Ok so it's time for a visit from the social worker now, and we'll find out if Emily and Hotch can adopt or not.
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"Come in." Hotch called, not looking up from the case file he was looking over, when he heard the soft knocking on his office door.
"What are you doing?" Came Emily's disgruntled voice once the door opened, as she stared at Hotch who was bent double over a file.
"Uh... working." Hotch replied in shock, not quite knowing what he'd done to deserve the angry tone that was in Emily's voice.
"Yea, I see that darling, what I mean is why the hell are you working when we have a meeting with the social worker in half an hour?" Emily clarified, sounding more and more panicked by the second.
Hotch's hand froze half way's through writing his signature on the page, and he lifted his head slowly to look his fiancée in the eye, which were now glaring at him in a death stare to rival his own.
"I'm coming now dear." He replied quickly, as he jumped up from his chair and began throwing various files into his briefcase in a panic.
"Wow, wow, wow." Emily called out suddenly, holding out her hands and stopping Hotch in his tracks as he tried to get past her to a folder that was lying on one of the guest chairs. "What are you doing now?" She questioned.
"Uh... getting files to take home." Hotch replied uncertainly, stopping suddenly in his tracks so as not to collide with Emily's outstretched hands.
"Right, well that much I can tell... but we're trying to get this social worker to give us a good report, and somehow I don't think leaving murder files lying around is the best way to go about that." Emily informed Hotch, as she began taking files out of his bag.
Hotch sighed, and simply watched as Emily emptied his briefcase and then stood in front of him with a smile on her face.
"I guess we're ready to go now then." Hotch said with another sigh.
"You guess right my dear." Emily laughed, as she linked her hand with his and walked out of his office and into the empty bullpen.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"Ok uh, is the kitchen tidy?" Emily asked Hotch, slightly out of breath, as she ran into the living room from their bedroom, tying her hair into a ponytail as she moved.
"Yes." Hotch replied with a sigh, this being the third time he'd answered that question since they'd gotten home.
"And what about the sitting room, how does it look?" Emily asked, as she stopped in front of the hall mirror and put in a pair of earrings.
"It looks the same as it did five minutes ago... fine." Hotch replied, shaking his head at Emily's nerves.
"And what about the..." Emily started again, but this time Hotch beat her to it.
"Yes Emily, it's fine, everything is fine except you... because you, are about to have a nervous breakdown." He informed Emily with an amused smile playing on his lips. "Now come here and sit with me until the social worker comes." He added, knowing that the door bell would probably be ringing any minute now.
"Ok... ok." Emily replied, taking a deep breath as she walked into the living room, surveying the room herself quickly, just to make sure Hotch wasn't lying to her. "Right... how do I look?" She asked, subconsciously running her hands down her sides to smoothen out her top.
"Like you're way too dressed up." Hotch replied, looking over Emily's skin tight jeans black and plain white shirt, like the ones she wore to work, with matching diamond earrings and chain.
"Is it too much... do you think I'll give the wrong impression?" Emily asked quickly, again getting into a panic.
"No, no, it's fine." Hotch answered quickly, not wanting his fiancée to have a nervous breakdown now. "Maybe just lose the jewellery though." He added hesitantly, noting how the diamonds were a bit of over kill.
"Right... ok." Emily replied, taking off the jewellery quickly and running back down to the room to put it back in her jewellery box, returning within seconds.
"Wow that's like world record speed." Hotch joked, when Emily sat down by his side.
"Yea well I'm fast when I'm nervous." Emily replied breathily, as she rung her hands in anticipation.
Hotch was about to make a witty remark regarding Emily's last comment, but was cut off by the door bell ringing and Emily jumping up so fast she almost elbowed him in the mouth.
"It's her... she's here!" Emily hissed excitedly, alerting Hotch to the blatantly obvious.
"Really... I'd never have guessed." Hotch replied sarcastically, as he stood and walked with Emily over to the door.
Emily shot him a brief glare, before regaining a polite smile, probably taught to her by her mother, and waited for Hotch to come to her side, before she opened the door.
"Hi, Ms Prentiss, Mr Hotchner." A friendly looking, slightly plump, middle aged woman greeted, as she stood in the doorway, her light brown hair, with speckles of grey, tied up in a loose bun. "I'm Amanda Lyons; I'm here from social services to talk to you." She informed them, as she reached out her hand and gave both Emily and Hotch a firm handshake.
"Hi." Emily greeted enthusiastically. "Come right in, uh, just through to the living room and we can talk there." She added, showing Amanda through and motioning for her to sit on one of the seats.
"Would you like tea, coffee, maybe a glass of water." Hotch questioned, as Emily sat on the couch across from Amanda and he remained standing.
"No it's all right." Amanda replied politely, watching as Hotch sat down beside Emily then and they loosely linked their fingers down by their side.
"So, how long have you two been together?" Amanda asked after a brief pause, taking out her clip board, signalling that this had just become serious.
"Just under a year and a half." Hotch replied without even having to think.
"And how long have you known each other before that... if at all that is." Amanda asked after taking a few short notes.
"Well we've worked together for four years but we've known each other for ... twenty years." Emily told her, pausing briefly to remember when they'd met. "Aaron worked for my mother for a while." She added, not wanting to tell the person who decided if they got a kid or not that they met when she worked in a burlesque club.
"Oh, so your mother is a..." Amanda prompted, looking interested as she took more notes.
"She's an Ambassador, Aaron worked her security for a while, and my father is a doctor." Emily informed her.
"Ah, so interesting childhood." Amanda said, the sentence being more of a statement than a question.
"Well there was never a dull moment." Emily replied with a small, almost nervous laugh.
"Any other children?" Amanda asked then, changing the topic quickly.
"Uh, I have a four year old son from my first marriage." Hotch replied. "His names Jack." He added.
"Does Jack live with his mother?" Amanda asked, looking around briefly and seeing no sign of a four year old that she may have missed up until now.
"No he lives here with us, he's just out for the day with his Aunt's Penelope and JJ... they agreed to take him out for a while when you were here so we could talk." Hotch informed her.
"Oh, what happened to his mother?" Amanda asked, not knowing the severity of this question.
Emily and Hotch shared a brief glance, that wasn't missed by Amanda, before Hotch continued.
"She's um... she's uh dead." Hotch replied with an edge of un-comfort in his voice.
"Do you mind if I ask how she died?" Amanda asked then, ignoring Emily who was silently trying to signalling for her not to go there.
"She was... murdered... four months ago." Hotch explained slowly, looking down at his lap as Emily reached her other hand over and squeezed his thigh.
"Oh, I'm very sorry to hear that." Amanda replied sincerely.
"It's fine." Emily spoke up when Hotch didn't. "He and Jack both have an amazing support network and we're all dealing with it." She added.
"Uh huh, so what is it the two of you do?" Amanda asked after a pause, once Hotch was fully composed, flipping a page quickly.
"Well..." Emily started, looking at Hotch before she continued, knowing that their jobs may not be that great a situation. "Um, we work in the FBI... in the Behavioural Analyst Unit." She informed her then.
"Oh, not the safest job." Amanda noted. "Not a very family friendly environment or work place for a child." She added.
"Actually." Emily started, refusing to let her dreams be crushed because of her job. "Like I said before, I travelled a lot when I was a kid, and we never stayed anywhere for long... I lived in eight countries growing up, and I never felt like I belonged, I never felt like I had a family... until I joined the BAU." She informed Amanda. "Not only did I meet the love of my life there, but I met the two most wonderful woman in the world, that are like my sisters, and he two most amazing men in the world, who are like my brothers, not to mention David Rossi, who is the first real father figure I've had in my life, and I agree, we're not the most conventional family in the world, but we all love each other, and believe me when I say the child will never meet a group so loving, and protective in his or her life." She concluded.
"I see." Amanda replied professionally, not letting an emotion away as she wrote some more in her clip board.
"We want this Ms Lyons, we want this more than anything in the world." Emily added in a whisper, looking deep into Amanda's eyes, as if daring her to say no.
"I can see that Ms Prentiss, believe me I can." Amanda answered with a sympathetic smile. "And believe me when I say I've been in this job for fifteen years, and never have I seen a couple so honest and sweet, or ones with better references might I add." She told them, her smile growing.
"References?" Hotch questioned, unaware that they needed them.
"Yes, we got some personal information and asked your friends to tell us a bit more about you... we only needed two, but Agent Jareau, Agent Garcia, Agent Morgan, Dr Reid and Agent Rossi all insisted on talking about you, and I must say, you two seem like very loyal, caring people." She informed a now smiling Emily and Hotch.
"Well they're very dear friends of ours, and our team is a family... so they know how much we've wanted this." Emily replied humbly, mentally thinking of a gift to get each member of the team as a thank you.
"Well then... on that note there are no other questions." Amanda replied after a moment, with a friendly smile, as she rose to her feet. "You should be told within a day or so whether or not you've been put on the waiting list... though I promise you, after this review, I'll do everything I can to get you on it." She added.
"Thank you, thank you so much." Emily replied, feeling emotion rise in her at the thought that this was actually happening.
"You have no idea how much this means to us." Hotch added, as he lead Amanda to the door, holding it open for her to leave.
"Oh I think I do." Amanda replied with a small smile, as she stood in the doorway. "Hopefully next time I'll be seeing you is with your new baby in your arms." She added, shaking both Hotch and Emily's hands.
"Hopefully." Emily and Hotch both repeated in tandem, matching smiles spreading on their faces at the thought.
With that Amanda gave them another brief and polite smile, before turning on her heel and walking down the hallway leading away from the apartment, leaving Hotch and Emily still standing in the doorway smiling.
"This is really happening isn't it?" Emily asked breathily, as she looked up at Hotch, a look not unlike shock in her eye.
"It really is." Hotch replied with a grin, looking down at her lovingly. "It really is..."
_
There we go, Hotch and Emily are getting a baby... though some more stuff has to happen first, and not all of it is good. Please tell me what you thought, and thank you as always for reading.