♖♜♖

♖♜♖

It had been a month since Nova Bates had admitted herself in the Bennington Sanitarium and she was feeling better every day, more coming to terms with her multiple personalities.

Diana and Nova, along with all of Nova's personalities, have slowly became great friends with the pair reading Spencer's letters about his adventures daily.

Bounding out of their shared room and to the courtyard Nova searched out Diana, hoping that she had received Spencer's letter for the day to hopefully hear about his teams latest case.

Finally in the courtyard Nova immediately notices where Diana is in her wheelchair so she walks quickly to the rose garden she was in.

Diana noticed the girl approaching and lifted the newest letter up in her hand, "You're just in time dear, I just got Spencer's newest letter. I haven't even read it yet."

Nova sits in the grass beside Diana's wheelchair, "I was just coming to ask about it!"

"Do you want to read it this time?" Diana questions her, a kind smile on her face.

"I would love to!" The eager girl replies, taking the letter from Diana as she hands it to her before Nova begins reading it.

"Hello Mother, we finally got done with our case. This time we went all the way to Maine because there was someone targeting children and trying to sell them in an online market. We caught the woman who was doing it and got everything shut down, returning all the kids to their families back home. Some of the kids were a long way from home so it took awhile to find their families. I hope you're doing well, I'll be visiting you within the next week after I send this letter to you. Love, Spencer." Nova finished reading, a smile on her face at the mention of Spencer coming to visit them, or rather Diana, soon.

"Spencer's coming to visit! I love when he gets the time to stop in and visit, he normally takes me out to eat. And you'll get to meet him too dear!" Diana says excitedly.

"Do you think I could come with you too? It'd be nice to get out for a little bit..." Nova says admittedly.

"I'm sure Spencer would love you to join us, I'll even suggest it." Diana says, gently patting Nova's shoulder.

♖♜♖

A few days later Nova woke up early in the morning and notices Diana is already absent from their room, assuming that she was already in the courtyard where the rose garden was.

Climbing out of bed with a yawn Nova quickly changes out of her pajamas and into her clothes before slipping on her shoes and heading out of the room.

Walking through the halls and out of the doors into the courtyard the girl hums a tune she can't quite remember but continues humming regardless.

Once she's almost at the rose garden she finally looks up and stops in her tracks, noticing a tall man with curly light brown hair wearing a suit standing near Diana admiring the roses.

"That must be Spencer!" Comes the voice of Hattie in her mind.

With that Nova continues walking and closes the remaining distance between the two people, Spencer looking up from the roses as she approached.

"Nova dear this is my son Spencer Reid!" Diana says once she notices her, "Spencer this is my roommate and friend of mine Nova Bates."

"Hello Spencer, it's nice to finally meet you! I've heard a lot about you and your adventures, Diana reads your daily letters to me because I wanted to be a profiler before everything." Nova says with a smile, holding her hand out to him.

With an awestruck look and an awkward glance at her hand Spencer replies, "Uh hello Nova, sorry I don't shake hands because hand shakes are more unsanitary--"

"Than kissing. I know, I normally don't shake hands either I just didn't want to seem rude." Nova says sheepishly, dropping her hand with a smile before sitting in the grass near both of them.

Spencer sits in the grass as well with a kind smile on his face, "Would you like to join the two of us for lunch and milkshakes later? I normally take mom out for lunch so she can get out for awhile."

"I'd love that, it's been a month since I've been out of these walls, though I did admit myself. I didn't really trust myself alone." The girl says as she runs a hand through her long curly red hair.

"What did you admit yourself for?" Spencer asks her curiously.

"Well, uh, after I escaped my - family? I realized I kept having flashbacks and I started showing signs of schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, as well as PTSD and anxiety. I'm a real mess." Nova says with a small laugh at herself, shaking her head.

"But we've gotten better!" Hattie says, voice changing as Nova's eyes turn bright green before going back to their normal brown color.

"Who was that?" Spencer asks, noticing the way her eyes changed colors.

With a soft blush on her face Nova replies, "That was The Mad Hatter, or rather Hattie."

"Well then, it's nice to meet you Hattie." Spencer says with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you too, Spencer." Hattie briefly says.

"So when are we gonna eat?" Nova asks with a smile, "I'm starving."

"We we just getting ready to leave. Are you all ready to go?" Spencer asks his mom and Nova, standing up off the ground.

"Yes dear I am, and I can walk. You don't have to push my wheelchair all day today's been a good day." Diana replies, standing from her wheelchair with a proud smile on her face, not a wobble in sight.

"That's great mom! I'm glad you're feeling good." Spencer says before folding up Diana's wheelchair to put it back in her room.

Nova stood up from the ground before saying with a smile, "I'm ready to go as well I don't have anything to grab and I'm already dressed."

"Alright let me put her wheelchair in your room wait for me at the front desk and I'll sign you both out and we can go grab some lunch." Spencer says as the three make their way back into the building.

♖♜♖

Once the three arrived at the restaurant the waitress took their order and they were now seated in their booth awaiting their foods arrival.

After a while of small talk between them the waitress finally arrives with their food, handing the plate of grilled cheese and fries to Nova before handing Diana her spaghetti and Spencer his plate of baked potatoes with cheese melted on top of them.

"Thank you." Nova mutters quietly, a kind smile in the waitresses direction before digging in to her grilled cheese.

Spencer and Diana follow suit, digging into their own dishes soon after, the three of them sitting in comfortable silence as they devour their food in front of them until their plates are clean.

Once everyone had finished their food Nova is the first to speak up, "That food was amazing! Best grilled cheese I've had in a very very long time."

"Me and Spencer love this place dear, it's one of our favorites to eat when he visits. I'm glad you liked it." Diana says with a smile at Nova across the bench.

"You haven't even had their milkshakes yet, just you wait, they're the best." Spencer says from across the booth as well, seated beside his mother.

"Oooh, milkshakes?" Nova says excitedly before looking back at the menu quickly scanning through it reading the whole thing, her eyes lighting up, "They have mint chocolate chip milkshakes?"

"Those are my favorite. So we need two mint chocolate chip milkshakes and one strawberry milkshake?" Spencer asks the two, already knowing his moms order.

"Yes dear, strawberry is the only one I ever get." Diana says with a small laugh, "You know that."

"Mint chocolate chip milkshakes are the best, I definitely want one." Nova says excitedly as she closes the still open menu in front of her.

"I'll be right back with them then." Spencer says before walking up to the counter to make the order, leaving Diana and Nova in the booth.

"You and Spencer seem to be hitting it off." Diana says with a smile.

Nova feels an involuntary blush creep to her cheeks, "Yeah! He's really nice and we like a lot of the same things. It's really cool hearing of his work adventures because I really wanted to be a profiler myself."

"I know dear, I just had to have you two meet, I already knew that you two would be good friends you're both so similar." Diana says as Spencer approaches the table with the milkshakes.

"Two mint chocolate chip milkshakes and one strawberry milkshake." Spencer says with a smile as he hands Nova one of the mint chip ones and Diana her strawberry one.

"Thank you Spencer." Nova says with a smile as she takes a sip from her straw, "Wow, this is delicious. Definitely the best milkshake ever."

"I told you!" Spencer says with a grin, sipping his own milkshake.

Diana watches them silently with a smile, sipping away on her strawberry milkshake Spencer placed in front of her.

♖♜♖

Soon after they finished their milkshakes the three were back at Bennington in the rose garden with the sun setting on the horizon when Spencer's phone rings.

"One second, it's my boss." He says as he excuses himself.

"I wonder if he has a case." Nova says curiously once he's out of ear shot.

The two women wait on the return of Spencer as Nova watches the sky change colors and as it starts getting darker the sight of stars peeking through the sky, so completely oblivious to her surroundings that she didn't notice Spencer approaching again.

"So I have a case, but since I told him I was visiting you I don't have to be there until tomorrow morning. I already booked my flight." Spencer says as he sits beside the two.

"Oh alright dear, when does your plane leave?" Diana asks him.

"In two hours, I'm flying through the night so I can be there first thing in the morning." Spencer replies.

"Where are you off to this time?" Nova asks as her curiosity got the better of her.

"I'm going to Montana this time, they've got multiple headless bodies." Spencer answers as he runs a hand through his long curly brown hair.

"And no heads anywhere, I assume?" Nova questions.

"Bingo." Spencer answers, "But now that I know you read my letters too I'll address you in them as well."

"Thank you for today Spencer, it was really nice of you to let me tag along with you and Diana, that restaurant was amazing." Nova says with a smile and a dusting of a blush on her cheeks.

"You're welcome, you can join us next time I visit too if you want. We go to the same place every time, and some days we go other places before we go back." Spencer replies, a genuine smile on his face.

"That sounds like a plan." Nova says happily.

"I should get going, I need to make it to the airport. I love you mom." Spencer says as he hugs his mom gently, kissing her forehead softly before he turns to Nova, "It was really nice meeting you."

"I love you too dear, I'll miss you." Diana says to him.

"It was nice meeting you too Spencer." Nova replies with a kind smile in his direction.

"I'll miss you too mom, I'll see you next time I come visit it'll hopefully be soon." Spencer tells her.

Then they all part ways, Spencer heading back to his hotel room to pack up all of his things before heading to the airport to wait on his flight.

With a quiet yawn escaping Nova's lips she turns to Diana and says, "I think I'm going to head to sleep, I'm really tired."

"I'll be heading to bed soon myself, goodnight dear." Diana says with a smile.

"Goodnight Diana." Nova says before standing up and heading to their shared room.

Arriving in her room Nova quickly changes into some pajamas before climbing into bed and pulling the covers over her body, closing her eyes before drifting to sleep.

♖♜♖

Finally,
chapter three!

Sorry that it took so long
to get out, but I got busy
and then my phone
messed up.

I've finally fixed it so I can
hopefully get back to writing
more often again, and I posted
a Cover Shoppe so if anyone
needs a new cover for their
book go check it out, it's
called "Loose Pages."

Until next time,