Author's Note: Hello all! So tonight there's a two for one! Two chapters now, and maybe another later tonight, depending on how fast I can get my homework done! :) Read and review!

Chapter 5

Spencer's POV:

I began to smile, as I turned to see Avery grinning at me. I couldn't help it, her happiness was my happiness. I couldn't look at her beautiful smiling face and not smile. I remembered where we were, after what felt like an eternity (but was probably only mere seconds). Both Garcia and JJ were sure to have caught our moment. I turned to see, with a still admittedly large smile (I enjoyed the way I thought of what just happened as OUR moment) that they indeed hadn't missed it. They were staring at Avery and me; Garcia with a huge smile of her own, and JJ with a knowing smirk. Both were professional enough to pretend they hadn't been watching though, thank god. Garcia returned to babbling to Amelia about what a beautiful baby girl she was, and JJ cleared her throat before asking Avery some sort of friendly question about Henry. I was happy to hear however that, for once they weren't questions about her past. Avery had patiently explained her entire situation to anyone who had asked, all day. Tough woman or not, no one should have to explain their lives that frequently to people they barely knew. I felt oddly protective of Avery, though at this point I guess it really wasn't that surprising. I'd felt nothing but unlikely emotions ever since meeting Avery.

"Oh that's right! I remember seeing you there now. That's why you seemed so familiar to me", I heard JJ say excitedly.

"What?" I questioned. I missed the entire exchange between JJ and Avery with all my thinking. It happened to me quite a bit, and I guessed that with Avery around it would happen even more frequently. I could daydream about the girl for the rest of my life, I was sure of it.

"Avery works at the Early Learning place that Henry's starting at on Monday", JJ explained. "That's why I thought I knew her, I'd passed her classroom on my way to Henry's".

"Yeah, I'll actually be Henry's teacher sometimes", Avery said with realization. "Every day I work from 11-2 in the Green Room. I remember seeing his name on my new roster! "she finished excitedly. I smiled at her obvious excitement. It made total sense that Avery was a preschool teacher, it didn't take a profiler to guess that. Just observing the way she handled both her siblings with complete confidence and love was enough to understand her devotion to kids.

"Really? You're one of his teachers?" JJ asked with equal parts confusion and excitement. "I thought Ms. Jane was the teacher in that room?"

"Oh she is! Part of my daily shift is in his room, I just am not actually his teacher, just an assistant teacher. I've never been to college or anything, but I'm certified to be watching the kids and I've been working with them for a long time", Avery explained, with a certain emotion I couldn't quite place, but her whole demeanor seemed to change slightly. I don't think the other two woman even noticed the change in Avery, but I had.

"Well I'm glad that Henry will be with someone I know", JJ said genuinely. I was happy too, I knew JJ worried about Henry a lot. Maybe having Avery as his teacher would help ease her anxiety.

"I'm excited to meet Henry", Avery replied warmly. "Hopefully the transition will be fairly easy. I'll only be in his room for his lunch and nap time though. The last half of my shift is spent in the Purple Room", she explained.

"I'm totally confused", Garcia interjected. "Is there some sort of mommy color code for rooms that I'm missing?" I laughed. I'd been wondering the same thing, but once again Garcia managed to say exactly what I was thinking in a much more forward way. JJ giggled too, and replied,

"The classrooms are divided by the children's ages; each room is called by a color to indicate what age belongs in there".

"Yeah and the classrooms go in rainbow order by age", Avery supplemented. "Purple Room is for our youngest infants, the 'nonmobile' babies", she said with air quotes around nonmobile. "Basically nonmobile just means any baby from like 6 weeks until they start walking. The colors go up all the way to our Red Room, which has our 4 and 5 year olds that are heading into Kindergarten", she finished.

"So are you going to school to be a Pre-k teacher then?" Garcia asked.

"Uhm no actually", Avery said nervously. I noted the same sort of emotional distress I'd sensed earlier in the conversation. I had no real basis for my conclusion, I just felt her sudden discomfort. Totally irrational, yet I was certain. But what had caused her shift in mood? Whatever it was, I felt the urge to wrap my arms around her. To hold her, and protect her.

"I don't go to school right now", Avery continued.

"Oh", Garcia said. Even she could sense that she'd struck some sort of nerve. But Avery, being the strong and wonderful girl I knew she was, decided to explain herself. Even though she certainly didn't have to.

"My mom left me alone with Henry when he was 2, almost 3. Later she managed to somehow find me again, and she was pregnant with Amelia. Eventually she left again, and I had to move us to the shelter that Spencer and Arr...Hotch found us in. We were only living there for a few weeks, just until I saved enough for a few month's rent. But in all that time I never really had time to begin school like most girls my age", she explained. It sounded strong I'm sure to Garcia and JJ (who had been listening with rapt attention the whole time), but I knew better. I heard the slight tremors in her voice, and for the first time I sensed sadness coming from Avery. Like she was ashamed to have never started college. My whole being burned with the desire, once again, to pull her into my arms. I wanted to comfort her and let her know that it was alright. She had every right and reason in the world to have delayed going to college. And even if she never went, she was special and wonderful just how she was. Avery didn't need a degree, she was perfect.

"Your age?" JJ questioned softly. "How old are you? "

"I'm 19 now, but I'll be 20 on Thursday", Avery said. JJ was using the face she usually reserved for the families of some of our victims; sadness and compassion, as close to pity as possible. I hated that she was making it in the context of this conversation. Avery wasn't a victim. Garcia, predictably, was less subtle about her feelings.

"You're only 19 and you take care of two children, alone?" she cried. "Oh my sweet, dear love. You're a superhero". Avery just gave her a small smile.

"No. I'm just a big sister", she replied. Though it sounded cliché, I could tell that she really meant it. Avery truly couldn't love her siblings more. Garcia smiled at Avery, and bounced Amelia on her hip, saying,

"Your beautiful sister claims not to be superwoman, but we know better don't we?"

I smiled. It seemed as though Garcia and JJ really liked Avery. Not as much as me, but it was clear that she had (effortlessly) won them over. At Henry's request, Avery bent over to take a look at something he'd colored. While her back was turned Garcia began pointing to her and giving me a thumbs up. Following her lead, JJ made one of those ridiculous heart shapes with her hands and nodding. I pursed my lips and shook my head at them furiously trying to get them to stop. What if Avery saw? I wasn't an expert on relationships, but I was reasonably confident that their display was what people referred to as a turnoff. Thankfully, as she straightened up they stopped their ridiculous waving, but still grinned at me like imbeciles. I looked wide eyed at Avery, hoping she didn't notice. Avery smiled a curious kind of smile, raising an eyebrow; silently asking what had happened. Garcia merely waved a hand at her shaking her head. Avery seemed to understand, she shrugged her shoulders and seemed content.

"Do you think I could have that little chunky butt back? She's got to be needing a new diaper by now, and since Aaron's nowhere to be found right now I'm gonna feed her her bottle as well", Avery said as she reached her hands out to Garcia. Garcia willingly obliged, probably due to the fact that Amelia had been making unhappy noises progressively more throughout our conversation. I chuckled lightly. Avery eyed me as she grabbed what I assumed was some sort of diaper bag from the front of the stroller.

"Care to share with the class Spence?" she said humorously as she moved to walk past me.

"Chunky butt? Chubbie bubbie? Why do we even bother calling her Amelia when those beautiful names are so readily available?" I teased

"Oh hush your face", she replied lightheartedly as she knocked my shoulder with her own. Ignoring the flames that simple action brought to my body, I smiled and called after her now retreating form,

"Hush my face? How can a face be hushed?"

"Make it happen", she tossed over her shoulder as I lost sight of her down the hallway. I laughed to myself, and turned back to my cubicle. I saw not only JJ and Garcia, but also Morgan and Prentiss giving me the look. I'm pretty sure if you looked up the definition of ambush, a picture of this scene would suffice.

I cleared my throat, and turned to Henry. I laughed out loud at the sight in front of me. In the time it took for the conversation between Avery, JJ, Garcia, and I Henry had positively plastered my cube in his pictures. There had to be at least 5 different superhero coloring pages taped to the wall that weren't there before. Henry looked up at me innocently and smiled.

"Do you like them? I made them for you", he said proudly. My heart swelled, he was the sweetest boy I'd ever met.

"I love them. Spiderman has always been my favorite, what about you?" I asked kindly as I knelt down to speak with him. His eyes got wide as he began talking about how Batman was 'the coolest', and so on. I nodded along and listened, partially because I was genuinely interested in what Henry had to say, and partially because I could feel the team's eyes on me. I thought if I stalled long enough that they would have to wait until after Avery, Henry, and Amelia left.

"Hey, pretty boy. Care to quit stalling and come up and talk to me?" I heard Morgan say behind me. I could feel his smirk from my place next to Henry. Closing my eyes in defeat I handed Henry his crayons and asked for another picture of Batman, to which he happily obliged. I slowly stood up to face my teammates, hands in my pockets.

"What's up?" I asked, in what I hoped was an indifferent tone. Their faces plainly told me that it was a futile attempt.

"Don't play games kid. I wanna know right now, what's going on with you and that girl? You've been staring at her so much, I'm surprised you haven't burned a hole right through her head", Morgan said still with his ever present smirk.

"Ahem… well I mean Hotch had me take her, Henry, and Amelia here on the bus because they don't have car seats" I started to say.

"Uh uh. No way, I'm not interested in your cover story. You know what he was asking. So spill", Garcia interrupted. I exhaled a long breath.

"I don't know guys, okay?" I admitted quietly. "I don't' understand my own feelings, but I know that there's no possible chance that she could ever reciprocate them. So I'd appreciate it if we could just drop it". Their faces changed considerably, and JJ stepped forward, placing a hand on my arm.

"Spence you don't know that. I'm not sure if you missed it, but there's a burning hole in your forehead too", she said softly.

It was inconceivable to me. I mean I thought that she'd glanced at me a few times, but I really never expected… JJ had to be wrong. But what if she wasn't?

"It doesn't matter. Even if that's true, which I doubt, she's Hotch's niece guys. His niece", I replied shaking my head. None of them seemingly had an answer to this, and if they did they'd have time to make something up because Avery was heading back. She took one look at my desk and chuckled.

"I'm sorry I should have warned you this was going to happen", she said laughing. She placed Amelia's diaper bag back in the stroller and stood next to me watching Henry, who was still scribbling away on yet another sheet of paper. "I swear that boy could singlehanded color over the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel given the opportunity". She stood extremely close to me, her arm touching mine. It was like someone had stuck my arm in an electric socket. I couldn't believe she was so close. She turned her head to look at me, she smiled and apologized again. I barely heard what she'd said; between our physical contact and the fact that I was once again lost in the paleness of her eyes my hearing was a little off. I nodded and reassured her that I didn't mind at all. This seemed to widen her smile even more, and I considered JJ's words. Could she be right? Did Avery actually feel the same way I did?

Avery's POV:

As I walked back to see JJ's perfect hand on Spencer's arm I felt a flash of jealousy go through me, however irrational. I didn't want anybody else's hands on him, other than mine. I walked over to him, but got sidetracked looking at his desk. Henry had indeed plastered it with different pages from his coloring book. I stood as closely to Spencer as I could, without being completely obvious. Where our arms touched I felt electricity spark my skin; I already knew I had it bad for Spencer, but this was my opportunity to see how he felt about things. When I apologized for Henry's art overload I carefully turned my head, smiled, and watched carefully for his reaction. He seemed breathless, and (for lack of a better word) mesmerized. It was a feeling I understood well, and one I reciprocated. One thing was certain, Spencer Reid's eyes were amazing. Brown and green mixing in perfectly equal amounts, big and deep and beautiful. I was lost, and I forgot what I was supposed to be doing. I was brought back to reality when he mumbled that he 'really didn't mind' all the pictures. I felt my grin widen so large, I thought my face might split in two. I knew he wouldn't mind the pictures. I was starting to really believe that he could maybe have feelings for me, not as strong as my feelings of course, but I thought I saw something in the way he looked at me just now. I returned my attention to Amelia's bottle, which I had been feeding her this whole time. I didn't step away from Spencer; even though I felt those electrical charges between us, I didn't want them to stop.

Noting that his entire team was standing behind us, I did turn around to face them; Spencer followed my lead. I smiled at them. I really wanted them to like me, if anything was going to happen between Spencer and me (and I was praying it would) I was going to need the support of his team. They seemed to be really close, and I didn't want to disrupt that by any means.

"Here little mama, thought you might wanna sit while you feed that sweet girl of yours", Morgan said as he rolled a chair towards me, smiling. I beamed and thanked him. He waved, as if to indicate that it was nothing and pulled Reid off to speak to him about something. The women of the team began familiarly chatting with me as I sat and continued to feed Amelia. I thought my face was going to fall off, I don't remember the last time I smiled for so long at once. I wasn't worried about having to win over his team anymore; they all seemed like they were wonderful people, and I think they were starting to like me. The only person on his team that could pose a problem was Arrow. How would he feel about me dating at all, much less dating one of his agents? We just reconnected, I had no way of possibly knowing how he would feel.

"Avery". I heard a familiar voice say from behind me. I swiveled Morgan's chair away from the ladies to see Arrow smiling at me. I grinned back and said,

"Hello Arrow. What took you so long?"