I grip Allie's hand as we walk into Doc's. I recognize some of the people from the funeral. Including Dale, who invited us to this get-together.
"Hey, you made it!" Dale greets us as we walk in, cutting off his conversation with someone else. "I didn't get your names earlier..."
"I'm Allie," My fiancée grins at him.
"Spencer," I wave, forcing a smile. "Spencer Reid."
Dale's eyes widen. "You're Spencer? Are you kidding me?"
My stomach aches as everyone turns to look at me. "No, I'm not kidding."
"It's so great to meet you. William never shut up about his son in the FBI," Dale chuckles. "From my understanding, he left when you were little, but... he regretted it. He would cut articles about you out of the newspaper."
"Did you say this is Spencer?" Another man steps up to us.
I nod, feeling a tiny bit uncomfortable.
I squeeze Allie's hand and she speaks up. "And I'm Allie. His fiancée."
It isn't long before people start to crowd around us, just wanting to meet me. It's strange. I never thought that my dad cared enough to talk about me with anyone. At most, I thought I was an afterthought. Or never thought of at all.
Allie stayed by me the entire time, holding my hand or gently rubbing my back.
When we finally get a chance to sit down, Allie sits across from me in the booth.
We both order coffee. For dinner, she opts for French toast and I opt for pancakes. We listen to people tell stories about my dad, amplified by a small speaker so that everyone could hear. I find myself smiling and laughing at some of them, but mostly just wishing I had stories like that.
When we head out to the car and I open the passenger door for Allie, she doesn't get in right away. She leans against the back door and crosses her arms, smiling up at me.
"What?" I ask her through a chuckle.
She lets her arms fall to her sides and shrugs. "I'm just... I'm really proud of you."
"You're proud of me?"
I almost feel like I heard her wrong. I know I didn't, but that's not something I hear very often. 'I'm proud of you.'
"Yeah! I know how hard today was for you, but you got through it. And you put aside any anger and resentment you had to come to this little get-together. I'm proud of you, Spence."
I smile back at her, not knowing what to say. Allie steps forward and wraps her arms around me and presses a kiss to my cheek. I wrap my arms around the girl and give her a good squeeze before she pulls away.
On the drive back to our hotel, I think about the day.
When we went to visit my mom, Allie and I pitched the idea of moving her to D.C. I assured her it wouldn't be like last time, and that she would be in a place just like the one she's in now. I think what really sealed the deal was when Allie mentioned that she wants her to be a part of our children's lives when we have some.
Yeah, 'some'! As in 'more than one'. That alone had me reeling. The future I've always envisioned for myself was slowly piecing itself together. Buying a house, getting married, having kids...
Allie has shown me the dozens of messages Penelope had sent in response to her Instagram posts of us in a wedding-like get up. Holding hands with an Elvis impersonator behind us, kissing, hugging...
It's an assortment of ten photos from throughout the fake wedding, and even a video of the 'I now pronounce you man and wife' part, which looked extra convincing.
The caption of the post read:
"the sun will always shine, that's how you make me feel ✨💕"
and a comment from penelope.garcia read:
"NO WAY! NO WAY!!!!!!!!!"
After packing everything up in preparation for our flight in the morning, Allie and I plant ourselves on the couch. She lays down with her head in my lap as I flip through the channels on the television. I settle on what Allie tells me is the second High School Musical film. We catch the end of it before it leads into the third one. She sings along quietly as we watch, until about halfway through. She's fallen fast asleep. I end up watching the rest of the movie before waking her up as softly as I can.
"Al, sweetie, why don't we go to bed?"
She lets out a heavy sigh and shakes her head, not even opening up her eyes.
"Baby," I chuckle, brushing her hair back with my fingers. "Come on."
Allie sighs again and sits up, letting me stand up before she just lays back down on the couch.
I just roll my eyes and try not to laugh. I decide to just pick her up, bridal style. She bursts out laughing right away and wraps her arms around my neck.
"You're gonna drop me! Put me down!" Allie exclaims through her laughter.
I shake my head and smile down at the girl, starting on the way to the bedroom. "I won't drop you!"
When I set her down on the bed, she looks up at me with a big smile. "I love you."
"I love you, too." I smile back at her, leaning down to press a quick kiss to her lips.
-
"Is coach not good enough for you?" Allie chuckles as she takes her seat by the window.
"It's too closed in. I was practically pressed up against a complete stranger. I don't want to do it again," I shake my head and sit down beside her.
Allie just shakes her head and rolls her eyes. "You're spoiled with that private jet you get to fly around in. Speaking of, don't you have to go back into the field sometime soon?"
"Next week," I nod.
She leans her head on my shoulder. "I'm gonna miss having you at home, but we'll video chat and stuff! It'll be okay."
I lean my head on hers. "I'll miss you, too."
"We should fuck in that little restroom," Allie whispers, just loud enough for me to hear.
"No," I whisper back with a giggle.
My fiancée giggles. "You're no fun."
-
It feels like the flight only took minutes. Before I know it, we're at baggage claim and waiting for our suitcases to come through.
"Hey!" I hear a familiar voice and look to my left, seeing everyone's favorite technical analyst.
Penelope speed walks over to us, her heels clicking on the tile. She hugs Allie first, then me. "You two have a whole lot of explaining to do!" She says as she pulls away. "You got married?"
Allie giggles and shakes her head. "No, that was a 'fool your friends' thing. But!" The girl pulls up the sleeve of her jacket and shows off the tattoo on her wrist. "He's got my name on his ass."
"No!" I squeak, feeling my cheeks heat up. "It's on my hip."
My fiancée smiles up at me. "I'm joking!"
"Spencer Reid has a tattoo!" Penelope claps her hands. "Never, in a million years, did I ever think that you would get a tattoo."
"Neither did I," I chuckle, spotting my suitcase coming down the conveyor belt.
"So, you two aren't Mr. and Mrs. Reid yet?" Our friend pouts her lip.
Allie just shakes her head and laughs. "No, not yet. Soon, though!"
We chat as we wait for Allie's suitcase to come through. We meet Luke in the parking lot. He'd went ahead to find a parking space after dropping Penelope off. Both Allie and I greet him with a hug.
The drive back home is full of wedding talk. Well, fake wedding talk. Penelope told us all about how she showed everyone the pictures. Everyone was ecstatic, besides JJ. Penelope said that she seemed to force a smile at the news.
Once we're home, Allie and I take a quick shower after putting all of our things away. We cozy up on the couch to watch TV after our shower.
I'm glad to be back home.
-
After a very lazy Tuesday, work starts back up for both of us. The rest of the week goes by incredibly fast and Allie and I have been in an odd place lately. We're sort of... off. I don't know what it is, but she's been pretty distant. It started on Wednesday.
I keep on trying to remember if I might have said or done something to upset her, but everything has been pretty normal. Besides our sex life. While she's been distant, she's been turning down my offers to get her off. I haven't even been initiating being intimate. She's been starting it with me, then when I go to reciprocate, I'm met with "No, babe, I'm okay." or other variants of it.
I took off an hour early today to surprise her. I stopped on my way home to pick up flowers for her. White and soft pink roses.
I make my way upstairs with the flowers behind my back and gently push the bedroom door open, happily greeting her.
"Hi, baby," I say as I step into the room.
I can't help but to notice that she shuffled in a weird sort of panic when I stepped in, looking as if she was tucking something away. She's sat cross-legged on her side of the bed, the covers pulled over her lap.
"Hi," She smiles back at me, half heartedly.
I sit down in front of her and set the flowers down on her lap. "I thought I'd come home early to surprise you. I made us reservations for tonight at the new Korean barbecue place that just opened. They're for seven, so we have a couple of hours."
"That's really sweet, Spence. Thanks," She smiles a little bit bigger.
An awkward silence falls between us, neither of us moving from our spots.
"Um... did I come home at a bad time?" I ask her, staring down at my lap.
"No way," Allie says back with a slight chuckle.
I know she's lying. Something's wrong.
"Can I see what you hid under the blanket when I walked in?" I ask softly, still not looking up.
When she doesn't say anything back or move, I look up at her. She looks like a deer in headlights. She's frozen, with a tiny bit of fear in her eyes.
"Allie," I press in the same tone as before.
Slowly, the girl reaches under the blanket and pulls out a few sheets of folded paper and a couple of envelopes. I recognize the two different stationery sets immediately. They're letters, the ones that Maeve and I sent to each other.
Allie hands them over and I notice tears building up in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gone behind your back."
I stare down at the letters, putting the pieces together in my head. She's been pulling away from me and being distant... and these are the reason why. She's been reading them since we got home. I'd planned on throwing them out when we got back from Vegas, but the thought slipped my mind as I got back into the swing of work and our day-to-day life.
"I just... I don't know, I just wanted to see what you guys talked about and... now I just can't help but feel... inferior and... and dumb," Allie says quietly. "And... I'll never live up to—"
Before she can say anything else, I toss the letters onto the floor and move my hands to her face, bringing my lips to hers for a few seconds before resting my forehead on hers.
"Listen to me," I run my fingers through her hair. "These letters don't matter to me anymore, Allie. The only thing in the whole world that matters to me is you. What you and I have is so much more than what I had with Maeve. So much more than I ever could have had with her." I pull back to look at her and wipe some tears away as they race down her cheeks.
"Does it bother you that we don't talk about science or... that I haven't read the same books as you?"
I can't help but to chuckle. "No! Allie, that stuff doesn't matter. You know what does?"
She looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to go on.
"That you listen when I ramble about things! And... and you watch the science channel with me! Plus, you know what my favorite book is—"
"The Sign of Four," She says confidently.
"And... what matters most is that you love me. And I love you."
"You're not angry?" Allie asks me, still looking a tiny bit worried.
I shake my head and take her hands into mine. "No, honey. I would have done the same thing. You were curious. I understand, especially given our history on the subject."
It's true. If Allie had a box of letters from someone she used to be with, I'd sneakily read them. Especially if her feelings toward that ex had put me through as much turmoil as my old feelings for Maeve have put Allie through. I'm not angry with her. Not even a little bit.
"You're sure you're not mad?" Allie asks me with a hint of a grin on her lips.
"I'm not, I promise," I assure her.
Allie scoots over so that she's sitting beside me and rests her head on my shoulder. "I really am sorry."
"Al," I chuckle, lightly rubbing her back. "Don't be. I told you, I understand. Now, why don't we get ready for our date?"
Allie presses a quick kiss to my cheek before hopping off of the bed and offering me her hand. "Let's do it!"
-
Summer passes quickly, unfortunately. Allie and I tried to make dates every for every weekend that I wasn't traveling.
I did get to celebrate her birthday with her, though! We took a trip to Hershey Park and stayed the weekend. I rode a rollercoaster for the first time during that trip and held Allie's hand the entirety of that ride and every other one. I honestly loved the rollercoasters, especially hearing Allie's joyful screams.
Now, we're halfway through September and our one year anniversary is tomorrow. Allie stayed to work late tonight, so I'm home all by myself, trying to set up for what I have planned tonight.
It involved tugging the mattress from the guest bed down into the living room and laying it on the floor in front of the couch. I made it pretty with all of our pillows, changing the cases to Allie's assortment of pink ones that we switch with mine whenever we change the sheets. I put on her sheet and blankets, too, making the bed look nice and cozy. Then, I strung her pink christmas lights back and forth across the ceiling. To top everything off, I left a trail of rose petals from the front door to the living room and sprinkled them all over the bed.
When I hear the front door open, I shut the lights to the living room off, letting the room be filled with the pink glow from the christmas lights and the light of the TV.
"Petals!" I hear Allie giggle along with the jingling of her keys.
I sit down on the arm of the couch and wait for her.
When she walks into the living room, she gasps and runs over to me, wrapping me in a hug.
"You put together a little slumber party!" She coos, looking at the set-up. "Spence!"
"I know our anniversary isn't until tomorrow, but... I wanted to kick it off tonight. I even made chocolate covered strawberries."
"You made them?" Allie grins. "I feel really special. You did all of this for me..."
She leans down and presses a quick kiss to my lips before telling me she's gonna run and get into some pajamas. I follow her upstairs to do the same.
Allie pulls on my oversized Caltech shirt and puts on the floral lingerie underwear I bought for her in Vegas. I put on some red plaid pajama pants and the regular sized variant of my Caltech shirt.
Then, we head back down stairs to watch a movie.
As I'm scrolling through, trying to find something we both want to watch, Allie pulls her purse onto her lap. "So, do you want your present now or tomorrow?"
"Mmm... now," I smile at her and watch as she pulls out what looks like a small cup, wrapped up in purple wrapping paper. It's a little bit bigger than a shot glass, but I can't tell what it actually is.
She hands it to me and I inspect it for a second, raising an eyebrow at her. She just smiles and watches me as I shake the gift, hearing something rattling inside.
I tear the paper away and find a specimen cup, one that they have in hospitals. When I take a closer look, I realize there's an IUD inside of it.
I don't get it. I look up at Allie and furrow my brow at her. "An IUD?"
She laughs and takes the cup from me. "Yeah!"
That's when it hits me. "Wait..." I snatch it back from her. "Is... was this inside you? Was this your IUD?"
My fiancée giggles and shakes her head. "No, they wouldn't let me take mine home. However, they did let me have the specimen cup and the fake IUD from a demo kit."
"You had it taken out?"
Allie smiles sweetly. "Yeah, Spence. I'm really happy with where I am and where we are in life right now, so... I figured that it'd be a good time to start trying to have a baby. I didn't actually work late today. I was at the doctor."
I feel tears building up in my eyes and can't help but to smile at her before pulling her into my arms and hugging her as tight as I possibly can. Allie wraps her arms around me and squeezes me just as tight before gently rubbing my back.
Oh, my god. We're gonna have a baby!