As they finished their brunch and the waitress brought around the coffeepot one more time, Rossi received a text message and excused himself from the table to make a call.
He returned a moment later, exchanged a meaningful glance with JJ and told everyone he was going to have to leave.
Waving his phone in the air, he explained, "Research for my book. One of the, um, interviews, I've been waiting for is coming through."
"Okay, then Dave, we'll see you later?"
"I'll be back, I wanna see the bambinos. And they'll wanna meet their Uncle Dave."
He hurried off and it triggered a thought in Reid's mind.
"Don't you guys have a case?"
They all looked innocently at each other then back at him and Emily replied, "Nope. I told Cruz we had a bunch of consults to work on. Told him to text me if we had a real emergency."
"Cause the real draw is at the hospital," Lewis said and nobody disagreed with that.
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After they'd eaten, JJ drove Reid, who had gone to the restaurant in her car, to a florist's shop where he picked out an arrangement and rushed back to his waiting friend. She returned Reid to the hospital and dropped him off, then drove off to an appointment. He hurried down to the Recovery Room nurse's station to find out whether Melissa was still there. Sally sat at the station desk and gave him a big smile when they made eye contact; rising immediately and ushering him down the hallway to the Recovery Room.
Sally opened the door and showed him in, Leeta was bustling around Melissa's bedside. She caught Spencer's eye and patted Melissa's shoulder to get her attention.
Melissa was sitting up, nursing one of the babies and smiled broadly when she saw the enormous bouquet of white flowers come through the door. Her smile grew even wider when the bouquet was lowered and the face of her husband was revealed.
"Everyone sends their love," he told her, setting the flowers down on a table and bending down to kiss her and stroke the baby's head.
"How's he doing?" Spencer asked, indicating the baby in her arms, and without letting her answer, "And you, Sweetheart, how are you feeling?"
"I am so good, Spence. And so is Spencer," she turned him over her shoulder to burp him and then offered him to his father. "I just woke up about fifteen minutes ago, and so did he. He's a good eater, Spence; it's so good to see. And Erin's a good sleeper," she chuckled quietly, indicating their daughter, fast asleep in the isolette. "I was worried she'd wake up and cry when I took Spencer out for a feeding, she cried earlier when they were separated. But I guess tired beat out lonely for now."
Spencer rocked his little namesake for a moment and saw Melissa was trying to get up out of the bed. Quickly, he laid the baby down next to his sister in the isolette and hurried to help Melissa out of bed.
"Are you supposed to be up?" he asked, voice full of concern.
"I'm supposed to be trying," she replied, swinging her feet off the bed and taking his arm as she stood. "I need to go to the bathroom and I'll be damned if I'm gonna use the flippin' bedpan again." Determined, she took several steps towards the patient bathroom, holding onto Spencer's arm until she got to the door.
"I'm okay," she told him, releasing his arm and closing the door behind her, despite his protest. He waited by the door until she was done and had opened the door to reenter the room.
"Okay?" he asked again.
She nodded, took the arm he offered and padded over to the isolette where their babies slept soundly. He dropped her hand from his arm for a moment so he could take a photo of her standing with the twins, then ushered her back over to her bed.
"Have you eaten?" he asked her and got a nod in response.
"But I could use a sandwich."
"I'm on it," he told her, "I'll be right back." He gave her his iPhone in case she wanted to make a call or take some photos and quietly left the room in search of a nurse and food for Melissa.
Sally was in the corridor and after he asked, she promised to take care of it and he was back in the Recovery Room in under a minute. Not five minutes later, Sally entered the room with a tray that contained a sandwich, some fruit and a carton of milk for Melissa.
"Here you go," she said as she set the tray before Melissa. "I have good news for you, too. We'll be moving the three of you up to a patient room in a few minutes."
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JJ steered through traffic and turned into a side street. She spoke into her Bluetooth piece,
"I'll be there in a couple of minutes. Had to take Spence back to the hospital and we stopped at a florist first."
She laughed at the reply and added, "Nope. No one suspects anything. MaryBeth is waiting, we'll meet you back there in an hour?"
Pulling into the Reid driveway, she could hear Muttli barking as she parked. MaryBeth appeared at the front door and hurried down to the waiting car.
She got into the passenger seat and dismissed JJ's apology for the tardiness, "It's fine. I'm leaving the girls home with Muttli for a while. I hope they behave."
JJ wheeled back out onto the road and they headed back to the hospital.
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The darkened windows of the SUV kept the occupants from view as the vehicle weaved its way through traffic on I95 north into the city. It made its way across the Potomac River and turned onto 23rd Street north to the hospital, pulling into the parking garage and parked.
The driver's side door opened, and the driver stepped out of the vehicle, shutting it behind him and opening the rear passenger door. A man in white orderly scrubs stepped out and extended his hand in to aid the exit of a tall older blond woman, who was shaking and a little disoriented. The front passenger door opened, and a woman in a smart suit exited, rushing around to the back where the other three stood.
"Are you all right?" the suited woman asked the older one.
"Where are you taking me!" she demanded, angry but near tears.
"It's okay, it's okay. We're almost there. Remember what we talked about last night."
She looked from the attendant to the nurse to Rossi.
"The babies. We're here for the babies," she said.
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"You haven't seen them in person yet either?" MaryBeth asked JJ as they hurried through the hospital's front entrance.
"Nope," JJ replied, "Everybody was sleeping by the time Spence came down to tell us of their arrival. We took him out for brunch, and then we stopped at a florist and—oh my God, he must be exhausted, he hasn't slept since—he was telling me he was up most of the night, too excited to sleep."
They skidded to a stop at the information desk in the front foyer of the hospital and asked for Melissa's patient room number.
The desk attendant looked from MaryBeth to JJ and said, "She's a maternity patient. It's um, family only."
MaryBeth glared at her, "Melissa is my sister and I came up here from Florida to see her."
The attendant gave them Melissa's room number and directions to get there then returned her attention to her phone.
"I would've flashed my creds if I had to," JJ noted, "But well played!"
They got off the elevator and hurried down the hallway to Melissa's room. Quietly, JJ opened the door and both she and MaryBeth said "awww" at the same time as they took in the sight of Melissa sitting up in her bed, nursing baby Spencer and Spencer sitting in a chair next to her rocking Erin and reading her a story from memory.
MaryBeth whipped out her cell phone and took a couple of photos before the parents even realised they had an audience.
JJ approached Spencer and cooed over Erin. Reid stood up, motioned for JJ to sit in the chair he'd just vacated and then put Erin into her arms.
"Holding a girl will feel so different from holding one of your sons," he chuckled.
"She's precious!" JJ fell in love instantly and was delighted by how comfortable Erin seemed to feel in her arms.
Melissa burped baby Spencer then handed him off to his father, who moved away so she could hug her sister. The two of them chatted for several minutes, celebrating the twins' safe arrival and female talk of post partum. Spencer moved closer to where JJ was seated, and rocked back and forth with his son in his arms while spoke to both babies, "And later today you will meet your big sister. And you will love her, I promise you. She will be the best big sister ever, she cannot wait to meet you two." He paused and punctuated every couple of words with a kiss to a baby's head, first Spencer and then Erin and suddenly JJ burst out laughing.
"I think somebody needs her diaper changed."
Spencer handed baby Spencer over to MaryBeth and took Erin from JJ. "I'll get it. I'm gonna hafta get used to this, right?"
Reid took Erin over to the isolette and swiftly changed the soiled diaper. He was prepared to have to fight the urge to be sick, or at least feel nauseous and he was quite pleasantly surprised to find that there was no objectionable smell. He cleaned her up as Leeta had shown him then re-diapered Erin in a fresh Huggy and snapped the fasteners on her sleeper back in place. The entire operation took less than a minute. Even JJ was impressed.
"Nursed babies' diapers don't smell as bad as those fed formula," Melissa informed him.
"I didn't know that," Spencer replied and then withstood the teasing of three females who jumped at the opportunity to needle him. After a few moments of good-natured banter, accepted in goodwill by the object of the ribbing, Melissa hugged him, called him a good sport then sat back down on her bed. Spencer then gave Erin to Melissa.
The perfect opportunity had arisen and JJ stood up and took Spencer's arm. With Erin and Spencer happily situated in the arms of Melissa and MaryBeth respectively, JJ motioned to Spencer, "Let's go get a coffee, and give them a chance to talk." He nodded and followed her out the door, and once in the hallway, he immediately stopped and indicated he wanted to wash his hands in the restroom. As soon as he disappeared behind the door, JJ took out her cellphone and sent a text.
On the way to the hospital coffee shop now.
Seconds later, the reply came.
Message received. Plan in motion!
Quickly, she put her phone away and took Reid's arm when he reappeared from the restroom. They continued down the hallway and took the elevator down two floors to the main level. JJ engaged Spencer in chitchat, in an effort to distract him as they entered the coffee shop. He was interrupted midsentence.
"Spencer?"
He heard his name and broke eye contact with JJ to look up.