Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

Happily Ever After-Chapter 2

Once grace had been said and everyone had served themselves some of the chicken and noodle concoction, JJ turned the subject back to Abby's upcoming semester.

"How are the college applications coming honey?" JJ asked as she dug into her dinner.

Abby sighed, "Slowly, very slowly."

"Why is that?" Her father asked, quirking his eyebrow; normally his daughter finished school related tasks well before their deadlines, but she seemed to be taking a while with the applications.

"Each school wants a different essay, so I'm writing about a million of them right now, and I get them confused in my brain. Why can't colleges use the same questions on their applications?"

"Because that would make life much too easy for you," her father replied dryly, as he poured dressing on his salad.

"Yeah well, I could do with some easiness right now," Abby told him.

"What kind of questions are they asking?" Her mother asked her, flashing back to her own college search and application experience

"UVA wants me to 'write about any interesting experience I've had during my college admission search.' Come on! There is nothing interesting about the college search! Georgetown wants me to 'relate my interest in studying at Georgetown to my future goals.' Isn't that what college is for? To help me come up with future goals?"

"They probably want you to talk about how your major will help you later in life. You are still planning on majoring in pre-law, aren't you Pumpkin?"

Abby nodded and her mother asked about the questions some of the other schools were asking.

"American University wants me to discuss a personal, local, national or international issue that is important to me, and NYU wants me to 'indicate a person who has had significant influence on me' and they want me to discuss that influence-" Dave interrupted his daughter.

"That one could be interesting; do you know who you're going to write about?" He asked.

"I'm going to write about mom," she said nonchalantly. She was surprised to see her mother's eyes fill with tears. "God mom, it's just a college application, it's not like I'm writing a novel about our relationship."

JJ nodded, "I know, it's just nice to know that I'm still important to you." She saw Abby roll her eyes at this. "Hey, it's not easy seeing my baby growing up! It's nice to know that I'm still an important part of your life."

Abby smiled at her and continued describing the various essays to her parents. Since she was applying to six colleges, there really were a lot of essays to write, and she picked at her food while she talked about them.

JJ, seeing her daughter's increased agitation about discussing college, tried to change the subject.

"So did you decide whether or not you're going to go to the sports banquet on Saturday?" The varsity sports banquet was an annual event at Edmund Burke, and it honored all of the varsity athletes, both male and female. Abby wanted to go, but it was the type of function that required a date, and Abby was not currently seeing anybody.

She nodded, "Yeah, Jack and I decided to go together."

Dave's fork clattered out of his hand at his daughter's announcement. "What?" He asked in disbelief.

"Jack and I are going together," his daughter repeated. "He doesn't have a girlfriend and I don't have a boyfriend and we both really want to go, so we're going together." Jack was on the varsity track team, so he also had an invitation to the banquet. "We're just going as friends."

Dave thought about that for a minute, "Well…that's okay then…I guess." As a legendary profiler, he had been picking up on some subtle signals between his daughter and his godson for awhile, and he wasn't quite sure how he felt about it. On the one hand, he knew Jack was a good kid and he knew he would respect his daughter, but on the other hand, Jack was a BOY! And he wasn't comfortable with Abby dating anyone.

"I'm glad you approve," Abby said with a smirk

"Are you going to need a new dress for it?" JJ asked her. While the sports banquet wasn't quite as formal as the prom, it was close and she knew that her daughter didn't have many dresses that would work for the occasion.

Abby scrunched up her forehead in thought, "Yeah, I probably will," she told her mother.

JJ nodded, "Okay, how about we go out looking on Tuesday night? You can ride in to Quantico with me, take the Metro to school from there and then I'll pick you up after school and we'll go shopping."

Mentally reviewing her schedule in her head, Abby nodded, "Sounds great mom."

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A snowstorm hit that weekend, so the three of them just lounged around the cabin and went for walks in the snow all weekend. On Monday, Abby returned to school, JJ returned to work and Dave went back to working on his latest book. On Tuesday, Abby rode into town with her mother, instead of taking her car, and they made plans to meet after school let out. Since she had ridden in with her mother, she was surprised to see her father's SUV parked outside of her school later that afternoon.

"Hey," she said as she climbed into the passenger seat. "Where's mom?"

"On a case in Utah," her dad replied as he waited for her to buckle her seatbelt. "You're stuck with me today."

"Um, that's okay, I can find one of my friends to go shopping with," she told him. She had gone clothes shopping with him only a few times and each time had been disastrous. Because they each had much different tastes in clothing, their few shopping trips had resulted in frustration and more than a few tears on Abby's part.

"Don't be silly, I have the afternoon free and you need a dress, let's go get one." Her dad seemed really eager to help her pick out a dress, so Abby relented.

"Okay, let's go shopping," she agreed, sending up a silent prayer that this time it would be a different experience with him.

"Great, so where are we going?"

"I was thinking of looking at Urban Chic in Georgetown. It's right on Wisconsin Ave."

"Georgetown it is," he agreed as he pulled out into traffic.

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Two hours later it was abundantly clear to Abby that the fates weren't listening to her prayers, as she was trying on her sixth dress of the excursion. Like in regular clothing, she and her father had vastly different tastes when it came to dresses. Her dad wanted her to either look like a nun or a twelve year old, while she wanted something that was modern and somewhat flirty. It was clear they were never going to come to a decision on a dress.

As she zipped the dress up in the back, she looked in the mirror and grimaced. She didn't know they made formal dresses with this much material. As she stepped out of the dressing room, she saw her father nod in approval.

"It looks wonderful Pumpkin!"

"Are you kidding? This dress is hideous!" Abby hissed quietly. She knew the saleslady was lurking around them somewhere and she didn't want to be rude, but really, the dress was awful!

"What's wrong with it?" Dave asked, hoping he could talk her into that one.

"What isn't wrong with it?" She asked as she studied herself in the three-way mirror. "First of all, it's green and green has never been a good color on me." She saw her dad shake his head to argue with her, but she kept on going. "Second, the shape is horrible; I looked like I gained twenty pounds. And finally, this thing covers me from my neck to my ankles. I could walk around Saudi Arabia in this thing and not get hassled!"

Dave let out a frustrated sigh, "Guys like a little mystery Pumpkin."

"Yeah, and they also like to see a little skin. Seriously dad, do you really think this looks good on me? Be honest."

He looked at her closely and then finally shook his head, "No, I guess it really doesn't," he admitted.

"Thank you!" She exclaimed before practically running back into the dressing room to change. When she emerged, she saw her dad looking through the racks of dresses again. "Find anything?" She asked, her stomach churning with dread.

He shook his head, "Maybe we should try someplace else," he suggested.

Abby shook her head, "Do you really think we're going to find anything? Come on dad, our tastes are just too different. I'll just go out with my friends tomorrow night to find a dress."

He shook his head as they walked out the door, "No way, I want you to have an adult's opinion on the appropriateness of any dress you buy."

"How about if I get Aunt Cathy or Aunt Anna to go out with me?" She suggested as they walked down the street. They hadn't been able to find a parking space near the store and they had a bit of a trek back to the car.

"Hell no! My sisters would probably get you a tube top and miniskirt as payback for all of the times I made them change before going out on dates."

"What about Garcia?" Her father just looked at her. "Fine, bad choice. How about Nonna?"

Dave thought about that for a minute. His mother tended to dress conservatively and she had a knack for picking out classy and elegant outfits. "Okay, I'll agree to that."

"Thank God!" Abby exclaimed and then stopped dead in her tracks. "I forgot there's a Five Guys restaurant here," she said, pointing at the red and white awning above them. "It's getting kind of late, wanna grab dinner?"

Dave thought for a minute; the menu at Five Guys wasn't exactly a low cholesterol one, and he did promise his wife that he would watch his cholesterol intake, but he had just spent the last two hours arguing over dresses with a teenage girl and he felt he deserved a treat. Besides, after that nothing could kill him!

Nodding, they both stepped inside and enjoyed some great hamburgers.