I'm so sorry I haven't updated in over a week! It wouldn't have been such a big deal if I hadn't written this chapter, but it was already typed up and everything! S-O-R-R-Y! It's been a really crazy week! I'll have a longer A/N at the end of the chapter! Enjoy!
"Hotch it is," Jocelyn responds right before the doorbell rings. "I'll get it!"
As soon as JJ gets into the house, Emily leads her to her bedroom and shuts the door. She glares at her best friend. "JJ?"
JJ smiles innocently. "Yes, Emily?"
"What. The. Hell. Are. You. Doing. Here?"
"We came for dinner. You invited us over, remember?"
Emily ranks over her brain, trying to remember telling JJ's family to come over. "Um, no."
"Yeah, you invited us over. The kids made spaghetti and you said you knew there would be enough for all of us to eat. And even with Hotch and Jack, there's still plenty."
"Jennifer Jareau, tell me the truth."
JJ sighs, "okay, fine. One of your kids called me and asked me to come. But I'm not telling you which one called me!"
Emily stares at her. "Let me guess: the only one who knows how to use the phone properly!"
JJ sighs, "she wants you to be happy."
"Please tell me what that has to do with you, Will, and Henry being here for dinner? Not that I don't like you guys coming over, of course," Emily adds when she realizes she sounds rude when all that her best friend is just trying to do is help.
"It's a surprise." Emily groans. "We all want you to be happy. And, Em, you are happy when you're with Hotch. And not just happy- you're practically glowing, for God's sake!"
"But that doesn't mean he is," Emily smiles sadly. "Come on, we better get downstairs. After all, I have guests to feed."
When they get downstairs, they see that Jack, Henry, Carson, Johanna Joy, and Leo are all in a circle playing duck-duck-goose with Hotch and Will while Jocelyn takes pictures on Emily's camera.
JJ and Emily sit on the stairs, watching from the shadows and have automatic smiles on their faces as they watch the men they love with their kids. At least, until Jack sees them.
"Emmy! JJ! Come play with us!" He yells, running over to them. Jack grabs both of their hands and drags them to the circle, standing in between them.
They play for a good twenty minutes, everyone having so much fun that they don't notice Jocelyn is still taking pictures, mainly of Hotch and her mom, before Jocelyn stops the games. "O-kay, sorry to end the game, but we should eat dinner before everything gets any colder than it already is." Jocelyn makes her eyes go wide and talks very dramatically, "Oh, no. We don't have any stinky cheese!"
"Stinky cheese?" Hotch wrinkles his nose.
"Parmesan cheese. Mom calls it stinky cheese," she explains before going back to her dramatic pose. "we must have stinky cheese to eat spaghetti! Hotch, would you mind going to the store to get some? I'm sure Mom would love to go with you."
"I can go get it, if you want," Will very sweetly offers in his southern accent.
"NO!" JJ and Jocelyn yell at the same time, way too quick to be innocent. "I mean, I, uh, really want to talk with you and JJ and I'm sure Mom would like to have more time to catch up with Hotch."
Emily stares at her daughter. "Jocelyn Renee," she starts but is soon cut off by Hotch.
"It's okay, Em, I'm fine to go to the store. Can't let anyone go without 'stinky cheese'," Hotch winks at Jocelyn. "You wanna go with me, Emily?"
Emily nods. "Yeah, sure." She looks back at Jocelyn. "We will talk about this later, young lady."
Jocelyn nods solemnly but her eyes are grinning with excitement and happiness. "Yes, ma'am."
Emily grabs her coat before her and Hotch are out the door. As soon as the door shuts, they hear JJ and Jocelyn cheering. "Is it just me or were they trying to get ride of us?"
"Definitely not just you," Emily groans as she slides into the passenger seat of Hotch's car.
"Either they want to throw a party without us,"
Emily looks shocked, "why would they want to throw a party with me? I mean, I get you, Mr. Seriously-Never-Taking-A-Vacation-From-Work-In-His-Life, but me... I'm fun, right?"
Hotch rolls his eyes and continues, ignoring her interruption, "or, they wanted wanted us, to leave, together... You know anything about that?"
"I have no idea," she says innocently but grins when Hotch rolls his eyes again.
"Yeah, right."
"Hey, Hotch?" Emily says after they stay silent for a few minutes, waiting for him to respond.
"Yeah?"
"You, uh... You did a really good job raising Jack."
Hotch glances at her. "Yeah?"
Emily nods. "Yeah."
He smiles. "Thanks, Em." She returns the smile and looks out her window. They are silent for the rest of the ten minutes of the drive. When they get out of the car and start walking towards the store, Hotch grabs Emily's hand, stopping her in her place.
"Emily, you need to know that, even know you weren't a parent to those kids until two years ago, you are the best mom they could pray for. You love Jocelyn, Carson, Leo, and Johanna Joy with all your heart. I always knew you would make a great mom and I'm honored to get the chance to see you in that role." Hotch lightly squeezes her hand before letting go and walking towards the entrance of the store.
Emily stares at his retreating form in shock before rushing to catch up with him. "Hotch-"
Hotch pulls open the door, holding it open for Emily, effectively cutting her off. "After you," he guestures when she makes no move to go inside. She just stares at him, as if trying to figure out what he is doing. Once they are inside, Hotch leds the way to the cheese section. "So, is cheese the only item we need?" Emily's heart flutters at the word 'we' but she ignores it, pushing down all the unrequited feelings she has for Hotch.
"Yep, just parmesan cheese." Emily's phone beeps, indicating she has a text message. Pulling out her phone, she sighs as she reads the message from JJ before reading it to Hotch.
"Jocelyn is saying that never mind, we have parmesan cheese. We don't need anything from the store."
Hotch gives her his probing look, the look that he uses in interrogations and interviews, trying to get down to the truth. "Then why was your daughter so hell bent on getting us out of the house?"
Another beep. Emily reads the text outloud for Hotch, "hey, since you and Hotch weren't back yet, we decided to take the kids to our house for the night, to give you hardworking parents a night off. Don't worry, Jack had a change of clothes with him and we had the others pack some before we left. It just so happens that we drove two cars to your house, so we have enough room for everyone to come. Huh, imagine that?"
Emily groans, her eyes flashing with anger. "Oh, I am so going to kill her. And Jocelyn. And Will because they roped him in on this somehow."
"Roped him in- what is going on, Emily Prentiss? Why would you kill your daughter and leave Henry orphaned because you kill his parents?"
"Hotch, believe me. This. Is. Not. The. Time. For. Questions. I'm pissed off and about to explode, so I would just stay quiet. Okay," she adds sweetly before sauntering out in anger outside. Now it's Hotch's turn to be surprised as he chases her out the supermarket.
"Emily! Emily, wait!"
Emily is walking on the side of the road when he catches up to her and she spins around to face him, her eyes now blazing with fire. "WHAT?"
Hotch takes a step back, holding his hands out as an innocent gesture, trying not to make her feel threatened. "Emily..."
She sighs a defeated sigh. "What, Hotch? Can't you just, let me go? Why can't you just let me run? Why?"
"Em, what did I do?" Hotch asks, confused as to why Emily is so upset. And why she's so upset with him.
Emily laughs without humor. "God, Hotch, you did everything. You talked to me whenever I needed someone to talk you and you lied to our friends about me being alive to protect me and you..." Her voice trails off as she looks away from his searching eyes. "You were always there."
"We already went over this, Emily. And you did so much more than that to me."
"I saw you, the summer I was nineteen." Hotch looks confused now. "You were working security for my mom. I..." She blushes. "I only saw a glimpse of you but... let's just say I never forgot."
Hotch gets an even more puzzled look on his face. "Emily, I... I don't know what to say."
Emily finally looks up at him but her eyes are focused somewhere over his shoulder. "I had a crush on you when I first started working at the BAU."
Hotch puts a finger under her chin and lifts it up, forcing Emily to meet his eyes. "Why are you telling me all this, Em?" He asks softly, searching her eyes for the answer.
She sighs. "I... God, I can't do this. I'm sorry, Aaron, I can't." Emily takes off running in the direction of her house, leaving Hotch alone in the street.
I'm terribly sorry you waited over a week for this and you got a kind of short chapter! I'm amazed by all of you people who like this: 39 reviews, 47 followers, and 12 favorites- and that's just the people signed onto FF! I know I have at least a couple of readers who are reviewing without signing in. Thank you all so much!
I'm going to challenge you guys now. I had Small Group with some people from my church tonight because we can't do it tomorrow, but we were talking about challenging people to read their bible everyday and pray and be nice and kind and Christianlike for 30 days. I'm not challenging you guys to do this, because that would be religious bias (however, if you WANT to, try it!) but I do want to challenge you with something.
There are at least 47 readers for this story. I'm challenging you guys to get 30 more reviews. Basically, that means just to review and tell me what you thought after you finished reading this chapter. I'm challenging over half of you guys to review this chapter. The more reviews, the faster I put up the next chapter! And if you don't know what to say, I'm going to help and ask you guys a question.
Do any of you watch the show Smash? Or Glee? I'm sure most of you know what Glee is, but Smash isn't as popular. I like to say Smash is like the Broadway version of Glee, but they really are different. So, if you watch either of those shows, or even just one, tell me which one you like better and why.
I like Smash way better. I've never really been a fan of Glee, but I have a friend who is a fan of both shows and she forced me to watch an episode of Smash the other day. I'M HOOKED! It's amazing! I watched all of season 1 and I'm waiting not so patiently for season 2 to start! If you haven't watched Smash, I highly recomend it! If you would like, just put in your review that you want to watch it and I'll PM you a link to watch it on the Internet.
That's it for this chapter! I've got chapter 5 pretty much finished up and I've already started on Chapter 6.
I love you guys!
Hannahbanana Jane!
P.S. If you are a fan of Smash like me, tell me which (if any) ships you like. I'm hopelessly in love with Karen/Derek! Also, I'm thinking of writing a Smash fic, what do you think?