Ushering her friend back into her home, Emily took her mother by the hand and brought her across the threshold. "Mother," she rushed out, closing the door behind them, "I need you to please not say a word to the woman in my living room."

Elizabeth let herself stay composed as she watched her daughter lock the door and frantically look between her and those further inside the home. "You're not going to ask why I am here, Emily?"

"Not until she's gone," she denied. "Please," Emily begged, "I promise to explain everything afterwards. Just don't say anything."

Seeing his friend start back into the living room, Hotch looked to his son. "Hey Jack, why don't you do the alphabet for Ms. Calt?"

Jack's eyes lit up. His head turned, looking to the blond woman standing near her father's friend's couch. "I can go really fast."

"You can?" she asked with a smile. "I would love to hear it once I take a look around the house. Is that ok with you?"

Emily rushed over to the younger woman and put a hand to her arm. "We painted Grace's room," she tried to smile, leading the social worker toward the stairs and sending her friend in the living room a scared look.

"Ambassador," Hotch acknowledged, seeing the older woman looking around the room. "Can I offer you anything?"

The older woman with her handkerchief to her chest turned to look at the man in her daughter's living room. She felt herself give a small smile, walking further into the house her daughter had bought. "Agent Aaron Hotchner, do you spend enough time here to know where Emily keeps her things?"

The Unit Chief could feel himself gulp in the presence of the ambassador.

"Have you and Emily gotten close?"

His hold on the baby in his arms tightened as he felt Elizabeth's eyes narrow on him. "Of course, ma'am," he nodded, his hand running down Grace's back. "Our team, we've become a family. It's very easy to get comfortable in one another's homes."

Elizabeth's head gently bobbed in a nod. "And I take it this isn't your little girl."

Hotch turned his back almost right away, wiping the tired girl's spit from her chin as he walked into the kitchen. "Let me get you some coffee."

Walking back down into the first floor of her home, Emily sent a tight smile to the boy playing with her couch cushions.

"Can I ask who you are?"

The ambassador kindly stepped forward and let the blond in the room take her hand, and by looking to her daughter she could tell Emily wasn't fond of it. "Ambassador Prentiss," she nodded. "Emily is my daughter."

Emily nervously licked her lips. "Call her Elizabeth."

Jessica gave a smile, looking back to the newcomer of the household. "Can I ask about your feelings on her situation?"

Looking to her daughter, the diplomat maintained her composure. "I'm working on understanding," she said slowly, watching as the woman she raised, the strong FBI agent, began to shrink under her gaze. "Tell me miss, how has my daughter been evaluated?"

The new mother heard her friend walking back into the room and took Grace from his hold, shifting her so she were almost a shield.

"Bonding," Jessica said distractedly as she looked through her chart, "health, environment, your daughter's job specifically and how it may interfere with her parenting of Grace."

Elizabeth's eyes moved back over to the five month old. "Grace."

Jessica frowned at the way she saw the older woman looking at her client. "Elizabeth can you tell me, is this the first time you've met Grace?"

Watching her daughter let the only man in the room take her into his side, the ambassador clenched her handkerchief. "It is."

"Jessica," Emily cut in, "my mother and I both have very demanding jobs as you know. We haven't had the chance to bring she and Grace together formally." Eyeing her mother, the agent did her best to control her breathing. "We planned a gathering this evening but my mother came a bit early."

For another lengthy five minutes, the Prentiss' exchanged only glances as Jessica's suspicions got the best of her, but she was quickly escorted out by Hotch when he could feel the tension growing too strong. "We're having a company picnic next weekend if you'd like to come," he smiled, barely getting the chance to lock the door before he heard his friend explode.

"What are you doing here?"

Elizabeth's shoulders straightened. "Excuse you, Emily Elizabeth. Do you realize how you're talking to me?"

Emily's eyes bugged. "Why are you here?" she seethed, Grace starting to squirm against her chest. "I didn't invite you."

"I can't come to see my own daughter?"

"If you came to see me, then yes," she nodded. "But coming for a visit and coming to check up on me are two completely different things."

Elizabeth took a step forward, her eyes hard on the younger version of herself. "I would like a reason for why my daughter didn't give once think to call me and tell me she was to have a daughter of her own."

"A reason?" Emil's rasping voice asked. "A reason for why I wouldn't have called you? How about how I've tried for years to get you to pick up the phone instead of your secretary? Or the fact that I've never once gotten a call back?" She could feel her head start to pound, Grace's little hands reaching up to touch the hot skin of her neck and Hotch trying to distract his son in the living room. "You've never actually tried being my mother."

Hotch looked to his friend from the floor beside her couch.

Emily's eyes blinked back their tears. She had cried too many times during the past few weeks and she would not do it in front of her mother. "Never have you once been involved in my life. You haven't cared," she shrugged. "Why would I tell you that I've finally been able to become a mother? That I'm working at becoming Grace's parent because my best friend died and had this planned out in his will? That I plan on being the best mother I can be even though I have no example to follow after?"

The ambassador felt her heart tear in two.

"Why would I think, even for a second, about letting you be a part of any of this?"

The doorbell shook the tension in the room, the ringing bringing Emily's attention from her mother to an unfamiliar face out the window. "God," she huffed, hiking Grace higher on her hip as she walked to the door. "What else could go wrong today?"

Once the door opened, the man outside gave a smile. "Agent Emily Prentiss?"

Emily took in the younger man's suit, the envelope in his hand. "Can I help you?"

"Agent Emily Prentiss?"

When his hand raised the envelope, the agent's heart fell to the pit of her stomach. Letting her eyes move back to meet his, she nodded.

He smiled, handing over the crisp envelope. "You've been served."