The Story of Us

Chapter 26- Maternal Instincts

Three weeks after Spencer came back from rehab, things with Amanda are a bit strained. Both parties had stayed true to their agreement. Spencer had brought her coffee from his favorite coffee shop every day and Amanda hadn't gone out of her way to not converse with him, but Spencer couldn't help and feel as though they weren't as close as they once were or even as close as she was with the others on the team.

She had gone out with Garcia, JJ, and Emily two times in the past three weeks for what they called 'girls night'. Morgan and she trained five times, mostly because he couldn't fully process that she could beat him so easily. He has seen her fight with Hotch like everyone else but she looks so slight that it's shocking that she can completely incapacitate someone twice her size without breaking a sweat.

Things with Hotch are the same as always. She visits on occasion to see Jack but with him attempting to fix things with Haley, he didn't have time to attempt to work on his relationship with his sister. As for Gideon, the two weren't exactly close. He admired her ability to profile and how good she was at her job but that was it. Which only left Spencer. Their relationship wouldn't seem odd to anyone else but Spencer knew that she was pulling away.

Sure, she talked to him and they got along well enough. But they used to be close. Closer than friends. There was a time where they each could tell each other how many breaths the other took in a minute and now she only spoke to him about work or if he started the conversation and he hated that it was his fault. This was the thought crossing his mind as he watched Amanda walk out of the elevator with Emily and Derek by her side.

The three were laughing because Emily had gone down to the training gym to see Morgan get knocked on his ass. "I just don't understand what made you think you could take her down when her own brother couldn't."

"Hey I almost got her," he tries but the two girls just share a look before laughing as they walking into the bullpen.

"When? After I laid next to you because you were too tired to get up?" Amanda jokes and he shakes his head.

"I don't understand how you manage to be so in shape. I work out all the time and I can't keep up."

"I eat healthy and I used to be a college athlete. Then I went to work for the FBI only to get transferred to the CIA. I run 2 miles every day that we don't have a case. Plus I hate to sweat," she jests and her two companions laugh before Emily catches sight of a box on Amanda's desk.

"Hey, what's that?" Amanda looks at it with a frown.

"I don't know," she whispers, stepping over to her desk and taking the card off the top of the box.

You don't outgrow a passion and you always took great pictures. Enjoy the camera -V.

"Who's V?" Emily asks and Amanda shakes her head as she opens the box to reveal an old Polaroid camera.

"No way," she whispers, taking it out and opening it to reveal film in the canister. She looks into the small gift box to see five sets of film for the camera.

"Is that a camera?" Morgan questions and Amanda looks up with a smile.

"It's not just any camera, Derek. It's an SX-70 instant Polaroid camera. They're super expensive and I've had my eye on one since I was in college but I couldn't afford one."

"You just up and found a random camera to obsess over in college?"

She groans. "No, you idiot. I used to be really big on cameras. I had a camcorder that I would take with me to parties and such to document my college experience. I also used to like photography. I was pretty good at it too. My mom almost let me do it for my talent portion before deciding that singing was a real crowd-pleaser," she murmured, looking at the card before looking up to see Spencer watching her from the kitchen.