Chapter 02

Capitol Plaza Apartments
Apartment #25
Washington DC

"So, what were you up to this morning?" Diana asked.

Spencer smiled at his mother. He still wasn't certain having her in his apartment was the best idea but at least he had more times like this, times when. She was lucid enough to talk, to play a game of Scrabble, to just be his mom. "Getting a suit. It always take a while."

"Why?"

"I have to special order them and have them tailored. A twenty-eight inches waist and thirty-four inch inseam is kind of uncommon. My arms are too long, my shoulders too narrow, ribs too wide." He had to have nearly everything tailored really. Nothing ever fit right off the rack.

She looked down at her hands. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Spencer looked up from the board to see her staring at her wedding ring. It was an unusual ring, he'd never seen one like it anywhere else. Engraved with a geometric design it looked like silver or platinum but when it caught the light it had a berry purple shimmer. Now Diana seemed captivated by that shimmer. Again. "Mom?"

"A oarl sa' sa'mmiy." Diana said. "A llash llo llomo ha'rlo. A llash a a'aurc fao ooasaom ra'm iya'au." She started to cry. "A rlass ha'rlo. oac iya'au llarr orrom soo a."

Spencer signed. She manifested like this, speaking in nonsense. She'd always done this though, and always ended up crying. "Come on Mom." He got up to help her get to her feet. "Why don't you go lie down."

She cried herself to sleep.

Spencer stood in the doorway and stared.

He had to do something.


Compass Rose Resturant
Washington DC

"So did you have a chance to talk to him?" Emily asked.

It was Sunday. The ladies of the BAU were brunching and discussing anything but work. Well, work-work, gossip was always fair.

"Yes, but not about that." JJ said as she settled Michael into his high chair.

"Who is he?" Tar asked. "And why do you sound pissed."

"Spence. And because I stopped him from doing something stupid."

"Do I want to know what now?" Penelope asked.

JJ considered this. "Well, he didn't actually do anything…."

"Then I don't have to put on my boss hat." Emily said.

"Okay, so he had his Mom in that drug trial in Houston? The one that got called early, they said it was lack of funding…"

"Yeah."

"Well Spence insists they were helping, so he brought a supply back from the doctor. Anyway, he's running low so he was going to head down to Houston on a quick turn-around to get more. Only she called and said she wasn't going to be at her clinic in Houston, can he meet her at her hotel room in Matamoros, Mexico."

"Oh Jesus Christ." Emily said.

"So this is bad?" Penelope asked.

"Hmmm, an FBI agent picking up drugs from a shady doctor in a hotel room in Cartel territory and taking them back over the border?" Tara said. "Yeah. Bad"

"And not filing the border crossing paperwork." JJ replied. "That's a really good way to lose your badge. At a minimum."

"Tell me you didn't leave him alone." Emily said.

"Nope. Will and Henry took him out to the Air and Space center at the airport. He's been under so much stress with Diana at home. Her doctors here and her caregiver team have been heavily pushing for residential care. A slot opened up this week at a really good one, I think he was just hoping with these new meds she'd suddenly be good enough to show that she didn't need it." She sighed. "He made the arrangements in front of us. As hard as it was you could see the load coming off."

"We'll need to be gentle with him for a few weeks." Tara said.

"Yeah, but we will though." Penelope replied.

"So what were you supposed to talk to him about?" Tara asked.

JJ slowly turned red in the cheeks. "Okay, so you remember that case we had a couple of weeks ago in Oregon, where we had to share rooms?"

"Yeah."

"Did I miss something?" Penelope asked.

"They only had four rooms available." JJ said. "We were going to give Emily one so she could spread out her paperwork, Tara and I were going to share a room and then the four guys were going to split two between them. Except none of the guys were willing to share with Spence. They wouldn't say why they just wouldn't. So I said I would and we could give Dave his own room."

Penelope's eyes widened. "JJ!"

"What? It's like sharing a room with your brother."

"Yeah, but she slept on a cot in our room the next two nights." Tara said. "And I have yet to find out why."

"He's not…right." JJ said. "He's not…" She sighed deeply. "He slept four hours, at most, and spent the rest of the time in the bathroom. I don't know what he eats but…he needs medical intervention or something. I mean, it was…bad."

Penelope went from shocked to serious. "He knows." She admitted quietly. "We've talked."

"So this is a thing?" Tara asked.

"Do I need to put the boss hat on?" Emily asked.

"It's not getting in the way of work." Penelope replied. "But he's been working with a doctor about it."

"I thought he couldn't eat dairy."

"He tried cutting dairy. It didn't help. He tried gluten, he tried grains, he tried soy and high fructose corn syrup and everything processed. He tried vegetarian and vegan. He's taken probiotic and prebiotics and every supplement you could think of. He's tried a half-dozen meds and he even went off coffee for two weeks. Nothing has helped. He has the worst digestion you can imagine."

"Nothing?" Tara asked.

"He did a very low fiber for two weeks and said he felt better than ever, and he tried cutting sugar for three days and couldn't get out of bed. Otherwise nothing changed anything."

"Why didn't he stick with the low-fiber?" JJ asked.

"It's crazy unhealthy long-term." Penelope replied.

"Ugh."

"Anyway, he's really sensitive about it. Apparently it's been a problem since college. Really embarrassing in the dorm."

"I can imagine." Emily said. "Keep me in the loop?"

"Sure."

"Does he have any other health problems?" Tara asked.

"Migraines." JJ replied.

"I thought Maeve helped him with those." Emily said. "I thought I heard that."

"Helped. They didn't go away."

Emily looked like she was going to say something but her phone went off. She looked at the screen and went pale.

Then JJ's phone went off. She looked and her eyes went wide.

"Work?" Tara asked.

Then another phone in the restaurant went off.

And another

And another.


.


So, where have I been? Well, since I last posted I had oral surgery, my wife had surgery surgery, the holidays hit, and I had a flare up of a reoccurring issue. Both my wife and I are doing fine now but it was a rough couple of months.

And then I got involved with a scrip writing program at the local university. The kind that leads to things being actually performed and/or sold. I don't know if anything is going to come of it, I won't know until later in the summer, but if it does I will share. It turned out to be a lot more intensive than I thought it would be and it ended up taking over my life for a while.

This story came out of the research and notes I collected for that. So right now it's this if its anything.

I'll finish my last one eventually. Swear.