Dark Paradise (The Story of Us Book 4)

Chapter 6-Dealing

The tension between Spencer and Derek was thick in the days after the incident in the training gym and Spencer had gone back to his ways of pulling away from the team. At least this time, he participated in cases. He still wasn't going on his previous tangents but they had to deal with the possibility that without Amanda, the Reid they knew may very well be gone. However, some days were better than others.

Spencer had been getting closer to Maeve and as much as he hated to admit it, it both pleased him and made him feel guilty. He knew Amanda had told him to move on just as much as he knew that they weren't together when she 'died' but he still felt like he was cheating on her. Fake Amy wasn't making anything better as she continues to tell him that he had hurt Derek like that because he was feeling guilty. He's taken to ignoring her.

Recently, he and Maeve had progressed from emails to phone calls which is how he found out that someone is stalking her. He offered to help her out, even tried to insist, but she said she didn't want to make it worse. He understood the fear that looking into the stalker might make the stalker lash out, so he didn't press the matter. However, he feared that despite claiming he is abiding by her wishes, he actually doesn't want to risk losing her as he has Amanda.

Shaking off these thoughts, he dials the number at the payphone and as soon as he hears the dial tone hit three times, he hangs up and waits. Just a few seconds after he hung up, the phone rings and he is quick to answer, not even letting it get through a whole ring. "Hi," is the only thing he says and he can hear her smile in his reply.

"Hello, Dr. Reid. How are the headaches?"

"Still gone. Any word on your stalker?"

She sighs. "They keep calling and just breathing heavily on the other line but I don't think they know how to find me."

"That's good," he states, really wanting to help the woman on the other line as she helped him.

"Yeah. So, what are your plans for the day?"

"I have to go into work."

"On a Sunday?"

"We just got back from a case the day before yesterday. Hotch, my boss, said that they have a lot of cases lined up and we'll likely get called into one of them tomorrow so we have to go in today to finish our paperwork from the last case."

"So you woke up early to talk to me?"

"I like talking to you." Maeve smiles, wishing that she could see Spencer but knowing it would be too dangerous, not only for her but for him as well.

"Well, I guess I should let you get to work then. I'll talk to you next Sunday, Dr. Reid."

"Next Sunday, Dr. Donovan." With that, he hears the line go dead as she hangs up before heading towards the metro to get to work. When he arrives, he sees everyone gathered around Emily who is sitting at her desk, and silently curses the fact that her desk is across from his. He heads to his desk and JJ lets him through so he can sit down. "What happened?"

Emily, Derek, and Blake look up at him and it's his best friend that responds despite the awkwardness between them. "You remember that guy from Prentiss' old team that we questioned during the Doyle case?"

"Clyde Easter? The one that offered you a job?"

"Yeah. We helped him fill it but now that he's at the top of Interpol, he has to handle the cases that no one else can solve and I guess over a hundred people were found dead in a warehouse in Liverpool. He wanted to know if the signature was one we have ever seen before but it's just brutal." She passes him the pictures and he takes a moment to study them when he catches certain things. Three of the bodies have multiple bullet wounds in places that would cause pain but not severe blood loss.