The team came over to visit us at Rossi's house for dinner. We made it about 30 minutes in before JJ asked where Hotch was. It was then that I realised that they had no idea.
I took a deep breath and smiled weakly, "At a hotel, I assume."

"…You assume?"

I nodded, "Sunday when the house was finished, he came over there while I was there. We are now separated."

"No." JJ said, rather harshly.

"Excuse me?"

"Emily, that man has been to hell and back too many times for you to do this to him. He loves you, so much. He adores the kids; you can't separate them."

"He sees the kids whenever he wants; he's been at a hotel since it happened."

"Two months!?" Garcia asked in a shocked tone.

JJ was shaking her head. "Why are you mad at me? I wasn't the one that lied and almost got my family killed."

"Doyle?"

"…What does he have to do with this?"

"He was back and threatening all of us, and you said nothing. You were dating Hotch, which would have put Jack on his radar. I was coming home every night to Will and Henry. You endangered our entire team and our families, and we didn't exile you for it."

"That was…different."

"Yeah, the difference is that you knew we were all unsafe, and Hotch had no idea whatsoever." She raised one eyebrow at me. I looked down and thought that through, and she was right.

I bit my lip and dropped my head into my hands.

"Thank you, JJ! I've been trying to get her to talk to him since she came here. You better call him." Rossi said.

I took another breath and lifted my head. I stared at my phone for a couple of minutes as I tried to retain any of my dignity. I have treated him horribly, especially after how he handled Ian. I grabbed it with a sigh and stood. I handed a sleeping Elise to Reid and went upstairs to the room I had been sleeping in.

It took me another few minutes to work up the courage to call him. He picked up quickly, "Hey Em" He sounded tired. "Are the kids okay?"

I smiled sadly, "They miss you. I miss you…Aaron I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay."

"No it's not. I just told the team that we separated and you've been in a hotel for two months, and then JJ ripped me a new one and I am so sorry. I don't want to be separated. I want to go back home with you and forget this ever happened. I love you."

I could hear the smile in his voice, "I love you too, sweetheart. I'm sorry for lying to you."

"That's just it, Aaron. I worked undercover; I know how hard and painful it is to lie about it, but I also know that you have to. And Ian: I didn't tell anyone about him when I should have because you were all at risk too, but I lied and pushed you away instead, and I'm so sorry for that as well."

"I thought we settled the Doyle conflict."

"We did. I just…that's how JJ knocked the sense back into me and I feel terrible."

"May I come to Rossi's tonight?"

"Yes, please."

"I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

I went back downstairs and sat back down with them. They all looked me expectantly. I told them to carry on with their current conversation and sat back. I checked my watch a couple of times and jumped up when I heard his car finally pull up. I ran out of the room and out the front door.
He seemed surprised but recovered quickly and caught me when I threw my arms around him. I felt the burn of rising tears in my nose moments before my eyes filled. "I am so sorry."

He pressed a kiss to my temple, "Let's just refurnish and forget this ever happened." I nodded in agreement and pulled away enough to kiss him.

I moved Elise's crib into Jack's room and put her down to sleep. I returned to the room I had been staying in at Rossi's and smiled at him. He lay in bed in just his boxer shorts and a file in front of him. I stood with my back against the closed door and made sure the baby monitor was on in my hand. I walked over to my side of the bed to put it down on the nightstand, and then I snatched the file from in front of him and threw it over the side of the bed.

"Hey!" He exclaimed quietly with no heat behind it.

"Shh." I hushed with a smile before settling on his lap and kissing him. It didn't take much effort on my part to feel him harden under me. I laughed lightly, "It has been forever, hasn't it?"

"Elise is just shy of four months…so yeah, forever." He placed a hand under my thigh and turned me over and onto my back quickly.
I asked him to take it slow; this would be the first time after giving birth. I had heard it can be painful. JJ had said it took several nights to actually finish a sex session after they had Henry due to the pain.

I was good; it was a little uncomfortable to begin with, but I was pretty sure that was just because nothing had penetrated me for months. He asked several times if I was comfortable or in any pain.

Afterwards, I lay cuddled into him and breathed in deeply to get a fix of his scent. "God, I missed you so much."

"Me too." He said quietly, holding me tighter. "I keep thinking about how…painful it was when I realised that you were leaving me. I never want to be in a place for that to happen again."

"I'm so sorry, Aaron."

"I understand why you did, and I don't mean to upset you. I was just making it clear that we need to be fully transparent about anything and everything forever because I can't do that again."

"Agreed."

Over the following two weeks, I chose all the replacement items and purchased them online, and then sent a text through to Hotch to let him know when and where to pick them up from.

After it was all done and the house looked new again, I could relax. I think that was also partly because the people who had shot the house up had since been identified and arrested, as well as some other members of the gang whom they had snitched on in order to get their sentence reduced.

I thought about moving as I wasn't sure I would feel safe here again and I was still a little worried, but Hotch assured me that he had word that we were off the cartel's radar now.

"Emily?" Jack asked quietly from his seat at the counter.

"Yes?" I got the tray of roasted potatoes out of the oven and then turned to look at him.

"I have to make a family tree for my homework, and I have to write who everyone is."

"Okay." I nodded.

"…I put my mum down, but can I list you as my mum too?"

I smiled and walked over, "Sure you can, honey." I kissed his forehead and looked at the page. He had himself, Elise, Hotch, and Haley, and Jessica all written down, as well as Haley's dad and Rossi. I watched him draw a line from Hotch to a space to the left and draw a circle. He wrote an E and smiled up at me shyly. "M-I-L-Y." I spelt it out for him.

He wrote 'mum' underneath my name. I smiled again and ran my hand through his hair before returning to the kitchen.

I heard Hotch walk in and I turned to look at him, Elise in his arms. He looked at Jack's homework and smiled. He walked over to me and kissed my cheek, "A rather unconventional family. He just put JJ and Reid down."
I laughed lightly and tickled Elise's foot. She grinned up at me and sucked in a breath of air, her way of laughing. I let out a breath and looked back to Jack. "Are you okay?" Hotch asked me quietly.

I turned back to him and smiled, "I'm just tired. Dinner is ready. Jack, can you please go wash your hands? You can finish that after dinner."

He jumped down and ran out towards the bathroom. Hotch put Elise into her bouncer near the table and kissed her forehead. He returned to the kitchen to help me plate dinner and take it to the table.

After we had eaten, Jack finished his homework whilst I washed the dishes, and then we gave the kids a bath.

Once both kids were down – and thankfully Elise was sleeping through the night already – I went to run myself a bath. Hotch brought me a glass of wine once I was in the water. He had a shower and spoke to me about his day at work.

"Did you see that Jack put you down on his family tree as 'mum'?"

"He asked me if he could."

"And you said yes?"

"…Is that not okay?"

"It's not that it isn't okay, it's just I want to make sure he knows that you're not a replacement for Haley. I want him to know that she will always be his mother even if she isn't around."

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologise, it's okay," He smiled and pressed a kiss to my lips, "I'll talk to him tomorrow night about it."

I got out of the bathtub once it cooled down and dressed into my pyjamas. I lay down beside Hotch and looked at him, "Do you think Jessica feels like we're pushing her out of Jack's life now that she doesn't have Jack all the time? He hasn't seen her in a while and I'm worried that she feels threatened by me."

"Jess is fine. She knows the situation. I'm sure that if she wanted to see him more, she'd ask."

"Okay." I was unsure, but that was insecurity talking after we spoke about Haley.
I moved down further into bed and he rolled over to lay half over me before kissing me deeply. I sighed into the kiss and ran a hand through his hair.

We had sex almost every night for the past week because he hadn't had a case. That time apart after Elise must have renewed our need for frequent sex, not that I was complaining.