A lot of you questioned how I portrayed Beth in the last chapter, which I was so hoping for! I hope that this next chapter helps you to all understand why I wrote it that way, I didn't just do it for a dramatic element, there's a purpose. I hope that didn't deter any of you from continuing this journey with me, because I so enjoy writing this, and I hope that you all continue to like reading! I got this chapter up pretty quickly this time, because the last scenes that I wrote have been in my head since I started to outline this story, but I needed exactly the right time to add it in. I hope you guys like it as much as I do! : )

Emily spent the next hour with Hotch and Jack, happy that the two of them seemed to be doing alright. Apparently, all Hotch needed was to confide in someone and see that his son was okay. Jack had seemed to forget all about what had happened the night before.

She and Hotch certainly hadn't forgotten the moment that Jack interrupted that morning, but there hadn't been a time for them to discuss it, so they tried to put that out of their minds for now.

Just as Emily was preparing to leave to go back to her mother's, there was a knock at Hotch's door.

"Are you expecting anyone?" She asked, suddenly feeling very protective over her friend. She knew he could handle anything that came his way by himself, but that didn't stop the uneasy feeling that settled when she saw Hotch's face fall.

"No, but I think I know who it is," He sighed.

Emily's eyes narrowed. "Beth?"

He nodded. "I need to handle this, can you take Jack to his room or something?"

Emily agreed with a slow nod of her head. "I know you can deal with this yourself, I don't doubt your strength, but if you need back up will you please let me know?" Emily asked.

"I will." Hotch promised.

"Okay," Emily agreed, turning back to the kitchen where Jack was sitting, waiting for Hotch and Emily to return. She led him to his room and left the door cracked, just in case she needed to step in.

Meanwhile, Hotch headed to the door. Things had gotten so tense with Beth last night, and he never intended to end their relationship like that. That wasn't fair to either of them. He just hoped Beth felt the same way and wasn't at his apartment to strangle him with his tie and hide his body in the floor of her basement or something.

He opened the door to find Beth, standing there awkwardly staring at her feet. She looked exhausted, and Hotch figured that she'd slept about as much as he had last night.

Hotch didn't say anything, he just moved to the side to let her in. Cautiously, Beth entered the apartment. She looked around, anxiously twirling her fingers around.

"Aaron," she started, her voice tired and quiet. "I'm so sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am." She sighed.

Hotch motioned for them to go sit on the couch, and they did. They sat a good distance apart from each other, neither of them really knowing what to do.

"I'm so sorry I said those things, Aaron. That was so incredibly out of line. I didn't mean any of them. I guess…" She sighed. "You and I were happy, right?"

Hotch nodded. "We were," he agreed, sensing where she was headed.

"I thought so, too. It's just…and please don't take this the wrong way, but I just felt like we weren't going anywhere." Beth admitted, chewing on her thumbnail.

"I felt the same way," Hotch told her, earning a surprised glance from Beth.

"You did?" Hotch nodded. "I guess I didn't know how to tell you that. You are an amazing man, Aaron. I don't want you to ever think you're not. You're a wonderful father, Jack idolizes you more than you know. You always let me know when you're going to be away, you send me flowers or chocolates or a sweet card if you have to break a weekend together because of a case. You didn't mind it when I just showed up here to surprise you, you let me into yours and Jack's very private world. I shouldn't have allowed myself to get so upset that I used that against you, and especially not in front of Jack. You don't have to forgive me, because if I were you, I probably wouldn't forgive me either." She ran her hands through her messy curls and looked down at the carpet.

"I was angrier at myself than I was at you last night. In fact, I wasn't even upset with you at all. I'd been feeling like even though we were good together, we weren't right for each other. I've felt that way for a while now, and I knew it wasn't fair to not tell you. It wasn't fair to string you along like that, but no matter how many times I tried, I just couldn't break up with you. I didn't want you to think you weren't the amazing person that you are. And I know this is such a lame excuse…and that I shouldn't have just shown up here…but I knew if I called you probably wouldn't answer, and that you really needed to hear this…"

"Beth," Hotch cut her off gently. He waited until her pretty blue eyes met his. "You're right that you shouldn't have said those things in front of Jack. It's just lucky that he's so resilient, he doesn't let things like that get him down. I do forgive you. But you have to know that I was feeling the exact same way you were. I think you're a beautiful, smart, fascinating woman. You're just not my woman." He told her.

Beth's eyes were teary, but she wasn't crying. She laughed softly, barely audible. "We should've definitely been more honest with each other." She commented.

Hotch smiled warmly. "You're right about that. We aren't right for each other. Not really. You deserve somebody that you can't live without, someone that makes you smile every single day, someone that you still get nervous to see even if you've been together for years. I can't be that for you, so you go out and find him." He said honestly.

Beth cleared her throat. "I want that for you too, you know. You've been through so much, and you need to find that happy ending. Go find it." She said.

Hotch nodded. "Thanks for coming by to apologize. It means a lot."

"You're welcome. I didn't want things to have ended so sourly between us." She said as she rose from her spot. "So, I guess this is goodbye?" She asked.

"If you're ever here on business, we could always go out for a drink or something. I don't hate you, nor do I just want you to go away forever." Hotch said honestly. He may not love her, but that didn't mean he never wanted to see her again.

Beth smiled. "If you're ever in New York and have a couple of hours, let me know." She replied. "Um…would it be okay if I went to say goodbye to Jack? I don't really deserve that closure with him, but I don't want his last memories of me to be so…negative."

"That's okay, I don't either. He's in his room." Hotch said as he led Beth toward the little boy's bedroom. He knocked on the door and opened it when he heard the approval from Jack. He found his son and Emily lying together on his bed, practically on top of each other so that they could fit. Emily was reading to him, and judging from the smile on Jack's face, she was rather entertaining.

Jack looked up to greet his father, but when he noticed Beth the smile disappeared from his face. He snuggled just a bit farther into Emily, the brunette protectively wrapping an arm around him. She shot Hotch a questioning look, but she trusted that whatever was happening was going to work out in the end.

"I just…I wanted to talk to Jack for a minute, if that's okay." Beth said softly.

"Can Emily stay here?" He asked, just needing someone familiar to encourage him.

"Of course," Beth said. Hotch stood in the back of the room out of the way, not wanting to go too far away but also not wanting to make Beth feel like she was closed in. Emily was already staring her down, and Hotch didn't want to make it worse. He leaned back against the wall, prepared to step in if necessary.

Emily and Jack sat up a little straighter, so it would be easier to talk to Beth. Slowly, Beth seated herself on the edge of the bed right next to Jack.

"Jack, I know you're probably really mad at me and maybe even kind of afraid of me right now. That's okay, because I'm pretty mad at myself, too. I just wanted you to know that I am so sorry for what you had to hear last night, and that nothing I said was true. I know your dad is the best one in the whole world, and you are so lucky to have him. And I also know that you had the most wonderful mother a little boy could ask for, and I'm so sorry she can't be here with you. I am glad, however, that I got to meet you and spend time with you, because you're so much fun and you always make me laugh. Your dad and I aren't going to see each other very much anymore, so I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am. It's alright if you can't forgive me, so don't worry about that." Beth finished with a soft smile. Jack had moved from Emily's side and had faced Beth now, taking her words into consideration and listening very carefully, just like Hotch did. Emily eyed Beth, but she wasn't obvious about it. She could tell that Beth really was sincere, and for that Emily was truly thankful.

Finally, Jack sent Beth one of his very famous smiles, and surprisingly reached out to hug Beth. Emily glanced to Hotch, and Hotch just sent her a reassuring look.

"It's okay Beth, you don't have to look so sad." Jack said simply, letting go of Beth and leaning back into Emily's side.

"Thank you," Beth said softly. "Bye, Jack." She said as she rose from the bed and let herself out, having said everything she needed to say.

"That was…" Emily's brow furrowed. "Unexpected." She settled on saying.

"I know," Hotch agreed as he sat down on the bed with his son and Emily. "But she seemed really sorry, and I'm glad she came by. I didn't want things to end on such a sour note."

Emily nodded. "That's true." She agreed. "And you," She turned her attention to Jack, still cuddled closely to her side. "You did such a good job, you little monkey." She praised Jack as she playfully tickled his side.

He giggled and squirmed away from her, moving closer to Hotch. It was moments like these that Hotch was so glad he had Emily in his life, even he couldn't make Jack laugh like that very often anymore.

XxxxX

After Beth left, Emily told Hotch and Jack goodbye and let them have their Sunday together. She'd already been gone a lot longer from the hospital than she meant to be, but she didn't regret a second of it. She did, however, want to go ahead and get back to her mother and see how she was doing. She'd called George on her way to the house, just to make sure everything was alright. He'd told her that Elizabeth was still doing well, but had asked when Emily would be returning. She promised to be there within the hour as she hung up the phone and drove the rest of the way to her mother's house.

When she opened the front door, she felt like she'd been away for ages. All the lights were off since no one was home, and even though it hadn't been that long since she or George had been there, somehow the house seemed so old and unkempt, like maybe no one had lived there in years. It was strange, Emily didn't really feel at home there. She felt like she was staying at a hotel, not at her mother's home.

She pushed that aside and bounded up the stairs, pausing as she approached her mother's closed bedroom door. She hadn't been in here in weeks, and the thought of going into it now seemed a bit daunting. She felt like she shouldn't be in there, like it was too personal a place for Emily to go into. She took a slow, calming breath and opened the door and flipped the light on. Everything was just as it had been when Emily left it. The blankets on the bed were gone, because Emily had taken them to the nursing home. She slowly walked through the room, headed to the giant walk-in closet that Emily had always loved. Once inside, she reached up to the shelf where her mother kept extra blankets, grabbing the brightest colored one she could find. She glanced around the closet, wondering if there was anything else she should bring with her.

Toward the back of the closet, Emily saw a cardboard box. Elizabeth generally kept sentimental things put away, either in the attic or the linen closet in the hall. She had a few pictures of Emily around the house, mostly in the sitting room and in her office. Other than that, Elizabeth kept all the other pictures, heirlooms, and the like put away where no one could see them. That had never really made sense to Emily, but she'd never questioned it.

Curious, Emily opened the box and looked inside. There were pictures, all in frames, in the box. Emily pulled the box out into her mother's room and sat down on the floor. She found herself unable to stop herself from going through it. She probably shouldn't have, these weren't hers to sort through…yet, she thought darkly. She sorted through the frames; most of the pictures were from Emily's childhood. There was one of her first day of kindergarten, one of her with some important politician that Emily couldn't remember the name of, and some from other events that Elizabeth had always seemed to drag Emily to, even from a young age.

At the bottom of the box, Emily found a picture she had never seen before, at least not that she could remember.

She picked it up carefully, bringing it closer to her face. It was of her and Elizabeth in Emily's room. Emily guessed she was probably no older than three years old. Emily and Elizabeth were sitting in the rocking chair that had once been in Emily's bedroom. Emily was sitting in Elizabeth's lap, sleeping. Elizabeth was holding up a book lazily. Upon closer examination, Emily realized that Elizabeth was also sleeping, too.

Emily felt tears well up in her eyes. She couldn't believe that she had gone her whole life without having seeing this picture. It was so candid and so very un-like Elizabeth. Every picture that hung on the walls in any place the Prentiss' were living was always a professionally made picture that Elizabeth had probably paid ridiculous amounts of money for someone to take. But this, this was special. This was something Emily wished she'd known about years ago. She wiped at her eyes and put the pictures back, all except for the one of her and her mother.

She put the box back in the closet, and grabbed a few more things around the house to bring back with her to the hospital. She found a couple more pictures she took off the wall, and a decorative centerpiece from the dining room that Emily had always loved. She figured it would look nice on the bedside table in her mother's room.

With one last look around the house, she decided she had enough things to take back. Emily left the house, double checking that she locked the door behind her, and drove back to the hospital. She made the familiar trek from the parking lot up to her mother's room.

It was nearing noon by now, and Emily was surprised, but pleased, to see that Elizabeth was still awake.

"Hey," Emily said as she entered the room.

"Oh hello, Emily," Elizabeth smiled.

Emily moved to put the things she brought from the house on the chair she normally sat at.

"I brought you some things, maybe it'll make you feel a little better while you're here, huh?" Emily said as she unfolded the brightly colored blanket she'd gotten from the linen closet and draped it over Elizabeth's bed.

Elizabeth took the fabric between two fingers and examined it for a moment.

"This is pretty," she commented.

"It was buried in your closet, you should keep it out more." Emily said as she sat the decorative centerpiece on the nightstand next to Elizabeth's bed. "I borrowed some pictures, too. You'll never be alone while you're here, George or I will always be here, but I thought they would be nice to have." Emily said as she handed Elizabeth the stack of three pictures she'd gotten from the house.

"That's nice of you, thank you, darling." Elizabeth said, taking a look at each of the photos. Elizabeth's speech was already improving from last night, and Emily felt a swell of pride, Elizabeth wasn't going to let anything knock her down.

When Elizabeth got to the bottom photo, the one of her and Emily, she stopped. She traced her finger over it and studied it as if it were the first and last time she would ever see it.

"I remember this," Elizabeth said, her voice a bit shaky.

Emily couldn't stop herself from smiling. She sat down on the edge of Elizabeth's bed very gently. "Would you tell me about it?" Emily asked quietly.

Elizabeth nodded, motioning for Emily to lie next to her. Carefully, Emily moved so she was lying beside Elizabeth, so they could both look at the picture.

"You were about three or so here…" Elizabeth started. Emily made sure to listen closely as Elizabeth continued.

Summer 1974

Elizabeth Prentiss was trying—and failing—to get some work done, but between the loud claps of thunder and interruptions from her staff, she was getting nowhere. She and Emily were still in DC, as they had been since Emily was born. Elizabeth wouldn't have another posting in a foreign country until Emily was a little bit older, but it seemed that Elizabeth's work was never done. Especially when dealing with politics, that's for sure. She sighed, it was getting late, anyway.

Just as she was about to get up from her desk, there was a knock at her door.

"You can come in," Elizabeth called back softly.

The door opened to reveal Emily's nanny, Sofia, carrying a very tired looking Emily.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I've put her to bed three times, and she keeps getting back up and asking for you," Sofia said, not meeting Elizabeth's eyes, afraid that Elizabeth was going to be mad at her.

But Elizabeth wasn't mad, how could she be? No one could fall asleep with a storm like this going on outside. "That's okay, I'm done for the night anyway." She said as Sofia let Emily down.

Emily hurried over to her mother, looking up at her with eyes that mirrored Elizabeth's.

Elizabeth smiled and lifted Emily into her lap.

"Would you like me to try and put her to bed again?" Sofia asked.

"No, that's alright. You can go to bed if you want, I'll take care of her from here." Elizabeth said as Sofia thanked her and bid her goodnight before retiring to her room for the night.

"It's loud outside, hmm?" Elizabeth asked.

"And annoying," Emily stressed, her voice quiet and clear. Emily had learned to talk early, saying her first word before she was ten months old. Since then, she had picked up on languages rather easily, and was always impressing people with her vocabulary.

Elizabeth chuckled. "Yes, and annoying." Elizabeth agreed. "It shouldn't last much longer, and then maybe we can all get some sleep." She said as she rose from her chair, picking Emily up with her. Elizabeth carried Emily to her bedroom, figuring if she just sat with Emily long enough she would fall asleep.

Emily, however, seemed to have other plans. "Mommy, can you read to me?" Emily requested quietly, as if she was afraid Elizabeth would say no. Elizabeth did have to tell Emily "no," more often than she would like, but that came with the job. She hoped that she could figure out how to balance being Emily's mother and being Ambassador Prentiss before Emily started to hate her.

"Sure, Em. Go pick something out," Elizabeth replied as she put Emily down and sat in the rocking chair in the corner of Emily's room. It was rarely used now, but Elizabeth didn't want to move it out of the room just yet.

Emily returned a moment later with Green Eggs and Ham.

"Are you sure you want to hear this one again?" Elizabeth asked, knowing that Emily had had this story read to her so many times that she could pretty much recite it.

Emily nodded. "It's funny," She said simply.

"Well, alright then." Elizabeth agreed and she easily scooped Emily into her lap and began to read. As Elizabeth predicted, before she was even halfway done with the story, the storm had already stopped. Now the only sound that could be heard was the light rain still falling.

Elizabeth felt Emily lean farther into her, and realized that she had fallen asleep. She didn't want to risk waking Emily up after her being up so late, so she decided to sit there just a few minutes more to ensure that Emily had actually fallen asleep.

And apparently, Elizabeth had found herself drifting off as well, because when she woke the next morning, she was still in the rocking chair. Emily was still cuddled close to her in her lap, the book lying half open at Elizabeth's feet.

Elizabeth moved Emily to her bed, tucking her in and letting her get some more sleep. She kissed two of her fingers and gently pressed them to Emily's forehead before she quietly crept out of the room and started her day.

Elizabeth didn't even know the picture of the two of them had been taken until Sofia gave it to her as a present for Christmas that year, nearly six months later.

Present Day

Emily had really tried not to cry as Elizabeth told her the story behind the picture, but by the end she had failed. She wiped at the tears quickly, hoping no one would notice.

"I can't believe I've never seen this. I wish I remembered it." Emily spoke finally, her voice sounding foreign to her. She didn't voice what else she was thinking…that she was glad Elizabeth remembered it at all. She had remembered the doctors saying Elizabeth's memory might be even worse now. She wasn't sure how her short term memory was doing yet, but she was so thrilled to see that at least with a picture, Elizabeth could still recall things from years ago. It meant that she was strong, she was a fighter. Elizabeth Prentiss wasn't ready to give up just yet.

"I'm sorry I wasn't always there for you like that. I hoped beyond hope that I could learn to be a mother to you, and to put you before my job. But I wanted to be successful, and unfortunately I wasted a lot of years not being your mother." Elizabeth said.

"There's a lot of things I could have done differently back then too, Mom. You can't blame yourself entirely. You know I've forgiven you for everything, so don't worry about that right now, okay? Let's just worry about right now." Emily said as she gently rested her head on Elizabeth's shoulder. She felt Elizabeth take her good hand in her own and squeeze it gently, signaling that she knew Emily was right. Emily stayed quiet, sensing that Elizabeth was probably tired, and before she knew it, she found herself falling asleep. Little did the Prentiss women know, that George had taken a picture of them together on his phone. It looked much like the one Emily had brought in, and he knew he had to keep it until just the right moment.