And In The End--missing scenes

by mccabebabe

Alternate scenes for the series finale. They seem to have forgotten someone and I'm revisiting scenes to rectify that situation for some fans. Reid/Max 'Maxcer', JJ and Garcia both appear

And In the End—Missing Scenes

A CM fiction

K+

Reid/Max "Maxcer", Garcia, JJ

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Alternate scenes for the series finale. They seem to have forgotten someone and I'm revisiting scenes to rectify that situation for some fans.

Also acknowledging that some dialogue was lifted straight from the episode.

I don't own Criminal Minds (thank goodness, I couldn't afford to replace the jet); make no profit nor do I intend to, just borrowing the characters for a while. And if I owned CM, it wouldn't have been cancelled.

My eternal thanks to Aut and to WolfAlice who helped smooth things, encouraged when writer's block threatened to halt this story altogether and found some words when I could not. :::a tip of the (red) wine glass to you both.

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Hey, It's Penelope. Please call me ASAP.

Max Brenner's brow furrowed as she read the text from her friend. The streetlight changed from red to green and Max's attention left the dashboard screen back to driving her red Volkswagen Beetle through DC's afternoon traffic.

She wondered what Penelope wanted. The BAU team was away on a case, Max knew. A text from Spencer yesterday had let her know they were on the trail of the Chameleon; a nickname given to the face-lifting killer whose real name was Everett Lynch. Just the thought of that made her shudder in horror. She tried to remember where Spencer had said they were going and realised that he had, in fact, not disclosed the destination; just that they were taking the jet and he wasn't sure when they'd be back.

Fifteen minutes later, Max made a left turn and eased up the street towards her apartment building. The sound of an incoming text caused her to glance quickly at the console.

Please call me ASAP Max!

A worry line crossed her forehead as she pulled into her assigned parking spot.

"Oh no, don't like the sound of this," Max thought aloud. Quickly she parked her car and gathered her purse and tote bag from the seat beside her. She hurried to the building's door, swiped her access card and made her way to the elevator bay. After pushing the button to call the lift, she rummaged through her purse and extracted her cell phone. The elevator arrived and she stepped into it just as she finished swiping through the phone's contacts to Penelope Garcia.

Noting that Garcia had called from her personal cell phone, Max clicked on 'mobile' under Penelope's contacts and waited for the call to be answered. The elevator door closed and started the rise to the seventh floor.

"Max?"

"Yeah, Penelope, hi. What's up?"

"I'm sorry I have to do this like this. And I need you to stay calm—"

Instantly, Max's adrenalin kicked in and she gasped, "Oh no. What's going on?! What happened?"

"I'm so sorry, I wanted to be able to tell you in person but, um, damn it. Listen, I'm sending a security detail to pick you up. I don't think you should drive." She heaved a sigh and continued. "Spencer was involved in an accident yesterday and—"

"Oh my God—" Max had the presence of mind to push the emergency stop in the elevator, and then the down button to send the lift back down to the lobby level. "Is he all right?"

"He suffered a head injury. I really didn't wanna do this on the phone, but it was important to let you know and get you here ASAP."

Max took a few deep breaths to calm herself.

"Max?"

"I'm here."

"I just sent you a photo. It's of Agent Anderson, he's on his way over to bring you to the hospital."

"Okay, thank you Penelope. I'll be there as soon as this Agent Anderson can get me there."

In the hospital room, Garcia's attention returned to Reid. His mother Diana sat at his bedside. He stirred slightly and her hopes rose that he was awakening.

"Spencer?" she ventured optimistically, only to have her hopes dashed as the movement in the bed stopped.

Sighing unhappily, Garcia checked the readout on the screen of the monitor next to him. She had no idea, of course, what the readings meant but nothing was beeping and this reassured her that things were relatively normal. He was breathing steadily and regularly she noted. As she tried to decipher what the other vital statistics meant, the text alert sounded from her phone. Stepping back from Reid's hospital bed, Garcia swiped through to text messages and saw it was from Max. She let out a sigh of relief as she read.

On the way. ETA about twenty minutes according to Grant. Please tell me Spence is okay.

Tears fell from Garcia's eyes as she declined replying, clicking her phone off. "I can't lie to you, Max, " she said aloud, "We just don't know yet."

At Reid's bedside, his mother was holding vigil. Garcia moved to stand by the door, giving Diana as much privacy as she could. It broke her heart to hear the older woman's voice cracking as she hovered over her only child.

"My baby," Diana crooned as she swept Reid's hair back off his face.

Reid's doctor arrived to discuss treatment options. Confusion quickly muddled Diana's mind and Garcia asked Dr. Kiyomura to give them a moment. As the women conferred Spencer suddenly went into seizure.

"What's happening? What's happening to my boy?!" Diana was distraught, crying uncontrollably and pacing back and forth by his bedside.

The medical team quickly came together to look after their patient, Garcia stepped in and took charge of the distressed mother, steering her away from the patient bed.

"Mrs. Reid, Mrs. Reid," Garcia soothed, although she was worried as well, she tried to calm Diana down. It took some doing, but Garcia managed to convince Diana that they should leave the room and allow the doctor and nurses to work.

Moments later, Dr. Kiyomura was happy to tell Penelope and Diana that Spencer was fighting and stablising. Diana rushed back to her son's bedside.

Diana bent her head down closer to his. "Spencer? Spencer, can you hear me? Hi."

His eyes fluttered open weakly.

"That's a good sign" Dr. Kiyomura smiled.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Garcia asked.

"He's putting up one hell of a fight. But it's still too early to know for sure. I need to keep him here for tests."

Penelope stood over them like a sentry, watching as Diana spoke of the colour of Spencer's eyes. Diana told Spencer she'd seen his favourite clouds a few minutes earlier. Both women were overjoyed when the patient briefly opened his eyes.

"Hey. We were just plucking eye memories of you."

"I heard you," he whispered, "Forgot how much I love those clouds, Mom. You helped me remember."

"I did huh? Well maybe I can come back tomorrow and we can watch clouds together," Diana told him, realising he was still weak and would need to rest.

"Am I alive or is this Heaven?" he asked.

"Sweetie, you are very much alive." She squeezed his arm, "And now that I know you're going to be all right, I should go. We both need our rest. And I have the feeling—" she paused as a soft knock sounded on the door. Penelope opened it. Margie, Diana's attendant from the Brookfield home acknowledged Penelope with a nod and gestured towards Diana. After bringing Diana to see her son, she'd been sitting out in the hallway discreetly allowing Diana to have a relatively unsupervised visit with Spencer. The two Security Details, assigned to guard Garcia and Diana, had been sitting across from Margie, quietly chatting. When he noted Margie entering the patient room, Diana's assigned Security rose from his seat.

"It's time to take her home," Margie said. "I'll bring her back to see him tomorrow morning."

"Okay, thank you," Penelope replied. She stepped out into the hall, and still holding her phone in her hands.

"Diana?" Margie took her arm, "It's time to go, dear. We'll be back tomorrow morning, I promise. We need to leave now so the nurses here can do their work to help your son, and so we can get you back to your room and have your meds too."

Diana bent down to kiss Reid's forehead and stroked his face once more.

"I will be back tomorrow, Sweetie. Don't go cloud watching without me."

"I won't," he promised and waved one hand weakly as she turned to obediently follow Margie. Penelope squeezed Diana's arm comfortingly as Margie, her charge and Security left.

Garcia watched as the trio walked down the hallway towards the elevator bay. When they turned the corner and were out of her sight, she slipped through the open door back to Reid's bedside. His eyes were closed and Garcia wasn't sure if he was sleeping or had lapsed back into unconsciousness.

"Please be all right, Boy Wonder," she patted his hand, which was lying across his chest. "Max will kill us if you—" she couldn't bring herself to continue that train of thought. "Please be well," she finished quietly. Penelope stood beside the equipment monitoring Reid's status and fished her phone out of her purse.

She spent a minute sending JJ an update via text and was interrupted by the sound of the door bursting open.

Max hurried into the room, bypassing Penelope altogether and rushing to Spencer's bedside. Close behind Max was Agent Grant Anderson. He paused to acknowledge Garcia.

"Got here as quickly as we could."

"Thank you, Grant," she touched his arm.

"How's he doing?" Grant indicated Reid.

"Stable. Waiting for test results." Garcia heaved a sigh.

Gesturing to the door, Anderson told her, "I'm gonna go keep Kowalski company. We'll wait out there."

Garcia's attention returned to the patient bed. Max was now sitting at its edge, holding one of Reid's hands.

"Oh my," she reached out to touch his face and then stopped short. Turning to face Garcia, she asked, "What happened?" and then immediately looked back at Reid and choked back tears. "Spencer, can you hear me?"

Garcia waited a moment as Max registered the non-response from Reid. Putting a comforting hand on Max's shoulder, Penelope explained what had happened.

"They had Lynch cornered in a house. But what they didn't know was that he'd rigged it to blow up. They negotiated the safe release of the hostage, but there was an explosion and Spencer was injured in the blast."

Max stroked his face gently and listened as Garcia spoke.

"It was really really late by the time the team got home last night," Garcia offered an explanation as to why Reid hadn't told Max he was back. "I think JJ drove him home from the air field last night. But he said he was okay when she asked how he was doing. When Spencer didn't show up for work this morning, we thought maybe he'd slept in but JJ and I went to check on him later. And we found him unconscious on the floor of his apartment."

"And he was brought here. And while they've been working on him, the team was back out on the case. Rossi and Prentiss said we all needed Security details. And our families too. And I was arranging that for myself and for Spencer's mom. And then I had to get her here and I realised that you would need a Security detail too. And that you should be here and—" she paused to take a breath, "Just so much happening all at once. I didn't mean—I'm so sorry."

Max patted the hand Garcia had on her shoulder and reassured her, "You had so much going on."

Nodding, Garcia continued, steeling herself to speak seriously. "He has intracranial hemorrhaging. But he opened his eyes earlier. And even spoke. He asked if he was alive," a smile stretched across Garcia's face. "His mom was here earlier, but she had to go back to her nursing home."

Max nodded acknowledgement with a slight smile.

"And the doctor said it was a good sign. Opening his eyes I mean. He's fighting. And now, since you're here, he'll fight harder. Max, I," Garcia heaved a tired sigh, "I'm gonna go for a while. I'm exhausted. I need sleep. And he's in your hands now so he's good. You guys need some privacy."

"Thank you," Max set Spencer's hand down and rose to give Penelope a hug. "For letting me know, for everything. You need some rest, Penelope. I'm gonna stay here with him."

Garcia gathered her purse and things and waved, whispering, "I'll be back tomorrow."

Max watched as Garcia and her Security left and turned her attention back to Spencer. Once again, she took his hand gently and crooned, "I'm here, Spence. Please come back to me. Fight this, sweetheart."

You need to find that kind of passion with someone again.

He stirred but didn't awaken.

"Spencer?"

You need to find that kind of passion with someone again.

Reid's head moved from side to side.

"Spence? Can you hear me?"

You need to find that kind of passion with someone again.

"Please, Spence. Please come back to me."

His eyes fluttered open. Max moved closer so he could focus on her face. Without his glasses or contacts, she knew he wouldn't be able to see well. He blinked several times in quick succession, murmured something under his breath that Max couldn't quite make out and then a smile broke across his face.

"Max!"

She bent and kissed his forehead.

"You're here."

"Of course I'm here," she smiled. "Where else would I be?"

He reached for her hand.

"I'm so glad you're here." He winced against a wave of pain and then met her gaze. "I passed out in my apartment," he remembered aloud.

"You did. Penelope and JJ found you and had you brought here. You had some bleeding on the brain, but it seems to have stopped. They've run some tests. We're just waiting to hear back now." As she spoke, she squeezed the hand holding hers and stroked his face with her other hand.

"I thought I was dying."

"You can't die. There's still too much life for you to live. Still lots of things for you to do. Books to read. Classes to teach. Crimes to solve, lives to save," her voice trailed off.

"People to love," he said.

You need to find that kind of passion with someone again.

He smiled as he thought about what Maeve said.

"I had some visions," he said in a low voice. "I saw our old boss. I saw an old foe. And I saw Maeve."

His first girlfriend, Max recalled. They'd had a brief conversation about past loves during one of their coffee dates. Not wanting to upset him, she kept her face as neutral as she could as she remembered his detailing how Maeve had been murdered right in front of him.

"She told me the same thing you just did. That I've still got things to do in this life."

Max nodded in agreement. He made eye contact with her.

"She told me that I need to find that kind of passion with someone again."

He winced again as another wave of pain washed across his face. Max eyed him carefully, wondering if this pain was enough that she should be calling for his nurse.

"I think I have," he told her, searching her eyes for her reaction to his disclosure.

"Spence?"

"Found that passion again." Her heart soared at his words. She leaned forward to gather him in a careful, gentle hug and was buoyed by the strength of his responding embrace.

A moment later, he sighed heavily and Max was keenly aware he was tiring and should probably rest. As she considered what to say, he forged ahead.

"I know you said you want to take things slow."

"Shhhh. Spence, you need to rest. We can—we will—talk about that later."

She pushed him back down onto the bed and brought the blankets up to cover him. Dropping a kiss onto his forehead, she stood up and repeated herself.

"Rest now. We will talk later. I promise."

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"Ugh. Ow," Max exclaimed in a low voice as she rubbed the side of her neck. She'd fallen asleep at Reid's bedside and had a kink in her shoulder from the uncomfortable position she'd been in. Moving her head from side to side, she worked out the discomfort and then rose. She sent a text to her sister, apologising in advance for bailing on their planned lunch date. As she typed, Spencer stirred slightly, his head moved from side to side and Max turned back to his bedside.

"Spence?"

He opened his eyes and smiled widely. "Max!"

She sat back down and smiled brightly back at him.

"Were you here all night?" he asked, with a tone that conveyed both pleasant surprise and mild scolding.

"I was. I'm not about to leave you alone."

He conceded that point with an amused look.

"Are you hungry? I'll get the nurse to bring you breakfast."

"What about you?"

"I will get something later. Nurse said your doctor was gonna be here in an hour or so." As she spoke, the door opened and Reid's nurse poked her head around it.

"Oh good, you're awake. I'll be right back." Not a minute later, the door reopened and the nurse entered, bearing Reid's breakfast tray. She set it down on the table and wheeled it into place in front of him. Max helped him to sit up.

"There we go. You eat this. The doctor will be here in about ten minutes, she's just down the hall with another patient."

"Good, I'm just gonna go grab a coffee and a croissant in the café and I'll be back in half an hour or so, after Dr. Kiyomura's been here," Max told him. She picked up her purse from the chair and gave a little wave as she left.

"Eat!" the nurse directed again as she followed Max out the door.

He watched the women leave and perused his breakfast tray. Taking the lid off a small bowl, Reid made a face as he recognised porridge.

"Ugh, even Goldilocks and the three bears would turn this down."

The lid was quickly replaced and his hand moved to the small coffee pot. He inhaled deeply, savouring the aroma of his favourite brew and he poured some into the mug on his tray. After adding some cream and way too much sugar, he stirred it and then picked it up reverently.

"The elixir of life," he mused aloud, sipping at it as he inventoried the rest of his breakfast. He ate the applesauce with gusto and then spread the supplied peanut butter on the lone slice of toast (barely warm, he noted) and ate that as well. After refilling the coffee mug, Reid sat back to enjoy his drink just as Dr. Kiyomura arrived with his test results.

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"She did! She said I could go home tomorrow."

Max eyed him suspiciously.

"The bleeding's stopped. The swelling is down."

The expression on Max's face didn't change.

"All right. She said I could go home if I had someone there with me."

"Well okay then. I'm all over that," Max intoned.

"What about your students?"

"The school can get a substitute teacher for a couple of days."

"You have an answer for everything, don't you?"

She started to laugh as the door to Reid's room opened and JJ and Garcia entered. Max greeted them and then turned back to Spencer.

"I'm gonna leave you with these two lovely ladies and head over to the school. Make the arrangements for the next few days. I'll be back later."

She bent to kiss him lightly, waved to the new arrivals and left.

"How are you doing, Spence?" JJ asked as she took the chair next to his bed.

"I'm good. Good. Better now, knowing Dr. Kiyomura's letting me go home tomorrow. Still a week or so away from returning to work though."

"That's good to hear," Penelope responded. She stood beside JJ and eyed Reid's abandoned breakfast. "You didn't eat very much," she accused.

"Did you look at it?" He wrinkled his nose as he spoke.

"Well, it's not Jell-O," she conceded. They all laughed. Garcia pulled a book out of her purse and handed it to him. "Thought you might like something to read. It's an advance copy of Rossi's upcoming new book."

"Thanks, Penelope. That reminds me, JJ, could you do me a favour?"

"Anything, Spence."

"I left my copy of Jung's Synchronicity on the jet when we got back from Reno. Could you possibly pick that up for me?"

JJ gasped, inhaling sharply. She exchanged a look with Garcia and Reid saw it.

"Is something wrong?"

"Um," JJ sighed, "I'm sorry Spence. That's just not gonna be possible. I'm so sorry, but the book, if it was on the jet, is gone."

His brow furrowed with an unspoken question.

"I kinda blew up the jet. With Everett Lynch and Jung's Synchronicity in it."

She quickly related the team's takedown of The Chameleon at the airfield, giving him only the necessary details. Deliberately, she left out that Krystall had been kidnapped and that Rossi was now recovering from a tumble down the jet's staircase.

"Lynch is dead?"

He sat back and let out a deep breath. "Wow. I'm glad the team finally got him, but," he paused as he let JJ's disclosure sink in. The look of incredulity on his face turned into a smile. "You blew up the jet?"

JJ nodded confirmation. "I did. We shot at the gas tank and then I sent a flare into the leaked fuel, Die Hard style. And I'm afraid your book went up in flames too."

"That's okay. I'll get another copy. I'm just glad we finally got him," he sighed as he recalled the incident that had landed him in the hospital. "At such a cost though. Six agents…" he trailed off, saddened by the memory.

"Hey!" JJ bent forward and touched his arm, "That was not your fault. Any one of us would have made the same call, Spence."

He shook his head sadly, apparently in disagreement. Garcia blinked back tears and squeezed JJ's shoulder.

"Not your fault, Spence. We profiled that Roberta would take them both out. But in the end, she couldn't shoot her own son and that gave him the opening he needed. Everett Lynch killed those agents."

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He walked back into the kitchen to refill his coffee mug and then padded back to the living room sofa. The newspaper lay open on the coffee table in front of him and his messenger bag was slung over the armchair beside the sofa. Max's purse sat on the table and he heard the ping of a text alert emanate from within its depths. He arched his neck over the back of the sofa and listened carefully for a moment. Hearing that the water running, Max was apparently still in the shower he surmised.

Reid had been home from the hospital for a week now under Max's careful supervision. Still not allowed to return to work, Reid spent the days reading and researching, preparing for the university courses he would be teaching. He and Max played games, made meals together and did a lot of talking. Every day, she accompanied him on a short walk through the park behind his apartment building and every day, they made that walk a little longer. Reid figured the walk today would end up being over an hour and he looked forward to that with happy anticipation.

He remembered an exchange when he was in the hospital. He'd asked about their taking things slowly in the relationship and how Max had hushed him at the time, citing his need to rest. He smiled now as he recalled the two of them revisiting that conversation yesterday. The subject had made him a little nervous. Her idea of slow was likely different from his and he worried that he was accelerating things too quickly for her liking.

"You said you wanted to take things slow, because you didn't want to be disappointed. I'm just wondering—I just wanted to know," he paused to choose his words, "what you considered to be…slow enough. If I'm pushing things too much."

"I'm not disappointed with how things have progressed for us, Spence. Honestly," she'd paused and smiled broadly when she spoke, "I haven't been disappointed at all. I've loved every minute we've spent together this past couple of months. And I'm looking forward to many more."

His own cellphone sounded, interrupting his train of thought and he withdrew it from his pocket to read the text message.

Party for Rossi at his place on the 26th. That's a Thursday.

Instantly, his curiosity piqued, he texted Garcia back.

Is he retiring?

That's what Krystall said.

Okay! Thanks for letting me know.

This meant Rossi was retiring in just over three weeks, Reid understood. Things were changing at the BAU, he realised. JJ could be headed to New Orleans. Emily was being considered for Director. He thought about what Maeve had said and revisited the idea of redefining his own tenure at the FBI. He wanted to continue as a profiler but he wanted very much to continue teaching as well.

The shower was quiet, Reid noted and wondered how much longer before Max emerged from the bathroom. Her phone went off again and Reid chuckled, imagining how many text messages she was going to be swamped with.

Finally, Max appeared in the living room, fully dressed for the day in casual dark grey pants and a burgundy sweater, hair and makeup done.

"You look great," Spencer told her as he rose from his seat. After sharing a good morning hug and kiss, he indicated her purse; "Your phone went off eight times since I've been out here."

She chuckled. "Probably my sisters. My dad. Maybe Penelope." and then picked up her purse, searching through it for the phone.

As the device came to life, Max let out a squeal.

"Max?" he searched her face and realised it was a happy squeal and not distress.

"I have a voice mail from the Smithsonian!"

Quickly, she punched the number to return the call and the smile on Reid's face grew wider and wider as he heard her side of the conversation.

"Absolutely. Yes, sir. That is not a problem. Thank you very much," her voice betrayed her excitement as she gave her email address. The call concluded, leaving Max shaking with anticipation.

"I got the job, Spence! I got the job!"

"Congratulations, Max! I knew you would!"

"You did say that, didn't you?"

He swept her up in a hug and twirled her around, "This is fantastic!"

"I'm so excited. I wanted this so bad."

"I know! They will be so happy with their choice. You are going to rock it, Max. We have to celebrate." He slowed the twirl and set her back down on her feet but kept her snug in his arms.

"Thank you so much for all your support and positivity."

He kissed the top of her head and then tipped her face up so they could properly kiss. Her arms wrapped around him and for several moments, they stood together letting their love wash over them. Finally, they broke apart and Max searched Spencer's face.

"Will you be all right if I left for an hour or so?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she second-guessed herself, "Maybe I should call Penelope and ask her to come over."

Immediately, she started to text her friend, and Spencer put his hand over hers.

"No, don't. Max, it'll only be an hour or so, right? I'll be fine. Medically speaking, the whole week's been uneventful, right?"

Max hesitated. He was right, there had been no relapses. No fainting, no bleeding, not even a headache. Still, she was uncomfortable with the idea of leaving him alone since his release from hospital had been conditional on his not being left alone. She voiced this aloud and he relented.

"Okay. Call Penelope," he gave in. Max's phone went to her ear as she contacted Garcia.

A short time later, Penelope arrived at Reid's apartment. After accepting hugs and congratulations from Garcia, Max departed to run her errands.

"Garcia, I need to order some stuff online, can you help me?" Reid asked.

"Sure, what are we buying?" she asked, as she took the laptop from Reid and started typing.

"Um, I want flowers. Lots of flowers."

Their eyes met and he elaborated, "For Max. To celebrate her success. Can we order a fancy dinner for delivery? A bottle of champagne. And maybe a useful gift. Like an art set."

"Oh Boy Wonder, this is all so lovely." She opened another tab, hit a few more keys and then gestured with her hand, "Credit card?"

Reid dug into a pocket, found his wallet and extracted his credit card. Handing it over to Garcia, he watched as, in quick succession, an enormous floral arrangement was ordered and scheduled for delivery that afternoon and an elaborate Italian dinner was set to arrive at six p.m. that evening.

Garcia tapped away and called up several images of art sets, asking Reid to make a choice. After taking a few minutes to research them, he selected one and Garcia completed the transaction.

Finally, she made a phone call and Reid shook his head in disbelief as he listened to her work her magic.

"That's right, Jake, thanks so much! I'll see you in an hour."

She clicked off her phone and turned to face Spencer.

"Garcia?" Reid began, eyes wide and hands raised.

"That art box is being delivered," Garcia took his arm and looked at his watch, "In about an hour. My friend Jake is picking it up, along with a bottle of Moet et Chandon. And a pair of champagne flutes because I figured your kitchen doesn't have those."

"You're incredible. Thank you."

She handed his Visa card back to him and said, "Put that away. I think I've done a year's worth of damage today. But it was fun, thanks for that!"

"I'll remember how much you enjoy shopping, Penelope. Maybe you could do my Christmas shopping for me?"

She laughed and patted his arm. "Deal. But you buy my gift yourself."

He laughed and nodded agreement.

"Now, I'm going to go make us some tea. You have tea, I assume?"

"Yes, I do, Penelope. Max has stocked this place up like something out of Iron Chef." He indicated the way to the kitchen and followed Garcia. As Penelope made tea, Reid foraged through cupboards and found some cookies.

They sat together in Reid's kitchen, drinking tea, eating Oreos and celebrating the news about Max's new job.

Garcia was just setting down her empty teacup when the apartment door opened signaling Max's return.

She followed the sound of their conversation and found Reid and Garcia at the kitchen table.

"Hi," she greeted them both and moved to give Spencer a kiss. Penelope quickly rose and refilled the kettle, intending to make tea for Max. As they waited for the water to boil, Max updated them.

"Gave the school my notice. I'm still off for four more days to be with Spence. So my last day of work will actually be next Friday."

"This is so awesome, Max," Penelope gushed. "You're going to be doing a job you want, something you love and something you actually went to school for. I kinda envy you."

Max bubbled with enthusiasm. "I'll be doing art programs. For people with disabilities. I'm so jazzed about this."

"It shows. It's so wonderful," Garcia was sparkling with delight.

"I'm so proud of you, Max. You are just going to ace this, I know it," Spencer was beaming. As they chatted, a knock sounded on the door and Reid hurried to answer it.

He came back into the kitchen half hidden behind an enormous arrangement of pink and purple flowers. Presenting the bouquet to Max, he repeated himself,

"Congratulations again, Max. I'm so proud of you."

She took the flowers from him and admired them, then found the attached card. Tears sprang to her eyes as she read the words,

"A quote from Steve Jobs, 'The only way to do great work is to love what you do.' I hope you find that you love what you're going to do. Love, Spencer."

Garcia was crying. She looked from Max to Spencer and stepped away, making her way to the living room to leave the couple alone.

There was another knock on the door, and Garcia quickly swiped at her eyes and responded. Her friend Jake was dropping off the champagne and the art set, which he'd wrapped up in white and silver gift-wrap as Garcia had earlier requested. She accepted the packages from him and they arranged a lunch date for later in the week.

As she shut the door, Max and Spencer entered the room holding hands. Garcia handed Reid the wrapped package, set the champagne and the box containing the glasses on the table and picked up her purse from the sofa.

"All right, you guys, I'm gonna go now and let you have your private little celebration. Congrats again," she leaned over to hug Max. "And I'll see you at work on Monday I guess," she patted Reid's arm. "Dinner's gonna be here at six," she told him as she made her way to the door and left.

"Spence, this is so," Max paused, waving the card in her hand, "Touching. Thank you."

He put one arm around her and steered her to the sofa, seeing her into a seat. Once she was settled, he handed her the package.

"What's this?"

"Open it," he directed.

She stripped the ribbons and paper off the package, revealing the art set and caught her breath.

"Oh, my goodness. This. Is—." Overwhelmed, the tears fell and she placed the art set down in her lap, and slid one hand up around Spencer's neck. Crying, she managed to blubber, "This is so perfect. Thank you so much. I can't even."

He drew her into his arms and held her as she cried.

"Sorry, I'm sorry, it's just so breathtaking, so perfect."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry."

She kissed him and laughed, "So thoughtful. And such a fitting gift. I don't know how to thank you."

She kissed him again, and he chuckled, "You just did."

"This really is gorgeous and it'll be so useful at work." She sniffled and took his hands in hers. "You just never disappoint me." Leaning in, Max kissed him again.

An hour later, a knock sounded on Reid's apartment door and he opened it to accept delivery of their gourmet Italian dinner. He carried the food to the coffee table in the living room. As he set it down, he remembered the Moet and hurried to the kitchen to retrieve it from the fridge. He grabbed the champagne glasses and some silverware from a drawer and made his way back to Max in the living room.

"Okay, I'm not very experienced with this kind of thing," he explained as he wrestled with the champagne bottle. After opening it successfully—and uneventfully—he poured two glasses and set the bottle down. He picked up the flutes, handed one to Max and toasted her

"To Max. Your new beginnings and new experiences. And inspiration from Mark Twain, Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life."

Their glasses clinked together lightly and the celebration went long into the night.

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Spencer put down the book he'd been reading and checked his phone. Max started her new job that morning and he was anxiously waiting for word from her on how it was going. The only text he had was from JJ, from earlier that morning. Her daily check in with him to ask how he was doing, and to remind him of the party for Rossi on Thursday night.

The call screen was blank and he sighed and picked up his book again.

His appointment with the doctor had gone well, he was medically cleared to return to work the following week and decided to spend the last few days at home preparing classes for his university courses. After ninety minutes of researching and notating, he decided coffee was in order and made his way to the kitchen.

He heard Max's key in the door. Surprised, he rushed back into the living room to meet her.

"Spence," she dropped her purse and tote bag on the sofa and moved to put her arms around him. After they kissed in greeting, she made eye contact and steeled herself.

"Max. You're home early."

He watched as she took a deep breath,

"Max? Is everything okay?"

"I hope so."

He searched her face and waited for her to elaborate.

"The job is fantastic. It's great, it's going to be everything I ever wanted, career-wise."

He heaved a sigh of relief, and eyed her carefully.

"I'm sensing a 'but' here."

"They want to send me to San Francisco for two weeks, to an affiliate museum for some training."

"And?" he failed to see a problem with this disclosure.

"Wednesday."

"You're leaving Wednesday?"

She nodded.

"Okay, so is there something wrong with that, Max?"

"The party for Agent Rossi is on Thursday. There's no way I can go to that—"

Spencer shook his head, "Well that's too bad, but don't worry about it." He stopped and let out a small laugh. "I don't think I've ever been to one of our team get-togethers with a date, Max. I'm sorry you'll miss it, but it's not the end of the world."

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to let you down."

"No. Don't even think that." He pulled her into his embrace and she buried her face in his chest. "You go to San Francisco. You have your training sessions. And you come back and be the best art program developer for the disabled that the Smithsonian's ever had."

She lifted her face to meet his gaze and nodded.

"And when you get back from San Francisco, we'll have a party of our own."

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"Find what you love and do it for the rest of your life."- Matthew Gray Gubler