For Warnings and Disclaimers, see chapter 1.

Everyone had made it to Rossi's with the notable exception of Reid. It was a half hour past the time their get-together was scheduled to begin and JJ was giving up hope that he would come. She wasn't the only one. His absence was like the elephant in the room. Everyone was thinking about it. Everyone was worried or disappointed about the fact that he hadn't come, to one degree or another, but no one said anything. They all seemed determined to smile and act like everything was fine even though they knew it wasn't.

The doorbell rang and Morgan volunteered to get it. Truth be told, though he was trying his best do deal with it, he was still pissed at Hotch and JJ. He was happy to get a minute away from the others so he could just drop the act for a moment. Besides, there was only one person it could really be and, knowing Reid was in a similar place, somehow made him feel like he was gaining an ally. Morgan opened the door to find a very uncomfortable looking Reid standing on the other side of the threshold.

"Come on in, man. Glad you made it."

Reid responded with what was obviously an attempt at a smile, but looked more like a pained grimace.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Morgan empathized.

"I don't know if I'm ready for this."

"What's important is that you're here. The girls are gonna be thrilled."

Reid took a deep breath and nodded. Morgan turned to head back toward the kitchen and Reid followed, mentally psyching himself up to be the way everyone wanted him to be. Reid entered the kitchen, his body full of nervous tension.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, giving a little wave.

JJ glanced his way briefly, feeling relief and a flutter of happiness that he'd come after all.

Reid put on his best smile long enough to make eye contact with JJ, but as soon as she looked away, he felt it slipping. This really wasn't going to be easy, but he was here, so he would try his best to make this work.

Emily, too, was more than happy Reid had finally arrived, but she could see the tension Reid was doing his best to hide. She tried to take the focus off of his arrival by inquiring, "So when do we get to drink the wine?"

Rossi took it from there and tried to emphasize why they were all really there together as he said, "We're going to do this, altogether, just..like..a family."

They all toasted, everyone putting on their best happy face, but in that moment, it wasn't a total façade. They were all there, each trying to put the team, their family, back together. It wouldn't happen overnight because, no, a pasta party can't fix everything, but it was a start, and that was something worth celebrating.

The End

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it and weren't disappointed that there wasn't a perfect, happy ending with hugs all around. I've always felt that the 'pasta party fixes everything' ending was so horribly unrealistic. I opted to show that, while things were far from perfect, there was hope that things could be good again one day and that the whole team was on board to work toward mending what was broken and try to be a "family" again.