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They bluelighted their way down the street, tires screeching and marking up the road as the wheels bumped up the curb and the car came to a halt. Vaulting from the cars, four sets of feet pounded the pavement, guns at the ready, vests in place as they entered the building, stopping only to clear the area before moving swiftly from room to room.
Their case had taken them to a small town outside of Seattle. Somebody was kidnapping newborns, and nobody could quite figure out how. So while they’d been casing local hospitals, a call had come in that someone was acting suspicious in the neighborhood, carrying a car seat.
The witness had seen the suspect enter this building, but as they cleared room after room, it was evident that whoever it was had disappeared, apparently, into thin air.
“Clear,” JJ’s voice came over the comms, followed by Derek, mimicking her sentiment. Emily felt her heart beating quickly, as it always did as they cleared a scene, her senses on high alert. Hotch was a step behind her, which was a comfort, since she knew he had her back.
Heading up the stairs, she looked left then right with her torch and gun. Still nobody. Kicking open the only door she found at the end of the corridor, she stepped quickly into the room and the arm holding up her gun faltered.
“Prentiss,” Hotch hissed from behind her, reprimanding her, but she shook her head.
“It’s fine, Hotch, it’s clear, but you’ve gotta see this.”
As he stepped into the room, Aaron saw what had halted Emily, what had caused her to lower her weapon.
“How old do you think she is?” Emily asked, softly, from where she knelt in front of the car seat. The baby was asleep, her head lolling to one side, chubby cheeks pushed against her shoulder. She wasn’t unsettled or screaming; in fact, she didn’t look as though she’d been harmed at all.
“She looks perfect,” Emily spoke aloud what Hotch had been thinking. She skimmed the baby, looked over her shoulder at Hotch, “Should I take her out and check?”
Hotch was frowning, holstering his own weapon as JJ and Morgan cleared the final rooms, and then headed up to them.
“Is that a baby?” Morgan asked from the hallway, “There’s never been a baby left behind before.”
“Maybe the unsub got spooked, dumped the kid and ran?” JJ suggested, crouching down beside Emily. She reached towards the baby, lowering her blanket, checking, Emily assumed, for any evidence.
“There’s nothing,” Emily shook her head, tilting it as she studied the baby, “Poor thing.”
“Let’s get her back to the station and have her looked over by a medic,” Hotch said, “And get started on trying to find her parents.”
“What the hell, Hotchner?”
From the moment they’d set foot onto the asphalt at the strip, the locals had made it well known how unwelcome they were here. Nevermind that they were only trying to do a job, no, they didn’t care about that; as far as the chief of police and his squad were concerned, the BAU weren’t just there to step on toes, they were there to trample them.
“ Agent Hotchner,” Hotch corrected, not for the first time. He stopped dead in his tracks, the car seat held securely in one hand. The glare he fixed the chief of police with was a clear message, but the chief went on glancing between Hotch and the baby, and the rest of the team.
“What the hell do you think I’m running here?” He demanded, his voice loud enough to stir the sleeping child, “A damn daycare?”
“You wanted us to leave the infant at the crime scene, Detective?” Emily raised her eyebrows, and the chief turned his eyes onto her. Emily didn’t flinch, even as he stared her down, trying to intimidate her. She even smirked at him.
“You brought it here,” He sneered down his nose at Hotch, as though seeing him carrying the car seat was something funny to him, “You take responsibility for it. My officers aren’t babysitters.”
“ Her ,” JJ corrected, shortly, as they filed past him and into the small room at the back of the station that they’d begrudgingly been assigned.
“What?” The detective didn’t seem to care much for what any of them had to say, but his disdain for the girls was even more evident.
“ Her.” JJ repeated, unfaltering, “Not ‘it ’. Her.”
“Yeah, whatever,” The detective sneered, and turned his back on her. JJ glared at him, and then pulled out her phone, once again trying the social care number she’d dialed twice already in the car.
“Someone really should have a look at her,” Emily was saying, her left arm folded tightly across her chest, her right thumb between her teeth as she anxiously gnawed at her skin, “Make sure she’s alright.”
They were waiting for the medics, and much as Hotch wanted to follow protocol, the baby had woken up and was staring at them all with wide, confused eyes. JJ sat beside her, speaking softly to her, but she wriggled and writhed and arched her back, frustrated by the constriction of the seat.
“Fine,” Hotch nodded, and JJ reached for her instantly, pushing in the button to pop up the fastening and slipping the straps off of the baby’s little shoulders.
“Come here, darling,” The blonde smiled, lifting her out. She had assessed that the baby couldn’t be more than six months old. Henry was coming up to eleven months, and was significantly bigger than she was, but she was too big and too wide eyed and alert to be much younger than six months, JJ said. So when she picked her up, the baby held up her own head, craning it to look at them all. Her wide blue eyes were focused and intent on staring at them, as though she were studying each face in turn.
“She’s a cutie,” Derek grinned, stepping up behind JJ and offering his finger, tapping at the palm of the baby’s tiny hand with the tip of his finger. She grabbed it, and held fast, and he beamed at her.
“Yes, but who does she belong to?” Hotch sighed, from where he looked on, his arms folded across his chest.
“Have we considered this might not be related to our unsub at all?” Reid suggested, “Perhaps she was dropped off by her parents and left on purpose?”
“In an abandoned building, Spence?” Emily was shaking her head, “No, there are safe haven laws for a reason.”
“While, yes, more than 3500 newborns have been surrendered through safe haven laws nationwide since 1999, over 1400 have also been found abandoned since then, too.” Spencer offered up, and Emily grimaced from where she was leaning against the wall.
“Why would somebody do that when there’s another option?” She mused, and she was speaking more to herself than to any of the others.
“JJ, try the social again,” Hotch told her, and the blonde nodded, looking around the group. She met Derek’s eyes and the grin fell from his face. He stepped back, holding up his hands as though in surrender.
“Okay, I’ll do that,” JJ said through an amused chuckle, “But somebody’s gotta take the baby, guys.”
To everyone’s surprise, Hotch stepped up immediately, offering both of his hands. He and JJ, the only parents in their group, passed the infant easily between the two of them, and the surprise subsided as Hotch settled the little girl easily in his arms. She looked up at him with wide eyes, her little lips pressed tightly together, as though she wasn’t sure whether or not to be afraid of the huge, stoic man into whose arms she had been settled. She gave a little cry, and then another. With the ease that only an experienced parent could muster, Hotch began gently rocking her, and she settled almost immediately.
Hotch, who had been focused on the baby, looked up and found four pairs of eyes fixed on him, their expressions ranging from shocked to impressed to amused.
“What?” He said, slightly defensively, “I’m a dad, remember?”
“I will now,” Emily muttered under her breath. JJ laughed, but Hotch chose to ignore her, smirking to himself as he dropped his gaze back to the child.
“This is shaping up to be a very cute 1980s American Family Comedy,” Morgan quipped, “but what’s this little lady going to eat?” He grimaced, “And what happens when…you know, it comes out the other end?”
It was Hotch who grimaced, then.
“We’ve hit a dead end with the case,” Emily posed, “Unless there’s another abduction, we’ve got no leads besides what Penelope is searching up. We can spare an hour; why don’t you and Reid find a department store and buy the supplies we need?”
“Sure.” Morgan nodded, “Come on, man.”
He and Spencer were halfway to the door when they both turned, quizzical expressions on their faces, and Spencer said, “What exactly do we need to take care of an approximately six month old for an unspecified period of time?”
Closing his eyes for the briefest moment, Hotch sighed. “Take JJ with you, too.”
“You really are a natural, you know.”
The others had been gone for half an hour and, after fussing for a while, the baby had fallen asleep in Hotch’s arms. They were sitting at the table, Hotch leaning back in his chair to rest the baby against his chest. He’d shifted her so that her cheek lay against his shirt, and Emily watched them both with blatant amazement.
Hotch opened his eyes, which had drifted shut in thought and in the strange contentment that had come over him at having a small baby resting on him once again.
“Hm? Oh,” he looked down at the small head just below his chin, “I wasn’t when Jack was first born. It’s something you learn. Parenting is the definition of ‘sink or swim’.”
Emily smiled at that comment, folding her hands under her chin, unable to take her eyes off of the sweet baby.
“What are we going to call her?” She said, softly, and Hotch gave her a quizzical look. Shrugging, Emily said, “Well, I don’t want to keep calling her ‘baby’, do you?”
“She probably already has a name, Prentiss.” Hotch said, but Emily just gave him a blank stare.
“Humour me.” She said, and he knew she wasn’t about to give him a choice, either way.
“What do you think we should call her?” He asked, certain she’d already come up with at least a few ideas.
“What about Molly?” Hotch scrunched up his nose, shaking his head. “Okay, not Molly. Amber?”
“No, that’s not right, either,” he shifted his head, tilting it to try and see her face better, and in doing so he missed the warm little smile that appeared on Emily’s face; smug that she’d drawn him in, amused by his enthusiasm and glad to see the softer side of him come out. “What about Zoe?”
Emily tilted her head, reaching out with a gentle hand and brushing her fingertips over the downy blonde hair at the base of her neck.
“Zoe is good,” she nodded, smiling, “We can call her Zoe until we find out her name.”
Zoe didn’t stay content for long. She woke up with a vendetta, and began screaming at the top of her lungs. Hotch tried everything that had ever worked with Jack; standing up, bouncing, bobbing, rocking, singing, burping. Nothing worked. He knew why.
“She’s hungry,” he said, through grit teeth as he gently patted her back over his shoulder, her screams hollering down his ear, “Where the hell are the others?”
“Okay,” Emily stood up, shaking her head, “Give her here.”
“What, why?” Hotch’s eyes grew slightly wider as she held her hands out, reaching for the baby and wrapping them around her middle. He had no choice but to let Emily gently lift Zoe from his shoulder, tucking her into her own arms.
“Because,” the voice that came out of her as she looked down at the baby but spoke to Hotch was not the voice of an impartial FBI agent, but of a soft and gentle maternal figure, “You’re getting all ,” she even put a sing-song tone on the word, dragging it out as she rocked Zoe back and forth. The baby went on screaming anyway. “ All stressed. And Zoe doesn’t like that. So you’re going to take a break and I’m going to take a turn.”
Hotch raised his eyebrows as he watched her, and even though she still fussed, Zoe did actually stop crying long enough to reach a tiny fist into the air. Emily smiled a triumphant smile down at her, not halting in the soothing song she’d begun to sing. At least not until Zoe found what she was looking for; her chubby fingers curled around one of Emily’s dark curls and pulled .
“Mother-”
“Emily!”
“-goose.” Emily pressed her lips together, closing her eyes as she dislodged one arm from beneath Zoe and detangled the baby’s fist from her hair, “What did I ever do to you, huh?” She said, putting on a voice that only babies find amusing. It worked and Zoe’s face split into a grin, her hunger momentarily forgotten, “What do you think you’re doing?”
The giggle that came from the baby was rapturous and Emily’s head shot up, her eyes, when they found Hotch’s, full of surprise and pride.
“Did you hear that?” She asked, and he nodded, a small smile on his face.
“I heard it.”
“We’re back, we’re back,” JJ said, rushing in, laden down with two bags of shopping, Morgan and Reid following behind her, “I’m so sorry that took so long, it’s rush hour. Has she been crying?”
“Yes but, oh my god, Jayje,” Emily was saying, excited, “You just missed the most adorable laugh. Wait, let me see if I can get her to do it again. What do you think you’re doing?”
But Zoe had been disturbed by the arrival of the others and was screaming again.
JJ disappeared (she had assigned Reid to make the bottle but when he looked at her blankly, she made a quip about him knowing everything except for anything useful, and then headed off to do it herself) and was back moments later, bottle in hand.
“Do you want me to feed her?” She asked, but Emily shook her head.
“Can I?” She asked, “I’ve never…”
JJ smiled, and nodded, showing her how to hold the bottle, how to keep the teat full to avoid giving the baby gas.
“She’s probably old enough to hold her own bottle, but she’ll let you know if she wants to do that.”
Maybe it was the shock of the day, or maybe she was absolutely starving, but Zoe seemed perfectly content to let Emily feed her and had guzzled down over half of the bottle so quickly Emily was fearful that she might choke.
“She’s fine,” Hotch reassured her. Morgan and Reid both watched from a short distance away, as fascinated as Emily was by the baby, and JJ and Hotch watched their three colleagues with amusement.
“You have sisters who have kids, Morgan,” JJ pointed out.
“Well, yeah, but I’m hardly ever home,” he shrugged, “Guess I missed on the baby stage with the kids. Mostly on purpose, probably, babies terrify me.”
“They’re not so bad,” Emily said, softly, staring down at Zoe’s face as her eyes began to droop, the tip of her little finger gently stroking her cheek, “She’s milk-drunk.”
“Oh, they get so cute when they’re milk drunk,” JJ rushed to her side, peering over Emily’s shoulder, and Morgan watched both women with furrowed brows.
“Estrogen, huh, kid?” He joked to Spencer, earning him a glare from both Emily and JJ, but neither of them commented, turning back to the baby, instead.
It was then that Hotch’s phone rang.
“Garcia? Uh-huh. Right. Thanks.” The others knew what was up before he’d even hung up the phone, “We’ve had a hit. Attempted abduction of a newborn one town over.”
“Attempted?” JJ frowned, and Hotch nodded.
“Security has been increased, someone stopped the unsub, they passed the baby to the guard and made a run for it.”
“Guard was holding a newborn,” Morgan offered up, “Didn’t want to chase-what are you doing?”
Emily had stepped up to him and was gently lowering Zoe into his arms. Before he could protest, Morgan was holding the baby, who had been disturbed from her subdued state and looked up at him, another new face, with wide eyes. “Prentiss?”
“It’s your turn to stay with her,” she told him, handing the bottle to him, too “You and Reid.” Then, with a shrug, as she grabbed her blazer from the back of a chair, she added, “Wouldn’t want JJ and I to get too overwhelmed by all that estrogen , would we?”
And she was out of the door after Hotch and JJ before Morgan or Reid could protest.
“It’s definitely your turn now, man.” Derek insisted, but Reid shook his head.
“Absolutely not,” he was pouring over the case files and fooling absolutely nobody.
“Man, I know you memorized those files on the plane. You’re not reading anything, you’re just avoiding baby duty, now would you please hold Zoe? I have to pee.” Reid looked up from the manila file, his eyes narrowed.
“You used the bathroom an hour and twenty minutes ago at the store and I’ve not see you take a drink since.”
“You-you track that sort of-? You know what, I don’t even care, Reid, but I need you to take this baby before I smack you upside the head, okay?” He held his arms out, but Spencer hopped down from the table and backed quickly away. “Reid-stop it, take the-” Derek followed him around the table, but with the baby in his arms he couldn’t jostle her too quickly, and Reid was quicker as he stepped out of the way each time Morgan approached.
“Derek,” he was saying, “Stop it. I don’t want to hold the baby. I’m not going to hold her.”
“She’s just a baby , what’s the worst that could happen?”
“Then why do you want to get rid of her so badly?”
“She stinks , man.”
Reid paused, then gave a short burst of laughter. “Oh, no, you’re not palming that job off on me.”
Morgan was scowling, “This is why Emily left.” He was grumbling under his breath, turning his face away from Zoe, as though he could avoid the smell coming from her diaper.
“Babies are disgusting,” Spencer commented, looking at Zoe, laying on a blanket on the desk, as though she were a bomb about to explode. She was looking up at them, smiling and kicking her feet, like she thought they were playing some kind of game.
“It’s okay,” Morgan, standing beside him with his hands on his hips, said, “It’s gonna be fine. It’s just like-it’s easier if we take it in steps, right?”
“Right.” Spencer nodded. “So you take the first step.”
Morgan glared at him, narrowing his eyes, before he sighed and stepped up to the desk, unfastening Zoe’s baby grow. The smell, when uncovered, was so much worse.
“Oh, god,” Covering his face with his hand, Morgan stepped back a good few paces, “That is just wrong , what have they been feeding this kid?”
“Formula, most likely,” Reid was saying, “Usually, a breastfed baby’s poop wouldn’t smell bad at all. The particles are so tiny that they mostly get absorbed in the gut, and the milk doesn’t spend long enough in the gut to develop much of a smell. Formula takes longer to process.”
Morgan was staring at him, now, his eyes narrowed with confusion, “See, I- why do you know that, Spence?”
“I know a lot of things,” Spencer said, looking at the baby, his nose wrinkled in disgust.
“You know what I know?” Morgan posed the question, slapping Spencer on the back.
“What?”
“I know it’s your turn, pretty boy.”
Somehow, with a lot of argument and retching and crying - and not from Zoe - they managed to clear her up. Sure they went through three diapers and a whole pack of wipes (Reid refused to touch her unless his hands were entirely covered) but, in the end, she was clean and fresh smelling once more.
When Hotch, Emily and JJ returned, it was to Zoe sitting on a blanket on the floor, Spencer and Morgan on chairs in front of her, staring at her intently, as though waiting for her to perform a trick of some sort. She, however, was just looking back at them, frowning as though slightly disturbed by their intent attention.
“What are you guys doing?” Emily said, immediately stepping in and picking her up, “Don’t put her on the floor!”
“Hey, we sat her on the blanket!” Morgan defended, hotly.
“It’s still filthy in this place,” JJ said, grabbing for the wipes to clean her hands, “What-where are all of the wipes?”
“We changed her diaper,” Spencer grinned, looking incredibly proud of himself.
“Just one?” JJ asked, incredulously, as she tore open a second packet of wipes and tugged one out, using it to clean off Zoe’s hands.
“Did anything useful come up at the hospital?” Reid asked, determined to get back to the case. Hotch nodded.
“The unsub is a woman,” he said, and it was something they’d already suggested, but having the concrete information was certainly helpful, “We’ve got the security guard working with a composite sketch artist now.”
“And once they’ve done that, I’ll get her face all over the news,” JJ said, “Hopefully if anybody knows her, they’ll come forward.”
“Hopefully,” Emily nodded, “If she did leave Zoe then that’s two babies that she’s failed at abducting, she might grow more desperate.”
“In the meantime,” Hotch nodded to the window, where the sky was rapidly darkening to black, “We should try and get some rest.”
In Emily’s arms, Zoe had already lay her head against her chest and was nodding off to sleep.
“Who’s on babysitting duty tonight?” Emily whispered.
“Not it!” The chorus went up, and not one person was left behind. In Emily's arms, Zoe flinched at the noise.
Hotch sighed, watching Emily rock her as Zoe began to cry. “Fine, I guess we all are.”
They set up camp in Hotch’s room, the logic being that it wasn’t fair to load one person with the baby, so they would share the responsibility. There were two double beds and the sofa, which Hotch took, so plenty of room for them all, even though nobody got a good night's sleep in the end. He called down to room service and had a travel crib brought up. Zoe fell asleep almost instantly, but the adults in the room couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard they tried. They were all too aware of the baby in the room; the baby that didn’t belong to any of them but had somehow become their responsibility.
Zoe was a terrible sleeper, anyway. Clearly the day had exhausted her because she fell asleep almost as soon as JJ changed her into a new baby grow and lay her down in the crib. Hotch played some nursery rhymes on his laptop to soothe her and they watched her fight it for only a few moments before her eyes drifted closed.
An hour later, she woke up screaming and it took twenty minutes of feeding, burping, rocking and a diaper change to calm her down enough to put her back down.
And the cycle repeated all night.
They took it in turns, picking her up, pacing the room with her, patting her on the back and soothing her until she was calm enough to be put back down. But Zoe was persistent, and unsettled, and far from wherever home was.
It was the early hours when JJ woke up yet again, only it wasn’t Zoe’s screams that woke her this time, but a much gentler noise.
Music. Low, quiet music…humming. She cracked her eyes open a fraction, her vision blurry from sleep, her head aching from the lack of it and the constant reverberation of Zoe’s crying in her ears. Beside her, Emily had fallen asleep, just as she had, on top of the comforter. Her hand rested hear to her face, her head tilted in JJ’s direction and JJ could tell by the steady rise and fall of her chest that Emily was still fast asleep. She could also see across to the sofa, where Hotch lay on his side. He didn’t look comfortable, but he, too, was dreaming away.
Rolling over slowly, gently, so as not to disturb Emily, JJ turned to Morgan and Spencer’s bed, and found Spencer laying on his back, Zoe on his chest, humming softly as he patted her back rhythmically.
Hearing the creek of mattress springs as JJ turned, Spencer looked towards her, and his cheeks flushed a little with embarrassment, but JJ just smiled, softly at him, settling into her new position and tucking her hand beneath her cheek on the pillow.
“It didn’t seem fair…” Spencer whispered, “You all…she woke up crying again and I just thought I should take a turn.”
JJ nodded, looking from his face to Zoe’s; in the dim light of the only lamp in the room JJ could see that the baby was fast asleep, her mouth the perfect little pout, her eyelashes occasionally fluttering.
“You’ve been holding out on us, Reid,” JJ smiled. Spencer shook his head, but his lips curled up a little, into a private smile of his own.
“I’ve never really been around kids, except for Henry.” He clarified. JJ knew this already, of course. Even when he was a child, Spencer was never really around other children. He was too mature for them, too intelligent. And his home life required too much of him for him to spend his time doing frivolous things like playing. He had always insisted that those things never appealed to him anyway, but the story was always terribly sad to JJ; everyone deserved to be a kid.
“You’d be a good dad.” She told him, and she recalled a similar conversation she’d had a while ago with Emily. Spencer looked at her with much the same expression; he and Emily were cut from the same cloth, really, neither ever having a family they could ever really rely on. Spencer at least knew his mother loved him. Emily had no such comfort.
“Maybe,” The younger agent nodded, his hand continuing its rhythmic patting of Zoe’s back, “One day.”
Come morning, they were all yawning at breakfast.
“Here you go, kid,” Morgan said, as JJ sat Zoe in the highchair at the table. He had cut the crusts off of his toast and cut a sliver about an inch wide which he put onto the tray in front of her. JJ opened her mouth, ready to protest, but Zoe’s eyes went wide and she reached for it, putting it immediately to her mouth and beginning to suck on the buttery bread.
“Okay, so someone's been weaning this kid.” Emily said, raising an eyebrow as she watched Zoe go to town on her breakfast.
“Who do you belong to, little one?” Hotch said, with surprisingly tenderness. He had his hands wrapped around a cup of strong black coffee, and sighed as he put it to his lips.
JJ’s phone rang.
“Hopefully we’ll get some answers to that today,” she said, glancing at the screen. She waved it at the others, “Social Services.” Putting it to her ear, she stepped away from the table, “Hello? Yes this is Agent Jareau.”
“There’ve been no abductions through the night,” Reid said, passing JJ and returning to the table, slipping his own phone into his pocket as he sat down.
“So we still have nothing?” Emily splayed her hands, feeling helpless, as Morgan dialed Penelope's number.
“Good morning, mama,” He said, and they all heard Penelope’s grumble on the other end of the phone, smiling fondly at the sound of it. Morgan put her on speaker.
“I do have a lead for you, my loves,” she said, to their surprise, “So our unsub has taken five babies in three weeks. That’s a lot of formula to go through-”
“Unless she’s breastfeeding them.” Emily frowned at the phone.
“Exactly what I thought, gumdrop,” She could practically hear Penelope nodding on the other end of the phone, “And I know what the profile says. A woman stealing babies has probably…lost a baby,” she trailed off, sadly, “So, I revamped my search this morning and there were three women who delivered still borns in the last month, but only one before the abductions started.”
“Who is she, Garcia?”
She was Valerie Tierney. 23 years old.
They found her, and four healthy babies, at her grandparents farm an hour outside of town.
Emily watched sadly as they brought her into the station, the chief of police and his officers carrying the babies.
“ Not a daycare,” JJ quoted, beside her, and she allowed herself a small smirk that turned into a warm and emotional smile as she watched a set of parents be reunited with their son.
“This is about as good of an ending as we get, huh?” Emily mused, as Hotch stepped up beside them.
“We won’t see another like it for a while, I expect,” he confirmed, “Where’s Zoe?”
“Sleeping.” Emily turned to JJ, “Social?”
“Coming for her today,” the blonde said, and neither of them missed the sadness in her voice, because they felt it, too.
“So we think that she was abandoned?” In his chest, Hotch felt his heart sink.
“She doesn’t match any descriptions for missing children,” JJ shook her head.
Social services arrived a few hours later and, joyous as they had been watching the babies be reunited with their parents, knowing that Zoe was going not home to an equally loving family, but directly into the system, weighed heavily on all of their hearts.
JJ hugged her tightly to her chest, the scent of babypowder strong in her nose. Turning her around, Zoe’s back to her chest, the others approached to say their goodbyes.
“We won’t forget you, kid,” Morgan told her, letting her hold onto his finger, and grinning when she did so, “So don’t forget us, okay?”
Spencer kissed her chubby cheek, and JJ saw the sparkle of unshed tears in his eyes. She pointedly looked away; she didn’t want him to feel embarrassed. “Good luck.” He whispered, gently, before stepping away and turning his back on them all, staring out of the window. JJ wondered what was going on in his head.
Emily stepped up and offered her hands, a question in her eyes. JJ handed her over without question, and Emily buried her face in Zoe’s downy hair.
“I’m going to miss you, baby,” she said, lifting Zoe up against her chest. The baby’s blue eyes searched over her shoulder, and Hotch stepped up, dropping his own quick kiss onto her head.
“Me too,” he said, gruffly.
“We’ll make sure she’s safe and happy,” the social worker said, from where she stood nearby. Exchanging a glance with Hotch, Emily raised an eyebrow.
“You’d better,” she muttered, under her breath, earning her a subtle glare from her boss.
She manouvred Zoe, ducking her under the handle of the car seat, and buckled her into it.
“She has blankets and diapers and wipes, bottles, formula and some toys in here.” JJ handed the bag over to the social worker, who looked surprised.
“Oh,” she said, with an amused little noise, “It’s not often people take such…care. Usually we just get a call, pick up the kid and that’s it.”
“Yeah, well,” Morgan said, from where he was leaning against a desk, “We’re not most people.”
The social worker nodded, agreeing, and, settling the bag in the crook of her arm, she moved forwards to pick up the carseat.
“Wait,” Emily said, reaching into her pocket. “If anything…if you find her parents, or a family, or if she’s ever in trouble…” she handed over her card, “Just put my name on her file. Please.”
The woman met her eyes, saw all of the emotion there, and, pressing her lips together in somewhat of a grim smile, nodded as she took the card from Emily’s hand. Then she lifted the carseat, and both she and Zoe walked out of their lives.
“And a year later, that’s when you adopted me, right, mom?”
“That’s right, baby,” Emily smiled, deft fingers winding their way through her daughter’s wet hair as she braided it back.
They were sitting in Zoe’s bedroom and, as was customary of a Sunday evening, they’d ordered a pizza, Zoe was bathed and cleaned, hair washed, and then had requested a story, as she always did. This story, the story of how they’d met, was a favourite, and Zoe demanded to hear it in full detail once every couple of weeks. So, sitting on her pink comforter, Emily had recounted it - or, at least, the child-friendly version of it.
“And everyone was so happy that I was back!” Zoe always liked this part of the story best, and Emily’s smile widened into a grin, fastening a bow into the bottom of the braid.
“So happy.” She agreed, winding her arms around Zoe and pulling her back against her chest, in a hug. Zoe’s little hands came up to rest on her mothers arm and she sighed, happily.
“I’m glad you’re my mom,” the six year old said, with a contented sigh. She often made statements like thils; Zoe was much more forthcoming with her emotions than her mother was, and it always caught Emily by surprise. Everytime, she felt a lump rise in her throat, and everytime she couldn’t believe how she ever got so lucky.
“Me too, baby,” she said, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, “Me too.”