Disclaimer: See chapter 1

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Allie's nose wrinkled in annoyance as she unconsciously felt something soft brush against it but she did not waken. Her brown hair remained splayed against the blue flowers of her pillow case, her eyes still closed, the dark lashes delicately glancing her soft cheeks. Her nose twitched once again and she involuntarily raised a sleepy hand to swipe away the offending object, but still she did not rouse. A few moments passed and she again felt something softly touch her nose. "Hmm," she moaned in irritation, the first sign that she was beginning to be lured from slumber. A few more seconds went by and she again felt her nose being gently caressed as if by the feathery softness of a breeze. Allie Reid opened her eyes.

Through the last blurry vestiges of sleep Allie saw the tiny hand of her daughter reach out and touch her nose. Reach, she soon realized as she became more attuned to her surroundings, was the wrong word. Joanna was not reaching out to touch her but, more accurately, her little hand was being gently guided by her father's long fingers as he crouched beside the bed holding Joanna in his arms. "Hi Mommy," he said in a high pitched voice, "Happy Mother's Day."

Allie became fully awake and smiled at her husband and daughter. She sat up slowly and reached her arms out for her baby. "Thank you sweetheart," she said, softly kissing her daughter. "What a nice way to wake up." She leaned over the side of the bed to kiss Spencer, "Thank you honey."

"You have to get up because I'm working on breakfast," he told her as he stood up and headed toward the door.

Breakfast! "Oh honey, you really don't have to do anything." She had planned on a small bowl of cereal and some fruit, nutritious but low cal. "I'll just have a bowl of cereal."

"Too late," Spencer said as he went out the bedroom door. "I'm cooking," he called over his shoulder.

He certainly was she thought as she watched him walk away in his khaki striped flannel sleep pants that weren't as loose as some of his others. They showed off his body nicely, topped with his Princeton tee shirt. She turned to Joanna in her arms. "Daddy is a very sexy guy isn't he? Well you wouldn't notice that I guess, I mean, he's your dad but take it from me, he is and that should make you very happy since the reason you are here is because your daddy is a very sexy guy. Your daddy is so smart and everybody wants him for his mind, but just between you and me," she whispered softly to Joanna, "that's not the best part of him." She looked at her daughter who she wasn't sure was even focusing on her. "Okay, maybe we'll table this discussion for a few years."

When Allie reached the sunny kitchen she could smell bacon frying while Spencer was cracking eggs into a bowl. So much for low cal, she thought as she perused the granite countertop. The waffle iron was on and there were warm biscuits in a basket by the microwave. "Honey, who are we feeding," she asked.

"Well, just us but I thought I'd try and make you the kind of breakfast, you know, that your mother made," he replied.

"Sweetheart, Mom went all out because you were there," she explained.

"And now I'm going all out," he said as he poured the eggs into a skillet, "because it's your first Mother's Day."

Yeah, Allie thought, and you can eat all this stuff and not gain an ounce. I hate you, she said under her breath. She turned to put Joanna in her carrier that sat on the desk portion of the counter which was lower than the work surface and held the telephone, a laptop computer and the mail. She looked through the opening into the dining room and saw the round oak table was set for two. In the center of the table was a small crystal vase with one red rose engulfed in baby's breath. The morning sun streaming in through the patio doors that led to the deck brightened the room and reflected off the dishes. Allie's eyes widened. "Oh honey, it's so beautiful."

"I'm glad you like it. I got only one rose because you have only one child and I asked the florist for lots of that baby's breath stuff since Joanna's just a baby."

Allie fingered the soft petals and leaned in to smell the fragrance of the bloom. After the other night when Spencer had been so angry with her, she hadn't expected anything like this, well she hadn't expected anything at all actually. Spencer wasn't much for occasions since so many passed in his childhood uncelebrated, practically unnoticed. She turned to find her husband standing behind her. "You didn't have to do all this for me," she said through her tears.

"I love you and Joanna loves you, you're her Mommy and you're a good mother and we're celebrating that," he said as he turned his attention back to the meal.

Reid dashed around the kitchen, opening and closing the oak cupboards while he searched for the items he needed. Allie had set up the kitchen when they'd moved, along with the girls as he hadn't wanted Allie to do anything strenuous and since he wasn't used to doing much of the cooking, he hadn't, as yet, totally familiarized himself with where everything was. He stopped for a moment when he glanced into the dining room where Allie was feeding Joanna, talking softly to their daughter as she nursed. It was the most perfect thing he'd ever seen. He snapped out of his reverie as he got busy plating the bacon and waffles and putting the scrambled eggs in a bowl. He brought everything to the table just as Allie was doing up her nightgown and gently burping the now contented Joanna.

During the meal Joanna sat in her carrier on a chair between her parents while Allie told Spencer about lunch with the girls and her first experience with breastfeeding in public. "You didn't," Spencer squeaked in disbelief.

"I most certainly did," she replied adamantly. "My baby was hungry. What was I supposed to do, go feed her in the bathroom or go out to the SUV like some kind of outcast just to do what comes naturally?"

"Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't want that, it's just the thought of other people seeing, you know," he made a motion in front of his chest area.

"Nobody saw anything. Ask the girls. They were at the table with me and they said they didn't see anything." She laughed, "Honey, I'm not as open with it in public as I am here with you." Reid was relieved to hear that.

Changing the subject, he said, "I put those pictures on the dresser in the bedroom. They fell on the floor when one of the guys was working." Allie nodded; she had noticed them there last evening. She'd also noticed that one was missing. She'd come to the living room to see if it was under the couch but it wasn't. She'd decided not to mention it to her husband. He was telling her about her father's call to tell him about his father's request that he help Chico.

"What do you think about it," she asked, watching her husband's expression carefully.

"Your dad seems to think my dad's sincere and truly wants to help Chico. Your dad's a good judge of character so I guess we wait and see."

"Do you want your dad to be sincere and if he is will that change anything?" Allie wondered.

"I truly don't know," Reid replied barely above a whisper. "But enough about that," he said taking her hand and picking up Joanna's carrier, "It's time for you to open your present." He led Allie to the couch where a rectangular box sat on the coffee table wrapped in pretty paper with a pink bow. There was a card on top that said 'Mommy'.

"You didn't have to get me a present," she told Spencer who set Joanna on the coffee table as he sat beside his wife while she opened the card that revealed a baby chick wishing a Happy Mother's Day. At the bottom of the verse inside was a very tiny handprint. "How did you make the handprint," she asked.

"Fingerprint blotter ink," Reid responded, "and it wasn't easy."

Allie ripped the paper off the box and opened it to find three pictures in hinged frames. The one on the left hand side was a picture of her mother holding her when she was a baby. The picture on the right hand side was one of herself holding Joanna and the middle picture was of Joanna in a little pink dress. The photograph was in an oval mat and tears filled Allie's eyes as she read the words below it.

A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of herself. And mothers are their daughters' role model, their biological and emotional road map, the arbiter of all their relationships.

"Oh, h…honey this is so b…beautiful," she said as the tears ran down her cheeks. She turned to look at him, "You did all this?"

Spencer nodded and added, "Garcia helped. You're a wonderful person just like your mother and I want Joanna to be just like you."

"Thank you so much. This is the best present I ever got," she said as she put her arms around him and kissed him deeply. She leaned over to kiss her daughter then jumped up, "I've got to phone my mom."