinner. "This is still girl's night isn't it?"

"Yeah," Alex laughed, grabbing the remote and moving to grab some popcorn from the bowl. "It's still girl's night."