Chapter Text
“Crisis averted, I got the last pumpkin pie in the store,” Aaron says as he walks into the living room, smiling as his eyes land on his family.
Emily was sitting on the couch, poised on the edge to jump up and intervene if needed. Her eyes were fixed on Jack, who was slowly walking back and forth in front of the couch. He had his hands out in front of him, his little brother, Zachary, tightly grasping his fingers as he took shaky steps, only managing a few at a time before he stumbles, held up securely by Jack.
They all look over at him as he enters the room, matching smiles on their faces. Zachary immediately starts babbling, the noise they knew he meant to mean ‘Daddy,’ and Emily leans into Aaron’s side as he joins her on the couch, his lips pressing into the side of her head.
“Hi sweetheart,” he mumbles, kissing her temple again.
“Daddy, I’m helping Zach walk!” Jack exclaims, his excitement palpable.
“I can see that, buddy,” he replies, his smile wide as he puts his arm around his wife.
“How was the store?” Emily asks, turning to look at him, leaning in to kiss him briefly before she fixes her eyes back on the boys.
“Exactly how you’d expect on the day before Thanksgiving,” he quips, “I practically had to flash my gun and badge to get that pie.”
Emily laughs, “Well I’m sure Mother will appreciate your efforts, even if she doesn’t say it,” her smile becomes wistful, a rarity when she spoke about her childhood, “No matter where we lived we hosted Thanksgiving. Of course, it was all a show for everyone else,” she smiles at the site of Zachary finally falling onto his bottom, a shocked look on his face as his eyes meet hers, the 11-month-old crawling over to her. She picks him up, her son immediately settling into her side, his face pressing into her neck, “I always remember her having pumpkin pie, it’s the only dessert I think I ever saw her have.”
“Dad, can I go play my video game?” Jack asks, delighted when Aaron nods in agreement, running off towards his bedroom where he kept his hand-held console, his footsteps against the stairs echoing throughout the house.
“Your mother is bringing the turkey, making sure we have a dessert she likes is the least we can do.”
Emily looks at him, her hand running up and down Zachary’s back, the baby babbling to himself against his mother, one of his fists tangled in her hair.
“It’s not like she’s making it honey, she’ll have had her caterer do it,” she says, her eyebrow raised, “But it was nice of her to offer.”
“It was nice of you to suggest that we have her over,” Aaron replies, smiling down at Zachary, “and Jess and Roy.”
“Well, you know my feelings about the last one.” She replies, her distaste clear, wincing slightly as Zachary pulls a little too hard at her hair. She reaches up and untangles it, tickling him to make him giggle against her, the sound still as precious to her as the very first time she’d heard it. “Come on Zach, not Mommy’s hair.”
“I know what you think, Em,” he says, not wanting to argue again, the topic of his ex-father-in-law, and his treatment of Aaron one of the few things they never agree on, “But I know Jack is excited for him to be here, he was saying the other day that he’s excited to have everyone all together for once.”
Emily sighs as she stands up, lifting Zachary onto her hip, an eyebrow raised at her husband.
“You don’t have to try and convince me, love. He’s coming, we invited him, And I’ll be on my best behaviour as long as he is.”
“Em-”
“That’s the best I can offer,” she says, smiling wryly at him, “Now, I’m going to take this one,” she says, bouncing Zachary on her hip so he giggles, “For his bath, can you start on dinner?”
Aaron stands and kisses her, “Of course,” he raises an eyebrow at her, “Maybe something light, so we don’t have a repeat of last year?”
She narrows her eyes at him, and she attempts to stop herself from smiling, although she fails. It was a conversation they’d had several times in the year since, something they playfully discussed whenever the opportunity arose.
“I was 37 weeks pregnant.”
“You ate enough mashed potatoes that you thought you were going into labour, only to be told by the doctor you had severe heartburn.”
“Daddy is being mean to Mommy,” she says, addressing Zachary as she moves past Aaron, heading towards the stairs, “Maybe someone should remind him that he's the one who made all the mashed potatoes.”
Aaron watches them go, deciding to keep any further commentary to himself, and he sighs.
Something told him this Thanksgiving was going to be somehow more eventful than last year.
___
“Mr Brooks is…an interesting man.”
Emily has to clear her throat to stop herself from laughing at her mother’s comment, and she turns to face her, handing her the glass of wine she’d requested, and readjusted Zachary on her hip.
Roy hadn’t come to their wedding, not that he was invited, but it meant that he and Elizabeth had never met. Jack considered her to be a grandmother, even calling her as much. Emily knew it delighted her mother, even though Elizabeth would never say it, her joy at being a grandmother to both Jack and Zachary clear. It hurt sometimes, to see her being attentive with the boys in a way she had never been with her, but she never addressed it, only speaking about it with Aaron when it was just the two of them.
She wanted the boys to have a family, which is exactly why she was allowing Roy to sit in her living room, despite his insistence on blaming Aaron for Haley’s death. She fixes a smile on her face.
“Jack’s happy he’s here, that’s all that matters,” Emily replies diplomatically, not missing how her mother smiles at her.
“You might need to get some practice in, Emily,” Elizabeth says, going to walk past her but taking a moment to stroke Zachary’s cheek before she meets her daughter’s eyes, “Even I can see through that fake smile.”
She leaves without further comment, rejoining everyone else in the living room. Zachary giggles in her arms, and she looks down at him, smiling as she pokes him gently in the belly, making him laugh harder.
“What’s so funny, sweet boy?” She asks, lifting him further up on her hip, and kissing the side of his head. “We should probably go join everyone else.”
She hears laughter, the fake one she recognised from her youth. Her mother’s ability to join even the most unlikely of people together second to none.
“Gam-ma,” Zachary says, and Emily laughs, kissing the side of her son’s head again.
“Yes, sweetie. Grandma,” she takes in a deep breath and prepares herself for an evening of awkwardness. The air thick with things that went unsaid, an unhappy spectre from her childhood that was visiting her home, something she wishes she didn’t have to expose her children to. “Let's go find everyone else.”
___
“That was delicious,” Jessica says as she sits back in her chair, smiling over at Elizabeth, “Thank you so much, Ambassador Prentiss.”
“Please,” Elizabeth says, a polite smile on her face, “call me Elizabeth.”
Emily looks at her husband who was sitting next to her, and they exchange a small smile. “You’ll have to pass the compliments on to Mrs Harrison, Mother,” she smiles when Jessica raises an eyebrow in confusion, “That’s her caterer.”
“Ah,” Jessica replies, turning her head to look at her father, her smile faltering when she sees the look on his face, “It was lovely, wasn’t it Dad?”
He nods curtly, “It was fine.”
Emily has to clench her jaw, her frustration towards the man almost at boiling point. All evening he’d been making small digs, glaring openly at Aaron on occasion in a way she deemed inappropriate, let alone around the children. She hadn’t missed the look on his face when Jack called her mother Grandma Liz, something Emily wasn’t ashamed to admit she’d taken no small amount of pleasure in.
Everything in her was screaming to say something, to put the older man in his place. It had been since she’d first got together with Aaron, Roy’s frosty behaviour towards him clear at Jack’s birthday party. In the years that had followed, her annoyance with it, with the fact Aaron took it, like some kind of punishment he felt like he should bear, only grew. The only reasons she hadn’t said something were because her husband asked her not to, and because Jack loved his grandfather.
The young boy had so few connections to Haley, so few people in his life who had known his mother, that she didn’t want to ruin one of them for him. She did wonder sometimes what would happen when Jack was older. When he was old enough to understand the bitter words his grandfather would throw at Aaron on occasion.
That, she feared, was a bridge they’d have to cross when they came to it.
“Zach has food all over his face!” Jack exclaims, pulling Emily out of her train of thought, and she looks at her son sitting next to her in his high chair, unable to stop her laugh from breaking free when she sees mashed potato all over his face. More if it smashed into his cheeks than she’s sure he ate.
Aaron chuckles, his arm draped around the back of Emily’s chair, “He’s never looked more like you.”
She glares at her husband playfully, an eyebrow raised before she turns her attention back to their son.
“Come here messy boy,” she laughs, the sound echoed by Jessica and Elizabeth. She stands to pick Zachary up, and sits back down with him in her lap, “Aaron, can you grab the wipes?”
He does as she’s asked, reaching behind them to get the packet they kept in the dining room. She swore they had them in every room of the house, a side effect of having a baby in the house. Aaron opens the wipes and she takes one, smiling as Zachary predictably starts to wriggle in her grasp, never a fan of having his face cleaned.
Jack laughs from across the table, never bored of his baby brother’s antics, “Zach, don’t be silly, let Momma clean your face.”
She freezes and sees the moment his innocent words register with Roy. Jack didn’t call her Mom, he never had, and she was content with that. Ever since Zachary was old enough to have some understanding of what was going on around him, Jack had started to refer to her as Momma just to the baby, joining in on her and Aaron’s attempts to try and ensure it was his first word.
Roy looks at his grandson, his eyebrows creased together, “What did you just say, Jack?”
Jack looks back and forth between his grandfather next to him, and Emily and Aaron on the other side of the table.
“I just said he should let Emily clean his face,” his eyes meet Emily’s and she sees his confusion, the way his eyes seemed to fill with panic, “Did I do something wrong?”
“Of course not, sweetie,” Emily says quickly as she wipes the last of the food from her son’s face, “You did nothing wrong at all.”
“She isn’t your mother,” Roy says, his voice tight, and it’s the sternest she’s ever seen Roy speak to his grandson, and she feels the rest of her patience start to wear thin, the ropes holding her together starting to fray, threatening to snap.
“Dad-,” Jessica tries to intervene, throwing Emily and Aaron an apologetic look across the table, but she’s cut off.
“Roy-” Aaron starts, ready to jump in, but Jack speaks at the same time, his innocence fueling his confusion at his grandfather’s attitude.
“I know Emily is not my mom,” Jack replies, his eyebrows creasing in a way that made him look so much like Aaron Emily can feel her heart ache.
Roy scoffs and shakes his head, “At least you know that,” he looks up at Aaron his eyes hard, “Sometimes I think everyone forgets.”
Snap.
There’s a beat of silence, which is broken by Elizabeth’s chair scraping on the hardwood floor as she stands up. Emily looks at her, and she can see the fury in her mother’s eyes, something she had only seen on a handful of occasions.
“Jack,” she says, smiling at the young boy, “Why don’t you show me and your Aunt Jessica that new game you were telling us about before dinner?”
Emily doesn’t think she’s ever been more grateful for her mother’s diplomacy, the way she could read a room, and she sees how Jessica stands and nods, her eyes fixed on her father before she offers Jack a hand.
“That sounds like a great idea.”
Jack nods, clearly still confused, but takes his aunt’s hand and lets himself be led out of the room, Elizabeth on their tail.
“Aaron,” Emily says, her voice tight, “Take the baby.” She turns just enough to hand off Zachary, who had picked up on the tension in the room, his hands fisted in her shirt.
“Em-”
She looks at him sharply, sees the hesitance in his eyes, and clears her throat. “Take him.”
Aaron nods, casting a quick glance at the man on the other side of the table before he stands, lifting his son out of Emily’s arms.
She hears Zachary cry out at being removed from her embrace, the noise quickly followed by Aaron’s voice soothing him, fading slightly as they got further away from the dining room. She stares at Roy, her fury boiling over, burning her from the inside out.
“Are you going to tell me off?” He asks, his lips set in a firm line.
“The only reason I haven’t thrown you out of my house is that it’s Thanksgiving, and you’re Jess’s father. And Jack’s grandfather.”
“Now wait a minute-”
“Oh no,” she cuts over him, as she stands, her body practically vibrating with everything she hasn’t said. “You’ve said plenty, it’s my turn. I’ve kept my mouth shut for years because Aaron has asked me to. Because Jack loves you. But I can’t do it anymore,” she blows out a breath, feeling her temper already rising, frustration simmering under her skin, “This isn’t what Haley would have wanted for any of you.”
“You didn’t know my daughter.”
“No, I didn’t. Not really. But I was there when she…” she drifts off, stood herself from being cruel, highly aware everyone else in the house would still be able to hear her, “I know enough to know she would never have blamed Aaron for what happened. She wanted Jack to grow up loved, and he has.”
“By you?”
“Yes. By me. And his father, and his brother,” she crosses her arms tight over her chest and tries to blow out a steady breath, trying to calm herself, “I know you love him, Roy. I know that. And I can’t imagine your grief at losing Haley, but you cannot keep acting like this.”
He scoffs and shakes his head, “So, what? You expect me to just accept that you get to play happy families, live my daughter’s life whilst she lays dead in the ground?”
“You don’t have to like me,” she scoffs, “I don’t like you very much. You don’t even have to acknowledge my son’s existence. But if you like it or not I am in Jack’s life. I am the person who is raising him because his mother can’t, and I love him. And I will not allow you to continue on your rampage against his father.”
He stands and shakes his head, half laughing, “What? You’re going to stop me from seeing him?”
“Yes,” she replies simply, taking some enjoyment from the shock on his face, “I don’t want to, but I will.”
Roy’s face hardens, his jaw tight. “You couldn’t.”
“I can, I’m his legal guardian alongside Aaron, and if we think the relationship is doing him more harm than good that’s our call.”
“He’s my grandson.”
“And he is my son,” Emily shouts, “I may not be his mother, but he is my son. I love him just as much as I love Zach, and I would do anything to protect them both.”
Roy seems to sober for a moment, regaining some control over his temper, “And what does your husband make of this?”
She clears her throat, tries to dislodge some of the emotion stuck there, “He is willing to allow you to continue to berate him, to blame him for something he could not have stopped. Because he knows it makes you feel better. He’s a much better man than you give him credit for.”
“She died because he failed her.”
“She died because a psychopath wanted her to die, no other reason,” She clarifies, her jaw tight, “If you’d seen what I saw in that house…you’d know there’s no one else to blame.” She looks down at her hands, twisting her rings around her finger, “I think you should go.”
She turns to leave the room, wanting nothing more than to seek out her family, but she pauses and turns back to face him, wanting to say one last thing.
“Jack loves Aaron, he’s his hero,” she smiles sadly as she thinks about it, the way Jack looked up to his father, “We had to convince him to be someone other than Aaron for Halloween last month, otherwise it would have been three years in a row,” she shakes her head slightly, “Who do you think he’ll choose when he’s old enough to understand all of this if nothing changes?” She purses her lips and bites the inside of her cheek as she tries to control herself, “I don’t fancy your chances.”
She turns and leaves without looking back.
___
Roy and Jessica leave soon after that, unnecessary apologies for her father’s behaviour whispered to Emily and Aaron as they hug goodbye. Elizabeth leaves not too long after, a genuine smile on her face as she hugs Emily and kisses her cheek, a quiet comment about what a lovely evening she’d had against her daughter’s skin.
Emily sighs as she closes the door behind her mother, Zachary on her hip as she turns to look at Aaron.
“What did your mother say?” He asks, smiling softly at her, his tired eyes giving away the strain the evening had caused him.
“I think it was her way of telling me she’s proud of me,” she replies, walking over to him. She leans into his embrace, his arms coming around her and Zachary as he sighs. “Are you ok? Do you want to talk about it?”
“Yeah, shall we get the kids to bed first?” He asks, and she nods in response. He takes Zachary from her, “Jack’s already in his room, he said he wants you tonight.”
She feels her chest tighten, aware that despite her best efforts Jack would have heard a lot of what was said. Everything she’d spent years trying to protect him from spilling out on their dining room floor.
“Ok,” she agrees, leaning in to kiss her son’s head, cupping the back of it, her fingers trailing through his soft dark hair, “Goodnight, baby. Mommy loves you.” She looks at her husband as she steps back from them both, “I’ll meet you upstairs.”
She walks up to Jack’s bedroom, taking a second to pause outside of his room, taking a deep breath before she knocks and then walks in.
“Hey honey,” she says quietly, unsurprised to find him sitting up in his bed, his arms wrapped around a teddy bear Haley had bought him. It was one of his most prized possessions. It went everywhere with them, even on the rare vacations they got to go on as a family. She makes it across the room and sits on the edge of his bed, idly straightening his bedding over his lap so she had something to do with her hands. “How are you feeling?”
He shrugs, “I don’t know.”
“That's ok,” she assures him, reaching out and pushing some of his hair from his forehead, “It’s ok not to know.”
“Grandpa was mean,” he says, his eyebrows creasing, “Why did he say that about my mom?”
Emily sighs, shifting closer to him so she can hug him, grateful when he sinks into her, his arms tight around her. She wanted to explain to him, to let him know that grief was complicated, but he was so young, he’d already been through so much.
“He’s sad honey, he misses your mom and…that means he says mean things sometimes.”
Jack pulls back to look at her, “But I miss my mom, all the time. And I’m not mean to you or Dad. Or Zach”
She smiles at him, “I know you aren’t, honey. You couldn’t be mean if you tried.”
Jack nods, sniffing as he wipes a stray tear from his cheek. “Do I have to see Grandpa next weekend?”
“That’s up to you,” she assures him, kissing his forehead, “But you don’t have to make the decision right now, ok?” He nods and she smiles at him, “Good, now lay down and I’ll tuck you in.”
“Emily,” he says, rolling his eyes at her in a way she knows Aaron would say was all her, “I’m too old to be tucked in.”
She chuckles and encourages him to lie down, “I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.”
___
Emily stays until Jack falls asleep, closing the door softly behind her before she makes the short journey to the master bedroom.
Aaron is already in there, sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for her. He looks up at her as she walks in, a tight smile on his face.
“Did he go down ok?” He asks as she walks across the room, joining him on the edge of the bed.
“Yeah, he’s fast asleep,” she confirms, sitting close enough to him that they were pressed together, their thighs touching, “Zach?”
Aaron’s smile turns genuine for a moment, “He was asleep before I got to his room,” he sighs, as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, “Em-”
“I’m sorry,” she says, cutting over him, “I’m not sorry for what I said,” she clarifies, laughing humourlessly, “That was long overdue, but I’m sorry it was tonight. I’m sorry Jack heard I never…I didn’t want that.”
There’s a moment of silence, and then she feels his hand on her thigh, the weight of it comforting. Familiar. She looks up at him and sees nothing but love in his eyes, adoration that always made her feel lighter than air.
“Em, you have nothing to apologise for,” he assures her, squeezing her leg, “You were defending our family,” he smiles, his other hand cupping her face, his thumb delicate at her cheek, “How could I ever be anything other than grateful?”
Her smile shakes and she chuckles, leaning forward so her forehead is on his shoulder.
“I love you,” she says, wrapping her arms around one of his, wanting to be as close to him as possible.
“I love you too,” he replies, kissing the top of her head, “And both of the boys do too. Everything else we’ll figure out.”
She nods and pulls back, looking up at him, “Jack asked if he has to see him as planned next weekend, I told him he didn’t have to decide just yet.”
Aaron sighs, “Whatever he wants.” Emily yawns, her head coming to rest on his shoulder again, her face in his neck. “You tired sweetheart?”
She hums against him, “Yeah, turns out yelling at your husband’s jerk of an ex-father-in-law on Thanksgiving will do that to you.”
Aaron laughs against the top of her head and holds her a little tighter. “I’m sure it does, let’s get ready for bed.”
“In a minute,” she says, increasing her grip on his arm as he starts to move away.
“Ok, Em. In a minute,” the agrees, content to sit there with her snuggled up against him, a rare moment between just the two of them in an otherwise busy life of work and raising the boys. “It doesn’t seem so bad now does it?”
“What doesn’t seem so bad?” She mumbles from next to him, not moving at all, sure she could fall asleep right here sitting up against him.
“The mashed potato induced hospital trip last Thanksgiving.”
“Aaron.”