Chapter 50

Garcia was the first one to arrive at JJ's apartment on Saturday morning – at precisely 6.59 she rang the doorbell and didn't even hesitate to loudly bang on the door, when she didn't get a reaction within a few seconds.

"Gumdrop, where do I start?" was her greeting as JJ finally opened the door.

She brushed inside and looked around to make out a good place to get going.

"Good morning to you, too, Penelope," JJ said with amusement. "Why don't you get over to the kitchen and get some coffee first?"

"You started without me?" Garcia accused, pointing at a few boxes JJ and Dave had already packed.

"I just sorted out a few things that I won't need anymore over the last week. You can't imagine how much stuff has gathered here over the years," JJ sighed. It was definitely going to be a very long day.

"Good morning, Garcia," Dave called over to where she and JJ were standing as he walked into the kitchen with Hannah in his arm and Henry on his hand. The boy immediately let go of him when he saw his godmother, and ran over to her to wrap his little arms around her leg.

"Good morning," Garcia shouted back and knelt down to Henry. "How's my favorite little munchkin doing today?"

She became so engrossed with the child that she didn't even notice Dave's mother arriving as well.

The older woman went straight to the other baby, ignoring her son's dark glare as she took Hannah from his arm and the bottle he'd just prepared out of his hand.

"Stop frowning, Dave," JJ told him, nudging his shoulder playfully as she came to stand next to him.

"That's my job. She gets her morning bottle from me," he pouted quietly for only JJ's ears to hear it.

JJ couldn't help the snort escaping her mouth.

"You'll get over it," she muttered dryly. "Why don't you get going to pick my parents up from the airport? Their plane will land in 40 minutes."

She practically shoved Dave out of the kitchen, before he could start an argument with his mother, who JJ was certain would win this, which would only leave Dave in a foul mood.

"I thought they wanted to take a cab here?" He asked.

"They did, but since you'll be arriving early enough to catch them, I say they won't need to," JJ smirked.

Taking a deep breath, Dave pulled JJ into his arms and kissed her thoroughly.

"Wow, what was that for?" she breathed out in surprise once they broke apart.

"That was for how much I love you, and how happy it makes me that all of this is really happening."

A huge smile appeared on JJ's face.

"I love you, too."

She kissed him again, before she opened the door.

"Now get going before you're late."

JJ was secretly glad to have Dave out of her sight for about 1 ½ hours. It would give her the time to pack those things he had much rather she threw out. They'd had quite a few discussions over the past week about her coffee machine – which, in her opinion, made the best coffee in the world so there was no way she'd get rid of it – her electrical toothbrush, her hairdryer and various other items from her kitchen and bathroom.

"We need all the space for your other things in the moving boxes and I could always buy you a new and better coffee machine," Dave had repeatedly argued and after a while left JJ rather annoyed with it. She didn't understand why he would want to replace something that was still working perfectly. In her eyes, it didn't make much difference if they were taking these items with them to Little Creek now, or if they had to bring new ones afterwards. Plus, she was rather attached to her belongings. She knew how to use them and was perfectly happy with what she had. There was no need for some outrageously expensive model just because it was the best and latest in the market.

While Dave was out, the rest of the team and Jimmy arrived by and by, and they could all start packing. The kitchen was cleaned out and packed up first, and Hotch and Morgan were just out to drive away the first boxes of things JJ had decided to donate to a homeless shelter, when Dave came back with her parents.

Between the eleven of them, they managed to neatly fill all the boxes by early afternoon, although JJ had been more occupied with checking from Morgan and Reid in one room, wanting to know things like "Do you want to keep this?" to Penelope and Emily in another, asking: "How 'bout that?", and in between chasing after Henry, who was happily climbing through the growing piles of boxes, trying to unpack them again.

They had rented a moving van, which in the end was fully loaded.

While JJ, her mother and Dave's mother stayed back to clean up the empty apartment, Dave and Jimmy drove the van out to Little Creek, and the others followed in their respective cars. Jimmy had made sure that he was the one to be in the vehicle with Dave. He wanted to have some uninterrupted time alone with his friend to talk to him.

"This is the first time you let someone into your house," he began after they had been driving in silence for the first few minutes.

"What do you mean?" Dave asked suspiciously. He wasn't exactly keen on having this conversation again. Hotch, Morgan, even Emily – not to mention his mother – had already grilled him about being certain that this was what he really wanted.

"I mean, someone permanently moving in with you," Jimmy clarified.

"I have lived together with women before," Dave replied accusingly, not sure where Jimmy was going with this.

"I know, Davey. And I'm not going to elaborate on how this had turned out. But you've never let anyone live with you at Little Creek. You've had this house for how long? Since before wife number two if I recall correctly. And not once were you living there with one of your wives. Not one of them probably even saw the inside of this house. With none of them were you willing to share your sanctuary. You'd rather bought an entirely new place than let anyone move in there with you," Jimmy went on.

"JJ and the kids are special. They deserve only the best," Dave answered sincerely.

Jimmy smiled softly. His family had miraculously turned Dave into a completely different person. No, Jimmy thought, that probably wasn't exactly true. Davey was still the same man, but JJ and the children had managed to bring out a part of his very complex personality that he had hidden deep inside of himself for far too many years.

"I'm just surprised, Davey. But for what it's worth, I'm happy for you. It's about damn time, I'd say," Jimmy said.

"You know, as a priest you should really mind your word choice a bit better," Dave remarked, prompting a brief laugh from Jimmy.

"As long as your mother's not here to hear me, I'd say I'm fairly safe," he chuckled. And in a more serious tone, he continued: "I mean it, Davey. I'm really happy for you and Jennifer. She's good for you, that's obvious. I just hope you won't screw it up."

"Why does everybody keep telling me this?" Dave sighed annoyed.

"Because you have a history of screw-ups on your record, maybe?" Jimmy retorted sarcastically. "Seriously, Davey, I'm not just saying this because I'm concerned for Jennifer and the children. I'm just as concerned about you. You've been beaten before, but you always stood up again, but I'm not sure if you'd survive another blow."

"I've been through hell last year, Jimmy. I know what it means to lose them. There's no way I'm going to risk that ever again," Dave assured him.

Jimmy nodded. He had heard the story from Gracia, and Dave's fear and hesitation in the beginning didn't surprise him in the slightest. Not after everything Dave had been through with his previous women. He didn't know JJ very well yet, but he meant what he said. She was good for Dave, and they were obviously meant for each other. And the fact that Dave didn't even hesitate to let them into his home made him certain that his friend finally managed to get it right. He was just checking if Dave had understood that as well.

"I'm impressed with what you've become, Davey," Jimmy told him after a moment of silence. "And I hope you know that you always have a place to come to if you need anything."

"Thanks, Jimmy. I really appreciate that," Dave replied softly. At his friend's words, he felt his conscience for not meeting with him more often and for taking so long before introducing his family nagging at him again. Jimmy had been his friend practically his whole life, and he felt pretty guilty for excluding so much from his life lately.

"I'm really sorry, Jimmy, for not telling you about them sooner," he offered his excuse.

"Forget about it, Davey. I know you well enough to be sure you didn't do it on purpose."

"Still. You're my oldest friend and you were basically the last one to know about Hannah."

"Oh, your mother has been keeping me up to date in detail, trust me," Jimmy grinned. "And I haven't been exactly forthcoming in the past months either, so I guess we're even."

Dave nodded. "I guess we are."

For the rest of the drive, they continued to chat about JJ, Hannah and Henry. Dave shared a variety of anecdotes about his family and told Jimmy his view of everything that had happened over the last year. By the time they arrived at Dave's house, or at the new Rossi-Jareau-family home, Jimmy was as convinced as ever that his friend finally got his happy end.

Hotch had stopped on the way to pick up Jack from his play-date that had been a godsend this morning. His son was hard to control when it came to moving boxes and packing and unpacking things. He wouldn't have been of a valuable help today if he'd had to watch out for Jack, too. Now, they had brought up the packages with Henry's toys into the nursery and Hotch had instructed Jack to help unpack them, which the boy was excitedly doing together with Henry.

The boxes had all been brought inside when JJ, Mary-Ann, and Gracia arrived as well, and they all spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and making room and finding the right places for JJ's things. They didn't finish everything in one day, but JJ and Dave would be able to cope with the rest from this point on in the next couple of days.

While everyone else was busy with emptying boxes, tidying up, and moving furniture, Mary-Ann and Gracia had holed up in the kitchen as soon as all of JJ's stuff had founds its way into the cabinet, and prepared a large dinner for everyone.

Dinner being ready to be served marked the end of work. Gathering around the huge table in the dining room, everyone was surprised by the dishes Gracia and Mary-Ann had created. Before they started to eat, Dave got up and began to speak.

"I'd like to thank you all for your help today. I think I can also speak for JJ by telling you how much we appreciate you all being here today. We truly have the best family and friends around." He paused and raised his glass to the team, his mother, JJ's parents, and Jimmy, before he went on.

"JJ. I don't think I can express with words how much I love you. We've come a long way, but I'm happy we've finally arrived at our destination. I know I should have handled a couple of things differently when we started out, and if I could turn back time I would change them, but I don't regret anything that came out of it. It's amazing how that one night, here in this place, had changed our whole life forever, and I know I'll be forever grateful for everything you have given me. You've given me a daughter I love and adore more than anything else and a son who I couldn't love more if he were my own flesh and blood. But most importantly, you've given me your love. I'm still not sure with what I deserve all of this, but I can assure you that I will protect and treasure it for the rest of my life."

Tears were streaming down JJ's face after Dave had ended his unexpected speech, and she buried her face in the crook of his neck as he walked around the table to take her into his arms, holding her close.

"I love you so much," she whispered against his skin, for a moment forgetting the rest of their family and friends who were all watching them with teary eyes as well.

The spell was broken when Emily said to Garcia: "If this is what happens when they're moving in together, I cannot wait to see what he comes up with for a proposal."

The whole table burst into laughter until they proceeded to have dinner after a short grace by Father Jimmy.

It was a perfect way to end a stressful but nonetheless very successful and happy day. At some point over the course of the evening, everybody wondered what the future might hold for JJ, Dave and the kids, but they all knew that, whatever it was, it would surely be just as exciting as everything else that was behind them.

The end

A/N: When I started writing this story, I never imagined it to turn out the way it did in the end. I've changed my outline probably a dozen times, when I realized at the end of a chapter that I didn't get to a point I had originally planned. Most of all, I didn't expect the story to end up with 50 chapters. I know that, compared to many other wonderful stories up here, fifty doesn't sound much, but seeing as it was my first real multi-chapter fic, it's quite a number for me. It's been a huge pleasure to write it and I want to thank everyone who has been reading, alerting and favoriting very much. I hope you all had just as much fun reading this story as I had writing it.

A few end-of story shout-outs go to :

snoozie2105 – for the suggestions and help with finding a proper name for the baby girl. I still think that nice boys' names are a lot easier to find.

ilovetvalot – for some wonderful inspiration

and to everyone, who has reviewed one or more or every chapter: jirrG, hxchick, ilovetvalot, mummacass, snoozie2105, Nepeace, sangreal7, tonnie20091969, Sue1313, JenRar, CrimStudent47, Mechia123, JenTWCSINYFAN, penguinlover250, tayababy, Starrmyst, Alisha70, cyn23, Whitelion69, bookworm45, Prisca512, Hotch-Prentiss-fan, sarafina89, D'Arean, TinaQTICO2, BritlovesReid, jamie61, kenzmom, Bobban, anitarose, SandyJean24, claire18974, Rexybaby, sugalipz247, katie, ians. (I hope, I haven't forgotten anyone, if I did, feel yourself included ;)).

I had never expected to receive such a strong and fantastic reaction, which, admittedly, has been quite overwhelming, and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for not only reading, but also taking the time to leave some feedback and telling me what you were thinking.

Now, I'd love to hear some final thoughts, leave a review or pm me with what you liked, or didn't like, or tell me what I could do better next time.

A sequel to this story is in the making. And I'm still taking ideas and suggestions for that.

Thanks again!

Vanessa