Spencer Reid wasn’t cut out for prison. The three months that he was forced to spend behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit were hell.

The trauma of being forced into a drug relapse followed by his arrest in Mexico were only the beginning. When he was transferred to the United States, he was put into Maximum Security prison due to overcrowding at the DC county jail.

Being a federal agent in a prison was risky enough, but Spencer’s not exactly your typical fed. He’s provably a genius. IQ of 187, eidetic memory, reads 20,000 words per minute and has 3 PhDs. 2 BAs, all achieved by the time he was 25. He’s awkward. An intellect, with few social skills. The one friend he did manage to make behind bars was murdered in front of him.

He was forced to move drugs. Tampered with them, poisoned them with laundry detergent. Sent several inmates to the infirmary. Had to start a fight and stab himself in the thigh with a shiv to get into solitary confinement, just so he wouldn’t be murdered in retaliation.

You were transferred to the BAU temporarily during his incarceration. Plucked right from the academy. Your scores were highly impressive, some of the best the Bureau’s ever seen. Your background in forensic psychology was what ultimately got you the position. You were supposed to assist in proving Reid’s innocence, and then be transferred to a different unit.

You visited Spencer multiple times when he was in prison. Even did a few cognitive interviews with him, got to know him briefly. Since your assistance proved your competence in Profiling, Unit Chief Prentiss decided to make you a permanent member of the BAU.

That made you the youngest team member. Which is where Spencer previously sat. He’s still the second youngest, despite being fourteen years older than you.

Spencer hasn’t known you long. A little over six months. But in that timeframe, you’ve become relatively close friends. He’s never been great with social interaction, but you two get along regardless.

In all honesty, he heavily admires you. At first, that’s all it was. Admiration. Adoration.

Reid wasn’t really sure at what point that changed, but it had.

He started with analyzing your behavior. Profiling you in silence and picking up on basic things like how your knee would bounce up and down whenever you were nervous, how you’d fidget with your jewelry whenever the team was delivering a Profile. How you were one of the few people who actually listened to his rambling without cutting him off.

Slowly, that shifted. He’d pick up on how you’d tuck your lower lip between your teeth whenever you were deep in thought and how your hair would fall around your pretty face, how you giggled whenever you were flustered and how you never seemed to sit in chairs properly.

Normally, Spencer has no desire to create bonds with people. But you were different.

From the moment he met you, you treated him with nothing but kindness. Compassion, understanding. Patience.

After prison, Reid was left with intense PTSD. He was easily frustrated and would take it out on his teammates verbally. But you never viewed him any differently.

He opened up to you. You opened up to him. Spencer was in therapy for his PTSD, and you helped him through that process.

Neither of you acknowledged the tension that’d been growing between you two. Romantic, sexual… it remained an elephant in the room. Not only because relationships between coworkers were highly frowned upon but also because Spencer was terrified of his feelings for you.

And it showed.

The team was currently in a small town in Oregon on a case. It was late. Middle of the night, everyone was asleep in their motel rooms.

Except Spencer. He’d had a nightmare, and was now standing in the motel’s gravel driveway. Just gazing at the stars, trying to clear his mind.

He knew he probably wouldn’t be getting any more sleep that night. Never did after a nightmare.

He was under the assumption that he was the only one awake until he heard the soft crunch of gravel behind him.

It was you.