Disclaimer: We don't own Criminal Minds.
A/N: We hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and of course that you LOVE this chapter. :)
CHAPTER 10
"Jenna," Hotch called softly as he entered their bedroom, noticing the bathroom door slightly ajar. "Are you almost ready?"
"You can't rush perfection." JJ observed teasingly as she continued to apply her makeup. "Did the boys get dinner?"
"Yep, and Strauss is here, so we can go whenever you're ready." He said.
"I'm late once and this is all the thanks I get." JJ mumbled under her breath. "Alright, I'm ready." She said as she opened to door.
Aaron Hotchner had seen many extremes in his lifetime. He had been awed by the beauties of nature, seen the depravities that men could inflict upon each other, and witnessed his own son being born into the world. Nothing, good or bad, could have prepared himself for the sight before him. JJ's red dress with beaded straps fit her perfectly curved body as though it had been made especially for her.
"Wow." He said softly, momentarily at a loss for words.
JJ smiled to herself, happy to notice the affect that she had on her boss who had so rapidly become her friend. "You like it?" She asked, doing a small twirl to allow him to see the entire dress.
"You look...stunning." Hotch finally managed to recover.
"Thank you, you don't look so bad yourself." she replied with a small blush tinging her cheeks. "I just need to slip on my shoes and then I'm ready to go."
"Okay I'll just get my..." he started, but was cut off as JJ ran to their bathroom with her tiny hand covering her mouth. The sound of her lunch revisiting her once made him cringe a little. Entering the bathroom he found her sitting with her back against the tub, her eyes closed. "This isn't the first time this has happened." He stated, and then moved to get her a cool wash cloth.
"It happened yesterday after breakfast and then again after lunch. Today's been better though, this is the first time it's happened since yesterday. Old Faithful must've really given me that bug after all." She told him as she took the offered wash cloth, and began using it sparingly so she wouldn't ruin her recently applied make up. "I'll be okay, we can still go to the party." she said with a small smile as she stood up with his help, "The nausea is passing."
"No, sweetheart if you're sick they we should just stay home. I'll go send Strauss home..." He said trying to reason with her.
"NO! I just want to get out of the house for a while Aaron. Please? I've been in here since Christmas eve and now it's the thirtieth. I want to go out and mingle with the other people on this planet for a few hours."
"Jenna..." He sighed and she cut of his retort with a wave of her hand. "Look, I promise to say something if I start feeling bad again. That's the best I can offer. Just a few hours is all I'm asking. Please Aaron?"
"Fine. But only a few hours." He reminded her.
"Jenna! You look incredible." Amanda gushed as they entered the party at Bella Da Notte. "I told you this was the right dress! You and Aaron have to come and sit by us." Amanda practically pulled JJ and Hotch to the table. Hotch recognized several of the faces from the night before. Mario and the guy that had shot the man on Christmas Eve were seated in between two fairly pretty women whom Hotch presumed to be their spouses.
"Oh! Jenna, I love what you've done with your hair." Caitlin commented on JJ's soft curls as Hotch pulled the seat out for her and then sat next to her.
"Yes. I do have a curling iron, although with the boys I don't get to use it much." JJ joked, then realizing that Hotch didn't know everyone seated at the table began the introductions.
"Aaron this is Caitlin Tangelo and her husband David." JJ said and waited for the two men to shake hands, "And this is Maria De Luca and her husband Mario."
"It's nice to meet all of you. Jenna said she had great time shopping with you the other day." Hotch said politely as he put his arm around JJ's chair. After her little scene earlier in their bathroom he was on full protection mode.
"Oh yea, we loved spending time with her too!" Caitlin agreed, "It's just too bad that she had to leave early. How's your son doing? Everything okay?"
"He's feeling much better. The obnoxious doctor down at the ER told me that he just had an ear infection, but the best part was when the poor little guy vomited all over the stupid doctor. It's like he knew that the guy was getting on mommy's nerves." JJ divulged as she leaned into her husband which earned her a small smile from him.
"Oh I totally understand. Margie used to do that all the time." Maria added shyly from across the table.
"Oh yay all my girls have finally made it!" Nicola squealed as she hurried over to the table with her husband trailing after. "Lets have a round of Peppermint Martini's...on Vito here of course!" she added, even though she already had a completely full vodka tonic in her hand. Apparently Nicola Giordano was a little bit of a drinker.
"Maybe later Nic!" Amanda yelled over the musicians that were warming up. "We've all got pretty full drinks right now!"
"Angelo...go over and talk to her man! How else are you going to ask her to come to the Capo's party? This ain't like in the movies when the guy can ask the girl in with his mind or something." Fredo said as he pushed his partner towards the bar at Moretti's. "Besides we're already late!"
"What am I supposed to say? Penelope isn't just like any other girl, Fredo. She's special!" Angelo whispered nervously. "My normal stuff just ain't gonna work on her."
"Just talk to her, or do something! If you don't we're leaving, I don't want Vera to think I stood her up again." Fredo loved his girlfriend, he really did, but when she was angry he was a little scared of her. Well more than a little, she was David Tangelo's niece after all, and that was one dude he never wanted to cross.
"Okay, okay!" Angelo said as he threw up his hands in surrender, "I'm going!"
"Aaron, isn't that your sister?" Caitlin pointed out to the group. Sure enough, Emily and Sean had just gracefully entered the party.
"What is he doing here?" Hotch asked under his breath successfully speaking loud enough that the other people at the table could hear.
"He works for the restaurant." JJ pointed out softly. "Come on, let's go say hello."
"Emily! Sean! Don't you look like the perfect couple." JJ gushed.
"Yeah, if he could ever get a real job." Hotch said under his breath as he caught Sean's eye, causing the younger Hotchner to smile.
"Still got the old sense of humor, eh? I bet if you came over for some of my calamari or sushi you would be singing a different tune." Sean insisted. At the mention of calamari, JJ's stomach churned. Not wanting to alert Hotch to her volatile stomach, she politely excused herself as she tried not to sprint to the bathroom.
"Penelope! What are you doing here?" Emily asked curiously as her friend sat next to her.
"Angelo, here, stopped by Uncle Dave's restaurant asking if I wanted to be his date for this shindig. I did, so here I am." Garcia said simply as Angelo smiled and sat beside her. Truthfully, he would have been more comfortable sitting next to Fredo, or even Mario, but they were both at full tables. Besides, this Sean kid seemed harmless enough.
"You know what I love? Kareoke!" Garcia exclaimed in the minor lull of the conversation.
"Why does that not surprise me?" A deep voice asked, causing the hairs on the back of Emily's neck to stand erect.
"Derek and Jordan Sullivan!" Emily exclaimed in mock surprise. "You have to come and sit by us." Jordan smiled as she grabbed Morgan's hand.
"Emily, I love that color on you!" Morgan looked at Jordan with utter shock. Emily seemed the first person that she was genuinely polite to throught this entire assignment.
"Well, I was just getting Miss Emily to get up and sing us a song." Garica's eyes twinkled wickedly.
"Oh, no! Miss Emily is not going up there alone!" Emily insisted.
"Now, I'm sure Jenna will do it with you." Garcia suggested, seeing JJ emerging from the bathroom. "Jenna!" Garcia waved to her.
"What?" JJ asked sofly as she approached the table.
"Emily doesn't want to do something. You'll go do it with her. Right?" Garcia asked cryptically as their blonde friend looked at the table in confusion.
"Depends. What do you need to do?" JJ asked the brunette.
"Well, they want me to--"
"Nu-uh." Garcia interrupted. "You either get to be a good friend and save your sister-in-law from doing something alone, or you can be a terrible friend and say no. You don't get to know what it is."
"But it won't kill me, right?" JJ laughed, having been the brunt of several of Garcia's antics, she knew that there wasn't much poor Emily could do to get out of this.
"Nope...at least I don't know of anyone who has recently died of it." Garcia said.
"Fine. I'll do it. Now what is it that I'm doing?"
"Karaoke"
Thinking for a few seconds she smiled smugly before answering, "You're on Penelope, but I'm picking the song."
"What? You're okay with her forcing us to sing in front of all these people?" Emily asked incredulously. She most definitely did not want to do this if she could help it.
"Little known fact about Jenna Bonasera--I sang lead alto in the school choir all through high school. This doesn't even faze me." JJ added as she grabbed Emily's hand and almost had to drag her up on the stage in her navy dress and heels. After whispering something to the piano player, JJ whispered to her brunette friend who stood next to the other microphone, "Oh, by the way I hope you know the lyrics for "Sisters" from White Christmas..."
"Why?" Emily asked, trying to hide her nervousness from the crowd.
"Because that's the song I picked" JJ added as the music started.
Hotch was beginning to worry. JJ had been in the bathroom for an extended amount of time, and he hadn't seen her come out yet. He knew that she was a stubborn and private person, and that even if she were about to die of the bubonic plague she wouldn't tell him it was time to go. He was just about to send one of JJ's many female friends into the bathroom after her when he heard the band begin to play new music loudly.
Turning to see quickly those on stage, he was shocked to see Emily standing in front of the group, seemingly dumbfounded. He had always assumed that she was a little afraid of speaking in front of large groups of people. He noticed in profiling briefings that she would fidget more nervously, though only slightly. But he only glanced at her for a moment before turning his eyes to the blonde apparition to Emily's side as she sang.
"There were never such devoted sisters, Never had to have a chaperone, No sir, I'm there to keep my eye on her..."
Hotch could see a startled Emily shoot her blonde friend a look before singing her line,"Caring, sharing, every little thing that we are wearing. When a certain gentleman arrived from Rome, she wore the dress, and I stayed home..."
Smiling mischievously at the dark look her friend was giving her JJ continued as the audience, Hotch included, watched in awe of the two women,"All kinds of weather, we stick together, The same in the rain and sun, Two different faces, but in tight places, We think and we act as one."
"Those who've seen us know that not a thing could come between us, Many men have tried to split us up, but no one can" Emily continued, silently glad her part was almost over, "Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister..."
"And Lord help the sister..." JJ sang as she drew in a rush of air to hold the note at the end of the last line, "who comes between me and my man!"
Seconds passed as the audience stared in shock at the short blonde woman's ability to hold out the last note of the song perfectly, and when she finished the entire place erupted in applause for both Emily and JJ.
While Hotch may have been captivated by the blonde, Garcia's eyes ignited wickedly as she watched Derek Morgan's observation of the women's performance.
"She's really something, huh?" Garcia asked softly.
"Yeah. I mean who?" Morgan said, failing to look at Garcia.
"Oh, I think you know Sugar Cakes. I'm just surprised it took you so long to figure it out."
"Come on, Angelo. Let's go get some cake!" Garcia commanded her date, leaving Morgan to ponder for the umpteenth time how this assignment would have turned out differently if he and Emily had been assigned together.
He watched every movement the girl in the navy dress made as she meandered back to their table.
"Well, that was embarrassing." Emily shrunk into her seat as JJ moved past them to her own table.
"Emily, you were incredible!" Sean soothed as he put his arm innocently behind her chair. Morgan felt his blood boil in a now familiar fashion.
"You did great Emily." Jordan said sincerely.
Emily, blushing, looked to Morgan, "I know you'll at least give it to me straight, how bad was it?"
"Not bad. You and I should get together sometime, we'd make a good duet." Morgan said, the words escaping his mouth before he thought of how suggestive they sounded. Or how nerdy. He thought to himself in disgust.
Emily, however, simply smiled in gratitude. "I think we would make a good duet."
"Jenna! That was hilarious!" Nicola insisted with a slight slur.
"Jenna, really I wish I had the guts to do that..." Maria said with a smile, slightly shaking her head.
"Really? I'm glad you liked it! It's from my favorite Christmas movie. Emily's friends were going to make her go up, so I volunteered so she wouldn't have to go it alone."
Hotch sat by JJ's side, slightly dumbfounded. He contemplated what he could say to express to JJ how incredible her performance had been. Instead he was interrupted by his vibrating cell phone.
Home. The Caller ID alerted him as he nervously answered, pulling himself away from the group.
"Aaron. This is Mrs. Strauss. Your son is ill, I would advise you to come home immediately." Had it not been about his son, he would have found her choice of words extremely amusing--it seemed more like a briefing than a request.
JJ saw his look of concern and was immediately by his side. "The boys?" She asked, his nod in reply led her to excuse them from the group, bidding farewell to all of her friends and Hotch's new 'coworkers.' They were out of the party in three minutes flat.
"Hey Buddy" JJ said softly as she entered the light blue bathroom Jack and Henry shared to find him in almost the same position she had been earlier with her back against the tub. "Mrs. Strauss called Daddy and me and told us you weren't feeling so good."
"My tummy..." he started but was cut off as he threw up in the toilet again with JJ immediately rushing to his side. "I'm sorry I some on your shoes mommy." Jack said hoarsely once he'd finished for a few minutes.
JJ just ruffled his hair soothingly, "It's okay baby. I just want you to feel better--I can get another pair of shoes, I can't get another you."
"Hey, I just sent Strauss home. Everything okay in here?" Hotch asked as he peaked his head in the door and was answered by Jack retching again.
"Aaron, I think we need to take him to the emergency room...." JJ said worriedly. "This has to be more than an upset stomach, and he's already gotten sick three times since I've been in here for the past twenty minutes. Something's wrong."
The waiting room at King's County ER proved even more packed than it had the last time they'd been there with Henry, but Jack needed medical attention so if they had to wait forever they would. They had both quickly changed out of their evening wear into warm comfortable clothes, grabbed Henry from his bed being careful not to wake him, and headed hurriedly to the ER two miles down the road.
Two hours and six vomiting episodes later a nurse appeared in the waiting room calling, "Jack Bonasera?"
"That's us!" JJ called back to the woman in bright orange scrubs as Hotch scooped up Jack in his arms while she took Henry and they headed over to the place where the nurse was waiting.
Settling them in another curtained room, poor Jack threw up again before the nurse could even say the cliched line of "The doctor will be right with you."
"Excuse me, I'll get the doctor and be right back. We don't want him getting dehydrated." Nurse Anna, according to her name tag, said with concern as she rushed out of the room.
Nurse Anna returned not two minutes later with Dr. Lorenzo, who apparently remembered the family's last visit and was now wearing a face mask.
"It looks like you've got one sick little boy." Dr. Lorenzo stated after a moment's examination.
"It says here he has Protein C deficiency. Has he been on his meds?"
"Every day. We always give it to him right after breakfast." JJ said, her voice full of worry.
"Ok, Anna, he's going to need to get some fluids, so get an IV started and some antibiotics. Here is a prescription for antibiotics, he should be feeling better in a couple of days. It looks like he has bacterial pneumonia with the same stomach virus that your other son had. Protein C deficiency just amplifies the symptoms, so that's why he has been throwing up so much." The doctor explained. JJ didn't even mind his pompous attitude, though she could tell that Hotch was getting a little annoyed with the young doctor.
Once Dr. Lorenzo left their small curtained area, Hotch whispered to JJ "So, he was the one Henry threw up on?" JJ simply nodded as she held Jack's hand while the nurse started the IV.
Hotch ruffled the hair of the small sleeping boy in JJ's arms, saying simply "Good boy."
Morgan went for his morning run as usual. It helped him clear his head, especially since Emily's performance the night before. He couldn't seem to get the image of her out of his mind. He continued thinking of Emily with every step that drove him further into the park. He was only stopped from his musing by an obviously pregnant woman, no older than thirty, who was crying on a park bench.
"Hi. Mind if I sit?" Morgan asked kindly.
"What? Oh..yea, sure." The woman asked obviously startled a little. No one had ever stopped to talk to her before.
Easing down slowly next to her he asked "Everything okay?"
"No, everything is NOT okay!" She snapped as more tears fell down her pale cheeks.
Standing up, Morgan apologized, "I'm sorry for bothering you, I didn't mean to upset you more."
"No wait! Look I'm sorry" She sputtered as Morgan rejoined her on the bench, "It's just my fiance died six months ago, he was shot coming out of his office one night, and now I just got kicked out of my apartment because I couldn't pay the rent without a job, and with economy nobody's hiring...How am I going to take care of a baby if I can't even put a roof over it's head or feed it or clothe it?" A fresh stream of tears started down her face again as she moved to stand up, but sat back down suddenly light headed.
"Whoa, hey. Just sit back down there and I'll go get my car and take you to the hospital. I don't think you nearly passing out is good for the baby." Morgan said as he stood and pulled his keys from his pocket, "There's a parking lot about a fourth of a mile away..Do you think you can walk that far?"
"I don't even know you, I can't just get in the car with you...." The girl said obviously trying to calm herself down.
"Look, what am I going to do? Get you pregnant? Someone beat me to the punch. Now don't move until I get back, okay?" Seeing her nod he took off running towards his car.
"Hey. How are we doing?" Morgan asked as he entered the small hospital room at New York's Presbyterian hospital.
"Better, thanks. The doctor said all that crying made my blood pressure spike and that's what caused me to be light headed." she said easily from where she sat on top of the covers in a pair of scrubs the nurses had given her, "He's just signing my discharge papers now...Where am I going to? I mean it's too cold to stay outside tonight, at least being pregnant it is." she started obvious getting upset again.
"Hey, none of that mama. You're going to come and stay with me until you get back on your feet." He soothed.
"What?! No I can't do that to you...I mean your wife probably won't want some other woman she doesn't even know sleeping in the guest bedroom..."
"We decided to separate this morning. Besides it's a four bedroom apartment and she's never home anyways, part of the reason we decided to take a break from each other." Morgan added as he sat down in a chair next to her bed. "I'm Derek, Derek Sullivan by the way."
"Calleigh. Calleigh Dean." she explained as they shook hands, "But you're not from here. That isn't the accent of a New Yorker. Chicago?"
"Yea, how'd you know?"
"That's where my fiance, Charlie, was from. We came here because back home things are different, and my parents didn't approve of him being in a relationship with me because he was black. But that's how the old South operates, or at least the small Alabama town I'm from does. It maybe different in the bigger cities, but I wouldn't know about any of that." She answered honestly, her Southern drawl leaking through.
"Well, I don't know what it's like other places, but here we don't let pregnant women figure everything out for themselves. Let's get you out of here, and we can figure everything else out later." Morgan insisted as he took Calleigh by the hand. "But, now, I'm going to take you to get something to eat."
"Ok sugar, spill. What's up with you and...Aaron." Garcia demanded, still maintaining a little bit of cover in case someone overheard them. She had finally gotten JJ and Emily to come to the restaurant--the only place that they knew they were surveillance free--alone. Garcia had definitely noticed the slight awkwardness between her boss and her blonde friend, and she was more than determined to get to the bottom of it.
"I don't know what you mean." JJ said coyly as she avoided the glare of her two long time friends by sipping intently on her club soda, ever since Henry had been sick, she just couldn't get rid of the upset stomach that seemed to plague her.
"Oh please! A blind man could see the attraction between you two, then the other night it was obvious something had changed." Emily pointed out. She had noticed the attraction between her coworkers since she started at the BAU, but then JJ had gotten together with Will and had been left fairly shattered. She was definitely hoping that there was some magic in the air for her friends.
"Well, we um....we kissed..." JJ stumbled for the right words, she had always been a private person and even divulging intimate details to her friends was a little awkward.
"YES!" Garcia cried with glee. "Tell me there's more!" She commanded, then squealed happily as JJ simply blushed in return.
"Wait! What? " Emily asked, glancing between her two other friends.
"Let's just say that little Jenna here is doing a lot more than just pretending to be married to Mr. Bonasera!" Garcia squealed as Emily clapped her hands with joy.
"It's complicated, okay? We just got to talking, we were both vulnerable, it was Christmas eve, and it hasn't happened since--It was just a kiss." JJ began counting off excuses like a list, but it's not like she could just come out and tell them that it had been way more than a kiss, that they'd actually slept together.
Both women scoffed slightly. "Well, do you want it to happen again?" Garcia asked, dying to know the truth but not wanting to push her friend too far.
JJ blew out a deep breath. "I'm not sure, I ---" she stopped suddenly as she saw a familiar man lead an obviously pregnant woman into Moretti's.
"Is that Derek?" JJ asked, causing her friends to look in the same direction.
"Who is that girl with him? Did you hear that Jordan's off the case for a while?" Emily said softly, unsure why she felt a pit in her stomach as Morgan put his arm protectively around the pregnant woman.
"I don't know who she is, but I'm going to find out." JJ promised.
"Hey Jenna." Morgan said as he saw her approaching the table that he and Calleigh currently occupied. "I have someone I'd like you to meet."
"Calleigh Dean I'd like you to meet my partner's wife, Jenna Bonasera." He added with the first happy tone of voice he'd had in days.
"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Bonasera." Calleigh added, full of Southern politeness.
"Oh its just Jenna." JJ said smiling, "It's nice to meet you too. So where are you from? I'd recognize that accent anywhere."
"I'm from a little town just north of Birmingham, Alabama, about thirty miles. Hanceville only has about nine hundred residents. I lived there my entire life until about eight months ago." she said, her tone not quite sad, but not quite happy either.
"Excuse me sir." a young waiter said as he stood next to the small table, "I'm sorry to interrupt. Would you two like to order?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll let you two get back to your lunch, I just wanted to come say hello." JJ said as she left the table, "Bye Derek, Calleigh. It was nice meeting you."
"You too. Good afternoon Jenna!" Calleigh called politely, "Can I have the grilled chicken sandwich?"
"If that's what you want, Calleigh. You can get as much or as little as you like." Derek informed his new friend.
"Okay, thanks" she said with a faint blush that made him smile, and then turned to the waiter, "I'll have the grilled chicken sandwich then with potato salad as my side. Just water to drink."
"You know what? I think I'll have the same." Derek added and the young waiter nodded and left the table. "So..what do you say after this we go do some shopping?"
