Surreal. That's what this was. Having her here, in his house, again, was surreal. It's not that it hadn't happened every night in his dreams, well technically every night since she'd left- he'd run her off?- but to actually have it happen? Surreal.

But, there she was, their daughter settled between her and his son, the three of them quietly reading while he did the dishes. Not that he minded, the scene was the perfect picture of domesticity that he loved for his family, but it was, after all, surreal.

Hotch could hear snippets of the book she was reading him, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, he believed, and he tried desperately to hear her soft voice over the clink of the dishes he was no longer drying. Then, abandoning the task all together, he joined them on the couch, wondering if he was welcome on his own leather lazy-boy, snack strewn as it was.

"Hi daddy," Jack said in his soft, all too sweet little boys voice, as he lifted the six year old off the couch and placed him in his lap, Emily having readjusted Sarah into her lap, while maintaining her control over the novel in her hand and her even tone as she kept reading, Jack stretching his body across his accommodating fathers lap and into that of his baby sister and his surrogate mothers lap.

"Should I say something?" He questioned himself. "I'm sorry would be a good start." He answered himself. The internal battle raged as Hotch listened, Emily read, and in no time at all, both of their children fell fast asleep. As much as Hotch wanted to maintain this moment, the four of them a picture out of "Home and Living," Emily soft recitation was interrupted by the harmonious snores of the two children in their laps.

"We should put them to bed." Aaron looked up, into the soft brown eyes he loved, the face he adored and wanted nothing more than to lean over and capture her lips with his, but he wasn't sure it was his right anymore.

"We should," she replied. By unspoken agreement, she took Sarah, he carried an ever growing Jack to the race car bed, and within minutes they met back in the hall, two soft even breaths meeting them in the hall.

"Hi." He whispered. Hoping against all hope that she wouldn't slap him, which was her right, and instead just say hi back. A guy could hope. Couldn't he?

"Hi," she whispered back. "I should go."

Aaron was a little shocked, and took a miniscule step back, trying desperately not to sound desperate as he begged her to stay. Without begging her as well.

"Thank you, Emily, for finding him." He said, a little loudly before covering his mouth with his hand, a smile gracing her features as she smiled at his actions.

"It was nothing. Honestly Aaron, looking back it was the most obvious place he would be. But looking back, profiling a six year old is pretty difficult."

They both laughed at that, and Aaron was relieved to see her lean back against the doorframe to Sarah's room, and he did likewise to Jack's, hoping once more that she would be staying.

"I'm sorry, Emily. I know that's not enough, I just, I'm so sorry."

Instantly she was in his arms. Knowing that this wasn't the response that he'd been expecting, but she had wanted to be there for so long. His hesitation was miniscule, but as he wrapped his strong arms around her, his hands resting at the bottom of her hips, on the top of her bottom, a familiar position for the two of them.

"It's okay Aaron." She whispered into his neck, breathing deeply of his scent, keeping her face buried in his neck and her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

"No it's not okay; I shouldn't have let you leave. I should have followed you, I should have..." For him, this was rambling.

She pulled back, and looked him in the eye "No. Well, maybe yes, to all of that, but no. This is okay."

"Let's move away from the sleeping children." She said again, pulling him with her, back towards the bedroom.

She gripped his fingers in her, and when they sat together on the couch, she was practically in his lap as she faced him, his arms firmly around her as they looked at each other.

"What happened?" She asked, holding him tightly to her, wanting to hear his whole story.

"You and I, we got pregnant off of one drunken night." She nodded, running her fingers through the tendrils of hair at his, soothing then tension that had come into his body as he started talking.

"Not that I mind, we got Sarah, and somewhat on an even level, I got you, but it's Sarah. Haley and I tried for so long, so hard to have a baby, and Jack's pregnancy was a difficult one."

"So?" She asked, wondering what he was getting at.

"I think I got mad and wrongly so, that you had given that away." She could feel the tension come back into his body, but since that weird dream in the hospital, she'd learn to be okay with what she'd done. She doesn't regret it, never will if that baby boy and Matthew were together, but she also wouldn't trade Aaron, Sarah and Jack for those memories.

"I'm sorry I just assumed." He said, leaning his head forward to kiss her cheek, and she turned and leaned her forehead against his.

"Do you want to know the story?" She asked him, fingers digging into the muscles in his shoulders, working out the tension there.

He nodded and, wrapped his arms more tightly around her.

"I was young, trying to be popular in a new place, and the way to do that was sex. I was a teenager, hardly ready to be a parent, so I did what I had to. I know that it's hard for some people, but I don't regret it. I wish sometimes, to have met the baby, but he's in a better place now."

His body didn't move or tense, just shifted itself closer to her, and it was him who rested against her, breathing her in. She thought it was a little odd that they had shifted from not talking to sitting on his lap on the couch, but she had missed this, just being with him.

"I'm sorry I judged you." He said softly to the skin of her neck.

"Me too Aaron." She said, turning to kiss him softly on the lips.

He kissed her back, and she turned more fully into him, missing the way that their bodies fit together, and the way that he filled all that was within her. Though sex was definitely off the table for right now, she missed this.

"Emily?" He broke his lips away from hers, and she gazed into the endless depths of his chocolatey eyes, and felt the love that she ad for the man.

"Yes Aaron?"

"I love you. More than anything in the world."

"Except your kids, right?" She teased him.

He got a thoughtful look on his face, and opened his hand, the rough tips of his fingers playing at the hemline of her shirt, and barely scraping the skin there.

"Maybe." He replied, kissing her again.

They stayed that way for a while, softly kissing each other, their motions not going any farther than that, when her phone rang through the apartment. She jumped from his lap quickly to gather the offending device and its loud noises, but it was too late Sarah cried awake, and Aaron rushed to their baby as she answered the phone.

"Prentiss."

"Emily, are you okay?" JJ's voice rang through the phone, the worry evident in her tone and question.

"Yeah, JJ, I'm sorry. I'm with Aaron." Just then Sarah's wail cut through the apartment. "And the now awake kids."

"Sorry Em, you just didn't call, and haven't come back yet. You okay there?" She asked, the worry gone from her voice, and the gentle teasing back in it.

"We were fine, then you called." She replied, teasing back.

"Fine then. Details in the morning." Emily clicked her phone off, just in time to a sleepy faced Jack, rubbing his eyes and yawning coming out of his room. Pocketing the phone, she went to him and picked him up, cradling his small body against hers, felt happiness bubble through her as he laid his head against her shoulder.

"Hey buddy, what are you doing up?" She asked him, rubbing her hand up and down her back, a time tested method to make the small boy fall back to sleep.

"Sarah's loud when she cries." He said, sleep already coming back into his voice and body.

"I know, let's get you back to bed."

"Wanna sleep in daddy's bed." He mumbled.

She walked him down the hall towards the bedrooms, holding him tight, never stopping her movements on his back.

They met in the hall, Aaron with Sarah, a bottle in her mouth who was already half asleep, and her with Jack, who was also almost back to sleep.

"He said he wants to sleep in your bed."

"Who was on the phone?" They spoke at the same time, laughing a little.

"JJ."

He nodded and motioned with his head into the bedroom, and back to his bed.

"Put him down."

Emily did as asked, and moved into his room, skilfully pulling back the covers and laying Jack's small body under the blankets, but he wouldn't let her go. "Stay, momma." Jack sleep mumbled, and Emily's heart melted.

"You can you know." Aaron replied, standing behind her at the foot of the bed, still rocking Sarah who was cradled in his arms.

"Are you sure?" How she wanted to, but wasn't this too soon?

"Please?" It was Jack who had swayed her with his too adorable voice.

"Sure buddy, can you let me go to get some pyjama's on?"

"Okay." He mumbled, let go of her neck and instantly fell asleep as he rolled to the middle of the bed, light child snores filling the bed.

"I'll go lock up." Aaron said a satisfied smile on his face as he held Sarah.

Emily nodded, and grabbed some of her old things from the same drawer they had been in when she left weeks ago. Coincidentally they were clothes that used to be his. A faded Harvard Law t-shirt and some maroon basketball shorts to match. She changed in the bathroom, brushed her teeth, her hair and washed her face. When she came out of the ensuite, he was in the room, shirtless and babyless, she stopped in the doorway and stared at him.

Looking at his chest, marred with scars, she realized that they were both scarred, in many ways. Before he could done a shirt, she moved to him and placed her hands on all of scars. Not something that she hadn't done before, but this time felt different. Maybe it's because they were different, or she was different, or whatever. All Emily knew was that she loved this man, their children in the bed, and the fact that Jack had called her 'Momma' had a lot to do with that.

"Let's go to bed."