Part 1

Two things revolutionized life: moving to the country and falling in love.

- Nick Love

Chapter 01

BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA

"Hey Junior G-Man." Penelope called out as she brought the last of the day's work down. "It's Dr. Who premier night. Want to come over and watch with me?"

"Um, no thank you." Spencer replied.

"What, did you finally get a TV?" Ooo, hey, this was exciting. "Cable? Internet service? I will build you the best system. We can game together."

"Um, no, no TV." Why was he not looking at her? "Um, actually would you record it for me?"

"Sure. Wait, you're skipping Dr Who?"

"Um, yeah. I have something to do tonight."

"What could possibly be more important that Dr. Who...ooooo!" There could only be one thing. Penelope's eyes went wide. "Do you have a date?" Spencer slowly turned beet red as he refused to look up. "Oh my god, you do have a date!"

"Yes, all right. I have a date."

"Oh. My. God! With who and where to?"

"With whom."

"Whatever! Tell me!"

"Tell me what?" JJ said as she and the newbie, Tara Lewis, approached the cluster of desks.

"Our boy has a date tonight!" Penelope replied.

"Nice." Tara said.

"Awww, that's great Spence." JJ kind of hugged him a little, and mouthed tell you later to Tara behind his back. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"Um, Dr. Sara Peabody. She, um, teaches mathematics at Georgetown."

"Nice. So, first date, where are you taking her?"

"Um, no, actually, and we're going to dinner and then a movie."

"Very nice." Morgan said as he joined the group. "Who's the lucky lady? And are you taking her back to your place after, lover?"

"Mathematics professor over at Georgetown." Penelope said.

"And as a wise friend once said to me, baby steps, baby steps." Spencer replied with a smile.

They all laughed at that and then merrily shooed him out the door. "Okay, so what is the big deal?" Tara asked once he was gone.

"The last girl he was interested in, and I mean he fell in love with her hard, was shot in front of him by her stalker." JJ said as they started walking to Penelope's lair. "Before they had a chance to go out or anything."

"But he fell in love with her."

"Correspondence. It was very real for him."

"She didn't make it?"

"Nope. Died in his arms on scene."

"Oh man. Is this is first time back on the horse?"

"He went out for coffee with someone back in March." Penelope replied. "But they really didn't click at all."

"Got it." Tara nodded. "So this is a big deal."

"Big deal." JJ nodded.

"So, Sara Peabody from Georgetown." Penelope started typing.

"Wait, you're running background on his girlfriend?" Tara asked. "Did you do this for all his dates?"

"We do this for everyone's dates." Morgan replied. "If it goes more than one."

"Seriously?"

"Oh, we get so many crazies." JJ said. "You can't be too careful."

"So I have this to look forward to?"

"Reid's girl was shot by her stalker." Penelope said, looking over her shoulder. "I had one guy shoot a teammate and try to blow up three others, and another one shoot me and try to take over the unit..."

"That was my first shooting." JJ said. "Emily was hunted down by a former boyfriend. Granted she was undercover at the time..."

"And Kate's girl was kidnapped by a guy she thought she was dating." Morgan said. "And Gideon's girl was killed by an Unsub."

"Okay. Okay." Tara sounded resigned to her fate. "I get it. Sara Peabody."

Penelope went back to typing. "Sara Peabody. Okay, she's 30, originally from San Francisco, never married, only family is a brother Thomas Peabody, CEO of Peabody Engineering."

"Oh they're big." Tara said.

"Yeah, looks like money in the family. No warrants, no priors, a couple of tickets for speeding..."

"California driving is not DC driving."

"Very true. Okay here we go." Penelope pulled up what looked like a faculty picture of a pretty blue-eyed red head.

"I thought he had a thing for blonds." JJ said.

"So did I. I don't know why he never dated Seaver." Penelope said. "Former teammate." She said to Tara.

"He tried." JJ replied. "She couldn't stand him. Too nerdy."

"Her loss."

"Did you two ever go out?" Tara asked JJ.

"Once." JJ replied. "We decided to remain friends."

"Eight years and we still don't have the details." Penelope said.

"And you never will." JJ replied.

"I know her from somewhere." Morgan said.

That was unexpected. "From where?" Penelope asked.

"I don't know but she looks familiar. I know I never dated her, not my type."

"Interview her? Person of interest?" JJ asked.

"No, not from work." Morgan shook his head. "Somewhere though. I will figure this."

"This is weird." Penelope said.

"Oh no." JJ said.

"No, not that weird but weird. According to this she has some kind of sealed record with CPS."

"But not a criminal record?" Tara asked.

"Not that I can tell."

"Nothing since then?" JJ asked.

"Nope." Penelope replied. " Looks like after the record was sealed she graduated from St. Margaret's boarding school, went on to MIT, doctorate in Mathematics, worked there for two years, then moved to Georgetown two years ago. Absolutely nothing exciting anywhere."

"Whatever it was either she was the victim or she turned her life around." Morgan said. "I'm not one to hold something like that against anyone."

"As long as it doesn't come around to bite Spence in the backside." JJ replied. "Speaking of biting though, isn't tonight Movie Club night?"

"Book club night." Penelope replied. "Movie club is on Tuesdays."

"Which is the one he's not supposed to miss?"

"Movie club."

"Sure?"

"Okay, someone translate for me?" Tara asked.

The three others shared a look, then Morgan got up and closed the door. "Okay, this never leaves this room." JJ said.

"Okay." Tara agreed.

"Back in, I think it was '08, we had a case down in Atlanta." Morgan said. "The Unsub took pretty boy hostage."

"It was my fault." JJ said. "We split up and I..."

"Hey, stop that." Penelope said, taking her friends hand.

"The Unsub shared his favorite recreational substance." Morgan said. "Dilaudid cut with LSD."

"Ouch." Tara said. "How much?"

"Eight hits in about thirty-six hours." Morgan replied. Tara whistled. "Thing was, the senior agent who was supposed to walk him through the protocol for substance exposure after...didn't. And didn't say anything to Hotch who didn't follow up..."

"Oh hell. That senior agent still with the Bureau?"

"Nope. Unsub. Reid got clean on his own a couple months later. It never made it into his jacket."

"And you all want to keep it that way. Thank you for trusting me with it. So Movie Night is...NA?"

"Yeah." JJ said. "Eight years now."

"Thing is, it's a closed meeting for cops and agents." Penelope said. "Which we are also not supposed to know about."

"So it's not in his jacket but odds are someone is keeping a look out for him."

"Yeah."

"Eight years though, good for him. So what's Book Club night then?"

They thought about it a moment. "You know, I have no idea." JJ said.

"Not a clue." Penelope replied.

"When did it start?"

"After Maeve died."

"That might have something to do with it." Tara said. "Grief counseling maybe."

"That would make sense." JJ replied. "But I'm not going to ask him. We should wait for him to tell us."

.

Notes: Before anyone worries that I'm not going to finish The Watcher, I am. I'm going to finish chapter 30 today and 31 and 32 likely tomorrow. It's been kind of stymied because chapter 31 bore a strong resemblance to some recent events here in the US and I decided it would be distasteful in the extreme to keep it the way it was so it needed to be re-written which is not going easily. It might just end up ending a little more quickly than I like. In the meantime this one decided to fall out of my word processor and since I haven't written one rated T in a very long time I decided to get it going. Call it an early Christmas gift.

Set sometime between s11xe01 and s11xe02, because Tara Lewis is there, but she only just joined the team, and cannon to that point.