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There were moments when Emily felt like she had to pinch herself. Her life so beautifully ordinary, the kind of day-to-day that she used to dream of, that she was sure it was just that - a dream.
She couldn’t remember when she fell in love with Aaron. It had snuck up on her slowly, matching her footsteps so it was in sync with her, slowly stitching itself to every part of her until it became so much a part of her she knew she could never be without it, without him. She’d found the family she never thought she’d have, a type of belonging she’d never expected to experience, in the ashes of her old life. Love and acceptance and joy with her boss and his little boy had found her just when it felt like all was lost, and that the old Emily Prentiss, who may as well have been buried in the empty grave that had borne her name, was gone forever.
She supposed in some ways, she was. The old Emily hadn’t ever felt love like this. Maddening and addictive and overwhelming in a way she’d once thought was impossible, something reserved for fairytales and books that sold love as a prize to people who didn’t know any better. The old Emily hadn’t been someone’s wife. She hadn’t had to think about someone else so entirely, hadn’t compromised over tiny things she once would have called insignificant that were now important.
The old Emily hadn’t been a mother.
Loving Jack was the easy part. He was a mini Aaron with flashes of Haley holding him together like a fine gold thread. Tiny pieces of the woman Emily wishes she could know better so she could know Jack better. Loving him was easy, but being his mother wasn’t. She worried about him all the time, worried she wasn’t enough, that she was somehow messing it all up. But every time he smiled at her, or hugged her, or called her mom it made it all worth it.
Being Jack’s mom had taught her she could do it, that she didn’t have a piece of her missing, doomed to repeat her own mother’s mistakes in a cycle as vicious as the world she’d grown up in.
It was why when she found out she was pregnant, after months of trying, the joy and excitement were replaced with a sense of calm. An assurance that she wasn’t expecting, that she knew wouldn’t last the entire pregnancy, washing over her as she stood in the bathroom holding the positive test.
Any confidence she had that she knew what she was doing, that she could do this, disappeared the moment her doctor told her she was having twins.
Emily immediately spotted on her doctor’s face that she’d seen something she hadn’t expected. Aaron had picked up on it too, his hand tight around hers as the doctor’s brows furrowed for half a second before she smiled at them, turning the screen towards them so they could look.
Twins.
She blows out a steady breath as she looks at the ultrasound picture in her hands, her finger trailing over two distinct blobs that were her babies, and she feels anxiety twisting in her gut.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Aaron asks as he places his hand on her thigh, the weight of his palm against her comforting, and she nods, her lips pressed together as she continues to stare at the picture in her hands.
“Yeah,” she replies, swallowing thickly as she looks up at him, “Just…processing,” she says, letting her head fall back against the couch. She tilts her head to look at him and a smile breaks free across her face as he cups her jaw, his thumb tracing back and forth over her cheek, “I’m so happy,” she says, shaking her head in disbelief, “So happy but also so overwhelmed.”
Aaron smiles at her and leans down, pressing a kiss to her lips as he holds her in place, his hand still on her jaw, “I know, Em. Me too. But we’ll figure it all out,” he kisses her again before he pulls back, his smile wry, “The team are going to lose their minds.”
She feels her eyes go wide at the mention of the team, at their reaction to the fact they were not only pregnant but were having twins, and she blows out a steady breath. She loved their friends, she really did, but they were involved in everything, her love of keeping parts of her life private, something she knew her husband also shared, almost impossible at times.
This pregnancy was always going to be hard on her with her age and medical history, but she knew it would be even harder now. More risk, more chance of complication, and she didn’t want anything to make that even harder on her. She looks back and forth between the ultrasound picture and her husband, and she smiles as she feels an idea start to come together, “What if we don’t tell them?”
Aaron watches her carefully, trying to figure out if she’s joking or not. She looks up at him, an earnest look in her eyes and he clears his throat, well aware that he’d have to choose his next few words carefully.
“Sweetheart,” he says, his smile soft, “How would we hide it when you start to show? Even people who aren’t profilers would probably figure it out.”
She rolls her eyes at him and lightly slaps his shoulder, “Not the pregnancy,” she says as if it’s obvious, and she points at her still flat stomach as she carries on, “The fact there are two of them in there.”
He’s intrigued by the idea, by the thought of having something that was just between them and those who needed to know, so he looks at her thoughtfully, “What makes you want to do that?”
She sits up straighter, turning so she’s facing him, her knees against his thigh, and she places her hand on his arm, “Think about it - Pen has been harassing me to get pregnant so much I think she might actually have been a month or two away from breaking in here to poke holes in any condoms she might have found,” she says, only partially joking, “Imagine what she’d be like if she knew we were having two babies. And Dave would be insufferable. Derek makes fun of me for everything, and Spencer would spend the next several months telling me all the horrible things that could happen to either me or the babies because he just can’t help himself-”
“Em-” he says, trying to cut her off because she’s started to spiral, but she just carries on, her eyes wide as she rambles.
“And JJ would just about be the only normal one, but I’m going to spend my entire pregnancy comparing myself to her anyway, and I’m so much older than she was when she had-”
“Em,” he says a little firmer this time, his hand on her arm as he cuts her off, his smile soft as their eyes meet, “Okay.”
She furrows her brows for a second, her brain taking a moment to catch up, “Okay?”
He stamps a kiss against her lips, “Okay, we won’t tell them it’s twins,” he says, placing his hand on her stomach, “You’re the pregnant one. If that’s what you want, that’s what we’ll do.”
She sighs in relief, her body almost sagging with it, as she all but collapses into his side, smiling as he pulls her into a hug, “Thank you,” she says, tilting her head to look at him, “It will be so much less stressful.”
He smiles knowingly at her and tucks some of her hair behind her ear. He raises an eyebrow at her and shakes his head slightly, “And of course, you can have some fun with it.”
Her smile turns wicked, and her stomach rolls again, a rush of love for him, for how well he knows her, briefly overwhelming.
“That too.”
___
By the time she’s 28 weeks pregnant she’s so uncomfortable she has no idea how she’s going to cope with the two months she has left. Her doctor had decided it was best for her to be induced at 36 weeks, the safest option for both Emily and the babies, but it still felt like it was a long way off.
She’s walking, not waddling no matter what Derek said, back to her desk from one of her many bathroom breaks a day when she hears it. The team were all gathered around Spencer’s desk, all seemingly thinking that they were talking over each other quietly even though she could hear them, passing money to Derek who was filing it away.
“It’s a girl. Definitely.”
“Don’t be stupid, it’s a boy. My mom always says you can tell from the shape of the bump. Princess is carrying low. So boy.”
“It has to be a girl. We have Henry and Jack, now we need a BAU girl.”
She clears her throat, and fights a smile when she watches them all freeze. She raises her eyebrow at them as they turn to look at her and she places one of her hands on her bump. One of the twins shifts beneath her hand and she narrows her eyes at her friends.
“Are you betting on what I think you’re betting on?”
Spencer stutters and Penelope avoids her gaze. Eventually, Derek clears his throat and answers, “It’s just a friendly betting pool,” he says, looking more confident than he sounds, “We did it before we found out JJ was having a boy.”
JJ frowns, looking back and forth between her friends, “You did?”
Emily presses her lips together to hide a smile, her mischievous side taking over, “How much are you all putting in?”
“$50,” Dave answers, “We’re also guessing on weight. Closest weight and correct guess on the sex wins.”
She hums and nods, “I can do $50,” she says, walking to her desk and pulling out her wallet.
“Wait, you can’t play,” Derek says, frowning at her as she looks back up at him, “It’s cheating.”
“I’m the one the kid is living inside of,” she says, pointing to her bump, “I should be able to have a little fun.”
“Don’t hate the player, sweet cheeks,” Derek says, shrugging, “Hate the game.”
“Em and Hotch aren’t finding out what they are having,” JJ says, “It does seem unfair to not let her play.”
“Surely she’s more likely to get it right.”
“Actually the odds are still the same,” Spencer says, shrugging, “Still 50/50.”
Derek sighs and then nods at Emily, rolling his eyes at her smirk as she passes him $50, “What’s your guess then, Princess?”
“Boy,” she says, not missing how Derek and Dave both celebrate as he seemingly agrees with them. “5lbs, 8 ounces.”
“Really?” Spencer says, looking up at her from the paper where Derek was writing down all the bets, “That’s a little small given the size of your bump alread…” he trails off as she raises an eyebrow at him, and he clears his throat, “I mean, 5 and a half pounds, good guess.”
She hums, “Smart boy,” she exchanges a smile with JJ, “I’m going to go up to see Aaron, see if I can convince him to take me out to lunch.”
She shakes her head and smiles as she hears her friends carry on as she climbs the stairs, each of them guessing a higher weight than she knew either of her babies was likely to be born weighing. She groans as walks into Aaron’s office and lowers herself onto the couch, her hand on her bump as she tries to get comfortable.
“I might have to start working up here,” she grumbles, looking over at her husband, “My desk chair was not built for this much of me.”
Aaron smiles as he gets up from his desk and walks over to join her, “You can work up here any time,” he says. He sits down and puts his arm around her, pulling her closer and placing his hand on her bump, allowing both of them more physical contact than they would usually have in the office, “And we’ll get you a better chair,” he stamps a kiss to her temple, “I have it on good authority the boss is quite fond of you.”
She chuckles wryly, linking her hand with his and moving it to where she can feel one of the babies moving, “He’d better be,” she says, lowering her voice so only he can hear her, “I’m carrying his litter.”
He hides his smile in her hair, knowing it is best not to get caught, and changes the subject, “Did I hear you betting on whether we’re having a boy or a girl?”
She pulls back and smiles, “The others were betting on it and I wanted in,” she says, shrugging one of her shoulders, “And I’m the one literally doing all the heavy lifting - why shouldn’t I make some money.”
He smiles widely at her, his life for her threatening to burst out of his chest, his whole body thrumming with it, “And the fact we know we’re having one of each doesn’t play into this at all?”
She narrows her eyes and shushes him, her eyes flicking to the door to make sure no one in the bullpen would have heard him, “Okay, so why shouldn’t I make some easy money,” she says, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she bites her lip, “You know…I said boy, five and a half pounds. If you go down there and bet on us having a girl and say a lower weight than the others then we’ll make a lot of money off of them.”
There’s a beat of silence and she can see a whole range of emotions flash across his face before he smiles and leans forward to kiss her forehead before he stands up, “I’ll be right back.”
She chuckles as he walks out of his office, purpose in every step, and she looks down at her bump, “Daddy is so silly,” she says, her smile getting wider when she feels a sharp kick, “But we love him anyway.”
___
Emily hums softly as she rocks the small bundle in her arms. She didn’t know it was possible to be so happy yet so exhausted at the same time, but as she looks down at her newborn son’s face she knows everything she’d been through the last several months, every moment of discomfort and pain, was worth it.
She looks at the clock on the wall and smiles before she looks back at her newborn, “Mommy and Daddy’s friends will be here soon, Issac,” she says, lifting him to kiss his forehead, wincing slightly as the movement pulls at her c-section incision, “They are going to be so surprised to meet you and your sister.”
She still couldn’t believe that they’d pulled it off, that they’d made it through the whole pregnancy and the five days since the twins were born without the team finding out. She’d finally relented and told them to come over, instructing JJ to let them in with the key she had for emergencies when they arrive. There was a part of her that wanted to keep her baby bubble, to just be her, Aaron, the twins and Jack, who was currently out with Jessica, but she also wanted to show off her children, to let them meet the people she knew would love them entirely.
She hears a knock on the front door and feels her cheeks go warm, excitement and nervousness flooding through her in equal measure. Aaron was upstairs with Olivia, a well timed diaper change meaning it was just her and Issac downstairs, and she blows out a steady breath before she calls out.
“Come in.”
There’s a brief pause before she hears the door open, excited whispers filtering through the house, and she shakes her head at her friends. Unsurprisingly, Penelope is first to walk into the room, rooted to the spot just inside the doorway when she catches sight of Emily sitting on the couch, an almost impossibly tiny baby in her arms.
“Oh, Peaches,” she says, tears immediately spilling out onto her cheeks as she walks over to get a better look, the rest of the team not far behind her, “Look at you.”
“Hi,” Emily says softly, her chest so full of love she can’t quite breathe properly, tears she’s not even angry at herself for gathering in her eyes, “Everyone this is Issac,” she says, looking down at her son before she looks back at her friends, “Issac this is everyone.”
“He’s beautiful, Em.”
Emily opens her mouth to reply but stops when she spots her husband in the doorway, their daughter safely snuggled in his arms, and she winks at him, giving him the go-ahead to announce his arrival and break the secret they’d so dutifully protected for months.
“Hi,” he says, and everyone turns to look at him, smiling at him for a moment before they turn back to Emily.
“Hi, Hotch.”
“Aaron.”
“Congrats, man.”
There’s a beat of silence, a moment of peace in the room, before all hell breaks loose and everyone turns to look back at Aaron, their eyes fixed on Oliva sleeping in his arms.
“What?” Penelope asks, finding her voice first, looking back and forth between Issac in Emily’s arms and Olivia in Aaron’s, “I…what?”
“Whose baby is that?” Spencer asks, his confusion clear, and Emily laughs, the sound loud enough to draw all of their attention back to her.
“That is Issac’s twin sister, Oliva,” she says, pressing her lips together to try and suppress her smile, “Surprise.”
The room falls into silence again, different arrays of shock and confusion across everyone's faces.
“You were pregnant with twins?” Dave asks, his hands on his hips, and Emily nods in confirmation, “I knew it.”
She rolls her eyes as Aaron walks over, taking a seat next to her on the couch, “No you didn’t Dave.”
He chuckles, “Okay, no I didn’t,” he says, sitting down in the armchair next to him, “You two are worryingly good at lying.”
“First off, I used to be a spy, and secondly it technically wasn’t lying…more like being selective with the truth,” she says, narrowing her eyes at her husband when he chuckles next to her.
“And why were you, selective with the truth?” Derek asks, crossing his arms over his chest, “Don’t you trust us?”
She sighs and rocks Issac a little more, something she knows is more of a comfort for her than the sleeping infant, “Of course we trust you. It’s just this was a big thing and…we wanted to keep it to ourselves to reduce stress in an already stressful situation.”
JJ sits on the arm of the couch to get a closer look at the babies and she hums, “I can understand that,” she squeezes Emily’s shoulder, “I still can’t believe you were pregnant with twins,” she says, scrunching her nose up as Emily turns to look at her, “Now I think I hate you even more for how good you looked the entire time.”
Emily laughs and she feels her cheeks go red, “Well, I definitely didn’t feel good by the end I can tell you that much.”
Aaron clears his throat, cutting Derek off from asking another question, and he tilts his head towards Penelope, “I know we have a lot of questions to answer, but I think if Garcia doesn’t get to hold one of them soon she might go into orbit.”
Everyone turns to look at the technical analyst, who was so excited she was practically vibrating, and she holds her hands out, not having to be asked twice, “Gimme.”
Emily sits forward and passes over Issac, “Here, he’s a little more chilled out than she is,” she says, wincing as she settles back onto the couch, turning to smile gratefully at her husband as he helps her, “Livvy is a bit more vocal in demanding what she wants.”
As if she knows she’s being spoken about, Olivia starts to cry, making all the adults in the room chuckle, and Aaron immediately passes her over to Emily, aware even only a few days in what his daughter wants.
“I think we all know who takes after who,” Dave quips and Emily narrows her eyes at him, which makes the smile slip off his face, “Well, if it makes you feel better Bella, you aren’t any less intimidating holding a newborn than you are holding a gun.”
She smiles at him, “That does make me feel better,” she says, as she rests Olivia against her chest before she in turn rests against Aaron, sighing contentedly as he wraps his arms around her. She keeps an eye on her son, the baby boy surrounded by his aunts and uncles, each one of them doting on him already, and she turns her head to look at Aaron, unsurprised to find him looking at her, “I love you.”
“Love you too,” he replies, kissing her temple, his grip on her tightening just a little.
“Wait a minute,” Derek asks, looking up from Issac, his brow furrowing as he looks at the couple on the couch, “Does this mean you both fixed the bet so you’d win?”
Emily shrugs nonchalantly and bites the inside of her cheek to stop herself from smiling, her hand rubbing soothing circles on her daughter’s back.
“Don’t hate the player sweet cheeks,” she says, winking at him, “Hate the game.”