July 2018

Kids' Ages

Jack Hotchner - 12

Henry LaMontagne - 9

Elaine Hotchner - 6

Olivia Garcia - 6

Michael LaMontagne - 2

Grace Hotchner - 2

Hank Morgan - 22 Months

Jules Reid - 8 Months

Josiah Hotchner - 5 Months

James Hotchner - 5 Months

Brooklyn Morgan - 4 weeks

*JJ is due any day with BabyGirl LaMontagne

Hotchners'

Emily's day officially sucked. With Derek and Hotch gone, Spencer using vacation days to visit his mother, and JJ and Penelope back at the office, her team was made up of mostly fill-ins who could barely be considered competent. She had to rely on Alvez, Simmons, and Lewis to make sure they got the guy. Currently, She and the team are surrounding the house of Gary Moore in various hidden locations.

"I'm going in. Wait for my signal."

Emily slipped through a window in the dining room; tougher now after a decade and four children. The unsub was standing in the room, his gun to the temple of a blonde 17-year-old Harvard-bound girl. He was checking out the window at the Cops filling the driveway and front lawn, when Emily snuck in the room, her hands in the air to show she meant him no harm.

When he saw Emily standing there he leveled the gun so she was basically staring down the barrel.

And so began the negotiation progress. When she noticed he began softening, she motioned discreetly towards the window where she knew her team was waiting. Lewis and Luke filtered into the room, sneaking up on the UnSub with their guns at their hips.

It all happened so fast, one second, Gary Moore was about to surrender himself, and the next Emily was falling to the ground, a gaping bullet hole in her abdomen.

A third shot rang out, and through the blur filling her eyes, she saw Gary crumple. A presence loomed over her. A male voice. Hands on her stomach. Her head swarmed and her vision started to dissipate.

"You're going to be okay, Prentiss. I've got you. You're going to be okay." The voice was familiar but Emily couldn't place it. Everything was a haze. She was so tired.

"Derek?" She croaked, reaching out to grab a hold of his arm.

"No, Prentiss. It's Luke. You're going to be okay."

God, she was tired. Maybe if she just closed her eyes, she would wake up in her bed, warm and comfortable. And Aaron would be there. Oh, Aaron. If she could just get to him, she'd be okay.

"Aa-Aaron, Where's Aaron? Need Aaron." She was getting cold now, and the darkness was getting closer, inviting her in.

"We'll get you to him, all you need to do is keep your eyes open. C'mon Prentiss, keep your eyes open."

Her eyelids were heavy.

"We need an ambulance NOW! We're losing her!"

The Darkness couldn't be held off any longer. Emily didn't have a choice but to succumb to it, allowing it to pull her in fully.

LaMontagne's

"We gotta tell 'em at some poin'," Will said, twisting a piece of his wife's hair around his finger as they sat on the couch. The Lorax playing on the screen in front of them. Henry and Michael were both sleeping on the other section of the couch, their blonde heads pressed close together as they sprawled out in different directions.

JJ sighed, leaning back against Will's chest. "I know. It's just with Emily getting shot, and the baby being due any day, It never felt like the right time. And Pen's going to be devastated."

"Jen, if we don' tell 'em, they're gonna be even more upse' when we jus' leave."

"Can't we at least wait until after the baby's here?" JJ asked, a childish pout coming to her face.

Will smiled down at his wife, a hand coming to rest on JJ's large bump. "Okay, we can wait. But they need an ans'er by the of the month."

About a month ago, Will got a job offer in Georgia. It came with a promotion, better hours, and quite a bit of a raise. Plus, it was closer to Will's family, giving the boys and their baby a chance to really get to know their cousins. After multiple weeks of hard discussions, they decided to take it. Now all that was left was to tell their BAU family and officially accept the offer.

JJ scanned her eyes around the walls that had been their home for the last 10 years. They brought both of their boys home to this house and in a few days, they'd bring their daughter home to it as well. This house had seen their tears and their triumphs. It would be hard to let it go.

"The new house is gonna be bigger," Will told her as if he had read her mind. "The boys could have their own rooms."

"They'll love that," JJ admitted, slowly easing herself up, so she could stand. Her hand reached for her stomach as she felt a cramp.

"You al'right?" Will asked, placing his hand on her back to steady her.

JJ nodded. "Yeah, yeah, just third-trimester pains. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

Will sat back on the couch, pushing some of Michael's hair back from where it was starting to fall into his eyes. His little boy was growing up, they both were. Will thought of himself as a lucky man. He felt as though life couldn't get much better than it was right then.

Nearly fifteen minutes later, JJ still wasn't back and Will was starting to get worried.

"Jenn? You okay?" He called, rounding the back of the couch.

No response. Maybe she hadn't heard him. As he neared the bathroom, he called out again. Still nothing. Knocking on the door, he called again.

When she didn't respond he began to get really worried. No way she hadn't heard him. He jiggled the knob, finding it locked. In his panic, he bypassed attempting to find something to pick the lock, resorting to brunt force. He jammed his shoulder into the door over and over until it gave way, splintering the wood surrounding it.

He stopped in his tracks, literally having to right himself from the momentum because there on the cold tile floor lay his beautiful wife, unconscious in a pool of her own blood.

Will sank to knees next to her, his hands turning crimson as he desperately tried to help her.

"Jenn!" He cried out. "Oh Jenn, don't leave me now!"

Reid

The day was beautiful. There was an unseasonable cool for the time of year as July bled into August. Leaves on the trees that freckled the park had already begun to change colors. It would be an early Autumn.

Reid stood in the center of the park, breathing in the late morning air with a smile. Moisture from last night's rain shower still hung in the air, leaving an earthy smell.

"Today's going to be a good day, what do you think, Bug?" Reid asked his daughter, smiling down at the stroller he was pushing.

Jules didn't answer with anything more than a drooly grin and babble.

Reid found a mostly dry spot and placed a blanket on the ground before plunking himself and Jules down on it with some baby toys and a deck of cards.

Facing his daughter, he attempted to perform some complex card tricks on her, but the baby was more interested in a chipmunk scurrying across the ground than what her father was trying to teach her.

A neon green frisbee came flying at them, landing at the edge of their blanket. A young boy, no more than ten or eleven came running after it. Before Reid knew it, he had a new audience member. A woman found them and tried to usher the boy away.

"Come on, Aunt Max, can't we stay? He was showing me tricks," the boy, whose name Reid now knew as Sammy, whined.

The woman was around the same age as Reid, with short brown hair and matching eyes. Though it was the last thing he looked for in a woman, he had to admit she was rather beautiful.

"Sammy, we don't know this man, he could be a serial killer," Max said, placing a hand on her nephew's shoulder and beginning to steer him away.

"FBI agent, actually. I, uh, catch the serial killers," Reid told her, fishing for his BAU ID.

Max turned back, taking in the information.

"See, Aunt Max, he won't hurt us," Sammy said.

"Fine. Ten minutes."

Sammy plopped down on the blanket while Max sat on bench behind them keeping a watchful eye.

Once he finished the card trick, Reid took a seat on the other end of the bench, Sammy distracted playing with Jules.

"So, a doctor, huh?" Max asked.

"Yeah. Uh. IQ of 187. Ph. D.s in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering. BA's in Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy," Reid rattled off, ticking off the list he had been reciting for years.

"Wow," Max whistled. "I was only smart enough to earn a degree in art history."

"Art is important," Reid assured her. Jules' jacket was starting to slip off her shoulder, so he hopped up to fix it.

"She's adorable," Max complimented. "Looks just like you."

"I've heard that," Reid laughed. "All except the hair. That she got from her-" Reid faltered, Cat Adams was far from her mother, but she was the other half of her genetically. "Egg donor," he settled on.

"Egg Donor?"

"It's complicated." No way was Reid about to tell the woman he had just met about his time in prison or how the circumstances surrounding the creation hisdaughter was less than consensual. "It's just Jules and I."

They talked for a few minutes more before Max announced she had to get Sammy back to his mother.

"Hey Max, would you like to get coffee sometime?" Reid called after her, standing and scooping Jules into his arms.

Max smiled, turning around. "I would like that, Doctor."

Not long after Max and Sammy left, Reid decided it was time to pack up.

Back in the car, he turned on the busy street.

"What do you think, Bug, should we go visit Aunt Jenny?"

He only looked in his rearview mirror for a second, but it was long enough not to see the gray pickup truck blow through the red light and barrel toward them.