Author Note 1 – don't shoot me…

Second Chances – chapter eighteen

September 2014

Emily sat rocking Annabel on her lap as she listened to Amy say goodbye to the last of her guests in the hall way. It had been a lovely day for the baby's first birthday. Clyde appeared in the door way holding two glasses of wine and a pacifier dangling from a finger.

"Amy said this would help," he said putting the glasses on the table.

"She's a little young for wine isn't she?"

"Ever the comedian Love," Clyde said offering the pacifier to Annabel. Immediately the baby started sucking on the pacifier, sagging against Emily. "This is for Annabel; those are for you and Amy. You two get to have girl talk, while I get to put my little girl to bed."

"I have no idea how you two do it," Emily wondered out loud.

Clyde perched on the sofa next to Emily, reaching out to touch Annabel's cheek as she started to doze against Emily. "We don't talk about home at work and we don't talk about work at home. It's probably a good thing I'm not her immediate boss, otherwise we'd be arguing every night. I nearly had a heart attack when she bought Annabel to the hospital." He paused for a minute as he thought about his wife. "Amy never told me about you and Morgan, I knew how he felt about you when I kept tabs on his pursuit of Doyle." There was another pause. "Does he make you happy?"

Emily wasn't sure she wanted to discuss this with Clyde. After a moment she looked him in the eye, wondering if he was acting as her boss or her friend. "More than anything," she told him.

"You're going back to the States, aren't you?" Emily grimaced, hating the fact that Interpol didn't have the same rule about no inter-team profiling that the BAU had. She hadn't told anyone about her plans, not even Morgan; she didn't want to get his hopes up until she had finalised everything.

"I am." There was no point in lying to him, he would find out she was looking for a job in DC soon enough anyway. "You can't talk me out of it."

"I know," he sighed. "But I was wondering if you could wait for a few months." Emily frowned for a moment, before starting to shake her head. Clyde held up his hands in defence. "I have a job offer for you."

"In DC?" Emily questioned, interest piqued.

"George Morrissey who runs the DC office is retiring in March next year," he explained. "The job's yours, if you want it. I know it maybe longer than you're willing to wait, but the offer's there."

Emily was speechless. It was everything she wanted, where she wanted. She felt the urge to throw her arms around the man beside her, but Annabel squirmed in her lap making Emily tighten her hold. Pressing a kiss to the baby's head, she made eye contact with Clyde. "Yes," she choked out blinking back her tears of gratitude. "Thank you."

"Well, for all the crap I've put you through over the years, I figured I owed you. Doesn't hurt that you're brilliant at your job, either," he added.

"I thought I barred all business talk for today," Amy said from the doorway. Looking at Emily's watering eyes, she sighed. "What did you do? You made her cry," she asked her husband.

Clyde looked to Emily and Annabel for help, but only found Emily looking at him with a mischievous look in her eye. Figuring she would be no help, he reached for Annabel. "Those are happy tears by the way, I'll let Emily can explain. I'm going to do something I don't get to do often enough, and put our daughter to bed." He carried the baby to Amy, who kissed her chubby cheek before sharing a quick kiss with Clyde. "I will leave you two to it. Annabel and I have a date with the rocking chair and The Wizard of Oz."

"Good, because I want to hear all about Emily's naughty weekend away and Annabel's a bit too young for that."

"I think I am too," Clyde winked at his wife, before turning to Emily. "Don't give her any ideas."

"Good night Annabel," Emily waved at the baby as she looked back over her father's shoulder.

"Good night Aunt Emi," Clyde called as he left with the baby, making both women smile. Turning to Amy, Emily watched as her friend smiled as she kept her focus on the door for a moment.

"He's so different with you two," Emily commented as they listened to Clyde taking Annabel upstairs, talking softly to her.

"The paranoia still follows him home, though," Amy commented. At Emily questioning look, she explained. "He insisted I keep my maiden name when we got married; the house is in my name and Annabel's records are sealed. He doesn't want someone using us to get to him."

From personal experience, Emily could understand that, thinking of Doyle and everything she did to try to protect her family from him. She knew Clyde would do anything to keep Amy and Annabel out of harm's way. There were many times when Emily had been unable to trust the man that held her friend's heart, but they understood one another they had been through too much not to. She hoped she could trust him not to break Amy's heart.

"So do I need to yell at my husband?" Amy asked as she sat in the spot Clyde had just vacated, picking up the wine glasses, passing one to Emily.

Emily shook her head as she accepted the glass. "No," she said. "He, uh, offered me the DC office to run." Emily watched Amy for her reaction. For a moment Amy was still as Emily's explanation sunk in.

Amy held her glass out to Emily. "You're going home," Amy said sadly as they clinked glasses.

"I am," Emily smiled sadly. She really would miss Amy. "I made the decision when I was in Atlantic City last week, whether it would be a position within Interpol or not."

"Well, it's about time," Amy commented, laughing when Emily's eyes bulged.

"I haven't told Derek yet, and I want it to be secret till everything has been finalised. I want to surprise him for a change."

"That man is besotted with you," Amy told her. "I'm pretty sure he will be thrilled to be waking up next to you every morning."

"The feeling is mutual," Emily blushed as she thought about the moment she made her decision to move back to DC. The reddening of her cheeks didn't go unnoticed by Amy.

"What?" Amy asked, smirking.

Emily took a deep breath before answering quietly. "We may have been in bed when I made the decision to move back home." Amy's mouth fell open in shock, before the shock dissolved into a mischievous smile.

"It really was a naughty weekend away," Amy laughed before taking a sip of her wine.

Emily gave an eye roll. "Even though we speak every day, we don't see each other for months at a time," she defended their explosive libidos. "Like you said when Derek first showed up in London; we are making up for lost time."

"You don't need to explain to me," Amy told her. "With the amount of travelling Clyde does, and the amount of time we make up for, I'm surprised we aren't on our way to giving you another god child."

"You looked like you wanted to kill him on Monday, when he mentioned he had to be in Germany two days ago," Emily laughed at her friend.

Amy made a face before commenting, "I would have killed him if he missed Annabel's first birthday." Luckily Clyde had sauntered into the office early Friday afternoon, not being out of the country twenty four hours before returning.

"It's still six months till I'm leaving but I'm going to miss you," Emily told Amy after a beat.

Amy reached her hand across the sofa, grasping Emily's. "I'm only going to be a phone call away."

Author note 2 - …For any continuity issues. I reread the story so far, but I couldn't find any to do with this twist. Let me know what you think of it. As for the six months wait for her return to DC, I put time jumps in the story for a reason.

Also, Annka I'm sorry for not writing their entire weekend, but I know next to nothing about casinos or gambling, so I don't think I would do that justice. And Guest, I really wish I could send you a personal message, but I'm not quite finished with this yet.