Rachel did not meet Dr Yang's eye. She knew that the woman was waiting for her to look up but she didn't. Emily and JJ were sitting in on this session and Rachel did not feel like talking right now. She snuck a look to her right and saw JJ and Emily watching her. Rachel quickly looked away.
"Shouldn't we..." JJ started.
"No." Dr Yang interrupted the blonde. "When she's ready, she'll talk, in the meantime you two are welcome to speak."
JJ nodded and sat up straighter in her chair. Rachel glued her gaze to the ground and picked at the pink nail polish Garcia had put on the day before. JJ had her first day back at work and Rachel had panicked again, Emily picked her up after lunch. She had a panic attack almost everyday in the last week and a half. She'd only lasted past lunch twice. She had gone and seen Dr Yang every single day since they had come back to DC. Rachel felt a lot better, she lasted longer and longer at school with every day, but there was still always a moment of sheer terror when she thought she would never see Emily or JJ ever again. She knew it wasn't rational, Dr Yang had told her so many times and in the back of her head, Rachel understood, but it was hard to remind herself in the moment.
"I guess I'm not sure where to start, or what to say really." JJ admitted, looking back and forth between Dr Yang and Rachel. "I...its just we've told her over and over that we love her, that we aren't going anywhere, I don't know how else to make her believe it."
"Rachel, what do you think about that?" Dr Yang asked. Rachel shrugged. "Can you use your words?"
"No thank you."
Emily smiled across JJ at Rachel. At least their kid was back to being polite.
"Rachel, please?" Dr Yang asked. "Why don't you tell them what we've been talking about?"
Rachel sighed and flicked some more nail polish to the ground. "I know you love me. I know you won't leave unless something bad happens like you die, I already know it, you don't have to worry." Rachel refused to look at either of her mothers or Dr Yang, it was too embarrassing. "I just...I just get scared."
"Of what Rachel?" Dr Yang prompted.
"Lots of stuff." Rachel said with a shrug. Dr Yang frowned at her and she groaned. "That a bad guy will kill you and I'll be alone again, but I know I can't worry about it and I know you'll try to come back it just takes me some time to remember."
Dr Yang watched Emily and JJ's faces as they listened to their daughter. Truthfully, the little girl was making a ton of progress and Dr Yang was sure that the three of them would be just fine. She was going to recommend that this be their last session unless it was an emergency further down the line. After talking to Rachel almost everyday, she knew that Rachel was alright. At this point it was more of a routine for Rachel to panic, than her actually panicking. Her lists had been helping quite a bit. Dr Yang was amused when Rachel told her of Spencer's idea. She simply wanted Emily and JJ to see that she was alright, once Rachel saw it clearly in their eyes, she would begin to believe it herself and things would go back to normal.
Emily and JJ listened closely to everything Dr Yang explained to them and breathed sighs of relief. If the professional said Rachel was fine, then they were going to trust her. Shaking her hand and thanking her more than they could ever really convey, the three Prentiss woman bade her goodbye.
"Can you see him?" Rachel whispered.
"Yes. I have him in my line of sight Rachel."
"Scarecrow! Code names Spence or will be found out!"
"What's my code name?" Reid asked.
"You're the Cowardly Lion." Jack explained.
"What! I am not cowardly I demand a different code name."
"No, we're doing Wizard of Oz." Jack insisted angrily.
Rachel pinched him. "What would you like Spence? We can just call you Lion if you want."
"Um...I guess that's fine."
"Good. Is...Rachel what are we calling Uncle Derek?"
"Don't say his name!"
"Sorry. What's his code name?"
"Just call him the target."
"Oh, okay, Lion, do you have the target in your sight?"
"Yes." Reid said again. "I already told you that."
"Right. I forgot."
Rachel smacked her forehead. Boys were complete idiots. She reached over and grabbed the walkie-talkie from Jack, Reid had already been given hers. "Lion, is everyone in position?"
"Yes Scarecrow, ready when you are." Reid said quickly. He would be lying if he said he wasn't enjoying himself. He never had kids to play with much when he really was a kid, this was kind of fun. Morgan looked up from his files and frowned at Reid.
"Kid, who are you talking to?" He asked.
"No one."
Morgan eyed him suspiciously but went back to his file. There was nothing weird going on that he could figure.
Rachel gathered her backpack and pulled Jack down the hall quickly. It was time to implement phase one. The two children ran down to Garcia's office, easily dodging agents as they made their way. Rachel knocked loudly, remembering the time she had opened the door on Garcia and Kevin kissing without all of their clothes on. It had been really funny to her, not so much to Kevin and Garcia. "Come in!" Garcia called. She wheeled around and grinned at the sight of her two favorite children. "Hey kiddies, I didn't know you were here."
"Daddy picked us up today." Jack informed her. Luckily his father hadn't asked why their backpacks were much heavier than they usually were. The two of them had been hoarding supplies in their school cubbies for days. It was half of the reason Rachel was staying in school all day now.
"Oh, goodie, what can I do ya for?"
"Can you please videotape something for us?" Rachel asked sweetly.
"Sure, what?"
"The bullpen, for the next...half hour or so." Rachel said with a mischievous grin.
Garcia raised her eyebrows and looked back and forth between the two of them. "And why exactly?"
"It will be worth it, I promise." Jack said quickly. Rachel stamped on his foot and Garcia regarded them suspiciously.
"We're going to do a little skit for everyone and we want it on tape. We've been practicing for a whole two days, so it will be worth it. That's what Jack meant." Rachel said calmly. Jack stared at her in awe, Rachel was the best liar he knew.
"Oh, okay, sure no problem."
"Thanks Garcia!" Rachel said sweetly as she grabbed Jack and shoved him outside. Rachel glared at him as they shut the door. "Jack! Close your mouth and look like what I was saying is true!"
"You're awesome." He said with a grin.
Rachel beamed, then kicked him again. "Come on." The two children ran back upstairs and slowly began emptying their backpacks. Morgan, Reid, Emily and JJ were all sitting at their desks, deep in work. Hotch and Rossi were up in their offices and luckily, their blinds were closed so the kids didn't have to worry about staying out of their sight as well. "Okay, if we get caught, what do we do?" Rachel asked Jack.
"Pinch ourself really hard to make real tears come, and plead the fifth." Jack said quickly.
"Right! They're FBI agents, they have to follow the law." Rachel pulled out the thin rope and began army crawling forward with Jack on lookout. A few other agents looked at her oddly, but she glared and stuck her tongue out and they mostly just left her alone. They were used to Rachel and Jack playing games sometimes in the afternoons. Rachel went very slowly and managed to get the rope in place before anyone noticed her. She quickly crawled back to Jack a little out of breath and grinned. "Done!" She announced proudly.
"Good job." Jack grabbed his bag and walked across the bullpen, pretending to head up to his father's office. He tripped and fell into Morgan apologizing profusely. "Sorry Uncle Derek."
"No sweat kid." Morgan said with a smile. He patted Jack on the back as he headed up the stairs, winking at Reid and knocking on his father's door.
Reid looked up and pretended to scratch his nose while Rachel watched. At Reid's signal, she pulled out a bottle of pink paint and held it at the ready. Reid scratched his nose again and Rachel rolled out a tennis ball into the bullpen. Emily saw it and reached down to lift it into the air, curious she glanced around, Rachel quickly ducked out of sight. Jack saw the signal and put on his roller skates, knowing Rachel was doing the same.
"That's mine." Reid said, reaching over the desk and taking the ball from Emily.
The brunette frowned at him. "Yours?"
"Yes. Mine." He insisted, placing it in his desk drawer. Emily frowned at him, but went back to work. Things with Rachel the last few days had been going great, JJ was completely healed save for a tiny bit of soreness after a while and life was good again. She wanted to hurry up and finish and get home.
Jack flicked the blinds up and down, Rachel took a deep breath and stood up shakily, she wasn't going to have to fake this, she was horrible at roller skates anyway. Reid quickly made it look like he was busy and Rachel skated into the bullpen. It took her a lot longer than she had hoped and Jack was already down the stairs heading into his position. He skated around the bundle of desks, Emily, JJ and Morgan smiling lightly while Reid kept his head down. Rachel flopped into the area as well, having already fallen twice, she realized they definitely should have practiced this part.
"Sweetie, you're gonna fall." JJ said as she caught sight of her.
"No Momma, I can do it." Rachel insisted quickly, if JJ got up, it would ruin everything. Jack whizzed by and grabbed Rachel's hand, steadying her. Jack pulled her along, skirting by Morgan's desk. The man scooted himself back as they approached, just as they'd hoped and went to grab them, tripping the rope behind him, his chair went sprawling. Rachel acted quickly, releasing the tube of pink paint all over his head and Jack pulled her away with laughter.
Morgan sat on the ground in shock.
Reid wasn't even trying to contain his laughter, he pulled out his camera and began snapping photos. Emily and JJ stared, completely unsure of what had just happened, and had a difficult time containing their laughter as well.
"What?" Morgan asked. He wiped the paint off of his face and glared up at Reid.
"Pay back's a bitch Morgan, I believe those were your very own words not too long ago." He said with a smirk.
"Wait, you and the runts..." Morgan glared at Reid and then whipped his head around after hearing the giggles from behind him. "OH YOU TWO BETTER RUN!" He yelled as he got up off the floor.
"AHHHH" Rachel and Jack screamed and tried to get away. Still in their skates, Rachel was having a difficult time of it. "Run Jack!" She yelled and pushed him out of Morgan's grasp. She screamed as Morgan lifted her into the air.
"You little sneak." He growled.
Rachel looked terrified for a moment, but then saw the smirk in the corner of Morgan's mouth. "I plead the fifth!" She yelled.
"Me too!" Jack screamed from across the bullpen. He saw his father standing up outside of his office and gulped. "I plead the fifth too!"
Morgan hauled Rachel up over his shoulder and gave her a small swat on her behind before carrying her back over to the desks. Emily and JJ were both frowning at their daughter, but clearly both amused.
"That was not a skit!" Garcia yelled as she ran up from her office. Everyone turned to look at her and she began to giggle. "But it was awesome and totally documented for all time."
"Not cool Baby Girl, not cool." Morgan pouted.