A/N: So 11x11: Entropy was, like, ten times better than I'd ever hoped it would be. They definitely brought Reid back with a bang.
But I just watched the preview for 11x12: Drive, and it just made me feel lonely for Kate.
So here. I offer you some Callareid.
Vague tags to Entropy.
This follows on from my stories Calla Lily, News and Moments.
To explain something, in those stories, Reid gave Kate the nickname of Lily and Kate gave Reid the nickname Chance.
Kate heard the news and her heart pounded in her chest as she dialed his number. "Spencer?" She asked. "Did you really get out all right?"
"I did," he replied. "And Cat is behind bars."
"Good," she exhaled.
"This case hit a little too close to home," he said quietly. "You can know now the specifics. I had to pretend I was a guy hiring her...to kill my pregnant wife."
Silence. "So that was why you were so quiet at home lately," Kate said.
"I may not have a pregnant wife, but I did used to have a pregnant girlfriend," Spencer replied. "Speaking of, how is David?"
"He's feeling great," Kate said. "He's currently in the throes of a power nap."
Spencer laughed into the phone. "I can't wait until I'm home with you," he murmured. "Just let me see Derek home."
"I bet that Penelope is beyond excited to finally be free," Kate said.
"We'll see," Spencer chuckled. "I'll talk to you later, Lily."
"I can't wait, Chance," she repeated his words and hung up the phone, turning to see their child in his crib behind her, just beginning to stir. His cries pierced the night, but he almost instantly silenced when her face came into his view.
"You're so much like your father," she whispered, picking him up.
He snuggled into her shoulder and she smiled. "I love you, sweet boy," she told him, rubbing his back in smooth circles.
The trip had been emotionally exhausting and now Spencer was just feeling drained. Kate had stayed behind because they decided against making David fly so soon, and, though they had kept very closely in touch with plenty of phone calls, he just hadn't been able to tell her about what he'd learned about Diana's condition.
About what he could someday pass onto his son.
After departing from Derek's house, he walked home, until he reached the tiny house that he and Kate had bought together before David's birth. He remembered the day they had officially moved in together and smiled. The team had helped them celebrate then.
As he walked up the sidewalk, the door swung open to reveal Kate, in a flood of light.
He quickened his pace and was soon able to hold her in his arms again.
Oh god. He'd forgotten how much he loved her.
"How are you feeling?" She asked. "Beyond tired, utterly exhausted and drained?"
"That sums it up," he whispered, holding her tight.
"I can't breathe," she finally said. "Not that I mind, but I thought I'd give you some heads up for when I pass out."
He finally released her, and kicked the door behind him shut with his foot.
She looked up at him, eyes bright. "I wish I'd been able to go see Diana with you," she told him, something she'd repeated many times in the past few weeks.
"So do I," he said, and his face darkened.
"What is it?" She asked, instantly clued in to how he was feeling.
"Especially now do I wish we'd gone together with David," Spencer said heavily. "She just got diagnosed with dementia."
"Oh, Chance," she said, tears filling her eyes. "I am so sorry."
"It's just, dementia can be a genetic disease so I was going to look into testing but the chromosome..."
"It can't be tested for yet," Kate said matter-of-factly. "My dad. He had dementia too."
"I didn't know that," Spencer said.
"It's not usually genetic," she told him. "You have to understand that. It can be, but that's a very unusual occurence. From what I've heard, it's about the environment you were raised in. I don't know. I'm not the expert on it, but Chance, there is a lot more to it than genetics."
He looked up at her, a new light in his eyes.
"You were never one to just stop researching things," Kate said. "If you are genetically predisposed to get dementia, find out a way to stop it. Change your diet. I don't know. But there is a lot more to it than just blindly accepting your fate."
He pulled her into his arms again. "I came to you for comfort and I got a speech," he said quietly.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't be," he returned. "It did actually comfort me. You're right. I'm going to start researching how not to get dementia."
"Good," she said.
Cries from the bedroom interrupted them and Spencer stood up with alacrity. "Let me get him," he urged, leaving Kate on the couch and hurrying to the nursery to get his son.
His son.
David.
He remembered, also, the day they had asked Rossi and JJ to be the godparents. Oh, the looks on their faces. Rossi had been on the verge of crying and the look of joy on JJ's face continued to resonate with him.
And when the team had come to the hospital ward after David's birth, they had all been almost dumbfounded at Kate's proud introduction:
"This is David Morgan Reid," she told them. "He'd like to say hello."
His son's tiny body fit easily into his arms. Spencer perched him up on his shoulder and walked back into the living room, feeling the rise and fall of David's chest as the child breathed. In, out, in out. Survival was that simple to David.
He looked at Kate, seated on the couch and eagerly awaiting his return.
He remembered the package in his pocket, the other thing Cat had overlooked in her various guesses about him.
He did have a girlfriend and child. She'd guessed wrong on that front too, because he was so careful to hide them by playing games about his pregnant wife. And because she thought he had the least to lose.
She was dead wrong.
He'd had a lot to lose...but Spencer knew there was no way he'd ever let someone like her win. So it had been a no brainer. She'd terrorized Penelope and ruined so many things with her tactics. Of course he'd stop her if given the chance.
He shifted David in his arms, and David started to cry a little.
"I think he's hungry," Kate said. "Let me take him."
He watched David, and then looked up at Kate's face as she nursed her son. She always looked so peaceful around him. So beautiful.
He took the box from his pocket and swallowed before making her look up from watching David.
"Oh my god," she whispered. "Is that—"
"I've been thinking about it for a long time," he said. "And now I just realized again how little time we have. Will you marry me?"
She nodded, unable to even speak. "Of course," she finally managed. She reached a shaking hand towards him and he slid the ring on.
"It's two sapphires, which symbol fidelity, and they're enclosing this ruby," he told her. Rubies are associated with safety and peace in India and Burma, and medieval Europeans associated them with health, wealth, wisdom and success in love. I thought they were appropriate."
"You always know what to say," she said, eyes bright with unshed tears. "Always."