(AN: Takes place in June 2006 after season 6.)
Emma Grace was miserable. She was close to her due date and felt as massive as a gorilla. Catherine Willows had warned her that the last few weeks of the pregnancy would be uncomfortable. All of Nick's sisters and his mom backed up Catherine's statement.
"Aunty Emma! Aunty Emma!" Two-and-a-half-year-old Elizabeth ran through the house to Emma Grace and wrapped her arms around Emma's legs.
As Emma Grace looked over her protruding belly, she smiled at her youngest niece.
"Hey, Bethy. I'm glad you're here baby girl."
"Where 'Atore?" Elizabeth loved Emma Grace's eight, almost nine-year-old Cane Corso Mastiff.
"He's on the porch. You can go get him if you want to, Bethy." Elizabeth stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Emma Grace's stomach before she walked off toward the porch. Lexi, Elizabeth's five-year-old sister, accompanied Elizabeth outside where six-year-olds Lauren and William already were.
"Mom! Can we give Cousin Tyler one of his gifts? Please!" Seven, almost eight, year-old Marie asked as she walked over to Emma Grace. Katlin, who recently turned seven, was right behind her sister.
"I think that's a good idea, but go ask your dad first," Emma Grace told her two oldest daughters as they rushed off to find Nick.
Emma Grace walked into the kitchen to put out some of the snack foods that were in the fridge. Nick's sisters had taken over this graduation and birthday party because Emma Grace was in her last few weeks of pregnancy, and they didn't want her stressing over things.
"Need help Aunt Emma?" Twenty-year-old Ashley asked as she came into the kitchen.
"Will you call everyone in? Everythings ready." Emma smiled at her oldest niece.
Ashley did what Emma Grace asked her to while Emma went and sat down on the couch. Nick's sisters, Sandra and Lisa, sat the nine younger kids at the table while Donna and Gina fixed the kids' plates.
"Here you go, Honey." Nick handed Emma Grace the plate he had fixed for her. Then he picked up fourteen-month-old Maggie Hope and sat down beside Emma Grace. Nick and Emma fed Maggie Hope food off of their plates while the family gathered around and shared a meal.
"Okay, Son. Do you want to cut the cake first or open your gifts?" Allen, Gina's husband, asked their adopted son Tyler. The Stokes family was celebrating his birthday, and tomorrow they would be celebrating two high school graduations.
"Can I open my gifts first?" Eight-year-old Tyler couldn't hide his excitement from anyone.
"Of course, Honey." Gina stood up and started bringing Tyler's gifts from the family over to him so that he could open them. For about twenty-five minutes the family watched Tyler open his gifts, and plenty of the aunts took pictures with their cameras. Everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Tyler, and after he blew out the candles everyone enjoyed a piece of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. The night ended with the family watching some of Tyler's favorite movies while the kids started falling asleep one by one.
The next morning the whole Stokes family was still in celebrating mode since it was seventeen-year-old twins, Emily and Joshua's graduation party. Emma Grace was sitting at the kitchen table instructing Ashley and Maya on how to bake a pie and prepare a cheesecake. Neither Emily nor Josh were crazy about cake. So, Emily had asked for strawberry and blackberry pies while Josh had asked for cheesecake as their desserts for their graduation party.
"Ashley, how's your internship at the crime lab going?" Ashley was following in Nick's footsteps and wanted to join the crime lab in Las Vegas after she graduated from college. For her junior internship, Ashley had been allowed to work in the lab with Archie, Hodges, and Wendy.
"I enjoy being a lab rat in training," Ashley said with a smile.
"Think you'll want to be a field mouse like your uncle?" Emma Grace smiled as she used the terms that the team did to describe the jobs each person had in the lab.
"I don't know. I guess time will tell." Ashley shrugged her shoulders and went back to concentrating on baking the pies.
"Oh." Ashley turned away from the stove so that she was facing Emma Grace. "I can tell you that Hodges has a thing for Wendy, and I think she likes him too."
"Really?" Emma Grace was shocked by this news. She thought about the idea of Hodges and Wendy as a couple. "Hmm." Emma Grace cocked her head to the side with her eyebrows raised in agreement with what Ashley had been witnessing at the lab between two people Emma Grace considered her friends.
The graduation party started when the three-leg race started outside. Ashley and longtime boyfriend, Jake were a team. Andrew and his girlfriend Annie teamed together. Emily teamed with her boyfriend Lee, and Josh teamed with his cousin Anthony. Jessica and Jennifer were together, and so were Matthew and Michael.
Emma Grace was laughing the whole time as she watched the antics her older nieces and nephews used to try and win the game. In the end, Josh and Anthony won the three-leg race. However, Emily insisted that she and Lee would have won if Josh hadn't pushed her.
James and Robert had cut huge chunks of wood and brought them to Las Vegas so the family could play a giant outdoor game of Jenga. The Stokes shenanigans that ensued during the game of Jinga had everyone in tears from laughing.
As the day continued kites were flown, an intense basketball game happened, and so did a game of flag football. The family along with the kids' friends who had joined the festivities, ended up in the house where competitive rounds of Scrabble, Uno, Chess, and other board games happened.
"Okay, the two of you have kept us in suspense long enough. Where are you going to college?" Emma Grace had wanted to ask Emily and Josh the question the minute they walked through the door, but she had waited as long as she could.
Emily smiled as she announced, "I'm going to Victor Valley College in Victorville, California."
"What are you going to major in Emily?" Nick asked.
"Law. I want to be a lawyer like Grandma and Aunt Sandra." Emily turned and smiled at Jillian Stokes who had tears of pride in her eyes.
"What about you, Josh?" Emma Grace turned her attention to her nephew.
"I'm also going to Victor Valley. I want to major in engineering technology."
"They're going to be close to the two of you just like Ashley and Andrew are," Donna, Emily and Josh's mom said. It made her feel better knowing that her babies would be close to some family at least.
"How far is Victorville from here?" Nick asked.
"About three hours," the twins answered at the same time.
"Maybe we can take a trip there before the summer ends." Emma Grace loved road trips.
"Aunt Emma, I think you and Uncle Nick will have to get used to having four kids before you travel anywhere." Josh couldn't help but smile at his aunt's crazy ideas.
"True." Emma Grace agreed while everyone else laughed.
Three days later Emma Grace went into labor. Thankfully, Jillian and Bill Stokes were still in town when Emma Grace's labor pains began. Jillian talked Emma Grace through the beginning hours of labor while Bill gave Nick some tips for staying calm and helping Emma.
Around hour five of labor Emma Grace would moan every once in a while and hold on to Nick for support. Her contractions were still far apart and irregular, therefore, they decided not to go to the hospital yet.
Emma had called Catherine and the older woman had come over to the house to be a support for Emma Grace and Nick. Three hours after Catherine showed up to the house, Nick and Emma called Ashley to come and take Marie, Kaitlin, and Maggie Hope out so that they would not be scared that Emma was hurting. Ashley ended up having to take Emma's eight, almost nine-year-old dog, Gladiator too because there were times he wouldn't let anyone but Nick near Emma Grace when she had a contraction.
"Ni-Nicky, I think we should head to the hospital." Emma Grace was panting. She had just made it through another strong contraction as she was laying in bed.
"Okay, Baby. We're going right now." Nick still sounded nervous, but not as freaked out as he had been to start with.
There was a lot of screaming, moaning, and crying from Emma Grace once they were at the hospital. Nick stayed by Emma's side and never let go of her hand. Jillian and Catherine continued to coach Emma Grace until her water broke. Nick, the nurses, and the doctor were the only ones in the room with Emma Grace when their daughter was born. Both Emma Grace and Nick cried.
Thirty minutes after the birth Jillian, Bill, and Catherine were allowed into the hospital room. An hour after the birth Ashley brought Marie, Kaitlin, and Maggie Hope to the hospital while Jake watched Gladiator.
"Mommy, is that baby sister?" Kaitlin whispered as she looked into the face of the newborn baby.
"Yeah, Kaitlin. This is your baby sister." Emma Grace still had tears of joy in her eyes.
"Can I hold her?" Marie asked with an excited smile on her face.
"Of course, Darling." Nick had Marie sit in a chair and helped her hold her baby sister.
"She's beautiful, Aunt Emma." Ashley stood by Emma's hospital bed with Maggie Hope propped on her hip.
"'Issy name?" Maggie Hope tilted her head and studied the baby when Nick placed her back in Emma's arms.
"You want to know your sister's name?" Emma asked Maggie Hope. The fourteen-month-old nodded her head.
Emma Grace looked up at Nick expectantly. Nick cleared his throat and began to speak. "Everyone, I would like you to meet Amelia Jill Stokes."
"Amelia after my sister Amy and mom Lilia. And Jill for Jillian," Emma Grace explained as she smiled at Jillian Stokes who was crying with her face hidden behind her hands.
Nick, Emma Grace, and Amelia Jill stayed in the hospital for three days. There were many phone calls to Nick's siblings back home in Texas, and most of the crime lab team came to visit the family.