"Congratulations – You have a daughter!" the doctor announced proudly, holding up the red, squirming baby. "Just let me cut the cord."
"A daughter," Hotch repeated, stunned. "I have a daughter!"
"And I have a new niece," Rossi's eyes were glittering with tears. "Laurel, she's beautiful!"
"And now, Dad, how would you like to come with me while I check her out and get her cleaned up and weighed?" The pediatric nurse who had joined them in the delivery room was asking Hotch, who immediately looked over to check on Laurel as she lay on the delivery table.
"Don't worry, Aaron," Rossi spoke up. "I'll stay with Laurel."
"And, I'll be right here with her, too," Nurse James added. "I need to help make sure that the new mother has come through this ordeal in good shape. Don't worry, I'll have her cleaned up and ready to receive visitors in no time." She smiled at Rossi.
"Don't worry, your wife is in good hands," Rossi was smiling back at the nurse.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"I assume you have a name picked out?" Blake asked. It was early evening and the team, along with Paige, Jack, Jessica, and Tovah, were crowded into Laurel's hospital room admiring the new addition to their family.
"Yes – What is this little treasure's name?" Garcia burbled as she looked over Hotch's shoulder at the sleeping baby he was carefully cradling.
Laurel and Hotch both looked over and smiled at Paige and Jack, who were perched on the edge of Laurel's bed.
"Why don't the two of you tell everyone?" Laurel suggested.
"Her name is Sophia," Paige began.
"Elizabeth," Jack declared. "Hotchner," he added belatedly.
"Well, I think that is a beautiful name," Blake told the two children.
"It certainly is," JJ added.
"Sophia means 'Wisdom' in Greek," Reid observed.
"Sophia was my mother's name," Rossi said thoughtfully.
"We know, Uncle Dave, that's why we picked it," Paige told him with a smile.
"I think he's trying hard not to cry again," Jack announced a moment later.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
"I think it is about time we left and let the new mother get some rest," Rossi suggested a short time later. "I know I have had a hard day, and I'm not the one who had the baby."
"He's right," Morgan agreed with a smile as he helped Garcia stand up. "We can all come back tomorrow after Mom here has had a good night's sleep."
"She's beautiful," JJ commented as she leaned over the bassinette to take one last look. "You two are so lucky!"
"Tovah, can you stay for a minute?" Laurel asked. "And, you too, Spencer. There is something –
"And, Aaron, why don't you walk everyone down the hall?" she suggested. "You can go over Jack and Paige's schedules for tomorrow and make sure that everything is covered."
Her husband gave her a puzzled look before herding everyone out of the room and down the hall towards the elevators.
"Okay you two," Laurel addressed the couple as soon as she was certain everyone was out of hearing range. "I just want to suggest that you take yourselves over to the synagogue, talk to the Rabbi, and get yourselves under that canopy before Mr. Meyers figures out what is going on and kills Spencer!"
"How?" Tovah asked, embarrassed.
"I suspected something two days ago," Laurel smiled at her. "You didn't look too healthy that morning. However, this morning, you looked absolutely green. I was the one in labor and you were the one looking sick."
"I wanted to ask you to be my attendant," Tovah explained. "And, I suspect that it is going to be a while before you feel up to it."
"Just make sure there is a chair for me to sit in at the end of the aisle," Laurel told her. "If I can make it that far, that's all the matters. Just promise me you'll speak with the Rabbi tomorrow – Please? I don't want to have to visit Spencer in the hospital!"
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
The wedding of Tovah Israel Meyers and Spencer William Reid took place ten days later under the canopy at the Beth Israel Synagogue. Tovah had asked Laurel and Paige to be her attendants, while Reid chose Henry and Jack as his groomsmen.
Jade had flown in from Chicago for the wedding of her auxiliary skating coach and, as Jack told the story in later years, it was while he was standing in front of the synagogue, looking around at the wedding guests, that it suddenly dawned on him that The University of Chicago might be a good choice for a college to attend. And, as Hotch later moaned, three generations of Hotchner men attending the University of Virginia immediately went down the drain the minute his son, Jack, fell in love with Jade Larson.
Despite grousing about again being forced to organize a wedding on short notice, Garcia again came through with flying colors, and Mrs. Meyers was duly impressed with the results. And, if Mr. Meyers suspected the reason for the wedding being held on such short notice, he never let on. As his wife kept reminding him, "She's marrying A DOCTOR – Three times he is A DOCTOR! Can your sister say that about any of her kids?"