In the library of the new house, Spencer was sorting through boxes to find a cohesive way to merge their extensive book collections. Maggie appeared at the door.

"Sweetheart, you've been at that for hours. It's getting late. Come sit on the porch with me. I made some lemonade."

He sighed and got up off the floor silently admitting a temporary defeat. He took one last look at the piles and boxes before turning out the light.

"They'll still be there in the morning for you to do battle with. Unless the clutter fairies come in the night to organize and put them away."

"Maggie, have I ever told you that you are the most adorable brand of crazy I have ever encountered?"

"Do you not believe in clutter fairies?"

Spencer laughed.

"If you tell me they're real, I'll believe in them to my dying day."

Maggie stopped him at the foot of the stairs, took his face in her hands and kissed him sweetly but with an underlying passion that was unmistakable and generated a pool of heat in his lower abdomen.

"Did my ears just deceive me or is the incurably over-analytical Dr. Spencer Reid learning to believe in what he cannot irrefutably and scientifically prove?"

"Contrary to what some of my colleagues may say, I do not know everything and I am always open to learning. You have taught me that there is so much more to be experienced than just what one can see or touch or prove in a lab."

By now they were in their familiar spot on the swing. A different swing at a different house but they were just as happy and just as perfectly fit together.

"So, Maggie are you ready for the new job next week?"

"Do not remind me. I hate being the new kid even when I'm not a kid. I wish I could say that I was ready but I am really nowhere near to it. I think I am in denial."

"You'll be terrific. You know you will. It won't take any time at all and the entire department will respect you and your students will love you. Like they always do. And you will still have the poetry classes with the largest male enrollment. I still can't believe that you don't know you're beautiful with statistics like that in front of you."

"I didn't even know until a certain statistical analysis professor came along and told me."

Spencer only smiled. It wasn't the first time that one of them hadn't seen a truth in plain sight without the help of the other. Maybe that's why it was better to go through life in teams. Perhaps that's why we were all taught as early as kindergarten that the buddy system was such a good idea. He was brought from his internal monologue by Maggie shifting next to him and standing.

"Tomorrow's going to be a long day. I am off to bed, my love."

Spencer finally realized that it had gotten quite late while they sat there and got up as well. He followed her to their bedroom. Their bedroom, it sounded so good to think of that. Not her bedroom or his bedroom but a room they would share. Once in the room, Maggie turned to him with mischief in her eyes and before Spencer could register what was happening, her dress fell to her feet. He couldn't say he was upset at the sight presented to him. He was surprised but not displeased.

"Why my dear, it would seem you are a bit over dressed."

Maggie tried to keep her voice steady and project a haughty demeanor but the way the corners of her mouth turned upward gave her away.

For Spencer's part he just stood there not knowing exactly what to do and knowing that he really was enjoying just staring at her nearly nude body. Maggie knew what she wanted, apparently as she walked closer to him and began to slide her hands under his shirt and lifted it over his head. Kissing her way down his chest and stomach, she eventually encountered his pants. Frowning slightly she undid his belt and his pants sliding them down. He was now in front of her wearing only his boxers and a pair of mismatched socks. Maggie then climbed onto the bed and sat there with an over exaggerated pout.

"Well now, here we are two nearly naked people in a bedroom. Whatever shall we do?"

She looked up at him and batted her lashes. It took no more than this for him to feel a rather pressing need and an urgency to answer her question. He climbed in the bed with her and whispered in her ear.

"First I think we need to be two totally naked people and then I think I need to kiss every inch of your body and then we'll just go from there. How does that sound?"

Maggie moaned her approval.


Later that night, Spencer lay awake and thought about the amazing woman next to him, well half on top of him. Usually he would have been out like a light after the workout she gave him but he was just too happy reflecting on the strange twists and turns life can take and how things can turn out so well when you aren't even thinking about it. And then in true Spencer Reid fashion his happy reverie turned sour with the invasion of the what ifs as Maggie called them. He thought of his team. There was Morgan who was too focused on the job to put enough focus into and actual relationship and Rossi who had attempted marriage three times and Hotch whose marriage was over even before Haley was killed by Foyet. J.J. and Will were still together but not married and Emily was, well secretive about her private life. He knew she dated but he wasn't sure if the job or of other factors were to blame for her not having a long term relationship. The odds weren't good and he knew that very few marriages survived the job. Law enforcement of any stripe was tough on marriage and family but this job with the sudden departures and the darkness of the material, well, he wasn't always sure he could do this or that Maggie could and he often wondered if it was even fair to ask her or anyone. When he had made the comment earlier about believing to his dying day, before she kissed him, she tensed. It was slight but he noticed and he knew it was because she was terrified that he would leave on a case and not come back to her alive. How could he ask someone so bright and shiny to live with that kind of a storm cloud always hanging over her? And he had asked her just that and she had said yes. There were three possibilities for why she did. One, she was a masochist. He had never thought she was but maybe she wanted the fear and pain. Two her self esteem was so very low that she felt he was the only one who would ever ask or perhaps even that she deserved to live in fear. The third option was that she was in fact the most special woman he had ever met. It was possible for someone to get through this job and this life. Perhaps she understood and knew that she could handle it. Oh please let it be that third option. He wasn't as strong as Hotch and he knew he couldn't take it if she ever left him.