Two High IQ's Make One Great Romance

Two days later, Spencer had been reached but was refusing to speak to me. I couldn't blame him, I wouldn't speak to me either. Everyone else on the team had listened to my terribly juvenile explanation of the night, and understood what had happened. Hotch was even willing to look the other way and managed to talk Director Strauss out of harassing Derek and I about the incident. But Spencer was barely speaking to anyone on the team at this point. He showed up for work, and left when he was dismissed. Apparently, he and Derek had an intense argument that had yet to be solved. But this was all rumor that I was hearing from Penelope.

I was currently sitting up right, ravenously devouring an ice cream cone that my father had brought me. With much persuasion and some monetary influences, my Dad got me an even larger room in the Hospital. He told me that it was more for him, because he couldn't stand sleeping on the couch in the other room any longer.

"Dad, really, you can go home. I'll be fine." I said after taking one last bite. The cone settled nicely in my stomach, which amazed me. It was difficult to keep food down.

"How many times do I have to tell you? I'm not leaving." He pulled up a chair and sat by me as we scanned for television channels.
A doctor walked in with a clipboard in his hands.

"How do you feel about... hm.. three days?" He asked.

"Three days for what?"

"Until you go home."

"Oh! Well that sounds good, I guess. What am I going to do about all of this?" I tugged on the oxygen tubing that was connected to my nose, and the clear liquids attached to my wrist which allowed pain medicine to flow freely into my veins.

"We'll give you an oxygen tank, and some medicines which someone can give you at appointed times. It's not glamorous, but it won't last long. Only a few weeks until your lung is repaired. Your ribs will take much longer to heal, though, but you'll have pain pills to deal with that. I assume you'll be staying with your father?" The doctor looked at my Dad and then back at me.

"We actually haven't talked about where she'll be staying. Is there any way we could get her an at-home nurse or something?" My Dad asked.

"Dad, no. That's stupid."

"It's not stupid, it would work. I just thought you would be more comfortable being cared after by someone you know." The doctor responded.

"It's weird." I said shyly.

"Well I'll leave you two to talk about it." The doctor swiftly made his exit.

"Dad, can't you stay to take care of me?" I asked with a pout. He smiled at me and tussled my hair.

"Sweetie I've left work for four days, and I'm taking off the next week, but after that I have to fly back to Vegas. Your Aunt would love to take care of you, but she's busy doing damage control for the incident because it was, after all, in her apartment building. Brianne's going to lose her job if she stays here any longer, although I'm sure she would love to take care of you. But the only reasonable thing to do is to get a nurse."

"Ugh, it makes me sound like an invalid." I didn't want to think about myself being passed around from person to person, but the thought of a stranger giving me medication and making sure my oxygen levels were at their optimum levels was not something I was comfortable with.

"It won't be for long. Just until you're back on your feet again." He paused. "Oh! and I bought you a new house. I absolutely refuse to let you go back to the building."

"Dad..." I rolled my eyes. Ever since he had earned all of his money, he was always willing to waste it on me.

"It didn't cost me much, I know that you hate that. But it's equipped with the Pipeler system so it's safer than the Pentagon. At this very moment," He looked at his watch, "my hired hands should be moving all of your things. And don't worry, Lucy is monitoring them."

"Wow, you've really got this all figured out." I leaned over my bed to sip from a straw in an apple juice bottle.

"Anything for my baby." He kissed my head again. "I'm going to go make some phone calls. Will you be ok by yourself?" He asked, looking at his watch again.

"Yes, Dad, you haven't left me alone for more than three minutes all week. I'd actually enjoy some alone time." I shooed him out the door. Once the door shut behind him and I was sure that he wasn't coming back, I reached around the table next to my bed for something I knew Brianne and Penelope had left.

I held the mirror up to my face, desperately hoping that the purple had faded. It hadn't.

"Ugh." I moaned, gently touching the sensitive area around my eye. I heard the door click open, and I assumed it was my Dad. I didn't bother putting the mirror down to watch him walk in.

"That was quick." I said, still grazing my fingers over my face.

"What was?"
Spencer. I tossed the mirror to the foot of my bed and looked at him with wide eyes. He stuffed his hands in his pocket and looked at me with sorrow and anticipation building in his eyes. His eyes were dark, he hadn't slept in days.

"Spencer..." I said softly. He took a few cautious steps towards me.

"Hi."

Hi? All I get is a "Hi"? After everything we had been through, despite the incriminating photos, I thought he cared enough about me to at least check on me in the hospital. People I didn't even know had come in to see how I was doing, but my boyfriend was missing for two days. I was furious, upset, happy, just about every emotion possible.

I looked at his face, there was anger and discontent all over it. I couldn't speak.
"You're not going to say anything to me?" He asked. He was standing over the bed with his hands still in his pocket.

"I don't know what to say." I admitted. What was I supposed to say to him? That I was ok; we were ok?

"I don't either." He said.

"How about explaining why you haven't come to see me." I sat up straight again and fussed with the bracelets on my arm. Spencer sat at the foot of my bed with his gaze aimed directly at the floor beside me.

"Why don't you explain those pictures?"

"Pictures or no pictures, I was half dead, Spence. And the only person in the world I wanted to see was you. And you weren't here. Can you imagine how scared I was? How terrifying it might have been to wake up in a hospital bed? I needed you here."

"I couldn't face you, knowing the truth." His eyes didn't move to meet mine. Look at me damn it. Why won't you just look at me.

"You don't even know the truth. You think you do. You don't know everything. But you know what I know? I was waiting here for three days praying that you would come see me. My only dreams have been about the moment you walked in the door and saved me from being killed. And while I'm going through all of this, you're out doing god knows what with god knows who." I couldn't contain my anger anymore. And while I wanted him to comfort me more than anything, I needed him to know how badly I was hurt.

"Don't make me out to be the bad guy here, Piper. I left for a few days to get myself together, and you run off and sleep with Derek? Don't forget the fact that I saved your life. Or do you just not care?"

"I didn't sleep with Derek! And don't you talk to me with that tone of voice! I'm not some little girl who you can talk down to just because your IQ is higher than mine. I thought a man of reason would be reasonable enough to listen to his girlfriend instead of jumping to conclusions." I crossed my arms at him. His eyes were piercing into mine, and not in a good way. I wanted hit and curse at him. Things had changed in our relationship now, and I wasn't sure when or if they'd go back to normal. "And of course I care. Of course I'm forever grateful that you saved my life, that's part of the reason I wanted to see you so badly. I wanted to tell you that I was sorry that I got you involved in this mess. I would have told you that, had you come to see me."

Spencer stood up and started pacing. His hands were fidgeting as he struggled with words. This wasn't a kind of situation where he could use his knowledge to fight his battles for him, and that obviously wasn't something that he was used to.

"I'm sorry that I didn't come see you. Can't you understand why? I have the image of Morgan kissing you burned into the back of my brain. Hours after I kill a man to save you, I'm forced to look at this picture that shows exactly what I had feared."

"Why won't you just listen to me? I never slept with Derek. It was a drunken mistake, nothing happened. Maybe something would have happened if I wasn't so in love with you!" I finally shouted.

Spencer stopped in his tracks and faced me. "What?"

"Derek and I went to my apartment, extremely intoxicated, and something might have happened. But I stopped, because I could only think about how much it was going to hurt you. And maybe I didn't know it then, but now I know it was because I love you." I couldn't look at him, I aimed my line of sight for his wrist watch. He moved in front of me, standing only a few inches away from my upper body. I still could not look up at him.

"You love me?"

"I'm still mad at you. Don't think that me saying that is anything like saying that we're ok." My eyes didn't falter.

"No. We're not ok." Spencer sat by my side. I allowed myself to look up, and to see his calm face for the first time since he had walked in the room. "And I'm not going to say it back, only because this situation is too tense for me to say something so powerful. But I feel it too." His hand reached out for mine.

There was a silence. What could be said? We were mad, both of us were terribly mad, but we just admitted to loving each other. I looked into his tired eyes. They were forgiving.

"I am really sorry that Derek and I... did what we did. But we didn't get carried away. I was feeling rejected because you left me, and he was the person I turned to, just because I was drunk. You know that he and I are like siblings. There's no feeling there. I promise you, nothing happened." Spencer's eyebrows relaxed and he took a deep breath. He rubbed small circles on the back of my hand. I watched as his eyes sparkled with moisture.

"I am... so sorry that I haven't been here. I should have been. I just didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to handle myself. There is no way of making it up to you now, but I just want you to know how much regret I feel."

"I don't know Spencer." I looked down and shook my head. "There's a lot I have to think about right now. I'm not sure I'm ready to forgive you."

He stood up and took a step back. "I understand. I'll be back later on." He took a few more steps back.

"You don't have to go." I looked at his fragile face. He was losing his fight against crying.

"I have to. I have to think." He ran from the room, unable to look at me any longer.

I spoke softly to myself. "Jesus Piper... what is your life coming to?"