Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

Happily Ever After-Chapter 51

~This chapter (and the next one) is pure fluff...I've been dealing with writer's block for a few days and I decided to write something fluffy to see if I could revive my muse.

~The next chapter is heavily outlined...enough reviews may motivate me to post it sooner than I normally would.


Three days later, Dave was in the kitchen making a late breakfast for himself when Abby walked into the room. "Morning, Pumpkin," he said as he brought his bagel and coffee to the table. He was surprised to see her dressed because even though it was a Tuesday, she obviously wasn't going to school and for the past week she'd been lounging in her pj's until lunchtime.

"Morning dad, is mom around?" She asked as she poured herself some coffee.

"She's still in bed, she had a kind of a rough night last night," Dave told her as he took a bite of his breakfast.

"Rough night? Is she okay?" Abby asked in a high pitched voice. Her mother's health and recovery was a major concern of hers and she was afraid that something might happen to hinder it.

"She's fine; she just had some pain and nightmares that kept her awake. I finally convinced her to take her damn pain medicine at around four this morning and it zonked her out."

"Oh, okay," Abby said despondently, playing with the handle of her coffee mug.

Dave saw that Abby looked a little lost, "Is there something I can help you with?"

She was torn, her issue needed a somewhat immediate resolution but she really didn't want to discuss it with her dad. She sighed as she sat down across the table from him.

"I need to run to Target for a few minutes," she told him, already knowing what his answer would be.

"What?" Dave asked, thinking she was joking.

"Either Target or CVS. It's really important, dad, and I'll only be gone for about twenty minutes," she pleaded.

Dave saw that she was serious and he wondered if she'd lost her mind. "No, absolutely not."

"But daaadd!" Even though she had known he was going to say no, it didn't stop Abby from arguing with him, even if it was in a whiny, teenage way.

"Are you crazy?" He asked her in disbelief, "We've been holed up here for the last week because there are people after us and you want to run to the store? There's no way in hell you're leaving this house!"

"Fine!" Abby said loudly, accepting her fate as she flopped back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. She and her father glared at each other for a minute until she finally looked away.

"What is so important that you would risk your safety for?" Now that they weren't arguing, his curiosity was getting the better of him, she had to know that he was going to say no, so now he wanted to know what she needed so badly.

"Nothing," she said softly.

"Abigail," Dave said in a tone Abby knew well. It was a tone that said, 'tell me what I want to know, because I'm not going to let this go.'

She took a deep breath, "IgotmyperiodtodayandIdon'thaveanysupplies."

She spoke so fast that Dave felt like he was at an auction. "I didn't understand a word you said. How about slowing it down for me," he told her.

She turned bright red and looked down at the table, "I got my period today and I'm out of supplies," she said softly, wishing there was a hole she could crawl into and die.

"Oh." Shit, he thought as he processed what she'd just told him, this was a real problem. "Does your mother have…anything you could use?" He asked hesitantly, not exactly sure how this kind of thing worked. He knew, from the limited exposure he'd had to this type of thing from his ex-wives, that women were loyal to their favorite brand of products, but surely they were somewhat interchangeable?

Still staring at the table, Abby shook her head, "No, mom's out too, we were both going to add them to the grocery list for next week."

"Hmmm," Dave said, thinking about the situation. A large part of him was considering letting her go. She was right, it would take her less than an hour and really? Were the hit men Suzette hired really going to stake out the local Target on the off chance that one of them might make an unscheduled visit there? As quickly as he had that thought, he discarded it. As was evidenced three nights previous, her henchmen were probably watching the house and if any of them attempted to leave it, they would almost surely be followed.

Well aware that his daughter was stewing in her own embarrassment, Dave tried to come up with a solution to her problem. He realized that so far he'd been pretty lucky in the 'girl stuff' department with her. Other than the horribly disturbing sex talk he'd been a part of a few months previous, he'd never really had to deal with anything like this before. He'd come into her life well after she'd had the 'my changing body' talk with her mother, so he hadn't been a part of that, thank God, and other than the occasional box of tampons that made its way into the cart when they were grocery shopping, he'd never really had to acknowledge this part of his daughter's life. Until today.

He took a deep breath and tried to get control over the situation at hand. He'd faced down some of the worst of humanity in his many years on the planet, surely he could deal with this current crisis, although he was sorely tempted to wake his wife up so she could deal with it. He had no doubt that she would come up with a magical solution that would end everyone's embarrassment. He contemplated that option for a moment and then shook his head, he would step up to the plate and deal with it, even though he had no idea what he was doing.

The first thing he needed to do was stay calm and collected. He didn't want to add this event to the growing pile of things that had scarred his daughter for life over the past three weeks. This was a perfectly natural thing to have happen and he would deal with it rationally…Christ, he really wished Jen was here for this.

Looking at his daughter, he realized that his silence was only making things worse, so he finally spoke up. Unfortunately, he blurted out the first thing that came into his mind. "How did you run out of supplies? I thought women had stockpiles of those kinds of things so you could avoid this type of situation."

Abby snapped her head up to glare at him, was he really blaming her for this? Last month, when she used her last tampon, was she really supposed to see this coming? God, what an asshole! Here she was, embarrassed beyond belief, wishing she the earth would open up and swallow her whole, and her dad was trying to make her feel bad for running out of supplies!

"Well gosh, dad," she said sarcastically, "You're right, I should have seen this coming! As I stared at the empty box last month, I should have realized that this month I may be held hostage in my own house. I should have known that there was a possibility that I wouldn't be able to leave because hit men would be tracking my every move. How stupid of me!" Abby was still red in the face, but now it was because of both her embarrassment and her growing anger.

Dave realized that he might have said the wrong thing, based on her reaction, and he tried to backpedal. Regrettably, he ended up sticking his foot farther into his mouth. "Sorry Abby, I'm just surprised that you were taken by surprise at this. I thought knowing that particular date each month was some kind of religion with women." He scooted his chair away from hers as he saw her look change even more from embarrassment to anger. He wasn't sure what he'd said wrong, but he knew he was about to find out.

"I am aware of that particular date each month, but the stress I've been under, combined with the weird sleeping schedule we had at the hospital, messed my cycle up! I'm sorry that this isn't convenient for you," she said loudly. "I'm the one sitting over here with a headache and massive cramps, and I'm talking to my father about stuff he never needed to know, not to mention I'm in desperate need of supplies with no way to get them, but I guess I should be feeling bad for you since this must be so difficult for you!" A few tears of frustration leaked out of her eyes at the end of her tirade, damn hormones! She looked at her father and saw the panicked look on his face and she huffed haughtily, she should have known better than to talk to him about this; he was a guy, he didn't understand what she was going through.

"Hey," Dave said defensively, "I'm doing my best here, Pumpkin! I've never had to deal with this before."

"You grew up with three sisters and you've had three other wives, how have you not had to handle something like this before?"

"They all had large caches of supplies," he muttered and then saw the thunderous look on his daughter's face. "Okay," he said, before she could start yelling, "Write down what you need and I'll have Emily or Garcia bring it by later today."

Abby shook her head, "Emily's in New York and Pen is upgrading her computer system today, neither one of them will be able to come out here."

Dave sighed, "Then write down exactly what you need and I'll have one of the guys run into town and pick up your supplies."

"No!" Abby protested, "God dad, that will be so embarrassing!"

"Well I don't know what else to do, Abby," he said frustrated, "Hotch is coming by later, do you want me to have him stop?"

Abby pictured her cool and collected pseudo uncle standing in the middle of the feminine hygiene aisle in his crisp suit and tie and gave a snort of laughter. She would rather have an anonymous security guard run her errand than subject her uncle to that particular task.

"No, I'd rather have one of the guys go," she said as she reached for the magnetized pad of paper that hung on the refrigerator door. Her father handed her a pen and she wrote down precisely what she needed, including descriptions of the boxes. With a sigh, she capped the pen and handed it, and her list, back to him. "Make sure they get precisely what I wrote down," she told him.

He glanced at the paper and nodded, "I'm assuming time is of the essence for this?" Abby once again turned red with embarrassment and nodded. "Okay, I'll have someone go out right away."

"Thanks dad," she said, her face still flushed, "I'll be working on some homework in my bedroom." As she left the kitchen, she wondered if it was possible to actually die of embarrassment.

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