Saturday came no matter how much I pretended it didn't exist. Before I knew it, I was sitting in Spencer's car outside of Linda's Bar and Grill.

"This is going to be fine, right?" I asked, turning to face him. "You told them no interrogating, right?"

"They don't bite," he said, getting out of the car. "Now come on…They're waiting for us."

"You're lucky. We can't even meet with Caroline till next week because of some stupid job thing," I groaned, getting out of the car.

Following him into the restaurant, I soon found myself in front of a table of the members of the BAU. I recognized Hotch, Rossi, Penelope, Derek, and JJ. I assumed that the new, unfamiliar woman was the newest addition to the team after Emily left the BAU to work for Interpol, running the London office.

"You must be Dr. Alex Blake?" I asked, gesturing as I spoke. "I'm Sarah."

"Pleasure to meet you," she said, giving me a smile.

"Hotch," I said, "It's good to see you…And JJ, congrats on the wedding!"

"Thank you," she said. I tentatively glanced at Derek and Penelope, who I could already see where analyzing my every move; Penelope with glee and Derek with suspicion. Spencer seemed to sense my discomfort, and grabbed my hand under the table as we sat. I glanced at him and smiled, squeezing his hand a few times.

An uncomfortable silence arose over the table. It seemed that no one knew quite what to make of the new comer. Like that song? From Sesame Street?

One of these things is not like the other…

Surrounded by profilers and members of the FBI, I had never felt more on edge.

"So," JJ said, interrupting the silence, "Reid was telling us that you work at a local PR firm?"

"Yeah," I said, taking a sip from my water glass, "I'm basically a secretary, so not nearly as high-paced as what you all do."

"So, let's cut to the chase," Derek said, "How exactly did you get tangled up with our Boy Wonder here?" I snorted lightly at the nickname.

"Well," I said, glancing at Spencer, "He recommended a book to me while dropping me off after Rossi's amazing carbonara lesson – thank you again for that – and then we ran into each other, started to hang out with each other a little bit… And at some point, he convinced me to go on a date to some restaurant that apparently, you recommended? And then we just, started dating?" I looked at Spencer before continuing. "That's the general, abridged version, I guess?"

"So, wait, let me get this straight," Derek said to Spencer. "You asked out her?"

"Yeah?"

"Pretty boy has got more game than we thought," Derek said, laughing and nudging Spencer. The uncomfortable atmosphere of the table melted away as conversation ensured.

"How is Henry?" I asked, turning the blonde woman.

"He's getting bigger by the day," she said, her face full of pride and love.

"He must be pretty excited about Halloween," I said, realizing that the holiday was next week.

"It's practically all he talks about," she said. "And we all have Uncle Spence to thank for that."

"Uncle Spence?" I repeated, imagining a little child calling Spencer that. "That's precious!"

"Yeah, Henry just adores Spence," she said. "Spencer is technically his godfather but he comes over a lot."

"I didn't realize Spencer was good with kids," I said, glancing at Spencer who was engaged in a conversation with Alex.

"You wouldn't think that a genius like him would do so well with kids, but he is really great with them," she said. Her tone had a tone that highly indicated she was dropping a hint. I chose to ignore said hint.

I hadn't thought about the idea of kids in years… I didn't even know if I wanted them.

Did he?

Could I even have kids?

Shaking myself from my thoughts, I mentally reprimanded myself. We had only been dating for a few months.

The conversation at the table broke as the waitress came to take all of our orders. I decided to order a glass of red wine that would, hopefully, get me through this dinner without freaking out.

I listened as the BAU team ensued in conversation. I watched the team of profilers discuss their lives and recount the places they had been.

"How do you look at all this stuff day after day, and not let that get to you?" I asked Penelope.

"Well," she said, sipping her mixed drink, "I, personally, like to look at the good that exists…like puppy videos!" At this, she whipped out her phone. "Okay, wait, let me show you this one! It's a puppy…and a rubber duck!" I watched Garcia pull up the video and watched the short clip. "But it's different for everyone, we each have something that makes the horrors palatable."

"That makes sense," I said, "I could never do it, though." Garcia didn't respond for a second. I met her eyes and the first thing that hit my mind was not a pleasant thought.

She knows.

She avoided my eyes before speaking.

"It's not for the faint of heart."

Maybe she didn't know.

Wow, I'm being very paranoid, huh?

Luckily, the arrival of food rescued me from my thoughts. I took a bite of my burger, grateful that I had gone with my gut when ordering. To think, I almost ordered a salad and soup thing.

The table ate in silence, except for the occasional conversation. I excused myself to go the restroom after I finished my glass of wine. When I washed my hands, the door opened.

It was Penelope.

"You know, don't you?" I said. She nodded clearly nervous. I let out a small chuckle. "I should've told Daniel to beef up the background check, make sure everything was unable to be unsealed, but then again, you are the FBI."

"I-" she started, "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault. Someone new was in your friend's life, you wanted to be safe, I get that-"

"No," she said, interrupting me, "I'm sorry about your parents…It's not fair."

I froze. In four years, no one had ever brought them up.

"Life's not fair," I said, turning to face her, leaning against the counter. "But thank you."

"I'm not going to tell them," she said.

"Doesn't really matter," I said. "Daniel gets wind of someone unsealing my records, I'll be gone within the week."

"I'm good at what I do," she said. "He won't find out." I gave her a puzzled look.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. "You could have told them, you could have never mentioned it to me, so why?"

"You're good for Spencer," she said. "He really, really likes you and for the first time, he's not staying letting work consume him…And I just wanted to make sure you weren't insane, honest. I didn't think that you…"

"Thanks," I said. "So how much exactly do you know?"

"The basics…I didn't go too far into detail once I realized what it was."

"Then you must know he escaped recently."

"I do, but I also know that the FBI, especially the BAU is really good at what-"

"No," I said, cutting her off. "This… no one else can know. Even you finding out, I should tell Daniel, but… I…I'm attached." I wouldn't admit it, partially because I wasn't even aware of it at that time, but I wasn't attached to anything there, except for a certain genius.

"Just promise me something?" she asked. "And I know that you barely know me and you have no obligation to me or anything, but-"

"What is it?"

"If you have to…leave…don't hurt him," she said, meeting my eyes.

"I'll try my best."

"And if you need help, or anything immediate, please contact me," she said, whipping out her phone. "Contact info?" I obliged, deciding it was better to have one more ally.

"Thanks," I said, giving her the phone back.

"And if you ever need to talk to someone," she said, "about anything, I'm literally always available."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said, smiling as I made my way to the exit of the bathroom.

"You know, this makes us friends now, right?" she chirped as we made our way to the table.

"Sure," I said, letting out a soft laugh. We both sat at the table. Spencer's hand grabbed mine from under the table. I smiled at him, giving him a squeeze. He leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"I took care of the check, so we can head out in a few, if you want?"

I nodded, not wanting to draw more attention to us then possible. Rossi's sudden voice proved that I was wrong.

"Ah, young love," he said patronizingly.

"Shut it," I groaned, giving the older man a smile.

"Oh, she's feisty," Derek said. "I like her Spencer."

"Are they always like this?" I asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Alex said, finishing her beer.

Soon everyone was murmuring their goodbyes as Spencer and I made our way to the car.

"It wasn't that bad, right?" Spencer asked.

"They're nice," I said.

The ride back to my apartment was quiet, both of us decompressing after the conversational evening.

Soon, we were in front of my building and Spencer was walking me inside.

"I'll admit it," I said. "I had a nice time."

"I'm glad to hear it, and they seemed to like you."

"Are you insinuating that I am not likeable?" I asked teasingly, as I reached for my keys.

"Of course not," he said.

"Teasing," I said, laughing gently. I opened the door and turned to bid Spencer goodbye.

Except I didn't really want to say goodbye.

"I guess, this is goodnight," Spencer said, meeting my gaze.

"I guess…" I murmured. Our eyes held each other captive for a moment. "Unless?"

"Unless what?"

"Unless…you wanted to come in?" I asked. I was only realizing how close we were now, his face inches from mine. I could hear his breath.

"You sure?" he asked. He sounded surprised.

"Yeah," I said. Not even a second later, his lips were on mine and his hands found their way to my waist. "Wait, let's get inside first." I laughed lightly, pulling him in and locking the door. We soon found our way to my bedroom, where that night…

That night was special. It was untouched by anything. We were just two people. It wasn't special like those movies show. It wasn't flawless, it wasn't pure passion, it wasn't a big romantic scene.

It was clumsy, it was awkward, but it was human.

It was us.

And that night, it was like the world and reality didn't exist.

Like the files in my safe in that same room didn't exist.

Like the Cártel del Golfo didn't exist.

But it did.

But it sure was nice to dream that it didn't.

As I awoke the next morning next to Spencer, I checked my phone to see an unread text from the night before.

This is Garcia! It was nice to meet you last night, Danielle.

I quickly deleted the text, checking to ensure that Spencer was asleep.

He was and I grinned at his sleeping form.

With his messy hair and mouth slightly ajar, he looked absolutely adorable.

But I thought back to the text.

Danielle.

It had been so long since someone had called me that.

It felt good.

But there were reasons for that, despite how it had felt the night before.

And that was my reality.