In the empty expanse of her father's house while everyone else was out purchasing their remaining Christmas gifts or enjoying the atmosphere of Christmas in New York, Emily's footsteps echoed as she paced while she paced, bouncing Noelle in her arms. She'd elected to stay home to look after the baby, seeing as she'd already finished all her shopping and Alex was, perhaps a bit over protectively, worried about all the germs the baby might encounter at the crowded shopping mall.
She would've liked to turn on the TV and watch one of the many many Hallmark movies (a secret guilty pleasure), but every time she tried, Noelle would almost immediately get fussy, apparently objecting quite strongly to something about the cheesy romance...
"You like it when all the attention is on you, don't you?" Emily teased the baby, tickling her tummy, then dropping a kiss to the girl's chubby cheek. "Or maybe you just miss Mama... Is that it? You miss Alex?" Noelle promptly blew a raspberry, causing Emily to laugh. "Of course you do." A beat. "I'll let you in on a little secret... I miss her too."
Noelle, seeming to empathize with Emily's sentiment, scrunched up her face in a sure sign she was about to let out a little wail – her bottom lip jutted out, fat tears welled in her eyes, and her soft skin turned a shade of bright red.
Panic gripped Emily's chest at the impending cry. In the first few days after Noelle was released from the hospital, she had quickly discovered that the most heartbreaking sound in the world was the baby's cry...fortunately, Emily Prentiss was world-renowned for being able to remain calm under the most stressful situations.
"It's okay, Little Snowflake, want to see something?" she asked, settling on the couch with Noelle on her lap and pulling her phone from the back pocket of her jeans. A spontaneous smile crossed her lips as she looked at the lock screen: the first photo she and Alex had taken with Noelle after they'd brought her home from the hospital.
Pressing the gallery icon where, in a special folder named Us, followed by a rainbow of heart emoji, where she kept all the photos and videos of her and Alex together (she hadn't had the heart to delete them after they'd broken up...). Selecting one of the most recent videos, she couldn't help the brilliant smile that crossed her lips as she watching Alex dancing with Henry at JJ's wedding.
With her whole palm, Noelle mashed the screen, leaving behind a sticky little handprint. Emily knew she didn't have the visual development to know what she was looking at, but she liked to think she understood that it was Alex.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Emily murmured, swiping to the next video – this one she'd secretly recorded as Alex was doing her make up in the vanity mirror before the wedding. "You know, Snowflake, you and I have a lot in common," she said softly, "For one thing, we both love your Mama so much..."
"Emmeline?" Elizabeth said sharply from behind her; her approach having been hidden by the sound of the videos. "A word?"
Emily whipped around in surprise, dropping her phone in the process, which in turn caused Noelle to fuss. "Gee, thanks Mother, I'd just soothed her and now she's crying again..." she muttered.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at Emily's crabbiness. "I need to speak with you," she repeated.
"If I say no, will you leave?" Emily said wryly.
Elizabeth scoffed. "It's such a pity you never outgrew your teenage sullenness," she said, shaking her head. "In spite of what you may think of me, I'm merely concerned for you. I fear you're only going to end up disappointed when all this adoption mishegas is said and done."
Emily didn't seem to know which part of that sentence to address first... "Much as I appreciate you finally taking an interest in being a parent," she said sarcastically, "You're about forty years too late. I'm really not interested in your opinion."
"Emmeline, I've had enough of your obstinate refusal to see beyond your immediate happiness," Elizabeth snapped. "You're getting far too involved in this child's life..."
Giving her a pointed look, Emily said, "I didn't realize it was selfish to take care of an abandoned child."
Returning an equally pointed look, Elizabeth replied, "Have you ever stopped to think that Ms. Miller is simply using you?"
"Alex is the best thing to ever happen to me and I won't hear you say another word against her!" Emily said vehemently.
Ignoring the intensity of her words, Elizabeth continued, "You have money, Emmeline, and people would do just about anything to get their hands on that money. You'll recall that gold-digging young man you dated out college..."
"Not Alex," Emily said firmly. "She's different. She genuinely loves me and I love her and there's nothing in the world that would ever change that."
"Emmeline, for once in your life, would you please listen to what I'm saying," Elizabeth said, surprisingly intimidating for the fact that she hadn't raised her voice, "You can't just take on raising an infant with this woman without putting some serious thought into the matter. You'll be tied to her for the rest of your life – legally and financially – and that isn't something to take lightly."
Looking her mother in the eye, Emily said with conviction she didn't know she possessed. "I'm raising this baby with her and there's nothing you can say or do that's going to convince me otherwise."
Before her mother could say anything further on the matter, the front door opened and Alex's voice floated in from the foyer. "Where's my Little Snowflake?" she sing-songed. "Mama missed her sweet, sweet angel..."
Emily shot her mother one last pointed look, then called back. "I think there's a snowstorm blowing your way..." she replied, then made sound like wind whistling as she went to greet her with Noelle in her arms.