Chapter 62: Walkthrough*

Spencer and I made it a little past Bristol, Virginia before stopping for the night. I wanted to push through and keep going but Spencer could tell I was getting uncomfortable. We stop at a pet friendly hotel and I wait in the car while Spencer goes in to make our reservation. He said he was going to request a handicap accessible room just for ease of access more than anything because we don't have a wheelchair to use. I wait in the car with Ryder who I'm sitting next to in the back seat so he doesn't get anxious while Spencer is gone....Okay, so I don't get anxious while Spencer is gone. I hate that I really am going to have to rely on Spencer for help because I really can't lift or move anything more than ten pounds, which includes Ryder. I'm usually so fiercely independent when I'm around him that this is a very humbling experience for me. Spencer walks out of the main entrance of the hotel with a couple of room keys. When his eyes meet mine, he smiles and it warms my heart. Spencer climbs in the front seat and turns to me, saying "we can drive up to a door right next to our room so that will be the easiest for all of us. How are you feeling?" I swallow and nod before saying "I'm good, just tired." I'm actually in a lot of pain, but Spencer doesn't call me on it, thankfully. He drives around the hotel towards what I'm assuming is the entrance he mentioned. Thankfully, he finds a parking spot close to the door. He gets out of the car and walks around to help me out. I lean into him a bit because my body is hurting from it being condensed in the car for so long. I let out a high pitched squeak as I try to put all of my weight on my legs and not lean on Spencer so much. Spencer swivels his upper body to help Ryder out of the car. He hands me his leash and the hotel room keys and says "hold this for a second?" I nod, taking it from him. Before I know it, Spencer has scooped me up into his arms in a firefighter carry, and he's walking swiftly to the door. He puts me down when we get to the door; he needs both hands to open it because it's so heavy. I unlock the door with the card key and we walk in maybe five steps around the corner and there's our room. I unlock that door quickly and Spencer helps me get in to the hotel room by bearing the vast majority of my weight. Once Spencer gets me settled sitting comfortably on the bed with Ryder, he tells me "I'm going to go back out and get our stuff. Stay here." I nod "couldn't get far if I wanted to, Spence." His lips quirk up briefly at my joke before he gives me a nod and walks out of the room to get our bags. I sit and pet Ryder who is looking at me with confused adoration. He has no idea what's going on, but he's just happy to have Spencer and me back like normal. Spencer carries in my purse and both of our bags before shutting the door and ensuring the deadbolt lock is latched as well. He gives me a soft smile and walks over to me, leaning down and giving me a gentle kiss. When he pulls away he asks me "why don't we check your bandages and then if you want to shower you can." I nod, not saying anything. I lift my arms and he removes my shirt. I am not wearing a bra underneath the sweatshirt because it would hurt pretty much every single one of my injuries too much to bear. I'm sitting there half naked in front of him, but all he cares about is ensuring the wounds are getting cared for properly. He first checks where the chest tube was a few days ago. He tells me "it's actually healing really well, fast, too." He moves on to check the incision from my spleen removal and he finds that it too is healing well. The bruising from the broken ribs is getting better, dissipating. Spencer moves to check my back for the wounds from where Harrison whipped me. He doesn't say anything as he gently traces different parts of my back, the pain from the wounds long gone at this point in the healing process. We sit in the quiet for a few minutes as Spencer observes and examines my back. I don't entirely understand what is happening, but I know I need to let Spencer work through this on his own time. After a few minutes, he says through a choked voice "I'm so sorry." I turn slowly to face him and ask, confused, "what are you sorry for?" I watch as tears slip out of his eyes and down his cheeks while he elaborates "I'm so sorry I didn't watch you walk back into the house. I'm so sorry I didn't text or call you that night to say good night. I'm so sorry I didn't realize you were gone until at least 12 hours after you were abducted. I'm just..I'm so sorry, Annie." I gently wipe his tears as I feel my own slip down my cheeks. I tell him "Spencer, there's no guarantee anything would have been different. It's possible you could've been hurt or worse. If this had never happened then Harrison would still be out there. I'm okay, Spencer. It's gonna take some time, but everything will go back to normal." Spencer nods just barely, not meeting my gaze. I tell him gently "Spencer, it's okay to be emotional about this. We can lean on each other. We can heal together. It's going to be okay." He sniffles and nods, still not saying anything or meeting my gaze. I tell him "we have so much to look forward to now. We have house hunting and our wedding to plan. It's going to be amazing, especially because we do it together." He smiles softly and briefly meets my gaze before looking back down. I take his hand to my lips, giving it a gentle kiss. I ask him "help me get ready for bed? I want to take a shower." Spencer nods, moving to stand back up. I tell him "it'll be so much easier to shower with your help instead of my mom's. That was just weird, honestly, but she wouldn't let us shower together and I needed help." Spencer chuckles "I know how hard it was for you to convince your parents to let us sleep in the same bed so I'm not surprised she wouldn't let us shower together." I nod "you think after what happened she would just be happy I was home safe and let me shower with my fiancé. Maybe after we get married things will be different." Spencer chuckles again "maybe," but we both know that will probably never happen in my parents' house.

•••••

After hours on the road the next day, Spencer, Ryder, and I all walk in the door of our apartment in DC. I look around at the immaculate apartment I left behind for Spencer over two weeks ago. Spencer turns and says "I'm going to go get our stuff from the car. Do you need me to help you do anything before I do that?" I shake my head and smile at him "no, Spence, I'm good. Just happy to be home, finally." Spencer smiles back before leaving to go down to the car for our stuff. I walk into the kitchen and see the note I left Spencer. My heart aches for our past selves as I take the note and fold it up before putting it in the trash. It wouldn't help anything now. All it would do is dredge up past feelings and we've got plenty to work with now. I slowly make my way to the couch with Ryder and we get settled. I reach for the remote on the end table and move in such a way that something pulls on both my incision and my broken rib. I cry out in pain and not even a second later Spencer bursts through the door with our bags. He asks me hurriedly "what happened? Are you okay?" with worry evident on his features. I nod "yeah, just strained something when I reached for the remote." Spencer sighs in relief before shaking his head as he sets the bag down and locks the door. He walks over to me and sits down next to me on the couch after he grabs the remote. He hands me the remote and asks "what do you want to watch?" I shrug and smile at him "Harry Potter?" Spencer's mouth spreads into a warm smile as he nods in agreement. We start at the beginning with the first movie and Spencer and I get readjusted on the couch so that I'm comfortably laying half next to him and half on top of him, my injured left side completely untouched by Spencer or the couch.

•••••

After a couple of days, we easily fell back into a routine in our apartment. It was so nice to not have to talk to anybody else or deal with any interruptions like in the hospital. I am feeling better each day and the wound where my chest tube was is almost fully healed now and the wounds on my back are merely scars now. When I was home, my mom gave me some vitamin E cream to minimize the scarring and Spencer has helped me apply it every night since. The scars are going away and are becoming more faint every day. Hopefully by our wedding day they will be gone or at least easily covered up. To kill time, I've been looking at houses on Zillow and have found plenty in our budget. Spencer has a massive savings account he's built over years of not doing much outside of work. He tells me this savings account has always been for when he has a wife and kids and that makes me want to cry every time. There's one house on Zillow that I keep coming back to every day. It's in a nice suburb, only a few miles from Hotch, actually. It's on a bit of a hill and it has a pool, a two car garage, a nice fenced in back yard. It has an upstairs level that resembles an unfinished attic. I think it could be renovated one day if we need more space. There's a basement that has a kitchen in desperate need of a renovation but it would be a nice hangout spot for the team and maybe for our family once we have kids old enough to enjoy it. The master bedroom and bathroom are on the main floor, off of the kitchen. The master closets are huge and the master bathroom has a large garden tub and a standing shower. The first level has two guest rooms with a Jack and Jill bathroom connecting the two in addition to the master bed and bathroom. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 and a half baths total. The half bath is a pool bathroom, I think, because it has a door leading to the back yard. It's well within the combined budget Spencer and I decided on together. It does need some renovations, but I'm sure Morgan can help us with that. It's going to need a lot of love, but thankfully the team knows how to do that well already. When Spencer comes home from work today I'm going to ask him about it. We want to have a lot of kids, so we talked about getting a house we can easily add on to if the need arises and when we have the money instead of dropping a lot of money on a big new house now. The attic looks like it could be easily renovated to expand the house a bit, so hopefully Spencer will like it. As I'm sitting on my laptop looking through this Zillow listing for the eightieth time this week, there's a knock at the door. I furrow my brow and stand to slowly walk to the door. I've been healing quickly, but I'm still trying to take it slow. I make it to the door and open it to reveal Penelope. She smiles at me brightly and waves. She tells me "I would hug you, but I'm afraid to hurt you. I just wanted to check on you and bring you this 'get well soon' basket!" I smile and greet her, inviting her into the apartment as I take the basket from her. I look in it and see all of my favorite snacks, the right brands and everything. I ask her "how did you know to buy Black Forest organic gummy bears, peanut butter m&m's, and milk duds? I don't think I've ever told Spencer specifically that I like all three of these things." She winks at me and says "I have my ways in the bat cave. Now, sit. We can talk about how you're feeling about what happened or we can talk about literally anything else. I'm here for you and to see how you're doing, my sweet." I smile and slowly sit next to her on the couch. I get comfortable and she helps me readjust the pillows and such. I look at her and say "I'm doing okay. I'm healing a lot. The chest tube is almost fully healed and so is my back. Just waiting on the incision from my spleen removal and my broken rib to heal." Penelope smiles and nods "that's good. I can tell you're doing a lot better physically, but I'm here to see how you're doing mentally and emotionally." I sigh and nod "yeah, I was afraid that's what you meant. I mean, I guess I'm doing okay. I can handle being alone while Spencer goes back to work. I'm slowly handling his touch better. In a way, I have peace from knowing Harrison is dead. I never thought this would be how it all would end up. If...if only I had said something sooner, maybe...maybe Megan wouldn't have been abused by him and all those other girls wouldn't have been assaulted and hurt by him. I can't help but feel guilty about that. I could've stopped it." Penelope shakes her head "no, Annie, you are not responsible for his actions. We see creeps like Harrison all the time who get away with the stuff they do for far too long before they're finally stopped. It's the system that allows this, not you. The team takes these types of guys down and they have to fight this messed up system every step of the way sometimes. You did nothing wrong. He hurt you. He hurt those other girls. You did not hurt anybody, especially not by doing what you thought was best for you when you were quite literally a child. So we will stop that negative self jibber jabber and focus on healing our mind and energy, okay?" I give her a sad smile and nod, wiping a tear that threatened to spill as a result of her kind words. She gives me a sad smile back and asks me "how is Spencer handling everything? He can bottle up sometimes and not get the help he needs, so we are all a bit worried." I nod "um yeah I think he's doing okay. He feels responsible as well so maybe you need to have a talk with him about that, too. I know he couldn't have stopped it, he couldn't have changed anything, but Spencer doesn't think so. We are working through it, but this has been hard on both of us for sure." Penelope nods "but the wedding is still on and everything?" I nod happily "yeah we are continuing forward as originally planned. I'm using this extra time off I have to solidify wedding plans and even house hunt a little bit. Our lease here ends in August, so if we are getting married we are hoping to move into a house after our lease is up." Penelope claps happily and does a tiny squeal. She says "that's so exciting! I'm so happy for you two. So...does this mean we are hoping for a bun in the oven after your wedding?" My eyes widen and I shake my head "no, no. Not so soon. Believe me we want kids, just not for another year or two. We want to travel and get nestled in our house and stuff. We don't want to immediately start popping kids out and not have any time together just as husband and wife." Penelope sighs and rolls her eyes "I guess that makes sense." I chuckle and nod "you'll get to be auntie Penelope to our kids hopefully within the next five years." She smiles and nods in response "good, I can work with that. I'll start a boy and girl baby Reid Pinterest board tonight." I raise an eyebrow at her. She looks down and says "okay, I made them after your engagement party." I raise my eyebrow further in response. She sighs and says "fine I made them after I met you when Spencer got shot." I chuckle and nod "I wouldn't want it to be any other way." We spend the rest of our time together discussing wedding logistics and different things Spencer and I want in our future house while Penelope and I dig into the gift basket she gave me. After an hour or so, there's the sound of a key in the door and Spencer opens the it. He smiles at both of us, expression lighting up in surprise when he notices Penelope is here. Ryder jumps up and runs to greet him, happily accepting the head scratches from Spencer. Spencer asks "so this is the emergency you had to leave for?" Penelope scoffs and nods "the entire team is my little emergency. Plus, Hotch knew where I was going, he actually encouraged I come over to check in on Annie and see how she's doing. He thought I would be the most likely to cheer our Annie girl up if she needed it, aside from you, Spencer, obviously. She seems to be doing okay, you're doing a great job nursing her back to health Dr. Reid." Spencer blushes barely and looks down before saying "thanks, but you guys don't have to worry about us. We are doing okay." I smile at Spencer and say "that's what I told her. We are just slowly getting back to normal, every day gets better." Spencer and Penelope both smile at that statement. Penelope stands and smiles at the both of us, saying "well I think I'll let you two love birds have the evening to yourselves to discuss wedding logistics and such. I love you both. Call if you need anything, even if it's just takeout food or more books, I'm your girl." We smile and nod, Spencer thanks her "we appreciate it, Garcia. Thanks for always taking care of us." Penelope smiles and nods "it just wouldn't be right with the world if I didn't. Toodles, love birds." Spencer and I say our goodbyes before walking back into our shared apartment. I sit back down on the couch while Spencer fixes himself a drink in the kitchen before coming to sit next to me on the couch. He pulls me close, gently, careful to not do too much too fast or accidentally hurt me. I gladly nuzzle into the close proximity with a warm smile. I look up to see his face and smile. He smiles back at me and I say "hey." He chuckles "hey, how was your day?" I hum and shrug "wedding planning and house hunting, you know the domestic life I lead now as an injured old lady." Spencer chuckles "stop it, you just have to take some time off of work to rest. You don't even have to wedding plan and house hunt if you don't want to. If you want to binge watch 'the real housewives' or something I wouldn't blame you." I smile at Spencer "for the first time in a long time, my reality is better than the false ones on tv, I don't mind wedding planning and house hunting. Early 20's Annie would be drooling at my last few days if she could see me." Spencer chuckles "I'm happy you think your reality is better than reality tv." I chuckle and nod. I reach forward for my laptop and look to him "so I think I've found a potential house for us." Spencer raises an eyebrow and puts his drink on the table to more carefully hold my laptop and look through the listing I'm showing him. It's the 3 bedroom 2 and a half bath with a pool that's a bit of a fixer upper in some ways, but it's definitely livable for a married couple or even if we unexpectedly have a surprise baby soon after our marriage. I look at Spencer and say "I was thinking one of the spare bedrooms could be your office and the other one could be a guest room." Spencer nods, lips quirking up into a smile as he scans the information on the screen. I continue "the attic could be finished later to be a functional second level if, a few years down the road, we need the space. There's even a basement with a severely outdated kitchen but it could be a nice little hangout spot for the team or for our kids and their friends one day. I'm sure Morgan can help us with any renovations, and if he can't do it I'm sure he knows somebody who can." Spencer smiles and nods. He says "I love it. Are you sure you want a fixer upper, though?" I smile and say "if time and money weren't a thing, I would love to build our own house from the ground up, but honestly this foundation is what I would want. The open floor plan, the Jack and Jill bathroom on the first level, the pool and pool bathroom, I mean I like all of it and couldn't have done it better myself. This is a good start and we can slowly work on building it and altering it to our liking as the years go by. You even get an excuse to hang out with Morgan all the time." Spencer chuckles "well why don't we make an appointment to see it in person and if we like it then, we can even pull Morgan in to look at it and make sure there's nothing wrong with it we are missing due to our lack of expertise." I smile widely and nod "deal, ugh I'm so excited! This one feels right." Spencer gazes upon my happy face and smiles "I am, too, Annie. I'm so happy you're healing and we can move forward with where we were in our lives before everything happened." I smile and lay my head on his shoulder "me, too, bubs."

•••••

The following Monday, Spencer and I go to see the house after I go to physical therapy and also while Spencer is on a lunch break. He isn't traveling with the team again either until I can go back to work or after the wedding, whichever comes first. Immediately upon driving up the driveway, I feel a sense of peace wash over me. This is it, I can feel it. I look over at Spencer and smile like an idiot. He squeezes my hand and says "ready?" I nod and confirm "ready!" He chuckles and gets out of the car to help me, he's been very thoughtful about my injuries since we left the hospital. We walk up the sidewalk to the front porch where we meet the real estate agent. She's a middle aged blonde woman with red lipstick and a beige pencil skirt. She looks between the two of us and introduces herself "hi, I'm Rhonda Valence, I believe we spoke on the phone, Dr. Reid?" Spencer nods and says "yes, hi, it's nice to meet you. This is my fiancée, Anneliese Winters." I smile and nod "but you can call me Annie." She smiles and nods "okay Dr. Reid, Annie, shall we go inside and look around?" We both nod and follow her in the house. She tells us "this house belongs to a doctor who has recently relocated to the west coast. He spent more time in the hospital than he did here. Has no wife or kids, the place is a bit outdated but it is pristine." The place is completely empty, which honestly I would probably prefer that to the doctor's taste. We walk through it all and take it all in, saying different things to each other as we notice them. There's a very nice open floor plan for the living area and kitchen. There's a nice nook area for a formal dining table near the front door. There's a mantle in the living area and a staircase that starts next to it and I assume travels up to the unfinished attic. The two guest bedrooms share a Jack and Jill bathroom. The door to the first bedroom is near the front door and the door to the second bedroom is on the other side of the staircase and down the hall a bit. There's a nice back porch that exits through the kitchen by the breakfast nook. In the kitchen, a large island with a sink in it, much larger than ours at the apartment. There's double ovens and a large refrigerator. They aren't quite out of date yet, but they will be in the next few years. There's a half bath in the back left corner of the bathroom with a door to the pool outside. The garage door leads into the kitchen with a little hallway that'll be big enough to store jackets and backpacks and shoes one day. Off of the kitchen there's a small hallway that leads into the master bed and bath. There's a large bathroom and two walk in closets. The bedroom itself is large enough for almost a whole seating area to be in it in addition to a bedroom suit. When we've walked through it once I look up at Spencer "I absolutely love it." He smiles "me too, let's not agree to anything until we get everything checked out with Morgan first, okay?" I nod "okay, that's the wise thing to do. When will they be back from their case?" Spencer sighs slightly and says "hopefully soon, but you know how the cases are." I nod solemnly "we aren't moving out any time soon, especially not in my fragile condition." The realtor knocks and comes in the master bedroom area where we were. She smiles and asks "so what's the verdict? You like it?" I let Spence do the talking as all three of us walk out of the master bedroom and towards the front door. He says "we like it, but we want to have our contractor come take a look at it before we say anything definitive." She smiles and nods "sounds good, we will be in touch," as she locks the front door behind us. We walk to our car and hop in, Spencer immediately calls Morgan. He gets the details on the case and offers any wisdom he can before saying "listen, I actually need a favor." Morgan chuckles and says "I knew this call wasn't about work, pretty boy, whatcha need?" Spencer chuckles and says "Annie and I think we've found a house. Will you come take a look at it before we sign anything permanent?" Morgan responds "absolutely. As soon as we are back from this case we can go check it out. Happy for you guys...gotta go, something just came in on the case." With that he hangs up and Spencer and I share a triumphant grin as we finish our drive home.

•••••

~ Spencer's POV ~

2 days later, Morgan is back and Annie opts to stay home while we go check out the house. Physical therapy really took it out of her this morning and she said she just wanted to go back to sleep for a while when she got home. Who am I to tell her no? Morgan and I go together, I let him drive in case he wanted to bring any of his contracting equipment for whatever reason. On the drive there, Morgan asks me "you guys still doing okay after...everything?" I nod "yeah I think so. Annie has been slowly getting more energy and moving faster." He nods in response "your relationship seems better than when you both left for Tennessee." I shrug "I guess a life threatening distraction really helps distract you from the loss of a friend." Morgan chuckles "you're damn right. It sure would be nice though if all y'all could stop with the emergencies and let a man sleep for a while." I laugh "hopefully after the wedding you'll have a nice break from us." Morgan wiggles his eyebrows at me "you two are gonna be busy for weeks after." I chuckle "I hope. We haven't been 'busy' since New York." Morgan nearly crashes the car in shock "that's like almost 2 months?" I shake my head "it's only been 39 days, I had longer bouts of celibacy before Annie and especially before Lila." Morgan shakes his head "couldn't be me. That's why I don't do relationships." I chuckle "I could barely do friends with benefits." Morgan raises a brow "why? That's like the perfect arrangement." I shake my head "I guess I got too attached to her, too possessive. We had an exclusive relationship but it still wasn't enough. It worked for a while and it helped me move on and learn, but it wasn't a permanent arrangement. We both knew that going into it." Morgan nods, not saying anything else. We pull up the driveway and once again greet Rhonda the realtor. I introduce Morgan to Rhonda. "Rhonda, this is my friend and contractor Derek Morgan, Derek this is Rhonda Valence, the realtor for the house." Derek flashes his smile and Rhonda just about melts into a puddle. I watch her not so subtly check Derek's left hand for a ring as she leads us into the house. Derek inspects everything with precision, finding nothing seriously out of place besides some wiring that would likely need to be repaired or replaced. When we make it up to the attic he nods and says "yeah this could definitely be renovated to be a fully functional level, no problem." I smile and nod "good, that's what we were hoping to hear." Morgan smiles at me and nods "you two are going to fill this place up with children." I chuckle "eventually, now we are just focused on each other." We walk down the stairs to Rhonda who is standing by the island with her paperwork. She smiles up at us and says "everything okay with you two so far?" We both nod. I tell her "we found a couple wiring issues but nothing that isn't fixable." She nods and points with her head to the extra bedrooms and says "you know those would make a great nursery for a little one." I blush and nod as I look at my shoes briefly before looking back up and saying "yeah eventually that would be great. Right now we aren't planning on that to be any time soon." She looks flustered and confused for a second before saying "I'm sorry, I must've misunderstood the circumstances. I thought you two were already expecting?" I furrow my brow and shake my head "as far as I know, and hopefully I would know at this point, we aren't expecting." She stutters briefly before saying "well you treat her like glass and as I walked in the master suite the other day I heard your fiancée talking about her 'fragile condition,' so I just assumed incorrectly. I apologize." I shake my head and tell Rhonda "yes you misunderstood. My fiancée is recovering from a traumatic attack at the moment. She had her spleen removed and a broken rib and a collapsed lung earlier this month so we are still in the healing process." Rhonda's jaw drops and she averts her gaze, embarrassed, saying "I'm so sorry, Dr. Reid, I had no idea." I give her a sad smile and nod "it's definitely not the first conclusion one would jump to given the context. I would rather your version than the reality of the situation any day." Rhonda returns my sad smile and nods before we discuss everything about the house. I make an appointment with Rhonda for the following day after talking with Annie tonight about our final decision on the house.

•••••

~ Annie's POV ~

Spencer and I signed on the house the day after Morgan inspected it. It's now been over a month and we have been waiting to close on the house, it's been difficult getting the doctor to sign the necessary documents from the west coast due to the time difference and his busy work schedule. Or so he claims. Spencer and I are sitting in a law firm with the realtor and the real estate lawyer while we sign the final papers on the house, effectively closing on it. Both the lawyer and realtor are women and they do a wonderful job of including both of us as equal partners on the process. Spencer is the point person on this between the two of us because he's a genius so I'm definitely letting him handle it. He talks with me before making any big decisions for us and I really appreciate that. I did ensure that the house would be in both our names and not just mine or his. I don't think Spencer would screw me over, but a girl can't be too careful in this day and age. Once it's a done deal and they give us the key to the house, Spencer and I take off to visit our new house for the first time as homeowners. I squeal with delight as we barrel along the road to our house, so excited things are really turning up for us. Spencer chuckles and says "I'm excited, too, Annie." I bite my lip and turn to him as he parks the car in our new driveway "well, I've been waiting to tell you, after my last appointment with the doctor yesterday and my last appointment with physical therapy last week, I'm finally cleared for strenuous physical activity." Spencer looks at me wide eyed. He asks me "but baby are you ready for that? After what happened?" I smile softly and nod "I think so. I trust you, I know you'll take care of me. I feel like I truly closed that chapter yesterday and today we are opening a new one with the new house. I have closure and I feel like me again." Spencer looks at me with watering eyes and slowly leans forward to hug me. He kisses the top of my head and says "I'm so happy for you. I'm so proud of you. We don't have to do anything you don't want to, I'm happy to wait another 10 weeks or more if you need it." I chuckle and ask "damn you've been counting? You must be really horny." He chuckles "maybe, maybe I'm just good at fast math, I mean I am a genius." I laugh "the world may never know." We make our way to the front door, I unlock it with the key and we push the door open together. Before I can walk forward, Spencer scoops me up and carries me into the house. I squeal in response and giggle as he carries me into the house and sets me down on the kitchen island. I say through giggles "you aren't supposed to do that until after the wedding."Spencer chuckles "I don't care. It felt right." I giggle and nod, leaning up and capturing his lips with mine. He returns the kiss with a soft urgency. He's trying so hard to be gentle with me, but it's been so long his body is urging him to move faster. I lift my sweater up and over my head, breaking the kiss. Spencer unclasps my bra as I unbutton his shirt, pushing it down his arms and lifting my hips once his hands found their way to my leggings. I'm kissing him with passionate urgency, finally feeling no panic or fear as he caresses my body with his scorching touch, only love and safety. He undoes his belt, dropping his pants and kicking them to the side. He kisses from my lips down my neck, to my sternum. His phone starts ringing in his pants on the floor as he takes my right nipple in his mouth. He tells me "just ignore it," as I focus on the sensations from his mouth on my body. When he moves to my left nipple his phone rings again, he once again ignores it. He trails his kisses down my stomach, hovering just above my heat before it rings again and he says "fucking damn it!" He reaches down, grabbing his phone and answering. He says with livid frustration into the phone "what is it, Morgan?!" I watch as Spencer's facial expression changes from furious to utterly surprised. He sits there stunned for a second before he says "thanks, we will be right there." He hangs up the phone and I look at him concerned. I ask him "Spencer, baby, what is it?" He gulps before he meets my gaze and says with an unreadable expression "Emily's alive."