A familiar face from Spencer's past joins the BAU, his ex-girlfriend, who left him fourteen years, two months, and fifteen days ago.
A slow-burn love story in which she and Spencer figure out who they are together and apart, and whether or not the h...
Warnings: Alcoholism, withdrawal, descriptions of Spencer's withdrawal.
Summary: Jasper tries to keep a brave face while going through alcohol withdrawal, and Spencer does too. Luke and Garcia happen upon them at Moe's.
This chapter is both fluffy and angsty, but this next chapter is going to be Jasper showing a piece of herself to Spencer that she's never shown anyone.
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Jasper leaned heavily against Spencer in the booth, choosing to sit on his side to watch the doors and cuddle close. He'd seen her take two Excedrin before they left, so he knew that she was already beginning to feel the effects of alcohol withdrawal.
Her skin was clammy as he sat with his arm wrapped around her shoulders, reading a book over the top of her head, the other holding his coffee cup. She hadn't been much for conversation in the last twenty minutes, instead eating in silence and grumbling to herself as her head throbbed.
Alcohol withdrawal always had the potential to be deadly. Depending on how heavily she'd been drinking over the last few months, this could be dangerous for her. She'd insisted her binge yesterday was the worst she'd drank in a long time, but Spencer still wanted to stay with her to monitor her closely.
He knew what to look for from his own research over the years for varied reasons- anxiety, tremors, mood changes, sleep problems and nightmares, jumpiness, nausea, headache, fatigue, sweating, loss of appetite. The withdrawal would take up to 72 hours to finally dissipate, and after that it was up to her to keep sober.
If she got a fever, or if he noticed any hallucinations or hyperventilating, Spencer would have to take her to get private treatment... and that was the last thing he wanted to do. For one, Jasper would never let him take her anywhere until the withdrawal almost killed her. For another, it could jeopardize her future with the BAU, and he wanted to make sure that didn't happen.
Spencer set his book down and smoothed his palm over her forehead as he pulled her head closer for a kiss, trying to be sneaky about feeling for a fever. Jasper always ran so hot, though, so checking it that way was difficult anyways, and she felt just as burning hot as she usually was.
"How's your head?" he asked quietly as she pushed away her half-eaten plate. He knew the answer by the way she had one of her palms pressed against the side of her face, but still he wanted her to tell him.
"Mmm," Jasper grunted, leaning further into him and sighing heavily. She had a pair of sunglasses fit snugly on her face, crossing her arms and making another disgruntled noise as she got comfortable. "Hurts."
"You should take another bite, I bet that would help," he told her, reaching out and pulling the plate back toward her again. Jasper begrudgingly cut off another piece of the waffle and shoved it half-heartedly into her mouth, a far cry from the usual way she ate by wolfing everything down in under a minute.
"What?" Moe asked sharply, clapping her hands as she approached and making Jasper jump. "You don't like my food anymore?"
"She's hungover," Spencer told her with a smile, and Jasper grunted in annoyance.
