"Are we ready?" JJ asked with a smile.
"Yeah!" the kids cheered.
Emily smiled at her wife who currently had Lily in her arms, they knew it wouldn't last long, but she was aware of the rules; until they got into the park, Lily was to stay in her mother's arms, Oakley was to hold her mother's hand or onto the stroller, and the big kids were to stay close.
Normally on outings like this, Emily and JJ each brought a double stroller so when Lily and Oakley got tired of walking, or in Lily's case, needed a nap, they were ready. For Disney World though, Emily brought the stroller that seated four because it was easier when JJ took the big kids on rides the littles couldn't go on.
"Momma, what bout' me eaws," Lily asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Your minnie ears are at home, baby. It's okay though, you don't need to wear them every time we come," JJ assured.
Lily thought about it for a few seconds and looked around seeing her sister who was walking next to them, then refocused on her mother. "But momma, Cwalk doesn't have da minnie eaws wike me," Lily pointed out while playing with JJ's hair.
"Bug, we'll find Clarke some ears when we get inside okay?" Emily said as they approached the entrance.
Lily's smile became bigger than ever, and her legs involuntarily kicked around in excitement the way the twins did; she was so happy. Lily began to tell Clarke about all the sparkly sets of ears while Amelia, Oliver and Oakley added in their favorites as well.
The family stood off to the side while Emily got out their magic bands then passed them out to everyone; because they came frequently enough, Emily knew it was worth it.
"Don't worry sweet girl, a purple one is coming your way once we register this ticket," Emily said to Clarke, holding up the printed slip of paper. Each of the children had their favorite color band and because purple was Clarke's favorite, Emily selected it for her.
"Jen, can you?" Emily asked, pushing the stroller forward a bit. JJ nodded and took the kids through as they just needed to scan their wrists while Emily got Clarke's band registered.
It was a quick process that caused Clarke to smile when the woman asked Emily to verify her daughter's name, not just because after Clarke heard her first name she heard Prentiss, but because the word daughter made her smile each time. Then the purple band made her smile too because even though it was something so simple, Clarke loved that her mom's cared enough to remember her favorite color.
"Ready to have a great day sweet girl?"
"Yeah, I'm really excited," Clarke smiled.
The two scanned their bands, stopped to get all the kids another set of ears before doing anything because Emily knew they wouldn't hear the end of it from Lily if they didn't, then planned out their day. Thanks to Grace, who works on the Prentiss jet, the kids had a well-balanced breakfast and were ready to hit the ground running.
"It feels strange being here without the kids running around," Garcia commented as they were all getting settled in the Prentiss home without any of the Prentiss's.
"It sure is a lot quieter," Rossi agreed, taking the time to look around the kitchen. As a fellow amateur chef, he appreciated the kitchen as much as Emily did; it was absolutely incredible.
Truth be told, the team had spent countless hours at the Prentiss home however, because of all the children and even the adults, looking around was the last thing on their minds.
Rossi had looked around for a few minutes and was now trying to figure out how to work the coffee maker—it wasn't anything like the one he had at home, and nothing like the one they had at the office. This made coffee and espresso; there were so many buttons and with his luck, he would break it before any coffee was made.
"Let me help, old man," Morgan said, reading his mind. After pressing a few buttons, the machine started beeping and Garcia looked up from her laptops exclaiming, "Stop, just stop!"
"You two, step away from the coffee machine. Get your paws off of it," she continued. Tara, Reid and Hotch just watched as she pressed one button and the machine did its job leaving Rossi and Morgan stunned.
"Garcia, our queen," Tara smiled, knowing caffeine was on its way.
"Don't you know it sugar plum."
"Baby girl, how'd you do that?" Morgan questioned.
Garcia rolled her eyes and focused back on her laptops. Impatient men, she thought to herself. She then checked the security cameras to see what they had missed in the time since leaving the building. Tara had taken a seat next to her at one of the kitchen stools while the men stood around the island waiting for the coffee to brew.
"Okay, let's go over what we have one more time," Hotch said.
"Hayes escaped from jail a month ago with the help of Steve Wilder. Nearly the entire time since on the run, they followed the Prentiss family—" Morgan started.
"More specifically Emily and Clarke although, it would be fair to assume JJ and the other children are being targeted as well," Reid interjected as he was the most precise on the team.
"Anyways…two weeks ago is when things got real messy—they kidnapped Catherine Mitchell and when we found her, they followed the Summers couple, held them at gunpoint in their own home, and then Hayes killed Wilder," Morgan said, while taking enough coffee mugs out of the cabinet for everyone.
"Then he gained a new partner in Easton Baylor," Rossi continued.
"A man infatuated with Emily since the age of 10. We've profiled that Baylor is using Hayes to help with his own agenda, he has a one-track mind and so does Hayes. One wants a child, one wants to destroy Emily, neither seems to believe they'll get caught," Tara said.
"Baylor also wants Emily to experience what he's felt all his life," Morgan added, passing out the coffee he had now poured.
"But what is that exactly?" Garcia questioned.
"He's always come in last, Em never paid him any interest, he applied for the position in the BAU and Em got it, he's never been enough his entire life. Baylor and Emily had similar upbringings and when you're raised that way, you feel untouchable, like you can be and do anything. While Emily did just that, Baylor failed," Morgan answered.
"Em doesn't believe she's untouchable, look at all she's been through," Garcia said.
"No, of course not mama. Emily isn't a psychopath though," Morgan assured.
"Oh yeah, well that makes sense." She looked down at her screens again and then her eyes went wide, "Oh no, oh no, oh this isn't good."
"What is it, Garcia?" Hotch questioned.
"We've got a big problem!"
"I wanna doe on da dumbo wide, mommy," Lily said, jumping up and down.
The Prentiss family had gone to all the parks in the past; today the mothers had decided the Magic Kingdom was best. When the grandparents came with them and or watched the twins, the mothers went to other parks but with such a large age range, Magic Kingdom was suited for them all.
"I know you do, bug," Emily smiled. She paid for the waters and thanked the woman then filled the sippy cups making sure to keep the kids hydrated, then sent a text to Jen. Emily had taken the littles to a show while JJ took the big kids on some rides they couldn't go on.
"Momma is going to meet us over there with your siblings, do you want to walk?"
"Umm, no," Lily answered, taking another sip of water.
"Yeah," Oakley nodded.
Emily buckled Lily in and when Oakley held onto the stroller, they started their journey to the dumbo ride. Emily and the littles loved all the shows—they had just seen the little mermaid musical, one all four children couldn't get enough of.
"What should we do after Dumbo? Do you think we should find a parade?" Emily asked.
"I want to go on Peter Pan, mommy," Oakley said, and Lily agreed. Emily was very hesitant about the ride at first. Ages 2-4 were to be accompanied by a parent, and even 4-6 sometimes found it to be scary. Of course their little daredevil loved it, and Oakley liked it just as much after her first time.
"That's one of your favorites, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it's so much fun," Oakley smiled, nodding at her mom and taking her hand instead of holding onto the stroller.
"Those are some big smiles," Emily said when she saw JJ and the kids. "Did you have fun, sweet girl?"
"The most," Clarke answered. She knew Emily was talking to her because her siblings had been on all the rides before.
"We gonna doe on dumbo!" Lily smiled.
"We are?" JJ asked, even though she knew already from Emily's text. "I love that ride so much. "Do you think I can ride with you?"
"Umm, yeah but, no. Me wanna wide with Cwalk, momma."
"What if the three of us rode together?" JJ suggested. It was perfect because Emily could ride with the twins, Amelia, Oliver and Oakley, and then JJ, Clarke and Lily.
"Otay momma. We do dat, and den we gonna wide petah pan," she smiled.
JJ smiled as she helped get the twins out of the stroller and they joined the kids waiting in line. The littles told the bigs about the show they saw, and the bigs told the littles about the rides they went on while the mothers listened. Emily also passed around more water while JJ got some time with the twins.
"Garcia, what is it?" Hotch asked again.
"Baylor left a file at all your desks, but he lingered much longer like he was looking for something each time. He's still in the round table room now even though he has no reason to be there."
"Did you do what I asked before we left?" Hotch said, looking at Rossi.
"I did," Rossi nodded, then handed Garcia the chip he had from the RF detector. He had swept for bugs before exiting the room, including his office because since Strauss classified the case they had multiple conversations in his office too.
"Oh, oh this is great. He's talking on the phone now, if they planted a bug," Garcia said.
"We can hear the conversation," Morgan interrupted seeing Pen insert the chip into one of her gadgets. It was one of the many, many super cool toys they had access to and because they did, the team was going to be able to hear Baylor's conversation.
"That's what I was going to say," Garcia pouted. She couldn't stand it when members of her team took the answer they had either asked her to find or she was going to announce herself.
Soon enough they heard one side of a phone call and thanks to Garcia, it was being recorded and traced because he was a person of interest of way too much. Emily would find a way to make the charges stick, even though they all knew Senator Baylor wouldn't want his son to be arrested, nevermind locked up, the Prentiss family and the FBI wouldn't stand for it.
"…they don't know anything, Hayes…because I watched them all leave and it's not even noon…when they come back, they'll be too busy focusing on the files I left to notice you're here…I know for a fact it will work, and it will cause Emily and that beauty of a wife to bring all the kids here to protect them…nothing is going to happen to your kid or Emily…release sarin to take out the BAU, we will get your kid before. relax Hayes…call you when they start," Baylor said, hanging up his phone.
When he did, the team all had different facial expressions, however, they were feeling the same emotions. Here they thought Baylor couldn't possibly be so stupid as to assume he was the only tech genius out there. The number of people who could operate a computer system were astronomical, especially in the bureau—and to tango with Garcia, no freakin' way.
"I swear to god if this wasn't Em and JJ's home, my fist would be through this wall right now," Morgan hissed.
Now that the silence was broken, the team jumped into action. They had to get to work quickly and carefully—luckily for them, if you could call any of what the team was dealing with lucky, they had the inside scoop of how Baylor wanted Emily, JJ and the kids at the office during the attack; that wasn't going to happen though because they were at Disney World.
In fact, Hotch and Rossi would decide before going back to the office whether the family would be staying in Florida for the night or not. Emily had listened to her wife when she had said if the team was going to say stay, she didn't want to know the reasoning.
JJ had never been able to compartmentalize like Emily could, something Emily loved about her wife; but because she couldn't and because they were with their children all day and wouldn't know when the men would be calling, JJ wanted a simple answer.
Emily respected that, so did the men—they were also thankful the mothers were staying for the firework show because it's quite possible by the end of the workday their answer could easily change. Emily had already booked a hotel suite for the night and called the kids in for a half day tomorrow so the kids could sleep in though.
The only reason Emily was doing so much to get the kids home for school even if they did miss the first class, or maybe two, was because her children wanted to go. They only had two more days of school—Emily and JJ had asked the kids many times if they wanted to play hooky, but they didn't. If it was for their safety, Emily would find a way, if she could get them there, that was another story.
"You gonna wuv dis Cwalk, it's da funnist," Lily smiled, leaning down in JJ's arms to get closer to Clarke as she was so excited and wanted her sister to be just as excited.
"I'm sure I will, Lil. What color bow do you think our elephant will have?" Clarke asked, looking at the elephants flying as they waited in line for their turn on the ride.
"Da piwnk one!" Lily exclaimed.
"Oh, duh. I should have known," Clarke said, pretending to be surprised by her sister's answer.
"What color do you think we're gonna have, Lily?" Oliver asked.
"Umm, blwoo. An mommy is gonna have umm, I fink purpuwl," Lily said.
Emily and JJ smiled at one another; they were hoping kindergarten would help the little one with the letters that were hard for her to pronounce. Preschool worked wonders for Oakley and kindergarten only furthered her progression.
Lily on the other hand made great strides and had some minor setbacks. Emily was curious to see how the first few months of kindergarten would go for her but was far more interested in the summer.
Call it mothers' intuition or whatever you want for all she cared because by changing Lily's diet, Emily had a feeling her daughter would be able to focus more come the start of school in September. She hated herself for not catching her celiac disease sooner even though Lily didn't express signs of her tummy aches until right when Hayes escaped, but if Emily's feelings were right, Lily was feeling off much longer than she led on.
If not though, they were prepared to get her some extra help because Emily had already worked with her little peanut—the mothers would figure it out together like they always did.
The entire family thought it was very cute though. Certain words for any child were difficult, even certain letters for that matter and the children understood what she was saying so it didn't matter to them; although, it did for the mothers because they were hoping if this was something with her learning, they could help her starting right away.
"I think we might get the orange one," Oakley said.
"What do you two think?" Emily asked the twins who were happily watching the elephants fly by.
"Mama," Brynley said, pointing to the elephant.
"Yeah, elephant. And what do elephants say?" JJ said, moving up in line and running her fingers through Brynley's blonde hair. Then JJ realized the mistake she made and looked to her wife for help, "Wait, what does an elephant actually say?"
"Don't look at me, I asked them a rhetorical question Jen," Emily stated.
"I don't think they really say anything, momma," Amelia answered.
"I think it's more of a noise, mom," Clarke said.
"What kind of noise?" JJ asked.
"Like a rumble type of thing?" Clarke shrugged. "They're not even paying attention to you anyways though mom, look."
JJ's eyes left Clarke and focused on the twins who were more interested in the ride, and she shook her head. "Well, that puts an end to the elephant mystery," JJ laughed.
"From now on, you should stick to asking Brooks and Brynley about animals you actually know about mom," Clarke teased, backing up when she saw her mom about to jokingly retaliate.