"Wake up."
Emily opens her eyes to see everyone in the room. "What time is it?"
Elle mouths, trying not to wake up Athena. "9 am."
She sees Meg, Henry, Jack, and Cairo holding balloons. Elle and Derek have their hands around each other. Everyone's huddled together, as Hotch approaches Athena's side of the bed with a cake. Emily decides it's time to wake Athena up, so she begins to wake her up slowly. She opens her eyes to see everyone.
"Happy birthday Athena!"
Athena huddles next to her mom and smiles.
"Happy 4th birthday Sweetheart," Hotch and Emily say. "Make a wish and blow out the candles."
Athena closes her eyes to make a wish and she blows on the candles. Everyone claps and gives Athena hugs and kisses before walking out.
"Happy birthday Angel!"
"Happiest birthday baby girl!"
Hotch and Jack are the last ones to leave the room, Emily gives Luke a look to close the door, as he carries the cake out.
"Happy birthday Athena," Jack says, sitting on the bed.
She smiles. "Thank you."
Emily and Hotch look at each other. "So we're here today to talk about something. Jack, remember when I was dating your dad?"
Jack was old enough to understand dating, his dad never really dated after Beth but he doesn't know about her. "Yeah?"
"Well, Buddy, once she left, she found out she was pregnant, and the only person she was with, was me."
Jack also knew what being pregnant was. Whenever he asked, Hotch and him would go through photos, seeing Haley pregnant and him as a baby. Hotch didn't want him to ever forget Haley.
"Was she pregnant was Athena?" Jack asks.
Hotch nods. "And do you know what that means?"
He has a confused look on his face. "Kind of."
Emily strokes Athena's hair. "Well that means that you and Athena are brother and sister."
Jack looks at Hotch. "I've always wanted a sibling, Dad."
Hotch smiles and looks at Athena. "And that means you're Jack's little sister, sweetheart."
Athena smiles, although she didn't know what a really was, Spencer and Luke explained that it's someone who will always play with her and love her. From that definition, Athena has always wanted a sibling, but Emily explained she couldn't for now.
Jack hugs Athena and she hugs him back. They pull away and Jack asks a question. "Does that mean Emmy's my mom?"
Emily freezes. "Not necessarily, me and your dad have a lot of talking to do, but I'm always here for you."
He nods. "Can we go eat breakfast?"
Hotch and Emily agree, letting the kids walk out. "Well, that went well."
They too walk out, as Athena's surprised by the decorations. It was princess themed. Balloons all over the floor, a pink banner that read "Happy Birthday", and a table filled with presents.
Everyone eats breakfast and gathers around the living room to watch Athena open her presents. She gets clothes, books, toys, etc. For each present she gets, she walks up to the person who gifted them to her and gives them a hug.
Once she's finished, everyone scatters around to get ready for their day out in the town. After an hour of getting ready, they finally close the door to the cabin. They decide to take 4 cars, instead of taking all the cars. Spencer and Rossi join into JJ's car, Tara rides with Elle and Derek's car, and Alex joins in Kate's car. That leaves Hotch riding with Emily, which she's okay with.
"I can drive, seriously," he says.
Emily tosses him the key, before closing the back door. "Don't break the car."
He nods and they both hop in. They buckle their seatbelts and Emily looks back to see Athena and Jack sitting in the back, both at the windows. Athena has her blanket and Neo, while Jack also has a blanket and a neck pillow. They were in for an hour long drive.
"What movie do you want?" Emily asks.
"Emmy do you have Sing?" Jack replies.
Emily nods. One of the many movies Penelope brought was Sing. Once they left the house, she started the movie.
In the mirror, Athena looks over to Jack. "Is this scary?"
He shakes his head. "No, they're all singing."
Athena laughs. "Mommy sings."
Hotch gives Emily a glance. "Do you really now?"
"Aaron Hotchner, there's a lot of things you don't know about me," Emily smirks.
20 minutes in, both Jack and Athena fall asleep. Emily turns off the movie and both Hotch and her sit in silence, right in front of them was Derek's car, who they were following because Penelope had the directions. "Now that the kids are asleep, should we talk about us now? And no jumping out of the car."
Emily chuckles. "Don't worry, I won't."
"They both know they're siblings. And they seem to get along well, which is good," Hotch whispers loudly. "And you Emily Prentiss, need to make a decision."
With his free right hand, he takes Emily's left hand in his, she doesn't pull away. "I just want you to know, whatever you decide, I'll go with, even if I end up seeing you and my daughter only for the holiday as. If you don't want to go, then that's good. If you want to be Chief at Interpol, I won't stop you. We could do long distance."
"Long distance? We're not even dating," Emily scoffs.
Hotch glances at Emily and then back on the road. Their view was spectacular, mountains covered with snow and trees feet away from each other. "Well Emily Prentiss, would you like to be my girlfriend?"
She looks at him in awe, he makes eye contact. "We both have feelings for each other. And I can't bare to see you with anyone else. So —."
"Yes."
He smiles and brings her hand to his lips, he kisses them and puts them back down. For the rest of the car ride, they hold hands, as Hotch drives with his left hand. Emily looks out the window.
He said that he wants to make it work, even if I take the offer. I'd be leaving my family again. Kate and her family want to stay here, Meg's adapted. And what about Elle? She finally has Derek, and I don't want her to feel the urge to come along. It's not right.
The car comes to a stop, Emily looks outside and sees large fairy lights hanging and a big Christmas tree, right in the middle. Surrounding the tree are buildings and stores.
They get out, Emily nudges Jack to wake up and Hotch opens Athena's door to carry her. Everyone meets in front of their car.
Penelope walks to the front, facing everybody. "Entire family, we have a couple hours to spare here. It's the Outlets, shopping, sitting down, whatever. We have a small lunch here and then we'll go play in more snow. But bundle up because snow's falling soon!"
They all look up and see grey clouds. Not knowing where to start, they talk amongst each other. It was only 12 pm and their lunch reservations were at 2pm."
"Ladies, shall we get some coffee and chitchat before shopping?" Elle asks.
They all nod, looking the men. "And looks like we have the kids?"
They nod again. Emily turns to Hotch and Athena. "Do you want to stay with Daddy?"
Athena smiles and hugs Hotch. "Yes Mommy."
She leans in to get a kiss from Emily. "I'll see you guys later."
They wave their goodbyes and they split up. Surprisingly, the Outlets were huge. It took them about 10 minutes to find a coffee shop. The ladies walk in to see that the theme is classy and simple They order their coffees, they sit at the lounge in the back. A table in middle, and all four sides have couches or chairs.
The coffees finally arrive. "What's new ladies?"
"Well, Cairo's tantrums are lessening, he'll only listen to Meg," Kate replies. "I'm so sorry for the cries you guys had to hear through the night."
Tara touches Kate's shoulder. "Don't worry, it's normal."
She nods. "Elle?"
"Derek and I are good, it's mostly just us catching up and filling each other in. It's one of the things I look forward to, me being his girlfriend," Elle smirks. "Penelope? You and Alvez huh?"
Garcia shoots a look at everyone else. "There's nothing going on. Yes we may be going on a date once we get back but it's nothing."
JJ gasps. "Tell us more."
Penelope sighs. "While we watched the kids build snowmans, he walked up to me and asked me out on a date. And I said yes. THAT'S ALL I'M SAYING!"
After an hour of catching up, the ladies leave the shop to walk around, browsing through stores. "Okay, Emily's been silent this whole time. What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing," Emily teases. "But it might have to deal with the fact that I am now Aaron's girlfriend."
The ladies stop in their tracks. "Shut. Up."
Turning around slowly, they all give Emily a hug. "It was bound to happen someday! When did he ask you?"
Emily smiles. "On our way here, while the kids were asleep. It was actually kind of perfect, the view was amazing."
Eventually, they enter stores, sometimes walking out with nothing or something. JJ buys something for Henry and their house. Kate finds clothes for Chris. Alex and Tara look around through each store. Elle and Penelope giggle over lingerie. And Emily buys a zip up sweater for Hotch, a shirt for Jack, and a dress for Athena. She then finds herself buying a pair of heels.
Realizing the time, they rush to the restaurant. The men and children have already chosen their seats and the ladies sit down. They spend a good hour eating and talking. Penelope goes around and takes pictures, and after asking a waiter, she gets him to take a picture of the entire family. Hotch holds Emily's hand underneath the table and smiles.
Rossi once again pays for the lunch. "You know we're gonna have to pay you some day. You can't keep paying for everything."
"Oh, and I can," he snaps back. "Let me spend my money the way I want to spend it."
Hotch carries Emily's shopping bags, as she holds Athena's hand. Jack walks next to Henry, who's right next to JJ. She leans in to talk to Emily, as they walk to the cars. "Looks like he's really in love with you."
Emily scoffs. "Or he's just being a gentleman."
Settling the kids into their seats, they drive 30 minutes to a snow spot. Penelope warned everyone to pack their snow gear, as they were going to make snow castles and have a snowball fight.
Emily zips up Athena and Jack, as Hotch puts on his jacket. "Emmy does Dad have my gloves?"
She looks at him. "Yeah Buddy, come here I'll put them on."
Abandoning the cars, Penelope takes another selfie. "Oh em gee, we look so good! Like a hot and fluffy squad!"
They finally find a spot, where new snow has landed. Luke and Derek stand in front of everyone. "Okay, here's the deal. We all have an hour to create our own castle and barriers. You also need snowballs to attack your opponents. On the left is Luke and his team's side. And on the right, is my team and I's side."
The area was huge, enough for everyone to work on something. Luke and Derek are captains and they chose their teams. On Luke's team is Emily, Jack, Chris, Meg, Blake, Will, Tara, and Penelope. On Derek's team is Hotch, Athena, JJ, Henry, Kate along with Cairo, Spencer, Rossi, and Elle.
For 5 minutes, the teams huddle together to make a plan. "Go!"
About 20 ft away from each other, are the beginnings of the castles. On Luke's team, Emily and Penelope begin to work on snowballs while everyone else works on the barriers to protect themselves from this upcoming snowball fight. Occasionally, Tara and Blake come and help the other ladies with the barriers, everyone switches off once in a while. Emily stands up to see how the other team's doing, she makes eye contact with Hotch and he winks. She goes back to making snowballs.
About an hour later, everyone seems ready. There were some frustrations, the barriers falling or some snowballs from the opposing team would get thrown. As everyone prepares for this small battle, Emily stands up to wipe the snow off her pants. Hotch takes this as a sign. He throws a snowball at her back, causing her to turn around. He smiles and then ducks behind the barrier. "Go!"
Snowballs are being tossed, kids are being protected. No one was getting anywhere so they ditch the barriers and get a little close. The adults aim at each other. Emily aims at Hotch to get back at him but he dodges every single one. She throws multiple at a time, all of them hitting him. "You started this!"
Hotch scoffs and drops all the snowballs and chases after Emily. She drops her snowballs and runs. Eventually he picks her up by the legs, and puts her over his shoulder. She laughs.
"Put me down you cheater!"
He ignores her and walks around, watching everyone else throw snowballs at each other. Emily wants to be put down but he's not listening. She remembers his little tickle spot, his neck.
Emily removed her gloves and puts her cold fingers onto his neck. She begins to tickle around, eventually finding the spot. He squirms around and drops her in a soft pile of snow. They both fall to the ground and start throwing snow at each other.
It felt like it was just them in the moment.
"Love birds?"
Hotch takes the snow off her face and pulls her up to see everyone staring at them.
"Throw snow at Emily and Hotch!"
Everyone begins to chase them around and later leading to chasing everyone around. Snow begins to fall again and it's beautiful.
-
"You know what, they'll wake up later if they're hungry."
It was around 7pm. The family finally got back to the cabin, everyone showered. All the kids fell asleep after their showers, leaving the adults to cook and to have an adult dinner.
At the dining table, they pass around the food, putting enough on their own plates. Emily gets a couple bites in before talking. She gets a wine glass and taps it with a knife, she stands up. "I just wanted to say thank you. For an amazing and adventurous weekend. Today was great, I'm sure Athena's ecstatic. I'm so thankful for each and everyone of you, even the kids. This weekend, made me see things in a new perspective. My daughter turns 4 today. And I've always been one to always serious when it came to my job. But she's taught me to let go and live life to its fullest."
"I got a call Friday night from Stephen Walker, the Chief back at Interpol. He wanted me to take his job, as his family wants to travel the world," Emily continues, looking at the shocked faces. "You see, I don't want this to be a continuum of people being angry at me for not saying things like this in advance."
"Not only did this weekend give me hope, it made me look back at all the memories I've had these past few months, and looking at these past few years of everyone. From the start, I've always considered you all as family, no matter what the circumstances are."
Emily wipes her tears, chuckling as she sees the ladies wipe their tears. "I don't want memories like this to end. Not from thousands of miles away from London. I decided I'm not taking the offer, I'm staying. Athena and I."
Everyone abandons their plates and gives Emily a hug. Elle's the second last one. "I hate you but I love you. I'm so glad you're not leaving. We'll talk tomorrow."
Hotch is the last one but he takes Emily's hand, motioning to sit down. "You're staying."
"Mhm. I can't leave you or Jack again. And besides, Athena needs her family. And her brother. And her dad."
They kiss, which makes everyone else create ruckus. This leads to the kids waking up from all the cheering. They join and everyone finishes dinner and they clean up. Not wanting more mess, the adults decide to have the kids watch a movie in the movie room, the night before they leave.
The adults begin to clean up, they had to leave by noon and there was a lot to clean up. Emily heads to her room and packs her and Athena's snow gear. She grabs the keys and opens up the trunk to put it in. After, she closes and sighs. Spencer spooks her. "Hey."
"Spencer," Emily sighs. "You almost scared the shit out of me."
He chuckles. "Sorry, I brought a blanket out. I just wanted to talk."
They lean on the car, both wrapped in the blanket. They stand in silence.
"You know Reid, you're one of my best friends. Truly. You helped me raise my daughter and I wouldn't be here or do any of this without you or anyone else. And I appreciate you for keeping a big secret."
Spencer kisses her head. "And you're one of my best friends. I was pissed when I didn't get to say goodbye to you but once I saw you and Athena, I dropped all the grudges I had against the team. You're the one who made me get help. And now I'm 4 years, 8 months, and 2 days clean."
Emily pushes Spencer lightly on his side. "Anything new? We don't talk that much anymore."
"Well. I met this girl at my favorite coffee shop. Her name's Maeve, we've been talking for a while now," Spencer smiles.
"Wow I'm so happy for you," Emily says. "I hope to meet her soon."
Spencer nods and looks at the sky. "You've changed Em. In a good way."
Emily hugs Reid but gets interrupted by Tara, Elle, and Luke. "Hey what's going on here?"
"Just catching up with Reid," Emily gazes at everyone. "And I just wanted to say that I love you all tremendously. You practically raised my daughter with me, you're her second parents."
Luke smiles. "Well she's an amazing girl. And you're an amazing mother. Which leads me to ask, when did you become Hotch's girlfriend?"
"You don't need to know Alvez, just shut up and let's get a group hug," Emily says.
They all hug and they stay like that for a while. "We're Athena's Dream Team, Parents Edition."
The group walks back in and the cake's out. Everyone digs in and afterwards they begin to pack up their things. Around 1 am, almost everything packed up and loaded in the cars.
Jack and Athena helped and both ended up falling asleep in Emily's bed. "Can I bunk with you?"
Hotch nods and they climb into bed. Emily rests her head against Hotch's chest and they sit there. "I love you Emily Prentiss. And our kids. Thank you for not leaving."
Emily smiles. "I love you too."
And they both fall asleep.
-
"Stop crying, you act like we're not going to see each other."
Penelope wipes her tears. "Shut up shut up! I'm just sad that the weekend has come to an end."
Emily walks up to everyone with Athena in her arms. "Is Penelope still crying?"
Luke nods. "Mhm. She thinks that we won't see each other in a couple days for Thanksgiving."
"You mean our date?" Penelope raises her eyebrow. Luke definitely didn't forget about that.
"Yes I meant our date, now let's go, we have a long drive."
Everyone says their goodbyes and Emily buckles Athena in. As she closes the car door, Hotch surprises her from behind. "Have a safe drive."
Emily gives him a kiss. "You too."
Arriving back at their house late afternoon, Alex carries Athena into the house and lays her on the couch. Over the weekend, Athena had everyone's attention even if she was the birthday girl. Her charm worked, just like her mom's.
The rest of the day consists of Penelope and Derek hanging out at the house before he drove her back home. Emily starts a load of laundry and Elle helps.
"So you and Derek huh?"
"Yeah me and Derek."
"When are you moving in with him?" Emily asks.
Elle looks at her. "How'd you know?"
"You've been a little distant, we were practically attached to each other and now we barely talk like this," Emily pours detergent in.
"I was going to tell you but I didn't want to ruin the fun," Elle begins to fold the towels. "I should've known you would've figured it out, you're a profiler."
Emily smiles while setting the bottle down. "I wasn't going to be mad. You should go for it. Athena and I will be okay."
Elle sets down the towel. "You're my best friend Emily. I can't leave you hanging like that."
"You're not. I have Aaron, Luke, Tara, and Alex. Don't worry. You act like you're moving across the world from me."
"I'm not, and I wouldn't move across the world. Not again," Elle says. "Which is why Luke and I called Walker saying that we'll be faxing our resignation letters. We both want to stay and you are too, so let him know."
Luke walks in. "I don't mean to pry but we're already being replaced, turns out a shit ton of people want to work for Interpol. And I bet they're better than us."
Elle hits Luke with a towel. "Don't say that, we know we're as good."
"Mhm," Luke says walking out.
"When are you moving out?" Emily asks, sitting on the ground.
"After the holidays, and Derek agrees," Elle says, sitting next to her.
Emily leans on Elle, they drown out the washing machine noise. "I love you Elle Greenaway."
"I love you too, Emily Prentiss. I am forever grateful for you and my goddaughter."
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Author's Note:
this story is coming to an end soon :/ , thank you for the support and i love how you guys like it! AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 2000 READS!!!