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Chapter 55: Truly Happy Birthday

Another four months went by with no word from Booth or Brendan. The boys went about trying to find some semblance of normalcy in their lives. As normal as they could while being in hiding from a group of murderous sexual offenders. Over the last few months, Mike had been trying to get Emmett to walk and say more words. Emmett could now say a few words, but didn't really know how to put them together. He could call Mike "dada" and he could say things like "sing" and "hungry", though it sounded more like 'ungy'. Emmett had called Rose "mama" a few times and Mike didn't really have the heart to correct him. He'd asked Rose if she was ok with it, and she smiled and said if she could, she'd adopt him.

To teach Emmett to walk, Mike and Rose would sit about a foot apart from each other and stand Emmett up in front of one of them. Then they would encourage him to come towards the other while still lightly holding on to him. So far, Emmett was able to take 2 steps before falling, but since he was so close, someone always caught him. Mike made sure to praise him, even when he fell to keep him encouraged to walk.

Serenity was learning to say her first words by now. Micky and Sarah were working with her to get her to say something, both competing against the other in a way to see which one she'd say first in a small, fun way. Sarah had been pretty bed-ridden for the most part, but over the last month, she'd finally regained her energy and gotten out of bed and moved around. Still, while she was in bed, Micky had spent a lot of time in their room playing with both of them. When she finally said her first word, it was at the breakfast table. She'd flung her arms around and knocked Davy's bowl over by hitting just the right spot on his spoon. Sarah apologized and turned to tell Serenity to be more careful when Serenity smiled and said "mama!". Mike could tell that Micky was disappointed she hadn't said "dada" first, but was still happy and proud nonetheless.

"Come on, Emmett," Mike said as he sat across from Rose. She was holding onto Emmett carefully as he stood in between them. The others were sitting around them in the living room watching. Emmett thought about it first and looked down at his feet and took a step. "Good job, Emmett. You can do it. Come to daddy." Emmett looked down and slowly took another step. He wobbled a little, but squished his face up into a look of determination and stayed up before taking a third step. "That's it, Emmett! Come to daddy! You can do it!"

"Good job, Emmett," Rose said. "Keep going! Go to daddy!" Emmett took another wobbly step and then fell down right in Mike's lap.

"Great job, Emmett!" Mike said picking him up and lifting him in the air like an airplane. Emmett giggled and laughed in the air excitedly.

"That's four steps now!" Peter said. "He's getting so big!"

"Just wait," Micky laughed. "They get real big real fast over the next few years. Isn't that right, Serenity? Can you say "dada" yet? Dada? Come on, don't let Emmett outshine you! Say "dada". Please?"

"Don't push her, Micky," Sarah said.

"You're just saying that cause she already called you "mama"," Micky said smiling.

"Maybe," Sarah laughed.

"Emmett's birthday is next week," Willow said. "Do you think we'll do anything for it?"

"What can we do?" Mike asked. "We can't go anywhere. He doesn't know any other kids to invite. They don't even remember their first birthdays."

"We should at least do something," Rose said. "For ourselves. And he may not remember it, but he'll love it."

"What do you think, Emmett," Davy said moving to sit on the floor next to Mike and Emmett with a big grin. "It's been a while since Uncle Davy had a party. Do you want a party? With balloons and cake and presents?"

"He can't understand you," Mike laughed. "He doesn't know what presents and cake and balloons are."

"Don't be a party pooper," Peter laughed.

"Fine, but nothing extravagant," Mike said. "I don't know what we can even afford to get him as a present. It's not like we have an income."

"We'll figure something out," Micky laughed.

"Dada!" Serenity giggled grabbing for Micky's nose. Micky smiled and laughed. They were all happy for Micky, Sarah and Serenity; Mike and Micky especially. Micky had spoken to Mike one night about the fears he had for her. She was born early and she had problems in the womb. They weren't much, but anything can affect a growing baby. Sarah's long recovery time only told them just how stressed she'd been. She never really ate as well as she should until the end and who knows what happened to her when she was raped and drugged back at the Pad. None of them could know what kind of toll all that would have on Serenity and Micky was worried she would have problems other than her asthma and small nature. But her being able to say words on time was a good sign. And Mike was really happy.

Over the next week, they started planning Emmett's party. Davy and Peter went to the store with Willow to buy supplies and pick out gifts. Mike, Micky, Sarah and Rose each gave Davy and Peter a list of things they wanted to give Emmett and told them to pick out what they wanted, too. When they came back, they all started wrapping presents. Davy had picked up decorations, so in the early morning hours of April 13th they started putting up the decorations. They all had breakfast and Rose started making a cake for later that night. They spent the entire day around Emmett, playing games, telling stories, singing and dancing, until just about dinner time.

Willow helped Sarah make dinner in the kitchen while the others started getting the presents ready for Emmett. They put little party hats on Emmett and Serenity and sat around on the floor. Mike set Emmett in front of him and handed him the first present while Peter played with Serenity next to Davy and Micky. Rose sat down next to Mike as Emmett stared curiously at the first wrapped package.

"Go ahead," Mike encouraged. "Open it. This one's from Uncle Peter."

"I think you have to help him," Davy laughed.

"I know, I just wanted to see if he'd start on his own," Mike smiled. He slipped his finger under the wrapping and started tearing at it. When Emmett realized he could, he tore little bits of the paper off. Peter's gift was a little toy car, red like their Monkeemobile. Emmett clapped excitedly when Mike opened the car and slid it across the rug. Micky had given Emmett a small set of Tom and Jerry action figures to play with while Sarah gave him something from Looney Tunes. They had watched the cartoons on the TV, so he was able to recognize the characters and got excited.

Davy had given him a toy horse and Willow had given him a toy soldier set. They finally reached for the last two presents from Mike and Rose. Mike gave him a set of blocks to play with and Rose had given him a toy drum set. He immediately threw the blocks at the drum set making them all laugh.

"No, no, Emmett," Mike chuckled while grabbing the plastic drum stick and hitting the top of the drum lightly. "You play it like this. But Uncle Micky can really show you how later."

"You got him a drum set?" Davy asked. "I would have thought a toy guitar or something."

"He's a little young for that yet," Rose answered. "He can bang on this in the meantime. When he's old enough to know how to play with a guitar, I'll get him one." Serenity giggled as Emmett banged on the drumset with the drumsticks again. Micky knew that young babies can sometimes feel left out, so they had given a couple gifts to Serenity, including a small doll and plush penguin, which she immediately grabbed and hugged tightly.

"Dinner will be ready in about half an hour," Willow said just before they heard a knock on the front door. Micky got up to answer it voicing what they all thought: it was probably Dr. Brendan and Agent Booth. They knew when Emmett's birthday was and Mike wasn't surprised that they'd show up to wish him a happy birthday.

"Agent Booth, Dr. Brendan, hello," Micky said and stopped when they realized the two weren't alone. There were two men and a woman standing there next to Booth and Brendan. "Mr. Jones?"

"Grandpa!?" Davy exclaimed getting up and rushing to hug his grandfather standing in the door with two other people Mike didn't know. "What are you doing here?!"

"Don't worry, I snuck him out in the middle of the night," Agent Booth said. "Well, he left yesterday morning on a business trip or so his friends and neighbors think. But we met him late last night to bring him here. And yes, we blindfolded him so he doesn't know where you are."

"I'm not sure why all the fuss over that," Mr. Jones said.

"We didn't want you getting involved in all this," Micky said. "For your safety."

"Oh, nonsense," Mr. Jones laughed. "I had to come see you boys! The way you've taken care of David, how can I not see you boys as family. And that means those little babies are my great grandchildren. I have to see them on their birthdays."

"Come on, Micky," Mike smiled, touched at Mr. Jones' words. "There's no harm done. They don't know that he knows anything."

"Yeah," Micky said. "Come on in. We're gonna have dinner soon."

"I don't think we'll have any leftovers now, though," Willow smiled.

"That's fine," Sarah said. "And there will still be plenty of cake."

"Cake is good," the man said.

"These are my friends that work with me at the lab," Dr. Brendan said introducing the two new people. "This is Angela Monroe and Dr. John Hodgkins. They wanted to come by and meet you guys."

"Call me John, though," John said shaking Mike's hands. "They've told us so much about you guys already."

"And we brought gifts," Mr. Jones said.

"You didn't have to do that," Mike said.

"Of course I did," Mr. Jones laughed heartily. "They're my great-grandkids! I have to spoil them! Just like I did for David when he was a boy."

"Wait, you bought something for Serenity, too?" Micky asked.

"Well, it's something they can both play with," Mr. Jones said. "It's out in the truck."

"John and I will grab them," Agent Booth said before ducking back out quickly. "There's a lot. Peter, Davy can you help us?"

"Sure," Peter said as the four of them walked outside.

"A lot?" Micky asked.

"I don't know how often I'm going to get to see them," Mr. Jones said. "And it's not like they have a lot to do around here. Not that it's your fault, mind you. I think you're doing a great job. I just want to do what I can to help."

"I don't know what to say, Mr. Jones," Mike said.

"You don't have to say anything," he answered. "Though it might be nice if you introduce me to these lovely young women."

"Oh, of course," Mike said and turned to introduce his friends. "This is Rose, Sarah and Willow. And that, of course, is Emmett and Serenity."

"She's tiny for four months old," Angela said smiling at Serenity.

"We hope she'll grow a little more as she gets older," Sarah said.

"The bones probably won't experience any rapid growth-" Dr. Brendan started.

"She's beautiful just the way she is," Angela said cutting her off.

"Of course she is; I didn't say she wasn't," Dr. Brendan answered. "I was simply stating a fact."

"I brought you guys a polaroid camera, too," Mr. Jones said. "So you can commemorate today."

"Thanks, Grandpa," Davy said.

"Oh, cool!" Peter said trying to take the camera.

"No," Mike said swiping the camera before Peter could. "No offense, but last time we let you take pictures, you took pictures of the filing cabinet, not the evidence."

"It was artistic license," Peter defended.

"Well I want pictures of the kids, not artistic license," Mike said.

"Here we go," John said coming in the door with arms loaded down with bags. Agent Booth followed behind him carrying a very large box between him and Davy while Peter struggled with another one smaller, but still large box behind them.

"What in the world?" Mike asked staring at the two huge boxes.

"Well, Booth there has a playground you can put together in the backyard," Mr. Jones said.

"A playground?" Micky asked.

"Has two swings, a slide, all the fun stuff for kids," Mr. Jones said. "And the box said it was fairly easy to put together."

"You can't be serious," Mike said. "That's too much…"

"This appears to be a train set," Peter said.

"That's too big to be a train set," Rose said getting up to help Peter with it.

"Oh, it's one of those that you can sit on and ride around the house," Mr. Jones said.

"Seriously?" Mike asked. "That really is too much, Mr. Jones."

"Like I said, I have to spoil them," Mr. Jones said. "They're my great-grandkids. And after everything you've gone through for them and each other...well, it's the least I can do. Stop arguing and let's celebrate! How often do you turn one?!" Mike thought about arguing some more, but looked at how excited Emmett and Serenity were to see new people. When Emmett saw more bags of gifts he could tear open, his eyes lit up and he clapped. He loved seeing his son this happy, so he just decided to let it be. He and Micky shrugged and let everyone enjoy themselves so he sat and started taking pictures as Emmett unwrapped gifts. Booth gave Emmett a Raggedy Andy doll and Serenity got a Raggedy Anne, Angela gave them a Lite-Brite, John gave them some Lincoln Logs, and Dr. Brendan gave Emmett a coloring book full of letters and numbers along with crayons. Emmett immediately ripped open the box and pulled out the blue crayon and waved it around happily before stuffing it in his mouth.

"No!" Mike exclaimed. "Not food! Why is everything food to you?"

"Cause he's a baby," Rose laughed.

"He can play with this when he's a little older and not eating everything," Mike said. "Thank you all so very much. This means a lot to me."

"You're welcome," Booth said. "I have a son myself. I know how it is. And I can imagine how hard it is to stay cooped up like this. For all of you."

"Dinner's just about ready," Sarah said getting up and excusing herself to the kitchen. "I'll go check on it."

"Did you guys find anything out?" Micky asked Agent Booth.

"You guys really wanna talk about this right now?" Booth asked.

"Now's as good as any," Mike shrugged. "They're too young to know what we're talking about."

"We finished exhuming all the bodies, but we're still processing evidence," Brendan said. "Most of the victims have been identified. We were able to match the bullets that killed two more victims to the gun that killed the priest. Four victims had gunshot wounds matching Charles Eichmann's service weapon. Six other victims had fatal stab wounds matching a military issue hunting knife."

"So that's all really good evidence, right?" Davy asked sitting next to his grandfather. "Granted most of it is against Chucky, but, it's still good for us, right?"

"It's not enough to prove Claire did anything," Booth said. "She can easily say her husband did it and she didn't know anything about it. We still can't even prove beyond your testimony she killed the priest. But we found more that can help."

"We found some hairs clutched in the hands of one victim," Angela said. "They matched Claire's hair."

"How did you get her hair?" Micky asked.

"We followed her," Angela said. "Hairs fall out of the human head every hour. It was very easy to follow her into a cafe and gather the hairs she dropped from the booth after she left. She didn't even know we were there."

"How can you confirm the hairs you got from the booth were hers?" Micky asked.

"We cleaned all the booths before she came in," Booth said. "I posed as a busboy and cleaned every table thoroughly before anyone sat down."

"I also found fibers and dirt samples under several victims fingernails," John said. "Some of the fibers are consistent with carpet fibers from a vehicle. Others are still inconclusive at this time. The dirt contained skin cells and blood that matched your mother's type."

"You can still tell all that after ten years being buried?" Micky asked surprised.

"It's not easy, but yes," Dr. Brendan said. "Actually a couple of bodies were preserved pretty well because of the conditions they were buried in."

"And we exhumed the bodies of some of the girls that died in the hospital with the permission of family who are willing to testify that these girls all said they were drugged, raped, and experimented on," Booth said. "The families we spoke to all felt terrible for not believing the girls and want to set things right."

"That was the point," Willow said. "Who'd believe a crazy person?"

"Yes, well, the bodies are preserved enough that we've already been able to tell they all have widened birth canals showing they were pregnant at some point in their lives, which the families all knew nothing about," Dr. Brendan said. "And we're running tests on the soft tissue to see what chemicals and drugs we can find. Some of the bodies were accidentally naturally preserved due to the soil they were buried in, so we were still able to get hair and nail samples."

"Thank you," Micky said.

"Dinner's ready!" Sarah announced coming out of the kitchen prompting everyone to gather around the table and eat. As they ate, they exchanged stories and jokes, laughing and smiling. After dinner, they all ate cake and Emmett and Serenity each had a small piece and seemed to compete over who could get the most on their face and in their clothes rather than their mouths.

The boys played a few songs for their guests while the kids danced. Or what passed for dancing with a one year old and an 8 month old. Angela smiled and picked up Emmett and started twirling around the room with him. He seemed nervous at first, but smiled and giggled as he went. Serenity wanted up, too, so Rose picked her up and started dancing with her. Sarah sat on the couch and smiled, looking too tired to do much of anything else. They danced, laughed, and played on through dark and everything seemed, for at least one night, normal.