A/N: Hello again, everyone!

A shout-out to Quilter1993, fishtrek, vermilion aura, and crgrif1.

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds. No copyright infringement intended.

My apologies if I made any mistakes but enjoy the chapter!

Rose was dressed for the day: soft pink sweater with khakis and white sneakers. She was still getting used to finding certain things in the kitchen of Reid and Élise's new house.

"Okay," she pulled out some supplies from the cabinetries, the butler's pantry, and placed them on the countertops when Reid walked in with his hand on his lower back, stretching.

"Mmm," he let out a groan and rolled his neck a couple of times. "Good morning, Rose."

Rose greeted him back. "Good morning to you, Spencer," she went into the fridge and pulled out some eggs, milk, bread, assorted fruits, and vegetables. She closed the door and started cracking a few eggs when she asked Reid, "Are you okay?"

"Mmm." Reid stretched again. "I'm still feeling a bit sore from sleeping on the couch."

Rose spun her head while whipping after adding the flour, vanilla, and buttermilk. "Oh, Reid…"

Reid raised his hands. "I know. I know." sure, he knew how awkward it was to sleep on the couch, but it felt awkward to not sleep in the master bedroom. Especially not without Élise.

"It'll get better," Rose replied. "I know how you feel." she released a sigh. "I remember when Zeph died. May he rest in peace." Rose lifted her head. "One morning, I made a big breakfast; bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, waffles, cinnamon roll, all the works, and his favorites." she felt a tear coming and wiped it. "Until I realized I was going to be eating alone."

Reid nodded. "I'm sorry."

"Yes," she whispered. "I still miss him. And I'm always going to miss him." Rose tried perking her voice. "I think what I'm trying to tell you is that it'll get better."

"Yet, what if it doesn't, Rose?" Reid worried.

Rose firmly assured, "It will be. There was a reason why Élise left."

"Yeah," Reid still can't help but feel a certain guilt about playing a role for Élise leaving. "She's been going through a lot even before Diane."

"And she's getting the help now before she thought it would get worse for her," Rose added. "And believe me…it's better to get help as soon as possible before it's too late."

Reid shook his head again, "Yeah," he curiously asked, looking at the mixing bowl. "What's for breakfast?"

Rose answered, "Pancakes, waffles, maybe an omelet; really, anything you want, or I could try something new."

Reid opened his mouth, but his thoughts were interrupted when they heard Isaac's cries and coos over the baby monitor.

"I better go tend to him," Reid rushed out of the kitchen.

"Hello again, Jean," Dr. Sasha Long greeted Élise with a warm smile.

Élise simply waved.

"Ready for some physical therapy?"

Élise dryly answered. "Hopefully."

Dr. Long escorted Élise to a physical therapist who had brown hair and hazel eyes, broadly smiling. She had her hands folded in front of her and a blue mat set up before she walked away.

"Hello, Jean," she perkily greeted. "I'm Suzie Donaldson."

"Hey, Suzie."

Suzie cleared her throat before continuing. "So, we're going to do some arm and shoulder exercises first before we move onto your legs, okay?"

Élise shrugged, "Okay."

Suzie pointed to the mat. "I got the mat set up for you, so…" after Élise slowly got on the mat, Suzie pulled out a soft pillow. "Want me to put the pillow underneath your legs or underneath your head and lay flat to really help open up your chest? Whatever is comfortable for you."

Élise lifted her feet, insisting the physical therapist place the pillow there, and when she did, the exercise started with, "Okay. Let's start with shoulder flexion, so what you want to do is you want to, first off, warm up the arm by slowly punching up into the ceiling." Suzie threw slow pretend punches towards the ceiling, motioning Élise to do the same. "There you go, Jean."

"Mmm…" Élise still wasn't feeling up for it.

Suzie replied, "And if you want, we can do "an advance step" and go up and overhead," she motioned her arms far back into her shoulders. "Go as far as you can go…good job, Jean." Suzie clapped. "Even if it does take a long time, you'll start to get stronger again, both physically and mentally."

What about emotionally?, Élise said in her head.

Reid sighed as the elevator doors opened, and he stepped off, taking his coffee cup in the nearest trash can. Opening the entrance to the bullpen, Reid took off his satchel and placed it beside him as he took a seat at his desk. Taking a few things out, Reid stopped when he stared at a framed photo of himself, Séraphine, Isaac, and Élise.

Picking up the frame, Reid still can't help but feel he played a small role in Élise leaving. But in a way, he doesn't blame her. Even before Diane, Élise was going through a lot; postpartum depression, promotion to a D.C. Cir. Judge, news of someone mimicking the crimes they solved.

Perhaps it was best for Élise to leave. The thing that constantly worried him was if she was ever going to come back.

"Spence."

Reid flinched in his seat when he heard someone call out for him. He looked away, and it was JJ standing a few inches away from him.

"You okay?"

"Oh," Reid looked at the photograph and placed it back exactly where it was. "Mmm-hmm. Yeah. I'm okay."

"I see you shaved off the after-hours look," JJ smirked and saw the photograph of the Bastien-Reid family. "I can't believe Élise left you and the children."

"Sometimes I can't believe either," Reid leaned back in his chair and scratched his beardless chin.

"Why would she do that?" JJ wondered with distaste of Élise's actions.

Reid quietly replied, "A lot of reasons."

"Mmm…I'm sure about that," JJ said to herself and had a sip from her coffee cup. She tapped Reid's shoulders and pointed in the direction of where she wanted him to look.

It was Garcia carrying a giant gift basket filled with goodies, such as nuts and seeds, assorted fruits, candy, books.

"One present from the Grand Duchess of All Things Grand and Digital," she placed the gift basket on Reid's desk.

"This is, like, the seventh gift basket you've given him?" JJ almost laughed.

Garcia caressed his hair. "You know I can't help it. anything to help out my favorite person in the world."

"Hey, I heard that." Morgan came into the conversation and wrapped his arm around Garcia. "I thought I was your favorite person in the world."

Garcia took his hand and giggled. "Other than you, chocolate thunder."

"Hello, everyone," Blake strolled in and placed her bag on her chair when she saw most of the team hanging around Reid's desk. Her dark eyes broadened when she saw the gift basket. "Uh…"

Reid raised his hand. "It's for me."

"From me," Garcia perkily pointed to herself and laughed.

Blake chuckled. "This is such a nice gesture."

Garcia made a halo out of her hands and placed it above her head. "Well…"

Their faces turned serious when they saw Hotch and Rossi walking out of their offices. Meaning it was time for a case.

"Let's get going," Morgan took Garcia's hand and guided her to the roundtable room; JJ followed. Reid steadily got up as just Blake saw the framed Bastien-Reid photograph.

"Élise will come back," Blake palmed his arm. "Just give her some time."

Reid nodded. "Yeah."

After lunchtime, Élise decided to have another visit with Dr. Mitchell.

"So, Jean," Dr. Mitchell moved some of her hair back and adjusted her glasses. "How are you feeling?"

Élise was indifferent. "Decent."

"That's something, right?" Dr. Mitchell sneered.

Élise moved her shoulders up and down. "I guess."

"Still having the nightmares?"

"Not as bad as the ones when I first got here," Élise scratched her hair.

Dr. Mitchell cocked her head to the side and guessed, "Diane Turner?"

Élise groaned. "Who else?" she sighed to herself. "Just why now? I…it's been years since I last heard from her. Just why now did she want to resurface?"

"Makes you wonder if you had not known her, none of what you went through would have happened," Dr. Mitchell sympathetically replied.

"Sometimes I wonder that myself."

"I'm home!" Reid announced as he entered the front door and logged in to the security code. Setting his satchel to the side as he strolled into the living room, he saw Rose on the couch with Séraphine and Isaac.

"Daddy!" Séraphine alerted her big eyes on him when she saw him.

Reid smiled, picked her up from the couch, and kissed her head. "Were you good to Rose today?"

Rose answered for her and replied, "She was, yeah."

Reid set her down, scooped Isaac up, and kissed his head. "How was your day, little man?"

"Wahhhh…!" Isaac babbled.

Reid smirked to himself and set him on the floor. He stretched his back and jerked his head to the side at Rose, suggesting they talk privately. Rose got what he was saying and walked to a lone spot in the corner.

"Did you get a call from Élise today?" Reid asked.

Rose crossed her arms and shook her head. "No, sorry."

Reid sighed. "That's okay." rubbing his neck, Reid added, "I don't know, Rose. Other than what's been going on with the person replicating our past crimes and now Diane, I…"

Rose lowered her head a bit. "It's not easy feeling guilty about what happened."

Reid agreed. "What if I haven't come home? What if I never checked on her?"

"You didn't know," Rose replied again.

Reid exhaled heavily. "I know. Still…"

"Daddy!"

Reid twirled his head, and he and Rose hurried to Séraphine's side, only for her to point to Isaac on the carpeted floor.

"Isaac!" Rose exclaimed.

"You're crawling!" Reid quickly took out his phone and started filming Isaac crawling to him and Séraphine.

Élise had her hand on her chin, having her elbow on the table while trying to eat her lunch of brown rice and steamed broccoli after finishing up her physical therapy.

She poked around her lunch, starting to have a flashback moment.

Harvard Law School—2004

Élise was on her laptop doing some research for a Law and Government class she was taking at the Widener Library. She saved her work, figuring she did enough for the day, closed her laptop, and safety tuck it in her bag. Walking out of the library, she tugged on her satchel, making sure it was secured across her chest.

"Ooh!"

She bumped into a young woman who had long dark straight hair and pale skin.

"My bad…" she tried to apologize when her eyes beamed. "Diane?"

Diane moved some of her hair back and gasped. "Élise?"

"Oh, my…" Élise was taken back by her old friend. "I haven't seen you in almost a year. How are you doing, girl?"

Diane flipped her hair. "Still working on my Ph.D./JD. What about you?"

"I'm about to head to the Square to get something to eat," said Élise. "Want to come with me?"

Diane sighed. "I'm craving for something sweet. Maybe afterward, we can do some retail therapy."

Élise smiled. "You took the words right out of my mouth."

Élise set her fork down and still had her hand on her cheek, wondering what went wrong.

Reid woke up extra early to finish up the last of the report from yesterday when he saw a request to Skype with a familiar face. Clicking on the link to accept the Skype request, he answered it.

"Prentiss."

Prentiss smirked a bit. "Hey, Spencer."

"Surprise to hear from you," Reid sensed something.

Prentiss shrugged. "Just thought I catch up and see what I've been missing out on."

"Well, we do have someone replicating the crimes we've solved since August," Reid mentioned that to her.

"Anything else you want to say," Prentiss trend lightly. "Like, say…about a certain someone leaving you?"

Reid shook his head. He couldn't believe it. "Garcia told you about Élise?"

"No," Prentiss answered honestly. "It was JJ."

Reid scoffed in disbelief and scratched his head. "Yeah, she did."

"I know it's hard…"

"Look, Élise has been going through a lot," Reid ranted. "And I do mean 'a lot.' Events that I want to keep private since she is still my wife and I want to respect our privacy. I don't need people, especially the people I work and/or worked with, broadcasting it. So, please. Please!" Reid was ready to go off. "Don't tell me how hard it's been when I witnessed it myself."

Prentiss held her hands up. "Okay. Sorry."

"Thank you," Reid sighed. "I appreciate the call and checking up on me."

"Anytime, Spencer," Prentiss waved goodbye. "Talk to you another time?"

"Yeah. Later." Reid logged off and had his hands over his face in distrust that JJ had the nerve to tell Prentiss about Élise leaving. He expected Garcia due to her incapability to keep anything a secret. But JJ? Borderline unacceptable.

After physical therapy, Élise decided to do something different. Something that would really allow her to open up about what she's been going through.

"Hello, everyone," Élise rose from her seat and stared at everyone looking at her in the formed circular group. "I'm Jean."

"Hello, Jean," everyone said simultaneously.

Élise cleared her dry throat. "This is my first time here, so…" she wrung her hands and picked her fingers. She hadn't felt this nervous in a long time; it was like her giving a presentation in front of the whole class in school. "Maybe…someone else should go," she slowly sat down and weakly smiled. "Sorry."

The brunette-and-blue-green-eyed group support leader smiled. "It's okay. It's not easy opening up the first time," she suggested. "Anyone else wants to go?"

A woman with short black hair and green eyes raised her hands. "I'll go," she fixed her mid-length plaid dress when she got up from her seat. "Hello, everyone. I'm Hana."

"Hello, Hana."

Élise sort of zoned out when Hana talked, not out of rudeness but out of embarrassment. And a bit out of shame.

Once he got to the bullpen, Reid immediately headed for Hotch's office. He recapped to him about his recent conversation with Prentiss.

"JJ told Prentiss about Élise?" Hotch was at his desk with his fingers folded and lowered his eyebrows.

Reid sat across from him. "Mmm-hmm."

Hotch scratched between his eyes and sighed. "I'll have a talk with JJ about it."

"Maybe I should not have said something," Reid laid his hand on his head, already starting to feel a headache.

Hotch replied, "You know you couldn't have kept it a secret forever."

Reid agreed. "I know. But still, Hotch..."

"As I said, I will have a talk to JJ about it."

Reid bowed his head. "Thank you."

Hotch gathered the files containing information about the current files and left the office, following Reid. When they got there, Reid gave JJ a bit of a stink eye before trying to concentrate on the Morrison case, which was about two teenage girls, Sera, and Katie, who went missing, coincidentally reported two days day after their mother, Judy, went missing a year ago, by the father, Bruce.

Élise opened her journal and started writing.

Day 21

February 6, 2013

Journal,

I'm still here and still trying to get better.

I tried opening up in group support but still nothing. I mean, if I can open up to my therapist, I can open up to a bunch of other people, right?

Right?

The team discussed more on the Morrison family: a well-liked family in their community with the father, a well-known writer, and English professor on sabbatical leave from the local university and the wife was a former real estate agent, but allegedly had an affair with a former coworker prior to her disappearance.

On their way to talk to the father, the family considered him to be a suspect due to his wife's infidelity and his oldest daughter possibly accepting early admission to Stanford, and Jeff Goodwin, the man Judy had an affair with.

Hotch had everyone take different parts of the house; Hotch and Rossi interviewed Bruce; Blake and Morgan Sera's room; and JJ and Reid went into Katie's room. Despite Reid's annoyance in telling Prentiss about Élise leaving, he worked well with her.

The lead investigator, Detective Marty Friedman, already suspected Bruce due to his alcoholism and his police gut saying that he did it; even his neighbor believed he was guilty.

Élise had thirty minutes of physical therapy after breakfast. Now that she was finished with that for the day, she wanted to try something new.

Élise was in a room with at least a dozen of other patients, mostly women, in a loose shirt, trousers, and white shoes, staring at an elderly man in loose black clothes.

"Hello, everyone," he greeted everyone in hushed tones but still loud for them to hear. "I'm Dr. Peter Lim. Now, before we get started, who here has done tai chi?"

A couple of people and Élise raised their hands.

"Ah, good," Dr. Lim smiled. "And for those who haven't, don't feel bad. We're going to do some beginner-level movements. Believe it or not, tai chi is a great form of martial arts, known as Shadowboxing." he soon inhaled and exhaled. "Tai chi does wonder for your physicality, your cognitive and psychological health, the rhythm of flowing the qi and balancing your yin and yang."

Dr. Lim got into position, and everyone, including Élise, started following what the instructor was doing.

"Stand with your feet together, bring your arms, breath in," he inhaled and exhaled. "Breath out. Imagine you are a bird in the air, floating. Don't forget to breathe."

"If you don't get the moves right, that's okay," Dr. Lim said. "Now, we are in the water, floating," he lifted his arms up and down.

Élise tried to feel at center with herself, but it wasn't going through yet.

Going to the river, Morgan and Reid discovered and delivered unfortunate news to Hotch.

Katie's body was found in the reeds, but Sera was nowhere to be found.

Reid and Morgan visited the M.E., who knew Katie via her daughter, and offered their condolences to her. Katie's cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, possibly from a gun grip. Though there was no water in her lungs, she was killed within the last two days.

Élise enjoyed an extremely healthy lunch of summer rolls with peanut sauce and crunchy Vietnamese chicken salad.

Now, Reid and Morgan were at the Salisbury police station. They were in a room by themselves when Blake called and alerted that Jeff Goodwin had walked in. Morgan was still suspected of him, but after listening to a local abuse hotline, the attention went back to Bruce. The latter, after listening to it, went to a completely different alternate personality.

They've seen this before and knew Bruce had DID, dissociative identity disorder, whose sadistic alternate ego named Johnny. However, Detective Friedman is still eager to arrest him.

Seeing how Bruce/Johnny interact, they managed to get a location.

Going back to the river again, in the forest near an abandoned building, they managed to find a wounded Sera, who had a shotgun.

Élise opened her journal again and started writing.

Decent day I had.

Physical therapy. Tai chi. Might try yoga if I'm up for it.

And…possibly support group again.

Reid was with Morgan and Blake when JJ called them and told them something was off with Sera. JJ reflected on how she was when her big sister died and might think Sera was the one who orchestrated the plan to kill her mother and sister and blame it on her father. They concluded that Sera's a psychopath due to manipulating everyone and lack of empathy.

Their suspicions went higher when JJ mimicked a conversation with Henry, signaling that Sera was now in the room with her. Reid and Morgan rushed to the Morrison, and Garcia discovered that Sera cut off Bruce's anti-alcohol medications.

Armed, they quietly walked into the house and checked the living room and the dining room before noticing the basement door was slightly opened.

And they could hear Sera and JJ.

Reid kept his revolver aimed at Sera's head as she held JJ at gunpoint, knowing she would kill her while Morgan played along to get Sera to lower her gun.

Once she did, Reid cuffed her and passed her to Morgan, who soon passed her to Detective Friedman, despite her protests.

JJ and Reid discovered Sera's trophies, Judy's pearl necklace, and earrings that were hidden in a box labeled '1999'—the year of Katie's birth—in the planner under February 4th, 2012, which was the day she went missing.

Before they knew it, the team was on the way flying home. Some were sleeping, and some were relaxing. Reid was in the kitchenette, drinking the last of his water before washing, rinsing, and cleaning the cup.

He heard footsteps approaching him; at the corner of his eye, he tried not to look at,

"Thanks again for saving me." JJ appreciated her gratitude to him.

Reid remarked, "It was the least I can do."

JJ sensed something and asked, "Are you okay?"

It took everything in his mind not to smash his mug and blow up with the team there. Instead, he furiously but tranquility retorted. "How could you tell Prentiss about Élise leaving?"

"Spence, I didn't…" JJ tried to explain, but Reid wouldn't stop.

"What gave you the right to tell Prentiss about that? Where the hell do you even get off doing that? I know what you may think, but Élise really has been going through a lot, even before Diane, and you had no right, in the slightest, to do that. Especially Élise and our children. Plus, think about Élise's reputation. Did you even consider that before you blabbed to Prentiss about this? How would you feel if the same thing happened to you, huh?"

JJ was borderline speechless, "I'm sorry…"

Reid concluded this conversation with, "I'm sure you are." he excused himself and took a seat in the far corner, catching up on some sleep before landing.

Élise closed her journal again, trying to think if there was any more to write, but nothing. Laying her head against the pillow, she sighed and stared at the white ceiling. Élise felt something wrong but in an indifferent way.

Grabbing her cell phone from behind her pillow, Élise dialed a number and placed the phone to her ear, waiting for the receiver to answer. She knew it was late, but she needed to call them.

"Hello?"

Élise smirked. "Hey, babe."

"Hey, Élise," Reid sounded almost relieved. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she assured him. "I know it's late, but I just…"

Reid got it. "I know. I've been calling you late at night after we dated, so…"

"Are you okay?"

Reid sighed. "A case involving a young girl trying to frame her DID father for the murders of her younger sister and mother."

"Damn." that was the word to describe what Reid told her.

Reid blurted. "And JJ told Prentiss about you leaving me."

If she wasn't in this hospital rehab, Élise swore she could scream, curse, to the highest and deepest abysses of hell. "Really?"

"I don't know what her problem was for doing that, but I set her straight and Hotch, too."

A satisfied Élise replied, "Good."

"Do you know when you're coming home?"

Élise's jaw opened, but she couldn't get the words out. Still, she shouldn't be surprised.

"Élise?"

"I love you."

She abruptly hung up.

Reid tossed the cellphone on the coffee table. He knew he wasn't going to get the answer, but he had to answer. Laying his head against the pillow, he closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.

Élise has to come home.

Right?