Day late and a dollar short am I right? Sorry for being trash and updating on Tuesday. But I love you guys so much and I am really happy with how this chapter turned out. Enjoy!

He was happy to be heading home after a tough case. A guy was impersonating the Zodiac Killer to try to get his best friend's attention. It was a crazy case and actually put his intelligence to the test. There hadn't been a case before where he felt like the unsub might actually be smarter than him. It was almost like he met his equal. He found it a bit thrilling.

The case not only pushed him mentally, it did so with the rest of his team. To the point where they had forgotten about his birthday. Not that he minded. He was turning thirty. And he felt like he hadn't really accomplished much in that time. No need to celebrate when there was nothing to celebrate.

When he casually mentioned his new age to Prentiss, he should have known something would happen. On the plane back he was focused on Lila going over notes for her dissertation. He saw in her planner that her defense of it was approaching and he could see the nervousness all over her. She was chewing the inside of her mouth more as well as her fingers. She was pulling and twisting her hair whenever she glanced at the date, probably filled with anxiety. But he was so focused on watching Lila, that he didn't think twice about Prentiss on her phone, probably texting, then looking at all of their teammate. If he actually put some of his brain power to that, he probably would have found it suspicious.

After they had landed he went to fill out the proper paper work. It didn't take him too long. Maybe an hour at most. As he was walking out, Prentiss grabbed him, saying Hotch wanted to have a word. He groaned. He assumed this had to do with how he was acting but he was pleasantly surprised that that was not the case. Prentiss took him to the conference room where everyone was gathered for a makeshift birthday party. They even had a cake and everything. He figured Garcia was the mastermind behind that. She loved throwing parties.

He was having a great time, laughing and talking with his friends. His family. He found that his eyes kept going towards Lila. She had given him a tight hug as she wished him happy birthday and apologized for not realizing it. He loved holding her close to him, pressing his cheek against her head. It felt so natural to him. There was no awkwardness. No hesitation. No fear of germs. It was like he was supposed to touch her.

As the party went on and they all ate the delicious cake that Garcia had, in fact, gotten for the occasion. He noticed at one point, Lila step outside to take a phone call. This wasn't odd given her position. He was hoping it wasn't a new case. They had just gotten back from one and were having a good time. He actually wanted to continue his little birthday party.

When she came back in, she looked upset and a bit disheveled. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but didn't want to bring unwanted attention to her. She was keeping her eyes down and to the edge of the group. Whatever was bothering her she obviously didn't want to discuss with everyone in the room. Garcia was on her in an instant, though. Maybe it was a special girl sense to know when your best friend was in trouble and pain. He figured he'd leave it to Garcia then. Whatever was bothering Lila, she herself would tell him when she was ready or Garcia would spill the beans probably sooner than later.

With a bit of inward coaxing, he focused his attention to JJ and a story she was telling about Henry and how he had managed to get peanut butter all over the kitchen. Hearing this funny and heartwarming story really made him want to have kids. He had always been scared to, worried he'd pass the schizophrenia gene down to them. But the odds of having a schizophrenic break past the age of thirty were second to none and had made him feel like he actually could have healthy children.

The party slowly started to wind down. They all started to clean up their area and leave. Garcia had handed him the leftover cake for him to bring home. He appreciated it. He noticed Lila hanging around Garcia and whispering quietly to her. He was hoping she would have said something to him, but she did not. After a final goodbye to everyone, he left the conference room. As he was approaching the exit he heard footsteps from behind him.

"Hey." Lila had caught up to him, lightly touching his shoulder. His attention was caught instantly as he turned his body towards her. She still looked upset but more composed than she did earlier. "We're getting closer to when I'm supposed to defend my dissertation." He remembered seeing that on her planner and thought that might have been what her phone call was about. "And I was wondering if I could maybe meet up with you and have you look over what I have? I'm really nervous and you've done this how many times now?"

"Three." His answer came out almost before she asked the question. He had an inkling that maybe she had asked a rhetorical question but it was in his nature to answer anyways.

"Right," she said and he couldn't tell if she was annoyed or not. "Will you help me?"

That definitely was not rhetorical. "Sure." He smiled and nodded. "You can come over to my apartment tomorrow after work if you want. As long as we don't have a case."

"Thank you so much, Spencer! I owe you one!" It was like her mood was instantly lifted. She walked away with a smile on her face. As did he.

The next day at work they agreed to meet up around seven. She wanted to go back to her place and change into more comfortable clothes before their meetup. And she needed to gather up all her papers. That was fine with him. He'd use the extra time to make sure his apartment was in pristine condition. It usually was but he didn't often have guests as pretty as her show up. He wanted to make sure it was perfect.

About three minutes past seven there was a knock on his apartment door. He practically jumped up and raced to the door, not even bothering to look in the peephole. He knew it was her. "Hey," he said, smiling as he opened the door.

"Hey. Thanks again for offering to help me. It really means a lot." She had a bag filled with what he assumed were papers with her. Sure he didn't need to carry around as much research as the average PhD student did, but she did. It showed how dedicated she was to her studies and he greatly admired that. He also took a split second to admire what she was wearing. Her shirt was cropped, exposing her stomach. It looked like she might have had a belly button piercing at one point, but not anymore. It was lacy and he had to admit he really liked the lace. He liked the tight black pants she had paired with it as well.

"Of course," he said, pulling his thoughts away from her outfit to her face. She wasn't wearing any make up, like usual. He liked her natural beauty. Though the times he had seen her more dolled up he also liked. "Come in." He stepped aside and let her enter. He caught a whiff of her shampoo as she walked past him.

"I really like your apartment. It's very you," she said as she looked around. This made him feel proud. He loved his little home and all the books he had collected. He was glad she could appreciate it too.

She was looking at his bookshelf, glancing at all the books he had. She stopped at one and frowned. "Are you still getting migraines?" She pointed to his book about migraines and how to cope with them. He knew he had it but he didn't think about trying to hide it from her.

"Sometimes. They're not always that bad though. Not like before. But yeah, I still get them." There was a moment where they just looked at each other. This gaze made him uncomfortable and he wasn't sure why. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "We can get set up on the couch if you like." He gestured towards his couch and coffee table.

She nodded and placed her bag down next to her on the couch, seeming to move past the headache issue. "I brought literally every single piece of information I have used to write this paper as well as every single draft of this paper I have ever written. And I did this because I know how you are with technology, even though I have all of this saved in files on my laptop. But I figured you wouldn't have wifi here. Anyways, I'm pretty sure I murdered a small forest printing all this off so for the sake of all those forest animals who no longer have a home, you better give me some good ass help."

He couldn't help but laugh a bit at this. She came totally prepared and he admired that. Especially since she took the time to make this as tech free as she could. He sat down next to her and grabbed a pile of papers. With ease, he made his way through them all reading every single word at an extraordinary speed.

Over the next couple hours he read and offered advice on how to make her paper better. She'd jot down notes and rewrite passages. This took longer than normal as she was doing it all by hand. He knew she was a quick typist. He'd seen her in action before.

During their meeting he'd notice her phone light up. She'd look at it, reading whatever was on the screen, but she wouldn't reply. He couldn't help but notice that it was Ben who was texting her. And every time he did, she seemed to get more and more upset and make more and more mistakes on her paper. She was at the point where she was violently scribbling out passages that she was writing, almost tearing the paper.

"Maybe we should stop for the day," he casually mentioned. "You've made a lot of progress. You should be proud."

"I guess," she mumbled. He could hear the frustration in her voice and see how upset she was. Whatever was going on with Ben was effecting her school work. He didn't like that.

After gathering a bit of courage he asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Her eyes shot up to him, meeting them with intensity. The conflict of whether or not to talk about it was going happening on her face and he almost felt bad for asking. Finally, she took a deep breath and spoke. "Ben and I... we're just having a bit of a rough patch." He could tell this was really bothering her. She pulled her knees to her chest and her eyes started to well. She was very distraught.

"What's going on?" he asked. His concern for her was real. He hated seeing her like this. Even though he didn't care for Ben, Ben made her happy. And that's how he likes to see her. Happy. Not on the verge of tears.

"Ben's coming to the end of his probationary period. He'll be able to transfer wherever he wants. The plan was for him to come here. Work from DC or somewhere close by. But, there's a detective spot open in Wyoming. And they want him there. They want him bad. The money is good, the benefits better. It's closer to his friends and family. The only thing missing is-"

"You." He finished for her. He could hear the pain her in voice and see the anguish on her face. Her love for Ben runs deep. He hoped to one day feel that type of love (especially from her). But now was not the time for him to be selfish and think of himself. His friend was hurting and he needs to be there for her.

"Yeah, basically. I want to be selfish and make him turn it down. But I can't do that to him. This is a great opportunity. I just...I don't know what it means for us if he takes it."

"He hasn't decided yet?"

She shook her head. "He has another two weeks before he needs to let them know his decision. He wants to come out here before hand and talk with me about it face to face. As much as I want that, I don't think that's a good idea."

"You think it'll be too hard to say good bye." He didn't need to be a profiler to know that. Her thoughts were written all over her face. Tears started to spill from her blue eyes. He wanted to reach over and wipe them away but thought that would be inappropriate of him to do that. Endorphins get released during physical touch and even though it's a small amount, he didn't want to be the cause of any more hurt or confusion for her.

"Exactly. I love Ben so much. We've been through so much together. Not just this past time, but since the beginning. When I started my internship at the Seattle Police Department back when I was still an undergrad, he had just finished his academy training to be a police officer there. He was my first real relationship, my first real lover, my first real everything. I know we've broken up in the past and I swore that I would never date him again. Yet time after time I always wound up with him. But now...now it seems like it really is coming to an end. I...I can't commit to him if he decides to go to Wyoming. It's not fair to me and it's not fair to him either."

"I'm really sorry, Lila." He wasn't sure what else to say. He'd never really experienced that before. He'd gone on one date with JJ years ago. Obviously that didn't work out. He had a short fling with Lila Archer. That also didn't work out. Other than that, a handful of women had tried to flirt with him. Nothing ever came of those either. He was very much a novice when it came to women, romance, and relationships. Still, he could feel the pain radiating off of her and that was enough to make him hurt as well.

"Thank you, Spencer. I know you're not Ben's biggest fan but I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to me rant." She smiled kindly at him causing his face to grow a shade darker. He hated how much he blushed around her. It was like a virus that there was no cure for. "I think I should be going home. I want to put all the edits I made on my computer. I can reprint it and have you read a nice clean version then."

"That's a good idea. We can get together again before your defense if you want."

"Thank you, Spence." She put all her papers away and stood up. "I really appreciate your help. All of it."

He got up as well and opened his apartment door for her. "I'll see you at work, Lila," he said quietly.

"See you," she said softly. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving. He closed the door behind her, strongly wishing for Ben to take the position in Wyoming.

Did you guys like it? I hope you did. I know most of you don't like Ben and now it looks like he will be out of the picture. What does this mean? Find out soon!