It was nearing nine o'clock at night by the time JJ and her family returned from church, and when they were all in their bedrooms, changing from their church clothes back to casual ones, JJ noticed that Emily was changing straight into her pajamas.
"What's the matter?" JJ asked her.
"The baby isn't cooperating with me right now and is making me feel wiped out." Emily laid down on the bed, sighing at the relief that the soft mattress brought her. "I'll be as right as rain in the morning, but I'm afraid I won't be much fun with you and my parents right now."
"Don't worry about, it Em. Lizzie and Max have completely taken to spoiling me like you said they would, and I think I imprinted on them like a baby duck. They like it, and so do I."
Before she left the room, she went to Emily's side of the bed and pulled her pajama shirt back just enough to expose her bump.
"Hey, little Baby Bear!" she cooed softly, placing featherlight kisses to the rounded surface. "You be good for mama right now and let her sleep, alright? She really needs it!"
Emily thought she was going to melt as JJ spent a few more minutes kissing her belly and talking to the baby; JJ was the most gentle person she'd ever been with, and the fact that she had the capacity to be gentle, despite all of the abuse she had suffered in her time with Baylor, simply amazed Emily.
So gentle was JJ, in fact, that her kisses and soft tone lulled Emily straight to sleep.
When JJ went downstairs, she found Elizabeth and Maximo in the front living room where the Christmas tree stood, fully decorated and surrounded by Christmas presents. The fireplace was roaring, and there were even yet-to-be stuffed stockings hanging from on the wall to the right of the fireplace. There was even a stocking for JJ, and she was both touched by the gesture and excited because even though she'd grown up well-off, she'd never had a stocking before.
"No Emilia?" Maximo asked when they saw her.
"She's wiped out." JJ explained as she sat on her favorite oversized footstool adjacent to the fireplace. "I'm not, though."
"Fantastic." Elizabeth chirped. "We were trying to decide which Christmas movie to watch, but now that you're here, we're going to put that aside for just a moment."
JJ raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"We're very curious about you, JJ, and there's only so much that Emilia can tell us."
"And now you two are going to grill me, huh?" JJ joked as she moved her chair closer to the other two.
"In a non-stressful way, but yes." Maximo smiled. "What can you tell us about your siblings?"
JJ smiled. "I have a brother named Archer, and he's a decade older than me."
"What does he do?"
"He's an accountant at a business firm in Missouri."
Elizabeth asked, "Is he married?"
"Uh-huh. His wife's name is Cho, and she's from of Tokyo's largest and oldest power families. They have an eight-year-old girl named Kaida, but I know for a fact that they're planning on giving her a sibling in the coming year."
"Do you see that part of your family often?"
"Every other year at Christmas—they go to Tokyo Disneyland in the off year."
Elizabeth lit up at mention of Disneyland and was about to ask JJ if she'd ever been to the Paris version, but Maximo intervened, realizing that if his wife started her question, she'd be the one going down a rabbit trail, something she didn't often do.
"JJ, my dear," the Italian man said. "What can you tell us about Rosaline?"
"She was wonderful and full of love, but also sad. She would have loved all of you very much, though."
"That's a good thing to hear." Maximo commented as Elizabeth nodded in agreement. "What was your father like?"
JJ smiled fondly; she had been a daddy's girl, through and through. "He was hilarious, very cool, and even belonged to Mensa International because he had an IQ of 165."
"What kind of job did he have with an IQ like that?"
"High school history and varsity football coach, actually. I always tagged along to the practices, and whenever the cheerleaders had practice, they'd be out on the field and they let me hang out with them. They taught me about tumbling and how to do cartwheels, round-offs, and handstands, and when the coach wasn't looking, they'd throw me up in the air and catch me. I even learned how to do flips in midair."
"I suppose you became a cheerleader, then?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yep. I was a cheerleader all the way through middle school before I started playing soccer in my freshman year of high school so I could get myself a scholarship to Penn State."
"At any rate, that sounds a lot better and easier to manage than Emilia's pyromaniac phase when she was in primary school…"
JJ raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? Emily was a pyro when she was little?"
"Oh, yes. That was during the years we lived in Saudi Arabia; she made friends with some rowdy older boys at the international school, and they like to set things on fire." Elizabeth shuddered. "It became a case of 'monkey see, monkey do,' and Emilia was at it for awhile before we caught her and managed to get her to channel all of that energy into cooking because that was actually constructive."
Maximo cleared throat. "I believe we were talking of your father, yes? What was his name?"
"Dashiel Aleksei Jareau; his father was from central Paris, and his mother was from Saint Petersburg, but everyone called him 'Coach Dash' or 'Dash' because his name and title invited it. He also thought the nicknames were amusing."
"Was he fluent in either of his parents' native languages?"
JJ nodded. "Both in equal measure, and he even had a French accent. I remember people always asked him why he settled in a small nowhere town in a central state when he was literally smart enough to move us down to Cape Canaveral in Florida so he could work for NASA."
"What was his answer?"
"He said was because he loved to teach, and because he didn't want to be in a place or job where he would have missed his kids growing up. My mom took a job close to home for the same reason."
"Oh?"
"She became a librarian at the local library just before she found out I was on the way, but she runs the place now."
"What's her name?"
"Cassandra-Mae, and she's a Southern Belle from an old, old Alabama family, but how she ended up in Pennsylvania preferring to be called Sandy and raising a family of her own with my dad out in the country is another story. I hope you two can meet her because despite what most people take her for, she's extremely fascinating and has been all over the world."
"Has Emilia met her?"
"Only on Skype, and it was just for a little bit the other night because she was packing for a Disney cruise. They got along well and are eerily alike."
Emily's parents laughed when JJ shuddered, but when they heard her stomach emit an audible rumble, they changed tracks.
"Are you hungry, dearheart?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes." JJ said, feeling surprised. "I just didn't realize it until now."
Maximo turned to Elizabeth and said something to her in Italian. JJ didn't understand entirely what they were saying, even when Elizabeth responded in kind, but she watched in amusement as it went from a conversation to a quick argument that resulted in Elizabeth winning and Maximo going to the kitchen.
"What just happened?" JJ asked when she and Elizabeth were alone.
"He is going to make sandwiches and hot chocolate."
Elizabeth picked up the TV remote on the table next to her side of the couch and flipped on the big plasma TV on the wall directly opposite them as she beckoned for JJ to come join her.
"What was the argument?" JJ asked as she sat next to Elizabeth and pulled a warm blanket over herself with her good hand. "The only part of it I understood was when Emily's name was mentioned."
Elizabeth chuckled. "Max wanted to go check on Emilia, but I told him that that would be unwise because she turns into a light sleeper when she's unwell. She's been that way since she was a kid, and she can turn unpleasant when woken up in that condition."
"Then we really should let the sleeping dogs lie."
"Uh-huh, but it means that it'll be just you, Max, and myself. Are you alright with that?"
"Yes." JJ smiled. "I just haven't had two parents doting on me since I was in elementary school."
Elizabeth turned her attention from the TV to JJ. "I liked you from the moment we met at the BAU during the mob case, but Maximo and I became smitten with you from the moment Emilia sent us that picture of the two of you in the jet. Do yo like the attention?"
"One hundred percent." JJ reassured her. "It just feels like a brand new experience because it's been so long. It makes me feel really loved."
Elizabeth pressed a kiss to JJ's temple, relieved that she hadn't been rebuffed. "I'm glad to hear that because I love having a new daughter. Now—how about we see if there are any holiday specials on TV? We usually watch something in Italian, but I think we can make an exception this year."
Elizabeth and JJ proceeded to channel surf after that, and just as Maximo returned with a tray of hot ham and cheese paninis and steaming mugs of hot chocolate, JJ told Elizabeth to refrain from changing the channel because the program had caught her attention.
"What movie is this?" she asked, accepting a plate with a sandwich on it.
"This," Maximo glanced at the screen as he settled on JJ's free side. "Is It's A Wonderful Life, and it looks like it's in the opening credits."
"I've never seen it." JJ admitted.
On JJ's other side, Elizabeth put the remote down and picked up her mug of hot chocolate, blowing on it before saying, "Then you'd better settle in, JJ, because this is what we're going to watch."
JJ didn't have any objections to that.
By the time the movie was done, JJ finished her snack, and not only was her appetite sated and her offspring still, but her heart was also full; she'd really benefited from having one-on-one time with Maximo and Elizabeth, and it was clearer than ever that they loved her like she'd been theirs from the start, and JJ loved knowing that.
When she bade them good night and went upstairs, she made an extra effort not to wake Emily, remembering what her mother had said about her being a light sleeper and a sourpuss when she wasn't feeling so hot.
Emily woke, anyway.
"Jayje?" Emily turned over to face her as she settled in to the bed and pulled the blankets over herself. "You're just now coming up?"
"It's late." JJ cooed to her, gently caressing her hair. "I watched a movie on TV with your parents; we bonded."
Emily stifled a yawn; she was already falling back asleep. "I'm glad."
"So am I." JJ told her. "I really needed it."
Emily closed her eyes, but as she did so, she pulled JJ closer to her and slid a hand under the blonde's shirt, rubbing her baby bump; she'd figured out recently that JJ was fond of that. JJ did the same with Emily, wanting to feel her bump, too.
Even as their relationship grew, day by day, they wanted to do everything they could to include the babies in the bonding, too. They were becoming a family, even if it wasn't in the most traditional of orders.
"I love you, Jennifer." Emily sighed contently before she finally fell asleep.
"And I love you, Emilia," JJ managed before sleep overcame her, as well.
As the pair slept and the full moon shone its light through the window, a snowflake hit the ground outside. And then another and another.
Within an hour, the clock down in the main hall struck midnight, and the whole street outside was blanketed in snow. There was no end in sight, meaning they were going to have a white Christmas.
This was going to be JJ's best birthday ever.
