Consequences Ch. 9

Four days after the shopping extravaganza

Emily was getting ready to have dinner with Dave and Jessica. Wednesday was their normal night to have dinner together. Dave was actually in town this week, so it didn't have to be rescheduled. Emily had finally decided to wear one of the dresses that she had bought on Saturday. The triplets had been restless all night and Emily had been having back pains all day.

"You're here," Jessica said as she stepped aside to allow Emily into their house.

"We weren't sure you were going to come," Dave said as he poured her a glass of pop.

"Why wouldn't I have come?" Emily asked as they sat down for dinner.

"Because of Aaron showing up at the bar just as you left on Saturday," Jessica said as she passed the lasagna to Emily.

"Oh that. He didn't even know it was me that he bumped into when he walked in," Emily said as she grabbed a piece of garlic toast.

"You bumped into him?" Dave asked as his cell phone rang.

"Yep then left right away," Emily said as her cell phone went off. "Prentiss."

"Emily, it's JJ. Hotch wants everyone to come over to his place," JJ said. "He and Beth have some sort of special announcement that they want everyone here for."

"Rossi, you and Jessica need to come over," Hotch said as Rossi put his phone on speaker. "Beth is two months pregnant."

Emily's phone clattered to the floor after hearing what Hotch said to Rossi. After a second, Emily ran to the bathroom.

"Who else is there with you two?" Hotch asked as he heard the phone hit the floor.

"Emily came over for dinner," Rossi said as Jessica ran after Emily to make sure she was alright.

"Do you know why she's avoiding me?" Hotch asked oblivious to everything else going on at his own house. "I've tried to patch our friendship up multiple times but she hasn't called me back."

Emily had walked into the room just as Hotch ended his statement about her not calling him back.

"Congratulations Hotch. I'm going to head home. Thanks for dinner. It was great," Emily said as she tried to control her anger. "I'll see you guys soon. Go ahead and go celebrate with Hotch and Beth."

"Are you going to stop by, Emily?" Hotch asked still on speaker phone.

"Not tonight. I'm not feeling so great and think that it would just be better for me to go home and get some rest," Emily said as she grabbed her purse.

"Aaron, Jessica and I will be by in a little while to celebrate," Dave said as he watched Emily walk into the living room.

"Ok, see you guys in a little bit," Hotch said before Dave hung up the phone.

"Em, are you ok?" Dave said as he walked into the living room.

"Yea, I'll be fine. I'm just going to head home and get some sleep," Emily said as she headed to the door.

"Call me if you need anything and I truly mean anything," Dave said as he watched her walk to her car.

"I know," Emily said as she got into her car.

Emily's back pains had turned into full on pre-term labor pains after hearing that Hotch and Beth were expecting a kid; so instead of heading home she knew that she had to get to the hospital soon. As Emily pulled into a parking spot at the hospital, her phone went off for a second time that night.

"Prentiss," Emily said getting angry.

"So now you'll answer my telephone calls," Hotch said as she walked into the emergency room.

"Actually no I won't answer your calls. I just did now because I didn't look at who was calling," Emily said as her anger hit her fully. "Now if you don't mind, I have things to do and being on the phone is currently hindering me from getting them done. Goodbye."

"Can I help you, miss?" the nurse at the front desk asked.

"I'm having back pains and am currently six months pregnant," Emily said as she handed the nurse her insurance cards.

"Ok, who is your OB/GYN?" the nurse asked.

"Doctor Ashley Maxwell," Emily said before sitting down in a chair near the triage door.

"Miss Prentiss, your doctor wants to see you right away. If you'll follow me back, we'll get you set up," the nurse said.

"Emily, I thought we had decided that the last time, when you got shot, that you would stay out of trouble and away from stress," Dr. Maxwell said as she walked into Emily's room.

"I've been trying. But tonight wasn't really my fault," Emily said as the nurse brought in the portable ultrasound scanner. "I was at my friend's place for dinner when the father of the triplets called and told everyone that he and his girlfriend are two months pregnant."

"I take it you still haven't told him about these three just yet," Dr. Maxwell said.

"Nope and I doubt if I will now," Emily said as the doctor checked to see how the triplets were doing.

"I'm going to give you an injection of Magnesium Sulfate to stop your contractions. I know that you are already on bed rest but for the next week I only want you to be moving around when you have to," Dr. Maxwell said as the nurse ran to get the medication. "I do want to see you in my office on Friday though so we can run a non-stress test to make sure that nothing is going on with the babies."

"Am I going to be able to leave after the shot?" Emily asked. "I was supposed to be heading home to rest after dinner but I felt that I needed to come here instead."

"I can allow it as long as you promise me that you are headed straight home," Dr. Maxwell said as the nurse brought in the injection.

"I can promise you that," Emily said as the doctor gave her the injection.

"I want you to wait here for 15 minutes to make sure that your contractions have stopped," Dr. Maxwell said as she turned to leave the room. "I'll be back in to discharge you."

Twenty minutes later, Emily was walking out to her car. After a ten minute drive, she had arrived at her destination. She knew it was illegal to go into a cemetery after dark but she needed to talk to someone who wouldn't talk back to her.

"Hello again, Haley," Emily said as she sat next to Haley's head stone. "Just thought I would update you on what is going on everyone's lives. Everyone was just told, tonight, that Aaron and Beth are two months pregnant. But you're wondering how I'm dealing with that one, huh? Let's just say, I'm currently on bed rest until I give birth to the triplets and right now it's looking like they might make an appearance a lot sooner than I want them to."

"Em, is that you?" Dave asked as he saw someone next to Haley's grave.

"Yea, Dave, it's me," Emily said. "What are you doing here?"

"I went to your place after celebrating with Hotch and everyone else but you weren't there," Dave said as he sat down next to her. "Then I remembered you telling me that you found peace sitting out here talking to Haley. So I thought to check here next."

"Where's Jessica?" Emily asked.

"She's at home. She wasn't in the greatest moods after celebrating," Dave said. "So why are you on bed rest now?"

"How much of my rant did you hear?" Emily asked. "I kind of went into pre-term labor when Hotch told us about Beth being pregnant. I had been feeling off all day."

"Practically all of it," Rossi said as he stood up and offered her his hand. "We should probably get going. It looks like it's about to rain."

"Thanks for everything. I know it's got to be hard to keep my secret from your best friend," Emily said as they began walking to their cars.

"By the way, when are you going to tell the rest of the team about going back to work in Counter-terrorism?" Rossi asked with a smirk.

"How did you know about that?" Emily asked as they reached the cars. "I don't even start back until next month."

"Strauss told me in passing," Dave said as he got into his car. "See you next Wednesday, if I'm in town?"

"Yea, I'll be there," Emily said before driving off towards her house.

One month later

"Agent Prentiss, Section Chief Strauss is waiting for you in the conference room," Chelsea, Strauss' assistant, said as Emily walked into the office.

"Thank you, Chelsea," Emily said as she headed towards the conference room.

"Emily Elizabeth Prentiss, when were you going to tell the rest of us that you were coming back to work?" Penelope's voice rang out as soon as she walked into the conference room.

"Agent Prentiss, I'm sorry she found your application in the system and asked to throw this little get together," Strauss said as she walked towards the door. "Come to my office after you are done catching up."

"Thank you Ma'am," Emily said before turning to see JJ, Penelope, Derek, Reid and Rossi sitting around the round table. "Pen, I was planning on telling everyone once I completed my first week back."

"Goddess, how about we let Emily get things squared away with Strauss and then maybe we can talk her into letting us come over after work today?" Derek asked as he saw that Emily was a little upset with the get together.

"You can all come over after 6 tonight," Emily said as she looked at Rossi, silently begging him to get the rest of the team to leave.

"Alright guys, you'd better get back upstairs before Hotch notices that everyone is missing and comes looking for people," Rossi said as he watched Emily's eyes widen before everyone leaves. "No, they didn't tell him that they were coming down here."

"You'd better head back up. I'll see you and Jessica tonight as well, right?" Emily asked as they walked towards Strauss' office.

AN: This chapter killed me to write because I totally don't like Beth (but the next chapter is going to be 10x better). I originally didn't have Hotch calling Emily while she was at the hospital but then I thought it would be nice for the two of them to have a conversation on the telephone.