Echo

Aurora

Aurora Hope Van Koek, or simply 'Rory' to those who knew her best, was a very happy person in general, and that was one of the things that everybody loved about her. She had a love for life, laughter, and being kind to others. She the kind of person who could light the whole room up just by walking into it and even make you smile when you couldn't bring yourself to do it.

After being adopted at one month old from a children's home in Rome by a young couple from New York City, she went on to have live a happy and privileged life, sailing through school and graduating from everything with top marks.

The only real hiccup Aurora personally experienced was just over three years ago in the form of a barista at Aurora's once-favorite café back home. The man's name was Wyatt Scoggins, and Aurora fell for him because he was very charming and seemed to always be working whenever she came in to work on her essays and papers for school. He would also refill her coffee, remind her to eat, and sometimes, when his boss wasn't looking, he'd slip her a free cookie, too. Wyatt would even work the overnight shifts when Aurora would come in to pull all-nighters.

One thing led to another, and they started going out.

Then Aurora blinked and the next thing she knew, she was pregnant at the age of twenty-two. Of course, she was very surprised, but remembering that her birth mother had given her up so she could have a good life, she became very excited, very quickly after that. Aurora wasn't sure that Wyatt would be happy because he was a lot closer than she was at the time, but when she told him, he became very excited about raising a baby with her. They even got a place together.

But then they found out that they were expecting a baby girl, and Wyatt lost all interest, dumping Aurora as he claimed that "little girls weren't worth it like sons could be."

Aurora never saw or heard from Wyatt Scoggins again after that and while it broke her heart, she was over the moon to have a baby to love. Her family was a huge help, too.

How she ended up in Quantico, Virginia was a different story, though.

Fast forward three years, and she had a precious, beautiful, wildly intelligent, and very curious little girl named Alice Rose. They were happy and living in a beautiful two story pink house in a neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood called Noir Crescent. The neighborhood was old, beautiful, and in a perfect area to raise a family. It was everything she had ever wanted for Alice.

And now, Doctor Spencer Benjamin Reid was in their lives, and she loved him dearly.

Their three month anniversary was very soon, but in spite of all of his offbeat, peculiar ways and because of his love for her and him stepping up the plate to be a good father figure to Alice, Aurora knew in a heartbeat now that she could spend the rest of her life with Spencer. She also knew he felt that way about her because they'd actually discussed it before. Their lives together were a little fast-paced, but they still knew they were it for each other and wouldn't have it any other way.

Both of them together, with Alice, were a family and she had never been happier.

"Mommy, no! Don't!"

"Alice Rose, there's a spider under that jar!"

"Yep! No smashin' Eddie!"

Aurora stared at her daughter in surprise; like her, Alice revered life, but that also came with an instinct to protect any living thing... regardless of the species.

Of course her kid would name a spider.

"You named a spider? Don't be ridiculous."