The rest of February came and went, along with March, April, and then in May, Garcia decided to throw Maeve a baby-shower.
"Come on Maeve! Register SOMEWHERE! Give me an idea what to get you for the twins." Garcia begged, when they were having a girls' night. They were on a darkened street outside a wall of shops as far as the eye could see.
"We have the essentials…"
"Essentials?! No, every kid should have more than the essentials. It is the duty as the quasi-aunt/fairy godmother to spoil the children!
That's when they were joined by JJ and Blake.
"Hey girls," Maeve greeted them.
"This one doesn't want a baby shower…or presents…" Garcia said, pointing to Maeve.
The others looked from her to Maeve as if Maeve was an alien.
"We have what we need…what else is there?" Maeve asked.
"Let's see…toys, stuffed animals, cute decorations, blankets, unnecessary fluffy things, mobiles and wall decals and those glow in the dark stars on the nursery ceiling!"
"But…won't that scare them?" Maeve asked.
"Not if we put the stars up before they come home…Come on Maeve, it'll be great."
"Garcia…"
"Girl…after two years you should know by now…never…ever…hang out with me if you want to avoid a shopping spree…" She said, tugging Maeve by the arm.
"Trust me Maeve, you're not going to stop her, the last time I let her go shopping alone she came back with twelve huge bags full of stuff, and it was all for Henry… at least by coming with you can attempt to rein her in." JJ replied.
"Ok…let's go…" Maeve finally conceded.
Within hours they had enough stuff to literally cover the nursery in decorations and stuffed animals, all of it matching the lavender, green, and blue color scheme that she and Spencer had agreed upon months earlier.
Spencer, proving to be a very overprotective father, had stapled three layers of fluffy fleece fabric, two feet up the walls of the nursery as soon as it was painted. Then he had covered the linoleum floor with the plushiest area rugs he could find. The same day he did this, Morgan came over and helped him finally get the furniture out of the boxes and assemble it.
As he screwed a wheel onto one of the legs on the boy's crib, Morgan watched Reid struggle to do the same to the girl's crib.
"Boy…" He said, "You really are bad with tools aren't you Reid?"
"I managed to work the staple gun just fine…" he said, with a hint of pride in his voice, shooting a leading glance at the fabric covered portion of the wall.
"Looks like you went a little trigger happy to me… and what are the blankets there for anyway?" Morgan asked.
"For when the start to crawl, I don't want them to ram into a hard wall before they develop hand-eye and motor coordination!" He exclaimed as if it should be obvious.
"Reid they're not even born yet…"
"Yeah but there's only a month and a half left…and that's assuming the full forty weeks… 61% are born at thirty-seven weeks or less, I want to have everything ready!" He told him. His eyes flashed with fear for a few seconds, a fear Morgan had hardly ever seen in his extremely intelligent friend before… the fear of incompetence, of mediocrity, the fear of not being good enough.
He hadn't seen this coming at all but when Morgan thought about it, it did make sense. Reid had, after all, been abandoned by his own father… and it occurred to Morgan that he might be under the impression that the lack of an example from his own childhood, doomed him to be a horrible parent as an unusual reunion over six years earlier had made it clear he considered his own dad to be.
"Reid, what's really going on…?" He asked, Morgan wasn't sure if he would answer or just brush away the question, but it was worth asking.
Reid sighed heavily and then he said: "Sometimes…sometimes I'm not sure if I'm ready for this…"
"Reid…out of all the guys I know who don't have kids yet… I'd say you're the best future dad of the lot… I mean come on man, you're great with Henry… Kid practically worships you… which is probably why he's been you for Halloween the last three years in a row! You'll do great…"
"Thanks Morgan…"
"Dude sometimes you need a good reality check…"