"Okay, ladies? What did you do?" Aaron asked his wife and Alex.

"You'll love it," Penelope promised her husband kissing him passionately.

"So out with it," Dave suggested.

"We put a spell on those harassment suits," Alex explained with a very self-satisfied expression.

"Targeted specifically to Finnigan, Harcourt and Daniell," Penelope added.

"So what does it do?" Aaron asked curiously.

"It won't cause them any harm," Alex promised her dark eyes twinkling with mirth.

"It's a very subtle kind of spell," Penelope explained.

"It will make them avoid us unless they absolutely have to be near us like for a staff meeting. If they see us in the hall they won't say a word when they pass. Not even a good morning," Alex said.

"They'll also believe that they're doing this all on their own free will. They won't realize that they are under a spell, because it is believed that magicals were killed 500 years ago," Penelope added.

"Because of the fact that they have just a touch of magic they are even more suspectable than an ordinary person," Alex explained.

"Don't you have to have something of their's in order to make that work, especially since it's targeted specifically to them and no one else," Dave asked.

"It wasn't too hard to get a few hairs from each of them," Alex explained. "No one ever saw me steal them and those who did see me never thought anything of it, because I wasn't acting suspicious. They never felt a thing or realized I snatched couple of hairs from the three of them."

Everyone burst into laughter including Penelope and Alex.

"It's no more than they deserve," Aaron said. "I only wish that Dave and I knew such a spell and we would've gotten rid of their attention years ago."

"So I'm assuming you did something to the papers?" Dave asked.

"It only took a minute to make sure the spell went only after those three. All I did was take out the correct hair for the correct suit, made sure the right hair was touching the paper and chanted a quick spell. The hair disintegrated so that means it worked. I did this for all of the harassment suits, as I got six hairs, two from each lady. There should be no more of them giving us nasty looks or of them bothering any of us. They'll take the dean's warning seriously, more seriously than they probably would have without the spell I put on those papers."

"There'll consider the fact that we're married now and they lost and so they'll listen to their good sense and not bother any of us," Penelope said. "They'll likely feel rather embarrassed that they bothered you two so much and that will keep them silent."

"The minute they touched them, was the minute the spell took affect," Alex added. "It won't affect anybody else and it dissipated as soon as its requirements were met."

"You'll see how well it works over the next few weeks," Penelope promised both Dave and Aaron.

"But won't people notice if they're suddenly leaving us alone?" Dave worried.

"People will assume that they just finally gave up, especially with those harassment suits hanging over their heads," Alex promised. "If asked directly then they'll say something like they just finally gave up, because you're both married now. They'll truly believe that they gave up on their own free will and who knows that might've happened, even without the spell. All the spell does is ensure that they'll listen to their common sense, which I think they would've done years ago if they weren't so attracted to you, because of that touch of magic and your otherworldliness auras. If you had just been ordinary men they likely wouldn't have chased you for so long."

"If there was still those that truly believed in magic anymore then I might be a little worried that our spell would be suspected but I don't see that happening. As Penelope said, it's a very subtle kind to spell. Undetectable, once cast, if you don't know what you're looking for," Alex explained.

"What's done is done," Aaron told Dave who nodded with a smirk. "And to tell you the truth it'll be quite a relief not to have them always stalking us outside of classes. If we thought about it we could've added stalking to the charges, even if that was only within the college and not outside it."

"If only because we protected our location and phone number like it was a matter of national security," Dave snorted cynically.

"Oh, it was. It was a matter of our peace of mind," Aaron said cheerfully.

"Yes, thank you, Alex, thank you, Penny," Dave said. "We'll worry about the consequences when they appear not before."

"I truly believe there won't be any consequences Dave," Alex told her husband. "Neither Penelope or I would've risked the secret of magicals getting out, or we would've found another way to deal with the situation if we had believed that the risk was anything but minimal."

"I have to agree they're both too cautious to do anything that's going to put a sign on their backs saying we're magical come and get us," Aaron suggested with a smile.

"You're right, you're right," Dave agreed relaxing a little. "Forgive me for worrying. I just don't want to bring the government or anybody else down on us."

"I don't blame you at all for that," Penelope told Dave. "That was why we did it this way, instead of putting binding spell on all three of them to leave us alone. That would've been more obvious to anyone that had even a touch of the gift."

"Basically, what it would've done was make it so they literally could not approach any if us, much less send us nasty looks. They might've struggled against it and done themselves harm, even if they didn't know what they were struggling against," Alex explained.

"That type of spell has all the subtly of an elephant in a China shop," Penelope said causing everyone to laugh.

"I might feel a little guilty for what Penny and I did, but the other way, was worse and also very obvious, as they wouldn't have been able to get within a certain number of feet of us, without literally feeling that they had better get as far way as possible, as fast as possible. It would've been pretty obvious that something was wrong with the three of them."

"This way they can still approach us and be in our presences, even if they're uncomfortable being so, which they'll believe are their own guilty feelings for how much mental and emotional anguish they put you through. They'll believe that if they say the slightest thing wrong that you'll file those harassment suits, so that it's best to avoid you as much as possible."

"Alright, I see what you're saying," Dave said. "This isn't likely to be detected while the other one would be obvious there was something wrong."

"Precisely," Penelope agreed.

"It's something that dad suggested while you were busy elsewhere," Alex said. "I had to agree that it would solve our problems, so I was willing to do it. I knew both of you were tired to death of dealing with them and I really didn't believe they would stop, even though you're married now, mostly because of that touch of magic, which senses your otherworldliness and attracts them like bees to honey. If not for that, they likely would've listened to their good sense years ago and left you be."

"The way we dealt with it solves the problem and you'll no longer have them constantly bothering you," Penelope added.

"Which will be a profound relief," Aaron said. "Now I believe we have other things to do."

"Like start on those heirs to the Rossi and Hotchner name," Dave added following what his friend was thinking easily.

"Delighted kind, sir," Alex giggled. "I'll be perfectly happy for you to get me pregnant as I've been wanting children of my own for several years."

"You could've had that with Samuel," Dave suggested, with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

"No thank you," Alex shuddered, knowing she was being teased. "I would've gone insane in no time, and you know it if I had married Samuel Cohen."

There was no reply as Dave picked Alex up and headed for their bedroom.

Alex didn't protest and simply snuggled into Dave's arms while seeing over her shoulder that Aaron was doing the same thing to her sister.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Epilogue

Dave gazed at the sea and knew he and Aaron had been lucky. They had eight kids apiece, with four more on the way as Alex and Penny were pregnant again. Him and Aaron had been married to their witches for 14 years now and what a 14 years it had been. That had basically been a child a year, except for one break that the witchdoctor Alex had seen back in Refuge had insisted Alex and Penny take to give both their bodies a break.

Both Alex and Penny were quite young by magical standards, so they could have another half a dozen by the time they reached 60. Dave loved Alex more and more every day and the eight kids she had borne him two of those being twins made him very happy indeed.

They had to have their double beachhouse extended, but they didn't mind that at all and so now it was three floors and much bigger. Even with the extension they were running out of room for kids, especially with both of their families living there. If it had just been just him and Alex or Aaron and Penny there would've been plenty of room for 20 kids. As it was, they spent most of their time in the ocean, so it wasn't too crowded most of the time, though the kids were sharing rooms, instead of having their own. The kids had been able to take on their seal forms at less than two years old as soon as they could walk.

After that though, it had been basically a kid a year.

Both Alex and Penny had offered to have twins every time, saying that there was a way to speed up their ovulation, but both Aaron and Dave had refused not wanting to put their wives lives at risk, as it had taken them far too long to find their perfect matches as it was.

They had agreed this time though to allow their wives to give birth to twins by speeding up their ovulation, as they had done once before, to get their other set of twins, born just over five years ago. It wasn't dangerous so long as it wasn't done to often. The witchdoctor had had to assure Dave and Aaron before they allowed it. The witchdoctor had told them that Penny specifically was made for having twins and even triplets because of her body size. That she hadn't had twins without speeding up of ovulation wasn't surprising, but it was a little unusual. All it meant was that Penny wasn't dropping more than one egg at a time, unusual in a woman her age but not unheard of. The witchdoctor had recommended every three or four years to allow both Alex and Penny to speed up their ovulation to get twins, unless of course they had them naturally.

Dave was ecstatic to have such a large family, though they had drilled into children's heads about not revealing what they were to others. The kids had learned their lessons well and were very responsible for their ages, though for the younger ones they still hadn't learned that caution was the byword, or at least the ones that were less than five hadn't. That didn't matter though, because young kids often had vivid imaginations and that's mostly how the adults took it when they mentioned selkies and magic in a public place. They lived within half a mile of the ocean after all, so it was only natural that the children made up stories about a place that they lived. Like if they had lived near a forest, as that children would likely have made up stories about forest creatures and them having grand adventures.

The adults just tended to smile at the kids vivid imaginations and forget about the large family as soon as they were out of sight. That was another subtle spell that Penelope and Alex had cast around their family. It was the spell of forgetfulness, modified to make people forget how many children the two couples had, so long as they were out of sight. Out of sight was, out of mind in this case.

All magic had its consequences Dave and Aaron had learned and a lot of times that was just power from the caster, but there could be more serious consequences depending on the spell, especially if that spell was meant to physically harm someone or even if it happened on accident. With both Alex and Penelope combining their powers the consequences were often lessened instead of increased and it also made whatever spell they cast far stronger.

Since it protected them all neither Dave or Aaron complained and knew that their wives were very careful with their magic.

"Having 10 kids for both of them was a blessing that neither Aaron or Dave would ever be able to repay. They felt that they had been very blessed when they had met Alex and then Penelope. If they're wives wanted to stop having kids after these four were born then they would more than understand. Because 10 kids was a lot for one woman to have, even if two of the pregnancies had been sets of twins, that meant they had been pregnant eight times apiece.

"What are you thinking about so deeply," Alex asked her husband.

"About how far we've come in just 14 years," Dave explained smiling. "I never imagined I'd have 10 kids if you count the two you're carrying now. I always worried that if I ever had kids they'd be stuck in seal form. That is one worry I no longer have."

"I have something to tell you," Alex said haven't been trying to find a way to broach the topic for the last several weeks.

"What is it? What has you worried?" Dave asked, as he gently put his arms around his wife nuzzling the side of her head affectionately.

"I found out several weeks ago that I'm not just having twins, but triplets instead," Alex finally explained.

"And you didn't tell me this why?" Dave asked.

"I was just worried you'd be upset and thought I'd done it deliberately," Alex admitted. "I know how much you worried the first time when I had twins."

"That was because I wasn't entirely sure it was safe," Dave said. "You're witchdoctor assured me my fears were groundless so long as you didn't do it every time. I know we joked about having 20 kids, but I really didn't believe we'd have that many, but you have to admit we're well on our way. You never have to fear telling me anything, you know that Alex," Dave added in a gentle admonishing tone.

"I'll remember that in future," Alex promised kissing him. "I think it was more the pregnancy that made me worry, you know hormones and everything."

"Boy, do I," Dave chuckled remembering some of those times Alex had broken down for no reason.

"Yes, I know I'm pretty hard to live with when I'm pregnant, which has been constantly lately," Alex admitted. "I'm surprised that you or Aaron or even Penny put up with me."

"We know it's because you're pregnant, sweetie," Dave told her. "It's well known that pregnant women can be hard to deal with and this is true for selkie females as well. Some are harder than others of course, as pregnancy affects every woman differently. You're giving me the family I've always wanted so I'm not about to censor you for your rather charming personality when you're pregnant. For one thing it doesn't happen until the last trimester, which does help."

"I love you," Alex told him, as she flung herself into his arms. She knew that Dave would be there to catch her, even though she was much heavier now since she was in her last trimester. Her stomach was also very extended considerably considering she was in her last couple of months. She had never imagined having somebody as understanding as Dave as a husband. Most men didn't understand a witch's moods or the cravings they got during pregnancy, just tried to avoid their spouse's wrath.

"So how did it turn out to be triplets?" Dave asked.

"It was bound to happen at some point," Alex said. "Penny and I are both older now and we might be dropping more then one egg naturally for all I know unlike when we were younger. Both of us are nearing 50, and most women stop having kids long before they reach that. Most women aren't fertile past a certain age, though some still are I know. I'm thinking that three got fertilized this time for me. Of course, it's very possible that two of them are identical twins. We won't know until they're actually born and sometimes it's hard to determine if they are identical, until they are a year-old and if they have the same eye color than they likely are identical."

"Well, since both of us have brown eyes and all our children do as well, I would say that's not a certainty in this case," Dave suggested with an amused smile.

"That's true," Alex said. "I suppose it will likely be up to the witchdoctor to determine that.

"I'm very happy about this," Dave told Alex. "You never have to fear about telling me something and that I'll think you did it deliberately. I know you too well by now to think that you were do something so stupid."

"Not stupid," Alex protested. "Women have given birth to triplets before and come out of it just fine."

"Alright then, inadvisable," Dave said.

Alex nodded in acceptance, as that sounded far better than stupid.

"I want you around for a long, long time as it took me years to find someone I could love and have no secrets from," Dave told her and Alex felt warm all over at the compliment.

"The witchdoctor might have to do a c-section on me, but I'll be fine afterwards," Alex promised.

Alex had managed give birth to her twins naturally the first time she had had them, which only happened about half the time for a woman having more than one. Every single one of their kids had been born at the small Refuge hospital, which wasn't really more than a clinic. There was really no need for more than that as magicals rarely got sick, so what it was mostly birthing babies that the witchdoctors had to deal with.

"I hope that he is prepared to do just that," Dave said.

"You know how efficient he is," Alex said and Dave nodded, because he did indeed know.

The witchdoctor that had helped Alex and Penny give birth to all of their children, was the same one that had birthed Alex and all her siblings, except Penny and her brother. Unlike a lot of the magical's in Refuge he didn't particularly care that one of Penny's parents was human, which was one of the reasons that they liked him so much.

All he cared about was helping others and would even help humans if there were any in Refuge to help. It had been a refreshing change from some of the bigoted people they had met when they visited. There were about a dozen people that they'd ran into that had no trouble at all telling someone what they thought, not even a child, and it was usually nasty or negative at least.

These were the people that they avoided when possible, because they made Penny unhappy when they told her straight to her face that she didn't belong with them because one of her parents was human. It was the same bigoted bile that she'd had dumped on her a lot when she was growing up. Of course, none of them had to stay around to listen to it and Alex had told that person that if they ever said such things in her presence again they would regret it. The person spewing their filth had been surprised, though they shouldn't have been.

She had made it clear that Penny was her sister shared blood or not and they were upsetting a member of her family, a pregnant member of her family. The fact that she had been pregnant at the time meant that any complaint against her would not be listened to, as pregnant women were often known to have volatile tempers. Besides, what she said was the truth and that might insult some people, but if they were being nasty then Alex had a right to say what she wanted as well.

"Alright, so he's prepared to do a c-section. I don't need to worry," Dave said.

"No you don't," Alex kissed him to shut him. "Yes, he's prepared to do a c-section on Penny to if necessary since she is carrying twins. Twins have to be delivered that way at least half the time."

"Okay good, I know Aaron will be pleased to hear that, and so am I," Dave said.

"You ought to know by now you don't need to worry," Alex teased him.

"I'll always worry, because you're the love of my life," Dave told her simply his tone sincere. "Giving birth might be a natural process but that doesn't mean things can't go wrong."

"I know, but magic helps that along so things go wrong far less often," Alex told him as the two stood looking out over the ocean.

"So are you going to have anymore after this?" Dave asked the question he had been wondering about for several months now.

"Yes," Alex answered in a definite tone. "I'm only in my late 40s. I can have them up until I'm 100 or so if I desire, but after this, I think I'm going to take a break for awhile at least three or four years before I have another. Give these three a chance to grow up some."

"Won't people notice your having children late in your life?" Dave asked in concern.

"No, it's part of the spell that I put around us with Penny's help. Not only will nobody realize how many children we both have had, they won't think about our ages and how old we're getting," Alex explained. "They won't even think about us unless we're actually in their presence at least not when it comes to our ages or the size of our family. Much like that spell Penny and I put on Finnigan, Daniell and Harcourt to leave you alone so long ago, it's a very subtle kind of magic, unlikely to be detected. Also thanks to the magical blood they'll be able to transform into humans past the seventh generation. Our children will get a few more generations before they have to marry a human, in order for their children not to be stuck as seals. I'm surprised that Norris didn't tell you this."

This was something they had discovered due to the witchdoctor who was as old as Methuselah, but still in good health and able to practice his profession. Thanks to both him and Aaron marrying witches, and entirely due to their strong magic they had at least a couple more generations, before their descendants would need to worry about finding a human to mate with. This was good news though Dave knew that their descendants would eventually face the same problem that he and Aaron had had themselves, but at least it kept their line going for a few hundreds years more.

"He probably believed we already knew," Dave suggested. "Or maybe it didn't occur to him, because it's not exactly a common occurrence. It only happens once in a great while after all and probably hasn't happened more than three or four times tops. I mean nine generations instead of seven gives our descendants at least another 150 years on top of the 500 or so already granted to us, before they have to seek a mate among humans. That doesn't mean they won't seek a human mate before that, just that they don't need too."

"And we of course, didn't know in order to ask about it," Alex said.

"It doesn't matter," Dave shrugged. "While I'm relieved that our children get at least a couple more generations before our so many times great-grandchildren will have to seek a human mate they still face the same problem that all selkies do. Our descendants get perhaps two hundred years extra years of being able to retain a human shape whenever they have kids if they marry another selkie."

"I suppose it doesn't matter," Alex rubbing her belly.

"You okay?" Dave asked immediately.

"The babies are just kicking that's all love," Alex promised him. "You know what this stage is like and how hard it is on me."

"And with triplets it's probably harder than normal," Dave said sympathetically. "You know we're running out of space, even after we expanded the beach house, so we should probably stop having children."

"My parents will be glad to take some of them in and as long as we visited frequently I doubt very much our children would care," Alex said.

"I don't want to do that since we can't visit Refuge every day," Dave said.

"What about fostering them with the Selkies?" Alex suggested. "I'm sure they would agree to visit us often. Every few days at least."

"That's a better suggestion," Dave considered. "We can do that for the ones that aren't school age at least."

"It's something we should have considered when we talked about having so many children," Alex said.

"Yes, we should have," Dave said. "Still, I'm sure that the selkies will be delighted to foster some of our younger ones. There are no children in the colony and mostly oldsters, though there are a few younger ones around my age. They spend about half their time in the sea anyway, so I'm sure they won't mind at all."

"Definitely not," Alex said. "I hate to see them go, but I also know that we have more than we can handle, even with the other selkies help."

"There, problem solved," Dave said. "It will relieve the pressure on all of us if we foster them out, something we should've done from the beginning."

"Probably," Alex said. "So long as I still get to see them on a regular basis then it's okay with me. It's the perfect solution. I wish we'd thought of it sooner because with teaching duties..."

"We could retire," Dave suggested.

"I don't want to do that not this soon," Alex denied. "Especially since Finnigan, Daniell and Harcourt quit bothering you and Aaron."

"That's all thanks to you and Penny," Dave reminded her with a smile, "that neither one of us have been bothered by any of them. Now we had better head inside, as I'm sure dinner is about ready."

"I hope it is, as I'm sure you can guess, I'm starving," Alex said.

"I'm not surprised considering," Dave said, as he rubbed her belly tenderly.

"It's a good thing Penny can cook though, since Aaron still can't," Dave said, as he and Alex walked slowly back towards the beachhouse.

"It's a skill that all my female siblings were taught," Alex shrugged. "Still, it does relieve you or me when it comes to cooking duties. We have to cook so much, because there're so many children to feed, even if a lot of that is fish right from the ocean."

"All the children love fish just as all selkies do," Dave reminded her. "And it sure does cut down on the food cost."

"Like that matters," Alex laughed.

Alex had published several books and the funds those brought in helped support their large family. Penelope was now the owner of a large computer firm that was doing quite well and growing in size and profits yearly. The profits were more than enough to support all of them and leave a lot left over for their children. Dave and Alex were of course, the godparents for Aaron and Penelope's children, while the opposite was true for Dave's and Alex's children.

"No it doesn't, Dave admitted. "I never imagined that either Aaron or I would have so much. We really don't need to work at the college if we didn't want to."

"But we all enjoy teaching," Alex said knowingly, as they finally entered the beachhouse.

"Yeah, I do," Dave agreed, "and I know and Aaron would agree with me, at least now that the problem with those annoyances has been dealt with."

"I know you wouldn't say the same if they were still bothering you, even though we've been married for years."

"Dinner is served folks," Penelope called.

"Here, let me help you carry all that out to the beach," Alex offered.

All of them, children included, ate out on the beach unless it was raining heavily. There just wasn't enough room to eat in the beachhouse. Those not yet weaned would of course, be served first so that they'd stop crying.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~