Emily skidded her car to a stop, her hand jerking the gearshift into park before jumping out of the vehicle and running up the steps to the apartment she had at first sped away from. "Francine! Se il vous plaît ouvrir la porte!" Francine! Please open the door!
The blond woman opened up her door and looked wide eyed to the frantic mother before her. "Madame Caron, pourquoi êtes-vous si tôt? Les enfants mangent." Ms. Caron, why are you back so soon? The children are eating.
Pushing past her babysitter, Emily called for her children and took their coats from the rack by the door.
"Maman?"
Emily smiled wide to the two dark haired children, the spitting images of their father, and quickly got their coats back on them. "Come on guys, we have to go."
"We just got here, mommy," the brown eyed girl pouted, letting her mother place her hate back on her head of curls. "Madame Francine allait nous laisser jouer avec le nouveau chiot." Ms. Francine was going to let us play with the new puppy.
Smiling carefully at both children, Emily held onto their hands. "What if mommy got you two a puppy?"
"We can have a puppy?"
The brown eyed woman nodded cheerily, holding her tears back as she rushed them out the door. "Merci, Francine! Merci beaucoup!" Thank you, Francine! Thank you so much!
After getting the kids buckled into their car seats, Emily sent a quick text message to her assistant before putting her phone to her ear.
"Richard Castle."
"Rick," the brunette breathed, laughing tearily as she drove away from the curb. "You didn't get on your flight yet."
The older man frowned, stepping off of the line at the gate to get onto his plane as he listened to his girlfriend over the phone. "Sweetheart, is everything alright?"
Emily shook her head, slowing the car down at the stop sign ad smiling against her phone. "What do you think about saving three extra seats?"
Castle frowned. "I'm sorry?"
"He's dead, Rick," the mother of two breathed, smiling at her twins in the mirror. "I can come home."
The author almost dropped his suitcase, ignoring the call from the attendant at his plane's gate. "What? You can come home?"
"I can come home!"
He flung his briefcase over his shoulder and charged back through the airport, grinning maniacally from ear to ear at the security guard who stopped him just before the airport's exit. "My girlfriend's coming home!"
Emily laughed into the phone, turning her steering wheel as she made her way back to the apartment she had called her home. "Think you can meet me back here?"
"I will be there in a half an hour," the author rushed out, regretfully waving off a few fans as he got himself into a cab. "Sweetheart, I love you so much. I'll be there as soon as I can."
Emily bit her lip, letting a tear roll down her cheek as she watched the cars around her drive on by. "I love you too."
Marc held his mother's hand as they walked back into the apartment, his big brown eyes looking up to their housekeeper who went to take their coats. "We're leaving, Clarisse."
The elderly woman frowned, looking to her employer. "Leaving?"
Emily smiled sadly to the woman she had hired all those years ago, and she took her hands in hers. "We're moving."
"Maintenant?" Now?
The brunette's chin trembled and she brought her housekeeper into a gentle hug. "Je ai quelques amis, vous pouvez travailler pour," she smiled, doing her best to give Clarisse some hope. "Je ne voudrais pas vous laisser sans-abri." I have friends you can work for. I wouldn't leave you homeless.
"I would hope not," laughed the older woman in her thick accent, pressing a kiss to Emily dark hair. "Thank you, Ms. Caron."
"Emily Prentiss," she corrected in a whisper, watching as Clarisse softened her eyes on her. "I'm so sorry."
"Maman!"
Emily wiped a tear from her cheek and met the twins in the kitchen, helping them take down the leftover morning croissants they'd wrapped up after breakfast. "We can have these in the car, ok? The plane will give us dinner."
Marc looked up to his mother. "They feed us?"
"Anything we want," she nodded, laughing as she shared a smile with her kids. "Now come and get your bags, alright?" She had received a text from her assistant saying their favorite outfits were all packed and ready to go, a little note left along with their belongings saying how much she would miss the family. "It's time to go."
Alisanne forced her mother to carry her out the door once Castle was back, everyone piling into the cab and the younger of the two children sitting herself firmly in her mother's lap. "Where are we going, maman?"
Emily pressed a kiss to her daughter's head, her hand grasping her boyfriend's as they drove toward the airport. "We're gonna go see daddy, baby."