"Don't expect her to play her part if you have other women auditioning for her role." ~ Author Unknown
The Daughter
I rapped my nails against the back of my phone, chewing on the inside of my cheek as I irritatedly counted the seconds.
"So Melanie..." She began awkwardly. "How far gone are you now?"
"Seven months," I grinned happily. "Still going strong." I added, sweeping a hand over my bump.
"Amazing. And how is the baby? Do you know the sex yet?"
"We've decided to keep it a surprise,"
Just like last time.
"But the baby is healthy and happy by the looks of things. I'm being good too which is helping."
"Excellent, I'm happy to hear it. And dad, how's he coping?"
"Apart from forgetting everything you mean?" I laughed awkwardly before Spencer burst through my office door. "He's fine." I snapped, resting my eyes on him displeased.
"Sorry!" He blurted as he closed the door behind him. "Sorry, I'm terribly sorry I'm so late. I'd completely forgotten what day it was, I'm sorry!" He kissed my cheek as he plopped down onto the sofa next to me.
"It's fine Spencer really. Melanie and I were just talking about the baby," Helena smiled and Spencer grinned. I ignored him again and turned back to our planner.
"Okay," She sang awkwardly as I never elaborated. "I was thinking we could start this session by recapping the major decisions we've made so far, and then go onto discussing some of our next steps."
Spencer and I nodded and excitement fluttered in my tummy as I realised that this was really happening; we were really getting married.
"So, last time you'd both decided that your wedding colours were going to be white and a deep red because of your winter wedding, are you both still happy with this decision?"
"I-I thought we'd decided on a spring wedding?" Spencer stuttered apprehensively, turning to me with a confused expression.
"We'd originally thought that but we decided a winter wedding would be more romantic, remember Spence?" I uttered the last words desperately, hoping that he'd actually begin to take interest in this wedding we were planning.
"But, if we have it in the Spring that means the baby will be a little older and will maybe be able to be a bigger part of it?" He suggested.
I sighed and turned to Helena. I opened my mouth to ask her to give us a moment but was interrupted with Spencer's mobile phone ringing shrilly.
I knew that I'd muted his work notifications for the hour and I knew that there were no impending cases for today, so I knew it wasn't work-related.
I also knew that the sanitarium had a different ringtone for emergencies only - so I knew that it couldn't possibly be them.
Immediately Spencer leapt to his feet and yanked his mobile from the pocket of his trousers, silencing the call before rejoining me on the sofa. He blushed and gave a small chuckle.
"Okay, it doesn't matter about the season or the colours at the moment, we can focus on them later on. For now, I want to confirm the appointments we have lined up for you both," Helena continued, trying to refocus the attention onto the wedding.
I nodded my head and tried to focus but out the corner of my eye, I could see Spencer glancing at his mobile.
I rolled my eyes and bit my tongue; focusing on whatever Helena was saying.
A moment later the three of us jumped in surprise as Spencer's phone blasted another notification; this one louder than the last and I physically had to grip the edge of the sofa to keep from hitting out in anger.
"I'm sorry, sorry, I'll turn this off." Spencer said in a frantic tone, rushing to tuck his mobile into his bag.
"If today doesn't suit I can rearrange for another day." Helena said politely, clearly irritated by Spencer's lack of attention and enthusiasm.
"No no I'm here, today's fine." Spencer nodded.
"Actually," I interrupted. "Could we reschedule for next week, I'm not feeling it today," I snapped, trying to bite back the anger. "I'm sorry for your wasted journey, Helena, we'll pay you for your time of course."
"It's alright Melanie, I completely understand." I shook her hand and escorted her out of my office, closing the door as calmly as I could before rounding on Spencer.
When I turned back to him he was sat on the sofa, blinking at me guiltily with pale grey skin and a chewed lip.
"What's going on?" I demanded, folding my arms.
"Care to tell me what all of the notifications were about?"
He guiltily chewed on his lip and gulped.
"Hart's been messaging me..." He said in a quiet voice.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
"She uh," He cleared his throat, avoiding my eyes. "She's been messaging and calling and I... I don't know what to say to her."
"Since when?" I demanded, feeling my temper bubbling.
"Since the scan..." He whispered.
"Spencer that was a fortnight ago!" I exclaimed in surprise.
"I know," he nodded. "I didn't want to stress you... I just don't know what to do, she keeps calling and texting... I reply to some, but..."
"Are you saying she's stalking you?" I scoffed.
"No, I..." he sighed. "I don't know."
"Somehow Spencer, I find that very hard to believe." I grabbed my coat and bag from my chair and the folder from my desk, nausea rising to the back of my throat.
"Whoa, what's going on, you okay?" Morgan asked as I rushed down the hallway for the elevators.
"You're in charge." I said, thrusting the folder against his chest and pushing inside the elevator.
*
After a long soak in the bath, I felt much better.
Curled up on the sofa I pulled out the laptop and sat with a mug of herbal tea scrolling through the internet for wedding dress ideas.
I jotted some down on a notebook to report back to Caitlyn, Penelope and the others. I smiled at the thought of us all sat around exchanging notes.
However, that smile soon extinguished as a text popped up in the top corner of the screen.
HART: How did the appointment with your planner go? Xxx
My eyes flew wide and my stomach dropped.
Hart didn't know we had an appointment with our planner today, nobody besides Spencer and I knew that.
I frowned in confusion and shook my head, thinking there must've been some kind of mistake.
With my stomach rolling I rolled the mousepad over the text, considering on opening the message as I realised that Spencer's phone must be connected to the laptop's Cloud account.
Chewing on my lip with nerves I slammed the laptop closed, tears threatening my eyes and a lump the size of a golf ball suffocating my throat.
No. This wasn't happening.
*
I tried to act normal for the days after, but all I could keep thinking about was Spencer's Cloud account joined to our shared laptop and the fact that he hadn't signed out of text.
I mean, he would've signed out if there was anything to hide, right?
But, as usual, that nagging voice in the back of my head - and in my gut - told me that there was something off about Hart texting Spencer.
I mean, of all people, Ainsley Hart?
It didn't make sense.
I'd pondered thoughts over and over in my head, and eventually by the beginning of the following week; an entire week later; I decided to go with my gut and do something about it.
My heels clicked down the corridor, my mid-length coat fanning out behind me as I walked, my hair breezing back out of my face.
I nodded at the guard and he nodded at me as a buzzer sounded and the gate opened, leading me into another corridor.
At the end of this corridor, a similar procedure was repeated before I was stood face to face with my reflection; a door leading into an interview room which I knew had two security guards on either side of the inner doorway.
A buzzer sounded, this was it, I couldn't turn back now, and for the first time since entering the highly secure centre, my stomach rolled with nerves.
I wetted my lips and swallowed as the door swung open and I entered into a cloud of BO and faint cigarette smoke.
It was strange then, as my eyes fell on the floppy-dark-haired (now bearded) Brit.
It was like no time had past and I was my younger self. The gullible, naive, head-over-heels-in-love, a doughy-eyed sucker who was in love with Darren Jones.
"Hiya darlin', I knew you'd miss me."
The Lover
"Did you sort things out with Mel?" Morgan asked me as we sat down at the round table.
"I-"
"Was there something to sort out?" Penelope asked, plopping down on my other side with bright eyes.
"No, it's just-"
"Loverboy here thought it was cool to play the annoying game again, got Mel all pissed off."
"Ohh," Penelope chastised and I bit my tongue to hold my groan. "You got Chief Hotchner all hot-and-bothered and not in a good way you bad boy." She joked and Morgan chuckled on my other side.
I rolled my eyes and frowned at Morgan as the pair of them laughed.
Our laughter was interrupted with a strange beeping sound coming from Penelope's tablet.
"Ooh that's odd," She frowned, unlocking the screen and tapping away. "Oh that is very odd," She said slowly, her frown becoming more serious.
"Alright, this is super duper odd in the super-est way possible," She said and just as Morgan and I were about to ask her what was wrong; Aaron entered the round room and Penelope blurted,
"Melanie's tracker cell has just shut itself down at VDC Maximum Security."
Just then the entire room fell silent and my heart squeezed with worry.
"What?" I chuckled eventually. "No Garcia you must have it wrong," I shook my head. "It's Mel's day off, she's having a pamper day with Caitlyn."
"Oh no she isn't," Caitlyn's voice sounded as she entered the room with Emily.
"Because she's drafted me in here to help out you guys on this child case." She said, pointing to the file in her and Aaron's hands.
I glanced from the file to Aaron's expression as he stared down at me in concern.
"What time was her tracker last active?" Dave asked calmly.
"Uh," Penelope hurriedly glanced at the tablet before explaining, "Sometimes the technology isn't instant. Like when JJ was taken by..." She glanced at JJ but refused to use his name and we all nodded as we remembered the exact time she was speaking of.
"Well, there's a delay in everything-"
"Penelope, how long?" Aaron prodded with worry setting into his voice.
"Forty-one minutes ago."
"Forty-one?!" I blurted exasperatedly.
"Alright," Aaron said calmly and authoritatively, ruling the room before we could break into mass panic. "Who do we know in custody at VDC?"
"Darren Jones." Caitlyn and I blurted simultaneously in eerie worry.
"What?!" Emily gushed. "No, she couldn't be seeing him, no way." She said with a smirk of disbelief, shaking her head.
"Yeah, that makes no sense. It's probably just a glitch in the technology." JJ agreed.
"We can call her?" Morgan suggested. "Just to be sure." He reasoned.
I nodded my head and pulled out my cell phone.
"No," Aaron said heavily, staring me down. "Melanie's a grown woman," He argued. "She can handle herself. She's the Chief of the BAU, VDC is the safest place for her to be in the entire city. We can find out why she's there once we're on the jet, right now we have an eight-year-old girl missing and despite the fact that Melanie is my daughter, this little girl currently has our priority."
It took me a minute to thaw into an agreement, but he was right.
Just because Melanie was at VDC didn't mean she was visiting Darren.
I mean, we'd made so many arrests and several of them could potentially be residing there and Melanie maybe couldn't tell us that was her plan for today.
I mean, her tracker was deactivated because no technology of any kind was permitted on VDC grounds and so there was a jammer enforced to ensure this rule was adhered to.
Her tracker being offline was just little fishes... The why she was there in the first place was the real problem.
The Daughter
"Like a bullet in the head, Darren, like a bullet in the head," I sighed sarcastically, clicking over to the table and making a show of removing my coat despite the fact that since I'd entered the room and he'd slurred his smug statement; his eyes had been glued to my swollen belly.
"I'm going to admit that I'm not here for the case, nor am I here for any overtly social exchanges, so I'm just going to cut to the chase-"
"When did you fall pregnant?" He blurted, his eyes brimmed with tears.
"Excuse me?"
"Don't tell me your hearing's fucked, Mel, when did you get pregnant?" He demanded a little angrily.
"Seven months ago, Darren." I said coldly.
"Seven?" He whimpered before repeating the number in a whisper, mumbling it beneath his breath.
"Wow," He laughed, rubbing a hand over his jaw. "You're pretty fucking huge to be carrying a teeny baby." He chuckled warmly and I couldn't help but smile; there was a time when that laughter was everything to me.
I glanced down at my hand rubbing my bump and nodded.
"Yeah we're getting bigger each day," I agreed.
"Is it a boy or a girl?" he asked eagerly, leaning on the table and watching me with warm and shining eyes.
"It's a surprise."
"You mean you don't know?!" He gasped and I shook my head.
Laughing he shook his head too and lightly thudded the table, sitting back in his chair.
"That's a damn shame," He said. "I was looking forward to calling first dibs on the name," I smiled and sighed, looking down at my bump again.
"You're looking good, Mellow... You're looking really fucking good," He said in that throaty Yorkshire accent of his.
"I've missed you. These rank cells make me realise how much of a prick I've been to you. And I know, it's too late for forgiveness and all that bullshit, but I'm not looking for forgiveness, what I've done is shit and I'm accepting that now.
"All I'm saying is... I'm sorry. I was a prick and I fucked you up and I'm sorry. But I'm happy you're happy and it's nice to see you happy, especially with someone who isn't me and who won't treat you the way I did...
"Somebody better..." He nodded and I had to violently force the lump out of my throat.
"I never thought I'd hear you say those words, Darren." I said quietly, surprise in my voice.
"Prison changes a man," He said dramatically and I smiled. "Didn't you know that?" He added softly.
*
After the guards fetched us both cups of water - no hot liquids were allowed for obvious reasons - I decided to get right down to business before he could dig his claws in too deep.
"When we were together," I began, feeling nostalgic and sad at the same time as I delved head-first into my horrific memories of mine and Darren's relationship.
"You cheated on me... a lot." I said simply and he almost choked.
"Come now Mellow, let's not be hasty. I-"
"No, but you did. There's no point dressing it up, it was no secret and still isn't a secret. You cheated. Several times. With loads of different girls."
He sighed and nodded his head, scratching his stubbly bearded jaw and leaned forward on the table.
"Why did you do it so many times?" I asked quietly, searching his eyes for the real answer as I prepared myself for a lie.
"After the first time," he said slowly, his eyes glazed over as he stared into space, shaking his head slightly and slowly.
"It's hard to stop," He admitted.
"It's like, 'why stop there?', 'she never found out the first time', 'who's to say she'll catch me this time?' and it goes on and on that way.
"The thrill of the secrecy, the sneaking around, the nonchalant-ness even if it did all come crashing down because knowing that'd be the biggest adrenaline rush out of them all..." he smiled wickedly and blinked out of his reverie.
"It's the biggest high a guy can hit."
"But why so many times?" I asked, his words washing over me like acid.
"Mellow, don't tell me you've forgotten the one lesson I've tried to teach you faithfully?"
Several moments of my blank expression gave him his answer.
"Once a cheater, sweetheart, always a cheater."
*
I walked out of the VDC with my heart set a little lower than when I'd initially entered the building.
If Darren was right - and the one thing I hated giving him was that he tended to always be right about things in regards to himself and his actions - then what hope did I have?
The only reason as to how Spencer and I ended back together was through our affair whilst he was in a relationship with Dylan.
He cheated in his relationship.
Alright, we both were cheating, together, on Dylan. But it was his relationship. He was the one cheating in the relationship, so what's to say he wouldn't cheat all over again in another relationship?
Me?
No, as the secret texts, hidden conversations and distant daydreams prove; his mind has not been with me nor our baby; so what the Hell was going on with him?
The Lover
I couldn't wait to get home from work that evening and almost burst inside the house to see Melanie.
Penelope had alerted us that her tracker was back up and running outside of VDC and had her clocking back home again after two hours of deactivating.
That'd rested my mind, but not my questions.
"Hello." I announced my presence; seeing her sitting at the dining table with catalogues spread out in front of her and notes piled high beneath her right hand.
She jumped and leapt to her feet, her reading glasses sliding to the edge of her nose.
"Spence! You can't be in here!" She gushed, wafting her hands at me to leave the room immediately.
"I'm looking at wedding dresses, I can't tempt fate!" She explained at my perplexed expression as I glanced back at the catalogues and realised she'd been spaced out while looking up holidays on the laptop.
"Holidays?" I questioned.
"Spencer!" She shouted angrily and I realised with a stab she was looking at London.
"I thought your dad and Beth were surprising us?" I questioned stupidly.
"Well, you've just ruined it now." She grumped, folding her arms.
"Ruined what? Did you know their surprise?"
"No." She said moodily and slammed the laptop closed.
"Honestly Spencer I wish that for once in our relationship you'd actually listen to what I'm saying instead of just doing whatever the hell you want." She snapped angrily as she slammed catalogues closed and piled everything together.
"Whoa, what?" I asked, pulling my hands from my pockets as I realised this wasn't a banter grump she was in; she was properly angry with me.
After several moments of her not saying anything and me watching her pack up her wedding things I asked,
"Were you looking at trips to London for us?"
"No," She snapped angrily. "Not us." Those two words cut into me and I frowned at her.
"Why were you at the VDC today?" I demanded; having had enough of the suspense.
"What?!" She spun around to glare at me furiously; her nostrils flared.
"You heard me."
"How the Hell did you know I was at the VDC?!"
"Penelope told us your tracker-"
"I can't go anywhere without everyone keeping tabs on me!" She yelled and I jumped slightly at the outburst.
"Honestly you people are so insufferable! I'm pregnant, and I'm your fiancé, I'm not incapable and I don't have a target painted on my back. I can look after myself and yet all everyone wants to do is wrap me up in fucking cotton wool. I'm sick of it!" She half-hollered.
"Melanie we're only worried about you." I said calmly.
"Why?! Why are you worried about me? I've given up everything, everything, to keep you and everyone else from worrying. I've transferred to Quantico from New York where I had everything, I've quit my field duties, I've tied myself down to a fucking desk job and I've dropped three days of work in order to please you all, and yet here we are with you still whining on at me claiming you're 'worried'."
"Hey it's not a claim and I know you've given up everything, but that was our agreement, right? You give up field duties to have our baby and I'll give up profiling duties once it's here."
"Oh what, so I guess you're just having fun while you still can, huh?"
Her words completely knocked me off-guard and I frowned; having completely lost her now.
"Melanie, what're you talking about?" I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose and willing myself to spontaneously gather more energy to end this stupid and confusing argument.
"You," She blurted. "And Hart. You're seeing her, aren't you?" She said, her eyes wide and glossy like she was insane.
"I know she's been texting you daily because you left your Cloud account signed onto our laptop. But don't worry, I didn't read anything, because a part of me is wishing that this is all just a big fucking joke.
"And yeah, I went to the VDC today, and I went there to see Darren because I had to know why someone like him, and someone like you, would cheat on me."
"Melanie..." I was at a loss for words; completely dumbfounded; dumbstruck by her presumption.
"Melly I'm not cheating on you." I said softly; hardly able to establish where this was coming from let alone conjure emphasis.
"Too bad I don't believe you." She said and made a move to storm around me seeing as I was blocking the exit.
"Melanie," I said, and stepped in her path in order to plant my hands firmly down on her shoulders.
"I swear on my life, on your life, on our baby's life, I am not cheating on you," I said these worse with as much emphasis and passion as I could manage and dropped down slightly so we were on the same eye-level and I could look her directly in the eye.
"I am in love with you, in every little tiny way as I have always been. That has never changed, not once, in all the time that I've known you. You are giving me everything; every single thing; that I have ever dreamed of and so much more.
"I have no need, no wish, and no desire to ever, ever go to anybody else for any little thing so long as you exist. I am not cheating on you Melanie. I love you."
She looked like she wanted so badly to believe me, but I could see the sparkle of doubt shining in her eyes.
"I don't know what's been wrong with us these past couple of months, but whatever it is, we'll deal with it together and we'll get through it; we always do. But please, I love you Melly."
The Daughter
"What's all the texting about then?" I said in a weak and rough voice as though I was about to burst into tears. I certainly felt as though I was about to.
He opened his mouth, his eyes blinking self-consciously away from mine as he straightened up and his grip loosened on my shoulders.
He took a breath as though he was about to reply, and was saved as our mobiles began ringing simultaneously.
Groaning he reached into his pocket to check the caller ID and I rolled my eyes, shaking my head at the typical timing.
Of course; a case; just when you're finally getting to the bottom of an itch you couldn't scratch; the devil's spawn calls and you have to go running.
When was this all going to change?