Jubal had just come out of the morning briefing with Isobel when his phone rang, he checked seeing that it was the kid's school ringing him, he answered straight away. Maggie had seen him coming out of Isobel's office and could hear him on the phone saying that he would be right there. She checked that none of the team was around or was too busy to be paying attention to them as she walked over to Jubal.
"Everything okay?"
Jubal had just slid his phone back on to its holder when he heard Maggie's question, and he heard the concern in her voice.
"Abby isn't feeling well, they want me to come, and collect her. Sam had told them she's out of town for a few day's, so they knew to contact me first" Sam had to go out of town for a few days due to work so Abby and Tyler was staying with Jubal and Maggie.
"Do you want me to come with you to collect Abby?"
"As much as Abby would love that baby I think it might be a little obvious if we both leave at the same time"
It was at times like this that both Jubal and Maggie wished that the team knew that they were in a relationship. They had been dating now for almost six months but both had agreed that they wanted to wait to tell the team as they didn't want things to get messy at work. That's not to say that they weren't serious with each other because they were, Jubal had moved in with Maggie a month ago as he was spending all his time there. Maggie had met his kids, Sam and Jubal's sister and Jubal had met her family, they had also disclosed to Isobel so that they were covered at work. They love their team, they are family and friends to them, but they knew that once the team found about them it really changed things.
"Give her a big cuddle from me and if either of you needs anything just ring and let me know, I'll come up with an excuse to get out of here" Maggie smiled softly looking at Jubal.
Jubal checked that no one was watching them as he squeezed Maggie's hand gently, letting go before anyone could see them "I will pass on the cuddle and thank you Mags. I will let you know how she is when I collect her".
Maggie missed the contact the minute that Jubal let go of her hand, she was so close to saying screw it and just tell everyone so that she could go with him to collect Abby, "Go... She will be waiting for you, I'll tell Isobel where you have gone. Let me know when you get home".
Jubal thanked Maggie once more before heading over to grab his keys and leave to go and collect his daughter. Maggie went straight into Isobel's office to tell her where Jubal had gone and that he could be contacted by phone if he was really needed. Maggie had gone back to her desk to do some of her paperwork, she was listening to OA, Kristen, Tiffany and Stuart talk about, well, honestly, she wasn't actually sure what they were talking about right now as she was constantly checking her phone waiting for a text from Jubal.
She finally got a message from Jubal, she opened it instantly seeing his name, Maggie smiled when she opened the message and seen the photo of Abby curled up on their couch cuddling her teddy with her head resting on a pillow on Jubal's knee, 'Sorry for taking so long to message baby, we were getting comfy. Think Abby might be coming down with the cold, she has a sick tummy and has a slight fever, but I gave her some medicine so hopefully, some sleep and the medicine will help."
Maggie ran her thumb over the picture as she read the message from Jubal, it was so strange to see Abby just laying down as she was usually running around the house, always so full of energy. She replied to him straight away 'Poor Abby... But cuddle's with Daddy along with medicine will hopefully help her. If you need anything just let me know. Love you both."
Maggie had just put her phone down on her desk when Isobel told them that they had a case, they all followed her into the JOC and got to work straight away. It was strange having Isobel running the JOC, but she told the JOC that Jubal had to leave to look after one of his kids, so the team got to work straight away. The team couldn't remember the last time they had worked a case without Jubal running the JOC and leading their investigation, it was certainly new to them all.
Isobel had been doing her best to run the JOC but this case was really kicking everyone's ass and as much as she hated it, she knew that she needed Jubal to come in. The analysts, and agents in the JOC were so used to working with him, and they were really just struggling right now to find a lead, and they wanted to find this guy before they had another victim on their hands.
Maggie hadn't been able to check her phone since they had been handed the case as they were working as fast as they could, but since all their leads had dried up they were sitting in the JOC going over what they had trying to find anything that could help them. She was drawn from her thoughts as she read the case file when she heard Isobel.
"Jubal, I'm sorry that I had to call you in."
"It's okay, I know you wouldn't have called unless you really needed to."
Isobel saw that Jubal had Abby with him who was hiding her face against her dad's hip using his coat to hide.
"And you must be Abigail."
Jubal chuckled softly when Abby nodded her head but didn't move away from her dad's hip "I didn't have anyone that could look after her, so she had to come with me."
Maggie had kept her eyes on Jubal, and he had looked from Abby to Maggie and then at the screen, and Maggie noticed straight away that the images on the screen were definitely ones that Jubal did not want Abby seeing. She turned to face Ian.
"Hey Ian, can you take the images down from the screen"
Hearing Maggie's voice caught Abby's attention, and she lifted her head to look in the direction of the voice, and she spotted Maggie straight away, and before Jubal had time to react Abby had taken off towards Maggie shouting
"Mags…" Abby ran to Maggie and threw herself into the woman's arms.
Maggie heard Abby call her name and turned in time to catch the young girl, she froze as she watched Abby climb on to her knee and snuggle in. But that was all it took before Maggie wrapped her arms around Abby ignoring the fact that the team were staring at them, she could feel their eyes on them. She ignored them right now as she tried to calm down her own heart rate and ran her hand over Abby's hair gently.
"Hey, sweety. Daddy said you weren't feeling well".
Abby cuddled her teddy and hide in Maggie's arms nodding her head, "Tummy still hurts and Daddy said my nose is like a tap" The young girl giggled.
Maggie looked at Jubal who hadn't moved an inch from Abby had left his side she knew that he was standing in shock, honestly, she couldn't blame him, she was putting it down to the fact that she was holding Abby that she was able to ignore her nerves.
"I hope Daddy was giving you lots of cuddles laying on the couch at home" Maggie could see the team had moved a little closer to them but still hadn't said anything.
"He said you told him to give me an extra big cuddle" Abby pulled her head out of Maggie's shirt to lay it on her shoulder, "Why are your friends staring at us?" the young girl tried to whisper, but they could clearly hear Abby.
"They just haven't met you before, would you like to meet them?" Maggie looked at Abby and noticed that Jubal was now walking towards them, he sat down on the edge of the desk that Maggie was sitting at "I see your feet finally remembered how to move" She smirked playfully looking at him.
"Yeah well the females in my life need to stop leaving me speechless" Jubal smirked looking at Maggie, he was surprised that the team had remained so quiet, he could tell that OA and Kristen was dying to ask questions, but he imagined that Abby was saving them right now.
"Daddy, is this your team?" Abby asked looking at her dad keeping her head on Maggie's shoulder.
"Is it baby girl, that's my boss Isobel… That's Kristen, Stuart, Tiffany and Ian" Jubal pointed them out as he spoke to Abby, he went with through the people that Abby would have heard him and Maggie talking about "And that's OA…"
"Mag's partner" Abby interrupted Jubal before he could finish talking.
"So, you know who I am?" OA asked as he walked closer to them and hunkered down to be the same height as Abby.
Abby nodded cuddling more into Maggie seeing OA closer, "Mag's talked about you the first day I met her".
"Mag's huh? You know only very few people get to call Maggie that" OA kept his focus on Abby while talking.
This got the little girl smiling, "Only family is allowed to call her that".
"So, you are Maggie's family?"
Jubal raised his eyebrow looking at OA "Really OA? You are going to try to question my six-year-old to find out how she knows Maggie?"
Abby was speaking before OA got the chance to answer Jubal, "Why did Daddy call you Maggie? He never calls you that at home".
Maggie chuckled softly brushing Abby's hair from her face, "Because when we are at work Daddy calls me Maggie"
"Do you see Maggie a lot at your Dad's home?" OA thought it was worth trying to ask Abby some more questions.
"Your partner asks a lot of questions" Abby pulled a funny face looking at Maggie which just made Jubal and Maggie laugh. Abby snuggled in again to Maggie as she started to feel really tired from feeling unwell.
"You want me to take her?" Jubal looked at Maggie and Abby, he could see his daughter was getting sleepy.
Maggie shook her head laying her cheek gently against Abby's head "She's okay here, I can work from sitting here and I can take her into another room in a little bit... Until then, you wanna give me you your jacket for her?"
Jubal stood up taking his jacket off "I never thought to take a blanket from home for her" He wrapped it around Abby and helped her get comfy before Maggie wrapped her arms tight around the young girl again.
Abby smiled "Thank you, Daddy…it's cosy…"
Jubal smiled kissing Abby's temple which had him so close to Maggie who's cheek was still resting on top of Abby's head, but the team noticed how neither Jubal nor Maggie flinched at the closeness. He moved to sit on the desk which still had him close to Maggie and Abby. He looked at the team standing staring at them.
"So if I tell you guys not to ask questions how long would that last?" He joked playfully.
"Eh about thirty seconds" Kristen was the first to speak.
Jubal looked at Maggie who chuckled, "Oh hey, you are the one that froze for longer than I did when this little one gave away our secret… So, it's up to you" she laughed softly at the face that Jubal pulled at her.
"Okay fine, you can ask a…" Jubal spoke looking at the team.
Kristen was interrupting him before he could even finish, "So, you and Maggie are dating?"
"No… She just minds Abby for me sometimes…. OW! That hurt" He looked at Maggie laughing as she had kicked his ankle.
"Daddy is Mag's boyfriend" Abby was snuggled up on Maggie, but hadn't yet fallen asleep and hearing her voice had Maggie chuckling softly.
"See this is why I wanted to question Abby" OA laughed.
"And on a normal day she would be more chatty, but she's too tired" Maggie smiled running her hand along Abby's back.
"Okay, my turn... So how long have you two been dating?" OA asked looking at them both.
"Six months" Jubal answered that one straight away without even needing a second to think about it which made Maggie smile.
"Six months?!" Kristen almost squealed a little too loud.
"That's counting as a question" Jubal smirked playfully.
"Okay, Kristen we need to control the emotions and be smart about these" OA looked at her being serious but in a friendly way.
"Abigail said at home a couple of times... Do you two live together?" Everyone was a little surprised when they heard Stuart being the one to ask that question.
Jubal looked at Maggie, and she nodded smiling softly, he turned to face the team again "We do... I moved in with Mags about a month ago".
"How in the hell did we not notice?" OA was genuinely surprised.
"Watch the language" Maggie nodded at Abby who had actually fallen asleep on her shoulder "We were very careful at work, I mean you guy's wouldn't have known today only Abby is here"
"Were you planning on telling us?" Kristen asked looking at them both.
"We were… We were just waiting because we didn't want to make things at work awkward, and we wanted the kids to be used to it before we told anyone else" Jubal was smiling now as he spoke.
"Who all knows?" OA asked looking at Maggie.
"Just our families and Isobel as we had to disclose" Maggie answered looking at OA.
"Well clearly your families are okay with it, well your kids are anyway" Tiffany spoke for the first time smiling as she looked at Abby sound asleep on Maggie's shoulder.
"The kids were the first to know, and they have claimed Mags as theirs from day one" Jubal laughed softly.
"This explains why you two have seemed much happier lately and why Maggie has turned down every date I've tried setting her up on" OA looked at Jubal, "Oh yeah, sorry about that" He laughed.
"Yeah, you were determined to try to get her to go out on a date... Not the most entertaining thing in the world to watch" Jubal rolled his eyes laughing.
"Hey, in my defence, I had no idea that she already had someone and that he happened to be standing right in front me" OA laughed holding his hands up.
"Can we maybe not tell people that it took a six-year-old to help us figure out what was going on" Kristen laughed.
"Help? I think Abby did more than just help, she basically told you guys" Maggie laughed softly being careful not to waken Abby.
"Abby and Tyler figured it out before we even got to tell them" Jubal smirked playfully looking at the team.
"Okay, we are definitely not telling people that considering we are FBI agents" Stuart shook his head, "How did they figure it out so quickly?."
"Mags is the first person I've introduced them to, so they knew she was more than a friend" Jubal smiled softly thinking back to the kids figuring it out and how happy that they were about it. "And as much fun as this is answering your questions can we get to work so that we can finish up and take Abby home."
The team got to work while Maggie took Abby into Isobel's office and lay her on the couch wrapping Jubal's jacket around her again while she sat on the floor going through the case file. The team could handle any fieldwork while Maggie stayed with Abby. Having Jubal's fresh eyes on the case gave them a new path to follow, and it didn't take them to long to solve the case. He had just finished up congratulating the team on a good job as he walked into Isobel's office and smiled seeing Maggie holding Abby on her hip.
"You both ready to go home?."
"We definitely are, someone is ready to get into their nice comfy bed" Maggie smiled kissing Abby's head who was holding on tight to Maggie.
Jubal smiled as he kissed Abby's cheek and then Maggie's lips in a quick kiss before standing back and lifting his coat, and he wrapped his arm around Maggie.
"Time to take my girls home."
They left Isobel's office with Jubal keeping his arm around Maggie holding her and Abby close, the team were standing at the back of the JOC watching them, they had been watching since Jubal walked into Isobel's office.
"They both look so happy" OA smiled softly
"They look like a family" Kristen smiled as they watched until Jubal and Maggie were out of their sights.