A Course of Passion

39: Surprised

"Are you sure Bella wanted to go out to eat, Sonny? We can just stay at her apartment and let her relax a bit, I'm sure she's exhausted." I say to him as we get closer to the restaurant Bella told us to meet her at.

He holds his hands up from the steering wheel for a moment and shrugs, "that's what she said. I don't ask questions."

"Fine, as long as they have something with cheese then I don't care." I say to him, listening to what my babies are telling me to eat.

"I mean, it's a pretty nice restaurant Maddison, I don't know if they're gonna have grilled cheese or anything." He puts a hand on my leg and rubs it gently. I give him a look, one he's seen a lot in the past few weeks. It's the look that says the babies want what they want and you better get me what I want, "but I'm sure they'll be something for you!" He adds on smiling large.

"Better be." I mumble, looking out the window as we pull in. Sonny helps me out of the car and he takes my arm as we walk in. Once inside, the hostess smiles and asks, "two?"

"Actually, we're here meeting my sister. Bella?" He asks.

She nods and smiles once more, "of course, she's already here. You can follow me."

She begins walking us to the table and chats about our day, she opens a door to a back room and when I follow behind her I am shocked and in awe when everyone jumps out and yells, "surprise!"

Tears start to well up in my eyes and I quickly wipe them away as JJ and Penelope come over to give me a hug, "congratulations!" They squeal together as they lean in to me.

"You guys planned this?" I choke out, wiping at my tears again as we part from the embrace.

Penelope quickly explains, as one Penelope Garcia does in giddy fashion, "well once you told us you were having twins we knew you wouldn't be able to make it down to Virginia so we got a hold of your vanilla latte here and planned something out."

"So, my vanilla latte was in on this?" I turn to glare at my boyfriend behind me. He's biting the inside of his lips to keep from smiling.

JJ pulls me forward, "come on, let's get you something to eat. I'm sure you're starving!"

I give her my 'you know it look' and walk off towards the buffet. Once I grab a plate of food, I take a seat next to Sonny who's enjoying an early beer and talking with Morgan, "so, how'd you guys manage to get the weekend off?" I ask him before taking a huge bite of mac-and-cheese.

He smiles his perfect smile back at me and says, "who says we got the weekend off?" I squint my eyes at him, waiting for him to say more. He keeps his perfect grin on his face but finally comes clean, "we have a seminar to give tomorrow to the cadets at the academy."

I nod my head, figuring as much and he nods his head along with me, "there's always a give and take with the FBI."

"Well, we all agreed to give whatever to come here and celebrate you and the babies, Maddy." He leans in to give me another hug.

As we are hugging, I spot Spencer and my dad holding a conversation over by the bar area. I make note to go talk to my father, not having talked much over the past few months. Olivia and the rest of my squad manage to get off work early to come as well and everyone from my past and present, besides Amanda, has come to my surprise shower. Sonny and I thank every guest for coming, giving a lot of hugs and hand shakes through out the entire afternoon. I manage to have little conversation with almost everyone by the time I am pulled into the center of the room to open gifts. I groan lowly so only Penelope can hear me, "come on, no one wants to see me open these." I urge her a she sits me down.

"Nonsense, people love to watch others open gifts." She keeps her silly grin plastered on her lips.

"Liar." I manage to spit out just as she turns to get everyone's attention. I spend the next 40 minutes or so opening gift after gift in front of everyone, doing my best to hurry things along. After, things finally start to slow down as people leave the party. One of the last of the people to leave, besides my old BAU team members and Sonny is Sonny's family. After we say goodbye to one another, Sonny leaves to walk his mother to her car and I start to pick things up to take back to our apartment.

"Hey. I wanted to give this to you, I didn't think you'd wanna open it in front of everyone." Spencer sneaks up behind me, causing me to jump a little.

"Oh, Jesus Spencer. You scared me!" I exclaim, as if the jump I did wasn't evidence enough.

He turns his head a bit to the side, looking concerned, "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. What's this?" I ask as his hands are still held out with a present in his hand.

"A gift." He states matter of factually.

I give him a glare with pursed lips and take it from his hands, "obviously. But didn't you give us one already?" I question, remembering opening something with his name on the card.

He shakes his brown locks, "that was from a few of us, this is just something else I wanted you to have."

I keep my skeptical gaze on him as I reach inside the bag for what's inside. Once I pull it out, I gasp with a bit of shock at what I am holding, "wait, is this your copy of Folk and fairy tales by p.c. asbjornsen?" I hold the old leather book gently in my hands.

"It is." He confirms.

"But this is an original. One your mom got and read to you as a kid." I say out loud, as if he forgot, pushing the book towards him for him to take it back from me.

"I know, and I want you to have it." He takes my hands in his and pushes them gently back towards me.

I look down at the book and shake my head, "Spence" I whisper his name, not sure why he'd give me such a special book, "why?" I ask him finally, taking a deep breath and looking up to see him when he answers me.

He gently tells me, his voice soothing like a lullaby, "because I remember the moment you found it. Your confidence in the decision to have our child was made once you got your hands on that book. You were so ready to be a mother then, to read these stories to our baby as my mother did to me."

"But this is your book Spencer, I can't.." I trail off, looking back down at the book to try and hide my tears.

"Please." He urges, "I want you to have it."