Spencer had picked a tentative date to go to the pumpkin patch so he could pick up a few pumpkins, smaller ones for his apartment, but had asked her to go with him since it was going to during a weekend. He knew and she knew that the day could change because he never knew when they would be invited to get involved in a case away from home.

She'd told him she didn't mind going, but she wasn't much of a holiday person.

"What?" he exclaimed. "How are you not a holiday person?"

"Eh, my family was never big on celebrating anything, so it kind of rubbed off on me."

"Well . . . I am going to change that. I love Halloween!"

He basically went on a tangent about things they could do. He knew he didn't have much time because they were talking during her lunch break, but he hoped he could get her interested.

"To get you in the spirit, we can pick a pumpkin or two to carve and put on your porch," he said. "Um . . . are you a fan of horror movies?"

"Sure, as long as they're not gross. I don't like gore. I'm more a creature-feature girl."

"I can work with that. Uh, we can go to the park and pick the best leaves, and we'll need decorations."

"For what?"

"Your house! I mean, if you want to . . . it's something we could do together."

"Okay. It could be fun."

"It will be fun," he declared. "You've never been around me during October."

"No, I have not."

He could hear the smile in her voice and he smiled back even though she couldn't see it.

That conversation on the phone was how he ended up having one of the best days he'd had in a long time, though he always had a good day when he was with her.

It started out with her meeting him at his apartment and actually driving to their usual coffee spot. They had a small breakfast there as well, which probably shouldn't have counted as breakfast because it was only a very sweet doughnut for each of them.

They reached the pumpkin patch around noon and even though they needed a few bigger pumpkins to carve, she seemed drawn to the smaller ones.

"We can still decorate those. Just use a permanent marker or something," he said.

"They're cute," she said.

They spent an hour-and-a-half at the patch. Spencer didn't mind because she kept pointing out the different colored gourds. She even added one or two of them to the ones she wanted to buy.

"Did you know that the practice of turning pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns originated in Ireland? They used turnips and potatoes instead of pumpkins, but they brought the tradition to America when they immigrated here."

"I actually did not know that," she said, giving him her attention.

Even though she had never cut him off when he decided to talk about the things he knew, it still sometimes surprised him. Even his team usually stopped his rambling – most of the time because he needed to focus on a case, but still . . . they didn't want to hear him ramble on about things they were in no way interested in.

He talked about pumpkins some more and then moved onto Halloween and the origins of that, which she knew some of already. The conversation stopped when they had to pay for their pumpkins.

She was surprised when he took out his wallet to pay for hers as well as his.

"You don't have to do that," she said.

"I know. I want to." Then because he was suddenly unsure, "Is that okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I just . . . I wasn't expecting it."

Spencer wasn't a materialistic person at all, but the fact that she wasn't used to people buying her things kind of made him want to buy her things.

When they got back to her car with their purchases they placed them in the backseat and headed back to her house to drop them off and so they could have an actual meal that didn't consist of only sugar. It was during lunch that Spencer brought up something that he'd been thinking about for a while now.

"You know, we've spent a lot of time together, but we've never really gone out for dinner or anything."

He spoke carefully, wanting to get a feel for what she thought about it, before pursuing it further.

"No, I guess we haven't. Unless you count dinner at Rossi's as, um . . . us going out."

"Do you?"

She looked away for a little bit before bringing her gaze back to him. "Kind of yes, and kind of no. I mean, it was a big milestone because I know you wanted to keep me separate from your workplace. You never really said, but I could tell. But it was also not just us that night, so that wasn't really a date. I've kind of been waiting for you to ask, but I've also kind of been considering our TV show nights as sort of dates. So basically what I'm saying is that I've considered you my sort-of-boyfriend for a few months now, which basically just means that I haven't even thought of looking for anyone else during that time."

Spencer's eyebrows began to rise. He hadn't read that into their TV show nights at all. It was mostly just her coming over and them switching on who paid for dinner that night. They would eat and watch the show and he would explain something if she didn't understand.

"But you've been waiting for me to ask you out on an actual date."

"Yes. I hope I didn't freak you out by saying that. And also, since you brought it up . . . I'm going to say yes if that helps you out at all."

Spencer grinned. "It does take the edge off a bit."

"Maybe we could go out for your birthday, if you're here. Garcia told me when you were born, so don't think you can get away without me at least taking you out to dinner. Or I could make you dinner and we can do something here."

"That sounds nice," he said.

Later, when they were carving the pumpkins, he suddenly realized something she'd said earlier.

"Hey, does this mean I can consider you my girlfriend even though we haven't actually gone on a real date?"

"Well, I would be offended if you didn't," she said, throwing a still wet pumpkin seed at him.

"Hey!"

He threw one back at her, but they did not let themselves start a full-on pumpkin guts fight at the kitchen table.

"Are you having fun?" he asked seriously.

"I am. The fact that you're having fun is helping me have fun."

"I'm glad. We should make a scarecrow next time we get to hang out."

"That could also be fun."

As they continued talking, they decided the next time they were able to get a night to themselves they would have their movie night and she seemed more enthused to decorate her house now. He wasn't sure if it was because she was coming to appreciate how fun it could be or if it was because it meant they got to do it together.

Maybe it was both.