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

An Unconventional Family-Chapter 52


Three days later, JJ awoke to find the other half of her bed empty. She sat up, saw that the bedside clock read nine o'clock, and wondered if Abby and Dave had gone downstairs already. As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she heard a loud snore coming from the sofa, which meant that Abby had left the room on her own. JJ hoped she hadn't gone downstairs by herself since she knew it would piss Dave off, but she smelled coffee brewing and knew that Abby was, in fact, on the first floor of the cabin.

JJ quietly got out of bed, trying not to wake Dave. She knew the newfound peace between Abby and her father was a fragile one and she didn't want Dave to ruin it by getting mad at Abby's actions. She pulled a cardigan sweater over her nightgown and gently eased the door open. As she did so, she accidently knocked the bedside table and her phone clattered to the floor, waking Dave.

"What's going on?" He asked, instantly alert.

"Nothing Dave, go back to sleep," JJ instructed.

"No, I'm up," he said, kicking off his covers and sitting up on the couch. "Where are you going? Where's Abby?" He asked.

"I think our daughter made a break for it," she told him. Dave looked at her in confusion. "She's downstairs, and from the smell of it, she's making coffee."

The confusion cleared from Dave's eyes and was replaced by frustration. "Dammit, she's not supposed to be by herself!" He roared, starting for the door.

JJ stopped him, "I know, but you need to relax Dave, it's been nearly a week since her injury and she probably just needs some time alone. We will address the orders her doctor gave us, but we will do so calmly. After all that has happened to her this month, she doesn't need us screaming at her."

"Fine," Dave agreed, somewhat belligerently.

JJ and Dave descended the stairs and made their way to the kitchen where they found Abby not only brewing coffee, but making breakfast as well.

"Morning mom, morning dad," she said as if nothing was wrong with what she was doing.

Dave, who had fully intended to keep his cool, burst out, "What in the hell are you doing?!"

Abby had been expecting this from him…from both of them, actually. When she woke up this morning, she could tell that a lot of her dizziness was gone and she decided to spend some time by herself. As much as she loved her parents, even her dad who still was not her favorite person on the planet, she needed some time away from them. They had been stuck to her like glue for the past six days and it was getting old. She had known they would be pissed when they found her in the kitchen, but it was worth it for the two hours she had to herself.

"Making brunch," she said as if it was the most normal thing in the world for her to be doing. "The casserole has to bake for an hour, so it should be ready by ten." She was making her and her mom's favorite ham, egg and cheese casserole and she was practically drooling in anticipation of it.

"What are you doing down here by yourself? You know you're not supposed to be alone and you know I don't want you taking the stairs! Do you want to fall and crack your head open?" Dave asked her, close to shouting.

Trying to joke her way out of it, Abby said, "Too late, I've already cracked my head open, remember?"

Seeing Dave turn red at Abby's joke, JJ jumped in, "This isn't funny Abby; you could have hurt yourself. Plus, the doctor said you should be taking it easy this week and I don't think cooking a meal counts as taking it easy."

While JJ was speaking, Abby had bent down to put the casserole in the oven. She heard JJ's words and lost her temper a little bit. Slamming the oven door shut, she stood straight up and said loudly, "Look, I know I'm not supposed to be alone, but God! I woke up feeling better than I have in days and I decided to cook breakfast, I didn't know it was a federal offense!" Seeing her mother open her mouth, Abby continued speaking, "I'm sorry I snuck out of the room, I'm sorry I took the stairs by myself and I'm sorry that you think I'm doing too much by cooking a simple meal, but the honest truth is that I needed some time to myself. A lot of things have happened this week and I needed time to sort them out in my mind!" She took a breath and brought the volume of her voice down a couple of decibels. "That being said, I'm going to sit out on the porch swing, you both are welcome to join me." With that, Abby picked up her mug of coffee and left the room. She was grateful that the dizziness hit her once she was in the great room, because if her parents had seen her falter, she never would have heard the end of it.

Once the dizziness passed, she stepped out onto the porch and curled up into a corner of the porch swing, knowing her parents would be out there soon. Sure enough, after about two minutes, she heard the front door open and she looked up and saw her parents standing there. Her mother sat in the other corner of the swing and Dave stood off to the side, leaning against the porch railing. They sat there in silence for a few minutes until Abby spoke up.

"You can sit here with us dad, there's enough room," she told him.

Dave smiled, things were still tense between him and his girls and he was trying hard not to push things too fast with them, but he had really missed them and now he couldn't get enough of them. Between his book tour and the time apart when he left them, he had been away from them for over a month. Well…he had spent time with them over the past few days, but it was tentative as they had been making up their minds about him and he hadn't wanted to push it with them. Now that he knew they were giving him a second chance, he wanted to spend as much time as possible with them, repairing his relationship with them. He could kiss the neurologist who told them not to let Abby out of their sight for a week because it had helped him with some of those repairs.

He drained his coffee in a long swallow, set the mug down on the railing and sat down on the swing, right between his two favorite people on the planet. He tentatively put his arms around each of their shoulders and was encouraged when they didn't pull away from him; in fact, they both rested their heads against his chest. They sat like that for almost an hour, each of them in silent contentment. Their peace was broken by a car on the gravel driveway and they watched as Marie Rossi stepped out of the car.

"Now it's a party," Dave said with a smile as he watched his mother approach the cabin.