Notes:
S7 E16-17 references in this chapter.
"What, why are you looking at me like that?" Reid asked after Olivia had glanced at him several times in a row a curious expression on her face.
"You've been humming."
"So? That's not strange, you hum all the time!"
"That's right, I hum all the time, you don't. And you've been growing out your hair again… So, are you going to tell me about her?" Olivia asked with a grin.
"Right, because if Spencer Reid is happy there must be a woman in his life." Reid said sarcastically.
"Not what I said Doc, and that wasn't a denial, so who is she?"
"I can't, there are reasons, really good reasons I promised not to tell anyone."
"She in the CIA?" Olivia squinted at him and tilted her head to one side. "No? uh, NSA? Nope, okay, WITSEC? not quite, but sorta? OK… So, she's hiding from somebody…"
"Please, stop." Spencer said, covering his face.
"Alright, alright, keep her a secret, I won't pester you for more." Olivia said, straightening up and smiling. "It's good to see you so happy Doc."
"I can't get a sitter." JJ said, setting her phone down with an exaggerated sigh.
"No! We've been planning this for ages!" Emily objected loudly.
"I could babysit."
"You, Spence? By yourself?"
"Sure, what could possibly go wrong?" He answered cheerily, then grimaced as every possible worst-case scenario visibly crossed JJ's face. "I could ask Liv to pitch in, she was incredible with Ellie, Morgan can vouch for that."
Morgan looked up hearing his name and nodded as the question was relayed to him. "I think she'd have stepped in front of a bullet for Ellie and she'd only known her a few hours."
JJ looked uncertain. "I don't know, she and I haven't exactly been on the best footing since the whole…" her eyes darted to Spencer but she looked away quickly and cleared her throat. "I don't know how I feel about her babysitting for me after all that."
"C'mon JJ, Reid will be there, Henry will be fine. I mean, you saw Reid julienne those carrots at Rossi's, if Olivia can teach him to cook without him losing fingers or burning her place down, she's qualified to keep the boys safe for one night." Emily asserted convincingly.
JJ looked long and hard at Reid, who looked back with perfect cheerful confidence. "Fine."
"Great!" Reid answered and Prentiss celebrated.
Spencer- How do you feel about babysitting my Godson with me tonight?"
Olivia- Where and when? How old is he again?"
Spencer- Three and a half, landing soon, I'll call you when we're clear.
"Why is everyone screaming?" Emily asked with a groan. Penelope and JJ were wearing shades as well and all three had the matching sour expressions of a late night spent over indulging.
"You've got a gun Derek, why don't you make them stop." Garcia said pettishly, and then added quickly, "please, don't fire it, just, I don't know wave it around a little, show them your badge."
"Baby-girl, I think you're forgetting something." Derek replied, propping Jack up on his shoulders so he could hold the up the sign he'd made.
"What's that hot stuff?"
Reid answered first with a grin, "this is an FBI event, half the people here have a badge and gun."
Olivia who was holding Reids arm and making tiny circles with her thumb against his sleeve, looked at the three other women with some concern even as she battled the anxiety of being in the midst of the heaving, shouting crowd. "I've got some instant ice packs in my bag, if you think that'd help?"
"Please." Emily groaned, accepting the small packet, squishing it to break the inner seal and shaking it to activate before pressing it to her forehead and then the back of her neck, "Olivia, I know we've only just met, but I think I love you."
Penelope gratefully received the next pack and JJ took the third with only a moment's hesitation.
Emily's satisfaction expressed itself in another low groan and JJ conceded, pressing the packet to her face with a question for Olivia, "don't think I'm being ungrateful, but why'd you have cold packs along?"
"Triathlon, thought somebody might twist an ankle or something, but it looks like the med tent is well supplied." Liv answered.
"Not as well as you are." Reid said with a grin. "bandages, icy-hot spray and horse wrap are just the tip of the ice berg."
"Reid, you've got to bring her along to everything from now on." Penelope said softly, covering each eye in turn with hers.
"I agree, I like a woman who's prepared for anything." Emily said, giving Olivia an appraising look. "Marry this woman Reid, I'm telling you, she's the one."
"I get the feeling there's a guy in DC that might be a little disappointed, and those tacos were incredible, I really wouldn't want to put him off his cooking." Reid answered cheekily to hide the blush.
"Taco truck guy?" Penelope asks. "Olivia! You've been talking to taco truck guy and you didn't tell me? I need details!"
"Ok, who's taco truck guy and why are we shouting about him?" JJ asked with another groan.
"Ok, so Reid took Olivia to DC for her birthday and this guy who owns a food truck started flirting with her and gave her his number and extra guac!" Penelope said, slower than usual but still fast enough to make JJ and Emily wince.
"Extra guac and he offered his number instead of demanding yours? OK, I've changed my mind, marry taco-truck guy Olivia." Emily said in a loud whisper. "I'd do anything for free food. What's he like, and does he have a brother?"
"His name is Benjamin, and he's nice." Olivia replied, shrugging as though she really didn't want to get into the details.
"Yeah, and he's a total hottie!" Garcia added with a sigh and a dreamy expression, fanning herself dramatically.
"How do you know what he looks like Penelope?" Olivia asked, sharper than before and with a glance from Garcia to Reid.
"Uh- oh, I might have done a tiny little background check on him. Don't blame Reid, he just wanted to make sure your guy didn't have a rap sheet. And he doesn't… So, maybe I poked around a little bit extra, just to make sure, and I mean, he seems like a really normal guy, with a cute kid. Oh gosh, he did tell you about his daughter, didn't he?" Penelope stopped, looking panicked. "I didn't just ruin it, please tell me you already knew about her!"
"Yeah, he told me up front, before he offered me his number."
"I love an honest man." JJ smiled now appearing more interested, and still cooling her brow. "What happened to the mother?"
"Cancer, she stayed off chemo to keep the baby, but by the time she was born it was too late to stop it." Olivia said.
"That's awful." Penelope gasped, "I mean, I knew she was out of the picture, but I didn't realize… He told you about his wife or did you snoop? Because that's at least a second base conversation! Oh my gosh! Have you met her already? The daughter I mean?"
"No, we've only been texting, and no I haven't seen him in person since we first met and I definitely don't want to pressure him to introduce me to his daughter. Its all very new and he's protective which I get, I wouldn't want my kid getting attached and feeling abandoned every time a relationship failed." Olivia answered uncomfortably.
"If my calculations are correct Hotch should be coming through here any minute now." Reid said loudly, interrupting any further discussion of Olivia's prospective boyfriend. She was uncomfortable enough in the loud crowd, he didn't want her made more so by the intensive probing.
Olivia hung back as the rest of the team crowded around Hotch, patting his back and high-fiving Jack, so she was the first to notice the attractive and friendly faced woman who approached to greet the conqueror with a hug. And when Hotch brought the woman over to meet Jack, Spencer- who'd been entertaining the boy, looked back and caught Olivia's eye with a significant expression towards the father and son and the new woman in their lives.
That could be her with Benjamin and his three-year-old daughter someday, if she chose it. A ready-made family. She'd be a great mother. The thought seemed to pinch something in Reid's head, but that was just the lack of sleep tightening around his skull.
He pressed his eyes shut and grimaced, only to find something cold pressed into his hand.
"You look like you need this more than I do," Emily said, nudging him to take the cold pack. "late night with Olivia, how did that go?"
"Besides destroying my sleep schedule for the next week? It was fun, Henry's great."
"So, when JJ says she came home to you and Olivia sleeping together on the couch that wasn't true?"
"It was five in the morning! And we weren't sleeping together, we were just asleep!"
"So, there's nothing going on between you…" Emily asked, raising a curious eyebrow "and you're not at all jealous of taco-truck-guy?"
"No."
"Because you've got your eye on someone else?"
Reid pressed the cold pack over his eye to hide from her scrutiny, "I couldn't possibly say."
"I see." She answered enigmatically.
Penelope was having a bad day. Kevin talking to Derek was bad, Derek refusing to talk to her was worse. And she hated surprises, so as much as she knew she shouldn't, she did some snooping on Kevin's computer.
"You might be wondering why I asked all of you to meet me here." Garcia said into a glass swirling with turquoise liqueur. "Kevin proposed."
Emily began to smile and JJ opened her mouth to congratulate her and then they stopped. A tear slid down Garcia's cheek.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Olivia asked softly, stirring her seltzer.
"I couldn't, I'm not ready, and I love him but… I can't. So he…" she took a long sip through the curly straw and cleared her throat. "It's over and I want to forget about it, and I want to dance."
Emily spoke up first, offering her hand, "then lets dance."
JJ glanced at Olivia across the table and she shook her head. "You go ahead Jareau, I'll watch the drinks."
"I'll sit if you don't mind." JJ said, not breaking eye contact. "You can call me JJ, you know."
"Alright JJ."
An awkward pause settled between them and they looked at the dance floor, the bar, their drinks, everywhere but each other.
"I need to apologize-"
"I'm sorry-"
Both spoke simultaneously and they shared a chuckle before Olivia motioned for JJ to go first.
"I shouldn't have accused you of toying with Reid. He's a grown man and he can make his own decisions, I'm just a little…"
"Protective?"
"Yeah, it's just that he's been through so much already, and I didn't want to see his heart break again. But I was out of line."
"I shouldn't have been so hostile." Olivia said apologetically.
"But everything you said was true." JJ said, twisting her mouth in a bitter half smile. "I took advantage of his faith to maintain the lie. I had to. But I thought that when the truth came out, it would all be okay again, just like it was before. But it wasn't. I didn't realize how deeply it would hurt him. I was grieving too in a way, not like he was of course, but I didn't know if Emily would ever return either, and I was so busy keeping her secret safe that I didn't fully understand that to Spence and Morgan and Garcia, she was really dead."
"Can't have been easy, hiding that from your team and Will."
"No, gosh, no, it was… it was awful. And after, when Spence told me he'd thought about using again, he said 'you know who stopped me? it sure wasn't you!' and I… I don't know if I should be telling you this." JJ paused, looking up at Olivia over the rim of her glass. "I was jealous. After Gideon left, I was the one he went to with his problems."
"Until I came along." Olivia supplied.
"Yeah, and I, I guess I didn't want to be replaced."
"I'm not trying to replace you, JJ."
"Yeah, I know." JJ took a swig and set her glass down firmly, "I wanted to thank you, for being there for Spence when I couldn't."
Olivia nodded her acceptance and offered her hand. "Think we can we start over?"
JJ took it and shook twice, "pleasure to meet you, call me JJ."
"Olivia, and the pleasure is all mine."
When Penelope and Emily returned panting and parched after three dances, JJ and Liv were chatting amicably.
"You should pop by sometime, Arion's a bit high strung for strangers but Glory is the laziest and calmest mare I've ever known."
"Are you serious? I'd love to get Henry on a horse, there's so many other opportunities in the city, but I'd love to give him a taste of the country."
"Got to start them young, before they learn to be afraid." Olivia said with a grin. "Course, I fell off a fair few times when I was starting out, but its all about getting back on that horse."
"Too right." JJ agreed, turning to Penelope, "having fun?"
"Yeh, too much, I think I sprained something." Garcia groaned and slumped back into the booth favouring her left leg side.
"Liv's probably got something in her Mary Poppins bag for that." JJ suggested with a grin and Olivia nodded and began to dig through for the tensure wrap Penelope requested.
"Are we talking about men? If so, count me in." Emily said with a laugh.
"Nope, I'm afraid we were talking about getting back in the literal saddle, but if you've got something to say about finding Mr. Right, please let us hear it." Olivia answered with a laugh.
Notes:
Hit and Run coming up next, though its mostly the aftermath that will show up in the chapter
I prefer not to write my way through already existing media, but let me know if you think I should add a short summary of relevant episodes for those who don't want remember or don't want to watch them again.