Chapter Text
Looking out the window as she went to grab a refill on coffee, the last thing Emily Prentiss had expected to see was her mother and her own teenage daughter standing in the bullpen. Her daughter wore a matching expression to her grandmother of a perturbed look on her face as she pushes a loose beach wave of copper hair over her navy blazer covered shoulder. All hell was about to break loose between the grandmother who, on all normal days, loved her granddaughter more than her real daughter, but something had set them off, and Emily was willing to bet money it had to do with the dark haired teenager and the fact she was supposed to be interning for her grandmother. So Emily walks out of the conference room without saying anything to her team, but making sure to close the door behind her.
“Emily Elizabeth! I’m done. I tried to be a good grandmother and let her fill this class credit, but she is going to have to finish this out interning elsewhere! For all of the days for her to pull this stunt.” Her mother’s voice meets her as soon as she gets down to her.
“Bex, what did you do?”
“Mom, she’s overreacting-”
“Overreacting am I? I took you into an internship on the shortest of notice and let you skip the line over thousands of other applicants that are not only more qualified to work in the office of an ambassador, but also want to work there Bexley Er-”
“Hold on Mother, what exactly happened?” Emily needed her team to not be pulled into a family screaming match, but especially one that could reveal more to them than Emily wanted.
“She called in a bomb threat to get out of the luncheon we were supposed to attend. So now they’ve shut down the hotel until who knows when searching for a bomb that she told them would be there.”
“Bex, did you do that?” The shame only showed in her daughter’s eyes, but she knew the look too well. “Bexley, you know better than to pull stunts like that. Especially something that is so dangerous. Why in the world would you do that?”
“Mom, you should have seen the luncheon, it was going to be bor-ing. I didn’t want to have to sit through another donor talking about what great things they’ve done by writing a check. It’s ridiculous that they get the credit when there are people like you out there actually doing great things like saving the world.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere young lady. You know better than to call in a fake bomb threat, especially only to get out of a function. You wanted an internship in the world of politics, that’s what it is.”
“I didn’t want an internship in the world of politics. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of the powerful Prentiss women. Mom, why can’t I intern here? It would totally fill my credit and I’d get to see you more!” Bex’s whole face lights up as she tries to yet again sell the idea to her mother.
“Bexley, we talked about this already.”
“They’d probably make an exception-”
“No, and that’s the end of this discussion.” Emily pulls a sharp breath through her nose, trying to calm herself as her mind shoves the idea of her daughter interning with the BAU, which is what Bex had tried to suggest multiple times already, into the forefront of her brain. “Now my team and I were briefing about a new case, so I’m going to have to leave to go with them in a couple hours. Is it ok for her to stay with you Mother? Or would you rather I call Bridget?”
“I don’t need a babysitter! I’m sixteen Mom!” Bex’s eyebrows pull together in the same way someone else she’s gotten to know quite well in the past 6 years does when he’s being stubborn too.
“Clearly after your actions today, you do need someone to stay with you Bex.”
“I’ll have our driver take her to meet Bridget; you have a flight to catch with your team.” Elizabeth says as the team exits the conference room and Bex sees them all.
“Can I finally meet your team Mom?”
She has tried to keep this secret for so long. And if Bex could have made it through interning with her grandmother without a complaint so she could get credit for her class, then maybe her team could have stayed without knowing. It wasn’t that she planned on keeping Bex a secret from them all, but it just kind of happens when the father of the ten year old that she was raising on her own from a one night stand happened to be her new boss all those years ago.
“Prentiss, is there something you forgot to share with us?” Morgan calls down from the bridge, the rest of the team too shocked by the girl who’s mannerisms would have been enough to know she’s Emily’s daughter, even if she hadn’t just called her Mom.
“You never told them about me? Quelle nouvelle merde est-ce?” Bexley spun away from Emily so fast, it felt as though watching her back at dance, even though Bexley quit 4 years ago. What new shit is this, might be Emily’s new favorite phrase had it not been coming from her from her sixteen year old.
“Bex, come back here.” Emily ran after her daughter leaving a dumbfounded Aaron doing math. That girl looked no older than sixteen, could she be his?
Bex stabs the elevator button with the hatred she feels for her mom right now. She knows her mom is in fairly good shape and knows the layout of this building better than she does. Even if she was able to find a stairwell, getting away from her mom was unlikely unless she can grab this elevator. But her mom grabs her arm lightly first.
“Bexley, listen please. It wasn’t about not telling the team about you. It was about keeping you mine. The moment I shared you with the team, the moment I shared you with my work world was the moment that there were risks involved. Any bad guy I deal with could come after you to try and hurt me by hurting you. Bex, I was trying to protect you in the only way I could think of. Which was keeping your connection to me as quiet as possible. It’s the same reason that Grandmother doesn’t make the connection that you’re my daughter to the public. It’s safer with the careers we lead. That’s why she’s taken you when I’m away at work, but we try to make sure you don’t have to be at the events that I have to be at. Bex, I’m trying to keep you safe and nothing else but that I promise. I love you.”
“The guys you chase would come after me?” The horrors of the world she’s tried to protect Bex from have finally entered her mind and it hurts Emily’s heart to see her daughter learn about this.
“If they thought it would hurt me, yes. But I won’t let them get to you.”
“Is this why you wouldn’t let me intern with you? They didn’t know I existed?” Bex asks after a few quiet moments.
“No.” Emily shakes her head. She still keeps one secret to herself but she can be partially honest. “I wanted to keep as much of the horrors of what I see on the daily from you. I didn’t want your beautiful mind to be filled with the images we see here. Them not knowing about you didn’t have anything to do with saying no. Maybe we can see about finding you an internship in one of the other departments, but seeing as you called in a false bomb threat at your last job, that might fall badly for you.”
“Wait really?” Bex’s face falls now that she finally got her mom to agree to an internship at her job.
“Bexley Erin, you need to apologize to your grandmother about that, understood? And from now until I’m back at least you are grounded. After that we will discuss what your full punishment is. That is a very serious thing. It’s not just a prank. I’ll see if one of the other translators might, and heavy on the might Bex, need an intern.”
“Really? Thank you Mom!” Bex throws her arms around her mom, shocked her mom actually said yes to even looking in the FBI for an internship even if it wasn’t with her mother.
“если вы не извинитесь перед своей бабушкой, вас точно не поймут?” Emily repeats her requirement of Bex apologizing to her grandmother before placing a kiss on her forehead. “And I can’t-”
“Δεν μπορείτε να υποσχεθείτε τίποτα που γνωρίζω! Σ 'αγαπώ ακόμα, δεν έχει σημασία τι!” Hearing her daughter reply in Greek the words that she was going to say about not being able to promise anything makes her smile almost as much hearing her say she loves her no matter what.
“Now do you still want to meet my team? Even though they are going to be seriously pissed off that I managed to keep you a secret for nearly 6 years?” Bex nods her head and her action reminds Emily of the technical analyst who is probably dying to meet the daughter of Emily Prentiss. “Come on kiddo. Brave it with me then!” Emily wraps a single arm around the shoulders of her daughter and pulls her back towards the bullpen where she sees her mother talking with her teammates.
“Good you both are back. I was just informing your team on why we kept Bexley a secret for so long. Safer with my career and such, but still a good move with yours as well.” Elizabeth Prentiss steps in with reasoning already explained. She doesn’t forget a face seeing the man standing in front of her. He may have only been on security back 17 years ago, but she would be able to place him anywhere especially after 16 years of seeing so many of his characteristics in her granddaughter. Emily caught onto what her mother was doing, but Bex didn’t understand why her grandmother was covering for her mother.
“Mom, you just said-”
“Bex, Μην έρχεστε σε αντίθεση με τη γιαγιά σας. Θα το εξηγήσω αργότερα.” Emily tells her daughter in Greek not to contradict Elizabeth and that she’ll explain later so that her team doesn’t know she’s lying again.
“Αλλά ποιος είναι εσένα ή η γιαγιά?” Emily isn’t shocked to hear Bex asking who’s lying since she had just told her daughter a completely different story, but without getting into who Bex’s father is and opening another can of worms, she knows it probably confuses Bex that her grandmother is sharing a different story.
“Δεν είναι ψέματα, είναι μια διαφορετική εκδοχή της αλήθειας. Είναι η έκδοσή της.” It's not lying, it's just a different version of the truth Emily says in Greek. It's her grandmother’s version wasn’t a totally different version of the truth to tell her daughter right now either.
“Princess, do you mind if we stick to the language we all know? Also what language was that?”
“Greek. We lived there when Bex was a toddler because it was close to Mother’s posting at the time.” Emily sees Bex’s questioning eyes and can almost feel the question before she asks it.
“Πριγκίπισσα?”
“His nickname for me. This is Derek Morgan, my partner in the field. He and Penelope Garcia, standing next to him, are the giver of all nicknames.”
“Emily Prentiss had a child and didn’t manage to spill the beans about it at all the girls nights we had? I’m shocked. How did I not know? I need to update all my searches for birth records and anything I can find on you. Brexley was it?”
“Bex- ley.” Bex puts the space in her name to sound it out for the team, but is almost overwhelmed by the idea of someone finding everything about her online.
“I doubt you’ll find much about her.”
“How many Bexley Prentiss are there out there?”
“Not many, but think about it Pen, if we managed to keep her a secret for this long, how much do you think is posted out there about her?”
“I probably ran across it and thought she was a cousin.”
“Много она не узнает?” Bex questions her mother on how much Penelope would be able to find about her, more wondering how much of the internet is actually private.
“She’s one of the best tech analysts on the planet so if there’s things you’re trying to keep from your mom, she’ll find it so I’d delete it before it’s too late.” The boy who looks closer to her own age answers before Emily has a chance.
“Are you an intern?” The team starts to laugh as Spencer shakes his head.
“He has three doctorates. He’s the youngest but smartest. I’m JJ.”
“You make Mom drink too much.” Blue eyes meet dark eyes and Emily starts laughing with her blonde best friend.
“What makes you say that Bex?”
“Because when the two of you go out drinking, she’s always hungover the next morning.”
“That’s her own fault. She can hold her own drinking and usually is the one trying to get us to drink more.”
“Tu blâmes toujours JJ et Garcia!”
“Shhhh, cela était censé être un secret Bex.” Emily says looking at her two friends guiltily. “I swear, I don’t know where she gets it from.”
“She gets it from you Emily.” Her mother says from behind her. “You were the same way at her age.”
“How many languages do you speak, Miss Bexley? So far I’ve counted four, but I take it with Emily as your mother you have her language skills?” An older man asks from the other end of the group.
“Eleven.” Bex shrugs, languages have been something that she has always found come easy to her. “English, Arabic, Russian, Greek, Italian, and Spanish I learned growing up with my mom and traveling around.”
“Tu parli italiano? Meraviglioso! Ti dirò le cose migliori che solo pochi qui capiscono. Sono Dave,” he continues introductions after telling her he’d tell her the best things that the team wouldn’t be able to understand, apart from her mother. “What other languages do you speak?”
“I started taking German, Latin, and Chinese at school once I told them I wanted to be a translator. Also, I taught myself American Sign Language when I met my primary school best friend who is deaf.”
“You going to tell them what language eleven is though or are you hoping they conveniently didn’t count?”
“I’m not ashamed that I spent a summer learning Klingon. I can also write in Gallifreyan so technically that makes twelve languages. Oh! And I’m fluent in pig latin! But those didn’t seem as pivotal to the conversation at hand, Mother.”
“Chip off the old block isn’t she Emily?” Emily’s mother smiles at her like the Cheshire Cat.
“Definitely sounds like a familiar conversation.” Bex realizes there’s one more person.
“I’m Aaron, your mom’s boss.” The last man introduces himself quickly when he realizes eyes that match his own are on him. “We do need to get wheels up in an hour, as much as I hate to wrap the introductions up. Prentiss, can I speak to you in my office before we leave please?” Maybe he hadn’t done the math, she hopes in her mind.
“Sure.” She nods at him before turning towards her daughter. “Love you Bex. I’ll see you when we get back from North Dakota. Don’t forget there’s something you want to tell your Grandmother. And it better be sincere Bexley.”
“I know, I know!” Bexley wraps her arms around her mom. It always feels too soon that her mother is leaving again. “J’aime Maman.” It had been a while since her daughter had called her by the French term, but she loves hearing the term she had heard all through her daughter’s childhood. She kisses her daughter’s cheek before saying a quick goodbye to her own mother, before trudging her way to Aaron Hotchner’s office.