Chapter 16

The White Swan Inn
San Francisco, CA

Morgan

Morgan had to admit, the hotel was a nice place. It was also a lot busier than he had expected.

The main lobby was oddly shaped, fairly small and done in something close to a pre-WW II British vibe, dark wood and floral prints and vintage posters. To the immediate right as they walked in was a small, manned reception desk, with what looked to be an office behind it. Going around the room counter-clockwise there were stairs going up and a small elevator, one set of double French doors with a reserved sign hanging from them, another with a closed sign, a fireplace which was merrily crackling against the foggy chill outside, a small hall labeled restrooms and a set of open double doors that looked to lead into a small lounge that was doing a brisk business. Tomás led Hotch over to the reception desk to handle the paperwork. Rossi was immediately hailed by someone heading into the lounge, apparently an old friend. And Alice just stood there, looking at the lounge, exhaustion and sadness and perhaps longing on her face. "Everything all right?" Spencer asked her.

"I should be downstairs playing hostess." She said. Then she shook her head and moved to the reserved room. "I just can't..."

"Everyone will understand." Joey said to her. "There's always next year. We can come back from DC, right?"

"Of course we can." She said to him as they moved into the room.

Morgan and Seaver followed. The room beyond was a small library, same dark British vintage feel, walls lined in leather bound books, small fireplace, comfortable chairs and couches. "So, this is set aside for...us?" Seaver asked.

"Unless you'd like to join the party." Alice waved a hand in the direction of the lounge as she sank into the overstuffed couch. "Feel free to have a look around if you like. Room keys should be available shortly I'm sure."

Joey took a polite stance at her elbow. "Can I get you anything Miss Alice?"

"Tea. My usual, please." She said without hesitation. She looked over at Spencer who was already looking over the shelves. "And start a pot of coffee going in the café. Ask Cook if the kitchen can manage a light supper for everyone on top of the party. If not bring the take-out menus."

"Yes Miss." Joey grinned and seemed to almost skip as he left the room.

"Look around?" Seaver asked.

"Nah." Morgan replied. These were not bad people, Alice and her crew, and Rossi was solid of course. But this was the sort of thing his cousin Cindi had been into before she picked up a stalker, and Joey had picked up a stalker, and now his sensitivity for potential bad was wired way too high to be among people who were likely just having a very strange sort of fun. "I'm going to keep an eye on Reid tonight."

"Okay. I'm going to go catch up with Dave then."

"Okay." Morgan watched Seaver head over to the lounge where Rossi had gone, then shut the door for privacy. This was a nice, quiet, comfortable sort of living room where they could all hang out and wind down before heading up to bed. He could do this. But speaking of Spencer. "You call your Mom yet?"

"No." Spencer frowned. "I haven't had time. Which laptop can I use?"

"Mine." Morgan went digging for it. "Aren't you supposed to avoid screens?"

"I won't be on it that long. And I have glasses that are supposed to help."

"You can use the conference room if you like." Alice indicated a door off to the side. "Or the café. It's closed right now, should be fairly quiet in there. Make yourselves at home."

The door in the library led to a small conference room, big table, chairs, done in the same vintage idea as the rest of the hotel, but otherwise nothing fancy. The windows, and a door opposite the one to the library, led to the room that had been marked closed. It turned out to be a small restaurant space, set up for a self-serve breakfast buffet. At the far end there was a door into the kitchen, which was open, and beyond which was busy, but the end by the library was quiet and populated with tables and chairs. Joey was over at the buffet starting a coffee pot. "Would you like, I don't know, tea? Or decaf? I know cops..."

"Coffee." Morgan, Hotch and Spencer all said together.

Joey grinned at them all. "Figured. It'll be ready in a minute, help yourselves."

"Thank you." Hotch replied.

Hotch moved to the conference table and started shuffling chairs. "Paperwork?" Morgan asked.

"Might as well get it done now." Hotch replied. He put the first file box up and started unpacking.

"I'll help." Why not. It was a comfortable place for it, and Hotch did have a point. Morgan started in on the other file box.

In the meantime Spencer went to a table in the cafe, and fired up the laptop. His first call was actually by phone to Bennington. It sounded like the patients were at dinner, but he organized a call for after. His second call was to a much more familiar number. "Hey." He said when the video call was answered.

"Hey yourself!" JJ replied. "Welcome back! How are you feeling?"

"Not as bad as I could be." Spencer replied. "I'm hanging in there. How are you feeling? How's the baby?"

"I'm doing all right. Two kids in the house is a lot more work than one, let me tell you. Your new godson is doing wonderfully well, but you will have to wait to see him until you get back, I am not waking him up."

"I don't blame you. Speaking of waking, is Henry still up?"

"He is just tucking into bed, your timing is perfect."

A few minutes later they heard another voice. "Spencer!" Henry cried out.

Spencer beamed. "Hey Henry!"

Just then Joey stuck his head back in the door. "Chef made chicken crepes and butternut squash soup for the house dinner tonight. Would that be all right with some salad?"

"Perfectly." Hotch replied. "Thank you."

Morgan helped Hotch unpack the paperwork and get it set up while Spencer chatted with Henry and JJ and it looked like Alice was speaking with Joey off and on in the other room. After a while he realized that Spencer had moved on to the next conversation. "I'm all right Mom." He was saying.

"Why are you wearing those ridiculous glasses?" Diana Reid asked. "Are those sunglasses?"

"Um, really bad eyestrain. The lenses have an amber tint; they're supposed to help cut the glare from the computer screen."

"You work too hard..."

Morgan tuned out that conversation as well, until he sensed Spencer moving past him to the coffee pot. "Undercover?" He asked.

"Rossi and I decided that we had to tell her something." Hotch replied. "We thought the truth would be too upsetting."

"No, that was quiet effective. Thank you. She's really mad at you now though."

"That's all right."

"Done with your calls?" Morgan asked.

"One more." Spencer replied. "This is going to be the hard one."

Morgan wondered, but he didn't have to wonder for long. "There you are!" Alex Blake called out when she saw Spencer on the screen.

Spencer looked at her a moment, looked over at Hotch and Morgan, and then looked back at her once more. "Hang on." He said. Then he got up and closed the door between the café and the conference room.

"Good choice." Was Hotch's comment.

Morgan nodded his agreement. He knew Spencer loved his mother, but Diana was not well and at times like these sometimes you just needed a "mother" you could talk to.