The group get together at JJ's while Will and Henry are away for a little dinner and story time

The night air was cool as Spencer stretched himself out in the grass in JJ's backyard. It'd been two weeks since JJ had left the BAU and everyone was gathering together at her place for a dinner. It basically translated to an excuse for everyone to hang out together. Spencer had known that JJ wouldn't want to let them all go when she left. Leaving the BAU didn't mean leaving them. When she'd called to insist—not invite, insist—that he come to dinner that weekend, she'd explained that Will and Henry had gone down to New Orleans to visit some family and she was tired of being alone. Truth, he had no doubt, but also a great excuse to get everyone together.

Dinner, as always, was delicious. JJ was an excellent cook and Spencer enjoyed every meal he had here—and he'd eaten at JJ's plenty of times. The group of them sat and ate and talked and had a great time.

Aaron had left Jack with a sitter for the evening, since Henry wasn't here for him to play with, and no one else had brought any dates, so it was just the group of them. JJ, Aaron, Derek, Dave, Emily, Spencer and Penelope. Basically, people that he loved, and people that he could allow himself to relax around. Penelope was included in that group now, too. Spencer had made the decision to not keep this a secret from her. He'd told the truth to the team and she was a part of that team. She was part of their family. There was no way he could keep it from her. She'd taken it, better than he'd anticipated. Especially when he'd flown her from one room of his apartment to another. Once she'd stopped squealing, she'd been full of questions and such open joy it had actually helped Spencer find a bit of his own joy in things again.

Funny enough, she was the only person since then to actually ask him to fly her anywhere. He'd promised her their next free time, he'd take her someplace special.

As he folded his hands under his head and looked up at the darkening sky, he amused himself with thinking about where he'd take her while he listened to everyone else make their way outside. New York, maybe? Or Seattle. He could take her to the Space Needle. Or maybe out to Paris for a quick lunch and some inevitable shopping. That woman could shop anywhere.

"What're you grinning about?"

Emily's question interrupted his thoughts and Spencer tipped his head back a little more to look up at the woman that was standing near his head, smiling down at him. He smiled back at her with an ease that very few got to see. "Nothing. Just making plans."

She chuckled and ruffled his hair before slipping down onto the grass next to him. There were yard chairs spread out for all of them, but Spencer had opted for the grass and Emily was apparently joining them. They didn't bother with a blanket or anything like that. Spencer just lay on his back with his hands behind his head and Emily sat cross legged near his hip. They both stayed there as the others slowly made their way over to them. Penelope joined first, taking the chair nearest the two. It made her smile to look down and see them sitting together like that. To see the ease with which Spencer lay there. It was an ease that wouldn't have been there months ago. Out of all the changes that had happened with Spencer getting his grace back, this was one that all his friends had noticed and that they all could say they enjoyed. Their quiet genius was still quiet, at least around others, but he'd lost some of that shyness he'd always had. Those nerves that came from always feeling like he wasn't good enough, or that he was awkward and out of place or somehow didn't fit in. Those didn't really show anymore. In their place was a quiet sort of confidence that they all thought suited him much better.

Spencer knew who he was now and he was much more at home in his own skin. Oh, he was still awkward, and at times uncomfortable around other people, but it wasn't the same. There was just this air about him that said he was comfortable in who he was. It was a look they liked to see on him.

"Tell us a story, Reid." Penelope said as she got comfortable in her chair. Beside her, JJ took another chair while Aaron came up behind her holding a tray full of glasses. Everyone except Spencer took a drink.

As the others finally sat down, Spencer rolled his head enough to look at Penelope. "What kind of story?" Not that he really had to ask; he already had a pretty good idea about how she'd answer. All of them were curious about Spencer and about his past but none of them seemed as at ease with asking questions as Penelope was.

"Can you tell us how this whole, born to be a human thing works out?" She asked curiously. "You mentioned before that you'd had more than one life as a human. How…how does that work?"

"My grace wasn't free floating, nor was it ripped out and left on earth to bond with the earth itself. It was…held. Contained." A small grimace crossed Spencer's features. Though he hid his emotions well, better than before, the others could all tell that was something not to touch on. He didn't dwell long on that; quickly, he moved on. "Because of that, when I died, I wasn't a regular soul so I couldn't go to Heaven or Hell, and my grace still existed but I couldn't bond back with it, so I just sort of…free floated, I guess you'd call it. A kind of limbo. That's my best guess. I know when I was born into each life and when I died, and there are gaps between. My guess is that the bit of grace that stayed, the part that mimicked a human soul, floated around until it found a vessel to contain it. Then, it merged and was born into that vessel." It would've continued in an endless cycle, too, if his grace hadn't been freed. Spencer was almost tempted sometimes to try and find out how he'd been set free. He knew how he'd been taken; being freed shouldn't have really ended up possible. Not unless… no, he wasn't going to think that.

Penelope leaned forward a little eagerly. Out of them all she seemed to take to this the easiest and be the most eager about all of it. "You really remember your past lives?"

"I do." A hint of a smile chased away the slight frown that had still been touching Spencer's lips.

"How many did you have?" Emily asked.

Spencer looked up at the slowly darkening sky and let his mind drift a little over the past. "Three." He said softly. "I had three lives before this one. Three times that I got to experience the joys and pains of being human." There'd been good and there'd been bad in those lives. Some high moments and some truly low ones. But he wouldn't trade a one of them. What other angel out there could claim the knowledge of human existence that he now had? What other angel could say that they'd lived like a human, experienced it, were at one point a very part of their Father's greatest creation? "I've seen some amazing things." His smile grew a little and he tipped his head to look at his friends. "I got to see Othello performed at the Globe. Rebecca loved it."

"You got to see an original performance of Shakespeare's Othello?" Aaron asked. He sounded just a little awed by the idea and Spencer had to grin at him, getting a grin in return that softened those harsh lines that sometimes seemed permanently etched on Aaron's face. "I did." Amusement tickled at Spencer and he pushed himself up until he was seated cross legged just like Emily, their legs just sort of brushing together. His eyes danced with good humor as they traveled over his friends. "Would you believe I actually didn't want to go?"

That brought on more than a few laughs. "You're kidding me. You?" Derek teased him.

"Mm hm. There were things to be done, business that needed taking care of. But, Rebecca wanted to go." He shrugged one shoulder and brushed a bit of hair back behind his ear. Though he didn't know it, his whole expression softened and warmed into a look none of them had seen there before. It was a look that Aaron had used to get when talking about Hayley. "I always did have a hard time refusing her anything. When I brought her those tickets, her smile practically lit up the room."

JJ was the one to ask what they were all thinking. "Rebecca, she was your wife?"

"Oh yes. I was married in two of those lives. I never had any children, though. But I was always happy to play Uncle. Or, Aunt."

As he'd known it would, that last comment threw them off, distracted them from the bit of his grief that had shown through. "Wait a second, wait a second." Derek said, holding out his hands. "One of your past lives was a woman?"

"Gabriella Marie Reid." Spencer answered. He watched their shocked reactions with amusement. Obviously they hadn't expected that.

Dave, though, seemed caught on a different part of it. "Reid?"

Surprised, Spencer looked over at him. It only took a second for him to realize what the confusion was. "I told you guys before, my grace was drawn to the bloodlines that were made to carry me anyways. That's how I was born to William and Diana—any child of theirs would've been my True Vessel. William's side of the family, that's where my line is. The other lives I lived, they were ancestors of his. I was always a Reid. Though, I became Matheson for a while. My husband was Jeramiah Matheson." He smiled softly at the memories; fond memories that he could look at now and remember. "He was a good man. I got sick there, at the end, and he never left me." Those were memories that Spencer held close now. Being able to remember his past lives, he had all these memories, all these feelings. People he had loved and who'd loved him. He could remember being Gabriella, remember meeting Miah for the first time, the shyness that she'd felt and the immense love it'd grown into. He could remember being Darren and the way he'd felt as he'd watched Rebecca walk down the aisle towards him, or how he'd felt the day he'd watched them lower her into the ground. He remembered being Isiah and the quiet lovers he'd had in a world that hadn't had room for feelings like his. Where people even knowing of them could've gotten him killed.

He'd lived and loved and laughed and cried. He'd experienced so much in his human lives and it'd given him an even greater understanding of humanity than he'd ever had before. Not once had he ever questioned his Father's command to love humanity. But now…now he understood. Because, they were better. They were wonderful, amazing, messed up, broken, flawed, beautiful, ever-changing, and so very deserving of their Father's love.

The others must've been able to sense the melancholy of his inner thoughts because Emily leaned in towards him a little and bumped him just enough to get his attention. Then she said "Tell us a happy story. Human, angel, whatever. But tell us one of your favorite memories."

One of his favorite memories? Spencer shifted back just a little, laying his hands on the grass and reclining slightly backwards on them. There were so many memories to choose from. So many moments. How could he pick a favorite? "I have a lot of memories. I don't know that I could pick a favorite." And there were parts of himself he doubted he could bring up yet. But, maybe there were some things he could share. His lips curved up a little as he thought of one. Mauricio. "There are a few that I truly enjoy, though. Let me tell you about a boy I met, who tried to pick my pocket and accidentally stabbed me in the process, and who ended up becoming my ward. I was Isiah at the time—Isiah Jeffrey Reid—and I was about twenty the first time I met Mauricio…"

The yard fell quiet as Spencer wove them a tale of a different time and a different place.