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A/n the first few chapters of this story take place between JJ's announcement of Emily's death at the hospital and her funeral. Spoilers for "Lauren and for epispodes between "Sense Memory and Lauren" Many thanks to my beta for givning me the idea for this story in the first place. I hope you enjoy it.

The Forgotten One

He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't wrap his head around it. It couldn't be true because it wasn't supposed to happen, not to her. He jumped up and headed toward the door where JJ stood with tears trembling in her eyes. He had to see it for himself and know it was real.

She stopped him, drawing him into her arms. "I didn't get a chance to say goodbye." He said in a trembling and watery voice before giving into sobs that wracked his body.

JJ let him cry for a while. Her fingers stroked his back and shoulders like a mother comforting her child. He didn't want to let go of her, but eventually he had to when she pulled away. She smiled at him when their bodies separated, smiled through her own tears. "Spence…" She began to say.

"No!" He held up a hand and shook his head. "I can't handle this." He squeaked.

She didn't attempt to stop him when he surged around her and left the waiting area. He wanted so badly to invade the operating room, or even the morgue to see her, but he couldn't make his feet take him in that direction. Instead, he left the hospital and went back to his lonely apartment.

He ignored all of them when they tried to see him or call him. He just sat on his battered couch with his knees up to his chest and replayed the last conversation he'd had with Emily. An entire day went by with him not eating and only getting up when he absolutely needed water or the bathroom

He couldn't stop thinking about the time he'd call her, excited to invite her to see "Solaris" with him in its original Russian. She'd turned him down, but it was okay because he assumed it wouldn't be the last time they had a chance to go out. If he'd only had some little clue that something was wrong.

He rocked back and forth on his couch, in the early morning hours, like a small child badly in need of his mother. Images forced their way into his head, but he ignored them in favor of thinking back to that same conversation. There had to be some clue in it that he should've recognized and acted upon. If he had, then she'd still be here. He might have found the way to get to her in enough time for them to save her life.

He ran the words through his head again, finally stopping at something that got through the staggering grief in his head.

"Reid…"

"Emily… You are not going to believe this."

"No?"

"They're showing Solaris tonight, the original in the theaters. Do you wanna go?"

"Did Morgan put you up to this?"

"What?"

"Did Morgan tell you to call me?"

"Morgan doesn't know what Solaris is."

"So you just called me out of the blue."

"Well the original Solaris is in Russian, so really you and I are the only ones that can really enjoy it."

"Isn't Solaris like four hours long?"

"It's five…the best sci-fi meditation film of all time, but for some reason they never show it in the theaters. You wanna go with me?"

"Sorry handsome, I'm going to have to pass. I'm just going to hang out with Sergio tonight."

"Oh shoot I didn't realize that -"

"Relax Reid, Sergio is my new cat, but um… thank you."

"For what?"

"For being you."

"Ah, thanks but I don't know how to be anyone else."

"Yeah… that's what I love about ya."

"Bye."

He just couldn't stop analyzing the conversation in his head, the way she assumed Morgan had put him up to asking her and how she said thank you for being him, as if she was trying to say good-bye. Was she trying to give him advanced warning? He didn't know and now would never know because she was gone.

Something niggled at him as he kept replaying the words over in his head. It was like he was forgetting something important. For a long time he couldn't figure out what was bothering him. Then it hit him hard like a bolt from heaven. Emily had a new cat. He stopped rocking and sat up straight. The cat was probably in her apartment by himself wondering why she hadn't come back. Cats were smart. They knew when something was wrong. He frowned. He couldn't do anything about the cat. Emily probably had someone to take care of him when she was gone.

She didn't know she was going to die!

He bit his lip and began rocking. Animals didn't like him, so there was nothing he could do but call Garcia. She'd know what to do. He looked at his watch and realized that it was four in the morning. He'd been sitting there going over his memories for four hours straight. His legs protested when he unfolded them to stand up and the headache, which had receded back a bit, was coming back vigorously. He wondered if he could sleep, then decided to make some coffee and wait to call Garcia.

It was six am sharp when he dialed her number. The phone rang and rang until her voice said. "This better be good or I'll make you wish you'd never met the Goddess of the Information Superhighway."

"Garcia." He squeaked.

"Reid… Are you crazy? Do you know what time it is?"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep and I have a problem."

"We all have a big problem sweet cheek. Go back to bed. Hotch said we have the next week off and frankly I don't want to talk to anyone."

"I'm sorry… I was just thinking about Emily and," he tried to choke back a sob, but didn't quite make it.

"Oh honey…" He heard tears gather in her voice like storm clouds on the horizon.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you sad again." He apologized, feeling like an insensitive jackass.

"It's alright Reid. Why don't you come over here for breakfast? I'll never get back to sleep now."

"Are you sure?" He squeaked against sudden tears.

"Yeah… as long as you bring coffee from Starbucks."

"You got it."

CMCMCMCM

"I can believe I let you talk me into this." She hissed as they walked down the hallway to Emily's apartment behind the manager.

"I didn't know what else to do. We can't just leave her cat there." Reid whispered back.

Garcia sighed. She couldn't stay mad at him for any length of time. He was too cute. She sighed again and smacked him lightly on the arm as the manager opened the door. "You owe me." She said.

The alarm was disabled, probably from when Rossi and Morgan were there looking for clues. Reid wondered why they hadn't said anything about the cat.

"Thank you…." Garcia was saying to the manager.

"No problem… I liked Ms Prentiss. She never gave me no trouble." He said with a heavy Brooklyn accent. "You need anything, you just ask for Rocky."

"Do you know anything about her cat?"

"Naw... Only that she asked me a few weeks ago if she could have a cat. I said it was fine with me though I don't like cats. They make me sneeze." He stood outside the door as though waiting for a rattlesnake to jump out and bite him."

It was incongruous with the man who stood about five ten, about two fifty with graying and receding hair, but had the attitude of 'don't mess with me or you'll be sorry' about him.

"You don' have to come in. We'll just look around to see if he's here." Garcia soothed.

"I know that sometime Ms Stowe in 312 takes care of him when Ms Prentiss has to go outta town for a few days on cases."

"Thank you." Reid said.

Rocky shut the door and left them to Emily's apartment. Garcia didn't say anything as they made their way down the entry hall to her bedroom. The half-drawn curtain allowed the early morning sun to stream into the room. The place was tidy after Rossi and Morgan had been there and CSIs after her death. It didn't look like a crime scene. In fact, to Reid it looked like she might come home at any second. More tears welled up in his eyes.

"I don't know if I can do this." Garcia said.

"I'm sorry I made you come in here with me. I didn't realize how hard it would be to see her place."

She engulfed him in a hug. She kissed his cheek and he knew he'd have a bright red lip print on his face, but he didn't care.

She looked around. "Alright, if I'm a cat where do I hide? Sergio." She called out.

"Cats don't respond to names like dogs." Reid said.

"Well then let's try this, here kitty-kitty-kitty."

They waited and then Reid decided to stoop down to look under the bed. There was nothing there but dust. He was beginning to think this was a waste of time, when Garcia said, "Oh there you are. Oh you are a pretty kitty."

He stood up to see a black cat perched on the windowsill staring at him as if it wanted to hypnotize him into leaping out the window. It swished its tail and hissed at Reid, the fur standing up on its back.

"Um… hello Sergio."

The cat leaped down, hurried over to Garcia where it weaved in-between her legs, and meowed, all the while keeping its dark eyes glued to Reid.

"He hates me." Reid said.

"Don't be ridiculous. Cats don't hate people."

Garcia picked him up. "You're just hungry and missing Emily. Aren't you pretty kitty?"

The cat arched its head under her scratching fingers. His eyes closed so Reid felt like he could take a step closer to him. The cat's eyes snapped open. He yowled at Reid, leaped out of Garcia's arms and ran out of the room.

"Hey…"

"Sorry, I told you he doesn't like me."

"Well let's go find him."

"What are we going to do when we find him?"

She stared at him through purple framed glasses that matched her tunic blouse with pink and yellow tulips silk screened on the front.

"We're not doing anything. This was your idea. You dragged me out of bed at the crack of dawn on a day I don't have to work and the morning after Emily…" Her breath began to hitch as tears gathered in her eyes. "You're taking the cat home with you."