Chapter 51

"So where are we going?" Tonya asked once Laura was in the car.

"Bras. And jeans." Laura looked over at her friend.

"Finally." Tonya smiled. "You ever wear either before?"

"Nope."

"Oh boy."

"Bras only came in kids sizes for me, and jeans make me look too boyish, or so says Karen."

"Pardon my French but fuck Karen. Let's go."


"Ok, trust me. These will work perfectly for work and do everything Laura wants too." Garcia said, lifting the boxes with the two tablet computers and their accessories and placing them in his arms.

"I still don't see why." It all just seemed so crude to him. So…not elegant.

"So you can share things like that when you're out in the field. JJ and Hotch live by these things, I swear."

"I still want files in paper."

"Why?"

"Because I can turn, read and analyze four pages in a file before one of those pages loads on one of these, and I am referring to Morgan's new model." He got that out before her objection. "Paper is just faster for me, you know that can mean lives."

"Okay, fair enough, but this will let you e-mail and share calendars and all that goodness. She also said to get you one of these."

Spencer looked. One of 'these' was a cover that would essentially bind the thing, giving it the weight, texture and appearance of a leather bound book while allowing him to shove it in his bag without fear of damage. "If she insists."


Laura lingered as they went past the shoe department. "What are you looking at?" Tonya asked.

"Oh, nothing."

"No, that was not nothing on your face. Now give."

"It's silly. Ridiculous. Inappropriate…."

"And now you sound like Karen, talking you out of taking the limelight. Give."

Laura took a big, deep breath and walked over to a display. "I told you it was silly." She said. "But I had some when I was a kid and they were so comfortable I never wanted to take them off."

"Seriously? Honey if I knew you were this kind of wild I would have made you buy six pairs years ago. Come on."


"OK, please tell me you're not going for the boy band look." Garcia said as Spencer settled into the barber's chair.

All right, stylist, but he was going to keep thinking of her as a barber. "No, but shorter. I had this cut one time that I kinda wore back. It was about the time we went up around Seattle for that one where the mother called in a psychic…."

"Yes! You looked fantastic with that one, older but it showed off those cheekbones." She grinned at the stylist, barber, whatever. "OK, here's what we need to do…."


After lunch they switched handlers. "Seriously?" Tonya asked him. "Not even a polo?"

"I'm just more comfortable in business clothes." He admitted. This was the first small test of living as they wanted and damn what other people think.

"Ok, so how about a sport shirt?" She picked up a shirt that was cut like a dress shirt but in a rich blue print…. "That is your color."

And the test was passed. Whoa. Well…why not give it a try? "All right."


She had the work bag, she had the notions and she had several sets of needles, now Laura stopped to look at the yarn. "What are you thinking?" Garcia asked.

"That I never used to buy the stuff I wanted because I was afraid people would think I was a weirdo for liking it." Laura admitted. "So I bought stuff that was nice but that was the kind of thing my friend Martha would buy, really toned down, dustier colors."

"Oh! No! Buy what you like; you're going to be looking at it for hours on end while you work it. You should enjoy it." Garcia shook her head and practically dragged her new friend over to the yarn. "What are you making?"

Spencer and I are going to need scarves, and I need a hat and maybe some mittens and oh, I could use a new sweater or two."

"No baby stuff?" Garcia asked gently.

Laura smiled. "Eventually. We need to take care of ourselves first, get stable and all. And that includes winter things. What should I get for Spencer's scarf?"

"Purple. Trust me."


"Hey, Doc."

Morgan met them on their way into the Emerald Dragon. He eyed the entire package, from the flannel trousers to the brown tweed sport coat to the combed back hair that just curled over Spencer's collar, taking in the blue shirt along the way. "Not bad. Garcia?"

"Nope. Well, the hair. But um…" He nodded to Tonya, giving her credit for the rest. He liked it, he felt comfortable, and apparently he looked good. What do you know.

Tonya laughed and took Derek's arm as they walked in. "Careful, you might be next."

"That might be a threat."

"Doc?" Reid asked him.

"After yesterday?" Morgan shook his head. "You are not a kid anymore; I might just be one of the last to see it. And I've got to call you something."

Well, yeah. All right. "Doc." That worked.

Spencer got about three steps into the restaurant before he stopped and stared. Jeans. Laura had wanted her first ever jeans, and some kind of t-shirt, and then she said she needed bras and she wanted a haircut. But her stepmother had always told her that jeans and short hair would make her look like the boy she supposedly always wanted to be, so she'd always worn her hair kind of longish and worn skirts and blouses claimed she never felt quite comfortable.

Now she was in jeans, and some kind of top that had little straps instead of sleeves and hair shorter than his that had been cut in a way to make the ends wispy and kind of pointed somehow and the whole thing came together to make her look like some kind of fae or elfin creature masquerading as human. She looked comfortable, and at ease and yet sexy as all hell. He walked up to her and looked her over. "Okay, you do not look like a boy." He told her. "Are those cowboy boots?"

"Yeah, they are." She hiked up her pants to show the plain brown leather. "They're as comfortable as I remember from when I took riding lesson years ago, but they didn't have any of the fancy ones. When you take me out to Vegas I may have to go shopping. I am a western girl after all."

"You're developing a shoe thing, aren't you?"

"Maybe. And you do not look like a nerd. I like the hair, I'm glad you didn't go too short."

"I'm glad you did, I can see your face now. It looks good on you."

"Thank you." She replied as she put her arms around his waist and hugged him. "Well, we're ready to be seen in public for who we are. That's got to be a place to start."


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Note: Sorry these are slow in coming, I'm nursing an injured elbow. We might be on an every other day schedule through the week-end until it clears up.