Emily's eyes peeled open, feeling the cold of the night seeping into her skin. She had wrapped her windbreaker around her and her daughter before trying to get at least a few minutes of sleep, and her skin had almost turned blue.
Turning her head she could see the sky brightening slowly, signaling to her that the sun was finally coming back up. "Nikki?" She kissed softly to her daughter's temple before shaking her awake. "Come on baby, wake up."
Phoenix made a sound of discontent, squirming herself awake.
Emily fixed the hat on her daughter's head before sitting up, helping Phoenix sit herself up. "Did you make a stinky?" She hadn't changed her daughter's diaper before they had gone to bed, knowing there were only a few clean ones they had left. She laid the girl back down and quickly cleaned her up, slipping on a fresh diaper. She grimaced and set the dirty diaper down on the rock. She couldn't carry that back with her. "Sorry nature," she grumbled, pulling Phoenix's pants back up before helping her stand.
The one year old clenched her hands a few times, signaling to her mother wanted something to eat.
The FBI agent held in her sigh as she handed two more crackers to her little girl, watching as she chomped down and washed it back with a sip of her apple juice. Hopefully her smile would last throughout the rest of their journey back up to the path they'd tumbled from. "You ready, baby?" She helped her daughter back into her carrier and packed everything back into the backpack before strapping both back onto her.
"Smile for mommy," she grinned, tickling underneath Phoenix's chin. "You ready?"
Biting her lip to keep herself from cursing at the pain in her ankle, Emily reached around the small cave she and Phoenix had burrowed themselves into and grabbed onto a rock to pull herself out.
A grunt left her without her knowledge, her body hitting the rest of the rock cave with full force as she tried to help herself up the mountain. "We're ok," she nodded, looking down to make sure Phoenix was ok. She wasn't crying, her head seemingly protected by Emily's beanie she wore, as the little girl distracted herself by playing with the zipper on her mother's jacket.
Pulling herself up, Emily forced herself not to groan at the pressure being put on her ankle as she climbed up the rock and hardened mud. "How's my baby doing today?" she asked the one year old strapped to her chest. The best thing she could do as she made her way back to the top of the mountain was to keep her daughter as calm as possible. "How's my Nikki?"
Phoenix giggled lightly, chewing on her fingers.
The FBI agent shoved her fingers into the dirt, moving slowly and carefully to make sure they didn't slip. "Are you as excited as mommy to get back to the path? Huh?" She grit her teeth, pushing up against the dirt that was growing from hardened and rocky to crumbling underneath her good foot. "Maybe Uncle Dave saved us some of his famous spaghetti."
The big brown eyes of the one year old looked up to her mother. Uncle Dave's spaghetti was her favorite. "Petti?"
Emily grinned at the word. "His famous spaghetti," she agreed, nodding as she hauled them up to a semi flat landing. The single mother helped herself onto her knees, running her hand calmly down Phoenix's back as she adjusted the backpack she wore. "I bet Jack and Henry are waiting to see you, too." After having her daughter, the two BAU boys had immediately fallen in love with her. Every chance they got, they were playing with Phoenix; they taught her how to build Lego structures, how to make the sound of a car when playing with those toy cars their uncles had gotten them, and they had tried to help her walk by the age of three months old.
"Miss mommy."
The brunette took in a deep breath before standing, and she started back onto the path she was making for herself. "I miss them too, baby," she sighed, using her knee instead of her broken ankle to help her up the mountain. "But we're going to see them really soon."
Phoenix turned her head, the hem of the beanie she wore slowly sliding down over her eyes as she tried to see where they were headed.
Emily froze, feeling her foot sliding from the dirt she had wedged it into.
"Mama?"
The brunette whispered gently down to her daughter as she fought her way up the mountain, hurrying to get to the next ledge before they went tumbling back down toward the freezing river below.
Her finally growing fingernails were digging so hard into the dirt, they were tearing, small rocks and soil fight their way into her now bloodied tips. But she kept climbing. With every step she tried to take back up the mountainside, she could feel her body slipping back down toward the bottom.
"Mommy?" Phoenix's breathing grew rapid, her small lips pouting as she looked up to her mother's scared eyes. "Mommy!"
Emily practically threw herself up to the small ledge she saw a few feet above her, being as careful as she could to keep her daughter from hitting the hard wall the mountain had made for itself. Her hands almost slipped from the unstable ledge, and the agent quickly lifted her leg over the edge to pull the rest of her body off of the steep incline.
Bringing up her injured leg, Emily barely got her knee above the ledge before she felt her skin tear and leg sting.
"Mommy," the brunette baby babbled, noticing the unfamiliar look on her mother's face.
Emily couldn't hold back her tears as she scrambled back and took her leg in her hand. Her pants had torn on a rock, a broken piece of wood she had passed along the way she didn't know, and from her knee to the middle of her shin her skin had split straight open.
Phoenix's long lashes batted as she looked up, watching as tears filled her mother's eyes.
"Mommy's ok," she rushed out, taking the sweater that had been wrapped around her waist and tying it tightly over the wound.
A loud chopping had Emily's head snap up. A helicopter.
"Help!" She grimaced as she tried her best to stand, balancing herself on a nearby rock as she tried to wave up to the emergency copter. "Help! Please!" The tears that finally fell from her eyes were breezed away by the violent bursts of wind, her head falling and chin dropping to her daughter's head as the helicopter passed them by.