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“You know those are my favorites.”
You looked up from the shoes in your closet with a grin. “Oh believe me baby, I know.”
Your style was loud, confident, and breathtaking. Reid had never seen you in an outfit that didn't get his heart racing. But your shoes? Your shoes were always the pièce de résistance.
Thick heels, shining silver clasps and a satisfying heavy thunk with each step. But the pair you had on now was his #1 favorite.
You had them on when you first met him. Black leather shoes with a thick three-inch thick clear platform wedge on the bottom. The best part was-
“Which ones shall we go with today?” You asked him, painted nails skimming over a jar of toy dinosaurs to the one filled with fake spiders.
The charms.
Sure enough, those funky kicks had a neat little feature of a tiny slip on the bottom. This allowed you to pop open the bottom of the heel like a little secret door and fill the clear wedge with charms; different ones each day. Dice, toy soldiers, fake bugs, you name it.
When you first met, they were filled with dungeons & dragons dice.
Spencer looked over your shoulder as the jars, pressing a kiss into the crook of your neck. He swayed in place, arms wrapped around you in a silent dance of the morning.
He hummed, eyes scanning the jars and smiling into your skin. “I don’t know about you, but it feels like a dice type of day to me.”
“D&D dice or regular dice?”
“D&D.” Spencer nipped at your neck and you laughed.
“Feeling mystical are we?”
You grabbed the jar, unscrewing the lid. Spencer took your shoe in his hand, slipping the bottom open so you could pour the colored dice in.
Once the shoes were full, You’d stand up and slip them on, holding Spencer's hand for balance as you did.
You laughed when he crouched down and began to tie the laces.“You know you don’t have to do all this, right Spence? I’m a big girl and can tie my own laces.”
The way he would look up at you with a tiny chuckle and that earnest look made your knees knock together.
“I know.” He said as he finished tying the bunny ears. “I just like helping you.”
When Spencer stood, he smiled at the difference. He always did. With the shoes on you were three inches taller than before, which made you tall enough to kiss his check without having to reach up or tug him down.
“Come back home?”
You always said that. Never ‘i’ll see you tonight.’ or ‘Be home soon.’ You knew his job was dangerous, and that he could be gone for days or weeks on a case only to be called back again in the morning. He knew you worried, and you knew he felt guilty for it. So you made sure never to make any promises he couldn’t keep. Even now, with crutches and confined to helping from Garcia’s side through the phone, you still worried.
“Of course I will.”
“You're my bitch now.”
Morgan laughed at Garcia’s playfully sultry words spoken to the incapacitated doctor. Two cases ago, when defending a metropolitan surgeon from the vengeful father of a child he didn’t save, Reid had gotten shot in the leg. Nothing major was hit, but he was put on crutches for a few weeks and Hotch has insisted that he stayed at the Bau center at least for the next three cases so he could “regain his footing” after he lied about being cleared to fly.
The irony of his wording was not lost on him.
But Spencer couldn't complain that much. He loved Penelope to bits, she was family just like the others. There were certainly worse people to spend his day seated with. He could still do his job effectively from her “Command Center of Coolness” as she called it.
He was working on the geological profile when he heard an all to familiar rattle coming from Garcia. She sat in her chair, typing away on her computer while also bouncing her leg at maximum hyperspeed. Which in turn shook her foot, rattling the charms bounding around in her shoe with every jiggle.
Her shoes. They were the exact ones you wore, except where yours were black, Garcia’s pair was a pretty pale pink.
“Neat shoes.” His voice was distant as he spoke, his mind already off the profile and focusing on the woman he left this morning wearing similar footwear.
Garcia grinned and stuck her feet out with a delightful wiggle from left to right. “Thanks! I got them for eighty bucks! Which may not sound cheap but for these babies? An absolute steal!”
Spencer smiled and turned back toward the map he had been marking. “Oh believe me I know, my girlfriend has a pair just like those.”
Garcia froze, smile turning into an open gasp. “What!?” Spencer didn’t notice her shock, already hyper-focused back into working out the geological profile for hotch, but he continued to speak without realizing what he just said.
“Yeah. Although yours are pink and the pair she owns are blaaaa..” Spencer's voice trailed off as his body went rigid and it hit him what he had just said.
His girlfriend.
His girlfriend.
He had just told Penelope Garcia that he was dating somebody.
“Your WHAT!”
Her shrill shriek bounced off the walls of her tiny room of screens, effectively trapping Spencer both physically and mentally.
“I just meant-”
“You're dating somebody!”
“What?” Spencer's voice went an octave higher. “No, I’m not!” Garcia scoffed and raised her brows.
“Then why did you say you have a girlfriend?”
Reid let out a nervous laugh. “Well, that’s a very good question! You see I-”
The phone began to ring, causing Spencer to jump up from his seat to answer.
“HiHotchSpencerHereWaddyaNeed!”
Hotch pulled the phone away from his ear, cringing at the loud and panicked tone Reid shouted in. “Is everything okay over there Reid?”
“Actually-”
The doctor slapped his hand over Garcia’s mouth before she could say more. “Yup everything is great Hotch! What’s up?”
“Well, I-” He looked towards the others, who merely shrugged and offered confused faces. “Garcia I need a list of all the tattoo artists in town and those of which have done prison time for acts of animal cruelty.”
Spencer looked toward Garcia, hand still clamped over her mouth.
“Garcia??”
“Please don't say anything to them.” He whispered. “I’m not ready to tell them yet but I will be. Please let me be the one to tell them.”
After a moment of pondering, the tech analyst nodded, Reid let out a breath of relief and let go of her.
“Garcia are you alright?”
Garcia snatched the phone from Spencer’s hands, causing him to jump. “Nothing wrong here bossman! I’ll be sending that list towards you faster than you can say PETA.”
“Thank you.”
Garcia began to type away at her computer, searching through the prison database for the information Hotch needed.
“Thank you for keeping quiet about this Penelope. I uh-” Spencer offered her a nervous smile. “-I really appreciate it.”
“Don’t sweat it boy wonder, but don’t you think it’ll be kind of hard to keep it quiet? “ Her eyes stayed on the monitor in front of her as she spoke. “I mean, you spend your day surrounded by profilers, they’ll figure out sooner or later.”
Spencer’s hands wrung the phone receiver nervously. That was a topic he had brought up to you. He insisted that it wasn’t that he was ashamed of you, it was just that-
“My friends can be a little overbearing is all.” You took a bite out of your slice of pizza and shrugged. It had been date night when he brought the conversation up. The two of you decided to stay in for the night and watch movies instead of going out. “I don’t want them to be overly judgemental or suffocating on you.”
“Spence, they're your family.” You corrected, wiping your hands on your napkin before moving to take his hands in your own. “I’d expect them to be protective over you. But I'll be happy to meet them whenever you're ready for it.”
Spencer smiled, relaxing into your lap. “Thank you, really.”
“It’s no problem brainiac. Now quit moping during Lord of The Rings.”
“I just want to be able to tell them on my own accord.” He said. Penelope noticed the soft smile on his face and nudged his foot with her own.
“Well if she has shoes like these, she’s alright in my book.” She joked. “It’s clear she must have good tastes. But I already knew that since she’s dating you, handsome.”
Spencer laughed. “Yeah uh, thanks Garcia. For understanding, really.”
She pointed her pen at him, the fluffy ball on top wobbling as she did. “No problem sugar, but don’t you think this means I’m letting you off the hook, doctor. Believe me when I say I’ll be doing a background check on this mystery girl.”
Spencer chuckled and nodded his head. “Yeah, yeah I know Garcia, don’t think I could even stop you if I tried.”
“Oh, you couldn’t.” She laughed. “I’m like a shadow, baby! A tech shadow that lurked in binary code and-” She froze, looking at the receiver then back to the handset Spencer still held in his left hand. “-oh damn.”
“What?” He jumped forward, eyes scanning her computer screen for whatever it was that frightened her. “What’s wrong.”
“Uh, Spence?”
“Yeah?”
She raised a finger, pointing to the still red light on the receiver of the phone. “You uh, you never hung up the phone sweety.”
Spencer looked down at the phone in his hands, the sudden dooming realization that not only had he poured his heart out to Penelope, but also to his entire team. In a panic, he slammed the handset down into the receiver.
Hotch looked towards the others in the room, most of which sported looks of shock to big grins. “Nobody mention this until the case is over, you hear me? We need everybody to remain focused.”
“Yes, sir.” Prentiss laughed as she and Morgan went off to interview a suspect. Morgan saluted their unit chief with a grin. “Of course, we are professionals after all.”
JJ looked up from her file with an exasperated smile. “You guys are going to call him as soon as the case is over, aren’t you?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Without a doubt.”