nina cried power [SPENCER REID]

seventeen.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
DOMESTIC DISPUTE

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psa;; this chapter is a little all over the place so please bare with me lol...

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"So what's the life plan for after I'm not around to make it interesting?" Nina asks after a while. They're well into the depths of the land outside DC, with the only thing for miles being a rest-stop and a forest and barren fields, before eventually they would reach suburbia — but Nina isn't planning on going that far. They're on a dirt road, making the car growl a little as they roll over the occasional patch of rough turf, and the last car to pass was several minutes ago.

Strangely, both of them are calm.

"I could ask you the same question," retorts Spencer, glancing across at her. His face is impossible to read, but in her brief glimpses across at him, his demeanour is much more relaxed than it had been only ten minutes prior.

She smiles and shrugs in agreement. "I guess it's best not to share that, then," she says.

Spencer doesn't respond. Silence spreads out over the car and lasts for one, two, three, long moments -- long enough to make her glance over in confusion as to why he hasn't said anything, and when he feels her looking he swallows, and says while looking at the road, "More cases, probably. That's about it. They're pretty constant."

She grins. "None as interesting as me, though, right?"

"Don't flatter yourself."

Nina scoffs. "You're lucky you're pretty with an attitude like that."

And she expects them to sink into silence again, and that she'll inevitably have to make conversation once more (because she likes chatting idly, and she doesn't get to do it very often).

Surprisingly, though, he seems to enjoy talking as much as she does, because he doesn't stop there. Like she said, he's reached the point of tiredness where he's relaxed, and she knows that only when he's no longer that tired -- maybe once he's home again, or when he's had a full night's rest and a shower -- will he recognise how absurd the car ride had been. Only then will he recognise fully the stupidity of his conversation with Nina, but for now his tongue is loose enough to entertain her.

"Although, I'm currently in the middle of a very stressful moving process," he continues, glancing at her. "I'm guessing you don't have much experience buying or owning property?"

"Only in Monopoly."

Surprisingly, he huffs a laugh. "Well, count yourself lucky." There's a long pause, before she feels him looking at her and he asks, friendly enough, "What about you? New life, and all -- are you quitting murder cold-turkey, or should I be on the look out?"