Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
A/N: Shout out to xxxMadameMysteryxxx, OneTrueAkatsuki, crazyreaderduh, Fashionista7, criminalmindsrocks, fishtrek, lolyncut, and supergirl superman for reviewing chapter 36.
Thankfully I didn't have writer's block for this chapter causing me to update two days after posting the last chapter.
This chapter starts the afternoon after the last chapter when the Reids, Ellie, Lucy, and Anthony are in New York City and the poll about what will happen to Emily is now up. So please visit my profile and vote.
At 1 P.M. Spencer, Clarissa, Diana, Bridget, Evan, Ariel, and Caden entered their two-bedroom hotel suite at The Roosevelt Hotel which already had two cribs and a roll-away bed placed in the living area, "At least housekeeping already brought the cribs or roll-away bed for Ariel, Caden, and Evan to sleep in.
Diana's, Bridget's, and Evan's eyes went wide as they took in the living area of their suite before they ran to the window where Diana instantly noticed the Rockefeller Christmas tree and the ice skating rink.
"We have a view of the Rockefeller Christmas tree and the ice skating rink," said Diana excitedly.
Spencer nodded, "Grandpa Dave thought that we would all enjoy being at a hotel that's within walking distance from a lot of fun places like the Rockefeller Center."
"Where I want to go ice skating," said Diana excitedly.
"I hope its OK that we wait until tomorrow to ice skate," said Clarissa.
"It's OK, mommy," said Diana.
"We're also a mile away from Central Park," said Spencer.
"Can we please go to the Central Park Zoo?" asked Bridget.
"That's where we're going as soon as we settle down in our suite since the zoo closes at 4:30," said Clarissa.
"We're also .7 miles away from Bryant Park where we can ride a carousel," said Spencer.
"We go there today?" asked Evan.
"We're going there tomorrow," said Clarissa.
"Can we see The Statue of Liberty?" asked Diana.
Spencer smiled, "We're going to be taking a boat there tomorrow morning."
"What about visiting a museum or two?" asked Diana.
"We won't have enough time since your mother and I are going on a date at dinnertime tomorrow to celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary before the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, but I'll try to snag a four-day weekend so we can come back here during summer vacation," said Spencer.
Bridget looked at her father, "Pinky promise?" asked Bridget.
Spencer clasped pinkies with Bridget, "Pinky promise," said Spencer as he didn't even realize that he'll be dealing with a health scare that would cause him to take over three months off to have surgery and recover.
An hour later at Central Park, 30-year-old Sean Hotchner was sitting on a bench with his head in a newspaper as he noticed his almost 29-year-old little sister pushing a double stroller that contained his recently turned one-year-old twin niece and nephew Ariel and Caden. He then thought about the pictures he recently received in an email of them celebrating their first birthday the day before which also included an angry message from his sister about him not visiting, Haley being murdered, not visiting after Caden got his left leg amputated, and that she, her husband, and the kids would be coming to New York City to celebrate their wedding anniversary and attend the Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting ceremony and included the address of their hotel or the itinerary of their mini-vacation just in case he wanted to meet up with them. Then he looked at his 29-year-old brother-in-law who gained some much-needed weight and was now sporting a short haircut that's too short to show off his natural curls was pushing a stroller that contained a now three-year-old Bridget and a two-year-old Evan. Then he looked at his nearly seven-year-old niece who much taller and now had mid-back length hair who was holding hands with an older girl who assumed to be his sister and brother-in-law's eight-year-old foster daughter Ellie Spicer.
Meanwhile, Ellie who was excited about visiting The Central Park Zoo was looking around her surroundings when she saw a man with longish blonde hair watching them, "A strange man is watching us," said Ellie.
Clarissa turned her head and gasped when she saw Sean, "That's my other brother Sean who had recently turned 30. Even though he hasn't been answering my emails and my phone calls, he must have gotten my email about us coming to New York City but is too scared to face my wrath."
Diana turned around and started to walk backward as she looked at her uncle Sean and gave her her 'Hotchner glare' as she quickly used sign language with her gloved hands and signed 'mommy and uncle Aaron are both extremely angry at you. If you value your life, please stay away from mommy' before she saw her uncle nod and smile at her causing Diana to grin at the thought about her uncle Sean remembering sign language because of her.
Spencer who was watching Diana from the corner of his eye looked at his oldest daughter, "I saw what you signed at your uncle, bumblebee."
Diana gave her father a cheeky grin, "At least I signed to uncle Sean to stay away from mommy and didn't flip him the bird at him like I wanted to."
"If you did that, strangers who saw you flip the bird would most likely tell your mother and me what you did and we would have to give you a six-minute-long timeout before we enter the zoo," said Spencer.
trouble if all these strangers around us saw me flip the bird at uncle Sean and confront you and mommy about a little girl like me sticking out my middle finger."
Clarissa laughed, "You are so my daughter, Diana. I want to flip the bird at him, but there are children here."
"I want to give Sean a 30-minute timeout," said Bridget.
"And we take a picture and send it to our friends and coworkers like we did when you gave Papa Dave a timeout for making me go into a ditch when I wasn't allowed to do any climbing?" asked Spencer.
"Yes daddy," said Bridget.
Spencer looked back at his brother-in-law who nodded at him and mouthed a few words that seemed like he was telling him hello and to keep on taking care of his sister before looking at his wife, "Do you want to go talk to Sean?" asked Spencer.
Clarissa shook her head, "If I go confront him right now, I would just abduct him and take him back to D.C. with us so Aaron and I can force him to meet Savannah and accept the responsibility he should have accepted a decade ago even though Mary has finally moved on from Sean."
Spencer looked at Clarissa, "Either way, I'll support your decision on whether you want to confront Sean or not as long as you don't end up in jail for assaulting Sean in public causing me to bail you out."
Clarissa cocked her eyebrows at her husband, "You believe that my temper will get me arrested here?" asked Clarissa.
"Even though you slapped your oldest brother for pulling a dangerous stunt at my workplace and no one arrested you since you were pregnant and hormonal and they heard about what your brother did and justified your actions, there's a lot of witnesses around here and no one here except for Sean knows how much of a force to be reckoned with when you're angry," said Spencer.
"For now, I just rather spend the rest of today, tomorrow, and part of Monday morning celebrating our tenth anniversary of the day we met and our eighth wedding anniversary," said Clarissa.
The next morning, Spencer was getting dressed as Clarissa exited the master bathroom of their suite and gave her husband a sad look, "Even though I was hoping to show you the new lingerie I bought for tonight, sadly I can't wear it tonight."
Spencer quickly connected the dots as he thought about when they had to take a break from having sex aside after Clarissa giving birth, "Your period started?" asked Spencer.
Clarissa nodded, "Yes."
"It's OK, Clarissa. You can save your new linguine for after you're done menstruating. I'll survive holding off a few nights since we waited two years to take each other's virginity when we met 10 years ago today until our wedding night eight years ago today while we also had two five-month dry spells too," said Spencer.
Clarissa kissed her husband, "Thank you for understanding."
Three hours later Spencer who had Ariel on a baby carrier on his chest was standing on a boat with Clarissa who had Caden in a baby carrier on her chest, Diana, Bridget, Evan, Ellie, Lucy, and Anthony as they headed towards The Statue of Liberty.
"Can we go to the top?" asked Diana.
"We have tickets to go up to the crown, but only daddy, you, Ellie, and I can go to the top since kids who are 48 inches tall or taller can only go to the top," said Clarissa.
Diana looked at her father, "Do you think that your bad knee will let you go to the crown?" asked Diana.
"I believe so and your mother made me put on a brace underneath my pants and take some Tylenol before we came here," said Spencer.
Diana looked at Bridget and Evan, "Did you know that The Statue of Liberty was designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and the metal framework was provided by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel?" asked Diana.
Bridget nodded, "I read that in a book," said Bridget before looking at her parents, Diana, Ellie, and Evan, "I also know that The Statue of Liberty was made from copper in 1886, but a chemical reaction caused the statue to turn green by 1906."
"The height of this statue to the torch is 151 feet and 1 inch, but from the ground level to the torch its 305 feet and one inch," said Spencer.
"That's tall," said Evan.
"It is, but when people from Europe immigrated here to start a better life, seeing this statue from their ships told them that they made it to America," said Spencer.
"Cool," said Evan.
As they were halfway to the crown, Clarissa looked at her husband who had an inch of room from the ceiling and the stairs as they climbed the 354 19 inch wide stairs, "How's your knee handling this climb?" asked Clarissa.
"So far it's doing fine," said Spencer.
"Good, but we can slow down if you need to rest your knee a bit," said Clarissa.
Diana grinned at her father, "Hopefully your knee can handle us going ice skating this afternoon."
"Knowing your mother, she's going to make me rest my knee after this so I can go ice skating with you," said Spencer.
20 minutes later Spencer took a deep breath as he, Clarissa, Diana, and Ellie reached the crown, "How are you ladies feeling?" asked Spencer.
"I'm feeling great," said Clarissa.
"I don't feel an asthma attack coming on," said Diana.
"Good," said Clarissa.
A few seconds later Spencer was lifting Diana so she could get a better view out of the windows.
"This is so awesome!" exclaimed Diana.
Ellie nodded, "I agree."
"Even though I wish that Bridget, Ariel, and Caden could have come up here, I'm glad that David got us tickets to come up here," said Clarissa.
"I can't wait to tell my friends about going to the top of The Statue of Liberty when I go back to school on the 2nd," said Diana.
Ellie nodded about the two friends she made, "Me too."
Diana looked at her father, "Have you ever been up here with Aunt Ethel and Uncle Gordon before they died?" asked Diana.
Spencer nodded, "I climbed up here with them two months before their deaths, and this is my first time up here since their deaths."
A few seconds later Spencer, Clarissa, Diana, and Ellie were allowing someone from the group that came with them to take their picture before they climbed down the 354 stairs.
Later on, that afternoon at 3 P.M., Diana who was wearing one of her figure skating leggings, a skirt that she liked to pull over her leotard, and a thick sweater was ice skating backward as she looked at her foster sister who was using a walker to help her balance on the ice while her father was holding hands with a wobbly Bridget and her mother was teaching Evan how to ice skate, "Do you think that your ready to give up the walker soon, Ellie?" asked Diana.
Diana looked at her foster sister who had her hair pulled into two French braids underneath her winter hat, "I'm not sure yet."
"Please trust me and take my hand. I wasn't even two for a month when mommy and daddy taught me how to figure skate on their own by holding their hands before I held hands with daddy and then skated on my own," said Diana.
Ellie took a breath, "OK," said Ellie as she handed off her walker to the nearest person who was struggling on the ice.
A minute later Diana and Ellie were ice skating while holding hands before Ellie felt confident to ice skate on her own while Diana wowed everyone on the ice skating rink by performing the figure skating routine she did in her last showcase two weeks ago.
Later on that evening at 5 P.M., Spencer was dressed up in his best suit, a purple dress shirt, and foregone his usual tie for the night since he was wearing a black sweater vest while Clarissa was wearing a long-sleeved purple dress that reached the middle of her legs, wool tights, and high-heeled boots as they sat at a table for two that contained a vase that held eight red roses and 10 yellow roses when the waitress came and brought their requested non-alcoholic champagne over to them.
"Before I ask about what you two want to eat, what's up with the roses that were requested?" asked the waitress.
"Aside from it being our eighth wedding anniversary, today is the tenth anniversary of the day we met and became friends," said Clarissa.
"Congratulations. Any little ones running around yet?" asked the waitress.
Clarissa beamed, "A little girl who will be seven next month, a three-year-old daughter, a two-year-old son, and one-year-old boy/girl twins."
"We also have an eight-year-old foster daughter too," said Spencer.
"You two are brave. I only have one child with my husband of 12 years," said the waitress before she took Spencer's and Clarissa's orders.
After the waitress walked away, Spencer looked at his wife, "I'm glad that you approached me 3,651 days ago today since you ended up being my best friend for the past 3,651 days and my wife for the past 2,921 days."
Clarissa smiled, "I just love it when my sexy math genius husband tells me the exact numbers of days we have known each other and the exact numbers of days we've been married to each other. Even though you've grown self-confident over the past decade, please don't stop being you, Spence."
"I promise, love," said Spencer before reaching into his suit jacket and pulled out a jewelry box, "Happy anniversary."
Clarissa opened up the small box and gasped when she saw a bronze rose and a bronze bracelet that had their wedding anniversary and their kids' names and birthdays engraved on the bracelet, "I love it, Spence."
"The eighth wedding anniversary is known as the bronze or pottery anniversary," said Spencer.
"I got something for you too," said Clarissa as she reached into her purse and grabbed a small box and passed it to her husband, "Happy anniversary."
Spencer opened up the box and smiled when he saw a bronze tie pin and bronze cuff links that had their wedding date engraved on them, "I'll make sure to wear these whenever we have a date night."
A few minutes later Spencer and Clarissa were talking and laughing as they enjoyed their lasagna and salads.
Over two hours later Spencer who had a bundled up Ariel in a baby carrier on his chest had a bundled up Bridget on his shoulders while Clarissa had a bundled up Caden in a baby carrier on her chest and Evan on her shoulders while Diana and Ellie stood between them as they watched the lights of the Rockefeller Christmas tree turn on.
"This is awesome," said Diana.
"I'm glad that I got to join you guys here," said Ellie.
"I like the colors," said Bridget.
"So pretty," said Evan.
Spencer kissed his wife as he made sure that Bridget didn't fall off his shoulders, "Happy anniversary, Clarissa."
"Happy anniversary, Spence," said Clarissa.
"Eww," chorused Diana, Bridget, Evan, and Ellie as they watched their parents or foster-parents kiss.
The next day at sundown all nine Reids who were ranged from a year old to 80-years-old, Ellie, Lucy, and Anthony were gathered around the menorah while Spencer had the honor to light the first Hanukkah candle.
A/N: Don't forget to visit my profile and vote or if you end up having to review as a guest please tell me which option I should go through in your review.
