The Stars | Aaron Hotchner

Chapter 5: The Endeavor

While you let the triple chocolate cupcakes cool-- you were informed the man loved his sugar-- you worked on mixing the frosting, whipping vanilla buttercream icing with Oreo cookie crumbles to provide a slight reprieve from the rest of the chocolate. You finished in time to immediately pipe the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. As you planned to write on the top of the frosting, you made sure to keep the spirals you were topping the cakes with relatively flat.

Your hand was cramping-- had been for the past few minutes-- so you took a small break to plan out the message and arrangement of the baked goods. You figured you could definitely fit "Happy Birthday Spencer", as you had a large rectangular platter and twenty-five cupcakes. There would be some left over, but you would find something to do with them. As you looked at the pan with the sweets, you realized the lettering would look best with gel icing as the frosting was mainly white. With a sigh, you went back and smoothed down the frosting on each cupcake.

Once you finished, you wiped away the sheen of sweat that formed on your forehead with the back of your hand. Hairs strayed from the bun you had put up during your training, and you wondered how you were sweating from this seemingly simple activity. Baking was hard.

You looked at your hard work to the stove top and remembered you still had to make the gel icing. Sighing again, you flitted around the kitchen to grab what you needed as you left a pot of water to boil, singing a string of melodies stuck in your head as you waited to add the rest of the ingredients and blue food dye.

When you finally finished, you felt the best presentation would be a simple three row arrangement, then you could use the leftover icing to decorate the empty space on the platter. You imagined artsy swirls and flower designs filling the exposed platter and made your vision come to life.

Everything looked amazing, and the only thing that sucked about them was the realization they would just be chilling in your fridge until Spencer and the BAU could enjoy them. Your message across the tops of the baked goods was short and sweet, but you still looked on with pride at what you made, hoping the good doctor would like it.

HAPPY 30TH

BIRTHDAY

SPENCER!

You cleaned your cooking stations, throwing the mixing bowls, pans, and utensils in the sink. Though it would be a good idea to clean them, you left it for later as you cleaned yourself off, already tired from the busy morning you had. You checked the clock to see it was just past noon, so it would technically be around 8 AM if the BAU was in California, but time zones were weird and you just hoped Spencer would be awake at this point.

You went back to the counter and repositioned the platter holding the cupcakes, straightening it and adjusting until you could easily flip your phone to center the masterpiece. Once you were satisfied with your setup, you dialed Spencer's FaceTime and began screen recording.

His visage filled your screen as your own screen minimized to the corner of your phone.

"Hey! How are you?"

Spencer's eyes were focused behind his phone and as you saw his tongue poking out of the side of his mouth, you heard the squeak of a marker. You figured he was writing, but he continued his task as he spoke to you. "Could be better if we weren't trying to track down a serial killer, but pretty good considering. Thanks for asking."

"No problemo," you chirped. "You got a minute? I have something I wanna show you, but I wanted you to be alone, if you could." You didn't have the most confidence in singing even though you enjoyed it, but you wanted this to be special and pushed through the nerves.