Kris tried to watch TV in her hotel room while she waited on Spencer to arrive at the suite so they could talk. Being away from him—knowing he was still mad at her—physically hurt. She flipped to one of her favorite crime shows, but it just made her miss him more. She was always watching the show in bed at night when Spencer finished watching the news and he was always correcting the mistakes the show made. She could almost hear him chuckling softly beside her, whispering about how "it's highly improbable that they would find that hair under the couch. It's even less likely that it would belong to the killer instead of a family member." Of course, Spencer would have all of the statistics that went along with the statement, like the actual probability of the hair belonging to the killer versus the family, but her imagination wasn't developed enough to even pretend to know those answers. It made her heart miss him that much more. Some girls would hate a boyfriend who was always right; Kris liked that it just meant fewer fights. What was the point in arguing when he was inevitably going to win anyway?
She flipped to another channel, but again, it made her miss Spencer. A few minutes later, she gave up all together and turned the TV off. She stood up and walked to the balcony to watch the city. Her life was at a stand-still, but the rest of the world was as busy as ever. She couldn't help but think about how similar the view from the hotel balcony was to the view from the balcony at Spencer's condo, even though Spencer lived on the border of Virginia and the hotel was well inside the DC area.
Kris lost track of time and was startled out of her thoughts when the sliding door opened behind her. She gasped as she turned and saw Penelope watching her. "Sorry. I was hoping you were Spencer," she explained.
"I know. I heard he was coming to see you," Penelope informed her. There was something she wasn't saying though. Kris wasn't sure what had happened, but the look on Penelope's face made her heart constrict in fear. Had Spencer changed his mind? Had he learned something else that made him really hate her? "You should come inside. The team is all coming to talk to you."
"Is Spencer okay?" Kris needed to know if he was one of the team members coming or if he'd given up on her.
"He's...he'll be here." Penelope turned to head back inside without looking at Kris' face. She knew Kris was upset and couldn't stand not telling her what had happened at Spencer's apartment.
Inside, JJ and Penelope shared the sofa in the main room of the two bedroom suite. David was in the corner of the room whispering on his cell phone. Kris sat across from the girls in a single chair and watched. She wasn't a profiler, but she knew something had happened. The tension in the air said all she needed to know.
"Did something happen to Spencer?" she asked meekly.
JJ and Penelope looked at each other, confirming Kris' fears. Neither of them said anything. Kris didn't see David walk up beside her until he answered her question. "Reid's okay," he assured her. "There's been an escalation with the stalker. That was Reid on the phone; he wants us to wait until he gets here to talk to you."
A knock on the door cut Kris off before she could protest. David walked to the door cautiously and Kris noticed his hand twitching towards the gun in his belt a few times. When he looked through the peep hole he released a small sigh and opened the door. It was Aaron and Emily. They came in and spoke in hushed whispers with David by the door, too far away for Kris to listen in. JJ and Penelope smiled fake smiles at her, which did nothing to reassure her as she was sure they were meant to.
After a few eternally long minutes of whispers and smiles, another knock came and when they answered the door, Spencer strolled in. There was a red splotch on his pale cheek and a small white bandage on his left temple. Kris forgot all about their fight and ran to him as fast as her unsteady legs would carry her. "Stat! What happened to you!" Her question was breathless, worried. There was no faking the concern in her voice.
"Someone was at the apartment," he told her carefully. He knew she'd been through an emotional roller coaster the last few days and he didn't want to give her more than she could handle. He didn't know what the news he had would do to her.
Kris ran her thumb lightly over the red spot on his cheek and her eyes started watering. She and Spencer weren't usually too touchy-feely, but she reached out to him anyway, reaching behind his neck and holding on tight. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I never meant for you to get dragged into my family drama."
Spencer shook his head and stared at his girlfriend like he was trying to study her. He'd looked at her that way plenty of times just after they'd dating—he'd never met someone like her before—but he hadn't done it in months and it worried her. "This isn't your fault," he said finally. "I'm just glad you weren't there, that they didn't have a chance to hurt you." He was silent for a minute and then Kris looked down at the paper in his hand. Before she could ask him what it was, he said, "We need to talk in private."
The fight came rushing back to Kris and she started shaking as she and Spencer walked to the bedroom and closed the door. Would he break up with her? She wasn't sure that if she'd been in his place, she wouldn't break up with him. No one deserved to be pulled into her family and their disfunction. She hated herself for putting him through this ordeal.
Spencer sat at the head of the bed, propping himself up on the headboard. Kris sat at the foot of the bed so that she could give him his space, but he reached for her hand and pulled her so that she was sitting only a foot from him; he never did drop her hand.
"I'm so sorry that I lied to you," Kris whispered, breaking the silence between them.
"I know. I'm not mad anymore." He didn't look mad; he looked worried.
Kris wasn't sure how to phrase her next question. "Not that I'm not glad, but what changed your mind?" She just had to be sure he was forgiving her for the right reasons.
"Garcia came to check on me before she came here. She can be very convincing. She reminded me of what I was going to loose if I let one fight ruin everything we've got together. And she told me what you said about trying to protect me. I love that you think you need to protect me, and I get that you did it because you care about me, but you don't need to lie to keep me from getting my feelings hurt."
"I know. It was stupid."
"It doesn't matter anymore. For now, we need to figure out who's stalking you so that I can protect you this time."
"What happened at your apartment?" Kris asked him, almost afraid to find out.
"I was getting ready to come here to see you. A guy in a mask jumped out and knocked me to the ground. He was looking for you."
"So what do we do now?" she asked him, unsure of how a creepy feeling in her stomach had turned into something so huge in a matter of days.
"I saw him. A sketch artist came and I think you need to see him."
There was a catch in his voice, something he was holding back. She didn't ask him what it was. She didn't think that after the fight they had just made up from, she deserved to ask him.
"It wasn't my dad. Or anyone working with him, probably," she said instead. "I can't imagine that they would have left witnesses."
Spencer didn't respond, didn't know how. He wordlessly handed Kris the paper, the sketch of her stalker. She took it in a shaking hand and set it on her lap. One hand went to her necklace; the other traced the outline of the face staring up at her from the page. Spencer saw the recognition hit her face, just as it had him a few hours earlier.
"He has my eyes." Her voice was calm, methodical. Her eyes were full of fear and surprise. "Why does a stranger have my eyes?"
"A stranger? It isn't your brother?" Spencer had been so sure. The stalker looked so much like her: her eyes, her nose, her lips. How could they not be related?
"No My brother looks like my dad. My sister always said that she and I look like our mom." Kris' hand went to her stomach when she spoke about her parents. Spencer noticed.
"That's the fourth time you've held your stomach since I got here. Are you okay?"
It was the moment of truth. She could tell him about the baby. But she wasn't sure that he could handle it yet. She wasn't sure that she could either.
Before she said anything, JJ knocked and stuck her head in the room. "Derek's here and everyone is caught up. We're ready in here."
Spencer took Kris' hand and walked to the main room with her. Garcia had her laptops set up on the coffee table and everyone stood around her. Kris and Spencer took a seat together in a chair to wait.
"Is there some reason your brother would be behind this without your father's orders?" Aaron asked her. She'd learned quickly in the last few days that he was very direct with his questioning.
"It's not my brother," she informed the group. "I've never seen that man before in my life." There was a moment of silence while everyone processed her statement. "I don't know who he is or what he wants with me. And I definitely have no idea how he has my eyes. But I do know that that is not my brother."
Kris got up and walked back to the balcony. Spencer knew he needed to give her a few minutes to calm down. She was trying to keep the fear out of her face while his team was there, but she was freaking out on the inside. He spoke with his team, tossing ideas back and forth for a while. They went through every theory they could think of and finally decided to look into her absent mother and the possibility that her father had an illegitimate child with someone else.
Spencer went to tell Kris about their theories and see if she had any ideas, but when he went to the balcony, it was totally empty.
