Playing Games by JuliaBC
A/N: I swear to God that I didn't mean to take this long. But life happened. And now I'm behind again.
IMPORTANT. Please read the next part and take note of it.
I'm going to have one more chapter tomorrow and then there will be a time jump to where the show is at the beginning of the eleventh season. I will watch the premiere episode and see what it says regarding Kate and JJ and then I will fit in a chapter of Emily visiting for the birth of JJ's second child.
And for Lktwh13's sake, and to answer a question:
I am continuing with the show. I am keeping it as close to Canon as possible (basically because if I wasn't sticking to Canon, then a lot of pairings would have happened by now, LOL.)
On with the show.
It hit Kate before she'd even fully awoken.
It was September 11, 2015.
And now it was, inconceivably, 14 years since her life, and the lives of so many other Americans, had changed.
In the morning darkness, she lay still, until she was stirred by the cry of a baby. Her baby.
It almost brought her back to the first anniversary, when she'd been blessedly distracted by a very cranky and teething Meg.
Next to her, Chris stirred and got up, patting her arm. "Don't worry, babe," he said, his voice scratchy from sleep. "I got this."
"Bring him back here," Kate asked and Chris nodded.
In a few moments, he returned, holding their son close to him. "Just let me change him real quick," he whispered and slipped out again.
Kate felt the darkness around her rise up, even as the sun peeked through the window and began to brighten the day.
She heard footsteps and finally sat up in bed, to take Jamie from Chris when he came back but it was Meg's face that appeared in her line of vision.
Meg's face, looking both painfully young and painfully old. She already had the look of someone who'd seen too much, and her pixie haircut (easier to wash the dye out of) changed her face immeasurably. Still, Kate and Meg had been beyond thankful when Penelope had offered to take her to a salon, and had kept taking every six weeks to keep it short when Meg asked.
"Hey, baby," she said, holding out her arms and Meg stepped into them, perching on the side of the bed as she embraced her aunt turned mother.
"Tell me about them," Meg mumbled. "What was that thing they always said?"
"That to be happy, you had to be prepared," Kate said. "Ready for anything."
"Why were they working at the Pentagon?" Meg asked, snuggling closer.
Kate shrugged. "Liz met Joe while they were both applying to the Department of Defense. They both got a job there and neither wanted to quit after getting married or after you were born." She smiled. "Liz was such a go-getter. She really encouraged me to go far. I think Joe wanted to leave, after a point, get a simpler job but Liz refused to leave. And Joe could never say no to her."
She felt Meg smile where she was pressed against Kate's shoulder.
"And when the Pentagon was hit...they didn't have a chance," Kate said, though she'd never gone this far before. "They had a chance but Liz refused to leave without helping her boss, who was pregnant at the time. None of the four made it out. Joe stayed by them until the end and they were found together."
She felt Meg's body shake.
"I never had to," Kate whispered. "I was just taking college courses at the time, when I got the call. I'd heard about the Towers, of course, but not about the Pentagon, not yet. I had no idea. But suddenly my mom was calling and telling me to watch the coverage. 'Kate,' she said. 'What about Liz and Joe?' Just that question." Kate felt tears burn her eyes. "And then I knew. Mom was just calling to remind me, but in that moment, I knew. I knew that my sister was gone. I felt her leave me."
Meg was still, her tears wetting Kate's shirt.
She felt Meg's cropped hair under her arm. "You know, your mom would have hated your pixie cut," she said, trying to bring back better memories of Liz, for her sake as well as for Meg's. "She was always wanting me to grow my hair out, so I would, but then I'd always cut if off again when it got too long and it drove her crazy."
"Would she have grounded me?" Meg asked.
"She wouldn't have spoken to me for a week if I'd let you do it," Kate joked. "But since it was Penelope, she might not have minded it so much. I think she would have trusted Penelope's word on things like that."
There was a cough from the bedroom doorway. "Jamie's hungry," Chris explained and brought the squirming baby over to Kate.
Meg turned away as Kate got Jamie ready at her breast but turned back once he was latched on. "He's beautiful," she said wistfully.
Later that morning, with Chris at work and Meg at school, Kate felt the walls closing in in her mind. Everything was shaking and screaming and all she could think and hear was the sound of a jet engine screaming as it plummeted to the earth.
She remembered the wreckage of the airplane crash last year and whimpered, covering her ears and eyes and trying to shut it out. It was too much.
Jamie made babbling noises next to her and Kate couldn't even pay attention to him. She tried, not for the first time, to remember Liz's last words to her but it was impossible. Yes, there was that conversation they'd had on the beach that she'd told Hotch about but that wasn't the last time they'd talked.
It couldn't have been.
And yet, Kate couldn't remember when it was. She could remember Liz being angry with her; something about a family weekend Kate didn't come home for.
Had they talked again after that?
It was a question Kate had asked herself many times over the years and now the sound of Liz's angry voice filled her ears.
Until there was a doorbell.
Kate jerked to attention, feeling the darkness fall away.
The doorbell sounded again and she walked to it in a daze, pulling it open slowly.
And Spencer stood there.
"I seem to remember you coming by to play chess after Gideon died," Spencer said. "I know how hard this day is going to be for you and there was no way I wasn't going to return the favor."
Kate wanted to fall into his arms and cry her heart out but she knew that he wouldn't be comfortable with that much contact so she just smiled at him with a teary face.
"I don't want to play chess," she said, letting the tears fall freely as Spencer walked in and she shut the door. But she didn't mind. They were tears of relief now.
"We can play checkers then," Spencer said cheerfully. "It's the same board." His eyes crinkled as he smiled. "Where's Jamie?"
"In the kitchen," she hiccuped and followed gratefully after Spencer as he led the way there, smiling to see him perch over Jamie with a look of awe on his face.
"He's so small," Spencer said. "I think Henry was bigger at this age."
"Meg was a small baby so it must be a family thing," Kate said, watching as Spencer met her eyes and smiled.
The chess board tucked underneath his arm was brought out and he set it up on the kitchen counter, watching where Jamie was now sleeping in the bouncer in the corner of the kitchen.
"Hotch let you have a day off?" Kate asked.
"We weren't too busy," Spencer said. "No deadlines at least...and he knew why I was asking."
They played slowly, silently. Kate remembered the iron clad rule of don't move your back checkers until you have to so she was keeping her ground, even if Spencer was jumping a lot.
Then he was smiling up at her. "Hey, Kate," he said, and the smile he wore almost split his face. "I got the dog."
A/N: I'll change the baby's name if Canon names him.