Chapter 38

Spencer quickly realized that holding on to his resolve was probably going to take handcuffs. Maybe epoxy glue. Or they might need to actually discuss going there. Or maybe he needed to start taking those regular bubble baths he hadn't bothered with in over a year. Because he seemed to be the only one at the table that was at all moved by watching Sarai eat breakfast.

He got it, first real food in years, it was understandable. But if she was reacting that intensely to eggs, sausage, waffles and fruit he could only imagine what more…personal activities might feel like. She was giving off these waves of sensual pleasure with each bite and none of the other guys seemed to care. Granted Matt and Dr. Shepherd were over in another discussion with another set of uniforms, but the two guys from her crew were there, and Morgan…no, Morgan noticed. Actually they had all noticed. They were trying not to laugh. "You can go back for seconds, bookworm." Kemom finally told her. "You don't have to lick the plate."

"I might." She said as she licked the syrup from her fork with those delicate flicks of her tongue. "I'm sorry if I've been rude but it's just so good."

No, Morgan was laughing at him.

"Let me guess, seconds?" Yeave asked.

"Please." Sarai replied. The two women got up to go again, followed quickly by the two men.

Thankfully Kemom and Leander still did not know English. "Problems?" Morgan asked when the women were out of earshot.

"Shut up." Of course they weren't picking up on what she was feeling; they just noticed some less than ideal table manners. He was the only one getting the full impact. Great.

Morgan chuckled a moment, but then he sobered. "Do we know if they're staying yet or not?"

Damn it. "No." Spencer admitted. "I'm trying not to think about that." He did not want to picture losing someone else, anyone else, forever ever again.

Once Blake had been cleared to come in she had become the senior member of the Linguistics team. Now one of the interminable meetings had broken up she'd come over to join them. "So it looks like we are officially moving to Stage Three as of today." She said as she sat down.

"Stage Three?" Morgan asked.

"Protocol 3372 was planned to include three to four stages." Spencer replied. "Stage One was when alien visitors were first observed entering the solar system. Stage Two began with their entering Earth orbit and took us through first contact. Stage Three is when we're past first contact and we have enough information to determine what they want and our response. I'm assuming Level Five?" Blake nodded. "Stage Three was broken into different levels of response depending on the threat. Level Five is the least dangerous; the criteria for going that route included being able to communicate clearly and determining that they posed no threat to the planet as a whole. It set up for three possible scenarios, they leave, we meet some need or demand of theirs and they leave, or we initiate ongoing diplomatic relations."

"Any of those scenarios would be ideal on our side, but the Quadrainian delegation hasn't decided which scenario they're going with." Blake informed them. "The Navy has located the ship Matt and Dr. Shepherd arrived in and are attempting to salvage it now. Apparently Matt is waiting to make any decisions until they can assess the condition of that ship. Spencer, you have a last round of tests today, yes?" It was Spencer's turn to nod. "All right. What moving to Stage Three Level Five means is that we're back on call with the BAU. This takes precedence over the everyday work until they figure out if they're staying or going but if a crisis comes up we'll need to go out with the team."

"Sounds good to me," Morgan replied.

"What about Emily?" Spencer wondered.

Blake smiled. "Given her current employer I think she's in it for the long haul. For now I'm going to go call Hotch and inform him that we're back on call tomorrow. Any messages?"

"Yes and no." Morgan replied. "Let's make that a video call. I'm sure Garcia will want to see pretty boy here up and getting around."

"Good point."

Garcia was thrilled. "OMG, how is Reid?" She asked as soon as she opened the line.

"I'm fine Garcia." He said, making sure she could see him. "I'm right here."

"Oh good! Yes, excellent! OK, hang on a tick while I transfer this to the conference room." A few moments later they were looking at the old familiar round table with the rest of their friends. "See, he's okay."

"You're sure about that?" Hotch asked.

"I have a last round of tests today, but I'm 95% certain I'll be cleared." Spencer replied. There was a slim possibility they'd pick up something like raging brain cancer on his MRI, but that was rather doubtful at this point.

"What happened?" JJ asked.

"We still can't talk about it." Blake said. "And the Protocol is still not closed so we're not entirely off the hook, but it looks like they will be dropping to the lowest threat level today so we should be available on-call as of midnight tonight."

"Lowest threat level is always a good thing." Rossi remarked.

"How much longer will you be out of the office?" Hotch asked.

"Two weeks at most."

Two weeks, Spencer thought. Three hundred and thirty six hours. It's not like she would be dying, just going very far away. I could still write, even though I wouldn't hear back, couldn't I?

"I'd write too." Sarai replied.

As they had expected after consulting with Dr. Shepherd Matt gave permission for Sarai to have a functional MRI that afternoon. Spencer went first so she could watch the process. "It observes the activity of the brain in real time." He told her.

"Fascinating."

"You probably have vastly better ways of doing this."

"Not a clue, I've never had one done before. I was supposed to be lying low."

As he had also suspected his scan was notably different from the one he'd had done before he went in to help her. "Okay, you know that part of the brain that you had more activity in." The tech said over the intercom. "That we'd never seen on any other scan."

"Yeah."

"Well you have considerably more activity there now."

"Are you still scanning?"

"Yeah, why?"

He stopped talking with his voicebox, "Sarai?"

"Yes?"

"I just want to talk to you for a moment while the scanner…"

"WHOA!" Said the tech.

"I think we just localized for telepathy." Spencer told them.

"Whoa, right. Whoa. Okay." The techs said as they scrambled to finish the scan.

Then it was Sarai's turn. "If it starts to hurt or feels strange at all let us know and we'll pull you out." Spencer said.

"Right," Sarai smiled at him and he felt her temptation to ask for a kiss. But they both refrained and a few moments later the scan began.

"Oh my god." The techs said. "Wow…"

Spencer waited for the second pass before he sent her the thought. "They're going to be studying these scans for decades."

"Really? Almost a form of immortality there."

"Isn't it?"

By now the tech was whimpering.

"Set for a third pass?" Sarai asked.

"All right. Why?"

"You'll see."

On the third pass three large props used to hold patients in place for scans lifted into the air and floated around in a circle. The techs were almost too gobsmacked to look at the scans. Spencer was thrilled. "Can you do anything else?"

"Yes, but I'm getting sore from lying here."

Spencer chuckled. "You'll have to wait for another round for more. Let's get her out of there." He told the techs.

"Awww." But they moved to comply.

Once she was out he walked with her to the changing room, fully expecting her to just change from the gown she's worn for the test to her uniform. But before she did she tugged him into the private space for the kiss she'd wanted earlier. He knew, but he said it anyway. "Want to get as many of those as you can?" Before you have to…

"Yeah," she admitted.

"Me too."