Twenty-Eight: But I Liked It Better When You Were On My Side.

12x11 | Surface Tension

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         As far as Julia Cortez was concerned, it was her day off. She had requested it off personally to spend her brother's birthday with him and of course, Emily had granted her the day off.

So far, her brother's birthday had seemed to be a birthday weekend thing. His actual birthday had been the day before but Julia's niece and nephew, Ava and Gabe had practically begged Julia to stay one more day.

Julia had given into those puppy eyes and here she was, baking cookies with Ava and Gabe in her brother's kitchen. "No!" Ava exclaimed, trying to snatch the heart cookie cutter away from her brother. "You're ruining it!"

"No, I'm not! Auntie Julia!" Gabe shook his head as he pleaded with his aunt to interfere. She'd been playing mediator between them all weekend since they were at that age where they were arguing all of the time.

"Ava, you already put a heart into a few cookies, let your brother have a turn." Julia tells and Ava sighs as she gives the cookie cutter back to her brother. "That's my special cookie cutter, though! Mommy said!" Ava crossed her arms.

"I know, but sometimes we need to let your brother have a turn." Julia assured to her niece. Her timer goes off on her phone. "The first batch is just now done. You guys please stay at the table as I get the cookies out. Remind me why I always ask you two to stay at the table?"

Ava and Gabe both say in unison, "Because the cookies are hot and we can get hurt." Julia nods at the two, "That's right. And Auntie Julia doesn't want you two to get hurt."

As Julia pulled the cookies out and turned the oven off, both Manny and Clara walk into the kitchen. "I see you indulged in the kids' baking." Clara comments. Julia chuckles, "I swear, these two are gonna own their own bakery one day."

"Only because they get their baking skills from you." Manny says as he pours himself a cup of coffee.

This much was true, the kids loved baking with their aunt because she always made the best cookies and pastries. Ava had started showing interest in her aunt's baking and of course, her brother following after her, wanted to help, too. Julia remembered when she followed behind Manny and whatever he did. She knew she drove him crazy but she understood the youngest Cortez really well because, well, she's been there.

"Hey, Auntie Julia?" Gabe asked and Julia looks at her nephew. "Yes?" He then points to her arm. "Did you get a owie?" Julia then sees what he's talking about and that her sleeve is rolled up to her forearm and the minor bruise that is almost fully healed. "Oh, yeah, I got this at work from chasing the bad guys, Gabey. But your auntie is tough." Julia flexes her muscles towards her nephew and Gabe mocks her, flexing his chubby arms.

"Auntie Julia?" Ava asks. "When can we eat the cookies?" Julia looks down at her niece, "We just have to wait for them to cool down just a bit before we eat them. Don't want to burn our mouths. Why don't you two wash up for a snack?"

With that, Ava and Gabe exit the room, leaving only Clara, Manny and Julia in the room. "Thanks for staying the weekend, Jules." Manny tells, wrapping an arm around his wife as he speaks to his sister. "Yeah, the kiddos really enjoy having you around." Clara agrees.

Julia shakes her head, "Oh, I love those two. I wouldn't have missed your birthday weekend for the world." Manny had just turned thirty-one yesterday and the Cortez family had celebrated by going to Manny's favorite restaurant and bowling. It was tradition, at this point.

          "How does it feel being thirty-one?" Clara asks, patting her husband's stomach. "Like I turned one-hundred." Manny jokes and Julia smiles as she shakes her head and Manny gives his sister a point look. "Oh, you're laughing now, wait until you turn 30, it's a whole different experience from your 20s."

           "I am about four years away from that, I'll live as 'queen of the world' until then." Julia jokes.

        Saying it out loud really put in perspective that she'd turn 30 in four years. By the time Manny was her age, Gabe was just born. Maybe it was time to take her life a little bit seriously if she wanted to settle down.

         Her mind is disrupted when her phone buzzes on the table and she picks it up and checks the caller ID to see that Captain ❤️ is calling her. Aka, her boss, Emily Prentiss.

          Julia sighs as she excuses herself for a moment. "Hey, Em, what's up?" Julia starts. "Hey, Julia. Sorry, I didn't want to call you but you said to call if it was emergent and we have a case." Emily says. Julia takes a deep breath, "Okay, I'll be at the BAU in like... ten minutes, give or take."

         "That won't be necessary," Emily told. "We've already boarded the jet." Julia furrows her brows and is left confused. Why call her if Emily and the rest of the team had already left. "Okaaaay," Julia started, confused. "Then why are you—?"

          "Because the only other person who isn't here is Reid." Emily said. "I thought he was supposed to come back today?" Julia asked, noting to the fact that he'd been gone for about a month to go and see his mother. Especially, since she had the weekend off and with him coming back, she'd be able to spend a little more time with her family.

          "He did, but he had an emergency. I have a special request for you, though." Emily said and Julia stands there, still wondering why Emily had her on the phone. "Do you think you could check in on Spencer? Apparently, his mother is moved in with him and well, I think he could use the company." By her sigh, Julia could tell that there was more than just that. "I also think you two have been avoiding each other long enough. This team only works if everyone works together. I don't know what happened between you two, but if I'm given the chance to pair you together, I'm taking that chance."

           They couldn't have been that obvious, right? Well, based on the fact that the team knew something was up when they weren't speaking to each other, Emily may have picked up on that. And well, Julia tried to talk to him, albeit it was awkward and was only a two second conversation, maybe Emily had a point. But Julia didn't want to disrupt whatever schedule he'd had with his mother now. That was a shock, too. Finding out Spencer's mother was now living with him. It made Julia wonder just what the hell is going through that beautiful brain of his?

            "Am I clear?" Emily asked and Julia sighs, does she really have a choice in this? "Crystal, boss."
           "Okay, I'll send his address to your phone. I suggest you start heading there now." Emily said.

           Julia exchanges a goodbye with her boss and turns around to the little family she'd been a part of. "Sorry, guys. But duty calls. I have to go." Ava and Gabe groan in sadness and frown. "Right away?" Clara asks and Julia nods sadly.

          "How far are you going?" Ava asks and Julia shakes her head, kneeling to her niece and nephew's levels. "I won't be too far. After the case wraps up, I'll come back and we'll bake more. I'll spend the whole day with you if I need to."

           Ava and Gabe seem to like this idea and Julia stands up to meet her brother's eyes. "I'm sorry about this." She apologizes but Manny shakes his head, "Ah, it's alright. You had to go back sometime. At least you got to spend my actual birthday with me." Manny told and Julia gives the man a small frown, "Sorry, I have to go."

           "It's all good, Jules," Manny assures. "It's your job. It's what you do." Julia smiles at the man, glad he understands the job. Especially when he understood the workload and how important the job really is. It makes Julia entirely grateful for him. "Now, why don't you take some of those cookies with you? Because there is no way we are finishing them in one go."

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Spencer mopped up the wet floors of his apartment, trying to clean the rest of the water residue his mother sprang onto him. This was the last thing he expected to go through when he woke up this morning, ready to go back to the office after the long needed break.

         His mother exits from her room as he is almost done mopping. His caretaker has officially quit as of today and he was gonna have to stay and do searching for a new caretaker today so he could go back to work finally.

"Be careful not to slip." Spencer warns his mother and puts the mop down. "I have to jump on a conference call for work. Are you gonna be okay for a few minutes?" Diana stands in silence with a frown etched on her face. "Spencer, I'm sorry. This is a mess."

"It's okay," Spencer assures. "I know it was an accident." Diana shakes her head with a sigh as she picks up a book off the ground, "Your books are ruined." Spencer looks at his mom, "Just a few of them. It's okay." He assures.

"No, it's not," Diana shakes her head. "Destroying a book is like... destroying a whole world." Spencer frowns that his mother is so distraught about the books. "You want to maybe lie down for a little while and get some rest?" He suggests and Diana nods, "Yes, that's a good idea, honey. I need rest."

But before she can even get her room, there's a sharp knock on his door. Spencer isn't expecting any company as he walks forward, checking the peephole and discovering someone he didn't think would show. In fact, he wondered how the hell she found his apartment.

Standing in front of him as he opened the door was a bright Julia, with a tub of cookies in tupperware as well as a small smile on her face. It almost looked like she was about to walk away after knocking but Spencer opened the door quickly. Julia was quick to notice his confused glance — "Jules?" He asks.

Julia looks at the man with wide eyes and says a simple, "Hi." There's a long pause as Spencer looks at her and decides to ask the million dollar question. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh— to be honest, it was my day off. And Emily called and... figured that maybe... you could use the company and—" Julia trails off, not knowing what to say. She swears she had this planned so well in her head when she was walking into his unit, but as soon as he opened the door, everything just flew right out of her head.

"I-I don't need help." Spencer told, looking her in the eyes. Julia can see in his eyes that he's actually kind of irritated with the fact that she's here. And that's enough to make her feel as welcome as she could've.

Sheepishly, Julia shakes her head and gives herself a shy smile as plays with the plastic of the tupperware. "I know. I just..." Julia looks at the man. "I figured you'd need company. I guess I was foolish to think so. Sorry." Julia begins to walk off and Spencer closes his eyes, realizing he probably just sounded like a jerk.

Perhaps Emily may have had a point to pair them together. Julia had done nothing wrong and here he was, being cold to her like he'd been doing a lot for the past two months or so. Maybe he should let her stay, especially if the team was already flying to Tampa.

       "Wait," Spencer stops, standing out of the doorway as Julia turns around. "I'm sorry. I'm, just—" Spencer sighs and he knows that he should just stop talking. "Come in. Team's already gone. You might as well stay." He offers and Julia still seems like she's hesitant, mostly because of how he seemed when she opened the door.

        "Please stay, I'm sorry for how I acted when I opened the door. Just... come in." Spencer tells and Julia turns back with a small smile and walks back towards him.

Julia enters the apartment and she takes a look around. She notices the many bookshelves she envisioned him having and the almond walls and wood tiled floor. His apartment smells the way a fireplace does and it makes her feel cozy and comfortable. She notices the mop and towels on the floors and furrows her brows when she does.

"Uh, we had a bit of an incident this morning." Spencer told, after seeing her confused face. "Did Emily not tell you?" Julia shakes her head — "No, she just said you had a family emergency."

Spencer nods and then takes a look at his mother, clutching her book and furrowing her brows at the new guest. "Mom, this is Julia. We work together, I've told you about her, remember?" Spencer tells, introducing his mother and Julia.

"It's, uh, nice to meet you, ma'am. I've heard a lot about you." Julia looks at the woman with a bright smile. She gets a good look at her, she can see where Spencer gets his good looks from. In a way, they look alike- even though his mom was blonde hair and blue eyes and Spencer has brown hair and hazel eyes but she could see the similarities as well as the differences.

But Diana doesn't acknowledge her, in fact, she walks away. Julia won't lie, that stung a little but she knows the affects of mental illness and what they look like. She knows that Diana may not just be in a good mood. Spencer attempts to call his mother back, possibly to make her apologize but Diana just shuts her door behind her.

Spencer shoots an apologetic look at Julia and sighs, "I'm sorry, she's just... she's tired today." He tells and Julia shakes her head with a smile. "No, it's okay. I get it." Spencer sees the smile doesn't meet her eyes and he feels bad and then decides to thwart the attention to the tupperware.

"What's that?" Spencer asks, pointing to the tupperware. Julia looks down and exclaims, "Oh!" She hands the plastic to Spencer. "Uh, cookies. I baked them with Ava and Gabe. I figured you could use the sweets." She smiles. "Consider them a "welcome back" present."

Spencer looks down at the tupperware in appreciation. Is there anything this woman can't do? "Thank you." He says and Julia nods, "You're welcome."

Suddenly, he gets a call on his laptop, disrupting their moment and Spencer looks at Julia as he tosses his thumb over. "That should be Garcia trying to get us on the call." Julia nods, taking of her scarf and coat, placing them on the coat hangers as Spencer sits in front of his laptop. Julia was about to grab a seat from the kitchen table but Spencer had silently already grabbed a seat for her.

"Hey-o. Beaming Reid and Jules into the starship BAU." Garcia starts as Julia settles in her chair next to Spencer. "Hey, there's my favorite genius. Welcome back." Rossi spoke from the receiving end. "Ahem?" Julia clears her throat as Rossi adds on, "And favorite cat mom."

"I thought Garcia was the cat mom." Julia argued and Spencer gives her a 'seriously?' look. "Not important."

"It's good to be back. I'm sorry about all this trouble." Spencer apologizes. "No, don't be silly. And if there's anything we can do to help, just let us know." Emily tells.

"Thank you, it shouldn't be too difficult, I do have Julia here, so..." Julia smiles a bit as Spencer then diverts the subject to something else. "Anyway, I had a chance to look over the case files. Do we know anything new about the two victims in Tampa?"

"Only about how little there is to learn, and Garcia can't find any connection between Helen Bollinger and George Findley." Tara explains. "Which isn't that surprising. Homeless vet, upper-middle-class suburban mom. Not much overlap there." Stephen explains.

"What about their personal lives?" Luke asks. "Well, George was homeless, so his personal life was sort of problematic. Helen, on the other hand, ticks every box on the wholesome soccer mom checklist. President of her PTA, super active at church, heavily involved in charity work." Garcia tells.

        "Jules, have you looked at the ink markings yet?" JJ asks. "I looked over what Emily sent over to me and whatever it is, it doesn't come from traditional sources of art, mythology, and literature. I've never seen it during a medical exam before. Sometimes, we do mark bodies after they've been processed, but this seems too specific to just be a mark." She explained.

        "Except for the incomplete base of a triangle, the design is evocative of the Pagan symbol for Earth." Spencer explains. "Garcia, look into other questionable suicides and accidental deaths in the Tampa area recently." Emily orders and Garcia nods, "Searching the sad stuff. On it."

         With that, the call ends and Julia begins to read over the files Spencer was sent over about the bodies. Spencer had set up their own board near his desk and both worked in silence as they converted their own investigations into their case. Julia had been working on why the unsub would mark the bodies and Spencer was identifying the mark.

           It'd been over an hour until Diana's door opened and Spencer turns towards his mother and notices the still etched frown on her face. "Hey." He began softly. "How'd you sleep?" He asked.

         "I don't know," Diana answers. "Okay, I guess." Spencer looks over at the package that had been delivered while he was making the board. "Look what arrived while you were sleeping." He stands up, grabbing a book out of the box it came in. "What is that?" Diana asks.

       "It's your old scrapbook," Spencer smiles. "I had uncle Gordon send it from Las Vegas. Look." Spencer flips through it and Diana is confused. "What's it for?"
        "It's a scrapbook, Mom. You started this one in high school. See?" He looks over it with his mom and Julia looks at him. She can tell he just wants her to retain as much memory as she can. "You put pictures and things in it that you want to keep forever. I thought it might help bring back some nice memories."

         Diana looks at the book in disbelief and Spencer then checks his watch. "It's time to take your medicine." Diana then gasps as she grabs her son's arm. "No. No. It tastes terrible. What if it's poison?"

        "Mom, it's not poison," Spencer assures. "Remember when you first started taking it in Texas? It helped. You felt so good that we were able to go on that trip to San Antonio." He can see the hesitation on his mother's face. "It's not poison." He assures finally. "Just wait right here."

        Spencer walks back into the room and excuses himself. Diana keeps to herself mostly while Julia sits in the room, trying to work. Quietly, she keeps an eye on Diana for Spencer. But when Diana looks her way, she pretends she's not looking at her.

         Luckily, Spencer had not been gone for too long. He'd come back out to grab the orange juice and put a few drops of the medicine in Diana's glass. He kept glancing up at Julia, as if he's trying to assure himself that she's not exactly paying attention to what he's doing right now.

        "I put it in some orange juice so it wouldn't taste so bad." Spencer told, approaching his mom with the glass but Diana's looking at the glass like he just spat in it. "Mom, come on."

        Spencer takes her hand to grab the orange juice and Diana looks at her son in disbelief. "Are you going to stand there and watch me?" Spencer nods, authoritatively. "Yes."

         Julia finds herself stifling a smirk. Okay, that was kinda hot. ... What the hell is wrong with you?

        After downing the glass, Diana sticks out her tongue to assure that she drank all of the orange juice and Spencer shakes his head, "You don't have to do that."
       "Of course I do," Diana tells. "I have to do whatever you want." With that, she walks over to the couch and sits down. Spencer sighs as this happens and then looks over at Julia.

        "I'm gonna be making just a few calls here and there, but if you need me working on this with you, it can wait." Spencer assures but Julia shakes her head, "I can do it. It's all good." She tells, not even bothered by the fact that Spencer asked if she couldn't do it by herself. Of course, maybe she's a little bothered about it, because she can be just as smart as him but she chalks it up to just not wanting to leave her alone with his mother while she's in this state of grouchiness.

         Spencer nods with a simple okay as he goes into a separate room and Julia focuses on helping the team with the case.

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           After a few calls, Julia had overheard Spencer explain to his mother about how the agency for caretakers was sending over a woman to help Diana. Of course, Diana wasn't exactly thrilled about getting a new caretaker but Spencer had assured her this was a good thing.

           Julia sits there, keeping her mouth shut because who the hell is she, telling someone else what to do with their parents? She didn't necessarily agree with Spencer and his decisions when it came to his mom, but she understood why he was doing it.

         Spencer's doorbell buzzed when the caretaker had arrived and Spencer looks towards his mother and he stands up, walking over to her. "All right, Mom, I just want you to meet her, okay. Just meet her and tell me what you think." Spencer tells.

        "I already know what I think." Diana tells and Spencer tries to help his mother up but she refuses to get up from her seat on the couch. "Come on, Mom, let's go. Let's go say hi. Mom..." Diana fights against him and Spencer grunts. "Mother."

        Diana is very adamant about not standing and Spence goes to grab her scrapbook from the table and hands it to her. "Maybe you can show her your scrapbook, huh?" Diana rolls her eyes, "What for?"

        The door bell buzzes again and Spencer sighs, defeated as he goes to open the door. "Miss Campbell?" He starts. "Dr. Reid." The woman greets. "Yes. Thank you so much for coming on such short notice." Spencer tells. He welcomes her into his apartment.

       "My goodness, you must be quite a reader." Miss Campbell comments and Julia chuckles, "You have no idea." Spencer nods, "And I'm so sorry about the mess. We had a, uh, we had a little bit of an accident."

         Miss Campbell looks over at Julia, "And are you Dr. Reid's wife or girlfriend—?" The woman trails off and both Julia and Spencer are quick to tell her no, both stuttering upon each other.

         "Oh! No, friend... uh, colleague, actually. Here on..." Julia gestures towards the board. "Business. Strictly business." She then looks at Spencer. "Uh, I am going to go on a coffee run." She tells, quickly grabbing her coat and scarf so she can get the hell out of there in a hurry. "And I will be back. Will your mother want anything? Tea or..."

          Spencer nods, "Uh, yeah, she'd probably like a tea." He says and Julia nods, "Coming right up, then. I'll be back. And it was very nice to meet you, Miss Campbell." She is quick to make a getaway, cursing at herself as she leaves the unit as quick as possible.

          Once Julia leaves the unit, she's wondering just how it's going with Miss Campbell, Spencer and his mother. She decides she's gonna stay at the coffee shop for at least another thirty minutes before taking the next fifteen to walk back to his apartment to give Miss Campbell time to talk with Spencer.

          Julia had decided to call JJ amidst the ordering. Since she was the person that knew Spencer since the beginning, she figured the best thing to do was call her for advice on what to do to fill the awkward silence. She sighed as she sat with the drink holder in front of her. "I swear, JJ, I don't even think he wants me around right now." She groans into the receiver. "You don't know that. Look, he's just going through a lot right now with the changes and his mom and... I think it's beginning to feel too much for him." JJ admitted on the other line.

           "Between you and me, I think for the smartest guy in the world, it's a really stupid decision." Julia admitted. "Thank you! So, I'm not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea. Well, everyone else seems to think so, they're just too polite about it." JJ clarified.

           "I just wish I could tell him to just do what the doctors say is best but I don't think he's listening to anyone with a different opinion right now." Julia tells. "Well, maybe if it came from you, it'd be different. He does admire you, you know." JJ considers but Julia shakes her head, "I think after the last few months we've had, he won't."

           JJ pauses and then asks, "What even happened between you two anyway? Really?" Julia's cheeks flush and thank God she's only on the phone with JJ and can't see her reaction. "Oh, uh—"
         "Don't worry, I won't say anything to anyone if you don't want me to. I understand how nosy some of us can be. I'm just curious because you used to flirt with him like all of the time and suddenly, you don't anymore." JJ explained and Julia sighs.

          Julia is really debating on just telling JJ here and now. She'd been keeping this in for a while now. Maybe it was time to just rip the bandaid to someone. JJ kept secrets and she kept them well. Besides, this whole thing was beginning to eat at her conscience.

          "Okay," Julia mutters to herself and steadies in her chair. "You're alone, right?" She double checks and JJ gives her a hum of approval and Julia takes a deep breath, deciding to start simple.

          "Do you remember the Christmas party I hosted?"
          "Uh-huh," JJ said. "What about it?"
          "Well, after the party, everyone had gone home. Spencer was the only person that stayed and helped me clean." Julia explained. "But then while we cleaning up, I tripped and Spencer caught me and well, one thing led to another and—"

           "Oh, my God!" JJ exclaimed. "You slept together?" She questioned. "No, it didn't get that far. We just kissed, maybe made out. I don't know." Julia reveals. "After I realized what was happening, we stopped and he left and... now it's just weird between us right now."

            JJ is shocked and Julia can tell by the lack of reaction and sound she's making on the other end. "Oh, wow," She said. "I can see why you didn't tell us now. Holy crap." Julia nods even though JJ can't see her — "Yeah and now, I don't know what to do."

"Jules, I don't want to speak too much on Spencer's behalf and not say anything that I'm supposed to but he's been through... a lot when it comes to relationships. I can't tell you exactly what he's thinking but he may need some time before thinking about what happened at the Christmas party." JJ explained. "I know, I just... I wish things weren't weird with him. We were getting along just fine before the party." Julia told.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" JJ asks and Julia braces herself to bear what she may ask. "Uh, sure."
          "Are you still with that Thomas guy?" JJ asks... spacing out each word and Julia sighs, "Yeah, I am."
         "Does he know... about—?" Julia closes her eyes, Thomas still didn't know. In fact, she'd been avoiding telling him. "No, he doesn't. But I'm gonna tell him soon."

         JJ nods, "You should. A thing like that can eat somebody alive." Julia nods at this and sighs. "Well, I'm really glad you told me and trusted me with that. You've probably been wanting to tell someone for a while."

         "Trust me, Jayje, my hair was falling out." Julia tells and JJ scoffs and chuckles, "Well, I've got a case to settle with everyone. Call me if you need anything else."

          "Will do," Julia tells. "Thanks, JJ."

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Eventually, Julia had come back and her and Spencer were still trying to help as much as they could with the case. Diana didn't want her tea so Spencer had it sitting for her whenever she was ready to drink it, but was grateful for the coffee. At one point, it'd gotten too quiet and Spencer had decided to check on his mom. He'd excused himself as Julia focused on the case.

         She'd heard as Spencer didn't get an answer from his mother and decided to walk into the room. He'd kept asking for her and at one point, it went silence for a moment and then yelling and fighting were heard on both Spencer and his mother's end.

        "Mom, don't do that! Don't do that!"
        "Stop that! Leave me alone! Stop, stop! Give it back to me! Ohh! Stop!"
        "Aah! Give it to me!"
        "Stay away from me!"

         Julia had heard it getting rough and quickly stopped what she was doing to enter the room and saw Spencer and his mother on the bathroom floor, Spencer wrestling for something in his mother's hand.

         "What's going on?" Julia questioned. "Julia, go!" Spencer yelled and had gone back to shouting at his mother. "What are you doing? Give it to me!" He eventually got what he needed out of his mother's grasp and Diana stood up, zooming past Julia as she growled, "For God's sake, leave me alone!"

         A mere second later, Spencer goes zooming past Julia as well, shouting at his mother. "Mom!" Julia exits the rom and sees as Spencer grabs his mother by her wrists. "Stop! Why did you do that? Why?!" He questioned.

        "I hate that stuff! And I hate you!" Diana shouted and suddenly, Julia feels as if she's in the middle of one of her parents' arguments when she was a kid and she tries to approach closer, to calm the situation down, to help? She doesn't know why.

        "Do you have any idea what I went through to get that medicine, Mom?" Spencer questions and Julia has never seen him this way. He's usually so levelheaded and calm but this is far from that man she knows. "It can't be replaced. Do you realize that?"

       "Good!" Diana tells. "I want to go back home."
       "This is home."
       "No, it isn't!" Diana shouts. "I want to go back to where I was before!"

        "Houston? You hated Houston!" Spencer retorts but Diana shakes her head, "No, I want to go back to where I was before before! Before!" She backs up and slaps Spencer right across the face and Julia gasps as Diana almost goes to hit him again but something unexpected happens.

         Diana raises her hand again, going to wind up for another slap and Spencer was about ready to take it again when something blocked his view. Or someone. Julia had put herself in the middle of Diana and Spencer. She stared straight into Diana's face, willing to take anything the woman was going to give her.

          But luckily, Diana stepped back. Everyone panting at the situation, even Julia herself. Both Julia and Spencer stayed in their spot as Diana went back to her room, slamming her door behind her, wanting to be left alone.
 
          Julia turns to Spencer, who's looking away from her now. And Julia wonders if that's maybe from embarrassment. He has nothing to be embarrassed about. Julia looks at the man as he faces his body away from her. "Are— Are you—?" Julia tries but Spencer shakes his head, "Don't."

       Julia furrows her brows, trying to approach her. "Spencer... I, just— I wanna help. I—" Spencer spins around, looking Julia in the eye. "And I already told you I don't want your help. So, just go." He snapped.

        Julia stands there, in shock. Spencer had never talked to her like that before. And she didn't like it one bit. "Fine," She said softly and sadly. "I'll just... go then." Julia turns around towards the door, grabbing her coat and her scarf and was about to walk out when she decided enough was enough.

        "You know, I get wanting to push people away because I've been there too, believe me, but at least I'm here. Granted, I don't know the situation and what's going on but I'm trying to do the one thing I do know how to do and that's help you. So I'm sorry I stood up to your mother but I would've rather taken that second slap than see you go through that again. Maybe when people offer you help, you just need to let yourself take it." Julia snapped right back and slammed his front door right behind her. (Granted, that was an accident but it did give more effect.)

Julia stood outside of his door but somehow could not bear to leave. Especially because she just checked her phone and it was past eight o'clock. She'd taken a taxi here and she highly doubted there was one that could pick her up now, even if she wanted to go. She really didn't want to leave, especially not after what just happened. But if Spencer didn't want her here, he didn't want her here. He had no obligation to let her in.

She'd never heard him speak in that tone before. She'd never heard him yell until today. But when Diana was about to slap him for the second time, she couldn't stand there and watch it happen. Julia would've done that a million times if it meant not seeing that happen to Spencer again. I mean, couldn't he understand that? She was only trying to help. But she knew it was deeper to Spencer than just witnessing Diana slap him, Julia knew that much.

Julia had felt bad and she wondered just how long he'd gone through that. She had ended up crouching down and sitting in front of Spencer's door and leaning her head against the wall. She felt the tears come up now, she hated seeing Spencer like that. Seeing him flinch like a small child. It hurt her, but what hurt more was Spencer telling her to go. Clearly, she wasn't used to that.

And as she let the tears fall, Spencer stood on the other side of the door, he had his hand on the handle, ready to apologize but then he heard her sobs. Sobs he caused. He hated seeing Julia upset, much less hearing it. He frowned as he walked away from the door. He needed to be alone right now and he knew that eventually, Julia would leave. Just like everyone else seemed to do.

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖࣪

Julia's ass was numb. She managed to get a twenty minute nap outside of Spencer's door, using her coat as a pillow. She hadn't heard any commotion from the inside of Spencer's apartment, hoping it died down for the sake of his own sanity. Eventually, her head had slumped down and she'd hit it on the ground, muttering an 'ow' after shortly waking up.

Julia sat back up and rubbed her temples. She checked her watch, it was already ten o'clock. And the unlocking of the front door made her snap her gaze up to Spencer's door and the door opened and Spencer's head popped out, looking around and then down to see her.

"You're still here," Spencer spoke, but this wasn't as vicious as he seemed earlier. No, this seemed genuine and soft. "I asked you to leave and... you stayed." He sounded like he couldn't believe it.

Julia doesn't look at him, instead focusing on the seam of her scarf. She nods, still avoiding his gaze on her. And he's gazing in astonishment. Or disbelief. "Yeah. I-I figured you just needed time to cool down. So... I stayed." Julia admitted and paused before adding, "That and there's no taxis running right now."

Spencer kneels down to Julia's level but she still avoids looking at him. "Julia, I'm really sorry," He starts. "I lost my cool and you didn't deserve that. And I'll spend the rest of my life repaying you for it." Julia decides to look at him and she could tell by his eyes that he means it and that he does seem genuinely sad about it.

"It's okay," Julia assures and then notices the bruise around his eye and mumbles, "Oh..." She gives his cheek a feather touch and he winces from the pain. "Are you okay?" Julia decides to ask.

Instead of answering, Spencer just says, "If you could, uh, not tell the team—" Julia immediately shakes her head, "Of course. You didn't even need to ask." Spencer looks at her, thanking her silently and feeling terrible about how he's treated her all day.

"Please come back in." Spencer told, standing up. Julia hears his knee crack in process. "I think it'd be better if you stayed the night tonight inside than out here. You can take my bed."

Julia begins to attempt to stand but Spencer ends up helping her in the end, "Oh, I can't ask you to do that." Julia shakes her head, deciding to decline the offer. "No, it's okay, Spencer says. "I'm probably not going to get that much sleep tonight anyways."

The woman takes another look at his face and sighs, "Well, why don't we talk about it after I get your face cleaned up, yeah?" She gives him a small smile as she enters back into the apartment.

Julia has cleaned up a few wounds in her lifetime, but she wouldn't say she's an expert on it, she knows a few of the basics, obviously. She's quick to grab a rag and soak warm water into it and just dabs a bit on his wound. She's sitting on the table in front of him, trying her best not to hurt him. His face twitches a bit but he's holding back from sprouting out an 'ow'.

"Does that hurt?" Julia asks softly but Spencer shakes his head, "No, it's okay." There's a long pause and Spencer opens his eyes after keeping them closed and he realizes why he's been keeping his eyes closed. Because he could make straight eye contact with Julia. And if he were to gaze down, he'd— Spencer, calm yourself down.

"Can I ask you something?" Julia asks, breaking the silence. "Uh, sure." Spencer tells, preparing himself for whatever Julia may ask. He can tell she's hesitant as she fiddles with the rag in front of him. "Does that..." She pauses. "Happen often?"

Spencer knows there's no point in hiding it. He'd very obviously prepared himself for that second slap too well for both of their likings. "When her episodes are really bad," Spencer admits. "It only happened a handful of times." Julia shuts her eyes as if she's in pain. And she is. For Spencer.

"Oh, Spencer, I'm so sorry." Julia tells but Spencer shakes his head, hiding his pain with a sheepish smile. "It's nothing I can't handle." He tells and as his gaze is pointed down, he notices something on Julia's forearm.

Spencer furrows his brows as he sees something that looks a lot like a bruise on her arm. Half of it is covered by her sleeve but some of it protruding and showing. "Hey, what happened to your arm?" He asks.

Julia looks down at her arm, at the same bruise Gabe pointed out earlier today. "Oh, uh, work related injury." Juli shrugged with a smile. "It's really not that bad, just slipped while trying to get the bad guy, is all. Hurt like hell, but we got him." Spencer notices as she pulls the rest of her sleeve down, hiding the bruise away but before he can ask another question, Julia cuts him off from doing so.

"Can I ask you another question?" Spencer nods at this and Julia furrows her own brows in concern as she wonders, "What was it that you and your mom were fighting over?" Spencer furrows his brows in confusion. "When you guys were on the ground, you were trying to get something out of her hand, what was it?"

Spencer sighs. He doesn't know what to say to her. I mean, could he trust her with a secret? Especially with something that was as big as this? "Um..." His nose twitches as he sniffles and he sits forward. "It's her medicine."

"Is it medicine... made of gold or something? Because I can't help but wonder why you reacted the way you did." Julia told and Spencer sighs, really unsure if he should tell Julia the truth.

In the end, what harm could it do? They were both in the FBI and if Julia knew how serious it was, she wouldn't say anything. But there was some part in his brain that reminded him that Julia had once said she couldn't keep secrets but she wasn't as bad as Garcia when it came to hiding them. Spencer feels conflicted but he knows that if he were to ask her to keep it between them, she would. Something tells him she would.

Spencer sighs and sits straight. "Well, my mother's medicine... it... it's not from... here."
Julia furrows her brows and her nostrils flare as she does, "What do you mean?"

Before he can go into detail, Diana opens her door and both Spencer and Julia their attentions to the door. Diana takes a deep breath with a calm smile and crosses her arms. "Well, that was just what I needed." She says and Spencer looks at his mother. "Hmm?"

"My nap," Diana clarifies. "It really did the trick." She walks towards the living room and notices the scrapbook on the chair that she threw a little bit ago. "Oh, my goodness. My scrapbook." She smiles. "Oh, I've been keeping this since I don't know when."

Julia peers at Spencer for a second and she can tell that he's waiting. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, ready to see if he needs to walk on eggshells again, waiting to see if she's in a good mood. He's watching her to try and calculate her next move. And she frowns at that.

"I have no idea how it got here, but..." Diana looks down at Spencer as she sees his face, taking her forefinger and thumb to his chin to see the bruise. "Ohh, honey. What did you do to your face? It's all red."

"Probably bumped into something." Spencer tells and Julia looks at him. She knows he doesn't want his mother to know the damage she caused. To be honest, she'd do the same thing. "Oh, you need to be more careful. It's really awful." Spencer nods, "I will."

"You know, you always were so clumsy. Smart as a whip. But I used to call you Crash. You were always bumping into things." Julia frowns, she know he already told her this has happened since he was a kid but it still upset her.

Diana then turns her attention to the guest next to Spencer. "And you must be Julia." Diana smiles and it's a sight Julia is a little too unfamiliar with right now. She stares at the woman with wide eyes and then looks at Spencer, nodding at her to go along with it.

"Uh, yes, I-I am." Julia smiles. "Oh, Spencer. You were right, she is beautiful." Diana tells and Julia chuckles as Spencer looks at his mother with wide eyes and his cheeks redden. "Mom."

Diana chuckles a bit as she goes to sit on the couch with her scrapbook. "Julia, you should come and look at this. I have a lot of photos of Spencer when he was young that you might enjoy." Julia definitely can't say no to that offer, smiling a bit as she walks over to couch and sits next to Diana.

"Spencer tells me you enjoy teasing him. I figure I could help with that." Diana says and Julia chuckles, "I could use the help." Spencer looks at Julia with his mother and can't help but let his mind drift. Is this what the future could look like? Is this what he could see five years from now? (Maybe with a toddler that looks just like her running around the apartment, too.) Okay, now you're thinking too far, Spencer. And don't ask him why he'd think they'd have a girl.

          Julia was seated next to Diana as she showed her photos when she'd come across a page in his scrapbook and called her son over. He was seated behind Julia on the couch rest. "Honey, what is this?" She asked.

        "Oh, it's a ticket stub." Spencer answered. "What is that?" Diana asks. "A ticket stub? When you go to a concert or a movie you get a ticket so they'll let you in." Spencer explained.

         Diana turns a page and Julia sees a big pamphlet marked "Elvis 1976 Concert".  "No way," Julia comments. "You saw Elvis in concert?" Diana looks down as she goes over it in her head and shakes her head, "I don't know. I did many things when I was young. Who is he?" Spencer chimes in, "Elvis Presley. He's a very famous rock and roll singer."

        Diana turns a couple more pages when she comes across a photo of a trapeze tightrope walker and gasps. "Oh, my gosh! I'd almost forgotten about this."
       "What is that?" Spencer asks.
       "When you were a little boy, Spencer, I took you to the circus, and after that, all you could talk about is you wanted to be a tightrope walker when you grew up." She explained.

        Spencer furrows her brows, "I thought I wanted to be a magician." Diana nods, "You did. That was later. This was first."
        "You, a tightrope walker?" Julia joked. "Really? I don't remember that at all." Spencer chuckles. "Oh, no wonder. You were no more than three or four." Diana said.

        Spencer tries to get a closer look. "What's on its head?" He asks. Diana laughs, "It's you!"
        Spencer's eyes widen. "That's me?"
        "Yes," Diana answered and Julia smiles at the little photo of little Spencer Reid. "You glued that on there yourself."

        "You were a pretty cute kid, Spencer." Julia smiled and Spencer's ears turned pink at that.

         Diana gently grabs Spencer's wrist as she points to his wrist. "See this little scar right there on your wrist?" She asks. "That's from where you fell when you were trying to balance on our backyard fence." Julia looks down, she hadn't noticed the scar before. But add that to the list of things that she likes about him.

        "Oh, you were so determined to make it the whole way. And I'll never forget looking out the kitchen window, watching you out there as you were trying to make a balancing pole from a broomstick. Calculating how long it should be and making adjustments. My little budding genius." Diana explains and Julia smiles, thinking about tiny Spencer mumbling to himself as he puts the broomstick horizontal and can't help but think if tiny her and tiny Spencer would've been best friends. And they definitely would've.

        "Did I ever make it?" Spencer asked.
        "No," Diana answered sadly. "And you were heartbroken. You see, the problem was, you were so smart, you were so brilliant, you really believed that you could solve anything if you just put your brain into it." Spencer's quivering jaw doesn't go unnoticed. "But that tightrope... no, you just couldn't figure that out. But you were meant for bigger things, Spencer. Now, how do you tell that to a four-year-old boy?" Diana kisses his hand and Julia looks down at the photo and frowns.

          Poor Spencer was so innocent in all of it. Julia wished she and Spencer could've been the same age and the same grade because if no one else would've been friends with little Spencer, she definitely would've and wouldn't have batted an eye. She'd cared so deeply about him.

           Eventually, Diana's consciousness had deterred and she'd gone back to her room, Spencer going to give her the tea that Julia had bought her earlier to drink. As he walked back out, closing his mother's door, he had a sad look on his face and Julia had noticed.

           "How is she?" Julia asked. Spencer looks at the woman and looks down, "She, uh, she didn't—" Julia frowns as she sees Spencer can't even get the words out. It must be so tough for him, his mother battling schizophrenia and Alzheimer's all in one. It's terrible.

            Spencer sits down, taking a moment to himself before finding something in the book in front of him regarding the case. Julia notices the lightbulb going off in his head. "What's up?" Julia asks but Spencer doesn't answer, going to quickly call the team.

           "Emily." Spencer starts, putting the phone on speaker as Julia takes a look at what he's seeing. "What is it, Reid?" Emily asked. "I think our unsub is trying to literally send his victims to hell." Spencer told.

          Julia furrows her brows, "What are you saying?"
         "Sinkholes don't just exist in a geologic context. They also have a symbolic history. In Mexico, they're called cenotes, and the ancient Mayans believed them to be portals to the underworld. They even made human sacrifices to certain cenotes." Spencer stands up, grabbing another book and flipping through it.

         "The suicide aspect of the unsub's ritual makes sense now." Stephen spoke. "That is a sin, right? And you can't go to hell unless you've sinned."

          "In Bryce's mind, the devil opened up the Earth and swallowed his parents." Emily added. "Now this is his way of showing his gratitude."
          "That's why he must be choosing especially virtuous victims, people who have tickets to a front-row seat in heaven." Rossi continued.
        "Until Bryce stamped them null and void and sent them in the other direction." Stephen told.

        "Oh and to add on," Julia spoke up. "I was doing a bit of research on the mark. I think the mark he's making on his victims' arms is a rough rendering of the Ophiuchus star cluster."
        "Which is?" Emily asks.
        "If I remember correctly, I did minor in astronomy — it's a constellation of the Devil." Julia said. "Three of the disposal sites correlates with a three-star section of the constellation." Reid added.

       "So he could be using that as a guide to dumping the bodies." Emily tells. "Is there a discernible pattern of progression?" Stephen asks.

       "It's hard to say for sure, but my guess is he'll be heading to a sinkhole in the vicinity of latitude 27.75, longitude minus 82.25." Spencer told and the team had what they needed.

         In the end, the team had caught the bad guy and told Julia and Spencer and that's when Spencer had begun to clean up their boards and files. And as Spencer cleaned, he had bumped into something and saw as Julia's feet were sticking off the couch and she was sleeping soundly on the couch. He remembered that she was finishing up piling the paperwork on the couch and she must've fallen asleep as she did so.

Spencer looks down at Julia with a small smile on his face. In the end, he'd decided not to wake her. It'd been a long day for everyone and it'd probably be good for her to get some rest. So, he grabbed one of his throw blankets and tossed it over her body and hoped she'd be comfortable for the night. He looks down at her peacefully sleeping and thinks to himself.

         He really needed to figure out his own feelings and figure out what it was he wanted Julia to do. Break up with her boyfriend? Go to him? Realize he was the best option, especially considering that he'd gotten her peonies instead of carnations, which were her favorite flower? And that he'd call her 'Juli' when she hated the nickname? The man wasn't keeping score or anything, but Thomas Beauregard sounded like a real piece of work. Couldn't Julia see that she deserved better than him? Even if it wasn't with Spencer, she deserved to be happy.

          Keeping to himself, he decides to leave her alone for the night and goes to check on his mother and finds her asleep. He decides to join her, opting for the chair next to her bed. And especially after what happened with her medicine, he needed to keep an eye on her. He was always a light sleeper anyways.

           Around five in the morning, Julia had eventually woke up and looked around, almost forgetting where she was until she realized that she'd fallen asleep on Spencer's plush couch. She'd decided to call her brother to come and pick her up since she knew he liked doing early morning jogs and maybe she'd join him on one this morning.

            Julia had gone to say goodbye to Spencer and saw that he wasn't in his room but in his mother's, sleeping on the couch next to her bed. She looks at him and walks over, feeling the need to run a hand through his messy locks but she stops herself, deciding to grab the throw blanket that somehow ended up on her when she slept — and puts it over Spencer.

           Julia had figured that maybe he'd barely gotten enough sleep as it is and decided that not waking him up was probably the best option right now. Especially after his little nose twitch while he slept, she decided to leave him a note instead.

Hey, Spencer! :)
Didn't want to wake you but my brother came to pick me up. Hope you'll be refreshed when you read this. And hopefully your mom will be doing better today. Call me if you need anything. See you at work!
-Jules aka your favorite <3

           She'd done a little doodle on the bottom of a stick figure standing on a stick, she was trying to make a someone walking on a tightrope but of course, failed. This was why she kept failing art in high school. And she leaves the apartment, in the back of her mind, wondering how it would've been if she just stayed.

hey lovelies!
sorry if this was lowkey rushed i was tired lmao
i hope y'all enjoyed this tho 🤗
#spulia is my endgame :)
one more episode and then the spencer storyline 😓
IM SCURREDDDDD
anywayssss
thank y'all for reading and i love you all :)
-mya <333