start a riot, criminal minds [ 3 ]

038. lucky strikes

Spencer is making a pot of coffee while Matilda sits in her high chair and eats. Matilda makes noise making Spencer glance over at her.

"What?" He asks.

Matilda grabs the plastic bowl of the oatmeal. She slides it closer to the edge, slowly grinning.

"Matilda, no." Spencer tells her, despite knowing she's too young to grasp right from wrong. "Honey, please, don't--" He's cut off as the bowl hits the floor, the oatmeal spilling on the floor.

Spencer huffs while Matilda giggles, her smile growing when she sees his expression.

Spencer grabs some paper towels and wipes up the oatmeal. He tosses it all in the trash before going over and picking up the bowl.

"We need less messy ways for you to tell us stuff." Spencer says. Matilda puts her hand that's covered in oatmeal and smushed bananas on his cheek making him grimace and she giggles. "Yeah. Yeah, okay." He mumbles, getting up. He puts the bowl in the sink before getting a paper towel and wiping his cheek clean.

"Hey." Madelyn walks in, holding Simon. He woke up earlier and ate earlier, Madelyn being the one to take care of him. "She eat anything?"

"Yeah, she's still working on the bananas. Not really sure she likes oatmeal." Spencer says.

"Why?" Madelyn asks.

"She intentionally dropped it on the floor." Spencer says. "But babies this age are becoming more aware of cause and effect. They know dropping the bowl off the table will make it crash onto the ground, which they tend to find hilarious. So we can't really be mad at her since she's just learning how to do things, though we can still tell her not to do it since you don't throw food. Unless she is smart enough to do it just to annoy me." He squints his eyes at his youngest child who has a handful of smushed banana and puts it in her mouth to eat it. She giggles, Spencer swearing she has a mischievous grin on her face.

"Well, she is your child." Madelyn says, putting Simon down.

"Mei?" Simon asks, referring to the two younger kids' nanny, Amelia. They only hired her after having Penelope do an extremely deep background check.

"Yeah, she'll be here in a little bit, baby." Madelyn says. "Also, the two teens will be home late due to extracurriculars and Amelia's taking these two out later, so maybe -- if we don't have a case and get home on time -- we can have mommy and daddy time." She quietly says, grinning.

"Oh, yeah?" Spencer asks, smiling a little.

"Mm-hmm." Madelyn grins, leaning up and kissing him.

"Oh, God! Get a room!" They break apart at Reese's groan of disgust.

"In front of the innocents? That's just cruel." Lanie tsks.

"It was a five second kiss." Madelyn says.

"Yeah, five seconds too long." Reese pretends to gag.

"Okay." Madelyn rolls her eyes.

"How do I look?" Lanie asks.

"Um... spectacular." Spencer says.

"Really?" Lanie asks.

"Yes. Also, you-- you get sad when I'm too vague." Spencer says. Lanie's eyebrows raise. "Not that-- not that you don't always look, yo-you know, pretty, you're-- you're always pretty. You're not ugly. I--"

"You're getting better at the dad compliment thing... kind of." Lanie says.

"A for effort." Madelyn says.

"Exactly." Lanie nods. "Do you like my skirt?" She asks them.

"Yeah, it's beautiful. I really like the stars at the end." Madelyn says.