AN: This is the end of this story. Thanks to everyone for reading as well as everyone who left comments, favored or followed it. I appreciate the support.

EPILOGUE

Dave entered the new expanded BAU work area and looked around. When he and Gideon had founded the BAU years earlier, he had never expected this outcome. Even a couple of years ago none of them would have expected the BAU to be what it was today.

After Foyet attacked Hotch and Emily in their apartments things had looked rather bleak for the BAU. Within weeks, Strauss had hired new agents for the BAU as well as had Reid, Garcia and Morgan all reassigned to other departments. Dave had been the last one there after JJ transferred out a short time later.

Strauss had been ecstatic having wanted Hotch out of the BAU for years. With him out on leave, she finally had the opportunity to create the BAU how she envisioned it. The administration didn't question her decisions or hires.

At least not until yet another new FBI Director started. One of the first tasks that he tackled was to find out why the reputation of the BAU had taken repeated hits in recent months.

An investigation showed they were taking on less cases and only those cases that could easily be solved. They had repeatedly turned down missing children as well as serial killer cases that had resulted in numerous additional deaths. Word had gotten around in the law enforcement community and what was once seen as a valuable resource for local and state officials was no longer respected.

At the conclusion of the investigation, Strauss and all the agents in the BAU were demoted and reassigned out of the BAU. It was then that Hotch received a call requesting he attend a meeting with the new Director.

Hotch had agreed to the meeting out of curiosity as none of them knew at that point about the fate of the agents in the BAU. While he liked that he was profiling again in his job with the Secret Service, he wasn't excited about the position. But it had allowed him to keep shared custody of Jack which had been his reason for taking it.

The first meeting with the Director had ended quickly when Hotch explained that he couldn't accept his position as Unit Chief back and why.

A couple of days later, he was contacted for a second meeting. Conflicted, he talked with Emily before agreeing to talk to the Director again. And by the end of that meeting, they were all glad that he did.

At this meeting, the Director had offered him the newly created position as Head of the BAU if he would come back. He was offered an expanded budget and flexibility in picking the agents assigned to the BAU. Additionally the Director pointed out that this was a desk position and he would fill out whatever paperwork Hotch needed for court if he would take the position.

The director had explained the issues with the Unit when he started as well as the reputation issues they were now facing. The BAU needed experienced agents who were profilers in order to attempt to regain the respect that the BAU had held for so long but had quickly lost.

After that meeting, Hotch called a meeting of the whole team and explained what the Director wanted. They were all excited about the prospect of working together again. All agreed to come back to the BAU with one unexpected exception. Morgan.

When Morgan and Hotch met the next day to talk Morgan explained that he and Garcia had just found out she was expecting. Between having his own father being killed while on duty when he was a kid and what happened to Hotch and Emily he didn't want to work in the field anymore. Hotch sighed understanding the younger agent's mindset.

With the flexibility the Director gave him, Hotch asked if he would accept a position that was office based such as what Emily was going to be doing but with a different focus. When Derek showed interest, Hotch explained a position that he was going to create in the BAU based off of his time working at the Academy. With Derek having also been an instructor, he would be an ideal candidate for that position.

With a plan formulated, Hotch had again met with the Director to review it. The Director somewhat balked at the idea of having couples in the BAU even though he had relaxed the anti-fraternization rules of the previous Director. But after discussing specifics and establishing rules, he approved the couples as well as the plan that Hotch had developed with the team.

It had now been over a year and as far as Dave was concerned the BAU was stronger than ever. Words had quickly spread that their team was back and the BAU was as busy as ever. The new field agents that they had hired worked well with the rest of the team.

It was then that Dave's eye caught someone quickly entering the bullpen. When he walked over to the door of his office, he noticed it was Tara Lewis who was one of the new field agents Hotch had hired.

She stopped when she saw him saying, "you're still here. Did you not get the message?"

Dave looked at her confused as he asked, "what message?"

"Emily. About going to the hospital." Tara responded.

Dave shook his head before answering, "no, let's go." before they both walked out of the bullpen.

####

The team was gathered in a hospital waiting room anxiously waiting for news on their friends. Each of them had spent more than they would have liked over the years in this or similar waiting rooms. However today this gathering was for the joyous occasion as they waited for news of the arrival of a new member of their extended BAU family.

JJ slowly stood up and paced around the room. A small smile crossed her face as she realized that in just a few months, everyone would here waiting to hear word on the little girl who was now growing inside of her. Across the room, she saw Will settling three year old Henry and two year old Eden in chairs with the promise of a book. Alex Blake, a new agent with the team, was playing chess with Jack at a table nearby.

Shortly after she started pacing, Garcia came over and started walking with her as they chatted. As they talked, Garcia asked, "so Jayje, how are you liking being a profiler?"

When the BAU had reformed, Hotch had given her the option of taking the profiling courses and becoming a profiler or just taking a couple of the courses and resuming her position as media liaison. After thinking about it, JJ had elected to become a profiler.

JJ chuckled as she answered, "I've been a profiler for 6 months now, Pen."

Garcia chuckled before answering, "I know but I've kind of had my hand full." They both laughed as they looked over at Morgan holding his and Garcia's infant son as he slept.

Their attention was pulled away from Morgan as the door opened. The room quieted and all of the heads in the room turned anxious checking if the person entering brought news. There were a series of groans as they noticed it was only Spencer and his girlfriend Maeve who had taken a walk to calm Spencer's nervous energy at waiting along with Dave and Tara Lewis.

As the group walked up to JJ and Penelope, JJ nervously pointed at the balloon that Spencer was carrying and said, "I hate to tell you this Spencer but you may want to see if you can exchange those."

As they looked back at her confused, JJ continued, "Hotch told me that they are having a girl."

Both Spencer and Garcia responded, "what?"

"That can't be. When I had lunch with Emily shortly after I came back from maternity leave, she commented that she was going to have a boy as well." Garcia stated.

Spencer nodded as he said, "yeah Emily has said that in the office as well." Spencer had been working in the office with Emily for the last few weeks as they were trying to make sense of crimes across multiple jurisdiction trying to determine if it was the same UNSUB. At least until she suddenly went out on leave the previous week.

Before they could say anything else, the door opened again. This time Hotch walked into the room. Shouts of 'daddy' filled the room as Eden and Jack ran over to him.

When he reached him, Jack asked, "is the baby here?" Over the last couple of years Jack had been spending more time with Hotch and Emily.

As promised when Hotch took the position as Head of the BAU, the Director personally submitted a letter about the specifics of the new position. This satisfied the judge and Hotch maintained the custody arrangement as 50/50 joint custody. Over time, Haley had accepted the change as she saw that Hotch was serious about wanting the time with Jack. That his new job allowed him to have quality time with him.

Hotch nodded before saying to the group, "I'm going to take these two back first and then the rest of you can come visit in a few minutes."

Before he could walk out of the room, Dave asked after the confusion in the conversation between Garcia, JJ and Reid, "boy or girl, Hotch?"

He turned back and smiled before answering, "you'll see for yourself in about 10 minutes." before walking out of the room with the kids, leaving a confused group behind him.

After the door closed again, Dave turned to the group and said, "OK, what is everyone's bet?"

####

Exactly 10 minutes later, the group now with Krystall who had arrived in the waiting room right before they left the waiting room to walk to Emily's room eager to have the confusion cleared up. In the time that they had been waiting all of them had made bets about whether they thought Hotch and Emily had had a boy or girl. Dave smirked as he put the notebook in his pocket of everyone's bet amused that no one else had made the same obvious bet as he had.

As they all entered Emily's room, there were a series of gasps as they found Hotch sitting in a chair with Eden on his lap while holding a baby wrapped in a pink blanket while Jack was sitting on the bed next to Emily holding a baby in a blue blanket."

"TWINS. You were having twins and you didn't tell us." Garcia stated loudly.

"So this is where the confusion on boy versus girl came up." Reid stated.

"Excuse me." Emily stated.

"You told Garcia and Spencer that you were having a boy while Hotch told me that you were having a girl." JJ explained

"Well at different times, that was what we were led to believe." Hotch grumbled still upset about the confusion they had experienced over the last few months

"What?" Morgan said.

"On the first ultrasound, they told us it was a boy. A later ultrasound showed we were having a girl. So both ultrasounds had been right about gender as we have one of each but also wrong as it wasn't until last week that we found out there were two in there." Emily explained.

"That is why you all the sudden went out on leave last week instead of waiting until next week." JJ stated.

Hotch nodded as he said, "we were planning on telling all of you at family dinner tonight but these two had other plans."

"Can we hold them?" Morgan asked.

"Of course." Emily answered.

"Have you picked names yet?" Dave asked.

Hotch nodded as he said, "Yes. Morgan is holding Arielle Corrine and JJ is holding Landon Oliver."

"They're beautiful. Congratulations Princess. Hotch." Morgan said as he passed the baby to Dave.

"Welcome to the family little ones. We are all a bit crazy but there is a lot of love to go around as well." Garcia said before the group laughed at the comment.

"And the way things are going you will never be short of playmates." JJ said as she looked at all the kids in the room.

As the conversation slowed down, Dave pulled his notebook out of his pocket and proclaimed, "I won."

"You all took bets." Hotch exclaimed though not at all surprised that his team had made wagers.

"Well yeah. What else were we going to do while we waited for you to be ready for us to come back." Morgan answered.

"How did you win again?" Krystall asked.

Dave laughed before saying, "well, I've suspected for a couple of months that Emily was expecting twins but didn't dare say anything as Hotch would have shot me if I made her cry. I also know from experience that these two are full of surprises."