Disclaimer: See chapter 1

----------------------------

Lloyd was exhausted. He removed his black trench coat and loosened his grey and blue striped tie after closing the door to his hotel room and depositing his briefcase on the sandstone colored carpet. It had been a hectic two weeks preparing his appellant argument for the Federal Court of Appeals on behalf of Chico Mendez. He had to admit that Julie Crest had been a big help to him even though he was bringing her shortcomings as a lawyer into the limelight. She'd helped him prepare the brief for his appeal, something at which she was surprisingly very good.

He'd gotten to know Julie over the last two weeks and found he liked her immensely. She truly enjoyed the law but suffered under the exceedingly high expectations of an overbearing father. She had informed Lloyd that she had made the decision to leave the Public Defender's office and follow his advice and go into another area of the law.

He threw the jacket of his navy pinstripe suit on the bed and after grabbing a bottle of water from the mini bar, he sat in the comfortable chair upholstered in a creamy jade fabric and looked out the window. The rain that was falling heavily when he'd gone into the court this morning had now stopped and a rainbow with its myriad of bright colors arched through the sky, a symbol the Creator himself had used to send the message the storm was over. He hoped it meant that the storm would soon be over for Chico. He couldn't be sure of this however. Even though he'd always felt he was good at reading people, a skill which had served him well in his profession, he had to admit he hadn't been able to read the faces or the demeanor of the three judges that had presided over the court and Chico's future. He couldn't tell how they would rule. He could only hope it would be good news for Chico.

-------------------

Morgan sat at his desk watching Reid making strange movements with his hands. "Man, what are you doing?" he finally asked when he could contain his curiosity no longer. Emily had been watching him as well and wondered the same thing.

"I'm learning sign language for babies," he told them.

Morgan snorted, almost spitting out his coffee, "Sign language for babies, you're shittin' me, right?"

"No, Dr. Joseph Garcia has published a book about babies being able to communicate through sign language before they can talk," Reid told them.

"Oh, come on man, Joanna's what, two months old and you think she's going to communicate through sign language?"

"No Morgan, I don't expect her to communicate this early but it's never too soon to start. Studies have shown that children who communicate this way, talk sooner and are more advanced in school. I want to give Joanna every advantage."

"I have heard about that," Emily interjected. "A friend of mine in Boston did it with her baby and it worked really well."

"I checked with the day care here and their child care workers are trained to practice it so she'll still be able to get the benefit of it when Allie goes back to work. I've been trying to convince Allie not to come back to work but she loves her career although studies have shown that children of non working mothers have…"

"Agent Reid," a female voice said behind him.

The three profilers turned to see Sharon Webb standing there holding a decorative round metal container. "Oh, Miss Webb, how are you?" Reid said, rising from his chair.

"I'm getting by," she replied. "I haven't completely gotten over everything but I realize that takes time. It's tough you know. Well, then again, you probably have no idea what it's like to be held captive and have despicable things done to you while you're waiting for some maniac to kill you." Morgan and Emily looked at Reid, trying to gauge his emotions. Sharon Webb would have no idea that Reid knew exactly how that felt.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Reid responded quietly. "Have you spoken to the counselor JJ got for you? I know from personal experience, it does help."

"No, I'm not really into psychobabble. I couldn't carry on at the university. I don't know if I can go back there so I moved into a small apartment and I'm pretty much just staying at home. I don't have any desire to see people right now. Everybody wants the gory details of what happened and I don't like to talk about it so I mostly clean my apartment and bake. I always bake when I'm stressed, which is why I brought this," she handed Reid the container. "It's chocolate chip cookies and ginger snaps." She looked at Morgan and Emily as well, "I hope you enjoy them."

Emily took the container from Reid and opened it. "Oh, these look so good," she took a cookie and bit into it. "Delicious," she mumbled as her mouth was full of the tasty treat, "Reid you should take some of these ginger snaps home to Allie. They're her favorite, aren't they?" She turned to Sharon. "Allie is Reid's wife." She saw Sharon's quick glimpse at Reid's hand and the smile left her face when she saw the gold band he wore.

"Well, I just wanted to thank you again for what you did for me," the young woman said. "Enjoy the cookies." She turned and quickly headed for the glass doors that led to the elevators.

"That was nice of her," Reid said as he turned back to his teammates and sampled one of the cookies. "But Emily, you got it wrong, it's chocolate chip, not the ginger snaps that are Allie's favorite."

"Reid, how can a genius like you be so clueless?" Emily stated with exasperation. It's not about what cookies Allie likes. I wanted to make it clear to little Miss Martha Stewart that you are a very married man."

"Emily, she's just grateful to us for rescuing her from a sadistic killer," Reid replied.

"Reid, there is absolutely no us about it. She doesn't care one iota about the rest of us. She brought those cookies for you." She pushed her index finger into his chest for emphasis. "Her only interest is in you."

Reid's eyes squinted in disbelief. "Emily that's ridiculous. She only saw me for a few short minutes."

"It doesn't matter how long she saw you," Emily explained. "Sharon Webb was facing certain death and you came charging in, the handsome white knight, to save her. That's a major turn on for her."

---------------------

Sharon's heels clicked on the cement as she hurriedly strode to her blue Firefly but she didn't hear them because of the voice in her head, the word echoing over and over, taunting her. She opened her car door and got in slamming it loudly. "Aargh!" she screamed in frustration while the word seemed to reverberate in her mind. Wife! She banged her fists on the steering wheel. How could he have a wife? Well, she wasn't about to let that stop her. She'd asked God to help her and He had, hadn't He. It was God's will. He'd sent him to her. It was a sign. She was meant to have Spencer Reid.