Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds and I'm not making any profit off of this story.

Summary: Unexpectedly Reid meets someone he never thought he would see again and he wants answers.

This is written for the Fanfic Challenge 21 – The Future Fic Challenge on CCOAC forum, I think this has to be one of my favorite challenges so far and had a lot of fun with it. Thinking this story will probably end up being between 3 and 4 chapters long.

Please R&R

Enjoy!

…

Spencer hurried down the front steps of the Denver Convention Center. He only had half an hour before the conference he was attending resumed, and he needed coffee.

He hated attending these types of events. It didn't matter how many conferences he had attended before, they never got any easier and he always ended up stressed out.

Normally they weren't that bad when he was with one of the other members of the team but this time he had been the only one requested to speak.

Walking quickly down the block Spencer turned into the first coffee shop he saw.

He sighed as he took in the long line but moved to take his place at the back anyways.

Spencer looked around as he waited. It was a small shop with a rather homey feel to it. There weren't many seats taken as it seemed as though most of the customers were taking their orders to go. Inhaling the delicious sent of freshly brewed coffee Spencer wished that he could spend the rest of his day relaxing in one of the comfy looking armchairs at the back of the shop.

He shook his head, it was a nice thought but he knew he had to get back to the conference.

As the line moved up Spencer reached his hand into his pants' pocket and pulled out a handful of change.

While he shifted through it looking for the right amount of change for a medium bold coffee, he was caught off guard when a heavy weight hit his legs and a few of the coins spilled onto the floor.

Confused Spencer looked down.

A young boy, possibly around six or seven, with wavy blonde hair was sprawled out on the floor. He pushed himself up and then looked around slightly dazed before looking up at Spencer.

His large brown eyes widened behind dark square frames "Oh…I'm so sorry Mister," he said quickly before hurrying to pick up all of the dropped coins.

As he was holding them out to Spencer a sharp voice rang out through the coffee shop and the little boy hung his head.

"Payton, what have I told you about running indoors?"

Spencer's head snapped up and he looked towards the door. He hadn't heard that voice in a very long time but he would know it anywhere.

He frowned as his eyes took in the woman standing just inside the door. She was wearing a grey pantsuit, a pink blouse underneath her jacket being the only color in her outfit and she had long and flowing brown hair. She looked nothing like the Penelope Garcia he had known but yet Spencer knew it was her.

He couldn't believe it.

Penelope marched inside never taking her eyes off the little boy, who Spencer guessed was her son, as the resemblance was uncanny.

"You could have gotten hurt or hurt someone else, what were you thinking?" she asked.

The boy's lower lip trembled "I'm sorry Mama, I didn't mean to."

Penelope's look softened "It's okay," she said gently, her hand ruffling his blonde locks "You just need to be more careful."

The boy nodded.

Penelope looked up from her son "Sorry about th…" her apology died on her lips when she realized for the first time who exactly was standing across from her.

"Reid…" Penelope faltered.

"Garcia," he replied back after a moment.

They stood in silence just staring at each other for a few seconds until Payton spoke up "Mama, are you okay?"

Penelope snapped out of it, she looked down at her son "Yes…yes I'm fine. Payton why don't you go find us a seat?"

"You'll remember to get me a chocolate chip cookie?" he asked.

"Of course," Penelope answered.

"Okay," he said, then before he ran off to find them seats he shoved the coins he had picked up at Spencer "Here you go Mister, sorry for running into you."

It took Spencer a moment before he reached out and took the money "It's okay," he said

Payton smiled at him and then hurried off to find him and his mom seats.

Spencer looked back at Penelope, he couldn't believe the woman was actually standing in front of him, he hadn't seen her in almost eight years.

The entire team had been shocked eight years prior when Penelope had agreed to marry Kevin Lynch and move away with him.

Spencer still remembered that Penelope had been acting strange for a few weeks leading up to that fateful day but he never would have guessed that she would agree to moving. She always said that the team was her family and she always put them first. Kevin had never really been okay with that but it was the way it had always been and the team had never believed it would change.

But then Penelope had started to act withdrawn. She wasn't herself, even her witty banter had dimmed and the team had no idea what had caused her to act that way.

Then she had up and left with Kevin, giving them barely any notice and no forwarding address.

She left on the same day that she told them her and Kevin would be moving away. They hadn't had time to try and talk her out of it. She had even already been cleared with Strauss and her resignation papers had gone through the system.

The next day there was no trace of her. Her office had been cleaned out and even her favorite mug was gone from the kitchenette.

It had hit the team hard. They tried to get in touch with her but she had obviously gone to some effort in order to not be found.

"Reid, what are you doing here?" she said snapping him out of his thoughts.

He frowned after 8 years that was the first thing she said to him. No 'Hi' or 'Hello' or 'Jeeze it's been a long time since I walked out on you guys, how have you been?' just a disdainful 'What are you doing here?'

Spencer studied her momentarily. She was being rather cold towards him almost like he had been the one to run away, for what she had done could be classified as nothing else, though what she had been running from Spencer still had no idea.

He wondered for what must have been the thousandth time, what had happened to her.

She shook her head "I know you're profiling me and you can stop it right now."

"Garcia," Spencer began slowly "what happened to you? You left with barely a goodbye and no contact information."

Penelope was rescued from having to reply when an angry man behind them snapped "Hey bud, you're next in line, mind getting a move on?"

"Sorry," Spencer apologized "here, you can go ahead." He moved out of the way and the man passed him with an annoyed grunt.

Then Spencer turned back to look at Penelope, he wanted answers.

Penelope let out a deep breath "Reid, please, don't make me go through this."

Spencer gave her a disbelieving look "Are you kidding me? What, do you expect me to walk out of here like I never saw you? Do you know what it did to us when you left? How worried we were, how hard we tried to tack you down?"

Spencer had even begun to accept that he would really never see Penelope again.

When he looked back at her he saw tears beginning to well in her eyes and felt a twinge of regret, he didn't want to make her cry but he needed answers.

"I'm sorry," she said to him looking down.

Spencer took a step closer "Garcia," he said gently "please tell me what happened to you. I've missed you so much, the whole team has, and I just can't walk away now."

Penelope sighed; she looked over to where Payton was sitting patiently as he waited from her to come over. "I promised Payton that we could stop here for a treat but I guess if you'd like to join us I can explain why I left while I have my coffee."

Spencer looked down at his watch, only then remembering about the conference, he only had fifteen minutes to get back.

"Do you have somewhere to be?" Penelope asked sounding slightly hopeful.

"No," Reid answered deciding then and there that it was more important that he stayed and talked to his old friend than going to some boring conference that he didn't even want to be at anyway. He knew that the Director would be unhappy and Hotch probably wouldn't be too pleased when he found out either but he knew that had the team been there they would have agreed.

Penelope sighed but nodded before moving up in line to get her coffee and cookie.

Spencer followed, excited by the prospect of finally getting some answers.