Chapter 47

They went back to Dave's that night with one question foremost in their minds; who was coming for dinner.

The problem was that Henry, now six, and Jack, now nine, wanted to come by and see him. They had been understandably upset by their parents being concerned for so long and wanted to know that everything was all right now. The question was how would he react around them, with the grief still so fresh? How would Laura react? "I think it'll be okay." She said.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Not a hundred percent, no. But they're older and they're boys, it's not the same." She sighed and shuddered a little. "I don't think I could handle having a baby around right now though."

"I understand."

"Besides, you need to make up missing his birthday. Granted I admit, I'm kind of glad we weren't there for it."

"You would have stayed home." Maggie had been gone, dead, for three days on Henry's last birthday. Laura had spent the day mostly in bed, utterly miserable. Not just from the emotional pain, although that had been nearly overwhelming in and of itself, but also from the physical realities of trying to recover from pregnancy without an infant to nurse. "We would have done more."

"I know." She sighed and looked off into some distant place he couldn't see. "It's not going to be like that next time, is it?"

"Absolutely not." He had some vague picture of how it ought to be, a room with lots of windows and fresh air and sun, a bed or a big chair and ottoman with lots of pillows, water and tea at her elbow, any other creature comfort she desired, a doctor on call if needed, and of course a healthy, happy baby contentedly slurping away. "I promised."

"I know." She managed a small smile and stepped into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Waiting's hard."

"I know." He put his arms around her and held her tight, feeling the bindings she still wore under her shirt. "I think it'll be easier once we start working toward it."

"Yeah, but it's not right to do that until Maggie's where she needs to be. That wouldn't be fair."

"No, it wouldn't."

She held on for a long few moments. "I'm okay." She said at last. "Let's go meet your godson."

"Hey son," Will said as they got out of the car. "Remember when we talked about Spencer?"

Henry nodded solemnly. "The bad men took him." He said. "I wish he'd come home." In reply his father smiled and turned him around to see the man standing on Dave's front porch. Henry took a big, deep breath and lit up like the sun. "Spencer!" Then he was off like a rocket, straight into his Godfather's arms. "You're home! You're home! You're home!"

Spencer managed to swing his godson off his feet and into a big hug before he had to put him down. "I'm home." He said. "Oh, I missed you!"

Henry landed on his feet and looked up at him with big eyes. "Did you get hurt by the bad men?"

Spencer held up his cast, "Broke my thumb. That's all." Henry gazed at the bright purple cast and then nodded, as if he considered this acceptable. "Let's get inside and get you out of that coat, okay? You're a lot bigger than I remember."

"Two inches," Henry told him.

"Wow." Once inside Spencer helped Henry out of his outdoor things while Will and JJ headed in. "Do you remember that picture you drew for me one time, when I said I wanted a boy just like you?"

Henry nodded. "Katie said you put it in a frame."

"I did."

"And Momma said it got drowned in your house while you were gone."

"Yeah, that's what she said."

"I'll draw you another one."

"Oh, I'd like that. But I have to tell you something." Spencer crouched down to eye level. "Remember how you said to go ask the boy's Momma and I told you I hadn't found her yet?" Henry nodded. "Well while I was gone I found her." His Godson's eyes got wide. "Want to meet her?"

"Yeah!"

Spencer walked him over to where Laura was meeting Will. "Laura, this is Henry. Henry, this is Laura."

"Hello Henry."

Henry looked up at her. "Are you going to be the Momma?"

"That is the plan."

"Good!" With that Henry threw his arms around her in a big hug. "I'm going to go draw that picture!"

"Okay." Henry took off for the family room, where the toys and coloring things were waiting. Laura looked back at Will and JJ. "Okay, he's adorable."

"Thanks." JJ said with some laughter.

Not long after Morgan arrived. "What, no Tonya?"

"She's coming." Laura told him. "She called a little bit ago."

"She's not staying here?'

"No, she has family in the area. She's staying with her sister for the week."

"Oh."

And not long after that Hotch arrived with Jack. Jack was duly introduced to Laura, as was Hotch, formally this time. "She's safe." He said. "I'd say you can go see her but they're closed…"

"I'm not even sure when the funeral is." Spencer admitted.

"Monday," Dave said. "My friend Jim Davison agreed to perform the service."

"I think I remember him from the Silvano case."

"He's a good guy, he'll do it right."

"And we were able to reserve Dahlgren Chapel." Alex said.

"On campus?" Spencer blinked at her. "I though they only offered that to dignitaries, or…"

"Well she is the daughter of a member of the faculty." Alex came over and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "They offered out of respect for you. You matter you know."

"Oh." This was entirely unexpected. He'd expected some simple thing in a funeral home, led by the undertaker. Not all this. But for Maggie…

A little while later, after Tonya arrived, Hotch pulled him aside. "There's something you should know. The judge is offering Harris bail. He's already taken his passport, but with his funding and connections…"

"That won't matter." Spencer sighed. "I don't think he'll come after us, he never got involved in that end at all."

"Keep your eyes open, just in case." Now it was Hotch's turn to sigh. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened with Emily." He said.

"Hotch…"

"Honestly… given the situation, that we knew next to nothing about Doyle's network and that she was that badly injured, I still would have hidden her like we did. I don't think the Marshalls had any idea what they were dealing with, they proved that with Foyet. And given that I don't have the clearance to know your clearance I still wouldn't have said anything."

"Hotch…"

"But I should have insisted on a real grief counselor. Deciding to do it myself was pure hubris and it made a bad situation worse, and I am sorry."

Oh. Spencer sighed. "It's all right. I understand."

"If there's anything I can do to help…"

Spencer looked over at Laura, still not allowed to help by virtue of Dave insisting that she rest. Not again. He could not put her through that again. "I don't know." He said. They had to get it right this time, it had to be done and it had to be done right. But what exactly that meant. "Let me get back to you after Monday?"

"Sure."

A few moments later Henry ran up. "Here," he said, showing the picture.

"Oh!" Spencer crouched down to have a look. "Oh, that's a good one. Who's that?" He asked, pointing to the tallest, even though the bag gave it away."

"That's you!"

"And who's that?" This was a smaller figure with a skirt and fire engine red hair.

"That's Laura. And that's a boy and that's a girl."

"A boy and a girl, huh? That's quite a family. What's that?" He pointed to something vaguely bee shaped in the corner.

"That's a guardian angel."

Oh crap. Spencer felt his eyes starting to mist over. "Is it? Well, it's always good to have one of those around. This is definitely frame worthy, thank you." Henry was all grins as he scampered off.

A few minutes later every head but Dave's turned at an unexpected knock at the door. But the person there didn't wait to be let in. "Tell me I didn't miss the food." Emily Prentiss said as she walked through the door to hails of greeting.

"Emily!" If Spencer had ever had a big sister this was it. He went over to give her a big hug hello. "How did you get here?"

"By airplane. Really, 187 IQ." She teased gently as she hugged him. "I wasn't going to miss the funeral. Oh, I am so sorry…"

"Thank you. I'm…I'm glad you came."

"Yeah, well, next time I come over it better be for something happy, like your wedding. I expect an invitation."

Spencer nodded. "It's going to be in Vegas." He told her.

"Oh. Oh god, I remember that hangover." And they all had to laugh at her.

Slowly, over the course of the evening, they all settled in for a causal, Italian dinner. Spencer looked at them all as the table was set and food brought over. He'd seen just enough of the unexplainable over the years to make him wonder about guardian angels, and if one could whisper a hint about a brother and sister yet to come in a young artist's ear. Family, he thought, even the ones we can only sense and not see. I have a family again, Laura has a family now. And it's wonderful.