It was a couple weeks before Athena's birthday, the week before Thanksgiving. Emily still hasn't planned anything and doesn't know what Athena wants till today. "Mommy, I'm okay with anything. I like surprises."
This lifted some weight off Emily's chest until Athena came back to her after a couple hours. "I want to go to the snow!"
Turns out, the new movie Meg showed her was the Princess Switch. Athena is absolutely in love with it.
Emily sighs as she gives the menu to the waiter. "Do I plan her a cold and snowy birthday party? I want everything to be perfect."
After their sleepover, they decided to have a ladies night out every week, to rewind. Alex tags along as she's on vacation. Interpol has interns working until the end of the year as a project, though she's still "on the job" if Walker ever calls.
"What if we rent out a big cabin? We go to the snow for the weekend and that's where we celebrate her birthday?" JJ offered. "We'll bring the kids."
"Oh my gosh, yes! I can make that happen, just give a day to do research," Penelope says.
Penelope stayed true to her word. The next day, she sends Emily a cabin she thinks is big enough for everyone. "6-7 rooms and a big balcony! There's a hot tub too!"
"And who will be paying for this?" Emily raises her eyebrow over the phone.
"I will, my friend actually owns the place," Rossi interrupts. "Think of this as my present to Athena to make up for 3 years of her Uncle Dave not being able to spoil her, although I will be getting her a present."
As early Friday afternoon arrives, everyone loads up into the car. Derek offers to put the rest of the things that couldn't fit in the family car, into his car.
Elle blushes. "My hero."
JJ decides to bring her own car, along with Will and Henry. And so does Kate, with Chris driving.
Before the weekend arrived, the adults took the liberty of buying everything. Penelope was in charge of buying supplies, Luke and Derek bought the food that was necessary for the weekend. Elle and Tara chose the booze for the adults and lots of snacks. JJ and Kate was in charge of little goodie bags for the 5 kids. And Alex and Emily went shopping for some snow gear and presents.
"Athena seems really excited, which means this is gonna be a long weekend full of fun," Em says, carrying the numerous bags of snow gear.
Alex nods. "I'm glad to be tagging along."
Finally figuring out the seating in both cars, they all get into the cars. In Derek's car, he's driving while Elle's in the passenger. Not being able to get away from her Chocolate Thunder, Garcia and Luke decide to stay in their car. In the other car, Tara's driving as for Alex who's in the passenger seat. In the back, Athena is in the middle, to her right is Spencer, and to her left is Emily. She gets a good view of the road in front of her which was Emily's intention. And she also gets to see the small tv above her head.
The drive was about 3 hours, it consists of taking naps, passing the snacks around, Spencer reading books and later leans his head on Athena's car seat so she can ruffle his hair. She does that as she's watching a movie.
About an hour and a half in, they stop by a gas station. They buy more snacks and use the bathroom but Emily decides to stay in the car with a sleeping Athena. She looks out the window and sees that there's snow already falling. She stops her urge to wake up Athena.
Suddenly a knock comes from her window, she rolls it down to see JJ. "Hey, how you guys doing?"
"We're doing alright, everyone's mostly napping or listening to music. Spence was reading," Emily explains. "You?"
JJ looks at the gas station. "We're doing good, thanks for letting me bring Will again. I think everything's finally falling into place."
Emily reaches out the window and touches JJ's arm, mostly her big fluffy jacket. "That's good, I'm really happy for you and Henry."
She walks away but comes back. "Rossi's driving his own car but he's tagging along with Hotch and Jack, they might be the last ones though."
"Thanks JJ."
JJ walks to the other car just as Elle and Penelope get back inside. She stands in the middle of two cars with both windows open. "Guys this better work."
Penelope sighs. "It will, we all just need to believe."
-
Finally reaching the cabin, everyone hops out of their cars and stretches their legs. It's late afternoon and the sun is setting. Everyone gets a good look of the view as trees surround it, almost like a perfect painting. "This is surreal."
Penelope pulls out her phone. "Family! Let's take a selfie!"
She gets Derek to take the selfie and they all pose with the sunset as their background. JJ and her family get pictures together. Elle tries to get Derek in her picture, he finally gives in. Penelope does the same with Luke, although Luke has an easier time of giving in. Kate tries to get her kids in one picture but Cairo begins to play with the snow with his bare hands.
Emily wraps Athena and herself in a fluffy blanket as their thick jackets are still in the back of the car. "Do you like it Baby?"
Athena nods and holds onto her mom. "Yes, thank you Mommy! It's so pretty."
"I think we should head inside and settle in, we're here for two days everyone, we can see the sunset later," Derek explains. "Baby girl, Rossi gave you the keys right?"
She pulls out the keys. "Affirmative!"
Tossing them to Derek, he opens the double door cabin and walks in to turn on the lights. Henry, Cairo, Meg, and Athena take off their shoes and they run around the big cabin, from room to room. The men walk out to the cars to grab the essentials while the women sit on the big leather couch. "Don't worry ladies, Rossi told me that his friend had someone come in who sanitized, cleaned, and washed everything yesterday."
After a little tour, they decide who's in which rooms. One room with JJ and Will. One room with Kate and her family. Another room for the big kids, Meg, Henry, and Jack. Another room with Elle, Alex, and Tara. Another room with Rossi. Another room with Derek, Luke, and Spencer. And the last room for Emily and Athena.
As everyone puts their things in their rooms, Hotch, Jack, and Rossi walk in. "Hey everyone!"
Everyone greets them as Derek and Luke figure out how to turn on the fireplace. Hotch takes Jack's things and talks to him. "Remember how I told you Emily's back? She's here, Bud."
Emily appears from the hallway and Jack gives her a hug. "I missed you Emmy!"
She hugs him back but behind them, was Athena. "Mommy?"
"Jack, this is my daughter, Athena," Emily says. She looks at Hotch, seeking for approval.
Jack introduces himself to the little girl and runs off to the big kids room while Rossi walks to the kitchen to put his pasta on the wooden island.
Penelope gives them a short tour and explains that all of the rooms are taken. "Dave, mind sharing a room?"
Rossi begins to speak but the adults in the living room looks at him. "I'm feeling under the weather, I wouldn't want to get you or Jack sick."
Hotch understands but Penelope has a suggestion. "Athena? Come to Aunt Penny please."
She walks to her, wrapped in a blanket.
"Would you like it if you have you a sleepover with your dad?" Penelope asks, making Emily jump in her seat and Hotch looks at her.
Athena jumps up and down in happiness. Everyone knew her answer.
"Well I think that's settled, you'll be bunking with Emily and Athena," Penelope concludes. "Don't worry Sir, we're here till Monday morning!"
Hotch slowly nods and Penelope leads him to the room he'll be staying in. Meanwhile, as they walk off, heads turn to Emily, who's already completed a cup of wine.
"What?"
As Penelope gets back, she sits next to JJ on the couch. The leather couch is L shaped, the chairs at the end are reclining, which Emily and Tara are sitting in. Looking to their sides, are the windows or sliding doors to the balcony, which is filled with snow and a hot tub.
"Em, are you sure you'll be able to sleep in a room with Hotch?" Kate asks. "It's 3 nights."
Emily didn't want to show how she felt, especially in front of her daughter who was sitting right next to her, listening. "Yeah, I'll be all right. It'll all pass by."
The men cook dinner as the women gossip, drinking wine and eating from a charcuterie board. The kids are all over the place, either on electronics or exploring. They finally eat dinner and about an hour later, everyone settles down.
Kate, JJ, and Hotch had a feeling that their kids would stay up for a little while, considering a TV was in their room. "Let them be. It's gonna be a fun weekend!"
For Athena, she sticks with the adults, cuddling with her mom. As everyone scatters around the house, Rossi walks in. "Did Penelope not tell you guys?"
Spencer, Elle, Derek, Emily, Kate, Chris, and Tara look up from the couch.
"There's a movie room."
Penelope looks up and slaps her forehead gently. "That's what I forgot to say even though I brought.... MOVIES!"
Like little kids, Luke grabs Athena, making her giggle. Spencer, Elle, Derek, and Penelope chase after them, while Chris and Kate walk to the kids room to let them know that they're going to watch a movie.
"Looks like I'm in charge of getting the snacks and the drinks," Tara says. "You coming?"
Emily shakes her head. "I gotta get ready for tomorrow. Just bring Athena in if she gets tired.
Tara agrees and walks away with food in her hand. Hotch then walks in with a zip up sweater and sweats. Emily ignores him and gets a call on her phone.
She grabs a blanket and walks outside, closing the door after her. "Hello?"
"Prentiss, how are you? It's Stephen Walker."
"Hey Walker, we're doing good, just getting that family time in," Emily says. "Is there something wrong?"
A silence occurs over the phone. "No. I just have a suggestion. Well, I don't know what you would call this."
Emily covers herself with the blanket and looks at the sky. "What is it?"
"My wife wants me to settle down. She wants to travel the world with our family, and she doesn't want me dealing with these bad guys."
"Mhm..."
Stephen sighs. "Which means that I can't be Chief anymore. And I recommended you to be my replacement."
"Are you serious? It's a big spot to take."
"I know, but you're the best person I can think of. I know you'd be an amazing chief."
Emily walks around. "Can I think about it? It's my daughter's birthday weekend and I want to focus on her."
"Of course, but I need an answer by the end of the month," Walker states. "I know it was supposed to be next month but we want to be out before the year ends."
She coughs and says goodbye to Walker. Then begins to pace around.
Why this weekend? Why'd you have to tell me this weekend?
Emily finally decides to head back inside so she won't freeze. She takes off her boots and goes straight to her room to avoid Hotch who's in the kitchen, looks like he's looking at some files. Classic Hotch.
As she walks into the room, she spots the two beds, the one with her things is her bed, and as for Hotch, he has the bed closest to the door. Coughing, she changes into her pajamas and get underneath the covers. She tucks herself in and falls asleep.
In the movie room, everyone but Elle and Derek and Spencer and Athena, are in their own seats. Or either scattered on the floor. The movie Smurfs 2 just ended. Hotch walks in and tells Jack to get ready for bed, JJ and Kate do the same. Athena's already in her pajamas and her teeth are already brushed so she just needed someone to tuck her in. "Uncle Spence, can we go now?"
He nods and carries begins to pick up Athena and wraps her around a blanket. As they walk towards the door, Hotch stops him. "Reid, I don't think it's a good idea if Athena sleeps with Emily. I heard her coughing."
Athena frowns, looking at Spencer. Elle overhears their conversation and walks up to them. "It's okay. Athena can sleep with me."
Elle takes Athena from Spencer's arms as she waves goodnight to everyone in the room. Hotch begins to walk away but Spencer stops him. "What about you Hotch?"
"I'll be fine, good night everyone," Hotch says.
Everyone waves and after midnight, everyone's in bed. Hotch isn't able to sleep because of Emily's coughing. He walks over to her and brushes his fingers lightly on her forehead, then moving down to her cheek, not trying to wake her up. She was burning up but shivering.
Worried about Emily, he walks out to the kitchen to find something that can warm her up. He suddenly starts coughing, realizing that he must've caught the bug Emily has after being in a room with her for a couple hours.
He makes a cup of tea for them both and then knocks on JJ's door. She opens it, rubbing her eye. "Hey what's up?"
"Sorry to wake you," Hotch whispers. "Do you have any medicine? I think Emily and I are sick."
JJ closes the door a little bit as she walks to get some medicine. "Here, it'll help you guys sleep. And don't worry, we got Jack and I'm sure Elle and Spence have Athena when we go out tomorrow."
Hotch nods. "Thank you, good night."
Walking back to the room, he sets both cups on the bedside table near Emily. He nudges her. She finally wakes up. "What?"
"You're coughing and shivering, take some medicine," Hotch whispers.
Emily opens her eyes to see Hotch hovering over her, in one hand is a cap with a pill in it and in the other is a cup of tea. She takes both from him and swallows the pill.
Hotch watches her as she does. "So... I'm sure this is just a 24 hour thing but did you want Athena to go with everyone else tomorrow? I'm having Jack go with them."
She looks up as she props herself up. "Where is she?"
"She's with Elle, I told them that you weren't feeling well," Hotch explains. "Now I'm not feeling well."
"Yeah. I'll just text Elle saying that I'm sick," Emily mumbles. "Um, thank you."
Hotch nods and he turns off the light. They drift off to sleep in separate beds.
-
The next morning, Emily wakes up feeling heavy. She realizes that she's sick. There's light outside, which meant it was the morning. She looks to her left to see Hotch sleeping.
Emily looks at her phone to see that it's 9am. She then sees a text from Elle.
The message read: Hey, when I walked in to get Athena's things, you were still asleep. JJ told me you were sick but we'll watch her Em. We left early because the kids were excited. Don't worry, we're just gonna play in the snow. Get some rest and maybe you both can take care of each other. Just so you know, it's only you two! Love you.
She sighs and sends one back.
The message read: This is probably a 24 hour thing. I'll see you guys later for dinner. Watch over the birthday girl. Love you too. And I can take care of myself Elle Greenaway.
Turning off her phone, she gets out of bed and walks to the kitchen. To Emily, it's freezing cold even though the heat's waving throughout the entire cabin. She brings herself to pour a cup of coffee and walks to the couch to enjoy it.
For a while, she stares outside as she sips from the cup. The snow falls slowly, almost like it's in slow motion. Emily admires what's happening in front of her, too much to not hear Hotch's footsteps. "Emily."
She startles herself and looks up at him from behind the couch. He has bad morning hair and she holds her laughter in. This concerns Hotch because she looks like she has to throw up.
"Are you okay? How are you feeling?" Hotch asks.
She sees a blanket on the couch and wraps it around her back. "Not good. I should be out with everyone else, but you look worse."
He chuckles. "It's better to stay home than to get everyone else sick, especially our kids."
Our kids. For a moment there, Emily forgot that Hotch is Athena's dad.
"Looks like they left food for us so I'll just prepare breakfast," he says.
10 minutes later, they're both sitting down at the island on the bar stools. Both are eating and not talking.
"Is everything okay between us?" Hotch asks.
Emily looks up from eating her pancakes. "Yeah, it has to be. You're Athena's dad."
He sighs. "But it doesn't seem like that Emily. You're ignoring me, you've barely talked to me since I found out you and Athena are here. Now look where we are, her 4th birthday."
"Hotch, it's too early for this, can we talk about this later?" Emily asks, hopping off the stool and washing her dish.
She dries her hands and begins to walk to their room but a hand grabs her arm. She turns around to see Hotch. "We need to talk about this now. Once everyone else comes, you're going to focus on tomorrow and Athena."
Emily looks down but Hotch takes his hand and places it near her chin, to make her look him in the eye. "Hotch. I can't do this."
Too caught up in moment, Hotch doesn't realize that Emily looks pale. Her body gives out and he catches her, carrying her in his arms. They head to the room and Hotch places her on the bed. "Get some rest."
He tucks her in and heads to his bed. He then dozes off.
After a couple hours, Hotch wakes up to see Emily sitting up, staring at a wall. It was around 3pm. He felt better, but he was good at hiding how he felt.
"Emily? Is everything okay? Emily."
She stares at him and nods.
He sits up too. "Could we talk?"
Emily rolls her eyes. She was in peace for a while, just before Hotch woke up. She finally felt better, it was definitely a 24 hour thing. Drinking water and eating gave her strength but she decided to stay in bed for a while. To get it over with, she agrees.
"Sure."
"Would you tell me if you had a problem with me?" Hotch asks.
Emily shrugs and lays down, staring at the ceiling.
"You can't shrug and say anything. Is this about what happened in the file room?"
"I thought I told you to forget about that."
Hotch sighs. "I can't."
Suddenly, Emily gets out of bed. "I'm preparing dinner, for everyone to say thanks for taking care of Athena. I'm assuming you might want to help."
"Yeah, I wanna say thank you for taking care of Jack," Hotch spoke, putting his slippers on.
They both walk out to the kitchen. Emily begins to tidy things up, and as for Hotch, he looks to see what's in the fridge.
30 minutes in, Hotch is putting the Mac and Cheese inside the oven for it to bake. He looks around and Emily's nowhere in sight. He puts the oven mitt down and walks around the cabin. He finds her in the movie theater room, crying.
Trying not to startle her, he sits down in the seat next to her. "Is everything okay?"
"Can't you leave me alone for a bit?" Emily asks, wiping her tears.
"I can't leave you here to cry. I might not be the person you want to talk to right now but I'm willing to listen even though you hate me."
Emily chuckles. "I don't hate you. It's just that I have a lot on my mind."
Hotch lays back into the seat. "Like what?"
"I was recommended to be Chief at Interpol," Emily mumbles.
He looks to his right. "That's amazing."
She sighs. "But the existing chief wants an answer by the end of the month. Not by the end of the year."
"What are you gonna do about it?" Hotch asks, as they sit in silence.
At this point, Emily was done with this question. She's been asked this by many people and her answer has been the same every time.
"I don't know."
"Well. We have time," Hotch says. He looks at his watch. "About 2-3 hours before everyone comes back. We can talk while we're cooking."
Emily agrees and Hotch stands up, but Emily just sits there. He then grabs her hands and pulls her up, making her giggle. He smiles and they both walk back to the kitchen.
They begin to create a small feast for everyone. This wasn't necessarily a Thanksgiving dinner but a thank you from Emily and Hotch to everyone for watching Athena and Jack. Emily isn't a good cooker so it's decided that Hotch is cooking while Emily cuts the vegetables and prepares the ingredients.
"So start talking, what's wrong with the offer?"
Emily sighs as she begins to finish cutting an onion. "There's nothing wrong. It's just that we're finally settling in here. Athena knows you're her dad and I don't want to take that away from her. She does have Luke and Spencer but she needs her real dad, even if we co-parent."
Hotch looks over his shoulder while he fries the pancheta, but not too much to where the onions burn. He was going to make Rossi's pasta, which he learned on a family night. "And?"
"It's an amazing offer. You don't have to tell me again. It's just frustrating that things are falling into place," Emily begins to cut the onions harshly. "And I get this one in a lifetime offer and I can't take it of you!"
Just as they were getting somewhere, Emily takes a deep breath. She places the knife down and takes off the apron in anger. Hotch can't take it anymore so he sets the spoon down and tries to stop her by grabbing her arm. She turns around quickly, not realizing they're in the middle of the room. "Let me go."
"No, you don't get to walk away from every situation. I know you don't want to say anything, but instead of walking away, make something up, will you?" Hotch bellows. "I know it's me Emily. The reason you walk away is because of me. I'm the reason, can't you just tell me why?"
Emily begins to tear up. "I'M STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU! And I'm angry at myself because of that. I left because you broke my heart by saying ONE SENTENCE. And that completely destroyed me. No matter how I faked my personality at work, I always went to bed upset, or at least crying. I love my daughter, but I'm surprised she's not emotional like me, while I cried my entire pregnancy. Even Elle didn't know, I was just that good. When I left, I thought I left the old me here. But it was always with me. And once we got here for Gideon's funeral, my heart broke more and more. Stress kept eating me alive and I couldn't handle it anymore. My colleagues wouldn't have guessed it as well as you would but I was broken Hotch."
Hotch lets go of her arm.
"And you know what saved me? My daughter," Emily whispers, looking straight at him. "You got me pregnant but it led me to the greatest gift of my life. I adore my job and myself but once I saw her for the first time, she became my top priority. Always. And I knew that somewhere in me always had feelings, I even said it in the letter I wrote for you."
He makes eye contact with her. Because she remembered.
"But that moment in the storage room, all the memories from the past flooded my mind. The stolen glances, the diner, the park, Jack, everything."
She makes eye contact with him. "You said that you still loved me? And that you regret saying that sentence. But you still said it. And I don't know whether to believe it.
Emily begins to trudge back to the kitchen to finish cutting the vegetables but Hotch grabs her hand again, turning her to face him. "Hotch, I'm serious. You need to —."
Suddenly, Hotch kisses Emily.
She kisses him back.
They pull away.
Hotch holds Emily's face in his hands while Emily's hands are touching Hotch's. He wipes away her tears with his thumbs.
"I don't care how long it'll take for you to realize that I'm so in love with you too. I'm so sorry that I pushed you away. It's one of my biggest regrets, but it's also not. Without me being in your life, you raised our daughter to be the amazing little girl she is. And I'm so thankful for that. For both of you," Hotch whispers, looking at her directly.
In the moment, it's just the two of them.
The front door swings open, Elle and Derek, then everyone else files in, Spencer carrying a tired Athena. Alex and Tara talk but then stop. They all stare. Jack looks at them. "Dad?"
Rossi runs to the stove to see the attempt of his pasta that was to be created by Hotch, was burnt. "The pancheta!"
Realizing everyone was in the room, they pull away from each other, staring back. Emily wipes the rest of her tears away.
Penelope pushes her way to the front. "I KNEW IT! WHERE'S MY 20 BUCKS?"
Derek whistles. "Nope, we didn't even use your plan BabyGirl."
Spencer smiles, setting Athena down on the couch to continue her nap.
The ladies grab Emily and lead her to the movie room, while the men and kids stay in the main room. Rossi, who's still upset that the pancheta burned, pulls out his scotch that he brought along.
Tara closes the door as they all gather on the floor, in front of all the chairs. "Emily!"
Emily couldn't believe that they kissed.
Everyone tries to grab her attention. "Tell us what happened!"
She begins to explain everything from when they woke up, but leaves out the Chief of Interpol part for now. She continues the story, leaving everyone in shock.
They all smile. "So what's this plan PG was talking about?"
"You don't need to know," Elle explains. "We're just happy that you finally said how you felt. But Em, for real, he's in love with you."
Emily grins.
He is in love with me.
Athena wakes up from her nap and everyone cleans themselves up. The men cooked dinner again as the ladies gossiped.
"Mommy guess what? I went down a hill by myself on a sled!" Athena exclaims.
Emily looks around at everyone, who then avoids eye contact with her. Derek appears from behind the couch. "Don't worry Prentiss. She slipped off a couple times but Jack was a helper and went down "bigger" hill with her."
She's shocked but couldn't be more prouder of both Athena and Jack, even though both didn't know they were siblings. Dinner is served and about 2 hours later, the kids are out. The adults begin to prepare the main room for tomorrow's small birthday party. At 12 am, Emily and Hotch are the last ones blowing up the balloons, as everyone else is tired from today's activity.
"About today, it was eventful," Hotch whispers.
Emily ties a white balloon. "Yeah, it was."
Hotch finishes blowing up his last balloon. "What are we going to do now? About us."
"I don't want to think about that right now," Emily whispers back. "I don't want to be harsh, but it is our daughter's 4th birthday today. We can talk about us later tonight or tomorrow morning before we leave."
After decorating the room, Emily and Hotch walk to their room holding hands. They get ready for bed and he gives her and Athena a kiss before getting into his own bed, with Jack in it. In Emily's bed, was Athena. She gives her a soft kiss on the head.
Emily tucks herself in and looks over to Hotch. "Good night."
"Good night."
Emily looks down at Athena.
"And Happy 4th Birthday, baby."
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Author's Note:
ugh i loved writing this chapter sm! hotchniss rights <3