To JJ's dismay, the case concerning the grand puppeteer soon grew as cold as the winter itself.
She had to convince herself that it was for the best because although she was a federal agent and she enjoyed her job, she was a mom first, and she loved that part of her life a lot more. JJ wanted to solve the case because she just wanted to put it to bed, but after awhile, she had no choice but to let things go so that the BAU could move on.
Life moved on, too. JJ was now seven-and-a-half months pregnant with a baby girl, just as Will had thought from Day One. Abigail Jennifer was on the way. All of her clothes and things had been bought, and her nursery had been designed and put together, too. Anything extra was just a result of JJ getting bored and tapping into her nesting mode.
They had also gotten the ball rolling as far as renewing their vows went. They were keeping the number of guests low, just to their friends and family, and just like the actual wedding had been, the event was going to be in Rossi's backyard. Everybody went above and beyond the call of duty to help bring it all together, and they were all looking forward to what was to come.
Before long, the day of the event had finally arrived.
Away from the noise of the rest of the house, JJ was up in the main study, dressing up. Will was in another part of the house, also getting ready. Although they were already married, they were still treating the day like a traditional wedding, meaning that they were actively avoiding each other before they got to the altar. They were doing all of the things they hadn't had a chance to partake in, the first time around.
Emily, Penelope, and Tara were keeping JJ company, and helping her prepare, just as on the other side of the house, Will was with TJ, Rossi, TJ, Spencer, and even Derek, who had travelled back to Virginia with his family, just to be here today.
It was of the Morgans that Emily's thoughts rested on. Derek and Savannah had another child, in addition to Hank—a new baby girl, and Emily had had the pleasure of both becoming her godmother and learning that the baby had been named in her honor. The little one's first name was Emily Raina Morgan, and not long before going upstairs, Emily had been able to meet her for the first time. She even fell asleep in her arms after a few minutes. The event photographer noticed, and got a few pictures of the two of them together, even inviting Emiliana LaMontagne in on the fun, after passing by in TJ's arms.
Emily now had pictures with both of her goddaughters, and whenever she thought about it, she felt butterflies in her stomach.
"Emily?"
The woman jumped when she realized that someone was waving a hand in her face.
"I promise I'm attention!" she said quickly.
Tara, Penelope, and JJ were looking at her, each one of them trying not to laugh too hard.
"Yeah, right." JJ chuckled. "What are you thinking?"
Emily felt the butterflies yet again. "I'm thinking about how, thanks to the awesome photographer, I had a quick impromptu photo session with both Ana, and Emily Morgan. You'll see snaps of me holding them both."
"Awww. They're your goddaughters, and your namesakes. I can't wait to see how those pictures turn out."
"I'm sure they'll be very good." Emily answered. "What's happening now?"
Penelope helped her friend to her feet, and steadied her. "We're on the 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' part now."
"Got it."
Tara turned to JJ. "What did you have last time?"
"Well, I only had the 'something new,' back then. We didn't have as much time as most couples do for planning a wedding."
"Why not?"
"Because Rossi actually threw us a surprise wedding."
That was far from anything that Tara had been expecting to hear. "Woah, really?"
JJ chuckled again and nodded. "Oh, yes."
Penelope gave Tara's arm a gentle pat. "Add that to the list of things you and I will talk about when we go out for drinks tomorrow."
"Copy that, Spectacled One."
They, and JJ turned their attention to Emily after that.
"What?" she said in surprise. "It's JJ's day, and I'm not even the team leader right now—just Emily."
JJ smirked, seeing right through her, as she always did. "Be that as it may, you are being ridiculously squirrelly. Is the baby awake?"
"Kicking, too." Emily blew out a breath as she took a tiny elbow to the gut. "We finally found out the baby's gender at an appointment this morning—we've had no idea this whole time because the little stinker kept turning over whenever the doctor went to check."
"Don't keep us in suspense!" JJ said quickly. "Will and I told, the moment we knew, that our kids really are getting a sister!"
Emily shuffled her feet. "It's your special day, JJ. I didn't want to take away from it."
"You won't be, and I want to know!"
"Me, too!" Penelope and Tara followed in unison.
Emily stepped forward and framed her middle again. "In about eight weeks or so, we're going to be joined by the littlest and last Jareau—his name is Elias Theodore."
After a few moments of hugs, congratulations, and a few questions, Emily got them back on the trail of what they had meant to be doing before their detour.
Tara went first, holding out to JJ a key. It wasn't like a regular house key, however, because it was old, and made of brass, like something out of a Nancy Drew mystery novel. JJ hadn't seen anything like it in quite some time.
"This is the original key to my grandparents' house in Concord, New Hampshire." explained Tara. "They were best friends for decades, but they were married for seventy-five years."
"Wow! That's incredible!"
"You and Will already made it for nine years, but here's to you guys having seventy-five years or more." Tara dropped the key into JJ's dress pocket. "You can borrow the key for good luck."
"Thank you, Tara." JJ told her. "This is really thoughtful."
Tara gave her a quick hug. "You are very welcome, JJ, and thank you for letting me participate."
"Hey, after everything that's happened since you joined the team, but notably, these last two years, I couldn't imagine you not being here. You're as good as a sister, just like Emily and Penelope."
Tara hugged JJ again, and stepped back—though not impossible, she had actually been reduced to a puddle of mush. It was key now that she not lose her cool altogether, lest her friends learn that she, Tara Elizabeth Lewis, was a even bigger romantic sap than the rest of them. Needless to say, she was very happy when Penelope stepped up to the plate.
She presented JJ with something new—in this case, a bouquet. It was just made of something unexpected.
"PG, are those butterflies?" JJ asked in awed surprise.
"Yep, and I made this bouquet myself! What do you think?"
"I love it, Penelope, and how did you remember that I love butterflies?"
Penelope winked at her. "Tinker Bell, I remember the little things about every person I love."
JJ hugged her and examined her new bouquet closer. It comprised of bunches of realistic decorative butterflies on wire: in fact, there were so many that it looked as though she was holding live ones. Everything was bound tightly together with heavy-duty brown twine. Before JJ could get lost and start identifying each species of butterfly her eyes fell upon, she graciously thanked Penelope so that Emily could have her turn.
"This is from us." she said. "TJ and I are covering 'something old' and 'something blue.' I hope you love it."
Emily showed JJ a round metallic locket. It featured a miniature many-rooted, many-branched tree set against a dark blue background. Inside were two pictures that JJ had never seen before, although she recognized the occupants.
"My dad, and my sister?"
Emily nodded. "Mhm. Now they can both be here with you, on such a special day."
JJ began to cry happy tears, but as pregnant as she was, crying jags weren't out of the realm of possibility when so many other emotions were being displayed.
"I'm sorry!" she cried when she felt her makeup start to run. "I'm ruining all your handiwork, Em!"
"It's nothing that can't be fixed, Jayje. Why don't we work on that?"
JJ exhaled shakily. "O-okay…"
Realizing that this was a time to leave them be, Penelope spoke to Tara.
"Come on. Let's go see if we can find JJ's mom."
"Alright. She's probably near the little kids."
They vacated the room, closing the door behind them. Emily led JJ back to a vanity table on the side of the room, and sat her down.
"Let's get you cleaned up first."
It took a few minutes, but JJ was eventually tear-free, and practicing her breathing techniques: baby Abigail Jennifer was shaping out to be the most excitable child she'd ever carried, and the last thing they wanted at the moment was for her to think that the sky was falling.
Meanwhile, Emily had removed all of JJ's makeup and started reapplying it, fresh. But that was alright—she didn't mind doing it over again.
"What's on your mind?" JJ said to her when things grew quiet. "Your niece kicks me more when it gets too still for her liking."
"Elias is the same way." Emily laughed. "What's on my mind? All my life, I wanted a baby sister because being an only child can really suck sometimes… But then I met you, and you filled that spot immediately. Our friendship is truly one of the best things that's ever happened to me."
JJ beamed. "I feel the same way, and you know…"
Her words trailed off because she was about to tell Emily something that she'd never said before. It was very true, but she'd still never said it.
"Yes?" Emily prompted.
"Rosaline would have really loved you, and she would have been your friend, too."
"Thank you. That's quite sweet." Emily held JJ's face in her hands for a second indicating what she needed her to be doing. "Please be still now. I'm almost done here, but I'm going to fix your hair, too, because I can see that one of your braids is about to become undone."
"Whoops," JJ said, but kept her gaze to where Emily had indicated.
"How about you tell me something about Rosaline? Like an interesting hobby, maybe?"
JJ perked up. "She was really good at doing hair, and always did mine for me, until I was good at doing my own."
"That's neat. Will you tell me something about that?"
JJ launched into a story about a time when she was nine, and she and Rosaline had dyed their hair bright purple—an act that had been well against their mother's wishes. By the time she finished telling the tale, she was back to normal, and Emily had completely fixed her makeup and her hair for her.
"There you go." Emily tucked in the last hairpin. "All done. Will you hand me the locket, please?"
JJ picked it up from where she'd put it on the vanity table, and watched as Emily fastened it around her neck for her. She even sat up straighter as Emily spoke to her.
"I've heard many stories about how much Rosaline adored you, and about how she really loved being your sister. I want you to know, Jayje—I love being your sister, too, and I'm so proud that you've overcome all that you have in your life. I'm even more proud that you and Will are about to go declare your love for each other all over again. It's all so amazing and beautiful. Watching it will be an honor."
"Thank you, Emily. I needed to hear that."
"You're quite welcome."
KNOCK KNOCK!
The bubble was burst by someone coming to knock at the door. Their visitor turned out to be Sandy, and she smiled when she saw the two women before her—one was her daughter by birth, and the other, by marriage. At the end of the day, she loved them both equally, and she always would.
"It's almost time to start," she said upon approach. "So I thought I'd come check on things in here."
"I'm great," Emily told her confidently. "But my sister is glowing, so I'm going to leave now, and look for my husband and my children. Excuse me."
She crossed the room to the door, and when she looked back, she saw JJ showing Sandy the locket. On that note, Emily left without a further word.
The vow renewal ceremony went off without a hitch, and was even officiated by Spencer—he had gone through the proper steps to be ordained. The weather was also very nice, and all of the children in attendance, both big and little, were all well-behaved. Everything was perfect, everyone was happy. It was going to be a day that would be long remembered.
In spite of the size of her middle, Emily managed one dance on the dance floor with TJ, but afterwards, she sat at the nearest table to catch her breath.
"Izzy is off, dancing with Ingrid," TJ told her. "And Milo and Kiley are with our mothers. How is Eli?"
As though he'd been waiting for that question in particular, Elias changed positions and moved so that his feet were now near his mother's ribs.
"He changed positions, just to spite me." Emily groaned. "He's really making the most of his last eight weeks."
Emily sat back in her chair, and spoke to Elias as she followed his movements with her hands. He clearly wanted to play, and wasn't too pleased that his mother was parked.
When Emily looked back at her husband after a few moments, she laughed. "Theodore, I'm tired, hot, and humungous; I might even last another hour, at the most. Yet, that look you're giving me says lovestruck teenage boy."
TJ flashed her knee-buckling, but cheeky smile. "So?"
"Cough it up."
"This has been quite a day, huh? Everyone we love is here, and we're celebrating two people that we really love."
Emily sighed happily. "I'm in love with today."
TJ chose his words carefully when he spoke next. "What if, Mia, in a few more years, we renew our vows?"
"Oh, I love the sound of that! What if we renewed them every five years?"
"Not seven, or ten?" joked TJ.
"I can't wait that long!" Emily said in exasperation.
"Well, it's a good thing I can't wait that long, either." TJ held a hand out to his wife. "We'll renew our vows every five years, and not a moment before. Deal?"
Emily softened up again, taking her husband's hand in hers. "Deal."
And they shook on it.
