Happy Halloween!
Finnie P.O.V
“Happy Halloween Losers!” I exclaim, practically kicking open the doors to the BAU’s office with dad laughing next to me. Everyone’s eyes snag on our costumes and their faces light up.
For Halloween I always go all-out, as it’s my favorite holiday. I typically just dress up and go trick-or-treating with Henry, even if the tradition is a bit childish. I keep my costumes to myself and try not to take it personally when people laugh, because I get super passionate about this Holiday, and it does sting when people make fun of the effort I put into it.
That said, I’ve known the team for two months now and have started spending more and more time at their office - specifically and at Derek and Rossi’s houses. Derek and I bonded over basketball and a shared love of watching the NFL on cable (which annoys dad so much) to the point where I introduced him to Darren and the other boys at the basketball courts. All of them had hit it off and we ended up playing basketball until my dad came to find me and ended up forcing Derek to come over because they had work tomorrow.
Rossi and I, on the other hand, bonded over a shared love of the arts, italian cuisine, and the movie The Godfather (as stereotypical as that is). I did scold the man once for telling my dad to stop talking when Rossi had a headache, and to everyone’s surprise he had apologised to dad after I spoke up. Since then I hang out at his house after school while Dad’s at some sort of college lecture or his rehab meetings no one on the team will admit exist. Rossi and I have started just speaking Italian to each other around his house, and even in front of the team, mostly to annoy Hotch and Derek who can’t understand us. The others can’t either, but they think it’s ‘adorable’.
This Halloween I decided to dress up as my dad, mostly because I didn’t want to go out and buy clothes or a costume and it gave me an excuse to cut my hair shorter. My dad and I haven’t had a chance to get haircuts for a while, so my hair got to the point where it was past my shoulders, and his got to his shoulders, so we decided to get matching haircuts two weeks ago on Halloween (the BAU’s office party had to be delayed because of a case in Minnesota during which I had to stay with Rossi because he stayed back to watch me even though I protested and said I usually crash at Darren’s, which Dad did not know about). So now both of us got similar haircuts and there’s identical curly mops
on our heads now that reach our ears and almost the bottom of our necks.
Dad used to give me his old clothes during college when he couldn’t afford baby clothes, and at first he felt bad, until he saw how much I loved them because apparently two year old me said I ‘looked like Jack McCoy from Law and Order’. So I dressed in one of my white button-up shirts and a black sweater vest he gave me at some point. For pants and shoes I got a pair of the strange grey … I guess ‘trousers’ would be the right word, that he wears every day and black converse. I also threw on a blue tie, and he wore the same outfit as me and even gave me his spare ID and satchel.
“Two baby geniuses!” Garcia squeals and rushes over with the others right behind her.
The blonde woman reaches out to touch me, freezes for a second when she most likely flashes back to the last time, but I just give a small smile and nod. Another squeal and she’s grabbing my face, turning it this way and that to look at the eyeliner I applied earlier and then beaming when she sees matching wings on dad’s eyes. This close up to Garcia, I can’t help but notice how she somehow smells like rainbows and unicorns.
The rainbows make sense. I usually chill in Garcia’s office with her during the day while the team is off on cases, and she ended up coming out to me as a Lesbian about a week after I met her. I knew her sexuality already (I have impeccable gaydar) and we both ended up fangirling over Katherine Pierce from Vampire Diaries and binging the show. She hasn’t come out to the team yet, and somehow they haven’t picked up on it. Even dad doesn’t know, which really got me and I still think it’s hilarious every time she makes an offhand comment about the female unsub being hot and no one catches on.
In fact, she was the first one I told when Alexus and I broke up two weeks ago, and ended up crying in her office about it.
Yeah, I broke up with Alexus. For a good month and a half we were doing really well, and she even asked me to be her girlfriend. But after that she started acting really weird. Alexus only came over to hang out once in a blue moon and texted about once a week. When we were together, she wouldn’t let me even touch her phone and didn’t want to kiss or sit that close (which I understood, and I thought she was just trying to give me personal space). But I’m not an idiot, and as much as I tried to deny it, I saw the signs and eventually asked Darren point-blank if his sister was cheating on me.
Darren had gone to roll his eyes and say ‘of course not’, but froze and I saw his head spin. Eventually he muttered out a ‘fuck’ and proceed to tell me that a girl named Sarah had been hanging out at their house a lot recently and apologized, saying he would yell at his sister for me. I had shaken my head, already retreating into my Mind Bridge, and just gave him a hug and walked away.
One hour later I sent a text to Alexus with seven words.
Finnie: I know. It’s over. We’re done. Goodbye.
Then I blocked her.
I think dad may have picked up on the fact that we were dating and she cheated on me, and if he took me out for ice cream after I texted her, we didn’t say anything.
“Oh God, you two got matching haircuts.” JJ approaches us and clutches her chest. “I think my heart is overloading on cuteness.”
“Damn kid, we’re really going far with the brownosing this year, huh?” Derek ruffles my hair and then does the same to dad as he shrugs.
“It was sort of a trade, Finnie wore one of my outfits so I let her put makeup on me,” Dad says, and coughs when Derek grabs his face so him and Garcia can inspect our
matching eyeliner and foundation.
Rossi grins and holds up a coffee cup in salute. “Reid, you’re a really good dad.”
Dad’s face flushes and he sputters, trying to deny it even as the others all agree.
“You totally are,” Garcia gushes.
“I’ve never met another dad who would let their kid put makeup on them,” JJ agrees.
“I’ve never met a kid who wanted to dress up as their dad,” Hotch says and gives us a rare smile. “Not even Jack, he went as a transformer.”
I snap my fingers and feel my eyes light up. “Oh yeah! On actual Halloween I dressed up as RC with Henry who went as Optimus Prime.” The adults give me confused looks, and
I gesture with my hands as I explain. “Henry and I binge-watched the show when you guys were on a case about a year ago. The show came out two years, ten days, and twenty-seven minutes ago, and RC is--”
Garcia whirls to JJ. “Do you have pictures of them?”
JJ gives me a dangerous smile and I glare at her. “Don’t you dare.”
She whips out her phone, clicks a few buttons before I can take it from her, and Garcia’s phone dings a second later. The blonde woman takes it out, opens up to her text messages and squeals at the sight of me and Henry dressed up before proceeding to pass the phone around. Derek and her finally releasing my dad and me.
The whole team looks at the photos and gives me a smug look, but they get confused when I don’t get upset.
I shrug. “It may be a bit embarrassing but I managed to hustle four kids out of half their halloween candy and made fifty bucks selling it to popular apartments that run out.”
The team blinks.
“That’s… Impressive as fuck,” Rossie says with an appraising look, ignore my dad’s shout of ‘language’! “You should help me with my pyramid scheme, kid.”
“I would love too,” I say in total sincerity, and proceed to follow the Italian into his office along with Derek, all three of us ignoring my dad’s protests.