When Garcia got home from her first case after returning to work, she noticed that her bottle of painkillers was definitely not where she left it. She returned to the living room to frown at Jessica. "Were you checking how many pills I took?"

"Are you surprised?" Jessica retorted.

"Don't you trust me?" Garcia demanded, hurt.

"I trusted Spencer and look where that got us."

Garcia winced. "Okay. If it makes you feel better, keep checking. But seriously, I'm not addicted."

"I believe you. For now."

Garcia almost protested, then realized that was probably as much faith as she was going to get. She wished someone would bring Tobias Hankel back from the grave so she could get her hands on him.

When the team returned from the Jonny McHale case, Morgan went to help Garcia with her office chair. To his surprise, Jessica was sitting in Garcia's office and the chair was perfectly adjusted. "Sorry, Chocolate, your thunder's been stolen," Garcia informed him.

"Oh, I see how it is, trading me in for someone younger and prettier?" Morgan exclaimed in mock offense.

"Are you two trying to flirt right over my head?" Jessica asked.

"We can sign our flirts too, if you like," Morgan replied.

Jessica gave him a contemplative look, then shook her head. "No thanks, I'm good." She held up her book, completely obscuring her view of the two adults.

"Thank god," Garcia breathed. "Can you please get her out of here? That girl is the worst mother hen in history."

"So why'd you bring her here?"

"I didn't! Reid apparently bought her a Metro pass! And I wasn't going to just leave her sitting in the lobby…"

"All right, baby girl, Chocolate is stealing his thunder back." Morgan pressed a quick kiss to Garcia's forehead, then walked over to Jessica and gently pushed her book down. "Come on. Not even going to go give your cousin a welcome-home hug?"

Jessica's eyes lit up as if she'd only just realized that Reid must be here too. She quickly packed up her things and took off without another word.

"Well, if I'd known it was that easy…" Garcia said, bemused.

"The Derek Morgan charm never fails," Morgan replied with a wink.

"Aaahh!" Nearly everyone in the bullpen looked up at Reid's startled exclamation. He had been completely immersed in writing up his report and hadn't seen Jessica coming.

"Welcome home," Jessica signed.

"Thanks," Reid replied ruefully. "Can you please give me ten minutes to finish this report and then we can go?"

"Okay." Jessica walked over to sit at Morgan's empty desk and took out her book again.

Meanwhile, Rossi had heard the commotion and spied an opportunity. He emerged from his office and approached Jessica. "Hello. We haven't been properly introduced." He started signing. "My name is D-A-V-E."

Jessica smiled at him. "Hello. My name is J-E-S-S-I-C-A. My name sign is Jessica." Correctly guessing that she'd pretty much exhausted his current knowledge of ASL, she pulled out her phone. "Spencer thinks very highly of you."

"I noticed," Rossi said dryly.

"If he's talking too much, just tell him. He doesn't get offended."

"Sounds like you speak from experience."

Jessica raised her eyebrows and gave him a flat look. "I live with him. Trust me, you're not the only one he does that to."

"Well, that's good to know." Rossi paused, then held out his hand. "It was nice meeting you."

"Nice to meet you too," Jessica replied before shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you too," Rossi repeated, doing his best to copy her. When Jessica nodded approval, he smiled and returned to his office.

"If your case is local, why aren't you coming home tonight?" Jessica complained.

"I said it was in Virginia, not that it was local," Spencer replied. "Virginia is 42,774.2 square miles in area, so there's more to the state than what can be considered 'local' to Washington DC. Fredericksburg is about an hour out, we wouldn't be on hand if something happened in the night."

"Bianca's been on your bed for the past hour. I think she wants to snuggle with you."

"I know you know I'm not going to come home just for that."

"I know, I'm just adding motivation to solve the case quickly."

"What this guy does to his victims is awful, I'm plenty motivated."

"Why is it that you can figure out what makes a serial killer tick, but can't figure out when I'm joking with you?"

It was nearly ten minutes before Spencer responded. "I'm working on that."

Jessica sighed. She loved Spencer, she really did…but sometimes he was just hopeless.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" Spencer signed as Jessica set a bowl of chicken soup in front of him.

Jessica sighed. "Yes, ten minutes before you started saying how much you hate me for wanting to see the Christmas lights at the Mormon Temple."

"They were really pretty…and cold…"

Jessica gave him a worried look. "Please tell me that's just the fever talking."

Spencer frowned. "Fevers can't talk."

Jessica hesitated, then reached over and yanked up his sleeve. Nothing. She heaved a sigh of relief. "Apparently they do now."

"That's amazing. You should write a medical paper about that."

Jessica straightened. "You left Las Vegas eight years ago! How are you not adjusted to colder climates yet?!"

"I'm not cold," Spencer signed, confused. "I have a blanket. And a cat."

Jessica's eyes widened and she grabbed Bianca off of Spencer's lap before the cat could try to sample the soup.

Christmas ended up being a fairly low-key affair, since Spencer was still getting over his cold. But the week after that, Morgan decided to throw a New Year's Eve party. Everyone except JJ came.

"Does she really think we don't know where she keeps going?" Prentiss wondered, amused.

"I know, right?" Garcia agreed. "When do I get to meet this Louisiana hunk?"

"Louisiana hunk?" Rossi repeated, giving Garcia a strange look. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

"Oh yes you do," Garcia said emphatically. "Back in March, we had a case in New Orleans and JJ totally hit it off with the local detective. She's flown out to see him…how many times, Reid?"

"At least fourteen times that I know of."

"Yes! At least fourteen times. Possibly more that we don't know of."

"Anyone want to place bets on when she'll finally admit it?" Morgan asked.

"I give it six months," Prentiss said.

"Put me down for three," Reid chimed in.

"Two," Garcia added.

"I give her seven months," Jessica suggested.

"Oh no you don't," Morgan objected. "No gambling for you."

"But you weren't even betting actual money in the first place!"

"I don't care if you're being raised by a guy from Vegas, there's no underage gambling in this apartment."

"Four months," Hotch spoke up, surprising everyone.

"Four months from the boss-man!" Garcia said happily, pleased to see their unit chief getting into the spirit of things.

"I'll pass," Rossi said, not feeling like he knew enough about the situation to make his own estimate.

"All right, and I'll give her five months," Morgan decided. "Whoa, hey, not those!" he added as Jessica reached for the Jell-O. "Here, these are non-alcoholic."

Jessica withdrew her hand, looking annoyed. "Fine, if this is the adult fun room, I guess I'll just go watch the performers in Times Square!" She stalked into the living room.

Prentiss frowned. "Aren't those performers mostly singers?"

Hotch nodded and turned to Reid. "Reid, did you bring cards?"

"Yes." Reid pulled a deck out of his pocket.

"There will now be non-adult card games in the living room," Hotch said authoritatively, leading the way. Reid, Rossi, Garcia and Prentiss followed him.

"No fun police allowed," Prentiss said to Morgan as she passed.

Morgan gaped in indignation, then turned to his deserted refreshments. "All this because I prevented underage drinking?"

Sadly for Jessica, the team was working a case in Chula Vista on her birthday. Spencer texted birthday wishes to her, but was too busy to say much more than that. On the bright side, it was a Sunday, so there was no school and Beth and Claire came over.

"Wait…Spencer's not here?" Beth realized, noticing the open door of Spencer's room.

"No, he's in California," Jessica replied.

"Don't tell my mom that, she thinks we have adult supervision here," Beth signed worriedly.

"Your secret's safe with us," Claire promised. Bianca hopped onto the couch and hissed at her. "What do I have to do to make you like me, kitty?"

"Try this," Jessica suggested, giving Claire a streamer toy. Claire took it and waved it. Bianca gave her a baleful look before half-heartedly pawing at the streamer.

"Are you going to get a cake?" Beth asked.

"Penelope said she'll buy one on her way home tonight."

"Store-bought? Come on." Beth nudged Claire. "We need to bake the best cake ever for our birthday girl."

Claire set down the streamer. "Challenge accepted. Do you have cake ingredients here?"

"Not at the moment," Jessica replied.

Beth and Claire checked their purses and counted their money. Concluding that they had enough between them, they slung their purses onto their shoulders. "We'll be back."

"Okay." Jessica put away the streamer, then remembered that she hadn't checked the mail in two days. There was Spencer's usual collection of random newspapers, an envelope that looked like a bill, and a postcard with a picture of a waterfall. The only thing written on the postcard was 'Happy Birthday Jessica'; no name or return address. Nonetheless, Jessica was fairly certain she recognized Gideon's handwriting. It was nice to know that he hadn't forgotten her.

Reid ended up sitting next to Jack Vaughn on the way to the precinct that night. Despite learning that Jack was almost certainly involved with the Irish mob, Reid couldn't help but sympathize with him. "Even if this is connected to your past, Lindsey's abduction is not your fault," Reid insisted.

"You a parent?" Jack asked acerbically, sounding like he assumed not.

"I have a girl Lindsey's age," Reid replied. "In fact, today is her fifteenth birthday."

Jack gave him a very odd look. "You almost look like you could be fifteen yourself."

"She's my cousin. Long story. But last year, she was kidnapped by someone who wanted to use her as leverage against our unit. So when I tell you this is not your fault, I speak from experience. From what we heard on that recording, you taught Lindsey how to handle herself. You did your part, but we simply can't protect our children from everything."

Jack scrutinized Reid, then nodded. "You're all right, kid."

When Spencer got home the following night, he immediately gave Jessica a very tight hug. And clung to her. By the time he finally released her, Jessica was growing a bit concerned. "Another child abduction?" she guessed.

"Two fifteen-year-old girls. We only saved one of them." Spencer swallowed. "If Frank had been there, when you were rescued, would you have wanted me to kill him?"

"Only if absolutely necessary," Jessica replied, frowning. "I know you hate killing. Why?"

"What if Elle had been there? Would you have wanted her to kill Frank?"

"I'm not sorry he's dead, but I wouldn't have wanted anyone to kill him in cold blood for me. Spencer, what's wrong?"

Spencer sighed and leaned against the wall. "Technically, we didn't save the second girl. Her father—a former hitman for the Irish mob—found her first. She was already safe, and he had her kidnapper at gunpoint. She begged her father to kill him. I tried to talk him out of it, to reason with him, to appeal to him as one guardian of a fifteen-year-old girl to another…I couldn't. The unsub was basically a kid himself. I watched him die, right in front of me, there was nothing I could…"

Jessica hugged him again, unable to think of any words that might make this better.

Two weeks later, Spencer got a call from the nurse at Jessica's school, informing him that Jessica had caught a bug that had been going around. With Hotch's approval, Spencer took the rest of the day off to take Jessica home and look after her.

Jessica didn't sign a word on the way home, too focused on coughing and catching her breath. At the apartment, she stumbled into bed without bothering to change into pajamas. A few minutes later, Spencer came to check on her and found her fast asleep, clutching her stuffed koala. He set some cough medicine on her nightstand and left the room again, worried at how rapidly her illness was progressing.

Jessica barely woke up at dinnertime. She managed about half a bowl of soup, then passed out right at the table. With difficulty, Spencer managed to carry her back to her room. He pressed his hand to her forehead. Not good.

By three in the morning, Jessica was coughing so badly that Spencer decided to take her to the emergency room. Thankfully, the ER was fairly quiet and they were seen almost right away. The doctor listened to Jessica's breathing and immediately frowned. "It's a good thing you came in when you did. Sounds like a case of pneumonia."

"Pneumonia?!" Spencer exclaimed, horrified.

"Yes." The doctor turned back to Jessica. "How long have you had these symptoms?"

Spencer repeated the question in ASL, but Jessica just stared dazedly at them. Spencer grimaced worriedly. "She seemed fine on Sunday, but yesterday at 2:03 I got a call from her school nurse…"

"So we've caught it early. That's good. I'd like to get her started on a round of antibiotics. Does she have any allergies?"

"Not that I know of."

"Good. We'll get her admitted to the pediatric ward."

Jessica slowly realized something was off. Her bed was angled. There was something cold in the back of her hand. And was it supposed to be this hard to breathe?

She opened her eyes and found herself in a hospital room. Spencer was sitting at her bedside, reading something. She tried to ask him what was going on, but her arms felt heavy and it was awkward trying to move the hand with the IV.

Fortunately, Spencer noticed the movement and closed whatever he'd been reading. "Next time, just ask me to take February 5th off."

Jessica winced as memories started coming back to her.

"Yes, Beth very helpfully told me how you kept going out of your way to try to catch what was going around. Don't think I don't know exactly why you decided to be so reckless. But we can talk more about that when you've recovered. You've got a case of pneumonia. Luckily, the doctor said so long as there are no complications, you can be discharged tonight. You'll have to keep taking antibiotics and he recommends at least a week of bed rest."

Jessica nodded meekly. She'd only wanted to make sure she was sick enough that Spencer would take the day off; she hadn't meant to land herself in the hospital. After all the bad things that had happened to various family members on this date, she'd just wanted to make sure Spencer wasn't out on a case getting shot at. Apparently, she'd ended up taking her own turn in the hot seat instead.

Jessica later learned that the team had indeed caught a case that day, and because of her, Spencer stayed home and consulted via phone. Jessica knew nothing of this until Friday, when the team returned to DC and various members began dropping by with get-well-soon presents. Even Rossi visited, donating an old crochet blanket to her recovery.

Sunday morning, Spencer decided she'd recovered enough for a proper scolding. "You deliberately endangered your own health."

"I'm sorry," Jessica signed, chastised. "It won't happen again."

"It had better not," Spencer signed sternly. "Pneumonia is the infectious disease with the highest mortality rate in the United States. You could have died."

Jessica swallowed. "I was just thinking of when…when you…"

Spencer raised his eyebrows. "Do you think you're the only one affected by that anniversary? It brings back bad memories for me too. And sitting in a hospital, surrounded by drugs, was the absolute last place I wanted to be."

Jessica's eyes widened. "I didn't…"

"I'm still on the wagon, but no thanks to you. I'd been struggling ever since the Chula Vista case, and seeing you so ill did not help. I seriously considered handcuffing myself to your bed to stop myself from going anywhere I shouldn't."

"I'm sorry," Jessica signed again.

"You're grounded for two weeks starting from when you go back to school. I've informed Beth and Claire's parents as well as Garcia. This cannot happen again, am I clear?"

Jessica nodded. "It won't, I promise."

Satisfied that she'd learned her lesson, Spencer's expression finally softened. "Would it help if I promise to take February 5th off each year?"

Jessica nodded again. "I know it's silly, but…yes."

"It's not silly. Anniversaries have a power all their own. Honestly, a part of me was glad of the excuse to spend the week at home. And once you were out of the hospital and on the mend, it helped to know that you needed me to be sober and functional. Not that I'm advocating this as a way to help me stay clean."

"So what's a better way to help?" Jessica asked.

"Just be you. I haven't gone anywhere without your letter since the day I found it. It reminds me of what's at stake."

Jessica swallowed. "I really am sorry."

"I know." Spencer stood up. "I'll let you rest."

A/N: For the record, Gideon wasn't snubbing Reid with regards to birthday cards. The emotional trauma was still too fresh last October, but he'll start sending cards to Reid too.