A/N 1- Okay first of all I have to say thank you to all of you who are still reading and reviewing this story. Seriously this started out as a way to post a few one shots that I had running through my head and now here I am 48 stories and over 300 reviews later and I am absolutely shocked. I also wanted to say thank for you for all the wonderful story ideas I have received from several of you (although more are always welcome). I am glad that so many of you are still enjoying these one shots.
A/N 2- Finally another AJ story….. It has been awhile I know (but I just got on a roll with the whole pregnancy story line)… anyways AJ is 13 here….
ENJOY….
Emily sat down on the bench at the mall and sighed. She hated shopping. She hated it with a passion. Yet here she was at the mall following AJ from store to store as she tried to find an outfit for the first day of the eighth grade. Emily thought it was crazy, because it was the same school that AJ had been going too since kindergarten but JJ said that it was important to AJ. Wentworth was a strict private school, where students wore very rigid school uniforms, except two days out of the year; the first and last days of school. So it was very important to find the right outfit to wear, or at least that is was JJ told Emily. It was suppose to be JJ who was going to take AJ to the mall, but a last minute schedule change had her half way around the world with the President. Emily looked at her watch and groaned. They had been shopping for three hours and still nothing.
"Please tell me you found something in that store?" Emily asked AJ as she came out of yet another store.
"Nope not yet." Emily groaned and got up off the bench.
"Do you even know what you are looking for?"
"I'll know it when I see it." AJ replied. Just like her mother, Emily thought to herself.
Finally after five more stores and another hour later AJ found what she was looking for. She ran back out to Emily who was seated at yet another bench.
"I found it!" AJ all but screamed. "Come look." AJ grabbed Emily's hand and pulled her mother into the store. Emily looked at the outfit and nodded her approval. It was a nice skirt, not too short, and a not too overly revealing top. "I'm going to go try it on." AJ found her size and went to try on the clothes. Emily offered a silent prayer that she would like it and that they could finally go home. A few minutes later AJ returned with a huge smile on her face. "It's perfect. Can I get it?" Emily immediately wanted to say yes, but thought she better ask how much first.
"Well how much does it cost?" She had learned long ago when shopping with JJ to always ask how much before handing over the credit card and it was a good thing she asked because what she heard almost gave her a heart attack.
"The shirt is $150 and the skirt is $200."
"Come again?" Emily asked, thinking for sure she had misunderstood her.
"$350 total."
"Oh you must be out of your mind. You truly are your mother's daughter." Emily replied. "There is no way we are spending that kind of money on one outfit. I don't think so."
"But mom please! It's perfect."
"I don't care how perfect it is, I am not spending that kind of money on one outfit."
"I can't believe you." AJ spat back at her mother. "It's not like we don't have the money."
"We don't have the money? What is this WE stuff?" Emily stared back at her daughter. "Your mother and I have money; you don't have anything."
"This is so unfair."
"Unfair or not you are not getting that outfit. Now I suggest that you find something else. Something in a cheaper price range."
"If mom was here she would let me buy it."
"Oh yeah you think so, we can call her right now and find out." Emily said as she pulled out her cell phone.
"Fine whatever." AJ threw the clothes on the ground and turned to walk off, but Emily quickly grabbed her arm.
"You pick those up right now, young lady."
"You're not my real mother and you can't tell me what to do!" The words came out of her mouth even before she had a chance to stop herself. The moment she said it she immediately regretted it and she knew that she had screwed up. Really, really screwed up. "Mom I'm so…" Emily held her hand effectively cutting AJ off. The look on Emily's face was heart breaking. She knew the words had hurt her mother deeply and she had no idea why she had even said them. She had never seen her mother look like that before and it made her want to cry. Emily didn't say anything but rather picked up the clothes and then walked out of the store in silence.
Neither one of them said a word the entire drive home. AJ knew that she had really hurt her mom's feelings but she didn't know what to say. Emily had never felt more hurt or more betrayed than she did when those words came out of AJ's mouth. She couldn't believe that she had said them to her. True Emily was not her biological mother but she was still legally her mother. Since the day she was born she was legally both JJ's and Emily's; it was something that JJ had insisted on.
Flashback…
It was six weeks before the baby was due and JJ was already on maternity leave, and it was driving her crazy. Being at home all day with nothing to do was painful and boring.
Emily came home from work one afternoon a little early; Hotch had given them the weekend off and she found JJ sitting in the office filling out some paperwork.
"Hey honey, what are you working on?" Emily asked as she walked in the office, causing JJ to jump.
"Jesus Emily you scared the crap out of me. I didn't hear you come in."
"Sorry." Emily smiled as she walked over and started massaging JJ's shoulders. "So what are you working on?" JJ turned around in her chair and handed the papers to Emily. Emily took a second to look over them and what she read shocked her.
"I had your family attorney draw them up." JJ smiled as Emily continued to stare at the legal documents in her hand.
"I don't understand."
"What's not to understand? They're adoption papers."
"Well I can see that." Emily smirked. "But what I don't understand is why you have them."
"I want OUR child to truly be OUR child." JJ smiled. "I want you to have the same legal rights as its mother as I will and these papers will give you that. Our child will be just that; our child, he or she will be legally yours as well as mine."
"I don't know what to say." Emily said as she struggled to hold back her tears. "Are you sure this is what you want?"
"Emily look at me." JJ said as she took the papers from Emily's hand and sat them back down on the desk. "I love you and I love our baby." JJ placed her hand and Emily's hand on her now rather large belly. "And I want us to be a family, in every sense of the word."
"You don't know what this means to me." Emily smiled, finally letting the tears fall.
When they got home, Emily went to her bedroom and shut door leaving AJ standing in the living room as tear streamed down her face. She sat down on the couch desperately trying to think of what to say to apologize to her mother. A simple "I'm sorry" wasn't going to cut it.
A couple hours later, Emily came out of the bedroom to see AJ still sitting on the couch. It was clear that she had been crying. Emily walked over to her daughter and sat down next to AJ, putting her arm around her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry mom. You don't know how sorry I am. I didn't mean it, really I didn't." AJ cried into her mom's shoulder.
"Then why did you say it? Because you don't know how much that hurt me to hear those words come out of your mouth." Emily said, her own tears threatening to fall.
"I was angry. I know that's not an excuse but I don't know what else to say."
"Is that how you really feel; that I'm not your real mother?"
"No!" AJ quickly replied. "I love you. You're my mother just like JJ is my mother."
"I love you too pumpkin. I know that I'm not your birth mother, but I am still legally your mother and I have been since they day you were born."
"I know that."
"Look, I know that having two mother's has been hard on you and I know that your mother and I haven't always been there, with work and all, but there is nothing that either of us wouldn't do for you. I may not have given birth to you but that doesn't make me love you any less. You know that right?" Emily asked her own tears starting to fall.
"I know that and I wish… I don't know what else to say but I am truly sorry and like I would take it back in a heart beat if I could."
"Okay, well I accept your apology. Just promise me you will never say it again, okay?"
"I promise." AJ smiled as she wrapped her arms around Emily and hugged her. "And while we are at it, I'm sorry that I acted like that in the store. You were right that is a lot of money and I was being silly."
"No you were being a teenager." Emily teased. "And sadly I remember having very similar fights with my mother when I was your age. You may not realize this but you and me have a lot in common. When you were younger your Uncle Derek told me that you may look like JJ but when it came to personality you were all Prentiss."
"Really?"
"Yep, we are very similar." Emily smiled. "Well accept for the whole shoes and purses thing, that is all JJ." Emily laughed.
"Like mother like daughter, right?" AJ smiled and Emily nodded.
"Okay I tell you what. Why don't we go out tomorrow and try and find you something to wear for the first day of school, but something a little smaller in budget, sound good?"
"Sounds great." AJ replied. "And just for the record mom, you and mom have always been there for me. Don't ever think you haven't. You may have been halfway across the country or in mom's case the world, but you are always just a phone call away. No matter what time zone you were in or what you were doing you we always on the other end of that phone when I called you." Emily smiled as a few tears trickled down her cheek. "And as for the having two mother's part; I wouldn't have it any other way." AJ smiled and pulled Emily into a hug.
A/N- So what did you think??? I not a 100 percent sold on this one… so let me know… PLEASE REVIEW…..
