Thank you IloveTivaandCalzona3, for suggesting this prologue to this story!
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From Chicago, With Love - Epilogue:
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"Darren! Frances! Hurry up! We're leaving in two minutes!"
"Aw…one more minute, Dad!"
"No, kid! We're leaving…your mom's on her way to the hospital. Come on guys…work with me."
Loud, boisterous laughter streaming in from above and moving down the stairs.
"Okay, Dad."
"Yeah…we're ready Daddy."
"Do you two have your go-bags?" He asked them as they slipped on their jackets.
They rolled their eyes at him, "Daaaad! We got it! Mom had it ready last week and it's in the car."
He grinned, "What did I tell you about the eye rolling thingy…you get that from your mommy."
They giggled, "No…Mom says we get it from you!" The oldest boy, who's four years old, pointed out.
"Come on, your Uncle Spencer is waiting."
"Aw man, we're spending a night there? I thought we're shacking with Aunt Penny?"
Derek whipped his head at his second child, "Who taught you that word; shacking?"
Frances or Franny, shrugged, "Everybody uses it. But Aunt Penny did when we had overnights there.
He arched his brow, "Your Aunt Penny needs a time out."
They giggled more, "No she doesn't, Daddy!" Franny said. "Aunt Penny is big people and big people don't get time out."
Derek rolled his eyes, "Well, I think we should make a new rule for your Aunt Penny."
"Where's Aunt Penny, Daddy?" Franny asked holding her favorite stuffed animal, a purple dog with yellow polka dots. A birthday gift from Penelope Garcia.
"She's with your mommy, and Aunt JJ at the hospital." Derek explained happily. "And that's where I'll be when I drop you monkeys off with Uncle Spencer."
They groaned in unison, "Come on Dad, do we really have to?" "But he makes us watch that boring Star Trek only old people watches."
"Hey, don't say that in front of him, okay? You'll hurt his feelings."
He was strapping them in the car.
His phone rang again.
"I'm on my way, Em! Hang on…don't push yet please!" Derek yelled.
"Is that Mommy? Tell her we miss her and we want a puppy!"
He chuckled, "You're getting another baby brother, Darren. Not a puppy."
"Can't we have an older sister this time?" Franny asked. "I wish I have an older sister." She folded her hands and pouted in the back seat.
"You hear that, Em?" Derek held the phone in his ear, "Franny wants an older sister…I know, we went through this many times…" He looked over the rear-view mirror, "Hey Franny, your Mommy says it doesn't work like that. Get use to it kiddo, you're getting a baby brother." He laughed at his youngest daughter who'd just turned three a week ago.
"I'm gonna tell Santa Claus I wanna trade." She glared at her dad.
"I thought you want Santa to get you that big dolly you saw in the toy store, sweetie?"
She nodded, "I wanna GeeGee dolly and a big sister, too." She pouted.
"No, Franny, no big sister. Baby brother." He laughed again. "You're gonna be a big sister."
"Yeah, stupid! You're gonna be the big sister, Mommy s'plain to you." Darren said.
"Hey, Darren, you don't call your little sister stupid. That's half hour of video game time you owe me, son."
"Aw man! Not fair, Dad!" He turned away from him and faced the window, pouting. "I was on the sixth level in Super Mario Brothers."
"Like I said, you don't call names, especially your sister." He said as he pulled up at Reid's apartment. "Okay, we're here, remember be nice to your Uncle Spencer."
"Yes, Dad." They said together.
Grabbing the kids' go bags and walking towards the door as it opened.
"Oh hey guys! Come on in." Reid opened the door wider to let the kids who dashed immediately into his apartment.
"No time Reid, Emily's five minutes' apart." He clapped his hand on the doctor. "I'll see you later and thanks again for keeping the kids."
"Yeah…no problem. You know me and the two."
"Uh, Reid" Derek turned around at the last moment, "Just no Star Trek marathon please."
Reid shook his head, "Oh no…I'm over Star Trek." He grinned. "I just bought the entire collection of Dr. Who and I can't wait to indoctrinate the kids!"
"Uh, Reid…they're just four and three…I don't think they'll understand."
"Oh, I'm sure they will, don't worry, I'll explain it to them episode by episode."
Derek groaned, "And there are how many episodes in total?"
"Well," He frowned, "I think there are over 700 episodes in all …."
Derek's eye brow shot upward, "But…Reid!" He looked into the apartment, "Kids! Come on…let's go!"
"Why? What's going on?" Reid frowned deeper.
"I just remember, er…Emily says it's okay to take the kids to the hospital. Come on guys, let's go!"
Darren came out, "Where are we going? Uncle Spence was gonna help us built the Starship Enterprise!"
Franny poked her head out the door. "Yeah, Daddy, a real space ship! It's gonna be cool! And we have pizza too, for din-din."
"Well, er…" Derek stared at his two kids, "Did you just say built a space ship?" He whipped his head and looked up at Reid, "You!"
Reid began to laugh, "Got you!"
"Emily put you up to it, didn't she?" Derek shook his head.
Reid nodded, "Oh yeah…she said you'd fall for it."
He shook his head, "That woman! Even in labor, she's still getting me good. I gotta go, though."
Reid nodded, "Okay…go, go! Better not miss this one like you did on Darren's birth."
Derek had taken a step to leave when he paused, "All I did was…"
"You went to the wrong hospital…" He and Reid said together.
Derek pointed at him, "It was your fault, I'm still blaming it on you, Reid."
"I know! And I apologize, over and over, and over again!"
"Come on, Uncle Reid! Can we start on the space ship yet?" Darren came out again.
"Okay, guys…let's get it started, Number One." Reid moved inside the room and closed the door.
"Derek! The baby's coming!"
They heard Emily's voice from Derek's cell phone.
"Better hurry, Dad!" Reid teased him as he pointed at Derek's cell phone. "I'm not taking this one for you if Number Three comes now."
"Okay, okay…I'm gone." Derek shook his head as he hustled towards his car.
…
One hour later; Grayson Morgan, 7lbs 3oz. 18 inches, was born.
"Are we stopping here?" Emily's doctor was smiling as he passed the baby to her, winking at her at the same time.
Still catching her breath, "No…one more, right Derek?"
The happy dad for the third time paled, "Uh….what do you mean one more, Emily?"
She nodded, "We agreed, Derek. Four kids."
He frowned at her as he was peeking at the baby while the nurses were cleaning the squalling baby, "I thought you were kidding, Em."
"Does this look like the face of a woman who's joking?"
The nurses had stopped cleaning the baby and turned to watch Derek and Emily, as well as her doctor.
Suddenly, another set of nurses came in with another bassinet.
Derek was staring at it, "Uh…what's this? Are you guys tossing us out already?"
The nurses were laughing at him as they shook their heads and muttered, "Clueless..."
Derek turned to Emily, "What do they mean by that, babe?"
"Hon, the fourth kid we talked about…" She paused as another contraction hit her.
Derek realized something was up, "Oh, Emily! You mean you're having another baby right now?"
She nodded as she began to bear down.
"Hold your breath and count…and push! PUSH!" The doctor said from between her legs.
Derek came to stand by her, his face was still stunned, "How did you manage to keep this from me for nine months?"
"NOT NOW!" She managed to yell out as she continued to exert.
"But…" Derek continued to frown as he turned to watch the doctor, "You know about this, Doc?"
"Derek….now is not really a good time…okay, Emily again, PUSH! It's coming."
Derek rubbed his face in continued disbelief, "So, you pulled another one on me, didn't you Em?"
"OH MY GOD, DEREK! NOT NOW!"
The nurses were laughing.
"YOU ARE SO NOT HELPING!"
"But…an extra baby? We…"
"Derek, I swear to god, this is not the time." She was really pushing…
"Okay….here it comes…yes!" the doctor said cheerfully. "A girl, as we thought, although the ultrasound was shaky but we were right."
"A girl?" Derek muttered. "A girl? A boy…and a girl?"
"Yes, Derek, commonly called twins." The doctor teased him as he held the scissors to him, "The honors, dad…again?"
Derek took the scissors and cut the umbilical cord as told like an automaton.
"Twins." He gazed at the newborn baby on Emily's arms.
"Derek, how about a name?" Emily looked at him tiredly.
The nurse came to take the baby and brought her to the bassinet to get her measured and weighed.
"Baby girl, 7lbs exactly, 18 inches." One of the nurses announced happily.
"Derek?" Emily looked at him questioningly.
"Huh?" He was staring at the twin bassinets with the nurses hovering over them.
"Name, baby girl."
He looked down at his wife, "Baby girl? What's Garcia got to do with our baby?"
Emily chuckled, "Derek..focus, please. We need a name for our baby girl."
He nodded slowly, "Oh…our baby girl, uh…did we choose one?"
Emily shook her head, "No…I didn't know if it's going to be a another boy or a girl."
He leaned over and kissed her, "But first Emily, thank you for the wonderful surprise, babe."
"I hope you're not mad at me for keeping it from you?"
He shook his head, "No…as long as the babies are fine and healthy."'
She beamed at him, "You're the best, Derek, thank you. I love you."
He leaned in and kissed her again, "I love you, too. Just promise me you'd not do it again."
She frowned, "Not do what? Not have more kids? Or get on you again?"
"Both, I think. But definitely the latter. Seriously, I think four is enough."
Emily nodded, "I agree, I'm stopping at four. If you change your mind, it'll be through the adoption route."
He smiled at her, "Deal. Now…I have to take some pictures for the kids' godmothers and godfathers." He pulled out his cell phone.
"Before you do, the little one needs a name." She waved at him and pointed out at the bassinet the nurses had placed a pink bonnet on her dark and curly head.
"I…can't decide, Em." He leaned over to grin softly at his newborn baby. And looked over to the other one and the grin spread even wider. "Well, we have Grayson…how about ….Renna?"
She shook her head, "No."
"Madison?"
"No."
"McKenna?"
"No."
Derek sighed, "Okay…you tell me,
"What about Katherine?"
He paused, "Maybe...what else?"
"Margaret? Charlotte? Priscilla? I'm running out of ideas, too."
"How long do we have to name her?"
"Derek, the baby…your baby is not a purchase, if we don't like her, we can't return her."
"That's right," the doctor nodded. "We don't accept refunds after the goods are delivered." He began laughing as he left.
"Great," Derek stared at the retreating doctor, "He finally found his humor." He said glumly.
"Alexis? How about Alexis?" Emily brightened.
Derek grinned, "Yeah, I like that! Alexis Morgan. It's got a good ring to it."
Emily nodded, "Yes, I like it." She nodded at the nurses who beamed at her. "Alexis Morgan. How pretty! And look at that mess of curly hair!" She coo'ed at her.
Derek smiled, "Yes, just like her Momma when she was little, and her older sister, right hon?" Derek was holding Grayson who had fallen asleep.
No answer.
Derek frowned as he turned to look over at Emily and his frown dissipated, only to be replaced by another wide smile as he watched his beloved wife and mother of his now four children, had also fallen asleep.
He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead, "I love you, Emily Prentiss."
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THE END
Thank you !