Hi my lovelies!

I am SO sorry I've kept you waiting so long! But life got in the way and first I didn't have the time to write and then I had a major case of writer's block.

My lovely beta and friend sunset's last lullaby deserves a big thank you for helping me get rid of it! Which definitely made up for the fact that she turned me into another Supernatural fangirl which kind of distracted me from writing for a day or two, haha. ;-)

If you're a fan of that show you should check out her story "That One Summer"!

Also, thank you for all your lovely reviews, I can't believe we've reached 400! I am so grateful to all of you!

So here's another chapter for you!

xoxo

ReidsGirl

As always, I don't own Criminal Minds or any of the character's except for my OC's!

Chapter 37

"So I'll meet Penelope for my final fitting this afternoon." Annie smiled as she walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to get some orange juice.

"Mhm." Spencer nodded absent-mindedly as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"Everything alright with you? You've been kind of quiet lately." Annie furrowed her brows.

Spence had always had his moments where he was deep in thought. But while it was usually something she found incredibly cute, his behaviour over the past couple of days had her slightly worried. The wedding was less than a week away and sometimes she almost feared he might be getting cold feet.

She shook her head, berating herself for even having those thoughts. He might have been quiet lately but she knew he loved her and wanted to get married just as much as she did. He was probably just nervous about being the center of attention on their special day. And her pregnancy hormones were getting the better of her, making things seem more dramatic than they really were.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Spencer grumbled, opening another one of the bottom kitchen cabinets, obviously looking for something.

Annie poured herself a glass of juice and turned around again when he let out a frustrated huff.

"Where is that damn sugar?"

Her brows furrowed again at the tone of anger in his voice and the fact that he was swearing, which he almost never did. "It should be in there." she kneeled down to look inside the cabinet herself.

"Well it's not, it's not in any of these." he grunted.

"Hm." Annie stood up again and began opening the upper cabinets. "Oh, there it is. Must have put it there by mistake." she chuckled as she reached up. "Sorry honey." she smiled and bent down to place a kiss on his head.

"Well, next time I'd appreciate it if you could put it where I can actually reach it." he huffed again. "And not make me feel like a damn baby when you have to get it for me." he mumbled under his breath as he heaped another spoonfull of the sweet substance into his steaming mug.

Annie stopped in her tracks and looked at him. "Excuse me? It's not like I did it on purpose. There's really no need to snap at me like that."

"Whatever."

"Whatever?" Annie's eyes widened. "That's all you're going to say?"

"Yes." Spencer grumbled and put his mug on the counter with a thud. "Morgan's gonna be here any minute to pick me up for physical therapy."

And with that he left the kitchen, leaving Annie to stare after him, completely at a loss for words. Something was definitely up with him, he had never behaved like that. For a moment tears stung in her eyes but she swallowed them back as the hurt was replaced by anger. There was no way she would let him leave without getting him to tell her what the hell was wrong with him.

Talking a final gulp of her orange juice she took a deep breath and stomped after him. If he thought she had been emotional until now, she'd show him just how emotional she could really be.

"Ah, damn it." Spencer cursed under his breath but still loud enough for Steve, one of his physical therapists to hear.

He felt the frustration rise up in him, flushing his face with heat but he forced it away. He looked up briefly to see the older man slightly shake his head before he focused on the floor in front of him again. His hands were gripping the warm wood of the handrail he was holding onto on both sides, his knuckles turning white under the pressure. His teeth clenched together as he took another deep breath through his nose before trying to take another step. Finally his right foot was rising up and forward, his entire body weight now on his other leg and arms. Much too slow for his liking it came down again on the floor and he transferred his weight before having the other foot follow.

He let out the breath he had been holding, relaxing his grip when the wobbling feeling in his legs slowly faded away. At least he had finally gotten to the point where he could stand up and not feel like he'd drop to the floor any second.

"Not bad kiddo." Spencer looked up again and caught sight of Rossi standing by the doorway of the exercise room he had spent countless hours in by now.

"See, that's what I told him." Steve nodded his head to greet the by now familiar visitor. "But he's been in a bad mood since he got here." He looked at his patient again. "Spencer, you need to stop putting yourself under so much pressure. You're doing great and your progress is remarkable. But you can't force your body to do more than it's capable of right now."

Spencer shook his head as his therapist brought him the wheelchair and he lowered himself onto the seat. "But it's not enough."

"It is for today." Steve said and patted his shoulder. "As I said, you're doing very well. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

Spencer watched him leave before turning back to Rossi who frowned at him. "Everything alright with you?"

"Yeah..." he shook his head in contrary to his words.

The older agent watched him for a second before opening his mouth again. "Well if you really don't want to talk about it I respect that but it's obvious you are disappointed you're not making progress as fast as you would like. And while I can guess why that is, it might be good for you to talk about it. You know, from man to man."

Spencer bit his lip, contemplating his friend's words. And cursing the fact that you could never hide anything if your friends were all profilers. But it was true, he was getting frustrated because while he was making progress, it was a slow one. He put all the energy he could find into his training lessons but as much as he willed himself to walk, it was proving to be harder than he had thought. And it annoyed the hell out of him, he hated that his own body betrayed him like that.

Which was why he had blown up this morning. He hadn't meant to fight with Annie but it had happened, his anger and frustration getting the best of him. When he had left the kitchen she had followed him, demanding an explanation but he had refused to give her one, resulting in them yelling at each other until Derek had arrived. He had hated to part with her in the middle of a fight but something had stopped him from opening up to her.

Of course his friend had heard their raised voices through the door and while Morgan usually had the talent for coaxing things out of him, this time he had refused to talk and just stared out of the window in silence. But maybe Rossi was right, maybe he needed to talk.

He swallowed hard before he spoke. "The wedding is only 5 days from now and I'm still nowhere near walking, let alone dancing with Annie." he grumbled, his eyes not meeting Dave's.

Rossi pursed his lips and nodded his head. "And that makes you angry."

"Sure it does." Spencer shot back. "What kind of wedding is it going to be without a first dance?"

"And here I always thought you didn't like to dance." Dave smirked. "Quite the change of mind."

Spencer's head shot up and he glared at Rossi. How dare he make fun of him in a situation like that. But then he noticed the soft look in the older man's eyes and he breathed out heavily.

"I never did..." he admitted. "But now that I can't, it's all I want to do. It's not fair on Annie to rob her of that experience."

Rossi watched him for a couple of moments before he sat down on the bench and leaned back against the wall. "Life tends to be unfair." he said softly. "Often we don't get what we want, however hard we try."

Spencer just nodded his head sadly.

"And often life takes things from us. But sometimes we get more than we ever knew we wanted or needed." Dave stated simply.

The image of Annie entered Spencer's mind immediately and was enough to lift his spirits. He had always cursed his eidetic memory, making it impossible for him to forget all the horrific images he had seen. But since Annie was in his life, things were a bit different. Yes, he still saw blood, death and pain sometimes when he laid down at night and his eyes closed and in those moments he still hated the way his brain worked.

But now all it took was for Annie to press against him softly in her sleep and the grim scenes were replaced by happy memories. The way she had smiled at him the day they met, how she had sent his heart hammering in his chest from the first moment. The look in her eyes just seconds before their first kiss. Her face flushed, her lips swollen from countless kisses and her hair a total mess after they first made love.

And then more recent memories entered his mind. Her happy laugh and the way her eyes sparkled at him when he had asked her to be his wife. That peaceful rising and falling of her chest, her face completely relaxed when she had fallen asleep in front of the TV, her back rested against his chest with his hands on her bump. The way she laughed and placed her hand on her belly every time their little girl delivered another one of her kicks.

And then guilt washed over him when he remembered their fight this morning.

He looked up at Rossi again and when he saw him smile in that wise manner that was so Rossi, he couldn't help but return it.

"You're right, I've got so much more than I could ever have hoped for." he nodded his head. "And Annie doesn't care if I can dance with her or not as long as we get to be married."

"Exactly kid. For a moment there I thought that genius brain of yours was malfunctioning." Dave chuckled. "I'm sure you'll have a beautiful wedding and you both deserve it. But at the end of the day all of that doesn't matter. The dress, the music, the flowers, they're all a nice bonus. What matters is that you two love each other. And you do, a blind man could see that."

"Well, I'm not so sure she loves me right now. We had a fight this morning." Spencer mumbled.

"Let me guess, you were in the same mood you were in when I arrived here and let it out on her?" Dave smirked.

Spencer nodded his head guiltily. "And I shouldn't have left without making up."

"Well you can't change what happened." Rossi smiled. "But what you can do is swing by the cafe with some flowers and an apology." He picked up Spencer's messenger bag from the bench next to him and handed it to his colleague.

"Come on kid, I'll drive you."

"I know, I know, but it's just not like him to snap at me like that." Annie sighed and plomped herself down on a chair in the corner of the cafe.

She had tried to put their fight out of her mind all morning, without much success. A couple of times she had thought about calling him but the cafe had been busy. Besides, she really thought it should be him to call her, not the other way around.

And then Garcia had called her to confirm their meeting this afternoon and she had poured her heart out to her friend. Penelope's first reaction had been to call Spence and "give him a piece of her mind for upsetting his pregnant fiancee".

"Well our Doctor can be quite snappy when he's upset by something." she could now hear Garcia's chuckle through the phone. "But I'm sure he'll come around and apologize honey. If not he'll have to face the wrath of Penelope Garcia."

Annie's lips curled into a small smile. Her smile widened when she looked up and saw Spence and Dave through the large window, the older agent giving Spencer a little nudge towards the door.

"You know Pen, you might be right. I gotta go now, see you later!"

She put her phone down on the table in front of her as Spencer entered the cafe, a bouquet of pink lilies in his lap. Within a few moments he had reached her and the look in his eyes made her want to wrap her arms around him. But she stopped herself, she wouldn't let him off the hook that easily.

"Annie?" his voice was almost a whisper. "Can we talk?"

She bit her lip and nodded, motioning for him to come closer. And then she felt his hand on hers and she couldn't help but squeeze it.

"Annie... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

"No, you shouldn't have." she replied. "And I probably shouldn't have yelled back. But that's not what bothered me the most. What hurt me was the fact that there is or was obviously something bothering you and you didn't tell me. You didn't open up to me, even though we promised each other we would always be honest with each other."

Spencer nodded his head. "You're right. And I don't know why but I couldn't tell you. I think part of me hoped I could still surprise you."

"Surprise me? With what?"

He hesitated for a moment before he explained. "I've been making quite good progress in my physical therapy in the past couple of weeks. And I... I was hoping by the time our wedding day arrived I'd be able to dance with you. But I'm just not there yet." his voice was low again and the tone in it almost broke her heart.

"Spence..." her other hand reached up to stroke his cheek.

"And it frustrated me. I hate that there's still so much I can't do."

"Spence." she bent forward to place a light kiss on his lips. "Of course I would love to dance with you and one day we will. But all that matters to me is that we're together and that in a couple of days you'll be my husband." she couldn't help the grin that spread across her face. "For all I care we could get married right here, right now in front of the coffee machine and it would still make me the happiest woman alive."

A smile spread across Spencer's face and he kissed her back, his thumb gently stroking the palm of her hand. "You know I love you right?"

Annie nodded her head and kissed him again. "And I love you."

Both their heads shot up when they heard someone clear their throat right. A couple of feet away was Rossi, giving them a soft smile.

"I see you've made up." he grinned. "And however happy I am to offer my experienced advice to you young people, it makes this old Italian damn hungry."

Spencer let out a laugh as Rossi winked at them.

"So how about some of your lovely pasta before we get back to work Ms. Barker?"

"For you, always." Annie chuckled.

Spencer's heart skipped a happy beat at her smile and Dave's use of her last name.

And he realized that it really didn't matter if they danced or not. All that mattered was that in a few days she would be Mrs. Spencer Reid.

Sooo, what do you think? Please let me know in a review, they keep me going!

Just a fair warning: It might take me a while to update again, life is quite busy right now but I'll do my best not to keep you waiting too long this time! But the big wedding chapter is coming up and I want to make it perfect for all of you!