Two High IQ's Make One Great Romance

We did not have a case the next day, which allowed Spencer and me to create a pro-con list for each of our houses. I was sitting on his couch with my legs crossed at my ankles, staring down at the paper.

“It’s about even.” I said, tapping the pen against my forehead. Spence sat next to me and tapped his finger with his lips.

“What do we chose then?” He asked. I looked to him with a raised eyebrow.

“Rock paper scissors?” I asked.

“The probably of winning a rock paper scissors game has more to do with educated guessing on one person’s behalf, possibly believing what they can assume what the other will chose. It’s less of a probability and more of weighted cheating game.” He said, looking innocent.

“Well let’s try not to do that and just play rock paper scissors.”
He rolled his eyes and agreed. After one game I had won. After the next, he had won. Finally he had won 2 out of 3, and it was decided that I would move into his house.

“So basically the guest room is going to be my closet.” I said, thinking of all of the shoes and purses I would need to move, yet again.

“Well I’ve helped you move before, so I’m sure moving this time will be about the same. Unless we just hire people to do it for us.”

“And risk having some shady guy steal my stuff? Absolutely not.”

“Good point.” He hugged me into his chest and kissed the top of my head. “You’re acting pretty feisty today… are you sure that you want to do this?” He asked in his softest voice possible.

I sighed and thought about his question. I wanted to move in with him, but wanting to and thinking that it was a good idea were two completely different thoughts in my head. “Yes I do.” I answered honestly. “I’m just a little scared. I just… don’t want you thinking differently of me of vice versa or… I don’t know. You do realize that I will be alone in the house more than you right? You’re gone all the time so I’m going to have a lot of time to redecorate.” I said with a smile.

Spencer ignored my stupid joke and pulled away from me, lifting my chin up and forcing me to look into his wide hazel eyes. “I’m scared too. But we’re not getting married, not having kids, not even getting a puppy… we’re just moving in together. This is something that most people do at a certain point in their relationship. Don’t stress.” He smoothed out the wrinkles forming on my forehead and allowed me to relax. This was one of the times that his soft words made me feel less apprehensive.

“You’re right.” I put my hands on his chest. “Sorry for freaking out.”

“I know that you usually do. I do too, and I’m not now so it only figures that you’re freaking out enough for the two of us.” He turned away from me and walked into the kitchen, probably to get us the coffee that had been brewing for the last few minutes.

“Sorry that I’m the one using my head for once!” I said sarcastically into the kitchen door before walking into the library and taking a seat at his computer desk where I had situated my laptop for the time. As I thought about it, this was probably its new permanent location as Spencer’s computer just didn’t cut it for me. It was a nice desktop, but for someone with a customized laptop worth thousands, I couldn’t use just any computer. Well I could, but I didn’t want to.

“I always use my head. You just voiced your thoughts and I kept mine to myself.” Spencer opened the door and walked in with two mugs. He placed one next to me and walked off into the living room.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said with a laugh. He just laughed back at me and continued on his route to where ever he was going.

XXXXXX

“Piper…. Isn’t all moving a little quickly?” Aunt Lucy said, taking a seat on Spencer’s couch. I
had invited her over for lunch, considering Spencer and the team were flying out on a case. They would not land for a few hours and I had done the majority of my work from Spencer’s house, and would head into the office in about two hours.

I had not officially moved in as of yet, but things from my home were slowly trickling into his town house. Not that I wasn’t pretty much moved in already, I had been staying here for the better part of the week. But now that Spencer was away, the house seemed bigger and more unfamiliar than ever.

“I know that it is. But we’re both people of science and we just think that the next logical step is to move in together. Really though, we’ve been living together for months, just not in the same house.” I said, taking her empty tea cup and bringing it into the kitchen. “I’m remodeling this kitchen.” I mumbled to myself and mentally added yet another thing on my to-do list.

“I won’t argue you. He saved your life and I’m sure you’ve saved him in more than one way. I can’t imagine you two ever leaving each other, so I’m sure this will work out well.” She came into the kitchen as well and placed her hand on my back. “And that necklace is exquisite. He sure does love you.”

“I was hesitant at first, but it’s like I’ve been living here all along. This house screams us. Except for this kitchen. I’ve got to do something about the kitchen.”

“It is a bit dated.” She said, taking a look around at all of the old appliances and worn out style. “But I should head out.” She said, looking down at her watch.

“Something important to do?” I eyed her.

“Well it is the middle of the day, and I do own a few buildings, so it would make sense that I’d have things to do.” She laughed at me and gave me a hug. I walked her to the front door.

“Thanks for coming over. I miss not seeing you around all the time.” We hugged deeply for another moment.

“Call me any time doll. I never know your work schedule so whenever you’d like to go out or just hang out for a night is fine with me.”

I waved her away and shut the door after she left. My laptop was where I had left it, and now had a blinking red light in the corner.

“Yes?” I answered it, crossing my legs and sitting at the desk in the library.

“Hey sweetie, just checking in. The flight lands in a little bit and Hotch is worried that you
won’t have everything together in time.”

“They’re busy talking aren’t they? And you’ve snuck away to talk to me.” I asked him, shaking my head.

“Well I wanted to give you a heads up in case Hotch calls!” Spence defended himself.
I laughed. “Let him know that I’ll have everything together. I’m just getting ready to get out of here and head over to the office. By the way, we’re going to have to remodel the kitchen.”

He nodded. “Whatever you want to do is fine. Do all the rooms if the feel the need to, just don’t get me involved in the decorating.”

“Just the kitchen. And maybe some new decorations in the bedroom.” I winked.
He put his hands up in compliance. I saw Derek’s head peak over the corner of the webcam and smile. “Whatcha guys talkin’ about?” He asked.

“Remodeling the house.” I answered simply.
Derek grimaced at the thought of doing remodels and immediately walked back to wherever he was sitting on the jet.

“You really just don’t want to move into your house? I mean… it’s already decorated the way you like it. I honestly don’t care if we do.”

“I don’t care either.” I shrugged. “I mean, I love my house sure, but I love your house too. They both scream us in completely different ways. Besides, we have already decided that this house is the house.”

“We can always change our minds.” Spencer said, leaning forward. I suspected that the rest of the team was catching onto our conversation and probably picking sides.

“Well I’m thinking that we’ll only stay in this house for a few years and then maybe buy a bigger house. Maybe one that would fit a dog.”

Spencer leaned even further in. “And maybe some kids?” He asked. I shrugged again.

“Possibly.” I blushed, thinking about marrying and having children with Spencer. It was something I dreamt about often, but now was not the time to talk about it. “This is like a… an intermediate step for the two of us.”

“I agree. But if this step has to take place in your house, I honestly don’t mind. There’s enough room there for all of your clothes and then some.”

“There’s room here too. I don’t think you understand just how much I love the comfort and feel of this town house. So much of you is embodied in this house and I’m finding more of myself in it every day. I knew this house before I even moved in to the other one. Heck, I’ve only been living there a few months. It’s nothing special.”

Spencer leaned back and looked beyond the computer. “Hey, get out of here.” He said, obviously shooing someone away. I laughed at him, looking protective over his laptop.

“I’ll let you go. I’m heading into the office and I’m sure I’ll talk to you sooner than later.” I closed it without saying good-bye, mostly because I could see the shadow of another person come into view, and didn’t want to deal with whoever it was until I had all of my case information prepared. Not that everything wasn’t already prepared, but I had things to look over and analyze.

I dressed and applied my make-up for the day. I decided to take the metro to the office, knowing that Spencer liked it when I did that.

I was greeted by the usual guards and attendants, and made my lonely walk into the office, feeling strange not having Spencer by my side. A few people from other FBI units greeted me and I smiled, but I really had to make my way into the computer room so that I could start getting everything organized.

Spencer had given me a brief overview of what profilers did (as long as I promised not to tell anyone about it) and I used my weak skills to try and dive further into the case and dig up some information. Hotch had already informed me to start a search, which I had done and narrowed down locations and a few possible suspects. But this was still the early stage of a case, and there was a lot more to do.

Once they landed, I was put on speaker phone and asked to (of course) research some topics and things pertaining to the victim and the last people to have seen her.

“Already on it.” I said, clicking the phone off and letting my fingers fly. I sent each one of them the information I had retrieved and asked Spencer’s opinion on a few things that I had been thinking about. He told me that my intuition was leading me in the right place, but not to get too carried away. I told him that I wasn’t getting carried away, just trying to get things together so that the case could be solved faster.

After a few hours of what felt like useless information flying through my screen, the team was on the right track and ended their day so they could eat dinner and discuss case information.

A knock came to my tech room door, and I sighed, wiping my face and walking slowly to the door.

A guard was standing there with a brown paper bag in his hand. “This came for you.” He said. I recognized the guard as Roger.

“What is it?” I asked, not taking the bag from him.

“It’s been checked out and cleared, it’s just Chinese take-out.” He practically shoved the bag into my hands.

“I didn’t order any.” I said, peaking in and smelling the meal.

“That’s not my problem.” He said.

“Do you want some?” I asked Roger, hoping maybe to get some of this food off of my hands.

“No. Thanks though, but I’ve got to get home.” He smiled and waved goodbye before walking off.

There was a beeping and a blinking light coming from my home laptop, and I set the food down before walking over to it and turning it on. Spencer was sitting there with a ridiculous grin on his face. He was in a restaurant, or so it seemed. He was supposed to be out to dinner with the team.

“Hi there.” I said, smiling suspiciously.

“Did you get the food I ordered?” he asked. I started laughing and rolled in my chair to get the bag and show Spencer.

“So that’s what this is about. I was so confused when Roger showed up with a mysterious bag of food.” I started opening up all of the containers and setting them out, and then took out the chopsticks from the bottom of the bag.

“I thought it’d be nice to have dinner together, even if we’re miles apart.”
I blushed. He was truly thoughtful. He wanted to eat and talk with me even when it wasn’t convenient for him. “That is nice of you. I guess you just ordered everything on the menu then?” I asked, laughing.

“Well, mostly. You always claim to have a few favorites and then end up picking off of my plate anyway so I got almost everything. Oh!” He said, looking away from the screen and to someone behind the computer. “Garcia and Morgan are here too.”

Someone pulled the computer backwards so that the screen widened. Derek and Penelope sat on opposite sides of Spencer and waved towards me.

“When Reid told me about his boyfriendly plan I decided that we had to crash it.” Penelope said, looking off to the side. She looked back with a full plate of Chinese food in her hands. The two men grabbed their food from someone off screen and started eating hungrily.

“So how’s the weather in Denver?” I asked with a full mouth.

Spencer slurped up a noodle. “Brisk and has been roughly fifty degrees all day. It’s a good time to ski and snowboard in the mountains.”

Derek and Penelope added their own input, also asking me how the weather was in DC. I rolled my eyes at them knowing they were just trying to bother me. It wasn’t working.

“So the boy tells us that you’re officially moving in together? Is that what the remodeling talk was all about?” Derek asked. I sipped from my water bottle and nodded. Spencer’s eyes were intent on my own.

“We talked about what you guys said and decided that we’re ready to move in together. Into Spencer’s house, that is. I want to remodel the kitchen cause the cabinets are about to fall apart. All of the other rooms are great though. Although I’m considering turning closest guest bedroom into a giant closet because between the both of us that little walk in we’ve got is not going to cut it.” I stopped talking to chew on a piece of orange chicken. “Not just for my clothes, either. If you guys could see the amount of laundry I do on a weekly basis you might be speechless.” I added after swallowing my bite.

Derek and Penelope laughed, and after Spencer gave it some serious thought, he realized that I was right and he did have a large clothing collection. I loved that he dressed nice, though, because that gave me an excuse to shop all the time. And besides, what girl didn’t love a guy who looked good in a tie?

“That shouldn’t be a problem. None of it should, really. And I’ve been thinking about remodeling for a while so maybe this is just a great justification to make my house look presentable.”

“It is, indeed, a great justification.” I mocked my boyfriend. His cheeks blushed as he thought about what he said.

“I didn’t mean to sound like you’re just an excuse for…” He cut himself off when he saw the smile turning up my lips. “You always do that to me! I feel guilty until I realize that you’re just kidding!” He said before taking a bite.

“Well stop taking yourself so seriously!”

We all laughed for a while and continued talking, trying to take our attention off of the case and focus on being with each other. As much as I didn’t want dinner to end, I knew that I had to go home and rest up for tomorrow. Spencer looked at me with knowing eyes.

“You should get home and get to bed.” He sighed. Penelope and Derek frowned.

“Yeah. This was a nice dinner… but I’ve got to be well rested if you need a technical analyst for tomorrow.”

“Well we have one technical analyst right here... having two is just a luxury.” Penelope said with a smirk. I smacked the screen, as if to hit her, and waved to them.

“Call me later tonight when you’re done looking over your files.” I looked to Spencer. He nodded and waved at me before shutting off the computer connection.
I tossed the Chinese containers and gathered my bags, which included all of the files for the case, my laptop, and my purse which was filled to the max with junk which I surely didn’t need to be carrying around me with. I checked my watch and saw that it wasn’t nearly as late as I thought it was. Knowing that my dance clothes were in the trunk of my car, I rushed home and jumped right into it, not wasting time.

I fumbled with my keys at the front door of the studio, realizing that no one was inside. The building was completely black and there was an eerie silence as I opened the door. I had never been in the studio by myself, and it was almost a bit calming to know that there was no rush as I walked up the creaking steps to the top floor.

Maria always told me that she understood my busy schedule and that was why she gave me one of the few keys to the studio that she had. I thought about her and smiled, thinking about how I should probably take her out to lunch soon. I had been neglecting my duties as her faithful assistant/friend.

After scanning the variety of CD’s lining on of the windowed walls, I chose a classical one and popped it in, keeping the music on low so it was not overwhelming.

My muscles moved slowly. It felt nice to be dancing off-hand again. I hadn’t danced just for the hell of it in a while. After sound of one song settled, and I had officially run myself out of breath, I sat on the ground and held a few yoga poses just to calm myself down. I used the remote to turn the music down. As I settled myself down and held a few stretches, my mind began to wander. I had been thinking about things lately, not giving anything some serious thought but just letting myself think about the stuff that most women in serious relationships thought about.

And it wasn’t like I hadn’t considered these thoughts a thousand times before, but somehow they seemed more pertinent now, for whatever reason.

The questioned that wandered through my mind was: would I marry Spencer?

Of course my first instinct was to say yes to myself.

But then I thought about Hotch’s failed marriage that ended in his ex-wife being murdered. While I knew consciously that his situation was in no way similar to ours, I couldn’t help but think about it.

Spencer was gone 50% of the time, if not more. And while I got to talk to him every day, most of our conversations were work related and had more to do with deaths than things that most couples talk about. Of course at the end of the day I knew we would have a friendly and loving discussion, it was the few that we had that made us seem more like colleagues than partners that sometimes worried me. Although, some part of me knew that was how it had to be for the sake of our careers and our sanity. If I spoke to Spencer at work like I did at home, I’d likely be fired.

So how would I deal with a husband who was never home? It didn’t bother me now, of course, but I knew at some point that I would be upset at the fact that he was more in love with his job than he was with me. I knew that was true, too. And it was strange that I didn’t care about that at all right now, which kind of worried me in itself.

What if we had children? How often would they see their dad? A few days out of the week? Was that enough? Would he go to little league games and dance recitals?

I wanted to rationalize and tell myself that when and if those things happened that things would be different, but it was challenging to imagine what our lives would be like as a married couple.

I just… I wished I knew what was going to happen. I wish there was a snapshot of things to come. But for right now, I decided, I was more than fortunate with what I had in a partner. We loved each other, we understood each other, and we were each other’s best friend. And really, what else could I want from a man?

I looked down at my phone and smiled when I saw his name flash across the screen.