Hi thank you all for the reviews! I've always liked Bones and the characters in that show. I plan on refocusing this story back onto the BAU family though. Ben's character reminds me of someone I know and I felt I kind of gipped him in the family front. Oh and I want to remind readers that Ben was throwing possible ideas around as to what he should do next; he saw Callie wanting an emancipation and copied her. Oh and I planned on making Bug an older brother figure because he's in his mid-twenties by now, but they were put in the Dalton's group home together. I have an idea as to where I want a possible romance for Callie to go.


Chapter 9


"Are you in trouble?" Henry climbs on top of his formerly sleeping sister who groans at the weight being put on her chest as a result of the seven year old. It feels like she and JJ just got home like an hour ago. Now her little brother is sitting on her stomach peering down at her curiously. When they did, Will scolded her firmly in the midst of a hug before she was sent off to bed. "I think you are cause mommy and daddy are quiet." The mom and teen arrived home after Henry came back from Jesse's for lunch. They hadn't needed to wait long for Diana and Leslie, but Callie could hear them bickering even before the sisters' stepped off the elevator. Callie still doesn't know how it ended because she had to keep her stupid word to JJ and Will has her phone for the next nine days.

"Maybe they're taking turns with the family brain." As she rolls away from him this causes Henry to fall into the spot beside her. The fourteen year old suddenly feels bad. Henry's only curious; it's not his fault he's a little kid and no one tells him anything. She turns to the boy sighing. "Yeah, I'm in trouble." She said in a softer tone.

Henry commented. "I knew it." He pulls a face. "Your breath smells funny, bad funny."

"You smell bad funny." She teased.

"I do not. I probably smell like grass cause I was outside. I think daddy's making lunch. You missed pancakes, so you should eat or else you'll shrink. Natalie said so." Henry voices his butchered facts. "What'd you do to get in trouble?"

"I borrowed some money and left to help Ben without telling the parents. We were trying to find his dad, some people don't have them and we wanted to find his. We found him in a diner. The pie there was really good; I wish I could've gotten you a slice. Oh and then they called mom and she came and was super pissed." Callie has kept an honest communication with Ben and he's like her brother, so she's going to do the same with Henry.

His eyes become as wide as saucers. "What kind of pie did you get?"

"Pecan," the older sister stated as Henry nods in approval.

"I like apple." He frowns looking every bit like his father. "So you stole mommy and daddy's money and left on an adventure? Like they do in Neverland?" Henry tries to see if he has this right. Callie nods making the boy's frown deepen significantly. "How come you didn't take me along? I like Peter Pan. He has adventures with Wendy and she goes on adventures with her brothers." Callie feels her cheeks prick guiltily. "I'm not a baby like Mikey, you're my sister; we're 'posed ta go on adventures together."

"I'm sorry; I wasn't trying to make you feel left out. I just didn't want you to get into any trouble."

A wide smile forms on his face. "That's okay." He leans in close. Henry likes telling Callie what goes on. No one else takes him as seriously as her. "I heard mama and daddy talking. Mom says she's gonna nail your window shut so you can't climb out of it." Callie's mouth falls open in shock. She's seen that in television programs, but it doesn't seem legal. "Dad said we can't cause the neighbors are gonna think we got someone 'gainst their will."

The teenager leans back in her bed. She can't believe JJ's even talking about something like that and with her being a fed too. Then again, the teen knows she pushed her parents too far and feels guilty about it. She doesn't know what it means to get in trouble here. Chances are they'll explain it to her when she really wakes up, but a part of Callie doesn't want them to. A part of her wishes she just knew what was going to be expected of her and that it didn't have to be so awkward sometimes. Callie suddenly glances over at her brother who's drawing invisible circles on her cover with his fingers. He has to know what it means to get in trouble around here. "Henry, you've been around here a long time."

"No, we used ta live in another house when I was little then we moved to this one before Mike was born. I got my own room now." He explained in a way only a seven year old could.

"Henry," Callie shakes her head; correcting him isn't important. "What happens when you get in big trouble?"

Her brother's face tightens. "Depends on what I do." The boy rubs his face snuggling into her who offers him a soft grin. "In big trouble like when I punched Zane for being mean to Finley, I had to apologize and I couldn't play with my toys till Sunday. When I got in big, big trouble like when me and Jesse and Finley didn't come in after recess and went to middle school – mom and dad made me swear not to do it again and it was boring being here."

"What does that mean?"

"I couldn't have recess at school for a whole week and after school I had to stay in my room till dinner without my funner toys. It was super boring." Henry shudders at the memory. As punishments go, Callie has to admit, JJ and Will know how to get to their kids. Following them around all the time isn't going to be easy and anyway if she starts to despise the grounding, she'll just ignore it.

Callie rolls her intense blue eyes at his theatrics. "Do you uh know what your mom and dad mean when they say I'm grounded to them? I mean that just sounds like freaking crazy talk right?" For a moment the teen forgets she's conversing with a seven year old, she's merely stating facts aloud.

"You just swore." Henry giggled looking around nervously as though expecting one of his parents to come in.

"Yeah whatever," the teen likes how Henry adopted her as his new idol. It's a role that she finds rewarding and challenging. Callie's found that Ben's little cousins don't see him as their brother nor has his aunts ever tried to get them to. Agent Booth mentioned that Ben has a little brother. Maybe now, that kid will think of Ben as his idol too.

"Oh good you're up." JJ's voice floats through the air. She presses her lips together tightly to keep from smiling at the sight of her children snuggling. "Henry, I thought I told you not to go in Callie's room." The little boy is quick to apologize and goes on his merry way. JJ sits down on the side of Callie's bed. "Sorry, sweets, I think he was worried about you." Now that strikes a chord with Callie, she never wanted to make Henry feel scared or anything like that. In fact, she hoped she'd be home before anyone noticed she was gone.

As he scampers out of there, Will comes in with little Mike in his arms. "You up for a late lunch, Trouble? How do you like grilled cheese?"

"It's my favorite." Callie admitted following her parents into the kitchen. Henry seems to have found his spot and Callie slides into hers while Will adjusts Mike in his chair. The baby gurgles happily at his siblings, kicking his legs laughing despite the awkward situation. Henry is either oblivious or deciding not to concern himself with matters pertaining to others…which would be a first on his end.

"Big fella, how about you eat yours in the living room?" Will squeezes the boy's shoulders.

"In front of the T.V. but that's not allowed." His eldest son informed with the hidden desire to want to know what's going to happen. Callie is his sister. He should know stuff; mama and daddy used to talk to him all the time and now everything's like a big giant secret.

JJ grinned. "Today it is, Bubs. Go on, baby, your dad and I need to talk to your sister for a minute."

Henry subconsciously glances at Callie who smiles at him and nods. He reluctantly takes the sandwich with carrots on the side walking off. The parents wait until they hear the plate lightly graze their living room table before turning their attention onto their eldest child. However, what everyone fails to notice is the seven year old listening at the living room's edge. Henry figures this is way easier than getting secondhand news. At least now he'll know what's going on around here; no one ever tells him anything.

"I think we oughta talk about what's going to happen." Will declared as JJ nods half-smiling.

Callie is nervous. She doesn't want to be in real big trouble. "What is going to happen? You said some stuff there, but…are you gonna kick me out?" The young teenager has a good read off her parents and knows full-well they have no plans on doing anything of the sort, but it's worth a shot in avoiding the weird grounding JJ said. Her mother couldn't have been in her right mind when she decided that.

"No, we'd never do that. How could you even think that? What led you to…I want to make something very clear with you, we will always want you; no matter what." JJ squints at her deceptive daughter who refuses to meet her gaze. The mother shares a look with her husband who looks amused. He'd personally prefer Callie trusting them enough to try to trick them. "But, I think you know that. Nice attempt at a diversion, so for the next nine odd days, you're grounded to your dad and me – and Auntie Pen too; if we're working and not around."

"That means you're to stay by us." Her foster dad tries to keep the awkwardness out of his voice, which he's finding is starting to become easier than before. He's gradually stepping into the role of Callie's dad.

"Seriously?" The teenager whined with wide eyes. "That wasn't a joke."

The profiler frowns. "No, Callie, that wasn't a joke – just like what you did wasn't a joke. It was serious, so you're grounded and in this case that means following us around."

"So, I'm basically a dog now?" Even Henry can tell that wasn't the best thing to say to their parents, he's gonna have to warn his sister on talking mean to them. When he does it, he gets sent to his room and sometimes daddy makes him write lines about using kind words.

JJ doesn't care for the tone. She doesn't remember being this bratty with her mom. "Caroline, this punishment isn't supposed to be degrading." Henry makes a face at the unfamiliar word. He'll have to ask Uncle Spencer about it later. "It's supposed to teach you about freedom and trust. Right now, we don't trust you to be on your own." That stings and somehow resonates with the teenager who swallows. "I want you to know that we're doing this because we love you, because none of would ever want anything bad to happen to you."

"You don't trust me anymore? So you did before?" Callie sounds shockingly enough, disappointed. No one, save Ben and Tanya has ever trusted her before. And to make matters worse, she didn't even know they did. If she had known from the get-go then she wouldn't let herself break it.

"The beautiful thing about trust darlin' is that you can earn it back." Will added.

"Sweetie, honey you can't disappear whenever you want and you can't talk to me like how you did at headquarter, there needs to be respect between all of us." JJ stated her tone becoming firm as Will peers at his wife wondering just what Callie said at HQ. He won't let anyone disrespect his lady ever. Callie nods. That makes sense. "Okay, so before we didn't really talk about rules and consequences; let's do that."

In true fatherly form, Will swallows. "I think yah know in this house we don't have a whole lot of rules. All right, so your mama and I expect you to treat everyone, specifically adults with respect. That's easier said than done cause some people in this world piss us off, but yah gotta hold your tongue sometimes out of respect." Callie swallows now that's going to be tough for her. "Ah, that brings me to another point; no drinking or doing drugs."

"Yes sir." She answered easily; never in her life has Callie done drugs before…as of six months ago, she split a can of Four Loco with Ben. They both felt sick to their stomachs afterwards which Diana found hilarious.

"On weekdays your curfew is ten on weekdays and eleven on weekends." JJ stated as Callie pulls a face. "Don't you give me that look, that's more than fair. Oh and when you do go out, you tell us where you're going and text us when you get there. It's important for us to know where you are at all times."

"That's kinda weird, though." Callie complained feeling uncomfortable with the thought of having to report to two people so often. She just doesn't see the importance behind their rules like they do.

The father sighed. "No, it isn't darling. It's our job to keep you safe. The world ain't the safest place sometimes so if we ease our troubles a bit by putting down these rules, we're gonna do it." The teenager dips her head in reluctant agreement. "It's all a matter of keeping the honesty. That sound fair enough to you little darling?"

"Is that it? For the rules, I mean?" The fourteen year old asked.

The mother smiles gratefully. "Yeah, sweets, it is. Now you tell us the rules so we know you were listening." To be honest, she and Will expected a lot more backlash and resistance when it came to this. JJ's profiled her daughter that isn't necessarily fair, but she can't just turn it off sometimes; Callie's strong-willed and prideful but she craves rules more so than she'd ever admit. At least that's what JJ is hoping.

"I'm not a baby. I know what the freaking rules are."

"Thank you for reminding me, no swearing either." JJ replied her gaze turning to the younger blonde. She rubs the back of her neck and sighs. "Cal, could you humor me please?"

"Show everyone respect, no drinking or drugs, I gotta tell you where I'm going and text you when I get there, and no swearing." Callie struggles to refrain from rolling her eyes. This is so dumb. She's never been someplace where so much was expected of her before. A large part of her is annoyed, but maybe a tiny piece of her likes it. "I hafta be honest with you guys and…and," she squints doing her best to remember. "Ah my curfew's ten during the week and eleven on weekends…cause Michael Schofield and Lincoln Burrows are prisoners here too."

The parents exchange looks with one another; they knew there'd be some resistance on Callie's end. At least she isn't completely storming off on them. She's taking in their rules with a reasonable dose of sass, which in some respects is a big improvement on the first week's behavior.

"All right, so you and I are going shopping–"

"I hate shopping."

"I know." JJ presses her lips together to keep from smiling at the pouting teen and exchanges a look with her husband. "Here," she takes the offered I-Phone from her husband and holds it out to Callie. "This and school are the few times you get your phone. It's just in case you get lost, which I suspect won't happen because you'll be by my side at all times, right?" The kid nods resisting the urge to roll her eyes at this ridiculous new standard. "But, in case something does happen; I want to know you're safe. C'mon sweets, we're gonna meet Auntie Pen and Dave and probably grab dinner."

Henry runs over to them. "Can I come too, mommy?"

"Are you sure Bubs? Your sissy and I will be walking around in lots of stores trying on clothes and you have your play-date with Finley in a little while."

"She can come."

"I've got an even better idea in mind." Will interjected. "Why don't we go to Sky Zone today?"

The boy's eyes go as wide as saucers. "That's freaking great!" He cheers happily scampering off to grab a pair of shoes leaving two flabbergasted parents and a cringing sister in his wake. JJ shoots her daughter a look.

"Yeah, that's on me; my bad." Callie holds up her hands as though deciding to take fault. Will rolls his eyes doing his best to keep from laughing at the abashed look while JJ sighs; baby steps. "Do I really hafta go shopping?" She feels a little strange about JJ paying for anything.

"Yes, you really do." JJ leaves it at that and goes to fetch her purse.

Her dad phones Finley's mother Annie checking to see what time they're coming over. Callie can't help feeling a little disappointed that her confidant isn't coming; misery loves company. However, JJ doubts she could manage the pair with them both looking to find trouble. Will isn't much of a shopper either. Before the mother and daughter head out, Will snakes an arm around Callie's waist pulling her back.

"Now you behave for your mama, Trouble." He pats her cheek affectionately. Callie huffs at being treated like a child, but a part of her likes it; no one's ever done it before. Sometimes it's nice to let someone else have control for a little while. "Cut her a break will yah? She was worried sick this morning and she wants you near her. If you behave real good; we'll see about ending your grounding early but that's only if you behave got me?"

"Yeah, I got you." Callie has to smile. Will is so much easier than JJ; she'll have to keep that in mind. Hopefully they end whatever this is by the time Belle's party rolls around or sneaking out will be her only option.


"No one knows how long I've wanted to do this."

Those are the first words Garcia says to anyone. She and Rossi are standing outside the mall and Pen's already bouncing up and down in excitement. Callie half-wishes Spencer had come too. As strange as he is, he always has interesting stories or facts…he would've kept her entertained. JJ has to suppress a smirk at the freaked out grimace forming on her eldest child's face. Shopping, growing up JJ didn't mind it. She preferred climbing trees as opposed to buying crap with her mom and sister. Ross was more of a girl than she was. After Ross died, JJ wondered if mom would've preferred she died instead. At least then she'd have someone to shop with. Now though, the profiler loves shopping; she could do it all day. Her gaze falls on Callie who appears already bored. Well, at least this is a good punishment to keep in the back burner JJ thought doing her best not to smirk.

"That alone sounds like something a crazy person in a movie would say." Callie murmured while David stifles a grin and JJ warningly pinches her daughter's shoulder. "What? It does." The grumpy kid rubs her arm not really out of pain, but more as a ploy to get some sympathy from the others who shrug.

"C'mon sugar plum; let's buy you a whole new wardrobe."

Callie groans wishing she could've stayed home with her less strict dad and brothers. She could've gotten her dad to loosen the reigns and goofed off a little. Anyway, the former foster kid feels uncomfortable about letting them pay for anything. "I like my clothes."

"Oh come on, let me spoil you. I've never had a niece and the way your mom keeps popping out boys I think you'll be my only pumpkin." Penelope clasps a hand over her heart desperately. Callie frowns, she knows a con when she sees one and this woman is totally conning her. "Plus we'll get new stuff to go with what you have and new stuff to go with your new stuff." She bravely leads the pack into Kohl's.

Dave makes a hasty escape. "I'll be back. I have to get Kai's birthday present." There's no way he's allowing himself to become the honorary pack-mule for this crew. He only agreed to come in the first place because Penelope promised an evening of sophisticated entertainment – he should've known it would come to this.

"I'll go with you." Callie volunteered trying to slither away.

"Oh no, you don't," JJ grabs the hood of her kid's jacket. "Go ahead Dave." Nodding at them, the Italian disappears into the crowd; grateful he's found a proper excuse and that Garcia wasn't around to hear it because she would've insisted on buying Kai a present as well. "Cal, you're being dramatic. Anyway don't most teenagers like shopping?"

The foster kid shrugs. "I've never needed to before, most of the time I got hand-me-downs or crap from some charity church or whatever." Her brutal honesty strikes a chord with JJ who looks away guiltily. Callie licks her lips. "I didn't mean it like a bad thing. Look, shopping is boring to me. There's no adventure to it." She does her best to make up for her mother's evident sorrow. Sometimes they can all pretend what happened didn't and other times, the writing has attached itself to the wall somehow. "And I don't even care how I look."

"That's because you're already beautiful."

"You have to say that." Callie said rolling her eyes bashfully. "You're my mom." She plays with the hem of her shirt rocking on her heels; two tells that she's going to say something embarrassing or at the very least something that Callie herself finds embarrassing. "You know, uh people say I look like you."

The profiler squints. "Maybe a little, but you're your own person babe." Honestly, people have frequently said Callie looks most like her out of their wild bunch; Henry is a close second, but Michael has Will's eyes and his personality too.

"So since I'm my own person, I don't hafta do this…right?"

"No sweetie of course not; I'd never make you do anything, you don't want to."

Callie brightens. "Does that mean I don't hafta follow you around?"

"Already trying to get out of your grounding, I'm almost impressed." The profiler messes up her daughter's wild blonde waves. "But, since you don't want to go shopping; you'll have to be the one to break it to Garcia…even though she's been looking forward to this all week."

"You've had this planned since last week?" Callie's eyes are wide, a part of her wonders if JJ can see into the future or something. Maybe she knew they'd get to this point all along. The teen rubs the back of her neck shuddering at the thought of JJ knowing her future, because then she'd know about Belle's party.

JJ is one hundred percent honest. "Yeah, go on." She nudges the young teenager. "Tell your poor dear auntie you don't want to spend any time with her. Break her heart." Callie makes the mistake of glancing where Garcia is excitedly sifting through a mountain of clothes. She's bouncing up and down. Shit. Looking was a mistake.

"That's not fair." Callie complained. "You're using your Jedi tricks on me."

"My what?" JJ asked although knowing she has to stop Will from getting their kids addicted to Star Wars before they become too into the weird movie. She didn't understand the allure as a kid and now as a mother Star Wars bemuses her more so.

Her daughter sulked. "You're totally guilt-tripping me."

JJ tries not to grin. "I don't know what you're talking about, but you not letting Garcia spoil you will break her heart and since I'm too busy enjoying this; you're going to have to tell her." She nods in Pen's direction whose too busy sifting through a bunch of girly crap to notice them. Callie pulls a face at the clothes before burying her head in JJ's shoulder. The act alone reminds JJ of Henry; childish, but sweet too. She never got the chance to be parent Callie as a child, so it's always nice to see the little kid side of her. She hears the teen groan and muttered murmurs of annoyance. JJ ruffles the top of her head rolling her eyes. "Oh, it won't be so bad."

"Yes it will, I'm not gonna be able to pick out anything."

"I thought you didn't care."

"I don't." Callie mumbled. "But, I don't wanna look like a fucking dork." The blonde profiler nudges her with the trademark stern mom look. The teenager swallows hard. "I ah…me and Auntie Pen have different styles." Her mother's glare doesn't cease and she crosses her arms for added measure. "I won't say it again?" Callie offered smiling innocently causing JJ to roll her eyes.

JJ scoffed. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"I won't mama JJ." The teen shows off her cheek. A tiny piece of her likes calling JJ some variation of mom, it sounds natural…like they've been doing this for years.

The woman smiles as she remarks. "You do and we'll spend all day tomorrow shopping for me." Callie's eyes go wide; she definitely doesn't want to do that on her Sunday.

"Cupcake, come over here!" Penelope shouted from the other side of the store causing Callie's cheeks to burn as other shopper's chuckle at her expense.

"If you really loved me, you wouldn't make me go over there." Callie said hopefully.

"And yet," JJ rubs her chin. "The idea of you going over there is too good to pass up."

"Aviva's right. Moms are evil."

The blonde profiler sends Callie on her way with a playful swat. "And don't you forget it."


For the remainder of the afternoon and heading into the evening, they shop. Dave finds the perfect gift for Kai and Callie is forced into modeling an array of clothes she'll likely never wear – unless forced or bribed. The latter being more probable to happen in the future, JJ finds it both amusing and disheartening. She wishes she could've tortured Callie like this when her daughter was little. Oh she bets Callie was the most gorgeous tyke and probably a hell raiser as a toddler, not letting anything, even with the heart disease slow her down. The four soon finds themselves in the food court trying to decide what to have for dinner. They're all pooped.

JJ almost doesn't even notice when Callie begins to wander off. At the last minute, she takes her daughter's hand successfully stopping her. "Where do you think you're going?" The mother asked tiredly.

"Bathroom, do I need permission?"

"Okay I'll take you." She said standing feeling every limb in her body scream at her. How is it shopping for a few hours takes everything out of her? And yet catching bad guys doesn't take much if anything at all. She glances at her best friend hopefully. "Pen can you watch my bags?"

"Of course, ooh Rossi how would you like to be my wing man?" The techie is already looking around the court for the perfect specimen. JJ frowns, she and Pen are going to have to talk later about Sam. She was under the impression they were in a good place right now. He's a nice enough guy.

"Penelope, we're in a food court. The men you'll find here are one step above barbarians." Garcia does her best to keep from laughing at the look on his face. He sounds like a flustered dad. "I'm going to talk to Joy and see if she knows anyone worthy of you. For now, let's have …" Dave shudders at the thought of how these are made but his hunger is taking over. "Burgers, an American classic that I'm buying for all of you lovely ladies," JJ cracks a grin at the old charmer while Callie pouts at her mom. "Caroline, I presume you enjoy vegetarian burgers."

Callie nods. "Yes sir…thank you," she stands starting on her way until she realizes her mother is behind her. The teen's face burns a magnificent red color. She coughs. "Ah JJ I don't need you to follow me."

"On the contrary sweets, you're following me." JJ replied with a firm yet easy tone.

"You said I could go to the bathroom alone." The younger blonde complained distinctly recalling the rules set forth by her parents and deciding to call a spade a spade. This is total bullshit.

"That's when we're home." The profiler answered crossing her arms. "This is different. We're in a public place."

She snapped. "And what? I can't be trusted to pee in a fucking toilet!" It takes Callie a second to realize just how loud her voice was and another second for her to realize people are starting to stare. Fuck, she thought wishing this stupid fucking punishment was over. It already sucks.

JJ suddenly feels her cheeks turn a pink color they've never turned before. "Watch it or I swear the next place we shop at will be Bath and Body Works." She warned feeling several bystanders glance over at her shaking their heads at her parenting. The mother in her resists the urge to tell them all to shove it up their asses. Screw the books and whatever else they tell you; JJ's decided she's going to do whatever feels right. Callie meanwhile feels her cheeks go ablaze at the thought of getting her mouth washed out. JJ sighs feeling guilty. "Sweets, for the time being you can't be trusted and that sucks but that's just how punishments are."

"I'm not some little kid." Callie grunted causing Penelope to politely ignore their conversation by pretending to look at something on her phone while Rossi gazes around the food court.

"Hey," JJ tilts up her chin. "I know you aren't a little kid. But, you are my kid." Callie swallows. "You're my kid who decided to scare her parents and you're grounded." The profiler adopts a serious tone. "And we already talked about what that means, so either we go to the bathroom together or you hold it until we get home."

Callie considers her choices, she could go about this one of two ways; accepting what's been presented or act like a little kid and have a tantrum. Deciding to go for the adult approach, she sighs reluctantly relinquishing some of the power. "Fine, let's go to the bathroom…together." The teenager gets up without really waiting for JJ who appears stunned by the kid's decision. She thought Callie was going to blow up at her.

"Hey Jayje," Penelope stops her. "If it makes you feel any better I was the same way with the Garcia's when they first took me in. Give her some time; Callie's only upset with you following through." JJ smiles gratefully at her friend, however her grin falters at the sassy tone a certain teen develops.

"Are you coming? Prisoners need their guards."

Rolling her eyes, JJ mutters. "Don't kill the child, just don't." She mentally counts to ten before walking over to her daughter smirking as a new thought bursts in her head. The mother takes Callie's hand yanking her flustered, incredibly embarrassed fourteen year old along. This is payback for being rude. Both of them know it therefore nobody has to voice it. David smirks, lunch and a show. This is great. The pair watches as Callie's dragged along leaving two very amused FBI workers in her wake.

David chuckled. "Who do you think will drive the other crazy first? My bets on Callie, she's the sassiest little piccola I've ever met." He suddenly wonders whether Joy gave her mom much trouble at this age.

"Don't count Jayje out so fast, she's sure to think up embarrassing things to make Callie go nuts. Poor JJ and Will were blessed with the boys and Callie's a blessing too, but her angel tiara only hides the horns."

"I doubt Jennifer was much of a troublemaker growing up."

The techie asked in between snickers. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"I believe that rebellious youths often go on to have children who are twice as bad as they were; it's the wonderful circle of life. It gives parents a taste of their own medicine and the piccola is a special taste of stubborn." Dave rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Then again, JJ is like that too." His assessment has Garcia nodding in agreement as someone comes over with a trey of their food.

"Thanks," Penelope said to the woman who nods politely. "I guess all is fair in the world."

Garcia can't imagine the thought. Growing up she was a holy terror, if she ever has kids there's no way they could be worse than she was. She had a different babysitter every week. "Callie may be determined, but she's too much like her mother to be a bad kid."

"Bad oh no, that girl isn't bad." Dave pops a fry into his mouth. "She may give everyone hell, but she'll turn out just fine. I did." Garcia rolls her eyes. "They say kids with the strongest wills are intelligent."

"See, I was right. They are talking about me." Callie pointed out plopping back in her seat as JJ gently cuffs the back of her head. "What? They are." The teenager picks up her veggie burger and takes a bite. "I'm no brain like Uncle Spence, more like a good guesser and when I ask a question I can read them pretty good too; just like I can read my mom."

Everyone freezes, even Callie who stops eating for a moment before deciding to stuff more food into her mouth to avoid the topic altogether. JJ is the first to recover. "Oh so you think you can read me huh?" The mother tickles her eldest who giggles squirming to get out of the line of fire. "What happened to no profiling?"

"That's only to you, not me." Callie is all smiles as the FBI profilers and technical analyst look at her with raised eyebrows. The teen shrugs unapologetically. "I've got cops for parents; I need all the help I can get."

"And staying out of trouble wouldn't be helpful?" JJ questioned not quite able to keep a straight face. She swears this kid is going to give her gray hairs, she can bet she's gained a few dozen since Callie's come to live with them.

"It might be helpful, but it wouldn't be any fun." Callie slurps her milkshake with a glint in her eyes.

Garcia turns to JJ asking semi-seriously. "Are you sure she's not Will's kid?"