Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.

"Nothing beats a haunted moonlit night on All Hallows Eve… And on this fatal night, at this witching time, the starless sky laments black and unmoving. The somber hues of an ominous, dark forest are suddenly illuminated under the emerging face of the full moon." – Kim Elizabeth

o o o o

31 October, 2008

"Spencer? It's not a big deal. You look fine, Spencer. Please," Calliope Sellers sighed exasperatedly and leaned against the wall.

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," he said from inside the bathroom.

"It's Halloween, String Bean. And you agreed. You didn't have to. You could have said no."

"Could have said no? We've been dating for two months. What 'could have said no'?" Dr. Spencer Reid opened the door and looked down at the tiny redhead dressed in a Hobbit outfit, all the way down to the hairy feet.

"You look great," Calliope smiled. "Wait, come here, Handsome. One of your ears wasn't blended properly."

"I can't believe your making me be an elf for Halloween."

"You had all of Middle Earth to choose from, Spencer. You picked the race. You chose to be an elf. You could have been from Rohan or Gondor. You could have been an Orc or an Ent or Uruk-hai. Wizard. I mean, you couldn't be a Hobbit or a Dwarf because you're too tall, but still. No complaining, mister. You even picked the outfit."

"I don't look stupid?"

"I'd rather have you than Legolas," Calliope smiled, pushed herself up on her toes and kissed his cheek.

"And you're an adorable Hobbit."

"I was a dwarf woman last year. I had a red beard and everything."

"Now that's something I'd have liked to see," Spencer teased. Calliope touched her nose to his and raised her hand to his cheek. Their lips almost touched when Spencer turned his head at the last minute and kissed her cheek instead. Calliope frowned disappointedly. Two months and no kiss. "So, where did you get these costumes?"

"Um, I had them made when I decided on a theme for the book store."

"They look expensive."

"They were expensive. But it was an investment and they've been totally worth it. We make a lot of money on Halloween. Let's go. We have to get to The Hobbit Hole."

"You're letting me out without a picture first?" Spencer asked hopefully.

"Ha, not a chance, String Bean," Calliope shook her head.

ooo ooo ooo ooo

Spencer lost track of the massive amounts of candy he'd given out to the hordes of children dressed in costumes that ran up the steps and flooded The Hobbit Hole. He'd posed for more pictures tonight than he had his entire life. He felt like a character at Disneyland. Children of various ages, and a few adults, stood in line to take a picture with an Elf, and for candy, but mostly the picture.

Calliope was absolutely in her element. Where Spencer was awkward with the children surrounding him, Calliope was at ease. She smiled and posed for pictures and gave out candy. Spencer, however, accidently scared the third Tinkerbell he'd encountered. He hadn't meant to scare her. She startled him and it all went down hill from there.

Scattered around the brownstone were other adults who also looked like they had just walked off the set of Lord of the Rings. The costumes truly were impressive. Melanie, one of The Hobbit Hole's cashiers, was dressed as a maiden from Rohan, while Brianne, co-manager and assistant librarian, was a dwarf. Spencer was almost certain that Brianne's boyfriend Dean was one of the Orcs or Uruk-hai wondering around.

"Third Halloween and the everyone still loves it," Calliope whispered as she came up next to him.

"Seems like a big hit," Spencer smiled. "Have I told you that you look absolutely beautiful?"

"Well… considering I'm wearing a pudgy suit and cloth boobs so I actually fill out this Hobbit dress, I'm going to take that as meaning you really, really like me. Enough to tell me I look beautiful even after I've visually 'gained' about fifty pounds."

"Still beautiful," he told her, kissing her cheek after checking to see no one was looking. At the moment, everyone was engrossed in watching the Uruk-hai Spencer was now sure was Dean attempting to bob for apples through all the prosthetics attached to his face.

"I'm really glad it doesn't weight fifty pounds. I don't think I could carry that. Hey, uh… thank you. For ruining your Halloween by becoming a tourist attraction."

"It was the only way I'd get to spend it with you."

"I really like you," Calliope smiled.

"I like you too," Spencer smiled back. "Hold still, one of your flowers is loose."

"Fix please."

Spencer tried to secure the one of the several flowers attached to her hair before pulling back with a worried expression. "I think I messed it up more."

"No worries. I'll fix it. You have an admirer."

"What?"

"Hi Martha," Calliope bent down and hugged the little girl dressed like Frodo.

"Hi Miss Callie. Can I have a picture with the elf?"

"I think we can make that happen, Martha."

ooo ooo ooo ooo

Spencer's cheeks hurt from smiling so much. He'd been on display for five hours now and it there was no sign that the curtains would be drawn any time soon. He had been counting how many pictures he had taken, but, at about eight, a flood of preteens drowned him and he lost track.

"Punch?" Calliope offered him a cup.

"I'm not much of a punch person."

"Oh, this isn't just any punch. This is the over twenty-five only party punch."

"Twenty-five?"

"No twenty-one year old could handle this punch," Calliope smiled and shook her index finger. "You'll be singing Winn Dixie halfway through your first cup. About two thirds of the way through your second cup, you'll forget you had the first. And then, by the time you finish the fourth, grammatically you'll be back in preschool."

"I didn't go to preschool."

"Uh-huh…" Calliope giggled, "then I don't know where you'd be."

"You're already had punch."

"Blondie's playing Winn Dixie at Woodstock."

"Hand it over."

"Ha. Ha. Funny. No way mister. You can have your punch, but you can't have mine. I happen to love Blondie's rendition of Winn Dixie. Especially when she plays it at Woodstock."

"You mean Dixie, right? I don't think there's a song called Winn Dixie."

ooo ooo ooo ooo

"Callie is so toasted," Brianne whispered to Spencer as she poured the left over candy into a giant box.

"How many cups of punch has she had?"

"I have no idea, but I think it's a good thing someone's here to drive Hemingway there home."

"Does she do this often?"

"Only on Halloween. And then she spends an entire week mumbling about how next Halloween she's having one glass of punch and one glass of punch only and that Blondie won't stop playing Dixie."

"So Blondie and Dixie are part of the tradition."

"Time honoured."

Spencer watched as Calliope tripped over an ottoman that hadn't moved since the first time Spencer came into The Hobbit Hole. Wincing, he walked over and helped her up. Calliope just laughed.

"Pippin ham Isengard water feel good."

Stabilizing her with an arm around her waist, he tried to decipher what she'd just said. "You feel like Merry and Pippin when they took Isengard and found the ham and beer?"

"Too that!" Calliope giggled and nodded. "Feel feef."

"You can't feel your feet?"

"No," she said seriously before falling into a peel of laughter.

"It's definitely time to get you home, Sweetheart."

"Cute."

"Cute what?"

"Cute you. You cute," Calliope smiled. Spencer kissed her hair and helped her navigate the empty hallway to the door, which was suddenly filled with invisible obstacles for her to trip over.

"Bye, Callie, bye Spencer," Brianne waved.

"Buh-bye, Gimmi," Calliope smiled while tripping over an invisible dog.

"Don't let her die, okay? We'll need her again once she's sober," Melanie looked concerned.

"I'll take care of her. Woah, woah. Calliope, wrong way, Sweetheart," Spencer stirred her out of Mordor, which, in regular bookstore lingo, would be considered the mystery and horror genre room.

"Meet you when?"

"About three months ago."

"Friends? Us, yes?"

"Yes. We're friends."

"Woah," Calliope stopped and Spencer jerked backwards.

"Woah what?"

"Stairs. Bad stairs bad."

A/N:

So, yeah, no real plot, but it's cute. I never thought about a drunk Calliope, but she's here now!

This is an deleted scene from my multi-chapter Mystery Muse which focuses on the romance of Spencer and Calliope. It takes place after chapter two. So, if you like this and want to read more, that's where you find it. Along with almost all my other one-shots, which are S&C-centric.

Anyways! Happy Halloween! My Little Brother, who, by the way, is 18 for those of you who aren't in the know, went to a party on Friday dressed as one of the aliens from Toy Story. So, so unbelievably proud. I have pictures. Well, technically, I got them by creeping on Facebook, but I couldn't go home for Halloween because I didn't have the cash for gas. Andyways... I've never been prouder of LB. He went to Austria to represent the U.S. as the starting goalkeeper during some international soccer tournament. Toy Story Halloween costume tops that. By leaps and bounds.

Okay. I'm done. Thanks so much for reading and, please, tell me what you think!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love, Thalia