Façade//Spencer Reid

38. A moment never forgotten

With Spencer being in hospital, Y/N and Carter had developed a routine. At 7 AM, Y/N and Carter would be out the door and on their way to the hospital. By 8 AM, they'd have spent 30 minutes saying hello to Spencer before Carter was dropped off at school and Y/N was off to work. This happened for 3 weeks and sure enough, Spencer woke up one morning while Carter and Y/N were visiting.

Carter sat on one side of Spencer, while Y/N sat on the other. He had a piece of paper in front of him as he colored in a drawing. Y/N tried to sneak peeks of the picture, but Carter always held it close and moved his arm so her view was obstructed.

As Carter drew, Y/N watched as Spencer's hand moved. His eyes barely opened as he adjusted to the lights. His hand lifted slowly to his face, feeling his cheek. This happened to be the cheek that Carter kissed when he first came to see Spencer at the hospital.

"Carter, honey, look who's awake." Y/N pulled Carter out of his drawing and gestured to Spencer, who was rubbing his eyes.

"Spencer! I missed you!" Carter smiled, immediately dropping his crayons.

"I- I missed you too, buddy." Spencer chuckled.

"I made this for you." Carter held up the picture so that Y/N and Spencer could finally see.

The picture itself showed Spencer with curly hair and a tie, Y/N in a dress and straight hair and Carter in shorts and a t-shirt. It looked like Carter was in the middle, with Spencer and Y/N holding each of his hands.

"Wow, Carter. I love it." Spencer smiled.

"You really love it?" Carter's eyes lit up.

"Of course I do." Spencer nodded, earning a big smile from Carter.

Checking the time, Y/N stood up.

"C'mon, honey. We've gotta go. We can see Spencer this afternoon." Y/N ushered Carter off his chair. While Y/N picked up her bag, Carter ran over to the injured man and got back onto his tippy-toes again.

"See you later, dad." Carter placed a kiss on Spencer's cheek before exiting the room - he was told to wait outside the room for Y/N.

The room fell silent, exactly like the car ride had 3 weeks ago.

"I- Is that the first time he-?" Spencer couldn't finish his own sentence. He was too surprised.

"3 weeks ago, when he first came to see you, he said "are we seeing dad now?". In front of JJ and Penelope as well. I didn't want to say anything, just in case. I was...sort of waiting to see if he did it again. Do- Do you mind? I can ask him to stop if it makes you uncomfortable." Y/N worried.

"No, no, no. It's...I'm just surprised, that's all. I find it quite...sweet that he calls me 'dad'. It's you that I should be asking. Are you comfortable with him calling me 'dad'? We've been dating for a few months now, but it's entirely up to you what he calls me." Spencer reassured her.

"I'm happy with him calling you 'dad', as long as you stick around." Y/N chuckled.

"I'll always stick around, Y/N. You can't get rid of me that easily." Spencer smiled, pulling Y/N in for a short - but sweet - kiss, before allowing her and Carter to leave.

"I'll text you later, okay?" Y/N smiled as she made her way toward the door.

"Yep, and I'll answer. Love you." Spencer smiled and nodded before he realised what he had said.

"Love you too." Y/N replied without much thought. It wasn't until she got into her car, making sure Carter had his seatbelt on, that she realised what Spencer had said to her, and what she had replied.

———

The entire day, Y/N couldn't stop thinking about what Spencer said, and how she replied.

Deep down, Y/N was overjoyed and couldn't stop smiling. For the first time since her family was killed, someone actually loved her and had no malice or ill-intention behind their words.

When she had glanced back at Spencer as she exited his hospital room, she noticed the genuine smile on his face - the corners of his mouth were raised, there were creases in the corner of his eyes, and his cheeks were raised. All these signs pointed to Spencer being genuinely happy. Her heart raced with joy at the thought that Spencer actually loved her and wasn't just faking it.

As for Spencer, he was content with what he had said. He had the whole day to think about what he had said to Y/N, and he stopped thinking about it. Spencer rarely said anything he didn't mean, whether he was spouting random facts or comforting a friend. He knew that if he tried to lie and say something he didn't mean, he'd feel guilty about it and his team would be able to tell. But with Y/N? Saying 'Love you' to her was something that seemed so natural coming out of his mouth, directing it to her. Not once did he feel guilty for saying 'Love you' to her. He stopped thinking about what he said to her, because to him, he was happy with what he had said. He had grown so close to Y/N in the time since he met her and he felt more comfortable around her than his own team. Sure, the difference between her and his team were he actually had strong romantic feelings for Y/N, and he saw his co-workers as his family, brothers, sisters, etc.

It was true that neither of them would forget that 1. Carter called Spencer 'dad' and Spencer was okay with it, and 2. that both Spencer and Y/N said 'Love you' to each other and felt no regret.