Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Grace.


"Hey, Charlotte, what's up?" Grace spoke into her phone.

The hot afternoon sun shone through the window of her hospital room. The heat was what had awoken her. Spencer was sound asleep beside her, finally looking relaxed after these last two days. She had seen her cell phone on the table beside her bed and remembered that her cousin had called for her.

"Grace, what the hell is going on? I've gotten like twenty phone calls about you and everyone's tweeting..."

"Charlie, calm down. I was stabbed on a case, I'm fine now."

"Stabbed?" Charlotte screamed.

"Charlie, calm the fuck down." she laughed.

"Why did a doctor answer your phone?" Charlotte asked.

"Oh, that was Spencer." Grace replied. "He's not my doctor. Well, in a way, you could say that, I guess, but he's not that kind of doctor."

Charlotte was silent for a moment, probably trying to understand what her cousin had just said. "So, he's not your doctor, but he's your doctor? I don't get it cuz, what do they have you on?"

Grace laughed. "You know I'm clean now, Char. And Spencer's my... my boyfriend."

She ran her hands through Spencer's hair, making sure he was real, making sure this wasn't some unbelievably amazing dream.

"Boyfriend?" Charlotte said. "It's about damn time, Mum and Gram keep asking me if you're a lesbian. So, when do I get to meet him?"

"You could come visit us when we get back to Virginia. Or you could wait until Macy's wedding." Grace replied

"I'll have to see when I can get time off." Charlotte said. "So, the reason I'm calling..."

"Yeah?"

"So, first of all, I need you to clean out your father's house."

"No, no I can't." Grace declined.

Charlotte sighed. "Grace, it's been three years. I paid you double what that house is worth. I want to start renting it out."

"Charlie, it's too soon. I can't."

"Listen, Grace, if you don't clear his stuff out of there, I'm going to have to send someone else in to do it. Do you really want someone else going through his stuff?"

"I guess not." Grace sighed.

"Well, I've got to go, I'll try to come see you as soon as I can."

"Alright," Grace said. "Tell Violet I miss her."

"OK, bye."

"Bye."

Grace ended the call and turned back to face Reid.

"Who was that?" he groaned, his eyes still closed.

"My cousin Charlotte."

"What did she want?"

Grace bit her lip. "Spencer?" she said nervously. "When am I getting out of here."

"Doctor said you should be out tomorrow." Reid answered.

"Could you do me a favour? And it's OK if you say no, I was just wondering."

Reid opened his eyes. "What is it?"

Grace bit her lip again. She really did not want to ask him this, but she did not want to have to do this alone. "It's alright if you don't want to. I mean, I understand, we've only been official for like thirty-six hours now and I don't think I've even been conscious for half of that. So, it's not like you have any obligation or responsibility or anything. I would be totally OK with it, if you said no. I mean-"

"Grace," he interrupted her rambling. "Out with it."

"Spencer, would you... would you help me clean out my father's house?"

"Yeah, sure."

Grace was surprised by his answer. She had expected him to say no.

"Really? Are you sure?"

He kissed her cheek. "Yes, I'm sure. Anything for you, Grace."


When Grace was released from the hospital the next morning, her and Reid got in a rented Jetta and set out on the two hour drive to Grace's childhood home. To avoid any questions about her father, Grace talked the entire drive, pointing out places along the way such as the exit that would take them to her cabin, the site of her first car accident, friend's houses and things like that.

The closer they got to her father's house, the more nervous she became. By the time they pulled into the driveway, she was shaking uncontrollably. Reid put the car in park then put a hand on Grace's leg.

"It's alright." he assured her. "We can do this."

"Thank you, Spencer."

She opened the door of the car then went up the steps to the front door of the house. She took a deep breathe then unlocked the door with the key in her purse. She entered the house and stood in the foyer for a moment, taking it all in.

"Where do you want to start?" Reid asked her.

"My room, I guess." she replied.

Grace went down the hallway to her old bedroom while Reid went back to the car to get some of the boxes they'd picked up on the way. When he came back to the house, he found Grace sitting on her old bed, staring at the wall.

He looked around the room. There were clothes everywhere, a record player and a stack of records almost as tall as Grace was. Her walls were plastered with poster of Kurt Cobain and Bob Marley. The walls were lined with art as well, some of it was Grace's work, he recognized her style from the paintings in her apartment, there were also prints of artists such as Warhol, Pollock and Margritte, others were originals he couldn't recognize. Her bookcase was full and more books were piled on top of it and beside it. Her desk was covered in stacks of paper and a large collection of make-up, perfume and lotions.

"You're profiling me, aren't you?" Grace asked.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's alright, go ahead, I want to hear this."

"Well," Reid said. "I'm not exactly profiling you, but you when you were a teenager. See, the majority of adolescents' profiles would read like a psychopath's. That's why they can't be diagnosed with a serious mental illness until they're eighteen."

Grace nodded.

"Well, the general mess shows that you had no control over your life. The excessive art, the music and the books were an escape from something, probably the people around you since none of it matches the interests typical of the location. So, typical teenage rebellion.

"Your paintings go deeper than that though, they each have their own individual meaning. There's more of them on the walls than there are posters or paintings by anyone else, so that shows that you had more confidence in your own ideas than those of others. The posters are of idols, not attractive male celebrities. So, you were quite mature.

"The amount of books is self-explanatory, but the variety of titles indicates confusion. For example, you have The Communist Manifesto next to The Fountainhead.

"The Bible next to the Buddha statue tells me that you were searching for the right religion, probably because you wanted to feel accepted somewhere because you weren't accepted at school or home. The fact that you identify yourself as an Atheist today proves that you were unsuccessful in your quest to find religion."

"You hit the nail on the head, Doc." Grace laughed. "So what's your conclusion."

Reid sighed. "You thought that there was something wrong with you and spent most of your free time trying to figure out what that was, but in reality, there wasn't really anything wrong, you were just different from most people you knew and they couldn't accept you."

Grace hugged him. "It was so lonely."

He rubbed her back. "I know."

Grace stopped herself from crying. "Alright, we've got work to do."

They started to sort through the items in the house, boxing up anything Grace planned to keep or donate and throwing everything else in garbage bags. They discovered that Grace's sister, Macy had cleaned out her bedroom and the basement after the funeral, making their job a whole lot easier. Their next mission was the kitchen, where they threw out three year old, mold covered food.

"What's this?" Reid asked, looking at a collage of newspaper clippings on the refrigerator.

"Stuff about... Dad." Grace answered hesitantly.

Reid looked closer at the articles. He finally discovered why Grace was so shaken up about her father's death. He had died in a mining accident, rescuing seven trapped miners. They all survived except him.

"Grace, I'm so sorry." he said.

"You know, he had two engineering degrees, he never should have worked there." she said. "When he got married though, the salary for engineers wasn't what it is today. He took the job at the mine to support my mother's expensive tastes and tried to start up his own business. The day before he died, I asked him why he didn't just go back to engineering, at least it wouldn't be so much physical stress for him. He told me his degrees were too old, no one wanted a 50-year old engineer, they wanted the kids fresh out of university. Then he was gone."

Reid put an arm around her. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright. It was probably the best way he could die. I always thought he would drink himself to death, but he died a hero instead. And I inherited a couple million, paid the rest of mine and Macy's schooling without student loans and I got clean like he wanted."

Reid kissed the top of her head.

She sighed. "Let's finish this and go home."


At the end of the day, the house was completely empty. They pulled out of the driveway behind two U-Haul trucks, one going to the local Salvation Army with a load of furniture and clothing, the other headed to Grace's storage unit in Virginia with all the personal possessions and her father's motorcycle. Grace slept in the passenger seat on the way to the airport.

They arrived with twenty minutes to spare before their flight. Grace didn't say a word the entire flight, nor did she speak on their way back to her apartment. Reid wanted her to talk to him, but figured trying to force her to speak would only make it worse.

As they entered the garage, they could hear voices above them in the apartment. They looked at eachother and got their guns out. Reid went first up the stairs and Grace followed him. Reid tried the door, which was unlocked. He opened it and slowly and carefully entered the apartment. Grace heard two familiar voices screamed and Reid's gun falling to the floor. She ran inside to see what had happened.

"Jesus Christ, Reid!" Morgan yelled.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" he yelled back.

"We wanted to surprise Grace." Garcia said innocently.

"How did you get in?" Grace asked.

"Morgan showed the Joneses his badge and they let us in."

Grace hugged her friends and laughed.

Reid sighed in relief, glad that Grace's silence was finally broken.

They spent the rest of the night laughing with their friends as if the last few days had never happened. When Garcia and Morgan disappeared for the night, Reid was thankful that Grace's smile didn't.

"I'm sorry for the silent treatment." Grace said.

"It's alright, you've had a rough few days."

"I wasn't mad at you, if that's what you were thinking. I just... I don't know, I feel like we're going kind of fast. I mean, it's not really normal for you to know my while life story by now, or for you to spend every night with me or for you to kill my ex, right?"

"I think you and I both know, neither of us really do 'normal'."

Grace smiled. "I guess so."

"None of it feels wrong to you, does it?" Reid asked. "Cuz if it does, just tell me, we can slow down if you want to."

Grace shook her head. "I like this, actually. It's about the only thing that's felt right in a long time. What about you though?"

"I've never really done this before, Grace, but I think it feels right. As long as you're happy, I'm happy."

Grace wrapped her arms around him. "You're so sweet." she said.

Reid grinned. "What are you doing tomorrow night?"

"Same thing I do every night," Grace replied. "Try to take over the world!" She erupted with a fit of laughter.

"Well, do you want to take a break from that, just for one night?" Reid asked, completely missing the reference.

"Well, if Hotch doesn't destroy us tomorrow, I might be able to make some room in my schedule."

"He's not going to destroy us."

"Well, maybe not you, but he's going to kill me." Grace said. "What's his problem anyway? Why's he such a hard-ass?"

"Grace, he lost his wife recently. George Foyet, the Boston Reaper, you probably heard of him, he went after Hotch after he refused to make a deal. He killed Hailey and would've got their son, Jack if Hotch hadn't stopped him."

Grace was shocked. She felt sick with guilt.

"Oh my God, I feel like such a bitch."

"It's alright, you didn't know." Reid said. "You should get to bed though, you must be exhausted. Do you want me to stay?"

"Do you want to stay?"

"Yeah."

"Then why did you even ask?" Grace laughed. "I told you, you're welcome anytime."

He kissed her passionately and lead her to the bedroom.

"So, what did you have planned for tomorrow?" Grace asked.

"It's a surprise." Reid answered, tearing off Grace's shirt and trying to unbutton her jeans.

"Spencer, what are you doing?" she asked nervously. "Spencer, no, stop."

He took his hands off of her immediately.

"I'm sorry." he said.

"It's OK, Spence. I'm sorry, I'm just.. not ready. It's too soon. I'm.. I'm a virgin, Spencer."

He looked at her, bewildered. "Really? But, you're so beautiful, and Peterson..."

Grace shook her head. "Never. After him, I developed a fear of anything sexual. I tried to get over it, but I would just end up freaking out."

Reid kissed her. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Spencer." Grace said.

"We can wait as long as you want." he said.

"Thank you, Spencer." she said, kissing his cheek. "Can I get some sleep now?"

He helped her out of her clothes and into her pyjamas. He took off his shirt and pants and got in bed with her. He kissed her stab wounds and let her fall asleep with her head on his chest. All night he dreamed about what Hotch would tell them in the morning.


A/N: My apologies for these last two extremely un-eventful chapters. I hope you enjoyed getting to meet some of Grace's friends and family and learning a bit more about her past though. Chapter 12 is going to be their little talk with Hotch and I'm kind of super pumped for it.

I may be taking a break soon as I have a whole bunch of essays to write and I start back at work on the 2nd and school on the 11th, plus I've got some volunteering to do on the 8th. Don't worry though, I am not going to abandon this story! I will be writing whenever I get a spare minute.

Anyway, don't forget to review! Goodnight my lovely readers.