During the first weeks of January, Christine was the guest of honor at two baby showers. The first was a surprise shower, organized by the ever-inventive Penelope Garcia-Morgan, ably assisted by JJ and Blake. As Christine looked around the gaily decorated restaurant banquet room, it seemed to her that everyone in the BAU, male and female, was there.
"I wanted to use a Dr. Who theme," Garcia lamented. "But, those two (she indicated JJ and Blake) vetoed that."
"That phone booth boxy thing was too blue," JJ contributed. "Besides, we needed to be gender neutral."
"And, under the circumstances, a Peaceable Kingdom theme seemed much more appropriate," Blake added, nodding towards Reid and Hotch who were glaring at each other from opposite ends of the room.
"Oh, No!" Christine moaned. "What mischief has Reid perpetrated now?"
JJ grinned widely. "This time it was Hotch," she reported gaily. "It seems Spence's favorite bookstore had a problem with his most recent order. Some of the books were coming from overseas and (on paper at least) it appears they disappeared into the sea!"
"Oh No!" Christine was trying hard not to laugh. "I have no doubt that really freaked him out." She turned to Garcia. "Penelope?"
"Don't look at me!" the tech raised her right hand as if to swear. "I had nothing to do with it! Hotch must have gotten someone else to help him. And, I want you to know, I haven't had anything to do with any of the other pranks either. I love my favorite genius, but I love my boss man, too."
"Spence has certainly been using his magician's tricks to achieve some devious ends!" JJ commented with a sly grin.
The second shower was hosted by Valerie Prescott, and included the Alphabet Survivors and their families, as well as Victoria Gainsville's family.
Sheila McKay was in attendance and on her very best behavior. Christine had finally agreed to an interview co-hosted by Sheila's sister. The conditions that she had spelled out specified that the interview would take place after the babies had been born, and would include all the survivors. She had also insisted that the interview take place at Vicky's Place, and would include a segment on the facility and the work it was doing with female abuse victims. Finally, she had gotten all the Survivors to agree to donate their honorariums to the facility.
"We've been through so much bad, I thought we needed to celebrate something good," Valerie told everyone as she held up her punch cup in a toast. "To the future!"
As the collection of baby items continued to grow, overflowing into Christine's bedroom, Rossi just shook his head.
"Are we really going to need all this 'stuff'?" he asked.
"Just, wait," Nurse Marci told him. "There are still things we need to buy."