Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Grace.
Reid squeezed Grace's hand as they entered the BAU. The pair walked in silence straight to Hotch's office, not even greeting any of their co-workers. Grace swallowed the lump in her throat as the opened the door.
"Sit down." Hotch ordered.
The two young agents did as they were told.
"It's come to my attention that the two of you have become involved." Hotch said.
They just nodded, their hands still clasped together.
"I have no objections." he said, the atmosphere in the room instantly becoming less intense. "However, I expect you both to act professionally while you're here or working a case. If you don't want the team to have to lie to Strauss, don't give them a reason to."
Grace and Reid both sighed in relief.
"Thanks, Hotch." Reid said. "I promise, you've got nothing to worry about."
"Yeah." Grace agreed.
"Alright, Reid we have a case in New Mexico, get your stuff ready, we leave in half an hour." Hotch said. "Ash, you're sitting this one out."
"What? Why?" she demanded.
"If anything happens to make your stitches come out, you could bleed to death. Plus you can't even lift a gun with your shoulder like that. I'm sure Reid will agree that it's much safe for you to stay here."
Reid nodded.
"You'll be staying here to help Garcia." Hotch said.
Grace was excited to spend some quality time with Garcia, but she wasn't sure she could bare to be away from Reid again.
Reid put a hand on her injured shoulder. "It'll be alright." he said, as if he had read her mind.
Grace could feel Hotch looking disapprovingly at them so she broke away.
"Uh.. Hotch?" she said nervously. "Could I have a word with you in private before you leave?"
"Sure."
Grace turned back to Reid. "I'll just be a minute." she said.
He nodded and left the office.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" Hotch asked.
Grace sighed. "I want to apologize to you," she said. "For being such a bitch. I uh.. I have quite the authority complex and I just thought you were a jerk, but uh... Reid told me what uh... what happened. I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry and I'm going to be working harder at doing what you tell me to."
"Thank you, Grace." Hotch said. "I should apologize to you too. I guess I just forget that you aren't as used to the job as the rest of the team." He paused. "I'd like to congratulate you and Reid as well. It's about time he found someone. I just hope you both know the stress this job can put on a relationship."
Reid found Grace sitting in Garcia's office, trying to figure out the whole computer system. She didn't notice him enter the room. He grinned as she cursed at the computer.
"Hey beautiful." he said, touching her back.
She jumped out of her chair.
"Spencer!" she gasped. "Don't scare me like that."
He grabbed her waist and pulled her close to him. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to say goodbye, we're leaving in a few minutes."
Grace grasped his sweater and pressed her face into his chest. "No." she said stubbornly.
"Grace, please don't make this harder than it has to be."
She look up at him with watery eyes. "I'm sorry, Spencer."
He kissed her forehead. "It's OK. I won't be gone long. I'll call you every night, I promise." He cupped her face in his hand and stroked her cheek with his thumb. "Here," he said, letting go of her and taking off his sweater. "Will this help?"
Grace nodded and he helped her put it on.
They held eachother for a moment until they heard the rest of the team leaving.
"I've gotta go, Grace."
"Be careful, Spencer." she said. "If you don't come home in one piece, I'll kill you."
Reid laughed. "Alright. Oh, and don't worry about the computer thing. I've done this before, you just sit there and let Garcia work her magic."
Grace smiled. "Alright. Goodbye."
He kissed her on the lips, awkwardly slipping her a bit of tongue.
"Goodbye, Grace." he said.
She watched him leave, wishing desperately that she could go with him.
"So, it's about time you fill me in." Garcia said.
"On what?" Grace laughed.
"You and Boy Wonder. What's going on?"
Grace sighed. "We're not supposed to tell you anything. That way when Strauss comes down on us, you won't have to lie to her."
"There's something to lie about?"
"Dammit! Why do I always sabotage myself?" Grace sighed, "We're um... kind of official now."
"Grace! Why didn't you tell me sooner? How did it happen? Who asked who?"
Grace sighed again. "Pen, there's something I need to tell you."
"What is it, Grace?"
"You remember the day after my birthday? When I went home early and Spencer came to my house?"
Garcia nodded.
"When he found me, I was about to kill myself."
"Oh my God, Grace, why?"
"I don't even know. It seems so stupid now. I just felt like coming here was a huge mistake, but I had nothing to go home for either. Spencer stopped me. I already told you he kissed me, but I told him I just wanted to be friends."
Garcia nodded attentively.
"Well, he didn't really stick to the 'just friends' thing. He sent me flowers, he spent every night with me. It was great. I started to consider being more than friends. Then when we were looking for my ex, Spencer saw what I meant when I said I didn't want to get hurt again."
Garcia looked at Grace's shoulder and stomach.
"Yeah, I know it's ridiculous to think Spencer would ever do something like this, but abuse is all I've ever known. Anyway, we were in my hotel room, right before Josh got me when I told Spencer that I was ready, I wanted to be with him."
"Awwww... that's adorable."
Morgan laughed. "Hey, check this out." he said to the rest of the team, pointing to the laptop in front of him.
JJ, Prentiss and Reid all looked at the laptop screen. They saw Grace sitting in Garcia's office, spinning around in a chair, singing.
Morgan, JJ and Prentiss all laughed.
"How does she not know the webcam's on?" Morgan asked.
"Hey, Spence," JJ said. "Why is Ash wearing your sweater?"
Reid closed the laptop and went back to his seat.
"Jeez, someone's in a bad mood." Prentiss laughed.
"Yeah, what's up, Spencer?" JJ asked.
"Leave him alone," Morgan said. "He's just upset because he has to spend a couple days away from his girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" Prentiss said. "You mean, you're dating Ash?"
"Spence, why didn't you tell us?" JJ asked him.
"We're supposed to act professionally at work. The less you guys know, the less you'll have to lie when Strauss finds out." he said.
"Reid, this team is like a family, we tell eachother everything." JJ said.
"Sorry," he said. "These last few days have been hard and Grace doesn't really feel accepted by you guys anyway."
"I guess we have been kind of cold toward her." JJ said.
Reid sighed. "She tried to kill herself last week."
The rest of the team looked surprised. Hotch and Rossi over-heard and decided to join the conversation.
"Reid, you should have told us that she's mentally unstable." Hotch said sternly.
"She hasn't talked about it since though." he said. "Hotch, if I saw anything that made me think she was mentally unstable, I would let you know. I'm not careless."
"Love makes people do stupid things." Rossi said.
"And how many times have you been married?" Morgan laughed. He turned his attention back to Reid. "So, is it love, kid?"
"Shouldn't we be reviewing the case?"
They turned on the laptop again and got Garcia and Grace on the webcam so they could begin reviewing the case.
Four children, ages 3, 5, 8 and 12 had been abducted from four separate homes in two consecutive nights, all homes were within a 20-minute drive from eachother. In two days, a finger from each of the children was found in the mail.
"What kind of incomes do the parents of the abducted kids have?" Grace asked. "Is this some kind of ransom thing? I thought that only happened on TV, sending fingers for ransom."
"It's actually more common than you would think" Reid said. He was about to recite some statistic when JJ interrupted him.
"That would make sense if they were all sent to their families, but they're all sent to the same address."
"Give me the address." Garcia said.
"828 Somerset Drive." JJ said.
Garcia typed up a storm and found some information on the address. "Alright," she said. "Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, spacious kitchen, large backyard. One-hundred-eighty-five-thousand dollars."
"It's on the market?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah, and it has been for over a year." Garcia said. "It was a foreclosure."
"Nice economy, Uncle Sam." Grace mumbled.
"Who was the owner before the foreclosure, Garcia?" Hotch asked.
"Tracy Setner." she replied.
"What can you tell me about her?"
"Well, she was divorced, four kids, was a secretary at law firm, but this is where it gets weird, after the foreclosure, there's nothing on Tracy Setner. It's like she just disappeared."
"Did she die?"
"No death certificate."
"Garcia, you'll need to dig deeper. Call us when you find anything."
"Hey, Hotch." Garcia said. "So, get this, Tracy Setner lost her job at the law firm and started drinking. She filed for divorce and got custody of her children, but when she wouldn't stop drinking and lost the house, CPS took the kids away, each of them got sent to a different foster home. She changed her name to Selma Smythe and lives on the other side of town."
"Thanks Garcia, I'll have Morgan and Rossi go talk to her."
As soon as Garcia ended the call, Grace's cell phone began to ring. It was Reid.
"Hey, how's it goin'?" Grace greeted him.
"Well, we're kind of stuck on the profile. There's not much to work with." he said.
"Spencer...?"
"Yeah?"
"Are those kids going to be OK?" Grace asked.
"Statistically-"
"Spencer, I don't give a damn about statistics! These kids are being held hostage and having their digits cut off. Are they going to survive?"
"If we find them soon enough, they still have a chance." he said. "Your first case with kids is always hard."
"Yeah. What kind of sick fucker would do this?"
"That's what we're trying to find out, Grace." Reid said. "I think you should go home and get some rest."
"I won't get any rest. I don't think I can sleep without you beside me."
"Can you try? You're not going to heal as fast if you don't get enough sleep."
"Why should I rest when you guys are all working?"
Reid sighed in frustration. "Please don't be stubborn, Grace."
"Sorry, I just miss you."
"I miss you too. Please get some sleep."
"Alright, be careful out there, Spencer."
"I will." he said. "Goodnight, Grace."
"Goodnight."
When Grace returned home, she found another bouquet of roses sitting on the step in front of her door. She checked the tag.
If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there? - Richard Bach
Grace fell asleep, wrapped in Reid's sweater. It was almost as if he was there with her.
When Grace entered the BAU the next morning, she found another bouquet on her desk. The tag read:
Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires. - Francois de la Rochefoucauld
"Wow, Boy Genius really does love you, doesn't he?" Garcia laughed when she saw the flowers in Grace's hand.
Grace blushed. "I wouldn't say he loves me. It's a bit early for that."
"Nonsense." Garcia laughed. "He's sent you what, like a hundred roses?"
"Forty-nine." Grace corrected her. "So, have they gotten anywhere since last night?"
Garcia lead her friend into her office. "They went to talk to Selma Smythe and she says she changed her name because she was afraid of her ex-husband, Richard Setner. He was charged with assaulting her three years ago."
"So, are they going to talk to him?" Grace asked.
"Well, I can't find an address for him at the moment, but I'm going to keep digging. They want you to call so they can make a profile though."
"Alright, I'm on it." Grace said, rolling across the room in her chair.
She turned on one of the computer screens and could see the entire team.
"Good morning comrades!" she greeted them.
"Garcia's had quite the impact on you, hasn't she?" Morgan laughed.
"Yeah," Grace shrugged. "Or it could be the four cups of coffee and half a bag of sugar I had this morning."
She had picked up some coffee for Reid on her way home the night before, but when she had trouble waking that morning, she decided to have a cup, and then another, and another, and another.
"So, what do you guys have so far?" she asked eagerly.
"Well, the unsub has to be very slim to have abducted those kids. He came in through the wondows." Morgan said.
Grace nodded.
"He also has a lot of rage." Reid added. "He's not cutting the fingers off the children, he's actually ripping them off."
Grace thought she was going to be sick.
"How do we know it's a he?" she asked.
"Men abduct children, women abduct newborns." Reid said. "And a woman isn't likely to rip fingers off of a child."
"So, he hates kids." Grace said. "What makes a person hate kids so much that they would rip their fingers off?"
"Could be someone who was falsely accused of molesting or abusing a child." Prentiss speculated.
"So he's abusing them out of revenge?" Grace thought out loud. "That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't he want to try to maintain his innocence?"
The team was silent for a moment. It looked like maybe they were stumped until Morgan said, "Wait, how many kids did the Setners have?"
"Four." Grace answered.
"So could he be trying to replace the family he lost?" Prentiss said.
"I think we need to be looking at why the unsub is tearing these kids apart." Reid said.
Then it hit Grace like a ton of bricks. "Reid! You're a genius!" she exclaimed.
Morgan laughed. "We knew that already, sweetheart."
"No, I mean. Tearing them apart?" she cried. "He's cutting off their fingers, tearing them apart and mailing them to the house he lived in with his ex wife because he wants to show her how she's torn their family apart!"
"I think Ash just out-smarted you, Reid." Morgan laughed.
Grace laughed too. "Maybe I should drink coffee more often."
"We're going to give the profile now and have someone look into Richard Setner." Prentiss said.
"Alright, peace!" Grace said, shutting off the webcam.
Grace's cell rang a few hours later.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey, Grace." Reid said.
Her heart skipped a beat.
"Thanks for the flowers." she said.
"You're welcome."
She didn't like the tone of his voice. Something was definitely wrong.
"Grace?" he said.
"Yeah?" she said nervously.
Oh dear god, please tell me this is not happening. He is not going to tell me what I think he's going to tell me.
"We talked to Setner, it's definitely not him."
She sighed in relief.
"Why do you sound relieved?" he questioned.
"Oh, I'm not... about that anyway." Grace replied. "So, you're back to square one?"
Reid sighed. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Alright, Garcia and I are going to do some snooping. Oh yeah, don't forget, you owe me a date."
Reid laughed. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten."
"Oh my God, look at this." Garcia gasped.
Grace turned to look at her computer screen.
"Oh shit..." she said. "Call the team. How did we miss this?"
Garcia dialed Morgan's number.
"Hey, Baby Girl." he greeted her.
"Selma Smythe or Tracy Setner, whatever her name is, she has Multiple Personality Disorder!"
"What?"
"Selma Smythe is her alternate personality." Garcia informed him.
"It's not Richard Setner sending the fingers to Tracy Setner," Grace said. "Selma is sending the fingers to Tracy to tell her that she tore their family apart."
It was nearly midnight when the rest of the team got back to Quantico. Grace had waited around for them after she found out they had caught Tracy Setner and rescued all the kids she had abducted. She had done a stack of Reid's paperwork, emptied her email inbox, played solitaire and made the whole team coffee while she waited for them.
Reid ran to Grace's desk and wrapped his arms around her.
"Spencer!" she said in surprise. "Spencer, everyone's watching."
"It's OK," he said, kissing the top of her head. "They know."
Grace blushed, embarrassed that everyone's eyes were on them. The embarrassment couldn't overpower how much she had missed Reid though. She looked up at him then kissed him hard on the lips.
Her tongue entered his mouth and he felt dizzy. When his head cleared, he took control of the kiss, freeing a small moan from behind Grace's lips.
"Way to go, Pretty Boy!" Morgan laughed.
Grace flipped him off and they continued to kiss.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review.
I apologize for the poor quality of these last few chapters. I'm super stressed and sick and I just kind of needed filler until the next big part I have planned. I know that's no excuse, but it's the best I can do.
Oh, I made the most awesome discovery and decision yesterday and I wish I could tell you all, but it would ruin the story. Gah! Frustration!