As always, I'll start by thanking all you beautiful wonderful amazing people for all your encouragement! I really think you guys are going to like this one, particularly toward the end ; ). Keep on reviewing, they are such a motivator for me to get these chapters up as fast as I can! Also I've never been to the National Zoo, where Jack and Emily go in this chapter, but I went on their website and made sure that any and all animals mentioned here are in fact housed at the zoo, so I hope it's not too disappointing if you've ever gone!

XxxxX

Emily went to the house long enough to pack an overnight bag, then she went over to Hotch's apartment. She was greeted mere seconds after knocking, both Hotchners standing there to welcome her.

"Thanks for coming, Emily!" Jack said as he hugged her tightly.

"You know I'd never miss an opportunity to hang out with you." Emily told the boy as she ran a hand over his hair.

"Did you miss us?" Hotch asked teasingly.

Emily playfully rolled her eyes. "Yes. It was an incredibly rough four hours without you."

Hotch took her bag from her and started to take it to his bedroom.

"What are you doing?" Emily asked, following him down the hall.

"I figured you could sleep here and I could just take the couch." Hotch shrugged.

"No, I'll sleep on the couch. It's your bed. I'm not gonna take it from you." Emily argued.

"You're not. I'm giving it to you." Hotch said as he proceeded to place Emily's bag in his bedroom. She sighed, knowing there was absolutely no arguing with him about it. She turned her attention to Jack.

"So, Jack, what's our plan for the evening?" Emily asked.

"Dad said that we have to let you pick what to eat for dinner, and then maybe we could all play a game or something!" Jack suggested.

Emily glanced to Hotch. "I have to pick, huh? Well, in that case, I'll make sure we eat something really healthy." Emily teased.

"I said that we should let you decide if you wanted to since you're our guest. Jack made it sound a little harsh." Hotch laughed.

"Sorry," Jack grinned. "But then I said that you're not really a guest. You're Emily." He shrugged.

Emily shook her head with a smile; somehow that simple statement warmed her heart more than she would have expected it to. "You guys know it doesn't matter to me. But thank you for the sentiment." She looked at Hotch and playfully rolled her eyes. She could swear she noticed the slightest tint of pink in his cheeks. Surely her eyes were deceiving her, certainly Aaron Hotchner wasn't blushing.

"We always order pizza when Emily comes, we could do that." Jack offered up.

Emily nodded. She hadn't even realized it, but somehow that seemed to have become their little tradition. "I think that sounds perfect."

They ordered pizza and Jack was very excited to be the one to call for it and answer the door when it arrived. The three of them spent the rest of the evening eating way more pizza than could possibly be healthy and playing various board games.

Currently, they were all together on the couch, Jack happily sitting in between Hotch and Emily. A movie that Jack picked was playing, but both adults could tell that the boy was too busy fighting sleep to be paying attention.

"Hey, Jack. Why don't we finish this another time? You don't want to be tired tomorrow." Hotch said as he reached for the remote to turn the movie off. Jack's lack of response was more than enough to convince him that it was probably a good idea to send him to bed.

"It'd be a shame for you to fall asleep at the zoo. I would have to put you in the lion habitat." Emily teased, earning a smile from the tired boy.

"I'd make you go in the monkey one." Jack said back, knowing Emily wasn't very fond of that particular animal.

Emily scrunched her nose in response. "That is just cruel, my friend." She said as she guided Jack into a standing position. "Goodnight, sweetie." She added as Hotch went to Jack's room to ensure the boy didn't fall asleep while walking.

He returned minutes later, taking his spot on the couch next to Emily. Only this time, he sat a little closer.

"He's so excited about tomorrow." Hotch told her, pretending not to notice that their shoulders were basically touching. Normally, that wouldn't catch his attention. But lately, he'd become increasingly aware every time they touched. Even if it was a simple brush of the hand, he noticed. He wondered if she ever noticed, too.

"I am too. I can't even tell you the last time I went to a zoo." Emily laughed softly.

"I think you made his whole year when you agreed to go."

"Are you kidding? He could ask me to take him to the moon and I'd find a way to do it." Emily said seriously. She couldn't think of very many things she wouldn't do for either Hotchner boy.

Hotch just smiled. "Are you still moving into your new place Monday?" He asked her, swiftly changing the subject to avoid saying something he might regret later.

"That's the plan. It'll probably take me forever. I haven't packed very much yet. That just seems so incredibly boring. I hate packing." Emily admitted, leaning farther back into the couch. "And unpacking." She added as an afterthought.

"Are you doing it all by yourself?" He asked curiously.

"Nah, the girls said they'd come over tomorrow evening and help. But I might tell them not to, I mean it's Sunday night. I'm sure they have better things to do than help me put stuff in boxes. But you know how persistent they can be." She told him. He laughed, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

They sat together in a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"So, monkeys, huh?" Hotch asked.

Emily felt a tiny twinge of embarrassment. "Jack told you I don't like monkeys?"

"He said you're scared of them." Hotch joked.

"I'm not scared!" Emily feigned being offended, grabbing a throw pillow and smacking Hotch lightly on the head. "They're just…they're weird, Aaron. They have thumbs. What animal has thumbs?" Emily asked him, as if it were the most obvious question in the world.

"Okay, okay. I get it." Hotch laughed.

The two continued to talk well into the night, neither noticing how the hours passed by. Time seemed to pass differently when they were together; there was never a dull moment or an awkward silence. It just felt right. Of course, neither of them realized it, both thinking that the other couldn't possibly feel the same way.

Emily glanced at her watch and broke the comfortable silence. "It's late, we'd better go to sleep." She relented. If it was up to her, she would stay up all night and talk to Hotch, but she knew she needed at least a couple hours of sleep if she was going to keep up with an energetic eight year old all day.

"You're right, we should." Hotch agreed, though neither of them made an effort to move. He had honestly only meant to stay sitting next to Emily for a few more minutes, but then he felt her lay her head on his shoulder. He realized she had already fallen asleep, and he couldn't disturb her. She looked too peaceful. So instead, he slowly made himself as comfortable as possible, resting his head on top of Emily's and drifting off to sleep.

XxxxX

"Ow," Hotch heard, forcing him to wake up and open his eyes as Emily shifted underneath him.

"Are you okay?" He asked as she moved to look at him, rubbing the back of her neck.

"What?" She replied, still half asleep and unaware she'd spoken out loud. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine. Just shouldn't have slept in that position for so long. What time is it?" She wondered.

"Just after 6." Hotch replied, suddenly aware of his own discomfort from sleeping sitting up. "We're too old for this." He joked.

"I'm sorry I fell asleep on you. Literally." Emily apologized, now a bit more awake and aware of the situation. She could feel her cheeks reddening. How had she let that happen? Sure, they'd fallen asleep together before, but somehow this felt different. She couldn't explain it but she hoped he wasn't feeling as awkward as she was right now.

"It's okay, next time though, we should probably do it in a bed." He said, immediately wishing he hadn't. He'd never felt like he'd said the wrong thing around her, especially not lately. But he found himself questioning his word choice. He'd practically invited her to sleep with him again. Of course, he actually meant sleep. But what if she took it another way? Would she be upset? He hoped not. She'd laughed at what he said but he couldn't really tell if it was forced or not. It was way too early for this, he thought.

There was a long, awkward silence. Neither of them made eye contact, they both felt out of place and were desperately trying not to let on to the other.

"So um, what time will Jack be up?" Emily asked.

"On weekends sometimes he'll sleep until 8, but since he's excited I'm sure he'll barely make it past 7." Hotch said, thankful for the subject change.

"Well, in that case, I should go get ready for when he's up." Emily finally looked over at him and sent him a soft smile before she rose from the couch and stretched, relieving some of the tension in her muscles. "Will it wake him up if I shower?" She asked, hoping the warm water would not only make her feel better physically, but also hopefully get her out of this weird mood. She wasn't upset about anything, but she just felt like she was over analyzing everything and it was bringing her down.

"No, it's okay. Go ahead." Hotch told her with a smile as Emily headed off in the direction of the bathroom.

When Emily returned nearly half an hour later, she found Jack already awake and sitting in the kitchen with Hotch. She watched them together for a few moments before she made her presence known by venturing farther into the room.

Jack greeted her with his famous smile and a tight hug as Hotch insisted she sit and wait for them to finish cooking, despite her protests. "We would already have it finished if you'd stop coming up with arguments." Hotch had told her. She rolled her eyes good naturedly at him and sat at the island.

Hotch was right though, not five minutes after she stopped insisting to help did Hotch put a plate of food in front of her. They all ate breakfast together, Jack continuously chattering about everything he wanted Emily to see at the zoo today. Emily stealthily grabbed a piece of bacon off of Hotch's plate.

"That's for not letting me help." She'd laughed.

Jack had gotten up so early that by the time breakfast was cleaned up and Jack was dressed and ready, there was still a half hour to kill before the zoo would even be open.

Emily and Hotch managed to distract him for about fifteen minutes with a card game before Jack grew too impatient and excited.

"Can we leave yet?" He asked Emily hopefully.

Emily bit her lip, knowing there was no way in the world she could say no. "Well, if I don't speed and we hit every light between here and there we probably won't be too early…" Emily gave in. Jack stood up quickly and rushed to the front door.

"Bye, Dad! See ya later!" Jack called over his shoulder.

Both adults laughed at his enthusiasm and Emily followed Jack to the door, but not before refusing—for the hundredth time—money from Hotch for anything they might need during the day.

"I've told you, don't worry about it. We'll be back, you just try and learn how to relax and not think about anything." Emily said as she sent him a smile before finally leading an eager 8-year-old out to her car.

XxxxX

They'd made it to the National Zoo just as the doors were opening, so that meant that so far the crowds were minimal. Jack wanted to see everything, so they simply followed the trails in the zoo to wherever they lead. Jack stayed close to Emily and proudly read her all the information off the plaques in front of the various animals they'd seen. She let him take as much time as he wanted. She noticed that some of the adults around her would hurry through everything; she wondered what the point of bringing a child to a zoo was if the child wasn't even going to get time to enjoy it.

By lunchtime, the two of them had made it through about half of the zoo. After looking at the Great Apes exhibit, Emily was glad to take a break to have lunch with Jack.

"What's been your favorite part so far, Jack?" Emily asked as they found a picnic table and started to eat their sandwiches.

Jack thought for a moment before answering. "I like the elephants. But I also thought your face was funny when that gorilla came up to the glass." Jack shrugged.

"That thing could eat you and me for dinner!" Emily argued with a laugh.

"But it's behind glass, Emily. It won't eat us." Jack told her seriously, as if she was unaware.

"Well good, because if it was chasing us I could probably run a whole lot faster than you." Emily joked.

"Emily!" Jack giggled. "You're as weird as Dad sometimes."

Emily playfully squinted her eyes. "I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult." She said.

"Me either." Jack admitted, causing them both to laugh.

Once they finished lunch, Jack started explaining to her his very favorite part of the whole zoo. The reptiles. He excitedly told her about as many of the scaly creatures as he could remember as they walked toward the exhibit

Once they were inside, Jack took her to each little enclosure and told her as many facts as he could remember about them before he looked on the information plaques by the animal. Emily had to admit, his knowledge was extensive, and she knew he and Hotch had probably spent many weekends in this very building.

"Dad doesn't like the snakes, but he lets me look at them anyways. Kind of like you and monkeys." Jack told her as they came upon the snakes. Emily knew she was never going to live this monkey thing down, but now at least she could pick on Hotch about snakes.

It took them almost an hour and a half to make it through the building that housed all the reptiles, but Emily wouldn't have had it any other way. After that, they only had a few more exhibits to look at before they'd seen every animal in the place. Jack seemed a bit reluctant to have their fun end.

"Hey, Jack. Before we go, let's go see if we can find something to take your dad from the gift shop." Emily suggested with a smile. Jack's eyes instantly lit up.

"Okay!" he replied, leading Emily into the closest gift shop. She wondered if they could find anything that Hotch would actually find a use for. He wasn't the t-shirt wearing type, especially not a t-shirt with colorful cartoon animals on the front.

The two looked through the store very carefully, not finding the perfect present. Hotch definitely had no use for safari hats or plush elephants.

"Emily look!" Jack exclaimed as he ran up to her. "It's a pen like Dad keeps with his work stuff." Emily took the pen from Jack and looked at it. It was a black fountain pen with the zoo's name on one side and the image of a lion engraved on the other. It was simple, but still special.

"I think he'll love it, Jack." Emily smiled.

"I almost got him a tie with a bear on it, but I think he'd like this better." Jack told her. Emily bit back a laugh at the thought of Hotch wearing anything remotely resembling a tie with any kind of crazy pattern on it. Sometimes he wore striped ones or ones with little polka dots, but that was about as decorative as his attire got.

"Well, I think it's perfect." Emily said.

"Let's go take this to Dad!" Jack said happily. Emily bought it and led a tired Jack out to the car. She had to admit that even she as sad to see this day end. She knew she'd have to bring Jack back very soon. Maybe with Hotch next time so they could all enjoy it together.

Jack was much quieter on the drive home, the long day having worn him out.

Emily pulled into Hotch's apartment complex and looked back at Jack after she parked. He was leaning back into the seat, the bag from the gift shop placed firmly in his hands.

"Jack, I had so much fun with you today. Thank you for telling me about you and your dad's favorite place." She told the boy. She could tell from having heard Jack talk about their various trips before that the zoo was something Jack and Hotch had always done together, especially after Haley died. She felt honored that Jack would let her in on it.

"Didn't it make you happier?" Jack asked with a knowing smile.

"Yeah, honey. It did." She answered honestly, unbuckling her seatbelt and getting out of the car.

XxxX

"What the heck?" Emily muttered to herself upon reaching Hotch's apartment. A piece of paper was taped to the door. "Stay right there, Jack." She told him firmly as she went up to the door and inspected the note, checking for any signs of danger.

She shook her head when she read it. In Hotch's messy handwriting, he'd written the address of Emily's new apartment and added "see you there!" underneath.

"What is it Emily?" Jack asked tentatively.

"Your dad apparently wants us to go to my new apartment. It's only a few minutes away." Emily explained as she handed Jack the note. The boy just smiled after he read it. Emily raised an eyebrow. "Do you know what this is about?" She asked.

"Nope! Come on, let's go!" Jack said quickly, tugging on Emily's hand and pulling her down the hall.

She shook her head, wondering what she'd gotten herself into.

Ten minutes later, she and Jack had arrived at her new apartment and were headed up to the fourth floor. As if he'd been listening to their footsteps, the door opened as soon as they approached the door. Hotch was waiting for them in the doorway, a goofy grin on his face.

"What is wrong with you?" Emily laughed as she pushed past him gently to go inside, Jack right at her heels. "Oh…Aaron." She breathed upon entering.

Everything from her mother's house had been moved over. The place was mostly decorated, the furniture that had been in the Prentiss living room was now in Emily's apartment. Pictures of the team and of Elizabeth and of Jack and Henry were on the walls.

"Are you kidding me?" Emily asked as she walked around the living room, carefully sitting down on the couch. "Did you do this all by yourself?" She asked, overwhelmed by everything around her.

"No, the team came to help." Apparently, that had been their cue, because they all filed into the room from a room down the hall at that.

"You guys…" Emily said, suddenly speechless. She hugged everyone tightly. She honestly had the best friends in the whole world. "You didn't have to…how did you…when did you have the time…" She rattled off, unable to really say what she was thinking; too many thoughts were coursing through her brain.

Garcia smiled. "We know we didn't have to, Em. We Skyped with George and he told us what all you would probably want to bring. We left some stuff there, you can decide if you want to bring that over or put it into storage or something. With all of us working together, we had this baby set up in just a few hours." The blonde replied.

"I don't even know how to thank you," Emily said, looking at everyone's faces. She was met with seven smiles from the team and a smaller one from Jack. "I'd invite you all to stay for dinner, but there's no food here." She said with a shrug.

"And that's why there's take out." Morgan supplied with a smile.

They ordered enough takeout for an army, sitting and laughing and talking in Emily's new living room. They proudly took Emily on a tour of her newly decorated home. Reid supplied lots of unnecessary general information about the apartment building and about past tenants of Emily's apartment, There was a brief argument between Reid and Morgan about who actually did most of the heavy lifting—not Morgan, apparently. Alex, JJ, and Garcia made sure that everything was exactly as Emily would want it, straightening any crooked picture frames or any mussed blankets. Rossi admitted that he was mostly a supervisor, but obviously a very good one since no one got injured. Emily couldn't wipe the smile off her face. She'd known these people for years, and yet somehow she still couldn't believe she had managed to meet such wonderful friends.

After the impromptu welcome party, the team left the apartment, leaving Hotch, Emily, and Jack alone.

Jack had passed out on the couch nearly an hour ago, the excitement of the day finally catching up to him.

"He has a present for you, but I'll let him give it to you in the morning." Emily said as she moved the gift shop bag from the coffee table to the counter in the kitchen.

Hotch followed her, not wanting to wake Jack but wanting to talk to Emily.

"Thanks for taking him today, he'll probably talk about it for weeks." Hotch told her sincerely.

"I had fun. He's so smart, I think he had all those reptiles facts memorized." Emily laughed.

They moved to sit next to each other at the island, Emily ran her hand along the edges. She knew it'd probably never be this clean again. She wasn't messy by any means, she just wasn't above letting papers and things pile up before she dealt with them.

She looked up to find Hotch staring at her. It didn't make her feel uncomfortable, but something in his eyes was different than normal. She couldn't quite place it.

"Thank you so much for all this. I know this was your idea and you really went above and beyond." Emily said honestly. "I don't…really know how I could thank you enough. Not just for this, but for…well, everything. You've been kind of amazing."

"You can thank me by letting me do this…" Hotch said as he leaned in, closing his eyes and before Emily even knew what was happening, their lips met and they were kissing. In that moment, nothing mattered. Nothing else on earth existed except the man that had enveloped her in his arms and kissed her like she hadn't been kissed…well, ever. Emily thought that whole "seeing stars" thing was a myth her whole life. Until now. The kiss was soft, but still somehow full of fire and light and emotion. It seemed to last only a second but also forever all at the same time. She wondered if he was feeling the same way too.

They pulled apart and Emily waited for the regret to come. She waited for one of them to start apologizing. But that didn't happen.

"Will you go to dinner with me?" Hotch asked finally. "Like…like a real date? No Jack, no greasy takeout. Just us."

Emily pretended to think about it. "Hmmm…only if you promise you'll let me pick the greasy takeout next time." She joked. "And…if you'll kiss me like that again." She said. She didn't really know where this wave of emotion came from. Maybe it was the heat of the moment, maybe it had always been there; but now she knew that she was going to fall helplessly and irrevocably in love with this man.