By Wednesday evening everyone on the team was beginning to tire from the emotions and events of the previous 72 hours. It was agreed that they would return to the hotel for an hour before dinner. This was a relaxing change, since both Monday and Tuesday they had begun their evenings as soon as their work day had ended.

This would be the perfect opportunity for Reid to do something Lila had wanted him to do all week. Lila greeted him with a passionate kiss as he entered their hotel room. She then removed his tie and unbuttoned his top 3 shirt buttons before she caressed his neck. She locked eyes with him and said firmly but loving "okay Spence, you know what you need to do. I'll be right beside you. It will be fine."

Reid took a deep breath before sitting down at the desk chair, he opened his phone and typed in the number he had first memorized two years earlier.

"Hello, this is William Reid" said Reid's father who answered after the second ring.

"Hi um Dad it's um me, Spencer." Reid replied nervously as Lila who was standing behind her husband lovingly and supportively caressed his shoulders.

"Spencer, it's wonderful to hear your voice. Is everything alright?" replied William, a mixture of happy surprise and concern evident in his voice.

"Everything is fine. It's um great actually. I know you follow my career. Do um you remember the Lila Archer case?" Reid asked feeling more relaxed and confident simply saying her name.

"Yes I have the tabloid with your picture on the cover. I've been trying to follow her too since then, hoping, although she seems to stay out of the spotlight. Her show has been cancelled and she's leaving LA. Please tell me this has something to do with you? I've always wanted normalcy for you." He said genuinely.

"Yea that's um sort of why I'm calling. I'm actually coincidentally in LA. We're doing this big training seminar. Um Lila's here with me and I have you on speakerphone." Reid said proudly as a happy smile spread across his face.

"So you are the reason she's leaving LA?" William said quickly eager for a confirmation in a tone that was half statement and half question.

"Yea, um Lila did an interview with Mary Hart today which will air on Friday evening and um well there's going to be a big announcement and she, we thought I um should call you and tell you first." Reid replied failing slightly to hide his nervous anticipation.

"I'm listening son." William said his voice also filled with anticipation.

"On June 2, 2007 Lila and I were secretly married in the chapel at the sanitarium." Reid announced.

"So your mother knows." William replied with a touch of sadness.

"Well as best she can. Lila has tried to visit her several times a year and some visits well some visits go better than others." Reid stated honestly.

"But Mrs. Reid was the only one who knew. We just told Spence's team on Sunday when they arrived." Lila quickly interjected.

"I know you kids need to tread carefully with Mom but please, Lila I'd love for you to call me Dad. Spencer, you said you're in LA. I have some vacation time coming I could drive down there tomorrow." William offered his voice filled with hope.

"We're leaving on Friday afternoon." Reid replied a little too curtly genuinely surprised by his father's offer before he winced at his own tone. "I mean yea sure if you'd like but it would just be 24 hours." Reid continued regaining his equilibrium.

"That's fine son. I would love to see you and meet my daughter-in-law." William said sincerely.

"I'm sitting in on Spence's training sessions on Friday. It would be wonderful to have some company." Lila offered.

Their conversation ended several minutes later, after Lila and William exchanged cell phone numbers and Reid gave his father detailed directions, as only Reid could.

An hour and a half later, the group sat waiting for their food and chatting in a Chinese restaurant Detective Kim had recommended.

Reid announced nervously "Lila and I did something at the hotel that um you're probably not going to like."

"What could you two possibly do that you haven't already done?" Prentiss asked flatly as their teammates exchanged a variety of wide eyed stares, eager glances and nervous giggles.

"No not THAT." Reid replied with a laugh as he blushed slightly. "We called Dad um you know to tell him our news um Lila thought it was an important thing to do and um he's coming down here tomorrow. He offered he um wants to meet Lila."

"We didn't expect that he would offer to drive down here. But there was some healing when you were in Las Vegas with the whole Riley Jenkins case. Calling Dad was our way of extending on olive branch and trying to build on that. So we are trying to come at this from a good place, but I think Spence needs your support." Lila explained nervously glancing at all of Reid teammates especially Morgan who winced in reply.

As the food arrived, Morgan said pointing at Reid "He'll need a fork."

"No he won't. He knows how to use chopsticks. I taught him. There's this fabulous Chinese take-out place, I found one day when I was out walking around Old Town Alexandria. Spence gets dinner there almost every week. " Lila interjected quickly.

"Yea I'm going to miss that place." Reid said sadly.

"I know but we can still go there occasionally plus my wok is on the way to Virginia. So when we move into the house and all my things come out of storage, I can make us Chinese food." Lila replied.

"House?" Garcia asked intrigued.

"We're building a house in Oak Grove?" Lila offered with a smile.

"Those huge houses in that gated community just down the road from Quantico?" Morgan asked looking in Reid's direction and raising an eyebrow.

"Yea I know I can't guarantee their safety but I like the idea of having the extra security for my family. Plus it has a recreation area with a pool which Lila wanted." Reid explained.

"I drive passed there all the time. There aren't a lot of houses being built right now. There is a gorgeous looking red brick Colonial that's probably almost finished. That thing must be close to 4,000 sq. ft." Garcia added.

"Actually it's 4,200 sq ft." Lila replied sheepishly.

"It would probably be 6,000 sq. ft if I let Lila have her way." Reid added with a laugh.

"And how many acres?" Rossi added amused.

"Almost five but we plan to be in this house for thirty years." Lila explained.

"You'll need a riding mower." Hotch added.

"Yea I know." Reid said.

"Oh I will want pictures of that. So what did you do kid rob a bank?" Morgan asked.

"Um no Lila's paying for it." Reid offered.

"It's the least I could do. I mean we never thought the show would last so long. The amount of money I made compared to government salaries in um obscene really especially given that you put your lives on the line everyday while I pranced around in a bikini. Spence is really so wonderful to let me do this for us." Lila cooed lovingly as she briefly ran her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.

"So when do you move in?" Garcia asked as Lila placed her hand back on her lap

"In about two months. They are finishing the downstairs floors this week. Then Monday they will start putting in the kitchen cabinets while they are also putting in the upstairs floors." Lila said

"Lila's been pretty good about the whole thing. I think you threw in a few things you didn't really want just so when we quote compromised unquoted the end result was exactly what you wanted." Reid teased before he took her hand and kissed it lovingly.

"So what does the house have?" Garcia asked.

"It's really pretty basic 4 large bedrooms each with their own bath, kitchen, dining room, living room, family room and an oversized gorgeous den which will have built-in bookshelves and wood paneling for Spence." Lila said in a very matter of fact voice.

"So what's it missing?" Morgan asked.

"Nothing really and that's the point. It has a four car garage, big laundry room not a laundry closet and five fireplaces. We eliminated additional bedrooms, a hearth room, simplified our bedroom so it's just a bedroom, bathroom, and two closets but no sitting room or exercise room. A lot of those things we can put in the basement later. I told her finishing the basement would need to wait too." Reid was with an exasperated moan.

"He's looking forward to it but I think he's getting a bit sick of the process. Building this house has taken up a lot of our together time during the last year or so. We haven't been able to go sightseeing nearly as much as we did before we started planning the house." Lila explained.

"Right now I'm just looking forward to not having a suitcase everywhere I turn." Reid teased.

"I'm actually quite surprised with how little she's bringing with us on the plane." Hotch said.

"Thank you, Aaron." Lila said with a broad smile which much to everyone's surprise was enthusiastically returned.

"Well maybe AARON wouldn't think you travel quite so lightly if AARON knew you'd been bringing extra suitcases with you for the last 4 months, Babe." Reid teased with a laugh.

"Oh touché, kid." Morgan interjected with a laugh as the other members of the group also began laughing realizing the ribbing was all in fun.

"You call her Babe a lot." Garcia observed prompting stares from the group.

"Oh please Garcia, must we go there?" Prentiss said.

"It was just an observation." Garcia muttered in embarrassment.

"It's a cute story actually. We'd been together a few months when he told me he'd never had Texas barbeque. So much to my delight I found this adorable little mom and pop place about 15 miles from our apartment." Lila began to explain.

"13.4 actually," Reid interjected.

"Would you just let the girl tell the story?" Morgan said with a sigh.

"I could tell from the parking lot, they knew what they were doing. Just the smell of that barbeque and my drawl started coming back. You can take the girl out of Texas but you can't take Texas out of the girl. So of course the owner could tell I was from Texas and he was just as nice as nice could be. As we're walking out the door and thank God we already had a foot out the door, the man says to Spence 'now you take good care of that babe of yours and y'all come back cause it's not that often we get a genuine yellow rose of Texas in here.' I thought Spence was going to slug him." Lila said drawling slightly at the happy memory.

"I thought he was objectifying her but Lila explained that since he'd said she was my babe he was complementing me for having such a pretty girlfriend. It was an endearment in other words and she liked hearing someone call her my babe. So from then I've called her Babe as much if not more than I call her Lila." Reid explained blushing slightly as the team gave him confused stares.

"Maybe after we move into the house, we could have everyone over for that movie night I was talking about on Monday and I could make Texas style chili and cornbread." Lila offered.

"Did you know that chili is the official dish of the state of Texas as designated by House Concurrent Resolution number 18 of the 65th Texas legislation during its regular session in 1977?" Reid offered only to be met with more confused stares from his teammates who all decided it was best to concentrate on finishing their meals in silence.

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