"Do you want me to leave?" Elle asked carefully, the look in her eyes unreadable by Spencer.
"No!" he cried instantly – a little too quickly, a little too loudly. "That's – that's not what I meant at all!"
"Is our hiding my being here putting you in too hard of a position with the team?"
"No, they don't push me for information since they don't suspect anything."
Elle cocked her head to the side, inquiring, "What did you mean, then?"
Spencer swallowed, trying to stumble through an acceptable explanation that would make her understand the thoughts that had just made a sweeping invasion his mind. "I just… I've been clean for almost a year, and I really think that I would be okay if you moved out – not that I'm trying to get you to leave me by any means - but if... if there's somewhere else that you need or want to be, or something else that you want to do besides babysit me for the rest of your life… I was just wondering why you hadn't gone off and done it by now."
"Because…" Elle too seemed to pause to consider what she was about to say before she said it. "It's not that I don't trust you to stay clean, Spencer – because I completely do – but I… I like this," her gesture swept in a semicircle to include the entirety of the apartment. "Whatever this is that we've created here… and I don't want to give it up. When I came to you here, there was nothing else that I needed to do besides make peace with who I had been, who I was, and what I had become." She swallowed nervously, admitting, "I'm not sure whether or not you realize this, Spencer, but I was able to do that because of you. Helping you through your addiction gave me a purpose in my life again once I got out of the nuthouse-"
"Mental health facility," Spencer corrected absently.
Elle smirked drily at him before continuing, "By the time you were clean and I was emotionally stable again, this – being here and living with you – had just become my life, and it was a life that I realized I loved – that I still love even now." Her soft smile fell, and he sensed that she was leaving something unsaid as she finished, "But if you want me to find someplace else to stay, I will."
"No!" Spencer said again, reaching for her hand as he repeated his plea from her first night in the apartment, realizing for the first time that it had taken on an entirely different dimension as he said, "Elle, please don't leave me… I don't know if I could handle being without you anymore. I think… I think that I might have fallen in love with you."
Tears instantly sprang into Elle Greenaway's eyes and the tenderest smile that Spencer had ever seen transformed her face.
It terrified him… until she whispered in a voice choked with emotions, "I think I might just be in love with you too, Dr. Reid."
Spencer stared at her for a long moment before a slow smile slid across his face. Before he registered what he was doing, he had taken her face in his hands and kissed her with more passion than he had realized he was capable of.
They eventually broke apart, catching their breaths with their foreheads still touching.
"I love you," Elle said softly.
"I love you, too," Spencer breathed, testing the words out on his tongue. He kissed her again, suggesting wildly, "Let's get married."
Elle sat up at that, her shock at his suggestion projecting itself as a laugh as she asked, "What?"
"I'm serious, El!" Spencer protested, reasoning, "We've been living together for almost a year – we know that we work well together. Why not?"
"Okay," Elle said. "Even if I were to agree to this crazy scheme – on which I am entirely blaming your being born and raised in Las Vegas – who would we invite to this supposed wedding? The team?"
"Exactly!"
"They don't even know that I'm back in town, let alone that I've been here for basically a year already!"
"Then let's tell them," Spencer said, bounding onto his feet and pulling her up with him. "Elle Greenaway, we are going to a barbeque."
"What about your female serial killers?" she asked.
Spencer rolled his eyes, answering, "If there's anything that the BAU has taught me, it's that no matter what, the serial killers will always be there tomorrow. Today we are going to a barbeque where I am going to exclaim to the world – or at least the team – just how much l love you."
"You're crazy," Elle laughed.
"You don't mind it, and we both know it," Spencer said, taking her hand and hauling her into the kitchen to start cleaning up their morning mayhem in preparation for leaving.
Elle grinned, "It's true. As a matter of fact, I love it just like I love everything else about you. By the way," she added, standing on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek, "It took you long enough to figure all of this out. I was about to give up hope that you would ever get a clue."
And that was how, no less than one month later, Spencer Reid and Elle Greenaway found themselves standing in the sunshine before God, man, a justice of the peace, Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Jennifer Jareau, Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss, and Penelope Garcia, committing themselves to each other for better or for worse. After all, they'd both already seen the other at their worst and learned to love one another anyway, so why not?
The way they saw it was that if you were going to help someone heal, it only made sense to stick around to see the closed wounds fade until they disappeared altogether – and that would mean a lifetime spent together, healing the hurts that life was bound to throw at them as they came. That was fine with Spencer and Elle, though.
After all, that was what love was.
And thus we come to the end of the story. Thanks for sticking with me. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this! Reviews make my day if you feel so inclined! Thanks!:)