A/N: Taking time for myself this school year has paid off really, really well! I have tried to work with my busy schedule to come up with another couple of concepts for stories, which I will probably share on Twitter ( flunkykepner). Anyway, here is chapter 6! Read & review, please!

Another week had come and gone and everything had stayed the same. JJ had come home from the hospital and left Grace for just a few hours. There were 6 people in the house and though the boys made it loud, it felt incomplete without Grace there. The doorbell would ring and lights would flash. Captions appeared on the TV and Grace's blood sugar testing alarm would go off in the middle of the night. It was like she was there, except she wasn't.

JJ stood silently in the kitchen, preparing cinnamon toast for breakfast. Aaron stood to her left, pouring milk into everyone's glasses. After he had finished, there were 4 glasses filled and 2 plastic cups. He turned around to see Benjamin and Jack fighting, which wasn't uncommon. They didn't always get along.

"Boys, you need to stop fighting," Hotch said calmly, pulling little Ben away from his older brother. The child was crying and all his father did was carry him over to the breakfast nook and scold the 10 year old for not knowing better.

A few minutes later, when everyone had sat down, JJ placed each persons plate in front of them and put their glass of milk in its respective place. Breakfast went quickly and quietly, as JJ was in a rush to get back to the hospital, and Hotch was supposed to be finishing decorating the house for Christmas with the boys. Everybody ate breakfast fast and washed it down with milk and placed their plates in the dishwasher alongside their glasses. And then they continued on with their day.

"How's she been doing?" JJ asked, letting go of Hotch's hand as they reached the pediatric floor. They walked right up to the nurse's station, where the doctor from a few days ago got up from her chair. She led the couple into Grace's room and started to check her chart.

"She's been doing very well," she said, scribbling things down. "We're considering weaning her off of the ventilator."

JJ raised her eyebrows and looked at her husband. "Seriously?"

The doctor nodded, smiling.

Hotch put his hand on the fuzzy lilac blanket that covered Grace's little feet. His hand then moved to the edge of the blanket. He adjusted it and fixed it so that it covered her completely.

"As you can see, she's still sleeping, but her vitals are good. We dug deeper into her kidney issue, and I am happy to inform you that she's had no further issues. You will just have to bring her for more frequent check-ups. As for her seizure a few days ago, we found that it was caused by a severely low blood sugar—"

"Was anyone watching her?" Hotch asked.

The doctor nodded. "It was a sudden low blood sugar that shocked her body, causing the seizure. We have doctors looking into it, so there is no need to worry. She's just sleeping...however if you want to wake her up, that's fine. She is, for the most part, healthy."

JJ gave a giant sigh of relief and looked up at Hotch.

"So do you know when she will be ready to come home with us?"

The doctor shrugged as she looked at the chart. "We want to continue bringing her blood sugar up, and I think we're gonna try weaning her a bit later after she's fed. Weaning while the patient has a good amount of food inside of them is what we're aiming for."

JJ nodded.

"And how does weaning work?" Hotch asked, looking from the doctor to his daughter.

"We'll simply take the tubing out. Since it's done through her nose and down her throat, there is no surgery needed. If she can breathe on her own, it's a success."

Hotch raised his eyebrows. "And if she can't?"

"It's called a difficult weaning. Most patients come off quickly, taking 1-2 days. Any longer than that and we would call it long. It's nothing to stress over. I am confident that she will do fine."

JJ and Hotch understood what the doctor was saying but they couldn't help but wonder about the future. She had to be okay. Everything had to go as planned.

"Mom," Jack said with a mouthful of a ham sandwich in his mouth. His mother was staring out the back window. "Mom," he said again.

"Sorry," JJ said softly as she turned to him. "What is it?"

Jack swallowed his food and pointed to the calendar on the fridge. "Grace's orchestra thing's tomorrow night."

"Oh," JJ said quietly, walking over to the fridge. She took the magnet off of the program and flipped through it. "I need to call them to remind them."

Jack continued eating and turned around when he heard Tyler coming into the kitchen with his empty plate.

"Where's mommy and daddy and Ben and Henry?" Tyler asked, going onto his tip toes to reach the counter.

"Mom's in her and dad's office calling Grace's school about orchestra and dad's out with Ben and Henry getting groceries."

"Oh." The child climbed up onto the counter and grabbed a banana from the fruit basket. He sat on the counter— something he knew he wasn't supposed to do—and unpeeled it.

Hotch walked in with Benjamin and Henry and a bunch of bags. Jack jumped down from his seat and Tyler hopped off of the counter. They rushed over to their father and brothers and started to unpack the bags.

And that was how every day was. It was the same.

Nobody asked where JJ was anymore because they knew she was most likely in the hospital. The Friday before Christmas marked 2 weeks in hospital for Grace. Her room in the PICU was decorated with fairy lights and a small silver Christmas tree sat in the corner of the room covered in purple tinsel. JJ had spent hours decorating the room so it would be ready when she woke up. She'd wrapped dozens of presents but ended up leaving them at home in hopes of being home for Christmas.

The boys had come with their parents to visit Grace. She was very happy to see them and she was well enough to continue using sign language. The doctors had been in every few hours to check her vitals and they told them that by nighttime, she might be breathing on her own. If she could breathe on her own, they'd keep her overnight for further observation and then move her to another room of lesser supervision. All in all, things were beginning to look up.

"I see you've brought everyone," the doctor said excitedly, following them into the room. "Your sister will be better soon."

Being 4 year olds, Benjamin and Tyler thought it was a good idea to jump onto Grace's bed and startle her. She moved suddenly and looked up at her mother and father with a confused face.

[Why don't you go through those alphabet books and teach Grace her sign letters?] JJ offered to Henry, who had already started flipping through them.

[Sure,] he signed and took the book to Grace's bed. He got up onto her bed and crawled into the blankets beside her, careful of her tubing.

JJ and Hotch walked out of the room and into the hallway. JJ threw her hair up in a ponytail and stuffed her hands into her pockets. Hotch moved closer to her and pushed a baby hair out of her face. She smiled, looked down, and then swallowed thickly.

"I'm getting coffee," JJ informed him quietly, looking into the room where their 5 children were.

"I'll come with you," Hotch told her. "Will she be okay?"

JJ nodded. "Yeah," she said, thinking back to the last time she left her by herself.

"She won't have another seizure," Aaron said. "If that's what you're thinking."

Jennifer shook her head and smiled relievedly. "Let's get coffee."

"That's an A," Henry said as he made the sign letter using his fist. "I think it's an A. Jack, is that an A?"

Jack leaned over and nodded. [A].

"I wanna see," Benjamin asked loudly as he moved over to where Henry was holding up the book. "Grace doesn't even know this."

[Do...you...know this?] Jack signed with difficulty.

[Yes.] Grace signed back. [Baby Star.]

Jack nodded, unsure of what his sister had signed. "Sure."

JJ had taken post-it notes and drawn signs on them and stuck them throughout the book to help her teach Grace.

"Mom said not to move the stickies," Jack said to Henry, who had started to peel a pink note from the page.

[Once, there was a baby star,] Grace signed, reading the note. [Who lived up near the sun.]

"What's she saying?" Henry asked. Jack shrugged.

[And every night at bedtime that baby star wanted to have some fun.]

[Slow down,] Henry signed. [I don't understand.]

Grace giggled. [I'm reading the book.]

[Oh,] Jack signed.

The doctor walked in to check Grace's vitals and stopped. "It's quiet in here," she said. "But you're all saying a lot of things."

"Is Grace okay?" Jack asked, walking over to the woman.

She nodded and scribbled "stuff" as she called it down in her chart. "Grace's blood sugar is a little high, we're going to finish bringing it down and then tonight we are going to take that tube out."

"What does that tube do?" Jack asked,

"That tube is helping Grace breathe. When she got sick, she breathed in a lot of smoke and her body didn't like that so she couldn't breathe. But she is much better now and she will probably be back on her feet by Christmas."

Jack gasped. "So she'll be better on Christmas?"

"We hope so," the doctor smiled.

JJ and Hotch returned to the room half an hour later to see Henry and Grace sitting on the bed trying to communicate. Henry was evidently frustrated and kept groaning when Grace signed a word he didn't understand. Tyler and Benjamin had fallen asleep on the couch by the big window and Jack was fast asleep on the chair by the bed.

"Henry," Hotch said quietly. "We're here now. Do you want to go to sleep?"

"I'm tired," Henry said, putting the book on the table.

[Are you tired?] JJ asked Grace.

[Yes.] Grace signed.

JJ picked Henry up off of the bed and carried him over to the other couch and let him fall asleep. Hotch pulled Grace's blankets up over her and kissed her before closing the blinds.

"Who knew all of them would be asleep at once?" Hotch asked with a laugh.

"The past 2 weeks have been pretty exhausting for all of us," JJ offered, checking her phone. "And Christmas is in 3 days. Do you think we will all be at home?"

Hotch kissed JJ and pulled her in tightly. "I know we'll be at home."

Jack walked up to the door where his parents were standing and stood there until they were finished talking.

"I thought you were asleep," Hotch said to him quietly.

Jack shrugged. "I was resting."

"Did you have something to ask?" JJ questioned.

Jack nodded. "Some of the boys at school a few weeks ago said they were gonna get fat and get diabetes from all the candy we had at the Christmas party and it made me upset."

JJ frowned. "Did it make you upset because your sister has diabetes? Or is there something else?"

"I'm confused," Jack clarified sheepishly, playing with his fingers. "Grace is really small, so why does she have diabetes? I mean, she got diabetes when she was a baby, right?"

Hotch and JJ nodded.

"And I don't think babies eat a lot of candy—"

"I think they mean type 2 diabetes," JJ said, folding her arms as she leaned against the wall.

Jack gave them a questioning look. "Type 2 diabetes? Is that what Grace has?"

"There are a few different types, Jack," Hotch started. "There's type 1, what Grace has, which her body got on its own. She didn't make herself get diabetes. Then there's type 2 which is mainly caused by the foods you eat. Type 2 is different than type 1 because if you have type 2, your body isn't making enough insulin, but in type 1, your body isn't making any at all. Does that make sense?"

Jack nodded slightly. "So Grace has type 1 diabetes?"

JJ nodded. "Grace has type 1, so she didn't cause it. Those boys don't know what they're talking about. Tell them they're silly," she said. "Say your sister has type 1. That'll confuse them."

"There's a girl at my school that's in 8th grade and she has diabetes. She's really skinny and she always has to go the nurse's office to get her shot. And she even has a dog that's at her house to tell her if she's got a low or high blood sugar," Jack said. "So she's got type 1, too?"

"Maybe, probably," Hotch said. "But you shouldn't be worrying about that. Why don't you try and get some sleep? We'll probably be up tonight with Grace while she gets her tubes out."

Jack walked away, leaving Aaron and Jennifer at the door.

"Our application for a service dog for Grace went through and they're going to get back to me within a day or two. It's been a week since I sent it in," JJ said.

"It kills me how long it takes to actually get the dog, though," Hotch commented. "Grace could be 5 or 6 or even 7 by the time we actually get the dog. And she's barely turned 4; it could take years."

JJ shrugged. "I think it's worth the wait. We'll get a deaf...slash...diabetic service dog. It'll be trained, so he won't do anything he's not supposed to...and when he's not on duty, he'll get to play with the kids. Won't that be great?"

Hotch nodded. "I think they'll be excited. Jack's been—"

"Henry's been—"

"Wanting one since..," Hotch and JJ said simultaneously.

"Haley..."

"Will..."

The pair laughed briefly and turned to the room of sleeping children. Hotch pulled JJ into his side and slid his arms around her waist.

"I think a dog would do us good," he told her.

"I do, too."

A/N: If you'd like to see anything happen to this family in another story, feel free to let me know via review! I am always open to your reviews and if I'm being honest, I'm quite disappointed. I wish this site made it easier for people to leave their reviews. I hope you liked this chapter! What was your favourite part? Let me know!