Chapter 7: Alex
Alex's POV
When your legs don't work like they used to before
And I can't sweep you off of your feet
Would your mouth still remember the taste of my love?
Will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?
And, darling, I will be loving you 'til we're 70
And, baby, my heart can still fall us hard at 23
And I'm thinking 'bout how
People fall in love in mysterious ways
Maybe just the touch of a hand/span/em/p
Well me- I fall in love with you every single day
And I just wanna tell you I am
I am the luckiest woman on earth. I have a husband who loves me, a job that I love, and my friends and family getting along so well. I was hesitant at first when the invitation to a good old barbeque at Rossi's was extended to James and I, considering that the agent who took my place would be there and I didn't want any awkwardness between us, Of course, once Garcia heard of my hesitation, she promptly reminded me of how gracefully Emily Prentiss approached me during one of the get-togethers that she flew in for. She was so nice and it was her complete welcome that made me feel truly accepted in the BAU. I bet the agent that has been filling in the slot Prentiss and I vacated would appreciate the same sort of grace too.
And that's why I'm here in Dave's mansion listening to my husband effectively butcher a beautifully written love song about how much he loves me. The karaoke was impromptu but with this team…this family, the appropriate measures were taken immediately to remedy the situation
It's been fun so far and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves but the entire thing reminded me of incident that happened in one of my classes recently. When one of my students stood to recite, his seatmate's earphones were pulled away from the owner's phone which then resulted to the entire class hearing "…sick of love songs, So tired of tears…"
The class was stunned for a few seconds since then the volume was quite loud but as soon as the student plugged the ear phones back in and turned off the music, the class started to shake their heads and smirk. I have always asked my students to turn their phones either on, vibrate or turn them off completely while our class was going on. I usually give extra work for those caught breaking my simple rule and the student already knew he would get some extra because of what happened. I ask him for a complete surface meaning and deep meaning analysis of the lyrics of the song he was listening to during our class to be passed next meeting.
After the class cleared out, I asked my TA. What the title of the song is. Apparently, it is So Sick by NeYo. I searched for the entire lyrics and it made me think of Spencer.
Gotta change that answering machine
Now that I'm alone
'Cause right now it says that we
Can't come to the phone
I could still remember when Maeve Donevan was still "Mystery Phone Booth Girl". He was just adorable, like a teenager with his first crush. During all those times when we lectured together, he was always such a professional. He would talk about and thoroughly explain the concepts that needed to be discussed and he was and is always a pleasure to be around. It baffled my students that someone so young could be of such caliber already but throughout most of the lectures, he rarely ever acted his age. Even when I joined the team and saw his sort of playful side, it was nothing compared to the way he got was nothing compared to the way he got about Maeve.
It's ridiculous, Its been months
For some reason I just
Can't get over us
And I'm stronger than this
Enough is enough
No more walking 'round
With my head down
I'm so over being blue
Crying over you
Their love story formed and developed so romantically and it ended so tragically. It took him months and months to recover from that whole ordeal. He shrank away from everyone and we all desperately wanted to ease his pain but we knew that we couldn't. It made us feel useless and selfish at the same time. He finally let us in but JJ said he wouldn't really talk to her. Spencer talked to me but not as much as he talked to Hotch. I guess what happened to Hotch's wife was the closest that any of us could have experienced.
Morgan's father was lulled in front of him so he also has an inkling of the pain but Morgan was torn between consoling his two best friends. Penelope was a bit hurt that Spencer kept Maeve from us and was even more hurt when Spencer pulled away and Morgan was helping her understand how hard it was for Spencer. Honestly, I think that the event brought up Penelope's pain from losing her parents and her hurt is understandable. Maybe all she wanted was someone to hold her when she was going through it all and it hurt her that Spencer didn't want that. Rossi helped him by accompanying him to the cemetery every time he could. After a while, he started to return back to the wonderful doctor Reid that he used to be but Spencer was still hurting.
And I'm so sick of love songs
So tired of tears
So done with wishing
You were still here
And I'm so sick of love songs
So sad and slow
So why can't I turn off the radio?
Spencer created this façade for us and he became convincing that we started to believe that he was okay again. It wasn't until he said something that completely took me aback that I realized…that I remembered that certain types of pain don't really go away. We were driving to a team get-together. I switch the radio on to fill the companionable silence between us. I don't remember the song that started playing but I will never forget how quickly he switched off the radio. After a few minutes of stunned silence, he simply said he couldn't take love songs because it hurt too much. It made me want to knock my head repeatedly or something hard. The look on his face was absolutely ineffable. The rest of the night, his façade was firmly in place in was hard to see that he was hurting
Now I think…I hope that he's getting better. He talks about interesting women he meets although I doubt that any of them would fill in the void in his heart from losing Maeve, maybe one of them could help him heal. He seemed to like people of around the same level of intelligence as him.
I get bolted out of musings when my loving husband nudge me as Dave is announcing the winner for the karaoke that I didn't even know was a contest. Penelope wins but Spencer is given a "special award" from Dave- A coffee mug that says "I'M A GENIUS" in bold print. Morgan laughs out loud after Spencer mock drinks from the mug and we see at the bottom the words "Did you know that?"
On our way home, I asked James what Spencer had sung. Apparently it was "Way Back Into Love." I guess Spencer's just a hopeless romantic.
A/N Sorry it took too long. Please comment, request, suggest, and ask questions. fishtrek, me too! I'll try to sneak some of those in these. seacat03, thanks! SpenceFTW, J. XoxMountainGirlxoX, me too! Sue1313, thanks! I'll try harder to sneak those in. Hope you guys like this one!