Emily dropped Caleb off with Fran late that Saturday morning and went to pick up lunch for the crew at the house. She was eager to see Serena working with Derek and the teenagers, and she got several things she didn't expect upon her arrival.

First, there was Penelope's car and Spencer's car parked on the street in front of the house. Maybe they were curious, or maybe they came to help.

Though it was cold outside, the front door was open, likely because of all of the bodies in the house working. When Emily walked up the front steps, Aurora stood up from where she was laying on the porch and came to greet Emily with a wagging tail. The only sound Emily could hear coming from the house was Serena's voice. She stepped into the open doorway and saw Derek, Penelope and Spencer standing against the wall nearest the door with smiles on their faces. The teenagers were sitting on the floor. And Serena was standing on the second rung of a ladder in front of them with a drop cloth wrapped around her like a cloak, passionately finishing a speech.

"...When I have said, cry 'woe!' — the queen, the queen,
The sweet'st, dear'st creature's dead: and vengeance for't
Not dropp'd down yet."

One of the teenagers, Ruben, called out, "Hey girl, how you know all that in your mind?"

Serena put her hands on her hips and gave him a sassy look with a smirk. "Hey, buddy, that doesn't matter. What matters is what Paulina meant."

Emily didn't quite know what was going on, but it was too precious, too funny, and she joined in the laughter of the group.

Derek heard Emily's laughter and moved towards her to whisper, "They were complaining about not understanding The Winter's Tale and Serena decided to help them. I guess she memorized this monologue. I have no clue. She just jumped up, grabbed the drop cloth and started talking."

Serena spoke up again, "Does anyone have any ideas about what Paulina was trying to say?"

Angela, one of the girls, spoke up, "Paulina's saying sorry for speaking so mean, but she went crazy cuz the queen was dead."

Serena jumped down from the ladder with a smile on her face and walked up to Angela, placing a hand on Angela's shoulder. "YES! See, Shakespeare is like a different language. You just have to learn it to understand and you understood!"

Angela laughed and turned her head towards Derek and Emily, "Man, I don't know what two you got here. That girl is something."

After that, the Saturdays at the house turned into something entirely different than what Derek initially planned. He extended the Saturday hours from 10:00-2:00 to 9:00-3:30. He brought Serena with him each time because she wanted to go, and he put the teens on a rotation, one or two working on the house while the others received tutoring from Serena.

The team became regular cast members of that motley crew on Saturdays, either working on the house or tutoring. Nearly every Saturday they weren't on a case, Penelope, Spencer and Rossi were there for at least a few hours. Hotch almost always joined in with Jack, and JJ was often there with Henry. Will worked Saturdays, but managed to pop in sometimes to check out how things were going. None of them could stay away from that positive energy.

Fran and Emily tag-teamed it on Saturdays. One of them would stay with Caleb on Saturday mornings while the other went to the house. Then, whoever had Caleb, would show up around noon and bring lunch for everyone. Then around one o'clock, they'd trade and whoever had Caleb in the morning would stay at the house while the other took Caleb home for his nap.

Derek bought a whiteboard, a long folding table, and some folding chairs. He set them up in whatever room wasn't being worked on in order for tutoring and homework to happen. Serena was a natural teacher, moving the teens through their Algebra homework, helping them with their writing, explaining biology and history lessons to them. And Serena had her supporting cast of the BAU who helped out when extra help was needed. At first the teens couldn't believe they were learning from an eight year old, but once they got over that and started listening, they understood their work better than they ever had before. Serena started bringing a rolling suitcase full of her personal books to the house on Saturdays. "Everything gets easier if you just read," she told them.

She'd pull out books and relate to each of the teens personally, telling them why she thought they'd like a particular story. They weren't all stories geared for eighteen year olds, since Serena's books pretty much ran a vast age spectrum from stories for an eight year old to stories for a much older crowd. But since none of the teens had ever really read for pleasure, it didn't matter.

Emily was there one Saturday in March when Serena handed Angela a copy of A Little Princess. She said to Angela, "It's not quite going to be the same for you as it was for me, but if you think of us as a safe place, you'll relate. I think you'll like it. You're a lot like the main character, even if you think you aren't. You're kind and positive. You are."

The next Saturday Angela brought the book back and handed it to Serena. Angela was quiet for a few seconds before she bent down and wrapped her arms around Serena. "Thank you, Serena. I loved it."

Serena squeezed her back and said, "I knew it! I've got another good one for you, too."

Angela laughed and sniffled. When she stood up with teary eyes, she turned to find Emily giving her a small, loving smile.

Angela wiped her tears, blushed and mumbled, "That was the first time I hugged anyone in as long as I can remember."

Emily stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Angela, who hesitated before returning the hug, and in a second Angela was fully crying. "Sometimes I wake up in the morning and wonder how the hell I got lucky enough to be here."

Emily laughed and said, "I've said that same thing to myself several times the past twelve years. It's a good thing. You deserve it and you just have to go with it."

All of the teenagers transformed into different people over the course of those first several weeks. The idea that really solid, positive adults wanted to work with them and volunteer their time made them believe that there was something of value within them. The way they spoke became more refined, and the way they carried themselves showed their confidence was building. The reports from Julia were out of this world: grades were up, behavior was almost perfect, and she had other kids clamoring to do well enough in her program so they'd be qualified to work on the next project.

Often on Saturdays after lunch, the teens would all play out front with Caleb, Serena, Henry and Jack; games of tag and hide and seek were common. None of those teenagers had ever had a regular childhood, and they were condensing the life of child, high school senior and soon-to-be responsible adult in the few short months they had at the house with Derek and the crew.

One Saturday Emily heard JJ lean towards Derek and say laughingly, "You realize you're paying them for about six hours for them to do homework and play, right?"

Derek laughed and shrugged his shoulders. In his mind, this was all money well-spent.

Derek could have lit the northern skies for an eternity with the light in his eyes. Though Emily had vowed that they'd had enough tears in their life, from sorrow or happiness, she had to hold herself back from welling up every evening Derek walked in the door with a that radiant look on his face. Every once in awhile, Emily thought about her mom. Though she had let her mother go so many years ago, she found herself saying silent thank yous to Elizabeth Prentiss on occasion.

That spring, the teens' probation officers started showing up at the house to take a peek at what was going on, and it wasn't long after that that a reporter from The Post called and asked to interview Derek and the kids. One of the neighbors on the street knew the reporter and had given her a call to tell her about Derek and his project. He declined the interview at first, not wanting the attention. But as the weather warmed and the house neared completion, as the teens were getting ready for graduation and registering for community college classes in the fall, as the reporter kept calling, Derek finally agreed.

The picture that showed up in the paper on Sunday was something that immediately ended up on their wall. The photographer had come the Saturday before and the entire team and all of their kids were there, like they often were on Saturdays. Emily was there that morning and Fran had just shown up with Caleb and lunch. At first the team hung back in the front yard while the photographer got the teens and Derek set up sitting on the porch steps of the house.

Julian called out, "They all need to be in this picture, too," pointing at the group of them in the front yard.

Angela piped up, "Yeah. They have to. They're part of all this."

There was enthusiastic agreement from everyone else and Derek happily waved them forward to join in the picture.

Emily sat next to Derek on the porch and the team, Fran, Will, Henry and Jack crouched close together, behind Derek and the teens sitting on the porch steps. Serena draped her arms around Derek's neck from behind him and rested her chin on Derek's head, and Caleb crawled onto his lap. Ruben called Aurora over so she was in the picture as well. They squeezed together and smiled. And right after the camera clicked, Emily heard Serena whisper reverently, "My daddy," before bending forward further to give Derek a kiss on his cheek.

The article was titled, "House of Dreams." Derek's only requirement in participating in the interview was that it wouldn't be connected to what happened the previous August. He wanted no mention of that. The reporter agreed to the terms and the paragraph about Derek and his background and how he'd come to start his project was positive and wonderful.

The best quote in the article was from Julian, who said, "I thought when I aged out of the group home, I'd probably end up back on the streets. But I'm going to graduate from high school next month with a B average, which I never thought I'd be able to do. And I'm going to community college in the fall, which I really never thought I'd do. Derek and Emily and Serena, and all of their friends and kids taught me that it was okay to accept what I did in the past in order to survive and to not be ashamed about it, but now it was my time to take control and really learn to live a good life. And they showed me what a good life was. I never knew before."