The Most Life Changing Thing

Reid and Prentiss

Chapter Sixteen

January 2011

He always tapped the floor in rapid rhythm with his foot when he was worried about something. Currently he was doing just that, while waiting for the team to come down to the hotel lobby, when Derek walked up and interrupted Reid's thoughts.

"What's bugging you, kid?"

Reid startled and looked up. "Oh! Morning." He looked around and made sure they were alone.

"God, you're jumpy. Too much caffeine this morning? Or did you and Prentiss have some kind of lover's spat?" Derek chuckled. "Don't worry. Just tell her you were all wrong for whatever it is cause, believe me, that's all they wanna hear, whether its true or not."

Reid spit out his words in a jumbled, rushed way. "I think she could be pregnant."

Derek's eyes widened. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave Reid a serious look, indicating he was listening.

Reid went on "She has some symptoms but she insists they all come from something else."

"Do you think she suspects or she's in denial?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'm the one making something out of nothing. I'm just worried about her. Pre-natal care is very important for a developing fetus and if Emily is pregnant but delays finding out the fetus will miss out on important nutrients that come from the vitamins she would be prescribed. But I don't know if I should say anything or take a wait and see approach."

"She's gonna notice something is up with you. You're practically coming out of your skin. How long have you suspected?"

"I noticed some things when we were in Vegas for the holidays but lately there seem to be more definitive signs and its becoming all I can think about."

"You could be a father. Yeah, that would be all I could think about too if I was in your shoes. You gotta have a talk with Prentiss. If its nothing then you two can laugh it off."

"What if she doesn't find it so funny? It's a touchy subject for her. Anytime children come up in conversation she thinks about her mother and her own childhood and its upsets her for hours."

"You know Prentiss, she would not want you to couch your words around her. Just ask her if she could be pregnant because if you don't she's gonna wonder why you're acting so weird around her and that ain't gonna be good for the thing you two got going on."

"You're probably right."

"So what do you feel about this? Excited? Scared?"

"I know that it would change the rest of both of our lives and that does cause me some anxiety yet I can't help but feel..."

"What, kid?"

"Hopeful. I never expected to be a father."

Derek smiled at Reid and Reid gave him a small smile back. Soon Rossi and Hotch came off the elevator and their conversation turned to where they would eat breakfast. Seaver joined them and asked about Emily.

Emily showed up last, looking a little pale, and apologized, saying she caught the flu at the elementary school they had went to the day before to talk to a teacher about a missing student.

Reid took note of the fact that Emily's nails were bitten down to nearly nothing and each day seemed to make her a little more frazzled than the day before.

If she was pregnant, he bet she had a pretty good idea it was a possibility. Or else maybe she was sick with something else. That thought sent a cold chill through him. Whatever was going on, even if she was just stressed out, they needed to talk about it.

Ignoring it wouldn't make it better. And being the man in her life meant it was up to him to try and make anything he could better for her, to let her know she always had his support and love. It would be a hard thing to bring up but Reid set his mind to asking Emily is she could be carrying their baby.

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Just as her first trimester came to an end- and Emily knew it was time to inform her boss and team members (not to mention her boyfriend) that she was pregnant- the dreaded morning sickness she had avoided for the most part up until then flared up on her.

For the last week she had spent each morning with her head over the toilet and all day feeling like crap. Often she rushed to the bathroom to either pee or throw up. She was worn down and stressed out over the fact that she couldn't keep her little secret a secret much longer.

She looked awful and felt worse. As soon as she got back to Quantico she would make an appointment with her doctor to see if this was normal and also to get some anti-nausea medication, that is if she was still being affected by the morning sickness then. She was hopeful it would leave her just as quickly as it had come on.

If she had to suffer like this much longer she would need an IV for fluids because she would be completely dehydrated.

At first it had seemed she would breeze through this pregnancy but lately it was beginning to take a toll on her and she knew the next five or six months would only increase the physical demands on her body. Lately she was chomping at the bit to tell someone she was pregnant- like Garcia or JJ. But, on the other hand, she knew once they knew that the whole team would quickly know too. Her girlfriends could keep secrets but once the dam opened there was no way to know when the news would slip out somehow and spread like wildfire.

She knew she should tell Spencer first but that meant having the conversation she had been avoiding since the first time they kissed. The conversation where he would tell her if he could handle dating a pregnant chick and then a mother. Whatever answer he would give would change her life and knowing that had her nervous.

It scared her to think she could actually have a future with him and also scared her to think that she would have to relearn how to get along without dating him- no one to hold her at night, no one to share the bathroom with in the morning and no one to listen to her rant after talking to her mother on the phone, no man to love her, no man to be her best male friend.

When they first got together she had thought if she didn't ever let herself hope for keeping him in her life then it would hurt less when she had to let him go but now she knew that had been foolish, twisted logic- something she told herself to make herself feel safe back then but it hadn't even been true.

Each day that week Emily worked himself up to telling Reid she was pregnant, biting her nails into nothing with worry, and each day she kept her mouth shut, tossing and turning the night away next to him in bed and feeling like her time was running out.

Every time Reid asked her if she was okay she swore she was fine, make up some excuse for her symptoms, but she couldn't do that the night he asked her "Could you be pregnant?"

They had just gotten home from a case in Milwaukee. The whole flight home she had slept. Her body seemed to crave sleep just as bad as it craved ice cream and hot pretzels with melted cheese- something she rarely ate in her life before getting pregnant but now the pretzels at the stand on the corner near their job called her name every day she was at the office.

Emily's mouth went dry, after Reid asked his question, and she just stared at him with wide eyes. His words repeating in her mind Could you be pregnant?

He went on, rambling for a minute about a whole host of symptoms she had from tender breasts to nausea to increased urination, becoming sick over certain smells, heartburn and mood swings.

She nibbled her bottom lip and didn't answer him.

He went on "If you are then its important to see a doctor and be prescribed pre-natal vitamins because birth defects can form if a fetus goes without certain nutrients in the earliest stages of development." For another minute he named off some birth defects and then said "And if you're not pregnant then forgive me for even asking but I care about you and I felt I had to ask, for your sake and the sake of the baby you might be carrying."

He stared into her eyes for a moment, his gaze so earnest and honest that it hurt her to know she hadn't given him the same honesty all along.

Reid spoke again "I could go out and get a home pregnancy test for you. I think its important to see, one way or the other, don't you? Or do you already know? Or am I just imagining things? Maybe being with a woman I love is making me subconsciously desire children. The desire to procreate is a fundamental drive in all animals, ensuring the continuation of the species. I suppose I could be just as vulnerable to such feeling as anyone else, though I never have felt that way in the past and I know I'm not imagining your symptoms...Emily?"

"I don't need a test."

"Are you sure because all the signs seem to be present to indicate you're gestating?"

"I'm sure."

Reid took her hand. "If I'm wrong then I'm sorry for bringing this up."

"You aren't wrong..."

He raised an eyebrow. A moment of hushed silence passed before Emily finally added "I'm pregnant."

She watched his eyes for a reaction while thinking about how she had always planned to raise this baby alone but now she wanted to do everything she did in her life with him. She just didn't know how to, or if she really had any right, to ask him for that kind of commitment.