"Morning Sprinkles," Aitana heard just as she was crossing the bullpen. Because it wasn't Penelope greeting her with that senseless nickname but instead Morgan, Aitana came to a halt.
"I heard you and Penelope are like this—" Aitana raised her hand with her index finger and middle finger overlapping one another, "—but do you really have to use the same nickname with me now?"
Morgan smiled ever-so-innocently from Emily's desk. They'd been conversing when Aitana walked in. "What can I say? If I hear a good one, I'm going to use it. It makes sense, though, considering the uh…" He waved his pen over his face, referencing Aitana's freckles.
Aitana rolled her eyes. "Of course. I'm going to come up with a nickname for you, then."
"I'm excited to hear it!"
"Don't mind him," Emily shook her head. "Any new cases so far?"
Aitana raised a finger to look back and see if Penelope was in sight yet. "Not yet but Penelope and I are going over some potential ones right now."
"You settling in better now?" asked Morgan. "We heard that your office got a 'Garcia makeover'," he waved his hands in the air.
Aitana chuckled. "Yeah, nothing too over the top but...more personal. She's got style."
"That she does," Emily had to agree.
"I like it. It's helping." Aitana was touched when Penelope presented her with a box full of small adornments she didn't use for her own office. Aitana admitted many things weren't her style but she did grab a few fake succulents to sprinkle around the office. Her name plaques had also come in and were proudly hung that same day. She'd moved what was left of JJ's things to the corner of the office and filled the shelves with what Aitana would need for the day-to-day basis. She may have added a few little toys here and there from Penelope's box — a kitty may have made it through.
"We're glad that you're finding your place," Morgan said to her.
"Thanks," Aitana nodded.
"Morning Sprinkles!" she then heard Penelope's cheery greeting from behind.
With a smile, Aitana turned to meet the woman only to find Spencer beside her. "Morning…" she greeted curtly. The sudden change in her behavior was naturally noted by Morgan and Emily. "Penelope, whenever you're ready, I'll be in my office," Aitana said then looked at the pair of Agents with her, "See you."
"Okay, yeah…" Penelope's eyebrows knitted together as she, and the others, watched Aitana quickly make her way into her office. "Did I...did I say something?"
"No," Spencer mumbled and went to his desk. It was, admittedly, getting difficult to be around Aitana when the tension between them only got worse each day. A week had gone by and he hadn't been able to come up with a plausible story as to how he knew things about her without incriminating Penelope in the process. It was actually frustrating but more so towards the end of the day when he realized that yet another workday had gone by and he hadn't fixed anything.
"I've noticed the sudden switches for a few days now," Emily admitted and suddenly Morgan was realizing the same.
"Yeah, but she hasn't done that with me…" He waited for Emily to either agree or not in regards to herself.
"Oh! No, not with me!"
"Not with me either," Penelope said with a touch of a huff in her tone. She hadn't offended anyone! At least not on purpose.
"Guys, I don't think it really matters," Spencer said, hoping to ward them off. The last thing he needed was for them to stick their noses into a problem he was going to fix...because he was going to fix it. He just...needed a bit more time.
Morgan flatout ignored him. "Absolutely not with Hotch. Rossi?"
"No," Emily shook her head.
It was just a matter of seconds…
Spencer dove his attention to whatever was on his desk which, to his misfortune, was nothing. When the eyes landed on him, he was fiddling with a couple of papers he'd left the previous night.
Morgan skipped the questions and went straight for it. "Spill, Pretty Boy."
"Spencer? Why you?" Penelope was dumbfounded with the conclusion. That had to be wrong...right? She began to think back, like Emily and Morgan were now doing, to the recent days.
Aitana was never rude to any of them but now that they looked closely, she had been a little curt every now and then with Spencer. She didn't really speak to him if she didn't need to, much less be around him.
"It's really nothing, I don't know why we're even discussing this," Spencer awkwardly cleared his throat.
"Mhm," Morgan slid off Emily's desk and moved on over to Spencer's. "Ever since you met that girl, it's been nothing but amiable. Puzzles and whatnot. But this week you've barely said a word to each other."
"What's going on, Spencer?" Emily asked, earnestly wanting to hear the answer.
"What—nothing! It's nothing!" It was probably futile to argue that but Spencer was willing to give it a try anyways. "She's just settling in, that's all."
"The look she gave you wasn't 'settling in'," Penelope said. "Is she mad at you? What could she be mad about with you?"
"Did you ramble too much?" Morgan tested the humor waters and when he saw no trace of amusement on Spencer's face, not even the usual playful roll of eyes he often got, he knew it was something more serious.
"Okay, I'll go figure it out," Penelope decided.
Spencer's eyes widened with horror. "No!" His reaction only pushed Penelope more for it.
"I'll be casual about it—girl talk and stuff," she nodded and started off for Aitana's office.
"Garcia, n-n-n-no!" Spencer was about to get up when Morgan pushed him back down. "Morgan, stop! Stop her!"
"You should've talked when you had the chance," Morgan shrugged casually. "You can still do that with us, though…" He made a gesture to himself and Emily.
Emily wouldn't waste time pointing out how this wasn't the best way to go about it but since the eyes were on her now, she skipped to the more important parts. "Spence, it's just us. You want to tell us what's wrong?"
"Not really…" Spencer muttered. Emily cocked her head to the side, expression expectant for a better answer. "It's about something we, uh, didn't necessarily go by the book…"
Emily raised an eyebrow at him and for a minute there was silence as they stared at each other. Morgan looked between them several times until he saw Emily's eyes widen slowly. Clearly, she'd gotten the message and he hadn't.
"You mean...that book?" Emily was now talking in a whisper.
"Yeah," Spencer nodded. His eyes darted to Aitana's office which was now closed to them.
"Did she find out—"
"Not in the way you think."
Emily sighed as she began to wonder what Aitana had found out about her journal. She leaned away from her desk. "Spencer…"
"Okay, I'll bite," Morgan cut in before he was even more lost. "What book are we talking about and why do you—" he pointed at Emily, "—know about it?"
Before Emily had the chance to even open her mouth, Spencer answered very straightforwardly, "When Emily and I went to say goodbye to Aitana in San Diego, we found the journal she'd been writing in. I took it." Morgan's eyebrows raised with surprise. "And then Penelope got ahold of it and she may have read some of it. She did. Aitana realized it and I let her believe that I read it and then told Penelope about it."
Emily scrunched her face. "Oh, Spencer, why would you do that?" As much as she loved Penelope, and she did, she did something not-so-good.
"Because it's my fault anyways," Spencer straightened in his seat. "You were right back then—I shouldn't have taken the journal."
"No, no, it was better that you did. If you hadn't, somebody else would've taken it. It was full of personal stories. It could have landed in a stranger's hands."
"Hold on, where's the journal right now?" Morgan doubted that Penelope still held onto the journal 2 years later.
"Penelope helped me find someone trustworthy to hold it until Aitana came back."
"Right, her best friend!" Emily snapped her fingers. "What was her name again?"
"Elia Reynoso. But it turns out that she never gave the journal to Aitana so she probably thinks that I still have it somewhere." Spencer thought it weird that she hadn't demanded it back already but then again she wanted nothing to do with him so that probably trumped getting her journal back.
"You need to tell Penelope what happened," Morgan started, ignoring Spencer's refusals, "And then you two need to have a talk with Aitana."
"No," Spencer shook his head. "I can't do that to Penelope—"
"I get it but if Penelope knew about this, she would already be marching herself up to Aitana to tell her the truth."
"Morgan's right," Emily nodded. "Penelope would never let you take the fall for her like this. You and Aitana got along so well in San Diego—you almost asked her out!"
"You did what now?" Morgan raised an eyebrow at Spencer who was now staring hard at his desk. "So it's like that—"
"No, shut up!"
Emily tried her best not to smile but the sight was too amusing.
Morgan started laughing. "I knew there was a little something-something in San Diego."
"No, there wasn't!"
"Why didn't you do it?"
"Because she has a boyfriend!"
"Well…" Emily started bobbing her head, much to Spencer's dismay. She wasn't going to help him, apparently. "We assumed. We don't really know."
"We know," Spencer reiterated. "Some guy named Angel and that's that. It worked out better because the timing was incredibly imprudent and senseless. I should've never let you talk me into doing it." He pushed himself up from his seat ready to leave, possibly storming out, when Morgan caught him by the shoulders.
"Calm down, kid. We don't want to make you feel worse. Let us help you."
"How?" Spencer stepped back from him and glanced at the office. "She doesn't want to talk to me anyways."
"Why don't we start by finding out what happened to that journal?" Emily suggested. "Elia was supposed to give it back to her."
"Nothing Penelope can't find out after we tell her," Morgan gave a pointed look at Spencer. One way or another the woman was finding out.
~ 0 ~
Aitana had taken out the case files she and Penelope left off last night. They were sprawled around her desk as she and Penelope sifted through them. It'd been pretty quiet since they started with the exceptions of the short questions here and there of the files.
"Penelope, if you want to ask me something you know you can do it, right?" Aitana was frankly bemused with the woman's obvious expressions. Her head turned every now and then to look at Aitana and sometimes even her mouth would open to ask something. Aitana thought giving Penelope some time to sort her thoughts out would help her to come forwards with whatever was bothering her, but half an hour later nothing happened.
"I-I don't want to…" Penelope trailed off when Aitana put down her current file on the desk, giving Penelope her undivided attention. "Okay, maybe I do."
"Noo…" Aitana feigned surprise. "What is it?"
"It's just...I sort of noticed that you seem a little upset with Reid. I don't mean to pry but…" Penelope almost scrunched her face when she noticed how Aitana was looking now. "Yeah, that face says it all. What could he have possibly done to earn that?"
"I get that you guys know him for countless years now but when someone invades my privacy the way he did, it's hard to move past it. So you'll have to excuse me if all he gets is this face," Aitana pointed at herself.
"What did he do?"
"I kept a journal back when I was in Witness Protection and I left it behind the first time I met the BAU. I thought it was lost forever and I made my peace with it but now I find out that Spencer took it and read it!"
Penelope's eyes widened. Aitana was going on a rampage of what it meant to have her journal read like that by someone she thought she could trust. It was only a few minutes later when Penelope's mind caught up to the present that she actually managed to cut Aitana off. "Sorry, did you say Spencer read your journal?" Aitana nodded. "And then he told me things about it?"
"Penelope, you don't have to lie anymore. Spencer already told me everything. I admire your loyalty to him but it's not necessary."
"Right, but…" Penelope shook her head, her entire body for that matter. She desperately wanted to understand how this all happened. However, she was starting to get that feeling in her stomach whenever she did something bad because whatever story Spencer had spun for Aitana, it wasn't true. She read the journal, not him. Oh God.
Aitana was oblivious to Penelope's inner turmoil as she was more focused on where her journal was at the moment. Had Spencer gotten rid of it in the end? Or did he still hold onto somewhere? Both options made her admittedly upset.
Penelope was able to sit through another hour without saying anything else on the matter. It was her best record time and had it been any other situation, she would've been proud, but this wasn't the case. She left Aitana's office in a hurry, barely even uttering a 'bye' on her way out.
"Youuuu…" she started as soon as she was within hearing distance from Spencer's desk. The man had barely looked up when Penelope was already standing beside him and motioning him to get up. "I need to talk to you about…" Her eyes briefly flickered to Emily who, despite doing paperwork, was glancing at them, "...about a book that I read a while back."
"She knows, Penelope," sighed Spencer. He was too defeated from the last argument with Emily and Morgan.
"What?" Penelope's head snapped in Emily's direction. "You know?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "I know it all."
Penelope decided to skip over her shock and move straight to business. "How could you let Aitana believe you read her journal?" Spencer ok opened his mouth to explain but, unsurprisingly, Penelope went on before he could say anything. "I did it! She's really upset and disappointed in you when she should be at me! Why would you let her believe it was you?"
"Because I made a calculated decision," Spencer said with a casual shrug of his shoulders.
"What kind of—" Penelope raised her hands to form air quotation marks,— "'calculated decision' would that be?"
Spencer shifted in his seat now that he had her and Emily's undivided attention. "I...thought about it—in that short time I had while Aitana was yelling—that she obviously already had the facts in her head—"
"Wrong facts!" snapped Penelope.
"—and she already liked you. You made a good impression on her the first time you met. People always end up liking you, meanwhile me...that's typically not the case. It was better for Aitana not to lose you as a friend." Even now when the situation was far more terse than he imagined it would be, Spencer didn't see any fault in his logic. Penelope, with her eccentric fashion and loveable personality, always ended up forging the best relationships with others. She was friendly, overly sweet and kind—Aitana would definitely benefit having Penelope in her life. "You'd make a better friend for her. I don't think there's a lot I'd be able to offer her." There was an awkward silence that followed after his explanation. He didn't quite understand why he was suddenly subjected to odd looks from Penelope and Emily.
And then suddenly, Penelope was grabbing his arm and pulling him up from his seat. "Oh, you are incredibly sweet and naive…" She wrapped her arms around his body for a tight-squeezing hug. Emily chuckled at the pair, more so to Spencer's reaction and his attempt to hug her back. "And quite possibly the best human being on this planet!" She pulled away to meet his gaze, revealing a firm look on her face. "And that is why I cannot possibly allow this to continue!"
"What?"
"I appreciate this, although we're definitely going to come back to that self-worth of yours—"
"Garcia—"
"—because you, Dr. Spencer Reid, have many things to offer. And once I'm done talking to Aitana, she's going to see it firsthand!"
"She won't believe you," Spencer said just as Penelope turned to leave. The blonde paused and glanced back. "I really doubt she'd believe you right now. She'll just think you're trying to cover for me."
Penelope considered the idea then glanced at Emily. Knowing her opinion was up, Emily nodded. "Odds are definitely not in your favor right now. Why don't you let us take care of the first steps instead?"
Penelope raised an eyebrow at her. Clearly there was something she was missing out on. "What do you mean?"
"Morgan and I were well informed of this earlier and we're going to follow a lead we have."
"Aitana never got her journal back," Spencer revealed. Penelope's head whipped in his direction, naturally confused since she knew very well that he and Emily had personally delivered the journal to some best friend of Aitana's. "It looks like Elia never gave Aitana the journal back."
"Oooh," Penelope's features started twisting with anger. "She's the real culprit here, then! Well…" she paused, it wasn't technically the truth and she knew it. She read someone's journal, something private and perhaps sacred. That was all her fault. "Alright, maybe not the entire culprit but she definitely would've helped you out if she'd gave the journal back. Why didn't she do it?"
"That's what we're going to be finding out later," Emily said. "After you find out where she's currently living, of course."
Penelope was nodding before Emily even finished her suggestion. "You can count on it! I'll have her address, phone, work address, IP address—she'll be completely out in the open for you! Just you see!" She went in the opposite direction of Aitana's office, a relief for Spencer, and disappeared out the doors.
~ 0 ~
As it turned out, Elia Reynoso had indeed moved like she planned on 2 years ago. Her new apartment wasn't too far from where she used to live. She herself hadn't changed much since the last time—she remembered perfectly the agents who visited her 2 years ago.
"I am so sorry," Elia buried her face in her hands. It certainly wasn't the reaction Spencer and Emily were expecting after telling her they know she hadn't given the journal back. "You must think I'm a terrible person—that I kept the journal for myself."
"No, that's not...that's not what we think," Spencer said. He never got that impression from Elia the last time they met. She seemed genuine and caring.
Elia lowered her hands from her face, revealing a grateful, yet apologetic expression. There was clearly something she felt guilty for.
"Can we ask why you didn't give the journal back to Aitana?" he finally asked her.
Elia fiddled with her hands and heaved a heavy sigh. "Aitana and I don't really talk anymore." Judging by the agents' expressions, Elia deduced Aitana hadn't even mentioned her at the BAU. It wasn't surprising. "I guess it was sort of my fault too—I realized that now. When Aitana finally came home, I thought everything was going to go back to normal. Her family did too." That was all she needed to say for Spencer and Emily to understand what happened. Elia lowered her gaze as a fresh layer of guilt settled over her shoulders. Even they had understood what Aitana was going through before she—her best friend—did. "Aitana didn't want to live with me anymore. That was one of my first mistakes—asking her to room with me again. I just figured that after spending so much time alone, she'd want to have things like they were before."
"Elia, you couldn't possibly know the effects Witness Protection would have on Aitana," Emily said. "No one can except for those who were in the program."
"Many people who have come out often say they go through deep levels of fear and isolation," added Spencer, "It's impossible to understand unless you're one of them."
"I'm her best friend—was. I should have known," Elia bit on her lower lip, eyes darting to the side in thought. "I could tell that something was off with her, but I guess I was too focused on her being back to actually...ask, you know? I never thought that she would want to talk about it. I just assumed she'd want to move on from it. Everyone pretty much thought like I did. And it seemed to be okay but then...she started distancing herself. I tried reaching out to her but she hasn't taken any of my calls. I know she's having some trouble with her parents too. I'm sorry about the journal. I'll admit in the beginning I didn't really want to give it back to her because I thought it'd remind her of the bad times in Witness. Now, though, I don't see her nor talk with her."
Things began making much more sense after the conversation with Elia. When they left, they did so with Aitana's journal in hand.
"Aitana must have withdrawn from her old relationships because she was overwhelmed," Emily started theorizing as she and Spencer left the building. "She was living on her own, always looking over her shoulder for 2 and a half years. She was never going to be able to come back and act like nothing happened." It was blissful ignorance that led Elia and Aitana's parents to believe the opposite.
"They should have known but they didn't." Spencer gripped the edges of the journal in his hands. It was slightly difficult not to feel frustrated on behalf of Aitana for such a naive belief of her loved ones. "They tried acting like nothing happened, like she didn't witness a traumatizing murder spree or spent the better part of 3 years living in paranoia."
"Now that we know what happened, maybe we can come up with a good way to clear your name and help her out in the process," Emily declared but instead of having Spencer agree on the spot, she was met with hesitance. "What is it?" she cocked her head to the side.
"...knowing what we know now...it kind of solidifies my decision to let Aitana think that I read her journal." Spencer shifted in his spot, much more when Emily's eyes started boring into him for a better explanation, an explanation that he suspected she already wasn't fond of. "You heard what Elia said—Aitana cut off most of her relationships. She likes Garcia—"
"And she liked you before!" Emily exclaimed. "Don't you remember San Diego?"
"Of course but I just mean that she's forged a new friendship with Garcia that could help her start reconnecting with others."
Emily sighed and, for some reason unknown to him, she smiled at him. "You're a very good friend, you know that? To Garcia because you're loyal and to Aitana because you're willing to sacrifice a very good friendship just to help her overcome her struggles." As she would expect, Spencer scrunched his face. That was a way to put things. "As noble of a decision you made, you can't let it continue."
"But—"
"Aitana already made new relationships at work and it's only fair that she sees what you've done for her. You have many things to offer to her, alright?" Emily looked at him meaningfully. Naturally, he tried avoiding that look.
"I'm okay with her not knowing." It came to his attention that perhaps it could be seen as slightly too much for someone who barely knew her.
Emily could practically see where his thoughts were going and just barely held onto a laugh that was threatening to slip through her lips. "Well I'm not. And I know that Penelope and Morgan feel the same."
"But would it really be that bad? I'm okay with it." As he had made the claim, he was aware of the acute crack in his voice that, of course, Emily heard too.
"Mhm." She would do him the favor of not saying anything about that, but she came out with something even better. "I know you still buy those chocolate lollipops."
Spencer stiffened. It was also impossible for Emily not to laugh on the spot.
"C'mon," Spencer muttered and led the way, preferring not to see Emily when she finally lost the battle and laughed.
Author's Note:
P.S. As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"