Chapter 15

Avery House
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, California

March 24, 2003

After it was all over. After Shan was taken away and he was taken away and allowed to bathe and eat and all the rest, Spencer came back to the dorm, was relieved to see that Ethan had found another place to sleep as he had asked, fell into his bed, and passed into a dreamless, endorphin fueled slumber.

As the cool light of dawn started peeking through the windows he was awakened by a weight on the mattress. "I knew you wouldn't look for me." Shan said.

"That didn't seem appropriate." He replied. "Are you okay?"

"Better than I thought I would be." She replied. "You?"

He considered this. "Kind of amazing, actually." He had known her now for a year and a half, through papers and exams and testing beyond imagining. Now that they had been through the final test he was relieved to know that he had not lost his best friend. And he might have found something more. Before he could think he lifted the edge of the blanket.

She quickly burrowed in next to him, her now familiar body warm and lithe against his. "I was so afraid it was going to be Professor Jameson." She said.

"So was I." Not exactly, it was supposed to have been an older, more experienced woman. He had no clue why she had been chosen. But that wasn't really the heart of it.

She buried her face against his shoulder a long moment. "No, that's not exactly true." She said. "I didn't want it to be anyone but you."

He understood why. He had washed her blood off his skin. But she couldn't know... "I didn't want it to be anyone but you either." He said. "I hated feeling like a sacrificial..." Lamb didn't seem appropriate.

"Goat?" She suggested.

"Yeah." That had been the hardest part, when he thought he was just a symbol, not able to be fully present for that.

"Well, I am dammed glad you were my goat. Billy goat." She bit her lip, looked like she was making up her mind. "Do we care about the rules anymore?"

The rules. The rules that said that two Knights of the Blue cannot take a bed under the same roof. That said that they needed to remain chaste until they had permission to marry. The rules that led straight to this. "I don't. I love you." He admitted. Just yesterday the rules had mattered so much, but last night had been an enormous thing and now everything had changed. Now the truth was there, right there, and far too big to ignore any longer.

Something shifted in her eyes, softened, even as the pink rose in her cheeks. "I love you too." She said. "I want to do it again."

"Really?" She did? With him? For no other reason than...

"Really."

"Are you sure?"

In reply she sat up and pulled off her shirt. And everything else she was wearing above the waist.

Right then.

She lowered herself back into his arms and then her lips found his for the very first time. He groaned at the sensation, soft and hot and the gentle touch of her tongue sent shockwaves that brought want and need alive again. He returned the gesture, heard her groan and felt her tremble, and he was done.

After that it was easy once more. Her jeans were the next to go, and then his pajamas. Her skin was so warm and impossibly soft and he could touch her now, savor the sensation of warm silk and strong, flexible body underneath. He kissed her everywhere he could reach, her lips until they were swollen and the edge of her jaw and the long column of her throat, and all the while she was trying to kiss him, his lips and jaw and cheek and everywhere else until they broke down in giggles from the tangle.

Then she lifted his hand to her breast and groaned at his touch.

He admired her beauty as he loved her there, feeling her body respond under him as she started making these whimpering cries, her fingers tight in his hair as she pressed herself to his eager mouth, encouraging him to taste, nip, savor those tight points again and again. When she couldn't take it any longer she pushed him off, reached down and removed the last bit of lace and was naked in his too-narrow bed. He reached down and stroked and saw her go mindless as she lifted her hips to his touch and begged with every fiber of her being. "Please?" He asked. Please don't change your mind now.

It was not an invitation she would refuse. She rolled on top of him and straddled him once again.

The bed really was far too narrow. Getting him out of his pants was almost impossible with so little room. But he managed and settled beneath her, his lips finding hers again. She helped, and angled and then it was all heat and tug and pull once more. "Spencer." She whimpered as her head fell back.

"Yes." He replied as she found a rhythm. He could touch her now, admire her beauty, as her body pulled and tugged and...

He didn't remember to keep his voice down this time either.

"Marry me." He said when it was all over.

Okay, when the second time was over. Because after the first he had somehow flipped her over in that too narrow bed at her request and taken her deep and hard until they were both mindless with it. Now they were a sweaty tangle in that too narrow bed, tired and sated and very, deeply happy. "What?" She asked, looking up at him with eyes hazy with lust and love.

"Marry me, Hob." He said. "We'll both transfer to DC. We'll get a dispensation. We can study together, keep having adventures. Do this more. We did discuss it before..."

"And this was the only question, as I recall." She propped her head on her upraised arm and looked at him. "Yes, I will marry you."

Wait. "You will?"

"Yes, Billy, I will. You're my best friend, Spencer Reid. I love you. I don't want to lose you."

He threaded his fingers in her hair and pulled her down to his lips once more.

Later that night they walked through downtown Pasadena and found an antique ring that seemed like just the thing to bind a hob fae and her billy goat together. "As soon as I'm out of the Academy we'll get married." He said. "We'll put the paperwork in tomorrow."

Shan stretched up and kissed him. "Sounds like a plan."

Very early the next morning, while they were curled up asleep in that too narrow bed, a single cell divided into two and the third member of their family started to grow.