I'm not quite done getting ready when the team arrives. At least I'm dressed, in a silver dress and with the opal necklace around my neck, but I am on my third attempt at a high ponytail when the doorbell rings. I get there, hair tie in my mouth, one hand on the top of my head and the other at the door.

"Happy New Year!" Prentiss leans forward to offer me a hug. I do my best to reciprocate, with only one hand.

She lets go so I can move back to my hair. I shove myself against a wall in the entryway to look at our small mirror and try to fix my hair as Morgan and Garcia come in. By the time their shoes are off and tucked against the wall, I'm not satisfied with my hair but able to use my hands to take their coats and hang them in the closet.

"JJ, Jordan and Reid will be along later," Prentiss explains. "Can we help set up?"

I nod. I grab the bag of food from her and lead them into the kitchen. Morgan lets out a whistle.

"This is nice," he says.

I try to relax my shoulders, "it's not finished. We only got it this month, and we've been trying to fix what we can. The flooring and floorboards are next on our list."

"You got it this month?" Garcia gasps behind me.

I slip into the kitchen, where Rachel stands. Estelle is still doing her hair, mostly because the last few food things we required weren't here. She, like me, is picky about it.

"Everyone this is Rachel," I manage.

Morgan smiles at her widely. They start to introduce themselves, and I go to the list on the counter, double-checking the plastic bags for everything we need. Plastic plates, last-minute decorations to fill the few spaces that aren't already perfect. Extra hors d'oeurves to accommodate the team now that I've invited them. Extra ice and pops.

"Stop fussing," Garcia tisks. "They've got this. Let's go finish your hair."

"It's fine," I lie.

Garcia cocks an eyebrow, a smirk on her face. I huff out a sigh. No lie can come from my mouth. With a hand on my back, she all but shoves me out of the room.

"I'm helping," she says. "It's always harder to do your own hair."

There's no arguing with her. Besides, she always has immaculate hair. Perfectly curled, no fly aways, and her make up skills are unmatched, even if it's a bit bold for my liking. I let her take over, smoothing out the top of my hair and spraying down all the fly aways. It's going to be crunchy later, but that's more than fine with me.

"Is Luc Levesque coming tonight?"

I try not to shift in my chair even though there are pins in my legs. Instead, I just shake my head, "don't think it's going to work out between us. You remember. All that star-crossed stuff."

"So romantic," she sighs. Then, she pauses. "It's alright that I invited Kevin?"

"Absolutely," I nod. "We planned for the team to each bring an extra person, if they wanted. Even Reid's girlfriend."

"I have to meet her," Garcia clutches my shoulders, looking at me through my make up mirror. "I just... I don't know. I only want the best for Spencer, you know? He's an adult, but he can be a bit naïve."

Then, I shrug. Really, I'm not supposed to know him well. Tolerate him, I guess. Enough that I'd ask him for a ride to pick up things over Emily. All of these lies make my head hurt. Usually keeping things to myself is easy. Accounting for Spencer makes everything more difficult.

"I get it," I shrug. "I don't like my sister's husband all that much either. Sometimes, you've got to accept people can make their own decisions."

"Like Derek insisting he doesn't like Jordan," Garcia snorts. "Who knows? Maybe he'll end up with Rachel."

I huff, "if it's not one of my coworkers trying to date my roommate, it's another."

She laughs.

And I laugh too.

After finishing up my hair, I make my way to the living room. Estelle is ready now, talking to Prentiss about criminology, and Morgan is leaning against the wall, clearly flirting with Rachel, and actually, all of this might be okay, even if only a little bit.

It's only after a few minutes of chatting that the first hoard of people start to come, buzzing at the door. Estelle mans the stereo and I get the door, opening it since most of the people are supposed to their friends. Soon enough, my flat is filled with PhD students and FBI agents. Somewhere in the middle, after Jordan comes, Reid gets here.

"I'm so sorry," he manages. He passes me the bags.

"It's okay," I smile. "This was only back up liquor. Which we are going to need."

He helps me bring the liquor into the kitchen, where I restock the bar cart. We're running low on beer, but that's to be expected. Now, we have more wine, which is going more quickly than I anticipated. I pour myself another glass and lean up against the wall.

"You look..." Spencer looks down at me. His cheeks are flushed, and it's too warm in my condo to say the cold has taken over.

"Reid!"

He turns around. JJ steps into the room. Reid leans over to hug her. Right behind her is Will, and I shake his hand.

"Your home is lovely," he says. "Morgan was saying you only bought it this month?"

I nod.

"It's very impressive," he says. "If you ever need a hand with any renovations, tell JJ and I'm more than happy to come help."

I tsk, "you just had a baby. I should be offering to help you. I can babysit if you need."

"He's already got a godfather for that," JJ turns to me, hugging me as well.

I help show them where the team is, still in the dining room. We chat and dance and the time ticks on and on. I like Kevin and Will. Both of them are friendly. Morgan and Will get way too into asking me questions about the home renovation, but honestly it's been occupying such huge real estate in my head that it's easy to talk about the light switches and the décor. Prentiss tries to send me after one of Estelle's friends, and it's easy to say no because I know too much about all of Estelle's colleagues to like any of them romantically.

"You're still young, don't worry about rushing into anything," Prentiss says. "Just, a little fling never hurt."

"I'm too busy right now," I tell her. "There's the condo, and my part-time job researching for Georgetown, and UCR data is coming in two days."

Garcia smirks, just a bit, and I'm thankful Prentiss is looking at me.

Someone pukes in the bathroom, I hear from one of Estelle's friends. I drag myself over to clean up the mess. Rachel already is in the bathroom, squatting over the toilet.

"Hey!" she grins. "Your coworkers are nice."

I shrug, "they're FBI."

"Yeah, I hear you," Rachel laughs.

Few of the people she invited are as old as my coworkers. Most of them are new recruits, around our age and maybe slightly younger. The party is quieter than those at JJ's. There's more talking, and less dancing. Although, someone did puke. I bet it was one of Estelle's friends. The PhD crew are more intense with parties than most people imagine. By their standards, my wild days in Australia are regular Tuesdays.

"Morgan's cute at least," she says.

I chuckle, "he's single, if you're going to bark up that tree."

"Is Reid?" she asks, looking at me. "Single, I mean."

Raising my wine glass to my lips, which in retrospect I shouldn't have brought to the bathroom, I take a sip. A long one, as Rachel's dark eyes peer up at me. Only when I am finished do I look down on her.

"Thought he was a bit skinny for your taste."

Rachel cackles out a laugh. She twists her head, "not too much for yours though."

"He's my coworker," I tell her.

"Relax," she rolls her eyes. She glances back at me. "Just, don't sneak into your bedroom for a midnight kiss. Someone will see that. Go into the hallway, by the elevators. No one will notice."

I cross my arms, holding my empty wine glass and staring at her. She winks.

After I fill up my wine glass, I realize we are only a few minutes until midnight. I slip into the living room and forge a path to the balcony. Spencer is already standing outside. No one is with him there smoking, which is surprising. Our balcony is massive. We've bought two chairs for it, and there is still space.

I walk onto it, tucking myself off to the side that I'm not easily visible from the doorway. Spencer slides closer to me.

"I have money for the booze in my room," I tell him. "I already snuck it into Prentiss and Morgan's pockets. They refused it."

Reid doesn't quite smile. I expected him too, just a bit.

"Is... is everything alright?" I swallow, clutching my wine glass too tightly.

He turns away from the city behind him. Resting his back against the metal railing, he looks at me. His sleeves are rolled up, his fists shoved deep in his pockets.

"You don't trust me," he manages.

I shake my head, "that's not true."

The wind howls I tuck my body in tighter, bracing myself against the late-night air. Spencer's body is a bit of a shield, but not enough. The wind shifts his shirt, messes up his hair.

"You thought... earlier, in the parking lot. What did you think I was going to do?"

We both know. He's a profiler. I'm obvious. I take a step back until my back is pressed against the concrete. A shiver races up my spine. I take the wine and put it down on the side table next to the folding chair.

"Why?" he croaks out the sound.

I shake my head, "my brother hit you."

The bruise is still there. He told the team he pissed off a guy in Vegas. He's banned from every casino there, so it's not all that surprising. I reach forward to it. Our balcony is narrow enough that I can touch his cheek, feeling the mark. It's fading, but not gone. It will fade over time.

"I'm okay, Cole, I promise."

I believe him. I get it. I'm okay too. I'm over That Night. Really, and truly. Complete done with it. One hundred percent. He must be too, if he's still sticking around. I'm here too. Staying is how I'm sure things are okay.

"We all know your tough," I roll my eyes, smirking. "I just don't want my family to be something which requires toughness. Like, I'd rather it be easy."

Spencer cracks a smile.

"Hey," I manage reaching for his hand now. He takes it, stepping closer. I twist my head to the doorway, making sure we are out of sight. "I'm happy you came, I think."

"You know, I can tell that you're a statistician from the way you talk," he shakes his head. "There's always a sense of doubt. Like... you only think you are happy. It can't be certain."

"You can tell you're a profiler," I roll my eyes, trying to force my smile off my face. "And I do mean that as an insult."

He lets go of my hand. Spencer reaches up and touches the necklace.

"I was worried you wouldn't like the opal," he says. "You wear a lot of silver jewelry so I figured it would be okay. I debated getting you a fire opal, but I know you tend to prefer softer colours in clothing, like blues and greens. It's from Australia, most high-quality opal is anyway. It's iridescent too, and I like that at different angles you can see different colours in the stone. I think it really speaks to you. That's not really why I got it for you though."

He pauses for a second. My smile doesn't fade. Beneath his fingers, I feel my body tilting, my heart pushing hard to reach the surface, craving his touch. With each rise and fall of my chest, shaky and strong like an earthquake, his fingers follow me.

They start to count down to midnight.

Ten.

I'm not going to make it to the hallway.

"Opal's my birthstone," he manages. "And I like to see you wear it.

Six. Five.

"You just had to show me up again," I laugh.

They reach one and I lean forward, kissing him. His hands slips to cup my face, holding me up closer to him. I want it to last longer than I can. I pull back and turn to look at the window. He still holds me. Two of Estelle's friends are blocking the door, kissing themselves.

"Happy New Year," he whispers.

I turn back to look at him, "happy new year."

~~~~~

Another new year another balcony. I am so stoked with this chapter. Is it your favourite new year balcony scene? All of them are a bit melancholic, I think.