Dark Academia- Spencer Reid

Chapter 6

It seemed that life was moving at three times speed. With Zena having needed to grade finals she distributed to her students and the entirety of the BAU getting a supposed two week vacation time, the PHD holders found themselves giddy at the idea of being able to spend more time together.

Holidays were hard for Zena having lost her father to cancer when she was a senior in high school, her brother getting his PHD (which she still doesn't know what for) in Colorado, Delilah living with her fiancé in Washington, and her mother living in god knows what country this month, she found herself to be alone. A time of year when you should be surrounded by your loved ones has continuously become a long period of solitude.

Spencer seemingly had a very similar holiday experience. His father walked out on him when he was a child, and his mother suffered from schizophrenia causing her to live in a treatment center, he hadn't had a proper holiday in years.

They both were so similar and yet didn't know this about one another. Not only did that have lonely winter holidays and broken families, but they both withheld this information from one another because they feared being the burden of someone they cared for deeply.

This year would be different for the two, they would finally have someone to celebrate the holidays with; each other.

Zena had just made it back to her office after proctoring her Marine Ecotoxicology class when she felt her back pocket begin to vibrate. Looking down at the caller ID a surge of anxiety overwhelmed her body. A call from Spencer at this time of day? That couldn't be good.

"Hey Spence, is everything okay?" She asked, her tone laced with fear.

"Hello pretty girl. Everything is completely fine please don't worry! Admittedly I just wanted to hear your voice. Today was paperwork day, which we know is my favorite! and because yours truly can read 22,000 words per minute, I finished in record time. How about I bring us some lunch and we spend time in your office?"

Zena chuckled into the phone. A few weeks back Spencer had come home early from a case and surprised her by visiting her at her office in Hopkins. As soon as he stepped foot into the small room he fell in love with it. The room always smelled like lavender, and the walls were draped with tapestries of light blues and purples. She had plants hanging from the ceiling, succulents lining the windowsill, and vines crawling up the legs of the desk and wrapping themselves around the file cabinet handles of her desk. There was a small black bookshelf wedged in the corner farthest from the door that contained all different kinds of books ranging from literary classics to her own published work on coral reef research.

For Spencer, this was Zen. He found himself dreaming of sitting in that room with Zena, her finishing up her grading or planning lessons, him sitting in the comfy yellow chair next to her bookshelf reading her research slowly to ensure he remembered every single word she wrote. She however was mortified that he wanted to read it, scared she wasn't smart enough for him.

"Yes, please come on by. I have a lot more work to do and I know you're itching to sit in the yellow chair and take in the utopia I have built for myself," she said eagerly. It wasn't every day that her favorite FBI agent was done with work early, she would take any time she could get.

Spencer eventually made it to her apartment with Thai food (which he knew was her favorite) about an hour later. "Tofu coconut curry and Thai iced tea for the beautiful professor, sesame chicken for the FBI's resident genius," he said smiling, handing her the bag containing the food so he could drag over his favorite chair next to the desk.

"Spencer, you are my delivery service hero," Zena said whipping a fake tear from her eye, soon after unwrapping the food and digging in.

Spencer started up the conversation, his hands sweating a lot, something that Zena noticed because he would wipe them on his pants every thirty seconds. After spending a lot of time with Spencer, she learned a few things about profiling. Something Spencer was really proud of her for, he adored how smart and adaptable she was.

"You know. We never really put a lable on this, it.. us. Not that you're an it. Okay let me slow down," he quickly word vomited trying to ask the girl to be his girlfriend. "Zena, I like you a lot and I really want you to be my girlfriend if you are willing."

"Wow it took you long enough," she said laughing. Spencer loved her laugh because it made her whole face seem brighter and happier. "Of course I'll be your girlfriend." He smiled up at her and grabbed her hand feeling an incredible sense of pride and relief.

"Okay, so this is where I transition into the part of the conversation where I worry you will hate me. I haven't told my team about you. Not because I'm embarrassed because trust me you have no idea how brag worthy you are. But, I spend every waking moment with my team, and the little amount of privacy I have I'd like to keep," he explained. Zena thought she saw him tearing up but she wasn't positive. Either way she was completely fine with keeping their relationship low profile.

"I'm really glad you can be honest with me about this. Im totally fine with that, I'm honestly terrified for the day I meet them and I am in a room of profilers. Dating one is scary enough."

"You're scared to just meet them, imagine if they knew I had a girlfriend. They would be able to pry out every last bit of information just by the way I shifted my eyes. We are a terrifying breed of human," Spencer said jokingly.

"Spence, I do have to tell Delilah. We kinda tell each other everything and she already knows that I have feelings for you," she said sheepishly, now embarrassed that she had been sharing and he had been keeping them private.

"You tell whoever makes you happy beautiful. I've told my mother all about you, just not the team yet! Now that we spoke about that I don't feel bad finally picking up my girlfriends published work and reading it cover to cover as many times as I want. I may even pocket a copy," he said proudly and smiling.

"Maybe if you're lucky I'll sign it for you too," she responded causing them to laugh.

Hours later Zena finally finished grading one classes final exams, and Spencer was about halfway through his 40th read of his girlfriend's research. Half of the things she wrote about he had never heard of before, and he had to know more. Luckily, he was pretty close with the author.

"So what are we doing for the holidays? I was thinking what my family used to do on Christmas which was Chinese and a movie," Zena said taking a break from grading. She really hoped Spencer would want to join her. It was her favorite holiday tradition before shit hit the fan with her family.

"Yeah, that sounds great. I'll make a list of all the movies that will be out, and we can decide which we want to see. Oh! We can even read the books together before hand and analyze the differences in literature to cinematography."

"Now that sounds even better, Dr.Reid. Get on that list ASAP, I don't read nearly as fast as you."

Spencer nodded and walked over to the desk. He gave Zena a nice, sweet kiss, unplugged her laptop and brought it back over to his little piece of paradise in her office.  He quickly began typing away to find all movies that would be out Christmas day. He was so excited to finally have a holiday with someone he really cared about that he was going to do everything in his power to make it perfect.

"Zena, have you ever decorated a Christmas tree before," Spencer asked, looking up from the screen.

"No, we grew up Jewish, so I haven't really done any of the traditional Christmas things. Why?"

Spencer smiled to himself and responded. "I just wasn't sure if you maybe celebrated bothholidays, that's all." This however wasa lie, Spencer was formulating a plan that involved the two doing allof the holiday essentials that she had never experienced, and he hadn't done sincehe and his mother lived together.