Layla hadn't had a chance to look over Spencer's apartment the one time she was there. She had been too busy running out of it to admire Spencer's collection of books. Several huge bookshelves lined the walls, each one covered completely with books, some thicker then others some looked older while others were newer.
Layla sent Leo to a corner of the room, taking his vest off so he could relax. Spencer had been right about taking him out more often to make her feel more secure. She'd only had one other panic attack since that night and it happened after Lucy and Angela left. Macy and Elliot handled it, but it made Layla feel terrible that it ended up becoming about her, she hated that she had so little control over her emotions that when tough things happened, it turned into 'how will Layla handle it.' That morning should have been about Elliot and only Elliot. "I'm going to call my supervisor." Spencer's voice made her jump, she forgot her was there for a second.
"Are you sure you don't need to go back?" Layla asked, turning around to look at him.
"I have over a month of personal time saved up for the year, it doesn't roll over." He said. "It will only take a second." He gave her his famous forced smile, Layla had become quite accustomed to it, he would use it whenever he didn't know what to say. He gave Leo a fleeting look before moving into the kitchen area, his phone in his hand. Layla turned to back to the books, giving him some privacy.
Aaron answered on the second ring. "Agent Hotchner."
"Hey, it's Spencer…do you…do you need me for the rest of the day?" Spencer could hear how strained his voice sounded and he cursed himself slightly, knowing that Aaron would pick up on it.
"No, take as much time as you need." When Spencer had originally asked for a longer lunch break earlier that day, he had hoped he wasn't acting too out of character, though just asking for the time was out of character.
"Thanks." Spencer said awkwardly.
"Is everything alright?" Spencer looked to Layla who had picked up one of his textbooks and was flipping though the pages.
"Yes, yes everything is fine. I'll be back in the morning." Spencer said thanks once again before saying goodbye and hanging up the phone. He moved back towards the couch, pushing his phone into his pocket.
"Is this in Russian?" Layla asked once she heard him approaching. She turned around to face him, not realizing he was as close as he was, her hair hitting his shoulder as she turned. She had decided to wear it down that morning, softly curling the ends. "Sorry…" She pulled her hair over her shoulder. He didn't understand what she was apologizing for.
"Yes, its Russian." He said, "this whole shelf is Russian, that one's French, that's Italian…" he listed, pointing to each one in turn.
"Do you ever confuse them?" She asked. The idea of knowing so many languages and being able to keep them straight boggled her mind.
"No," he smiled, "I don't have any issue differentiating them. Do you speak any other languages?"
"No, I was really excited to take a second language in school, but my father called and made a huge ordeal out of them forcing students to take another language, he said that it was a way for them to make us ashamed of our culture and that it would encourage reverse racism." Layla scoffed. "Anyway, the school dropped it from my schedule." She shrugged.
"He believed that studying a different culture would encourage reverse racism?" The words sounded ludicrous on his tongue.
"Who knows what really goes on in that man's mind." She pushed the book back onto the shelf. "But God forbid if he didn't get his way." She sighed.
"What would happen if he didn't get his way?" Spencer asked. Layla looked up at his face, seeing that analyzing look on his face once again.
"It's okay," she said, "we came to talk about babies. I don't really want to go into my family issues. I feel like we always end up there. I don't really know what the right way to do this is. I mean, you and didn't know each other until almost three months ago, we had drunken sex, got pregnant and now have only really been talking a few weeks."
"Right." He said, not seeing where she was going with this.
"Obviously we're going to have to get to know one another rather quickly. We need to decide how we're going to…" she was trying to find the right way to explain it, "we're going to have to figure out how we want to raise them." She could see that she was confusing him still, "parenting styles." She clarified. A light clicked on in his mind, but he didn't have an answer for her, he didn't know the first thing about raising children.
"I…"
"And…we also need to decide what we're doing?"
"What we're doing?" He asked.
"Yeah." He watched as her face went red, "like are we going to try dating or…" The color of his face quickly matched hers, "I just need to know what page we're on. It will make things less complicated in the future if we understand where each other are coming from." She added quickly. There was silence between them for a long moment.
"What do you want to do?" He asked her. Layla had been hoping he would be the one to answer that question.
"I…I don't see why we can't try…I mean like." She brushed her hand though her hair, "I don't know…" She blew out a long breath of air. "God I'm really awkward." She let out a dry laugh before taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders. "Yes," she said, meeting his eyes, "I would like to try."
"I would like that too." Spencer wet his lips. She looked over his face, looking for any evidence that he was lying, she didn't find any.
000
"Wait, wait, wait." Layla said, sitting Indian style on Spencer's couch as they both picked at their bowls of ice cream. "you're telling me that you actually think, Penelope is better then Clytemnestra?"
"I think Penelope is better at handling tough situations by using her wits and not giving into her anger." Spencer explained.
"First of all, I love Penelope and I admire her crafty nature, but Clytemnestra was completely justified in her anger and actions, killing her husband was not 'giving into her anger', killing her husband avenged her daughters murder, which by Greek law, was encouraged."
"Agamemnon didn't have a choice when he sacrificed his daughter."
"Yes, he did." Layla waved her fork, shoeing his claim away like it was a fly.
"No, he had to give a worthy sacrifice in order to change the direction of the wind, so they could get to troy and win the war!"
"He could have taken his family and his happy ass right home and sat out of the war entirely."
"He made a pact, if he went against it, they would have come after him after the war to punish him." Spencer couldn't understand why she was having trouble grasping the plot.
"Well, if he had chosen his daughter, like a good father would have, they probably would have never won the war, and all died while he played house on his island, but no. He had to stroke his stupid ego, slash his own daughter's throat to the move the wind 2 goddamned degrees, win the war, come home 10 years later with his bitch Cassandra and expect his wife to be all happy about it. I'm sorry, no wait, I'm not sorry. And if I was Clytemnestra, I'd have killed him too."
"If that were the case, what would have happened to Odysseus? Penelope would have been forced to marry one of the suitors after his unavoidable death." Spencer said.
"I feel like Odysseus would have found his way out. He was a crafty SOB as well." Spencer looked at her like she had grown a second head, she gave Spencer a challenging look. It took everything in Layla to not crack up at the expression on his face. She took a large bite of Ice cream, smiling into the spoon.
"I would have thought you cared more about Odysseus."
"Why would you think that?"
"You named one of your dogs after his dog." Layla raised her eyebrows at him, she hadn't mentioned Argos to him. "You spoke to him while I was on the phone with you." She tilted her head slightly, trying to remember when she did.
"Really?"
"It was when you were going to Walmart to get cream for your icing." It dawned on her suddenly.
"Ohhh, and just because I named my dog after his, doesn't mean that I care more about that particular story then the others, I just happened to like that dog more then any of the other dogs." She shrugged.
They hadn't spoken about the pregnancy once in the 6 hours they've spent in his apartment. Layla was enjoying their little bubble, just the two of them not having to deal with any of the outside factors that would no doubt eventually impact their relationship. But after a while, Leo made his need to go outside obvious to them.
When Layla stood up, she had to pull her shirt back down from where it had bunched up around her stomach. The action brought back the reason they were there in the first place. "Have you told your grandfather yet?" Spencer asked her.
"No." She smoothed out the winkles in the fabric. "I was going to wait until after the appointment today….telling him I'm pregnant was already going to be difficult, now there's…there's three of them." She sighed, pulling at Leo's leash that had been laying over the back of the couch.
"Do you think he'll be upset?"
"I don't know, I don't think he will. He's never been upset with me before. Granted I don't really do anything that would make him feel that way, you know I work, hang out with my friends and take care of the house." She shrugged. Spencer could see her starting to go back to her timid, shy persona that he experienced the night they had dinner. "But this, this is different. I'll tell him tonight." She said, "I need to tell him before he can see for himself." She gestured to the growing bump underneath her shirt. "Are you going to tell your coworkers?"
"I don't know…" He said, "we don't really get to keep anything to ourselves." Layla could understand that. Privacy was very important to her as well. "They'll know something is different though."
"Well they are all profilers, right?" She smiled, she knew that Spencer was hyperaware of the changes in her tone and attitude, but he was respectful enough not to pressure her to talk about things she didn't want to speak about.
"Yeah, but we practically all live together with how often we're out of town. They do know about you though. Emily and J.J. saw you drop me off." Layla giggled softly, clipping the leash to Leo's collar. "Garcia was telling me yesterday that I have to bring you around soon."
"When's 'soon'." Spencer led her back down to the lobby and out of the building.
"They were planning on going out to the bar…the one where you and I met at, but." He glanced down to her stomach underneath her jacket and shirt.
"Yeah, the bar isn't the best place for me at the moment."
"I can change it to dinner." He said. Layla bit the inside of her cheek.
"Just tell me when. I'll need to request off of work and stuff. They later the notice, the more attitude my bosses give me." She said. "Do you think you'll be able to make it to the next doctor's appointment?" Layla had been a little surprised that scheduled her so soon. Both of Layla's girl friends, Marissa and Linda, had already gone through pregnancy, and neither of them ever had appointments so close, granted neither of them had a multiple pregnancy.
"I'll do my best." He said, but he couldn't promise anything. Layla nodded, watching as Leo sniffed at a bush on the ground. They didn't talk for a long time, but unlike the silence that usually resided between them, this wasn't awkward. Layla found the rhythmic sounds of his footfalls to be relaxing and reassuring, that was until she felt the sound of her phone buzzing in her jacket pocket.
The unfamiliar number caused her heart to speed up. She debated on answering it, knowing that there was a very real chance the number belonged to her parents. She had forgotten about her father's court hearing today up until this point.
"What is it?" Spencer asked, looking over at the phone while her hand shook, her fingers gripping onto the phone tight enough for her fingers to turn white. "Layla." Leo came up to her side whining, pushing his body between Layla and Spencer. Leo nuzzled her side and when that didn't grab her attention, he jumped up on her, knocking the phone from her hand. Spencer picked it up but by the time he got it, the call went to voicemail. Leo jumping on her broke her out of her little trance and she found herself ridged, her breath coming in quick bursts, pushing against the painful constriction in her chest. "Layla." Spencer grabbed onto her shoulders gently.
"I…" She looked to the phone in Spencer's hand. "I'm sorry." She pulled it out of his grip. "I should go."
"No, Layla, it's fine." He said quickly, "let's just finish walking Leo, okay? Then we can go get dinner." Layla shook her head, licking her lips. She glanced over her shoulder, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end, something just didn't feel right to her. Leo pushed at her again, whining, shoving his snout between her nails and her wrist as she clawed at the skin.
"I…I really need to go home; my grandfather is probably getting worried…thank you for coming to the appointment with me- and for the ice-cream." She forced her lips to turn upward, in what was, by definition, a smile.
"Layla," Spencer said gently, "why don't we go back to my apartment?" He gently tried to turn her back into the direction of his building when the phone started to ring again. She jumped. It was the same number as before. "Layla, do you know who's calling?"
"I, I, I, I don't know." The phone cut off quickly. "Its probably just my parents. I'm overreacting, its fine." The screen displayed the first voicemail. Layla bit her lip hard enough to cut though the skin and for blood to trickle out.
"Do you mind if I listen to the voicemail?" Spencer asked. She wordlessly passed the phone to him. It was unlocked, and he didn't have any issues navigating to the voicemail.
"Answer your damn phone when I call you." A man's voice ground out from the speakers next to Spencer's ear, "It's the least you can fucking do after getting me arrested. If you think your mother and I will let this behavior go uncorrected you are sadly mistaken. I fully expect you to drop the charges with the police and come home so you can properly apologize. The blatant disrespect you have for your parents, especially your mother, is truly appalling. I will see you tonight." And he hung up. Spencer furrowed his eyebrows as he handed the phone back to Layla.
"Save that message and give it to your lawyer." He said. Spencer didn't know the whole story between Layla and her parents, but he felt like he knew Layla enough that she wouldn't just call the police and have someone arrested without a good reason.
The phone started ringing again, "Layla, what was he arrested for?"
"Trespassing and public intoxication."
"Trespassing?"
"He came to my grandfather's house while he was still in the hospital. He was pounding on the door and cursing, so I called the police. My grandfather called the police the last time he came and had him trespassed, so he could get into more trouble if he came back. I…today was his court hearing but I completely forgot about it because of everything going on."
"You didn't charge him with harassment?"
"I just wanted him to leave, and I wanted the cops to leave, I don't know anything about legal-" Leo barked at her, Spencer led her back to his building, the dog barking was starting to grad the attention of passers biers. They had barely made it five minutes away before all of this happened.
"Layla, if you're trying to get a restraining order, you should start with a harassment report so there's a paper trail."
"My lawyer is sending out a…cease and desist letter."
"For the harassment?"
"Yes, I think that's what he put. It might have been for contacting me all together. I went no contact when I turned 18." She was calming down as they walked, her hand brushing Leo's head every few seconds. "When my grandfather finally won custody, I had been floating around in foster care at that point, the state made me have mandatory supervised visits with them. My Aunt Lucy was the one that supervised them."
"Do you think he will do anything when he gets the letter?"
"I don't know, he can be unpredictable sometimes. I know he talked awfully about me to anyone who will listen, make himself out to be the victim. My mom just goes along with everything he says, she doesn't have any mind of her own. Everything she does or thinks gets approved by him before anyone else gets to see it." Alarm bells were going off in Spencer's brain. He tried to remind himself that this man, her father, had limited access to her. From her explanation of her patterns, she was almost always with someone else, that and she had a huge German Shepheard with her almost all the time. But it didn't help that she's already admitted that one of her aunts that has access to her house has tried to essentially poison her.
He didn't have anything to tell her, she was already going thought the necessary channels to make it stop, but he didn't want there to be any escalation and he was worried that if they found out about the babies, escalation was exactly what they would be seeing.
"I should really go home." Layla said, rubbing her hand up and down her arm. "I need to make dinner for my grandpa."
"I don't like the idea of you driving home."
"I'll be fine, I'm calm enough now, and I'll put my phone on silent." She said.
"Layla-"
"Really Spencer." Her tone was assuring, "I'll be fine, I'll even text you when I get home." She moved her hand from her arm to his shoulder. She smiled softly, but it was strained around the edges. "Thank you for coming to the appointment with me."
"I…of course." He frowned. He glanced down at Leo who was still pressing up against Layla, telling Spencer she wasn't as calm as she was trying to portray. "Layla, are you sure you're good to drive?"
"I'm sure." She said, "why don't you call me after you get off of work tomorrow if you're still in town. We can go grab dinner." Spencer was about to answer her, but she stood up on her tip-toes and pressed her lips against his. It took him by surprise and by the time he realized what was happening and went to react, she was already pulling away. "Thank you, again." She smiled, before calling Leo softly and pulling him toward her car. What Spencer couldn't see was her eyes filling with tears that she had been desperately trying to hold back, her couldn't see her hands begin to uncontrollably shake, causing her to drop her keys onto the floorboard three times before she managed to get them into the ignition.
Leo was nuzzling her shoulder from the backseat while she pulled out of the parking lot. She drove down the road before turning into the parking lot of an abandoned building before putting the car in park and just let herself go.
Thank you guys for all your reviews. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the story. How do you think the team will react to Spencer's news?
