The bird's opening - Criminal Minds - JJ

Epilogue: More than ever

Virginia, 2015

Dani sat on the bench, a chocolate ice cream in one hand and a vanilla ice cream in the other. She had her sunglasses on and her hair pulled up in a ponytail. She had a smile on her face that only widened when she heard laughter all around her, a cheer from the little boy and small, playful groan from the woman kicking the soccer ball with him.

"Auntie Dani!" Henry called, rushing over to where Dani sat with the biggest, brightest smile on his little face. "I won!"

"I saw!" Dani responded, matching his energy as Henry climbed onto the bench with her. "That was a beautiful goal you scored!"

"Yeah, it was!" He nodded excitedly. "Can I have my ice cream now?"

"Of course you can, buddy. Here." Dani nodded, passing the chocolate ice cream over to the boy, who eagerly took it from her hand and attacked the treat like a madman.

"Slow down, buddy." JJ warned, standing in front of the two of them while still trying to catch her breath from the very intense soccer game she had just shared with her son. "We don't need you getting your shirt all dirty, do we?"

Henry only hummed at his mother in response, far too concentrated in his treat to even respond properly to her, but JJ didn't care. She just smiled, watching as her baby boy - well, he wasn't really a baby anymore, being about to turn seven the next week, but he would always be her baby regardless - devoured the treat her girlfriend had gotten him.

Her girlfriend, JJ thought... The beatiful woman with sun-kissed skin and the most intense brown eyes was her girlfriend and she had been for months now. JJ had never thought that being captured by Hastings the year before would ever turn out to be a good thing - well, really, she didn't think going to Afghanistan would be a good thing - but there she was, seven months later, healed and in a new relationship that she felt safe in. So much so that, a month before, she had even decided to introduce Dani properly to her son.

She remembered the day they met, how worried Dani had been, dying to make a good impression on Henry. And, admittedly, it did take some time, but after their third playdate when the two of them had spent the entirety of it ignoring JJ while discussing Spiderman - after Dani had spent a whole night diving into movies and comics and anything she could've found on the matter -, Auntie Dani, as Henry called her now, had become one of the boy's favorite people. And JJ couldn't have been more pleased with that result.

"What's in that pretty little mind of yours now, Jareau?" Dani asked, her voice snapping JJ from her own thoughts as she looked down at her girlfriend and shrugged with a smile.

"Nothing." She said, grabbing Dani's ice cream from her and taking a lick to it. "Just how wonderful this day has been."

And it truly had. It had been one of JJ's few days off that coincidentally matched one of Dani's - and, no... They hadn't been planning asking for a day off simultaneously for weeks now just so they could hang out together - and, as soon as Hotch had given JJ the okay and Dani had worked out her own unit so they wouldn't lose their whole plot without their chief around, the two of them had jumped into the opportunity to spend their afternoon with Henry, of course. And it was the better that, that day, the sun had decided to shine bright in the sky and the three of them had been in the mood for a relaxing day out in the park.

So, after having lunch in a picnic set up by Dani herself, sharing a few laughs and playing around in the playground for a while, Henry had asked his mom if they could play some soccer and, not only was JJ almost never able to deny her son anything, she was also a soccer fanatic, so, of course she had agreed with no questions. While they played, Dani had taken off for a second to buy them some ice cream and that was how they found themselves in this position, the three of them sitting together in a bench, sharing ice cream as they rested from all the activities from their busy day.

"It truly has been. A good day, I mean." Dani nodded, snatching he ice cream back from JJ as she smiled, watching as the woman wiped her son's mouth that he had, of course, covered in chocolate stains. Once she was done, Dani reached a hand over to her and pulled her to sit down in between her and Henry as she scooted over to the side a little. "Are you happy?"

"Yes." JJ smiled, leaning closer to Dani to give her a quick kiss, enjoying the sweet taste of vanilla from the ice cream in her lips. "More than ever. Are you happy?"

"Yes." Dani nodded with a smile. "More than ever."

"Good." JJ nodded, turning to Henry just in time to see him inhaling the last bit of his ice cream as she laughed, noticing the stains of chocolate all over his face. "Oh, buddy... Come here, let me clean you up."

Henry giggled, allowing his mom to pick him up and place him in her lap as she pulled a napkin from the basket of food they had brought as she wiped his face. Henry laughed as JJ playfully brushed the clean part of the napkin all over Henry's face, but pushed her hand away from him before lifting his sparkling blue eyes - the exact same one his mother had - to meet Dani's instead.

"Do you want to play with me, auntie Dani?" Henry asked, jumping off of JJ's lap and standing in front of Dani as the woman nodded. "Play with me and mommy? Can we play soccer together? Please?"

"Of course we can, buddy." Dani nodded without missing a beat. When Henry cheered and Dani giggled, JJ felt her heart soar in her chest. "Go get the ball. Let's wipe the floor with your mom, what do you say?"

"Yes!" Henry laughed, rushing to go get the ball as JJ scoffed.

"You wouldn't be able to wipe the floor with me if you tried, babe." She said, always the competitive one.

"Is that a challenge I hear, agent Jareau?" Dani cut her eyes at her girlfriend playfully, as the woman just smirked back at her.

"Maybe it is, agent Moreno." She responded in the same tone. "What are you gonna do about it?"

Dani chuckled, pressing another kiss to her lips before jumping up from the bench they were in as she rushed after Henry. As JJ watched Dani picking up her son in her arms as she hung him playfully upside down and he laughed soundly, JJ smiled. Yes, she was happy now. More than she ever been before.