Read my Lips
Chapter 2
Penelope heard the door of her office being opened. That was nothing unusual. No one on her team ever bothered to knock. But when the door closed behind the intruder, she turned to see who it was. It was unusual for her to be in trouble for anything. But a conversation in a closed room always gave her the same feeling she used to get when she was sent to the principal's office in high school. She could still remember how red that man's face used to get. The time she made dancing camels in tutus appear on all the library computers and none of the school's staff could figure out how to get rid of them she was sure he was going to pop a blood vessel in his forehead.
Penelope breathed a small sigh of relief when Spencer lowered himself down into the chair next to her. She knew Spencer didn't shut the door to her office because he needed to have a chat with her about her performance. He shut the door because he asked her to look up information for him as a personal favor. Running background checks on people who weren't part of an active investigation wasn't exactly allowed. Or legal. But they still did it. The rule regarding unauthorized background checks was the most commonly broken rule in their unit. But after everything they had all gone through over the years, most of them were done taking chances on the people they allowed into their personal lives. Even her. And Penelope tried her best to see the good in everyone.
"Are you okay?," Penelope asked. She gave Spencer a curious look. He was never one to spend a lot of time on his personal appearance. But this morning, he was looking even more disheveled than usual. His tie was crooked and his hair was sticking out in wild curly clumps. He was also sipping his coffee from a disposable cup. Spencer always made his own coffee and brought it from home in an insulated mug. He didn't like to get takeout coffee because he thought most of the shops that served it were unsanitary.
"I'm fine," Spencer promised, taking another sip of his coffee before he set the cup down and raked his fingers through his wild curls in an attempt to tame them. "I'm just having a rough morning," he admitted.
Before he left his mother with a total stranger, Spencer asked Penelope to run a very thorough background check on her. Eliana Kaminski. For some reason, thinking about even just her name gave him a strange, uncomfortable fluttering feeling in the pit of his stomach. On the drive in, thoughts of the visible sliver of her toned stomach kept invading his mind. Spencer was accustomed to intrusive thoughts. But the ones involving his mother's new caretaker were more distracting than usual. And being near her was even worse. Ignoring her presence was impossible. It only took him about ten minutes to realize that he was never going to get any work done with Eliana fluttering around his apartment and touching things. Spencer didn't wait to hear everything Penelope found out. The moment she gave him the green light, he literally ran from his apartment and headed for the office.
"What did you find out?," he asked, grabbing his unsanitary coffee and leaning slightly closer to the computer screen with Eliana's image on it.
"I'll tell you," Penelope promised. "But first… nothing bad happened to this woman, did it?"
Spencer shook his head, giving his coworker a curious glance. Penelope's tone was filled with concern, almost like she knew Eliana personally. Which Spencer knew she didn't. If she knew Eliana, Penelope would have told him that as soon as he mentioned her name.
"No. Why?," he asked.
"She just seems like a really sweet person," Penelope admitted. "If she was killed or cut into a million pieces, I don't want to know about it…"
Spencer smiled. He had a bad morning. But Penelope was like human serotonin. It was impossible not to be happy when she was around. "Nothing bad happened to her," he promised. Spencer paused for a moment. He wasn't sure how much of his personal life he wanted to reveal to his coworkers. But it didn't seem fair to ask Penelope to run what amounted to an illegal background search without giving her some explanation. And Spencer trusted her to keep his confidence. "My mother's condition is getting worse. I brought her home to live with me. The woman I asked you to check out is her new caretaker."
"Oh!," Penelope exclaimed. Her face lit up with a big smile. "That's wonderful. I mean, I'm sorry about your mother. But from what I found, I think you found the perfect person to take care of her. Just look." Penelope pointed to the screen, summarizing what she found as Spencer read the information over for himself.
Eliana Kaminski was twenty seven years old. Six years younger than him, though Spencer wasn't sure why he was making that comparison. Her age in relation to his wasn't important. He was only interested in whether or not she would be an adequate caretaker for his mother. And from what he could see so far, Eliana was not only qualified to care for her, she was overqualified. The more he read, the more he was wondering why she was even working as a CNA in the first place.
Spencer let his eyes scan over the screen, devouring the information rather than absorbing it. The more he read, the more he wanted to read. She was not what he expected at all when he opened the door to see her standing there, sipping coffee with her midriff out. Eliana spoke at least four other languages in addition to English, which impressed Spencer more than he wanted to admit. Despite his penchant for memorizing information, learning to read, write, or speak languages other than English was something he personally found more challenging than other tasks.
Along with her personal information, Penelope looked up her family background. Eliana's father was an army engineer that worked his way up the ranks and was currently a lieutenant general. Her mother was a fashion model from Israel. Her father met her when he was stationed there. Eliana lived on a military base in Israel until she was four, when her father moved them back to the United States. A few years later, her parents divorced. Her mother moved back to Israel. But Eliana stayed in the US, with her father. She attended private schools for most of her childhood. During high school, she took vocational classes and graduated with not only her high school diploma and honors, but her CNA as well. After that, she went to college. It only took her three years to earn her bachelor's degree in Sociology and French.
When Eliana finished college, she joined the peace corps and did one tour in Albania. It appeared that she was mainly involved in their empower the next generation program. There were lots of pictures of her surrounded by crowds of smiling Albanian children. When she finished her tour, Eliana came home and returned to school. She earned her masters degree in psychology with a focus in social psychology. Almost immediately after she finished that, she did two more tours for the peace corps. But this time, she went to Morocco and worked on their community economic development program.
It was obvious that Eliana formed a romantic relationship with another peace corps volunteer during her second tour in Morocco. There were lots of pictures of them together on her social media account, including one where Eliana was displaying a modest diamond ring on her left hand. A ring that Spencer was quite sure she wasn't wearing when she arrived at his apartment that morning. He would have noticed that. The man with his arm around Eliana was tan and blonde and had the type of muscular physique that women liked. Seeing him made Spencer glance down at his own much slimmer and less defined chest and arms with a feeling of inferiority. Competing with a man like that would be like trying to compete with Derek Morgan. There was no point in even trying. Not that he was in competition with anyone for her affection. Eliana was his employee. And his only interest in her was to make sure his mother was safe with her. Or at least that's what he kept telling himself.
"This woman runs the staffing agency you used," Penelope said, pointing out another picture. This one was of Eliana and a taller woman with light reddish hair. "Looks like they went to college together. " Spencer nodded. At least that explained why someone so obviously overqualified was working as a home health care aide. She was probably doing it as a favor to her friend. The one that owned the staffing agency. He was starting to realize what a huge mistake he almost made by turning Eliana away because he didn't approve of her attire. She was more than qualified to care for his mother.
The next picture Penelope pointed out was an image of Eliana holding two tiny fluffy kittens in her hands. "And look!," Penelope squealed. "She even volunteers at the animal shelter." Spencer stifled a laugh, loving how much Penelope was enjoying the kittens in the picture. He leaned back in his chair, fighting the urge to ask Penelope what happened between Eliana and her former fiance. Why did they break up? Spencer knew he was already violating Eliana's privacy. But he could justify what he'd done so far by telling himself it was to make sure his mother was safe. But digging further into her life felt like a violation. He took another sip of his coffee as Penelope clicked through the rest of the pictures from the animal shelter. It was mostly Eliana posing with kittens and puppies that were available for adoption. Spencer was just about to force himself up and out of the room when the computer let out a little ding.
"She just posted something to her instagram," Penelope announced, clicking the mouse before Spencer could stop her. A picture of Eliana appeared. And Spencer could tell she just took it. Because she was wearing the same tight shirt she came to his door in. And he could see his bookshelf behind her. The selfie was of her sticking her tongue out and scrunching her nose up. A smile formed on his face. But then Penelope read the caption above the photo aloud.
"The face you make when your new client's family member is six foot two inches of gorgeous …and a total douche nozzle."
Penelope glanced back and forth between the screen and the shocked expression on Spencer's face a few times. Then she burst into laughter. "She's talking about you isn't she?," Penelope asked, though the perplexed look on Spencer's face made the answer obvious. "She called you a douche nozzle!" This was followed by another laugh and then another question. "Were you being a douche nozzle?"
"What does that even mean?," Spencer groused. He wasn't sure exactly. But it sounded suspiciously like an insult. And before she said that, she called him gorgeous. That was bothering him more than being called a rude name. He was used to attractive women calling him names and laughing at him. He wasn't used to them commenting on his looks in a positive way.
"What does what mean?"
With how loud Penelope was laughing, neither of them heard the door of her office open. And now the last person Spencer would want to know about his strange predicament was standing in the doorway. His sunglasses were still on. And he was sipping what was certainly a sugarless coffee mixed with whole milk. Derek was forever watching his carbs. Spencer turned, sitting up straight in his chair and wheeling it closer to Penelope in an attempt to block the computer screen from Derek's view.
"What does what mean?," Spencer asked, his voice rising with his anxiety.
"Whatever you two are laughing about in here," Derek said. He smiled at Penelope before he offered her his standard greeting. "Good morning, beautiful!" She winked back. But before she could respond verbally, she caught Spencer tapping at the keyboard in front of her. He was trying to remove the pictures of Eliana from the screen before Derek saw them. But it was already too late. Derek flipped his sunglasses onto his head and stepped forward to get a better look at the screen. He cast a curious glance at the blush that was creeping up Spencer's neck. And then he pointed at the very attractive woman on Penelope's computer screen.
"Who is that?"
**I know Derek was off the show before the storyline about Spencer's mom coming to live with him happened. But I liked him better than his replacement. So I'm going to use a little creative license here and do more of an 'in the world of' rather than going direct from canon. Hopefully that doesn't bother anyone too much. Happy reading!**
