After the USPS creates a penpal pairing program, Elizabeth Mills is encouraged by her friends to sign up and talk to someone new. Spencer Reid, bored with only getting bills and advertisements in his mailbox signs up for a penpal.
The two get paire...
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Reshevsky was a tough player to beat. Elizabeth knew that. She was already at a disadvantage playing black against Reshevsky, but when he played d4 she was stumped. She'd expected him to go with a Ruy Lopez opening, so had spent the night going over how to combat them instead of the larger range. She'd try to use the Nimzo-Indian defence, though he could just as easily counter it if he refused to play c4.
Luckily for her, he allowed her to play it. He also was the first to take, his white pawn on d file taking her pawn on c5. Not too much of a loss, she thought as she moved her queen-side knight to d7, allowing her to take c5 if she really wanted.
Elizabeth castled on move 10, a favourable move for long term defence. By her 13th move, she had Reshevsky in check. She was surprised at how smoothly the game was playing in her favour, especially considering her lack of preparedness for the game.
The game wrapped quickly, and in 22 moves, Reshevsky had resigned, accepting his defeat with grace. A firm handshake between the two was all that was needed to solidify to Elizabeth that she'd actually won the game and it wasn't a fluke. As the crowd gathered around the board quickly dispersed to look at some of the ongoing games, she saw Spencer standing among the crowd.
"You played well." He said, approaching her.
"The game was quicker than I expected." She smiled, picking up her notation book and pen. "I honestly thought Paul had something up his sleeve when I was playing. I felt like I was falling into a trap."
"And you still won. You're a great player Elizabeth."
"Thank you Spencer." Elizabeth smiled. "How was your night? Did you sleep well?"
"I actually did some reading before I went to bed. It was interesting."
"What was so interesting about this reading, or am I not allowed to know?"
"It was chess theory. I'm planning on winning if you'll play me again."
"I'm going to win the next time I play you, you know that right?"
"Statistically, you are more likely to win, but I think I've got a fighting chance."
"You'll definitely be fighting." Elizabeth laughed, "I'll make sure of that."
"I'm sure you will." Spencer smiled. "Who are you playing this afternoon?"
"Akinari Nakamura. I'm surprised at the comeback he made, I drew against him last time we played, so I'm probably going to go over that game to see what went wrong. You're welcome to join me, if you want."
Post-game analysis was not what Spencer expected it to be. Every mistake that was made on the board was meticulously analysed in order to find the best move for both short and long term play. He understood the purpose, but the depth she went through to make sure she understood every move and the consequences they had on the closing was insane in his mind. In fact, despite his love for analysis, what she was doing was next level.
Every once in a while, Spencer would ask her how certain moves worked, just to allow her to slow down. Somehow in the few hours they were sat on the floor of the hotel room, Elizabeth began pulling out chess books and referring to them in her explanations to Spencer. Apparently, she'd decided to go into chess theory, going over various opening and closing lines that most frequently occurred in Nakamura's games.
Eventually, it was time to go back down for the game. Spencer had faith that she would win. He didn't know why, but he knew she was going to win.
And win she did. Fifty moves into the game, and Elizabeth placed her rook for a checkmate. Nakamura shook her hand and congratulated her on her win as he left the hall. Photo's were snapped and then the photographers cleared the hall, finished with their jobs for the day.
Spencer smiled at Elizabeth as she picked up her things and moved away from the table.
"Spencer, tell me that I am not imagining this."
"Trust me, you're not imagining it. Tomorrow you'll be playing Alexander Crone."
"Oh god. Oh my god."
"Is that a good 'oh my god' or bad 'oh my god'?"
"Both, definitely both. I'm in the top two now either way, which I didn't expect, but I'm definitely not going to win this one. Crone crushes everyone he plays. It's going to be humiliating."
"It's going to be your best game yet." Spencer smiled. "Plus, think of all the people you're proving wrong."
Elizabeth looked up at Spencer. "You really think it's going to be my best game?"
"Of course. I know you play incredibly well, and I know that in every game you try your hardest. You're so dedicated and passionate about this, so I know this will be one of the best games you've played so far."
The two stood in silence. Thoughts flooded Spencer's brain like an uncontrollable tsunami. It overwhelmed him how much he wanted to touch her. Just to hold her hand once, or hug her. He wanted to hold her, to cherish her. And yet these thoughts made him uncomfortable. What if he wasn't good enough? What if she didn't want him? What if they ended up hating each other?
"Spencer, are you okay?" He heard, zoning back in.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm going to go, you'll probably want to focus on your game tomorrow. I'll see you then." He said before walking away.
When Spencer got back to his apartment, he was in full panic mode. Did he like Elizabeth? Was it too soon to have these feelings about her? He'd only seen her for the first time less than a week ago, and yet he knew so much about her. Did she know enough about him? He was a private person. He hadn't even told his team about his problems with Dilaudid after he was kidnapped. It hadn't even been six month into his recovery yet, and he knew that recovery and relationships didn't mix. He didn't want Elizabeth to ever see him on one of his bad days, where the cravings were so severe that he felt like clawing his eyes out just to try and distract himself, or when he sat in a corner for hours on end, forcing himself to stay still just so he didn't go find a dealer.
He scrambled to find his rarely used phone, eventually finding it in the deep corner of his bag. Flicking it on he scrolled through his contacts looking for the right name, eventually clicking on the call button.
The phone rang a few times before they answered. "Pretty boy, how's your time with the mysterious pen pal going?"
"It's fine." Spencer said quickly, "Are you on a case right now?"
"We're on our way back, we should be landing in 20 minutes. Why, is something wrong?"
"No, everything's fine. I just need advice about something."
"Spencer, did you sleep with her?"
"No! Can you just come over when you land?"
"Of course. I'll be there in an hour tops."
Hey guys!
Sorry for the late upload, yesterday was my 18th birthday and it was a little chaotic, so I couldn't find time to post the update.
