Chapter 2

It had been 3 months since Morgan and Tiffany became a family. She had been a model student (or at least there were no more suspensions) and they had gotten into a comfortable routine. Tiffany was right about Ms. Claire. She did give great hugs especially if had been a couple of days since she last saw her. Often times, she was the best part of her day. It was like having a grandmother. She never experienced that before. Her favorite thing to do with Ms. Claire was sit and read together after she had completed her homework. They would sit in the chair and a half with their feet up on the ottoman and Tiffany would read one chapter out of what ever her book was at the time and Ms. Claire would read a chapter out what ever she was reading. She hated to see her leave in the evenings because she enjoyed her so.

And the very best part was her Uncle Derek. He was everything to her. Somehow, she began to feel that she was pretty special to him too. Ever since the spanking, he made sure that she knew that he did not consider her a bad kid but that he knew that kids would sometimes get into trouble and it was part of growing up. He also made sure she knew that as natural as it was for kids to get into trouble, it was natural for parents to have to discipline the child whether it would be restrictions or a spanking if indicated. When they were talking about this, she said to him smiling, "but you're not my parent. So does that mean you shouldn't have disciplined me?" He said smiling, "uncledaddyguardians are included." He gave her a playful swat and sent her on her way. That is the comfortable kind of relationship that had developed with them.

For Derek, Tiffany had become his entire world. He was surprised at how quickly she consumed his whole heart. He never thought of himself as the parenting type but it was getting easier to accept the challenges. He centered his whole life on Tiffany. He didn't go to the bar after work, he had not been out on a date, and he even declined calls from women that called him. He didn't really think about it, he just did it or didn't do it in some regards.

The team was starting to notice Derek's lack of hanging out and the overall change in him. They realized that he had calmed too much. Even his playful banter with Garcia had decreased. It was getting uncomfortable for them because he was a different Morgan, not better or worse. They wanted their old Morgan back. They all figured that he needed to start dating again. That had to be it. Prentiss approached him and asked, "How are you holding up, Morgan?" "How am I holding up?"

"Yeah. Doing the parenting thing?"

"I think I'm doing okay."

"Are you sure?"

Morgan thought this conversation interesting because he and Prentiss did not do the personal business thing. Over time, they did develop a friendship but it really was just work stuff and talking about superficial stuff. This line of questioning was worrisome. What was she getting at? So he asked her. "Alright, Prentiss. What's going on?"

"Nothing. I was just checking to see how you are doing with your new role."

"New role, huh?"

"Well yeah. It just, um, seems like you've not quite been yourself."

"Not myself?"

"Well yeah. I mean you don't talk to Garcia like you used to, you don't make your jokes like you used to, and you've even stopped picking on Reid. Not yourself."

Morgan thought about this for a moment and with all sincerity said, "Thanks for your concern. I'm going to think about that." Prentiss, concerned that she might have offended him, stammered, "I, I didn't mean…" Morgan cut her off and said, "No it's okay. I really do appreciate it." He touched her shoulder to let her know that he really did appreciate it.

Morgan thought about whether or not he had really changed that much. He figured he had to change to some extent to successfully raise his girl. But in truth, it had been a minute since he really had any grown woman companionship. Dang it Prentiss, he thought. He was doing just fine, now he was thinking about things that he had been missing. He didn't feel resentment, but he did feel a little longing. This time he went to Emily. "Hey Prentiss, I was thinking about what you said and I…" She cut him off and blurted, "I was wondering if I could watch Tiffany for you one day or a weekend. I really would like to get to know her and maybe you could hang out with your friends or go out or something." Prentiss had a hard time admitting that maybe she wanted to explore that maternal/caring side of herself and here was a perfect opportunity. "Thanks, Prentiss, I really appreciate it. I really do. I'm going to talk to Tiffany tonight and get back to you." At that moment he got a text from Tiffany indicating she was home. He said to Prentiss, "Hold on a moment." He called Tiffany. "Hey, baby girl. Glad you made it home. How was school? That's good. We'll talk some more about it when I get home. Gotta question for you, Tiff. How would you like to spend a weekend with Emily?" At that moment he held the phone away from his ear because she was giddy and giggling on the other end of the phone. "So that's a yes, Tiff? Okay, I will let Emily know. She asked if you could stay with her sometime. Okay, okay, okay. I will talk to you when I get home. Get your homework done. Be good for Ms. Claire. Okay, sweetie, love you. Bye bye." Morgan and Prentiss just stood there smiling at each other. They then almost simultaneously said, "ok then…" and turned and walked away.

Emily was so excited. She really liked Tiffany. The times that she has been around her when they visited Morgan's house, she seemed like a sweet little girl. She was excited to show her what she's done with her room and her new clothes. She also showed her the books that she read. She always gave Emily a big hug when she left and Emily reciprocated. Something about Tiffany tugged on her heart strings. Well she would get her opportunity.

Two weekends later, Tiffany was able to stay with Emily. They initially had planned for the first weekend after Derek and Emily talked but they had to go out of town on one of their BAU assignments. Fortunately, it worked out for the following weekend. Tiffany was so excited.

When they got to Emily's place, Tiffany thought it was so cool. It was a loft, open and airy. It was really pretty and modern. They ordered out that Friday night for Chinese and Emily let Tiff pick the movies. Emily was really touched because when the movies started Tiff got right up under her. All of the sofa that was there and she chose to be right by her. That was special. By the time the third movie was half way through, Tiffany had fallen asleep leaning up against Emily. She leaned her head on hers, hugged her, and just thought how special she was. She felt bad for all the stuff that she had gone through in her young life. She gently laid her down on the sofa, placed a pillow under her head, and covered her up with a blanket. She kissed her head and wished her sweet dreams.

The next morning, they got up and went to breakfast and then the zoo. Tiff loved the pandas at the National zoo. It was probably her favorite part. They bought souvenirs and had pictures taken of themselves. They had a dinner at a Thai restaurant and caught the metro home. They were beat by the time they got home. They each took showers and changed into pjs and restarted the movies. Tiff told Emily that she was having so much fun with her and wondered if they could do it again. "Absolutely," Emily replied. Again, she was touched that Tiff wanted to hang around her as much as she wanted to have her around. She liked this part of her and only Tiffany had brought it out of her. The next morning when Derek came to pick her up, Tiffany was so sad. "Uncle Derek, I don't want to go yet. Aunt Emily and I didn't even have breakfast yet." Derek and Emily both thought "Aunt Emily?" Emily loved it and Derek found it amusing. He would tease Prentiss about it later. Emily invited him to join them for breakfast. They all cleaned up together and despite her protests they got on their way. Before they left, Emily took Tiff aside and told her, "I really loved having you here this weekend. We will have to do this again sometime really soon." She hugged her and Tiffany replied, "Thanks, Aunt Emily. We will and I can't wait."

Several more months passed and the weekends with Emily quickly became a regular event. She did it at least once a month. Emily even bought a special twin sized sofa bed that was more like her favorite chair and half at home. When she was there, they kept the bed out for her and even bought her linens for it in one of her favorite colors, pink. She loved it when she was there. There were a few kids that lived in Emily's building that Tiff met in the small playground for the neighborhood. On this particular visit (it was her 4th time there), the kids decided to go to the drug store to get some treats. Tiff didn't have any money on her. She wanted to go back to get some. The kids told her not to worry because they would get it for her. She wanted to go back to tell Em that they were going to the store but they said not to because it was just a block away and they would be right back. She didn't feel good about this but she was going because she didn't want to lose the friends that she had made. Plus you could see the store from the playground and it really was not that far. And really what was one dollar between all of them so that she could get some candy too. So she went. Bad idea.

When they got to the store, not all of the kids had money. They planned to steal the candy for the most part. They did it before. They told her to just pick the one up that she wanted. A couple of kids would pay for candy while the others left the store with the stolen candy. "Oh my gosh!" She could not believe that she was doing it, but if they got away with it before what could go wrong this time. As they were walking out, the alarms went off and the guard was on them quickly. Some of them ran, but Tiffany and two other kids got caught. "Oh no," she was screaming in her head. "This is not happening."

They took her and the other two kids back into an office. They asked for their names and their parents numbers. No way was Tiffany letting them call her dad. She gave Emily's name and number. The guard called and asked, "May I speak with Ms. Prentiss?" Tiffany could not hear on the other end of the phone. She could only hear the guard's end until he finished saying, "This is Tom Smith, security guard at Drug Rite pharmacy. I have your child here Tiffany Morgan who was caught stealing candy from…" At that point she heard Emily yell, "She what? Where is this?" The guard explained again where he was calling from and where they were located. She said she would be right there. Tiffany was relieved that it worked that they called Emily. That feeling quickly faded when she saw her five minutes later and her face was not the one that she had become so familiar with. This one looked angry and there was clearly a scowl in place. She didn't even speak to Tiff, she just introduced herself to the guard as her aunt and explained that she had responsibility for her over the weekend. She negotiated for the police to not be involved. She reassured the guard that she would not come to this store again unaccompanied by an adult. The guard was satisfied as he had never seen Tiffany there before and this was her first offense. They left the store and walked the one block home in silence.

When they got home, Emily slammed the door and told Tiffany to go sit down. "Tell me what happened," she demanded. Tiffany explained what happened including how she realized that they were going to steal the candy. So Emily started asking questions.

"So did you know that the plan was to steal the candy as you chose your candy?"

"Yes," Tiffany said through tears.

"So you had the chance to not pick up the candy or put it back?"

"Yes."

"So why didn't you just put it back or not pick it up?"

"I don't know."

"Yes you do know."

"I don't," Tiffany whined.

"Yes you do and you will tell me when I come back in ten minutes. Sit here and don't move until I tell you." Tiffany started really crying now. It was so stupid to do that for a stupid candy bar and to prove something to those stupid kids. She was afraid that she ruined everything with her and her Aunt Emily.

Meanwhile, Emily didn't know what to do. She was so upset with Tiffany and she knew she had to do something, but she didn't know what. She didn't want Tiffany to think that she was going to be rejected, but she also needed her to know that she was not pleased with her actions. She knew she needed to be punished, but was that her place to do it? She also needed for Derek to know, but should she tell him or should she make her do it. She lay back on her bed and closed her eyes. She thought about it for a minute and rationalized her decision. She was starting to feel as if Tiffany was her responsibility. She felt like she should not get away with something as serious as that with her (bedtime slacking was okay, but this was too much). She needed to take care of the problem in her own way and deal with the fall out later if necessary. She had made her decision. It would make her unpopular but she had to do it.

She went back downstairs and asked Tiffany, "Do you have an explanation for your behavior?" Tiffany replied, "I guess I knew I shouldn't have done it but they got away with it before so I figured it would work again. I did want the candy. I was going to come up here and get some money and tell you what I was doing but they said not to worry about it because it was so close and I went ahead." She started crying again. "Aunt Emily, I am sooooo sorry. Please don't be mad at me forever." At this Emily softened a bit, but she reminded herself that she had to be tough. Emily said to her, "Quite honestly, I am mad. I'm disappointed. And I'm sad. You know better and I'm disappointed that you didn't do what you knew was right to do. I'm mad because I get angry when people steal. It's not yours and so you have no right to it. Period. And I'm sad because I now have to punish you." Oh no, Tiffany thought, punish is never a good word. Last time she heard that she got spanked and grounded.

Emily said, "I don't think any more discussion is needed about this." She got up and went to the kitchen and got a wooden stirring spoon. She told Tiffany to get up and come around to the back of the couch. Tiffany eyed the spoon and asked what she was going to do with that. Emily said, "I'm going to spank you because you knew that what you were doing was wrong before you even did it. You had the opportunity to back out of stealing the candy and you didn't take it. So this will serve as a reminder the next time you even think you want to do something like this again. Now bend over." Tiffany could not believe this was happening again. Why didn't she just think. All of this could be avoided it she would just think. Emily interrupted her thoughts saying, "I'm waiting." Tiffany bent over the back of the sofa hesitantly and Emily quickly started smacking her behind with the spoon. The pain built up quickly and spilled out in tears and sobbing. Tiffany tried to stand up when Emily guided her back down and kept her hand on her back. Tiffany was kicking her legs now and wailing. Emily was extremely efficient and didn't say a word. She just kept spanking for about a minute. If someone was watching, they would have thought she was a pro at it. When she was done, she stood Tiffany up and told her, "If you ever do something like this again, you will drop your pants the next time. Do you understand me?" Tiffany just nodded her head. Emily said, "Do you understand me? Yes or no?" Tiffany said a very slobbery, "Yes." Emily told her to go wash her face and come back and sit down when she was done.

When she came back, Emily had calmed down but look like she had been crying. It was not easy to spank Tiffany. Not at all. She sat Tiffany down and hugged her to herself. She said while resting her head on top of hers, "I know I hurt you today by spanking you. I felt that I had to do it to teach you a lesson. You know better than to steal, don't you? I know you do. You can't misbehave and not suffer the consequences. If I didn't do what I felt was right in this situation I would not be doing the right thing by you as your aunt. If I let you get away with stuff and not correct you then I don't love you. Today, our relationship might have changed maybe not for the better if you now believe that I'm mean or don't like you. But it could have changed for the better if you understand that I love you and I will do what ever is necessary to do the right thing for you. What do you think?" Tiffany sighed and said, "I believe that you love me, Aunt Emily." Emily replied, "I do you love you, Tiffany." Tiffany wrapped her arms around Emily and squeezed her. Emily said, "Okay. Two more things. One, you have to sit here for 2 hours. No TV, phone, or going outside. And two, you have to tell your Derek." Tiffany thought that the two hour thing was nothing but she could not tell Derek. He would kill her. Emily told her that she could tell him tomorrow when she got dropped off. Doesn't make it any easier, Tiffany thought.

Emily left her for her two hours and she promptly fell asleep. They had lunch afterwards and the rest of the visit was like the usual visits. Nails painted, movies, popcorn, and take out (it seems Emily doesn't cook). The next morning, they went for breakfast and they talked about their upcoming week. Emily had just received word that they had an out of town case, so Tiffany knew Derek would be leaving today too. She asked Emily if she had to tell him since they were going away, she told her yes. When they got to Derek's, Tiffany hugged him. Emily cleared her throat. Tiff knew what she had to do. She spilled it. All of it. Derek stood there with his mouth open. He could not believe it. He told her to go to her room after she told Emily bye. She hugged Emily saying, "Bye Aunt Emily. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused. Love you." "I love you too sweetie. There's a first and last time for everything. Let's hope that this is the first and last time we go through this." She kissed the top of her head and Tiff said, "it will be." She went upstairs as she was told.

Morgan turned to Prentiss and burst out laughing. "What is so funny," she asked. He said, "I would have paid money to see your face through all of this." Emily didn't think it was so funny. Morgan picked up on it. He said to her, "In all seriousness, thank you for loving Tiffany through good and bad." At that he hugged her. She hugged him back and sighed. Strangely, it seemed they each felt something spark, stiffened and pulled away. Couldn't be. "Okay, see you at the airfield in 2 hours," Emily said. Derek replied, "Right. See you there."

He went upstairs to take care of Tiff. He got her hair brush and sat on her bed and beckoned her over. "Uncle Derek, you're not going to spank me too, are you? Aunt Emily already did it." "The brush is not for my hair," he laughed. "Yes I'm going to spank you again. I told you that when you don't behave and you use poor judgment, I was going to make sure that you get back on the right path. Now let's go. You know what you did wrong. Let's get the reminder going so you won't do this again." He pulled her over his lap and started smacking her butt with the brush. "When are you going to start (whack) thinking before you do stuff like this? (whack) It makes no sense (whack) that you should get caught (whack) stealing because you shouldn't be stealing. (whack) When are you going to do this again? (whack, whack, whack) Answer me." (whack) Tiffany sobbed, "never!" "I don't expect you to ever do anything like this again." (whack, whack, whack) Do you hear me? (whack) "Yes!" As he was standing her up, he said "You are smarter than this and you are better than this."

It was so hard to make her cry. But he realized that his goal was not to hurt her, it was a byproduct of what he had to do to discipline her. Duty did not make it easier. He looked at her, took her hands, and said, "You are a good girl. You make mistakes sometimes, but we all do." He directed her face towards his. "I really need for you to think about the consequences of your actions and how they will affect you not just at the moment, but long term. Who cares about having certain friends if they are encouraging you to do wrong things? Think about this: did any of your friends have to deal with Emily's disappointment in you? No. Did any of them have to take your spankings with you? No. Did any of them have to deal with me? No. Did any of them lose their privileges with you? No. So you need to think about these types of things before you do them. And let me just tell you this: if you get even an inkling that something isn't right to do, just don't do it. That little voice is trying to protect you." He hugged his baby girl. He told her that he was going to miss her. He would call as soon as they got to the hotel. He told her that the cell phone was only to be used to contact him or Ms Claire and no text messages except to contact him.

They went downstairs and Ms. Claire was there waiting for her girl. It hurt her so to hear her being punished, but she knew that Tiffany was wrong. It didn't stop her from getting ready to give her a great big hug. Derek hugged Tiffany close and said, "Bye, baby girl. You know I love you, right?"

"Yes, I do and I love you too."

"Okay. I will see you in a few days. Be good."

"I will."

At that, Derek was off. Tiffany turned and hugged Ms Claire. Ms. Claire hugged her back and they went to their chair. Ms. Claire wanted to talk to her baby. This was not going to be their usual talk.