CHAPTER 27

Will, JJ and their kids stood in front of Dave's house waiting for someone to answer the doorbell that Henry had just rang. They quickly heard talking on the other side of the door right before it opened and they were instantly enveloped in a hug as they stepped into the house.

"You're here. How was the beach? You're all tan." Garcia asked excitedly as she took Caitlin out of Will's arms.

Before they could answer, Jack ran up to them in his coat yelling, "Henry, you're here. Come play with me outside." Henry looked up at parents excited before Will said, "Go ahead." and with that both boys ran through the house towards the back door as multiple adults yelled at them to slow down.

Looking back to Garcia, JJ asked, "Is there an adult back there with them?"

"Yeah, Hotch was back there. I told him I'd keep an eye on Rainbow." Garcia said as they walk further into the house. As they turned the corner, they saw Natalie sitting at the gate that was blocking off the living room with Reid standing close by. When she saw them walking towards her, Natalie turned and crawled to them.

When she reached them, Natalie pulled on JJ's boot and fussed until she picked her up. Once JJ was holding her, Natalie started pointing towards the living room and babbling.

As Will and Garcia chuckled at Natalie's attempt, JJ shook her head before she said, "Not right now sweetheart. Only your grandpa is allowed to take you in there." Dave had made that request when the team was over for the team Christmas party that he be present if any of the kids were in that room since it was the only room now not childproofed.

Natalie's babbles quickly turned into fussing when she realized JJ wasn't going to take her into the living room either. As Natalie became more upset, JJ followed Will and Garcia with Caitlin towards the family room when Natalie tried to throw herself out of JJ's arms. JJ pulled her in snugly and said, "Oh no you don't. Your mommy and daddy would be very upset with me if I dropped you. Let's go see if Uncle Spencer has your book," after seeing Spencer standing in the family room with a book in his hands.

After Spencer settled in a chair with Natalie, Caitlin and a pile of books, Will excused himself to go out in the backyard with Hotch and the boys. JJ and Garcia took a seat in the couch before JJ asked, "where is everyone?"

"Well, Alex is still in Boston and flying back late. Dave said she sent her love and will see us in the office on Monday morning."

"She said that she was going to see her husband. I didn't realize she was flying back so late." JJ said before looking around and asking, "how about Derek?"

JJ didn't miss the Spencer's pause in reading or sadness that past over Garcia's face in response to the question. Looking intently back and forth at them, Garcia answered as Spencer restarted reading, "he's not coming."

"What? Why not? Did he get stuck in Chicago?" JJ asked concerned.

Garcia looked down as she shook her head before saying, "No. He just decided not to come. He is still having issues with the whole Emily is Rossi's daughter discovery."

JJ huffed as a look of anger crossed her face remembering it also being the reason he hadn't attended the team Christmas party before she said, "Still?! He needs to find a way to get past this. We go back to work in two days. There is no way that Strauss is going to let us go back into the field if we can't work together as a team."

Garcia nodded rapidly before she got up and started pacing as she said, "I know. I know. I've tried to talk to him. I begged him to come tonight. I'm sorry." She loved her best friend but at times like this she just wanted to shake him.

"No Pen, this isn't on you. He needs to grow up." JJ said as she shook her head before pausing as she looked around the room before continuing, "how did Em and Dave take the news he wasn't coming."

Before Garcia could answer, JJ turned when she heard Spencer say, "not well" as he shook his head before looking back down at the book that Natalie was banging on, upset that his attention to her book had stopped.

JJ turned back to Penelope and saw how upset her friend was knowing that she and Derek had a special friendship. Garcia wring her hands as she said, "Em was really sad and disappointed though she tried not to show it. Dave just got that angry look on his face but didn't say anything."

Realizing she hadn't seen her best friend since she arrived, JJ asked, "where's Emily now?"

Garcia chuckled before saying, "in the kitchen helping Dave cook dinner."

JJ looked at her in shock before looking over at Spencer who nodded his head as well before she said, "Dave never lets anyone help him in the kitchen. He's too territorial."

Garcia smiled after she took a deep breath as she said, "I guess it's different now that they know she's his daughter. He offered when he saw how upset Em was. Though that's not the funniest part."

JJ looked at her confused before asking, "what happened?"

Garcia laughed as she said, "after he asked Em looked shocked because like you said Dave doesn't like help in the kitchen. After a few seconds, she turned to him and asked why they were starting so early that it would only take 20-30 minutes to put a box of pasta in boiling water, pop open a jar of sauce and heat up some frozen meatballs."

JJ put her hand over her mouth as she laughed before saying, "she didn't." It was no secret from anyone on the team that Dave enjoyed cooking and took it very seriously, particularly Italian cooking and made everything from scratch.

Spencer laughed along with them as he said, "she did. I don't think I've ever seen Dave speechless before."

JJ shook her head, "she doesn't cook like that anyway. As long as I've known her, Emily has made her own sauce and freezes the extra. I've never seen her use sauce out of a jar. She even has her own recipe for meatballs."

Garcia nodded before saying, "I know, that is part of what was so funny about it. When she said that, you should have seen the confused look on Hotch's face. After a minute or so, he just shook his head at her but didn't say anything."

They sat there listening to Spencer continuing to read to Caitlin and Natalie for a few minutes, before JJ stood up and asked, "do you think I should stick my head in the kitchen and check on them?"

Garcia laughed as she shook her head, "I'd let them be Jayje. They can both hold their own with the other. You missed it when they were arguing earlier."

"What were they arguing about?"

Garcia shrugged as she said, "I don't know."

JJ looked at her confused, "if they were arguing, how could you not hear them?"

Garcia laughed as she said, "oh we could hear them." as Spencer interjected, "they were arguing in Italian."

####

As everyone began to eat, Jack took a small bite of the meatball before putting down his fork. He said as he crossed his arms, "these aren't Mommy's meatballs." Before anyone could say anything, Henry put his fork down, having not touched his meatballs, mimicking Jack by crossing his arms in front of him as he said, "these aren't Aunt Emmy's meatballs."

Horrified at their sons' behavior, the four parents looked at each other. As she was looking across the table, Emily noticed Dave grumbling however along with that was an underlying sadness. Not wanting this to be the note they end on as they head back to work, Emily realizing she needs to smooth things over.

Turning to Jack, she turns him so he is facing her and lifts his chin until he is looking at her before she says, "Jack, you are right. These aren't my meatballs. You're grandpa made them so all of us could try them. I tried one in the kitchen and think you will like it. I want you to at least try it."

The day that Dave came over when Emily was looking through the box, he stayed for dinner. After dinner, they explained to Jack about them finding out that Dave was Emily's daddy which made him Jack's grandpa. Jack while somewhat confused, was excited by the revelation and didn't ask many questions which all three adults gave a sigh of relief about since they didn't know how to fully explain the complicated situation in 4 year old terms.

Natalie looked totally unimpressed with the news though with her being an infant, they hadn't been expecting much of a reaction from her. Later that night, Hotch mentioned to Emily that maybe somehow Natalie had known all along and was just too young to tell them as a way of explaining why Dave had always been her favorite amongst the team.

Jack pouted as he said, "but I like yours."

Hotch sighed before he said, "Jack, it OK to like more than one. But you won't know until you try it. We're trying them too."

Just as Jack looked over at his dad, he saw Natalie shoving a handful of small pieces of meatball into her mouth. Jack huffed before he said, "Nat'lee will eat anything. She likes to chew on Daddy's shoes and eats broccoli. Yuck."

"Jack" Hotch said, no one missing the warning tone in his voice.

"OK. I'll try them." Jack huffed picked his fork up and pick up a piece of meatball off his plate before putting it in his mouth, "These are yummy. Henry, try grandpa's meatballs."

####

Later that evening after they had put the kids to bed in the newly decorated kids' rooms, the adults took their drinks and gathered in the family room.

As she waited for the others to join her, JJ thought about how fully Dave had embraced the role of grandpa.

After he found out Dave was his grandpa, Jack was very excited to tell Henry. This development ended up causing a lot of friction with the boys because they had both always known him as Uncle Dave and then all the sudden he was only Jack's grandpa. The situation was new and confusing for everyone but no one took the news harder than 3 year old Henry.

The boys were as close as brothers and had been sharing a nanny since they were 7 and 18 months respectively. Their parents were also very close so they spent a lot of time together even outside of childcare.

Henry cried for days about how did Uncle Dave get to be Jack's grandpa but not his? Why didn't he have a grandpa? JJ and Will parents were all deceased so there weren't even any grandparents out there.

Being out of the office, still on suspension it took Dave a few days to overhear what was going on with the kids. After a conversation with Emily, Dave had approached Will and JJ offering to fill the grandpa role for Henry and Caitlin. He explained that he had known each of them since they were babies as well and with how close all of them were, he wanted to be that person for them. He assured them that he had spoken to Emily and she was completely on board. And from that day on both boys had been calling him grandpa.

And then there was earlier tonight, after dinner, when he found Natalie once again sitting at the gate outside the living room, he had picked her up and as he talked to her in Italian, he walked into the room and went over to the snow village that he learned the first time he took her into the room fascinated her. JJ had walked in a few minutes later with Caitlin who mostly ignored the snow village but continuously keep crawling towards the brightly decorated tree. When Jack and Henry had come to the entrance of the room excitedly asking to go downstairs to play with the trains, Dave had agreed and they were soon joined by several of the adults.

When the trains go to be too much for Natalie and Caitlin, Emily and JJ took them upstairs to start getting them ready for bed. As they were settled the infants JJ smiled at how calm her best friend had been tonight.

Before dinner was served, she had stuck her head into the kitchen when there was another flurry of loud conversation in Italian coming from there. At her concern, they both laughed and said that dinner was almost ready. Given how adamant Dave had always been about not wanting help in the kitchen, she noticed that they were both relaxed and were working together.

As she walked back to the family room she had laughed to herself at the sight of them both covered in more flour than would be considered expected for what they were making.

As dinner progressed, JJ could both Emily and Dave were much more at ease with each other than before they had both taken leave. From their conversation when the team gathered to celebrate Christmas, Emily had told JJ that she had taken her advice and was really going to open herself up. She had shared with JJ that her, Hotch and the kids were planning on spending most of the holidays with Dave.

Hotch began by letting the team know that when they returned to the office, Strauss was going to be starting an evaluation of the team including travelling with them on an upcoming case. As he said it, the whole team was quiet, contemplating where this development would lead.

Although no one said it, it was evident with Derek's absence that evening that not all was well within the team and if they could not quickly get incorporate the changes in the team dynamics, the future of the team was uncertain.

Not letting the team go too far down an alarming mental path, Hotch only gave them a short time before he continued that the new Assistant Director would be stopping by the bullpen early in the week to make introductions.

With the BAU business out of the way, conversation turned to other topics. Before long, Emily mentioned that she would be going to court in a week and a half to sort out the issue with her birth certificate.

"So what exactly are they going to do?" Will asked confused.

"Hopefully make my original birth certificate official. Once that is done, I'm requesting a legal name change." Emily replied as she goes through in her head what her lawyer had mentioned in their last phone call.

"Oh, name change. What are you changing your name to Gumdrop?" Garcia asked anxiously.

"Well, the name on my original birth certificate is Sophia Alessandra Maud Rossi. But I think it will be really confusing if I start going by that now." Emily replied

"So what are going to have your official name be then?" Spencer asked.

Emily looked around at the group before saying, "I am requesting it be Emily Sophia Maud Rossi. I have mixed feelings about it but I know it's what I need to do."

"Why mixed feelings?" JJ asked, looking at Emily concerned.

Emily sighed and answered quietly, "well, the name on my original birth certificate is something that Emma gave me. And Emily was given to me by people who bought me. It's seems wrong to keep Emily but it is all I've ever known."

"Emily." Dave said as he reached over and patted her shoulder. They had had several conversations on this topic over the last couple of weeks. He recognized that she was struggling.

Emily huffed and through her hands up having heard Dave rebuttal to her internal conflict many times, "I know. I know. We talked about this. I know you think she would accept the name change due to the circumstances. I just need time to wrap my head around it."

Dave nodded as he said calmly, "take all the time you need. But know that she would be OK with it." He knew Emily needed to work through this herself and in her own way. But that wasn't going to stop him from reassuring her everytime the topic came up. He didn't want her to feel guilty for wanting to hold on to a huge part of her identity when over the last few weeks so many other parts had been upended.

"What do you think about it, Dave?" JJ asked. She wanted to give him the opportunity to repeat his support as she saw Emily's uncertainty.

Dave nodded to JJ and then turned to Emily as he said, "as long as I've known her she's been Emily. That's how I see her. Sophia is the tiny baby in my picture. Yes they are the same person but I recognize the difference. I want Emily to do what she is most comfortable with and I'll support her." He emphasized her name as a way to show her that he still comfortable calling her that.

Emily looked down and nodded before quietly saying, "thanks. I just don't want to let either of you down."

"Not possible." Dave said as he gave her a hug.

The room was quiet until Spencer turned toward her and said, "Emily, even if you aren't going by the names that Emma gave you, you have definitely lived up to the names."

Emily looked at him confused before looking around the room as equally confused faces before saying, "I don't understand."

"Name meanings." Spencer said surprised. Once he said that several people nodded now understanding where he was going with the statement.

Dave nodded before he said, "Emma did have a book. She mentioned something about the name book in one of her letters." Emily nodded as she remembered the letter where Emma had mentioned the book.

"Didn't you look at one when you were pregnant with Natalie?" Spencer questioned.

Emily looked at Hotch who shrugged before she she replied, "Ah, a little but we were mostly looking for a name that didn't remind us of a serial killer." A few chuckles followed the statement before Emily continued, "What does my name mean? Why did you say I've lived up to it?" She was suddenly curious about what Emma had been thinking when she chose her names, anxious to know more about the mother she never knew.

Spencer took a deep breath before he said rapidly, "Sophia and Alessandra are both Greek in origin while Maud's is Old Germanic. Sophia means wisdom. Alessandra is the Italian form of Alexandra which means defender of mankind. Maud was a medieval variant of Matilda and then gained popularity again in the 19th century. It means strength or strong in battle. I think you have definitely lived up to the name she gave you."

The room was quiet for a couple of minutes before Emily looked over at Spencer and said, "wait, Emma wanted my first name to be Seraphina. What does that mean?"

Spencer looked up, deep in thought before he nodded his head and replied, "Seraphina comes from the Hebrew word seraphim described in the Book of Isaiah as a group of strong six winged angels. It means fiery."

"Wow. It's like she knew who you were going to be." Garcia said.

JJ nodded before saying, "yeah Em and no matter what your name is you already carry those qualities."

The room was quiet before Spencer asked, "what last name are you going to be using? Rossi or Hotchner? I'm assuming that Prentiss will be gone."

Emily sighed before replying, "yes, it will. I started the process of changing it to Hotchner with the Bureau a couple of weeks after the Ambassador died. Strauss put in the request and I was waiting for that to be finalized. Unfortunately everything is on hold until I go to court and have my birth certificate sorted out."

"How come?" Will questioned.

Emily looked around at the group as she answered, "the birth certificate I've been using my whole life was obtained illegally. It was one thing to use it when I didn't know. Now I do so I can't use it to do anything legally until I have my real one sorted out in court.

Actually I spoke to Strauss earlier this week and when we go back to work on Monday, I'm severely limited on what I'm allowed to do. Legal is all tied up in knots and doesn't want me doing anything that requires a signature or a report until after I go to court."

The others looked around at each other before JJ asked, "what does that leave?" They had all done enough paperwork over the years to know that everything they completed needed a signature.

Emily need as she sadly replied, "not much. They have offered me paid leave given the circumstances. They just don't want anyone being able to challenge a case against them and get off on a technicality. I get it but it's frustrating." Everyone slowly nodded at the rationale of what she said. None of them wanted one of the type of criminals the BAU pursued to get off on a technicality.

"Do you have plans of what to do?" JJ asked.

Emily nodded having been thinking of her plans since her conversation with Strauss, "yeah, put Christmas decorations away, do a few things with the kids and look at some cold cases. I've just had three weeks off so a lot of my projects are done. It hopefully won't be too long." She really hoped it didn't take long and that whatever they accomplished in court would clear her to return to her job.

"Em, can ask you a question about your birth certificate?" Spencer asked

Emily nodded before she replied, "sure, I'll answer if I can."

"The date of birth is different on the two birth certificates. Do you know which one you are going to use to celebrate?" Spencer asked cautiously.

Emily looked down and sighed. She knew exactly why her younger colleague was asking the question. Because they're birthdays were in the same week, ever since she had joined the BAU, they had celebrated their birthdays together. Which day she was going to pick wasn't what he was really asking about. He wanted to know if they were still going to have that special connection.

Emily looked up at him and said, "Spencer, October is a long way off and I honestly haven't thought too much about it. However, I am inclined to fully recognize the 23rd as my birthday. The 12th doesn't have any significance and it never did. It was only ever a means to an end for them to finalized the adoption illegally.

Now that said, I don't really think that is what you are concerned about. I think you want to know about us celebrating together." Emily paused as Spencer nodded before continuing, "I want us to continue our tradition. Yeah they may not be in the same week but we'll come up with something to make it work. I like celebrating my birthday with you too." Emily stood up and walked over to Spencer and gave him a hug when he stood up.

Garcia started bouncing in her seat before she said excitedly, "Emily can I just tell you that you have such a cool birthday."

Emily and Spencer pulled out of their hug but stayed standing next to each other as Emily chuckled before she said, "thanks Garcia, I glad you like it."

Garcia looked back at Emily taking in her lack of enthusiasm before turning to Spencer in shock and saying, "didn't you tell her? How could you not tell her?"

Emily looked at her confused before she said, "tell me what?"

Garcia seemingly ignored Emily's question as she looked at Spencer's confused expression before shaking her head and saying, "Reid, think about Chemistry." before she looked at him expectantly.

After a few seconds, a look of recognition crossed over his face before he said animatedly, "Garcia's right, you have an awesome birthday. I'm so glad we are celebrating our birthdays together."

Dave who was just as confused as everyone else in the room except Garcia and Reid said, "would the two of you like to share with the rest of the class."

Spencer nodded as he said, "I'm sorry of course. October 23rd is also known in science circles as Mole Day."

Dave look at him skeptically as he said, "and this is something to be excited about." though he was confused when he looked at Emily and saw that she was happy about this. As far as he knew moles were small animals that his dog chased out of his plant beds.

Spencer looked around the room at several confused faces and decided to elaborate, "A mole is a unit of measurement used in chemistry about the amount of a certain substance that contains the constant amount of particles. The constant is called called Avogadro's constant and when being used to calculate the constant is 6.02 times 10^23. That is why it's so exciting. Not only is Emily's birthday on October 23rd but she was born at 6:02AM."

Emily sat back down on the couch before saying, "that is cool."

AN: The next chapter won't be posted until at least the middle of January. I'm going to be travelling for the holidays. At that point, I'll be winding down this story as there are only a few chapters left.