Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
"Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible – it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment and offer you more joy than any material possession could." – Barbara de Angelis
o o o o
27 September 2010
Calliope walked slowly, gingerly, out of the bedroom and into the living room. She had been home from the hospital for a little over a week now and Spencer had barely let her move. She needed out of the bedroom or she was going to crack. The aspirin and painkillers helped with the pain from her rib, but, honestly, it she wasn't as weak as Spencer was treating her and she really wanted him to go back to work. She hated being babied.
Right now, though, she saw him lying asleep on the couch with Emeline asleep on his chest and she smiled. Spencer face was half obscured by a pillow and his large hand lay on Emeline's back, subconsciously making sure she wouldn't roll off. Both Emeline's arms were limply laced around his neck and a small puddle of drool pooled on Spencer's purple polo shirt beneath Emeline's open mouth. Retreating quietly back into the bedroom, Calliope grabbed the tiny, pink Nikon from her top dresser drawer. Just as quietly, she snuck back out of the bedroom and snapped a few pictures of them. Maybe a few more days… than she would insist he return to work.
Holding her left side as it twinged, she walked past father and daughter towards the kitchen. Calliope grabbed her bottle of Advil from the cupboard and tilted two teal liquid gels into her hands, downing them quickly with a swig of water and a wince. Resting her elbows on the counter, she dropped her head into the hands, her long hair falling over her shoulders. Calliope moved one hand to touch the hair around her face. In what had probably been the most vanity-fueled moment in her entire life, she had spent six and a half hours having her hair stylist, Janet, remove the duct tape from her hair as carefully as possible so she wouldn't have to cut her hair in a drastically short pixie cut. She was reaching for her ribs again when she felt a small hand sneak into hers and she looked down. Emeline rubbed at her eyes sleepily and Calliope smiled.
"Hey, Princess," Calliope bent down and picked her up, kissing the smooth forehead as the little girl snuggled her head into her mother's shoulder. "You sure wore Poppy out. Did you have a good nap?"
Emeline nodded and fingered the gold quatrefoil necklace hanging around Calliope's neck. "Poppy's sleeping."
"Well, you are pretty tiring sometimes. You exhausted Poppy yesterday too, didn't you? I would never exhaust Poppy, but you, little miss, you're just a bundle of endless energy he can't keep up with."
"You make Poppy falled asleep too."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Calliope smiled. "I am pure joy and sunshine every waking hour." She could hear Spencer stifle tired laughter from where he still lay on his back on the couch. Emeline must have woken him up when she woke and climbed down.
"Hungry," Emeline's fingers dropped Calliope's necklace and stuck her thumb in her mouth.
"It is close to dinner time. Grandpa and Grandma should be here soon. Can you wait until then or do you want some grapes?"
"'Rple g'apes?" the little girl mumbled around her thumb.
"I think we have some purple grapes," Calliope kissed her head. "Brianne brought some a few days ago."
None of the three had left the safety of their home since their return to Fredericksburg, in fact they had only been out in public in order to drive from Dahlia to home. They hadn't driven, technically – Ben and Brenda had driven them and stayed overnight. Calliope's parents hadn't returned to Dahlia, but rather they had been staying in the home they owned on the other side of Fredericksburg and spending much of their time with Spencer, Calliope and Emeline.
While Calliope had been busy focusing on Emeline, Spencer had pushed himself off of the couch and padded silently over to them. Quietly, he wrapped his arms around Calliope's shoulders. He pressed a kiss to Emeline's head and kissed Calliope with enough passion that her knees wobbled a little and she leaned back against his chest. For what felt like the millionth time since the fifteenth, Spencer shook with relief that both his girls were safe and within his grasp.
"I love you," he said to whichever wanted to accept.
"I love you too."
"Mwen renmen'w."
"She's too young to get Gilmore Girl references." This sentence was for Calliope alone and she giggled.
"Never too early to start."
The alarm beeped and Spencer kissed Calliope again before walking quickly to the cabinet in the kitchen and opening it. He clicking to the front gate and saw Ben's car pushed through the hoards of media cars waiting for Calliope to leave the privacy of their home. Spencer hit the button and watched as Ben's car came through gate and it closed after him. They had already had media try to sneak in after a car, but three charges of trespassing had kept the rest of them firmly behind the black bars.
Eventually, they would get bored and leave. Hopefully. Either that or one or both of them would loose it and they would be on receiving end of the charges filed.
ooo ooo ooo ooo
29 September, 2010
"When's Spencer coming back to work?" Emily asked Penelope as she poured coffee into her mug and sat next to the redheaded tech kitten pouring over a pile of magazines. "Are you seriously reading those?"
"She's our Lucy! It's our job to make sure I don't need to go Hulk and reduce these rag's computers to nothing more than gigantic paperweights and doorstoppers."
"You can do that?"
"Em, I could take the Pentagon back to eighteen forty-three."
"The Pentagon opened in nineteen forty-three."
"I know."
"Dangerous woman, you are. Are they bad?"
"The Pentagon?" Penelope asked distractedly.
"The magazines, PG," Emily laughed. She reached out and grabbed one of the magazines from Penelope's stack. Glancing down at the front over of Star, she thinned her lips. Sure enough, Calliope's smiling face took up roughly ninety percent of the page. In big white print, the caption read 'Calliope Sellers: American Princess. Her fairytale, kingdom, Prince Charming and daring rescue.'
Emily nearly gagged. Penelope looked up. "Ah. Star. That one's particularly ridiculous."
"What's it say?"
"The same thing they all say: a whole bunch of nothing. It recounts her life, gives a brief history of Dahlia, makes speculation about why she's never in the media, does she have something to hid, yada yada, and then it goes for the juicy stuff – her and Boy Genius and Emeline. Oh. And the long-lost brother, of course. There's, like, two whole pages devoted to whether or not they were trying to hid Kaden or pay off his mom. It's so ridiculous. I can't wait for Sheen or Lohan to go back to rehab so they'll leave our family alone."
"No kidding. Are people still calling you?"
"Oh yeah," Penelope nodded. "I'm seriously thinking about changing my phone number. Or sending them all viruses to crash their phones. One of the two. Maybe both."
Derek paused over them and groaned, "Please tell me you two aren't actually reading those."
"Please don't tell me you haven't. They have to have been all over the supermarkets in Chicago too."
"They were."
"And you didn't look at any of them?"
"Nope. Better things to do then read trash." Derek tugged the magazine from Penelope's hands and grabbed the one Emily held before picking up the stack on the table and dropping the lot in the trashcan. "And so do you. Besides, we have the real thing."
"Has Strauss closed the investigation yet?" Emily asked.
"I'm not sure. I think so."
"Has-has Spencer been suspended?" Emily looked at Derek when she asked and Penelope's head jerked up.
"Suspended? I thought he was just taking time off."
"He is," Derek assured the redhead. "Strauss didn't suspend him. Were you worried about that?"
"Well, yeah. A little. You know how much of a stickler Strauss is about rules and all that. We all know that, technically, we shouldn't have been on Callie's case. Especially after what happened with Hotch and Haley. I don't know…. I was just worried Reid would get in trouble and then try to hid it or something."
"I'm not in trouble," Spencer plopped his messenger bag down, causing all of them to jump.
"Reid!" Penelope jumped up and essentially tackled the gangly genius.
"Hi, García," Spencer awkwardly patted her back.
"Cal kicked you out, huh?" Derek laughed.
"She said it was either come back to work or be smothered with a pillow," he shrugged, picking at the rolled up cuff of his blue dotted shirt. Penelope started laughing and Derek ruffled Spencer's hair with a huge smile on his face.
"Figured it would come down to that. How are Cal and Emeline doing?"
"Well. Really well. Calliope's ornery–"
"Always a good sign," Emily interrupted, downing the last of her coffee. "You know something's wrong when Callie's complacent."
"And little Eme?" Penelope asked eagerly.
"Very happy. She's enthralled with the clothes you brought over. She's been walking around, well, trying to walk around in Calliope's heels and the orange dress you gave her."
"Picture?"
"Not on me," Spencer shook his head. "Sorry."
"What kind of dad are you?" Derek teased. "It's your job to carry twenty pounds worth of pictures wherever you go."
Spencer opened his mouth to say something, but Hotch's voice interrupted. "BAU team. Conference room in ten."
ooo ooo ooo ooo
Emeline shrieked when Perses jumped up as she was brushing his fur and ran to the window to bark madly at the squirrel perched on the porch railing. Dropping the brush, she pushed herself to her feet and ran after him. Calliope watched from where she sat at the breakfast bar with her sketchpad and box of Prismacolour pencils. Smiling, she added texture to Emeline's hair and used her pinky to smudge the coloured wax in some places.
Dragging Perses back by his purple collar, Emeline pulled the dog back to where she had dropped the brush and pushed on his back until he was plopped down on the hardwood. Perses stayed where he was supposed to, but his eyes were trained on the window. Eventually, Emeline got bored of putting bows in the dog's fur and stood up, waltzing over to where Calliope sat.
"Up!" Emeline held her arms up and Calliope put down her pencil to pick her up. "Can I colour too?"
"Yes, you may," Calliope ripped a page from her sketch pad and placed it in front of the little girl as Emeline dug into the box of colored pencils and came out with as many as would fit in her pudgy little hands. Emeline coloured happily, something that could possibly be a house or a bowl of spaghetti or a dog or maybe Spencer, while Calliope continued working on her own sketch, adding tint to Emeline's lips and eyes.
'The Kid from Red Bank' played from her iPhone and Calliope reached for the mobile. Aaron's name and photograph. Hitting the green button, she held the phone to her ear and stroked the top of Emeline's head, smoothing her hair down. "Hey Aaron."
"Hi Callie."
"I'll pick up Jack from preschool. Where are you going this time?"
"The Midwest. Victims in Iowa and Nebraska."
"Alright. Be careful and don't worry about Jack," Calliope pressed a kiss to Emeline's head.
"Thanks, Callie." They exchanged a few more sentences before hanging up and Calliope glanced at the time on her phone. Jack's preschool got out at eleven, so they would need to leave in half an hour to drive to Washington. "Hey, Princess Eme. Guess what? We're going to go to Washington and pick up your cousin Jack. And Jack is going to come here and stay with us."
"Why?" Emeline didn't look up from the spaghetti-Spencer-house-dog she was currently using a purple pencil to perfect.
"Well, Poppy and your aunts and uncles have to go away to catch the bad guys, so Jack is going to come here."
"I don't want him to come here," Emeline pouted, still not looking up from her picture.
"Why not, Princess?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
"I don't like him."
"How do you know that? You haven't met Jack yet, Eme."
"I know."
"Then maybe you will like Jack and you just don't know it yet," Calliope smiled, turning Emeline so she could see her face.
"No. I don't like him."
"Well, that's too bad, Princess, because we're going to get him in a little while, so you need to get ready. Do you need to go to the bathroom?"
"No," Emeline shook her head. "Maman, I don't want to go."
"Sorry, Baby. We have to go get him."
"Can't we watch the Monsters?"
"We can watch Monsters, Inc. when we get back with Jack."
"My movie! He's not allowed to watch my movie," Emeline crossed her arms and stuck her bottom lip out as far as physically possible.
"So what's Jack going to do? Is he going to stay in his bedroom until Uncle Aaron gets back?"
"No. Outside."
"Oh, so Jack can't even come inside the house?" Emeline shook her head forcefully, whipping her pigtails out on either side of her head. "But what if it rains?"
"He can have a um'bella."
"Ohhh," Calliope tried not to laugh, but a little laughter leaked into her voice. "He can have an umbrella?"
"Yes," Emeline nodded seriously and reached for a new pencil.
"Can he have dinner?"
"Peanut butter sammich."
"And what are you going to have for dinner?"
"Sketty and meatballs!"
"Dinosaur meatballs?"
"Yes! I want a saurus meatball."
"Okay. But first we have to go get your cousin," Calliope scooped Emeline up and put her down on the floor. Holding her hand, she led the little girl to the bathroom. "Let's go potty and then we'll go get Jack and have some lunch."
"I don't wanna get Jack."
"I know, Baby."
ooo ooo ooo ooo
"And those pictures are in your personal files because I didn't think they needed the help of ten-eighty-p," Garcia clicked the television screen back to the computer's wallpaper and looked at the team through her green, plastic glasses
"His chest was opened. Organ's disturbed. Intestines removed," Rossi flipped through the pictures, factually listing off what jumped off the page at him.
Garcia looked a little nauseous and like she was trying desperately not to vomit. This was definitely not a part of JJ's job that she enjoyed doing. She missed JJ. "That's awesome. Could we please leave the gross part of the conversation for the plane?"
"The father of the Archer family had multiple stab wounds, but no dissection," Reid's eyebrows furrowed together.
"So, he went from piquerism to this overnight?" Prentiss asked in disbelief.
"Two families in two days… he's on a spree." Rossi looked at Hotch.
"Wheels up in thirty," Hotch closed his folder and stood. The rest of the team straightened their papers and pictures and slipped them back into their files, thinking about the case and what they needed to do before they left in half an hour. Reid's hand was already in his pocket and fumbling his cell phone out to call Calliope. Prentiss stood, straightening her purple blouse for a second and walked towards the door, but something in the bullpen caught her eye and she stopped.
"Hey Morgan," Prentiss stared at Ellie Spicer down in the bullpen as Morgan stopped next to her and stared as well, his mouth partially open in disbelief. Ellie saw them watching her through the window and gave a little wave. "You didn't know she was coming…"
Morgan just shook his head in shock. "How did she get here?"
"Tell Eme I love her. I'll call when we land, alright?" Reid stopped on the other side of Prentiss, looking at the file in his hands as he spoke on the phone. "Okay. I love you, Sweetheart. I'll talk to you later." Reid slipped the phone back into his pocket and looked up. "What is Ellie Spicer doing here?"
"I have no idea," Morgan said as he turned towards the door and hurried out, running his hand over the back of his head.
"What the hell is he gonna do…?" Prentiss trailed off and she turned to follow Morgan, Reid right on her heels.
ooo ooo ooo ooo
Calliope unbuckled Emeline from her car seat and pulled her from the car, settling the little girl on her hip and closing the door with her elbow. Keeping her head down, she subconsciously touched the purple scarf covering her hair as she hurried down the street to Jack's school.
"Maman, do we have to get Jack?"
"Yes, we do," Calliope nodded and pushed the door open. "Hi Meredith."
"Hi, Ms. Sellers. Haven't seen you in a while. How are you doing?" The brunette behind the front desk smiled and stood up, her eyes far more curious than her voice.
"I'm doing fine, Meredith. How are you?" Calliope tried to put Emeline down on her feet, but the little girl wouldn't let go of her neck. "Okay, okay… Okay, you're all right, honey. Eme, I have to put you down for a second to sign the paper."
"No paper, no Jack," Emeline said crossly, dangerously close to a temper tantrum.
"We are going to bring Jack home no matter what, Emeline Noel, so I suggest you stop whining," Calliope shifted Emeline to her other side and picked up the pen in her left hand. She held Emeline securely as she bent over and signed Jack out. Meredith signed next to Calliope's signature. Emeline pouted, but didn't say anything. Sure the battle wasn't over, Calliope took Emeline over to sit in a chair along the wall while other moms started trickling into the building. "Emeline, Baby Girl, we're going to get Jack and then we're going to go get some lunch and then we're going to go home, okay?"
"No Jack."
"Sorry, Princess. I have to take care of Jack just like I have to take care of you. He's my nephew and I love him very much."
"My maman."
"Yes, Baby. I'm your maman. But I'm also Jack's aunt," Calliope kissed Emeline's round cheek. "I love you both all the way to the moon."
"Aunt Callie!" Calliope looked up at Jack's happy voice and Emeline latched her arms more tightly around Calliope neck. Jack ran away from the teacher that was slowly herding a classroom full of five year olds into the rotunda and straight towards his aunt. Ignoring Emeline completely, Jack dropped his Incredibles backpack and climbed into Calliope's lap, nearly dislodging Emeline in the process. Emeline started crying and Jack hugged Calliope, who felt close to crying herself.
ooo ooo ooo ooo
The entire car ride from the airport to Council Bluffs, Spencer stared out the window. His mind wasn't fully on the case. It wasn't on the case at all. Dave drove without making any attempt at conversation, case-related or otherwise. He knew where Spencer's thoughts were and he also knew he had nothing helpful to say that would assuage the man's thoughts. Serial killers and divorces: that was all on which David Rossi was an expert.
"She's going to be alright, right?"
"Emeline or Callie?" Dave asked without taking his eyes from the road.
Spencer paused for a moment before answering. "Both."
"Well, Callie has a pretty decent track record so far."
"What do you mean?" Spencer finally looked away from the window.
"Well, she's been with you for two years now. Callie's stayed through The Reaper, through your knee, through two years of cases, through anthrax, Haley's murder, Brenda hating your existence, a protection detail, a broken wrist, a non-pregnancy, Emeline…" Dave turned right when the GPS instructed. "She's stayed through all that. Why do you think she'd leave now?"
"I'm not thinking she's going to leave, Rossi. I mean, I hope she's not going to leave," Spencer picked at his cuticles because he had nothing else to do with his hands. "I don't know what I'd do if Calliope left. I'm just worried if she's going to be okay alone with Emeline and Jack with people still trying to follow her around and take pictures of her."
"She has an entire support system there, and every one of them will come running if she needs help," Dave glanced at Spencer for a moment before returning his eyes to the road. "J.J. is there and so is Will and Jessica Brookes. They're an hour away. And that Brianne person whose been bringing you three food. She's not going to suddenly decide Callie's on her own. Her grandparents are still in Fredericksburg, aren't they?"
"No," Spencer shook his head. "They finally went back to Williamsburg yesterday."
"Well, I'm sure they would come back if Callie asked them. Not to mention her cousins and her sisters," Dave turned down another street and then made an immediate left. Slowing to a stop in front of a two story house, Dave put the SUV in park and pulled up the parking break. "Reid, Callie will be fine. And Emeline will be fine too. We'll catch this guy as quickly as we can and you can get home to them."
"This is the first time Emeline's going to be going to sleep in her bed here and I won't be there to tuck her in or kiss her goodnight. What's she going to think when I'm not there?"
"She's going to think that her daddy is the bravest daddy in the whole world. And Callie's going to tell her about all the good things you do, tell her why you left at all, all the people you've helped keep safe and that everything you do is to keep her safe. She's going to know how much you love her."
"Poppy."
"Hmmm?"
"Emeline calls me 'poppy,' not 'daddy.'"
ooo ooo ooo ooo
"Calliope! Calliope!"
Calliope ducked her head down and ignored the people calling her name. Jack hurried along next to her, his hand firmly in hers, and Emeline stared over Calliope's shoulder at the people following them. Internally, Calliope's thoughts were a string of endless expletives too foul even for HBO, much less the ears of five or three year olds. They had made it to and through lunch at Alexios' Greek Restaurant without this happening, but someone had seen them walking to the car and shouted her name.
"Aunt Callie, what's going on?" Jack asked, but kept pace with her, keeping hold of her hand.
"I'll explain when we get in the car, okay, Buddy?"
"Calliope!"
"Maman, make them go away," Emeline's voice was shrill in her ear.
"I'm trying, Baby." Totting two children, she was no match for the gawkers and their camera phones. People shouted questions as she got Jack as close as she could without picking him up. Calliope kept her mouth firmly shut as she clicked the SUV open, but Emeline started yelling, "Go away! Leave my maman alone!"
Jack climbed up into the car and his booster seat while Calliope strapped Emeline into her car seat. She checked the straps quickly before kissing Emeline's cheek, pushing the lock down and closing the door between her daughter and the cameras. Jack was waiting for Calliope to strap him in. Jack was kissed and locked in before Calliope turned to the cameras. A few really cameras faced her this time, not just camera phones and flashed popped before her eyes.
"Ple–" A particularly bright flash cut her off mid sentence and she blinked rapidly. "Please leave my family and I alone. Thank you." With that, she turned and escaped into the car, ignoring people shouting at her and the way her ribs were throbbing from carrying Emeline. Calliope nearly forgot to buckle her seatbelt, but caught herself. Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths before putting the car in drive and slowly leaving the parking lot.
"Aunt Callie, why were they following us?"
"After the bad guys tried to hurt me, people…" Calliope searched for the right words. She knew better than to lie, because she would be caught and trying to explain herself out of the lie would be more difficult than just telling a g-rated version of the truth in the first place. "People want to make sure that I'm okay and that my family is okay too."
Jack was quiet, thoughtful, before he spoke again. "People didn't chase Daddy and I after George took Mommy."
"Jack, do you remember the big white house from the party?" Jack nodded. "People are more interested because that's where I grew up. I… I have a lot of money, so people want to know all about it."
The little boy was quiet, accepting the explanation, but not actually understanding it. Emeline started singing a song from The Lion King, which they had watched last night, and Calliope immediately latched onto it. Smiling and laughing, she sang with Emeline, hoping Jack would join in soon. She didn't have to wait long.
ooo ooo ooo ooo
Two shrill voices were yelling and fighting like they had been doing it their entire life. Calliope closed her eyes and leaned forward, groaning to herself. They had been at it since they had gotten home. Emeline didn't want to share anything, even things that belonged to Jack, and Jack was tired to Emeline following him around and taking things from him and Calliope was near her breaking point and close to calling J.J. in tears.
Putting the knife down on the cutting board, Calliope hurried out of the kitchen for what felt like the millionth time that hour, her respect for stay-at-home moms increasing infinity. "Emeline! Jack! Come here right now!"
Something crashed and two sets of feet stampeded towards her. "Sit down." Calliope pointed towards the table and the two ran over, Jack hopped into his chair and Emeline climbed awkwardly, almost falling, until Calliope helped her. "Okay. You two have been at it all day. You both had been stop it right now or I will call your fathers. Do you think they'd be happy right now?"
"No," Jack shook his head and Emeline copied his action.
"I want you to sit still while I finish dinner."
Spaghetti and meatballs were on the table rather quickly and without fuss from either child. Calliope could tell a full day of bickering had worn both of them out, because baths, phone calls to Aaron and Spencer, and bedtime passed without any real incident. Emeline went to bed first and Calliope let Jack stay up a little later.
"Why is she here?" Jack asked as Calliope tucked him in and kissed his forehead.
"She's my little girl, Jack. That's why she's here. I know it's confusing, Buddy."
"She wasn't here before."
"That's because she was in Haiti with her grandma. Remember when we talked about that?"
"Yes. She's going back, right?"
"Yes," Calliope nodded sadly. "Emeline will be going back to Haiti soon."
"Good. I don't like her."
"Why not, Jack-Jack?" Calliope brushed back Jack's hair.
"You're my aunt," Jack pouted. "She takes you away."
"Baby, I love you to the moon. Emeline doesn't change that."
"I didn't get to play with you at all today."
"Well, we could have all played together if you and Emeline hadn't been fighting all day," Calliope smiled and kissed his forehead. "I promised your mommy that I would take care of you and I always will. But I never promised that I would love you and I do, baby, so, so much. You're my nephew and I will never, ever stop loving you."
"Can I sleep with you?" His big hazel eyes met hers and she nodded, picking him up and carrying him out of his bedroom. Jack curled up in the bed and was almost asleep by the time Calliope came back in her pajamas. Jack was sound asleep when Emeline came running into the bedroom, her stuffed monkey bumping along the floor after her.
"You're supposed to be asleep, little girl," Calliope picked her up and settled her down in the bed on the other side of her.
"I miss Poppy."
"I miss Poppy too."
"When's he coming home?"
"As soon as he catches the bad guys, Poppy will come home," Calliope kissed Emeline's forehead and whispered the little girl to sleep. Both children were long asleep when Calliope's phone started ringing. Terrified they would wake up, Calliope snatched the phone and answered. "Spencer?"
"Hey, Sweetheart."
"I miss you, I miss you, I miss you."
"I miss you too, Calliope. How was your day?" Spencer leaned back against the headboard of the hotel bed and closed his eyes for a minute.
"Long and loud. Lots of yelling. God, I miss you."
"I'm sorry, Sweetheart."
"I'm currently in bed with a very large dog and two other humans and neither of them are you."
"I better be the only other human in that bed," Spencer joked.
"Well, you are whenever Luke Danes isn't here."
"Well, he was there before I was."
"Luke doesn't cuddle as well as he used to. I got spoiled with you."
Spencer smiled happily. "Hopefully I'll be home soon. Maybe tomorrow."
"I'm counting the seconds."
ooo ooo ooo ooo
30 September, 2010
"No, I'm not pressing charges," Calliope said into the phone as she spread peanut butter on bread and laid it on slices with strawberry jam. "No. Stop it, Brendon. I'm not pressing charges against Kaden. I know you're – Brendon, stop and listen to me. I'm not pressing charges against my brother. Thank you very much for everything you've done for me and my family, basically my entire life, but you've already done everything we need done right now. Okay. I'll talk to you later. Give my love to Ann. Bye.
"Jack! Emeline! Come get your snack!" Calliope yelled from the kitchen, putting the phone on its' charger and cutting the sandwiches in quarters. Emeline and Jack came running from Jack's bedroom.
"Can we eat in front of the TV?" Jack asked. "Please, please, please?"
"Okay. Don't feed Perses." Calliope watched the two carry their paper plates into the living room and sit on the floor among hordes of discarded toys. The gate alarm beeped and Calliope opened the cabinet in confusion. No one was supposed to be here. No one had called to tell her they were coming over and Spencer, though back in Virginia, wouldn't be home until after work.
The feed was already on the gate camera and Calliope watched as a red GTI drove through the gate and waited until the gate was close to continue through the trees towards the clearing. Calliope didn't bother putting her shoes on, simply ran from the kitchen to the front porch and waited, practically dancing in her spot.
The garage door started opening before the GTI made it out of the trees, but the driver saw her and parked in the middle of the drive instead of pulling all the way in. Calliope jumped off the porch as Spencer got out and smiled. He caught her easily and she buried her face in his shirt.
"I love you so much," Calliope's voice was muffled and she held on so tightly he probably couldn't breath very well, but he didn't complain. Spencer buried his face in her hair and took a deep breath.
"I love you too."
ooo ooo ooo ooo
Emeline was tucked in and sound asleep later that night when Spencer lay back in his bed and pulled Calliope snuggly against him. "How did it go?"
"Okay. Second day was better than the first. The first day they hated each other," Calliope closed her eyes as Spencer ran his fingers through her hair and flipped through the news channels. The volume was on mute and the closed captioning told him what was being discussed.
"You were on the news yesterday," Spencer said, thinking about the pictures of her, Jack and Emeline trying to outrun the cameras accompanying the newscasters recounting the old news, speculating whether or not Kaden would be charged with anything or if the Sellers would ever respond to the media.
"Mmmph." She didn't give a real acknowledgment and Spencer let the subject drop as he stopped the channel on E! Entertainment where Calliope was the current star of the hour. He didn't like the attention, but he wanted, needed, to keep track of what went on in their lives, especially the things he couldn't control. He didn't want to be caught off-guard.
A/N:
SPRIIIIING BREAAAAAAK!
I know yall are mad at me for taking so long between updates, but I really do have my reasons. Part is because of school, part of it is it's difficult to write the story sometimes, but it's mostly because soon, the story line of Mystery Muse spoils the ending of Cracked Concrete and we can't have that happening. So I'm slowing down Mystery Muse so Cracked Concrete finishes before it's ending is revealed. Not that that makes yall any happier. But, just know, there is an actual reason and it's a valid one.
IT'S FREAKING SPRING BREAK! I'm so danged excited. On Tuesday I went hiking with my BFFs Kaff and Squishie and Kaff's brother and cousin. It was epic. I slipped and wiped out, covering my butt in dirt. Classic me. Then the three boys got us lost and Kaff and I just rolled our eyes. Boys. And then we went to Greek food for lunch followed by GELATOOOOOOOO. OMG. Best. Gelato. Ever. I love my life. And then, on Thursday, we went to go see Rango. It was okay. I didn't think it was particularly great. And then I nearly twisted my ankle in the parking lot. Win. Tonight, Mum, Aunt Numero Uno, Aunt Numero Dos and I are going to Houston to the Ballet tonight! We're going to see Sleeping Beauty. I'm so excited.
I don't wanna talk about 6x16 "Lauren" just yet, cause I don't want to spoil anything for people who haven't seen it yet. It's been less then 24 hours. So I'll just say a few of the things I posted on Facebook while watching it: 1. "omfg.," 2. "J.J. IS A BAMF!," 3. "/sobs," 4. "Gubler has awesome talents," and 5. "I FUCKING KNEW IT!" BAM! I called the ending over a month ago. I'm so danged good. But seriously, the episode was amazing.
My boys in blue are freaking ahhhhhmaaaaaaaazing. They're leading the league with 103 points, first team to 100% cinch a playoff spot this year, won the Division... ON FREAKIN MARCH 16!, Danny Boy is leading the points race, his twin brother Henrick is leading the assists (3rd in the points race) after winning the points race last year, our injured D are on task to return in time for playoffs, my crush on Cory Schneider is about reaching the institutional point... All goes according to schedule! STANLEY CUP 2011! It's also Cory's birthday today! Happy 25th!
I'm watching player interviews after the practice for tonight's hockey game (I'm missing it for the ballet), so I need to go pay attention to Bobby Luo talking about the fact that we just lost our Manny. /sobs. I love Manny - get better soon!
Anyways - Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it and, please, tell me what you think - good or bad!
Love, Thalia
