AN: here we go again! I'm sorry for the long wait. Life got in the way. I'm not sure if there is anyone reading this still, so this is just a smaller chapter to see if we still have people interested in reading this story, so I'll get back to writing it!

Emily was not one to have problems with Mondays, but this one she had a problem with. After her life had drastically changed, what it felt like a long time already, she needed to get back to work, as JJ had to start on her new school midterm. It was so nerve-racking that it made her remember all the times she had to have a first day of school on a new school, because of all the moves she made in her childhood. But, of course, this was different.

She loved her job, and no one could make her stay away from it for long – she had not taken a vacation in years -, but right now she wished she had a little more time to stay at home. But she couldn't, and she knew they needed normalcy as much as possible… JJ even looked ready for it, almost excited, it was Emily the one who didn't feel ready at all. So now she found herself at the bullpen, not being able to focus on the reports they were working on at all, finding it weird that she was the one with the least amount of reports to do, even though she was the only one on leave for one week.

The brunette looked around, annoyed as time seemed to take forever to pass. She looked into her apple watch just to see it showed only fifteen minutes past what it showed the last time she looked, and she still had a long waiting to do. She then reached her phone to check if anything had happened, if anyone had contacted her, but it had nothing and Emily was feeling like she was going insane, so she got up and decided to get a refill on her coffee.

"You know, more caffeine won't help right now" she jumped at the sudden voice behind her as she helped herself

"Derek! You scared me" she said turning around to look at him, he smiled at her "And yes, I do know that. But I can't help it"

"C'mon princess, she's fine" he said, knowing damm well the source of his friend's anxiety "You said it yourself she was fine"

"Yeah, for my surprise she was" the woman agreed "But how do I know if she was fine, fine, or if she was I can't show I'm not fine to not create problem and get in trouble fine?" Derek looked pointedly at her, making her look down at her coffee "I know it sounds like I'm overthinking it, but I'm not"

"Princess"

"I'm not!" she insisted, he still looking pointedly at her until she sighed "Alright, okay! Maybe, maybe I am"

"Maybe?"

"Ughh you don't understand" they started to walk their way back to their desks "Kate gets it, tell him" she summoned her friend to the conversation as they approached her desk

"Get what?" Kate asked, looking up from her computer

"The reason why she's overthinking JJ's first day"

"I'm not overthinking it" she defended herself again

"You are" Kate said, Emily glaring at her looking offended "But… but" Kate said lifting her finger up, making it clear she wasn't done "I do understand it"

"C'mon" Derek said "Emily said herself that shorty was even excited to meet her classmates after she found out Meg used to study there"

"And that she was happy about using her new red backpack you gave her" Reid chimed in as he listened to the debate

"She was! But it's not that simple" Emily said in an almost whiny tone "It's just a gut feeling, okay? I know for a fact she'll be overwhelmed, and I won't be there to help"

"I get it, and you're probably right" Kate was the one to say

"Kate, that's not helping" Derek pointed

"All I'm saying is… we have to learn to deal with the fact that our kids will have heartaches that we can't avoid. Telling her she's overreacting won't help, but not trying to focus on something else and keep feeding into the anxiety won't help either Em" Kate said, smiling at her sympathetically

"Yeah, yeah I know. You're right" she sighed looking around "It would help if I had more interesting reports to do, I'm left with only those budget stuff Reid usually does" she sipped her coffee, and looked around noticing the air changed at that, not quite getting why "Did I say something wrong?" Kate looked back to her computer, as Derek went back to seat on his desk "Reid?" she asked him

"Well… we're still working the case" she didn't understand, just staring at him for a little bit "The Case" he emphasized

"Oh" she said, reality setting in

"We didn't have any new cases since then… and we didn't want you having to deal with it, so I switched some of my more bureaucratic ones with you" the genius admitted.

"I see" she said, feeling in a loss of words. Could this day get any worse? "That's not fair though, I can help" she said, not really believing her own voice to seem convincing. She had gone through a lot in her life, but this had such a soft spot for her… she still wasn't used to feeling like that, specially not at work, but it made her emotional.

"Princess, we got this. You focus on not going crazy before it's time to take shorty from school" Derek told her "You don't have to worry about any of this" she nodded at him, still standing on the middle of the four desks. She looked at her desk, but couldn't bring herself to seat there again, so she just took a deep breath and walked up the stairs. She needed a good distraction and some happy hormones, and there was only one way she could get that right now

"Oh, c'mon in my wonder woman! I missed your visits to my cave, come, come, seat here… let's chat" – Penelope Garcia.

"He's better now" Hotch told her over lunch later that day "But I still think I should've grounded him"

"Hotch, I didn't even want you to have talked to him about it" Emily said "I had just talked to him, and it was all fine, now he'll think he can't trust me"

"Em, Jack has to know he can't just say those things to JJ" Emily nodded at that, while grabbing another bite of her sandwich "I mean, we'll be together more often as everything settles down, and I need to trust he'll behave next to her"

"I know, but he's kid as well… we need to be patient with him. If you keep getting on his case about this it might just as well make it worse for him" she was having a hard time communicating with Aaron about the issue of Jack's actions towards Jennifer. But not only that, ever since they got back home she felt things had shifted, things were different and not in the way she anticipated they would be.

After her heart-to-heart with JJ last Saturday, when she learned some of the things Jack had told her, Emily talked to her boyfriend about it. But it was with the intent to vent about the issue, share what an emotional outcome had come out of it and see what his take of the situation was. Not to point fingers at Jack or make anyone feel bad about it. But all Hotch took from that conversation was how his son needed to learn a lesson, besides Emily telling him it was beyond the point.

"Well… I'm his father so I have to educate him" the man said "I agreed not to ground him, but we can't be all patience and no limits, you know" she sighed

"I didn't say that"

"I know, all I'm saying is that I know how to be a father" at that she shot him a look, not liking where this was going or how quickly it seemed to be escalating

"Oh… I see" she said, putting her sandwich down "And I don't, that's what you're implying?" he shrugged

"I didn't say that"

"But you implied it" he sighed loudly at her

"It's just, you never thought you knew better than me on how to educate my son before this last case" he blurted out

"Oh, that's major of you to say Aaron" she had disbelief in her voice "I never said I know better than you when it came to Jack, I just thought we were having an honest conversation on a subject that involved my kid as well"

"I know. I know, I don't want to fight. Just… let me deal with him my way, okay?"

"Sure, I'm sorry if I care about him too" she got up

"Emily, don't do this"

"I don't wanna talk about this anymore" and then she left, getting back to work, thinking to herself the second time that day, could this day get any worse?

If it was hard to focus before, after lunch it was impossible. Hotch's office had it's blinds closed, what wasn't usual for him, and she knew he was just as annoyed at their fight as she was. Around her the other occupants of the bullpen seemed really focused on their job, what made her more and more tempted to ask what was going on with Michael Jareau's case, even when she knew it wasn't good if her team hadn't said anything to her about it.

Could this day get any worse? The hell with it, she knew it could. She might as well know

"Alright, tell me" she blurted out, getting the others by surprise

"Emily" Kate warned her

"No, I tried to keep out of it, but I can't. I gotta know what's going on" she put her feet down. Derek and Reid exchanged a glance

"We were asked to follow up with the investigation until the trial" he said "And to… help get the key testimony ready"

"So, there will for sure be a trial? No plea deal?"

"The guy refuses to confess" Derek said "He insists on his innocence and refused any deal" Emily listened and let the information sink-in. She knew they might have a trial, but with all the evidence on the case she was truly hoping that Michael would make a plea deal to escape the death penalty.

Things were even worse than she first thought though, because he was not going to trial to contest any technicalities, he would try to prove his innocence, what would end up in a much messier trial… she could only think about the lengths the defense would go to, to discredit the victims or even pin the blame on someone else

"We'll help with the testimony?" she repeated what Reid said earlier, still processing the information "Who's testimony? You don't expect… no, not…"

"Princess… if the prosecution doesn't get him to sign a plea deal soon, she'll be the most important witness"

"You can't expect a little seven-year-old to take the stand, on the trial of her primary abuser, who kidnapped and killed three girls because of his obsession with her!"

"Emily"

"No Reid… with our help or not, she can't do it!" Emily got up, feeling her heart pumping in her head "For god sake, she just turned seven! She was just crying herself to sleep the other night because of what happened to her sister, and you know what they'll try to do with her sister's image at this trial" she pointed out, Reid looking down, knowing full well what she meant

"We still don't know what…"

"We know there are evidence that might suggest she was part of it" Emily cut Kate off "Hell, we thought it ourselves when we were working the case!"

"But we knew it didn't make sense, because of all the evidence he left behind" Derek pondered "He can't get away with this Princess, and we have to make sure he doesn't" at that she nodded

"I'm not only worried about what he'll get away with or not" she said, her voice lower "I'm worried about what it'll do to my… to JJ" she sighed, all eyes on her at that point, paying attention because they understood the drama of the situation

"We understand that, but there's not much we can do about it" Reid said

"But as her guardian, I can do something about it"

"Princess… without her the prosecution is not as strong. Don't we want to make sure this guy rot in hell?"

"Of course" Emily agreed, seating back down "It's just… she has been in hell herself for so long, and it's not fair" at that Kate got up from her seat and walked over her friend, bending down in front of her and taking her hand

"I know it's not fair. But we'll get her hell to end if we do this the right way, and we won't stop at nothing until we can all move on from this. Okay?" Emily smiled sadly and nodded at her

"She's right Princess. Get into your head that she's not just your family, we're here to protect her of it all. Why you think we accepted to keep assisting?"

"I know, I know" she looked up at them "Thank you guys. I just hate this; she can't catch a break"

Finally she was free to go get the little girl from school. She was one of the first parents to arrive to pick up, but the anxiousness was just too big. The idea of getting late and JJ being left there waiting for her too much for Emily to gather. She was nervous to hear about her day, what if things went wrong and the girl came back home triggered or something?

She sighed as she noticed she had arrived way before the bell would ring. Her phone rang and she took it, to see a message from Hotch:

I'm sorry, can we talk?

Emily rolled her eyes a little bit and decided not to answer right at that moment, she was still annoyed with him. She checked her socials and decided to step out of the car, her legs too restless to stand still… that much caffeine definitely didn't help.

Soon other parents started grouping around the school to pick up their kids as well, and Emily started feeling a bit self-conscious. She was different than the majority there. A few other moms noticed that as well, and the way they kept looking at her and chatting amongst themselves did very little to hide that

"Excuse me" she heard a woman's voice and turned to see one of those mothers approaching her. She had her hair tied back in a bun, a navy blue dress and a forced smile that made Emily almost instantly dislike her "I'm sorry to bother you, I was just wondering… I never saw you around, are you here to pick one of the kids up?" Emily tried to smile back and nodded

"Yeah, she's new to the school"

"Oh dear, what grade is she in?"

"First" she said, trying to keep the smile up

"Your niece or something?" at that the brunet made an effort not to roll her eyes

"My foster daughter actually"

"Oh poor thing. My boy is in first grade, Luke. What's her name?"

"Jennifer…"

"Well if you need anything with your situation, the moms around here are always eager to help" the forced smile grew even bigger, and Emily wondered if she ever felt pain on her cheeks

"My situation?"

"Yeah, bringing a troubled kid home must be hard. We appreciate good doers like you"

"No, she's not… she's great actually" Emily stuttered but finally the bell rang. Really, could this day get any worse?

Kids started running out of the building, and the agent forgot all about the other woman just to watch closely for the bright blonde hair running her way. Where was her little girl?

It seemed like forever, but eventually she saw her. JJ wasn't running like most of the others, but as soon as she saw Emily standing there waiting for her she smiled and ran towards her, throwing herself into the woman to hug her

"Emmy! You came"

"Of course I came bug, I would never forget you" Emily said, kissing the top of her head "So, how was it?" JJ looked up at her

"Good" she said simply. Good wasn't enough, and Emily was still anxious

"Really? What was your favorite part?" the girl thought about it as they walked over to the car

"Ms. Halliwell is really nice, and I made a friend"

"A friend?! That's awesome honey" she opened the door so the girl would climb in "What's her name?"

"Bridget! But that's not my favorite part of the day…"

"No? What is it then?"

"Seeing you outside" she said honestly, and Emily smiled at her, her heart feeling a warmth it wasn't used to feel.

If the day could get any worse, she had no idea. But right then and there, watching as the little girl fastened her seatbelt like she hadn't said anything much, Emily was sure it could get better. As long as she had JJ, it could always get better.

AN: please review to let me know if there is anyone still interested in this! Thank you so much for your patience and support