THE REWARDS OF GROWING OLD

Important Ages (it's a long list):
Jack Hotchner – 14-ish
Gabi Morgan – 8
AJ Hotchner – 7
Chris Morgan, Nate Reid, Seth Hotchner – 3 1/2
Kate Hotchner, Calleigh Reid – 5
Eric Reid – 18 months

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"You know, we used to be like that," Penelope said, vaguely waving an ice cream cone at a group of young women who couldn't be above the age of twenty. It was a well-deserved weekend vacation to the beach. The kids were happily playing in the shore, Jack seeming to be able to keep an eye on most of them at the same time. Little Eric, JJ and Reid's youngest, was asleep on a blanket beside his mother, curled up with another towel as a pillow, his Binkey tucked under his arm.

JJ raised an eyebrow as she glanced over at Penelope. "Uh... last time I checked, I still was that person."

"Babe, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, it's been a while since you were like that," Penelope replied. She sighed. "We're getting old."

"Now, Mama, come on. That's not true," Derek argued

"Derek if you are about to tell me I'm still the most beautiful woman you've ever seen, I swear I may hurt you," Penelope shot back.

"Come on, Pen, it's not that bad," Emily spoke up, stretched out comfortably on her stomach beside the low chair Aaron occupies. The way his fingers continuously ghosted over her skin almost made her purr in contentment. "But you are right, My college days are long gone."

"And yet, you're as beautiful as ever," Aaron said, glancing at his wife over the edge of his book. It was a textbook he was considering putting on his syllabus.

Emily laughed, pushing herself up far enough to grab his hand and press a kiss to his palm. "Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Hotchner."

"Oh, I know, Mrs. Hotchner," Aaron replied waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Emily and Aaron laughed whole-heartedly at the disturbed look on the faces of the others. It was still difficult for each of them to see Aaron as anything other than 'Hotch' and their boss. Sometimes they got a kick out of being especially suggestive around the team, if only to get a reaction out of them.

"But seriously," Emily began. "We've got more to offer the world than they do." She waved vaguely at where the college co-eds had gone.

"And less communicable diseases," JJ agreed.

"Pssht," Derek said from beneath Penelope. She was rubbing sunscreen into his dark skin. "More than that."

"You're more worldly," Reid jumped in, much to everyone's surprise.

"Only you could make that sound like a compliment, honey," JJ said, leaning over to kiss her husband's cheek. "Worldly."

"Well, you are much better travelled than they probably are," Aaron agreed, absently tracing a hand over a puckered scar on Emily's back. "You've experienced a lot more."

"You have more patience," Derek added. "To put up with us."

"Eh, you boys aren't that bad," Penelope replied with a wide grin. "Putting up with you isn't always painful."

"Sometimes it's even fun," JJ agreed, ruffling Spencer's still-shaggy hair.

"But best of all," Aaron began as Emily rolled to her back. His hand went to a scar on her stomach that still hadn't faded. "You are brilliant mothers."

Emily smiled as her hand covered his over her scar. Their youngest, Seth, had had to be delivered by c-section. "We're only complimenting you boys."

A wail broke through the air interrupting their conversation and all six parents looked towards the waterline to discover the source of the wail and it's cause. Emily and Pen sighed, realizing it was their children involved, pushing themselves up to go and investigate. Pen scooped her three-year-old son out of the salty spray as Emily eyed her own daughter Kate, and Calleigh Reid.

"What happened?" she asked, hands on hips.

"He came out too far," Kate said immediately. "They're supposed to stay on 'a sand."

"So are you," Emily reminded her daughter swiftly, making it clear that they were not getting out of this without at the very least a scolding.

Penelope was wiping gently at her son's face "What did we say about going into the water?" Pen asked, scolding her son slightly.

"Wit Mommy and Daddy," two other little voices chorused.

Emily smiled at Nate Reid and her own Seth approvingly. "Right."

It was then that they were approached by a man holding the hand of his fully life-jacketed son. "Salt water in the eyes?" he asked pleasantly as the waved lapped at their feet.

"Unfortunately," Emily agreed with a sigh, the way her hands perched unwittingly showing her body off to the man.

"Some clean water should wash it out as quick as a bunny," he replied with a wide smile.

Emily smiled at the twitter of laughter that came from the children assembled around her.

"They all yours?" he asked as his son hopped over the small crests of wave that washed over their feet.

"Oh no," Emily said with a laugh as Penelope came up beside her. "Two of these. Two more up on the beach." She waved in the vague direction of where Jack, Gabi and AJ seemed to be busy planning and building the 'most epic sandcastle'.

He looked her up and down. "You are much too beautiful to have given birth to four kids." Then he looked at Penelope. "And you?"

"Two," she answered. Even so many years after Battle, Penelope still had a difficult time trusting strangers.

"There has to be a secret then."

"Oh?" Emily asked with a raised eyebrow. "Secret for what?" She seriously couldn't decide if he was using the little boy at his feet or if the two of them were truly related. Of course, there was the potential that both were true.

"Six kids between such beautiful women," he responded with a charming smile. "There must be a secret as to how you are both so beautiful."

Emily was seriously trying not to laugh, but Penelope wasn't as successful. A snort of laughter escaped her mouth. "Our husbands would probably agree," she said, amusement loud in her voice.

Emily watched his body language back off immediately. She cut him a little slack, mostly because none of the women had worn their wedding rings, too afraid of getting sand in the settings or having them accidentally slip off in the water. There was nothing to broadcast their married status.

"Kate, Cal, come on," Emily said, deciding to cut the guy off while he was ahead and lifting Seth into her arms. She held out her other hand for Nate. "Time for sunscreen."

She grinned at Penelope as they made their way bac up the beach with their children. "Looks like we're not quite over the hill yet."

Penelope rolled her eyes. "Okay, I get it. I'll wait at least another decade to call us old."

Emily laughed as she handed Seth to her husband to dig the sunscreen out of their beach bag. "You wait until we stop getting hit on to call us too old."

"Whoa, someone hit on my girl?" Derek asked, already beginning to slather sunscreen on Chris.

"Watch yourself, Derek," Aaron warned, watching Penelope's eyebrow arch slowly.

"What?" the African-American man asked his wife. "It's not my fault they didn't find you first."

"Says the man who took how many years to tell me he loved me?" Penelope shot back.

"Now, really? You're going to hold that against me?"

Penelope grinned. "For the rest of our days, Hot Stuff. And even after."

"You love her for it," JJ spoke up.

Derek grinned. "Every day of my life."

This came from a combination of a conversation with sienna27 and the Sex and the City episode "20-something girls v. 30-something women". And the fact that I wanted to do something along the lines of how they keep their romance alive. This is what happened.