Author's note: Everyone. Thank you so much for reading this far and for all your support up to this point. I'm going to ramble later but for now, I hope you like the final chapter…

When Emily woke up, she opened her eyes with some trepidation, expecting to still be exhausted. She was surprised to find herself wide awake, and she smiled as Jack started to stir a little in her arms. "Morning sunshine," she said quietly, looking over his head at Hotch, who was clearly awake but lying there with his eyes closed.

"Morning," Jack mumbled.

"Do you feel better?"

He sat up cross legged between her and Hotch and smiled. "Yeah. No more bad dreams. Time to get up, dad," he added cheerfully, patting Hotch's face.

He groaned, but opened his eyes and sat up. "Good morning."

"Can we have breakfast?"

"How about pancakes?"

"Yesyesyes."

"Okay buddy, you go get ready."

Jack leapt off the bed and bounded out of the room and they stared after him for a few seconds. "Do you think we ever had that much energy?" Emily said.

"I'm sure you did," Hotch replied. "But I was born in a suit at the age of thirty-five, so…"

She laughed, and leaned over to press a quick kiss to his lips. "How do you feel?" she said softly. "Sometimes it's easier to say stuff in the dark than face it in the light…"

"I'm okay," he said. Which was pretty much true. He couldn't have said it to anyone but Emily and he didn't plan to ever say it again, but for now he felt okay. He held his arms out and she crawled over and wrapped herself into them, hugging hard. "What about you?" he mumbled into her hair.

There was a long pause, then she said, "It's weird. I'm still…" She shrugged. She'd been avoiding dealing with it for so long she was bound to fall apart eventually, and she felt like it might take a long time to get herself completely back together. "I don't know. But I'm okay. I feel okay."

He tilted her face up and kissed her forehead. "I meant it, you know. I know all of this is new, and I don't want to rush anything and mess it up. But I can see us being a family… And adding to it. If you wanted to, when you're ready…" She kissed him again, and he felt the smile on her lips.

"Come on," she said, swinging herself out of bed, blinking away tears. "You promised a little boy pancakes."

"Just the little boy?"

"Well…"

He stood in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the frame and just watching them. Emily had insisted on cleaning up after breakfast, and Jack had insisted on helping. He'd taken the opportunity to go upstairs and get ready, and when he came back everything was clean and Emily was showing Jack how to make banana smoothies. Jack stood on his step, breaking up a banana and putting the pieces in the blender. Emily high-fived him, getting banana mush all over her hand, and he squealed when she threatened to put it in his hair.

Hotch grinned – actually grinned, so widely his face kind of hurt. She looked so damn good in his t-shirt and her shorts, and Jack was chatting away to her happily, messing around with her as if he'd known her forever. It was hard to believe this was only the second time he'd met her since the start of their relationship. Hell, he'd crawled into bed with her last night without a second thought… Emily topped the blender up with milk and pulled it forward so Jack could press the button. She turned round, caught Hotch watching her and they exchanged soft, uncharacteristically soppy smiles as she cleaned the banana from her hands with a kitchen towel. He could definitely get used to this.

They were sitting on the floor playing Junior Scrabble and drinking banana smoothies when Hotch's phone started ringing. Emily groaned. "Work?"

"I don't know," he said, flashing them both an apologetic look as he got up. He turned to them from the doorway, watching Emily giving Jack a hint as he stared intently at his tiles. "Hotchner."

"Sir. Hi."

"Garcia – is everything okay?"

"Yes, sir, no case, it's all good. This is about that celebration I said I'd be arranging."

"I see."

"I've arranged it."

"Oh?"

"Uh huh." Her voice was cheerful, confident, and he couldn't help smiling. "So I'll see you at Rossi's at five. You can bring Jack – JJ and Will are bringing Henry, and he's already chosen which bedroom he's sleeping over in, so there'll be little-boy-sized company there."

"I -" He smiled as Emily caught his eye with a quizzical expression, obviously still trying to figure out whether they had to go to work. "Okay," he said. "We'll be there."

"Excellent." There was a pause, and he could hear her grin as she added, "Will there be any need for me to call Emily?"

He smiled and dropped his head as his cheeks warmed. "I'll let her know."

"Emily, come and play!"

Jack tugged on her hand, and she gave Hotch's hand a quick squeeze then let go, allowed herself to be pulled outside where JJ and Henry were waiting with a soccer ball. She ruffled Henry's hair and they started kicking the ball around. Hotch followed them outside and leaned against the wall, watching.

"Told you so," Rossi said smugly, handing him a beer and a bottle opener.

He shook his head, smiling, opened the beer and took a sip.

"They're getting along well," Rossi continued. "Looks like Jack is a fan." He paused, watching. Jack passed the ball to Henry, who kicked it into the bushes, raised his hands in the air and shouted 'GOAL!'. Jack accepted this turn of events easily, grinning and turning to Emily for a high-five. She laughed and celebrated with him, and when she turned to share the moment with JJ her eyes were sparkling, her smile radiant. "Looks like Emily's a fan of Jack too."

"Yeah," Hotch said, smiling. "I think she is." Jack ran to retrieve the ball from the bushes and emerged still grinning. He handed the ball to Henry and Hotch felt pride swell in him when he saw his only child sharing so well. "What's not to love?" he added, with a quirk of his eyebrows.

After the boys had gone to bed, everybody drifted outside and Rossi put on some music. The darkness settled around them, his outdoor lighting making everything kind of beautiful. He liked the outside of his home better than the inside at night, especially when he filled it with music and family.

This time, when Hotch and Emily met to dance, there was no hesitation. They smiled and twirled. He dipped her and she laughed, then tucked herself close to his body, content to bed held and led. Garcia grabbed Reid and pulled him up to dance with her, and Morgan joined Rossi at the table. "They look happy," he said after a while. "Hotch and Emily." Rossi turned to him, eyebrows raised, trying to figure out if he'd missed hidden undertones in that statement or if there really weren't any. "What?" Morgan said, a little defensively. "They do."

Rossi nodded. "They look like they're in love."

"And she's good with Jack."

"Yep. Not as bad as you thought, is it?"

Morgan turned to him and scowled, and Rossi raised his eyebrows. "No," he conceded. "I was a little harsh…"

JJ appeared from inside and sat down on Morgan's other side. "Will's inside checking on the boys…" She saw the look on Morgan's face and stopped. "Sorry, am I -?"

"Nah," Morgan said. "I was just admitting to being a little hasty on the whole Hotch and Emily thing."

"Ah," she said. "Yeah, you were kind of a jerk about it."

He laughed. "Profiler JJ pulls no punches."

She shrugged, smiling. "Pulling punches got old."

When Rossi gathered them around the table for a toast, Emily blushed furiously. "Rossi, you don't -"

"Quiet," he said, with a kind of cheerful authority, motioning for them all to sit.

She sighed and sat down, smiling down at the table. Hotch laughed, his hand settling on her thigh.

"I'd like to make a toast," Rossi began ceremoniously, milking Emily's embarrassment for all it was worth. "We're gathered here today because the two stubbornest people I know have admitted something I've known for years, and lit up the world with a little more love in the process. To Aaron and Emily – I told you so."

They clinked glasses, chorusing 'told you so', and despite her embarrassment Emily was pleased to see that everyone was grinning, laughing. Hotch smiled, the blush in her cheeks so irresistible that he pressed a kiss there, ignoring Garcia's exaggerated 'awwwww!'. "We weren't that obvious, right?" he muttered into her ear.

"Profilers," she whispered back.

Thank you so much for reading! This is the final chapter ofIn the Dark, but I've got several paragraphs of the sequel written already (couldn't have all this talk of expanding the family then just stop, right?) so look out for that. And I'm doing a30 Day Drabble Challengewhich is getting lots of Hotch/Prentiss because I just can't help it, aaaand I've got something else in the works too that's going to take some time so I'm going to start after my finals. Plus oneshots when the plot bunny bites. This was my first fic and I still can't quite wrap my head around the fact people are actually reading it, so thank you all – you're amazing and you've definitely given me the bug. I hope you like this chapter and please leave reviews, and I hope you stick around for what comes next :) MUCH LOVE!