Spencer walked into the lobby where his mother sat on a couch alone, flipping through the pages of an old brown book. She was still in her pajamas and pink robe as it was only seven o'clock Las Vegas time. He smiled to himself for a moment. The meeting between her and Evie couldn't have possibly went any better. It wasn't that he was expecting it to go otherwise; they both liked a lot of the same things. He just was never sure with his mom, especially with the schizophrenia. One could never predict how she'd react to certain things.
He walked to her side, two coffees in hand; one for him and one for her. Evie was up getting food for both her and Spencer since his mom already ate, as the nurses had informed him. He sat down on the couch lying perpendicular to him mom's. She looked up for a moment, then looked back down without saying anything.
"Mom... I got you coffee." he said, reaching over to put it on the coffee table in between their two couches. She kept flipping through the book as if Spencer wasn't there. Spencer tilted his head and studied her facial expressions... nothing. He was used to this, however.
"Mom?" he said gently, about to reach forward and touch her shoulder. She looked up before he could, raising her eyebrows at him.
"Oh good, we're just about to start." she said, pointing at the book she was holding. Spencer frowned in confusion.
"Start what?"
"The lecture." she said plainly as if it made perfect sense. Spencer pressed his lips together and nodded, understanding what was happening. She sometimes slipped into her teacher persona. The best thing he could do was just go along with it.
"Is it okay if my friend attends the lecture?" he asked, sitting back in the sofa and getting comfy. He took a sip of coffee while Diana kept flipping through pages, obviously looking for something.
"I suppose." she said after giving it some thought. Spencer let a small smile cross his face. Out of all of her personas, thinking she was teaching was the easiest one. The others she was frantic and panicked. Even after years of experiencing her numerous episodes, it was still terrifying to watch. He still hated seeing her like that even though he couldn't remember her ever being any other way.
"We are going to start with some of the oldest English poems in Michael Alexander's, The Earliest English Poems." She explained, finally finding the page that she was looking for. She began reading from the spot she was looking forward.
"Well-wrought this wall: Wierds broke it. The stronghold burst..." she carried on saying. Spencer continued to gently smile while watching her, glad that they were able to make it out to Las Vegas to visit.
"Here you go." Evie said suddenly from beside Spencer. He almost jumped, not realizing she came up right behind him. She put a tray of food on the coffee table in front of him with food wrapped up in tin foil. Abruptly, he realized he had never prepared her for one of his mother's episodes. He was worried that she wouldn't know to go along with it. How could he tell her without his mom hearing...
"You're just in time. We've just started the lecture. Take a seat." Diana said, looking up at Evie with her kind profesor look. Spencer eyed Evie nervously, biting his lip. She didn't even look the least bit confused.
"Of course, Ma'am." Evie said smoothly, sitting next to Spencer on the couch and taking a sip of her coffee before setting it on the table. Spencer felt like a weight had been lifted off his chest. She handled it beautifully. He didn't know what he was so worried about. Evie glanced at him, giving Spencer a knowing smile before leaning back into the sofa in a comfortable position, shoulder to shoulder with Spence.
As Diana kept reading, Spencer put an arm around Evie's shoulder's giving her a gently squeeze. She leaned her head into his shoulder as he held her and together they listened to his mother continuing to cite from her book.
"Excuse me, no public displays of affection! Do that on your own time." she said, suddenly stopping in the middle of her poem. Spencer snapped out of the daze he was in from just listening to her recite the pages. He looked over to see his mom looking at them with her dissaproving teacher gaze. He tried not to chuckle or smile as he retracted his arm from around Evie and she sat up away from his shoulder. He held his hands up in a defensive gesture, looking at his mother guiltily.
"Sorry ma'am..." him and Evie both mumbled at the same time. She pointed at her own eyes and then pointed at Spence and Evs, the signal for 'I've got my eye on you'. Spencer glanced over at Evie who gave him a small smile and quiet giggle. They carried on with the 'lecture'. They were reprimanded for PDA twice more... His mom even threatened to have them stay after class. Spencer would be completely fine with that.
Later that day after Evie and Spencer had gone out for lunch to get some fresh air, they returned around four o'clock to find his mother in the courtyard of the facility, writing in her journals. She was out of her episode, not remembering one bit of it. Instead she read some of her journals to Spencer and Evie as they sat on the grass by the bench she sat on. It was considerably warmer in Las Vegas compared to DC at this time of the year, so it was a nice day to be outside. A little chilly, but since Diana wasn't in her teacher mindset, Evie and Spencer were able to huddle together for warmth.
"Spencer, what are those?" his mother asked later on when they were in her room. She had insisted that she showed Evie old photos of back when Spencer was only around three or four, despite his protests. She was now looking at his arms with a terrified look on her face. Spencer frowned in confusion, wondering what could possibly be freaking her out so much. He looked down and remembered he was wearing short sleeves so that you could see the faint outlines of scars all over his arms where the unsub had sliced through his skin a few months back. Spencer grimaced, kicking himself mentally for not remembering to cover them up to hide them. His mother was already worried about him in the field as it was. It wasn't going to help to tell her that he'd nearly been tortured to death not too long ago.
"Oh... um, it's not really anything..."
"It was the government wasn't it!" she shouted, her face growing scared. Spencer's eyes went wide and he shook his head quickly.
"No, no Mom. It wasn't the government. I was just beat around a bit by a bad guy while working." he told her in the simplest way possible without having to go into details. Evie looked at him with a worried look too. Great, now he had two people worried.
Spencer watched his mother's eyes brim with tears as she tilted her head and looked at him.
"I told you, I don't like that job!" she said, obviously shaken up. Spencer sighed and sat next to her on the edge of her bed. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to calm her down.
"I know mom, I'm sorry. I'm fine now, I promise." he reassured her, rubbing her back. It took a while to distract her away from the scars, but Spencer finally got her intrigued in a book Evie went to go pick up from across the street at the book store. The rest of the night was spent in his mom's room either reading or just talking about what Spencer and Evie had been up to lately and their plans for Christmas and New Year's Eve. They were able to go the rest of the night without an episode, which Spencer was grateful for.
"You be careful." Diana said at the end of the night right as Spencer and Evie were saying their goodbyes. This time they wouldn't be returning. Their flight for Pennsylvania left the next morning before visiting hours started for the Sanitarium. Spencer hugged her one last time before she turned to Evie and gave her a fond smile.
"You too, sweetie." she said before wrapping Evie in a hug too. Spencer watched Evs be taken off guard by the sudden notion, but then relax and hug her back. Once they helped Diana put her books and photo albums back, they stood at the threshold of her door, about to leave.
"I love you, Mom." Spencer said, earning a smile from his mother.
"I love you too, baby. Keep writing." she reminded him. He never missed a day of writing to her.
"I won't. I promise."
Spencer and Evie were pretty tired by the time they got back to the hotel. They stayed up talking for a while. He asked her how she had known how to react to his mother's schizophrenia episode and she just shrugged and said it felt right. Evie fell asleep pretty quickly after that, but Spencer found it difficult. He was meeting her father tomorrow. He was kind of like his mom in the sense of their relationship. Evie's father was the last of her relatives that really mattered to her. It was so important that he made a good impression. He wasn't good with confrontation or meeting people or... people in general.
The next day around noon, Spencer sat in another rental car in the driveway of Evie's old house in Centerport, Pennsylvania. He was even more nervous than he was right before he saw his mom. Evie didn't look nervous so much as just uncomfortable. He didn't blame her. He wouldn't like coming back to the house where he'd seen his mother murdered before his eyes either.
"Ready?" she asked, trying to force a peppy tone in her voice. Spencer sighed and turned the ignition off, stilling the steady rumble of the car.
"No..." he mumbled under his breath.
"What?" Evie asked, confused.
"Nothing."
Evie got out of the car first, going around to the back to open the trunk. Spencer hesitantly followed, helping pull out some of the bigger suitcases.
"Spence, you'll be fine." Evie said, almost reading his mind. He gave her a forced smile and put her suitcase on the ground so he could pull out his satchel to sling it around his shoulder. Once Evie shut the trunk, Spencer heard the squeak of a front door open. They both turned their attention to the house where the man that Spencer has only seen in pictures, stepped out onto the front porch.
"Hi Dad." Evie said, smiling a bit as he made his way down the steps towards where they stood.
"Hey, E." he said, wrapping her in a hug and smiling as well. He was about the same height as Spencer, but more built. His face was angled, but it looked weary and gray. He had stubble on his face and forehead creases that made him look older than Spencer knew he was. He had those same gray eyes Evie had, but different in the sense that they looked tired and worn opposed to Evie's sparkling ones.
"Dad, this is Spencer." she said, turning to Spence as he did the same. Mr. Lawrence nodded and gave a smile, reaching out to shake his hand. Reid never shook anyones hand but this was the only exception in the world. There was no way he was going to risk messing this up. He caught Evie's surprised look out of the corner of his eye, almost amused at how he caught her off guard.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Lawrence." he said.
"Nice to meet you, too. I've heard lots, believe me. And call me Ed." he said. Spencer felt himself relax a bit. He was a lot friendlier than he'd imagined. Maybe Evie's overthinking was contagious.
"Come on in, it's cold out here." he said, reaching to take Evie's suitcase to roll it in for her. Spencer locked the car and felt Evie's hand slip into his as they walked to the house. The home itself was a worn light green color that looked more gray from time wearing it down. The porch was lined with white columns and old railings with the paint chipping off. The house looked old but it was quaint. Spencer liked it.
"Alright, I have your room all ready for you." Ed told Evie upon entering the house. The living room was moderately sized with white carpeting and beige walls. The couch and recliner was white and there was a big TV next to a fireplace that looked like it hasn't been used in years. The living roomw as attached to the kitchen and Spencer could see an office and a bathroom through two different thresholds from where he stood. There were stairs on the far end of the room, leading up to the dark second floor.
"Alright. We'll be right back." Evie said, nudging Spencer towards the stairs.
"I ordered pizza. Something easy since I wasn't sure when you guys were getting in." Ed explained. "Evie loves the Italian one they have at the place down the street."
"Oh yeah, she has to get her special italian every time we get pizza." Spencer said, smiling to himself. It was another thing that Evie was crazy about that he thought was adorable. They started up the stairs to a small hallway with four doors, two on each side. Evie went to the last one on the right. There was a poster of Mark Twain on her door that made Spencer smile. He could already tell that Evie had lived here.
"Man, it's been a while since I've been here." She said, pushing the door open to reveal a room with light blue walls that were covered in paintings and drawings and posters. There were designs painted on the edges of her walls and a comforter that matched. She had a fluffy black rug at the foot of her bed and a white desk that had mounds of papers, notebooks, and sketchbooks that looked like they were tried to make look more presentable within a couple of seconds. There were two bookshelves on each side of the room, each one filled to the brim with books.
"This is very much an Evie room." Spencer said, amused as he set his bags down by her desk chair. Evie chuckled and put her bags down as well, stretching her arms out behind her and sighing.
"Home sweet, ohhhhh..." she said, stopping midsentence. Spencer frowned at her sudden excitement and watched her run to her bedside and pet what he had thought was a small black fuzzy pillow, but now that he actually gave it a second glance it was a cat. It was thin with black sleek fur. He could tell it was fully grown, but it was smaller than most cats. It instantly began purring when Evie rubbed its head and leaned back into her touch.
"This is Picasso." she said, sitting on the edge of the bed to pet her cat further. Spencer rembered her mentioning him once. It'd been her cat since she was 14, meaning it was a pretty old cat. Evie looked completely content, rubbing her cat behind the ears and listening to it purr.
Spencer moved to sit on the edge of her bed with her, just looking at the cat, not knowing what to expect. He never really had any experiences with animals, they were almost like a foreign concept to him when it came to actually interacting with one.
"Come here." Evie said, tugging his wrist lightly so she brought his hand towards the cat. Picasso mewed and leaned forward to sniff Spencer's hand. He jumped at the cool touch of his nose, making Evie laugh.
"He won't bite." she assured him.
"Animals are unpredictable." Spencer said as Picasso became uninterested and resumed leaning his head into Evie's hand and purring.
"We should get a kitten." she said happily, stroking the black cats neck.
"Nuh-uh."
"Yeah huh."
"Nuh-uh."
"Yeah huh."
"Did you know Pablo Picasso was born on October 25th, 1881 in..."
"Málaga, Spain? Yes I did." Evie said, smiling as she shot down his attempt to change the subject. Spencer scowled at her, making her chuckle. He decided to drop the cat matter and look around her room. Her sketches were gorgeous like always. He could see a change in them however. She used to draw with so much color. It looks like she used to create her own magical little worlds and creatures and reflect them onto a canvas. Spencer watched as from one side of the wall to the other, they grew grayer and more lifelike. His profiling told him it had to have evolved by the loss of her mother. Often works of art could reflect so much about a person. Evie's certainly did.
"Is this your mom?" he asked quietly, picking up a picture frame on the nightstand next to Evie's bed. She turned to glance at the photo, her face serious as she nodded.
"Mhm. That's when we went to the Fair that comes here every summer. She'd always take me at least twice each year and we'd get this really good cotton candy that they had." she said, a mix of hurt and happy reminicing in her voice. Spencer smiled and nodded, setting the picture back down. The woman looked exactly like Evie, but older save for the fact that her eyes were a deep brown. She obviously had inhereted her father's eyes.
"Hey guys, pizza is here." Ed's voice called up the stairway.
"Okay!" Evie called back, giving her cat one last pat on the head before standing to wrap her arms around Spencer. He returned the gesture, securing his arms around her tiny waist.
"He likes you, you know. I told you that you had nothing to worry about." she said. Spencer rolled his eyes and kissed her forehead.
"Yeah, because you're the Queen of keeping it calm." he said sarcastically, earning a punch in the shoulder. He smirked and kissed her cheek.
"I love you." he said, looking into her eyes.
"I love you too." she said.
Throughout lunch and the rest of the day, Ed came to be appauled by some of the stuff Spencer knew. He stared at him for a while in amazement after he'd casually given the statistics on Italian Sausage. After that he had tried to think of any possible question that Spencer didn't have the answer to, turning it into a sort of game between the two of them. Evie's dad found it amusing that the question that ended up stumping Spencer in the end was what state the Crimson Tide football team played for.
"Sports aren't exactly my forte." Spencer explained, after giving up on the answer that ended up being Alabama. Evie's dad laughed and nodded.
"Evie never really cared for spors either." he said, playfully nudging her arm while she sat in the chair next to him. She smiled and rolled her eyes.
"No matter how hard you tried." she said. Spencer smiled to himself while watching her. He knew her father was usually a delicate subject. Often he was depressed, but Evie had told Spencer about how he hid it when she was around. He studied her father for a moment, noticing the fade from his smiles and the weary look in his eye. He was definitely hiding it.
The sun began to set around six since it was in the dead of winter. Luckily it wasn't too cold outside just yet, and snow hadn't yet come. The ground was crisp and frozen for the most part though, and sometimes there was a light sprinkle of snow that rained down around the little house.
"Hey, I want to show you something." Evie said when they were in her room, looking through her old photo albums. Spencer raised an eyebrow at her expectantly. She smiled excitedly at him. He knew that look. It usually meant she had something special in store for him.
"Get your coat and shoes on." She said, pushing herself up off the floor to go get her own. Spencer smiled and shook his head, watching her hop excitedly to her closet to grab tons of blankets as well. He learned not to question her. Within a few minutes, they got bundled up in many layers of clothing and each carried three or four blankets. They made their way down stairs to where Ed was watching football on TV, looking through miscellanious paperwork.
"Hey Dad, I'm going to show Spencer the clearing. We'll be back soon." she said, raising his gaze from the papers up to see them at the doorway with tons of blankets.
"Stay warm." he said, nodding and turning back to his papers. Evie had a difficult time unlocking the door in her knit mittens, but managed so they could step into the crisp air. The cold wind bit at Spencer's skin so he pulled his scarf up further to cover more of his neck.
"Follow me." she said, bounding down the steps and beginning to make her way towards the backyard. The houses on her street were spread pretty far apart, so their backyard was large and open with a big oak tree around the middle. Further back there were small patches of wooded area. The red-orange glow of the setting sun filtered through the trees ahead of them, casting long shadows of tangled branches over the stretching patches of grass. The remaining dead leaves and frosted over grass crunched under their feet as they walked further from the house and more towards the woods.
"Evie, why are we doing this again?" Spencer asked, squeezing his arms close to his sides to try to keep warmer.
"I'm going to show you what used to be my favorite place in the world." she said. Spencer smiled at her, watching her brown-red hair blow around her as she walked.
"Used to be?" he asked, wondering what her new favorite place was now.
"Now it's wherever you are." she said, moving her blankets to hold them in on arm so she could link the other with his. Spencer smiled and kissed her cheek while walking, making her smile as well.
When they reached the first patch of trees, Evie guiding him through the branches and roots. He was just focused on not falling over the uneven ground. He was already uncoordinated on regualar ground, he didn't much like walking through tangles of brush and roots.
"Just a bit further." she told him. Spencer glanced back and saw the back of her house fading off through the trees. The entire back wall of the outside of the house looked orange from the way the sun was shining its last rays upon it. When he wasn't paying attention. he nearly ran into a tree, yelping and jumping out of the way in time to narrowly miss it. Evie glanced back and laughed, nodding her head in the direction ahead of her.
"It's right here." she said, pushing through two evergreen branches tangled together. Spencer was sure to make sure he knew where he was walking, making his way towards the area that Evie had just pushe through. He couldn't see her now that she'd walked throught he small tunnel made of trees close together. He groaned before pushing through the prickly branches of evergreen trees, breaking out into open air.
Evie and Spencer stood at the edge of a clearing surrounded by a mix of evergreen, willow, oak, and various trees. Vines hung down over their heads from a giant tree that stood strong behind them. Spencer imagine it looked even more gorgeous in the summer with green leaves all throughout the canopy of trees. The evergreens still added that beautiful color to it, thought. There was the quiet sound of water trickling to their right. Spencer stood on his tiptoes to see over a group of brush and tangles to see a small creek running around the clearing down a small slope. There was a giant group of rocks near the other end of the clearing and more elevated land on the other side. Evie headed towards the elevated land of the clearing, taking Spencer with her. He could tell why this was her favorite place. She loved nature first of all, but it was closed off in the woods so that there were no signs of anyone else around them. It was like they were in their own little world.
"Put down two blankets right here." Evie said, pointing at a spot at the top of the small slope of grass. Spencer smirked and nodded.
"Yes ma'am." he joked, making her smile as well. She helped him spread out the edges of two blankets, climbing on top when they were finished. Spencer crawled on as well, helping her spread out the rest of their blankets on top of them, sighing happily with the warmth enveloped them and shielded the couple from the occasional harsh gusts of wind. Evie folded up a blanket to make a pillow of sorts for them and put in behind where they sat, lying down and patting the empty spot of blanket next to her to tell Spencer to join her. He smiled and lied down, turning on his side under the weight of the blankets to face her, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her into him.
"Do you like it?" she asked, her gray eyes sparkling and looking deeply into his.
"I do." he said, kissing her nose. She smiled happily and put a hand on the back of his neck, pulling him in closer to press her lips against his. Spencer moaned with content, gratefully kissing her back. He tasted her lips, eventually moving inside of her mouth as well. Evie sighed against him, wrapping a leg around his waist and pulling his hips into hers. Spencer was lost in her movements, loving everything about her. He moved his hand under her shirt, feeling her soft skin and gently tracing circles onto her bare hip with his finger tips. When he started needing more than that, he flipped them so he was on top of her, each of his legs on either side of hers and his upper body held above her own by his forearms holding him up.
He gasped when he suddenly felt her hand working at the buttons of his jeans, getting a sinister smile back from her. He made his own efforts towards her jeans as well, working to unbotton them while still holding hismelf above her body.
"Are we really going to do... this here?" Spencer asked, a small smile playing on his lips. Evie nodded.
"Do you have any objections about that?" she asked. The sparkle in her eyes already told him she knew the answer.
"Not at all."