"So how are things going back home?" Aaron asked Dave who he had called while Emily slept in the large bed that was in the room he had rented for the night. It was now nine in the morning and he know that both Rossis would be up, even though it was just seven there at the house in Mexico. Penelope would be up, because she had to feed the younger children while Dave would likely be helping her while he and Emily were gone. Luckily, they usually fed the younger children on formula, except once a day, in the morning, so it wouldn't hurt them to drink from a bottle, until he and Emily could get home.
While he was tired, as he hadn't slept more than a few hours, he wasn't as tired Emily had been the other night, due to all the strong emotions she had been feeling.
"Everything is fine here," Dave answered his friend. "You're older children miss you, but that's unsurprising, since the two of you have never gone anywhere without them before. Penny and I had to assure them that you'd be back in a few days, that you just had an emergency involving their grandmother. As for the youngest, they don't even realize your gone. So long as they get fed and changed they're happy."
"Well, our youngest son is just a baby right now," Aaron said reassured that his family was fine. Dave would never lie to him where his family was concerned, as Dave loved them as well and considered them his nieces and nephews. "I'm sure he would, if he didn't recognize Penny, as she is usually there when he gets fed so he probably recognizes that he's safe."
"True," Dave agreed. "And I usually feed our youngest at the same time, so that he doesn't start crying up a storm, just because his belly is empty, making a racket and disturbing the other children.
"I'm sorry Emily and I aren't there to help like we normally are," Aaron apologized.
"There's no need to apologize, Aaron. It was an unexpected happening and you're not to blame for Emily's mother ending up in the hospital," Dave said.
"I know, but still I feel guilty for not being there to help," Aaron said.
"Penny and I can handle it for few days," Dave said. "I'm sure you'll be back home before too long."
"Yeah, probably," Aaron said with a gusty sigh. "Emily is going to go visit her this morning once visiting hours start and if there's nothing we can do it we'll probably head home."
"So how is Elizabeth?" Dave asked.
"She's fine, just weak, which isn't surprising, because apparently she started not eating properly and left most of the food the servants brought her at meal times. It certainly wasn't enough to sustain herself, so it's no wonder she fainted. She was probably dizzy before she fainted, though I don't know that for sure, but it's logical. The doctor thinks she'll be OK, but she needs to start eating and taking the medication that he's going to prescribe," Aaron answered.
"I think you were right years ago when you said, she was going to end up lonely, because her children don't want anything to do with her. I mean, before, at least, she saw her grandchildren once a month, but that was before Natalie started school. Now, we don't take them to see her, except in the summer and it's getting really difficult to make Natalie go, as she never has bonded with her grandmother. I know Elizabeth tries to be close to her grandchildren, but unfortunately for her, our children are intelligent and are able to tell that she's just a very cold individual."
"At least she tries to bond with her grandchildren, as she certainly didn't try to bond with her children when they were young," Dave said with censor his tone.
"Unfortunately true," Aaron agreed talking softly, as he didn't want to wake Emily.
"Why are you talking so softly?" Dave asked.
"Sorry, Emily's asleep. I don't want to wake her. She needs as much sleep as she can get, because she was absolutely exhausted by the time we got to the hotel the other night," Aaron explained quietly. "I won't say I wasn't tired, just not as tired as Emily was, so I was fine after a few hours sleep. I might still be physically tired but I'm not sleepy. Being tired won't kill either one of us considering.
"Well, with all the emotional upheaval she has gone through, it's no wonder she was tired," Dave said in understanding.
"Yeah, I know, I'm just trying to let her sleep as long as possible, though we'll need to head to the hospital soon for her to see her mother," Aaron said. "I'm not sure what Emily's plans are, but I'm sure we'll head home either today or tomorrow."
"There's no need to rush back on our account, as we're doing fine," Dave said.
"Emily's not going want to stay once everything that has to be done has been and she's going want to head straight back to her family," Aaron said. "I can't say I blame her any either for wanting to be finished with this situation. Really, the only good thing that has come out of this mess, is she got to see her brothers and they've agreed to check on their mother and are going to switch off every day."
"I bet you they didn't want to," Dave said knowingly.
He had actually met Emily's three brothers when they had visited Emily and Aaron and while he wouldn't say he knew them well, he knew they could be stubborn when they wanted to be, much like Emily. Stubbornness seemed to be a Prentiss family trait or maybe it came from the mother side of the family or even both sides.
"They didn't," Aaron chuckled. "I can't really blame them too much for not wanting too. Still, they were willing to step up once Theo reminded them of the vow they all took when they were children."
"What kind of vow?" Dave asked immediately interested.
"What kind where they swore they would not turn out like their mother or father," Aaron said. "They'd be kind, considerate, thoughtful and not cruel, mean and nasty or get angry at their children like their mother did them or forget they existed like their father did. They swore they wouldn't overreact when their child told them something they didn't want to hear or agree with and from all I know they have fulfilled that vow, even if Edward and Raymond had forgotten about it consciously as it happened when they were teenagers. Emily was just 11 when they took it, which means Theo was 17 while Edward and Raymond were 13 and 15 respectively."
"I understand," Dave said. "That they have managed to keep that vow made when they were very young just tells you that they seriously meant that vow."
"Yeah, they weren't even in their 20s when they made it and Theo hadn't even started college yet," Aaron said. "I mean that vow was made over 30 years ago. It just goes to show you that the children can turn out alright despite lonely or physically abusive childhoods. I've never once seen Theo yelling at his kids whenever we visited him after a visit to Emily's mother. I doubt very much he would've been putting on an act just for me and his sister so that tells me that he turned into a kind, generous, considerate man despite his childhood."
"Neither have I, when they visited you and Emily at our house here," Dave agreed. "They turned out really well considering. All four of them."
"Considering they didn't exactly have any positive parental influences in their lives," Aaron said. "On the other hand, look at me, as I didn't exactly have any positive adult influences until we met and I turned out alright."
"True," Dave agreed. "You could have turned into somebody similar to Elizabeth Prentiss or even worse where you stole or murdered people just because you could. Instead you turned into a good man despite the lack of positive influences as a child, so it is possible to turn out pretty well despite everything."
Aaron was silent as he listened to the sounds coming from the bedroom and then told Dave. "I hear Emily waking up. I better go, as I'm sure she'll want to go somewhere and eat before we go visit her mother at the hospital."
"You could just order room service, though, I'm not sure that would be faster than just going to get a meal at a diner or something," Dave said.
"I'll ask Emily what she wants, as either is fine with me. It's not like we can get food poisoning and considering and this is a five star hotel so the food from the kitchen should be good," Aaron said. "I'll call again, if we're not gonna be home in a couple of days to let you know that we'll be delayed."
"I'll tell Penny, that you might not be home for a few days," Dave said before he signed off.
"Tell Penny we love her and miss her," Aaron said before Dave hung up.
Aaron stuck his head in the bedroom to find Emily sitting on the edge of the bed. "You OK sweetie?" Aaron asked his wife.
"Yeah, but I sure did sleep like the dead," Emily said yawning a little having trouble waking up completely.
"You needed the rest," Aaron said simply. "You know you did, because of what happened with your mother. The two of you might not get along that well but that doesn't mean you didn't worry about her when you heard she was in the hospital. It turned out she just fainted from hunger because she hasn't been eating properly, but it could've been something much more serious."
"True," Emily said. "Anyway, I'm starving."
"I'm not surprised, because it is nearly 10 o'clock despite the late dinner that your brothers brought everyone." Aaron said.
"Man, I really did sleep like the dead, as I don't think I even turned over all night, much less got up to use the bathroom," Emily said glancing at the clock that was on the nightstand in surprise only to discover that Aaron was absolutely right on the time, not that she doubted him. "Let me just get a quick shower and then we can go somewhere to eat before we head over to the hospital."
"Or we could order room service if you like," Aaron suggested. "The food should be good, because this is a five star hotel and if they had lousy food then they wouldn't keep the five star rating."
"True that," Emily agreed. "I say, room service, that will be simpler, since we need to make an appearance at the hospital and visiting hours started at 10 o'clock."
"That's OK with me," Aaron said, as he went into the other room to retrieve the menu. "Here's what's available from the kitchen," Aaron added having already studied the extensive menu before making his choices quickly.
Emily studied the menu and then gave Aaron her choices and Aaron quickly called the kitchen to order their late breakfast/early lunch.
"Why don't you go take your shower as I had mine last night," Aaron said. "Hopefully, our food will be here by the time you're out of the shower and dressed. We can head back to the hospital after we've eaten."
"Sounds good," Emily said, as she selected the clothes she wanted to wear for the day from her suitcase and headed into the bathroom to take her shower.
Aaron immediately heard the shower running and while he waited he turned on the TV to watch the news.
~~~The Immortals and the Businessman 3~~~
A couple of days later
"It's good to be home," Emily said at the sight of the house in New Mexico. It had been a relatively short flight and that was good. Things at the hospital in New York were going well and Emily's mother would be going back home in a few days with a doctor strict warning to start eating properly, as that was what had caused her to collapse, not a heart attack or stroke like her family had feared.
It looked like Dave had been right all those years ago about Elizabeth Prentiss possibly dying from loneliness, because her children didn't want anything to do with her and she wasn't the type that had very many real friends that would help with that loneliness.
Elizabeth had really shot herself in the foot by not correcting her attitude decades ago. Still, Emily's brothers had agreed to check on her and they were going to take different days to make sure she ate a least one full meal a day and didn't just pick at it.
"Mommy! You're home!" Natalie called excitedly as soon as Emily entered the house with her carry-on bag slung over her shoulder. Natalie leapt off the bottom of the stairs and Emily caught her hugging her oldest daughter close.
"What have we told you about leaping off the stairs like that young lady?" Emily scolded her daughter, even as she held Natalie tightly hugging the life out of her, because she had missed her oldest daughter so much.
"Don't do it, you could be hurt," Natalie recited.
"Exactly!" came Aaron's voice with another another bag slung over his shoulder. "Listen to your mother sweetie. We don't want you hurt."
"But any bruises would disappear immediately," Natalie protested with the innocence of a nine year old.
"That isn't the point Natalie," Aaron told her sternly. "The rest of the world doesn't heal as fast as we do, you know this. What have we always told you?"
"That secrecy is necessary, because we don't want others to find out that we are different from them," Natalie recited what she had been told numerous times by rote.
"Exactly," Emily said, even as she put her daughter back on the floor.
"I'm just so happy to see you!" Natalie said, even as she raced to give her father a hug.
"We missed you too sweetie," Aaron said, as he picked her up like Emily had done and kissed to all over her face causing Natalie to giggle happily "But we were only gone a few days, even if I know it probably seemed longer to you. Still, just because we are not here doesn't mean you don't have to obey the rules understand?"
"Yes dad," Natalie said, even as Aaron put her back on her feet kissing the top of her head as he did so.
"Welcome home," Dave said from the top of the stairs. Dave had two little boys in his arms, as he walked down the stairs slowly so as not to drop either boy or fall down the stairs. One of course, was Dave's own son that had been born just before Aaron and Emily's and the other one was the Hotchners son Cedric.
"Oh, I missed you so much," Emily said she took her baby son from Dave cuddling him and kissing him all over his little face. Cedric giggled at his mother's kisses and promptly slobbered all over her.
Emily handed Cedric to Aaron so that she could take her carry-on upstairs and to wipe Cedric's drool off of her.
"Thanks for watching our kids for us Dave. I'll make sure I thank Penny as well," Aaron told his old friend.
"We were glad to do it and Camila was a big help while you were gone," Dave said. "She's well worth every cent that we pay her and we might want to think about a bonus considering how many extra hours she's put in lately. She's been absolutely tireless."
"We can talk about that once we get settled back in," Aaron said. "You're right she deserves a bonus. We never did hire that second nanny, which is something we definitely need to do before Camila quits, just be cause she's so tired of doing everything herself. I know we help out when we can but still, the responsibility is largely Camila's."
"Finding someone of Camila's quality is not exactly very easy," Dave said. "I remember how much trouble we had finding Camila."
"We should ask her if she knows anybody that knows how to work and knows what they're doing when it comes to children," Aaron suggested.
"That won't complain about the long hours that they will sometimes have to put in, even though the children should be in bed at a certain time. There won't be very many breaks until our youngest are older. We can talk about that later though, as you need to relax as I know you and Emily have been under a lot of stress the last few days," Dave said.
"I am tired, but not as tired as Emily," Aaron said. "It's more the amount of traveling we had to do as New York is nearly two thousand miles away from New Mexico. A good night's sleep and I'll be fine and so will Emily. Still, that doesn't mean, it's not good to be home. The only good thing about the trip was Emily got to see her brothers, even if that was mostly in the hospital waiting room."
"I'll see you at breakfast, but make sure you and Emily go see Penny before you disappear into your room for the night. Let her know that you and Emily are back," Dave requested.
"We will," Aaron promised, even as he gave Dave a manly hug before disappearing up the stairs with his carry-on.
~~~The Immortals and the Businessman 3~~~
