Okayy so I have had a Criminal Minds story in progress but to test the waters so to speak on whether I should give this a shout at all, I wrote this in the spirit of Halloween. In all honesty, I actually started this before Halloween but never got the opportunity to post it.
Chapter 1: Invites & Parties
It was Friday, October 31, & Coretta Rogers, known better as Cori, looked up from the case file she was working on, her left hand still holding the pen over the paper, a hand running through her messy bangs, as the click-clacking of heels hitting the floor caught her attention. She grinned when she saw Penelope Garcia walking through the bullpen toward her and their coworkers. Looking around, she saw that her coworkers had noticed as well. Karma Morgan & Spencer Reid were at their desks, Spencer's right hand poised with the end of his pen sitting on the folder. Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau, referred to as JJ, and Kate Callahan were by Kate's desk, paused in mid conversation. David Rossi and Aaron Hotchner, Hotch, were in Hotch's office, so neither of the two older men noticed the tech analyst walking in. The team's last member, Charlotte Darla, was visiting family out of town for the Halloween weekend.
Cori smirked when she saw the bright orange envelopes in Penelope's hands as she walked up to their desks. She began handing the envelopes out to everyone, starting with Derek and making her way around the desks until she was standing in front of Cori. She smiled as she handed the younger girl one of the remaining three envelopes.
"I hope none of you are busy tonight, because you are all invited to my Halloween celebration." Penelope said.
Cori smirked when she saw Spencer's face light up. It was well known around the BAU (not just among their team) that Halloween was Spencer's favorite holiday and the young man always went to great lengths to celebrate it, including dressing up even when no one else did.
"Sounds like fun, Baby Girl." Derek said, walking up to Penelope and hugging her. "You can count on me to be there." Penelope looked at the rest of the team to see all of them nodding their agreement.
"Are costumes allowed?" Spencer asked.
Penelope smirked. "Costumes are required, Boy Wonder. No exceptions." Cori fought back another smirk as the smile on Spencer's face got bigger. Penelope opened her mouth to speak again. "Oh, and, yes, families of my family are invited." She smiled.
Cori grinned. That meant JJ would be bringing Will & their 7-year-old son, Henry, Hotch would be bringing his girlfriend, Beth Clemmons, and his 10-year-old son, Jack, Kate could bring her niece, Meg, and Cori wouldn't be surprised if Karma brought along her CIA boyfriend, Cade Millan. Her eyes widened as she realized that meant she could invite her childhood best friend from Springfield, Lila Jones, her husband, Graham & their 6-year-old daughter, Luka.
Grinning wider, Cori spun in her seat to face Karma. "Hey, Karma," The older girl looked at her, an eyebrow raised in expectancy. "Isn't Halloween your birthday?"
Karma nodded. "Yeah. I almost forgot."
"How do you forget a birthday like this, little sister?" Derek asked. "You're going to be thirty-four."
Karma glared at Derek. "Shut up."
After the work day concluded with a strange absence of any cases, Cori walked through the crisp evening air towards her apartment. Upon entering the complex, she sighed as she unlocked her mailbox. She pulled out several envelopes, mostly consisting of trivial business endeavors and junk mail. But a couple of envelopes stood out. Cori grinned as she looked closely at one. The return address on this one was from Springfield, Missouri. Her mother had sent this. Cori's smile dropped slightly as she remembered the last time she had been home. That had been a case so Cori hadn't had much time to chat with her mother in the aftermath of the events that had transpired.
The second envelope had a Washington DC return address, so Cori already had an idea who it was from. Looking at the return address, Cori bit back a laugh as she read the name of her six-year-old goddaughter, Luka. From the looks of the envelope, the little girl had attempted to make the envelope into something that would scare Cori. Cori, of course, wasn't scared, but she also knew she had to pretend it had when she saw Luka next.
Putting the mail together, Cori went up the stairs and walked to her apartment door, unlocking it. She stepped inside and closed the door softly, setting her head against the door. Breathing in deeply, Cori slowly stepped away from the door, throwing her backpack on the couch and walking to her kitchen. Her black tabby, Cynder, rubbed against her legs, already eager for some dinner. Cori chuckled. "Hang on, Cynder." she said. "I've got to make a call than I'll get you your dinner."
Cori laughed as Cynder mewed with annoyance. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed.
"Jones res-residence." Cori smirked at the attempt by Luka to say residence. "May I ask who is calling?"
"Hey, Luka." Cori said, smiling. "It's Aunt Core."
"Aunt Core!" Luka answered.
"Hey, can I speak to your mommy, Luka?" Cori asked.
"OKAY!" The other line went silent for a moment before the phone was picked up again.
"Hey, Cori, what's up?" Lila said.
"Hey, Garcia is having a Halloween party tonight and she's basically invited everyone in the team, including our families. Since you guys are my only family here in DC, I was wondering if you'd like to come?"
"Sounds like a fun way to spend Halloween. Luka, you little eavesdropper." Cori smirked. "Well, since Luka has already made her decision, we'd love to come."
"Just warning you then," Cori started. "Garcia has made costumes required so I hope you and Graham can find something."
"I'm sure we can." Lila replied. "See you tonight, Cori."
"See ya." Cori flipped her phone shut. She smirked when she felt a furry body rub against her legs. Cori looked down at Cynder, who was sitting in front of her, her green eyes locking with the heterochromatic blue and brown of her owner's eyes. Cori smirked and brushed a few raven strands of hair out of her face. "Alright, you win, you little pig. At least let me get changed."
Cori walked around Cynder to her room. When she got to the doorway, she frowned when she realized her room was a complete mess. The bed was unmade and Cori's various composition notebooks, sketchbooks and chapter books were strewn out all over the floor. She sighed and began unbuttoning her red button down and pulling it off, leaving the black t-shirt she was wearing underneath on. She kicked off her black converse, revealing mismatched socks, and pulled her jet black hair into a ponytail to keep it out of her way while she fixed Cynder's food.
That evening, Spencer and Cori, the latter of which having hitched a ride as she did not like to drive, arrived at Penelope's apartment building. Cori had decided to dress up as Raven from "Teen Titans". She had the full costume and purple colored contacts covered her usual brown and blue eyes. Her black hair had been dyed bluish-purple. Cori's skin was also lightly colored light grey and there was a red diamond jewel stuck to her forehead under her bangs.
Spencer was dressed up as a pretty terrifying Vampire King kind of costume. His chestnut hair was combed and gelled back and he had red contacts over his hazel eyes. He was dressed in a white button-down under a red and black vest, black slacks and dress shoes. A long black cape with a high color and red on the inside was fastened with a gold clasp around his shoulders. Fake white fangs had been glued to his teeth and his skin seemed paler than usual.
"This should be fun, right?" Cori asked softly, more to herself than anybody else. Spencer, however, had heard her and, as he looked down at her, he smiled a wide nerdy smile, his fangs glinting in the evening light.
"Don't worry." he said. "I bet Garcia can't go that crazy."
"Spence," Cori said, glaring up at him. "It's Penelope Garcia. That woman can go nuts with just about anything."
Spencer snickered as he pushed open the door, allowing Cori in first. Once they had ridden the elevator up to Penelope's apartment, they walked up to the door, knocking on it. The door was answered almost immediately by Penelope herself. She was dressed in what could have been considered a cross between a fairy and a vampire (the fairy part didn't surprise Cori as Penelope was known for her bright and bubbly personality).
"Good, you're here." Penelope said happily. "Now, I don't have to make your cyber lives chaos."
"You seriously would have done that if we didn't show up?" Cori asked, raising an eyebrow.
Spencer smirked. "I have no doubt she would have done it, Core."
"Well, come in!" Penelope exclaimed, stepping aside to allow Spencer and Cori past her. Upon entering, they found that most of the team and their families had already arrived. Hotch, Beth & Jack were dressed up in a Batman theme, with Hotch as Batman, Beth as Catwoman and Jack as Robin (Cori noted it was the version of Robin from the Teen Titans).
Will & Henry had gone with a superhero theme as well, with JJ being the odd one out. Will was dressed as Iron Man and Henry was dressed as Spiderman. JJ was dressed as a witch.
Looking around, Cori spotted the Jones family. Graham and Lila had also gone with the superhero theme. Graham had dressed up as Captain America and Lila was Black Widow. Surprisingly, Luka wasn't dressed as a superhero at all. She had dressed in a blue button down with the first three buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up over a black t-shirt with a loosely tied red tie, black jeans and blue converse. Her left wrist had a black watch on it and Cori was sure if she lifted the jeans legs, she would find mismatched socks. Luka's auburn hair was styled a little messy and put up in a ponytail. Her skin was also a little paler than usual. Cori had no doubt that her goddaughter had chosen to dress up as her godmother.
Kate was a vampire. Cade and Karma had dressed up as pirates. Derek was, somewhat predictably, a zombie NBA basketball player. Dave was nowhere to be found.
Penelope clapped her hands. "So, who wants to play some games while we wait for Rossi?" Multiple hands shot in the air. Penelope laughed. "Alright then! Let's get this Halloween party going!"
About half an hour later, Dave showed up, not surprisingly not wearing a costume, which Penelope berated him for after which, Dave joined the games. It wasn't until the lights shut off suddenly that the party guests began to suspect that their normal night wouldn't be so normal after all.
Here's the ages of the team based on what I know from the wiki as well as my imagination:
Dave Rossi - 59 (May 9, 1956) - canon on wiki *Even though she wasn't in the story in person, Charlotte Darla is 26 like Cori, but older than her by 3 months*
Aaron Hotchner - 49 (September 2, 1965) - canon on wiki
Derek Morgan - 42 (June 6, 1973) - canon on wiki
Kate Callahan - 38 (April 19, 1977) - created
Jennifer Jareau - 38 (May 8, 1977) - created
Penelope Garcia - 38 (September 21, 1977) - estimated & created
Cade Millan - 36 (April 10, 1979) - created by arielkatze
Spencer Reid - 34 (October 9, 1981) - canon on wiki
Karma Morgan - 34 (October 31, 1981) - created by arielkatze
Cori Rogers - 26 (June 27, 1989) - created by writergirl142
Jack Hotchner - 10 (October 7, 2005) - canon on wiki
Henry LaMontagne - 7 (October 28, 2008) - canon on wiki
Luka Jones - 6 (November 30, 2008) - created by writergirl142
Lila Jones - 28 (March 15, 1987) - created by writergirl142
Graham Jones - 29 (September 17, 1986) - created by writergirl142
Beth Clemmons - 38 (September 12, 1977) - estimated & created
Will LaMontagne - 43 (August 4, 1972) - estimated & created
Meg Callahan - 14 (July 15, 2001) - estimated & created
Reid and Review please!
