Title: Life's a Journey (Part 20 of 40)
Author: trista groulx (dustytiger)
Rating: T (same as the show to be safe)
Disclaimer: I am still a poor barista, please don't sue me. I know that CM is owned by lotsa ppl who are not me, including the network, creator, writers, actors and actresses that bring the show to life weekly.
Summary: After the events of the Doyle storyline Prentiss and Reid's lives change. Will they come together again?
Notes: I know some of you are wanting some Prentiss/Reid goodness, and it is coming, but I have a stand alone M fic in the works to tide you over till Prentiss comes back. I was hoping to get it written sooner but life happened. You know how it is.
Reid could not believe his daughter was already celebrating her third birthday. Each year on her birthday he reflected on how much his life had changed since the little girl had come into his life. He was still amazed that he was raising his daughter on his own, and sometimes he expected someone to come in and ask him what he was doing raising a child on his own. He knew that he had a good home for her, but he was still a single father, and had no plans to change that. He kept his home clean with some help from the nanny, but still missed his old apartment with wall to wall build in book cases. He loved the library her had in the townhouse he now lived in but missed being surrounded by books everywhere. Now in most rooms it was Aemelia's toys and things which filled them.
It felt like only yesterday that he had had to plan her first birthday party. He couldn't believe how much she had grown. He knew that there had been challenges but he thought he'd risen above them, and he tried not to focus on the negatives of raising a child. He found too many parents focused on the hard parts and didn't take the time to enjoy the good and had vowed not to become one of those parents. He could not believe that his daughter wasn't going to be a baby anymore. She was growing up so quickly it amazed him. He was starting to see what everyone was telling him about how much more quickly she seemed to learning. He always thought she was smart, but he never thought she was really that different from other children but the more he saw her peers the more he realised just how different she was. He couldn't deny it anymore, there was something about the way she thirsted for knowledge that reminded him of himself.
Now when she played with Henry they almost acted like they were the same age. There were times where she would even correct Jack, or take his books at start reading them with ease. Sometimes Jack would get insulted that she was reading the same things as he was, but she had started to ask if she could read the book before taking it. The guests started to arrive to her party. When Garcia got there he was not surprised by the small mountain of gifts she'd brought.
"Before you say anything boy genius, they are all education," she told him. "I mean these toys are all beyond Reid approved. The lady at the toy store thought I was insane for buying a three year old these things. Honestly Reid what is she going to do with a microscope?"
"That was one of the things she asked for. She wants to see what bugs really look like."
"What kind of little girl wants to see bugs under microscope?" Rossi asked.
He had just come in and Reid was certain the pile of gifts on the table had just doubled. As much as he tried to tell the senior agent that Aemelia should not only get education toys but she enjoyed them Rossi always bought her typical little girl toys. Rossi had been the one to buy Aemelia her first doll, he had bought her a kitchen set, a doll house, accessories for her kitchen, dress up clothes, anything that he thought a sweet little girl would want; and despite the fact she would never ask for the kinds of toys Rossi would buy her she always played with them. Reid did like that those toys let her imagination run wild, but this was a child who would have an imaginary village around her train set.
"Spence's kid," laughed JJ. "She told Henry that she might get a microscope and now he wants to look at bugs too. It's disgusting."
"It's science," defended Reid. "I'm glad that Aemelia doesn't think that bugs and things are disgusting. They are just another part of nature."
"Well I for one don't want my kid growing up to be an entomologist."
"They like dinosaurs and reptiles as well as insects. Kids are curious by nature and I'm not going to discourage that."
The team was inside talking about what toys Aemelia should be interested at her age when the looked outside and saw Morgan lighting the barbeque. Reid hadn't meant for it to be a tradition for the team to get together for a barbeque for his daughter's birthday but since he had the space it always seemed to end up that way.
"Will you please give my hot stuff some meat to grill before he goes loony tunes out by the barbeque?" Garcia asked.
"When did it become tradition that Morgan does the barbequing for Aemelia's birthday?" nReid asked.
"It brings him such joy, boy genius let him have it."
The kids, Jack included then ran past the adults, laughing loudly. They seemed to be playing a game of tag. All three parents were about to say something but JJ's was the voice that came first. Reid was glad to see that Jack was finally starting to take the time to play with the youngest second generation member of the team. He had always come to events before but would do his own thing, but since Henry's fifth birthday the older child had started to come around and would play games like follow the leader and things which thrilled his young cousins.
"Hey, it's beautiful out," JJ told them. "What are you doing inside?"
"We just…" Henry tried to explain.
"Uncle D is out there already and we'll all be out in a few minutes. Go outside, there's no video games and no books while everyone is here, now scoot!"
"Okay!" all three of the kids said at the same time before running outside.
JJ, and Garcia went outside, and Reid came out a few minutes later with the hotdogs for the kids and sausages for the adults. Morgan took the plate and began to cook the food. The kids were now playing on the play structure that Morgan had built for Aemelia as her birthday gift. There were two swings, a slide, some monkey bars, and covered tree house so she could read books or bring her dolls outside to play and they wouldn't get ruined.
He could hear Aemelia telling her cousins all about the things that Morgan had put in her play structure. He had built one for each of the boys' on their third birthdays, putting in different things for each child that he knew they would enjoy. Jack's had had a tire swing, and Henry's had two extra slides. Reid had wanted to hold off on the getting the play structure, since some days the townhouse seemed a little small with the nanny there, but the young woman insisted that having her own bedroom was more than enough space and had talked him out of looking for a new home in a different neighbourhood just so she could have an en-suite. Aemelia was just starting to get to an age where she could play with the other kids that lived in the townhouse development and no one wanted to see her miss out on being a kid.
End Part 20
Notes: Someone asked a while if Reid and Aemelia lived in an apartment. They don't I just didn't want to spend too much time on it. But she has a yard and house just maybe not the ideal one but it works. Plus townhouse communities are great for kids cause there's always someone to play with.