PENELOPE AND SPENCER, CH. 6
DISCLAIMER: Don't own, just love!
NOTES: I apologize for taking so long to update this. I have no excuses.
This will be my last installment of this story. All
fluff and stuff.
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Penelope and Spencer spent as much time together as they could, given their work schedules and what the unsubs would allow. When they were on their off-work time, they did things together. Penelope dragged Spencer shopping with her, much to his chagrin. Spencer made her go into magic shops, which Penelope secretly enjoyed but wouldn't tell him. They both went to Comic Cons together, as they both loved going.
After a couple of months, things were getting serious, very serious. The rest of the team were mildly surprised, not shocked, when they realized the team nerds were a couple.
Derek teased Spencer a little about having "someone special", but it was gentle. Hotch tried to be stern but couldn't pass it off. J.J. just grinned and wished them both well. Strauss was none the wiser though, which was a very good thing. Rossi, who was like a surrogate dad, was happy Spencer and Penelope were together. Alex was excited that the two had finally found each other.
One evening, one not involving the team trying to track down an unsub, Spencer and Penelope were at her apartment, eating dinner. Spencer had been acting strange, more so than usual. Penelope, being her usual perceptive self, was curious.
"Okay, Spencer, spit it out. You're too quiet. What's on your mind? Talk to me. Is it us?" Penelope was starting to get scared. She hoped they weren't splitting up.
"Hmm, I don't know how to word this. Yeah, it is us. Not what you think though." Spencer cleared his throat.
Penelope paled at what she thought he was going to say. She was so wrapped up in him, she didn't know how to back away from her feelings for him. She was terrified.
Spencer pulled a little box out of his pocket, got down on one knee. He gulped before opening his mouth. He handed her the box. Her jaw dropped as she opened it. Inside was an engagement ring.
"Penelope, we've been together for a while now. Seriously together. I've been wanting to ask you this for a couple of months. Will you marry me?" Her eyes filled with tears as she opened the box. He didn't know how to act with that.
"Oh my gosh! I never saw this coming! Now I know why you've been acting so strange. Well, stranger than usual. I love you so much! Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!" With that, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed. With that, he placed the ring on her left ring finger.
The next morning, everyone was in the bullpen, all chatting. Penelope came up from her "cave". Everyone stopped talking. J.J. and Alex immediately noticed her hands, especially her left hand.
"Is that a new ring I notice? It's beautiful!" Alex commented, excited.
"Well, yes it is. I just received it. Someone very special gave it to me last night." Penelope gushed.
"Like anyone has to ask who that special person is!" Derek grinned as he patted Spencer on the shoulder. Everyone crowded around Spencer and Penelope.
What the team didn't notice was that Strauss was standing up on the cat walk, listening in. Inwardly, she was overjoyed. She tried to keep a straight face, but wasn't successful. She decided at that moment to come down and join her rogue team. Everyone hushed at the sight of her.
"Reid, Garcia. I want to congratulate you both. When you get a moment, come up to my office. I want to talk to you alone. Nothing real serious."
Ten minutes later, Penelope and Spencer were in Strauss's office. The door was closed. They hoped and prayed they wouldn't be kicked off the team and out of the BAU.
"Reid, Garcia. You know that you weren't supposed to be fraternizing. FBI frowns on that."
"But, technically we aren't fraternizing. We don't work on the same team. I'm a profiler/doctor and she's a technical analyst. You know that." Spencer said.
"Okay. You have me there. Just don't let your wedding plans get in the way of you doing your assigned jobs. End of discussion!"
With that, Strauss dismissed them to go back to work. They were grateful that they didn't get written up for everything.
Two harried months later, Spencer and Penelope married in a beautiful wedding. Dave Rossi opened his back yard, which was huge, for the event, like he did for J.J.'s and Will's wedding two years prior. Dave paid for almost everything for them. The only exception was Penelope's dress, which was the traditional white, with lots of lace. Spencer had bought himself a tux for the event. Penelope asked Dave to walk her down the aisle, which he gladly did. J.J. was her matron of honor and, as corny as it sounded, Alex to be her brides maid. Spencer asked Derek to be his best man and Hotch to be one of his attending men.
While the rest of the team enjoyed the reception, Penelope and Spencer snuck off for a brief few minutes of respite to get to know each other as a married man and wife.
Derek looked around. He didn't see them. He turned to look for them. "Hey, where did Super Genius and Super Tech go? They aren't anywhere to be seen. Shouldn't someone go find them?"
"NO!" The rest of the team yelled in unison. They couldn't believe Derek would bother the newly wedded couple even for a moment.
"Derek, you need to leave them alone. They're enjoying themselves. What were you thinking?" J.J. asked, aghast that he would interrupt the team's favorite couple.
"Damn, what was I thinking? Can I say 'duh'? I can't get past them being together." Derek was mad at himself.
About ten minutes later, Penelope and Spencer rejoined the team, looking a bit sheepish and blushing knowing that the rest of them knew what the newly married couple had been doing.
Dave stood up, champagne glass in hand. "Everyone, I want to toast our newly married couple. Now, we'll get brains backed up by technology! What is the world coming to?" They all laughed, lifting their glasses in toast to Spencer and Penelope, knowing Dave was most likely correct in his statement.
Spencer stood up, also with glass in hand. "To my favorite team, all of who were protective, yet loving, never looked now on me, even though I'm a young genius, and later my bride. I love you all."
"Spencer, we all love you. Don't start developing an ego bigger than Derek's! We can only handle one ego at a time, and his is big enough as it!" Hotch said, making an understated comment.
"Ok, my turn! My hubby can't make a toast without me following his heels. I love you all. I don't know what I'd do without any of you. Thank you for bearing with me when I was trying to do my job and fill in for J.J. I don't know how you all have had patience with me in my darkest hours." With that, Penelope raised her glass up to toast them all.
8-1/2 months later, Penelope was waddling around their apartment. She was due in 2 weeks with their new additions. She figured that one would be a genius and the other would be a hacking technical analyst. She had been put on maternity leave 3 months prior and was going stir crazy with nothing to do.
With nothing but boredom on her hands, Penelope went into the babies' room. Feeling restless, she went into the nursery and started going through the babies clothes. She hadn't thought about how much time she had spent in there, but 4 hours had come and gone.
Penelope's back was hurting, more so than usual. She felt light cramps in her lower belly. She brushed all of that off. 30 minutes later, the cramps were heavier, enough so that Penelope had to suck in air. Then it dawned on her, labor had started in earnest for her. Oh my gosh, she thought. Spencer isn't due home for another hour. What am I going to do?
Picking up her cell phone, she dialed his desk number. One, two, three, Spencer picked up on the other end. "Reid", he answered.
"It's me, my god! It's time. I need to get to the hospital A.S.A.P. My labor has started. Oh, cripe!" She cried out. Spencer paled momentarily.
The others looked over at him curiously, wondering what was up. J.J. was the first to speak up. Pen's gone into labor. It's possible her water's just broken. We had better drive Spencer over to their place. He already looks like he's in no shape to drive." They all stood up and gathered around their team member.
Okay, Dr. Daddy, let's go. You ain'tdoin' by yourself. I'll drive. You're taking shot gun for the time bein'." Derek draped an arm around Spencer's shoulder, propelling him towards the door with the rest of them bringing up the rear.
"What do I do? Do I need to get cigars for everyone? Do I get roses and two stuffed bears?" Spencer babbled as they hustled toward the SUV's. They had agreed to take two so the soon-to-be parents could be in the back seat of one.
"You save all of that for AFTER the babies are here. Since they don't allow smoking in the hospital and we have ladies with us, we can do bubble gum cigars for them and real ones for us guys so we can go outside and smoke those. By that time, the ladies will be visiting with Penelope and cooing over the newest additions to our team." Dave spoke up.
"Don't we have to get Penelope from home to the hospital first?" Emily asked, looking sort of concerned.
"That we do. We're headed to their place first. Don't tell me you're worried with me driving." Derek grinned back at Emily through the mirror.
"Who? Me, worried? With you around? Not a chance!" Emily grinned back.
At that point, they pulled up in front of the home Pen and Spencer had bought after finding out they were pregnant with twins. Spencer jumped out, run up the steps and through the door before Derek came to a complete stop.
"Pen, where are you? Don't tell me you're back in the babies' nursery nesting again." He cried out.
"Okay, I won't tell you, but that's where I'm at. I wasn't nesting. I was just rearranging the babies' things. One thing led to another and time got away from me."
"I thought they weren't due for another couple of weeks," Emily spoke up, startling Penelope.
"Babies can come in the two weeks prior or after their due date," Spencer spoke up, rattling off information in his normal brainy way.
"Don't tell me you brought the cavalry with you! I thought we agreed you wouldn't," Pen exclaimed.
"He wasn't given an option on that. Besides, he wasn't in any shape back in the bullpen. He still isn't," Hotch spoke up in Spencer's defense.
With that, they all grinned, and gently helped their favorite, very pregnant tech analyst up onto her feet. The ladies slowly walked with Penelope to the SUV, stopping more than twice so she could get through a labor pain. When they all got to the SUV, Spencer helped Penelope into the back and folded himself in beside her. Derek slid behind the wheel and Emily slipped into the passenger's seat. Doors closed and they pulled away from the curb. The others followed behind.
When they arrived at the hospital, Emily went in to retrieve a nurse and wheel chair for Penelope while Spencer and Derek helped Penelope out of the SUV. The nurse who had followed Emily out to the parking lot with the wheel chair made sure Penelope was comfortable in the chair and wheeled her into a labor room where she could help the soon-to-be-mommy change into a gown and lay down on a bed.
Penelope's labor progressed quickly. Thirty minutes she was ready to go into the delivery room. Penelope wanted Spencer to be with her in the delivery room, which he acquiesced. He had changed into sterile clothing and walked at her side. The rest of the team waited in the waiting room.
20 minutes later, Spencer came out all grins. He was officially a very proud daddy of twins, 1 boy and 1 girl. The team gathered around him with hugs, handshakes and pats on the back. The doctor came out and told them that they could go visit Penelope and the newest members of the team in another 10 minutes. Since Spencer was the new daddy, he able to go in right away.
The 10 minutes the team had to wait stretched for what felt like an eternity. Spencer opened the door, motioning for the ladies, J.J. and Emily, to come in. Quietly, knowing the babies were there, they stepped in. The first thing they saw was Penelope holding both babies, one in each arm. They cooed and ahhed over the babies. They brought 2 huge bears, 1 blue and 1 pink for the babies. There was a knock on the door. They all looked sadly at each other. It was the guys standing out in the hallway, impatiently pacing the floor.
"How dare you!? That was NOT 10 minutes! We were not done spoiling those beautiful babies." Emily exclaimed.
"I have to agree. I didn't that kind of attention when Henry was born from you clowns!" J.J. exclaimed with her hands on her hips.
"Well, since I have some seniority over all of you, I get to go in next," Hotch commented as he approached the door, which he opened. Walking in with one hand behind his back that held flowers of various colors, befitting the new mommy.
"Sir, those are beautiful! I was not expecting anything from you."
"First, I'm not Sir, not right now. It's Hotch. I see you have a vase over here. Let me put these in the vase and put them so you can see them. I brought these to show you that I am human at times. Don't knock a good thing." Hotch stepped out.
Derek had gone down to the gift shop around the corner. He had almost bought out the shop of their supply of baby girl and baby boy balloons. The only reason he didn't was because he was pounced on by hospital security. They didn't bounced out of the hospital because Derek showed his FBI/BAU id. The security walked him up to Penelope's hospital room. They checked with Spencer to see if this man was really part of their group. Spencer stepped up and he was. The security left at that.
With that all done, Derek stepped to Penelope's room. "There's my baby girl with babies in her arms. I brought these just for you. Well, for your little ones. I'll you enjoy them though." With that, he leaned over and gently kissed her on the cheek. "Take care of my niece and nephew, or else!" He grinned one of his sexy smiles that would have melted her at another time and place.
Dave was patiently waiting his turn. He had been daydreaming about past babies, specifically his sweet James that he and Carolyn had held for a short 5 hours. Just thinking about it brought tears to his eyes. He drew tissue to his eyes.
"Okay, let the old man get in there and give my special blessings over these babies before I get old standing out here! You know there's nothing like an old Italian blessing being said over two bambinos. I know, in here we have 2 babies, a bambino and a bambina. I can wing it though. Stand back and check it. I'll be back before you know." With that, Dave stepped into the room.
"You know, Cara. You have a special spot in my heart. I think of you as a daughter that I never had with any of my wives. You know I had a son with my first wife, Carolyn, and the outcome of that situation. I wonder if my little James would have been like you, highly intelligent. I told the others that I wanted to give your little ones an old Italian blessing. Consider this: 'May the Lord bless you and yours. May the Lord protect you all.' How was that?" Dave grinned.
"I have thus been blessed by one of the best of the BAU." With that, Penelope grinned back at him. Penelope and the twins were getting tired. Dave stepped out and let the rest of the team the mini team were going to sleep.
Spencer stepped in long enough to check in and then go home. He was getting tired himself. He personally was exhausted. He was going to have trouble sleeping in there bad alone, even for a couple of nights.
Next morning, Spencer was back at the hospital, at Penelope's side. She was nursing their son first since their daughter was still asleep, although she was just starting to shift around in her bassinet. After nursing their son, James Ross Reid, who was named for Dave Rossi, he was burped, and his bottom taken care of. Their daughter, Bella Christina Reid, woke up in a mood, and empty tummy. Spencer held James, talking to him quietly while Bella was nursed by Penelope, who then burped her and changed her bottom. They both talked to James and Bella as if they understood every word their parents said.
There was a knock on the door. Penelope's doctor came in to check up on how everyone was doing. There was major consensus that Penelope, Bella, and James were ready to go home. The doctor checked to make sure they had two car seats for them to go home in. He received a definitive yes.
"On that note, I'm ready to let you go home and proceed with your lives together as a family. I know you also have co-workers who consider themselves family as well. Don't be afraid to ask for help from them as well.
J.J. and Emily helped Penelope get into the wheelchair. Derek, Dave, Hotch all helped Spencer take Penelope's, James, and Bella's things down to the SUV that Spencer had riden in when Derek had driven them to the hospital the day before. They then got on the road.
When they had all arrived at the Reid home, everything happened in reverse, minus the nurse and wheelchair. Babies and their car seats went inside first and to their new bedroom, AKA the nursery. James and Bella went into their new beds/cribs so the adults were able to bring things in and help get their team members organized. They soon left so Spencer and Penelope could catch their collective breaths and relax.
Penelope was still on leave from the BAU, and would be for another 5 months. Spencer was still on desk restriction due to being a new father, also for 5 months. Life went smoothly for the new family.
Everyone on the team was adjusting to having Kevin working in Penelope's "cave" on Penelope's "babies", with her permission naturally. Kevin did call her occasionally on work related stuff, like passwords etc.
THE END
