Eidetic - A Criminal Minds/Spencer Reid Story

Chapter Four - The Nightmare Adjustment

(A/N: The next few chapters are somewhat of a combination of "The Popular Kids" and "Seven Seconds." The rest of the story may contain references to other episodes, but they will all be loose integrations.)

"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." - Stephen Hawking

THREE WEEKS LATER

*Spencer Reid*

Being in the BAU is never easy, but being new to the BAU after coming from a city which is relatively calm is the hardest of all. It was a big adjustment for Vivian to have to make, but she was doing the best she could. She wasn't so squeamish when we had to go look at a crime scene and it was starting to get easier for her to not take the work home. At least, that's what I thought.

One day, I walked into the BAU to find everybody there except for Vivian. JJ, Morgan, and Garcia were all standing around Morgan's desk talking and I walked up to them. "Where's Viv?" I asked.

"Why do you miss your girlfriend?" Morgan joked. I felt the heat rise in my cheeks and I thumped Morgan on the back of the head. He started laughing.

"I don't like her like that," I said quickly, even though I knew I was only half-lying. She was beautiful, I wasn't going to lie about that, but this feeling was nothing more than a workplace crush. That was it.

"Oh, he's blushing!" JJ said, poking my cheek. "Spence has a little crush!"

"Guys, we haven't even known her for a month yet. How could I possibly even have romantic feelings for her?" I said as I walked across the aisle to my desk and sat down, putting my bag on the ground beside me.

"Okay, genius, we all noticed how your eyes practically popped out of your head when she walked into the round table room on her first day," Garcia said, wagging a finger at me. "You don't notice a lot of women, but you definitely noticed SSA Vivian Santos." I sighed heavily and rubbed my temples.

"Sometimes, I can't stand you guys," I breathed out. Just then, Vivian walked in with a cup of coffee in her hand and her go bag slung over her shoulder.

"Hey, morning, sunshine," Morgan said.

"Morning, sorry I'm late. Traffic was terrible," she said bluntly. She walked over to her desk which was next to mine, set her bag down on the ground, and sat down in a huff. She wasn't in her usual sarcastic, but cheerful mood and I noticed the dark circles under her eyes. She looked like she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. I stood up, walked around my desk, and leaned against hers.

"Late night?" I said in a low voice, so that only she could hear. She looked up at me and smiled softly before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Yeah, I...uh just couldn't fall asleep. It was just one of those nights," she replied quickly. But, I wasn't fooled by her false confidence; I knew better than that. These were the same signs I saw in myself when I was having frequent nightmares.

"Viv..." Before I could say anything else, she cut me off.

"Reid, I'm fine, really. After some more coffee I'll be as good as new." She stood up and brushed past me and made her way to the coffee station and I watched as she dumped teaspoon after teaspoon of sugar into her coffee cup. I sighed and walked back over to where the others were standing. They were all watching Viv as intently as I was. Morgan discreetly pointed over to where she was.

"Isn't that the same thing you did when...?"

"...when I had my nightmares," I said finishing Morgan's sentence.