Chapter 60

A few days later Morgan came over for breakfast. "I found the perfect house." He said.

"Oh?" Spencer asked as Morgan joined them at the table.

"A friend of a friend, Jimmy, is selling it. He was trying to restore it, intending to live there, but he lost his job and his mother-in-law's sick. They have to move back to Philly and they need to sell. They already sold their home; this place is the only thing holding them here."

"What's it like?" Laura asked.

Later that morning they were standing in front of the house in question. It was one of three row houses, tucked into a quiet corner of North Cleveland Park, only a few blocks from Spencer's old apartment, a quiet, good, upper-middle class neighborhood. The three houses had been build in 1918, were done in a quasi-Tudor style, four stories if you counted the 'garden' apartment that was slightly below grade. The one they were looking at was the one on the end, with the most windows and the most light. "You said the bottom apartment is rented?"

"Yeah, an assistant professor over at UDC," Jimmy said. "I've been living in the top floor apartment. The main house is still unfinished. Come on in and take a look."

They started with the garden floor, and a pleasant fellow who would make a good neighbor. That apartment was solid and well cared for, so they took a look at the main portion of the building. It was down to studs. "I finished roughing in the electrical and the plumbing." Jimmy said. "It was all inspected."

"Is this the original woodwork?" Laura asked.

"And the original glass and brasses, on every floor but the garden," Jimmy told her. "The only ones that need replacing are the ones in the kitchen."

Spencer stepped back while Laura, Jimmy and Morgan started talking restoration. There was a stair hall as well as a spiral staircase to the second floor in the corner of the living room. The dining room had been partially opened to the large kitchen space, which had a bay window overlooking a good sized yard in the back and a small area in the corner that would make a tidy office space. Upstairs there was space for another tiny office as well as two smaller bedrooms, a larger master, and two full baths. Figure in the powder room on the main floor and a small mudroom at the bottom of the stair hall and the space was complete, modest and yet with enough hard work his family could be comfortable here.

Eventually everyone wandered back his way. "Want to go see the upstairs?" Jimmy asked.

The upstairs space was a perfect little aerie. The large windows looked out into the tops of the trees on the property, and like the ones downstairs were trimmed with panels of stained glass. There was a living room, a small bath, a kitchen that might just be big enough, a bedroom and a small side room that he could use for an office. "The rent on the downstairs apartment pays for the mortgage." Jimmy told them. "And this place would pay for the taxes, insurance and utilities when you moved downstairs. That's what I intended but I don't have the cash to put into fixing it up any more."

"So how much are we talking?" Morgan asked.

Spencer kind of tuned them out for a bit. He and Laura had decided that she would buy the house in her name, using a portion of her inheritance, and then he would pay her the same rent as his apartment to cover what wasn't covered by the apartment downstairs and the cost of fixing the place up. When they married she would put his name on it as well, that way in the end they would be equally invested.

By the time they were done talking the deal looked good. Pending inspections and other paperwork, in about two weeks the house would be theirs and Jimmy would be off to join his family. "You are going to help us with this?" Spencer said to Morgan.

"You do know you have to help with the work." Morgan shot back.

Spencer rolled his eyes but inwardly he was smiling. This was going to be fun.

With a date for moving out of Dave's house right after the holiday Spencer and Laura relaxed. They continued to work with their respective therapists, but otherwise they settled down to enjoying the holiday. They went to the tree lighting with the rest of the team so the kids could enjoy the lights. They went to the various museums and historical homes in the area to enjoy the decorations and get ideas for their house. On snowy days Laura baked an excess of cookies that Dave took into the office and Spencer got the department caught up on their paperwork. Gifts started appearing under the tree, Spencer suspected knitting for him, and in return he let Garcia drag him off to the yarn and quilt shops for kits and tools and silly things that would make Laura smile.

It was, in the end, a holiday season to remember.

One night as he was closing the curtains Spencer looked out and noticed someone sitting in their car watching the house. Mr. Patterson, he decided, or maybe Strauss. It's a sign that they care, that we matter. He smiled a little, shut the blinds, and went to bed.