A/N:

Sorry for the wait for this chapter - there were some parts that I was just not as happy with! Thank you so much for all of your thoughts on what else might be going on. Let's see, shall we?!

JJ's POV

Thanks to our newfound medical connections, two hours later, Derek, Garcia, a freshly-showered Rossi, Emily, Tara and myself sat around a circular, snack-laden table in the attending doctors' lounge. Amelia had joined us thirty minutes ago with a favourable update on Spencer from her intern before falling asleep on the sofa next to our table. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun on top of her head; she wore tight, maroon jeans and an oversized white sweater and a familiar purple scarf - one of Spence's, no doubt - hung loosely around her neck. She laid against her right forearm, her left arm hugged a cushion to her stomach, her hand curled around a half-filled water bottle.

"Have we heard from Alvez, yet?" I asked Rossi. Our newest member of the team had been called away before the Levenson case. He had been following a few leads in relation to the remaining fugitives that had escaped from jail earlier in the year. Rossi had left him a message to let him know what had happened.

"He sent his apologies for not being here and asked us to update him on Reid's progress, which I have done. He said he'll be here as soon as he can get away." Rossi looked down at his phone as he spoke.

Silence fell over us as we slowly made our way through the plethora of food on the table. As I'm sure everybody else had done, I thought again about Spence keeping us in the dark about Amelia. She was an important part of his life that he had chosen to hide from us. I saw his reasons well enough but I could not see how he thought it would work out. He couldn't live like that forever... could he?

Emily touched my arm, "Are you OK, JJ?"

"I'm just thinking. Don't get me wrong, Amelia is lovely, really amazing, but...?" I put my half-eaten biscotti down and wrung my hands together. "I know Amelia explained that he wanted to protect her, and I get that, but if he wanted to stay with her, he couldn't keep her a secret forever. Its not practical. He must have known that." Truly, I could not fathom how Spence had arrived at his decision.

"I'm not even on the team anymore. He could have come to me." Derek said, the hurt still reverberating through his tone.

"Don't take it personally, guys. This was all about her safety, he probably ran the probabilities and didn't want to take any risks." Rossi reassured us with a smile before plucking a handful of grapes from the fruit bowl in the center of the table.

"How do you think they met?" Tara asked absentmindedly, her eyes on the sleeping lady behind her.

"She's a doctor, her schedule is as bad, if not worse, than ours," Emily stated.

"You've got that right," Derek agreed. "Maybe they met on the morning coffee run, or at bookstore or conference - they're both academics."

"When does he see her, though?" Emily asked quietly, disbelief still evident in her tone.

"I have no idea when or how, but whatever is going on, they're clearly making it work," I said.

"Ok guys, don't be mad. I couldn't wait for Reid to explain..." Garcia trailed off as we collectively stared at her. She had been tapping away on her laptop for the last hour, God only knew what she had been up to. Though from her trepidation, I could take a guess.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I just wanted to find out what I'd missed! How has Reid managed to keep her from us? There must have been signs. I was worried we had neglected him, what with all the drama recently." Garcia looked up to find us all staring her, anticipating whatever highly illegal and intrusive, but otherwise genius way she had used to find out more about Spencer and Amelia. Resuming her typing, she continued, "OK, so following some world-class snooping, I've discovered that over the past two years, when you've all been away on a case, he leaves a voicemail at the same number almost every night - and before you ask, no I haven't listened to any, I'm weird but I'm not creepy weird. If you were to place a bet that that number belongs to Amelia, you would be onto a winner."

"Right, so he calls her to say goodnight. I try to do that for Will and the boys, too. I'd say we could have noticed that, but he probably did it privately," I said softly.

"What about when we were not on a case?" Derek asked.

"A-ha, well that's where things got interesting. Nothing at all, no phone calls, nada - which got me thinking. Under what circumstances would that occur?

"If he got to see her in person every night?" Tara squinted as if deep in thought, though her tone suggested she was stating the obvious.

"And in what kind of relationship would you see each other every single night unless work called you away?" Garcia probed.

"They're living together." Derek and Tara said unison. Derek leaned back in his chair, mystified once more.

"You are correct my dears. God, I've missed this, it's like old times!", Garcia touched Derek's arm tenderly, continuing her typing, with one hand. "I obtained his records with HR and about eight months ago, he changed his address to a charming suburban house, just east of Southbridge, belonging to one Doctor Greyling."

"That's a big step for Reid," Emily noted.

"Is it just them?" I asked warily. At that point, I was confident that for all we knew, Spence might have a brood of children running about the place.

"In terms of fellow humans, yes. Amelia is the registered owner of a Norwegian forest cat and Welsh Corgi, so they have some company."

Suddenly, Amelia's pager bleeped, bringing her out of her slumber. She checked the pager and stretched before looking over to us. "I'm sorry, I have to consult on a case - neonatal head trauma. I'll be as quick as I can." She grabbed her doctor's coat that had been draped over the back of the sofa.

As she got up to leave, an older man walked through the door. He was tall; wore a suit and carried an air of authority. "Don't move Amelia. As of an hour ago, you're on leave. Maynard has taken over your patients."

"Sir, that really is not necessary right now, I can con-"

"Amelia, you're a surgeon and your partner is in surgery. You can't stress yourself out."

"I have a head trauma in paediatrics, I have-"

"Maynard has it covered, Amelia. Turn off your pager, and I don't want to see you for at least two weeks."

In addition to the authority with which the older man spoke, I detected a hint of something else - concern? Clearly, if he was a colleague, he would be concerned but I could tell there were unspoken words between them. Amelia's restless arms and hands only added to my suspicions. I looked at Emily, also pre-occupied by the young doctor's nervous movements.

"Ok," she removed the pager from the waistband of her jeans, turned it off and dropped it into the distressed leather backpack next the the sofa. "But, please, if I'm needed; if there are any serious newborn traumas, please call me. I'll be here, day or night."

"Of course, my dear," the man touched Amelia's shoulder. As he turned to leave, he said "you're one of our best, Amelia. You're right, the children need you. But there will always be children that need you. Right now, somebody else needs you more."

"Who was that?" Garcia asked as the door of the lounge closed.

"The Chief of Surgery, Dr Bray."

"He seems pretty serious." Derek commented.

"He kind of has to be but he's rather sweet underneath all the seriousness, " Amelia smiled before sinking back into the sofa.

We fell silent for a while, lost in our thoughts of Spence, no doubt. Amelia sat with her head cocked slightly to one side, with her arms crossed over her abdomen, her hands clutching each elbow. I could sense something was bothering her and I wasn't convinced it was just Spence's surgery. Five minutes later, she spoke again, "I'm going down to the canteen to get something - I haven't eaten since before my last surgery - do any of you need anything?"

Rossi laughed, gesturing to the pile of food on the table, "we're all good here, I think".

Emily looked at me before she spoke, "I need some better coffee, JJ?"

"Good idea," I replied, following Amelia through the door.

We walked through the corridors in companionable silence until the canteen came into view. It was large, well-lit but scarcely occupied. Emily seized the opportunity, "how are you coping with this, Amelia?"

"I know this must be overwhelming, having Spence on the table and his colleagues scrutinising you. I hope we haven't upset you," I added.

"No, no - I'm fine. Like you said, it's just overwhelming," she said. An average person may have believed her but Emily and I were not fooled. Looking at each other, we silently agreed not to push the issue. For now, at least.

However, clearly not noticing the canteen employee walking past with a cart full of dishes to be washed, Amelia turned away from us quickly, attempting to approach the deli counter and escape the questions, no doubt. Flight in its purest form. She gasped, her arms wrapping around her stomach. For the second time that evening, I trusted my instincts. Her hands falling to her stomach as she learnt Spence's surgery was going well; clutching her arms across herself and shielding her torso with the sofa cushion were not accidental actions. They were natural.

Touching her shoulder, I whispered, "you're pregnant, aren't you?"

Emily's eyes widened, shocked once again. Amelia stared at me for a short moment before averting her gaze. Her eyes filled with tears.

"Shh, it's ok." I led her to a small table. Emily grabbed a jug of water and three glasses from a nearby island of condiments, salad and cutlery. She sat next to Amelia and held her hand after pouring a glass for each of us.

"I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised," she said as tears rolled down her cheeks. Briefly, she laughed, "what with you all studying human behaviour for a living, I was worried at least one of you would figure it out. I just didn't think it would be this fast!"

"Don't worry, I don't think any of the others suspect anything. I could just tell something else was going on and I'm a mother; I recognised the signs. But we won't tell them, this is between us until you and Spencer decide otherwise." I took her other hand.

"JJ's right. This is your news. If the the others have noticed anything, they probably think you're worried about Spencer's surgery. Truly, that you might be pregnant never crossed my mind," Emily reassured her.

"Please try to stay calm..." I trailed off, stopping myself. Part of me inwardly cringed when I re-registered where we were and what her job was; she would obviously know the importance of minimising stress during pregnancy. I didn't want to undermine her when she was so upset.

Amelia looked down, tears falling quickly. "It's... j-just...I f-f-feel..." she took a deep breath to compose herself, "I-I feel like I'm betraying Spencer. He doesn't know. He doesn't know that you all know about me and now you both know about this, before I got to tell him anything. I wanted to tell him first."

I immediately felt awful. "I'm sorry things have turned out this way. But Tara was right earlier: we have to stick together now. We just want you to know that we're here for you." Squeezing her hand, I continued, "and you'll still get to tell him. He's made it through so much, he'll make it through this and he'll be so incandescently happy when you tell him. Nobody else will know unless you tell them. But please, let us know if you do want to talk about it, any time. We're here." I tried to catch her eye as I smiled.

"Thank you, JJ." She smiled, albeit weakly, at me before looking to Emily, "Thank you too, Emily. You're both very kind."

"Do you mind me asking how far along you are?" I tried to distract her.

"Eight weeks." She looked at her hands.

"So you should be having your first scan soon?"

"Yes, I have one booked in for a few days' time. I had hoped Spencer and I could go together," she looked up at me, tears threatening to spill over into the wet trails already staining her cheeks.

"You still will... I mean, I don't know how recovery works after abdominal surgery, but I'm sure that once you tell him, come hell or high water, Spencer will make sure he's there." Emily attempted to reassure her again.

She chuckled, "I know he would..." We smiled. "I'll focus on that. You know, it's so bizarre. I'm used to talking to people struggling with their loved ones being in surgery. I'm used to running through the motions of what to say and when to say it; to controlling my facial expressions and attempting reassurance even when I know it's likely to be completely futile. It's so difficult when it's you."

"I can appreciate that." I took her hand, "with that in mind, do you want some time to yourself for the moment? I'd be lying if I said we were not intrigued by the woman we all hoped Spence would find, but we don't want to crowd you or make you uncomfortable when the situation is already difficult."

"Thank you, I think I'd like to go sort myself out a bit and eat something." She gestured to her tear-stained face.

"Ok, we'll leave you for now and go back to the others."

"Wait," she touched Emily's arm and looked over at me. "if you still want that coffee, I have the best. Here," she pulled a set of keys from her pocket. "My office is next to the attending doctors' lounge, blue key, knock yourselves out. And...thanks again, both of you," she smiled.

"It's our pleasure," Emily returned her smile before we walked away.

Ten minutes later, we stood in Amelia's office, waiting for the coffee press. The room was was small, tidy and smelled of jasmine. The walls were painted a dark green, though most of them were covered by bookcases full of journals and textbooks. A large, mahogany desk occupied the majority of the space, with a chair placed both behind and in front of it. A bonsai tree grew to the left of computer monitor; to the right I noticed a photo, framed in beautifully carved, white roses. The photo depicted Amelia, holding a glass of champagne. She was dressed in a floor-length, blue gown, encrusted with thousands of sequins that gleamed under the lights above her head. Behind her stood Spence, dressed in a tuxedo; one of his hands also held a glass while the other rested on her waist. While Amelia smiled brightly, he looked down at her, almost unaware of the photograph being taken.

"They're a beautiful couple," Emily commented, passing me a cup of coffee.

"They certainly are," I agreed.

"What's the matter?" she replied knowingly.

"There's so much we don't know; he's got a life that we never knew existed."

Emily rubbed my shoulder. "I know. We'll sort this; don't worry JJ. Let's go," she gestured to the door.

We left Amelia's office to join our friends and colleagues back in the lounge. Interestingly, they were upstanding as we entered the room.

"It's about time you two showed up," Derek said almost accusingly.

"That's got to be the longest coffee on record." Rossi agreed.

"Reid is out of surgery." Garcia responded to our confused expressions.

"Where's Amelia?" I asked, grabbing my jacket and go-bag.

"Presumably already in the ICU. Martha - her intern - called her before running up here." Tara replied.

"Let's go," Derek walked past us to open the door.

A/N:

Clearly, you're all brilliantly perceptive (that, or my clues were less than subtle!) and Amelia is indeed, pregnant. I hope this chapter did not disappoint!

Thank you all once again for the views, follows and favourites. Thank you so much to all reviewers - I have really enjoyed reading your thoughts and it's really reassuring to hear that you're enjoying the story.

I've tried to situate this story a little more clearly as nestled within the current season - hence the mention of Alvez and absence of Hotch. I will obviously deviate from whatever happens but I just wanted to make it a little clearer.

So, how do you think Spencer will react to all this news? Let me know!

Best,

Em