"Your looking better today." Blake told Roxanne while they were standing in the elevator together the next morning.
"I'm feeling better too." She replied. "Hows Clara?"
"I don't know. I think she purged at Rossi's BBQ yesterday, it hurts not being able to stop her." She responded. "She wants to get better, she told me but you can see how hard it is for her. I feel I should be doing more..."
"Alex, she will get better if she wants to, there is no more you can be doing just support her and make sure she knows you love her, that's all you can do." Roxanne responded as they stepped out of the elevator and walked into the bullpen.
"Any cases today?" Roxanne asked while putting her bag down.
"No, I think it's just paperwork." Reid responded. "Which reminds me, you owe me to files." He told her before giving her two of his files.
Roxanne laughed. "Thanks Spencer."
"Oh and Garcia wants to see you, no coffee or she'll erase you from history which is technically possible because even if she erases you from online history you will still be physically here and people will remember you and I'm pretty certain Garcia can't erase memories." Reid told her rambling on a bit.
"Ok." Roxanne responded, putting the files down before heading into Garcia's lair.
"Hey Pen." Roxanne said, coming into the office.
"Hey Rox. You know you had that friend?" Garcia asked.
"Yes. Josh. What about him?" Roxy asked, Joshua was the reason she was able to find her biological mother.
"Am I right in that he taught you some things?" Garcia asked. "You know computery things."
"Uh. Yes. Yes he did." Roxanne responded, slightly confused as to why they were having this conversation.
"Ok, well I was wondering if you could be my maternity cover?" Garcia finally asked. "You don't have to... Just Kevin will mess up my lair and I don't really know the other anylists." Garcia added.
"I'd need training Pen, but if you and Hotch both agree then sure; I'm in." She responded, feeling flattered by Garcia asking her to cover.
"Great! I'll ask the boss man right away." Garcia responded, glad Roxanne had accepted the offer.
"There is a condition though Pen." Roxanne told her, sounding serious.
"What?"
"That I get to take you shopping for maternity clothing." She responded smiling.
"Sure thing Rox." Garcia said cheerfully before scurrying to Hotch's office.
"Come in Garcia." Hotch told her, still looking at his laptop focusing on some much needed work.
"I was wondering if it would be ok for Roxanne to be my maternity cover?" She asked, hoping he would say yes. "She said it was ok with her and she knows some basics already..."
"Ok, start her training at the end of November, I would like you to start leave at the beginning of January because your having twins." Hotch told her.
"Thanks Hotch."
"No problem Garcia." Hotch responded who was wondering why Garcia didn't want Kevin to cover for her however knew asking that question would be overly personal.
"So what did Garcia want?" Reid asked as Roxanne came and sat back down at her desk.
"She wants me to cover for her when she goes on leave."
"Did you accept?"
"Yes." She replied smiling and starting work on the stack of paperwork on her desk.
"15 minutes and 23 seconds." Reid said to her, 15 minutes and 23 seconds later.
"What?"
"The amount of time it took you to complete that file."
"And that's significant why?" Roxanne asked, confused and finding it slightly strange that Reid was timing her.
"15 minutes and 23 seconds is your average time per file, last week it was taking you 4 times that." He responded, explaining the significance.
"Right ok... do you work out everyone's average file completion time?" She asked.
"No... not everyone's. You sit near me." He explained; answering her question.
"Ah ok." She replied while starting work on the next file.
For the next few hours the team got on with their individual mountains of paper work quite efficiently. At around 2pm Blake gave half of her remaining files to Reid and took the others home with her as she had to leave to take her daughter to a therapy session.
"Where are you going?" Reid asked, when Blake placed the files on his desk.
"I have to pick up Clara from school, she has an appointment." She responded truthfully.
"Good luck." Roxanne wished, knowing what it was about.
"Thanks Rox." She replied before heading into Hotch's office to say she was leaving and driving to pick up Clara.
While driving to the school and then to the therapists with Clara she was growing anxious. Growing anxious about how Clara would respond, if the therapy would do more harm than good. Rapping lyrics of Nas to herself she tried to take her anxiety's off of her mind.
"Mom, what's up?" Clara asked, you didn't need to be a profiler to know Blake was feeling uncertain and anxious.
"I'm worried about you Clara." She answered sighing.
"I know... but I'm getting help." She responded as they arrived and parked at the therapists office.
"I almost lost you last week Clara, I'm just worried it's too late."
"I promise you mom; it's not too late." She replied, trying to reassure her mother despite being anxious about the therapy herself. "I don't want to live like this... I'm not dyeing like this."
Blake smiled with relief, hugging her daughter and saying: "I love you." Before she went to her therapy session.
Clara's therapy session was an hour, there was no point in going home or back to the office. Driving to the nearest coffee shop she got herself a coffee and sat down finishing off some of the files she did not complete at work before going to pick Clara up and take her home.
"How was it?" Blake asked; picking her daughter up from the therapy session.
"Uh ok... I guess. Just the average I'm here to help you and you can trust me talk." She explained.
"So the average first therapy session." Blake responded.
"Wait, you've been in therapy before?" Clara asked.
"Briefly." She responded. She was in therapy for a short while after Ethan had died. Both individual and couples therapy; it was part of why despite never really seeing each other the two were so close.
"What for?" Clara asked; hoping she wasn't going to hit a nerve with her mother yet still wanting to be nosy and find out.
"To help cope with Ethan's death..." She told her sighing a little.
"Oh ok. I'm sorry..." She replied; hoping she hadn't upset her mom by making her remember it.
"It's alright Clara. What would you like for dinner tonight?" She asked.
"Chicken salad pannini's." She responded.
Alex smiled, glad Clara didn't chose something she was likely to purge. "Well that's what we'll have then."