After the funeral, Jessica texted Jeffrey. "Your dad is sometimes on call, right?"
"Yeah, why?" Jeffrey replied.
"What's the worst time he's ever gotten called in?"
"I don't know, he doesn't talk much about his work with me. I mean, I know a bit about surgery in general, but he doesn't give me details about the specific surgeries he performs."
Jessica sighed irritably, patience already worn thin. "No, I mean what was the most inconvenient time he's ever received the call to go in?"
"Oh. The time we were at a Redskins game, definitely."
"Spencer and his team just got called in during a FUNERAL. A fucking FUNERAL!"
Several minutes passed before Jeffrey responded. "Wow. I didn't think you ever swore."
"THAT'S all you have to say about that?" Jessica responded, incredulous.
"Sorry. Yes, that sucks, obviously. Was this the funeral for the other agent's wife?"
"Yes."
"Did they make that agent go in too?"
"No, he's still on bereavement leave."
"Well, at least the FBI bosses have a heart in there SOMEWHERE, then. Dad had to fight to get time off after Mom died. You'd think people who work in the lifesaving business would have more compassion…"
Jessica winced. "That's terrible. I'm suddenly very thankful that Spencer works with a team who all act like they're his overprotective family."
"Oh, Dad's coworkers are great, it's just his bosses that suck," Jeffrey clarified. "I can totally believe they would call people in from a funeral too."
Jessica sighed. "I guess serial killers and horrible accidents never take a day off."
"If you figure out how to make them take one, let me know."
"I will."
A few weeks later, when Emily was released from the hospital following Schrader's escape, she noticed an unread message on her phone. It was from Jessica. "Don't get hit by trucks! It's very bad for you!"
"Yeah, the massive headache told me that," Emily replied. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"
It took a few minutes for Jessica to respond. "I AM in bed. Penelope forgot I sleep with my phone in my pillow and woke me up by telling me what happened to you. And then you woke me up again just now."
"Why did you text me if you didn't want to be woken up by a response?" Emily demanded, baffled.
"…I'm half asleep and I just learned that someone I care about was hurt in a car accident. Give me a break."
"Go back to sleep. I'm fine," Emily assured.
At about 6:00 AM, Garcia was jolted out of a light doze by the sound of her phone going off. Jessica had texted her. "Please don't tell me about car accidents in the middle of the night. Now I can't sleep."
"Oops. Sorry, sweetie," Garcia apologized.
"Do you ever have bad dreams about what happened to your parents?"
Garcia swallowed before replying. "Yes."
"Does anything get rid of the dreams?"
"I open my computer and write code until I'm too exhausted to dream."
Several minutes passed before Jessica came up with a reply to that. "Maybe I'll just read a book."
"I hope you find something that works for you," Garcia responded sincerely.
A few days later, Reid limped into the bullpen and received surprised looks from both Morgan and Prentiss. "Well, someone looks festive," Morgan commented.
Reid eased himself into his chair. "I am not allowed to remove the ribbons, on pain of glitterization."
"Glitterization?" Prentiss repeated, torn between confusion and amusement.
Morgan laughed. "Valentine's Day, before you joined the team…Reid showed up with his hair covered in pink glitter. How long did it take you to finally get that out?"
"An hour," Reid grumbled. "And about half a bottle of shampoo."
"What's this I'm hearing about ribbons and glitter?" Rossi asked, joining them. "Ah. Nice cane, Reid."
"Thanks." Reid carefully shifted the cane to lean against his desk without crushing the massive red bow tied underneath the handle. The rest of the cane was wrapped in crisscrossed green and gold ribbons.
"I'm guessing the rest of your apartment pretty much looks like that by now?" Prentiss ventured.
"Yes," Reid confirmed. "Jessica even tied a gold bow on Bianca's collar. I'm surprised Bianca hasn't tried to remove it yet."
Morgan snorted. "I'm surprised Jessica hasn't dressed the cat as a giant snowflake yet."
"Maybe she already tried, and the gold bow was a compromise," Prentiss suggested.
"She's put glittering snowflake stickers all over one of the bookcases," Reid added.
"Are you sure she wants to go into biology and not interior decorating?" Rossi asked jokingly.
"Very sure," Reid replied seriously.
For Christmas that year, Reid and Jessica hosted the LaMontagnes at their apartment. Bianca still didn't seem to have figured out that Henry was JJ and Will's baby rather than Jessica's, but Henry was very happy to see the cat again. Jessica and JJ soon began arguing over whether or not JJ ought to cook to make up for the previous Christmas, an argument that ultimately ended when Reid hobbled into the kitchen to tell JJ never to come between Jessica and holiday preparations. Christmas dinner was soon under way, and eventually Christmas gifts were exchanged, Christmas dinner was eaten, Christmas movies were watched, and a merry time was had by all.
After JJ, Will and Henry left, Spencer finally took a closer look at the shelf of Christmas cards. There were two more cards than there had been last year. They had the usual cards from team members, a card from his mother, a card from the Bartons, and a card signed "Merry Christmas to my favorite genius family ̶ JG".
"Gideon's sending Christmas cards too now?" Spencer asked.
Jessica shrugged. "Apparently. Personally, I'm hoping this means he's starting to come to his senses about how ridiculous it was to cut off all contact."
Spencer looked at the card again before replacing it on the shelf. "If he was changing his mind about that, there would have been a return address. Was there?"
"No, but maybe next time there will be." Jessica checked the clock, then went to put a bag of popcorn in the microwave. The Doctor Who special would be starting in less than five minutes.
Early in the new year, Spencer was finally cleared to do away with the cane and fully return to the field. Jessica congratulated him, but seemed uncharacteristically disinclined to organize any sort of celebration. It didn't take long for Spencer to realize why. He seriously considered talking to her about it, but then he accidentally stumbled onto his birthday cards from Gideon and he came to a sudden epiphany. Jessica didn't like him returning to the field any more than he had liked Gideon retiring and severing contact—but choosing to go back to work didn't mean Spencer cared any less for Jessica, so oughtn't he to try to look past his childhood abandonment issues and figure out what had really been going through Gideon's mind?
Jessica was sitting under a tree in the park when Spencer texted to let her know the team was going to Atlantic City. "Shame you got called away from the chess tables," she replied. "I bet Eric was happy to see you."
"You know each other?" Spencer responded, surprised.
"He knows I live with you, which means he's been constantly bugging me to ask how you're doing and if you're ever going to start playing chess again."
"Oh." Although Eric had said that everyone missed Spencer at the chess tables, Spencer had assumed it was just a polite acknowledgement of his absence. He hadn't realized Eric meant it.
"So what finally drew you out of hiding?" Jessica pressed. "Was it just the weirdly warm weather, or have you rediscovered the joys of playing chess with other people?"
"I've been thinking about Gideon," Spencer admitted. "About why he left. He was holding himself responsible for everything that went wrong, even though he was only one member of a team of seven. And then I realized that the same principle applies to me playing chess with myself. I can't truly win that way, because it's meant to be a game for two. A meeting of two minds, if you will."
"…that was a far deeper answer than I was expecting," Jessica replied. "But good for you for working that out."
"Thank you."
When Garcia returned to her apartment that night, Jessica stared at her. "First Spencer goes back to the park, now you have red hair…what's next? Hotch smiling? Rossi buying something cheap?"
Garcia stared right back. "Given my obsession with all things colorful, is it really so surprising that I would dye my hair?"
"Whatever happened to blonde solidarity?" Jessica complained.
"You can still have that with JJ."
Jessica sighed melodramatically. "I can see what's happening, and you don't have a clue; your hair is red and here's the bottom line—our blonde trio's down to two!"
Garcia continued staring. "You know 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight'?"
Jessica rolled her eyes. "I'm deaf. I don't live under a rock. I have seen The Lion King…just don't ask me to actually sing that."
Garcia huffed and flopped onto the couch next to Jessica. "Well now I'm curious what it would sound like if you tried!"
"And you'll never know." Jessica returned her attention to her laptop, pointedly ignoring Garcia's pouting.
Gideon sent a card for Jessica's seventeenth birthday too, still with no return address. However, he had fully signed his name this time, so Jessica decided to count that as progress. Less than a month had passed since Christmas; maybe Gideon would be ready for a return address by the time Spencer's birthday rolled around in October.
The day after Jessica's birthday, the team got called out to Wyoming—including Garcia. Jessica seriously debated whether to even bother with the headache of asking Beth or Claire's parents for permission to sleep over; she was seventeen now, so surely she was old enough to spend a few nights on her own? It wouldn't even be the first time, since Garcia had pulled all-nighters during cases before. And it was arguably safer, because ever since the Frank incident, Spencer had taken to keeping a spare service weapon in the apartment and never bringing it to work. Jessica made up her mind; she definitely planned to just stay home tonight, and what Spencer and Garcia didn't know wouldn't hurt them…
Just as she came to this decision, Jessica's phone vibrated and lit up, badly startling her. For a few moments, Jessica thought that Garcia had somehow used her mystical tech skills to know that she had stayed home alone. Then she told herself she was being ridiculous, and looked at her phone.
The message was actually from JJ. "Have you ever heard of 'the Choking Game'?"
"No?"
"Good. Keep it that way." A minute later, JJ texted again. "For the love of god, please keep it that way."
"…okay?"
Half an hour later, Garcia texted Jessica. "Have you heard of the Choking Game?"
"All I know about it is that JJ doesn't want me to know about it."
"Good. You're smarter than that anyway."
"…"
Fifteen minutes later, Hotch texted too. "You don't play the Choking Game, do you?"
At this point, Jessica decided to Google the Choking Game to figure out what everyone was going on about. It didn't take long to find answers, and she gaped at what she found. Kids literally choking themselves as a game? All for some supposed high? And she'd thought drugs were bad!
Then her phone lit up again, and Jessica remembered that she had never responded to Hotch. Looking at the latest message, she saw that Morgan had also decided to express concerns. She started typing a message asking Hotch to tell the whole team to knock it off already, then changed her mind. She was morbidly curious to see if Rossi, Emily and Spencer would get in on the act. She simply assured Hotch and Morgan that she wasn't a total idiot, then sat back and waited.
Over the next hour, Rossi and Emily did indeed express concerns of their own. However, three hours after Emily's text, Spencer still hadn't said a word. Jessica finally decided to take the initiative. "You're not going to ask if I secretly choke myself for fun?" she asked Spencer.
"No, why would I?"
"You're the only team member who hasn't by now."
It took nearly five minutes for Spencer to respond to that. "It's known as 'the good kid's high'. I know you well enough to know that that would only make you LESS inclined to do something so stupidly self-destructive. Besides, I would have noticed if you suddenly developed bruises or started covering your neck."
"So…does the team think I'm stupid or do they think you're a negligent guardian?"
Again, it took a few minutes for Spencer to answer. "They say neither and they're sorry. They're just really disturbed by this case."
"Which I'm assuming has something to do with this 'Choking Game' being every bit as idiotically dangerous as it sounds?"
"Precisely," Spencer confirmed.
A couple weeks later, Jessica kept anxiously checking her phone during lunch. Claire eventually managed to get her attention. "Spencer's still in Florida?"
Jessica nodded, swallowing. "He agreed to take the 5th off…but we never discussed what he would do if he was already on a case."
"You know, nothing bad happened on February 5th last year," Beth pointed out.
"Nothing bad happened in 2006 either, and look what happened in '07 and '08," Jessica retorted.
Claire raised her eyebrows. "If you're so worried, why are you planning to fly to Boston, anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to just hide at home?"
"Colleges aren't going to visit themselves," Jessica replied. "At least we'll spend the day together away from serial killers…or that was the plan, anyway."
"You're not worried that your plane will crash or something?" Claire demanded skeptically.
"I was, but Spencer insists that the actual odds of that are about the same as the odds of us getting murdered in a home invasion."
Beth stared. "How does he even calculate that?"
"I didn't ask. I'm not sure I want to know."
Claire snorted. "Besides, she'd probably be there for hours if she did ask."
"That too," Jessica agreed.
Fortunately, the team returned on Thursday night, so Spencer and Jessica were able to make their flight to Boston. The plane didn't crash, nor did any other terrible doom befall them. They managed to visit several colleges, and took a trip to the graveyard where Jessica's parents were buried. Most of the college visits went well, although their tour guide at Northeastern University acted like Jessica didn't exist and kept addressing Spencer instead. Jessica decided to cross that one off her list, but she went home feeling like the trip had been an overall success.
Monday morning, Reid ran into JJ in the elevator and instantly noticed that she looked stressed. "Everything all right?" he asked, concerned.
JJ sighed. "No. The staff at Henry's daycare weren't paying attention on Friday, and he managed to fall out of his high chair and hit his head. The doctor said there's no sign of permanent damage, but he needed seven stitches and it took five hours for him to regain consciousness."
Reid's eyes widened. "Oh, no. How is he today?"
"He can barely walk without falling over, and he still seems a bit confused."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
JJ scowled. "Not unless you know a good lawyer who can help us sue that daycare."
"I'm sorry, I don't," Reid admitted. "Tell Henry that his Uncle Spence loves him and hopes he gets better really soon."
JJ smiled thinly. "I will, thanks."
Near the end of the day, JJ received a message from Jessica. "How's Henry?"
"Still wobbly, last I heard. You'd do better asking Will, he stayed with Henry today."
"Okay." A few minutes later, Jessica texted again. "Sorry about Friday, by the way. Apparently, the universe has decided you are family and therefore subject to the curse of February 5th."
It took several minutes for JJ to figure out a response to that. "You know, I'd argue about you blaming this on some curse…but with two deaths, one kidnapping and three hospital visits in six years, I think you may be onto something. This is getting a little much to be mere coincidence."
"I'll give you a bunch of bubble wrap next year." Jessica hesitated, then sent another message. "Then again, Henry should probably be kept away from potential suffocation hazards."
JJ grimaced. "We'll manage. And we'll be careful."
While the team was in Rhode Island, Jessica discovered an overdue library book wedged in the couch cushions. It was a book on crime and punishment in Medieval Europe; definitely not one of Jessica's. She pulled out her phone to text Spencer about it. "Why do you have an overdue book in the couch?"
"Are you referring to Medieval Justice?" Spencer replied.
"Yes."
"I left that on the armrest three weeks ago. I was wondering where that went."
Now that Jessica thought about it, she vaguely remembered Spencer asking her if she'd seen the book. "But you didn't search the living room for it when it was due?"
"I did search," Spencer defended. "Just not IN the couch."
Jessica snorted. "I was going to say, I didn't think you would forget a due date."
"I didn't forget. But if you could return it before I accrue any more fees, I would be very grateful."
"Okay. I'll drop it off with my books."
"Be careful."
"I'll keep an eye out for library killers," Jessica assured. Then, she started to wonder… "Wait, are you actually looking for a guy who kills in libraries?"
"No, but he's ki" was Spencer's seemingly unfinished reply. Jessica waited a few minutes, but no further messages were forthcoming. She shrugged it off, assuming Spencer had been called away by a new development on the case.
Jessica had gone all the way to the library and returned home again by the time Spencer sent another message. "I meant to say he's killing in public, crowded places, but while I was typing that, we received a call about a new victim killed in a library."
Jessica paled. She really ought to have learned to be careful with her apparent psychic powers by now. "So…yes, your unsub has killed in a library."
"Yes, but we know who he is and we've set a trap for him, so hopefully the case will be wrapped up tonight."
"Good luck." Jessica put down her phone, shuddered, and then snuggled Bianca for good measure.
A/N: This week marks a milestone: we reach the end of what I had written before I started posting and we move into newer material. Wow, that pre-written stuff really did last me a long time!