As Garcia drove, Grace reassured her friend that she was fine. "I had the wind knocked out of me. That's all. There's a bruise. Honestly, Penelope."
"I have to confess," Garcia said in a small voice, as she kept her attention on the road and avoided eye contact with Grace.
"What?"
"I did finally get a hold of Spencer. He's on the way back from Arizona now."
"You didn't! He isn't! Penelope!"
"I did and he is. I was trying to get him a commercial flight back ASAP but it just wasn't coming together so I called Emily and she's sending him back on the jet."
Grace realised then that they weren't headed towards her apartment. Instead, Garcia had wheeled onto the exit that would take them to the airport where the jet would be landing.
"You," Grace paused, not sure whether she should be angry or grateful. Maybe both, she decided.
"Stinker?" Garcia supplied.
"No. But what did you tell him?"
"The truth, Grace. You were mugged but it was interrupted by a couple of Good Samaritans and you're okay but he should get his cute little newly scarred butt back here anyway."
Grace couldn't argue with Penelope's reasoning. And apparently, Emily was agreement. Garcia stole a quick glance at her watch.
"And his flight should be arriving in about forty-five minutes. Your phone, Grace. Did you call him?"
"Battery's dead."
Garcia rolled her eyes.
"Hello? Charger!"
"It's at home."
"There's one in my purse, Lady Avoidance."
"I am not avoiding. It's just, well, he'll be here in less than an hour anyway."
"That still sounds like avoidance to me, but okay. Your call. Or your not call. As the case may be. Just know, I did my part. I told him I would tell you to call him ASAP."
"It's okay, Penelope. I will take full responsibility for my lack of compliance."
"Thank you. I cannot stand to have Boy Wonder angry with me."
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The ladies watched the jet land and spent an interminable fifteen minutes waiting for Spencer to disembark. When the jet's door open and he finally emerged through it, Grace looked to Penelope standing next to her and Penelope gave her an encouraging smile.
"Go! Go get him," she bubbled, giving Grace a gentle push. That was all the encouragement Grace needed, she burst forward and raced across the tarmac to the jet's staircase.
Spencer's face lit up in a smile when he caught sight of her. Gingerly but with an increased pace, he made his way down the stairs and enveloped her in an enormous hug when they met at the bottom, letting his go bag hit the ground.
He held her close for a long moment, stroking her hair, searching her eyes and wanting to see for himself that she was okay.
"I'm good, honest. Look," she said, disengaging from the hug and twirling around once to show him. He reached out and pulled her back into the hug, needing the contact for reassurance.
Looking over her face, he traced the light bruise along her cheek caused by the fall when she was attacked. Hugging her against him once more he kissed the top of her head, not caring who witnessed it.
Finally, after convincing himself that Grace was okay, he picked up his go bag from the tarmac in one hand, held Grace's hand tightly in his other, and stepped away from the base of the stairs.
They joined Garcia who had discreetly (as discreetly as Garcia would be considered capable of) waited at the gate entrance and together the threesome made their way to Penelope's car.
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"Nope," Grace insisted. "I am not calling off for work tomorrow. I am fine." She returned from her kitchen bearing two mugs of coffee and set those on down on the coffee table, then retook her seat on the sofa.
Spencer sat next to her, trying to reason with her.
"You've just been through a traumatic experience!"
She leaned over and kissed him to shut him up, twining her hands into his hair and parting his lips with her own. They kissed for a long moment, leaving them both breathless and when they finally broke apart for air, Spencer was left with the realisation that he had just lost yet another battle of wills with his stubborn girlfriend.
"You're absolutely sure you're okay?" he tried one last time.
"Spencer Reid, I swear to God, I am—" she paused to take a breath, reconsidered her rant and dropped the acerbic tone from her voice. Almost quietly, she pronounced, "I am okay, Spence. Really. There's a little bruise here from where I fell," she touched the side of her face. "And another one here," she indicated a spot on the left side of her torso, "but there's nothing wrong with me. Nothing necessitating a day off work." She captured his gaze, looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Trust me. Please."
He held her gaze for a moment, and then acquiesced. "All right," he conceded.
"Penelope really shouldn't have made it sound so serious. There was no reason for you to rush back here."
"Grace, there was every reason for me to rush back here. Garcia did the right thing, letting me know."
She didn't want to get into an argument over this and deep down, was thrilled that he'd dropped everything and headed home to her when he'd found out what happened.
"Spence, don't get me wrong, I'm touched that you came home immediately."
This time, Spencer shushed her with a kiss.
The coffee mugs were long since drained, refilled and emptied again as the couple sat together and discussed Grace's close call.
She'd related the entire incident to him—leaving out a few details—and Reid was astounded to hear about her rescuers.
"And Kenny, Dave and Carlos came out of nowhere to help me. Carlos took down the guy kicking me, and Kenny ran after the other guy. He got away, but Kenny recovered my phone." The device in question sat in its charger on the small table beside the sofa.
"The same three guys we gave the Chinese food to?" he remarked, incredulous. He wondered briefly why they'd be in the park but realised, as homeless youth, it was quite possible they hung out there regularly. Perhaps they even sheltered there.
He hugged her close to him, "I'm glad they were there."
"And I'm glad you're here now."
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"You're working tomorrow, and I'm gonna call and check in with Emily, Grace, so I'm gonna go home now." He rose and extended his hand to help her up, then drew her into his arms and kissed her goodbye.
"Want a ride home?" she offered again. Declining again, he shook his head no and left, hailing a cab when he reached the street.
After Spencer left, Grace realised she'd forgotten to mention the boys' last names and that she'd wondered if there was some way to find out if Carlos Delgado was related to his late prison friend Luis Delgado.
"Dammit," she said aloud, and made a mental note to ask Spencer later. As she cleared away the mugs, she realised she would have to start the tedious process of cancelling her credit cards and reporting her driver's license and other items missing. Sighing, she reached for her phone and began making calls.
Despite the late hour, the building superintendent soon arrived at her apartment door with a locksmith who changed the lock and the deadbolt on her front door. He completed the job in short order and Grace took possession of the new keys. Her building superintendent gave her four new access cards for the front and side entrances and said he'd take care of deactivating the old ones.
As the taxi approached his apartment building, Reid called Prentiss. Receiving the answer he had anticipated, he had the cab driver take him back to the airport. En route, he called the jet's pilot to apprise him and in less than an hour, Spencer Reid was in the air on his way back to the BAU team in Glendale, Arizona.
"I hope Emily doesn't catch flak for spending the FBI's money flying me back and forth like this," he said aloud as he stretched out on the long seat in the jet, planning to sleep for the duration of the flight.
Early the next morning, Grace's phone rang. She noticed the caller ID indicated 'unknown number' and hesitantly picked it up.
The female voice on the other end said, "Grace O'Halloran? This is Officer Amy Robertson, DCPD."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Grace recognised her voice and replied, "Hello, Officer. How are you?"
"Amy, please. I'm just great. And I should be asking you that, ma'am. How are you doing? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
"And I have news for you that should make you feel even better. Your purse was turned in last night by the parents of a couple of young boys who were biking in the park after school. I'm pretty sure it's yours because it fits the description you gave us. Your keys and cosmetics and stuff were still in it. And Detective LaMontagne found and arrested the other one of your assailants. The dumbass was trying to use your credit card to buy a leather jacket down in Dupont Circle. Will found your wallet on the little jerk and we think it's pretty much intact, except for any cash you may have had. Your driver's license, your nursing ID, that stuff is all still in there."
"Oh that is great news!"
"The first kid we detained gave up his friend," she explained how he'd come to be arrested. "I'll come by and drop off your stuff, if that's okay."
"That is so okay!" Grace enthused. As soon as the call was disconnected, Grace sent texts to both Spencer and Penelope to tell them the good news. Minutes later, she received a reply from Penelope, a short yay accompanied by half a dozen smiley emoji.
Her intercom announced a visitor and after confirming it was Amy Robertson, Grace buzzed the officer in.
They shook hands and Amy handed over Grace's purse, asking her to check to see if anything was missing.
Grace did a quick inventory and a smile stretched across her face.
"I can't believe it! Everything's here except for the twenty-something dollars I might have had in here," she said, waving her wallet. "And my car keys! Hurray. Cause that would have been in real pain in the butt to have replaced."
Amy nodded her agreement and seeing the electronic key fob said, "Not to mention expensive!"
"Even my headphones!" she was surprised to find those in the purse.
"Oh, that's an oversight. Sorry. One of those boys, I think it was Dave Carmichael? He picked them up off the ground to give back to you and in the confusion they just got forgotten. He stopped by the department last night to return them."
"Thank you so much," Grace told her.
"I was wondering, though, if it's not too weird to ask, Grace. You were obviously attentive and observant, getting such good descriptions of your attackers and your Good Samaritans."
Grace nodded effusively, "Boyfriend's in law enforcement. I learned."
"Oh, that's right. Agent Reid, correct? From the Behavioural Analysis Unit?"
Grace nodded again.
"But you had your headphones on?"
"Yeah I did." Blushing, she remembered that she hadn't revealed that particular fact to Spencer when she'd related her experience. "Honestly, I know to keep vigilant, Offi—Amy. But. Stupid me, it was like, one-thirtyish in the afternoon, I really didn't think that through, did I? I've always kinda thought that vigilance thing was for nighttime. Won't make that mistake again."
"Glad to hear it. I'm just very happy to know you're all right Grace, and that we were able to recover almost everything."
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