Saturdayslump, thank you so very, very much for betaing for me. You've made this fic better than I could have done on my own.

Lying on an old couch before them were Sean Hotchner and the redhead, staring at them with varying degrees of shock. There was more than a trace of fear on the woman's face.

"Oh my God!" Pene's shocked voice emanated from behind them.

"What in the hell is the meaning of this?" yelled Sean, standing up and pulling the woman they presumed was Leesa up with him. "Are you guys completely nuts?"

Emily stared at her brother-in-law, stunned. "S..Sean?" What was he doing here? Where was Aaron? More importantly, what did all this mean?

"What the hell are you all doing here?" boomed a loud voice from behind them. Hotch's voice.

The team swung around and Emily blinked at the sight of her husband looking incredulously at his team of profilers. "Have you all gone completely insane?"

"Interesting," muttered Reid. "They are definitely brothers."

"Emily? What's going on? Why are you here?" Hotch stepped up to her, a frown on his brow.

She opened her mouth to answer him, but an intense cramp clenched around her lower stomach like a vise. Hotch caught her when she bent over reflexively at the pain. She clutched his arm, panting.

"Hotch, bring her over to the couch," called out JJ.

Emily felt Hotch lift her and lay her down gently. It felt like an eternity before the contraction slowly lessened in intensity and then faded. She looked up to see Hotch crouching down next to her.

"Sweetheart?" He looked anxious, his jaw tight with tension.

She gave him a tremulous smile. "I'm okay, but I think you better call an ambulance."

"The paramedics are on the way, Em," said JJ softly, over Hotch's shoulder.

"Emily, what are you doing here?" asked Hotch, taking her hand in his.

"Aaron, I'm so sorry. I followed you last week when you came here and then I saw you with Leesa and I thought you were having an affair, so I made Derek bug the house."

Hotch blinked. It was a few seconds before he responded. At any other time she would have reveled in the fact that she had surprised her husband to the extent that he had been struck speechless. "I'm not sure which part I should address first, the fact that you thought I was having an affair or that you forced Morgan to bug this house."

"I'm really sorry, honey, I don't know what came over me. And then tonight when we heard you... I mean, Sean and Leesa." Oh dear, Sean. What must he be thinking? She struggled to sit up, but Hotch stopped her.

"Whoa, take it easy, sweetheart."

"Sean?" She craned her neck, trying to find him.

Suddenly he was next to them. "I'm here, Emily." His blue eyes were gentle.

Each time she saw him, she never failed to marvel at how little he resembled Hotch. As a result she had completely underestimated how alike their voices were. "Sean, I'm so sorry that we barged in like that."

"Hey, you thought Aaron was being unfaithful." He shrugged. "I'd have gone crazy too. Hell, I probably would have shot first and ask questions second. I don't even need pregnancy hormones to blame."

She smiled at him and turned her eyes back to Hotch. "What's going on, honey? What's the big secret?"

He shook his head. "You sure do know how to kill a surprise. You know the house you fell in love with in Southbridge but we just missed out on making the offer?"

Emily nodded, wondering where he was going with this.

"Well, I called up the builder and he told me that he had built an almost exact copy of the house in Cherry Hill, so I swung by to take a look and to my surprise, there was a for sale sign. I put in an offer, never even thinking it would be accepted, but it was. And here we are."

She gaped at him. "Wait a minute. You mean you went and bought a house without telling me?"

"The house is almost a carbon copy of the one you liked, it's only a 20 minute drive to work, there's a great school a few miles away for Jack and a 24 hour convenience store 5 minutes away." He paused, wincing at the look on her face. "Uh yes, I bought a house without telling you."

"I don't even know what to say." She shook her head in disbelief that her always sensible, thinks ahead a million steps partner in life made such a huge decision without telling her. Although, now that she thought about it, she didn't mind all that much. She would have been incredibly stressed if she had had to go through the real estate purchasing process. "You didn't want me to worry about it, did you?"

"No, I knew it would just stress you out. And I wanted it to be a surprise. So...surprise!" He put his hands out in a 'ta-da' sort of motion, giving her a tentative smile.

Emily couldn't help it, she started laughing. Everyone soon joined in, coming over to slap Hotch on the back and congratulating the both of them.

Another contraction immediately wiped the smile off her face and she called out to Hotch in panic.

"It's okay Em, I'm right here with you." His voice was calm, soothing. "Think about that wave. It's building bigger, bigger and bigger...it's cresting...and now it's crashing onto the shore...breathe out, slower, slower still. That's it, you've done it. Well done."

"Wow," she gasped, swallowing. "That was really intense. I didn't think it would be so intense this early on."

"Umm...Emily, I don't think you're in the early stages of labour."

"What? What do you mean?" Emily looked at Reid in panic. What was he talking about? This was what, her fourth or fifth contraction? She had read all the pregnancy books. The baby won't be due for hours yet.

"Those last two contractions were only three minutes apart and lasted a minute. I think you might be almost fully dilated." Reid looked anxiously at her.

"Oh my God," whispered Emily, panic sweeping through her.

"Oh my sweet Lord," cried out Garcia, pressing her hand to her mouth.

"All right, everyone just calm down. Morgan, go to the car and see what we have in terms of towels and blankets. JJ, call 911 and see how close the ambulance is. Reid, go with Morgan, that look on your face is scaring the hell out of Emily. Garcia, would you get Emily a glass of water, please?" He turned back to his wife and took hold of her hands. "Sweetheart, look at me."

She looked into his eyes, the calmness reflected there immediately taking her panic away.

"Everything's going to be fine, okay? I'm going to be right here with you. Even if we don't make it to the hospital, the paramedics aren't far away. We're going to have a beautiful, healthy little girl. So I want you to focus on that, and focus on me. Can you do that?"

"Yes." She breathed out a laugh. "You know, I don't think I put down homebirth as an option on my birth plan. There was hospital and there was hospital."

His smile was gentle. "I loved how you colour-coded the birth plan and tagged all the parts of the baby books I had to read. I can't wait to see how your plan of becoming a sleep-Nazi mommy is going to turn out."

"Don't you worry, that part's non-negotiable. Sleep's a very precious commodity to me, you know? Oh!" Her hands tightened around his as another contraction swept through her. She squeezed her eyes shut, focussing her mind on a mental picture of the wave gathering speed just as they had practised. Each wave was bringing her closer and closer to their baby. She could deal with the contractions because she knew what was at the end of the journey, painful though it was.

When the contraction ended, she looked at Hotch. "I'm a little scared, so you're going to need to distract me. Why have you been meeting Leesa here?"

"From your illegal wiretap, you already know that Leesa's currently in a relationship with Sean." His voice was dry. "Well, she's actually a very successful artist and interior designer. So I asked her to help decorate the nursery. I saw it for the first time last week and it looks incredible. That was supposed to be another surprise, too." He gave her a chagrined smile.

"The nursery? It's all done?" She couldn't believe it. Because they had been house hunting for a while now, they had not bothered to even paint the room they were going to use as the nursery, as they thought it would only be temporary until they found a house. Emily couldn't help feeling guilty, even though she knew that having different coloured walls would make no difference to the baby. "How did she decorate the nursery?"

"She's painted stencils of Pooh and his friends on the wall."

"Oh, Aaron! You are the best husband ever!" She loved Pooh! She felt tears prick her eyes. He really was. She was sorry that he had lost Haley, but she thanked her lucky stars every day that she was given this gift that was her husband. Emily didn't know if it was because he had changed, or if it was because she was who she was, but he never took her for granted. And she had never felt as if she came second to his job. Yes, sometimes his work took priority, so did hers, but on more occasions than she could count, he had put her before his work. And she loved him all the more for it.

The medics finally arrived and after a flurry of activity, confirmed Reid's suspicions. Emily was fully dilated and ready to push. There was no point driving her to the hospital then as both she and the baby were doing fine. It was just as well, because half an hour later, Grace Catherine Hotchner was born, exhibiting to her parents and extended family that she owned a pair of extremely strong and healthy lungs. At her first cry, Hotch's eyes met Emily's, and she felt her own eyes well with tears when she saw the tears run down his face.

A minute later, Grace was placed in her arms, her cries immediately stopping as if she knew where she was. And perhaps she did.

"Oh darling," Emily whispered at the first sight of their daughter. Her face was red and squished and puffy, black curls matted to her head. She was the most beautiful baby Emily had ever seen.

"Hello gorgeous girl, it's your daddy," Hotch said softly, touching her little clenched fist which poked out of the towel the medics had wrapped her in. Her hand immediately grasped his finger and Emily felt another wave of tears in her eyes when she saw the love blazing out of his eyes.

He looked at Emily, swallowing hard. "Thank you for our daughter. I am truly blessed."

She smiled tremulously at him, heart filled with joy. She reached out with her hand and touched his cheek tenderly. "Thank you for your daughter. I'm so happy that I don't even have the words to describe how I feel."

He took her hand and pressed a kiss into her palm, his eyes glowing with happiness, a smile etched on his mouth.

Emily looked down at their daughter who was staring up at her with unfocused dark eyes. Bending down, she pressed a tender kiss on the baby's forehead. "So, it's been an evening of surprises, huh?"

Hotch chuckled warmly. "I think your surprise beats mine hands down."

"Yeah, you're probably right." She grinned at him. "But yours was pretty good, too. And when the time comes, I promise to show you my full appreciation."

He shook his head in amazement at her. "Mrs. Hotchner, you are the most incredible woman I have ever known. You just gave birth to our baby five minutes ago. I can't even imagine how sore and exhausted you must be feeling. And yet you're already talking about showing your appreciation. I am the luckiest guy in the universe."

She laughed softly, her arm tightening around the baby. Her dark eyes met those of her husband's. "Oh you'd better believe it, Agent Hotchner. You'd better believe it."

So this was supposed to be a sweet, fluffy story about the birth of their daughter for my friend Michelle, but then this storyline took hold and won't let go, so it became this mish mash of angst and happiness. As a result, it's not something I'm terribly happy with, so Michelle, I promise I will write you another story! Please send a review my way, I'd love to hear your thoughts.