Rossi rose from his chair and lightly tapped his class with his fork; the table quieted down an all eyes turned to him. The team had gathered at his home to celebrate a day that they would always remember. Today, it would mark a six months since the unfortunate day when they had lost Spencer. Each day had been a gentle reminder to them that life was short and every second counted, slowly but surely they made it back to what "normality" or at least trying. Today they all gathered, even Hotch and Morgan joined to celebrate Spencer.

"I would like to make a toast," Rossi declared, he raised his glass high and continued. "I know these past months have been hard, remembering Spencer has had its ups and downs, but he would not want us to celebrate this day in misery so I ask you to raise your glasses and wish Spencer a Happy Birthday."

"Happy Birthday," They cheered to the sky.

"He would have been 37 today," JJ smiled sadly before taking a small sip of wine.

"Remember that time we made him wear that cake hat, God he hated that," Garcia laughed.

"A cake hat," Tara question, her eyebrow raised.

"It was his 25th birthday, found the hat at the dollar store; he wore it though until we caught a case."They all laughed at the memory.

"You know I can still hear his voice," the corners of her mouth turned slightly to resemble a smile.

"Me too, spouting off statistics, random little factoids," Morgan looked down at his plate and smiled. They all sat in silence; it had taken them a long time to make it to this point. Returning to work seemed impossible but somehow they made it, started working cases, the first one was the hardest only from their they only got harder as they expected him to magically show up an give them an answer. It was not until maybe their eighth case in before they realized their wishing wasn't going to bring him back. Morgan and Hotch had called them constantly to check in, each of them battled themselves to get past the tremendous loss.

"Remember that fact he told us about that Bosnian man during the sandman murder case," Tara laughed breaking the silence.

"No one believed that one," Rossi nodded in amusement."

"I had to have looked it up at least three times to be sure because who can live without sleep," Alves jested.

That was the part that would never go away, the memories; the moments of his life whether good or bad they were the times that defied his life. JJ never wanted to forget those moments; she told Henry a new story about him every day, something about the two of them or something that Spencer loved the most. Garcia kept his photo on her desk and when the team was away and she was alone in her office she would talk to him as if he were sitting right next to her. Emily had kept the film canister from physic magic and made it into a key chain, it was always with her a small momentum. Rossi cheers him every time he had his nighttime brandy, Hotch talked about him to the men and woman he trained at his new job and for Morgan he would follow JJ's lead even if Hank didn't understand he would know about this great man that should have been there. None of them wanted it to happen but slowly they knew his voice would fade from their memories, they would forget what he sounded like, his face would too, only pictures could bring that to them but they would be damned if their memories would disappear. CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

That night JJ tucked Henry to bed before sitting next to him and recalling the next memory of his godfather; the Halloween that almost was not. By the end she was smiling at the picture in her head of Spencer clipping his FBI badge on to Henry his mini me of the night.

"Alright time to get some sleep," She leaned over and kissed his forehead.

"Mama," He called just as she was reaching for the doorknob.

"Yes baby," She turned back around, she could see the troublesome look on her little boy's face as he hesitated to say what he wanted to say. "What is it Henry?"

"Do you think Uncle Spencer would be mad if I… I tried not to be sad anymore." She smiled at him and sat down once again.

"No, he would not be mad."

"I miss him still but I don't want to be sad anymore, I don't feel super sad anymore."

"You will always miss him, but you won't be sad forever, he would never want you to be sad forever."

"He wouldn't?"

"No, he would want you to be happy, to smile and laugh and have a great life, sadness is only a temporary thing when you grieve someone."

"Have you stopped being sad?"

"Yes and you want to know the secret on how?" Henry eagerly nodded. "You member all the great memories, the moments that make you laugh about him."

"Like his magic tricks."

"Yes, like his magic tricks," She laughed. "And know that its okay to laugh again, its okay to feel okay because right now he is watching over you hoping that you are laughing or smiling about him instead crying."

"Thanks Mama," Henry snuggled under his covers again, she kissed his forehead again and quietly left. In the hall she stood for a moment looking at a photo on the side table of Spencer and the boys. She picked up the picture, traced a finger over Spencer and smiled.

"I miss you everyday but you know what I think we will be okay now." She set the photo down and stared for a moment longer, they were going to be okay, life was going to go on, obviously no one would forget the genius but they would slowly make it back to happiness. With one foot in the door already she knew that accepting what had happened as reality and realizing that there was no changing the past was her next step. "Happy Birthday Spencer," She wished him one last time before joining Will in bed, they were going to be alright.

"The reality is that you will grieve forever. You will not "get over" the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it. You will heal and you will rebuild yourself around the loss you have suffered. You will be whole again but you will never be the same. Nor should you be the same nor would you want to." -Unknown

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I know the ending was short but this is more of a closer, hope you enjoyed the story! Thank you for all your wonderful comments~ love layna