Clearly my plan to get us to the halfway point of season 7 by the end of the year didn't work out... the holidays were a little busier and crazier than I planned on. So the new plan is that we'll get to the halfway point of season 7 ASAP and then take a bit of a hiatus so that I can work on a few other things for a bit.
I hope you all had a wonderful, safe, and magical holiday season, no matter what holidays you celebrated. Happy Epiphany to those of you celebrating today.
On with the chapter...
Happy reading and enjoy :D
JJ looked at Morgan, a curious expression on her face as she, Emily, Elle, and Penelope came into the bullpen from the break room. She wasn't sure what exactly was going on as she noticed him watching Spence very intently. She supposed she would have to wait and see.
Morgan sat staring intently at Reid over the rim of his coffee cup, willing the younger agent's phone to ring. Slathering Reid's phone with Vaseline was only worth it if he actually answered the phone and placed the receiver to his ear.
And then it happened. Reid picked up his phone while looking down at the file in front of him to call the LEO working the case he was putting a profile together for. He placed the receiver to his ear and then "Aaaaah!" Reid screeched at the wet gushy mess that was pressed against his ear. He turned and glared at Morgan, knowing that it had been his best friend who'd done whatever in God's name had been done to his phone.
Morgan laughed as Reid wiped at his ear with Kleenex, and shook his head attempting to get the offending sliminess out of his ear.
Eventually, Reid gave up on attempting to clean the Vaseline off of his phone and used his cell phone to make his calls for the rest of the day. He'd probably need to either get a new handset for his phone, or soak it in bleach for a week to get the greasy residue from what Morgan had admitted was Vaseline off of his phone. As he worked on his stack of cases, he watched Morgan and his habits, looking for anything he could exploit for a prank. He watched as Morgan opened and closed desk drawers looking for a pen and other items.
"Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, Mommy!" was the excited chorus that greeted Spence and JJ as they got home from work that night.
"Hi sweetie, hi little man," JJ said, greeting Chloe and Henry as she dropped to her knees and pulled them both into a hug at the same time.
"Hi Mommy!" Chloe and Henry replied in unison, excited and happy to see Mommy and Daddy after a day spent apart.
Spence smiled as he looked down at JJ, Chloe, and Henry together on the floor. "What about me? Do I get hugs?" he mock pouted.
JJ tipped her head back and smiled at Spence as Chloe and Henry both looked up at Daddy.
"Hi Daddy!" Henry shouted as he launched himself at Daddy.
"Oof" Spence grunted as he caught Henry. "Hey little man, did you, Chloe, and Joshua have fun with Rebecca today."
"Uh huh" Henry nodded. "Joshie and I pwayed dinotaurs."
"You did?" Spence asked.
Henry nodded his head eagerly.
"That sounds fun. Can I play?" Spence asked, a smile on his face as he winked down at JJ.
"Yeah!" Henry screeched, excited for Daddy to play with them.
"How about you princess?" Spence said as he looked down at Chloe, "Do you want to come and play with Henry, Joshua, and me?"
Chloe nodded her head, definitely wanting to be included.
JJ stood up with Chloe in her arms and handed her to Spence.
"Okay, let's go play!" Spence said as he looked from Chloe to Henry. They were each settled on one of his hips.
JJ smiled as she walked beside Spence, her hand resting on his back as Spence and listened to Chloe and Henry chatter to Daddy about what they should play. Henry wanted dinosaurs; Chloe wanted dolls.
"You know we can play both." Spence replied. "It's okay that you like different things. You can still play together."
JJ smiled at Rebecca who was sitting on the floor with Joshua who was surrounded by a few pillows as he sat up on the floor. "Look at you baby boy. Are you sitting up all by yourself?" she cooed as she sat on the floor by Joshua.
Joshua screeched in excitement at seeing Mommy as he waved his arms about in the air.
JJ leaned in and playfully placed kisses all over Joshua's face, causing him to laugh, giggle, and squirm. She picked Joshua up and turned to watch Chloe, Henry, and Spence play together, with Joshua sitting between her legs so that he could lean back against her if he needed, her hand resting on his belly to keep him from falling forward.
Spence smiled as he laughed and played with Chloe and Henry and talked with JJ who sat nearby with Joshua.
"Watch dis Daddy." Henry said as he took one of his dinosaurs and moved it close to Joshua and pulled the string to make it 'talk'.
Joshua laughed and waved his arms to swipe at the dinosaur as his big brother played with him.
Spence's smiled as he watched Henry play with Joshua. "That's really great buddy. Joshua really likes playing dinosaurs with you huh?" Spence asked.
Henry nodded. "Uh huh." He replied as he pulled the string and wiggled the dinosaur for Joshua again, laughing as his baby brother laughed too.
Spence's eyes went wide as he was struck with sudden inspiration and a plan formed in his mind.
"What are you doing?" JJ asked as she walked into the kitchen the next night after they got the kids all put to bed for the night. Spence had pulled out the bag from the toy store that held the purchase he'd run out to make at lunchtime.
Spence smiled as he opened the talking toy dinosaur box and pulled out a screw driver to begin preparations for tomorrow. "Trust me JJ… it's going to be great."
JJ raised an eyebrow as she watched Spence take apart the toy dinosaur and remove the sound box. She watched as he pulled the string several times to make sure that it still worked. Then she watched as Spence attached several long pieces of string to the plastic ring and rolled them up. Then she shook her head and walked away into the living room. No one was getting hurt during this prank war between Morgan and Spence, and it was more than a little entertaining for the rest of them. She was willing to wait and be surprised by whatever Spence had planned; something told her it would be worth it.
Spence smirked into his coffee cup as he took a sip, looking forward to a day in the bullpen. Then he opened a case file and got to work.
Morgan pulled off his leather jacket, resting it over the back of his chair and booted up his computer. "Mornin' pretty boy." He said in a congenial tone as he grabbed his coffee cup off his desk and headed to the break room for a cup of the FBI's version of coffee.
"Morning" Reid replied, glancing up from his case file to nod at Morgan.
Reid watched out of the corner of his eye as Morgan settled in at his desk.
Morgan took a sip of coffee as he sat down at his desk. He pulled a case file off of the stack sitting on his desk. Then he began looking for a pen. He shifted papers out of the way, looking for, but not finding a pen. Then he opened his top desk drawer.
"ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR!" was belted out from somewhere in the depths of his desk.
"What the…" Morgan trailed off as he jumped up from his chair, nearly falling off it in the process.
Reid laughed at the shocked expression on Morgan's face as he stood staring at his desk wondering what the hell had just happened.
"Cute kid, real cute." Morgan replied, shaking his head as he made a point to pull everything out of the tampered with desk drawer that he might need so as not to have to open it again that day.
Reid grinned, knowing that while Morgan might think it was over, it definitely was not.
A while later Morgan opened a different desk drawer, looking for a file and was once again greeted with, "RRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAARRR RRRR!"
"Son of a…" Morgan exclaimed as he jumped in his seat and then looked around the bullpen at everyone staring at him with smirks on their faces, once their shock and surprise was over. Morgan looked at Reid, looked at his desk, looked at Reid, and then back at his desk. Then he opened one after another of his desk drawers, each drawer opening was followed by a "RRROOOAAAARRRR!" of a toy dinosaur.
Emily had tears in her eyes from laughing. JJ's eyes twinkled as she now understood the extra strings Spence had added onto the pull string of the toy dinosaur sound box.
Elle laughed. "That's some real animal magnetism you have there Derek." She laughed again as Derek tentatively closed one of the desk drawers and reopened it, trying to figure out exactly what Reid had done.
Rossi chuckled at the antics down in the bullpen as he turned to Hotch, who had joined him at the railing of the mezzanine, taking in all of the shenanigans going on in the bullpen. "Just how long are you going to let this go on?" he asked.
Hotch chuckled as Morgan's desk drawers continued to 'ROAR' at him. "You mean this specific prank, or in general?"
Rossi laughed as Morgan crawled under his desk to attempt to disable whatever Reid had done to his desk. "I was thinking more in general. It looks like this will be drawing to a close soon."
Hotch laughed as Morgan stood back up from under his desk, still not having determined what the cause of the issue was. "I was thinking I'd let it run its course as long as it doesn't start to affect cases. They'll get it out of their systems and we'll all get some much needed laughter."
Rossi nodded, agreeing with Hotch's wisdom. The pranks weren't hurting anyone… and Hotch was right. With everything they saw on a daily basis, they could certainly use as much laughter as they could get.
"Who was that David?" Erin asked in concern as David hung up his cell phone.
"It was Carolyn. She wanted to know if we could get together for breakfast tomorrow morning." Dave replied as looked in confusion at his phone and then at Erin.
"Are you going?" Erin asked, curiosity in her voice.
"I have to Erin. When Carolyn and I divorced, we made a pledge to always be there for each other. We always joked that we were the only couple with marriage and divorce vows." Dave replied in concern as he watched Erin.
Erin sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose and nodded. She might not like it, but she certainly understood, "Alright."
"Are you sure you're really alright with this Erin?" Dave asked as he stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close and kissing her tenderly.
"Ahhh!" Tim exclaimed covering his eyes jokingly as he walked into the room causing both of his parents to laugh as they pulled apart out of their kiss.
"Maybe we should send you to boarding school. Then we wouldn't have to worry about offending your teenage sensibilities." Dave teased, knowing that it wasn't something that he and Erin would ever even consider.
"Dad, it's not my teenage sensibilities. Nobody wants to walk in on their parents making out no matter how old they are." Tim said as he grabbed a banana, a package of pop tarts, a juice box, and reached into the refrigerator for ingredients to make himself a sandwich for breakfast.
"And you know this because?" Dave asked.
"I took a survey." Tim replied.
"Of who?" Dave asked.
"People." Tim replied with a shrug as he continued to pile meat and cheese on bread and the slather it with mustard.
Erin shook her head and reached into the refrigerator and grabbed an apple handing it to Tim, knowing that her teenage son would finish everything else on the way to school and still be hungry.
"Thanks Mom." Tim replied, kissing her on the cheek. Then he glanced at the clock. "Gotta go if I'm gonfa catf my buf." he mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich as he grabbed his backpack and his soccer gear. "Bye Mom, bye Dad." He tossed over his shoulder as he headed for the door.
Dave shook his head as he turned to Erin. "With Tim's growth spurts, I don't know which is more expensive, the food, or the clothes and shoes that we have to keep buying when he outgrows the old stuff."
Erin chuckled. "I would say it's both. And to finish our conversation from before, yes I'm fine with you meeting Carolyn for breakfast tomorrow. I trust you."
"So sweetie," JJ asked she ran her fingers through Chloe's hair. "What do you want to dress up as for Halloween? We need to get your costume together this weekend."
"Tinkerbelle." Chloe responded with a decisive nod.
JJ smiled, having already figured that was what Chloe might say. "I think we can do that sweetie. Sleep tight. Daddy will in in a minute to give you a good night kiss, okay?"
"Uh huh" Chloe nodded as she yawned while Mommy leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"So buddy, who do you want to dress up as for Halloween?" Spence asked as he tucked Henry in.
Henry shrugged as he yawned. "I no know. Who you be?"
"Well, I'm not sure. Who Mommy and I dress up as depends on what you and Chloe want to be. Is there someone or something special that you want to go as?"
Henry shrugged again, his eyelids getting heavy.
"Hey," JJ said softly as she walked in Henry's room. "Chloe is ready for her goodnight kiss from Daddy."
Spence nodded and stood up from Henry's bed. "I don't think the little man is going to make it through story time with Mommy tonight."
JJ nodded as she peeked around Spence's shoulder to see Henry nodding off in his bed, his eyes barely open. JJ leaned up and gave Spence a quick kiss. "Meet you downstairs in a few."
JJ sat down on the edge of Henry's bed and reached over and brushed Henry's bang off his forehead.
"Mommy," Henry sighed, "lubs you." he whispered just before his closed shut and he fell sound asleep.
JJ leaned down and kissed Henry's forehead. "I love you too little man… so much." She sat watching Henry sleep for just a moment, then she got up and turned on his nightlight and closed the door most of the way behind her as she walked out into the hallway. After pausing to check on both Joshua and Chloe, she headed downstairs where Spence was waiting for her.
"So, give me the update. How are things with Erin?" Carolyn asked, knowing from the last time she and David spoke that he had reconnected with Erin and married her.
"Things with Erin are good." David replied as he cut into his food and glanced up at Carolyn, feeling lost in time as he wondered what could have been. "So, how about you? Anyone special in your life?"
Carolyn shook her head, somewhat sadly; then, summoned the courage to speak again, "You know David, I've been wanting to…" she stopped as she was cut off by the ringing of David's cell phone.
David reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. "Damn it." He said as he looked down at the screen.
"You gotta go." Carolyn said as she nodded her head. "I know. It's okay. It's comforting to know that some things never change."
"Look, how much longer are you going to be in town?" David asked, feeling bad that he had to leave in the middle of their meal to catch up with each other.
"'Bout a week or so probably." Carolyn replied
"Why don't you come over and have dinner with Erin and me before you head back?" David asked. "I still make a monster cioppino."
Carolyn nodded. "I would like that very much."
"Great," David said with a smile, pulling his napkin out of his lap and laying it on the table as he stood up. "Ciao." He said as he kissed Carolyn on either cheek.
"Ciao." Carolyn replied, losing herself in her thoughts as she sat at the café table alone after David left.
"Four pairs of shoes" Morgan said turning off the light in the closet as Reid came back from checking out the kitchen.
"Why exactly is that relevant?" Reid asked as he followed Morgan across the room.
"Come on Reid, how many pairs of shoes does JJ have in your closet?"
"Uh," Reid paused in place for a moment, his head tipping to the side as he mentally visualized his wife's side of their walk-in closet and attempted to mentally count her pairs of shoes… then he remembered she was using a lot of space on his side of the closet as well for her shoes.
Morgan turned around to look at Reid. "You're actually trying to count them in your head right now aren't you?"
"Uh, yeah" Reid said as he looked at Morgan.
"It's a lot more than four isn't it?" Morgan asked.
"Exponentially more." Reid replied with a nod.
JJ sighed as she closed the door of the interrogation room behind her. It saddened her every time they came across a mentally ill parent without a strong support system. It never failed to remind her of what Spence must have gone through as a boy. It also gave her a reason to thank God that everything had turned out alright for Spence with so many opportunities for something to have gone very, very, very wrong.
"You okay?" Elle asked, turning to look at JJ as she exited the interrogation room, from where she stood next to Hotch watching Marlene Smith through the mirrored observation window.
"Yeah" JJ replied with a nod, turning to look through the observation window with Elle and Hotch. "She's not involved." She said as she continued to watch Marlene cradle her head in her hands and sob.
Elle nodded. "She is certainly distressed and she's not showing any signs of guilt."
Hotch nodded. "I agree. Let's have her taken home. Hopefully everyone else found something to help us narrow things down."
Elle shook her head as she looked down at Marlene Smith's body in the convenience store parking lot as Derek walked away to call Penelope. "It's sad that the opportunity for a happy ending to this case is gone."
Reid turned to look up at Elle. "We'll find Bobby, Elle."
Elle nodded. "I know we will, but he won't be reunited with his Mom."
Reid nodded in understanding as they watched the coroner's van pull up, and then looked down at Marlene. "At least Bobby has a grandmother he can live with and won't become part of the system."
"There is some comfort in that I suppose." Elle replied and then turned and watched as Morgan headed back towards them.
"Agent Hotchner," Detective Woods called out as he walked towards them, "We have another child-abduction, four year old boy, taken from a park, about half an hour ago, just a couple miles from here. "
"A 911 operator," JJ said, clearly shaken that it had been so easy to lure the kids away, as she climbed into the backseat of the SUV, Rossi and Emily riding up front as they left the Tanner house, "that explains how he's finding his victims so easily."
Emily nodded in agreement as she pulled out her phone and called PG so she could start a search for their 911 operator.
"Rossi, did you hear me?" Emily asked as she watched Rossi staring through the window with his back to her.
"Oh, uh, sorry." Rossi replied as he turned back around to face Emily.
"You know, you've been more than a little distracted the last couple of days. Something is definitely up. Is there anything you want to share?" she asked with a concerned tone of voice.
Rossi smiled as he looked at Emily and gave a half shrug, "It's nothing. Uh," he said as he sat down on the edge of the desk Emily was seated at as they waited to hear back from Penelope, "I had breakfast with Carolyn the other morning." He said.
"Oh, isn't it usually best to wait to start working on wife number five after you've divorced wife number four?" Emily teased.
"Look, let's get our facts straight." Rossi replied, "I'm not divorcing wife number four. Wife number four should have been wife number two and that's where I should have stopped in the first place."
Emily held her hand up. "Wait, the way I've heard Gideon tell it, wife number four was supposed to have been wife number one… so shouldn't that have been where you stopped?" she asked in confusion.
Rossi chuckled. "Jason likes to think he knows everything, but I was married once before I joined the FBI. Carolyn was wife numero uno. We were very young and I was still in the Marines when we were married."
"Mmmm" Emily replied with a nod.
"Use your words Emily." Rossi replied.
"There's always something about the first. In anything." Emily replied.
Rossi chuckled. "I suppose that is true. I just can't figure out what she wanted to tell me. She knows about Erin… so I know it's not like she's looking for us to get back together after all these years… I guess I'm just worried."
Emily nodded. "Just because things don't always work out like you hoped, doesn't mean you stop caring or wanting to know that the people that you care about are happy. Maybe she just wanted to touch base with you and see how things are in your life?"
Rossi nodded. "Well I did invite her over to have dinner with Erin and me when I get back."
"Talk to me Mama," Morgan said as he answered the phone with the team all huddled around.
"First off, you are on restriction from my inner Lamborghini." Penelope said.
Emily raised her eyebrows, wondering what exactly PG was referencing.
Spence bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling at Morgan's dilemma.
"Penelope…" Morgan said trying to get her to stop, but she continued talking over the top of him.
"I mean it. This high performance engine may purr like a puma on the prowl, but this time Derek, you have seriously over heated my engine and I will require some cool down laps upon your return if you know what I mean by that."
Elle glanced sideways at JJ and then they both fought against the grins attempting to overtake their faces at the flagrant innuendo in Penelope's words.
A distressed look crossed Hotch's face as he sought out a way to redirect the conversation back to the case in the event that Morgan couldn't.
"Baby girl, you're on speaker." Morgan said when Penelope finally paused.
Rossi smirked as he not only listened to Penelope, but watched the reactions of the team from his position at the back of the group.
After a long pause, Penelope replied, "I knew that… I was calling to tell you, sir, that eleven 911 dispatchers in the greater Saint Louis area that were on duty when the calls were placed, but not working during the murder and abductions. Of those eleven, there's one that fits your profile. George Kelling…" Penelope said as she continued filling the team in on what she'd found.
Penelope told them that he'd shown up for his shift, but left early. It was no surprise that his last call had been a domestic incident involving a child in distress.
JJ rushed over to the closet door and let Bobby out as soon as Morgan and Hotch had Kelling secured on the floor. She guided him out of the room. "Are you okay?"
Bobby nodded, still in shock over the last few days. "My Mom?" he asked as he looked up at JJ.
JJ swallowed. "I'm sorry Bobby. She didn't… George…" JJ paused at a loss for words at how to tell a nine year old little boy that his Mom had been murdered. Sure, she'd handled multiple notifications in the past as the team's media liaison, but none of the next of kin to the victim had been nine year old little boys.
"It's okay… he told me what he did… I just…" he sobbed as he turned and buried his face in the nylon covering of JJ's bullet proof vest.
JJ fought back tears herself, as she wrapped her arms around Bobby, holding him close and attempting to comfort him as he cried over losing his Mom. She glanced up and met eyes with Spence across driveway as he directed the medics into the house to work on Kelling.
"So are you busy bracing yourself for whatever prank Morgan is preparing next?" JJ asked as she sat down next to Spence, who was staring out the window, and handed him a cup of tea and then curled into his side.
"Hmm?" Spence murmured as he turned away from the window. "No, I was just thinking… besides, I think Morgan will too busy giving Penelope her cool down laps to worry about pranks for a while… but if he starts again, I'm ready." Spence smiled at JJ as he nodded towards where Morgan paced while he was on the phone with Penelope and from appearances, barely able to get a word in edgewise.
JJ chuckled in amusement as she watched Morgan pace for a moment and then turned back to Spence. "You know, Timmy isn't that much older than Chloe."
Spence nodded and leaned down, kissing JJ's forehead, wondering what she was thinking and waiting to hear what she had to say.
JJ took a deep breath. "I think we need to start teaching the kids about strangers and that just because you know someone doesn't make it okay to go with them."
Spence nodded as he pulled JJ closer. "I hate to think about that happening, but you're right we need to make sure we teach them. Maybe since Halloween is coming up, it's a good time to bring it up. And speaking of teaching… could you please teach me about shoes… I don't understand why it was such a big deal to Morgan that Marlene Smith only owned four pairs of shoes."
"You don't…" JJ trailed off as she looked up at her husband perplexed. "Baby, how many pairs of shoes do I own?"
"Way more than four." Spence replied. "Exponentially more than four. In fact, that's what I told Morgan… but I don't understand how many shoes is enough. If she would have had five pairs of shoes in her closet, would that have been enough?"
JJ smiled and shook her head. "You're a smart boy baby. I bet if you think about it, you can figure it out." She said rubbing his chest as she rested her head against his shoulder. "So what should we do for Halloween costumes? We need to get everything pulled together in the next few days."
"I don't know. Henry doesn't seem to have a preference on costumes." Spence replied as he played with JJ's hair.
JJ nodded. "Well, I'm sure we can figure something out." She replied and then yawned, allowing herself to drift off to sleep as Spence continued to play with her hair.
Spence sat staring off into space as he attempted to puzzle out just how many shoes was the correct number for a woman to own as he continued to play with JJ's hair.
The rest of the team smirked as they followed JJ and Reid out of the bullpen. Reid had been quiet on the whole flight home, as if he was trying to solve a calculus problem in his head. As it turns out, he'd been thinking about women's shoes.
"JJ, would you please just tell me?" Spence pleaded as they walked down the hallway.
"What is Reid begging JJ to tell him?" Penelope stage whispered to Morgan.
Morgan chuckled. "Pretty boy is trying to understand why women own so many shoes." He replied as he rubbed the side of Penelope's pregnant belly, smiling when the baby kicked into his hand.
"Ah" Penelope nodded in understanding.
"How about ten pairs of shoes, that has to be enough right? Ten?" Spence asked JJ as they led the rest of the team down the hallway to the elevators.
"Ugh, Spence, it's different with the ladies. We need them to match our belts, our handbags, our skirts, and fashions change with the seasons." JJ said as she looked at her husband.
"David?" Erin paused as she came down the stairs, having heard Carolyn leave. She'd given Carolyn and David some time to speak alone; she'd sensed that a private conversation between the two of them was needed after dinner. "David, are you alright?" she asked as she took in the sight of her husband leaning against the door, his face buried in the crook of his arm. Concerned, she moved to join him, her hand resting gently on his back.
Dave let out a shuddering breath and turned to face his wife with tears in his eyes.
"David, what is it?" Erin asked, now even more concerned.
Dave swallowed. "Carolyn has ALS. She asked me to help her end her life on her own terms when the time comes."
Erin gasped, one hand rising to cover her mouth for just a moment. Then she wrapped both of her arms around David, holding him as he sobbed into her neck.