Thanksgiving was different this year.
Usually, they all made individual plans, but it didn't take long to realize that Thanksgiving was about family. Since they were family to him, Rossi made a decision and invited all of them over for dinner.
That was how the seven of them, plus Kevin, Will, Henry and Jack, showed up on Thursday, each with a different side dish. Rossi had insisted he was doing the turkey.
JJ set her homemade macaroni and cheese beside Morgan's stuffing on the table. She snickered as she overheard Hotch and Emily in the kitchen, cutting the turkey.
"Rossi…did you mean to leave the turkey neck in here?" Emily asked bluntly.
"Did I?" Rossi returned, looking surprised. "It was an oversight, if I did…"
JJ met Garcia's eyes and they laughed as they listened to Hotch commenting seriously about various parts of the bird's anatomy.
"Stick to Italian, Dave. …Here's some vertebra," Hotch said, presumably passing it off to someone nearby.
"You know, there's probably some good meat on there," Reid pointed out.
Will sat down beside JJ and gave her a once-over as if for the first time. From the waist up, she looked gorgeous. Beneath the table, Will noticed that JJ was wearing gray sweatpants.
"What?" she asked, not embarrassed in the least. "Em, Penelope and I decided that in order to make this the best Thanksgiving ever, we had to wear sweats. That way, we'll have room…" As if on cue, Penelope and Emily stood to reveal their own sweats - purple and blue respectively.
"Room for what?" Reid asked, confused.
"Ladies gotta eat…" Morgan supplied matter-of-factly, taking a large scoop of mashed potatoes.
"Right…expansion…" Reid answered under his breath.
The sound of laughter rose around them and they all dug in, grateful to be together.