There was ringing, ant it was driving him nuts. What was ringing doing in a nice warm dream? It took Spencer a few minutes to realize the ringing was coming from his cell phone. And his cell phone was in his room. He stumbled for it, not conscious enough to realize there had been someone sleeping on top of him and managed to get to it in time.
"Hello?"
"Remember the case I told you about a couple of days ago?"
"Becky?" Detective Becky Chard lived in Las Vegas. Spencer had met and bonded with her while the team was working a case in Vegas and he'd taken a few personal days following the case to visit his mother and ended up spending the few days with her.
"Hi."
Spencer blinked rapidly, trying to wake himself up. "Case?"
"The one we've been working on with the sex crimes unit? The little girl's death?"
He searched his brain quickly. "Yeah."
"We found another little girl today. Yesterday, I guess."
Spencer looked at the clock. 4am. Which would mean 1am in Las Vegas.
"Nightmare?"
"God, Spencer…" She sounded absolutely torn. "I can't stop seeing her when I close my eyes."
He tried to blow out a quiet breath. He knew what that was like, had experienced his own nightmares over his years of BAU work. And though he'd never mean to belittle Becky's nightmares and Becky's emotions, the BAU saw the worst of the worst. He wasn't always able to rationalize why he was having the nightmares so he could only imagine what she was going through.
"You'll catch the guy," he tried encouragingly.
"Will that make the nightmares go away?"
She sounded so incredibly vulnerable. Spencer hung his head. He had no idea how to help her. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder to see JJ standing above him, eyes wide and alert.
"Everything okay?" she asked softly, eyes darting to the phone.
"Someone's there?" Becky asked almost in panic.
"JJ," he replied quickly. "She came over, we fell asleep." He tilted his phone away from his mouth. "Becky."
JJ just nodded her head, but stayed close. He looked helpless, hurt and her heart went out to him. So she kept her hand on his shoulder, hoping that was enough comfort, at least for now.
"Then, um… I'll let you go."
Spencer closed his eyes. "Becky, no, I-"
She'd already hung up on him. He sighed as he pulled the phone away from his ear.
JJ sighed. Her hand went down his back. "What happened?"
"Nightmares," he answered. He confided in JJ, had until things had fallen apart between them. Since they'd started to patch things up, he'd started confiding in her again.
JJ didn't know how to reply. If she was honest, she was jealous of Becky's close friendship with Spencer. It gave her a quiet thrill to know she was here and Becky Chard was across the country in Vegas. What she didn't like was how his head was cradled in his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. "They're normal," she said softly.
"It doesn't make it any easier," he answered. "Nothing makes the nightmares easier."
"No," she agreed easily. "Nothing does. Except knowing that you're making a difference."
"But we don't."
"Of course we do," she contradicted. "For every unsub we catch, we save people's lives, we save others from being targeted. We help families try to find closure for those they've lost."
"We come in too late."
"Spence, law enforcement comes in too late. It's something we have to live with every time we step into a crime scene."
He knew all of this, but for some reason it felt nice coming from someone else. He looked up when she removed her hand from his back, arching both over her head instead. He tried not to stare at the exposed skin of her stomach where her shirt had ridden up, and winced as her back popped. "We shouldn't have fallen asleep on the couch."
"Probably not, but I wasn't going out into that storm," she replied seriously. "Got a pillow and blanket I can use? We don't have to be up at least for another three hours yet."
"Four. Please four. It's Friday."
"It's Saturday," she corrected primly. "Blanket? Pillow?"
Spencer waved a hand at his bed. 'Right here."
"Nuh uh, buster, I'm not making you sleep on the couch in your own home."
"Your back just popped so I'm not forcing you to sleep on my uncomfortable couch to hurt your back," he replied, standing and moving around the bed to pull down the covers. "It's a big bed. It's not like we haven't done this before."
They had, at her place. Her television was by her bed and they often fell asleep absently listening to the television while they talked out whatever issue they'd gotten together for. She approached the other side, pulling down the covers and crawling in. She was already half asleep by the time her head hit the pillow. She yawned loudly. "Goodnight, Spence."
"Night Jenn."
Penelope Garcia sighed as she packed up Gabi's things for another day at the office. For the time being, Hotch had been fantastic enough to allow her to keep her baby in a small corner of her office, hidden away from everything she saw and heard. She'd gotten into the habit of keeping her door closed and locked, even when she was in there. There was always and aunt or uncle willing to watch her if she had to run somewhere. It was the only benefit to being in the same office as the people she adored and considered family.
Still, it was taxing, not only to her, but to everyone else. She hated asking them to help out knowing that they had their own jobs to do and their own things to cover. Emily always said it was her pleasure and even Derek, Gabi's father, took her whenever he could. But she knew it was against regulations and though Strauss had said she wasn't about to split up the team, Pen wasn't about to give her something else to punish them for.
The only problem was that daycares were expensive. She and Derek had looked into a number of different place and where she'd thought the place was fine, Derek came up with a reason why it wasn't and vice versa. Not to mention they weren't about to leave their daughter just anywhere. Years in the FBI had taught them both about what kind of people were out in the world and neither of them even considered a place where the security wasn't tighter than Fort Knox.
Which, when she looked at it, was the fundamental problem and Pen had flat out refused to let their daughter stay at the FBI daycare. If she was going to be there, she might as well stay with them. There were more people she trusted in that bullpen, most of them with access to her bunker and she wasn't about to leave her daughter a few buildings over when she could spend time with her. She had the space, so it didn't make sense.
But she knew it wasn't fair to Gabi. Gabi deserved to have a place where she could stretch out on her blanket and play and the conference room, where she spent two or three hours with Daddy every day, just wasn't going to cut it. Not to mention she knew that though Hotch adored his goddaughter with almost the same love that he had for his own son, Gabi was a distraction to the whole team.
She cursed when the phone rang just as she was preparing to take Gabi out to the car. "Hello?"
"Penelope?"
"Hi Fran," Pen responded in surprise.
"Oh good, it is you. Is my son around?"
"He's at work," Pen replied suspiciously.
"Perfect, do you have a moment?"
Technically? No, no she most certainly didn't. "Actually Fran I-"
"This will only take a second. I wanted to run an idea by you."
What was it about the Morgan's that made Pen tongue-tied? "Okay."
"Derek and I have been talking about the problems you've been having finding somewhere to leave Gabi during the day,."
Pen closed her eyes. She knew Derek had talked to Fran about it, but she'd hoped Fran would let them handle it. "We're still looking but-"
"How about Grandma?"
"I'm sorry?"
"Well, I've been thinking about it and about how I will rarely get to see my granddaughter while living in Chicago. I looked into somewhere to stay in Virginia and it looks like there's a few nice apartments I could at least take a look at. That way it's someone you trust, in a place you find secure and you can pick her up at the end of the day."
"Fran-"
"You have to go, honey. Just think about it. Talk to Derek about it. I wouldn't mind seeing Gabi on a regular basis."
Pen was a little shocked as Fran all but forced her off the phone. On one side, it would solve their problem of daycare. Fran could watch Gabi during the day and she or Derek could pick up their daughter to bring her home at night. And she'd pointed out every problem they'd had with other places. In fact, they were already considering transforming the basement into an apartment to sublet and that way, Fran could potentially even have her own place while still being in the same house. It would cut down on travel time and still give both parts of the family spaces of their own.
"What do you think?" she asked the infant as she picked up the carrier-slash-carseat. "Do you want to spend your days with Grandma?"
Gabi gurgled happily having just woken for the second time that day.
Penelope grinned down at her daughter. She had to admit, it was difficult to accept that such a tiny little life had come from her. Well, her and Derek, but her stomach had been home to little Gabi for nine months. The team still called her 'Peanut'. "Well, we'll have to talk to Daddy. I'm not sure how he'd feel about having his Mommy move all the way out here just for little old you, no matter how cute you are."