History Heartwarming / CriminalMinds

** And later, during a montage of searching Kansas City, a few homeless people greet Detective McGee like a friend, so we know he's not just talk. He is well loved and respected in the community.

* Rossi during almost the entirity of "Demonology", especially the way he listens to Prentiss talk about her abortion and doesn't pass judgment despite being a devout Catholic. In addition, he's just as intent in solving the case as she is, repeatedly going to bat on her behalf. Hotch, too, when he and Rossi agree to piss off the Italian consulate on Prentiss's say-so.

* Henry going as his favorite profiler for Halloween: Reid. And Reid's utterly adorable reaction to it.
* When Reid asks the BAU to help him find Maeve, none of them object using their free time to do it.

* Garcia's defense for looking into Seaver's "hidden background."

* Prentiss explaining to the Senate Committee, at length, why her team is awesome, thereby saving the entire unit's jobs.

* Any time Angel Suarez smiles, especially when JJ figures out his name and Morgan teaches him coin tricks.

* Morgan reuniting his presumed dead cousin, Cindi, with her family after eight years. The scene at the end and Morgan tearing up is the clincher.
* The ending of "The Company" where Derek rescues his cousin, meets his nephew and unites them with their mother.
--> '''Garcia:''' There's my hero.
* In "Hit", one of the [=UnSubs=] gets agitated and hits a bank employee. Another employee immediately steps in and tries to take the heat off of her.

* The end of the case in "Normal" is a DownerEnding, though the actual episode ending is a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}, with JJ showing off her new son.
* Hotch sitting with the call girl [=UnSub=] from "Pleasure is My Business" after she's overdosed, and holding her hand as she dies painfully, simply because she [[StayWithMeUntilIDie asked him to.]]
** Their whole relationship, really, especially when we figure out that her interest in him isn't romantic. Yes, she's a killer, but it's also clear that she desperately wants a father figure in her life -- and who better to do it than the resident Team Dad, who she identifies as "the only man I ever met who didn't let me down."
* Rossi during almost the entirity of "Demonology", especially the way he listens to Prentiss talk about her abortion and doesn't pass judgment despite being a devout Catholic. In addition, he's just as intent in solving the case as she is, repeatedly going to bat on her behalf. Hotch, too, when he and Rossi agree to piss off the Italian consulate on Prentiss's say-so.
** In a very small one, Rossi's priest friend telling him to take care of Prentiss.
** In the beginning of the episode, Hotch's concern for an in-shock Emily is very sweet. At first, he offers her time off to grieve, and then when she asks for leeway to investigate the killing, he doesn't even hesitate to offer his and the team's help.

* Just a teeny tiny thing, but in "A Thousand Words", after Garcia says that she wishes that the case could be over, [[JerkassWithAHeartOfGold Rossi]] responds with, 'We've got a long way to go, kitten.' Garcia's nicknaming rubbing off on the team, perhaps?
* Garcia bonding with Christopher in "Risky Business". She opens up a little about her past and talks a little about their taste in Gothic fashion. It also doubles as a [[TearJerker/CriminalMinds Tear-Jerker]] considering that Chris is tortured by his father and his mother died when he was young. His interaction with Garcia was probably the one moment that brightened his dark life.

* "Faceless, Nameless": The Foyet scenes are mostly pure creepy, and Hotch says very little. But the one thing that he does say?
-->''My team...''
* Charlie being reunited with his parents after several years at the end of "Mosley Lane".
* At the end of "Haunted", the [=UnSub=], the son of a serial killer, who suffered a psychotic break after he began remembering his traumatic past, seems to have regained at least ''some'' of his sanity after killing his father. The final scene is him comforting the man who he had saved from being a victim of his father 30 years ago, telling him that it was because of him he gained the strength to no longer fear and eventually confront his father.
** During the episode, the [=UnSub=] had been reacting violently to anyone who touched him. At the end, the man who he had saved touched his shoulder and his face and the [=UnSub=] just relaxed.
* "Cradle to Grave" has two, despite being a rather NightmareFuel-inducing episode. First the woman who had just given birth gets her baby back. Back at headquarters JJ has been trying to see if she can get an older couple (the parents of one of the [=UnSub=]'s victims) custody of their granddaughter. The adoptive parents refuse, but also say they would like for the grandparents to be in the girl's life. They agree to this and then find out that their daughter had also given birth to a little boy while captured, and since they are his only next of kin, they get custody of him.
** There's also the fact that the most recent abducted woman (who helped deliver the baby) was desperate to get out when the FBI shows up, but she's also hesitant to leave the woman who gave birth.
* "Roadkill" has JJ letting the man who believed himself to have caused the [=UnSub=]'s car accident know that the accident he actually caused resulted in damage to the other car, but there were no injuries, allowing the man to let go of his guilt and move on to enjoy his life once again.

* Also from "Minimum Loss". The entire episode, the team is clearly worried about Prentiss and Reid being held hostage and broke protocols to ensure both of them got out. When the episode ends, we get a shot of Hotch looking at Reid and Prentiss before saying "We got the kids out okay." Considering his interactions with his team bordering on paternal, it's so sweet.

* In "Elephant's Memory", the way the [=UnSub=]'s girlfriend Jordan's best friend talks about their friendship (and later volunteers to contact Jordan) makes it clear how kind and protective she is toward Jordan (who is bullied by many of her classmates and her father).
* In "About Face", the team passing out candy to the kids at the end of the episode.
* Garcia figuring out something was wrong with Rossi in "Damaged", and Morgan, Prentiss, and JJ going to Chicago to track him down and help solve the Galen case. They do so despite his fairly jerkass-y behavior overall towards the team so far (since, at this point, he's still a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who's not used to the newer teamwork structure of the BAU, and hasn't really warmed up to the team yet). When they first join up with Rossi, he tries to push them away and tells them to go home, but they insist on staying to help him. What makes him finally accept their help?
--> '''Rossi''': ''(to all of them)'' Why do you care?\\
''(Morgan, Prentiss, and JJ exchange glances)''\\
'''Prentiss''': Because you do.
* The team finding and resuscitating the missing girl in "Seven Seconds". The look on her parents' faces just says it all.

* Morgan and his sisters singing Happy Birthday to their mother in "Profiler, Profiled", as well as their good-natured sibling-y bickering.
* The detective from episode 22. He went all the way to the FBI just to report about the homeless people in his jurisdiction being missing. It wasn't even official that the people were missing. It was just a theory of his. And he even checked all of the databases before heading to the FBI. He also lied to the FBI when he told them that he hadn't told anyone else (his boss knew.). ''This could have gotten him out of a job and/or some serious consequences.'' And his reason for pretty much lying to the FBI was because he thought that they wouldn't have come if they knew his boss had dismissed his theory. and his reason for coming to the FBI team I the first place?

* The end of "Profiler, Profiled", where Morgan, his family, and Damien's family all pay their respects to Damien and the other unidentified boys Buford murdered. Even [[SmugSnake Gordinski]] and [[TheRival Rodney Harris]] show up! Though that last one becomes HarsherInHindsight when Harris reappears as an [=UnSub=] in Season 7.
* In "Empty World," when the bomber has placed a bomb under a professor's car. The team is too late to prevent the woman from getting into the car, but Morgan ''refuses'' to walk away from the woman inside, even though it puts him in danger. He holds her hand the entire time the bomb is being defused and flatly rejects a direct order from Hotch... all to comfort a woman he has only just met.
* In "Ashes and Dust", Hotch lies to a victim, who is on the brink of death with severe burns, about the status on her husband and son. He tells the woman that they both survived the fire set by the [=UnSub=] and are waiting for her in the waiting room so she can pass on more peacefully.

* When Reid (who is around 24 at the time) is surprised that he doesn't feel more upset after shooting someone for the first time in his life.

* It's a small thing, but in "LDSK", when the shots ring out in the park, Gideon's first reaction is to push JJ down and shield her with his own body.
** A bit of FridgeBrilliance, but for the same episode, Reid and Hotch understand each other so much, that when they're taken hostage, Reid instantly understands Hotch's plan when he moves the civilians out of the line of fire. Reid teasing Hotch about his kicking afterwards was adorable as well.

* At the end of "The Popular Kids", Gideon tells Reid about the time they rescued a kidnapped girl before any harm came to her. That girl is now grown up with a family, and she writes to the B.A.U every year to let them know how she's doing. It's a powerful reminder that for all the horror the team faces, the people they save make it all worthwhile.
** In that same episode, one of the subplots centers around Reid and his nightmares. He tells Morgan about them at the beginning of the episode, and out of concern for Reid, he tells Hotch and Gideon. Later on when Reid calls him out for doing that, Morgan tells Reid that he has nightmares of his own due to an early case of his. Reid asks Morgan how he dealt with them, and he says that Gideon was able to tell what was wrong with him (Morgan didn't want anybody knowing) and talked him through them. The conversation ends with Morgan saying that while he still has nightmares, they're not nearly as often. At the end of the episode, Gideon tells Reid that the whole team has nightmares, implying that he's helped them as well.

** Kevin and Penelope meeting for the first time, which revitalizes her hope that “everything happens for a reason”.

--> '''JJ:''' I never even blinked. You do whatever it takes to protect your family.

* The ending of "Into the Woods". Despite this being one of the creepier episodes, the scene of the both the children reunited with their parents as Rossi looks on and remarks that even though the [=UnSub=] got away this is still a happy ending.

** Another from Coda: Sammy's father is dead, but his mother's been rescued and is on her knees crying in front of him. Throughout the episode, it is unclear how much Sammy understands the situation, since he doesn't speak much and doesn't know sign language. In this final scene, however, he slowly reaches out to pat his sobbing mother's shoulder and allows her to hug him. This is significant because he hates to be touched and has never hugged her before- but he understands that hugging is what you do when people are sad, and puts aside his discomfort to help his grieving mother feel better. A CMOH and TearJerker rolled into one.

* "JJ" is also very touching in that it the mystery of the week with the rescue of Kate the missing girl (whose parents already lost their other child to cancer). The scene where the girl's mother is seen curled up next to her on her hospital bed, protectively holding Kate as her father watches the two of them sleep, is just heart-melting.

--> '''Morgan:''' No. No, I am not letting you go....Listen to me, I know why you did all of this. I know what you did for Declan. I am so proud of you. Do you understand that? I am proud of you because you are my friend and you are my partner.

* The third mother and her daughter in "From Childhood's Hour". Despite arguing over the former's boyfriend trying to rape the latter, they refused to say that they hated each other when taken hostage. When the UnSub encourages the daughter to shoot her mother,[[TakingTheBullet the mother even lies to try to make her daughter hate her enough to pull the trigger, instead of risking the unsub's anger by refusing.]].

** JJ beating the unsub up into a pulp. Why? To protect her son! Doubles as a Moment of Awesome.

* In "Hit", one of the [=UnSubs=] gets agitated and hits a bank employee. Another employee immediately steps in and tries to take the heat off of her.

* In "The Wheels on the Bus" when Wendy is chosen to be the next player of the deadly game she breaks down crying because doesn't think she'll be able to do it. When the UnSub's threaten her with electric schocks she straightens out and is ready to do it, that is when her classmate Billy takes her place instead.
** In the aftermath of that same episode you can see another classmate, Sean, sitting with Wendy in the ambulance after she was shot.
* Henry going as his favorite profiler for Halloween, Reid. And Reid's utterly adorable reaction to it.

* The near-end of "To Bear Witness." Sam, who has been unable to utter a single word throughout his stay at the hospital, is reunited with Dana. He manages to choke out her name, nearly in tears. What makes this moment is him reaching up and grabbing her hand, and Dana begins to cry.

* If the end of "200" doesn't belong here, I don't know what does. The team, reunited, Prentiss included, gathered together, drinking, laughing, and generally just enjoying each others' company as Sarah Darling's cover of "Blackbird" plays in the background.

* The whole ending of "Fate". Rossi finds out that he had a daughter with his second ex-wife and she had spent the whole episode trying to learn about her long-lost father. Rossi drives out to the airport where he has time to reflect on his relationship with his ex-wife. Once he gets to the airport, he gives a heartfelt apology to Joy about not being there and running away from her mother. Just as she's about to get on the plane, she reveals that she's married and has a son. Rossi asks her if it would be alright if he were to fly out to Paris to meet his daughter's family.
* Overlapping with a touch of MomentOfFunny, from the 11th episode; Reid, the Prince of Statistics, offers up a quick answer to a question from Hotch (how many boats are on Lake Mead), only to have Kate -- jokingly -- call him out, stating that he can't possibly know that and he's just guessing, Morgan fist bumps her, saying he's been saying that for ten years now, and finally someone has his back. Rossi looks it up, and Reid, of course is exactly right; the heartwarming comes in the form of a fist bump from a grinning Hotch.
* In “Anonymous”, when Rossi cancels his fishing trip with her once he finds out about the death of Harrison Scott, his daughter Joy decides to fly out and join him in Los Angeles, telling him, “There are times when families are supposed to be together. This seemed like one of those times.” After Rossi tells Joy how Sergeant Scott had straightened him out she observes that, in a roundabout way, Scott made her existence possible (after observing that her mother wouldn’t have given the old David Rossi the time of day). She then stays in Los Angeles with Rossi long enough to attend Harrison Scott’s funeral.

** Reid's overlaps with a TearJerker since goodbyes and change are hard for him, and he notes that their meeting room won't be the same without Morgan, but Morgan assures him that he's just a phone call away. Furthermore, he reveals that his new son's full name is "Hank '''Spencer''' Morgan": Hank after Derek's deceased father, and Spencer for "the best little brother anybody could ever ask for." The two exchange a ManHug and "I love you"s. HeterosexualLifePartners indeed!
** Garcia has packed Morgan's office up for him, and tells him about her "magic" for him and his family coming out okay like she hoped he would. She also notes that she's kind of glad it wasn't a baby girl, and Derek assures her that she'll always be his original "baby girl" and tells her that he loves her.

-->'''Spencer Reid''': Emily Prentiss is ''not'' a poor leader, she defined what a Unit Chief should be and I'm not going to stand here and let you destroy her career.

* At the end of "Haunted", the [=UnSub=], the son of a serial killer who suffered a psychotic break after he began remembering his traumatic past, seems to have regained at least ''some'' of his sanity after killing his father. The final scene is him comforting the man who he had saved from being a victim of his father 30 years ago, telling him that it was because of him he gained the strength to no longer fear and eventually confront his father.

* "Cradle to Grave" has two despite being a rather nightmare fuel inducing episode. First the woman who had just given birth gets her baby back. Back at headquarters JJ has been trying to see if she can get an older couple(the parents of one of the [=UnSub=]'s victims)custody of the their granddaughter. The adoptive parents refuse but say they would like for the grandparents to be in the girl's life. They agree to this and then find out that their daughter had given birth once before while in captivity,to a little boy and since they are his next of kin they get custody of him.

-->'''Hotch:''' Garcia, when you applied for this job you did so on homemade pink stationary. I realized then that you are ... unique. And I wouldn't want you to change that.

* The ending of "Into The Woods". Despite this being one of the creepier episodes,the scene of the both the children reunited with their parents as Rossi looks on and remarks that even though the [=UnSub=] got away this is still a happy ending.