A/N: I know what I said at the end of the last story; that it would be the end with just one more piece to finish off the NPH saga. But sometime in the intervening months when my world imploded around me, I decided that my finale piece couldn't just pop up suddenly. It needed an explanation for how everyone had reached that point. And that explanation wasn't something I could just cram into the beginning of the finale without completely bogging it down and ruining the beauty of it. So NPH21 was born. This will be a series of chapters delving into the lives of our BAU extended family, filling in the details of the intervening years between where we left off and where I will bid this universe a very sad adieu.
Owing to the extra-long gap between my last post and this one, I will understand if some of my readers have moved on. But if you are still with me after all this time, welcome to the next instalment. Encouragement is always welcome, so please drop me a review and let me know what you think. And to everyone who has ever favourited me/my work and/or reviewed in the past, thank you seems so small but encompasses such a deep well of gratitude for believing in me.
I should hopefully be publishing these with more regularity, but I make no promises. You should also note that these chapters will be longer than my norm, owing to how much is going on in them. I hope this doesn't put you off
As always, I couldn't have managed this without my amazing beta wtiger5 being along for the ride; love you honey (3 & a half months to go!). I have also welcomed MissShawnaAlice onto the team to assist me with the flow of the chapters because there will be a LOT going on in them…and I am already seeing gold from her!
WARNING: The story as a whole will have a little of everything going on in it, but as usual I will give specific warnings at the beginning of each chapter. This chapter is filled with lots of fluffy, mischievous and family oriented moments to make your heart melt.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds at all, although they do own me. And the list of those I do own is getting so incredibly long that I am just going to say that I own anyone who does not come directly from Criminal Minds.
Chapter 1 – Family Vacation
June 2019
"Someone please remind me again why we are entering into this insanity?"
Aaron smiled in amusement as several of the others chuckled and Reid earnestly recounted the conversation they'd had at Christmas in response to Dave's dry rhetorical question. Someone had brought up wanting to go on a cruise, having never been before. Quite a few of the others also had it on their bucket lists and the next thing he had known, they were booking cruise tickets.
A lot of cruise tickets.
Fifty-eight to be exact.
Twenty adults and thirty-eight children did not make for a small family vacation, or one that was easy to plan. But the joy on the children's faces when they had been informed of what their summer vacation would look like this year had been worth the headache of finding a cruise itinerary they could all agree on.
Not that they had told the children much of anything. They knew that they were flying down to Orlando and then catching a bus to Canaveral to meet up with the ship. They also knew that the cruise was going to last for 7 nights. They knew what to pack and that there would be lots of things for them to do and that they would have a blast.
What they hadn't been told was that they were going on a Disney cruise.
For the adults it was sheer self-preservation. The kids would be distracted by all the Disney themed activities. The activities themselves would tire most of the children out so that they slept well, even in this strange new moving environment. The adults were going to take turns in looking out for the children so that each couple could have at least one romantic night to themselves.
But the logistics of placing fifty-eight bodies into rooms became a nightmare of almost epic proportions that almost forced the cancellation of the trip. Almost none of them fit the stereotypical mould for a regular family size, forcing them to get creative with their planning. Then Austin had the triplets and things became even more interesting. They had eventually come to the conclusion that they needed more eyes than the adults had between them in order to make the room arrangements work to their liking. So they sat down with the oldest children and asked them if they would be willing to supervise a couple of the kids during the nights that they were on the ship. Once the children agreed that they were happy to help, and honoured to be trusted to be in charge in the rooms, the planning had become that much easier to handle, especially for the Hotchner's and the Rossi's, who had seven and six children respectively, none of whom were really small enough to double up on narrow bunk beds.
They all opted to keep their youngest children with them, with stern warnings to the children who weren't sleeping in the same room as them as to what punishments they could expect if they misbehaved. In the end they needed fourteen rooms for their entire group because the rooms only slept four apiece, with a queen sized bed and a set of bunk beds in each room, but somehow they managed to make it work for them.
None of the adults were completely behind the idea of leaving any of the children in their rooms overnight without an adult present, but when they were informed that rooms in the area they had booked into were connecting rooms, this eased a lot of the unsettled feelings they still had.
And now the time had come. They were finished with work for the next few weeks. Tomorrow would be spent packing and finalising things and then on Thursday they were flying down on several flights to Orlando. They were intending to have a quiet Friday and then on Saturday morning they would board a bus for Canaveral in the morning and be on the cruise ship just in time for lunch.
Aaron shot Dave a look. "You know you started all of this right?"
Dave shook his head. "Teresa started all of this, I just backed her up. That is a completely different thing."
There were a few snorts of laughter at this, and more than one hand came up to hide a grin as Aaron rolled his eyes and Reid started arguing the difference.
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The sounds of excited travellers surrounded them as they did yet another head count to ensure that they had all of the children with them. It helped that they had all the kids grouped by rooms already as they waited to board the cruise ship they could see just outside of the lounge they waited in. It also helped that none of them wanted to get lost or miss out on the cruise entirely so they were all on their very best behaviour.
Esther and Emily walked toward the group, having taken nine week old Isaac to get his nappy changed before they went in to the office to alert the staff there that they had arrived. They had shocked the woman who had taken their call regarding their booking of the rooms they required. An explanation of the size of their group and the ages of the children, particularly those who would be in a room without an adult present overnight, and almost an hour of discussion later and they were assigned a dedicated Hostess of their own to assist them while on board the ship for the duration of their cruise. Which meant that shortly they would meet Melanie, and she would show them on board the ship and to their rooms, separate from other group bookings so that they hopefully wouldn't lose anyone.
Twenty minutes later, the children were excitedly exploring their rooms for the next seven nights while the adults listened intently to Melanie as she explained the room features and pointed out things to note from the itineraries they had been given. Luggage was dropped off inside the rooms and then Melanie led them back to the main area of the ship and then down to where the various children's clubs were running.
Except for Spencer and Austin's one month old triplets, and Sean and Esther's son Isaac, everyone else had been enrolled in one of the kids' clubs. That way, the adults got to do stuff that was age and interest appropriate and the children still got to have fun without driving the adults mad. Though the clubs weren't starting until the next day, parents needed to check their children in and get their wrist bands identifying who they were, their age, room number and the names of their parents. Each club provided a different coloured band, also showing immediately which club they were in to the ship staff.
That sorted, Melanie took them on a tour that included all the places that were pertinent to their holiday before walking them back to their rooms. They made it back in time to grab their life vests and make their way to their designated evacuation point during the emergency drill as the ship left the port and then they joined others in heading for the buffet area so that they could get the children in particular fed ahead of settling everyone down for an early night.
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"What time is it?"
Emily waved her hand airily in Jordan's direction. "Ask your husband, or mine. They both have their waterproof sports watches on."
"If you're asking how much time we have before we have to go get munchkins for dinner, we've still got another fifteen minutes if we want to swing past the rooms first, twenty if we don't," Austin stated with a yawn as she finished feeding Sienna and placed her back in the traveling portable cot with her sisters before she tucked it back under her deck chair. The cot had a cooling pad in the bottom that lasted for several hours at a time and placing the cot under her chair not only kept it out of the way so that the babies didn't get stepped on, but added the additional benefit of the shade the chair provided.
"Why on earth would we want to go all the way back to our rooms first?" JJ demanded as she pushed up on her elbows and peered at Austin.
Austin smirked. "My darling husband believes that the shorts we wore over our suits to get here are far too revealing to be safe for casual strolling around the ship.
Several of the women snorted as JJ muttered, "Of course he said that," as she settled back down to enjoy the last of their sunbaking, child-free time.
Their first day on the ship had been delightful. After they had fed and dropped the children at their various clubs, they had discussed what they wanted to do that day, agreed to disagree, and made plans to meet back up for lunch before they splintered off to their chosen activities. Lunch had tasted better than ever without a myriad of complaints and conversational interruptions before they retired for an hour to let lunch settle. Rest time over and they had headed up to the pool areas. They had all played in the water for a time, though Austin and Esther had been content to settle in their deck chairs straight away with their children and gossip. Then the girls had climbed out, set up a row of chairs, and stretched out to sunbake after they reapplied their sunscreen layers, leaving the guys to a boisterous game of water volleyball. At the appointed time they had collected the children, had dinner in their assigned restaurant which to the delight of all changed from a black and white theme to a room full of colour as the meal progressed and then gone on to watch a live show featuring some of Disney's most beloved princesses. The whining upon announcement of bedtime had been minimal and the children had all slept through the night beautifully for them.
This their second day had been just as delightful, and Emily was loathe to have to become a parent again with shore excursions booked in for their next few days in ports. Oh, they could have left the children in the various kids clubs while the adults went off and explored, but they had all agreed that they would never hear the end of it if the children were left out of their first ever international sightseeing opportunity, so they hadn't even suggested it.
The first sign she had that she was definitely out of child-free time was the cold water that spattered her body and the shade provided by the tall man leaning in for a kiss.
"Do you know, you look like a work of art lying there in that tiny red set."
She smiled into Aaron's mouth as she stole another quick kiss and opened her eyes. "Do you think if we asked nicely and paid handsomely that one of the child care workers could lose one or all of the children for the night?"
He chuckled and pulled her up into a sitting position. She yawned widely and stretched as Aaron rubbed the water off his upper body, admiring her view as much as he had his. The scars of Foyet's attack all those years ago were faint white lines in his tanned skin and only added to his appeal as they spoke of his survival against all odds. She brushed her hand over his abdomen and used his hip to steady herself as she gained her footing before she stepped into him for another kiss, though this one was cut short by Sean.
"None of that; we're going to be late as it is getting the kids without the two of you being this distracted by each other."
Emily poked her tongue out at him and Sean dodged as Aaron swung playfully at him. They fell in at the back of the group, amused to hear Reid say that they should all really be more dressed than they were. No one was fooled into thinking he was really talking to anyone other than his wife as they argued back and forth.
"Are you guys ready for tomorrow?" Sean asked seriously.
Emily sighed and Aaron shrugged slightly. "As ready as we can be. We both appreciate you acting as an extra set of eyes for us while Esther helps Dave and Teresa out."
"But we're still convinced that something is going to go not-to-plan tomorrow," Emily finished.
"With children involved, it never does," Dave muttered dryly in front of them, causing them all to nod their heads seriously.
New Section
Gwendolyn Lynch took after her mother with a bubbly, outgoing disposition and a love for colour and quirk. Mackenzie Reid had her mother's beauty but was a female version of her knowledgeable, more serious father. Alisha Renhwah had her father's colouring and hair and the beginnings of his vast technical knowhow, combined with her mother's easy-going nature and her bright green eyes.
And all three girls were missing from the group when they reached the staging area to return to the ship at their second port stop.
Penelope, Austin and Carrie were all panicking outwardly, while their husbands pretended that they had everything under control as they spoke to ship staff and local authorities about the missing girls. The girls had been present at the head count conducted not half an hour before they reached the dock, but couldn't be found when they arrived and none of the children that were actually with them had any idea where they had gone off to. Sean and Esther had stayed on the dock with the rest of the children and the distraught parents while the rest of the adults had fanned out and doubled back the way they had come, joined by local officials to increase the amount of eyes looking and voices calling. But almost half an hour after their absence had been noticed, they still couldn't be found.
And then the crowd around them parted as Emily pointed three very subdued little girls forward. Their parents fell on them with cries of relief and joy and it was quickly clear that the girls were trying to act scared and upset. Carrie turned a questioning eye on Emily as the others were called in from the search.
"I was walking past a bakery when I happened to look in the window. They were using their cuteness to charm treats out of the baker and his wife and had apparently been there for about an hour, talking about their lives in America and how supposedly unfortunate their circumstances were. I felt so horrible about the whole thing that I probably overpaid for everything they had eaten but I couldn't just let them get away with it."
Carrie set Alisha back from her and narrowed her eyes at her only daughter. Gwendolyn was intuitive enough to step back from her mother as her face went red, while Mackenzie just burst into tears as her parents looked on her with disappointment. Kevin murmured something to Penelope and she nodded, turning on her heels to start moving towards the boat that would return them to the ship while Gwendolyn warily watched her father.
Austin said quietly, "The three of you will apologise to these officials who, like us, were all extremely worried about you and then you will get on the boat so that we can return to the ship and stop holding everyone up from the rest of their holidays. We will discuss suitable punishments later."
The girls did as they were told with tears in their eyes because they all knew that they were in a lot of trouble and then everyone got into the boat with the staff from the ship. Back at the ship, word was obviously out that there had been children missing, so they had to endure a lot of well wishes on finding them safe and sound on the way to their cabins as the ship got underway. Six adults and three children walked into a room and shut the door while the rest of them headed on to dinner. The much subdued group joined them fifteen minutes later and declared that they weren't going to be attending that evenings show. A short, silent conversation later and Aaron declared that no one was attending the show, that perhaps everyone was a bit too overstimulated and it would be nice if they found a quiet lounge somewhere and did something quiet.
After the negative cries died down in the wake of their unified parents, muttered conversations turned into accusations of fault and the next thing they knew, food was being flung right alongside the outraged shouts.
Aaron ducked a particularly large spoonful of mashed veggies that unfortunately landed on the patron behind him and murmured, "Definitely overstimulated." He stood up and whistled sharply, immediately garnering the attention of his entire extended family, and indeed everyone in the vicinity who had ducked under a table to avoid the flying mess. "Right, the following children may stay and finish their dinners, on account of their staying out of the food fight." He named the three girls who had been missing earlier, because they were already smarting from the conversations with their parents and had known better than to get involved. He also named seven other children who had stayed out of the fight, agreed to adding India to the list after Emily stated they had ducked under the table together early on and then indicated the rest were going to their rooms immediately.
"I hope you actually ate some of your food before you started flinging it about, because otherwise you are all going to be very hungry tonight. There will be no quiet time for you; you will apologise to people who are currently wearing your dinner and then you will march in an orderly fashion to your rooms where you will go straight to bed, because this kind of behaviour is unacceptable. Let's go."
Those who thought to whine were stared down by their parents. Apologies were subdued and then the group headed off, leaving Sean and Esther to supervise those who were allowed to continue eating. Staff moved around them, cleaning up the mess, to which they apologised profusely before they all headed off to find somewhere quiet to spend the evening.
New Section
The relief at being back at sea the next day, and therefore child free was huge as the adults settled down in a lounge for a relaxing morning.
"Do you know, children seemed like such a great idea, once upon a time," Dave said drily as he sipped at his non-alcoholic cocktail. His statement was met with a chorus of agreement and tired laughter as Teresa smacked his arm.
"Do you know," Spencer added in a mimicking drawl, "that this cruise seemed like such a great idea, once upon a time."
The agreement was more heartfelt this time, though no less tired.
"I have to say, I was so very close to cancelling tomorrow," Emily said. "The only reason I didn't was because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The kids can enjoy it tomorrow and then all of them except Jack and India are grounded for a couple of weeks."
"So you think two weeks is acceptable punishment?" Austin asked.
"For my lot for a food fight? Absolutely. For Mackenzie and the terror she caused you while you imagined who knows what happening to her? That is entirely up to you."
Silence descended for a time before Jordan stood up and stretched. "Ladies, I am heading down to see if the spa is free. I will then have lunch and am thinking of an afternoon nap. Anyone keen to join me?"
The response was unanimous, and with assurances to Esther and Austin that the babies would be well cared for, the men were left on their own while the women headed off to be pampered.
Half an hour later, Jordan and Teresa shared a room while two women oiled and massaged their backs.
"You know, you've been holding something in for a while now," Teresa said softly with her eyes closed, as close to purring like a cat as she had ever come. "Why don't you share it with me and see if I can help. Even if I can't, you'll probably feel better for speaking it out."
Jordan sighed heavily. "I take it I've lost the knack for hiding what I am really thinking?"
"Not at all. I'm guessing though that whatever it is, it is heavy because you have been looking weighed down by it. Have you talked with Derek about whatever it is?"
"Some. But work has been so crazy lately that I haven't had a chance to really talk to him about where everything is now."
"Would you prefer to talk to him first?"
"Yes, and no. I need to talk to someone, but this cruise doesn't seem to be the place to be bringing up something quite this heavy."
Teresa held out her hand and squeezed gently when Jordan took it. "Well if you change your mind, I am all ears. And if not, you can always hit me up for a coffee when we get back."
"I know, and I'm grateful."
New Section
"Spit it out, whatever it is that has you so worried about Jordan."
Derek raised an eyebrow at Aaron, but wasn't too surprised that his boss had picked up on his worry.
"Jordan thinks that Jonathan has GDD."
"What's that?" Sean asked.
"Global Developmental Delay," Spencer and Brad answered at the same time. They looked at each other while everyone chuckled.
"Essentially, Jonathan is showing a delay in some keys areas," Derek responded. "He is twenty-six months old, so he should be talking reasonably well and he should absolutely be running and climbing about everywhere. But he isn't really speaking more than baby talk and he has only really just started walking without assistance, not to mention that he is extremely unsteady on his feet. We spoke with our GP about it and she was going to run some tests, including brain scans, to see what might be going on."
"Is this because of the oxygen deprivation at birth?" Cameron asked.
"Our GP believes so, yes. Nothing was confirmed the last time Jordan and I seriously discussed everything, but she said they were close to confirming it. I thought it should have been confirmed before we left for this trip, but she hasn't spoken to me about it so I don't know where it is at."
"What does it actually mean for Jonathan and your family if he has this?" Aaron asked.
"Just that Jonathan will learn everything but it will take him longer than it would other children, and he may learn things in a different fashion to other children also. He is most likely mentally younger than he is, and he might need a lot of support once he gets to school age in order to start school with other children his age. It could also be a temporary thing, whereby once he catches up he is fine, but on the flip side, he may always be slower and mentally younger. We just don't know at this stage."
"So no medications required?"
"No, thank goodness. Just a lot of patience and a lot more support than most children ever need. He'll have a social worker who we will see on a regular basis though. They'll monitor his progress, arrange specialised programs to improve his progress for us and they will be the ones to make arrangements to get him into a school that isn't in our district if it comes to the point where he needs special education classes that none of the local schools provide."
Dave had been quiet up to that point, but now he quietly added, "Lizzie has GDD and epilepsy thanks to what her birth mother did to her body while she was in utero."
The guys winced. "That sucks," Brad said compassionately. "How bad is the epilepsy?"
Dave shrugged. "It is currently controlled with medications, but it is early days in the diagnoses yet; we have more tests lined up for when we return to find out what type of epilepsy it actually is."
"I'm surprised the infants club here took her in with that hanging over her head."
"They normally wouldn't have, but one of the volunteers supplementing the paid staff on this trip is a paediatrician specialising in epilepsy treatment. We talked at length about her medication schedule, how her seizures usually occurred and what could set her off and he stated that he was happy to take full responsibility for her so that Teresa and I could actually enjoy the break. And after watching over her for a couple of days, he had a lot to say about the doctor we are currently seeing, and none of it was good. He's given us contact information for a friend of his who practices in DC, which Teresa and I agree we will definitely follow up on when we return."
Silence fell as they all contemplated their families and either gave thanks that everyone was healthy or tried not to worry about things that couldn't be changed.
New Section
The children had obviously learned their lessons the night before. They were all softly spoken and well-mannered as they sat down to dinner that evening. There were no complaints when bed time rolled around and there wasn't anyone who wasn't happily snoozing by nine that evening. They all knew that if they kept acting up, there was a pretty good chance that the exciting adventures they would have the next day would be taken away from them.
None of the adults did anything to discourage this misinformation.
Dawn rolled around too fast, but again the children behaved well over breakfast, though the level of excited tension grew with every moment that drew closer to their arrival at their destination. Even the older children were excited at being able to visit Disney Castaway Cay.
The parents reiterated the rules, stressing the 'stay with the adults' rule in particular. Three little girls in particular nodded vigorously, knowing a good thing when it was handed to them…after all, they could be stuck back at the ship with someone to look after them.
The day went off without a hitch, with each of the adults taking advantage of relaxing massages in between the time spent watching their children being thoroughly entertained. After a relaxing lunch, the group went in different directions, family groups splitting up depending on preferences for the afternoon activities. By the time they got back to the ship, just about everyone under the age of ten was barely awake, so they bathed all of the kids and put most of them to bed, though they were offered dinner first; most were simply too tired to even eat.
Splitting the group of adults in half, the first group headed off to dinner with the children who were still awake while the other half stayed behind to watch over the kids. With Brad and Kelly part of the group left behind, nine year old Danielle sidled up to Mirkal and quietly asked if she could sit with the genius. He gallantly pulled her chair out for her as Henry slid into the seat on her other side. Having spent a bit of time talking over the last week in particular, the two smiled at each other before looking at the menu.
Conversation was sporadic with everyone so tired, but that didn't stop Mirkal from realising that Danielle was feeling a little out of her depth and trying to make things better for her. With an IQ of 191, Danielle was usually the one left out of everything, having already graduated high school; ostracised simply by not being interested in a lot of the things little girls her age were into because she had so much more in her head. Mirkal and Reid, both fully understanding where she was coming from because they had their own memories of their accelerated youth, had befriended her shortly after Kelly had shared the surprising news with the group. They had assisted the family unit to sort out what worked best in dealing with the everyday when a genius was involved, and they frequently took Danielle out for drinks just so that she could have a little time where she didn't have to struggle to find ground where everyone was on the same page.
"Did you have fun today?" he asked curiously.
Danielle smiled slightly. "Mostly. It was just frustrating to have strange adults talking to me like they were talking to other kids my age. I was really having to bite my tongue to keep from telling them off."
Henry grinned. "Yeah, but that would have been really funny to watch."
Danielle giggled and blushed. "Probably."
"What is the plan now that you have finished high school?"
"Mum suggested taking a little time just to be a child, but I'm not sure I could do that, I know too much. She also pointed out that a lot of teens take a gap year between high school and college and it got me thinking about what I really want to do with my life and what I could dabble around with now that might help with that. I don't think I could take a full year off because I really like studying, but I might take a semester to do some stuff."
"Any ideas on what you want to study when you get around to college?"
Danielle smiled brightly. "I want to be a doctor when I grow up. Not sure what kind of doctor, but I am certain I want to get into medicine. When I told Dad I wanted to attend his alma mater I thought he was going to cry with happiness. But he said that when the time comes he will help me with my application and he'll introduce me to the instructors so that they know to look out for me."
"Don't hospitals have volunteer programs for different things?" Henry asked. When Danielle and Mirkal looked at him quizzically, he shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable with the attention but knowing that Danielle was his friend and he somehow wanted to help. "When I broke my leg a few years ago, there was a lady who came around a couple of times with her guitar. She sang to the kids stuck inside in the ward and talked to us. I asked her why she did that and she said that she liked to give up her spare time to hopefully put a smile on someone else's face. So maybe you could volunteer at the hospital. Your dad could tell you what you could do."
Danielle's face lit up. "Henry, that's just brilliant! I'll ask Dad when we get back from the holiday. I could go in with him in the morning and go home with him when he leaves."
Henry blushed as Mirkal cautioned softly, "It is a really great idea, but it also may not be that easy. You may find that there are age restrictions on volunteer positions at the hospital. But if you like the idea of volunteering, speak with your dad and see what he says. There is probably a coordinator that you can speak with who can advise you properly."
Danielle sighed heavily. "I know. It really sucks to be a kid and yet be this smart." She brightened. "I may not be allowed to volunteer at the hospital, which really will be a loss, but there should be some other way to volunteer somewhere. Henry, you really are a genius!" And she shocked the three of them when she leaned in and kissed Henry quickly on the lips. They exchanged a startled look, and then they both blushed scarlet and turned quickly to their food which had just arrived.
Mirkal cleared his throat in an attempt not to laugh at them and looked across the table at Will, who looked curiously amused. Indicating that he would explain things to the other man later, Mirkal also turned to his meal.
New Section
The last day as the cruise headed back to Canaveral was uneventful. The kids enjoyed the last hours they had to play with new friends, and the adults enjoyed the last meals that they hadn't needed to prepare, serve or eat cold. The final show was spectacular and they all attended, with earmuffs providing enough muffling of the noise that the youngest of the group happily slept through the whole show.
Having spent an hour before dinner packing bags, it took very little time the next morning to confirm that they had everything before they disembarked. The kids chattered excitedly about the highlights, while the adults planned to never subject themselves to anything like that ever again.
End
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