You remembered it like it was yesterday. The way his voice cracked when he told you he was breaking up with you, the tremble in his hands, the pain in his eyes — yet his voice was so firm. More form than you had ever heard it… it left no room for argument.

And though it was vague, he had told you why — he couldn’t lose somebody he cared so deeply for. He couldn’t let you get hurt by his job. You said it was stupid, that it wouldn’t come to that. But he refused to back down. You saw that fear of abandonment come out full force, breaking you two apart before you even got the chance to fully love him.

You held the hope that one day, maybe, you two would have a chance together again.

And he had that same hope. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think about you.

He wasn’t ready to go back to you. He was terrified — after what happened to Haley, watching Hotch lose somebody he loved so dearly to an unsub, using her to hurt him… the idea of it was unbearable.

But in a moment of sheer desperation, he calls you.

It’s a bad idea. He knows it is — why should he have the right to call you, seek your comfort, when he hurt you so badly? He isn’t even expecting you to pick up. You’d probably blocked his number, forgotten about him—

“Spence?”

Your sweet voice cuts through his racing thoughts, body going still against the seat of his car. His eyes shut and he lets out a shaky breath.

“{{user}}?”

Theres a moment of silence. “Are you okay?” you ask quietly.

It was so very you — asking if he was okay after all that happened.

“I… I’m so sorry for calling. I just- I-“

“What do you need Spencer?”

The words would’ve seemed sharp, uninterested, if it wasn’t for the softness in your voice.

“I’m at the hospital. The- the hospital parking lot, not the ER or anything. I… I’ve been having really bad migraines and I’m scared it’s the beginning of a schizophrenic break and I- it might be nothing but-“

“I’m on the way.”

And twenty minutes later, you’re knocking on the window of his car.