Spencer Reid stepped off the elevator at the sixth floor and nearly bumped into Penelope Garcia who was standing beside it. Flustered, she apologised and sputtered, and then walking next to him, gestured towards the conference room, "The team's up there."
He smiled his thanks and made his way up the steps to the conference room. Garcia hurried back to the elevator and stood sentry.
Bursting into the conference room, he immediately reined himself in when he saw the solemnness on some of the faces sitting around the table. "Oh, sorry," he shut the door quietly. "Sorry about that," as he turned back to face his teammates, he found himself enclosed in a massive group hug. Rossi, Alvez and JJ hung back, having already offered him their sympathy, watching as Lewis, Prentiss and Simmons all hugged him while expressing their sorrow over his loss.
He accepted all their embraces and thanked them, then moved to take his seat at the table.
"I appreciate all your support guys. Grace and I are okay. Thank you all for your concern and love. It means a lot."
He sat down and opened the file in front of him, signaling the end of any discussion about the miscarriage. Prentiss shot a concerned expression in Rossi's direction and he answered her silently with a barely detectable shake of his head.
"This isn't a new case file," Reid pointed out, indicating the folder in front of him.
"No. It's not," Prentiss agreed. "Just the debriefing for that case we had with the pets. The one you solved for us while on your 30," she added with a smile.
For the third time since she'd entered the conference room, Prentiss glanced out the window overlooking the bullpen. She saw Garcia escorting a familiar woman across the hallway to her office and smiled as the analyst hurried back to the elevator yet again.
Turning back to the team, she told them, "Eva Middleton confessed to the shootings. You were right. She was angry about having to get rid of her cat because of her stepfather's allergy. The Davies killing was to avenge his poor dog. She'd seen all the news coverage about that. While babysitting the Seidenberg kids, she found out they lost their dog too and she felt for them. But she's a minor herself and well, it's a matter in front of the courts now. Tara, you're the psychology expert, I want you to help them out as much as you can."
Lewis acknowledged her superior. Prentiss closed the folder and tossed it down on the table. She stole another look out the window and a smile stretched across her face as she saw the man they'd been waiting for emerge from the elevator.
He followed Garcia to her office.
The intercom on the conference room desk rang. Prentiss picked it up.
"He's here. We're ready."
"Come on in then, Penelope," Prentiss told her, clicking the phone off.
A moment later, when she saw them crossing the floor towards the conference room, Prentiss opened the door and admitted Garcia and her two companions.
Several jaws dropped in recognition, and Reid rose from his seat and stepped forward.
"Grace! John! What are you doing here?"
The other agents exchanged looks. They all knew Grace but only Rossi and Prentiss recognised John. They looked to Reid to explain. Instead, John spoke.
"Hello, members of the BAU. My name is John. I work in the Internal Security department of the FBI but I'm not here in that capacity today." He set his briefcase down on the table in front of him.
One by one, Lewis, Alvez, Simmons and Jareau introduced themselves and John acknowledged them all.
"Spencer and I go back years. Ten years or more. Miss Garcia here tells me you are all aware of the backstory here, so I'll just cover what I need to. This is all confidential. Like I told Spencer one day, this kind of thing doesn't get talked about in offices. Certainly not in our office. And I'll try not to be redundant. You see, Spencer and I met at a Beltway Clean Cops meeting. At the time, he was struggling with dilaudid. And I was almost five years sober myself. Oh, and I'll tell you here as I told him then we're all equals here. People. There's no Director or Sir or Mister. I'm just John. And he's just Spencer."
He made eye contact with each and every member as he spoke, "I lent Spencer my one year medallion that night because I felt he needed that support. And two months later, when he'd earned his own, he returned it to me. It signifies a lot of hard work and dedication. And if my experience was any indication, a lot of sweat and tears too."
He paused and sent a smile in Reid's direction before continuing. "I spoke to Emily here, last week, after speaking repeatedly over the last few weeks with Penelope. I've kinda been Spencer's sponsor since the night we met. He's called me now and again when he's struggled about something. And when I hadn't heard from him in a very long time, I contacted Penelope. Found out about the prison frame-up thing." He paused again and shook his head. "Anyway, I met with the support group folks. I've had a couple of meetings with them and as Spencer's sponsor; it's my great privilege and honour to be able to do something special today. Something that I felt his lady," he paused to acknowledge Grace, and gave her a tiny push to stand next to Spencer, "and his closest friends, his teammates, deserved to be in on."
He opened his briefcase and withdrew a small gold box.
"Come here, please, Spencer," John beckoned. Reid stepped forward, standing beside John, who shot a look at Grace, urging her forward as well.
"Spencer, it is my joyful duty and absolute honour and pleasure to present to you today, your ten year medallion." He offered the box to Reid, whose eyes widened in surprise. Grace was near tears as Reid found his voice,
"But Mexico—"
"Doesn't count," John interrupted. "That was forced upon you. It's a very difficult and tremendous accomplishment to conquer the addiction, vanquish the demons and stay clean for any length of time. But ten years is extraordinary. Congratulations, my friend."
He shook Reid's hand heartily and Grace's as well, then stepped aside and allowed the other BAU members to descend upon Reid to extend their own acknowledgements of his accomplishment.
Garcia hugged him and suddenly could no longer hold back. The tears flowed and she stepped back and held him by his arms.
"Aw, Penelope, don't cry."
"I'm not," she lied, "I'm just, it's just, you've come so far, you've grown so much and to know that all that you have faced, all that you've had to overcome. Ten. Years." She pulled him back into a bear hug, held him tight for a moment then relinquished him to his girlfriend.
Grace hugged him and offered her own congratulations, and confessed to her part in the conspiracy to have this surprise sprung on him. He forgave her the subterfuge and kissed her—quite thoroughly—much to her surprise and delight, in front of everybody.
Garcia snapped a few photos with her iPhone and decided to run to her office to print off a few copies. As she left the conference room, the elevator door opened and a man stepped out.
It was the man from the surveillance photo Rossi had asked her to identify.
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