"I saved a piece for you"
Emily was late. Emily was so late. Emily was never late for anything unless there were extreme circumstances. She figured having to schmooze her way out of staying till the end of another one of her Mother's functions only sort of counted as extreme. She sighed and rounded the corner to JJ's block, looking for a free parking space. She had called to warn she may be late before she'd even left for the function so it wasn't like they didn't know she was going to be late, but the idea that Henry wanted her there for his second birthday had her violating all manner of traffic laws to get to JJ's house.
Finally finding parking, she quickly picked up the decorative bag containing Henry's present from the passengers seat and with minimal rearranging of the white tissue paper, she walked as fast as she dared in heels to JJ's front door. She checked the delicate gold watch linked around her wrist. Emily had come directly from the gala to JJ's and she sort of wished she had gone home first, as she missed the utilitarian bulkiness of her normal timepiece. Sighing and smoothing down her hair self-consciously, she knocked on the door and took a step back.
Less than a minute later, JJ opened the door, a grin on her face. "You made it after all." She said, moving aside to let Emily in. JJ gave a low whistle as Emily stepped into the foyer. "Geez, Em, I always seem to forget how well you clean up." She said appreciatively.
Emily patted at the deep purple, ankle length dress she wore with a nervous smile; too busy looking at what she was wearing to catch the way JJ's eyes raked over her form. "I haven't gone home yet." She said, her tone unsure.
"Relax! It's just us!" JJ pointed out, taking the gift bag from Emily. "Take your shoes off, have a seat…even though I think you're going to give my ugly old couch a midlife crisis."
Emily laughed, more at ease and followed JJ into the living room, toeing out of her shoes and groaning with relief as her sore feet became free of their glam prisons. She noticed that there were remnants of the birthday party that had gone on; toys swept off to the side and a few stray balls of wrapping paper that hadn't made it to the garbage yet. Emily frowned. She was so late. "Where's Henry?"
"He went down for a nap a while ago." JJ said from the kitchen. "Sugar crash. Wine?"
"Please." Emily listened to JJ mull around the kitchen while she took in the living room décor. She liked JJ's old apartment better, but this had more signs of life in it. Having a toddler would do that, she figured. She took in the pictures on the entertainment center, smiling at ones of the team, of Henry and JJ just after he was born, Penelope and Henry, Reid and Henry, one of JJ, Penelope, and Emily on some long ago Girls Night (not to be confused with Ladies Night), she noticed there were few pictures of Will aside from pictures of him with Henry and JJ, and tried not to profile anything about it. Truthfully, she often forgot Will lived here too as her mind had resolutely decided that it was never going to remember "JJ and Will's house" so had dropped the "and Will's" pretty much the day they moved in together. She tried not to think too hard about that either.
JJ came into the living room with two glasses of wine, balancing a small plate on top of one of them. "Henry's birthday cake." She explained, presenting Emily with the plate after setting the glasses down. "I saved a piece for you."
Emily smiled and took the slice of what appeared to be red velvet, which she confirmed on first taste with a pleased hum. "I'm sorry I'm so late."
JJ shrugged. "You're here, that's what matters, right?"
Emily nodded and they slipped into easy conversation until their wine was finished at which point JJ got up to wake Henry. She came back a moment later carrying the boy whose blonde hair was stuck up every which way and was still rubbing his little fist against sleepy eyes.
"Em'ly!" he squealed on seeing the brunette, suddenly awake. He stretched his arms out and leaned away from his mother, trying to get to Emily who took him carefully. She always felt like she was going to break him.
"Hey little man!" she said brightly. "Happy birthday!"
"Burfday!" he repeated, grabbing onto a lock of Emily's hair.
Emily gently disentangled her hair from the toddler's grip and turned him around in her lap, placing a kiss on his head. "I got you something!" holding onto Henry with one arm around his middle, she leaned over and plucked the bag off the coffee table and put it in front of him where he promptly pulled out several pieces of tissue paper and waved them around, delighting in the crinkling sound they made. "If I had known he was this psyched about tissue paper, I wouldn't have bothered with the present." She said to JJ who laughed.
"Look in the bag, Henry!" JJ urged while scooting closer to Emily and tipping the bag so she could help her son pull the present out. She let out a shocked little gasp when she pulled out a replica of the Velveteen Rabbit. She had mentioned to Emily years ago, before she and Will were even together, that if she ever had a kid, she wanted to read them the Velveteen Rabbit every Saturday because that's what Rosaline had done when they were little. "Oh, Em…" she said gently, touched that Emily would remember something that had been more or less a throwaway comment in a larger discussion.
Emily looked up from where Henry had lodged one of the fuzzy rabbit ears into his mouth and smiled softly at JJ, her gaze momentarily unguarded. JJ leaned over and kissed Emily's cheek in gratitude, smiling when the brunette blushed and started to fuss over Henry to distract attention from that fact.