spencer reid's daughter

ten

Four days after staying in the hospital, Spencer was finally allowed to take Colette home. They both sat in the SUV silently, Spencer trying to hide the smile that couldn't leave his face. Colette stared at her father in confusion, her eyebrows narrowed.

"Why are you smiling? What's going on?" Colette inhaled a shaky breath, her head pounding from her concussion. She readjusted the sunglasses against her face, the light becoming too strong for her eyes.

Spencer only shook his head, pulling the SUV from the parking lot. "I'm just really happy to get you out of there; my insurance is really taking a toll now."

Colette exhaled a deep sigh, opening her mouth to say something before Spencer interrupted her. "I know what you're going to say. You don't need to apologize to me for being upset."

"I—I cussed at you, what if that was the last sentence you ever heard from me?" Colette watched as Spencer merely pursed his lips together, refusing to say a word. Eventually, he leaned over and ruffled Colette's hair in a way to calm her nerves.

"We don't need to think like that, you're safe now and that's all that matters." Spencer kept his eyes directed on the road, driving directly past their house. "I need to show you something, since Tate finally told you the truth."

"About Mom?" Colette turned away from the window and towards Spencer, nervously rubbing her thighs. "I just don't understand why you never told me."

Spencer eased on the pedal as they approached a stop light, refusing to turn towards Colette. "I have to live with the fact that I couldn't save her every single day of my life, that I couldn't protect the two people I love the most. I just wanted to protect you."

"When Tate told me, he just kept repeating the phrase 'Children are so gullible', I didn't know who to be mad at." Colette sniffed, trying to minimize her emotion so her father couldn't read her — she was doing a terrible job.

"Do you know why I insisted on naming you Colette?" Spencer smiled to himself, thinking of the memory he's quite fond of. "Hazel wanted to name you Sarah, which means princess. Uncle Derek was pretty fond of that name himself. I decided with Colette; an older french name meaning victorious. Your mother loved France, she wanted to—she wanted to go there before she died."

Colette nodded, remaining silent as she absorbed the information. Spencer pressed his foot against the pedal once again when the light turned green, biting against his bottom lip. "Cole, I'm basically just trying to tell you that your mother and I loved you more than we thought was possible."

Spencer parked the SUV beside a graveyard, unbuckling his seatbelt. "It's time I finally show you your mother's grave."

Colette climbed out of the car, holding Spencer's hand tightly as she walked beside him. Her short brown hair bounced against her shoulders as she walked, clinging against Spencer in fear of something happening to her once again. Spencer obviously noticed, giving a reassuring smile to his daughter to calm her nerves.

They finally approached a large gravestone, surrounded by different colored flowers in glass vases. Carved into the gravestone were the words:

Hazel Lauren Reid
July 17, 1985 - October 16, 2011
Wife, Daughter, Mother

"I visit her gravestone everyday before work when I'm home." Spencer stared down at the flowers, at least eight different colors surrounding her grave. "Her favorite flower was the hydrangea, so I bring her one once a week."

Colette shook her head, kneeling down in front of the gravestone with tears forming in her eyes. "I want to hear every single story about her." She turned her head to look at Spencer, who was now sitting in the grass beside where Hazel's body was buried. "No bad ones, only good. When you both met, when I was born. I want to know every single detail about her."

Spencer rambled through his brain of a memory he was most fond of, analyzing twelve years of his life dedicated to Hazel. Finally, his eyes twinkled as he cleared his throat, smiling to Colette. "I'll tell you about the time I proposed to her."