A/N: I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this since it's been forever since I updated. My old computer died a terrible death, and I lost all of my planning, notes, and pre-written content for both of my stories. It was hard for me to start from scratch even though I know where I'm taking this story, but I finally got Paramount+ and watched the new Criminal Minds Evolution, which sort of inspired me to try to get back to this. Updates probably won't be super fast because of everything I have going on in real life, but I am going to start updating again. Thank you to anyone who is still reading after all this time. I incorporated a little bit of recap into this chapter since it's been so long.
Chapter 20
"Are you nervous?" Emily asked with a glance at her thirteen-year-old, who was sitting stoically in the passenger seat. Even after living with her for the last week, Emily still sometimes found Grace exceptionally hard to read.
Emily had certainly had enough first days in a new school to remember how much it sucked being the new kid. Unfortunately, being new wasn't exactly new for Grace either. At least Grace would have Jack and Sky. She wouldn't be alone in a new school.
"Not really," Grace answered in a monotone. "I have done this before, you know."
"I know," Emily said with an apologetic note in her voice.
"It's fine, Emily," Grace told the woman with slight exasperation. She had already told Emily that it wasn't her fault – it was her dad's. Now that Grace knew he had killed her adoptive parents, she didn't really blame her mother for what happened to her after they died. That was all because of her dad. Emily needed to stop apologizing for it though.
Hearing the annoyance creeping into her daughter's voice, Emily dropped it.
They got to the middle school early to meet with the guidance counselor and get Grace's schedule, which meant they were there before the school buses and masses of parents dropping off their kids. The first bell wouldn't ring for another thirty minutes, and it would be a good fifteen before the hallways started to fill.
As they entered through the main entrance, Grace noted that there were no security guards or metal detectors, which was just the first of what would be many differences from her old school.
The main office was easy to find, with signs directing them to the office. The secretary behind the front desk went back to get Mrs. Anderson, who was ready for them and invited them back to her office after a quick round of introductions.
Mrs. Anderson was an older woman in her fifties, with grey curly hair and a kind smile. She gave off a grandmother vibe, and Grace imagined she might spend her spare time baking cookies or knitting.
"Okay, Grace, I have your transcript from Adams," Mrs. Anderson told Grace once they were all sitting down. "All of your core classes will be the same. Language Arts, Algebra 1, Social Studies, and Science. Your electives here will be different though." She kept her tone chipper, giving no indication that she thought the electives at Adams Middle School were lacking. "Here you'll need to choose an Art and a World Language. Now, for Arts, your options are Visual Arts, Drama, Band, Chorus or Orchestra."
Adams was more of an inner-city school, with limited funding for Arts programs, so Grace was feeling a little overwhelmed by the choices. She didn't know how to play any instruments, so she knew she couldn't do Band or Orchestra.
"What's Visual Arts?" Grace asked. "Is it just, like, Art? Drawing?"
Smiling encouragingly, Mrs. Anderson nodded before elaborating. "Drawing, painting, ceramics."
"I'll do that, then," Grace told her.
Mrs. Anderson did something on her computer, presumably to add the Visual Arts class to Grace's schedule and then shifted her attention back to the new student. "For Languages, your options are French, Spanish, Arabic, or Chinese. I didn't see a Language on your schedule at Adams, but that's okay. You can take the first year class."
Although this was said brightly with another encouraging smile, it didn't fool Grace, who immediately realized the implications and looked at the guidance counselor with a completely horrified expression.
"First year? Like with sixth graders?" Grace said, as aghast as any other eighth grader would upon being told they were going to be placed in a class with sixth graders. Really, what kid would be happy about that? She would be destined to be the dumb new kid who was two grades behind.
Seeing her daughter's understandable distress, Emily decided to intervene. "Is there any sort of independent study option?"
Grace was going to insist that she could keep up with the Spanish class for her grade if they gave her a chance. She would have used the fact that her dad had a Spanish-speaking housekeeper to try to convince them. And there were even two Hispanic sisters in the group home who spoke Spanish. Okay, maybe she hadn't seen Gloria since she was seven and the Spanish she picked up in the group home was mostly cuss words that probably wouldn't help her in school, but they didn't need to know that. The point was she knew some Spanish. She just needed to convince them that it would be enough to get by. She had already opened her mouth, the argument forming on the tip of her tongue, but she shut it quickly.
The former foster kid was not really used to adults speaking up on her behalf. No…she was used to having to fight her own battles. Emily had surprised her.
Wide-eyed, Grace sat back in her chair and waited to see how Mrs. Anderson would respond.
"We'd have to talk to the teacher and see what they think," Mrs. Anderson said, being very non-committal. "Which language did you have in mind?"
All Grace heard in the guidance counselor's response was a version of we'll see, and we'll see always meant no. It was what adults said when they wouldn't just say 'no,' and Grace hated when they did that. The teenager sighed resignedly. This was going to suck.
Emily, however, hadn't given up yet. She was sure that if she could just talk to the teacher, they could come to an agreement. Recalling the choices, she looked to Grace for her input. "I can help you with anything except Chinese."
"You?" Mrs. Anderson said, realizing the mother intended to teach Grace herself. Mrs. Anderson had been thinking one of the already-busy teachers would have to oversee Grace's independent study and wasn't sure if any of them would agree to that. That was why she wasn't seriously considering Emily's request. Doing a sort of double-take, Mrs. Anderson shot the other woman a questioning look. "You speak French, Spanish, and Arabic?"
"My mother was a diplomat. We moved around a lot because of her postings," Emily explained, meeting the other woman's gaze and holding it. "Growing up, I lived in several foreign countries."
If the guidance counselor had any doubts that Emily was capable of teaching a foreign language, Emily's background and the innate confidence with which she spoke were enough to change her mind. It didn't hurt that she now knew Emily was an ambassador's daughter. That always made people think she had traveled the globe meeting foreign dignitaries before she ever graduated high school. The truth was that her mother usually traveled without her, leaving Emily alone in strange countries.
"Which language would you like to take, Grace? I can see if the teacher has time to come talk to you and your mom before classes start," Mrs. Anderson said, suddenly becoming much more helpful. She now sounded all nice and accommodating again. It was funny how that happened.
One point for Emily, Grace thought, fighting a smile at the implied victory. "Spanish?" She answered, trying not to sound too happy about seemingly getting her way.
Mrs. Anderson made a phone call, and a few minutes later a younger woman in her late twenties or possibly early thirties joined them, introducing herself as Señorita Carter – obviously the Spanish teacher, Grace thought, trying not to roll her eyes. Was the 'Señorita' really necessary? They weren't actually in Spanish class.
After discussing the matter with Emily, who spoke in perfect Spanish and could have easily passed for a native, Señorita Carter was properly impressed and immediately agreed to the independent study.
The Spanish teacher wasn't the only one who was impressed. Grace was also duly impressed, though she was less impressed with Emily's language skills and more impressed that Emily had been shockingly helpful.
And, to think, the independent thirteen-year-old hadn't really understood why Emily felt the need to come in with her, but by the time the meeting was over, she was sure glad Emily did.
It was safe to say Grace left the guidance counselor's office with a newfound appreciation for her mother.
It was a big day, and not just because it was Grace's first day at her new school. It was also the day that Emily closed on her new house. Her house - that was strange to think about.
Owning her own house tied Emily to the area in a way she had never really been tied down before. She couldn't just pick up and leave like she had before.
Clyde always said she ran away. She remembered what he said to her when Doyle was coming after her there, in D.C…What are you going to do, Em? You going to run away? Yeah, you're good at that.
Why was she even thinking about that? It was years ago.
And, in that particular case, Emily left to protect her team.
But then she ran away to London when being back with the team in D.C. just wasn't the same after her 'death.' She tried to re-build relationships, but some of them felt like they would never be the same again. It took her an especially long time to fix things with Reid. Morgan was glad to have her back, but he treated her differently. In a way, they all did. And then Clyde offered her a job with Interpol in London. Had he known how tempting running away would be?
Emily couldn't do that again, no matter what happened or how bad things got, not when she had a kid to think about.
That was the whole point. She was putting down roots.
She was doing this for Grace, but it was what Emily wanted…wasn't it?
Emily wanted a family…a kid. And Grace wasn't just any kid - Grace was her kid. Emily thought Grace was even starting to come around to that fact.
Emily knew that Grace finding out how her adoptive parents died had been the turning point in their fledgling mother-daughter relationship.
Now that she knew Doyle lied to her about what happened to them, Grace's trust in him was badly shaken – and that would call into question all of the things he had ever told their daughter about Emily. His hold on her wasn't as strong now. She was finally starting to think for herself.
Doyle died thinking he'd succeeded in turning Grace against Emily…that if they ever met, Grace would hate Emily on sight. He didn't think anything Emily could do or say would change things. He probably didn't think Grace would even listen to anything Emily had to say – and Grace didn't. Not at first.
In those first few days, Emily couldn't imagine Grace ever choosing to stay in with her. No. Grace would go off to boarding school, leaving Emily all alone in the house that she was only thinking of buying to give Grace a home. It was a sad thought, and it almost stopped Emily from going through with the purchase of the house.
But it was different now. It felt like Grace was actually giving Emily a chance to prove herself.
And Emily still had time. It was only September. She had the rest of the school year to make Grace want to stay with her.
For all of the second thoughts she was having, Emily had just about talked herself into being excited about the house instead of regretting everything.
It was too late to back out now anyway, Emily thought resignedly…not without losing a lot of money.
Having utilities moved over to her name before the weekend had been enough for her to register Grace in school, but today was the day Emily signed all the final paperwork and actually took possession of the keys for her new house.
It all took a lot longer than it should have, but Emily had the new keys to her house in enough time to meet Derek to do a walk-through and take some measurements before she had to pick Grace up from school.
Emily's job would be to make decisions on things like kitchen counters and backsplash, bathroom tile and vanities, paint colors and carpet. Derek had told her that was all he really needed from her. He would take care of the rest.
Of course, she was paying for everything he would need, all of the materials and any other help he needed, but he was helping her fix the house up for free because she was family. That was what he told her when she tried to insist that it was too much and she couldn't let him do it.
Even though she tried to argue, Emily didn't know what she would do without his help. She knew she would never have been able to turn the house that was in desperate need of updating and renovations into a home without him. To be honest, she didn't even know where to start.
Derek Morgan was a good friend, Emily thought fondly as she waited for him in front of the house.
"Emily, hey." Derek greeted her with a big grin. "Congratulations! You excited?"
"I don't know if excited is the right word," Emily said, torn between excitement and feeling overwhelmed. Being back at the house for the first time, all Emily could think about was how much needed to be done. It was a lot.
Chuckling softly, Derek nudged her before slinging a friendly arm around her shoulders. "Come on, it's going to turn out great. You'll see."
With that, Emily unlocked the front door to her new house for the first time, and they went in together.
They went through the house, with Derek double checking things with her and making notes as they went. "I need to make sure I don't tear something down that you want to keep," he told her jokingly.
"If you wanted to, you could tear it all down, and build me a brand-new house," Emily assured him in a wry tone. "I wouldn't mind."
"You can't fool me, Prentiss. You like old houses," Derek said knowingly. "Remember the brownstone you were in a while back? Now, that had character."
"I miss that view," Emily said wistfully, nostalgia for her first brownstone in D.C. when started with the BAU washing over her. That was when she'd moved back to D.C. for the first time as an adult. It felt like coming home. This house didn't feel like home. Not yet anyway.
"You are definitely a city girl," Derek told her.
"Do you ever miss it?" Emily asked him. "Being in D.C.?"
"I love the city, but I was ready to get out." Derek was speaking about more than just the city. "You gotta settle down sometime."
Emily looked at him with raised eyebrows, the beginnings of a smirk playing across her lips. "Get a house with a white picket fence and 2.5 kids?"
"Now you sound like my mom," Derek told her. "She's always asking when we're going to give her another grandkid."
"Are you?" Emily asked him.
Shaking his head, Derek chuckled softly. "Don't you start."
"You brought it up," Emily retorted.
"At some point we will," Derek said, being serious now. "Growing up, I had a big family. I want Hank to have that, too. Starting with his cousins," he added pointedly. "Speaking of, how's Grace? She doing any better?"
When he looked at her with a concerned gaze, Emily could tell he really cared. It didn't matter to him that he'd only met Grace once or that he didn't agree with what Emily did or how she did it, going undercover as Doyle's girlfriend, without which Grace wouldn't exist. All that mattered was that Grace was Emily's.
Hesitating slightly, Emily decided how honest she wanted to be. "A little. It's going to take a long time for Doyle's influence to fade, but she finally realized he wasn't who she thought he was."
"Yeah? How's she handling that?" Derek questioned.
"He was her father, and he killed two people that she loved," Emily began with a troubled expression. "And it doesn't help that she thinks he could have killed her. She was still in the adoptive parents' house when he torched it."
It was helping Emily more than she thought it would to talk about this with him. She knew Derek would understand the mind games that Ian was playing with her daughter in a way that most people wouldn't. He was a profiler for too long to not see exactly what Ian was doing with Grace.
How was Grace ever going to trust anyone again after being lied to and manipulated by her own father?
Pausing to get her own thoughts together, Emily frowned. "I don't think she understands how he could have done those things if he loved her."
"That's a good thing, Emily. It means she doesn't think like him," Derek pointed out.
"I know," Emily conceded. "It's just…he had her convinced that I could never love her because she was his. The one thing she never questioned was his love for her. But now…now she must feel like she has no one."
Derek could hear in her voice how much that was tearing Emily up inside. He brought her into a comforting hug.
"She has you," Derek told Emily. "And whether she's ready to see us that way or not, she's got a lot of aunts and uncles. She's not alone, Emily. And neither are you. There are a lot of people who love you. Both of you."
Nodding into his shoulder, Emily mustered up a small smile for him. "I know."
And Grace wasn't alone, not even at school. The first day at a new school was always fun, not knowing where to sit in classes where she knew no one or, even worse, in the cafeteria where everyone else already had their own established tables and friend groups. But this had been unlike any other first day she'd had.
The eighth graders were grouped into three classes, and they stayed with their classes for all of the core classes, with only electives being different. The only exception to that was math, with some of the eighth graders taking algebra while others, those who had already taken algebra, were in geometry. Grace had been put into the same class as both Jack and Sky, which seemed almost too good to be true. It just so happened that her class had more students who were taking geometry, including Jack, which meant that specific algebra class had less students in it and the teacher would have more time to help students who needed it. According to her transcripts, math was the one thing Grace struggled with, so Mrs. Anderson had put her in that class despite also placing their last new student - Sky - in the same class. Grace didn't know or care how it happened. She was just glad it did.
At Jack's insistence, Grace and, by extension, Sky found themselves sitting with him and his best friend, Alex, at lunch. While Sky was still too new to really know anyone, Jack had a lot of friends from elementary school and soccer and generally seemed to be pretty well-liked and at least somewhat popular. Their table filled up; and, after seeing that Jack seemed friendly with Grace, no one questioned the presence of the new girls at their lunch table.
Of course, Grace still had to answer the normal questions everyone asked of any new kid ever, which she was used to from being bounced around in foster care and knew how to answer without giving away too much.
"You're new? Where'd you move from?" Alex asked, his tone friendly and curiosity genuine. He had black hair that was at least as dark as Grace's if not darker, dark eyes, and an olive skin tone that gave him the overall appearance of having some Latin in his blood somewhere. He had a warm gaze and a friendly smile.
"Just a different part of D.C.," Grace told him simply. Hey, technically it was true. It was nobody's business that she moved in with the birth mother who gave her away or that before that she'd been in foster care. With a glance at Sky, she added, "We both went to Adams."
There, now no one would know that Sky and Grace knew each other from foster care. Everyone would just think they were friends since they both transferred from Adams.
"How do you know Jack?"
Grace glanced at Jack uncertainly, hesitant to answer. He answered for her.
"We're family friends," Jack said easily.
Grace raised her eyebrows at that answer, but she supposed it was better than saying their parents basically set them up on the equivalent of a play-date at their age.
It still sounded weird though. There was no such thing as family friends when she had no family, and the last time Grace really had a family was when she was seven years old. For the last six years, she'd been a foster kid with no family to speak of. Now, everyone seemed to expect her and Emily to instantly become family just because they shared DNA.
After about the first five minutes, the interest in Grace died down and other conversations picked up at the table. It seemed like most of the kids sitting with them played soccer, but they weren't what Grace would call stereotypical dumb jocks. A lot of the conversation was around the Social Studies test that they had at the end of the week and the paper on The Outsiders that was due the following Monday. It wasn't the complaining she might have expected, but rather comparing notes on how they were studying, what they were studying, and what they were writing their papers on. They were academically-minded jocks, then. That made sense. Jack was obviously smart, and Grace already knew he liked to read. Somehow, he found all the smart, studious athletes and became friends with them. In fact, they were currently laughing about one of the actual dumb jocks who had watched the movie instead of reading The Outsiders.
"Movies are never as good as the book," Grace said.
"They always change things for no reason," Jack agreed.
"Brandon did the same thing for The Giver, too, remember?" With a laugh, Alex shook his head. "Ms. Grey totally knew when he started talking about drones and retina scans. How long do you give him before she busts him this time?" He wondered with a loud guffaw, obviously finding the whole thing very funny.
"It depends on how different the movie is," Jack responded thoughtfully, his expression contemplative. "I haven't seen it. Have you?"
As it turned out, no one had seen the movie, which led to a tentative agreement to watch it together over the weekend. They all liked the book well enough. Grace was quick to say she didn't think she could even though Jack made a point of including both her and Sky.
Other than school, Emily hadn't let Grace go anywhere or do anything by herself. On one of her first days back in D.C., after one of their many fights, Grace had tried to leave Emily's apartment to go on a walk and cool off, only to be stopped by Emily who insisted on going with her, which kind of defeated the whole entire purpose. And, whenever they left the apartment for anything, Emily never let Grace out of her sight for long.
Grace knew Emily was afraid she would run away again. To be fair, she had tried to do that in Philadelphia. Now, it sort of felt like Grace was on house arrest or something.
All-too-soon, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. For the first time that day, Grace had a class without Jack or Sky, both of whom had Drama while she had Visual Arts. Alex had Band with a quiet, slightly nerdy boy named Eric who had been sitting with them. He played soccer, too, but was honestly more interested in video games and music than in sports. Eric seemed to get along with Jack and Alex but had mainly been talking to a shy Asian boy named Andrew.
"I have Visual Arts, too," Andrew told Grace, sounding nervous. "If you don't know where it is, I can show you."
"Thanks," Grace told him, forcing a small smile in his direction even though she was less than excited about the class.
Upon comparing schedules with Sky, Grace had already gone back to the office to try to change her schedule to be in Drama with her friend. She had been told no. Any schedule change would require permission from both teachers involved and Emily, which Grace thought was dumb since she hadn't even been to a Visual Arts class yet and the teacher had no idea who she was. After that, Grace had to endure a lecture about it being good for her to make new friends before being allowed to leave the guidance counselor's office.
"Do you want to ask about the independent study?" Grace had asked Sky, who had gone with her to the office, in a hushed tone. Unlike Grace, Sky had gotten stuck in the first-year Spanish class with all the sixth graders.
"Not if a parent has to give permission," Sky had answered miserably. "What are they going to do? Call her in prison?"
"They'd probably have to get permission from your foster parents," Grace had told her friend knowledgeably, remembering how it had worked in foster homes.
Sky didn't want her brand new foster parents to have to come back to the school already because of her. They'd been nice so far, but she'd heard enough horror stories about bad foster homes from the other girls in the group home, including Grace, to be wary. She was trying not to be any trouble and hoping they would continue to be nice.
Emily watched the entrance to the middle school for her daughter as she idled in the very long pick-up line. She was still several cars back when she saw Grace come out of the building with Sky, the girls appearing to be deep in conversation.
Grace didn't see Emily's car at first, but she also wasn't really looking for it. She was too busy talking to Sky. Finally, Emily made it to the front of the line, and Grace noticed her car.
Emily rolled down the window and called out to Sky before the girls could say their goodbyes. "Sky, do you want a ride?"
Sky looked at Grace, who merely shrugged as if to say it was up to Sky.
"Are you sure?" Sky asked somewhat hesitantly. "I can take the bus."
"Get in," Emily told the girl in response.
Grace got into the front passenger seat while Sky slid into the backseat, leaning forward to give Emily directions to her foster home.
"How was school?" Emily asked them as she waited for her turn to exit the busy parking lot.
"It was okay," Grace told her in a neutral tone, actually sounding like she meant it.
Emily knew that coming from her sarcastic, eye-rolling teenager, that was practically a ringing endorsement.
