Let's keep it brief this evening shall we?
I don't own Criminal Minds and I'm not making any money writing these stories - they're just for fun.
Now onto why you're all here -
Happy reading and enjoy :D
The BAU clan was all gathered in the backyard of the Hotchners' new home celebrating Avery Grace Hotchner's second birthday. Lunch and birthday cake had been eaten. Birthday presents had been opened and now being the warm early fall day that it was, the kids were running and playing while they enjoyed being outdoors.
The adults congregated nearby, laughing, talking, and enjoying the released stress of the Congressional hearing being over with as discussing the shock of who Doyle's inside man had been.
Suddenly a blur of an unclothed flesh ran across the yard and headed straight for Emily.
"Avery Grace Hotchner, where are your clothes?" Emily asked as she stood up attempting to catch the birthday girl who'd decided that it would be fun to run around the backyard in her birthday suit. Emily and Aaron shared a look of mortification at what Avery had decided to do today.
Chloe stood up from where she and Jack were playing together nearby and skipped over to JJ, turning to look at Avery being chased around the yard by Aunt Emily and then turning back to look at Mommy with big eyes and her mouth in the shape of an 'O'. "Mommy, why don't Avery gots no clothes on?"
JJ, Spence, and all of the other adults set about distracting and entertaining the other kids so that Emily and Hotch could have a private moment to take care of the little situation that had popped up.
Hotch jumped up from his chair and joined his wife in catching their daughter.
Once Avery was captured in Mommy's arms, he went over to where Avery had been playing and collected her clothes.
Hotch sat down in the chair next to Emily's with Avery's clothes in his lap as he helped Emily fight their daughter's iron will to redress her. "She is soooo your daughter." He said as worked Avery's t-shirt back over her head.
Sean laughed at his brother's comment and decided to take advantage of a rare opportunity. "Don't worry Emily. I heard all kinds of stories about from Mom about Aaron when he was growing up. He was a streaker when he was Avery's age too. I think I even have some photos of him naked as a jay bird running through our yard." The younger brother crowed with much glee to his older brother dismay and horror.
Emily raised an eyebrow at her husband. "Whose daughter is she?"
"Our daughter." Aaron replied meekly, feeling the flame of embarrassment stretch across his face at his brother sharing family stories from his very young childhood.
"Keep your clothes on Avery Grace, or you will have to go sit in the time out chair, birthday or no birthday. Okay?" Emily said biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing and encouraging Avery to streak again.
Avery gave a much put upon sigh. "Otay. I pway now?"
Emily nodded and kissed the top of Avery ebony locked head. "Yes you can go play now."
Emily watched for a moment as Avery ran off to play with the other kids a few feet away in the yard, and then she turned to look next to her where Aaron sat brooding. She stood up from her seat and wrapped her arms around her disgraced husband's shoulders and leaned down to whisper in his ear. "Don't worry, if you're a good boy I'll streak for you later." She said and then tugged on his earlobe with her teeth, causing exactly the reaction she wanted when he laughed.
"So how's Declan settling in?" Elle asked as she, JJ, and Emily headed out of Penelope's office.
Emily nodded. "He's doing well. I just worry about him though. The only mother he's ever known died."
JJ nodded. "Is he talking about it?"
"He's talking to the therapist and Aaron, Tom, and I sat down with him and made sure that he knows he can always talk to any of us. I think it will be good for Declan having two father figures."
"Not to mention a kick-ass Mom… literally." Elle said tossing a grin Emily's way.
Emily smiled and shook her head. "So you finished the course?" she asked as she looked at JJ, changing the subject.
"Mm hm and completed my case rotation." JJ replied as the rounded the corner and headed for the elevator lobby.
"Aaron says he's never seen a rookie profiler analyze and write up cases as well as you." Emily said with a smile as she turned to look at JJ.
"He said that?" JJ asked, slightly embarrassed.
"Well after all the cases you've presented over the years, I'm not surprised." Emily explained.
"That and years of being married to a profiler probably didn't hurt either." Elle teased, "And speak of the devil." Elle said as the entered the elevator lobby and saw Spence getting off of an elevator.
"Heeeey how's your Mom?" JJ asked as she walked over to her husband's side.
"I think she's going to be okay." He replied as he looked down at JJ and then back up at Emily and Elle. "Dr. Norman wanted to talk to me about adjusting her medication. He's ready to see if adding a relatively newly FDA approved drug called Latuda to Mom's regimen will help her. The drug was approved by the FDA in November of last year and I brought it up to Dr. Norman then, but he advised we wait and see the results of some case studies before adjusting Mom's meds." Spence explained for Elle and Emily's benefit since JJ already knew all of the details.
"Does he think it will help?" Emily asked, aware of how much her friends longed for anything that would help his mother.
"He thinks it might and that everything he's read and seen has been promising enough for the risk of adjusting Mom's medications." Spence replied as he fell in step with JJ, Elle, and Emily and they walked into the bullpen together.
"Okay, you can be honest. I can take it." Five month pregnant Penelope said as she walked down the hall with David Rossi.
"Okay," Rossi said as he handed Penelope's Tupperware container back to her. "I prefer my pasta al dente and the pancetta was a little weird."
"Oh," Penelope's mouth opened wide, "that's cause it's tofu." She said as she turned to look at Rossi.
"Tofu! I give you my recipe and you do an improve?" Rossi asked as they headed for the round table room.
"No, no, I followed it down to the micron aside from the pig." Penelope replied. "Look master of all things Italian, I'm having some of the ladies from my Lamaze group over for a Fellini festival this weekend and I must serve the beautiful food of his country." She said as she rounded the table, taking the seat facing away from the monitor.
Elle smirked as she turned to look at Derek. "Does several pregnant women being at your house this weekend have anything to do with why you volunteered to help Will build our new deck this weekend?"
Morgan nodded sheepishly and glanced up find all of the women on the team, including his wife smirking at him. Needless to say, Morgan was incredibly glad that Hotch walked in at that moment to start their briefing.
"Alright everybody, let's get started." Hotch said as he took his seat.
Penelope turned to look at JJ whom the remote for the monitor was sitting in front of.
"Oh" JJ said as she realized why Pen was looking at her, and slid the remote over to Pen.
"Alright, mes amies," Penelope said as she stood up from her seat and walked over to stand next to the monitor, "you are jetting to Durant Oklahoma…" she said as she began to walk the team through the case.
"Victimology is very similar," Hotch said as the team went over the case on the jet, "blonde haired blue eyed teenage girls."
"We believe they were each abducted near public transportation stops." JJ said from her spot next to Spence on the couch.
"When was this photo taken?" Emily asked as she held up an eight by eleven photo of the second victim.
"Beth was caught on a bank surveillance camera three hours before she disappeared, that's a recent photo of Abby." Morgan replied.
"So, she wasn't found in the same clothes she was abducted in." Emily said as she held up the bank surveillance camera photo and the crime scene photo of Beth.
"Maybe he changed them because hers were burned by the sulfuric acid." Rossi suggested.
"It's possible." Reid replied. "Sulfuric acid can turn human flesh into soap."
"Penelope, any recent similar cases in the surrounding area?" Hotch asked, directing his question to the lap top that was open on the table.
"Actually yes, two months ago, a prostitute and a runaway were both found raped and killed and they had stab wounds to their eyes." Penelope replied as her fingers typed away at her keyboard.
"So maybe he practiced on high risk victims first." JJ said as she looked around at the team.
"And then advanced to chemical enucleation." Moran added as he looked down at the photos of the victims.
"Isn't that a rare paraphilia?" JJ asked as she looked around at the team.
Elle nodded. "It is, but we also need to keep in mind that this might not be a sign of a paraphilia. It's possible this is something that he'd like to do to someone else. He has a pretty specific victim type."
"Or he could just like blonde haired blue eye girls." Spence mused as he flipped through the photos.
Elle chuckled. "Or he could just like blonde haired blue eyed girls. It has been known to happen," She said teasing Reid briefly, "but I'd lean more towards them representing the object of his anger given the closeness in age and appearance of them all."
Emily nodded in agreement. "JJ's right though, if this is a paraphilia, then the chemical part is very rare. It would exacerbate the pain."
Hotch nodded. "Dave, you and I will talk to the parents. Morgan, Emily, and Elle, go to the disposal sites. JJ, you and Reid go to the abduction sites."
JJ sank down in the seat next to Spence's on the jet. "Do you think Tammy is going to be okay?"
"She's going to need a lot of therapy after what her uncle put her through, but hopefully..." Elle replied.
"It will take time, but hopefully she'll find something to help her move on and get past it." Morgan added reflecting for the briefest of moments on his tortured past as he pulled the cans of his headphones over his head, letting the headphones rest around his neck while the team talked.
Rossi hung up his phone as he sat down to join the team. "I've been instructed to invite you all over for brunch this weekend. Erin knows how hard last week was on all of us so she thought it would nice to get together."
"Since when do you do brunch?" Hotch asked with a quirk of his eyebrow.
"A man has to eat Aaron." Dave replied.
"Even if it is mini quiches." Morgan replied with a grin.
Rossi scowled at Morgan. "Just for that I'm recruiting you to help with the cooking Morgan. In fact you and Penelope can both help since she was so eager for cooking pointers." Rossi grinned. "Don't worry; I'm sure Jake will enjoy hanging out with Tim. I'll even let you sleep in. Be at my place by eight am sharp."
"Ah man… so much for sleeping in." Morgan grumbled, knowing the moment that he mentioned it to Penelope they would be at Rossi's house just before eight am.
"Hi Unca Dabe!" Jake screech excitedly as Rossi answered the door.
"Hey short stuff!" Dave replied taking Jake out of Morgan's arms as the Morgans stood on his front steps at quarter to eight on a Saturday morning. "Tim is really excited to see you. I think he mentioned something about playing with trains." Dave whispered conspiratorially to the two year old.
"I wikes twains." Jake said bobbing his head eagerly as he glanced back and forth between Uncle Dave and Tim, who had just come into the entry way.
Dave no more than set Jake on his feet than the small boy scurried over to Tim and took his hand as they went off into the living room to play together. Over the last few years, Tim had grown accustomed to being around babies and toddlers, but that didn't mean that he wasn't glad that there was now someone close to his own age in the group of kids of his Dad's work friends. The few times he'd met him Declan had seemed like a pretty cool guy even if he was a couple years younger.
Dave, Derek, and Penelope smiled as they watched Tim lead Jake into the living room where he'd pulled out a variety of trains, remote control cars, and other gadgets and gizmos to keep the younger guests entertained today. Then Dave turned to Penelope, "Alright kitten, I believe you are due for a cooking lesson."
"I can scramble eggs with the best of them my fine Italian friend." Penelope responded.
Dave nodded. "Scrambled eggs are good, but how are you at making Quiche Lorraine, crab cakes, cheesy hash browns, crepes, fruit tarts, and cinnamon rolls, ?" he asked as he led the couple into the kitchen.
"Um I can do the cheesy hash browns… and maybe the cinnamon rolls…" Penelope trailed off as they entered the kitchen.
Dave laughed. "Don't worry kitten. You and our little helper," he said with a nod of his head towards Morgan, "are going to have an opportunity to help with everything. How else will you learn?" he asked with a twinkly in his eye.
Erin shook her head as her husband entered the kitchen followed by Derek and Penelope. She held out a cup of coffee towards Derek. "You look like you could use this."
"Thank you." Derek replied gratefully as he took the cup, pausing to inhale the heavenly aroma before taking a large sip of the dark brew.
Erin smiled. "You're welcome. Penelope, dear, would you like some orange juice?" she asked the pregnant younger woman.
"Oh yes please." Penelope answered distractedly as her eyes scanned the counter top of ingredients and utensils, eagerly anticipating learning how to cook via the Dave Rossi method.
"Rossi, it smells amazing." Emily said as she entered the Rossi mansion followed by Aaron, Declan, and Jack. She carried Seth and Aaron carried Avery.
"Ah, well we have Derek's cinnamon rolls to thank for that I think." Dave replied as he kissed Emily on either cheek and took Seth from her, lifting the one year old up over his head and smiling when the dark haired little one giggled. Dave laughed in turn as he settled Seth on his hip. "Hey Declan, Tim and Jake are in the living room if you and Jack want to join them."
Declan glanced up at Emily, silently seeking approval.
Emily reached out and smoothed down his tussled blonde hair. "Go ahead and have fun."
Aaron smiled as he watched Declan and Jack scurry off to join the other boys in the living room. Avery was having a clingy day and refused to leave Daddy's arms. Seth was perched happily on Uncle Dave's hip as they headed to the kitchen.
A short while later the entire team and their families were gathered around the large Rossi family dining room table. It was quite the gathering between the eight team members, two spouses who weren't part of the team, a teenager, a pre-teen, a little boy, a preschooler, four toddlers, and a baby.
Dave smiled as he looked around the table and cleared his throat as he lifted his glass to make a toast. "Jim Butcher said 'When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching – they are your family.'" He said as he glanced about at the team who had been through hell and back over the last year with JJ leaving the team, the Doyle situation, and the Congressional hearing. "To family." He said raising his glass.
"To family." The rest of the BAU family chorused with smiles as they too raised their glasses to join in the toast.