Spending the day with Lacy wasn't the worst, but it certainly wasn't fun either. They had absolutely nothing in common and he started wondering what it was he found so attractive about her when they first met. Had she always been this bratty? Was he just like any other man and only focused on her looks? It's really all she had going for her at this point, and even that was fading.
Shopping for the baby was awful. First, she absolutely refused to believe she could be having anything but a girl. They stood in the middle of the store arguing about it.
"You should choose a neutral color, like yellow," Spencer told her.
"Yellow? Our baby is not living in a yellow room," she said appalled. "Her room will be themed with black, gold, and pink."
"Lacy, you don't know for sure yet that it's a girl," he tried for the hundredth time.
"I already told you, I know it's a girl," she said snidely.
"And I've already told you, that there is just as much a chance it's a boy as a girl," he argued.
"Are you trying to tell me you'll only be happy if it's a boy?" she said with her hands on her hips.
"No, but sure sounds like you'll be unhappy if it's a boy," he countered.
"Spencer, stop being stupid," she said rolling her eyes. "We are doing black, gold, and pink. End of discussion."
She also removed a lot of the items he chose. After a while, he just started zapping the ugliest, tackiest things he could find just to piss her off. While she huffed and scolded him, he internally laughed.
She wasn't much better at lunch. She belittled the waitress over everything. The food was too cold, her salad didn't have enough dressing, her soda wasn't fizzy enough. Spencer slipped away to use the bathroom and handed the woman $50 as an apology.
He was glad to be back home. He could finally find an excuse to get away from her. He had been hoping all day for a case to interrupt their day. Sadly, not a word from work. He slipped off his shoes and began getting into his pajamas.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she walked into the bedroom.
"Uh, changing?" he said with an 'isn't it obvious' tone.
"Duh, but why? I wanna go to dinner," she said.
"Dinner? Why can't we just order something in? We've been out all day. I'm tired," he complained.
"I bet if Emily wanted dinner you'd get it for her," she said folding her arms across her chest.
"You can't keep using Emily as an excuse to get what you want. This has nothing to do with her," he said.
"Of course, it has to do with Emily. You'd do anything to make her happy and you could care less about me," she snapped.
"First of all, it's couldn't care less. It's possible to care less and believe me, each day I care less and less," he said angrily. "Second, I did everything you wanted today, and you still expect more from me. When is it enough, Lacy?"
"When I say it's enough."
"Well, what about me? What about what I want? Why is it always about you and your happiness? You don't seem to give a shit if I'm happy or not," he said raising his voice.
"Oh, here we go. Poor Spencer. Nobody pays you any attention," she mocked. "Boo fucking hoo. I am the one carrying your child. I am the one who has to deal with all the aches and pains of carrying that baby. I am the one who has to deal with all the struggles that come with being pregnant. I deserve to be taken care of! I deserve to be pampered!"
Spencer let out a growl in frustration.
"You drive me insane! I swear if you weren't pregnant …" he trailed off as he ran his fingers through his hair.
"You'd what? Leave me? Well too fucking bad, Spencer Reid. You didn't keep your dick in your fucking pants and now you have to deal with it. Quit feeling sorry for yourself and start acting like a man," she said.
A horrible silence fell over the room. The tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. Lacy took a deep breath and collected herself. She looked at her watch before looking back at Spencer, who stood glaring at her from the closet doorway.
"It's 7 o'clock. You have an hour to decompress. At 8 o'clock, you're taking me to Huffman's Steakhouse," she stated. "And be in a better mood."
She turned and walked out of the room, shutting the bedroom door. Spencer turned and punched the closet wall. He let out a hiss as his hand broke a hole in the wall, his knuckles swelling almost instantly. At least he'd be distracted by that pain for a while. It was better than the pain Lacy inflicted. He missed Emily so much.
(xxxxx)
Spencer walked into work on Monday looking miserable. Emily immediately noticed his bandaged hand. She furrowed her brow as he tossed his bag onto his desk.
"Got into a fight with the wall," he said as he sat down. "You should see the wall. I definitely won."
"Ahhh," Emily said with understanding.
Derek wandered over to Spencer's desk, glancing at his hand.
"Fun weekend?" he asked as he sipped his coffee.
"The best," Spencer said in mock. "Oh, by the way, I'm supposed to give these to you guys."
He reached into his bag and dug out envelopes. He handed one to Emily and one to Derek. He placed the others down on his desk to hand out later. Both Emily and Derek opened the envelope.
"A gender reveal party … " Derek said peering up at Spencer in surprise.
"All the cool people do it," he said sarcastically. "Apparently, just telling people if it's a boy or girl isn't good enough these days. We have to make a circus of it. Speaking of circus, she ordered some kind of zoo animal that is going to be revealing the gender."
"What?" Derek said stunned.
"Hey, maybe it'll be a tiger and eat her," Emily said with a grin.
Spencer bit back his laughter, though it was obvious how amused he was.
"Nah, I couldn't possibly be that lucky. Besides, if it eats her, it eats my kid too," he said.
"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry," Emily said wincing.
"Don't be. You aren't the first to think it and I'm sure you won't be the last," he said with a pained smile.
"So, is she expecting gifts or something? Like do I have to go buy baby stuff for this?" Derek asked looking at the invite.
"To hell if I know," Spencer shrugged.
"Hey, what's the pow wow for?" J.J. asked as she approached the group.
Spencer handed her the envelope and watched as she read it.
"Oh, fun," she said trying to be excited.
"Nice try," Spencer said with a chuckle. "I appreciate the effort."
J.J. gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Hey, do you know if we are supposed to bring gifts to this thing?" Derek asked her.
"Well, in most cases, no," J.J. said hesitantly.
"In Lacy's case, probably yes?" Spencer added.
"We registered this weekend at Totes Adorable and Baby's Got Swag," he said suddenly grinning. "If you see anything that seems out of place, please buy it!"
"Out of place?" J.J. said narrowing her eyes at him, with a playful smirk.
"Like the crib dribbler. It's a giant water bottle you attach to the crib so the baby can have a drink whenever they want," he said practically beaming.
"Like a hamster?" Emily said, her eyebrow's raised in amusement as he nodded.
They all burst into laughter imaging such a ridiculous thing and how mad Lacy would be.
"I also threw in a poop alarm and a plastic urinal," he said belly laughing.
"Spencer, Lacy is going to kill you," J.J. cackled.
"I know. It's why I did it," he said laughing harder.
"Hate to break up the fun here, but we have a case."
They all turned to see Hotch watching them from the railing. He wasn't smiling but they could see the joyful curiosity in his eyes. They grabbed their things, all while still giggling, and headed for the conference room.
(xxxxx)
Three weeks later, everyone gathered at a local park that had been extravagantly decorated with different shades of pinks and purples. Lacy was dressed in a tight gold dress that showed off the tiny bump forming. Her hair was done up with lots of curls and volume. She looked like she was attending a fashion show, not a gender revealing.
She was definitely putting herself in the spotlight. Making a fuss about how excited she was and how after this she would be picking names out with Spencer. She already had a few in mind that she thought would be perfect.
Emily arrived with Penelope, only coming to show Spencer support. She realized by the look on Lacy's face, that Spencer invited her without permission. She handed Lacy a gift and made nice, though the frost between the two was more than obvious.
It wasn't long after arriving, she realized that Lacy didn't have any family attending. She only saw a few friends who were just as over the top flashy as she was. After listening to Lacy ramble on about how lucky she was to have Spencer and how grateful she was everyone attended, she decided it was time to reveal the gender.
Nearby, a man unlocked the back of a trailer and unloaded a horse that had been transformed into a unicorn. Henry and Jack went crazy when they saw it.
"Mom! Look! Unicorns are real!" Henry shouted excitedly.
"Can we ride it?" Jack asked his dad.
"I don't think so buddy. But maybe we can pet it," Hotch said in a hushed voice.
They watched as the unicorn was led over to Lacy, who looked thrilled, while Spencer stood by looking as though he would rather be anywhere but where he was. The unicorn handler explained to the crowd that inside the magical horn was the answer to whether the baby was a boy or a girl. Cortesia, the unicorn/horse, would wave her head to release the magic powder.
"Are you ready?" the man asked Lacy.
Lacy nodded as her fingers tangled together with excitement. Spencer stood next to her, looking a little more interested then previously. The man gave Cortesia an order and she began to do a little dance. Her feet tapping up and down as she swung her head from side to side. Suddenly from the top of her cone, a blue powder shot into the air.
Everyone let out cheers of happiness. Spencer's face lit up as his heart fluttered. He was going to have a son. He was going to be the father of a baby boy. His eyes snapped up and instantly caught Emily's. He could see the joy in her eyes as he blinked away the tears clouding his vision. She mouthed congratulations to him, but before he had a chance to respond Lacy stormed away from him.
She started ripping down the decorations in anger as tears streamed down her face. Spencer stood shocked with his jaw dropped as he watched her throw an epic temper tantrum.
"Party's over! Everyone go home!" she cried as she picked up a pink centerpiece and threw it across the lawn.
J.J. and Will grabbed Henry, ushering him away toward the car. Hotch followed suit with Jack, Rossi joining him. Spencer snapped out of his trance.
"What is your problem?" he said approaching her.
"My problem is everything is ruined!" she yelled.
"What? How is it ruined?" he asked.
"Don't be thick, IQ of 187. It was supposed to be a girl!" she snapped hysterically.
"I told you that was a strong possibility. You chose to ignore it," he argued. "And it doesn't matter. It's still our child. He still deserves to be celebrated."
"Look around you, what do you see? Do you see blue, Spencer?"
"Don't talk to me like I'm stupid," he said.
"Well, you're sure acting like it. How do you celebrate a boy when you have decorations for a girl? Huh? And what about the room? I chose girl colors. I already painted the room pink," she said ripping down a strand of streamers.
"So, you go back to the store and find things for a boy. You repaint the room a different color. You're making this into an issue when it's easily fixable," he stated.
"I didn't want a boy! I wanted a girl!" she yelled.
"Well, God clearly doesn't give a damn about what you wanted!" he yelled back.
She lifted her hand to slap him, but he grabbed her wrist in a flash. His eyes narrowed as he stared her down.
"Don't. Even. Think. About. It," he said through clenched teeth.
He let go of her wrist and turned on his heels, walking off toward the car, leaving her behind. Derek, Luke, Emily and Penelope slowly followed behind him. When they reached the parking lot, they saw him leaning against the back of his car, face buried in his hands.
"You ok, kid?" Derek said empathetically.
"I hate her," he said as he looked up at them. "I hate her so much."
No one knew what to say. They all agreed with him, but it didn't seem like agreeing would be of any help at the moment. They watched as tears filled his eyes. Emily stepped forward, placing her hand gently on his arm.
"It's a boy," she said softly with a small smile. "You're going to have a son."
He looked at her as his lip trembled. Why couldn't Emily be the one? Why had he been so damn stupid to sleep with Lacy unprotected? Why had he just taken her word for it that she was on the pill?
"He deserves to be celebrated," she repeated his words.
He lifted the back of his hand to wipe the tears from his cheeks. Penelope stepped forward, hesitantly.
"We could go to Five Stars and get lunch?" she said hoping to bring up his spirits.
"Little man deserves a proper celebration," Derek added.
"His father deserves a proper celebration too," Emily said grabbing his hand in hers.
He looked down at their entwined fingers and looked up. He gave a half smile and nodded.
"Ok. Let's do it," he agreed.
Penelope clapped her hands excitedly.
"I'll call J.J.," she said as she scurried off to her car.
"I'll call Hotch and Dave," Luke said as he followed her.
"You wanna ride with me, kid?" Derek offered.
He wanted to ride with Emily, but he didn't want to make things worse today. So, he nodded as he let go of her hand.
"I'll see you there," he said softly.
She gave him a genuine smile.
"See you there," she said.
They started to walk in separate directions when Spencer called out to Emily. She turned around to see him smiling gratefully at her.
"Thank you," he said before turning to follow Derek.
(xxxxx)
A/N: is the demise coming soon? What do you think? I hope you're enjoying the story. So much more to come! xoxo