Chapter 15... and we are almost (finally) to the end of season 6...

I don't own Criminal Minds.

Happy reading and enjoy :D

"Look at you hot mama!" Penelope teased as JJ sat down at the patio table of the restaurant the girls had agreed to meet at for Sunday brunch and then some early afternoon shopping.

JJ face scrunched up in confusion as she glanced down at her outfit, trying to figure out what Pen was commenting on. She was dressed casually in sandals, shorts, and a sleeveless top. "What?" she asked as she looked back up at Pen in confusion, her V-neck top might show a bit of cleavage, but it was by no means revealing.

"Look at those pipes!" Pen said and then whistled.

Emily smiled. "PG's is right Jay… what's your secret?" she teased, already knowing the workout routine JJ was putting herself through to not only lose the baby weight, but to also be ready to rejoin the team as a profiler.

JJ blushed slightly. "Knock it off. You both know it's from Yoga, Pilates, running, and all the other working out I've been doing."

Elle laughed. "Does kicking Morgan's butt around the gym count as all the 'other' working out you've been doing?"

"Hmm" Penelope murmured. "I really have to thank you for that… I love the fact that my man has been getting a harder work out at the gym than usually the last few weeks. He comes home all hot and sweaty and it totally gets my motor running." Penelope said with a wiggle of her eyebrows. "I'm sure it's done great things for you as well… dish." Penelope said with a large grin.

JJ laughed at Pen's antics and shook her head. "Oh trust me; the motivation is there, just not the opportunity."

Elle tipped her head in concern. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah" JJ answered pausing as their waitress brought their drinks. "It's only been a couple weeks since I had my doctor's appointment and got the all clear… and between cases and the kids… we just haven't had an opportunity." JJ shrugged. "It will happen… it's just…."

"Peaches, Reid's still… uh…" Penelope paused and made a face as attempted to figure out a euphemism to ask her question.

Luckily for them all, JJ realized where Pen was headed with her question. "Trust me Pen; Spence being into it is not the issue… me being into it is not the issue. Our timing, however… that seems to be the issue."

"Timing?" Emily asked with a raise of her eyebrows.

"Mm hm" JJ murmured in response as she took a sip of her water and glanced over the menu. She knew they knew exactly what she was talking about it. It was nothing new. They'd all experienced it at one time or another and discussed it. She smirked, knowing that they'd get a kick out of the story about last weekend. "So last Saturday I woke up and Spence wasn't in bed, so I got up and went looking for him. I found him in the kitchen…" JJ said as she began to tell a watered down version of what had happened last Saturday.

Elle and Emily chuckled at the Reid children spoiling their parents' fun by waking up at a most inopportune moment.

Penelope giggled. "So that's why Derek was especially exhausted when he got home from working on hand to hand with you… you took your frustrations out on my husband. I have to thank you for that… because you're loss was my gain." Penelope responded causing JJ to laugh. "Alright ladies," she said as she turned to look at Emily and Elle, "Our mission for this afternoon is to help our wonderful JJ prepare so that when the moment presents itself, she can pounce like the tigress we all know she is." Penelope as she glanced about the table.

Emily smirked, having been the victim… oops… center of PG's attention before in matters such as these she knew exactly what JJ was in for this afternoon. Reid wouldn't know what hit him… hmm... now that she thought about it... maybe she could pick up a little something to surprise Aaron with later this week.

Elle smiled and shook her head. Going lingerie shopping with Penelope was always entertaining as she thrust items into their hands. She'd always had a flair for the dramatic… and it seems lingerie shopping was not any different.

"I'd say I'm all good and don't really need help with being prepared, but I know that won't stop you from dragging me shopping," JJ replied with a smile at her best friends, "So where are we going?"

"Hey, I'm home." JJ called out as she entered the house and sat down her purse and her shopping bags as she kicked off her sandals.

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" Chloe said excitedly as she ran to the entry way to hug Mommy hello.

"Hey sweetie," JJ said as she scooped Chloe up and rested the little girl on her hip. "What are Daddy and your brothers doing?" she asked as she looked down into Chloe's brown eyes that matched her Daddy's.

"Changing Joshua" Chloe replied as she looked up at Mommy.

"Ah" JJ replied and then smiled as she looked up and saw her boys walking towards her.

"Hi Mama!" Henry greeted cheerfully and wrapped his arms around Mommy's legs. Then he noticed the shopping bags. "Pwesents?"

JJ laughed. "No presents buddy… but I did get us something fun." She said as she bent down and set Chloe on her feet next to Henry and then reached into one of the bags and pulled out two bottles of bubbles. "How about we go in the backyard and blow bubbles?" she asked with a smile as she handed a bottle to Henry and a bottle to Chloe.

"Yay!" Chloe and Henry cheered in unison.

JJ chuckled. "Okay let's go outside. Head for the deck, Daddy and I are right behind you." JJ said with a smile as she watched Chloe skip through the living room followed by Henry. Then she turned to look up at Spence. "Hi baby."

"Hi" Spence replied as he tipped his head down to kiss his wife hello while he held a sleeping Joshua in his arms. "So, no presents huh?" he asked as he eyed the familiar pink striped bag.

"Mm mm" JJ murmured against his lips. "That's a surprise for later… no peeking." She said as she picked up her shopping bag and headed for the stairs. She turned and smiled at Spence over her shoulder. "Meet you outside in just a minute."

"Okay buddy, you heard Mommy." Spence said as he looked down at Joshua. "Let's go outside with Chloe and Henry and blow some bubbles." He said as he headed for the deck door where Chloe and Henry stood patiently waiting, tightly gripping their bottles of bubbles.

JJ came down the stairs a few minutes later with Joshua's baby seat in hand as she stepped out on the deck. She sat down beside Spence and took Joshua from him and sat him in his chair in the shade. Then she and Spence turned to Chloe and Henry and opened their bubbles for them.

JJ and Spence watched and bit their lips so as not to laugh as they watched Chloe and Henry shake their bubble wands wildly in the air generating the occasional random bubble.

Henry pouted as he looked at Mommy. "It bwoken."

"Oh buddy, no its not. Come here let Mommy show you." JJ said pulling Henry into her lap and showing him to blow bubbles.

"Daddy?" Chloe asked sweetly.

"Yes princess?" Spence replied knowing what Chloe was going to ask.

"You help me?" She said flashing her big brown eyes at her Daddy.

"Sure princess." He said as he scooped her up into his lap and showed her how to blow through the bubble wand.

"What do we know about the first victim?" Hotch asked Reid who was standing at the microscope studying the skeletal remains of the victims.

"You know that one is tough. He or she has been in the water so long they're mostly just bone fragments." Reid explained as he turned to look at the remains spread out on the table beside him. "I can attempt to reconstruct…"

"Three hours" Hotch said as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

Reid squinted, quickly did some calculations in his head. "I can do it in two." He said turning to look at Hotch.

"Make it one." Hotch said as he looked at the message on his phone and turned heading out to the evidence tent to talk to Rossi.

Zoe stood watching awe as Reid assembled what they had for remains from the first victim. She handed him pieces and helped as much as she could, but for the most part she just tried to stay out of his way as he hands flew across the table quickly twisting the jigsaw pieces of bone fragment as piece by piece actual bones began to appear on the table in front of them.

Emily was glad she was wearing her sunglasses as she stood with off to the side of Morgan watching Aaron as he made his press statement about the unsub. He wasn't wearing a tie… his hair was freshly cut…. He was wearing his sunglasses…. 'Okay Emily, get it together. You need focus on the case' she thought to herself, mentally shaking herself out of her thoughts about her husband.

"At this moment it would be premature to comment on the details of the case." Hotch explained as he talked to the media. "Our goal is to identify and recover the remains as quickly as possible for the families involved. In order to expedite that, we're asking that the family or friends of people who went missing from the east coast since the year 2000 come forward. We'll be matching DNA to the remains. It will be helpful for us to have a personal item from each of the missing persons, an article of clothing, a hair brush, a blanket, a pillow case, photographs, or medical or dental records if you have them. We're also looking for items of significance to help us determine the last known whereabouts of each of the victims." Hotch continued.

Emily and Elle glanced at each other, knowing exactly what phone call Morgan was getting as he stepped away to answer his ringing cell phone. It had to be the hardest thing in the world for him and his family to go through this every time unidentified remains were discovered was what their look said to each other.

It was a long three days as the team worked to bring in Blake Wells. It had become personal to Derek when he saw the remains of a twenty something African American female who died in 2004… and had progressed from there when his Aunt Yvonne showed up… so none of them were surprised when he sequestered himself in the corner of the jet on the flight home, put on his headphones, and closed his eyes.

Emily sat down in the seat next to Aaron's and leaned back relaxing into her seat as she sat watching her husband while he filled out paperwork.

After several moments of feeling his wife's eyes on him, he turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you?" he asked softly, not wanting to disturb the rest of the team where they resting throughout the jet.

Emily smirked and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "Oh when we get home, you most definitely can. I can't even begin to tell you how hot you make me when you don't wear a tie, roll up your sleeves and take charge of a situation, glare while wearing your sunglasses, and have a fresh haircut… the fact that all of happened in the last few days when I couldn't do anything about it because we were on a case… perfect storm honey… perfect storm." She murmured in a low, velvety sexy tone in his ear.

Then she sat back up straight in her seat and pulled out her own case file to finish as much of the paperwork for this case as she could before they got home. With any luck they wouldn't pull another case until next week and she could spend tomorrow and Friday making a dent in the pile of consults on her desk.

She smirked, quite pleased with herself as she watched her husband's grip go white knuckle on his pen as his Adam's apple bobbed. Perfect storm indeed.

"Derek, baby what happened?" Penelope asked as her husband walked in their door and straight into her arms, burying his face in her blonde locks. She ran her fingers lightly over the back of his head. "Was it Cindi?" she asked softly.

Derek swallowed and shook his head against his wife's shoulder. Then he lifted his head with tears in his eyes and met hers. "No… the unsub… he gave away that Cindi was never one of his victims… but to end Aunt Yvonne's suffering and get her to move on… I told her that he picked out Cindi's picture as one of his victims." He choked out.

"Oh Derek" Penelope sighed, her hand cupping his cheek as her thumb ran over his cheek bone. She knew just how difficult that had been for him. His family meant everything to him. For him to lie to them, it had to be just tearing him up inside. "You did what you thought was best Derek." She said supportively as she wrapped her arms back around him and held him tight.

"Hey" Spence whispered softly as he poked his head in Chloe's door where JJ was tucking the sleeping little girl into bed.

"Hi" JJ whispered back with a smile after sitting up from kissing Chloe on the forehead.

Spence padded quietly across the carpet and knelt down next to Chloe's bed, kissing his little girl on the forehead as he reverently ran his hand over her blonde curls. "Sweet dreams princess."

JJ smiled from where she sat on Chloe's bed next to the sleeping girl and rubbed her hand over Spence's back where he knelt next to her.

Together they stood up and exited Chloe's room. JJ shut off the light, leaving the room in the glow off Chloe's nightlight as she pulled the door partway closed. "Why don't you go kiss Henry goodnight and then we can spend some time with Josh until he falls asleep?"

Spence nodded and stepped down the hall to where Henry was happily ensconced in his submarine bed dreaming peaceful dreams. Spence knelt down next Henry bed and just watched him sleep for a moment, caught up in watching the rise and fall of his son's chest with each breath he took. Then he leaned down and kissed Henry on the forehead after brushing his blonde locks out of the way. "Goodnight buddy. See you in the morning." He whispered softly and then headed down the hall to find his wife and youngest son.

"Hey you" JJ said softly as she looked up from Joshua's face as he ate to see her husband standing in their bedroom door. "Why don't you go shower and change quick and join us?" she said as she patted the bed next to her.

Spence nodded and then stepped over to the bed, pausing next to it and leaning over to kiss JJ softly. "Be back in a few minutes." He said and then straightened up, and then passed through their walk-in closet to the bathroom.

Minutes later he was back and climbed into bed next to JJ as she passed their baby boy to him. "Hey Joshua… were you good boy for Mommy?" he asked the cooing baby boy as he placed his finger in the baby's palm and Joshua gripped onto it.

JJ smiled as she watched Spence make faces at Joshua. Josh's eyes grew wide and he giggled as Daddy leaned down and blew raspberries on his cheeks. His little legs kicked and his free hand waved about as he and Daddy played together.