Changes-Chapter 8
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"Hello?" He said, hoping against hope that his mother wouldn't actually puncture his eardrum as she voiced her displeasure. Aw, who was he kidding? She was going to rip him a new one over the phone and then later, she'd come by and do it in person.
"Hello Davie," a deep voice said and Dave heaved a huge sigh of relief; it was his father on the other end of the line, not his irate mother. Maybe that meant she didn't know? After all, he'd only learned about the girls five days ago and he hadn't told anyone in his family, so how could she know? Nope, his dad was probably just calling to shoot the breeze.
"Hey dad, what's up?" While he spoke, he reviewed the numerous pieces of paperwork he'd filled out. The last thing he wanted was to have to return to the BAU because he forgot to dot an i or cross a t.
"You are," Nicolo Rossi said in a stern voice. "As in, you're up shit creek without a paddle," he clarified.
"Dad, what are you-" The elder Rossi didn't let his son finish the question.
"You've been the guardian of two girls for almost three days and you didn't expect your mother to be upset?" His father asked incredulously. "No offense son, but are you an idiot?"
"No," Dave said a bit testily, "I've just had a lot going on and I haven't had time to fill everyone in on my life changes. How did mom even find out?"
"How does your mother find out half of the stuff she does?" Nicolo asked rhetorically. "I think she mentioned that a Penelope Garcia said something to her."
"Perfect," Dave muttered. When the team was out of the office, the unit secretary sometimes sent the calls to Garcia who would try to work her magic before sending them to the appropriate voice mails. Apparently his mother and the quirky tech had had quite a conversation.
"So how's fatherhood treating you, son?" Dave's own dad asked.
"I'm terrified, dad," he confessed softly. "I'm responsible for two living, breathing human beings. What if I teach them the wrong things? What if I don't teach them enough? What if what I do now turns them into psychopaths later on? What if-"
"Stop son," his dad interrupted forcefully. "Every parent is terrified when they have a child and every parent wonders the same things you are wondering right now. You're a good man, Davie and your girls will turn out to be fine people. Just take it slowly with them. What are they like?"
"Emma's six and cute as a button and Hannah's almost fifteen and she's already gorgeous…I just know I'm gonna have to chase the boys off with a stick once school starts. They're both polite and smart and they know how to take care of themselves. Hannah's not exactly my biggest fan, but Emma warmed up to me fairly quickly and I'm hoping Hannah will eventually come around."
"I'm sure she-" The rest of the elder Rossi's sentence was cut off by a loud screech in the background.
"Are you talking to our son?" Sophia Rossi asked her husband loudly. "Did you tell him he is a dead man for keeping the news of his new daughters from me? Let me talk to him!"
Dave could hear a slight scuffle on the other end of the line and he knew his mother was trying to physically wrestle the phone away from his father. "Okay Sophia, okay!" Nicolo said loudly. "Let me just say goodbye to our son! Ooof! Good luck Davie," he said loudly as his wife grabbed the phone away from him.
There was a slight pause and then Dave pulled the phone away from his ear as his mother screeched, "David Nicolo Rossi!"
"Hi mom," he said in a normal tone of voice. "How are you?"
"Don't you 'hi mom' me, young man!" She ordered sternly. "What made you think you could hide my newest grandchildren from me?"
"I wasn't hiding anyone mom, everything happened so quickly that I haven't had a chance to bring them over to the house." He suddenly felt like he was six years old again and defending his actions to his mother. It didn't help that his parents still lived in the house that he and his siblings had grown up in.
"I finally have granddaughters Davie, granddaughters! After four sons and seven grandsons, I finally have some little girls I can dote on and you tried keeping them away from me!"
"Jesus mom, I wasn't hiding anyone from you!" He protested loudly. "I told you I just got the girls and I haven't had time to introduce them to everyone yet."
"Don't you raise your voice at me!" Sophia snapped back at him. "I still have the wooden spoon in the drawer, and I'm not 'everyone,' I'm your mother and you should tell me when you've adopted two girls, I shouldn't have to hear about it from Penelope."
Just hearing her threaten him with that goddamned wooden spoon was enough to make Dave change his tone to something more apologetic. "Sorry mom, I haven't slept much in the past few days and I'm on edge. What I meant to say was I don't want to overwhelm them their first few days here."
"Well, that's better," she sniffed haughtily. "And I understand that, but I want to meet my granddaughters. How about a family dinner on Sunday?"
"That won't work; the team's coming over to help me repaint their bedrooms on Saturday and then Emily and I are going to take them to the cabin for a few days while the house airs out." He hadn't exactly asked the team for their help yet, but he figured if he sweetened the deal with homemade pizza and beer, they would be on board with it.
"Davie," his mother started but he wouldn't let her finish.
"No mom, those girls and their comfort levels are my first priority. I know you want to meet them, but I am not going to expose them to our crazy family until they've gotten a little more comfortable with me."
Sophia was torn; on the one hand, she really wanted to meet her new grandchildren but on the other hand, it was nice to hear her son sounding so parental about them. She tried to compromise, "What if your father and I come by while you're painting on Saturday? We could bring pizza and dessert and maybe we could help out with some of the work."
Dave thought about it for a moment and then finally nodded his agreement, forgetting his mother couldn't see him. "Okay, that will work," he said, "But just you and dad, they'll meet the rest of the zoo later."
"All right Davie, just me and your father," Sophia agreed. They chit chatted for a little while longer before Dave saw Emily enter the bullpen and he cut the conversation with his mother short. He left his office, leaned against the railing and watched as the BAU women and his new daughters dragged many bags into the bullpen. They seemed happy but tired and he was about to go down and greet them when he took a closer look at Hannah and Emma.
"Penelope!" He bellowed as he stormed down the short, metal staircase. "Why do my daughters have purple streaks in their hair?"
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Two hours later, after both she and Garcia assured him that the color would wash out of the girls' hair that night, Dave and Emily were in the kitchen fixing dinner while Hannah and Emma put their purchases away in their rooms. It was somewhat strange to be cooking with his significant other while his new children roamed around on the second floor. It was oddly domestic and it felt nice.
"Oh, we stopped at Home Depot and picked up a bunch of paint cards. Good luck getting them to decide on colors for their bedrooms; Emma likes about 18 different shades of pink, while Hannah is trying to play it cool about her room. The entire time we were in the store she kept saying that she didn't want to redo her room, that it was fine the way it is, but she kept looking longingly at the yellow paint cards so I shoved a bunch of them into the bag."
Dave sighed, "I'm not sure what her problem is with me and with living here," he said as he formed patties out of the ground beef in front of him.
"Seriously?" Emily asked, wondering how such a brilliant profiler could be so stupid when it came to teenage girls. "She's almost fifteen, Dave; that alone explains about 98% of her moodiness. She also just lost her father, she was the primary caretaker of her sister and now she's not, she was uprooted from her home and everything she knew and now she's living with a guy she barely knows and he's talking about adoption. Wouldn't you be a discombobulated if all of that was happening to you?"
"I suppose," he said grudgingly. "What do I do about it?"
"Give her time," Emily replied as she put a tray of tater tots into the oven. "Give her time to adjust to all that's happened in her life, give her time to wrap her head around things."
"I can do that," he said as he added his secret spice blend to the burgers. "Especially since school doesn't start for almost a month. That reminds me, can you help me look for schools for them? I'm gonna put Garcia on it, but I'd like another set of eyes to help me decide."
"Of course Dave," Emily responded softly, touched that he wanted her to be involved with such a big decision. They hadn't really had a chance to discuss what her role would be with the girls, since everything had happened so fast, but she was happy that he seemed to want her to play a large part in their lives.
"Oh, and I'm going to try to Shanghai the team into helping me paint the girls' rooms this weekend and I'm hoping that Hotch and Morgan will help me swap the old furniture with some new stuff. After that, I'm taking Hannah and Emma to the cabin for a few days to escape the paint fumes and it goes without saying that I hope you'll join us," as he spoke, he leaned closer to her and finished with a kiss. He would've wrapped his arms around her, but his hands were still filled with raw, ground beef.
"Definitely," she said as she returned the kiss. They stayed like that for a few moments before Emily finally broke away from him. "You're on your own with Emma tomorrow night."
"Why?" Dave was slightly panicked; he'd never really taken care of a small child by himself, other than his nephews on occasion.
"Hannah and I are going to finish up her shopping after work."
Dave groaned, "What more could she possibly need? I helped carry in all of the bags and I'd be surprised if there was anything left at the mall."
Emily smiled at his dramatics, "There are certain things that a girl doesn't want to try on with an audience."
Dave knew what she was talking about and he gave a mock sigh, "Fine, take my credit card again. Hopefully it won't be a melted puddle of plastic when you're done."
"I told you it was too much," Hannah's voice piped up from the doorway. "I told you I didn't need all of those clothes; we should just take them back." Before either of them could say anything, she turned around and left the doorway. A few seconds later they heard her feet on the staircase as she went back up to the second floor.
"Great," Emily said as she blew out her breath sharply. "That was her biggest fear throughout the shopping trip today, that you would be angry at how much money we spent. It was like pulling teeth to get her to try on clothes."
"How the hell was I supposed to know that? I was just joking," he defended himself.
"You'd better go up and talk to her," Emily told him. "I'll go heat up the grill."
"Okay," he said as he washed his hands at the sink. Once he was done, he started up the steps and stopped in front of Hannah's room and knocked. He heard a few giggles and was surprised when Emma called out, "come in!" He opened the door and found Emma sitting on the floor while Hannah sat in her desk chair above her. The older girl was braiding Emma's hair while Emma chattered amongst the two Barbie dolls she was holding.
"Dave!" She said happily. "Look what I got!" She held up both Barbies in a triumphant manner.
"That's great Emma," he said and then looked up at Hannah. "I was just joking before, Hanna; I'm not upset at all of the things you got today, honestly and I don't want you to return anything, okay? I want you and Emma to have everything you need here."
"Why?" She asked as she finished one side of her sister's head and moved on to the other. "Why do you care? Why are we so important to you?"
He watched as Emma went very still and he knew he had to answer the question correctly. "I've always wanted kids," he said softly. "I've been married a few times but kids were never part of the equation."
"So why don't you have your own with Emily?" Hannah asked.
"Maybe we will someday," he told her, "But right now both of you need someone to help you out and your dad wanted me to be that person and I can do it for you. Besides, I care about both of you and I want you to be happy."
Both girls mulled Dave's words over in their minds. "We don't need anyone's help, but thank you for everything you've done for us," Hannah said begrudgingly. He smiled thinking he'd made a little headway with the teen, but her next words shot that idea down. "We're not your daughters."
"What do you mean?" He asked as Emma returned to playing with her dolls.
"When we were at the BAU today, you asked Garcia why there purple streaks in your daughters' hair but we're not your daughters, we already have a father."
Dave wanted to argue the point, he wanted to tell her that her father was dead and she did, in fact, need an adult in her life, but he didn't want to further alienate her so he changed the subject. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes so please come downstairs when you're done doing Emma's hair."
"We will," she responded as he closed the door. Once he was out in the hallway, he released a larger sigh and wondered if the older girl would ever warm up to him.
