A/N: Hello again, everyone!
Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds. No copyright infringement is intended.
My apologies if I had made any mistakes but enjoy the chapter!
"Happy almost Halloween to you," Reid greeted Élise as she was cooking up some breakfast. Reid greeted her back before kissing the top of Anastasia's head. "And happy almost Halloween to you, my little pumpkin."
"Happy almost Halloween to you!" Élise was equally excited about Halloween, so much, so she and Reid help decorate the place with unique and fun decorations. She watched classic and new Halloween specials and movies; Élise has even made orange Jack-O-Lantern-shaped-waffles with chocolate chips and Halloween-colored sprinkles and Halloween-colored pancakes with chocolate chips and Halloween-colored sprinkles. "Waffles and pancakes for you."
"Oh!" Reid was excited to eat them. "Thank you!"
"No problem." As Élise was cleaning up and putting the dishes in the sink, "So…what do you plan to be for Halloween?"
"Honestly, I don't know. So many endless ideas to be. I could be Albert Einstein. Or Thomas Edison. Or maybe I could be Nikola Tesla."
"Interesting choices. All certified geniuses."
"What about you?"
Élise joined at the table. "I could be a princess. A CEO. A fashion model even, but a petite one. When I was little, I've always wanted to be a Power Ranger when I was growing up; I still want to."
Reid raised his eyebrow, but it was not out of suspicion. "A Power Ranger?"
"Surprisingly yes."
"But that's the best thing about Halloween is that you can be anything you want to be for that one day. Also, did you know the cool thing about Halloween is that it's a uniquely American holiday? I mean, despite its obvious origins in the Celtic Festival of Samhain and the Christian All Saints Day, it really is a melting pot of various immigrants' traditions and beliefs. It became a little more commercialized in the 1950s with trick-or-treating, and today it rivals only Christmas in terms of popularity."
"I know; my mother calls Halloween 'The Devil's Holiday,' but yeah, you can be anything you want to be and get all the candy you can have. Not to mention…Thriller! Thriller night!" They both laughed before the conversation was cut short when Reid's phone vibrated.
"New case?" Élise grabbed Reid's plate before placing it in the sink as he grabbed his bags.
"Yeah. East Allegheny, Pennsylvania, JJ's hometown. Missing girls."
"Well, do whatever you can to bring those girls home."
"Okay." He gives Anastasia another kiss. "Be good for Élise, okay, pumpkin? Love you." He gives Élise a fist bump. "Later."
"Peace," Élise said.
JJ started off the briefing as she briefed, pictures of three girls appeared while telling them about the Tall Man.
As the team gathered their stuff, Reid noticed JJ was having a moment,
"JJ?"
"What?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Let's move."
After Rossi helped JJ walk through her memories relating to her late sister Roslyn's suicidal death, Reid offered to bring in Ethan Howard, the main suspect.
Reid came home late only to find a half-sleepy Élise and a sleeping Anastasia on the couch. Élise flicked her eyes to see Reid as she yawned. "Hey there."
"Hey."
"How was the case?"
"Hard, especially on JJ," Reid said as he held Anastasia in his arms. "Turns out the unsub personally knew JJ's late sister Roslyn. And…there's a possibility there were probably more."
"JJ had a sister?" Élise said, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.
"She committed suicide; Roslyn was seventeen and JJ was eleven."
"Damn…must have been hard for her to grow up without her sister. I don't know how I'd be if I had to grow up without my older brother."
"Yeah; I'm an only child, but still…."
"On the bright side, the unsub will be rotting in prison for the rest of his miserable life, right?"
"True," He turns to a sleepy Anastasia. "I don't want you to grow up, you know that? I wish you could stay this age forever. And if anyone even dares to try and hurt you, I'll hurt them back."
"And I'll help."
Reid and Élise shared a laugh. "Have you given any thoughts about Halloween costumes?"
Élise smiled, "I have an idea."
"Where's Reid and Élise with Anastasia?" JJ asked.
The team agreed to meet at the BAU before heading to a local Halloween Fair and Parade. She and Will were dressed as Ken and Barbie while their sons were dressed as Woody and Buzz, Prentiss was dressed as Cruella de Vil, Tara was dressed up as Vixen; Garcia as Tinkerbell; Simmons' family dressed as the Incredibles and Edna; Rossi as Chef Boyardee; and Luke as John Travolta from Grease.
"They should be here soon," Prentiss fixing up her wig, "Did Morgan say what he, Savannah, and Hank were going as?"
"Morgan a medical doctor, Savannah as a nurse, and little Hank as their patient," Tara said.
"And here they come." Rossi pointed to the doors.
"Well-well-well. What do we have here?"
"We're characters from Despicable Me," Élise announced.
"I see you're Gru?" Will noticed Reid was in a light grey sweater underneath a black collared coat and a striped grey scarf, black trousers, and shoes.
"Yup. I even knitted the scarf myself."
"Sometime tells me you're Lucy?" JJ also noticed Élise was decked out in a turquoise overcoat with a pair of matching turquoise sunglasses. Elise was even wearing designer silver high heel strappy sandals, was carrying a designer tote shoulder bag, and had a bright ginger hair wig that pulled back in a bun with short bangs. Opening her overcoat, revealing to be a rather sexy turquoise spaghetti strap slip dress-although she rarely wears dresses-and a white and pink polka-dotted scarf.
"Mmm-hmm."
"I'm surprised you're not a martial artist skilled in knife throwing," Alvez almost laughed.
"I may not be wearing that, but I do have this," Élise goes through her tote shoulder bag and pulls out a small lipstick knife. Proudly smiling, "This may not be a lipstick taser, but I can still get you."
"And little Anastasia is a little minion," Garcia squealed in excitement when she saw her dressed in a yellow long-sleeve shirt attached to a blue denim overall dress, a pocket on the dress with the letter 'G,' the minion character hat with attached goggles and eyeballs, black tights and Mary-Janes. "Aw, so cute. Are you ready for candy?"
"Well, let's get a move on, people," Rossi said as the group stepped into the elevator, "Hotch and Jack are waiting for us there and I'm not getting any younger."
"Agree. Plus, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can dance to Thriller!" Élise could hardly contain her excitement. "Just as long as my feet don't kill me first from these heels."
"You really love Thriller, don't you?" Alvez said.
"Don't insult me; you don't want me to hurt you, Luke Alvez. Plus it's not Halloween to me without Thriller."
A/N: Sorry to leave you hanging there!