Different Addictions - August 7th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 7
Title: Different Addictions
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Criminal Minds
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Criminal Minds people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Dawn is woken in the middle of the night and rushes to Nevada
Notes: Dawn of the IC Part 4 - Links Page
Seasons: Post-Series/Season 11
Characters: Dawn, Spencer, Spike, Diane Reid
Word Count: 2530
Dawn picked up her phone, not even bothering to glance at the clock. She had gone to bed an hours before the sun went down and her room was now pitch black. It didn’t really matter though, if she ignored it they would go to the next person on the tree until they got someone who was awake. But she was already sliding the call button, too used to answering her phone at random times of the day and night to ignore the call.
“Hello?” she grunted into the phone less than gracefully, her ribs protesting.
“Dawn?” Spencer Reid’s voice made her focus a bit.
“Spencer?” she cleared her throat. “I didn’t expect to hear from you.” She paused. “Is the world ending?”
She could almost imagine him stopping and considering her words. His long fingers gripping his only piece of modern technology to his ear.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“A bed,” she said as she sat up. “What’s going on?”
“Do you remember what I told you about my mom?”
“Yeah.” A brilliant mind that worries about the inherency rate of schizophrenia was hard to forget. Also reminded her of how most of the Council treated Dana.
There were several seconds of silence before Spencer cleared his throat. “It’s worse.”
“I’m sorry.” Dawn shifted so she was sitting in the middle of her bed, legs crossed, her torso at an odd angle trying to relieve the pain in her chest.
“Me too,” he replied. “I shouldn’t have called.”
“Spencer, wait,” she nearly yelled. “Are you okay?”
“I…I can’t lose her, not like this.”
“Where are you?” Dawn asked.
“Las Vegas.”
“I’m twenty minutes out of the city,” she told him. “Want me to come meet you?”
“You’re here?” he questioned.
“Only if you want me to be.”
He hesitated. “Yeah. I’m at a hotel.”
88888888
Dawn pulled her M.I.T. hoodie over her black tank top and shoved her feet into running shoes. She wore jeans and her hair twisted into a messy bun. She checked she had her cell, wallet, keys, rings, and pendent.
She walked to the bathroom door and closed it. She touched the pendent to it, picturing the address she had gotten from Spencer. She reached for the door knob and pushed it open an inch. She pushed her head through and checked the cost was clear. She had come out of a women’s restroom on the bottom floor of the hotel. She stepped out the door.
She closed the door and then opened it again, making sure the portal had snapped shut. It had and she was free to continue on. Dawn loved that spell. It meant she spent nothing on hotel rooms and got to sleep every night in her own bed while she traveled. Plus never having to worry about forgetting to pack things or dealing with tiny travel sized shampoos.
Stepping into the main lobby, Dawn looked around. Spencer was easy to spot, as he was a gangly six one. He wore slacks, a button up shirt, tie, and a vest. The only thing missing from the last time she’d seen him, was his gun and badge. He appeared a little less put together.
“Spencer?” she said as she approached.
He turned to her. His face registered none of the apprehension that had marked their first encounters. He saw her as Dawn, only Dawn.
Dawn grinned and put her hands in the front pocket of her hoodie.
“Do you want t-to get something to eat?” he asked.
“There is a pancake place around the corner,” she told him.
“Sure,” he waved her to the front doors of the lobby. He adjusted his messenger bag, checking it was secure and all the pockets closed.
They walked away from the small number of similarly themed hotels. This far off the famous Strip, things were quiet. They made no attempt at conversation, both nearly jumping at a police siren that started near them.
When they finally made it into the blue and white pancake restaurant, they were seated after a few minutes. A haggard waitress of at least forty years took their drink order: decaf coffee and a couple glasses of water.
“What are you doing in Vegas?” Spencer asked.
Dawn shrugged. She considered her words a moment, trying to avoid lying. “There’s something called vacation, I’ve been ordered to take some.” Half-truths, she had been ordered to take it easy, and Spike had suggested she take a vacation. But how else exactly was she supposed to explain being in D.C. when he called and then in Vegas twenty minutes later?
“You chose Vegas?”
“Nah, it was a friend’s choice, something came up,” she shrugged.
He watched her. Probably spotting her half-truths. But he made no comment just sat back as the waitress reappeared with the coffee carafe and waters.
Dawn curled her arm around her waist, wincing at some of her still mending ribs. It was the reason she had been ordered to take it easy. Two fingers on her right hand were swollen from the last fight she had.
“How are you?” she asked.
Spencer didn’t answer, his focus on rubbing his finger along the handle of his mug.
They sat in silence, sipping coffee and shooing away the waitress each time she approached.
“Why did you come?” he asked.
“Why did you call me?” she shot back softly.
“Because of what you told me about your mom.”
“That her tumor caused full hallucinations that included screaming at me that I wasn’t real or not recognizing me?” Dawn guessed. “Fourteen year old me had a really rough year.” She played with the cuff of her left sleeve. “It’s kinda etched in my mind, those episodes.”
He nodded slowly. “She has early onset Alzheimer’s.”
“How advanced?”
“They can’t seem to get her meds stabilized.”
“Brain chemistry things,” she surmised. “Have you thought about moving her closer to you?”
“I’ve asked before, but she refuses, she wants to stay in Las Vegas.”
Dawn nodded. Having dealt with Dana and Drusilla at length, she had some experience with what happened when a not quite sane person made a decision. Stubborn mules were easier to convince.
“How did you hurt your hand?” he asked.
“Fight with something akin to a brick wall,” she told him as she flex the injured hand. “Though my ribs prove it couldn’t have been a brick wall since it hit back.”
“I had a drug problem,” Spencer suddenly said. Then he continued rapidly. “I got hooked on dilaudid by an unsub and continued using it for a while afterwards to cope.”
Dawn studied him. “Is that why I’m here?”
“I don’t like to make my team worry about me.”
“From what I’ve seen they worry about each other all the time anyway.”
“This is different.”
“Because you’re an addict.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call your sponsor?”
“He didn’t pick up.”
Dawn thought about the different addicts she’d dealt with over the years. None of them had been as self-aware as Spencer. She sighed and wiggled out of her hoodie. Once she tossed it on the bench next to her, she pulled her tank to bear just the top of her breasts. Thin marks were just visible breaking the tanned skin’s silky appearance.
“Are those…?”
“I did it until I was twenty-one,” she confessed evenly. “Matches ones from my kidnapping when I was fourteen.” She pulled her tank top back up to cover them. She crossed her arms and placed her elbows on the tabletop. “I stopped ten years ago, still struggle some days, even for weeks at a time…”
Spencer nodded. “What do you do?”
“I remind myself that I have no control over the world, but I can help people. But if I start again, I can’t help anybody.” She fiddled with the crystal pendent around her neck. “I also call a friend who will just meet for coffee and tell me terrible stories until I am in control.”
“What kind of stories?”
Dawn grinned and just started talking.
88888888
When day broke over Las Vegas, Spencer and Dawn were sitting in his hotel room, propped against the foot of the bed.
“It’s morning,” Dawn observed.
He looked at the clock. “Visiting hours start soon.”
“You should get cleaned up and go spend time with her.”
“Want to come?” he asked in a single rush of air.
“Can I go dressed as I am?” she replied without missing a beat.
“Okay.”
Dawn grinned. “Okay.” She stood. “I’ll meet you in the lobby.” She exited the room without waiting for his reply.
She was downstairs in the lobby for twenty minutes before her phone started buzzing. She fished it from her pocket. “Yeah?”
“Where are you, Bit?” Spike’s voice came across the line.
“Vegas,” she told him truthfully.
There was a pause on the other side. “What took ya there?”
“I believe you told me to relax or take a vacation.”
“I didn’t think you’d actually do it. You’re too much a Summers’ woman.”
“Euphemism for stubborn ass?” she asked.
“I didn’t say that,” Spike retorted sharply.
“Right, hence the euphemism,” she countered.
Dawn grinned, listening to him mutter under his breath about ridiculous women.
Then he sighed. “What are you doing in Vegas? A case or an actual vacation?”
“Well…I just spent all night with a guy,” she explained.
The crash on the other end of the line nearly made her chuckle.
“Look, I know you’re….grown, but you aren’t allowed to say things like that to me.”
“Like what?” she asked innocently.
“Don’t even.”
She sighed. “How is it I can only talk to Willow and Andrew about my sex life? You and Buffy would like to pretend I’m fifteen forever. And the rest like to ignore the fact that any of their charges are female.”
“There’s always Faith,” he reminded her.
“Oh please, Faith starts in and I feel like I need a notebook and pen to take notes.” She looked up, spotting Spencer standing nearby, pretending he was not close enough to hear. “Gotta go.”
“Be careful,” Spike said. “Whatever you are doing.”
“Doing?” she parroted. “What am I doing?” The line went dead. She chuckled and put it back in the pocket of her hoodie. “How much of that did you catch?”
“Something about being a stubborn ass,” Spencer admitted.
“Oh good, caught the important bits.” She shrugged. “Spike is like an older brother to me. Winding him up is about all I can do at a distance.”
“You like to tell him things that he will interpret based on his own experiences.”
“I’m a linguist. Words are my thing.”
88888888
Dawn had to admit to having been to a few institutions in her travels. Girls who dreamed of vampires and demons sometimes ended up in treatment before the Council could find them. It had taken her some years to realize that most of those who had split from reality could still see bits of the Key. A green hue around her, instead of a glowing ball of light in her place.
Still, she tensed a moment as she entered the Bennington Sanitarium. It took two people looking at her strangely, but continuing on before she relaxed.
“We’re here to see Diana Reid,” Spencer told the reception nurse.
“Doctor Reid,” the nurse said. “She had a bad night. I don’t know that she’s up for visitors.” She looked them over. “But I’ll check.”
“Thank you.”
When they were finally permitted to the area where Diana Reid was, Dawn was shocked at her height and how much Spencer could be a young male version of her. Diana seemed to be in control of herself and in a cheerful mood. But there was a moment when Diana had not recognized Spencer. It had been only a handful of seconds, but it was a sad commentary on the ravaged mind.
“And who is this?”
“Mom, this is Dawn. She’s…a friend.”
Diana’s hand came out, long elegant fingers offered. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Dawn replied with a smile as she shook the warm hand.
“Come, come. You should sit,” Diana ushered them into chairs around a table.
They all took seats.
“Well, Dawn, Spencer has told me nothing about you, so you’ll need to tell me about yourself.”
“I’m boring. A linguist and a geologist,” Dawn countered. “I’d much rather hear about you. Are you working on any projects?”
Diana’s face lit up as she launched into a lecture about a research project she was working on. Dawn noted that while Spencer pressed a smile at his mother’s enthusiasm, he was a bit saddened too.
Midway through a description of a particular common literary plot twist, Diana seemed to forget herself. Her entire face blanked and for a moment she appeared fearful. Then she looked at Dawn - who she had been lecturing directly to - and studied her.
“My Spencer is at Caltech,” she said conversationally. “He’s only fourteen.”
Dawn grinned. “I’m jealous, I was twenty-six before I started M.I.T.”
Diana beamed fondly. “He is a genius.” She seemed to focus again on the hoodie. “That…will not hide your condition for long. I suggest you figure out what are you going to do and drop my class so someone who is going to complete the course can attend.”
Dawn frowned. He eyes turned to Spencer who was looking at his mother. “Mom?”
Diana shifted her focus again. “Spencer.” She smiled. “What are you reading today?”
Spencer pulled a small stack of books from his bag and set them on the table.
88888888
It was afternoon before Diana’s condition deteriorated too far. They exited the sanitarium, to overcast sky and cool desert temperatures in the mid-fifties.
“Man, she is proud of you,” Dawn commented softly. It didn’t matter which version of Spencer she was talking about, she had always talked about her brilliant son with cheerful, motherly pride.
“She was having a good day,” Spencer commented.
“When do you head back to D.C.?” she asked.
“At the end of the week. My team is working a case, we’ll need to move on it soon.” He looked at her. “What about you?”
Dawn shrugged. “Whenever. It’s the nice part of what I do, come and go as I please.”
“Don’t you have bills to pay?”
“Yep, but I only have to do a few outside contracts a year to pay for my clothes, food, and rent.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Damn thing,” she cursed before putting it to her ear. “Yeah?” She rolled her eyes at the voice on the other end. “Why am I topic of discussion for all of you?”
She looked at Spencer and grimaced in apology. “Listen here, my business, stay out.” She hung up the phone. She pressed the volume button until it went into silent mode.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, they’re being over protective.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t help that someone figured out I was with an FBI agent…”
“Figured out?”
“Much like your agency, the Council tracks their people for both safety and convenience. Only in my case it’s a family who is nosy beyond belief, not just protocol.”
Title: Different Addictions
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Criminal Minds
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Criminal Minds people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Dawn is woken in the middle of the night and rushes to Nevada
Notes: Dawn of the IC Part 4 - Links Page
Seasons: Post-Series/Season 11
Characters: Dawn, Spencer, Spike, Diane Reid
Word Count: 2530
Dawn picked up her phone, not even bothering to glance at the clock. She had gone to bed an hours before the sun went down and her room was now pitch black. It didn’t really matter though, if she ignored it they would go to the next person on the tree until they got someone who was awake. But she was already sliding the call button, too used to answering her phone at random times of the day and night to ignore the call.
“Hello?” she grunted into the phone less than gracefully, her ribs protesting.
“Dawn?” Spencer Reid’s voice made her focus a bit.
“Spencer?” she cleared her throat. “I didn’t expect to hear from you.” She paused. “Is the world ending?”
She could almost imagine him stopping and considering her words. His long fingers gripping his only piece of modern technology to his ear.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“A bed,” she said as she sat up. “What’s going on?”
“Do you remember what I told you about my mom?”
“Yeah.” A brilliant mind that worries about the inherency rate of schizophrenia was hard to forget. Also reminded her of how most of the Council treated Dana.
There were several seconds of silence before Spencer cleared his throat. “It’s worse.”
“I’m sorry.” Dawn shifted so she was sitting in the middle of her bed, legs crossed, her torso at an odd angle trying to relieve the pain in her chest.
“Me too,” he replied. “I shouldn’t have called.”
“Spencer, wait,” she nearly yelled. “Are you okay?”
“I…I can’t lose her, not like this.”
“Where are you?” Dawn asked.
“Las Vegas.”
“I’m twenty minutes out of the city,” she told him. “Want me to come meet you?”
“You’re here?” he questioned.
“Only if you want me to be.”
He hesitated. “Yeah. I’m at a hotel.”
88888888
Dawn pulled her M.I.T. hoodie over her black tank top and shoved her feet into running shoes. She wore jeans and her hair twisted into a messy bun. She checked she had her cell, wallet, keys, rings, and pendent.
She walked to the bathroom door and closed it. She touched the pendent to it, picturing the address she had gotten from Spencer. She reached for the door knob and pushed it open an inch. She pushed her head through and checked the cost was clear. She had come out of a women’s restroom on the bottom floor of the hotel. She stepped out the door.
She closed the door and then opened it again, making sure the portal had snapped shut. It had and she was free to continue on. Dawn loved that spell. It meant she spent nothing on hotel rooms and got to sleep every night in her own bed while she traveled. Plus never having to worry about forgetting to pack things or dealing with tiny travel sized shampoos.
Stepping into the main lobby, Dawn looked around. Spencer was easy to spot, as he was a gangly six one. He wore slacks, a button up shirt, tie, and a vest. The only thing missing from the last time she’d seen him, was his gun and badge. He appeared a little less put together.
“Spencer?” she said as she approached.
He turned to her. His face registered none of the apprehension that had marked their first encounters. He saw her as Dawn, only Dawn.
Dawn grinned and put her hands in the front pocket of her hoodie.
“Do you want t-to get something to eat?” he asked.
“There is a pancake place around the corner,” she told him.
“Sure,” he waved her to the front doors of the lobby. He adjusted his messenger bag, checking it was secure and all the pockets closed.
They walked away from the small number of similarly themed hotels. This far off the famous Strip, things were quiet. They made no attempt at conversation, both nearly jumping at a police siren that started near them.
When they finally made it into the blue and white pancake restaurant, they were seated after a few minutes. A haggard waitress of at least forty years took their drink order: decaf coffee and a couple glasses of water.
“What are you doing in Vegas?” Spencer asked.
Dawn shrugged. She considered her words a moment, trying to avoid lying. “There’s something called vacation, I’ve been ordered to take some.” Half-truths, she had been ordered to take it easy, and Spike had suggested she take a vacation. But how else exactly was she supposed to explain being in D.C. when he called and then in Vegas twenty minutes later?
“You chose Vegas?”
“Nah, it was a friend’s choice, something came up,” she shrugged.
He watched her. Probably spotting her half-truths. But he made no comment just sat back as the waitress reappeared with the coffee carafe and waters.
Dawn curled her arm around her waist, wincing at some of her still mending ribs. It was the reason she had been ordered to take it easy. Two fingers on her right hand were swollen from the last fight she had.
“How are you?” she asked.
Spencer didn’t answer, his focus on rubbing his finger along the handle of his mug.
They sat in silence, sipping coffee and shooing away the waitress each time she approached.
“Why did you come?” he asked.
“Why did you call me?” she shot back softly.
“Because of what you told me about your mom.”
“That her tumor caused full hallucinations that included screaming at me that I wasn’t real or not recognizing me?” Dawn guessed. “Fourteen year old me had a really rough year.” She played with the cuff of her left sleeve. “It’s kinda etched in my mind, those episodes.”
He nodded slowly. “She has early onset Alzheimer’s.”
“How advanced?”
“They can’t seem to get her meds stabilized.”
“Brain chemistry things,” she surmised. “Have you thought about moving her closer to you?”
“I’ve asked before, but she refuses, she wants to stay in Las Vegas.”
Dawn nodded. Having dealt with Dana and Drusilla at length, she had some experience with what happened when a not quite sane person made a decision. Stubborn mules were easier to convince.
“How did you hurt your hand?” he asked.
“Fight with something akin to a brick wall,” she told him as she flex the injured hand. “Though my ribs prove it couldn’t have been a brick wall since it hit back.”
“I had a drug problem,” Spencer suddenly said. Then he continued rapidly. “I got hooked on dilaudid by an unsub and continued using it for a while afterwards to cope.”
Dawn studied him. “Is that why I’m here?”
“I don’t like to make my team worry about me.”
“From what I’ve seen they worry about each other all the time anyway.”
“This is different.”
“Because you’re an addict.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call your sponsor?”
“He didn’t pick up.”
Dawn thought about the different addicts she’d dealt with over the years. None of them had been as self-aware as Spencer. She sighed and wiggled out of her hoodie. Once she tossed it on the bench next to her, she pulled her tank to bear just the top of her breasts. Thin marks were just visible breaking the tanned skin’s silky appearance.
“Are those…?”
“I did it until I was twenty-one,” she confessed evenly. “Matches ones from my kidnapping when I was fourteen.” She pulled her tank top back up to cover them. She crossed her arms and placed her elbows on the tabletop. “I stopped ten years ago, still struggle some days, even for weeks at a time…”
Spencer nodded. “What do you do?”
“I remind myself that I have no control over the world, but I can help people. But if I start again, I can’t help anybody.” She fiddled with the crystal pendent around her neck. “I also call a friend who will just meet for coffee and tell me terrible stories until I am in control.”
“What kind of stories?”
Dawn grinned and just started talking.
88888888
When day broke over Las Vegas, Spencer and Dawn were sitting in his hotel room, propped against the foot of the bed.
“It’s morning,” Dawn observed.
He looked at the clock. “Visiting hours start soon.”
“You should get cleaned up and go spend time with her.”
“Want to come?” he asked in a single rush of air.
“Can I go dressed as I am?” she replied without missing a beat.
“Okay.”
Dawn grinned. “Okay.” She stood. “I’ll meet you in the lobby.” She exited the room without waiting for his reply.
She was downstairs in the lobby for twenty minutes before her phone started buzzing. She fished it from her pocket. “Yeah?”
“Where are you, Bit?” Spike’s voice came across the line.
“Vegas,” she told him truthfully.
There was a pause on the other side. “What took ya there?”
“I believe you told me to relax or take a vacation.”
“I didn’t think you’d actually do it. You’re too much a Summers’ woman.”
“Euphemism for stubborn ass?” she asked.
“I didn’t say that,” Spike retorted sharply.
“Right, hence the euphemism,” she countered.
Dawn grinned, listening to him mutter under his breath about ridiculous women.
Then he sighed. “What are you doing in Vegas? A case or an actual vacation?”
“Well…I just spent all night with a guy,” she explained.
The crash on the other end of the line nearly made her chuckle.
“Look, I know you’re….grown, but you aren’t allowed to say things like that to me.”
“Like what?” she asked innocently.
“Don’t even.”
She sighed. “How is it I can only talk to Willow and Andrew about my sex life? You and Buffy would like to pretend I’m fifteen forever. And the rest like to ignore the fact that any of their charges are female.”
“There’s always Faith,” he reminded her.
“Oh please, Faith starts in and I feel like I need a notebook and pen to take notes.” She looked up, spotting Spencer standing nearby, pretending he was not close enough to hear. “Gotta go.”
“Be careful,” Spike said. “Whatever you are doing.”
“Doing?” she parroted. “What am I doing?” The line went dead. She chuckled and put it back in the pocket of her hoodie. “How much of that did you catch?”
“Something about being a stubborn ass,” Spencer admitted.
“Oh good, caught the important bits.” She shrugged. “Spike is like an older brother to me. Winding him up is about all I can do at a distance.”
“You like to tell him things that he will interpret based on his own experiences.”
“I’m a linguist. Words are my thing.”
88888888
Dawn had to admit to having been to a few institutions in her travels. Girls who dreamed of vampires and demons sometimes ended up in treatment before the Council could find them. It had taken her some years to realize that most of those who had split from reality could still see bits of the Key. A green hue around her, instead of a glowing ball of light in her place.
Still, she tensed a moment as she entered the Bennington Sanitarium. It took two people looking at her strangely, but continuing on before she relaxed.
“We’re here to see Diana Reid,” Spencer told the reception nurse.
“Doctor Reid,” the nurse said. “She had a bad night. I don’t know that she’s up for visitors.” She looked them over. “But I’ll check.”
“Thank you.”
When they were finally permitted to the area where Diana Reid was, Dawn was shocked at her height and how much Spencer could be a young male version of her. Diana seemed to be in control of herself and in a cheerful mood. But there was a moment when Diana had not recognized Spencer. It had been only a handful of seconds, but it was a sad commentary on the ravaged mind.
“And who is this?”
“Mom, this is Dawn. She’s…a friend.”
Diana’s hand came out, long elegant fingers offered. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You too,” Dawn replied with a smile as she shook the warm hand.
“Come, come. You should sit,” Diana ushered them into chairs around a table.
They all took seats.
“Well, Dawn, Spencer has told me nothing about you, so you’ll need to tell me about yourself.”
“I’m boring. A linguist and a geologist,” Dawn countered. “I’d much rather hear about you. Are you working on any projects?”
Diana’s face lit up as she launched into a lecture about a research project she was working on. Dawn noted that while Spencer pressed a smile at his mother’s enthusiasm, he was a bit saddened too.
Midway through a description of a particular common literary plot twist, Diana seemed to forget herself. Her entire face blanked and for a moment she appeared fearful. Then she looked at Dawn - who she had been lecturing directly to - and studied her.
“My Spencer is at Caltech,” she said conversationally. “He’s only fourteen.”
Dawn grinned. “I’m jealous, I was twenty-six before I started M.I.T.”
Diana beamed fondly. “He is a genius.” She seemed to focus again on the hoodie. “That…will not hide your condition for long. I suggest you figure out what are you going to do and drop my class so someone who is going to complete the course can attend.”
Dawn frowned. He eyes turned to Spencer who was looking at his mother. “Mom?”
Diana shifted her focus again. “Spencer.” She smiled. “What are you reading today?”
Spencer pulled a small stack of books from his bag and set them on the table.
88888888
It was afternoon before Diana’s condition deteriorated too far. They exited the sanitarium, to overcast sky and cool desert temperatures in the mid-fifties.
“Man, she is proud of you,” Dawn commented softly. It didn’t matter which version of Spencer she was talking about, she had always talked about her brilliant son with cheerful, motherly pride.
“She was having a good day,” Spencer commented.
“When do you head back to D.C.?” she asked.
“At the end of the week. My team is working a case, we’ll need to move on it soon.” He looked at her. “What about you?”
Dawn shrugged. “Whenever. It’s the nice part of what I do, come and go as I please.”
“Don’t you have bills to pay?”
“Yep, but I only have to do a few outside contracts a year to pay for my clothes, food, and rent.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Damn thing,” she cursed before putting it to her ear. “Yeah?” She rolled her eyes at the voice on the other end. “Why am I topic of discussion for all of you?”
She looked at Spencer and grimaced in apology. “Listen here, my business, stay out.” She hung up the phone. She pressed the volume button until it went into silent mode.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, they’re being over protective.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t help that someone figured out I was with an FBI agent…”
“Figured out?”
“Much like your agency, the Council tracks their people for both safety and convenience. Only in my case it’s a family who is nosy beyond belief, not just protocol.”