Authors Note: So for those of you who have noticed, the number chapters have decreased without the number of words diminishing. I ended up taking the old chapters 12-15, and combined them all down into one chapter that encompasses the events of May. So this is the new chapter 13, and I hope you enjoy. If anyone gets done reading this and has any ideas, I'd love to hear some of them. They'd be much appreciated and I could really use the help.

Any who, on to the usual disclaimer: This story takes place in the Criminal Minds universe with the occasional crossover into the Bones universe. As such, I only own my own original characters and everything else belongs to the writers and networks, blah, blah, blah.

Hope you enjoy. And please review at the end. I love hearing what you all think of Spencer and Harley. And if you have any suggestions or ideas for this story, I may not use them, but I'd like to hear them, and I'd really appreciate any suggestions you send my way. Message me, or leave your idea in the review section, I'll be looking at both.

Thank you all for your reviews and support, and all your kind words of encouragement, weather you use your account to post the review or do it anonymously! Now on with the chapter…

Chapter 13: September 2008

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring-it was peace."

― Milan Kundera

Between May and September, Spencer barely saw Harley except for the sporadic weekend. First she went back to LA for a week. And then another week was spent in England. Then, Harley was in Virginia for a week moving her things from her apartment to the newly finished house in Springfield. At the end of those first three weeks, Harley packed a duffle bag, kissed him goodbye and told him she'd be in the wind for a while and that she'd see him when she could. They'd video chat most weekends and talk on the phone most days for three months. And then Harley returned, her hair freshly cut into a long bob, the color of her hair a little darker, her skin milky pale, and her eyes a little more clear than they'd been in a while. Her shoulders where held a little higher, and her back was a little straighter, and a weight was lifted off of her shoulders.

The next week, Harley spent moving Spencer into the house (which mostly consisted of first finding Schrodinger the cat and dragging him out of hiding and into his travel gage. Schrodinger hadn't been seen at the house since his release, although Spencer's pretty sure he's heard hissing more than enough times to know he's being stalked.), before taking one last week to go back to LA before she rejoined the Medical-Legal lab at the Jeffersonian. But Harley was sure to call him a couple times a day that week, and Spencer was busy with a case anyway, and so the last seven days of Harley's unemployed adventures passed by without Spencer really noticing them at all.

Now, Harley was back to working full time, and Spencer was happy to have her back in town with no eminent threat of her departure. The weight of May's revelation was lifted from her shoulders now. Spencer figured she'd come to terms with it but put it to the back of her mind because she hadn't mentioned it since she left on her three month disappearance.

She also hadn't seen his team in all of that time. And that seemed to weigh on Rossi. So Spencer was all too surprised when Harley walked into the BAU with BC held close to her chest. She had on a pair of black skinny jeans that went to her waist, a cream colored blouse under a black leather jacket, and a pair of classic black Louboutins. She also had on a purple colored cloche hat on over her not yet shoulder length hair. All together it was an extremely put together look, and except for the dog in her arms and the plum colored leather purse on her shoulder, Spencer wouldn't even be surprised by the outfit. He hadn't realized she owned a colored purse, and Harley rarely brought BC out and around with her.

"Harley?"

"A bunch of dogs are going to die," Harley stated ominously as she looked at Spencer, drawing closer to his desk. His brow furrowed and he received a few odd looks from Morgan who was the only other team member currently in the bullpen, but he got up from his desk to grab her and pull her more quickly towards his desk. "We just finished a case that involved a dog fighting ring, and the murder weapon was this sweet German Shepard that's going to be put down because his mean old master couldn't find a knife or a gun to kill a guy with like a normal person. I mean, honestly, how many people get killed by dogs a year?"

Spencer opened his mouth to answer the statistic he already knew as he pulled Harley down onto his lap in his desk chair. But her mouth hit his before any words could come out and Spencer was simply left blinking in shock. And the purse she'd carried into the bullpen dropped to the floor by his desk

"Don't answer. I don't want to know."

While at least 4.5 to 4.7 people get bitten by dogs in the US every year, only about 20 to 30 people a year die because of dog bites, Spencer chose to internally answer. But since Harley didn't want to know, Spencer wouldn't tell her, mainly because she'd be sadder about the amount of dogs that got put down as a result that about the actual number of people hurt. Harley was just one of those people who could watch the commercials about starving children in Africa without batting an eye, but would ball her eyes out over the ASPCA commercials. Not that she watched much TV, outside of re-runs, Doctor Who, and the Christmas movies that plagued the holidays.

"Hard case?" Spencer asked, already knowing the answer. They hadn't gotten the house warming adopted dog yet, but suddenly Spencer saw it coming in their very near future.

"The worst. On top of the dog fighting rings, and the dog being our murder weapon, there was this oh so awful doggie graveyard, and all the poor dogs who will get put down either because they're pitbulls, or because they're too aggressive. But on a positive note, Tony's back from his voyage at sea," Harley explained. She had a frown fixed on her face, BC clutched tightly in her arms, and her head leaning against his shoulder. Spencer could tell it'd been a hard few days for her, especially since they'd probably had to bring all of the dogs back to the lab to check their teeth to see who's matched with the bits on the victim. But at least Tony was back after a four month assignment as an Agent Afloat out in the Atlantic. Harley had missed him, and Spencer had too, for that matter. "But Dr. B wants to adopt the dog that killed our vic, and some poor sap is going to have to tell her he's getting put down. So I left the lab before I had to be the one to tell her, went home and grabbed BC, and then came here. I just… I don't know. I wanted to be near you, because you just kind of make things seem better without me really having to do anything, and I've been having a panic attack building for the last day now. I just… I didn't want to start irrationally crying at work, so… I came here in the hopes you could help stave off the panic."

Spencer frowned at her. She really shouldn't have driven all the way to Quantico from DC on the verge of a panic attack. It really couldn't have been healthy. She should have just gone home and laid down with the dogs for a while and then called him. Not that he'd voice that opinion to Harley right now. He didn't feel like now was the time to be on the receiving end of one of her glares.

"Plus I've been putting something off for a while now, and I've decided to put on my big girl panties and do it," Harley admitted after a few moments and a couple calming breaths. She was looking up at Rossi's office with haunted eyes, and that's when Spencer knew his earlier conclusion about Harley remaining ignorant of who her parents where was wrong.

"How long have you known?" Spencer asked, his eyes on her face.

"Three and a half months. I asked Fornell right before I disappeared to parts still unknown to you," Harley sighed. "I've been talking to a psychologist since I got back. Well, I've been talking to Sweets, and he's a psychologist, so it think that counts."

Spencer gave a silent laugh. "So, you've come to terms with it?"

"Not really, but I've come to have a better understanding of the situation. To my biological parents, I'm always going to be their child. But I've grown up being someone else's child, and to me their always going to be my parents because I don't really remember any different," Harley explained. "So there's this disconnect. And I have two choices: I can get to know my biological parents, or I could go on in blissful ignorance and continue living my life like nothing's changed. And option two, while it sounds nice, is out of the running because you happen to work with my biological father. So in actuality, I have the choice of getting to know him and figuring out who we are to eachother and going from there."

"Sorry?" Spencer asked, not sure if he should be apologizing.

Harley rolled her eyes. "I don't blame you. I mean he was retire for years when you joined the team, how were you to know that he'd come back after ten year?"

"I know right?" Spencer laughed with Harley. "So do you want to go out for ice cream after I get done at work, and you've had time to talk to… Rossi."

Harley smiled up at him. "You know just what to say to make me want to go home with you, don't you?"

Spencer looked at her with a smile, turning his head to escape the on slot of licks from BC who had managed to get loose from Harleys grasp. "Where else would you go home to?"

Harley laughed. "That's entirely besides the points, Pen. Honestly. But seriously, I'd really like to get that ice cream afterwards."

"Then first don't you have to go upstairs to Rossi's office and talk to him?"

"Now why do you have to be all reasonable and responsible?" Harley pouted, standing up from his lap and adjusting BC in her arms. "You know, on second thought, you hold her while I go and talk to Rossi?"

Then, Harley promptly deposited BC in his lap and grinned at him before going towards Rossi's office. Spencer had to battle BC to get her to behave as she made a rush play for his face. He finally flipped her over and held her like a baby with one arm so he could get back to writing out his paperwork. His eyes caught Harley's right before she knocked on the door to Rossi's office and he gave her an encouraging smile.

"What's going on with Harley?" Morgan asked from his own desk. "And is that dog really even allowed in the building?"

Spencer reached into the purse that Harley had left sitting on the floor near his desk and pulled out the service vest that BC hatted wearing to show Morgan. "Derek Morgan meet Harley's service dog, BC. Her other dog, Slade, is currently being trained as a cadaver dog."

"Your girlfriend has two dogs? Doesn't she fear the Reid Affect?" Morgan joked.

Spencer smiled at him in a condescending way. He released his hold on BC a little and the small dog made a mad dash to lick his face. "Do you see a Reid Affect going on?"

"It's official then. Harley's magic," Morgan laughed.

Spencer shock his head, getting BC settled down again so he could go back to his paperwork.

_._._._._

Harley knocked on the door to the office of the man who'd been on her mind on and off for months now. She waited for the anticipated "Come in" before entering and gave a small smile when she saw his face.

"Hi," she greeted the man, whom she had meet a few times before. But this time was different. This time was like a first time. Like she'd meet him before as Agent Rossi, a man who worked alongside Spencer. But know… now he was more than that. Who exactly he was to her was yet to be determined, not in the sense that she didn't know what it was supposed to be, but in that she didn't know what he could be. She already had a father, and as her parents had never devoiced, she'd never had to adapt to a step-father. So she didn't really know how to adapt to a second father figure. Or, well, second father was likely a more accurate description. Although if she really thought about it, he was more like her first father, chronologically and biologically. But she was really starting to get ahead of herself. "I, um… I talked to Agent Fornell, so I know you know about… and, well, now I know as well. Have for a few months actually. But I mean… it was a lot to wrap my head around at first, so I didn't approach you immediately afterwards. And then one thing led to another, and now it's September. And I'm screwing all this up aren't I?"

David Rossi just stated at her, seeming shocked by her abrupt arrival. He didn't say anything for a few moments, and Harley didn't either, instead choosing to stay close to the now closed door. "Why don't you come sit down? And we can talk."

Harley walked into the room and sat down in one of the chairs on the opposite side of Rossi's desk. "I don't know how this is supposed to go really. I haven't had to meet a new set of parents since I was four. And, if I'm being honest, I don't really remember that all that well."

Rossi seemed to thing on that statement before he asked his question. "How many families fostered you before you were placed with the Isley's?"

"Three. I spent three months each with the first two, and only a few weeks with the last one. And then I got moved into the Isley's care along with one of the boys I'd been with at that last house," Harley explained feeling weird about it. She didn't talk about her time in foster care with a lot of people. Spencer knew the number of houses and the amount of time she'd spent there. And her parents knew, as well. But she only ever went into detail about it with her foster brother, or share a story about it with Dr. Brennan. She just… Harley didn't have a lot of stories about foster care, and none of them were happy. She had the most stories about that last house before the Isley's, and she'd spent the least amount of time there. "I got placed with the Isley's when I was four, and they adopted me when I was five. No new families since then. Well, there was Spencer's mom, but that's a whole different ball park."

"And you read the journal that catalyzed all of this?" Rossi asked.

"Read the journal, the case reports, the investigators notes, and about every scrap of paper I could find on it," Harley explained. "Of course I had it all redacted so I didn't have to read names until I'd wrapped my head around it. It made everything less person, I guess. Easier to deal with."

Rossi frowned at her.

"I'm not a normal person," Harley sighed. "You work with Spencer, so you have to understand that having a genius IQ doesn't really help people to have normal emotional capacities. Basically at this point, the only reason I can fake being a normal human being is having been raised with such a big family. I just… emotions aren't my strong suit, and May was just an awful month for me in general. I just… I didn't know how to deal with the journal and everything that came with it, so I shut down emotionally, and I took off as soon as I could. It took me three weeks after I last saw you to even ask Fornell for the results of his investigation and the DNA test."

"And the rest of the time?"

"Deciding where to go from there. Deciding what to do, and how to react, and figuring out my options. And then today… we had a hard case at work, and I wanted to see Spencer, and I realized I only really have one option. I can get to know you, and we can decided what shape our relationship takes. And then we can go from there. Because you work with Spencer, my other option of avoidance isn't ever going to work. So… where do you want to go from here?"

"I'd like to get to know you," Rossi told her. Harley nodded.

"So how would you like to accomplish that?"

"Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."

― Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

Authors Note: For all of you who have anything at all to say about my story, please review. I always love the feedback and any ideas anyone is willing to offer. I love all of your feedback and it really helps me out.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a good day after reading this.