A Course of Passion

57: Voicemail

My father was suppose to be here about an hour ago but it doesn't surprise me that he is late. He hated that he ended up driving here, Manhattan traffic being one of the top 5 things on his list of the worst things in the world. But, I convinced him it would be better then flying as we could all go up to a lake on Sunday for the babies first visit if we had two cars. Sonny is in the kitchen, cooking one of his infamous pasta meals as the babies lay on the floor in the living room where we can see them. I sip on a glass of white wine and we joke about TV shows, "so, you're saying out of all the reality TV shows on TV, you'd want to be on top chef?"

"Yeah, of course!" He smiles at me over his shoulder, "what? You don't think I could win?" He fake pouts.

"No, no, it's not that" I shake my head, "but there are a lot of other cooking shows you would no doubtlingly win if you went on. Top chef is tough."

"Oh, whatever. What would you go on?" He asks back in a mocking tone, as if my answer would be so much better.

I hum, actually thinking about it, "well, I think having cops following us around would be awesome buuutt I think they always end up making deals with the perps in order for them to show their faces on TV so I would hate that."

"Yeah, that sucks, so what would you go on?" He asks.

There's a knock on the door and I head over to let my dad in, "I don't know, probably a game show then. I'm pretty good at family feud!" I holler then open the door, "hey da— Spencer?"

"Hi Maddison." He says back, hands intertwined in front of him.

My stomach drops and my head runs through a million different scenarios, "is it JJ? Penelope? Morgan?" I stammer off all the names as he takes three steps into the apartment, "what happened?" I finally just spit out.

He grabs my arms wanting to calm me, "everyone at the BAU is okay."

"Then what is it, what are you doing here?" I ask, my mind blank with other thoughts now. My heart is in the pit of my stomach waiting for him to tell me why he's here in our apartment in New York.

He says just three words, "it's your dad."

I shake my head, "what about my dad? He should be here any minute." I look past him at the door like he's going to walk through right then and there.

He says lowly, "he's not coming."

"What? I just talked to him like four hours ago, he's on his way." I spit, not finding this funny at all.

"What's going on?" Sonny asks from behind me, standing between the kitchen and dining room, a dirty spoon in his hand. I look to him for a moment then back to Spencer with pleading eyes.

Spencer ignores him and grabs my hands and pulls them together, "Maddison, I'm sorry—"

I pull them away, "no, if he changed his mind he would've called me, I had my phone on the entire—" but I stop when I turn my phone over on the counter and see 2 missed calls from my dad and one voicemail "he, he called me."

I unlock my phone as quickly as possible as everything stops around me. What the hell is going on? Is the only thing I can ask myself as I wait for his voicemail to play. I tap speaker and listen, "Hey MaddyCaddy, it's me, dad" his voice is low and he sounds off. My eyes dart to Spencer's as it continues to play and he holds my stare, his eyes dusting with liquid "I just want to tell you how proud I am of you and everything you are doing in New York. I know you think I always wanted you to end up at the FBI but all I wanted was for you to be happy" he coughs, like he's sick.

I whisper, "Spencer? What's going on?" I choke out, my eyes filling with tears.

He goes to open his mouth but my dads voice picks up again, scratchy at first from coughing, "you've made quiet an amazing life for yourself up there. You found a wonderful man and have two incredible babies, ahh I love them so much. Please remind them of how much I loved them." He sort of laughs, "you're mother would've been a great grandmother. Ahh, go ahead and take them to lake this weekend, have fun together. I just wanted to tell you I love you munchkin. Don't let this get to you, it has nothing to do with you." He coughs some more but my eyes are glued to the screen, seeing there's only 15 seconds left on the message. He says, "Elaina and Elijah are lucky kids having you and Sonny as their parents. Take care of yourself Maddison, keep shooting for the stars. I love you" and just like that, the call ends.