the feelings that we hide | SPENCER REID

25. tick tock

It wasn't news to the BAU team that they were having a new member after Gideon's leave. They were actually very excited to see who was arriving until Garcia found out it was the infamous David Rossi—the man who created the the Behavioral Analysis Unit with Gideon. She had been dating Kevin, who was another tech analyst from another unit, and was afraid of what he might say.

The second Vanessa entered Headquarters, her phone dinged, indicating she received a text message. And since she wasn't a rush to get to the office, she took it out of her purse and looked down at an unknown number. How was anyone able to text without the number showing itself.

Tick Tock. Was what the message said. She had no idea what it was for—it was completely random. Then she remembered. This was a countdown for either her, or her mom. But 'tick tock'? What did that mean? She didn't know what this person wanted from her. Was it a countdown for her timed death, or were they asking for something.

Vanessa was sick of it. She was sick of this unwanted feeling of fear; she couldn't sleep because of it and she wasn't working as good at her job. So, she immediately rushed into the bullpen and up to Hotch's office. And when she was ready to knock on the door, her phone pinged again.

Don't even think about it.

Her heart was racing. She shouldn't be here right now. She should be at home, with her mom—a target. Vanessa took a look around the room wondering if the person was here right now. How could they possibly know she was about to tell Hotch about it if they weren't in the room.

Scanning every single person in the room, no one was even close to suspicion. Everyone was either working, drinking coffee, or looking stressed out over paperwork.

"Everything alright?" asked Hotch suddenly. Vanessa didn't even notice his door had opened, and she jumped, startled.

"Y—yeah..." she hesitated. "I was just gonna—" looking down at her feet, she tried coming up with another lie but couldn't think of any at the top of her head. "Never mind." Walking back down to her desk, her body was as stiff as ever, worry and fear spread throughout her, and no one seemed to notice as Derek and Emily were distracted with Spencer.

Spencer started to growl as he said, "I'm going to eat you!" causing Morgan to jumped back in his seat and make Emily laugh.

"Reid—" Morgan started.

"Happy all Hallows Eve folks," said Spencer to the three of them. "To paraphrase from Celtic Mythology, tomorrow night all order is suspended, and the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily remooooved! Hoo Hoo Hoo!" He threw a head at Emily making her laugh again, and even Vanessa managed to crack as smile as she admired him in front of her.

"See, that right here is why Halloween creeps me out," said Morgan, pointing at the head.

"You're scared of Halloween?" asked Spencer.

"I didn't say I was scared. I said I was creeped out. There's a difference there youngster. You should look it up."

Spencer jokingly nodded and set down his items onto his desk as Emily said, "What creeps you out about it?"

"I don't know," said Morgan. "People wearing masks. I don't like folks in disguises."

"That's the best thing about Halloween," said Spencer, "you can be anyone you want to be." He threw a candy at Morgan and then to Emily, hesitating to throw one at Vanessa but doing it anyway.

"Nah, I'm pretty good just being me."

"Yeah, why is that neither of those points of view surprise me?" asked Emily.