Bless The Broken Road - 21
The next morning, Jane decided to get up early and make a big breakfast, including pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns.
When Reid woke up, he followed the smell of food to the kitchen. He came up behind her and hugged her waist, snuggling his face into her neck.
“Good morning,” he mumbled.
“Good morning,” she chirped back. He began kissing her neck, causing her to giggle. “Stop or I’ll end up burning your breakfast,” she laughed. “Go sit down. It’s almost ready.”
“Why are you making breakfast?” he questioned as he obliged, taking a seat at the counter.
“We don’t know when we’ll get called away again so I thought we might as well make time for a nice meal before that happens.”
“Well it looks and smells delicious,” he complimented.
A few minutes later, Jane fixed both of them a plate and sat down across from him to enjoy the meal.
Weeks later at the end of the month, the team decided to go out on a Saturday night together.
“Jane, are you almost ready? We’re gonna be the last ones there,” Spencer called down the hall.
“Hang on!” she called back as she grabbed her shoes and headed out to the living room. “Since when do you care about when we get to the bar? I thought you’d rather spend as little time as possible there?” she argued as she took a seat on the couch to put on her shoes.
Spencer didn’t respond, distracted by how good she looked. He caught himself staring at her cleavage as she bent over to zip up her heels.
“Spence?” she questioned, looking up to see his dazed face.
“I, uh...wow,” he stammered.
She giggled and stood up to walk over to him. His hands found her waist and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
“You look incredible.”
Jane looked down as a blush crossed her cheeks. He took one hand off her waist to lift her face up to look at him, leaning down to press his lips against hers. They kissed for a while before they had to break for air.
Breathing heavily, they rested their foreheads together. “We should get going. They’re going to wonder where we are,” Jane said.
Spencer reluctantly agreed, grabbing the keys and following her out of the apartment.
“Finally! You’re here!” Garcia cheered, getting up to greet the pair as they approached the rest of the team at the bar. She hugged Jane then stepped back to look at her. “And you look stunning!”
“Not as sexy as you!” Jane replied, grinning.
“Oh stop,” Garcia gushed.
“Come sit down!” Morgan called.
They joined the table and ordered a couple of drinks for the new arrivals. The team sat, drank, and talked. Spencer kept his eyes on Jane practically the whole night. Under the table, he put a hand on her leg and squeezed it. She turned to him and gave him a smile.
At one point, Jane offered to go to the bar to get another round of drinks for everybody. She returned grinning a few minutes later.
“Guess who just scored us all a round of free drinks,” she cheered.
“How’d you manage that?” Spencer asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? Look at her!” Garcia said. “She’s so hot!”
“And all yours,” Jane told him, giving him a kiss on the cheek, leaving a lipstick stain.
They stayed for a few more hours, taking a few more drinks, before getting a taxi ride back home.
Once home, Spencer took Shortstack outside while Jane slipped off her heels and went into the bathroom to wash the makeup off her face.
By the time he came back in, she had wiped her face clean and was exiting the bathroom.
“Spencer, can you help me unzip my dress?” Jane asked, a little too buzzed to get it herself.
“S-sure,” he answered, moving behind her to help.
He unzipped it then stood there, breathing heavily. She turned her head to look towards him over her shoulder and he caught her lips with his. She turned around to face him and deepened the kiss, letting her dress fall to the floor.
Jane worked to get Spencer’s clothes off as well. Once they were strewn across the floor, they moved over to the bed and Jane laid down, Spencer moving on top of her. He bent down and kissed her before looking into her eyes.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
She kissed him again, answering between kisses, “Yes I do. I love you, Spencer.”
Jane woke up the next morning to Spencer drawing circles on her back.
“Good morning,” he greeted her.
She moved to kiss him. “Good morning,” she repeated.
Out in the living room, they heard Shortstack barking, wanting to go outside.
“We better let him out. It’s later in the morning than he’s used to,” Spencer said.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Jane agreed.
Spencer got up and threw some clothes on before exiting the room to take Shortstack out.
Jane got up as well, putting on new underwear from her drawer and slipping one of Spencer’s shirts on on top of them.
Hearing a knock at the front door, she went to go answer it, assuming it was Spencer. “Did you get locked out?” she questioned as she opened the door, only to find Morgan standing there instead.
”Oh my god, Morgan. What are you doing here?” Jane asked, trying to hide behind the door as much as possible.
He held up a wallet. “Pretty boy forgot his wallet last night, but I can see now that he was a little too preoccupied to realize he left it.”
”Come in,” Jane told him, flustered. “I’m going to go put some real clothes on.”
She headed back towards the bedroom. Behind her, she could hear Morgan say, “Mmmhmm.”
She looked back to see him watching her. “Don’t stare at me!”
He chuckled and apologized, “Sorry, baby doll.”
”And don’t call me that when I’m barely clothed.”
By the time Jane came back out, now dressed in jeans and a sweater, Spencer was back with Shortstack.
She saw Morgan clap him on the back and heard him say, “My man!” Spencer’s face turned red.
Jane, also still flushed, interrupted the exchange. “Do you want to stay for lunch, Morgan?”
“I don’t know yet. You’ll just have to stick around and see,” she told him.
Morgan accepted the invitation and Jane got busy cooking. She decided on making quesadillas. After lunch, Morgan went home.
“My god, that was embarrassing,” Jane told Spencer once they were alone again.
“I opened the door thinking it was you and I was only wearing underwear and one of your shirts,” she confessed.
“Well, that explains how he knew what happened last night.”
“I wonder how long it’ll take before Penelope calls or texts me. He’s bound to tell her,” Jane said.
“Maybe she’ll wait until Monday to bring it up in person,” he suggested.
Sure enough, Garcia did wait until Monday.
Jane was heading to the break room to refill her coffee and ran into Garcia along the way.
“Good morning, Pen. How was your weekend?” Jane asked.
They walked together to the break room. Garcia let Jane enter first before going in herself and shutting the door behind them.
“OK. We have to talk about what happened Saturday night,” Garcia said.
“So Morgan told you,” Jane replied.
“I need to know the details! Tell me everything! Give me the dirty details!”
“I’m not going to tell you everything!” Jane insisted. “I’m sure Spencer doesn’t want me sharing the ‘dirty details’. So out of respect, I’m not sharing.”
“Alright,” Garcia sighed, disappointed. “I respect you respecting that.”
Morgan entered the room. “Oh hey there, baby doll,” he laughed, using the nickname Jane had scolded him for using yesterday morning.
Jane said hey then made an excuse about having lots of paperwork to finish in order to get away from him and Garcia.
A couple of hours later, Jane had finished all of her paperwork and was reading a book to pass the time until lunch.
“Hey, Jane,” Reid spoke as he approached her desk.
“Hang on,” she told him, holding a hand up. “I’m almost done with the chapter.”
He waited a few seconds before asking, “Are you done yet?”
“No. I don’t read 20,000 words per minute like you do,” she pointed out. “Hang on!” She took another minute before closing the book and saying, “OK, done.”
“Are you hungry? If so, want to go get lunch?” Spencer asked.
“Sure,” Jane accepted. “Where do you wanna go? Wait, I know, Indian food?”
Spencer grinned. “You know me so well.”
She stood up, took his hand, and headed out for lunch.
“So, Valentine's Day is coming up,” Spencer spoke up one day while he and Jane were taking a break from paperwork to hang out at her desk.
“Mmhmm,” Jane said, less than enthused.
“You don’t seem that excited,” Spencer pointed out.
Jane shrugged and leaned back in her chair. “I just don’t think there needs to be a day for people to show they love their loved ones. It shouldn’t be forced just because it’s a certain day of the year. It should be because they want to do it, just because,” Jane explained her views.
“Oh, yeah,” Spencer replied, dejected. “I guess you’re right.”
“Spence, what’s wrong?” she asked, reaching out to take his hand.
“I agree with you that you should want to show you love someone and shouldn’t be forced to. But I think it’s a good excuse to do something extra special. And this year is the first time I finally have someone to share that day with,” he shared.
Jane smiled and bit her lip. “Well, what did you have in mind?” she asked.
Before he could divulge his ideas, Garcia came by. “I hate to break up your couple chat but we have a case,” she told them.
Jane sighed and looked back at Spencer. “To be continued,” she told him, standing up to head to the briefing room.
“Leave your winter coats on the jet, my folks. Once you leave D.C. you won’t be needing them anymore as you are all heading to sunny Arizona,” Garcia told the team as she began the briefing. “Three people, two men and one woman, have been found in the desert nailed to crosses. They all were wearing robes and crowns of thorns.”
“Clearly has to do with religion,” Rossi stated. “What’s he trying to say?”
“Jesus died for people’s sins. Maybe he’s killing people for their wrongdoings,” Jane suggested.
Hotch told them they should get going, as it’d be a long flight. The team stood and moved to get ready to leave.
Once they arrived, Jane and Reid headed to the coroner. The others divided up between talking to the families of the victims and setting up at the police station.
Given information on the types of nails, wooden boards, and crown of thorns, Garcia searched for people who had purchased those specific items, concluding that many people use that kind of wood and nails but came up empty on the crown of thorns.
The next day, another body was found.
Spencer stared at the board, trying to connect the dots between the victims.
“I think I know what the connection is,” he told Jane, still keeping his eyes trained on the board.
“Each of the victims could have been perceived to have broken one of the ten commandments.”
“OK, you may be right, but that’d be hard to judge when people break them. It’s fairly easy to break some of them. Do not lie, do not say the Lord’s name in vain,” Jane pointed out. “Plus, he’s breaking the do not kill commandment himself.”
“What if that’s his end game, to kill himself?”
Jane paused. “OK, you’re probably right. I’ve been thinking about the crowns he places on the victims. What if he works in herbology?”
“That’d narrow the list down,” Spencer agreed with a nod.
Together, they pieced together the profile before filling in the rest of the team.
They were able to find the UNSUB but were unsuccessful in stopping him from killing himself.
On the flight home, Spencer moved to join Jane by her window seat. He took her hand in his.
Jane looked down at their hands and smiled as he rubbed the back of hers with his thumb.
“I was thinking it’d be pretty great to go on a trip over Valentine’s weekend. Since it’s on a Sunday, why not make a weekend of it?” Spencer suggested.
“Where would we go?” she questioned.
“Mexico.”
“Really? Spence, you hate the beach,” she argued.
“There’s plenty else to do there besides the beach. I just thought it’d be nice to get out of the cold.”
“Why not go to the typical places: Paris, Rome, Barcelona?”
Spencer paused a moment in thought. “Alright, how about this: we’ll each think about it and in a couple of days we’ll come up with a top 3 list and the highest average between the two will be where we go?”
When they got together with their lists, they found that the highest rated destination between the pair was London.
Hotch was gracious enough to give the couple Friday through Monday off and let them leave early Thursday to have plenty of time to catch their 8pm flight out.
Jack agreed to watch Shortstack while they were gone.
On the flight across the pond, they both decided to sleep in order to get their sleep for the night. The time change between the two places was five hours so they were be getting there around 8 in the morning London time.
After getting settled into the hotel, Jane and Spencer set off to start exploring the city and all of its tourist attractions. It was great to get to travel and actually enjoy it for once, as opposed to only be traveling for a case.
Jane’s favorite part, of course, was going to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. She also made Spencer take her to King’s Cross station to get her picture taken with the Platform 9 3/4 sign.
Spencer was also able to get his nerdy fix, however, as they were able to go see some locations for Dr. Who while there as well.
On Sunday, actual Valentine’s Day, they spent the morning down by the river. They walked hand in hand along the shore, enjoying a peaceful morning, until something caught their eye up ahead.
“What’s that up there?” Jane questioned, pointing ahead of them.
“I don’t know. It looks like a body,” Spencer spoke cautiously.
They hastened their pace and approached it.
“Damn,” Jane breathed, kneeling down beside the body. She found his wrist to search for a pulse but found none.
“Jane, there’s strangulation marks on his neck,” Spencer said.
“It looks like someone tried to dump the body but it got washed up here,” Jane stated.
“We have to report this.”
Jane sighed and pulled out her phone as she stood back up. “On it.”
When the police arrived, they asked Spencer and Jane to come in for questioning on what they’d found.
“I’m sorry this had to happen on today of all days,” Spencer apologized.
“It’s not your fault,” Jane insisted.
“This trip was going so well and some murderer just had to go and ruin it.”
Spencer and Jane waited in a room for a while before a woman with long, dark hair came in.
“Spencer!” She greeted with a smile.
“Oh my god, Emily!” His eyes widened in surprise as he moved to embrace the woman.
“When I heard two FBI agents found the body, I didn’t think it’d be someone I knew!” she said, stepping back. “It’s so good to see you!”
“What are you doing in London?”
Spencer moved to stand beside Jane again. “Emily, this is Dr. Jane Addison, my girlfriend and fellow member of the BAU. We were here for the weekend to celebrate Valentine’s day,” he explained. “Jane, this is Emily Prentiss. She’s the unit chief for Interpol right now, but she used to be a member of the BAU. You actually filled her position when you joined.”
“It’s great to meet you,” Jane told Emily. “I just wish it was under better circumstances.”
“Why exactly are you here?” Spencer questioned.
“The victim displays an MO that matches that of an UNSUB that’s been on our radar for a while,” Emily explained. “Five years ago, we believe this man started killing in Washington state before traveling the U.S. for around three and a half years. The FBI was on his trail, but he escaped to Europe and the case went cold. He resurfaced in France months later and now we believe he’s in London,” Emily briefed them. “I know you’re on vacation, but I could really use your help on this case. It’s up to you though.”
Spencer took out his phone. “Let me call Hotch and get him to assemble the team,” he said as he headed out of the room.
While out of the room, Emily apologized to Jane for ruining their Valentine’s Day.
“It’s alright. I think Spence is more upset about it than I am,” Jane admitted.
Spencer returned to inform them that the team would be there in the morning.
“Great! Why don’t you two enjoy the rest of your day and I’ll see you tomorrow,” Emily said.
Spencer and Jane agreed before leaving.
The two decided to head to lunch at a little cafe. Jane watched as Spencer picked at his food with his fork.
“Spence, talk to me,” she told him.
He looked up in surprise then back down at his food.
“I just can’t believe our luck. I thought if a case were to come up, it’d be one back home and maybe Hotch would let us join them later. But no, we just had to stumble upon a case here in London,” he grumbled.
“It can’t be helped now,” she told him, reaching out to grab his hand. “Besides, we still have the rest of the day. Emily doesn’t want us back until tomorrow.”
“So what do you say we go see some last minute sites this afternoon and then later tonight we can spend some time back at the hotel,” she suggested.
“You want to spend our last night of vacation in our hotel room?” he questioned.
“Well, it is Valentine’s Day and so I thought maybe we could...” she trailed off.
“Oh... oh!” he replied, catching on.
“Yeah,” she chuckled. “So, what do you say?”
He set down his fork and pushed his chair back. “Let’s go.”
Jane giggled as he took her hand and led her out of the cafe.
In the morning, Jane and Spencer met the rest of the BAU team at London’s Interpol office. Emily was already going around greeting her former teammates when they entered the room.
Not wasting any time, they set to work on the case.
“Do we know if they took a sample of the water in the victim's lungs?” Jane asked.
“I don’t believe they have,” Emily replied.
“Jane, you head to the coroner to get a sample of the water and examine it. JJ and Rossi, talk to the parents of the newest victim. Morgan and I will check out the victim’s house. Garcia, try to find a connection between the victims and Reid, start working on the geographical profile,” Hotch ordered.
Once Jane was done at the coroner, she met up with Garcia and Reid.
“I can’t find any connections between the victims. It appears that they’re random victims of opportunity,” Garcia shared.
“I’ve made a timeline of the kills on a map,” Spencer stated, gesturing at the board. Jane moved closer to him to look at his work. She stood in front of him, and he caught a whiff of her perfume. “You smell good,” he told her softly.
She whipped around and hit him gently. “Stop it. We’re at work. We need to focus.”
Behind them, Garcia giggled.
”The water in the lungs was not a match to the river water. It was tap water,” she told the pair. “It seems like he drowned the victims, revived them, strangled them, then dumped their bodies in a body of water.”
”Let me look to see if the victims in each city were near any bodies of water,” Garcia said, tapping away at the table. “Negative.”
The others filed back into the room and shared their information.
”Parents of the victim said that he was loved but he was also a strict team captain on his community soccer team,” Rossi shared.
”Wait a sec,” Garcia said. She began typing again. “It looks like all of the victims’ loved ones said something about them being strict.”
”So he’s going after strict people?” Morgan questioned.
Reid looked to the map. “Not exactly. It looks like the first victim in each city was a father. So he’s triggered by a father and then he generalizes to all strict people.”
”Looks like we have a profile,” Emily stated. “We need to find a name. Garcia, look into cases in Washington state dealing with child endangerment, water, and strangling.”
”OK, I found an article from 20 years ago. 10-year-old Daniel Porter almost drowned and had to be revived by a lifeguard. His father was so angry with him that he took him away from the pool and choked him. Two guys saw him and pulled him off the poor boy. He had to go to the ER and everything,” Garcia read.
”Where’s the father at now?” Hotch asked.
Garcia searched. “He died five years ago.”
”That’s the trigger,” Rossi stated.
”I’ll get a press release sent out and inform all cops and border patrol,” Emily told them.
“We need to find Porter’s location,” Hotch told Garcia.
“He fell off of the face of the Earth shortly before the killings started,” Garcia explained.
The team continued to work, trying to narrow down a location on Porter.
The next day, another body was found which ultimately led to the finding of Porter’s location.
Once he was apprehended, the team headed back to Interpol to say their goodbyes to Emily.
“It was so great to meet you,” Emily told Jane as she gave her a hug.
“You as well! I hope to see you again sometime,” Jane told her.
“Likewise. Probably at yours and Reid’s wedding,” Emily suggested with a smile. “Hopefully that won’t be that long of a wait.”
Jane laughed. “We’ll see.”
The team headed home on the jet.
“On the bright side, we didn’t have to pay for a commercial flight home,” Jane told Spencer, cuddling into his side, getting comfortable for the long flight.
When they got home to their apartment, Jack was there with Shortstack. Spencer took Shortstack outside so Jane could talk to her brother.
“I’ve decided I want to become a journalist,” Jack shared with her. “I’ve been an editor for so long. It’s time to write my own articles.”
“Well, that’s great, Jack! I could talk to JJ for you and see about getting contacts with people who work in the press who might be able to help you with any questions you have about the job and how to apply for a job,” she offered.
“That would be great. Thank you!” he said. “Oh, and I’ve also started seeing a therapist to help with my mood swings.”
“Yeah! I feel like it’s really going well!”
Jane stepped forward and embraced him. “I’m so proud of you.”
Spencer and Shortstack came back inside and Jane bid Jack goodnight.
Weeks later, Wednesday, March 10th, Spencer woke up in the morning and pulled Jane close to him. She groaned and opened her eyes as she felt him start to kiss her neck.
“Cut it out,” Jane giggled. “You’re making me want to stay in bed but you and I both know we have to get to work.”
“Alright, alright,” he mumbled into her neck before releasing her from his arms so she could get up.
When they got to work, they rode up the elevator to the BAU’s floor. The elevator opened up and another worker from a different floor got on. As he stood next to Spencer, he sneezed and coughed practically the whole time. The man finally exited on his floor. Once the doors were shut again, Spencer began freaking out.
“Oh my god, that was absolutely disgusting. Just great. Now I’m going to get sick!” he complained.
“Oh, calm down. It’s not that likely that you’d get sick just from that!” Jane told him.
“The average cough expels about 20,000 viruses,” he stated.
“But we don’t know if he was even contagious,” Jane pointed out. “You don’t know for sure, so why freak out if it could be nothing!”
As they continued to argue, they arrived at the BAU and came across Rossi.
“Rossi, please tell him that he’s overreacting and isn’t going to get sick from being coughed on,” Jane said, getting the older man’s attention.
“I agree with Jane. It’s gross, but it’s nothing to worry about,” he told him.
Spencer mumbled something inaudible under his breath and walked off to his desk.
By the next afternoon, Spencer was sniffling and coughing frequently.
“You’re not fooling me,” Jane told him as she passed his desk.
“I’m not fake-” he paused to cough. “I’m not faking it,” he insisted. He began coughing violently.
“OK, you really aren’t faking it,” she realized. “Gather your things. I’m telling Hotch I’m taking you home.”
Once she got him home, she ordered him to change into sweats and lay down on the couch. Before he could do so, he made a dash to the bathroom and vomited into the toilet. Jane followed after him and held his hair back.
When he was finished, she stood up and rummaged through the cabinet for a thermometer. Spencer stood as well and washed his mouth out in the sink. She handed him the thermometer to stick in his mouth when he was ready. When it beeped, she took it out and read the results.
“101. Yup, you have a fever. Go change and lay down on the couch.”
While he worked on getting comfortable, Jane pulled some socks out of the drawer and ran them under cool water. She then grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen before going out to the living room.
Spencer hissed as she slipped the wet socks on his feet.
“I’m sorry. But this should help bring down your fever,” she insisted. She then moved to the TV and turned on Dr. Who for him. “Alright, try to get some rest. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Janey?” She paused and looked back at him. “Can you stay?”
Jane considered it for a moment then sighed and nodded. “Alright, but if you get me sick, you have to take care of me.”
Jane sat down and pulled him to her, stroking his hair.
Hours later, Spencer had to run to the bathroom to vomit again.
Jane followed and held his hair back like before. When he moved to get back up afterward, he nearly fell over so Jane lead him to sit on the bathroom floor. She sat next to him.
“Ugh,” Spencer groaned. “I feel so gross. I need a shower but I’m not so sure I can stand long enough to take one.”
“I could help you,” Jane offered.
“No, you don’t have to do that.”
“It’ll make you feel better.”
“I feel like a child.”
“Hey, I know how you feel. I felt the same way when I was hurt and you had to help me with things,” Jane pointed out. “We all need help sometimes and that’s OK.” She paused for a moment. “Do you trust me?”
He locked eyes with her. “Yes,” he assured her.
Jane helped him stand up and then went to the tub to get the water ready. As it heated up, she turned back to see Spencer struggling to keep his balance while taking his pants off.
“Sit,” she told him, guiding him over to the toilet. She knelt down in front of him and helped remove his pants while he pulled off his shirt himself. “What’s more comfortable, with or without underwear?” she asked.
“Whatever’s better for you.”
“Spence, I don’t care. It’s not like we haven’t seen each other naked before. Now, what do you want?”
“Without,” he said after pausing a moment.
Jane undressed too, as it’d be better than getting her clothes soaking wet, and then helped him climb into the shower.
“I can help you wash your hair, but you’re going to have to kneel so I can reach better,” she told him.
He obliged and kneeled in front of her. As she massaged his head, he let out a moan. Had Spencer not been sick, it could’ve easier turned sexual, however, right now Jane needed to focus on helping him get cleaned up.
When they were done in the shower, Jane helped him dry off and put on PJs before doing the same herself.
As they climbed under the covers for the night, Spencer pulled Jane close. “Thanks for everything,” he mumbled into her hair. “I love you.”
“You’re welcome. And I love you too.”
The next day, they spent the whole day on the couch resting. By the end of the weekend, Spencer was able to get better and Jane managed to avoid getting sick.
Bless The Broken Road Masterlist
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