"Mama, where are we goin'?" Declan asked from the backseat. He was strapped into his booster seat (lately, they'd practically had to duct tape him into it, as he'd figured out how the buckles worked and had a penchant for undoing them in the middle of traffic, no matter how many times they warned him not to) and kicking the back of her seat, keeping time with the beat of the song on the radio.
Emily caught the boy's gaze in the rearview mirror and offered him a smile that she hoped was a whole lot more reassuring than it felt. Not that she was particularly nervous...well, not that she'd admit, anyway. "We're going to cheer up one of Mama's best friends," she said. She knew that once she opened up this part of her life to Garcia, she was exposing the soft underbelly of their lives: namely, Ian's existence. She knew that Interpol had some of the world's leading experts in the field of creating bulletproof backstories, but she also knew that Garcia was one of the world's leading experts in hacking and if anyone was going to uncover their secrets, it was her...
"JJ?" he asked, suddenly excited.
She couldn't help but laugh at little at his eagerness. (She had a feeling he was developing a little crush on JJ...) "Nope," she said, "Her name is Penelope and I have a feeling you're really going to like her."
"Oh." A beat. "'Kay." Another beat, this one thoughtful. "Is she sick?"
"Sort of," she said, not quite sure how to explain to the child the whole backstory to Garcia's injuries. "She doesn't feel good because she has a big owie and I just know it would make her very very happy to meet you."
"Why?" he asked.
Reaching into the backseat to tickle his knee, she said, "Because you make everyone very happy, just by being you 'cause you're so very special."
He nodded solemnly as he thought on that. "Can we bring her ice cream?"
She glanced over her shoulder at him as she pulled up to a red light. "Ice cream?" she repeated.
"Ice cream makes me feel better when I gots an owie," he informed her as if it were scientific principle. He worked up his best puppy dog eyes for good measure. "Please?"
With a sigh of concession (while silently wondering how in the Hell she – one of Interpol's top agents – had wound up whipped by a six year old), she asked, "What flavour?"
"Oh, hi, Emily, I..." Garcia started to greet when she flung the door open, only to stop mid-sentence upon seeing that Emily wasn't alone. She glanced from Emily to Declan and back and it was clear she was confused. And, though it surely wasn't the wording with which she wanted to ask the question, she asked the more diplomatic version of, "Who's the cutie?"
Emily squeezed Declan's hand to prompt him to introduce himself. Rather than answer the question with his name, though, he instead hollered, "We bringed ICE CREAM!"
Rolling her eyes, Emily offered a silent apology for the boy's lack of manners. "This is Declan," she supplied for him, "He's my son." She could see the million and one questions that immediately leapt to the forefront of Garcia's mind...and was grateful when she chose not to ask them immediately.
Garcia instead turned to Declan, kneeling down so she was on his eye level, and said, "Well, I certainly hope you brought enough ice cream for me too..."
He nodded eagerly, flashing his toothy grin (having lost a grand total of three teeth in the past month alone) as he proudly brandished the bucket of ice cream. "Mama said you gots an owie?" he said as Garcia lead them into the kitchen and began digging in the dishwasher for clean bowls and spoons.
"I got shot by a bad guy," she informed him (having grown up with brothers, she had a feeling the boy would be eager to know all the gory details...). "The doctors had to cut me open to get the bullet out."
Declan's eyes went wide. "Cool!" he exclaimed. "Can I see?"
"Declan," Emily gently chided.
Ignoring her protests, Garcia said, "Well, I've still got a bandage on it, but I can show you the bullet they took out..."
"Garcia!" Emily chided her this time...
"What?" Garcia asked, "They let me keep it..."
She just rolled her eyes, but she had to admit – if only to herself – that it was pretty cool...
"So..." Garcia said leadingly, grinning like the cat the got the cream.
Declan was fast asleep in Emily's lap, chocolate smeared around his mouth and down his shirt, having crashed about ten minutes after finishing his ice cream. Emily was tenderly stroking his blond curls, knowing that she wouldn't get many more moments like this.
"Spill the tea, Sugar," Garcia added when no details seemed forthcoming.
She sighed, offered a slight smile. "He's my fiance's son," she said, perhaps needlessly, given the blond hair and blue eyes. "He just turned six."
"Fiance!?" she squeaked. "This is the first I'm hearing of any fiance and I know all the tea!"
Emily couldn't help but laugh at that because there was oh so much that Garcia didn't know... But, of course, she couldn't say any of that, so she just shrugged and said, "He's a very private person. And he's very protective of Declan." A beat. "But I knew you needed a little pick-me-up after, well, everything...so we agreed that I could introduce you."
Garcia, of course, knew that Emily wasn't one to trust easily, so if she was willingly sharing something so private as her adoptive son, then she must really trust her... She shared a smile with Emily and for several long moments, neither woman said anything.
At length, she broke the silence, saying, "You know, if you ever need someone to look after him..." She trailed off, winking as if they were sharing some clandestine secret.