It's been a week since Emily's birthday, a week since everything had gone downhill, a week since she had told every one the truth. Things have been quiet between Emily and the team.
One morning, Emily was getting ready to go to her doctor's appointment. She was expecting Aaron to show up any minute now when she heard her phone go off. Picking it up, she saw it was a message from Hotch.
"Hey Em, I know we were supposed to go to a appointment soon but We just got called into a case. We just boarded. I will call you when we land."
She took a deep breath and placed her phone back on the counter. She finished her hair and stood up from the chair that she was sitting in. Looking at the time, she walked out of the bathroom and headed into her closet to change her clothes. Picking out a shirt and leggings, she went and laid her clothes onto the bed.
Thinking about how she was getting to her appointment, JJ, Garcia, and Hotch were now on a case and Marissa is out running errands for her and Natalia.
Sitting on her bed, she began to panic, this appointment is important and she couldn't miss it. She calmed herself and then settled onto the idea of calling a cab.
She then walked out of her bedroom and towards the stairs. She then realized that this is where is next problem lied. She has never walked alone down these stairs since being on bedrest, there has always been someone to help her. She took one step at a time, slowly and safely. After a certain amount of time, Emily was convinced that there were more stairs that had been added in the last couple of weeks, although that is untrue, it just seemed there were more stairs than she had remembered.
Finally making it down to the bottom, she slipped on her shoes, grabbed her purse, and headed out the door. As she was closing the door, she caught a glimpse of the wheelchair. She thought about it for a second and then decided against it, although she would soon find out that she would regret that decision.
Meeting the cab downstairs, Emily gave him the address and was on her way. Halfway to the doctor's office, Emily did notice that she did leave her phone behind. Not wanting to go all the way back and was already running late to her doctor's appointment, she shrugged and knew that she would only be gone for about an hour or so.
After what seemed a long and very quiet car ride, she got out and headed into the doctor's office. After checking in, she sat down and looked around the room. There were so many women, who just seemed happy. Women who she could tell was their first child, women with significant others, and others with toddlers there.
Emily just sat there, all alone. She didn't look as happy as the other women. She wanted to so badly be just as happy as the others in the waiting room. She sighed and picked up a magazine and began reading.
"Emily, Dr. Peterson is ready for you." said from a nurse that was coming out of the office doors. Emily smiled and stood and began to follow.
Slowly following, she finally made it to the room, where she sat on the exam chair and waited for the doctor to come in.
After a few minutes, Emily started to grow impatient. Her finger taps started to become more rapid. The finger taps finally stopped when she had heard a knock at the door.
"Hi Emily, I'm glad to see you."
"Hi Dr. Peterson, good to see you again."
"How are things?"
"Okay I guess. Bedrest is a bit boring."
"I know but it should be for a few more weeks and then all should be normal again."
"Tell me what your definition of normal is."
The doctor turned and gave Emily a look, laughing, she placed some cold gel on Emily's stomach and grabbed the wand that was hooked on the side of the machine.
"Okay let's take a look here, baby looks great, measuring where it should be. And now for the placenta.' after a long pause, Emily heart started racing. The silence killed her. "everything looks about where it was a week ago. I know bedrest is boring but It's for a good reason. Now how is everything?" she handed Emily a napkin to wipe her belly.
"Pregnancy wise, good. I'll have a few braxton hicks contractions every now and then. But baby is moving a kicking like crazy, especially at night."
"That's good, Is there anyone with you today? I just noticed the empty seat over there."
"Uhh no. The baby's father is out of town today with his team and my nanny is out running some last minute errands for me."
"Ahh I see. How are you getting home?"
"I'll call a cab, just like I did on my way here."
"Emily. We talked about this, limited movement as possible."
"I know and I'm sorry. I didn't have anyone else and I didn't want to drive myself. "
"Okay, but promise me, you will bring someone to your appointments until you give birth. "
"I promise."
"Okay, I'll print some pictures out for you and then you are free to go."
"Thank you so much and I will see you next week."
Stepping out of the room and handed some photos, Emily walked over to the check out desk and was making an appointment when she had heard a woman speaking to a woman over the counter. The voice seemed familiar. She leaned over to the left and saw a small glimpse of the woman.
After she making her appointment, she opened the door and finally saw the woman on the other side.
"Oh My God, Emily. There you are."
"JJ? What are you doing here?"
"I've been trying to get a hold of you and it kept going to voicemail. I just was at your apartment and you weren't there."
"Yeah I had an appointment today, wait why aren't you with the team?"
"Come on, I'll take you home and explain in the car."
Emily nodded and they both slowly made it to the car.
Helping Emily get in, JJ closed the door and headed over to the Driver's side. Getting in, she put the key into the ignition and pulled out of the parking spot.
The beginning of the drive was silent. Emily looked over at JJ and gave her a look.
"Are we just going to sit here in silence or are you going to tell me why you aren't on the case with the team? Wait is it over? are they back yet?"
"No they aren't back yet. I told Hotch I couldn't go on this one case."
"And Why not," JJ shot her a look, "Please tell me it wasn't for me."
"No not exactly, Henry has an appointment tomorrow that I didn't want to miss but it just so happened to work out. "
"Honestly, Im surprised. The last time I saw you, you weren't too happy with me."
"I'm sorry Em. It was just a lot of information to tell someone."
"I know and I'm sorry. I knew that it would come out anyway and I just wanted you guys to hear it from me and Hotch instead."
"No i get that but Emily, I thought we told each other everything, "
"JJ.' she took a deep breath "You are one of my best friends but I needed time to come to terms with this. It's not like I slept with him and then was okay with it. I wasn't nor was he. After that moment, our relationship changed, we weren't just friends or coworkers anymore, we are now friends and coworkers who have slept together. Things were and still are very different and now with the baby, things are just totally different. We're soon to be parents together and trying to navigate that adds another aspect to this dynamic. "
"Emily I understand that, I just. "
"No JJ, I know. It's just. Telling you would make it very real. I mean I know I'm pregnant, and that is very real but, Hotch and I were in a bubble. Call it a protective bubble if you will and with us only knowing the truth allowed us to figure out some things. Telling you, I knew that you would have a lot of questions and I just wanted to be able to give you answers to those questions. I know that telling you this far along is wrong on so many levels but I just needed that time to figure it out and quite honestly, we're still trying to figure things out."
The drive was short but somehow felt like it had taken forever. Finally arriving back at Emily's apartment, JJ helped Emily and slowly made it into the building and into the elevator.
"Emily, I know that right now, you are under a lot of stress, and I can't even imagine. I don't want you to think that I'm demanding answers right now, I'm not but eventually I would want to know what happened."
Emily nodded, she was about to say something when she was interrupted by the elevator ding. Walking out of the elevator and grabbing her keys, she opened the door and headed for the couch. Sitting down, she kicked off her shoes and looked back over at JJ who was taking off her coat.
When Emily and JJ's eyes met, Emily patted the side of the couch, JJ followed.
"JJ, It's not that I didn't want to tell you, I just wanted to find the right time to tell you. After I found out I was pregnant, so many emotions went through my head. Excitement, Nervousness, Anxiousness, and Sadness. "
"Emily you don't..."
"No I do. The morning after we had slept together, I woke up to an empty bed. I had no recollection of most of that night. He tried to hide, or hide the fact that we had slept together. The only reason that I had found out was because I found his badge in his jacket."
"Wait, he left? Before you got up?"
"Yeah. He was scared and quite frankly probably embarrassed. I knew that I was mad at him when I first found out but I honestly can't blame him, I probably would have done the same thing if I was him. Anywho, we talked and had agreed that we would act like nothing had ever happened. It worked for a while."
"Until it didn't."
"Yeah, until it didn't. The night before Natalia's birthday party, I went to grab a new toilet paper roll when I had seen the unopened box of tampons. My heart dropped. I just knew and with the realization of the missed period, I knew that I needed to take a test. "
"I remember that night."
"Yeah well, once I knew the results of that pregnancy test,I knew that I needed to tell him and soon. When I finally told him, he was anything but happy about it. Which again, I don't blame him for it. He yelled, I yelled, and then he sent me home. "
Emily shifted in her seat and grabbed another pillow and adjusted it behind her. "After that, Aaron and I could not get along. One night, he had come over and we were arguing. He ended up waking Natalia, but after I came down from putting her back into bed, something had changed in him. It was like a weird flip. He had told me that night that he was all in and he wanted to be apart of this baby's life. I'm not going to take that away from him and im definitely not going to take that away from the baby. "
"Do you know what the switch was?"
"No I tried asking but he never told me. "
"Okay but, Emily I have to ask. Why didn't you tell anyone about Aaron?"
"Frankly, I was of how you may react. Scared of what would happen to us after if certain people found out. Also, Aaron and I needed to find solid ground, and I couldn't imagine telling people the truth before we were on solid ground."
"That wouldn't have mattered though Em. We wouldn't judge you guys."
"I know and I'm so very grateful for that JJ, but If I'm being honest, it wasn't about you guys. It was about Aaron, Me, and this baby. We needed to find a common ground and we needed to work out some things on our own and quite frankly, we still are figuring things out and this baby will be here in a few weeks."
" Before the team had left, I had talked to Morgan, Pen, and Reid. "
"I'm assuming they are mad at me too?"
"We were never mad at you Em, we were just confused. I mean I had an inkling but for you to confirm it, I thought that I would be okay but it just left me with more questions. "
"I'm glad you're here, I just wanted to talk to you and explain. Maybe I could have the same conversation with the others."
"Yeah we talked about it and they definitely do want to talk to you, they just need time. "
"And I can give that to them. I'm sorry JJ, I really am. I wanted to tell you guys, but I was just scared. "
"We're moving forward now Em. I appreciate and accept your apology and promise me to never keep secrets from each other again."
"I promise."
JJ stood up and came closer to Emily. Leaning down, she gave Emily a hug. Emily took a deep breath, she loved JJ, and JJ was one of her closest friends, but there was still so much that she hadn't told her. Although wrong, Emily wanted to keep it that way at least for a little while longer. She would eventually tell JJ the full truth, but she was still hurt by it. She regretted not taking him up on that offer that night. She loved him but she never gave him the chance. She wasn't ready to talk about it. The wound was still open and she was trying everything in her power to close that wound but no matter what she did, the wound was still open. When JJ let go, she sat back down to where she was sitting before and gave Emily a look.
"Are you hungry?"
"Always." Emily smiled.
"Im going to get us something to eat before the kids come back. Do you want anything in particular?"
"Anything you get is fine with me."
"Okay. Ill be back okay?"
Emily nodded. As she watched JJ leave, Emily leaned back into the couch and closed her eyes. With her hands on her stomach and gently sliding her hands down her belly, her thoughts were elsewhere. Although she was glad that she had this talk with JJ but she knew that she didn't tell JJ the full truth. She didn't tell her that he had confessed that he loved her and she rejected him. She didn't tell her that She was in love with him. She didn't tell her that he now has a girlfriend and that she was heartbroken over it. Not telling JJ the full story, Emily knew that she was lying to her best friend, but honestly, she wanted to keep it that way. She wasn't ready to talk about it. It was a wound that she tried so hard to close but no matter what she did, it stayed open.
Now with the knowledge of his girlfriend, it had felt as if someone had taken a knife and stabbed her in the same spot as her open wound and caused it to bleed. She couldn't blame anyone else but herself. He offered the world to her and she rejected him.
She sat up and turned on the TV to put some noise on in the very quiet room. Emily looked at the clock and realized that her daughter would be home in a few hours. With Marissa still being gone, Emily threw her legs onto the couch and laid on her side.
AN: Hi Guys!
Sorry about the late update, November and December got really chaotic for me and I kind of had to put this on the back burner for a minute but I am back now and will hopefully update soon. I had to read the last couple of chapters to rewire my brain Haha! So if something doesn't make sense please let me know! Happy 2025! Ya'll 3