By the time the jet touched down in DC, trick-or-treating was long since over and, in spite of not having made a promise to return in time, Emily was experiencing a crushing guilt over her late arrival. As it so happened, though, when she came through the front door she was greeted by the scrabbling of dog toenails, followed shortly by pounding footsteps.

"SURPRISE!" Declan hollered as he threw himself at her in a football tackle hug. He was still wearing his Aquaman costume, though it now featured several stains that she strongly suspected were chocolate.

For several seconds, she struggled to maintain her balance as the momentum of his embrace slammed into her. But once she'd found her footing again, she returned the embrace just as intensely. "What are you still doing up?" she asked, kneeling down so she was on his eye level.

"Daddy let me stay up so I could see you," he informed her with grave seriousness. "'Cause I gotsta tell you 'bout Halloween!"

And, while she wanted to be annoyed that he was up past his bedtime, she couldn't exactly fault Ian for having let him stay up when she wanted so badly to hear all about the evening she'd missed. "How about we get our pyjamas on and we'll make some hot chocolate and you can tell me all about your adventures, okay?"

He nodded eagerly and scampered off in the direction of his bedroom to change.

"Welcome home, Love," Ian murmured beside her ear, wrapping her in an embrace from behind. "I've missed you..."

She laughed softly, leaning back in his arms, tipping her head so her temple was pressed against his. "You just say that because you spent all night corralling your sugar-buzzed son," she teased.

"Precisely," he agreed. He heaved a weary sigh, dropped a kiss to her neck. "That kid is a goddamn Energizer Bunny..."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Why, then, do you want to have another?" she challenged. He didn't seem to have a good answer to that one.

"How was Declan's Halloween?" Derek asked, settling across from Emily on the jet to Montana.

Emily rolled her eyes, guzzled a greedy sip of her coffee. "He's been on a sugar high since seven AM," she groaned. "He found where I hid all his candy and pilfered it while I was in the shower. And to top it all off..." she added, removing her blazer and turning to show him the little chocolate fingerprint smears on her blouse.

Derek laughed heartily. "And that is why I'll stick to practicing, thank you very much..." he said with a little wink, as if she hadn't understood exactly what he'd meant by that.

"You are a child," she muttered, causing him to laugh harder.

Before either of them could say anything more on the subject, the plane lurched as it hit a pocket of turbulence. They both attempted to brace themselves as the jet jostled them about. Emily could feel her stomach roiling with the movement and it was all she could do in that moment to keep from vomiting all over herself.

"Em?" Derek said, voice laced with concern at the way she suddenly went pale. "You okay?"

She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get any words out, her stomach lurched as well and she knew her meagre breakfast of coffee and toast was going to make a reappearance sooner rather than later. On shaky legs, she hastily retreated to the bathroom where she proceeded to empty her stomach.

JJ frowned at Derek from across the aisle. "What was that about?" she asked, having observed the odd interaction.

He frowned, shrugged. "No idea..."

JJ knocked on the door of the hotel room's en-suite. "Em? Everything okay in there?" she asked. She'd just arrived back at the hotel after a hasty dinner with the team at an all-night diner; Emily had elected to skip dinner, citing the fact that she wasn't very hungry...no one had argued, seeing as her skin was a shade off green for most of the day.

Rather than reply with words, Emily replied with a weary groan. "Do you think it's possible to vomit so hard you expel your pancreas?" she eventually posited, unlocking the door to allow JJ to poke her head in.

JJ hummed a doubtful note. She proceeded to wet a washcloth and drape it over the back of Emily's neck where she was hunched over the toilet bowl, dry heaving. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, settling on the floor next to her.

"About what?" she asked, combing her sweaty hair away from her face and tying it back with the elastic around her wrist. She rested her elbows on the toilet seat, head in her hands, as she breathed shakily through her nose in an attempt to soothe her frayed nerves.

A long pause ensued, during which JJ seemed to debate something. At length, she said, "You're late, Em..." Having spent quite a lot of time in cramped hotel rooms together, JJ had come to be quite familiar with the timing of Emily's cycle.

"What?" Emily screwed up her face in concentration as she did some quick mental math. Eventually, she arrived at the inevitable conclusion. "Fuck..." She lifted her head, glanced over at JJ with wide, alarmed eyes. "Fuck," she said again.

She nodded slowly, sympathetically. "I'm guessing this wasn't planned?"

Emily shrugged. "It wasn't unplanned, per se, but it is a...surprise." She'd always been an intensely private person, but that tendency to keep things close to the chest was only exacerbated by Ian's presence in her life. She wanted to open up to JJ, but couldn't help but fear her reaction when she inevitably found out the entire truth.

"Ah." She offered a reassuring smile, reached for Emily's hand, squeezing it gently. "I stopped at a drug store on the way back from the station, just in case you wanted to be certain..." she offered.