Note-Thank you to everyone who sent in a review. I am hoping that season seven will give me inspiration for more stories. Got my fingers crossed.
On My Own Too Long
Reid and Prentiss
Chapter Nine
September 2011
The day after the twins were born Derek Morgan waited outside of the neo natal ICU for Spencer Reid to come into the hallway. When Reid stepped out of the room Derek passed Reid a coffee and greeted him with "There's the daddy. You know, kid, you looked like a natural in there rocking that baby."
"Is it really appropriate to call me kid when I have two kids of my own now?"
Derek chuckled and mussed Reid's hair. "Aw, you think you're all grown now, huh?" The men started down the hall toward Prentiss room, Derek asked "So how are you handling all this? It's a lot to hit a person all at once."
"There's so much to think about, so much to take in, that I haven't had time to process it completely. Yesterday all I wanted was to find Emily and have her be unhurt. But we didn't find her in time-"
Derek gave Reid a sympathetic look. "Doyle did his best to torture her but Prentiss is tough and she held out. Do I wish we got there sooner? Hell yes. But, hey, we did find her in time. The fact that her and the babies are here proves that. Don't beat yourself up about what none of us could change but instead how about you give yourself some credit for figuring out the area we should search for her? Without that, maybe this all would have had a much grimmer ending. One I hate to even let cross my mind. Thanks to you, Prentiss and the twins made it. Your family made it. Celebrate that. Plan for the future. Don't beat yourself up about the fact that Doyle got to her."
"If I can't protect her from something like that then why would she ever trust me to protect the twins?"
"She does trust you. That's how you two got twins together."
After a moment Reid smiled a little.
Derek pushed at Reid's shoulder. "Look at you, lucking into such a hot baby mama! You've come a long way."
"There was a time I seriously believed I would always be alone. If not for the BAU I think I would have been."
They made it to Emily's room. "Well, you're not alone, Reid. You're surrounded by family and whatever help you need we got your back. Garcia is flying in today. I'm gonna go pick her up at noon. You know she's gonna be all over you, Prentiss and the twins, smothering you with love. You won't have the chance to ever feel alone again with all us around and now two mini geniuses too."
"At this point its too soon to predict if the twins will have high iqs and I honestly don't care if they don't. Life is easier being average, like you."
Derek rolled his eyes at that dig. "Life is easier being drop dead gorgeous, like me, so lets hope they get their mama's looks."
"I thought I'm a pretty boy?" Reid teased, as they entered Emily's room.
She smiled at them. "What kind of trouble are you two into this early in the morning?"
Reid said "Morgan is picking on me and said the kids will be ugly if they look like me."
Emily shot Morgan a dirty look and he shook his head at Reid before Morgan said "Go tattle to Mommy, you big baby."
Emily looked at the coffee they were holding. "I miss that so much! Where's mine?"
Morgan offered "I'll go get you one."
"No, you don't have to," Emily insisted.
"No problem. It will give you two some time to talk and finally name those babies. You know Derek is a very strong name. And Morgan works for a girl or boy. Just something to think about." With a smile on his lips, Derek walked out.
Reid looked at Emily "How are you feeling today?"
"If I don't move too much and keep doped up on pain meds its almost bearable. When the epidural finally wore off last night, though, I was ready to shoot someone if they didn't get me some kind of pain medication quick."
"I'd go through this all for you if I could, Emily."
"Aw, well that would certainly be one for the records book if you gave birth to our twins. Its okay, Reid. I'm in pain but its all worth it for having the babies here. I can hardly wait to go visit them again today. I hate having them away from me like this."
"I just came from there and they were both doing well, the nurses said. Which is good. I was glad to hear it. Still there are so many things that can go wrong that I couldn't even sleep last night for thinking about everything."
"For once, maybe nothing will go wrong. Wouldn't that be something? Cause, in my life, things are always ending up all messed up but this time, just this one, I hope that we get lucky."
"I already feel luckier than I ever thought I would be."
"Some guys would be running for the door in a situation like this. I mean, look at it, you sleep with a friend once and end up with not one but two kids. It's a lot to take in and if you need time to yourself to process it then that's cool. I know you'll be back when you're ready- if for no other reason then cause you know I'd be a disaster as a single mom so I need you around."
"You'd be amazing as a single mom, Emily. You're amazing at anything you try to do. You don't need to keep offering me time to think about all of this and how I feel. I don't want to run away from my responsibility."
"I know you would never do that. I just want you to allow yourself time to process so you are not overwhelmed. This is a lot to handle all at once for anyone."
"Yeah, but I can and I will handle it. Before we found you I had the worse headache and it didn't go away till you and the kids came out of surgery and I knew you were okay. Staying here makes me feel better than leaving ever could. I already told you yesterday that I'm staying right here with you and the kids till you're released. I wished you would have let me sleep in here last night cause that lounger there looks more comfortable then the chairs in the waiting room but I'm staying here one way or the other till you all leave here."
"You stayed here at the hospital last night? How did you change your clothes then?"
"JJ brought me by my go bag late last night. I couldn't go to the hotel. What if the babies needed their father?"
"Reid..." Emily said, in a tender voice.
He took her hand and squeezed it. "All I want is to be here when you all need me. Its what a father does, isn't it? Or what a father should do. A good father, at least. And I want to be one of those...to help you and to give that to our kids. They deserve that so I have to figure out how to be one."
"You're already a good father. You put them at the top of your list, I have no doubts about that. And when you learned about them you didn't ask first 'How will this affect me? I didn't sign up for this.' but you asked 'What can I do for them?' That shows you are thinking like a parent."
"I never expected to be a parent and I know that no matter how many books I read there will still be more things I don't know about parenting than things I do know but, no matter what challenges ever happen, I am not going to let my kids grow up without me around."
"While I was in witness protection I kept thinking that if something happened to me, if Doyle got to me and I was never seen again, then you would never know that we made two kids together...I'm glad you know now."
"I hate that there was no way for you to tell me sooner. We were cheated out of that moment together."
"Its all my fault because I handled Doyle wrong. What I did during his case eight years ago-"
"Don't beat yourself up about that. Its history now and-"
"Ancient history, I know, but it comes back to haunt me over and over."
"I wouldn't call it ancient history as the word ancient signifies thousands of years but it is in the past and there is too much happening in the present to worry about Ian Doyle anymore. He tried to take you away from all of us but he lost. You won, Emily. Because you were so strong I'm a father to twins and I have you here...my friend, one of my very best friends. I missed you so much every day. You are the only one who sees me as fully grown adult and not just a tall kid. I'm almost thirty. I'm not the teenager that the rest of the team seems to think I still am."
"Almost thirty? Well, you are old then," she joked. "Ancient, in fact. Oh no, sorry, not ancient cause that denotes thousands of years." She chuckled and then winced because laughing made her abdomen hurt.
Seeing her wince, Reid stood up. "Should I call for a nurse so you can get more pain medication?"
"I'm okay for now. What you can do is pick up that folder over on the table. It has the birth certificates that we need to fill out and sign. And you know what that means...time to name baby boy and baby girl. Have you got any ideas?"
"I'm sure you must have thought up a few names over the months, Emily."
"Yeah, a couple but you go first."
They sat there, tossing back and forth names, until they settled on two. Emily sighed in relief.
Reid said "Now you know what we have to do next, don't you?"
Emily saw his look and groaned, then winced. "No, no, no. I can't handle that right now. I'm not calling my mother."
"If you don't she really may never forgive you. Think about how much it would hurt if you were in her shoes."
After a long pause Emily said "Fine but I'll need more pain medication before I make that call."