Chapter twenty-six
JJ
After amending the Hackett case file, a procedure that left her nearly twisting in embarrassment, JJ headed out to start her suspension. Given that it was summer she collected her children from the day-care center, stopped at the market for some supplies, and went home. Once there she gave everyone a snack, settled Sophie down for a nap, settled Henry down in front of some cartoons, and gave her kitchen the good scrubbing she'd been meaning to give it for weeks now. Once everything was as she liked it she settled herself at the kitchen table to confront some hard facts. By the time Spencer showed up with two bags of groceries under his arms the truth was laid out on her table for them both to see, between rent, utilities and child care alone, more than three-quarters of her salary was going to be gone. And then there were trips out of town for reimbursement, and car upkeep, and Sophie was going to need special help along the way and….. "I don't know how I'm going to do this." JJ drooped. Then a sizzling sound and a savory scent caught her attention. "What are you doing?"
Spencer had come in emptied the bags, and started cutting things. Now he was clearly moving on to the next step. "Making dinner," he replied. "I didn't think you would mind."
"I didn't know you knew how to cook." Will had never been much in the kitchen, where he was from men only cooked certain things on special occasions. He could make a mean pot of gumbo, but the day-to-day simple stuff was beyond him.
He shrugged. "I used to have to cook for Mom. I'm not good at anything fancy, but I can do a few things." While he put what looked to be chicken in her largest skillet he came over and looked over her shoulder. "You're only a GS 12?'
"Yeah, what are you?'
"A fourteen."
That might help a lot. "How did you manage…oh, three PhD's." All agents start at a GS 10, they went to a GS 11 upon making Supervisory Special Agent, then to a GS 12 after completing profiler training, but then you went up one for each PhD, with GS 15 and up reserved for actual unit chiefs, like Hotch. Then there was overtime, and a differential for living in the frightfully expensive DC area, but still. "What step are you on?" That was based on time in service and performance, not education and rank.
"Six."
JJ frowned. "I'm a seven, and I joined the FBI a year after you. How did you manage to get behind me?"
"Hankel," he went back to the stove to stir something.
"Oh." Yeah, Hotch probably wouldn't have put him down for a performance based raise that year. "Well, there's no way around it. If we want secure child care we're looking at close to six grand a month." And it had to be secure, in case work decided to follow them home. A college student looking for experience or a place to stay was not going to do. Granted he had already said they were going to be pooling funds. "Do I want to know how much Bennington costs a month?"
"Um, I don't know actually. It's automatically deducted."
JJ blinked at that. "You don't know?" Bennington, from what she had heard, was private and offered high quality care and comfort for their patients. A place like that never came cheap.
"No, here," he wiped off his hands and turned her laptop around. A few moments and he turned it back, with the browser open to a banking page with his account information. "Just take what you need to take care of the children. You know, a child care center isn't really the best set up for Sophie at her age, we might think about a live-in nanny." He went back to the stove to stir as something threatened to boil over.
JJ looked at the amount in the accounts. Then she looked again. Then she counted digits. She turned and looked at the man standing at her stove. He had taken a minute to change when he came in, now he was standing there in worn cords, a shirt fraying around the collar and cuffs, Chucks, glasses and an old dishtowel tucked into his belt as a makeshift apron. She checked the balances again. Nope, nothing had changed. But there was no way she ever would have pegged Dr. Reid for having multi-millions in his bank account. "Spence, where did all this come from?"
"Well, I have my salary direct deposited, and lecture fees, and since I have Mom listed as a dependent I get her SSI and disability every month. And, you know, I like to play poker when I go visit out there." He turned from what he was pounding and grinned. "I have to keep my skills up to beat you guys."
"Yeah, all that would only cover about a quarter of this… maybe."
"Um, yeah, most of that comes from my friend Ben."
"Ben?"
"Ben Silverton, we went to CalTech together, did a joint project for our doctoral thesis. He decided to try to make something of it, his words, and started a company, Lanmark Engineering."
Something clicked for her. "Ah, I remember reading about that in the Times, they went public last year, he and his silent partner made a….." Wait….
"Yeah, that. These days he tends to work with people in the academic field who aren't comfortable with having people know they're profiting off their research, and really aren't comfortable with people in general, so he keeps it all very quiet." Spencer shrugged and reached past her to put bowls of salad and mashed potatoes on the table. "Like I said, take what you need. But I think a live-in might be the easiest, Sophie will do better with consistency until she's older. Although you might think about a bigger place if you go that route."
JJ just blinked at him and turned to a fresh page on the notepad in front of her as the apartment filled with the scent of cooked chicken and green beans. "Okay, live-in nanny, new house…."
It was amazing how quickly you could solve a problem if you had enough money to throw at it.
She'd been suspended on a Monday. On Monday night a quick bit of research had led her to three child care employment agencies that might fit their needs and six houses that met both their criteria for what they wanted. On Tuesday she met with a realtor and one of the agencies, on Wednesday the other two and decided to work with the third. On Thursday she had a more in-depth interview with the agency, and started looking at the houses. On Friday she looked at the last four, and then Spence took off a little early to meet with a lawyer his friend Ben sent over. By Friday night she no longer had to worry about child care, or college educations, or her own retirement.
On Friday night she insisted they watch a movie, something familiar, to give her head a chance to stop spinning.
On Saturday they went and looked at the two finalists for houses so Spencer could provide some input, and chose one. Sunday she took the kids to church while Spencer went to the library, church being the one place he would not go with them, and then they met at the park for a picnic and to watch Henry's softball game. On Monday of the second week of her suspension they started looking at nannies.
By the time JJ came back to work, sending Spencer off on his two weeks of suspension, the family had grown by one. Mrs. Nelson was a retired special education teacher whose husband had died of cancer a few years before. With all her children grown and married she had sold her home to pay his bills and then gone into the live-in nanny world. Before she had been a teacher, though, she had been an Agent. "Back then getting pregnant got you a desk job." She'd told them. "I didn't see the point so I went back for teaching, the hours were better and I do love children." She clearly considered Spencer an odd specimen, already doted on Henry, was fascinated by Sophie, and still had her concealed carry permit. "If someone like one of your UnSubs comes around," She said, "I'll make him work for his trouble."
The new house was a quiet four story brownstone in Georgetown. Mrs. Nelson was going to have the basement apartment, she would have privacy when Spencer and JJ were home, and could easily stay upstairs when they were out of town on a case. The attic was unfinished, pending trying to sort what they wanted to do with it. The remaining two floors gave them three bedrooms, a tidy living space, and a larger kitchen, per Spencer's request. It was also within walking distance of public transportation, his only other criteria. It was in a quiet, safe neighborhood, within easy walking distance of good schools, a market JJ liked and a park. He spent the first week of his suspension moving her and the children and helping Mrs. Nelson get settled. He didn't plan to actually give up his apartment until after the wedding.
He was supposed to be working on that, but on Thursday of his second week JJ discovered the one problem inherent in her new family. She'd actually discovered it the night before, when she'd come back from a case, but she'd only been able to provide a temporary solution this morning. And she knew it was only temporary, that's why she was fuming about it as she came into work. "Hotch!" She called to him to stop him leaving the bull pen. "Okay, I don't care what he does, but the next time Spence gets in trouble suspend me instead."
"You know it doesn't work that way." Hotch said, mildly. "Why do you ask?"
"This is why!" JJ said, pulling a large box out of the shopping bag she'd snuck out that morning.
It was a chemistry set.
The entire team started chuckling. "Now that is a visit from the bomb squad waiting to happen." Morgan pointed out.
"And it's only going to get worse as Henry gets older." JJ replied. "I think I overheard the words 'model rocket' last night. Hotch, I cannot leave the three of them alone."
Hotch just smiled. "You're the one choosing to marry him."
JJ sighed and put it under her desk, planning to take Mrs. Nelson's advice and take it to the forensics lab lab at lunch to be dealt with. She was going to go fill her coffee to start her morning when Rossi came up to her. "JJ I got an interesting phone call already this morning, someone looking for a job referral for DC Metro."
Well that rang some bells. "Let me guess, Will?" Rossi nodded. "I didn't know he was back in the city. We split up fairly peacefully, all things considered, so…do what you think best."
"He was a good cop; I think he'll do well there."
"I agree. Oh, and Rossi…" JJ considered a moment. "Tell him he can call, if he wants."
Later that day her phone rang. "Hey cher."
"Hey Will." She found a quiet corner, figuring on a day in the office everyone would understand. "I didn't know you were back in DC."
"You mad at me about that?"
"No, not at all."
"Good, 'cause I had to come back for Henry's sake. He is my son after all."
"Now you're sure about that?"
"Yeah. I said some stupid mean things there, cher, and I'm sorry."
"That's all right." JJ said, forgiving him. "What we did wasn't right either."
"No, but I get it. I had my heart back home, my backside in DC and my head in a beer bottle. Y'all couldn't trust me to do the right thing, not all that twisted up. Turns out that cultural thing I kept going on about was just an excuse for being an addict. But now I'm clean and I'm gonna make it right."
JJ was stunned. "How did all this happen?"
"I went home to my family, they beat it in to me." Will chuckled. "Kinda literally. But it worked for me. Now I'm trying for this job, gonna see if I can find a meeting to keep on the straight and narrow, once I get it all together I'd like to start seeing Henry again."'
"Absolutely. You're still his father, you're still family, we do not want to come between you two, at all."
"Thank you. Henry told me you two are getting married."
"Yeah, in a few months."
"Well congratulations, cher. He's a good man; he'll be good to you."
"Thank you." She took a deep breath; please don't be mad at me for this Spence, please. "You said you wanted to try to make this right?"
"Sure."
"When you said meeting, did you mean AA?"
He sighed. "Yeah, cher, I did. I admit it."
"Call Spence and tell him that."
"Why?"
"Trust me."