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Emily Prentiss has never imagined herself as a mother.
As much as she cared for kids, evident in the gentle side of her that shines through whenever they work cases with kids, she never saw it actually coming to fruition in her life, much less with the son of Aaron Hotchner.
She never imagined the friendship that would bloom between the two of them, starting to really flourish after the compound in Colorado, where he sits with her in the back of the ambulance, his jacket wrapped around her shoulders gently.
They start sitting next to each other on the plane, bouncing ideas about their cases back and forth with one another, gravitating towards one another as they work, one or the other always protectively close behind whenever they are apprehending an Unsub.
When Foyet is hunting him and his family down, she is still steady by his side, driving him home after long days at the office after he was stabbed, holding him up after Haley’s funeral and wiping his tears with the pads of her thumbs.
They had always kept a close eye on each other, always staying in the periphery of the other, where he watched as one of the medics patched her head wound up in Milwaukee, where she poured him a glass of wine after his divorce with Haley was finalized.
Even before, when she was still young and wild and he was a promising agent working under her mother, he caught glimpses of her stumbling home in short black dresses, heels in hand and a bubbly laugh rising out of her whenever he tried to carefully guide her back to her bedroom.
They get each other gifts, her wrapping up expensive ties in smooth wrapping paper and him handing her gift bags with special editions of her favorite novels, cards messily scrawled on by Jack slipped in between the pages.
And as her relationship with Aaron grew, so did the one with his little boy, who eagerly seeks her out at team dinners or when he came by to visit the team at the office.
He starts holding her hand instead of Aaron’s when they walk around the park and sits in her lap while they’re waiting for Aaron to wrap up a meeting, spinning in her desk chair and both their laughs spilling out into the bullpen. Aaron invites her to come with them to the zoo and the aquarium and storytimes at the library whenever they’re home from cases, where she hoists Jack onto her hip and he giggles into her hair as they talk animatedly about every animal under the sun.
The drawings Jack makes for her start to decorate Emily’s pinboard, little cars and Lego pieces start to litter her desk drawers, and photographs of Emily and Jack begin to make their way onto Aaron’s desk, ones snapped with her holding him up at a zoo exhibit, ones where they are sharing a banana split and grinning at the camera.
When Aaron and Emily first kiss, alcohol slightly buzzing in their veins that she pours them after Aaron puts Jack to bed, she stays the night, waking up in a tangle of arms and legs in Aaron’s bed, blankets wrapped around their hips.
Jack bounces onto the two of them, delighted to find that Emily stayed, and they make chocolate chip pancakes and Emily helps tie his cleats and they are incredibly late to his soccer practice that morning.
She settles into this new domestic life easily, her clothes starting to take up space in Aaron’s closet, her set of car keys being hung up next to Aaron’s in his foyer. She cuts out Jack’s sandwiches into little stars and triangles, waves goodbye to him next to Aaron when Jessica comes by to pick him up before the two of them head to work.
Emily thinks it’s worth it, that perhaps this is where she was meant to be, especially when she catches the deep dimples in Aaron’s cheeks when he sees her and Jack together, when her cheeks warm as he rubs his thumb across her knuckles underneath a table in whatever precinct they are at.
And then Jack calls Emily his mom for the very first time. It happens as Aaron and Emily take him up to one of the many guest rooms in Dave’s mansion to tuck him in, the entire team staying a little too late for their team dinners.
As Emily pulls a blanket over Jack, he smiles up at her sleepily and says, “Goodnight, mommy.”
Shock flits across Emily’s face, the warm feeling that always is in her chest whenever she’s with Aaron and Jack heightens exponentially, and she feels her heart squeeze as a smile breaks out on Aaron’s face.
“Goodnight, baby.” She whispers back, kissing his forehead before Aaron holds out a hand to help her up from the bed, ruffling his son’s hair as he too wishes him goodnight.
In their own room, Aaron gently wipes away the tears that spill out of the corners of Emily’s eyes, and he promises her that this was something Jack had been wanting to do, that for everything she did, she was the mother figure Jack wanted. He says he doesn’t mind it, that he thinks it’s perfect, and he eases Emily’s worries.
So it continues, the new moniker making Emily giddy every time Jack says it, and she knows she won’t get used to it, helpless as a beaming smile breaks out onto her face as she hears it.
But it happens every now and then, an offhand comment about how Emily isn’t really Jack’s mother, how she’s just someone that Aaron brings home every night.
Normally, it’s a jealous soccer mom at one of Jack’s practices, dressed in a matching gym set, car keys jangling loudly in her hand and screaming for attention, specifically from Aaron.
Emily brushes that off easily, focused on cheering Jack on, and when the little boy’s team wins, her smirk is smug as she floats onto the grassy field, where Aaron wraps his arm around her waist, fingers hooked into the belt loops of her jeans, a kiss pressed to the side of her jaw.
Sometimes it’s a stranger at the grocery store, who raises their eyebrows as Jack asks his mom if they can grab a box of chocolate flavored Frosted Flakes, and Emily shrugs as she tosses the box into their cart, uncaring of people she doesn’t see on a daily basis.
One time, it’s Ambassador Prentiss who makes a comment in passing, says something along the lines of how she’s never expected Emily to be a mother, a snide remark about Aaron being her boss.
Before Aaron can open his mouth to defend Emily, Jack beats him to it, crossing his arms as he frowns. “She’s the bestest mommy ever, so don’t say that because it’s mean!”
Both Aaron and Emily have to fight the laughter that threatens to fall out of their mouths and when they’re back in the car on the way home after an awkwardly silent dinner, Emily turns slightly in her seat to smile at Jack.
“It’s okay, bud. Thank you for sticking up for me. I don’t really get along all that well with my mom, but when she says mean things, I just let it go one ear and out the other.” She says patiently, tapping her ear and Jack giggles.
“It doesn’t make you sad?”
“No, baby,” Emily says softly as she turns back to face the front, Aaron picking up her hand to kiss her knuckles soothingly. “I’m proud to be your mommy, I pinky promise.”
And it’s true.
Emily nevers lets the comments get to her, though Aaron worries it’ll drive her away. She reassures him with firm kisses to his mouth, gentle smiles on her face as she runs her hand down his cheek. She loves Jack like her own, and knows that she is falling in love with Aaron, and soon, she finds herself spending more and more nights at the Hotchner household.
Then it happens, a moment where an uncomfortable feeling starts to spread in her stomach, and it happens at the park, where Emily is pushing Jack on the swings.
“Higher, mommy, higher!”
She obliges, laughing as he kicks his feet, and she pushes a strand of hair away from her face as a man with his own toddler comes up near them, looking at the two of them curiously.
“That your kid?” The man asks casually and Emily smiles politely.
“Yes, he is.”
“Doesn’t look much like you.” He adds, a short laugh coming out of him, and the smile on Emily’s face vanishes.
“He takes after his dad.” She says shortly, gently grabbing the chain of the swing to slow Jack, who looks up at her with a confused look on his face.
“Does he? My son looks like me through and through,” He pats his kid’s head as he places him in the swing. “Makes me proud to be his dad.”
“That’s really great for you.” Emily mutters as she beckons Jack closer so that she can pick him up and he hugs her neck, blinking at her.
“Are we going home already?”
“It’s late, buddy, we have to get going,” Emily smiles down at him as she boops his nose and he giggles slightly. “And Daddy’s waiting for us at the house.”
“Yes,” The man agrees, overhearing their conversation. “Your dad who really looks like you.”
Emily frowns the entire time she drives, uncharacteristically quiet as Jack babbles in the backseat. She stops at McDonald’s to order him an ice cream cup and as he’s licking at his spoon, she reaches back with a napkin to wipe his face.
“Jack?”
“Yeah, mommy?” He stares at her, Oreo crumbs at the corners of his mouth as he swallows his ice cream.
“Does it bother you? That the man at the park said we don’t look alike?”
She’s thinking about the pictures that he draws of them, when he pulls a black crayon from his box to draw her hair versus the bright yellow that he uses to color his, and Jack cuts into her thoughts, giggling.
“No. Daddy has black hair too, remember? And my teacher said that everyone’s families can look different.” Jack smiles at her through his crumbly mouth and she smiles, only slightly assured as she finishes wiping his mouth and they head back home.
Once they’re through the door, Jack waves at Aaron in his office, and he hears them as they go about their nighttime routine, the door to his home office cracked open. He hears her helping Jack stand on his tiptoes as he brushes his teeth, water running in the bathroom sink, giggling alongside him when toothpaste dribbles down his chin. She chases Jack down the hallway of the apartment, their footsteps and laughter bouncing off of the walls, and Aaron puts the folder he’s working on away in the file cabinet before standing to follow.
When he peers through the door to Jack’s bedroom, he smiles at what he sees, staying quiet as Jack jumps on his bed, babbling nonsense to Emily before she catches him, letting him flop down onto his pillows.
“Alright, monkey, it’s time to get to bed.”
“Do I have to?”
The corners of Emily’s lips quirk up as she glances at Aaron, humming. “What do you think, daddy? Does Jack need to get to bed?”
Aaron chuckles as he taps his watch, raising an eyebrow at Jack. “It is getting pretty late and you’ve got soccer tomorrow.”
“We don’t have work tomorrow, Jack Jack, so we can play all day tomorrow after soccer, how about that?” Emily promises and Jack nods eagerly.
“I love you, mommy!” He exclaims as Emily sits at the foot of his bed, pulling his Spiderman blanket up to his chin. Emily smiles softly at him, brushing his bangs away from his forehead.
“I love you too, baby,” Emily kisses his forehead, standing up once she’s placed his stuffed bear under his arm. “Goodnight, sweetie.”
“Mommy?”
“Yes, baby?”
“You like it when I call you mommy, right?” Jack peers up at her from underneath his blanket, the same eyes he’s inherited from Aaron blinking up at her sleepily.
Emily’s smile dims as a confused expression flits across her face. “What do you mean, Jack?”
“Everyone knows you’re my mommy, but sometimes they say you’re not, like that man at the park, and I think it makes you sad because it makes me sad, too,” Jack mumbles, rolling to his side to face them. “I know you’re not my real mommy because she’s in Heaven, but…”
Aaron’s eyebrows raise immediately in alarm when Jack mentions that, but Emily inches back to his bedside, kneeling down to kiss his forehead again, tapping his nose with her finger.
“Oh, Jack, I’m honored to be your mommy, okay? Never, ever think otherwise. Daddy and I love you so, so much.”
Jack seems satisfied by her answer, his eyelids fluttering as the excitement of his evening catches up to him. “Okay, mommy. Love you and daddy so much more!”
Emily smiles as she gently runs her finger across his eyebrows and Aaron comes up behind her to help her get up from the floor, patting Jack’s knee as he also leans over to kiss Jack’s forehead.
“Goodnight, buddy.”
Once they’re in Aaron’s room, he raises an eyebrow at her as he helps her wipe off her makeup, her sitting on the bathroom counter and him in between her legs, tossing the dirty wipe in the trash.
“What man at the park?” He asks, a protective growl in his voice, and Emily shakes her head.
“It was nothing, Aaron, I promise.”
“Em.”
Emily glances up at Aaron, the worry etched into the lines of his face, and she squirms, a frown appearing on her own face.
“It’s nothing– He just said something about how I didn’t look like Jack,” She murmurs. “I don’t know why it bothered me so much. I’ve heard worse.”
She is only slightly embarrassed when a tear slips out the corner of her eye and his expression softens as he lifts up a thumb to wipe it away.
“Jack even said that you and him don’t have the same hair color either, but you have the same eyes. Same smile. Same mannerisms. You can just tell that you’re his dad, you know?” She sniffs, blinking away her tears rapidly and Aaron cups her elbows with his hands, drawing her in for a hug.
“Emily.”
“It just surprised me, that’s all. This random guy at the park?” She barks out a laugh, wrapping her arms around him and she buries her face in the crook of his shoulder, his woodsy, familiar scent blanketing her comfortingly. “It made me think of… I don’t know. I think it’s some deep-rooted trauma where I look exactly like my parents and look where we ended up.”
Aaron shakes his head at her as he looks down at her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Did you just profile yourself, sweetheart?”
She pokes his shoulder and he laughs before straightening himself, rubbing gentle circles into the divots of her hips. “Emily, look at me.”
She does, her eyes flickering up to his, and they’re close enough that their breaths mingle, that she can count his eyelashes as they blink back at her.
“Em, it doesn’t matter whether or not you and Jack have the same hair color or whatever some random says to you, and I know you know that,” He murmurs softly, brushing a strand of her hair away from her face as he tilts her chin up to him. “You’re fantastic with him. He adores you. You spoil him, you do the voices the best for storytime, you know all of the names of his stuffed animals.”
She wipes her nose with a tissue, sniffling again. “Penelope knows the names of all his stuffed animals.”
“She’s not his mom, Em, you are,” He smiles at her. “Even Haley liked you when she was here, liked how patient you were with Jack. He’s lucky to have two moms, one in Haley and one in you here.”
“What really matters is that both Jack and I love you, and that I know for a fact our lives wouldn’t be the same without you in them.”
Emily is listening intently– really, she is– until he says those three little words and her heart stops, because even though she’s been spending more and more time with him, and they fall into each other’s beds even when they are away on cases, and he knows her coffee order by heart and she knows what buttons to push to drive him deliciously insane, they have never said those words to one another yet.
“You love me?” She whispers and Aaron laughs at her in disbelief.
“Sweetheart,” He mutters, kissing her cheek, her jaw, before he hovers above her mouth. “How could I not?”
When they kiss, she feels it, feels the love that pours out for her, and her fingers tangle in the hair at the nape of his neck as she smiles.
“I love you, too,” She whispers. “You and Jack.”
Aaron smiles, nudging her nose with his. “Say it again.”
“I love you.”
Another kiss devastates her, his grip on her hips tightening as she presses closer, his own smile seeping into the lines of his face.
“I love you, Em,” He says as they pull away for a breath, his deep brown eyes staring into hers with a starry gaze.
“Don’t you forget it.”