Epilogue

It was Christmas Day and everyone was over at Aaron's house to celebrate. They usually celebrated at Dave's but because this was their first Christmas as a reunited family and Abby was only six months old they'd decided to celebrate it at his new house. Garcia had announced they could christen the house this way now that everybody who should be living in it was living in it.

They'd all chipped in to help out even though Aaron had refused help at the beginning. They'd managed to eventually wear him down by saying it was for the children. They'd pointed out they only wanted to make sure Jack had a great Christmas with his dad since he'd missed out on one last year and they wanted to make a great first Christmas for little Abby.

The whole team had gone out a week before Christmas to buy the Christmas tree and once Jack and Henry had picked the one they liked best along with Michael's help they'd placed it in Aaron's living room. They'd all taken a turn with decorating the tree along with the children. Jack had been a little upset when Spencer picked up Michael and helped him put the star on the top but had been assured that Abby would get the chance to do it next year. It was just currently she was too young to do so even with their dad's help.

That had been evidenced only a moment later when Abby had tried to eat some tinsel. Before Aaron had even been able to control the situation Jack had swooped in and gently taken it out of her mouth informing her tinsel wasn't for eating and provided her her pacifier instead. It had brought tears to his eyes how devoted and good his son was with his baby sister despite the circumstances of her birth.

He woke up in his lonely bed once again. Even though it had been yet again another three months he still hadn't made a move with the love of his life. His penis still wasn't erecting and though he felt more and more confident as a boss, agent and father he wasn't yet confident about his love life. He was thankful though that Spencer had never strayed from his side but he felt guilty that he was still making him wait. He decided today was the day. He was going to make a move. He didn't know when but it was going to be today. He was going to buck up his courage and finally claim the man he loved as his.

He threw on one of his t-shirts and a pair of shorts then headed downstairs. He couldn't stop smiling when he got down there as he saw stocking fillers in a mess over the sofa and an empty stocking with ripped wrapping paper while his daughter was in her high chair and Dave was making pancakes while his son kept looking in the pan and asking if he could have chocolate bars on his instead of his usual chocolate sauce. Dave had stayed the night insisting he was going to make the food so that Aaron and Spencer could spend more time with the team and their children making sure they had a memorable Christmas.

"Buddy, haven't we forgotten something," he piped up looking between the sofa and his eleven year old son.

Jack looked down at his feet then back up and added, "Sorry dad," then ran over to tidy up his mess while his dad smiled watching him.

"Enjoy it while it lasts, Aaron. He'll be a teenager soon enough," Dave said looking up from the pancakes smiling at father and son.

"Don't scare me," Aaron muttered under his breath.

"Least with him you won't have to deal with periods."

Spencer came in dressed the same as Aaron and answered wiping the sleep out of his eyes, "Sometimes periods can even start when girls are ten."

"Just for that comment you'll be the one buying the pads," Aaron replied raising his eyebrow causing Spencer to look like he'd been caught in the headlights. Aaron then stepped over swallowing the lump in his throat and added touching Spencer's jaw gently, "Honey, close your mouth; you're catching flies."

Spencer watched him with his eyes open wide but also his heart soaring as Aaron headed over to feed his baby daughter her breakfast. Spencer swallowed the lump in his throat while Aaron looked back and smiled lovingly at him. Maybe what his heart was telling him was true. Maybe Aaron was finally trying to make the first steps to making their relationship an actual relationship.

A few hours later everyone was over to celebrate with them. JJ and Will had been over first with their two boys then the others had followed almost all together. In total there was fourteen of them and Dave had bought them a larger table just to fit them all in for the occasion. Members of the team also decided to help him with certain parts of the cooking but he wouldn't let them do the most part insisting they should be out with the children. After all there were four children to be entertained and one of them had taken up trying to eat tinsel.

They soon all laid the table together for all fourteen of them. They made sure Aaron and Spencer were at the top of the table along with Jack and Abby. They placed Abby's high-chair near their chairs so Aaron could feed her her dinner. She only really let her father feed her or do anything with her though at times she let her brother and 'stepdad'. She was definitely a daddy's girl.

The girls and Dave placed all the food on the table along with Spencer while Aaron tried to get the tinsel out of his daughter's little fingers. He had to shake his head at her new taste for tinsel. As soon as she'd turned six months she'd seemed to like putting in her mouth anything she'd found lying around her. They'd had to be even more diligent about what was lying on the floor especially when she was in the room.

"How did she get this anyway?" he asked taking it gently from her mouth.

"Sorry, Uncle Aaron," Henry answered looking down. "I accidentally knocked some down and forgot Abby likes trying to eat it. When Jack reminded me it was too late she already had it."

"It's fine, Henry, it was just an accident..." he assured him.

"Remember Abby's only like Michael was when he was six months old," JJ said smoothing down her eldest son's hair. He nodded and she kissed the top of his head.

"No harm done," Aaron smiled back at him causing him to smile back.

Later all the food was on the table and Dave got up to toast clinking his glass. Everyone looked up as he added, "Even though it's not my house I'd like to make a toast. This year we got two of the biggest blessings; one being the rescue and reunion of one of our own and our newest addition to the family, Abby. We managed to save and rescue our Unit Chief and dear friend and thankfully he came back to us a happier man. To family..."

"To family," they all chorused clinking each other's glasses.

They then all dived into the glorious feast Dave had set up for them all. He'd cooked them Christmas turkey with all the trimmings and each one of them took a generous, healthy amount. Dave revelled in how much was eaten and how delicious everyone said it was. He just replied it was just how his Mama had cooked it.

Once Aaron had finished his he took the bowl of blended Christmas dinner Dave had made for him to give Abby so she wouldn't miss out on her first Christmas dinner even if she couldn't eat proper food yet. He wasn't eternally grateful that he'd done this for his baby girl and smiled as she ate it happily without spitting it back out. Thankfully she hadn't spat much food out since he'd started her on the baby food.

As he fed his little girl and she smiled smacking her lips each time she had a bite he could feel eyes on him. He looked over to see his younger love watching him with eyes full of love and devotion. He smiled back at him lovingly making Spencer's smile widen even further.

Soon enough they'd unwrapped all their presents with the family around their living room couch. The kids had gone first as they were the most excited and the team just enjoyed sitting back and watching them open their presents full of all the Christmas excitement. Aaron had opened all the ones for Abby and thanked each and every one of them for all the presents she got.

After a few more hours the others headed for home. Dave was the last one to do so after packing all his stuff up and placing it in the car. Before he left though he placed his hand on Aaron's arm making him look at him.

"I've seen the smiles between you and Spencer today. I know what you feel for each other. Do something about it," he said firmly.

"I'm planning to," he smiled back kicking his feet.

"Good. It's about time," Rossi smiled back clapping his arm then turned and left.

After they put the kids to bed Aaron noticed there was mistletoe still up and smiled. He scanned the room to see where the man he loved was. He saw he was just coming down the stairs so he went over to the mantelpiece where the mistletoe was and started fiddling with the trinkets they had on top of it hoping Spencer would come over soon. He didn't want to be too obvious but the mistletoe was the perfect excuse to kiss the man he loved with all his heart.

Spencer's eyebrow furrowed as he saw his potential love fiddling with the trinkets on their mantelpiece. Was something wrong? Had something upset him? He thought they'd managed to have a great Christmas but Aaron didn't look so happy. While his back was turned had something happened?

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked gently.

Suddenly he was taken by surprise as Aaron's lips crashed against his in nervous want, anticipation and passion. Aaron brought his hands up and placed them gently on Spencer's face as the passion grew inside of him. As Spencer soon joined in kissing him back with the same passion butterflies flew round their stomachs and tingles ran down their spines. They just couldn't get enough of each other now they were finally having their first kiss.

"Wow, what was that for?" Spencer smiled while tints of red appeared in his cheeks.

"For being you. For always being here for me. For having waited so patiently for me. For everything you've done. Mostly and simply because I love you," Aaron replied nervously. He'd never found it easy to talk about emotions or depending on anyone else. It had just been the way he'd been brought up. His mother had always told him emotions were weakness and they never led anywhere good. In fact when he'd show any emotion he usually got a whack. He felt tears rising when he remembered how his family had taken his sexuality.

"What's wrong?" Spencer asked concerned as Aaron turned away from him. "Aaron, please tell me. Please don't shut me out again," he added placing his hand on Aaron's shoulder.

"I wasn't scared just because of what Norwood did to me. I was fifteen when I first realised I fell in love with boys as well as girls. I started dating another boy in my class..." Tears filled his eyes and a lump formed in his throat. "My mother found out and beat me declaring she was beating out my sins. She tried to prevent me from seeing him and even got him expelled from the school. She even tried locking me in my room after school but I'd sneak out just to see him. Whenever my mum would find out she'd just hit me and she'd never look me in the eye. If my aunt hadn't intervened I know she'd have sent me to a gay cure farm..." He looked back up again with tears threatening to roll down his cheeks from the pain he'd kept inside all these years. "I was only welcomed back into the family a year later when I got together with Haley but I knew it was all superficial and conditional. I vowed I would never treat any of my children like that. That's why I couldn't go myself to close that farm a few years ago. It would have broken me. I'd almost been one of them."

Spencer couldn't believe what he was hearing. How could his man's mother have been so cruel? He'd known his lover had come from a high class world of superficiality but how could a mother be so cruel to treat her eldest son like that? So many people thought his lover was an emotionless man but he knew under all that that he was a vulnerable, sweet man whose heart beat a thousand different emotions. He just wore the other face as an armour so no-one could ever hurt him again but Spencer knew he felt things deeply.

There had been so much pain in Aaron's life and Spencer just wanted to wash it away. All he could do though was be there for him and provide him with a happier future he thought as he wrapped his arms around his older lover and held him close to him while Aaron let the tears roll.

He kissed his hair and answered, "Oh Aaron, I'll never let anyone hurt you ever again. You never deserved any of that. I'll never leave you and will always be here for you. It's alright to feel like that. I'm sorry you had to go through all that. No-one should have treated you like that especially your mother. I wish I could erase all that pain from you..."

Suddenly Aaron pushed Spencer up against an empty space of wall and started kissing his neck saying, I'm sick and tired of my mother dictating how I should live my life. I'm not afraid of her anymore. I can get whatever I want and that includes you, Spencer Reid..." Just as he crashed his lips against Spencer's again he added, "I love you."

He then claimed his lips for his own again and ran his hands down Spencer's sides while Spencer kissed him back with just as much hunger. Aaron soon tried to take off Spencer's jumper feeling his manhood throbbing with passion. He was just so hungry for his lover that he seemed to forget the fact that this was the first time his penis had erected since his operation.

Suddenly Spencer stepped back and smiled as he saw exactly what he believed he'd been feeling against him. "Aaron," he beamed looking down at the mound trying to push out of Aaron's trousers.

Aaron looked down to see his penis was trying to force itself out of his flies and tears filled up his eyes again but this time it was tears full of joy. His worries and fears were all over. It was finally working completely in all areas.

Spencer smiled taking his hand and simply said, "I think we should go upstairs. To our room."

Aaron just smiled back letting him lead him up there.