take me to church (emily prentiss)

3. thirty three

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"it's never too late to be who you wanna be." - summer bummer, lana del rey

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Liv was bored.

It was the second Saturday of April and she was bored. The weather was nice, so, Colin and Ziggy had taken Shadow to the dog park in town to waste away the afternoon. Dave and Emily were away on a case, and Delilah worked most weekends now she was working with Evie again.

Delilah worked more with Evie than she had with the BAU, but Delilah came home every single night in this job. Liv saw her sister every single morning and every single night to make sure she was okay, and Evie made sure Delilah kept in touch with Liv if they weren't going to be home.

Evangeline Lacey was someone Liv didn't know how to feel about.

On one hand, Evie was basically Delilah's mentor. Evie had trained Delilah to withstand the things she saw on a daily basis, had trained her sister to survive whatever happened in Thailand. She had brought Delilah home to Liv. Even now, she'd returned to Virginia so Delilah could work under somebody she trusted, so she could have someone on her side in that building after what Hotch did to her.

She had trained Delilah to survive through the PTSD in ways that Liv couldn't. Evie also had the background to go with it and help build trust with Delilah. Liv didn't know specifics, but Delilah had said Evie got it, all those years ago back in two thousand.

Evie came for dinner most nights. Evie picked Delilah up and dropped her home, most nights. Evie spent time with the family and even Emily liked her. Ziggy liked her, too.

Even with Evie being the reason Delilah hated workcest, Liv liked her.

On the other hand, Evie was keeping Delilah from their family.

Well, that sounded wrong when Liv thought about it. It wasn't so much that Evie was taking Delilah from the family. The job was taking her from the family.

Delilah had spent three and a half months on medical leave before going back to work. Ziggy had gotten used to Delilah being a constant presence every day at home. So had Liv. It was weird, now, whenever Delilah wasn't here.

It upset Ziggy.

The boy wouldn't admit it, but Liv noticed. All the improvements they'd made with getting Ziggy to sleep independently had stuck, but he regressed in other areas. He seemed quieter around them, even if he gave in to Evie's jokes after a while with a reluctant laugh. He also seemed to get grumpy whenever Evie came to pick Delilah up in the mornings.

On the nights Evie stayed over, Ziggy point blank refused to leave his bedroom the next morning until he heard Delilah calling goodbye up the stairs to him. He tried to pass it off as just sleeping in late, but Liv could hear him moving around in his room and she just knew.

She tried to bring it up a few weeks ago, but he'd just left the room. Liv didn't bring it up again. She did mention Evie's name to his therapist when dropping him off to a session, and she'd nodded in recognition, so Liv knew he was talking to somebody about this, at least, which meant she'd leave it alone until Ziggy wanted to discuss it with Liv.

On the bright side, though, Ziggy had continued to warm up to Emily. Now he was spending most nights in his own bed, Emily could actually spend the night at the house. On the nights she was away working, Ziggy would still slip into Liv's room so she wasn't lonely, but Liv loved that Ziggy was comfortable enough to let Emily help wake him up and bring him down for breakfast in the mornings.