A/N: Hello again, everyone! What a rough few days involving my laptop (I want a new (gaming) one), but I'm back on track. This chapter will take off on Sunday. I'm praying for those who are in Hurricane Milton's pathway.

"Ugh," Élise groaned, stretching her pregnant self and yawning loudly. She was in the bedroom, having her own lazy day. Her body was still recovering from slight jet lag.

Élise was recently in Pasadena for the 47th NAACP Image Awards and presented the Chairman's Awards to this year's recipients. It was good; she'd even got to meet some of the stars like Forest Whitaker (he bordered a resemblance to SSA leader Sam Cooper from the Red Cell team), Phylicia Rashad, Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburn (he didn't scare her as much, especially since he played Ike Turner), Viola Davis, Cicely Tyson, Aisha Tyler (she and Tara could pass off as twin sisters).

"Guess who got tickets to the Washington National Opera: Lost in the Stars for Valentine's Day next Sunday?" Spencer burst into the room with two small tickets and proudly announced. "It's a good thing I purchased them in July."

Élise turned off her tablet and set it beside the light, her work and personal cells on the bedside. "Double oooh!"

"And… they're box-tier seats!" Spencer added as he approached Élise's bedside and kissed her forehead.

Élise rested her head further against the pillow. "Didn't we see Carmen before you left?"

"Yeah, and sorry you had to miss Hansel and Gretal because of me," Spencer apologized as he got into the bed beside Élise. "I know how much you love the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales."

Élise motioned her hand out, "That's okay, babe. You were dealing with your mother, and I hope you do something nice for her that Valentine's Day. "She stretched again before massaging her belly. Something came into her head, making her snap her fingers. "Nursery! I completely forgot. We have to build a nursery."

"Lise, this is not our first rodeo designing a nursery," Spencer reminded her, feeling relaxed and casual about it. We'll be fine, and if my hypothesis is right, the baby will be here in early-mid March, so we still have a month."

Élise scoffed jokingly, "Almost right at times."

"At least I'm humble enough to admit to that," Spencer agreed before closing his eyes. "Think Séraphine and Isaac should have a say in designing the nursery? I know Fee's going to be five and Ziggy three, but they should still have a say."

Élise shrugged her shoulders and bobbed her hair. "True."

Élise sat cross-legged in a blank white room with only a crib, standard white walls, and carpeting. Her iPad was next to her. Her eyes were closed, and she sat in a Zen-like meditation position.

"Mommy?"

"Mmm…?" Élise opened one eye, looking up, and she was about Séraphine and Isaac's height. She didn't feel like getting up, so she sat there and asked, "Daddy, tell you two the big news?"

Séraphine jogged her head back and forth. "We're gonna help decorate my baby sister's room!"

"Uh, she gonna be my baby sister, too, Fee," Isaac bolted his hand up, pointed to himself, and then stuck his tongue out at her. "So, nuhh…"

Séraphine retorted by sticking her tongue back at him, and the two got into a tongue argument and made silly noises as they did.

Amused by their childish fighting, Élise opened, ready to get the kids to stop. But before she could say anything, Spencer strolled into the room with Alexander in his arms. "Cut it out, you two!" he barked, ordering the two to stop, and they immediately did.

"Sorry, Daddy." The toddlers murmured, hanging their heads in shame.

Élise had just unlocked her tablet and handed it to the kids, allowing them to browse the website's screen for nursery ideas. "It's simple: you kids pick your favorite design, and Daddy and I will put all the ideas into the nursery."

"Okay!"

Everyone (even Opal and Alexander) picked their favorite nursery room design. Séraphine picked a fairy tale princess-themed; Isaac liked the space-themed nursery; Élise loved the pink and gold theme; and Spencer liked the science theme.

Spencer scribbled on a plain sheet of paper what he and Élise needed for the nursery. Their goal was to get it done before the end of the month. So far, he wrote the necessaries like the crib and changing table, etcetera, etcetera, but also pink paint, butterfly and star motifs and art, tulle accents, stuffed animals, and dogs.

"Which pink would be good for the nursery walls?" he asked Garcia, who stood beside him at his work desk. "Do you think bubblegum pink or pastel pink would be good?"

Garcia had her vibrant, manicured index finger on her cheek, ran it up to her blonde hair, and curled a lock onto it. "Well, you can never go wrong with pink. Pink symbolizes love, innocence, sweetness, femininity—everything your bubbly little girl is and will be."

Spencer smirked to himself. Pretty soon, Tara—who was looking down and reviewing a file for her research assignment—walked over and saw what Spencer had on his computer screen. "You and Élise workin' on the nursery?"

"Uh-huh," Spencer answered as Morgan inserted himself into the conversation.

"And speaking of babies, are you planning on having more in the future?" he asked.

"Nope. This baby is gonna be our last," Spencer answered with quick clarification before he retorted, "And speaking of babies, when are you and Savannah gonna have babies yourselves?"

Morgan shrugged his shoulders causally. "Who knows? Maybe it'll happen sooner than you think."

Garcia locked her arm onto Morgan's. "Here I am, thinking one day I'd be carrying the child of moaned Derek Morgan."

Gelila came through for Élise with archived Jason Wu gowns for the impending White House dinner to honor the Canadian Prime Minister and his spouse.

She held a black satin-taffeta gown with a scoop neckline and a long ball-like skirt. "That'll look nice on you," Élise turned and saw Spencer standing at the doorway.

"Thanks, babe," she acknowledged him right back and spun around once before a groan came out of her mouth. "Oof…"

Spencer rushed to her side, now standing beside her. "Careful, Lise."

Élise breathed in and breathed out and replied, "I'm fine, honey," she assured him by soothing massages on his palm. "I want to make the most of this pregnancy since we know it'll be my last. Speaking of which…"

"What?" Spencer looked puzzled.

"To make sure we reeeally don't get pregnant again…" she played around on her cell and showed Spencer the screen of her idea.

Spencer blurted out, "Birth control choices."

Élise allowed Spencer to take her phone and continued as he strolled through the options on the Planned Parenthood website. "It always amazes me how little options men have than women."

"Obviously," Élise remarked, resulting in Spencer giving her a sarcastic ha-ha look on his face. "But there are still some options for you...even if some of them are…permanent."

Spencer gulped as he began to have an uneasy nausea swirling around in his stomach.

There was another case for the BAU team. According to Garcia, police rescued two girls named Gina and Sheila from a house. They took them to the emergency room for treatment. The house is in the name of an elderly woman who hasn't been seen in twenty years and is only occupied by a man who said he's her grandson, Tom.

The disturbing part was that the girls had been abducted ten years ago, and the worst news was that another girl was still missing along with the kidnapper.

Landing in the city, while Rossi and Morgan investigated the house the girls were held captive in, Spencer, Hotch, and JJ went to the hospital where the two girls were recovering, along with the mother of Sheila. They waited for the doctor to finish examining Sheila. He confirmed to them the girls were physically and sexually abused; while Gina was recovering well, Sheila, on the other side, suffered a septic infection that caused complications from a miscarriage and hoped that the team would find whoever did this to them.

"Ugh, I hate this unsub already." Spencer cringed—just thinking about this case made him think of his own kids, especially Séraphine and his unborn daughter.

JJ acquiesced about the gravity of the unsub's actions towards his victims. "Who are you tellin'?"

Hotch stood stoically, watching Ms. Eileen Woods with her daughter in her room not too far away. "I'm gonna have a talk with Ms. Woods; you two stay here with Gina and see if you get something out of her about Violet or her abductor."

Spencer and JJ obeyed his orders with head nods.

Élise heard about the case the BAU was working on right now. She's weeks away from her due date, but she's getting a headache—a borderline migraine—just thinking about it. And to think, she was sent to Miami, Florida, to launch the second phase of the national Community Policing Tour, which aims to strengthen the relationship between law enforcement officers and the communities. But this case made her want to be home.

It also made her think about wanting to go on maternity leave early.

"I can't imagine what those girls had to go through." Spencer and JJ were in Gina's hospital room, watching her sleep and perhaps recover from the traumatic experience she had to endure for the past decade. They just got word from Rossi and Morgan about what they uncovered in the unsub's house where they kept the girls, and it fueled their energy to find the unsub even more.

Spencer shook his head in disgust. "I swear, if anyone took Fee, Ziggy, Alexei, and my unborn girl, I don't think there would be any kind of force that would hold me back."

JJ sat in the chair adjusted from Gina's hospital bed, concurring with Spencer's statement, "I'd shown them what a real mama bear looks like."

Soon enough, Gina began waking up. Though she was slightly startled to see the two agents, they assured her she was safe. Gina told them what happened the day she was kidnapped, along with something called "the disappearing place" and planting flowers for Clara.

This made Spencer and JJ realize that Clara had been dead this whole time and was buried in the yard.

"Ahhh, you don't know how glad I am to hear from you right now," Spencer was relieved to hear from Élise. "I swear, this case…"

Élise grunted. "From what I'm hearing about the case, the unsub's a real Ariel Castro."

"It's every parent's worst nightmare," Spencer massaged his temple. "Remind me that we'll talk to the kids about stranger danger when I return home."

"Not just stranger danger but people in general," Élise reminded him that bad people were all around before she felt her work phone ring in her other hand. "I better get going. I love you."

"I love you, too."

The case went from bad to worse for Sheila as she died due to her infection, devastating her mother, who longed for her daughter's rescue only to lose her. But on the other side, Morgan and Rossi managed to find the unsub—Michael Clark Thompson and the missing girl. After getting a hold of his background history: a mother who died at childbirth and left to be raised by an abusive and unfaithful misogynistic father—the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Spencer and JJ glared at Thompson as he was taken down the hallway to be checked out. He had broken his wrist after thinking he could outrun Morgan.

Spencer shook his head, "Look at him…"

"He makes me sick just looking at him," JJ fumed.

"I don't know how Hotch could stomach having to talk to that fat fu…flub," Spencer folded his arms and almost swore. He sounded like Élise for a minute. "Ooh, Élise…if that guy were ever in her presence, she'd beat him within a micro inch of his life. And then watch him die for the fun of it."

JJ's glare softened when she saw Ms. Woods. "I can't imagine how the mother's feeling."

"Alexei, angel," Élise whispered in his arms, who started quieting down. "You sleepy yet?"

Alexei released a big yawn and cooed; Élise kissed the top of his head as she trod towards the crib and left him to sleep on his back in the crib. "Oh, yes, you are, my little cutie-wutie…"

Alexander's nursery door swung open. Séraphine and Isaac were in their pajamas. "Mommy! Mommy!" Élise quieted her daughter down with her index finger on her lips and pointed to Alexander. "Mommy. Mommy."

Séraphine and Isaac backed out of the nursery, and Élise closed the door behind them. She sighed, moving her hair away from her face. "Both your teeth are cleaned?"

Séraphine and Isaac smiled widely. Élise lifted the kids' chin and rubbed her finger across their teeth. "Ah, very good; your tongues are pink and clean. Ready to go to bed?"

"Uh-huh."

Élise is still freaked out about the case Spencer and the team were working on and asked the kids, "Do you wanna sleep with Mommy tonight?"

"Okay!"

When Spencer, JJ, and Morgan heard gunshots, pulling out their guns to spring into action, they rushed to the scene. Once they got to the hallway, they saw Thompson bleeding out on the floor and Hotch handcuffing Eileen Woods.

"What the hell just happened?" a baffled Morgan asked, putting his Glock back in its holster.

JJ canvassed the small revolver on the tilted floor, and then a vengeful yet teary-eyed Eileen was arrested without resistance. "A mother avenging her child."

"If you ask me, I won't be shedding any tears," Spencer replied.

Rossi seconded that logic. "Ditto."

Whenever cases involving children ended on a good, bad, or bittersweet note, Spencer wanted nothing more than to be there for his children. And that's exactly what happened the yoctosecond he dropped his bags, sprung upstairs, and nearly panicked when he didn't see Séraphine or Isaac in their respective bedrooms or any of the other bedrooms.

When he got to his room, his long legs nearly buckled, and he collapsed against the wall when he saw the kids sleeping between Élise, half-sleep-half-awake, petting their heads.

"Hey," Élise looked up and smiled at Spencer. "You okay?"

Spencer sniffled, repressing the lump in his throat. "I am now."

Spencer pulled a glass vase of a dozen long-stem blood-red roses from behind his hand and presented them to Élise. "Happy Valentine's Day, my love."

Élise blushed as she accepted her gift. "Oh, thank you, my handsome hubby! And Happy Valentine's Day to you, too."

Soon, Spencer and Élise engaged in a long, passionate kiss.

A/N: Guess what's coming soon, readers?