Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

Family Ties-Chapter 1

~Okay, this is NOT the next story in the Unconventional Family and Happily Ever After series, it's a stand-alone mini epic. The next story in the "Rossi Family Universe" probably won't be posted for another month or two, but this story will be kind of similar, so please give it a try.

~Timeline: Everyone is their same cannon age and this story starts about a month before the episode 'To Hell...And Back'.

As David Rossi walked from his office to the break room, there was a spring in his step and he whistled a happy tune. His thirteen year old daughter was returning from two months in Italy that evening and he couldn't wait to see her. He couldn't believe how fast the time had gone; it seemed like he had just put her on the plane yesterday and now suddenly she was returning from her summer trip.

He felt bad about sending her away for so long but his dad, who had recently moved back to Italy, had been clamoring for them to come for a visit since the day his feet had hit Italian soil. Dave finally relented and made arrangements for his daughter to spend most of the summer in the countryside of Italy, all the while planning on coming out for her birthday in mid-July. Unfortunately, because of the never ending cases, he hadn't made it to Europe and he had missed yet another one of his daughter's birthdays, in this case a milestone birthday as it had marked her official transition from tween to teenager.

As he thought about what her age meant, Dave gave a sigh; the tween years hadn't been too bad, at least Janet had been alive to help him with most of those pitfalls, but the teen years…God, from all of the books he'd read and the stories he'd heard, well, he wasn't exactly looking forward to them but he knew he would get through them…somehow.

"Today's the day, isn't it?" His boss and best friend asked as he entered the break area. "She gets home this afternoon, right?"

Dave smiled, "Her plane is due to arrive at National in about two hours."

Hotch smiled as he heard the excitement in his friend's voice, "So I'm guessing you'll be leaving early?"

Dave nodded, "All of my case files are completed and my conference call with Denver PD was cancelled, apparently they caught their serial rapist this morning." He paused and took a swig of his coffee. "I gotta say, I missed her more than I thought I would. When she first left, I thought I would love having a clean and quiet house and I do, but I also miss having her around and if the messes and the music come with that, then I'll take them."

Even though work had kept him away for many of the milestones in her life, Dave was close with his daughter Katie and he had missed her presence much more than he thought he would. Ever since his wife Janet had died, almost two years ago, it had been just the two of them and they had grown close, both sharing in the grief that came from losing a loved one. Katie had lost her mother and Dave had lost his soul mate and it had taken them awhile to get through their mourning, but they had done it together and it had created a much stronger father-daughter bond.

"Who would've thought that the Great David Rossi could be brought to his knees by a twelve…no, now thirteen year-old girl?" Hotch asked, still smiling.

"Oooh, are you talking about Katie Rossi, the mystery girl?" Garcia asked as she and JJ entered the break room. "Are we ever going to meet this daughter of yours?"

Dave shook his head, "Let it go, Garcia, it's not going to happen."

Most of the team had been clamoring to meet his daughter since he'd rejoined the team after his first retirement, but Dave wouldn't let it happen; he did NOT want her to be tainted by what he did. Sure, she knew he worked grisly cases but she never knew much about them and he wanted to keep it that way and if he had to keep her away from the BAU altogether to do so, then that's what he would do. More importantly, Dave also needed one thing in his life that he didn't associate with work and he was afraid if Katie met the team and got chummy with them, then he would think of her whenever he saw them. He knew Hotch and JJ kept their kids away from the BAU for the very same reason.

The only reason Hotch knew Katie was because they had been friends for so long and it would have been weird for him not to know her. Besides, after Janet died, Hailey had offered to watch Katie while he was out in the field and the two had grown close. Hailey had been a Godsend; she was able to navigate all of the 'girl stuff' that he would have been horrible at. Janet died when Katie was eleven, so she'd had all of the basic talks with their daughter, but Hailey had delivered the more in-depth 'my changing body' speech to Katie and for that, Dave was eternally grateful. It's not that he wouldn't have done it; it's just that it saved both him and his daughter from a life-scarring discussion.

"Come on, Agent Rossi! How can you deny me my BAU niece? It's cruel and unusual punishment," Garcia said with a pout.

Dave just shook his head and left the break room, carrying his precious, caffeinated brew. By all rights, the team should have met Katie when Janet died, but his wife had been specific about not wanting a big funeral, so in the end he and Katie, along with Janet's brother, had gone to her favorite spot in the woods and they had scattered her ashes there. As a result, Katie was still a mystery to the majority of the team.

As he entered his office, he tried to shift his train of thought back to the never-ending pile paperwork that was on his desk and he sat down with the intention of completing it. His plans changed as he looked to the rear of his office and saw his section chief sitting on the sofa.

"Jesus Christ, Erin, you scared the hell out of me!" He snapped; the absolute last thing he needed was to go twelve rounds with her before picking his daughter up from the airport.

"We need to talk, David."

"About what?" He asked. "Like I told Aaron, my consultations are finished, I'm almost done with my paperwork and the conference call with Denver was cancelled."

"This isn't about work," she told him.

"Then what is it about?" He asked with barley veiled contempt in his voice. "What exactly do we need to discuss?"

"Our daughter," she responded.