4 years ago:

Brennan sighed as she looked at Spencer. They had this argument at least once a week and nothing ever changed. Spencer wanted to tell the team about them and Brennan didn't. She wasn't ready to tell everyone about her personal life and she wasn't ready to have to transfer to another division, possibly another city. The team needed Spencer, they didn't need her.

"We've been together a little over a year, Bren, I don't like keeping this from them."

"If they know then we'll be forced to separate or I'm going to end up back in a police department somewhere back on child abduction cases."

"You like working child abduction cases."

"No one likes to work child abduction cases, Spence. I work them because I'm good at them."

Spencer stuffed his hands in his pockets as he looked at his girlfriend. "Brennan, we don't keep secrets from the team."

"I'm not ready," Brennan argued as she picked up her phone as a text came over it.

"Well, I am. At the very least I'm going to tell Hotch."

"Don't you dare tell Hotch," Brennan ordered as she threw her hands up and subsequently her phone went flying from them and flew at Spencer.

Spencer ducked just in time to have the phone hit the wall behind his head. "Did you just throw that at me?"

"No, I didn't throw it at you," Brennan bit out as she got up and picked up her phone, sighing at the cracked screen. "I'm going home to my apartment because obviously we're not going to come to an agreement with this tonight and I'm not in the mood to argue."

"Brennan." Spencer tried to call out to her before dropping onto his bed as he hears the door to his apartment slam. It was going to be a long night.

Brennan used her key to open the door to Spencer's apartment and sighed as she walked inside. They had to be at the office soon, but she didn't want to go in while they were fighting. She could smell breakfast cooking and walked into the kitchen, frowning as she sees Spencer cooking and wearing a baseball helmet.

"What are you doing?"

"I figured we could have some breakfast before work," Spencer answered as he pulled some pancakes off of the stove.

"And the helmet?"

Spencer's lip quirked. "I borrowed it from Morgan for protection, just in case any phones decided to go flying across the room again."

Brennan laughed as she walked across the room to him. "I love you," she told him as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I love you too," Spencer replied as he leaned down and kissed her.

Brennan reached up and gripped the helmet before she pulled it off his head and tossed it across the floor. "I don't think you need that for this."

"And what is this?"

Brennan smirked as she nimbly worked at unbuttoning his pants, kissing him to cut off any complaints that he might have.

"We really don't have time for this and breakfast," Spencer said against her lips.

"Breakfast isn't that important."

"Actually breakfast is literally the most important meal of the day," Spencer argued with her. "It has a lot of vitamins and nutrients that most people don't make up for at the end of the day if they miss breakfast."

Brennan kissed him harshly before pulling back. "Stop talking, Boy Wonder," she told him as she dropped to her knees in front of him.

Spencer moaned as his eyes rolled back and he gripped the counter to steady himself.

Brennan watched with hooded eyes as the unsub held a gun against Spencer's head. Today was supposed to be a normal day at the office, catch up on paperwork, and just have an all out easy day. Until some asshole had to go and hold up a diner, shooting multiple people inside.

Reid had gone inside to try and talk him down and the unsub had managed to use him as a hostage. They were now outside the diner as the man was trying to make his way to a waiting car.

"Let the agent go," Hotch called out to the man, his gun trained on the unsub's head.

"He's my ticket out of here."

Brennan clenched her teeth as she kept her gun on the unsub also. She couldn't think. All that was going through her head was the possibility that the unsub could pull the trigger at any moment and kill Spencer. She didn't want to live without him.

"You don't need him. Let him go and we won't pursue you."

The unsub let out a harsh laugh. "You will shoot me the moment that I let him go."

Brennan took her eyes off the unsub for a second and looked to Spencer. Their eyes met and Brennan knew that he was trying to tell her that he loved her. Her whole body froze as a gunshot rang out into the sky. All she could do was stare as slowly the unsub's body fell to the ground, Morgan standing behind him with his gun drawn.

She didn't think as she allowed her gun to drop to the ground and she ran towards Spencer. He watched her before wrapping his arms around her as she wrapped her own around his neck. There was no hesitation between the two as their lips touched in an intimate embrace.

Brennan ignored the world around her as she pressed herself harder against his body. She thought that she had lost him. In one second her world would have come crashing down on her. She finally pulled back from the kiss, giving him one last chaste one before relaxing her body back down to the ground.

"Pr-ee-ee-ty Boy," Morgan said from behind them, his eyebrows slightly raised. "You've been holding out on us, both of you."

Brennan slowly looked around at her teammate's faces. Hotch looked angry, Dave looked slightly amused along with Morgan, Prentiss looked surprised, and JJ just smiled, she was the one who had known about them from the beginning, so it wasn't a shock to her.

She pulled her arms free from Spencer's neck and faced Hotch first. "Hotch."

"How long?"

Spencer and her exchanged looks. "A little over a year," he answered looking back at his team leader.

"We will discuss this when we're back at the office," Hotch said turning away from the couple.

"Congratulations," Morgan said as he slapped Spencer on the back. "Never thought the two of you would be together."

"Because I'm unattractive?"

Morgan shook his head. "No, man, you just lack confidence. It at least explains why she always turned down that beer with me, she had something better waiting for her at home."

Brennan leaned her head on Spencer's chest as he wrapped his arms around her again. The team knew now and the only one who seemed upset by it was Hotch. That was good. Everything would be okay.

Everything was not okay. Brennan could feel herself getting weaker by the day. She always took the torture that was intended for Diana. She couldn't let the elder woman get hurt because of her.

She leaned her head back against the wall, stretching her leg out before wincing as she felt the bones in her knee move. She knew last night that he had broken it. She glanced over at Diana who was still sleeping beside her. Spencer's mom. She would do anything to keep her safe, but at this rate that wasn't going to be something that she could do for long.

The door to the room opened and she watched as Rutledge walked into the room and sat down a small plate of food. "You should eat, you'll need your strength."

Brennan shook her head. "Diana needs it more than I do."

Rutledge shrugged. "Your husband won't get here in time to save you if you don't stay alive long enough for him to."

She just kept looking at him. "I don't want him to come."

"You think you're going to be able to keep him safe and out of this?"

Brennan laughed. "You think I'm trying to keep him safe? You did me a favor, Rutledge. You might have made me lose my baby which I hate you for that, but you also made it so much easier to leave Spencer."

"You didn't want to leave him."

Brennan shook her head at him. "You just don't understand. I spent five years with him. Five years dealing with his OCD and listening to him be a brainiac at every moment. Did you know that he's autistic? Asperger's actually. Do you know how hard it is to live with someone like that, scared to leave because you're in fear that he might do something to himself if you leave. Spencer is nothing but a pansy and I'm glad that we're no longer together."

"You're lying."

"I'm not. Did you also know that he's beginning to show signs of schizophrenia?"

"Then why are you protecting her?"

"She's old. She is no more than a child and at the end of day I am still an FBI agent."

Rutledge's face contorted with anger. "You mean to tell me that you don't give a shit about him?"

"I care more for the dirt on my shoes."

Rutledge let out an angry yell as he left the room.

"Is that all true?"

Brennan looked beside her at Diana, smiling softly at the woman. She laid down beside the older woman and talked softly so that Rutledge wouldn't hear if he was listening.

"There is no one that I love more in this world than Spencer. I'm doing what I need to in order to keep him safe and alive."

Diana frowned at Brennan. "Would he accept just killing me? I'm old."

Brennan shook her head. "He wants to make me suffer, Diana. He's the one that killed our baby."

"Why?"

"I don't know," Brennan answered honestly. "But I'm doing what I can to protect your son."

"And me," Diana said as she gestured at Brennan's bruised and battered body. "You don't have to protect me."

"Yes, I do," Brennan answered her as she kissed her forehead before she sat up on the bed again and winced as her broken leg moved. "I'm going to get us out of this, Diana."

"Is it true what you said about Spencer?"

Brennan sighed. "We just spoke of that, Diana."

Diana shook her head as she sat up also and looked at Brennan's leg. "About Spencer getting schizophrenia. About him becoming like me?"

Brennan pursed her lips as Diana put a pillow under her leg. "Spencer shows some early warning signs, yes, but that doesn't mean that he's going to develop it completely."

"But it's why you didn't want the baby right? Neither of you wanted kids."

Brennan shook her head. "We didn't want kids. Not just because of his family history, but because our job doesn't really provide us with the kind of life that was coherent with having children. But don't get me wrong, Diana, both Spencer and I loved Jennifer and we both very much wanted her."

"Do you still miss her?"

Brennan smiled slightly. "I'll miss her until the day I die. Which may be sooner rather than later if we don't get out of here." She sighed deeply. "I promise you will make it out of here, Diana."

Diana looked at her daughter in law and gave her a small smile.