"Here, baby, don't get up..." I tell Allie, handing her a glass of water and two aspirin.
Tonight proved to be interesting. Once we got back to my place, Allie and I 'got up to no good' as she'd call it. She wanted to try a more rough go around, so we did. Just a few minutes ago, just as she was hitting her climax, she'd felt a headache come out of no where. An orgasm headache. Maybe my overstimulation kink carried me away tonight. She's had several and she got a headache from it. I can't help but to feel bad.
"I could have gotten these for myself, Spencer," She sighs, staring down at the two pills in her hand. "But thank you."
"I know, I know...but I'm to blame for that headache. I went a little too far, I think," I watch her as she downs the pills and the entire glass of water.
"You couldn't have known," She chuckles. "It's just a headache. It'll go away in a little while. In the meantime, why don't we go to sleep? You have work in the morning," She smiles up at me.
"I'd rather not go," I shrug, heading over to my dresser and grabbing a shirt for her to wear to bed. I grab a pair of her underwear out of her bag, as well.
"Why?" She raises an eyebrow at me.
"I'd rather stay with you," I tell her as I help her into the shirt, then her underwear. "I won't even get to see you in class tomorrow...or until we catch this idiot."
"Which will be soon! Are you forgetting that your team is the best of the best?" She stands up, giving me a reassuring smile. "And that you're a kick-ass genius?"
"If we were the best of the best, we'd have caught him by now. This wouldn't be happening..." I frown, breaking eye contact with Allie. "We'd have caught him before he hurt your parents."
"Spencer, that's not your fault. That's not anyone's fault..." She wraps her arms around me and rests her head on my chest.
"But-"
"No 'but's, Spence," She cuts me off. "You don't beat yourself up like this after other cases, do you?"
I run my left hand through her hair and my right hand finds her left one, interlocking out fingers. "That's different, this is you..."
"It wasn't me back then, though. It was just another case and you did your best,"
She's right. It was a long time ago, and the team did everything they could. Still, though, I wasn't at my best. Maybe if I was...it wouldn't have happened. Then again, if I was at my best then...maybe it'd have been because Maeve was still alive. If she was, maybe I wouldn't be with Allie today. Maybe I'd be married, maybe I'd have kids...
Does Allie even want to get married one day? Does she even want to have kids?
And if she does... when would she want to? She's only twenty-one, still in college...
I can't ask her to put her life on hold to give me what I want.
"I know," I sigh, pulling out of her embrace.
She looks up at me with sad brown eyes. "Are you okay?"
I just nod and give her a tiny half-smile. "I'm alright, just tired."
"Well, let's go to bed."
-
Tuesday passes dreadfully slowly. Allie uses my laptop to keep in touch with me all day. I head to Emily's after work and attempt to go over the case. We don't find anything out. It's the same routine on Wednesday.
I get a message from Allie about ten minutes after I get to Emily's.
Allie: hey, are you at Emily's yet?
Me: Yes, what's up?
She responds in a few seconds.
Allie: would it be okay if you video chatted with me so i could sort of sit in on the case?
I ask if it's alright with everyone and when they all say yes, I hit the FaceTime option and it starts ringing before Allie's face appears on my screen.
"Hi," The girl says, giving me a small smile.
"Hey, let me set you somewhere so you can see..."
I set my phone on the TV stand and Emily goes on with the case, explaining the main details to Allie before going on to talk about the most recent murders.
"Just like every other case, the women were shot several times and the men either once or twice. two shots to the husband and six to the wife, both parent's eyes were removed. One shot to each child in the head. The children were covered up in their beds, a sign of remorse..." She says with a sigh. "Now, we know there's extensive overkill with the wives. We profiled that he identifies with the men, all being hardworking business men, and that he believes the women drag them down. Perhaps a woman made him lose an important job opportunity..."
Bits and pieces of the case from all those years ago find their way back into my mind.
"The kids weren't part of his plan, which is why he covered them up and didn't remove their eyes. He only killed them to cover his tracks, he didn't want to chance having the kids expose him." JJ adds in.
I look over at my phone, seeing Allie looking at us with her nose scrunched up and her eyes narrowed. I can practically see the gears in her head cranking and turning.
"Allie, what are you thinking about?" I ask, getting everyone to look over at my phone.
She opens her mouth to say something, then closes it again. "I...I have a theory, but I don't wanna seem like I'm showing you guys up or make myself look like a total idiot-"
"Anything can be helpful. What is it?" Rossi asks her.
"Well, I know that there's this sort of... prerequisite that to be a murderer, you need to be a white male in your mid to late thirties, but... what if this was a woman?" My girlfriend suggests, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "And if the kids weren't part of the plan, and she's going easy on the men...maybe she's jealous? They have something she doesn't? Or if she's showing remorse for the kids, maybe this is more about them?"
"The kids," Tara sighs. "It wasn't about those kids specifically, but kids in general..."
"She's targeting families, right? Something she can't have because she can't have kids..." Allie shrugs, looking unsure. "She didn't want to hurt the kids, so that's why she showed remorse for them. But that's just my theory, I-"
"Actually, I think you're right," Emily looks at the phone. "How did you come up with that?"
"I just kind of...put myself in their shoes. If I was the unsub and I was going crazy on these women, it'd be because I was jealous. Maybe because they had something that I don't, something that I can't have. And that's the only thing I could think of...she can't have a family because she can't have a kid. So, she targets the 'picture perfect' type of family. It's what she wants..."
After that huge break in the case, thanks to Allie, we work for a little bit longer before deciding to call it a night. I head home, calling Allie on the landline at my apartment before taking off. I set my phone to speaker and put it in the cup holder, listening to her talk more about the case. I'm in awe of how she cracked the case open, showing us something that we didn't even think of. It never even crossed our minds. She rambles on about how she wonders if it could have been someone that her parents knew.
As I head up the stairs to my apartment, I feel uneasy. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It feels like I'm being watched. When I turn around, I see a streak of color. Someone moving back around the corner quickly... they'd been peeking around. My stomach churns as I pull out my phone, still keeping watch for the person.
I dial my landline number and Allie answers on the second ring.
"Hel-"
"Listen to me, okay?" I whisper, cutting her off. "My gun is in my bedside drawer. I'm heading upstairs and I need you to give it to me when I come to the door."
"I...okay, I'll be right there when you get upstairs." Fear laces the girl's tone. I hear some shuffling before the line clicks. I shove my phone back into my pocket and make my way up the stairs, backwards and ever-so slowly. When I'm halfway up, I see a fraction of a face peek around the same corner. A blonde, middle aged woman steps out from behind the corner completely, holding a gun. She fires, missing me and hitting the railing. Luckily for me, she doesn't seem to be good at aiming long distance.
Another shot is fired, but I don't see where it hits. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
My heart races even faster when I see Allie rush around the corner at the top of the stairs. "Spence?"
"What are you doing! Get inside!" I yell at her, but she doesn't listen. Instead she starts heading down the stairs toward me.
What happens next happens so fast that I can barely even process it. One second, Allie is coming toward me and asking if I'm okay, the next...she's pushing me out of the path of a bullet and firing a few rounds from my gun. I land on my backside, but just as I'm about to get up, another shot is fired by the blonde woman. It hits Allie, making her fall backward onto the stairs. It doesn't seem to phase her at first, though, she clutches the wound with one hand while holding my gun with the other and fires again. This time, it hits the woman and she falls to the ground with a thud.
Allie sets the gun down carefully before bringing her other hand to the area on her stomach that the bullet tore into.
"I got her," She says through gritted teeth, making me look back to see the woman on the floor, blood pooling around her. Allie lets out a groan, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Allie!" I hop to my feet and occupy the space next to her. "Allie, baby, hey..." I start, pulling my phone out to call an ambulance.
She cuts me off. "You were...in the way, you were gonna-" She tries to tell me, sounding like she's having a hard time getting it out. She's out of breath. I hit send after dialing 911.
"Shh, shh," I shush her, holding the phone up to my ear. "Don't talk, save your strength, okay?"
Allie gives me a small nod as I tell the 911 dispatcher what happened and where I am.
When I hang up the phone, I set my hands on top of Allie's, helping her apply more pressure to the area. Blood is seeping out from between her fingers...
"You're gonna be okay," I assure her. "You'll be okay."
"You were in the way," She breathes out again, her brown eyes looking up at me and threatening to roll back into her skull.
"Shh, hey, shh..." I bring a hand up to the back of her head.
"Quit shushing me," She says with a weak chuckle. The smile that came with it fades quickly. "If...something happens-"
My heart drops and tears start building in my eyes. "Don't, Allie. Don't even say that. You're gonna be okay, I promise."
"I love you...so much," She pulls one of her hands from underneath mine, bringing it up to my face to gently cup my cheek and wipe a falling tear away.
The tears are coming quick, streaming down my cheeks like there's no tomorrow.
"No, you're gonna be okay. You have to be okay. I can't lose you, Allie..." I cry, watching her eyes open and close. "Keep looking at me, baby. Don't close your eyes, look at me. You're gonna be okay."
"Say it back. Please," Allie begs, her hand leaving my face to sit on top of mine, applying as much pressure as she can to her wound.
I don't want to. I can't. It's saying goodbye. I can't say goodbye to her.
"No," I shake my head. "No, because... you'll hear it every single day. When you get through this, I'll tell you a million times a day."
I hear sirens from outside and feel a little more hopeful that she's gonna make it. Everything is gonna be okay.
"You suck," She tells me with a weak smile.
I chuckle, smiling back at her. "I know. I know I do. Keep looking at me, okay? The medics are here."
Just as I tell her that, I hear the doors to the lobby open. Soon enough, the medics are putting Allie on a stretcher and I'm hopping into the ambulance with her.
The night is a roller coaster ride of emotions for me. They manage to get her stabilized and into surgery, but I'm still terrified.
I let everyone know what happened and Penelope rushes to the hospital to be with me and wait for Allie to get out of surgery. JJ and Emily head to the medical examiner's office where the body of who we wholeheartedly believe is the unsub, was taken.
"How's she doing?" Penelope asks, taking a seat in the chair across from me.
"She's still in surgery," I sigh, running a hand through my hair.
"You've got blood on your shirt," The blonde frowns down at my white shirt that's now stained and smudged with my girlfriend's blood.
"It's on my jacket, too. You can't really tell, though."
"It's a good thing you got home when you did, Spencer. If you'd have been just a few minutes later, she could have already gotten to Allie."
"I know, I've thought about that..." I look down at my hands. "Y'know the last thing she said to me? She said... 'you suck'." I laugh out.
Garcia raises an eyebrow at me. "She told you...that you suck?"
"She said 'I love you' and I wouldn't say it back. I told her that I'll tell her a million times a day when she gets through this..."
"She was trying to say goodbye,"
"I know. I wouldn't let her," I look down at my watch, noticing just how late it is. It's nearly eleven o'clock. "I'm not gonna lose her. I can't."
Penelope sighs. "I'm glad she's okay."
"Me, too. She...she pushed me out of the way. She shot the unsub herself, I didn't-"
"For Alexandria Taylor?" A nurse asks, cutting me off and prompting me to stand up.
"Is she out of surgery?" I ask, eager to see her.
"She is, she's resting and she should be waking up soon. You're welcome to sit in the room with her. We do ask for one visitor at a time, though..." She peeks over my shoulder at Penelope.
I look around at my friend and she gives me a smile. "I'll be here, go sit with her."
"Thank you, Garcia."
As the nurse walks me to the room, I feel my stomach churning. I can't stop thinking about how she pushed me out of the way. She took a bullet for me and didn't even bat an eye about it, didn't think twice.
"She's stable, surgery went well. We're gonna perform an ultrasound, just to check on the fetus, but the bullet wound wasn't anywhere near the uterus."
"Fetus?" I stop in my tracks, looking at the nurse with wide eyes. "She's pregnant?"
"It's early, but there were traces of hCG in her blood, hCG is-"
"I know, I know what it is. But she was on contraception, the pill. She took them everyday without fail-"
"It's rare, but pregnancy while on birth control does occur. I take it she doesn't know?"
I shake my head, biting at my bottom lip.
"If this isn't something that you two are ready for or...if you aren't able to take care of a child, there's always the option to put it up for adoption or, of course, to have an abortion." She gives me a sympathetic look. "This is her room right here." The nurse points to a door on our right.
"I, uh, thank you... I appreciate your help."
I head into the room, feeling strange, and pull up a seat next to the bed. Allie is still passed out. Her chest rises and falls slowly with every breath she takes. I notice her lips are chapped, so I pull out my chapstick and carefully put some on her before sitting back down.
I'm left alone with my thoughts, the beeping of the machines around the hospital, and the sleeping girl in front of me.
I can't believe it. She's pregnant.
Just the thought is terrifying me to no end. How is she going to take the news? Of course, I want kids. But I don't want her to go through with this if it's something that she doesn't want, if it's something that she's not ready for. Ultimately, it is her choice. It's her body and she has the right to decide. I have no right to tell her what she can or can't do.
And I'll support her, no matter her decision.
I see her stir slightly out of the corner of my eye and I bring my full attention to her. Her eyelids flutter open, revealing her gorgeous brown eyes. They're bloodshot, but still just as beautiful. Allie squints at the light and looks around, finally turning her head to face me. She smiles when her eyes land on me.
"You're okay," She breathes out. "I'm so happy you're okay."
"I'm so happy that you're okay. I do love you, I'm sorry I made you wait for it." I bring my hand to hers, gently interlocking our fingers.
"It was worth it," The girl chuckles. The weak smile on her lips fades as she looks at me. "What's wrong? What's going on?"
What isn't going on?
I let out a tiny sigh. "You pushed me out of the way."
"Okay, yeah, and?" She raises an eyebrow at me. "You would have done the same for me, Spence. That's not what's on your mind, though. I can tell."
I frown at her, not knowing how to tell her.
She gives me a tiny smile. "Come on! What is it? Do I only have seven days to live or something?" Allie chuckles.
"There were traces of hCG in the blood work that the hospital ran,"
She looks at me from under a furrowed brow. "Okay, what's that? What does that mean?"
Just say it. Just say it.
I let out a sigh and run my free hand through my hair before telling her.
"It means that you're pregnant, Allie."