Just before dinner time, Elizabeth went in search of Emily and JJ, and found them in the study, playing checkers against each other.

"Hey!" Emily was complaining. "How the hell do you already have a kinged piece?"

"Archer and Rosaline taught me how to play checkers when I was old enough to understand the basic gist of the game." JJ explained smoothly, laughing when she saw Emily move one of her pieces forward a single tile. "They also taught me how to play chess, and I've seen you play Spencer before."

Chess was more Emily's cup of tea, so she asked, "Have you, now?"

"Mhm, and I could easily smash your King's Defense with the Nimzowitsch Defense."

Emily opened her mouth and then promptly closed it, not knowing what to say to that. JJ had never once before mentioned that she knew how to play chess, but here, she had basically said, "I see your complicated chess opening and will see up two more." This must have been the legendary Jennifer Jareau competitive streak she'd only ever heard about coming into play.

Amused, Elizabeth kissed JJ on the top of the head and said, "That's my girl!" before using her newly crowned playing piece to jump three of Emily's open pieces for her.

Flustered, Emily sat back in her chair and turned to her mother. "Was there something that you wanted to tell us?"

"We are expecting a guest for dinner, and they'll be here in about twenty minutes."

Emily raised an eyebrow. "Who is it?"

"Erin."

"Mer—"

JJ began to swear, although not in English, but Elizabeth intervened before she could finish the word. "Max and I are polyglots, Jennifer, and Emilia is a hyperpolyglot. Do you know what those words mean?"

"That you and Max are fluent in several foreign languages and that Emily is fluent in at least five of them?"

"You got it. All three of us recognize French swears when we hear them, and Erin would recognize one, too."

"Would she recognize a Russian swear?"

A twinkle of mischief appeared in Elizabeth's eyes at that question. "Erin is the daughter of two former ambassadors, meaning that she grew up all over the world, and she's British, through and through, but she was born in Moscow and lived there with her parents, brothers, and sisters until she was five, so I can safely say that she'd recognize not only recognize a Russian swear, but also know how to respond to it if she was in a silly enough mood."

JJ furrowed an eyebrow in thought. "Just how many languages is she fluent in?"

"Four, because she's a polyglot, too. She knows English, Russian, German, and Italian."

"I'm fluent in French and Russian," JJ pointed to herself. "But what about you and Max?"

"Besides English, we're proficient in Italian, French, Arabic, and Mandarin."

JJ looked over at Emily. "And what about you?"

"I know seven foreign languages, actually."

"Seven?!"

Emily nodded. "I can actually give Spencer a run for his money in that department because I know Italian, Spanish, Arabic, French, Korean, Mandarin, and Japanese. I've also lived in London, Rome and Venice, Mexico City, Saudi Arabia, Paris and Bordeaux, Seoul, Beijing, and even Tokyo."

JJ knew that Emily was a well-traveled woman, but she never would have guessed that she had that much knowledge or experience in her arsenal.

"Oh, my gosh," was all she could manage.

"Guess what, sweetheart?" Elizabeth said to JJ. "Not only is Emilia an Italiana, but Italian is actually her first language because she refused to learn English until we moved to London when she was three."

Emily turned beet-red at that. "Mother, did you have to tell her that?"

"I couldn't resist it, Emilia," Elizabeth said sincerely. "But really—Erin is coming over for dinner, and I expect both you and JJ to be on your best behavior because this is the first Christmas she's had since her divorce, and she's extra lonely because Astrid, Wilhelm, and Wolfgang have all elected to stay at their school in Zurich for the holidays."

Astrid, Wilhelm, and Wolfgang were Strauss' teenage daughter and sons.

"Okay, mother." Emily said as she and JJ started to clean up the checkers. "We'll be good."

"Thank you. By the way, Erin saw you two holding hands at church last night."

At this, Emily and JJ paused their activity and looked at their elder, silently pressing her for information about Strauss' opinion of them. The last thing either of them wanted was to get in trouble with the woman who signed their paychecks because of a romantic relationship that had started at the office.

"Chill out and breathe, alright?" Elizabeth laughed. "Erin actually guessed it, and when I told her she was correct, she said that it was 'about time' that you two were together. She seriously couldn't be happier for either of you."

Now neither JJ nor Emily knew what to say because it was very strange to hear that their CO had been rooting for them all along.

"Well," JJ finally said after a moment. "To say that that's a relief is an understatement."

"Erin will be amused by that." Elizabeth checked the time on her pocket watch. "Go ahead and go upstairs. I'll finish cleaning up for you."

They thanked her and left the room quickly.

When JJ and Emily rejoined their family a bit later, they were both were wearing very cute holiday sweater dresses and leggings that they'd bought just for the occasion, and now that everybody in their inner circle knew that they were both pregnant, they were extra happy that their new clothes showed off their baby bumps because neither of them, especially JJ's, were hideable anymore.

Emily was a fan of braids, so she gave herself an over-the-shoulder braid, but since JJ preferred to keep her hair out of the way since she had a handicap, Emily gave her a braided bun hairstyle upon request, even sticking in a few of the new decorative butterfly hair pins she'd given her as part of her birthday present stash.

Both JJ and Emily were feeling quite pleased with their new appearances and when they went downstairs together, they found the older adults gathered at the kitchen table—their favorite spot in their house—and they were happily gossiping together, a habit from their childhood, but when they saw JJ and Emily, they stopped what they were doing and gushed over how adorable the mothers-to-be-looked.

Dinner was ready not long after that.


Strauss came to the House of Prentiss bearing new gifts for her extended family, and because she remembered that it was JJ's birthday, she even had a present for her in the form of a $25 iTunes gift card and a new portable speaker/charging station for her phone.

"Wow, Erin!" JJ forced herself to use her superior's first name since they weren't at the office, and also because she had a feeling that she'd be using it a bit more in the future. "This is really nice; thank you!"

"You are so very welcome, Jennifer." Strauss shifted her weight from one foot to the other, almost nervous about something. "I suppose you know now how long I've known Max and Lizzie?"

JJ nodded. "I know the whole story there, and also that you're Emily's godmother."

Strauss was relieved; explaining that herself would have been awkward. "I'm glad you've got it all down, then. Have you been having fun here?"

"I've been having the best time and best birthday ever." JJ said honestly. "I even have a new family."

The British woman grinned, her heart suddenly overflowing with parental affection towards one of her favorite agents. "Now that Max and Lizzie have adopted you—for lack of a better word—you're part of my family, too. Would you like to be friends?"

JJ beamed; she'd always both respected and liked Erin Strauss, but she never would have expected an invitation from her to actually be friends. It meant that Strauss was fond of her, too.

"Yes." JJ said immediately. "Yes, I would."

"Wonderful."

Strauss looked around and realized that she and JJ were the only ones left in the living room.

"Lizzie and Emily are making gingerbread houses, but Max is going to be taking over the kitchen to bake because that's his forté. Do you want to see what he's up to?"

JJ set her new presents aside on the coffee table and wiggled the fingers on her impaired palm. "Yeah, but I'm down a hand."

"We can still find something for you to do," Strauss winked. "And if we hurry, I know that we can get Max to teach you how to make Turkish Delight."

Immediately remembering how Maximo had said that the dessert was Emily's Kryptonite, JJ abandoned what remained of her hesitation and followed her new friend to the kitchen.


Later on, when the baking was done, JJ and Emily snuck off to the study.

"Jayje, look at this."

Emily was over in a corner of the room that JJ hadn't explored yet. Joining her, she saw that she was indicating a record player on a stand and a bookshelf that was full of tons of music records, all organized by genre.

"Your parents really like music, huh?" JJ asked Emily.

"They really do," Emily confirmed as she selected a record from the shelf and set it up to play. "And amongst their many, dazzling talents are the fact that they're both classically trained pianists and mother's operatic singing ability. They both still play the piano and have a Classic Yamaha grand piano up in mother's office."

"My mom has a Steinway piano that she and my dad played on together." JJ mused. "She still plays it, actually."

"Do you know how to play?" Emily asked curiously.

JJ nodded. "I'm the only one of the Jareau children who ever showed interest in learning to play, so my mom taught me how, and it became one of our easiest forms of bonding when it was just her and I left in the house. If I wasn't handicapped at the moment, I'd so challenge you to a four-handed piece right now."

Emily laughed and shook her head. "You know, between the two of us, all of our kids will stand really great chances to be musical, and to even be really good with foreign languages."

"I like the sound of that," JJ replied. "But since none of them are big enough to kick us yet, let's not get ahead of ourselves, hm?"

"Quite right."

The record that Emily had put on the record player had a quick opening number, and they'd accidentally talked through it, but when the beginning notes of the second song began to play, Emily held her arms out to JJ.

"May I have this dance?"

Happy because she loved a good slow dance and because this was a great way to cap off her birthday, especially since she'd even gotten happy birthday calls from her mother and her brother earlier in the day, JJ accepted Emily's invitation and began to dance with her, putting a hand on her shoulder and letting her hold the casted hand.

As they pulled closer to each other, Emily held her hand on JJ's hip and almost turned to putty when JJ moved it to so that it was resting lower, more towards the base of her back. A move like that meant that JJ was becoming even more comfortable with being touched intimately again.

What a beautiful way to end the most perfect birthday, JJ thought to herself. There's nobody else I'd rather spend it or the rest of my life with other than Emily.

The woman herself broke through her thoughts. "Rest your head on my shoulder so I can sing to you. Please."

JJ did, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Emily had an incredibly wonderful singing voice. That made the words even more special.

At last, my love has come along

My lonely days are over, and life is like a song, oh yeah

At last the skies above are blue

My heart was wrapped up in clover the night I looked at you

I found a dream that I can speak to

A dream that I could call my own

I found a thrill I've never known, oh yeah

You smiled, you smiled, oh, and then the spell was cast

And here we are in Heaven

For you are mine at last!