Prentiss

I was at about nine weeks pregnant now. I went to the doctor about three weeks ago to confirm what I already knew. The Christmas that past, I had early with the team. Then I spent the days from the 22nd to the 27th in Italy with my father. We visited my mother's grave and went to see some of the famous landmarks. I had to tell him about my pregnancy and it was not easy to do. He wasn't the easiest person to talk to about anything. He was relatively neutral to the idea, but he was upset at the time. The next week after we returned to America, he called me and congratulated me more enthusiastically. He was happy about it now.

Hotch still hadn't contacted me and I was missing him more and more each day, but I worked to the best of my ability without him and while trying to keep my secret…still a secret.

We were working a case with missing children. They were high risk takes, so the unsub was either careless or so good that they knew they wouldn't be caught kidnapping the children. They took them on their way home from school and we had already determined that it was a team, most likely a committed couple.

I was currently sitting in a room with the team and a single mother of one of the missing children. Her 14 year old daughter had only started at the school not long ago.

"Do you have kids, Agent Jareau?" She asked her quietly.

JJ looked at her and nodded, "A son."

"If he were taken, would you give up?"

She hesitated and looked down, "No ma'am."

"What about you, Agent Prentiss? Do you have kids?"

"Not my own yet, but I am currently looking after my partners son."

"How old is he?"

"12. 13 in October." I looked at her.

"And his mother?" She asked.

"She passed on a few years ago." I looked at the woman sitting down across the table. She looked like she hadn't slept since her daughter went missing.

"So you see him as your own," She nodded, "If he went missing, would you give up?"

"No, I wouldn't." I shook my head.

She nodded, "I've had several people that have told me that maybe I should. It's only been a week."

"Ms Rawlings, nothing we have found suggests in the slightest that your daughter isn't alive. I wouldn't give up until you saw reason to." Morgan said.

A wave of nausea flushed over me. It happened so often and would just hit at any time of day; so much for "morning" sickness. "Excuse me." I stood up and walked out quickly. I reached the bathroom just in time before I threw up. I held my own hair back and tried to calm myself but when I took a breath, I threw up again.

I heard the door open and I felt someone else hold my hair back for me. I knew it was JJ by her perfume. She rubbed my back lightly and waited. Once I felt okay again, I flushed the toilet and walked to the sink. I splashed water on my face to cool me down and cupped some into my hands before drinking it.

"How long have you been sick?" She asked me after I dried my hands and face with paper towel.

"I don't know, a while," I shrugged my shoulders, "I'll be fine."

"…How long is a while?"

"Don't worry about it, Jayje," I brushed her off, "Come on; we need to get Alyssa back to her mother." She wanted to pry, I could see it in her eyes, but she knew that the case was more important at the moment. She knew that if I really was too sick to work, that I probably wouldn't say it but it would be very obvious in my behaviour.

We walked back to the room where the other three still sat with Ms Rawlings. "Where'd you go?" Reid asked us.

"I had a call about Jack. Sorry." I lied and glanced at JJ. She looked confused but she wouldn't blow it for me. She sat down again and called Garcia.


The case took another two days to solve. The victim had survived significantly longer than what was usual for other unsubs like these two. We were very fortunate to have found her in time.

We sat in silence of the plane. Rossi was beside me, JJ and Reid across from us and Morgan was on the couch, sitting near us.

"…So how far along are you?" Rossi asked me.

I looked at him with confusion, "What?"

"When Ms Rawlings asked if you have kids, you said "not my own yet". You were sick, you have been for a while," Reid said, "You freaked out over the date and I saw you trying to reach Hotch ten times in three minutes the day after the flight from when you disappeared for a while. We know you're pregnant."

I sighed and looked downwards. My right hand was in a loose fist and I put it in front of my mouth as I closed my eyes, "How long have you known, exactly?"

"Just since Wednesday. That's when I connected the dots." Reid nodded.

"Why didn't you think you could tell us?" JJ asked.

I shook my head, "I haven't even told Hotch."

"What?" Morgan raised his eyebrows.

"I can't reach him. I haven't been able to for a long while."

"When will you be able to reach him again? He couldn't stay out of reach for months, could he?" JJ asked.

"He already has. I haven't spoken to him since the week after he left."

"And that's killing you, isn't it?" Rossi asked.

I snickered, "You have no idea."

"So…how far along?"

"9 weeks." I looked at him at my side. He nodded and opened his book.

"…Would have been nice if you told me before I sent you out into the field…" He mumbled quietly.

I stared at him for a second, "I can still work the job. The only thing that bothers me is the morning sickness. And that poses a question. Why is it called "morning" sickness? Because I have it all damn day."

"Well it's called morning sickness because the symptoms are more likely to occur early in the day, although plenty of women get it at all different times of day. The cause of morning sickness isn't exactly confirmed, but most experts say that it's because of the changes in the woman's hormone levels during pregnancy." Reid explained.

"Hey Reid, what are the chances of twins?" JJ asked curiously.

"Tests in 2013 accounted about 3 in 100 births in the Unites States were twins. Between the years 1980 and 2009, the birth of twins rose by about 76 per cent and has stayed like that since. Today, nearly 4 per cent of births in the States are now born in sets of two, three or more, but the majority of multiple births are twins. The chances of having twins increase if you have twins in your family, you're tall, you're overweight, you have at any time underwent fertility treatment, you've previously had twins, you've been pregnant before and it's more common among African-Americans. Surprisingly, the chances of twins increased as you age, too."

JJ nodded, "I always wondered how horrible it would be to have twins. One young child is a handful; two or more would just be torture."

I laughed, "And your kid is one of the more easy ones."

She nodded and laughed too, "I know. I was lucky."


I gave permission for JJ to tell Garcia about my pregnancy. It wasn't fair for the rest to know and not her. I only went inside the precinct only long enough to grab some files so I didn't see Garcia. She called me when I was driving to Jessica's and congratulated me very enthusiastically.

Jack played with Sergio for a while when he got home and I tried calling Hotch again. I called the number he provided me next; the person I could call that would pass my message on.

"Hi, this is Agent Prentiss with the FBI," I figured that introducing myself as an agent might make the message sound more urgent, "Agent Aaron Hotchner is out of reach in Iraq on temporary duty at the moment and I was curious to know if you knew an approximate time he would be contactable again?"

"One second," The man said. I heard typing on his end and I paced back and forth in the bedroom, "Agent Prentiss?" He asked if I was still here after a short while.

"Yes."

"I'm not certain on a time that he will become reachable again, but I would estimate another two weeks. Would you like to me pass a message on or would you like to wait until then?"

"Uh…" I thought about it for a few seconds, "I'll wait. Thank you so much."

"Would you like me to notify him that you were trying to reach him?"

"Yes please, that would be great. Thank you again." I hung up and turned towards the door when I saw Jack out the corner of my eye, "Hey, you okay?"

"Was that dad?"

I tilted my head slightly and gave him a sympathetic smile, "No, it wasn't. I was just asking someone when they thought he might be reachable again. They think maybe two weeks but they don't have a confirmed time."

"I miss him." He said quietly.

"I do too," I agreed. I looked at my watch, "Time to get ready for bed, buddy."

He nodded and walked down the hall to his room. I sat down on the bed and sighed to myself before dropping my head into my hands. I just wanted to hear his voice, have a conversation with him, tell him that he was going to be a father again.

My phone buzzed and I looked at JJ's text. "What's up tomorrow?"

"Not sure yet. Probably spent the day at home with Jack or something. Why?"

"Bring him over here. He can play with Henry and you can catch up with Will and I."

"I'll ask Jack tomorrow morning."

My phone was dying so I plugged it into the charger and got up. I stood in front of the mirror in the ensuite and brushed my hair out. I walked back into the bedroom and closed the door. I had a quick shower and got changed into one of Hotch's sweaters and a pair of my pyjama pants. I cleaned the lenses of my glasses and slid them on.

I walked down the hall and looked through the door to Jack's room. The light was out and he was already in bed. I smiled to myself and walked down the hall to the staircase. I went down and sat at the desk in the corner of the dining room with a cup of coffee and only the lamp on. I went through more paperwork than I normally would in one sitting and my back hurt by the time I took a break. How did Hotch do this every day?

I stood up and put more water on to boil. I walked around the kitchen for a while until the water was ready and I made myself another coffee. I sat back down and started working again.


I heard Jack walking upstairs and I looked up from the paperwork. The sun was up. I had been so out of it that I worked all night and didn't notice the time pass. "Shit." I said quietly to myself. I turned the no longer necessary lamp out and stood up. At least I didn't have any paperwork left to do…well, not until I got into work on Monday, anyway.

I got up and put water on again. I opened the fridge and got out eggs and bacon. I made the coffee and I cooked it up and I poured some orange juice into a glass. Jack came downstairs and sat down at the dining table when I served the food up for him. I sat down and ate with him, although I didn't really feel all that hungry.

"So JJ offered for us to go over to her place today if you wanted to play with Henry. Do you want to go or do you want to do something else?"

"I want to go."

I nodded, "Okay, I'll let her know."

I finished eating and waited for him to finish before I cleaned up. I cleaned the counter tops down as well before I went upstairs and got my phone. I texted JJ and she told us to come around whenever we wanted.

We went around there for lunch.