"Oh, I'm going to miss this." JJ sighed, almost sad.

The two were getting Story and Fable ready for Lauren because she would be arriving with Spencer soon.

"Babe, it isn't like we won't be having three of our own in the spring," laughed Emily. "Or it's just that you really love babies, huh?"

"I really do, but I especially love the tiny ones. Before I got out of East Allegheny, I did a lot of babysitting when it wasn't soccer season, and…"

JJ smiled at a memory and then looked at her fiancée with a conspiratorial expression.

"Do you want to hear a secret? Even Penelope doesn't know."

Emily would have already said yes, but at that last part, she was instantly hooked. "Tell me, tell me, tell me."

"I've delivered two babies before."

Flabbergasted, Emily couldn't form a full sentence. "I—what? Really?"

"The first time, I was fifteen and my neighbor, Missus Ryder, went into labor two weeks early and our house was the first one she came to with someone home."

"Where were your parents?"

"Work, but it everything happened so fast, even with the 911 operator guiding me through it, that it was all done just as they were walking through the front door. Missus Ryder had a little boy—Nathan Isaac. The little guy was born perfectly healthy, no complications."

"Wow." Emily marveled. "When was the second time?"

"In the field, maybe… two years ago? It was during a hostage situation, and I was the only person in the room who had experience with delivering babies. The mother had a little girl—also perfectly healthy—and she named her after me."

Emily wanted to make a "How sweet" comment, but Fable, having seen her chance to avoid getting dressed, was crawling away from her on the bed the were sitting on, so Emily turned her attention to containing her.

Story, meanwhile, gurgled happily in JJ's arms because she'd been enjoying the sound of her friend's voice.

"Oh, I didn't forget about you." JJ said sweetly to her, leaning down and giving her a kiss on her little nose. "I'm going to miss you, but it's going to make me happy knowing that you and Fable will be back with your mama very soon."

Story gurgled again, but she also arched her back—a sign of impatience.

"Okay, Peanut." JJ stood with her and began to walk around the room with her. "I'm up, I'm up."

Appeased when she realized they were in motion, Story gave a sigh of contentment and began to suck her thumb. Even Haley-Esmée, who had been very fidgety for the last hour, began to relax when she felt the motion, too.

"I don't understand how you've got the calmer baby to hold." Emily pouted as she watched JJ with Story. "Fable is a love, but she's also very silly. It's a miracle I could get her into her diaper just now."

JJ looked at Fable to see that while Emily had managed to get Fable into a clean diaper, she was still wrestling her into a pint-sized dress that Haley had found for her earlier. Fable decided to make Emily's task difficult by laying back and rolling around on the bed, laughing to herself.

"Are Hope and Henry awake?"

"No, thank the Lord, otherwise this would just take longer."

KNOCK-KNOCK!

JJ opened the door, but the visitor wasn't at all who they'd been anticipating.

"Penelope?"

The pregnant tech analyst greeted her friends as hung her stuff up a nearby coatrack, and when she set her purse aside, too, they noticed that a file folder was protruding out of it.

"Remember how it was discovered that Lauren is in the process of adopting Fable?"

"Yes." Emily and JJ answered in unison.

"Well, for some reason, those papers were taken into evidence, but I rescued them from getting lost somewhere in an evidence when they weren't deemed pertinent anymore. I'm going to help her finish up and submit the papers today."

"That's really nice of you, but when exactly were the papers deemed 'not pertinent,' PG?"

"Twenty minutes ago." she said cheekily. "Did I beat Spencer and Lauren here?"

"Uh-huh. He took her out to eat because she was absolutely starving."

Penelope didn't say anything to that, but that was only because Fable had just noticed her and was now sizing her up. In the blink of an eye, and still on her back, she'd made up her mind and reached for Penelope, beckoning to her, the way that babies do.

"Of course she'd want want you." Emily huffed. "Why don't you take a shot at getting her dressed?"

Penelope perked up at the invitation and walked over to the bed, trading places with Emily. When she got herself comfortable, she pulled Fable into a sitting position.

"Hi, Fable." the blond spoke and signed in greeting to her. "My name is Penelope."

The pacifier that Fable had been sucking on dropped from her mouth when it fell open in surprise because it wasn't often that she met someone who could sign.

She signed hello in return and crawled closer to Penelope, eventually allowing her to hold her and dress her.

JJ started to ask Penelope how she knew Sign Language, but stopped when she realized that like Spencer, Penelope was also extremely smart and juse as fast a learner, but just didn't flaunt it like her male counterpart did. She'd probably found time to teach herself the basics between last night and right now.

It didn't take long for Penelope to get Fable dressed, and when that was done, Fable suddenly realized that she couldn't find her pacifier. (It was hidden behind an extra big fold in her bed sheet) Penelope averted an oncoming tantrum for her new friend by finding it and giving it to her. The baby put it in her mouth and leaned against Penelope in contentment.

Just as Fable was letting herself be lulled to sleep by the sound of Penelope's heartbeat, she sat right back up, let out a loud giggle and began probing Penelope's middle with a mixture of curiosity and experimentation.

"You like that, don't you?" Penelope cooed around the sound of her own giggle as she fondly stroked Fable's dark hair. "So do I, baby."

"Penelope?" JJ said her friend's name as a question again as she and Emily drew closer. "Your baby started kicking?"

The brightly-dressed woman was as far along in her own pregnancy as her friends were in their own, so it made perfect sense that they'd all be hitting milestones around the same time.

"Mhm." she chirped, rubbing her middle with a proud smile. "Starbuck just started early this morning, and he's been at it every few hours. Like right now."

"The baby is a boy?"

"We're keeping it a surprise, but I think it's a boy and Derek is positive we've got a baby princess cooking inside. Starbuck is just a nickname we settled on."

"Yeah, because both of her parents are super nerds…" Emily muttered, knowing exactly where Penelope and Derek had chosen the name Starbuck from.

Penelope arched an eyebrow. "Don't you go throwing stones at me, Gumdrop—does your fianceé know how many Star Trek conventions you've been to?"

Emily turned red faster than JJ could even blink. "Penelope Esmée Rose, why?"

"What is it with you and middle naming me when you're flustered?"

JJ quickly got her say in. "I actually don't know how many conventions Emily has been to."

"Fifty."

Emily just sighed and hung her head. It was times like this when was sure that she and JJ had already been married in another life and that Penelope had been their kid. That was the only thing could account for the silliness that happened when all three of them were together.

She wouldn't trade this bond for anything in the world, though.

Out in the hallway, Lauren Applebaum was all of a sudden feeling nervous.

"I get taken, starved, and almost hung by a psycho, and yet I'm nervous to see the kids?" she questioned. "Is that normal?"

Spencer scrambled for an answer—every last bit of trivia he knew about children being reunited with loved ones after a separation (and vice versa) had suddenly gone right out the window because he had been imagining family life with Caitlín again.

"Yes." he told her, doing his best to sound convincing. "It's perfectly normal. Just take some deep breaths, Lauren. It's okay."

Lauren listen to him and it took a few moments, but she was eventually calm enough and followed Spencer to the nursery room where Spencer's friends were looking after her kids.

When she entered, she got tunnel vision when she spotted Fable and Story. The next thing she knew, Spencer was guiding her into a rocking chair, and the babies were being placed into her arms. Recognizing her scent, both babies let themselves relax and finally sleep.

The world fell away for Lauren for a minute, and all she could do was hug and kiss the babies; they were all that was left of her family, and they were each of them a little broken, but they were together again and now they had a proper chance at starting over.

"Em, this whole case with Lauren got me thinking."

Many hours later, JJ and Emily were back home and in their bedroom for the night. Emily had been reading while just next to her, JJ was cross-legged and looking down at her middle: the tank top she was wearing with her boxer shorts was hiked back, exposing her smooth, taut skin.

Haley-Esmée, crazy little thing that she was, was wide awake and stretching, enjoying JJ's gentle tickles and prods. She responded by kicking and rolling her limbs, increasing her activity whenever JJ increased her own.

Somewhere in the middle of this, JJ was hit with an epiphany just as she also realized that she suddenly had the courage to tell Emily something that she'd been thinking about for awhile.

"Babe," Emily set her book on the bedside table and beckoned to JJ. "I told you that she and the babies are going to get their happy ending, and with Penelope's help, Lauren will be able to fully adopt Fable, post haste."

"I know, and I heard you," JJ straddled Emily's legs, facing her and smiled when they held hands and their fingers instantly intertwined. "But there are two things that I want to talk to you about because this case made me think of them."

Emily pressed gentle kisses to JJ's fingers. "I'm all ears."

"The first thing is that even though I know that we are completely in this together, we should," JJ chuckled at what she had to say next. "Adopt each other's babies. Do you understand what I mean?"

"Absolutely, and I think it's a great idea." Emily responded. "That way, none of us will run into any legal troubles—especially in the delivery room—and it would also make things complete, for lack of a better word."

"Yes, exactly," JJ breathed a sigh of relief, glad that Emily was on the same page with her. "And that brings me to the next thing."

"What is it?"

JJ took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, but still very nervous. "When we get married, I-I want to take your last name, and I want that for Haley-Esmée, Hope, and Henry, too."

Emily's breath caught in her throat—she'd always known that they'd have this conversation, but she hadn't imagined it going the way that JJ was already steering it.

"Are you saying that you want to be a Prentiss?"

"I am."

"Jayje, I'm flattered and very touched, but may I ask why?"

"Well, there are plenty of Jareaus, and Faith told me before they went back to Billings that she and Wesley are trying for another baby because they want lots of kids, and also because they really want Agnes to have a playmate close in age to her."

"Best of luck to them on that."

"My point is, there are a lot of Jareaus and at least one more coming, but of the Prentisses, it's just you and Elizabeth left."

"And the line would go out with me…"

"It would, but now that we're being blessed with a son amongst our three children, this our chance to help the Prentiss name live on."

Emily felt her heart tightening with joy. "You would do that? You'd become a Prentiss? We don't exactly have the happiest of histories."

"I would totally become a Prentiss, and if this happened, it would also be a chance to let some light in and make some happier things to that side of the family tree." JJ cupped Emily's cheek in her hand to keep her grounded. "And don't get me wrong—I love my family to the moon and back, but I don't think that I'd want to be a Jareau forever."

"Because you're the one who marched to their own drum first."

"Yes again, and I just don't the Prentiss line to be empty like it is. It almost feels a little selfish not to put the option on the table."

Emily leaned forward and kissed her so soundly that JJ that her brain was going to melt. When Emily pulled away, she gave JJ the kind of smile that both sent the communications liaison into orbit and into a deep feeling of desire to pin Emily down on the bed right then and there so she could have her way with her.

"I love this idea, too, and if you ask me," Emily tacked on the next part cheekily. "I think that Jennifer Prentiss has a very good ring to it."

"I think so, t—okay, okay!"

Their moment had been derailed when Haley-Esmée gave JJ a very sound kick.

"She wants attention, huh?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," JJ sighed. "But she'd probably respond more to you."

"Okay, then: you know what to do."

JJ nodded and leaned back on the bed, shimmying out of her tank top altogether as she went. The next minute, Emily was planting gentle kisses on top of the fleshy mound that was housing their wiggliest daughter. Talking to the babies up close and personal was JJ's and Emily's favorite way of bonding with them.

The last hing JJ remembered before falling asleep was Emily telling Haley-Esmée a story from her adventures abroad as a kid (she was sure the location of this particular tale was New Delhi), and although she wanted to hear the ending, she was exhausted and fast asleep in the next five minutes.