A/N: I guess this kind of story has been done to death, but missDuncan gave me the idea and I had a picture in my mind, so I had to write it. It is AU and I'm trying to be funny (trying might be the operative word here). Thank yous go to missDuncan for the idea and to ShadowSamurai83 for the beta!!!
Disclaimer: I'm just playing around with other people's creations and make no money of it. This didn't happen in the show - obviously.
Rating: T
Summary: Spencer finds out that a higher rank doesn't always make for the more pleasant job. The hard way.
Misconnected
"Spence? Are you alright?" DC Stella Goodman asked her senior colleague, who sat at his desk staring at the phone dumbfounded. "Spence?"
The man didn't react. His face was a mask of shock, drawn tightly, while his eyes stared fixedly ahead.
"Spence?"
"What's wrong with him?" Eve asked, coming from the lab and having heard the confused question.
Stella shrugged. "No idea. He was about to call Grace to tell her that we have new information on the case...."
"And Boyd?"
"Guess who's supposed to be doing that?" The DC grimaced. "As our great DI here reminded me, he outranks me, and so I have to get yelled at 2am for waking up the boss."
Eve suppressed a smirk as she soothingly patted Stella's shoulder. "It didn't work out like that, did it?"
"I don't know." Shrugging again, Stella pointed at Spencer, who was still sitting there in shock, his eyes wide and his mouth opening and closing at times without a sound coming out. "He dialled the number and has been like this ever since."
"I see." Nodding slightly, Eve gestured at their colleague. "He looks a little like a fish out of water."
"Or as if he'd collapse any second."
"Yeah."
Eve walked around the desks and stood behind Spencer, placing her hand on his shoulder before suddenly shouting "Spencer Jordan!"
The man jumped before falling heavily back onto his chair. Breathing heavily, he didn't say anything, but began staring ahead again.
The two women shrugged once more. "Spencer, what is the matter?" Eve ventured. Asking whether he was alright was pointless, given his behaviour, because he quite clearly was not.
He turned, but stared at her unseeingly. Feeling frustration bubble over, Eve shook him none too gently. "Talk to us!" She enunciated every word very succinctly.
Letting out a deep breath, Spencer almost deflated. "Can you call the number I've just called?" he finally choked out, every word apparently hard work.
"Okay." The word was very drawn out, while the two women looked at each other, ready to call some psychological support.
Hitting repeat, Eve noticed that it was indeed Grace's home number, the piece of information confusing her all the more. Calling Grace, even at 2am in the morning, was one of the easiest things. Even just woken up, the profiler managed to leave her callers alive. Quite contrary to Boyd.
As the receiver was picked up, Eve heard the somewhat hoarse voice of Grace Foley, though she didn't sound as sleepy as one might have suspected.
"Yes?"
Shrugging again, Eve grimaced and made a somewhat rude gesture about Spencer's mental health behind his back. Stella, on the other side of the desk, barely suppressed a snicker.
"Hi Grace, it's Eve," the scientist picked up the conversation. "Did I wake you?"
There was a pause on the other side of the line, accompanied by rustling sheets and muffled voices.
And if Eve wasn't totally wrong, the other voice was...male. Her eyebrows raised, she grinned. Some recent changes of behaviour in the profiler were beginning to make very...male...sense.
Unfortunately, though she could feel her curiosity begin to burn, she couldn't make out who the man might be, not even really hear his voice.
"Grace?" she asked when the pause seemed to go on for too long.
"Yes, sorry." The profiler sounded a little flustered. "I wasn't.... It's alright, you didn't wake me." Coming to her senses for real, Grace continued. "What's the matter? Did you find anything?"
"Yeah, the DNA-results came through a few minutes ago and we also got a fax from the phone company."
"Want me to come in?"
"Yeah. "
"Okay." The woman on the other end sighed, obviously rubbing her face to chase away residual sleepiness. "I'll be half an hour."
"Good. Sorry for interrupting...."
"It's.... It's okay."
The line went dead and no longer able to contain it, Eve began to chuckle.
"It was really Grace's number," Spencer choked out.
Even from the other side, Stella could see he was shaking. "What's wrong?" she asked, her tone more harsh than it needed to be. But to her it seemed as if there was a major joke going on and she was the only one not in the know.
"Can you call Boyd? I'll tell you later," Eve said.
Though she grumbled, the DC did as she was told. The call went surprisingly smoothly, since Boyd was not only awake already, but had been informed by Grace that there were new developments.
Being so calm and even polite on the phone was not at all like Boyd, but Stella was far from complaining. It did make a nice change. Besides, there was still Spencer to deal with and he didn't look like he was going to come out of his funk any time soon.
Marching over to the coffee maker and trying to ignore Spencer's strange behaviour, as he was progressing into banging his head against his desk top, Stella cornered Eve to get the information she was missing.
"So?" she hissed through clenched teeth.
If possible, Eve looked a little embarrassed, and in point of fact, she was a little reluctant to share her knowledge. It was great that at least one of them was getting any, but she was fairly sure that Grace would have preferred to keep the developments in her private life a secret for the time being. Otherwise she would have told them all.
"What?" Stella pressed on.
"Spence's got a case of walking in on Mum and Dad, so to speak."
"Huh?"
"Grace had a man there.... And Spence might have....heard the guy."
With every word, Stella's face lit up even more, being genuinely happy for the profiler. But then her expression turned to one of petulance. "What am I doing wrong?" she whined. "How can she manage to find somebody and I can't? She 's almost twice my age and works just as much!"
"There, there." Eve placed a gentle hand on the young officer's shoulder. If it remained there for just a moment too long, nobody would ever know.
In that moment, the coffee maker bubbled, startling the two women back to reality.
"I hope he's pulling himself together until Boyd comes in." Eve gestured to Spencer with her chin. "You never know how long the good mood lasts."
*
It was in fact 40 minutes until Grace showed up. Incidentally, Boyd was right behind her. There was something amiss in the way they walked in, but at this time of the day, who asked?
Though he seemed to have pulled himself together, as soon as Boyd and Grace walked into the bullpen, Spencer seemed to have a big problem looking at anybody, his gaze rushing wildly from corner to corner.
The women greeted the newcomers fairly cheerfully, passing around coffee.
Pulling up some chairs, everybody except Eve went to sit down, though Spencer jumped to the side as if bitten when both Grace and Boyd pulled their chairs close to his desk.
They gave him a strange look, but a shake of Stella's head made them focus on the board instead of seeking answers about the DI's behaviour.
As Eve began to explain the findings, there was something in the back of her mind that bugged her. She wasn't the most sociable person and tended to overlook certain aspects that other people picked up on immediately, but this time she knew there was something, though she couldn't point her finger on it.
Despite giving the impression of listening intently, the profiler and the DSI were whispering earnestly between themselves. It seemed as if they were debating something, but it had nothing to do with the case. As close as they were sitting, though, not a word was understandable.
Eve went on, explaining about the pieces of clothes she had found in the pockets of the victim's jeans, her eyes suddenly narrowed, giving Boyd a closer look. Contrary to his usual habit, Boyd's clothes were rumpled, as if he had not bothered to take out new clothes and just dressing in what he had found on the go. Even more strangely, though, he was wearing a tie, something Eve had not seen him do on the job in years. Especially not at 2.30 in the morning.
It was all a little odd, and wasn't made any better by Spence, who seemed to have attacks of asphyxiation when looking at the older team members.
"Okay, people," Boyd announced a few minutes later, "lets get to work with this new information and find our suspect. I want this case tied up as soon as possible."
"Concerned your beauty sleep, Boyd?" Grace teased.
"Don't worry about that. You'll find that I manage perfectly without it."
Grace snorted in reply, mumbling a few words under her breath that nobody caught.
From the bullpen the younger team members could see both Grace and Boyd settle down behind their desks. And not a minute later, Boyd picked up his phone, the immediate ring in Grace's office audible even outside.
It was all actually like it normally was.
Only....
"Oh my God!"
Suddenly, Eve turned to stare at Spencer, who could see comprehension dawn on her face and gave her a miserable grimace.
"I'm never calling her at night again!" he declared heatedly. "Never!"
Inside her office, Grace's attention was momentarily drawn away from her phone conversation as she heard the DI's exclamation.
"Peter," she whispered quietly, as if afraid her words could be heard outside, "I don't think you should answer my phone again. Even if it is on your side of the bed."
I hope you enjoyed this little piece. Thank you for reading. Comments are greatly appreciated.