Part 7

"It's about the time the two of you realized that you love each other," Penelope squealed, as she hugged both Spencer and JJ happily.

"Yes, it was," JJ agreed. She glanced at her fiancé briefly, only to have Spencer flush in embarrassment, as he remembered how he had been determined to never tell JJ his feelings. He had been an idiot and he had already admitted as much, but he knew that JJ wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon for being one. Normally, he was very intelligent and observant, but when it came to figuring out and some woman liked him he was not very good at it, probably because it didn't happen very often. Most people didn't go for geeks like him or if they did, there was usually an ulterior motive like they were rich. Spencer knew that this wasn't always true, but it happened often enough that he supposed it had rather jaded him, well, that and William Reid's constant ridicule. No, he wasn't rich or at least not as rich as his father, but once word really got out that his father was a very rich author, even if he was also a member of the FBI he would likely have women trying their best to get his attention. And not because they actually liked him for himself, but because they wanted as much as they could get out of him, even if it was his father's money.

It was just as well that he was soon going to be off the market. That wouldn't stop some women who could be vultures and Spencer was well aware of it, but still, it would help.

"I have to agree," Hotch said coming out of his office. That he was actually smiling a little was a sure indication that he was very happy for his two teammates. "It was rather painful to watch you circle around each other, but I for one, wasn't about to stick my nose in."

"It's just as well that we didn't get together before now because you know that Strauss never would have allowed it," Spencer said. "She would've transferred one of us so fast our heads would have spun."

"While that's a somewhat valid point I never would have allowed that to happen and Erin and I would have been having words if she had tried it," Dave said. "While having two teammates involved with each other on the same team is rather unusual, it has been known to happen, but so long as it can be proven that they can still work together, do their jobs and not constantly worry about the other, especially since there is a lot of danger involved in being a member of the BAU then it would have been allowed. I have plenty of favors to call in and I would've done so if necessary to prevent you from being separated against your wills."

"We all know that Dave has a lot of influence due to being one of the founding members of the BAU," Emily put in

"And I would've been happy to use some of it on your behalf," Dave said.

"I never thought of that," Spencer admitted looking at JJ who subtly shook her head negatively.

"That's because you're used to making your own way and not using somebody else's influence with the people that matter, so that it never occurred to you to ask for favors," Hotch said. "While that sort of attitude is something I approve of as a general rule, in this case, I wouldn't have stopped Dave if he had to use his influence to keep both of you exactly where you are and would have added my own. I refuse to lose at least one of my best team members just because Strauss could be extremely petty. If either of you had actually wanted to leave it would have been different, but to try to force you is something that I'll never stand for if I can prevent it."

"If Strauss had had her way she would've destroyed the team for a long time," Emily said.

"Yes, she would have," Dave agreed. "This is the best team I've ever worked with and I would hate to see it broken apart due to the machinations of one person."

"You know how Morgan's going to react when you tell him," Penelope said finally.

"Yes, it's to bad he couldn't be here for the announcement," Spencer said.

"Let's not forget James," Dave added. "You know he'll be very happy at the news."

"I could never forget the brother that I never knew I had until about a year ago," Spencer said smiling, as he thought of James. "Technically, I'm unable to forget."

"You know I hope that William Reid learns of this and literally chokes," Penelope said looking just a little vindictive. "You know that normally, I'm not a vindictive person, but if anybody deserves to learn of your engagement it's your father and I hope it causes him great pain."

"That's very unlike you kitten," Dave said. "Still, I think we can all understand and appreciate your feelings."

"We definitely can," JJ said, as she went to hug her friend. "Believe me, that Spence and I feel the same way all of you do, even if Garcie expressed it best."

"This is supposed to be a happy occasion and while I wish Caroline could be here to see that not only is her son still alive, but he's about to get married, I know she's still with us in spirit," Dave said.

"Well said," Hotch told his old mentor.

"Thank you," Dave said.

"So do you need any help planning?" Penelope asked.

"Planning yes, but you will not take over," JJ told Penelope. "Spence and I agreed to have it in Dave's backyard, since he offered."

"I was going to ask Morgan to be my best man, but I think he'll understand when I tell him I decided on James instead," Spencer added. "My life has changed so much in the last year, that it only seems fair to offer my older brother a chance to be my best man, even if Morgan is my best friend and like a brother to me."

"I know my oldest son will be pleased to have such an honor," Dave said smiling.

"Morgan will understand," Penelope promised Spencer. "He might be a little disappointed, but still, you never had a brother before, not one related to you at any rate. You and James lost out on a lot of time to get to know each other, so this will tell him that he's important to you. Morgan will understand and if he doesn't I'll make sure I explain it to him."

"We wouldn't want that," Spencer chuckled. "We all know you have a rather unique way of explaining things to people."

"It's their problem if they don't listen the first time," Penelope shrugged. "If I have to knock him on the back of the head to get him to listen so be it."

"You'll all be invited to the wedding just as soon as we get the details worked out," JJ promised.

"Well, as pleasant as it is we need to get to work people," Hotch said his tone serious, though he was still smiling. "We can discuss this a little later."

Everybody had dispersed, except for Morgan who had called and said he was going to be late coming in as his car had broken down. He would be disappointed to learn the news last instead of first, but that's just the way it happened sometimes.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Rossi backyard

Saturday

"Dearly beloved we are gathered here today..." the priest began and Spencer and JJ paid close attention to the ceremony.

The wedding had been put together in a very short amount of time, especially considering how busy everyone was. Matteo Cruz had been a godsend and supported the two of them getting married. He had told him that he had known the two of them had been in love from practically the moment they had met, but it wasn't any of his business to interfere no matter how obvious it had been.

He had been very happy for them when JJ had finally got Spencer to admit his feelings for her and had only asked to be invited for the wedding. Once assured he would be just as soon as the planning was finished he had been happy to give them some time off if they needed to to take care of any of the details

Spencer remembered Cruz's exact words and they were. Both of you more than deserve to take time off as I know Strauss didn't like to grant leave time, unless it was a true emergency, as even she couldn't block that. In that, she was shortsighted, because with the jobs the team does, they do need leave time more often than people in other jobs, even if that's only a day or two. Any one of the team could have burned out or just simply quit because of her dictatorial attitude and we would have lost a fine profiler or even more than one. The team isn't going to be so effective if they don't have time to decompress. Our job isn't like being a clerk or a manager as the teams see some of the worst humanity has to offer. Strauss was very close to losing her position, because of her grudge against Aaron Hotchner in particular, but also the others on the team.

Cruz had made it clear that he would support the two of them just so long as they didn't let their relationship and eventual marriage get in the way of doing their jobs.

The wedding details had come together rather quickly with the help of Garcia and Emily it was due to take place on a weekend when they normally had off unless they got called in for some reason. Finally, that day had arrived, as JJ and Spencer stood before Father Jimmy who was an old friend of Dave's from Long Island.

"The rings please," Jimmy said and James who was standing proudly at his brother's side handed over the two rings that he had been holding.

"Let these rings be a symbol of your unity and never let the common ground between you disappear. Always discuss small problems before they become mountains and never go to bed angry. I wish you a long and happy life together in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

Jimmy blessed the rings before handing one to Spencer and one to JJ. Jimmy had both of them repeating their vows before he announced: "I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Spencer and JJ shared a kiss before breaking apart smiling.

Spencer and JJ turned to face the crowd, as Jimmy introduced them to their guests.

Everybody stood and cheered very happy for the couple, as the team had known for a long time that the two were meant to be together, but had feared Spencer at least, would never admit his feelings for the beautiful woman who was now his wife.

Of course, if Strauss had still been alive she would've done her best to break them up by threatening to fire at least one of them, and Dave knew he would've had to go to the director. He was certainly glad that Strauss was dead now so she couldn't interfere in his son's happiness with the woman he had loved for years. Dave looked at his son and saw how happy he was with JJ at his side and he couldn't be happier about that. If anybody deserved to be happy it was Spencer or Peter as he thought of him most of the time, even if he addressed him by the name that Diana Reid, whom Spencer considered his mother, had given him. Dave was so happy that Peter had not died like he had believed for so many years, but he would curse William Reid until the end of time. He was only sorry that Caroline hadn't lived to see that her son was not dead and was now married to the love of his life.

Dave was positive that JJ and Spencer's marriage would never break up, because they knew well the stresses of the job and would never allow it to come between them and for him that was more than enough.

Hopefully, in a year or two, they would be blessed with children and he would be the loving grandfather if that did occur. He just knew that Caroline was smiling down at them from heaven.

~~~Criminal Minds~~~

Five years later

Dave walked into the interview room at the prison that William Reid had been sent to.

"What do you want?" William asked, as soon as he saw Dave. His tone was rather bitter and rude, his complexion did not exactly say that he was healthy. "Come here to gloat?"

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Dave immediately returned keeping his expression neutral. "You still don't think that you did anything wrong, but because of your actions I lost nearly 30 years with my son and James lost nearly 30 years with his brother. Spencer's mother Caroline will never know that her son Peter Daniel lived. You tore a family apart all because of your selfish actions."

William said nothing, but it was clear from his body language that he really didn't believe he had done anything wrong

"So what are you want?" William asked waspishly.

"I just want to show you what you lost by your actions," Dave said, "and no, Spencer doesn't know I'm here," Dave added as soon as William opened his mouth. "I will never tell him about this visit, because he's doing his best to forget you and the way you treated him worse then a pet completely and that's hard considering his eidetic memory. Still, he's strong enough, both mentally and emotionally to allow himself to be happy and forget about you as much as he can."

Dave sat in the chair opposite and pulled several documents out of his briefcase. He shoved them in William's direction and the Senior Reid nearly automatically looked at the documents that had been presented to him.

"My son, that you did your best to ruin with your crappy parenting skills, whether that was deliberate or not, is now happily married and has two sons, both of whom are very healthy and active. The oldest son they named David Daniel Reid-Rossi and the youngest is Christopher Nicholas Reid-Rossi because he was born at Christmas. JJ or Jennifer Jareau Rossi is pregnant with their third, a girl they've already decided to name Caroline Diana."

"And your point is. You claimed you didn't come here to gloat, but from the way I see it that's what you're doing," William said.

"I'm trying to show you what you lost. As Spencer pointed out in court there was so many other ways you could've handled the situation. Any decent person might've thought about kidnapping a child out of desperation, because their own was dying, but never would've gone through with it. The team and I, including my son, that you claimed would never amount to anything, put this team behind bars not too long ago that made a habit of kidnapping babies out of hospitals to sell on the black market. Despite the nurses that work in the neonatal care unit vigilance kidnapping of an infant still happens."

"And why does that matter to me?" William asked.

"Because in a lot of ways this man and woman are a lot like you selfish, uncaring, arrogant and don't care who they hurt. You might only have committed major crime in your life, but it wasn't just a minor one like getting a speeding ticket or littering in the park, it was a major federal offense. I have to admit, it was a nearly perfect crime if only the father wasn't a member of the FBI, which is a federal law enforcement agency. Peter or Spencer to you would probably tell me that the odds of us encountering each other and me actually recognizing him as my son are at least 500,000 to 1."

"And yet it happened," William said his form finally slumping in the chair.

"You happened to choose a baby that had a rather unusual birthmark, one I recognized instantly. Perhaps, if you had not than you would've gotten away with it, although you would still have to pay for your crime when you passed away.

William looked at the pictures and articles that Rossi had placed before him, so he wouldn't have to answer. There was a wedding shot of the boy he had kidnapped standing tall and proud in a tuxedo that looked custom-tailored beside a beautiful blond lady with blue eyes in a short gown that couldn't be called a wedding dress, not that didn't mean that she didn't look spectacular with her hair all done up in some sort of fancy arrangement. Both of them were smiling happily looking into each others eyes William noticed and the boy he had called his son definitely didn't look like the same solemn, serious little boy that he had abandoned at 10, even after he had kidnapped him as a newborn infant. No, this man looked incredibly happy with the woman at his side and William wondered if the lady was pregnant as that was the only way he could see her agreeing to marry someone that was really no more then an emotionless robot. He couldn't see that marriage lasting much like his own hadn't.

However, since he didn't know anything at all about the couple on a personal level he didn't really have any right to make judgments, not that that occurred to William Reid.

It also never occurred to William Reid that the reason Spencer had seemed like such an emotionless child was that he had learned to hide the hurt that the man he thought was his father caused him. Learned to hide it so well that the man that was supposed to love him never noticed how much he was hurting his son.

The next picture displayed them dancing together out in what looked like a backyard that had been turned into a reception area with a dance floor on one side. The two of them were swaying to the music their eyes locked on each other and looked beyond happy. The next photo was of Spencer and this JJ holding a baby looking at him adoringly and William assumed this was likely their oldest son who didn't look more than a few weeks old at most.

There were other numerous pictures, one of the man that was sitting across from him holding a baby looking proud and yet another of them surrounded by other people, though the only people that William recognized was David Rossi, Spencer, the baby he had kidnapped, his wife, that big black FBI agent, Morgan and the other guy with the dark hair and eyes Hotchner.

"That's the team that Spencer and I work with," Dave informed William his tone neutral. "You met Aaron Hotchner and Derek Morgan, but not the others. The dark haired lady on the right side of JJ is Emily Prentiss, the blonde lady with the glasses is Penelope Garcia, the big black man that is standing behind Emily is of course, Derek Morgan, on Morgan's right side is Aaron Hotchner who you also met. Oh and sitting on JJ's lap is Hotch's son Jack."

William looked at another picture just to avoid answering.

Both of Spencer and JJ sons were in this one as Spencer was holding one while David Rossi was holding the other, looking at his grandson with a sappy expression.

"You could have had something similar if only you hadn't kidnapped a baby from the hospital and while I could understand your need to divorce your wife, I still think it's wrong the way you went about it. You could easily have married again had a son and instead in a moment of what I am assuming is panic you kidnap a baby and to compound your error it happens to be the son of an FBI agent. Alright, I admit it was nearly the perfect crime if Spencer hadn't had the desire to follow in his real father's footsteps, even if neither one of us knew it until a few years ago," Dave said.

"Why should it matter to me?" William asked.

"Because you're in prison for the rest of your life with no chance of parole, so if you could only realize what you did was wrong and atone for your sins in some way your journey to the afterlife will be much more pleasant," Dave said. "It doesn't really matter to me either way, but an old friend of mine Father Jimmy asked me to do this as a favor. Jimmy likes to believe the best in people, although he's well aware that there is a lot of evil in the world. He wanted me to come and see if you had realized that what you had done was wrong. I can honestly tell him I tried, but I failed. Jimmy's always trying to save everybody's soul, but a lot of times people just don't want to be saved."

William wondered who this Father Jimmy was, but he figured it was somebody that David Rossi had known for a long time, perhaps even since childhood. That he was a priest was obvious.

"You can keep the pictures as I have copies," Dave said. "I'll make sure the guards let you. As Spencer has told me there are so many ways you could have done things differently. All you did was go out of your way to shatter a little boy's self-confidence, a boy that you kidnapped from his real family, just because he wasn't turning out like you wanted. What kind of father constantly insults his son just because he's not acting like a carbon copy of the man that kidnapped him? Alright, he wasn't really your son, but you certainly kidnapped him, so don't you think you should have treated him like he was? Insisting he go to public school for instance was not the right decision, but since you didn't care about him I can see how you would insist on that. I can see you figuring why waste the money. The least you could have done was hire tutors as it was evident by an early age that he was more than above average when it came to his intelligence. This is something that Caroline and I would have done if we couldn't find special programs that would nurture his intelligence. He never would've been allowed to go to college at just 12 either, because he might've been academically ready, but not emotionally. We would've found things that would have engaged his intellect until it was time for him to continue his education.

"It doesn't really matter anymore," Dave continued slowly shaking his head. "I've finally gotten to know the son, I believed was dead for nearly 30 years. That he's married to a lovely lady that I love like she was my own and that they've had a couple of children with another one on the way is a gift I never expected. James is also finally getting to know the younger brother who he never knew even existed until a few short years ago. You denied both James and Spencer a chance to grow up together and for that alone I never would have forgiven you. I would've understood a moment of desperation, and you might still have gotten a few years in prison if only you had returned my son and confessed, but at least you would have had a life on the outside. Your career would've been in the toilet, but at least you would've had your freedom. You lost it all because of your desperate stupidity.

"I've said all I came to say and it's clear you still don't believe you were wrong. Really, you remind me of some of the criminal the team catches, mostly serial killers who don't know right from wrong as they have no true emotion, though they're good at acting out those emotions, even if they don't truly feel them. You might have grandchildren of your own by now if only you had acted a little differently. It's clear to me though, that all you wanted was the semblance of a perfect family just like Spencer believed, that you never truly loved your wife and definitely not the boy you kidnapped.

"Enjoy the rest of your life, you deserve every bit of trouble that finds you and I truly hope you live another 30 years," Dave said before he rose and knocked on the door to be let out.

The door opened and Dave disappeared leaving William alone with his thoughts.

William Reid watched him go and wondered what his life would've been like if only he hadn't made such a stupid error in judgment.

He knew now that he would never know.