Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV series, Criminal Minds.

System

By
N. J. Borba

Derek walked purposely up the stairs, always in a hurry to greet his three favorite ladies upon arriving home after a case.

Some days he still missed having Emily at the BAU to work the cases with him, but he admired her a great deal for wanting to stay home with their twins. The girls had been a huge surprise, especially considering he and Emily had only been casually dating at the time and had only had sex exactly one time. But apparently a late-in-life hormonal surge, coupled with a broken condom, had contributed to Emily's fertility and them becoming the proud parents of identical twin girls.

And even though the quickie wedding and birth of the girls had been trying at times, Derek wouldn't change a thing about their life.

He headed for the nursery upon reaching the second floor, but instead of his baby girls he found his wife seated in the middle of the green and purple room. "Where are the junior Morgan's?" he inquired, kneeling beside Emily to kiss her cheek.

"Sleeping in the bassinet in our room," her answer was a bit distracted as she barely responded to his kiss or even his presence.

Morgan glanced about the floor. It appeared that all of twins' baby clothes were lying in stacks around Emily. "Laundry day?" he asked. He knew the girls could go through a lot of outfits in a short amount of time, but the mountains he saw now seemed a bit much.

"No, this is my new system," Emily replied, still distracted as she folded and placed things in order according to color. "Actually, I'm glad you're here because I can explain it to you before I put everything away. I finally figured out a system to tell the girls apart based on the colors they wear. Hannah will have pink, yellow and green. Grace will wear only purple, blue and orange," she declared with a triumphant grin.

An amused smile formed as he settled himself down on the floor closer to Emily. He couldn't help adore her neurotic tendencies, especially when it came to the girls. "In that case, Gracie is my new favorite daughter."

She finally turned her attention to him, wearing a frown. "How could you pick a favorite?"

Derek chuckled. "Purple is a Northwestern University color. Blue and orange are the Chicago Bears' colors," he concluded.

Her eyes rolled at him, but she leaned in to give him a proper welcome home kiss, their lips melting against one another. She'd been extremely nervous taking on the full-time care of not one, but two, infant girls. But Emily had grown to enjoy her motherhood role. She liked it even better, though, when Derek was home with all of them. When she pulled away a second later, Emily smiled again. "At least you'll remember the color system."

His head nodded then he got to his feet and reached a hand down to help Emily up. "Come on, I want to see all my girls together." He glanced at the clothing mess again. "And I'm pretty sure you need a break from this crazy project of yours."

Emily willingly took his hand and stood. "I do," she agreed.

With hands clasped, Derek led her to their room.

xxx

It was Friday and, even though Derek had just returned from a long case, he still had to head into work and face a desk littered with reports. But his spirits were buoyed that afternoon by a knock at his office door. He would've even welcomed it being Garcia with the announcement of a new case if it meant he could stop doing paperwork. As the door slowly cracked open, his mood was further brightened as he recognized the stroller he and Emily had spent months agonizing over, and which he was certain cost more than his first car.

"This is a surprise," he happy greeted his wife with a quick kiss before holding the door so she could push the gray and pink stroller all the way inside his office.

"The girls officially turned twelve weeks old today," Emily grinned proudly. "I thought we should stop by to celebrate," she declared. "Of course it took me about two hours of preparation just to get them dressed, pack the diaper bag and situate them in the car by myself," she admitted.

Derek flashed a sympathetic look her way as he glanced down at the girls who both appeared to be sleeping. "You should've told me, I would've helped you prepare this morning."

Her head shook. "But then it wouldn't have been a surprise." Emily watched as baby Grace's eyes opened. The little girl grimaced and then spit up a stream of milky substance. Emily, unfazed by the messes anymore, grabbed a wipe from the diaper bag and cleaned the girl's chin. "I also planned to bring you lunch, but I forgot," she relayed to her husband.

Derek kissed her cheek again. "Not to worry. That's why they have delis where people work. We can eat downstairs, and then I'll help you feed the girls before you take off," he suggested, glad they were bottle feeding now so he could help out and also enjoy that bonding experience with his daughters. "But first," his eyes glanced to the twins again. "Can we show them off in the bullpen?"

Emily chuckled softly, loving how proud and happy he was about their family. "You've been waiting for that, haven't you?"

He nodded. "Pictures just don't do their cuteness justice," Derek beamed.

"So true, there's nothing cuter than spit-up," she quipped while waving a hand toward the door. Emily walked by his side as Derek steered the stroller into the bullpen. Heads instantly turned their way as they often did when faced with the twin stroller. She'd only taken them to the hospital, grocery store and the park once or twice, but inevitably people were drawn to and fascinated by the presence of twins.

"Emily!" Garcia chirped. The exuberant woman had been leaning against JJ's desk but now strode a path toward her friend. Her arms wrapped about the older woman. "It's so good to see you," Penelope intoned.

A happy smile spread across Emily face, pleased that someone cared about seeing her when the girls were present. She'd often felt invisible in their presence before. "I just saw you last week when you dropped those dresses off for the girls," Emily laughed, hugging her friend in return. "But it's good to see you again," she agreed. Within minutes she'd received two more hugs, one each from JJ and Reid.

Hotch and Rossi trickled out of their offices upon hearing the small commotion that Emily and the twins' arrival had created. Even Anderson had crowded around the stroller to catch a close-up peek of the twins who had both fully woken upon Garcia's excited squeals. "I hate not seeing you here every day," JJ said to Emily as she admired the girls.

"I feel the same," Emily agreed. The two friends had vowed to get together as often as possible after Emily had left the BAU. But it was difficult working around the BAU's crazy schedule and three kids between them. "Maybe we can have lunch this Saturday?" Emily suggested, "If my husband is around to babysit."

JJ smiled. "I'll get mine to babysit, too," the profiler nodded her agreement. "We'll have kid-free lunch like grownups."

"So…" Reid crouched down beside the stroller. "Which one is Hannah, and which one is Grace?" he asked. "I don't know how you can tell, unless you fingerprinted them every day. Even identical twins have different fingerprints," he rambled.

"Grace," Emily pointed to the back section of the stroller. "And Hannah," her finger moved to the front.

Derek grimaced as he realized something he hadn't noticed earlier. He leaned into his wife and whispered in her ear. "Um, Em… are you sure about the girls? One is wearing green and the other pink. I thought those were both Hannah's colors in your new system."

Emily promptly examined her daughters to realize he was correct. "Oh, hell…" she whispered. "It was really late and I was so tired when I finally put their clothes away last night." Her eyes slid a glare toward Morgan. "Since someone got frisky with me after the girls fell asleep."

"Well, I'm sorry, but our friskiness has been very much lacking recently," his tone was still a whisper as he shrugged innocently. "What about this morning when you were dressing them? Didn't you notice the color issue then?"

She sighed. "You've dressed them before, two wriggly little babies… color wasn't exactly the most important thing on my mind."

"True enough," he agreed. "But then… what was the point of your whole system?"

A shrug was her first respond, voice still low as she spoke. "It gave me something to obsess over for a few hours."

He chuckled. "I'm sure it's okay," Derek tried to calm her as he saw the worried creases form across her forehead, knowing she wasn't as upset about their union the night before as she was about the possibility of getting the girls mixed up again. "They still have the marks on their wrists. We'll sort it out later," he assured her.

Her face paled. "I gave them both baths this morning," her hushed voice replied. "I washed them away again," Emily revealed as one baby began to cry.

"Emily's right," JJ spoke up as she went to lift the fussy baby out of the back seat. She expertly rocked the little girl, giving her friend a much needed mommy break. "I remember the last time I saw them Hannah scrunched up her nose just like she's doing now," she pointed out to the others that the crying baby had her little nose all bunched.

"Of course Emily's right," Garcia defended. "What kind of mother would get her babies mixed up?"

A slightly strangled burst of laughter escaped Emily's lips. "Not me," she nearly choked on the words, knowing they were a lie.

Morgan squeezed her hand in support. "See, you knew all along even without a system," he tried to boost her confidence while also trying desperately not to laugh.

She was far from laughing. "Don't tell JJ this…" Emily's voice was soft again, for his ears only, "But both girls scrunch their noses up like that from time to time, whether they're crying or not," she informed her husband. "Which means, I really screwed up this time."

"Well, crap," he lamented with her. "Couldn't they at least have non-identical personalities by now," Derek groaned.

Reid caught the last part of what his friend and co-worker had said. "Did you know that certain genetic characteristics of identical twins can often grow even more alike as they age? Things like IQ and personality. I guess that would make it even more difficult to tell them apart, wouldn't it?"

Emily shook her head knowing they were back to not having a clue how to tell their daughters apart. "We never tell them about this either, promise?" she whispered.

Derek nodded. "Promise."

The End