A/N: This should have been up this morning, but my laptop and I had a little argument, hence the delay. Problem's fixed now, at least I hope so, and the good news is: there will be another chapter later tonight. I hope everyone still enjoys reading!

Chapter 32

When the team left around noon, Rossi's mother went home as well to grab some lunch, as she told JJ and Dave. Dave knew, however, that the main reason behind her temporary absence – she ensured them to be back in the late afternoon – was only that she could inform the whole extended Rossi family and everyone in her neighborhood, whom she hadn't had a chance to talk to already in the morning or the night before, about finally being a grandmother.

As soon as he was alone with JJ and the kids, Dave insisted that JJ took a nap along with Henry and Hannah. He had a nurse bring a small bed for Henry to lay down and it didn't take more than five minutes, and the kids were asleep, the excitement of the morning clearly having worn them down.

JJ chatted lightly with Dave for another short while, but her eyes grew heavier with every minute, and soon she was out too. Watching over her sleep for a few minutes, Dave decided to make a quick trip down to the hospital cafeteria to get some coffee, and grab a few bites to eat as well.

Wandering back through the hospital corridors ten minutes later with a cup of coffee and a bagel in his hands, couldn't believe how fast everything had happened in the past twenty-four hours. Not even a day ago he had thought they would be able to make use of the last few weeks until JJ's actual due date to prepare themselves for their child a bit more, address unresolved issues like how they were going to organize raising their daughter and the like. If it was for him, they'd be together like a real family, but Dave knew that convincing Jennifer that they'd be good together would be one hell of an effort. He couldn't blame her, of course, as he had been the one to shut down and not let anything develop between them in the first place.

Afraid of another commitment that might fail, he had asked for their night together to stay a one-time event, and – if he was honest – he'd been surprised when she had readily agreed, because he actually knew or at least suspected that her feelings for him went beyond friendship. When she didn't even object to his suggestion to put their relationship back onto a platonic stage, however, he hadn't been so sure anymore if she was really feeling more for him. And when she seemed to have no problems at all with forgetting the mind-blowing passion they had shared that one night, acting like her usual self in the following weeks, he'd pushed is own feelings aside, trying to convince his aching heart that they were doing the right thing, that he had done the right thing for both of them by not pursuing anything further.

They had had this wonderful friendship that he didn't want to destroy, and which had become deeper with every day after LaMontagne had left. It was the most functioning relationship he'd ever had with a woman that wasn't his mother. And then her pregnancy had caught him off guard, and he had managed to blow it anyway.

He shook his head at the thoughts of his reaction to that as he entered her room again. He was fairly certain that no one had ever screwed things up bigger than he had. Luckily for him, it had turned out that these things were obviously not shattered beyond repair, that he was actually able to fix them. And if he had learned one thing over the past weeks, then that he would never dismiss his feelings for her again like he did before. He was not going to deny them anymore, he would not let her slip through his fingers again by suggesting to stay friends when they could be so much more.

Looking down on his sleeping daughter, he vowed that he would do anything to bring them together as a real family. He'd do whatever it takes to try and convince Jennifer of his love, for her, for their daughter, and also for Henry, who he refused to see as anything else but his son.

Little did he know at that moment that JJ would make this task the hardest challenge for him in the next few months.