Ariel's P.O.V.

Diana was walking behind us, so that gave me the opportunity to interrogate my husband.

"What's going on, babe?" I asked. "I mean, not that I'm complaining, but you haven't let go of me for even a second since I got here."

Spencer sighed. "Elle got shot." he said.

I was shocked. "Is she alright?" I asked. "Well, I mean, of course she's not alright, she's been shot. But she's…?"

"She's alive, yeah." Spencer reassured. "She's in the hospital now - Hotch and Gideon are with her."

I sighed in relief. "Thank goodness." I said softly, now understanding why my husband refused to let me out of his sight. I had never met SSA Greenaway myself, but I had heard so many stories about her that I felt like I knew her - just like the rest of the team. I didn't know any of them, either, but sometimes it felt like I did.

We walked into the conference room, and Diana started to look around.

"This is where you work?" she asked.

"This is where we meet. Uh, my desk, you can see it, it's right out there in the bullpen area." Spencer told her.

"The table's round." Diana noted, and Spencer smiled. I went up on my tiptoes for a moment to kiss Spencer on the cheek before I slipped away from him, moving to examine a large piece of paper covered in sets of numbers.

"Yeah, just like I wrote you in my letters."

"Yes, just like you wrote in your letters." Diana agreed, but there was so much ice in her tone that I nearly shivered.

"Diana, I told you what happened on the plane, remember?" I asked her, but she ignored me. I had tried to explain to her on the plane ride that we had been about to come and see her when Spencer got the mysterious package, but I don't think that she really believed me.

"Dr. Jessen gave me the book you brought. Marjorie Kemp." she continued.

"She's your favorite." Spencer offered weakly.

"That particular book is one of her minor works." she said. Then she moved over to one of the corkboards on the wall, grabbed ahold of an evidence baggie, and ripped it off of the wall.

Spencer rushed over. "Mom, no! Don't ta - don't." he said quickly, taking the evidence out of her hands. "You can't grab stuff off the board. This key is evidence!" He said.

"Spencer!" I rebuked him gently, giving him a look. He calmed down before saying.

"Mom, the UnSub that we're looking for… the - the bad guy… knows things about my colleagues' personal lives, things that only you - or Ariel - would know. Ariel didn't tell anyone, so that leaves you. Do you write about them in your journals?" he asked.

She looked mad. "My journals are none of the government's business!" she shouted, sending furtive looks at the walls.

"I'm not the government, Mom." Spencer said, trying to calm her.

"Well this certainly looks like a government office!" she said, starting to yell again.

Spence took a deep breath before getting serious again. "Mother, do you write about my colleagues' personal lives?"

Diana put her head in her hands, and I moved over, going to put my arm around her when she shook her head. "Why did you bring me here, Spencer?" she asked, sounding distraught.

Spencer hesitated for a second before making up his mind and continuing with his questions. "I need to ask you some questions about a man I think you might know. A bad man. He's killed some people, and he's - and he's holding a girl hostage."

Diana looked at him with such a put-out look on her face that I honestly had to work to keep from laughing - I just couldn't help myself. "You think I know someone like that?" she asked.

"Will you just watch the tape and see if he sounds familiar?" he tried, and Diana nodded. She sat down at the table, and Spence started up a recording of who I assumed was the UnSub.

"I had to make sure I had your complete attention." Came the man's voice. Diana looked like she recognized it almost immediately. "I assure you, you will all understand in the end why it must be this way. You might even thank me."

Spencer paused it there, and he looked at Diana, noticing the shocked look on her face.

"You do know him?" he asked hopefully.

Diana nodded slowly. "I'm sure it's… Randall Garner." she said.

"Randall Garner." my husband repeated.

"He was with me at the hospital." Diana explained. "He's a very emotionally disturbed man."

Suddenly, a very not-FBI looking woman walked into the room. Her almost white-blonde hair was crimped, with orange streaks running through it, and she wore a black long-sleeved shirt with a bedazzled peace sign, long, intricate earrings, and black cat's eye glasses. "Reid," she said immediately. "I got to the end of the IP string. Sir Kneighf, the Fisher King, his name is Randall Garner." she said.

"He's Rebecca Bryant's biological father."

"Sorry." I said, and the woman - whom I assumed was Garcia - spun to look at me. "But who's Rebecca Bryant?"

"She's - she's a missing girl that is involved in the case." the woman said, looking at me in confusion. "Reid, who is this?" she asked.

I stiffened a little at the tone that she had. While I would be one of the first to say that she had every right to be surprised by my being there, that didn't mean that she got to talk to my husband that way. "I'm Ariel." I told her, moving forward and holding out my hand for her to shake. She took it reluctantly. "Ariel Reid. I'm Spencer's wife."

"Wife?" she echoed, sounding equal parts confused, ecstatic, and just plain surprised. "Reid has a wife?"

"Yes, he does." I said, confused. I knew that Spence's co-workers wouldn't know about me, but I never guessed that this would be their reaction - that they would be at all skeptical of our relationship. "Got a problem with that?"

"Ariel, be nice." Spencer scolded, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Garcia, this is my mother, Diana." he said, gesturing to where Diana was sitting, watching us with an amused expression. "And my wife, Ariel."

"But - you can't have a wife." she said, confused. "Where's the ring?"

I nearly laughed at that - based on all of the stories I had heard about Penelope Garcia, I should have known that that would be what she would have asked. Although, judging by the way she was eyeing me, I knew that her interrogations were far from over.

"Oh, that?" Spencer asked, reaching down his shirt to pull out the chain that he kept his ring on. He pulled the chain from around his neck and took the ring off, placing it on his finger where it belonged.

"That's much better." I said, taking ahold of his hand to examine it.

8888

Garcia's P.O.V.

"I can't believe she's real." Mrs. Reid said. She was pacing back and forth across the room, while Reid and I worked. Meanwhile, Ariel was sitting in one of the chairs, scribbling something down on a notepad.

I wasn't sure what to think of Reid's wife just yet. I was honestly hurt more than anything - how could my Boy Genius have been married all this time and never tell us? So for the moment, I wasn't talking to him outside of what needed to be said, since we still had to work together. I hadn't even had a chance to tell Derek yet! He was going to flip out even more than I had when he found out.

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"Whenever he talked about Rebecca, he never said she was his daughter." Mrs. Reid explained. "He said all his children died in the fire. He spoke of a Rebecca, more in the abstract. I really thought she was a metaphor, not an actual human being. An ideal."

"A grail." Reid said, and Ariel looked up from whatever it was that she was doing to listen for a second before going back to her scribbling. "He thinks he's the Fisher King."

Just then, Derek and JJ walked into the room. "Who does?" Derek asked.

"Randall Garner, our UnSub." Reid answered.

"He believes you're all modern-day knights of the round table." Mrs. Reid spoke up. Derek looked at her in confusion for a moment, so Reid went over to introduce them.

"Uh, Derek Morgan, this is my mother, Diana Reid." he said quickly.

"It's your mother?" Derek said, sounding a bit more hostile then he probably intended. "Ma'am, it's uh… it's a pleasure to meet you." he said. Then Ariel spoke from her corner.

"And what about me, huh?" she asked, standing up. "Don't I get an introduction?"

I was about to say something, but Derek cut me off. "Oh hush up, little one." he said, smiling at her and going over to give her a hug. "Secret's out, huh?"

She laughed, giving him a hug in return. "Yup." then she went over to JJ and held out her hand, saying, "Hi, I'm Ariel. I'm Spencer's wife."

JJ said something to her then, but I didn't hear it. Instead, I was looking at Morgan in shock.

"You knew?" I whispered, and he looked at me strangely.

"What, about Ariel? Yeah, I knew. So what?" he said.

"So what? What do you mean, so what?" I started to rant. I would've said a lot more if Hotch hadn't come into the conference room right then.

"So where are we on catching this son of a bitch?" he asked. Then he caught sight of Ariel, and I could have sworn that he gave her a slight smile. "You must be Mrs. Reid. It's nice to finally meet you, your husband has told me a lot about you."

She smirked. "Oh really?" she said, giving Reid - her husband - a teasing look. "Well its nice to know that he told someone about me."

That was when I was about ready to lose it. I was still having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that our boy genius was married at all, but then there was the fact that Derek and Hotch both knew! But for the moment, I had to push my anger at my babies to the back of my mind - we had a case to solve.

"I've rechecked all of the clues." Reid said as he sat down. "There's nothing that points to an address."

"The adoption records for Rebecca listed an address of the fire, so I made a call to Nevada, and its vacant. No one ever rebuilt." JJ pitched in.

"Nevada?" Hotch repeated. "So we don't even know what state he's in?"

"I'll search the tax records, see if he owns any property." I offered.

Then Mrs. Reid broke in. "Excuse me."

Reid got up from where he was sitting, as did Ariel. "Mom, we're-" he started, but she cut him off.

"Just before the agents got me from the hospital," she said, digging around in her purse, "a man delivered this to me." She pulled out a photo. "It's a photo of a house with an address on the back."

"Shiloh, Virginia?" Ariel said, walking over to her mother-in-law. "That's only about ten miles from here."

Hotch looked at the picture for a second before making a decision. "Alright." he said. "Let's go."

The team filed out of the room, leaving me behind with JJ, Mrs. Reid, and Ariel.

"Spence." Ariel called out, right before her husband left the room. He turned and walked back over to her, and she pulled him into a tight hug, kissing his cheek gently. "Be careful, alright? Because if you come back to me hurt, I'm going to be seriously pissed off." She finished by giving him a glare that quickly turned into a smirk.

His response was what shocked me. "Yes, ma'am." he said playfully, pulling her in for one more kiss before leaving the conference room and jogging towards the elevator.

I just stared at her in shock for a moment. In all the time that I had known Dr. Spencer Reid, I had never once seen him act like that - all playful and adorable - with anyone.

While I was busy staring, JJ was going over to Ariel. "Don't worry." she said gently. "He'll be fine."

She smiled at JJ. "I know." she said sadly. "But that doesn't mean that I don't worry."

8888

Ariel's P.O.V.

It was several hours before Hotch, Morgan, and Spencer came back into the bullpen, and by then we had already gotten the news that Elle was out of surgery, and was going to be fine. I waited for JJ to tell the boys that, and continued working on the latest song for Undiscovered Nemesis in the meantime. We had done a lot more pop-punk songs on our last album, but we all agreed that we wanted to go back to the rock vibe that we all knew and loved.

I smiled when I felt Spencer rest his chin on the top of my head as he looked over what I had written down so far. "How's Rebecca?" I asked him.

"She'll be fine." he said, but I frowned. There had been something off since he first walked over, but it was only now that I was able to place it.

My husband reeked of smoke.

I spun the chair around and nearly gasped out loud when I took in the sight of him. His face was smudged with ash and smoke, and his one of his pant legs was burned off almost to the knee.

"What happened?" I asked, hugging him tightly. Spencer grabbed onto me just as tight, if not even tighter.

"Randall Garner." he said quietly. "He… he had a bomb."

I honestly had absolutely no idea what to say, so I didn't say anything. I just held onto my husband a little bit tighter before letting go and taking his hand.

"Come on, Spence." I told him gently. "Let's get your mom and then go home."

A/N~ Wow! Thank you guys so much for the stream of comments - it definitely is keeping me motivated. I already have the next two chapters written. This one is coming a day early because I'm going to be travelling for a few days, so I'm not sure if I'll have any wi-fi.

Thank you so much to ahowell1993, jords2189, Wild Rose 900, KirkSauber, raspberry dreams, vampire and inuyasha lover 13, tlcroft (of course he would have, that goes without saying lol), , and ripon (its one of mine, too!) for their amazing reviews! Keep it up, my furry friends!