Author's note: It's a short chapter. I didn't want to tack on more at the end of this one. There's more to come, but I wanted this piece to stand alone. :)

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The drive out of Fraserburgh was quiet at first. Derek stared out the windows, silently saying goodbye to the place that had safely cocooned him for the past several weeks. Emily drove, kept one hand linked with his and let him contemplate. Once they were well on their way to Aberdeen, he turned towards her and said, "We acquire the strength we have overcome."

Emily gave him a half smile, "Oscar Wilde. He also said, 'To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered.'"

Derek thought for a bit, getting into the quote game they occasionally played since they now read so much and so often trying to keep up with Serena. "Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them..."

Emily picked up the sentence, "The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us. Voltaire."

"Damn. I thought I might have had you on that one," laughed Derek.

Emily chuckled. "What are you really thinking about, Derek?"

He squeezed her hand and said, "I'm thinking about where you and I have been, and with each tragedy the two of us only ever got better. I can't imagine anything better than what we had before, but I couldn't imagine that several times in the past, and we only ever topped ourselves. I'm wondering if that's going to happen this time and what that could possibly look like."

She squeezed his hand back and responded, "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tunes without words and never stops at all."

Derek smiled. "True. And Emily Dickinson."

"Impressive, Derek."

"I'm not willing to accept that I have an eight year old who can out-read me. My only choice is to try and keep up, even if it means girly poems."

Emily laughed. "You like them, admit it."

"Fine. I like them," Derek said with a laugh as well.

Emily couldn't contain her smile. He was just so there with her. She couldn't have imagined that just a few days before.

But as they approached Aberdeen, she could see him becoming nervous. Derek encountered his first hurdle once he got on the jet. The two pilots who knew him well came to shake his hand and welcome him back, and Derek saw in them the concerned glances and froze a bit. He acted relatively normal, but Emily could see it was hard on him, a bit of shame showing under the surface.

Emily and Derek had joked the night before about finally having the opportunity to join the mile-high club on the jet, but in the end, though the pilots couldn't leave the cockpit and they were totally alone, the joking and lightheartedness had left Derek; the reality of what he was about to face and overcome loomed. In the end they did something they'd longed to have the opportunity to do hundreds of times on that plane after a difficult case, back when they were hiding their relationship from everyone: They held each other.

They napped some of the time, but any time Derek woke, he'd check his watch and calculate how long remained on the flight. He was excited about seeing Serena and Caleb; he was nervous and uncomfortable about the idea of seeing anyone else. He spent a lot of time on that flight just gently touching Emily's face, trying to absorb from her some strength and calm.

"How are you so relaxed?" he asked.

"Because I know this is going to be hard for you for awhile, but for the same reason I found you without a doubt, I know without a doubt that we are going to be even better than we were before. It's what we do. I'm right there beside you, always."

When they were beginning their descent towards Turner Field, Emily whispered in Derek's ear, "Remember the good memories you have of the people you care about. Those are the people who are only going to be thinking good memories about you when they see you. If you don't have memorable moments with a person, ignore any looks they may throw your way. We're going home to our family, Derek. They all love you, and that's all they'll be thinking about. They're the only people who deserve your energy, OK?"

He nodded, but she could see him struggling, and Emily was worried a bit. She hadn't really planned on what would happen when they got off this plane; she'd only been focused on him and getting home. She'd taken a cab to Dulles a few days before and her car was at the house. She knew Hotch would have taken care of their ride, but she didn't know what that looked like. But, they needn't have worried about that first encounter at all. When the plane came to a stop, Emily squeezed Derek's hand in reassurance before standing. The stairs opened, and they heard an unmistakable sound of single footsteps on them.

JJ's smile was huge, and Emily could see she was holding back tears. But it was JJ, and she was totally in her element. She gave Emily a hug and then looked at Derek. With tears brimming in her eyes, she smiled and lifted her chin at him in acknowledgement. "Way to make Emily go all 1-800-PSYCHIC on us, my friend." She held out her hand for a fist bump and Derek laughed and pulled her into a brief hug.

"It's so good to see you, Derek," she said quietly.

"It's really good to see you, too, Jayje. You're our ride?"

"I drew the short straw," she said with a wink, and Derek laughed again.

Emily stood there and watched and laughed and smiled. If Derek thought she outdid herself in certain circumstances, JJ was an easy tie in that regard.

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Derek sat in the passenger seat and Emily selected the middle seat in the second row. They kept their hands connected on the drive, and JJ turned the lights on to speed up their journey home. "I secretly think Hotch knows how much and how often I enjoy these lights when I shouldn't be using them," JJ said.

They sped home. Derek told JJ about Aurora Borealis and the show that happened the night before. Emily was ecstatically happy that he was talking normally with JJ, but she reminded herself that JJ was probably the easiest one. Still, it gave her more confidence that this would all be okay eventually. When they took the exit off the freeway towards their home, Emily's heart started pounding. She couldn't wait to see Serena and Caleb, but mostly she couldn't wait to see Derek with Serena and Caleb.

JJ pulled onto their street and said, "Looks like someone left the lights on for you."

And though it was not even dusk, the glowing light was visible. More than a dozen pumpkins on the railing of their front porch, with heart-shapes cut into them and candles inside. Emily saw Serena's face in the front window, and when Derek and Emily got out of the car, their front door opened. A streak of their daughter shot down the front steps, across the yard and jumped into Derek's arms.

Serena was laughing and crying and so was Derek. Serena kept repeating, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. I love you. My daddy." She was touching his face and looking in his eyes and resting her head on his shoulder and repeating the process again.

Caleb's pace to Derek was slower, and Emily saw Fran standing on the front steps as Caleb made his way to Derek. Derek bent to scoop Caleb in his arms so he was holding both of their children and Caleb exclaimed, "You're home, Daddy! We waited and waited! We made a cake for Mommy! Daddy! You're here! Nena, Daddy's here!" And Derek's smile could have lit up the nights forever.

Emily wiped her tears and stepped in front of all of them, wrapping her arms around them. And then Caleb and Serena's hands were on her, too. It was all a blur, too much to totally take in, but Emily was aware when Serena bent her body in Derek's arms to rest her forehead against hers and whisper, "You did it, Mommy."

Emily noticed a sobbing JJ driving away while wiping her cheeks. She saw a glimpse of Judy standing in her front window across the street smiling and wiping her own tears. And then there was Fran. She waited patiently on the front steps, and Derek started walking towards their home, holding Caleb and Serena, Emily's hand now on his back.

"Mom," he whispered when he got to the top of the stairs. And Fran's arms were around them all, pulling Emily back into the hug. They could have forged a river of happy tears, all of them together.