“I know you still love him/her.” + your choice
Criminal Minds: Because of You / Prompt / JJ, Spencer, and Averey
Based on: 15x04, “Saturday”
Standing side by side, JJ and Averey took in the sight of Spencer Reid. He was tall and gangly as he always was. But, he was in a sweatshirt. A sweatshirt. Ever since she had met him, she hadn’t ever seen Spencer in anything casual. Not even jeans. Except one rare occasion they tried hard not to bring up. Not even a t-shirt. Never without multiple layers. He was the physical embodiment of “dress to impress,” if his big brain wasn’t already doing so.
“Whoever this conversation was with,” JJ said with a knowing smile, “she’s put a smile on your face I haven’t seen in a long time.”
Spencer pressed his lips together, pursed them, opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it. He bowed his head. Then, his eyebrows furrowed together, and he looked JJ in the eye. “Wait, ‘she’?” he said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t say who I had this conversation with.”
Averey rest her arm on JJ’s shoulder, using her hand to cover her smile, scratching around her mouth. “It was definitely a girl, mate,” she said, her nose wrinkling as she smiled. “Clearly. JJ’s right, the only other time I’ve seen you smile like that is Halloween.”
“Because it’s the greatest holiday of the year,” Spencer said, lighting up. “It’s the strangest, most mystical day of the year. You get to dress up as whoever you want, watch scary movies, go door to door to get candy, carve pumpkins – you can take the time to remember those who’ve passed. I mean, it’s great. And…” He cleared his throat, his smile shifting to one side of his mouth, “and for one day, I wasn’t the weird kid.” His smile returned, and he shrugged. It was gone a moment later, a troubled expression suddenly appearing on his face. “Hey, so let’s go see the new baby.”
“Not so fast.” Averey stuck out her hand as Spencer moved to pass them. JJ followed her lead and the two of them pushed him back. She squinted, scrutinizing him. “What’s that look in your eyes?”
“What look?” Spencer asked.
“Spence.” JJ’s eyebrows shot upwards. She crossed her arms over her chest. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Spencer replied. “Just, uh, anxious to go see Simmons’s new baby.”
JJ and Averey exchanged glances. “Well, you know there’s only a certain amount of people they can have in the room at one time, it’s probably already too crowded,” JJ said. Averey nodded emphatically. “In fact, I remember when I just gave birth to Henry – phew – it just about wore me out.”
Averey waved her hand in the air. “Yeah, and, really how big is a baby going to grow in a few minutes, or hours, or days?” Averey asked. “They all look like potatoes, anyway.”
“Well, with women only being dilated ten centimeters, it’s not uncommon for people to think newborns are ugly,” Spencer quickly explained. “In fact, most newborns have a point to their heads because of all the pressure and the muscles forcing it out of the birth canal for hours.” He started nodding his head, slowly stepping around them. He started walking backwards, nearing the Simmons family’s hospital room. “It would even be more defined if the baby needs to be taken out by suction because the fontanelle hasn’t all fused together yet because baby’s bones are softer, to allow for more flexibility in the birth canal. It could take as long as four months or so before the baby’s skull is fully formed.”
“JJ,” Averey said, “You mind if I talk to Spencer alone for a few minutes?” She turned towards JJ, pulling her mouth to one side. She tapped her bottom lip with her index finger before she pointed at Spencer. “I think I know what’s up.”
“Sure, of course,” JJ said with a nod. “I’ll just be at the vending machines. I practically had Will buy out all of the Hot Cheetos in the hospital after both my pregnancies.”
“Ooh, if they have any Cheese Curls, get some for me, please?” Averey asked, giving JJ a toothy, pleading smile, clasping her hands together.
“You know, it’s been found that the chemicals that make the spicy powder on Flaming Hot Cheetos has been linked to many hospital visits,” Spencer said. JJ lifted her eyebrows, giving him a close-lipped smile as she turned away from him, clicking her tongue as she did so. “It can lead to ulcers, intestinal erosion, and gastritis.”
“Spencer, sit down,” Averey said, putting a hand to her forehead. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Hmm?” A confused look crossed Spencer’s face. “What?” He used his thumb to point over his shoulder. He pulled is lips downwards in the corners. Widened his eyes in innocence. “I’m just going to see the baby. And saving JJ from severe abdominal pain.”
“Right. Fair go, Spencer, but you’ll have plenty of time for Matt and Kristy to pawn the baby off on you,” Averey said, swinging her arm in a circle, pointing towards the empty seats in the waiting room. “You can help accelerate her reading level, teach her the wonders of the world, and all of that. She’ll be graduating secondary in no time. And if a little pain is a result of those Hot Cheetos, I’m sure JJ will enjoy herself in the meantime.” She pointed to an empty chair. “Sit.”
Spencer darted his eyes back and forth before doing as he was told. Lowering himself into a hard, plastic seat, he placed his hands on his knees, drumming his fingertips on his kneecaps.
“Spencer, you don’t have to beat yourself up for enjoying a conversation with a woman,” Averey said.
“I-I’m not,” Spencer said. He stopped tapping and rubbed his hands on his thighs before clasping his hands together.
“Ok.” Averey let out a soft sigh before leaning forward in her seat. “Maeve wouldn’t want you to hold yourself back from being happy.”
“I’m not doing that, either.”
“Then why are you still here?” Averey asked. Spencer looked startled, his face scrunching into a look of confusion. She tilted her head to the side, holding it up with her index finger, elbow resting on the arm rest of her chair. “Mate, your face was lit up like a Jack O’Latern when you walked in here. Just because you spent the afternoon talking to someone you just met. Why aren’t you still talking with her?” She didn’t give him a chance to answer. “It wasn’t easy for me to feel like I was ready to start dating after Noel died. I felt like I was cheating on him in a way.”
Spencer blinked. He swallowed. Sat up straight in his seat. “You did?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah. It sucked,” Averey said bluntly. “How do you not feel like you’re doing something wrong? I thought Noel would be the only bloke I’d ever spend the rest of my life with. It felt weird to find out I could have the same strong feelings for someone else. Anyone else.”
Spencer bowed his head for a moment, before looking back up at Averey. “Maeve made me feel like I was normal,” Spencer replied. “Even when I worried I was having a psychotic break. She made me feel like I wasn’t weird for knowing so much, because she was intelligent, too.”
“Being an intellectual isn’t weird, Spencer,” Averey reminded him, “it’s who you are.”
“That’s what I mean,” Spencer said, his voice cracking slightly, “Maeve made me feel…like me.”
“Believe me,” Averey said, slowly blinking, “I know the feeling.” She watched as Spencer’s eyebrows pulled towards each other in the cute confused face he always made. She cleared her throat, leaning forward in her seat to rest her forearms on her knees. “Does this other girl give you that same feeling?”
“Well,” a thoughtful look came across Spencer’s face, “my therapist asked me to have a normal conversation with someone today. And we did. We—we had a nice conversation. Not about work.” Averey lifted an eyebrow. “Well, maybe a little bit. But we also talked about everything else.” He blinked. “And then she pushed me into the sprinklers.”
Averey snapped her fingers. “That explains the civvies,” she said with a smile.
“Yeah, and then I carried her through the sprinklers in retaliation,” Spencer said with a nod. A sly smile slowly spread across Averey’s face. “She was talking about decency and then turned right around and did something not decent.”
“Flirting.” Slack jawed, Spencer’s gaze darted around the room from object to object. Averey hid her smile, and a small laugh, behind her hand as she watched him. “You know all Maeve wanted was for you to be happy,” she said as soon as she managed to get control over her laughter.
“I was happy with her,” Spencer replied.
“True,” Averey agreed. “But who said you could only have one thing, or in this case, one person in your life to make you happy?” She leaned forward and gently hit Spencer’s knee with her hand. “I know you still love her but take it from someone who’s done this; don’t ever let your happiness be determined by one person. No one’s asking you to forget Maeve. And knowing that you have an eidetic memory, I reckon you never could, anyway.”
“Thomas Merton,” Spencer whispered with a smile.
Averey’s nose wrinkled as she did a double take. “Who?”
“Maeve knows,” Spencer replied. His smile widened.
JJ slowed her footsteps as she neared them, arms filled with bags of snack foods. “Is it ok for me to come back?” she asked, making a show of extending her footsteps. “Everything ok over here?”
“I don’t know,” Averey said, slouching in her chair, albeit with a grin, “with a big brain like that, it’s hard to know if it’ll understand such simple topics.”
“We’re ok,” Spencer said to JJ.
“Good,” JJ replied. “So now you can get out of here.”
“But…” Spencer grabbed the arm rests of his chair and lifted himself to his feet. “I still haven’t seen the baby.”
“She’ll still be a baby whenever you see her,” JJ replied, handing Averey a bag of Cheese Curls (“Yay!” Averey cheered, grabbing the pack and hugging it to her chest). “Matt will understand.” She fixed Spencer with a hard stare. “Go, Spencer.”
“Run if you have to,” Averey added.
Spencer lifted himself up and stopped part way between standing and sitting; an odd squat. “But, maybe I should—”
“Go,” both girls said in unison.
With that, Spencer jumped to his feet and ran out of the hospital wing. “Oh my gosh,” JJ whispered, sitting down next to Averey. She set the bags of snack foods down into the chair next to her before pulling open a bag of Hot Cheetos.
Averey used her hands to indicate between herself and JJ. “We both know that Spencer was able to skive the physical tests at the Academy,” she said. JJ nodded, popping a Cheeto into her mouth before licking the powder off her fingers. “But that,” she pointed to the spot Spencer was just standing, “was the worst running form I’ve seen in my life.”
“Yeah, uh,” settling the bag in her lap, JJ used her free hand to push her fingers into her hair, scratching at the back of her head, pulling her hair to one side of her neck. “I can’t explain that. Stick a gun in his hand, and he follows through with the correct form; finger off trigger, down at his side.” She lifted her hands and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I don’t think anyone can explain that,” Averey said, settling back in her seat, laughing quietly. She was silent for a moment before saying, “Hank Spencer Morgan for Spencer, Rose Mary Simmons because ‘it’s close to Rossi’, what do you reckon I have to do around here to have a bloody baby named after me?”
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