"Little do you know" - Hotchniss

all of me

Aaron let out a groan as the cries of one of his daughters interrupted his sleep again. How long had they been asleep? 30 minutes? He had already stopped counting the amount of times they had gotten up that night.

"Who is it this time?", Emily mumbled into her pillow.

"Sounds like Sadie", he replied and sat up.

"I'll go, you went the last time", she said and heavily lifted her legs out of bed. Before he could argue, she already stood in front of the two baby cribs at the other side of their bedroom. It had actually been Sadie who had started crying, but it didn't take long for Avery to wake up, too, so Aaron got up as well and took her out of her crib.

The twins fell asleep again quickly, but it would only be a question of time for them to wake up again.

"I guess I've been very spoiled with Kaia when she was in their age", Emily yawned. "She barely cried."

Hotch let out a chuckle and pulled her into his arms as soon as they had climbed into their bed again.

A few weeks had already passed since they had come home with Sadie and Avery. Everything had been a bit messy at first, since a household with a 9-years-old, a nearly-3-years old, two babies and a super-pissed cat was not very easy to handle. Luckily, everyone had adjusted to the new situation very quickly, well, apart from Sergio who wasn't even used to Kaia and still jealous of her.

The next morning, Hotch opened his eyes as dark curls tickled his nose. He found Emily laying on top of him, her head on his shoulder, her legs and arms sprawled out. A smile formed on his lips and he enjoyed the small moment of silence before all four children would wake up. He would later help Jack and Kaia to get ready, then Emily would drive them to school and to day-care. She always insisted on doing it, and he was totally fine with taking care of the twins in the meantime.

A quick look on his alarm clock told him that it would rang in about 15 minutes and he just hoped that the twins would not wake Emily earlier. She was exhausted, he knew. He was as well, but she often woke up at night, still having nightmares about losing Sadie and Avery. In combination with waking up at least every third hour because of them crying, she missed out a lot of sleep. He did, too, but he had never been a person who needed a lot of sleep.

He started drawing small circles on Emily's back, thinking.

They had decided to wait with the wedding until Sadie and Avery were at least one year old, which would be in approximately 9 months. Rossi had offered them their mansion, and they liked the idea of celebrating there. Both of them weren't fans of huge parties with tons of people, so they had decided to invite their families and close friends, like the team. That were still a lot of people, but they were trying to keep it small.

As the alarm clock rang, he immediately slapped it shut, but he could immediately feel Emily moving.

"Is it already 6:30?", she mumbled against his shoulder.

"I'm afraid it is", he chuckled and she slowly raised her head to look at him. Her hair was messy and her eyes not even completely open.

"Good morning", he smiled.

"Morning", she mumbled and made her way up to his face, kissing him softly.

"You can stay here and I'll wake Jack and Kaia", he offered.

"Are you kidding me?", she yawned. "You had the same amount of sleep as I had, so I can get up, too."

"But I can drink coffee", he grinned.

"Oh, hush", she grinned as well and climbed out of their bed. She took a look at their daughters, who were surprisingly still asleep. "I'm going to wake the others", she smiled at Aaron and left their room, whereas he headed downstairs shortly afterwards to prepare breakfast.

Jack was already awake as Emily entered his room.

"Oh, I was just about to wake you", she smiled as she discovered him sitting on his bed.

"I have an alarm clock", he said proudly.

"I know, but since when do you use it?", Emily asked him.

The boy shrugged. "I guess it would make things easier for you and Dad if you don't have to wake me anymore, I mean, the girls already keep you awake all night, so..."

She was moved by the way how adulterous and caring he already was. He was similar to Aaron in so many ways.

"Oh, buddy", she smiled and sat down at the edge of his bed. "You're growing too fast."

He leaned against her and she wrapped his arms around him as he cuddled up against her. "I'm still going to look after you in the morning", she whispered. "You count the same as the girls, never forget that, okay?"

He looked up to her and smiled as she ruffled his hair.

"And we don't want you to oversleep one day, do we?", she chuckled and he laughed as well. "Talking about it, you should probably really get up now", she added. "Your Dad is already downstairs."

They left Jack's room together, and Emily made her way to Kaia's room. In contrary to Jack's room, hers was still entirely dark and she was still deeply asleep. Emily knelt down to her daughter's bed and softly stroke the dark hair out of her face.

"Sweety, you have to get up now", she whispered and smiled at how Kaia refused to open her eyes. "Do I have to tickle you awake?"

"No!", the girl immediately squealed, since she was as ticklish as her mother.

"Look who's awake", Emily grinned as her daughter slowly opened her brown eyes. "Good morning!"

About half an hour later, Aaron found himself home alone with the twins while Emily drove the other's to school and day-care. Before she had left, they had brought the two to their baby-cribs in the living room. Sadie had quickly fallen asleep again after Emily had breastfed her, but Avery was still wide awake. The conditions were differing a lot, but Dr. Meyer had told them that Sadie would just need some more time and probably get more active in the next few weeks.

He was holding Avery in his arms as they stood in front of the glass front to their garden, watching the birds flying around. Avery followed each one of them with her wide, brown eyes. She was very observing and always found something new should could turn her attention to.

"See that bird there?", he asked her, even though she didn't even understand him. "That's a blackbird. Oh, and these ones are sparrows." Avery replied by babbling happily and a wide smile formed on Hotch's lips.

Happiness gets to those who are not looking for it, happiness gets to those who accept and love what they have in life. Emily and Aaron had not expected to become parents of twins in the very beginning, they had not expected to become parents at all. But in the end, it had been the best thing to happen to them and looking back, neither of them would change anything that had happened, because it brought them happiness.