another love | spencer reid x reader

ten.

recap
you and reid opened up to each other about everything you'd both gone through, becoming vulnerable to one another. you'd walked around the park together, and he had kissed you.

-

It had been five days since you and Reid had got together, and it was your first case. It was going great, but the two of you were still working out how to be around each other at work. He'd gotten into this habit of coming up behind you in the kitchen, wrapping his arms around your torso and kissing your neck as you made your morning coffee. He found it very difficult to not do that in the office.

So when Hotch called you all into the briefing room to discuss a case, he went out of his way to be away from you. It hurt you, to see him being so distant from you, but you both wanted whatever this was between you to remain secret, and on a team full of profilers it wasn't going to be easy. You just hoped he didn't make anything too obvious.

He had set next to you on the jet, though. Everyone else was asleep as it was a long flight, you were headed to Los Angeles, and you were reading a book he'd bought you a few days ago. You thought he was asleep too, but you felt his fingers tracing small circles on your thigh, out of sight of everyone else.

It wasn't a particularly gruesome case, and you found yourself able to relax somewhat on it. Hotch always paired you and Reid together alone, as apparently you worked together well. This was well received by the both of you, as you found yourselves sneaking into bathrooms or even the SUVs whenever you could. Somehow, you were never caught. You did have a close call when Morgan got back to his and Reid's hotel room earlier than anticipated, however.

You'd picked up on a lot of his habits, too. The way he licked his lips in concentration, or how he lightly dragged his finger down the middle of a page he was reading. How he always talked with his hands, and you particularly loved the little nose scrunch he did whenever something weird came up in the case.

You'd also realised he seemed to be a lot happier lately. You didn't want to take the credit for it, but it wasn't a coincidence that ever since your date in the park he had just been smiling to himself all the time. Even at the crime scenes, you noted, as Rossi had to tell him to pack it in for a bit.

What you had forgotten, however, is that the others would pick up on this change in him too. And naturally, they'd wonder why. This first became an issue when you heard Morgan talking to Garcia over the phone.

"Thanks babygirl, we'll go check his address now. Hey, you wouldn't know if pretty boy's got a girlfriend or anything, would you?" Morgan asked.

You were sat opposite him at a desk, and froze, pretending to reread the file of the unsub in your hands. You didn't want to look up at him, in case you gave anything away.

"No, but I could always have a little sneak around if you wanted me too..." Garcia trailed off. You hoped she wouldn't, as there were some text messages between you and Reid that the rest of the team really didn't need to see.

"Nah, that's not fair. He just seems to be a lot happier lately, that's all. He'll tell us when he wants to. Talk to you later, Garcia." Morgan hung up, looking slightly dejected. "Y/N, do you know about Maeve?"

"Yeah, I do." You sighed. It made sense. He was protective of Reid getting into a relationship, after what happened last time.

"God, it was hell. He was miserable for months. I can't tell you how relieved I am to see him happy, and if he's got a new lady friend, I can't wait to meet her when he's ready."

"Yeah, me too." You walked out the room, before smiling to yourself.

It was interesting to hear about what happened with Maeve from someone else's perspective, you thought. You couldn't imagine how distressing it must've been for the rest of the team to watch Reid experience that.

-

You'd all headed to the unsub's address, and managed to stop him from committing another murder. Reid was sitting with the victim while she was being checked over by the paramedics, and you came over to join them.

"You'll be able to recover from this." Reid said to her, careful to not be too close to her so he didn't scare her even further. "I believe in you, so does the rest of my team, and in the meantime we'll make sure the man who did this to you gets what he deserves, I promise. It's going to be difficult, you might even feel like it's not worth it at times, but we're all here for you."

He was good at comforting people, you noticed. You couldn't help but wonder if this is similar to what he wished someone had said to him, when he was abducted 8 years ago.

-

You'd arrived home, and were just finishing up the paperwork. Reid had already left, but you'd already arranged to go to his that night. You were very careful to not be together too much, so the team didn't suspect anything, and it was going well. Or so you thought.

You'd found that sitting opposite Derek Morgan had its perks. He was a great help, always able to support you when you were unable to do something, and very nice to look at. However, he was not only a profiler, but Reid's best friend, and it made sense he was the first person to suspect something.

"Hey, y/n. You mind telling me if there's anything going on with you and pretty boy?"

"What, no, don't be ridiculous."

"See, I've been suspicious of the two of you for months now. Ever since I saw you two in the car on Christmas Eve. And I'm sure something was going on when we were in New York, too. I saw the way you were looking at him when he was comforting the victim earlier." He set his pen down on the desk and looked straight at you, trying to work out your reaction.

"Morgan, that's silly. We're just friends." You turned away from him and packed your bag, ready to leave.

"Uh-huh."

You hated lying to him, you hated lying to all of them. But you and Reid knew once you told everyone, whatever this was going on between you would become much more serious. You were okay with that happening, you hoped he was too, but you didn't want to face that just yet.

On the drive to Reid's you were even considering asking him about telling the team, but the look he gave you when he opened the door to you made everything worth it. All the sneaking around, stealing secret glances at each other across the bullpen, the blatant lying to Morgan when he'd nearly caught the both of you in his hotel room, was all worth it when you saw the way he looked at you. Like you were the only thing keeping him alive, the only thing that made all the pain he'd experienced go away. 

It was all worth it, for him.

-

an
for my notes for this chapter i just wrote "vague case stuff and morgan is being annoying", so i think i did pretty well.