(Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or its characters)

I'm sorry for making you guys wait for updates before now. My situation has been all over the place, I left uni to come home during the second lockdown, but I was on edge the whole time with uni work, not leaving the house and the anxiety of missing out on my final year at uni. Speaking of, it's my last year of university which means a lot of work. I've also been working for a bit of money so I don't have to worry about low funds when I'm back at uni so yes, I've been terrible at updates but I've genuinely been super busy.

Anyway, enough excuses, you're here for the finale.

This is the main finale. The one I have had planned since the very beginning. But, this is not the only ending. In exactly 9 hours (cus there's 90 chapters, I thought it'd be cool,) you will have another ending to this story. There's always been a split between the reviewers on how the story should end and I don't want to disappoint anyone so I'll appease you both. Read one, read both, up to you, I just hope everyone likes the outcome.

This, however, is the main ending in my eyes.

Enjoy.


Garcia got to the Hotchner household with three gift bags and a large wrapped present under her arm, the paper bow scratching her skin through her cardigan. She forced one of the gift bags into the other hand to knock on the door.

She heard loud yells of excitement from the inside and she shifted the gift bag back into her freehand with a grin. It was always worth it. She could hear someone yelling from inside that they would 'just be a minute,' when Rossi's car pulled up to the curb. He stepped out and went to the back door where he pulled out a large sit-on car. Garcia nearly dropped her bags as she stared with envy at the toy car. Rossi waved at her with a smug smile as Emily got out of the car too, with a much more suitably sized present in her hands.

Garcia turned and narrowed her eyes at Dave.

"What?" he called.

"You said you weren't good at presents?"

Emily laughed, glancing over her shoulder at Dave as she walked up the path. She winked at Penelope. "If it only involves throwing money away, Rossi is amazing at presents."

"I heard that, ladies!"

"Admit it, you hardly put any thought into that gift."

They all looked at the car.

"It's a generous present," Dave said.

"Oh, yea, VERY generous," Penelope muttered with a huff, looking down at her gift bags as if she'd failed herself.

"He always loves your presents, Penny," Dave said and he picked up the car and made his way across the grass.

"Need help carrying that, Grandpa?" Emily asked and she snorted when Dave shot her an annoyed look.

"Do you think the boys will like it?" he asked as he grinned proudly.

"Yep," Garcia said with a sigh. "You won't be able to get Henry out of it."

Rossi chuckled. "Yes, I thought the same."

Emily strode past the two, her gift tucked under her arm as she knocked.

"I already tried," Garcia said when hurried footsteps sounded from inside.

Aaron's muffled voice came from behind the door. "Jack can you get the door?"

The door finally swung open and Jack stood behind it, his shirt untucked and his hair spiky with gel.

"Hi, auntie Em!" He looked past her and smiled at Penelope. "Hi, Auntie Pen. Woah, you have loads of presents."

Garcia beamed. "One of them might be for you."

"Awesome!" Jack's eyes strayed to Rossi and they widened at the sight of the car Dave was struggling to carry. "Woah! Can I have a go?!"

"If you let me in," Dave said and Jack jumped to the side to let them through. Jack watched the car hungrily.

"You'll have to wait until the birthday boy has a go," Dave added and Jack gave a quick nod.

"I'll go get Henry," he said and he darted into the front room.

Aaron stumbled from the kitchen, wiping at his brow as he did and looking back with a grimace. He saw the team and gave a strained smile.

"Hi, guys."

"Wow, has JJ got you cooking?" Emily asked and Aaron snorted.

"She's kicked me out," he said and Dave, Emily, and Penelope laughed.

"Where's the birthday boy? I've seen Jack..." Penelope said, narrowing her eyes down the hall and then through the window into the garden.

"Upstairs."

Aaron wiped his forehead again and he let out a huff. "I didn't realise baking could be stressful," he muttered and he glanced back at JJ who was hovering over the oven.

"It's not."

Aaron set Garcia with a 'seriously' look, and he shrugged her shoulders. It was then that he noticed all of her bags and he rolled his eyes.

"Penelope, I hope those aren't all-"

"No no! It's just..." she looked down at the bags, counting some apart before she smiled sheepishly. "Just most of them," she said.

Aaron shook his head but he smiled.

"Can I put them in the dining room?"

"Yea, go ahead."

Dave motioned to the car he was still carrying. Aaron looked at the tiny vehicle incredulously but nodded his head. Dave dropped the car off with a relieved sigh and he flexed his fingers as he joined the others again.

Aaron turned to the window to check on the activities he'd paid to have set up. He turned back to the others and was about to offer them all a drink when there was another knock at the door. Before Aaron could move past the team the door opened and Morgan stepped inside with two gifts, both of which obviously had something to do with baseball since the biggest one was a poorly disguised bat.

"Derek! You can't just let yourself in!" Garcia said as Morgan spotted them.

"Hey, Hotch."

Aaron nodded in greeting to Morgan and pointed to the dining room. Morgan got the message and left his presents on the table beside Garcia's. When he came out he looked around their small group.

"Who are we missing?" he asked.

Emily glanced around at the team. "Uh..." then she smiled broadly. "Spencer."

"Ah yes," Dave said. He looked around, glancing at the door briefly.

"Here he is!"

Aaron turned towards the stairs and grinned. Spencer came down with a shy smile and paused on the third step from the bottom. He gave his sweater a tug to distract himself when the rest of the team looked his way.

"Hi?" Spencer mumbled, not sure what to say and Aaron laughed and held his hand out. Spencer beamed up him and jumped down the last few steps to take his hand.

"Oh my goodness, is that the bow I got him?"

Garcia pointed to Spencer's bow tie which was speckled in white and orange pumpkins, one she'd brought him for Halloween- but Spencer was too enamoured with it to forego wearing it throughout the year. His sweater was also an autumnal orange and his pants were brown (his socks odd of course.)

Spencer blushed, reaching up to fiddle with the bow against the collar of his checkered shirt. "Thanks."

"You look very distinguished," Penelope added and Spencer bit his lip and smiled.

Aaron looked at his watch and then across at the window which looked onto garden where he saw the man he had booked a few days before stepping away from a big bouncy house. Aaron smiled smugly at the sight of the big red castle, with a turreted roof, blown up to be nearly as tall as their house.

"Daddy?"

Aaron looked down to see Spencer at his leg, tugging on his pants.

"Yea buddy?"

"Can you help me with this?"

Spenecr held up a badge that JJ had given him that morning which had a big number three on it. Aaron took it from him as Spencer twisted his hands nervously, looking back at the team as if he were meant to be the host. Aaron got down on his knees and hooked the badge to Spencer's sweater. He clipped it in place and patted Spencer's cheek.

"Much better, kid," Dave said, walking over and taking Spencer's hand. "Why don't I show you your new car?"

"Car!?"

Spencer gasped as Dave led him into the dining-room where he'd left the ride-on toy car and he glanced back at Aaron and winked.

"Go deal with that castle," he whispered, flicking his head to the window before returning to distract Spencer. "Now you have a car, kid, I expect you to get my groceries, okay?"


Aaron couldn't help feeling proud of himself as he returned to the house, the bouncy-house standing majestically tall behind him.

He opened the back door to see Henry sat in the front seat of Spencer's ride-on car and Spencer by his side, pointing out different controls to the older boys. The team stood around watching. Even JJ was smiling, clearly done with cooking since the oven was off and her apron was in a bundle on the counter.

"I think I won on the present front," Dave said with a smile as he looked on at the boys and at Spencer whose little cheeks were dimpled by a wide smile.

Spencer sotted Aaron then and his smile somehow doubled.

"Look daddy!"

"I see. Did you thank uncle Dave?"

"Uh-huh," Spencer nodded eagerly and he tilted his head back and thanked Dave again.

"My pleasure, kiddo."

"Can we take this outside, dad?" Henry asked and Aaron suddenly remembered the bouncy house.

"Maybe later. I have a surprise for you boys first."

"Surprise?!" Spencer and Jack yelled together as Henry hopped out of the car.

"Yep, it's out back."

Awesome!"

Henry sped towards the door but JJ stopped him before he could open it. "Let Spencer go first," she whispered.

Spencer, so eager to get to Aaron, got caught in the car. He looked over at Dave as if, since he had brought the car, he knew exactly how it worked.

"Here ya go, kid." Derek lifted Spencer out of the car and set him on his feet.

"Thanks, Der," Spencer said before he hurried over to Aaron and lifted his arms. "Can we see the surprise, daddy?"

Aaron couldn't say no to Spencer's wide eyes so he picked up the three-year-old.

"Sure, close your eyes first." Spencer squeezed his eyes shut as Aaron opened the back doors.

Rosie ran out before them, sprinting across the garden excitedly. Aaron covered Spencer's eyes as he stepped into the sunlight just to be sure the boy didn't peek.

"Woah!" Jack said when he saw the bouncy castle. He turned to Henry who was gaping at the castle, taking great restraint to hold himself back from it.

"Are you ready, Spence?" JJ asked and she laughed when she saw the way Spencer was kicking his legs excitedly, his little hands over top of Aaron's, trying to pull them away.

"Yea!"

"Alright." Aaron pulled his hand away slowly and Spencer blinked around before he caught sight of the bouncy house.

His mouth fell open and he looked from JJ to Aaron.

"It's just for the day," Aaron said quickly, not wanting to disappoint Spencer if he didn't think it was a rental.

"Really?" Spencer whispered. "The whole day, daddy?"

"Yep," said Aaron and he checks his watch. "Oh, you better get on it, we've already wasted three minutes."

Spencer giggled and kicked his legs out, prompting Aaron to a set him down. Spencer sprinted to the bouncy house, and Henry and Jack quickly chased after him, having waited for the small boy to make the first move.

"Shoes off!" JJ shouted when she saw Spencer struggle to climb on with his shoes. Jack lifted Spencer up and sat him on the bouncy entrance. He pulled off his shoes and pushed him backwards onto the thick blown up plastic before grabbing his own shoe and tugging it off, then the other. Henry didn't need any help. He kicked his shoes off and jumped into the bouncy-house, nearly throwing Spencer back off when his jumping on caused a ripple effect.

Jack lifted Spencer to his feet and held his hand until they were safely inside. He turned and gave a thumbs up to his father.

"Awesome!" Henry yelled as he jumped at a wall and bounced off, falling to his knees but getting right back up. Spencer attempted to bounce but fell backwards on his butt. Just as he was getting back to his feet Jack bounced forcefully, knocking Spencer down in a fit of giggles.

"Carful!" Aaron called from the side and Spencer waved at him.

"Come on, daddy!"

"Maybe later."

Spencer's bottom lip poked out as he staggered to his feet. "Please?"

Aaron smirked at Spencer and shook his head. "I'll knock you over," he said and Spencer shook his head and shuffled forward.

"Nu-Uh!"

Jack and Henry bounced onto the backsides effectively launching Spencer up into the air on onto his front. Spencer laughed and lifted his head to grin up at Aaron.

"I rest my case."


Spencer knelt on the chair so he could be face to face with his cake, three candles burning brightly on top with a glittery three candle in the middle.

The boys hadn't stopped on the bouncy castle. Henry only came off to get Spencer's new car which, after letting Spencer unsuccessfully drive it into the fence, he took control over.

JJ had to give them a gentle reminder about the food she'd made and the unopened presents to finally get the boys back inside.

Spencer received a chemistry set from Emily (one for kids), a baseball glove, bat, and ball from Morgan and an assortment of things from Penelope, including a Doctor Who boxset.

After presents JJ lit the candles on the cake and Spencer sat up on his chair eagerly.

The team started to sing and Spencer raised his head with a bright smile. He laughed at Morgan who was trying to outdo everyone with his attempt at soprano.

"Blow them out!" Henry said when they finished singing and Spencer took a deep breath and blew out all four candles with one blow. He blushed when everyone started to cheer.

Aaron reached for JJ's hand beside him and he gave it a squeeze as he looked on at their youngest son. JJ turned to face him and before she could smile Aaron kissed her. When he pulled back he was grinning, the top of his cheeks red. JJ smiled breathlessly.

"Daddy! Can you cut it, peas?"

Aaron turned his smile back on Spencer. "Sure thing, buddy."


One week earlier

Spencer took the test tube and with one last look at Aaron he turned and walked toward the sink.

Aaron watched him, his heart breaking just a little. But at the same time he felt himself fill with longing to see Spencer as the young man he knew before.

Spencer looked back at Aaron with tears in his eyes and he unscrewed the cap off the test tube.

"Spencer," Aaron said as Spencer lifted the tube. "A-are you sure?"

Spencer smiled and nodded, lifting the test tube higher than his mouth. "I'm suwe," he said and with a smirk he tipped the contents of the test tube into the sink. "I want to stay with you guys," he said. He paused and glanced back at the sink with a sudden look of panic.

"U-unless you don't want me?" Spencer looked up at Aaron with wide worried eyes. How could he be so selfish to expect Aaron and JJ to look after him? "I-I-"

"No!" Aaron nearly fell over himself to get to Spencer but when he did he pulled him into a tight hug. "No, no, of course we want you."

He felt Spencer sigh in relief against his shoulder and the boy wrapped his arms around Aaron's neck.

"Thank you," Spencer whispered, pressing his face into Aaron's warmth.

Aaron closed his eyes and thought back to the negative pregnancy test JJ had taken over a year before. He stood up, pulling his son with him and hugging him even closer.

Thank you, he thought.


Thanks for reading.

The countdown has commenced for the next finale (not that we need it but I know some of you will appreciate it.)

I will add another AN to the next chapter.

8 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds. See you then.