Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss was good at many things. She was damned good at her job, she was fantastic at compartmentalizing and before meeting one very fussy Gabriella Catherine Garcia-Morgan, she would have said she was excellent with children. Heck, even her fiancée of three months, SSA Aaron Hotchner would have agreed without question. Gabi, on the other hand, just didn't want to settle down.
Emily and Aaron were babysitting the small girl for the night. Penelope Garcia had been absolutely terrified to think of leaving her little baby girl anywhere, but Emily had sworn on pain of death that nothing would happen to the small girl. And she'd meant it. She knew that there were only a couple of people the blond technical analyst entrusted Gabi's care to and one of them was definitely Aunt Emily.
"Emmy, why is Baby Gabi crying?"
And just their luck that it was a Friday night Aaron had Jack. Emily adored the seven-year-old, but with Gabi fussing, her patience was thin.
"I don't know, Jack," she answered honestly. "She's not hungry, she's not dirty..." Emily was sitting on the couch, rocking Gabi in her lap and the infant still wiggled and whimpered. Gabi, more often than not, didn't cry.
Jack climbed up onto the couch beside her, plunking down right against her side. He'd been more than ecstatic to learn that 'Miss Em'ly' was moving in with Daddy. So happy, in fact, that he'd dropped the 'miss' from her name. He reached over.
"Gentle," Emily reminded him softly.
Jack had been so good with Gabi since the day he'd met the little girl. He'd been absolutely enraptured by the fact that children were so tiny, that he had once been that small. He giggled when Gabi reached out and grabbed his pinky finger and Gabi stopped whimpering.
"What on earth did you do, Buddy?" Emily asked with a smile as Jack leaned over Gabi.
"I dunno," Jack answered as he gently shook his arm. Gabi looked up at him curiously, brown eyes just like her parents blinking up through long lashes. Emily had told Derek the first time she'd seen her after they'd brought her home that she was going to be a heartbreaker.
"Just like her Mama," Derek had replied with a proud grin.
"Well whatever you did," Emily told Jack as she settled back on the couch with both children. "She's quiet now."
Jack looked up at her. "Can I hold her?"
If she was honest, Emily was nervous about letting Jack hold the infant. She took a deep breath, thinking about it. "Okay," she said, getting an idea. She stood. "You move right into the corner, okay?"
Jack did as he was asked, eyes bright with wonder. He'd never been able to hold Gabi before. Miss Penny and Mr Derek were very protective of their little girl.
"Remember how Daddy showed you how Pen holds Gabi?"
Jack put his arms out just like Daddy had shown him. Emily leaned forward with Gabi in her arms, gently resting the child in Jack's. The seven-year-old looked down at the baby in wonder as her weight settled on him.
"Make sure you remember to support her head," Emily reminded him softly, her hand coming up behind his elbow. She didn't touch him, trusted him to listen, but she was there in case something happened, crouched right in front of the infant and Jack.
A flash made them both look up. Aaron was standing in the kitchen doorway, camera in hand. "You have no idea what you two looked like," he said, voice thick with emotion.
"Look Daddy!" Jack exclaimed quietly. "I'm holding Baby Gabi!"
"Yes you are," Aaron agreed with a smile, coming over to stand by his family.
"She's so little," he said quietly. "Was I really this little Daddy?"
"Once upon a time," Aaron replied. "You're not so little anymore."
Jack had started second grade the month before and seemed to be taking to it like fish to water. He had friends, he did well and he rarely got in trouble.
Emily smiled at Jack and Gabi, wishing Jack was holding his own sibling instead of someone else's baby. But she hoped that would come in time, that some day Jack would be holding his own little brother or sister. She knew Aaron hoped the same thing. It was why they'd set their wedding date so soon and why Emily was putting most if not all of her spare energy into planning it.
She'd steadfastly refused a wedding planner and she'd been stubborn about her mother's involvement in the whole thing. She was going to have her simple wedding, not the lavish one that their families had all but demanded. It had meant one massive fight with her mother and Aaron had been forced to tell off his own, but in the end, she'd gotten her way.
And they'd still managed to squeeze a week and a half in Europe out of both families. Emily wanted to go back to Rome, Aaron wanted to see Monte Carlo and London. They'd settled on a ten-day cruise in a suite that was bound to be lavish and too much for them. But Emily's father Senator Jonathan Prentiss had been adamant that there would be nothing but the best for his little girl's honeymoon.
"Emmy, I think Baby Gabi's sleeping."
Sure enough, somehow the little infant had managed to drop off to sleep right in little Jack's arms. "You are a miracle worker," Emily said as she lifted Gabi, careful not to wake her.
"What's that?"
Aaron chuckled. "Come on, I'll explain it to you in the bath."
They made their way up the stairs together, Emily turning into the room she shared with Aaron as the boys headed for the bathroom. They'd set up Gabi's playpen in their room for the night. Emily wasn't about to take any chances by putting her in the spare room. She carefully set Gabi down, relieved when the little girl barely stirred. She hadn't realized how long she'd been standing there until Aaron poked his head into the room.
"Jack's ready for storytime."
Emily smiled. "'Kay. I'll be there in a minute."
Instead of leaving, Aaron came further into the room, wrapping his arms around her stomach. "We will have one of those, Emily," he told her with conviction.
"I sure hope so," Emily responded with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.
He kissed her temple. "Go tell Jack a story. I'll get the baby monitor and meet you downstairs, okay?"
She turned in his arms to kiss his mouth. "Sounds good. Pick a good movie."
"And popcorn," he said, watching her leave.
"Always popcorn."
"Jenn?"
"Hey," Jennifer 'JJ' Jareau said, looking more like a drowned rat than the stunning blond she usually was. "You busy?"
"No." It wasn't the first time she'd shown up at his apartment unannounced, but it didn't make it less surprising to Dr Spencer Reid.
"Fantastic. Got a towel?"
In the four months since they'd agreed to put their friendship back on track, they'd done this a few times. Bad cases, bad dates, bad moments, they went to each other. From the way JJ was dressed he had a feeling she'd just been on a bad date.
"What happened?"
"Can I dry off first? It's absolutely pouring out there."
Spencer hadn't noticed. He'd been too wrapped up in a documentary on the Hillside Strangler to hear the pattering of rain. He went to the linen closet, pulling out a towel and handing it to her.
"Are my sweats still here?"
"Top drawer, left side."
"Thanks," she said gratefully, kissing his cheek as she headed to the back room.
Spencer shook his head as he made his way into the kitchen. By now – and by extension since they'd done this long before their relationship and friendship had hit the rocks – he knew how JJ worked. A bad date required chocolate and though he never ate it, he'd long been in the habit of keeping some on hand. November in Virginia had turned cold fast and so instant hot chocolate mix was the name of the game. It would help with the chill she'd be dealing with too, that much Spencer knew and knew well.
She emerged not five minutes later, changed into a pair of sweats she'd left long ago and a t-shirt that had been with it. He couldn't remember why she'd left them or the circumstances under which they'd shown up, but he knew he had a similar pair at her place.
And logically, he knew what they were doing was probably, in most circles, a little bit wrong.
But he'd allowed JJ to push. The feelings for her were still there, still strong, and he knew hers were too, but there was trust to build up between them again. He had to be reminded that she could put time and effort into something. She needed to be reminded of why she had feelings for him in the first place.
For now, friends was working.
"What are you watching?" she asked, still towel-drying her long blond hair.
"Documentary."
"Don't you ever watch anything unreal?" JJ teased, snatching up her purse as she passed his front door. She hung the towel on a chair and rifled through the small bag.
He watched almost in fascination. "Even documentaries have fallacies, I can only imagine how many incorrect facts are in movies."
"That's the point," JJ said, emerging triumphantly from her hunt with a hair elastic. "Something you don't have to think about."
"How can you watch them when they're filled with inaccuracies," he replied as the kettle whistled. "Don't they drive you crazy?"
"I'm not looking for them," she answered around the elastic, pulling her hair back. "I'm watching the movie for the pure fanciful enjoyment."
Spencer poured the water into a nearby mug, already pre-cocoa powder filled. "I can't stop looking for all of the wrong things they're doing. Horror movies are my favourite."
She laughed. "They're hilarious," she agreed.
"The blood angles are always wrong," Spencer continued. "And they're so unreal."
"But that's what makes them funny!" JJ argued accepting the mug he held out to her. "Thank you."
He led the way back to the living room and his documentary, watching as she curled up on the end of the couch. "We're digressing."
"We always digress," she replied easily, taking in exactly what documentary he was watching. "Hillside Strangler? Don't you get enough of this at work?"
"It's wrong," he responded. "So I've been-"
"Picking out the inaccuracies," she finished for him. "You know, Spence, one day, I'm going to find some way to get you to just watch and enjoy a movie."
Yeah, maybe when pigs grew wings.