Friday dawned and Spencer got ready for his day. He got all his stuff that he'd had charging settled back into his satchel, except his large camera –with the laptop and it, the bag was too heavy for him to want to drag around all day. Then Spencer set out to get to CalTech, via various forms of public transit. He knew Hotch would have a fit, but Spencer also hoped to get a ride back at the end of the da. He remembered that he might have the answer to getting everything home if he could locate the right person. Which he should be able to, he was speaking for classes in his department.
Even as much as had changed in the time Spencer had been away from the campus, CalTech felt the same and smelled the same and pretty much sounded the same. Spencer noted that that morning air felt the same as well.
He had a love-hate relationship with large mass public speaking. By the time he was 14 he was fine in front of a classroom. Graduate student tends to equal teaching at some point, whether lab assistants or actual classes, and people tended to forget he had Master's degrees in everything he had PhDs in…that's how it worked. For his math degree he'd been a student teacher until he'd come here and never had to be all alone in front of the classroom, but for both engineering and chemistry he'd been those lab teachers even before CalTech. Oddly enough, most students managed once they got used to their lab teacher being so young, but those same students threw fits the few times he taught an actual class. Here he'd done a lot of on-line teaching as well and running online courses didn't make anyone question his right to be in charge. He didn't like on-line classes though, they just lacked in dynamic and in the quality of work. Here he also had done undergrad classes and lectures. It was the lectures he'd hated.
The nine o'clock lecture was the first of the two lectures done with the LA office FBI guy, who looked less like an agent than Spencer did. He looked like he belonged out on a surf board. They were going to be the worst examples of proper haircuts. The man's blond hair was rather long and he had a lock of hair that flopped over his blue eyes. He was wearing a suit, though.
The man had a laugh himself when he saw Spencer.
"Agent Reid?" The blond asked. Reid smiled and waved. "I'm Agent Patterson."
Spencer nodded. "You have a plan?" he asked.
"Well, I've been told you are the special guest today. I heard you got your degree here."
"Oh, um…two of them." Spencer said.
"Masters?" Agent Paterson asked.
"No, PhDs in Mathematics and Chemistry. My PhD in Engineering is from MIT but I started it here and the projects that earned it were a joint endeavor."
"PhDs, huh? I've got a masters in criminology from UCLA."
Spencer smiled. "Great, however I might not mention where it's from, although UCLA isn't the main rival so you'll be unlikely to be lynched if you accidentally do."
Agent Paterson laughed. "I'm feeling better already."
Spencer raised his eyebrows at the guy.
"You aren't acting all stuffy. You don't act like someone with three PhDs."
"Oh. I do sometimes, I'm told…and I ramble." Spencer said.
"More like the absent-minded-professor lot than the I'm-smarter-than-you lot, then?"
Spencer laughed. "I can live with that. How about you introduce yourself and the topic, and then hand it over when you've reached an area you want to hand over?"
"What do you actually do? I think all I was told was that you were out of Quantico and you had gone to school here."
"I work with the BAU."
"Behavior Analysis Unit? Awesome. Do you want to take the part about the academy? You look like you've been through it more recently than I have."
"I could, but I bet you went through since I did. I entered at 21, started with the BAU at 22. Yes, I was too young, but the upper echelons gave special permission."
"Good Lord, I must be walking with Bureau royalty. Shall I bow, your Highness?" Agent Paterson said in a teasing voice, with a huge smile on his face.
Spencer laughed. "I like you. This is going to be a good day."
"Mostly get people who are mad and nasty about it, huh?" Agent Paterson asked.
Spencer nodded.
"Well then, I'll do the academy, what other units have you worked with?"
"None for long, but we've worked alongside white collar and exploited persons, human trafficking and crimes against children."
"Enough to give an overview?"
"Certainly."
"Good. You'll overview those and your job, I'll cover Indian Affairs and whatever else I feel like."
"Do you do a lot dealing with international waters issues here?"
"We do, that would be good to mention."
"I'd be interested in hearing about it, too."
Agent Paterson smiled. "So you went to school here? You surf?"
Spencer started laughing. "I was aged 14 to 18, I was too gangly to surf well. Picture Bambi trying to surf, even better Bambi on ice trying to surf."
The agents were both laughing when student started filling the auditorium for their lecture.
Their first lecture went well, and their second lecture (eleven to noon) was a joint lecture with LAPD and the Pasadena PD, firemen, EMTs, Coast Guard, Search and Rescue and other emergency providers. It ended up a two part lecture, one on 'what skills we need and why you should put your skills to use with us' and the second on 'helping when we call for aid', an hour apart (one to two). Spencer hadn't had the second part in his list of lectures to give, but was asked to remain with them and give a spiel about helping in emergencies. Miraculously, the LAPD detective speaking at CalTech was also one who'd worked on the case they'd wanted the consult on and Spencer was able to directly go over it with him. Two phone calls later to flesh out details (it dealt with harassment bombs which were getting more powerful so first they called Morgan and then Garcia), and the LAPD detective was on the phone having his partners making an arrest. That was over lunch. The Pasadena PD officer asked if Spencer was willing to look at two of their cases and Spencer agreed as long as he was willing to wait when time for came for Spencer's two thirty lecture. The officer's partner was there with two cold cases and one current by the time two rolled around.
"We know there is a pattern here, we just haven't been able to see it." The partner told Spencer.
Spencer looked at the current case and asked for a map. They laid out the home invasion sites, the sites with injuries, and the sites items had shown up.
"Did you map it out at the office?" Spencer asked.
"Not like that."
Spencer then marked times, items taken and ones that showed back up in pawn shops. "Have you considered more than one individual?"
"With the same MO?" The officer that had lectured with Spencer asked.
"But they don't quite have the same MO, there are little differences." Spencer said. "It's almost like they were taking a class and following the directions given by a teacher, but their own selves show up in some things."
"Oh My God!" the other officer said. He then drew in schools – high schools and continuing education centers- on the map.
Spencer smiled.
"Does that always help?" The officer asked.
"I find it helps. I usually use different colors and types of pins."
Spencer looked at the clock.
"I have a lecture to give to a mathematics class about now, during the second half of the class and one about a half hour after that to give to a chemistry class. If you want to stay we could go over these cases during that half hour, or I could look at them and bring them to you tomorrow," Spencer said.
"You wouldn't mind spending more time on them? I mean, I just figured you'd only be able to give them a quick go over but it would have been worth that for even some other ideas," the officer said.
"I don't mind. Part of being here is to be available for consults, although apparently only LAPD got that memo."
"Keep them, those are copies. Do you know where the main station is?"
"I do."
"Ask for Officer Reynolds. Both of us are headed up north tomorrow to a training seminar. I bet we learned more today than we will tomorrow, though."
Spencer tucked the files into his satchel and headed to the mathematics class. It was a primarily a freshman man class, although for the lecture part the teacher had opened it for others to come and listen. It was crowded when Spencer entered.
"I'm not late!" He said as he slipped in through the back of the room.
"Spencer!" The professor shouted. "I mean, Dr. Reid, so glad you could make it."
The class giggled.
"Reuben, I am sure the first greeting was more what your class was expecting." Spencer said. "I was just happy you shouted Spencer and not something else."
Most those in attendance nodded and laughed.
Spencer started his lecture, on the use of mathematics in various real life occupations other than the obvious ("No, Spencer…please mention the obvious as well!" Reuben yelled from the side. "Too many of them are blonds!"). He spoke of its use in the FBI, and then stated obvious uses in engineering and sciences, since Reuben insisted. He spoke of its use in medicine and education. In store management and even as a sales person. In running businesses, in tourism and in wild life management. Finally he asked the class to try to think of any profession which didn't use some sort of math.
Each shout-out was responded to by himself or others in the classroom, with the poor boy who shouted out parent being pelted with crumpled up paper. Then Spencer spent the last of the time talking about how he used mathematics in his particular job. The time flew by and Spencer spent fifteen more minutes talking to students who had stayed behind.
Reuben was waiting.
"Time for dinner tonight?" he asked Spencer.
"My chemistry lecture is from 3:30 to 4, figure ten minutes after that till I'm free and then I've lectures from 5 to 9."
"The auditorium?"
"For the lectures? Yeah. I'm presenting the findings from those projects and papers I did with Roxie."
"How about a picnic style meal in front of the auditorium at about four fifteen?"
"That would be great, Reuben! By the way, do you still have that old set of luggage from when I lived here?" Spencer asked.
"The green paint splattered ones?"
"Yes, those." Spencer smiled.
"I do. I can bring them with me to dinner."
"I'll need a ride back to Anaheim if you do."
"Anaheim? Why are you staying out there?"
"It's been a working vacation, and today was my work day. Spent all week in Disneyland with a nearly seven year old, in fact he is seven today."
"Someone you want to tell me about?"
Spencer turned red. "No, but it's a long story."
"I'll stick around for your lecture tonight and you can tell me it when you're not speaking."
"I'll have to set it up with Roxie beforehand to do a kid check anyway."
"You're doing the checking up while you're away?"
"I told you, it's a long story."
Reuben ruffled Spencer's hair. "I can't believe the FBI lets you get away with those locks."
Spencer smiled at him. "I know. Isn't it great?"
"Getting going, young grasshopper, before you are late!" Reuben said as he steered Spencer out the door. Spencer waved and took off at a jog to make it to the next location.
The Chemistry lecture was more about forensics, with a bit about how he'd used it and Spencer explaining that by his PhD, he'd also taken an interest in Bio-Chemistry and that had grown with his later degree in Psychology and in that form he used his chemistry background a lot. There weren't as many students who stayed to talk to him, nor was he good friends with the professor of the class, so he was out and back to the auditorium before Reuben had made it back, though not by much.
"What did you bring?" Reid asked, looking at the large brown paper sack.
"Calisto heard you were here and called me."
"Old James's Sandwich shop still there?"
"Mostly. He sold to Calisto and Calliope when he decided to retire. Calisto kept that shop from going under and in fact kept him making money the whole run, so he said he felt good letting it go to her," Reuben explain, as he pulled out food.
Reid beamed. "It even smells perfect, just like I remember."
"Your seafood bake sub and a pound of steak fries. The version you eat is now called a spiced all-in seafood bake, and of course yours is on toasted garlic bread with guacamole. Calliope included four little plastic containers of Garlic butter, still hot, and three larger ones of that Turkish Ketchup you loved so much, which she now imports by the truckloads."
"There's different versions of the sandwich?" Reid asked, pulling open the box of fries and smothering them in the garlic butter, before shutting the box top again.
"Yeah, she makes one without the horseradish in the cheese sauce and then a version with just crab and shrimp, which is less expensive and appeals to college kids on a tight budget."
Reid unwrapped his sandwich and just smelled it for a moment. He could see the lobster, scallops, crab, shrimp, onions and mushrooms in all their creamy cheese melting goodness under thin sliced tomatoes and avocados. He looked to his bread and saw the thick layer of guacamole.
The first bite had him moaning and fluttering his eyes in delight. "There is no where I've had anything that even comes close to this. It is still heavenly."
"They have added the best cheese steaks, Phiily style, and have kept Old James's build your perfect sandwich system going. They serve soups and have a fabulous baked potato bar."
"Cool. It's nice when you can see other successful people you pretty much grew up with."
"How old was Calisto when Old James got her off the street?" Reuben asked.
"She said she was 18, but I'm pretty certain she was just turned 16. She had been living in the storage shed behind the old science building. I think her Mom must have died and she was running from an abusive dad, from things she'd said."
"Yeah, well you did a good thing that day talking her into walking a poor defenseless boy to the local sandwich shop to get his lunch, so no one would take his lunch money."
"Hey, I was a great actor that year." Reid said, smiling. He checked his fries and found the butter had soaked in. Moaning was heard as Reid started in on the fries as well. Not much other than moaning was heard until Reid shut the lib on the empty fry box, with all his other trash inside. Reuben tucked it into paper bag. "I'll take it over to the recycle bins after your lectures start. How on earth are you still so skinny?"
"Same old reason."
"You skip meals more than not?" Reuben asked.
"No, well some, but…"
"Spencer, if Jocelyn hadn't taken me to task to look after you better that second year you were here, you'd have died of starvation. I still can't believe no one kept track of you better after Evens finished his masters and went back east to do that internship."
"I didn't die of starvation, I didn't blow myself up, I didn't work myself to death, and I didn't go insane from shoving too much knowledge into my brain at once."
"You suffered from Migraines for four months until Jocelyn took over and made you spend a whole month doing nothing but watching movies, getting fresh air, and pretending you were a normal sixteen year old whose parents gave him everything."
Spencer cocked his head sideways and then snorted. "I remember that now. I'd blocked it from memory. Elvis or Beach Party movies all day long for like a week straight. Then hiking and beach combing and swimming. She almost made me go to summer camp! And all those skills. It worked pretty good though and people kept their eyes on me after than again. I kind of missed my almost two years of immersion in studies and studies alone. Hmm….I wonder if the same method would work now?"
"Migraines again?"
"Yeah. My response was not one of my stellar moments either. I flipped out when they said they couldn't find anything physically wrong, panicked myself about ended up like my mom, and ignored them. Finally I had one doctor who just looked at me and said 'Stop making it worse by making yourself even more stressed.' Now I'm just trying to figure out how to reduce my stress."
"I could let Jocelyn get hold of you again."
"I like Jocelyn, have adored her since then. Remember when we learned to can?" Reid asked.
"Remember when you learned to quilt? I've got that huge quilt you made in the bigger of the suitcases and the quilt you made Grandma Ruthie and the Jocelyn made you quilt which is in there as well. You'll melt when you get out that quilt. I apologize for the colors; she based it around the owl fabric. It's made out of that super soft fleece stuff. I have one in my office."
Spencer smiled. "I often wondered about that quilt. I'm glad the one I made Grandma Ruthie is coming back to me, will be a physical memory of that remarkable lady. I was very sad to hear about her death."
"She was one hundred and three years old, and two days before she died she'd finished the final performance of the old people's home's rendition of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. She played Millie. That was about the funniest thing I'd ever seen. They skipped the dancing, of course, except when they do the minuet. She just went to bed one night and didn't wake up."
"About the best way to end, I think. Live a full life, still have family around you whenever you want and sometimes when you don't, be active and aware the whole time and go in peace."
"Exactly. Oh, and she left instructions on how to mourn her. She gave us a day for the pulling out of hair and gnashing of teeth and wailing our sorrow unto the skies, then we were only allowed to think of the good things and of the fun we had. She threatened to come back and haunt us if we didn't listen."
Spencer laughed. "A spitfire till the end."
"You'd better be off. I can see you're going to have a full house tonight." Reuben said, looking at his watch and the people entering the auditorium.
"I doubt it." Spencer said. "I did mention it this morning though, when all the emergency personnel were here for that second set of lecture I did this morning, so we might have a few more than I expected."
"What are the topics?"
"Sexual identity repression and criminal intentions and the Bio-Chemistry involved in sexual identity repression." Spencer replied.
"I bet you have a bigger crowd than you imagined. When Roxie takes a turn to speak, come join me in the left wing and we'll talk."
Spencer nodded as he gathered his stuff and got ready to go in to start his lectures.
"I have to make calls though, too. One at five-thirty and then every hour on the hour."
Roxie was waiting for Spencer. Roxie always made Spencer stop and look and think. He thought Roxie was a she, but he wouldn't be willing to place bets and he was one willing to play the odds most of the time. Roxie's voice was smooth, but neither very masculine nor feminine. Then Reid would remind himself that it didn't matter, because Roxie was brilliant and very enjoyable to research with. Roxie had keen insights and great people skills.
"Roxie, have your outline?" Reid asked.
"I do. You start and layout the basic findings, then I'll take what we think it means in simple terms, and then we'll do a question and answer time and close up."
"I have to make a call at five-thirty and calls on the hour till nine."
"Sounds good. You'll just have to make sure you are done with your part before five-thirty. Ready to go?"
Spencer went on stage and started the lecture. There was a much larger crowd than he'd been expecting. He saw several uniformed officers, and surprisingly several doctors and nurses still in their scrubs. More importantly to him, though, was that people looked interested and were taking notes. He finished setting forth the paper and research in twenty seven minutes and 45 seconds and introduced Roxie, who took it from there.
Spencer exited to the left wing, where he saw Reuben. He waved. He moved a little further away and the pulled out his cell phone and called Beth.
"What do you want?" A voice hissed from the other end of the call.
"I'd like to talk to Jack, wanted to ask his opinion on something."
"Fine. If you insist. Jack, the phone is for you."
"Hello?" Jack's voice said softly.
"Hey, Jack. It's me, Spencer. How are you?"
"I'm Okay. We're at Disneyland. We're going to watch the Mr. Lincoln thing."
"Good, I wanted to ask what colors you think Garcia would like for a quilt and colors for your Aunt Jessica and you and Henry. You think about it and I'll call in a half hour and you can tell me them. Sound good?"
"Sounds great. Do you think you can come see me when you get back?"
"Sure I can. I'll come whenever you want me to as soon as I can."
"Maybe we could have dessert like last night."
"Sounds like a plan. Do you want to give the phone back to Beth?"
Spencer heard Jack given the phone back. "Beth I'll be call…." He railed off when he realized the phone had been hung up.
"She hung up on me."
Reuben was sitting there with a questioning look on his face.
"So, when CalTech heard the FBI was doing its recruiting seminars/lectures whatevers in the area, they realized it could be just what was needed to get me down here and finally be able to present these papers with Roxie and lecture on them. I mean we managed a presentation right after they'd been published, but it was very much a press release type thing, not a real presentation. Thus, CalTech asked specifically for me. I don't know if you know but there is a huge law enforcement conference going on this weekend as well, and my boss, the BAU unit chief, was specifically invited to speak at the opening dinner of that, which was last night."
"And?" Reuben asked when Spencer paused for a moment.
"But, although other schools could get their date picked nearly the same, that date was Tuesday, except UCLA's main campus, which was also tonight. The other schools asked for Hotch, my boss, and so he needed to be down here Tuesday but stay till tonight."
"Got it that far."
"Well, our tech girl…Garcia, she figured that cost wise it would be better for both of us to fly down and stay. She further made it cost efficient by offering our consulting services. We brought some that had been sent our way with us from Quantico and then have been doing one or two a day during the week. That still left loads of down time."
Reuben was twiddling his thumbs, which had been their non-verbal signal since Spencer was 14 for him to get to the point.
"We were in California, LA area, with lots of downtime between us. Hotch has a little boy who doesn't get to spend a whole lot of time with his dad because we do get called out and about all the time. So…a working vacation was born. To Disneyland. By the time the idea was hours old, it had gone from Hotch and Jack going to Hotch and Jack and his girlfriend who insists she wants to be more and me as back-up. The plan? A fun time for Hotch to spend with Jack and time for Beth and Jack to get to know each other and yeah…"
"And?"
"We flew in last Sunday and even though Jack was supposed to only be my charge yesterday, he was my charge all day Tuesday, all day yesterday and about a third of Wednesday, which was supposed to have been his day with his dad. We were all together on Monday, but even then often Jack was pushed off to me."
"Ah, issues with the girlfriend?"
Spencer cocked his head to the side. "How'd you know?"
Reuben chuckled. 'Momma Laura is my step mom. My mom died when I was …oh, probably about three. Rebecca was a baby and Hannah was five or six. We almost ended up with a different step mom. She was a nice lady, doted on my dad and on the outside it was everything people looking in could want for him. Grandma Ruthie hated her. The whole time they were seeing each other she never once took an initiative with us kids, though. When my dad couldn't get her and us to mesh together, he told her that it wouldn't work. She threw a good tantrum, but left. A year later, Dad met Momma Laura. She was interested in being involved in the whole family and thus we loved her. She was a mother to us from before her and dad got married, willing to step in for the man she loved. All the kids younger than Rebecca are Dad's and Laura's, but us older three never once felt like she didn't think of us as hers as well."
Spencer sighed. "That is what I want for Jack. Or even no one else yet. Hotch was happy with just him and Jack. They are still fixing their own relationship after the strain his first wife put on it. I just don't know how to convince his dad of that, or that Beth is the wrong woman."
"Spencer, even Momma Ruthie couldn't get my dad to realize the issue until he had to face it himself. Your boss, it will be the same way. He'll have to come to the conclusions himself."
"She's mean to Jack. She threatened him, Reuben. She wanted to lock him in the hotel room all alone so her and his dad could go out."
"That's not good."
"And we had to leave him with her tonight because we both have to work."
"Hence the calls?"
Spencer nodded. "I don't know if Hotch warned her we would be calling or not, but we're calling very half hour and making sure we can talk to Jack and he sounds ok."
"That is the best you can do, but remember I'm here if you need me to go get him or something."
Spencer smiled. "Thanks." He looked at his watch and decided it was near enough six to call, only about two minutes off. "I'm going to go make my next call now."
Reuben nodded and waved Spencer off and Spencer dialed the phone.
"You again? Here's Jack."
"Hey Spencer. I think Auntie Penny would like pinks and purples. Aunt Jess liked sunshine colors or sunset colors. Henry would like blue and red and I'd like blue and green."
"Good choices. You having fun?"
"I don't know what we're doing now. This park closes early for the Halloween party."
"The other park is open until ten."
"I know. I miss you, Spencer."
"I miss you too. How are you, Jack?"
"…"
"Will you tell me about it later?"
"Yeah. I guess. You are coming see me later, right? Dessert together like last night, right?"
"You bet. Remember? I'll be there whenever you need me as fast as I can get there."
"Really?"
"Really."
"All right, here's Beth. She wants her phone." Spencer heard the phone being passed.
"Honestly, is this really necessary?"
"I needed to ask Jack a question that I wanted him to think about and then I needed the answer to that question. The person I need to get the answer to is here for this lecture, but I don't know if they planned to stay for the next. Hence, calling now. Furthermore I need to be back on stage in about five."
"Fine." Spencer heard the click as she disconnected the call.
Spencer turned to Reuben. "Garcia likes pinks and purples, Aunt Jess likes sunshine or sunset colors, my godson Henry like reds and blues and Jack likes blues and greens. I'd like to commission Jocelyn to make some of those quilts like the one you described."
"You know she'd love to do so. Also, you know I'm here, don't you. If you need me to I'll find some way to go get him for you. Now go get ready to play the question and answer game. Just think, odds are you won't hear 'Do you carry a gun?' tonight."
Spencer smiled. "How much?"
"Ice scream afterwards, we can go get the kid first."
"You're on. I hear it you pay, I don't and I'll pay. Want to invite Jocelyn?"
"Kid, the reasons she's not here is because she is chaperoning a dance at Harland's High School. I got out of it because of you. I could almost kiss you for that."
"Please no!"
"I see Roxie heading to the side of the stage; you'd better get out there."
Spencer went out and helped Roxie through the question and answer session. He was pretty impressed with the types of questions asked from not only the law enforcement contingency but also the medical professionals and the general population. The only sour note was a religious man, who got up and tried to condemn them for saying that sexual identity repression was harmful, but there was only the one and it wasn't that bad and he wasn't even threatening violence. After the questions were done there was about twenty minutes before the next lecture and Roxie and Reid got to meet two of the teams of people trying to replicate their studies. That was a thrill for Spencer, as well, as usually he never got to put faces with the names of people who were working on the concepts he'd come up with or validating his studies.
Just before seven, Spencer excused himself and Reuben, who'd joined them while they did their meet and greet, followed.
"Hmm….I need an excuse to call. She was irate last time."
"Call to ask if you can bring a friend to dessert." Reuben said.
"Perfect. Besides, then he'd know I was bringing a friend and not be surprised."
Spencer dialed and Beth picked up in a snit.
"What?!"
"Can I talk to Jack?"
"What do you want this time?"
"I wanted to ask Jack if he minds that a friend of mine comes and eats dessert with us."
"I don't think I'm allowing Jack to eat dessert with you."
"Well then I'll just call Aaron and ask him, now may I talk to Jack?"
"I don't think I want you to talk to Jack."
"I think you need to let me talk to Jack now."
"I don't think I need to."
"Are you sure you won't let me talk to Jack?"
"I'm not letting you talk to Jack."
"All right then."
"I don't think you should call Aaron, either."
"Really?"
"Yes, he's much too busy to talk to you."
"May I speak with Jack?"
"No." The phone went dead.
Aaron was dialed the moment it went dead and he picked up within second.
"Yes Reid?"
"She wouldn't let me speak with Jack. So I'm calling you to ask if Jack can join me and a friend for dessert tonight. May he?"
"He may. What do you want to do about the other?"
"My friend could go get him if he needed to. I thought of having Garcia call though, and getting her to keep Jack on the phone for a while."
"If she could keep him on the phone till it was time for my call that would be good. And then you call again at eight?"
"I'll leave my phone with Reuben and if Garcia needed us, Reuben could take the call."
"Now who is Reuben?"
"Reuben was my…well mentor, I guess? He was in charge of keeping track of me and such here when I was still under aged."
"You mean the whole time?"
"Well, yeah. He and his wife did a decent job."
"The poor folks."
"Hey!"
"Go call Garcia."
Hotch hung up and Spencer had Garcia on the phone just seconds after that.
"Reid, what are you doing calling me baby boy, you're supposed to be lecturing!"
"It will just start late, it will be fine. Beth wouldn't let me talk to Jack when I just called. Hotch agreed that you should call and then talk to him for a while. I'm going to give my phone to my friend Reuben, if you can't talk to Jack or something is wrong, call. Reuben can then come get hold of me and I'll let Roxie do some extra talking while we figure things out. Hotch will call Beth and Jack at 7:30 so be off before that. Maybe text him when you're done talking to Jack."
"Can do baby boy. You go knock everyone's socks off with your brilliance. Over and Out."
Spencer gave his phone an amused look.
"Reuben, here is my phone. Our tech girl, Garcia is supposed to call Jack and talk with him. If she can't talk to him, she'll call back. Come get me for the discussion if that happens."
Reuben nodded and headed to the lobby area and Spencer headed to the stage. They split the presentation up just like they had for the first lecture. Spencer presented the paper in all its technical glory. Twenty minutes into the presentation he saw Reuben waving at him from the back. He pointed that out to Roxie and turned the time over.
"Your friend is on the phone and she is not happy." Reuben informed Spencer as he exited the back doors.
"Shit!"
"Baby Boy, I heard that. That is not language you are allowed to use!" Spencer heard yelled from his phone. "Now put me on speaker phone!"
Spencer took his phone and put it into speaker phone mode.
"She wouldn't let me speak to him either. Gave me some run around about first him being in the bathroom and then him taking a bath. However, I don't think she was in the room with him. Reid, every sound in the background sounded like it was coming from some new age retreat. I heard humming!"
"Did you just get off the phone with her?"
"No, I texted Hotch first. He said he'd call as soon as he could get to a pausing place. He wanted me to get hold of you and set what you could do."
"How long were you on the phone with her?"
"I tried to talk to her for maybe thirteen minutes. She wasn't interested in answering any of my questions, by the way. Oh and when I asked about Beth and Jack day she told me about what a little monster he was, not listening to her and being rude to her, whining and begging for things, but of course couldn't give me specifics about any of it. I did get a five minute rant about how stupid it was of me to send cameras."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Personally, I thought it was brilliant."
"What can you do Reid?"
"I am supposed to take questions, but I could limit mine and explain I had to leave early. Or I could go speak to Roxie right now and see if I could just head out now."
"I think it would be best to let Hotch try his call and then be ready if need be," Garcia said.
"Let me get things on my end ready to leave at a moment's notice. Then if I can stay, I'll stay, if not, I can go."
"Off to it baby boy."
"Garcia, we're on speaker phone!"
"Live with it. I'm out, sending texts to our leader."
Spencer took his phone and ended the call.
"She reminds me of Grandma Ruthie." Reuben said.
Spencer laughed. "I'll go see if I can't get Roxie's attention. See if I can get myself out of here before eight."
Roxie was just finishing up Roxie's basic introduction when Spencer re-entered the auditorium. Spencer waved from off to the side and Roxie declared a two minute break for water and stretching. He explained that he might need to leave quickly but he didn't want to leave it all to Roxie. They decided on a present and the immediate question session on the each section of the paper and Spencer could take the first sections, with Roxie simplifying his explanations if needed. By seven thirty, when Hotch was supposed to make his call, Spencer had covered half the paper and Roxie told him to go if he needed to go.
At seven forty Rueben waved from the back and Spencer excused himself, offering to answer any extra questions if they were emailed to the email at the end of the paper.
"You're boss called and asked me to take you back to the hotel and find out where his son is." Reuben said.
"Let's go then."
"Your Garcia said she'd be calling soon." Reuben handed Spencer his phone back.
Reuben led Spencer to his car, called his wife to tell her he was taking Spencer back to Anaheim and would be back later and she insisted they needed to drive by the house first, since she hadn't left yet.
She came out, with paper plates full of cookies and a kiss for Spencer's cheek, and orders to come a visit when he was back in February, if not earlier. She also asked what sized blankets he wanted (bed sized -adult beds for the girls and twin beds for the boys) and informed him he'd have them by Christmas, and told him he was to call her if he wanted more done.
Garcia called as they were pulling out of the driveway.
"Put me on speaker baby boy." She said and then waited to continue until she had the confirmation of being n speaker.
"All right, Hotch said as far as he could get out of Beth, they are at the hotel. She wasn't up for any more of the parks. She told him the same thing, that Jack was in his bath and that she'd have Jack call him back after he finished his bath and eaten his dinner. Except she said she'd fed him earlier at the park when he called the first time. He couldn't convince her to even have Jack yell to him from the bathroom, though. Hotch wanted to know if you had the papers that allowed you temporary guardianship with you."
"I do. Where does he want me to go first?"
"To their rooms, if there isn't an answer to a knock on the door and you shouting, he said to ask about child-care services at the front desk. His lecture looks like it will be done early as well, by the way, but not for at least forty minutes."
"And then?" Spencer asked.
"Dessert, just like you said. Hotel restaurant preferably."
"Got it. Thanks Garcia."
"Not a problem, my junior G-man. I'm just sorry. I thought this evening would work out and now you have to leave your presentation."
"Roxie will be fine and it will be fine. The more attended presentation was first anyway. By the way, you willing to run some things for me tonight for a few cold case consults for the Pasadena PD. We got some ideas for their current case but they left cold case files to be looked at. At first glance one I think needs to be traced opposite of what they did."
"What do you mean?"
"Usually you follow the money trail? I think we'll find the answer in following where the money didn't go."
"Ah, all right, when you get somewhere you can get me names and such I'll start on that. I'm not going home until I know my baby G-Man is safe, sound and happy and has talked to his Auntie Penny for a while."
"Of course. Do you at least have company?"
"I do, actually. The rest the team, minus Rossi who had some formal function to go to tonight that the FBI head honchos and his publisher wanted him to attend, is here trying to solve a case of serial assaults in DC. They are working from here because somehow someone - and I do not know who- managed to offend the PD's secretary who has then gone on to make everyone miserable when they are at the PD."
"Ha! It's not always my fault!"
"Make sure to rub that in when you get back, too."
"Will do. I'd better go, Garcia."
"Call me when you have my Jack Jack."
"Will do."
"And Mr. Reuben sir, it's been lovely meeting you! You do need to tell me how you know my baby boy the next time we talk!"
"My pleasure, Miss Garcia."
"Call me!"
The call disconnected and Spencer shut the phone.
"It won't be much longer, Spencer. Things will be fine."
Spencer didn't look convinced and Reuben focused on driving and trying to get Spencer to fret less.