Meeting Up with Memories

JJ had told Spence to meet her at a sports bar called Lassie's located a bit outside of town. No one they associated with would be likely to discover them there together. JJ got a table near the back so that she and Spencer could talk without being disturbed. She saw him walk into the bar, before he noticed her. She smiled to herself as she watched him gaze around the place, analyzing his surroundings. He looked so opposite of this bar's typical crowd with his sweater vest and tie that she almost laughed out loud. Spencer may not fit into much of mainstream anything, but he fit into her life, perfectly.

Spence spotted her after a few minutes and started walking JJ's way.

"Hey," he said, as he got to the table and sat down on a stool next to her.

"Hey, JJ said back. You ready to figure this out?"

"Definitely," Spencer replied.

He got out his notebook filled with his thoughts so far and looked at JJ hopefully.

"Anymore brilliant ideas since the last time we spoke?"

JJ shook her head "No I can't think of anything."

"How about we start with some of the most important cases we have worked together?"

"Okay, that sounds like a good idea."

"Well obviously Tobias Hankel was an important case for us," Reid said.

"Yeah, JJ replied, but that one was more about you than me. You were the one who got kidnapped."

"True, Spencer said. Are there any other cases that we have handled together specifically?"

"Umm", JJ pondered the thought while she looked up at the television above the bar. As she racked her brain for the answer she realized that there was a Redskins game on the television. She smiled as she remembered the game that she went with to Spencer many years ago.

She had been surprised when Spencer had asked her to go see a football game with him. She honestly didn't peg him as a football lover, but when he asked she realized she was curious about him and genuinely wanted to go. He had always seemed a little nervous around her and she wondered if that was specific to her or if he just wasn't good at interacting with women. The game was on a Saturday and Spence was going to pick her up at her apartment.

JJ was sitting on her couch drinking a cup of coffee when she heard a tentative knock on her front door. She smiled and assumed from the hesitation that it was Reid here to pick her up. She straightened her jersey and walked to the front door. She checked through the peep hole to make sure it was Reid and when she confirmed it was she opened the door and smiled at the shy doctor.

"Hey Spence, you're right on time."

Spencer looked at the floor nervously before he answered.

"Yeah there wasn't that much traffic."

He looked up and met her eyes. The eye contact seemed to rattle him because he continued with the thought and rambled on about traffic patterns for a few minutes.

She laughed lightly and stopped his rambling with a simple, "Are you ready to go?"

Spence seemed grateful that she had stopped him because he smiled when he nodded his head yes and they left her apartment building and went to his car. When they got to the vehicle he opened the car door for her.

The drive to the stadium was filled with small talk about work, specifically their colleagues. JJ was still fairly new to the team so he talked about Elle and Morgan and some of the previous cases they had worked on together. Talking about work seemed to break the previous nervousness and tension between them so by the time they got to the stadium they were talking and laughing easily.

As they sat down at their seats with huge sodas and popcorn and nachos, Spencer said, "We were never really a sports family when I was growing up."

JJ was interested to know more about Spence and thought to herself that this must be going well if he was willing to start talking about his family. She wanted nothing more than him to get comfortable with her. She felt a kindness coming from him, almost in a glow and she knew that she wanted them to be friends or connected in some capacity.

"I didn't really take you for a football lover honestly, JJ laughed. In my hometown and in my house, football was as important as Jesus."

Spence looked at her, "You grew up in a small town right?"

"Smaller than small, JJ said. It was a good and bad thing at the same time. You are from Vegas right? That is the exact opposite of a small town."

Spence laughed, "Yeah I would say so. My high school might have been bigger than your entire town."

JJ laughed too, "You are probably right there."

The conversation continued like this, easy and casual. It was a close game and Spence laughed when JJ started yelling at the refs for what she considered bad calls. This was a side of JJ that Spence hadn't been exposed to before. But he liked it.

In the middle of the second half Spence asked JJ, "So I understand the dynamics of football and I can get why people enjoy watching the game, but why the Redskins? Why do you like this team?"

JJ looked at him sideways, "You really want to know?" she asked.

Spence nodded his head yes.

JJ took a deep breath and answered his question slowly, "I had an older sister and her name was Rosaline she loved football just as much as my Dad. They were both huge Redskins fans and she would watch with him every Sunday, it was sort of their thing." JJ paused.

"You had an older sister?" Reid asked.

JJ nodded, "She died when I was eleven and after that Sundays weren't really the same for him. I tried to, I don't know, fill her place for him. I would watch every Sunday with him. I learned everything that I could about football and the Redskins, their players, team history, everything I thought would help me fill her place."

Spence nodded his head as she spoke and when she couldn't look him in the eye while speaking, he took a deep breath and did something bold for him. He grabbed JJ's hand and held it while she finished what she was saying.

"I know I never filled the hole, but I tried so hard to. I knew nothing that I did could make it better, but I never gave up trying," she said. It is just hard knowing you will never be enough."

A silence hung in the air for a few moments.

"The idea of you not being enough for someone is laughable JJ, Reid said slowly. You are more than enough, you are everything."

JJ looked up at Reid after his last statement, she wanted to say something, but there didn't seem to be a way to accurately express what that last statement meant to her, so she didn't say anything.