The team worked a few more cases after that very first one without Gideon before it became Spencer's birthday once more. This year was different, however, because this year he had his friend back and the one thing that always made Spencer's birthdays better was Amanda Hotchner's baking. Which is why she comes into work at 3:30 in the morning to get things set up. She wasn't counting on the fact that Aaron would already be at the office until he came out to see what all the noise was about.
"Amanda? What are you doing here so early? You hate being up early," he points out.
"You're right but today is October 28," she says as if it were obvious but he's tired and mostly confused, making her groan. "It's Spencer's birthday, dumbass. You should at least learn that about your employees."
"I do know, I'm just tired. That last case really took it out of me and not having Jack waiting at home for me when I get back from a case didn't really help. Wait, why are you here so early, can't you just do this later?"
"I'm doing it now because Spencer gets here before everyone and I spent three hours baking him this cake and these cookies so I'm going to rig his desk with confetti and leave his cake in this airtight container so it's the first thing he can see when he gets in before I do. I've also rigged his computer to say happy birthday so it'll be perfect. I also got him two gifts but I suppose I can say one is from you since you're having a hard time."
Aaron chuckles and shakes his head at his sister. "Thanks but you seem to have everything set up for him. I wouldn't want to steal your spotlight."
"It's his spotlight, Aaron," she scolds and he just shakes his head again.
"Odd coming from the girl who won't even tell anyone her birthday."
"That's because my birthday is associated with bad memories. His isn't."
"Amanda, I understand that you hate dad, still to this day, but you can't let what happened in the past ruin your future. You deserve to be happy, you can't let him keep getting in the way." She laughs with a shake of her head.
"You're right. I know that, but it's not exactly easy telling people that you have two birthdays because things got messed up at the hospital. And I don't know which one to tell them," she responds sheepishly.
"That's the great part about having two birthdays, you can choose." She grins up at him as she finishes rigging his desk with confetti.
"Well, I will think about that but right now I'm going to head back home, or more the apartment I'm renting, to go back to sleep and you should come with me."
"Amy-"
"Do not Amy me, Aaron, you look ready to drop so grab your coat. You can sleep in my guest room."
"You have a guest room in the apartment your renting because you can't stay at your house?"
"I'm very good at negotiations, brother dearest. Now get your stuff because I'm tired." He chuckles but obeys and the two siblings head out, leaving Amanda's birthday masterpiece for her best friend.
___________
A few hours later, at precisely 8 am, Spencer arrives at Quantico where Morgan and Garcia are waiting for him outside. "What are you guys doing here? We don't have to be here until 8:30."
"We were waiting on you, Birthday Boy!" Garcia exclaims in her usually bright demeanor.
"You didn't think we'd forget did you kid?" Morgan jokes and Reid shakes his head with a small blush coloring his cheeks.
"Of course not, I just thought you guys would be here later, like usual."
"Well, we thought that we would surprise you!"
"My baby girl thought it would be a good idea," Morgan corrects and she elbows him as they all laugh and walk inside the building. They joke around as they ride the elevator up to the sixth floor and Spencer is already beginning to have a great birthday when he looks through the doors and sees his desk.
"Did you guys buy me a cake?" He questions.
"I think that Amanda said she would cover it," Garcia answers, and they both watch as his eyes light up. He rushes through the glass doors of the BAU and to his desk.
"Um, am I missing something?" Morgan asks and Garcia just shrugs and follows Spencer in. By the time they make it to Spencer's desk, he has the lid off of the container and is cutting a piece of the cake off. "Woah, genius, slow down. We haven't even put any candles in it yet."
"You're only saying that because you've never tasted Amanda's baking," he points out.
"And clearly it's been too long since you have," Amanda chuckles from the entrance of the BAU where Hotch is standing close behind her.
"I haven't had it since I turned 17," he answers before taking a bite out of the slice of cake he had cut himself. Morgan goes to grab the knife and cut himself a piece but Spencer stops him. "This is my cake," he whines, and Amanda chuckles, walking over to them and opening his desk drawer where she had placed the cookies, taking care to push his chair and trigger the confetti on her way away.
Everyone chuckles as the confetti and glitter cover Spencer and he attempts to make sure it doesn't touch his cake. "I baked cookies for everyone else," she tells Morgan who takes a cookie with a frown as Garcia and Hotch take one as well. He bites into it and his face immediately contorts into a grin.
"Damn, this is delicious."
"I didn't know you knew how to bake," Aaron points out.
"You don't know a lot of things about her," Spencer points out and Amanda shoots him a look and opens her mouth to speak only to get cut off by JJ.
"Happy birthday, Spence, but we have a case," she tells them sheepishly and they all nod and head towards the conference room, minus Garcia, Spencer taking his cake with him. As JJ gets set up, Emily rushes in pausing when she notices the cake Spencer is eating.
"Oh happy birthday. I feel so bad, I forgot."
"It's fine, Emily. Amanda baked me a cake," he tells her happily and the team chuckles before JJ begins the presentation.
"Okay, we have two bodies in Florida. One male and one female. Both were stabbed several times in the abdomen with the killing blow being one to the heart."
"Are we sure that they're related?" Morgan queries.
"The PD wasn't sure at first because the stab in the heart could be a coincidence but then they found out that they both worked for the same company. A Smithen Computer Tech."
"Did you say Smithen?" Amanda questions.
"Yeah, why?"
"Just familiar is all," she mutters and they continue. They talk about it for a bit before grabbing their go-bags and heading for the jet. They relax most of the time, talking with Spencer about his birthday and he talks with them but is unable to not notice how distant Amanda is. When they have about 20 minutes left, they begin going over the case before Hotch doles out orders, sending Prentiss to the morgue and Reid and Morgan to talk to one of the heads of Smithen and JJ and Amy to talk to the other while he went to set up at the station.
They all nod and agree before splitting up. Reid wants to ask Amanda about what's keeping her distant but he knows she won't answer it in front of JJ and Morgan so he stays quiet and the two separate when they get to the big building for the company that's clearly doing well. JJ and Amanda walk through the big glass doors, not unlike those of the BAU, and JJ looks at Amanda. "So you baked Spence a cake?"
Amanda laughs. "I know I don't really seem like the baking type but when I was in college I lived in a sorority house and I'd bake all the time and taught them how to bake so when it came time for Spencer's birthday, I'd make him a different cake every year. He always seemed to like the chocolate best hence the chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies."
"That was nice, it must've taken you hours, especially with the confetti and all."
"Oh, I rigged that this morning at like 3 and then made Aaron come back to my apartment to get some sleep so that only took like 10 minutes to rig that and his computer screen which he didn't even look at," she jokes and JJ laughs as they finally make it to this wing's reception desk.
"Hi, I'm Agent Jereau and this is Agent Hotchner, we're looking for Scott Moore." As she says this, a tall man wearing glasses manages to trip over a couch on his way to the reception desk and land on the floor in front of them.
"I think we just found him," Amanda states with a small grin. "How ya doing, Scotty?"
"Oh, just fine. You look great, Amy, really great," he groans and she offers him a hand up to which he thanks her for.
"You know him?" JJ whispers.
"We lived in the same town growing up," she answers and JJ nods. "Scotty we need to talk to you about some employees. Rachael Freeman and Robert Wayne."
"Sure, step into my office and we can talk. You know I always have time for you, Ames." She rolls her eyes but follows him with JJ close behind. As they talk to him, in the other wing, the other receptionist leads Derek and Reid up to a nice office with big windows where a tall lanky man is typing away on a computer.
"Mr. Kyle, I have two FBI agents here to see you."
"Send them in Jeanine, thank you." She nods with a smile and does as told.
"Mr. Kyle," Morgan begins but he cuts him off.
"Please, call me Tony, all my friends do and any friend of Amy's is a friend of mine."
"You know Amy," Spencer questions and he nods.
"We lived in the same town, Terrace Heights, growing up. Scotty and I were friends with her and Kristen. She mentioned the last time we talked that she was working for the BAU with her old friend Dr. Reid from college and I take it you're Agent Morgan," he states and Morgan nods, making him smile. "Amanda was always good with descriptions. So what can I do for you?"
"We need to talk about two of your employees."
"May I ask why?"
"Because they've turned up dead," Spencer responds gently and Anthony's face falls slack.
"Who," he whispers.
"Rachael Freeman and Robert Wayne."
"Oh my god, I think I'm going to throw up," he mutters and the two agents share a look.
"Why?"
"Rachael used to be my secretary. She was amazing but she was great with computers so I paid for her to get an education so she could join the company. She was always so sweet to everyone she met, you know? It's how I knew she would be a good fit. Robert, however, was our second-hand man. He was a real people person so he's more of the face of the company. He talks to investors and helps sell the company while we do the work behind the camera, so to speak. Or at least he did. He was supposed to be on vacation with his wife."
"Why did you pay for Rachael to go to college?" Morgan wonders. "I mean college is expensive, that's not something you typically do for just any employee."
"We do," Anthony informs them. "Agent, when we started this company it was just an idea. We were 16 and our parents thought it was stupid. We were talking about it with our two best friends at an ice cream shop of all places and they gave us all the money they had on them because they believed in us. It just so happened that Amanda had $375 on her which was more than enough to get us started and we slowly built this company up, moved the headquarters to Florida, and we're now a multi-billion dollar company with offices all over the country. We couldn't have done that without her help so when our employees need help, we try to help them the best we can."
Morgan looks at him in shock before nodding and continuing with the questions before walking out of the room. The minute the door is closed, he turns to Reid. "Amanda gave them $375 that she was just carrying on her? That doesn't sound very likely to me."
"It does to me," Spencer answers. "Amanda always used to carry a lot of cash on her because if she made a bank account it would have to be connected to her dad's so she usually kept most of it in her school account but when she went home for the summers she had to clear it. After her dad died, she just kept up the habit. Plus, she's always been about helping her friends with any and everything. If they asked her for money, she would've given it to them without question if she trusted them. She does it to Kristen all the time."
Morgan nods his head. "Well, from what he said, both our vics got along with everybody so why did they end up dead and what's the connection to this company?" He wonders as they head back to the station with nothing more than they had before they arrived.