Innocent: Spencer Reid ✔️

{21} Wildest dreams

t w e n t y   o n e . o n e
S p e n c e r
l o v e

Seeing her so happy makes my heart swell. Laughing with her friends while she holds a kid on her hip, talking to him about his toy plane. She's innocent, I can see that now. No guilty and lying person would bask in this kind of love. Every so often she looks up from the boy and catches my eye, smiling from ear to ear before she goes back to waving the plane in his face. Sometimes I can hear her dainty coos from where I'm sat at the bar. "You know, I've been on a jet that looks like this before, and it's really cool."

The smiles she's brought to Linda and Johnathan's faces are enough to set me alight. They looked happy.

My phone starts to ring, so I stand up from my chair and make my way to the front entrance, answering it on the way. "Emily, what's up?" I hold the phone to my ear, leaning against my car. When I look back through the windows of the diner, I have a clear view of Avery's smiling face as she beams down at the little boy she's holding. He must be no older than five.

"Hey, how's everything going with Linda and Johnathan Barns and Avery?" She asks. I'm surprised she kept it a secret where Avery and I were going. I didn't want Derek and Penelope blowing up my phone wondering where exactly I was and why I was doing this. This has proved to me that Avery really doesn't want games. She just wanted a family.

"It's going good. They remember her, and their little boy is adorable. They were pregnant just before Avery went missing. They never got to tell her. I guess now they're making up for lost time." I look back into my car, expecting to see nothing but on the car seat there's a small paper package. It wasn't there before, it's placed carefully on the drivers seat. I unlock the car, my heart rate increasing. "It's nice, seeing her happy."

"Yeah, I bet." I can practically hear Emily's smirk, "are you two dating yet? Shouldn't the 45 minute drive help ease things along?" I chuckle nervously. The yellow envelope is too thin to be an explosive, so I pick it up, feeling a little lighter. I hold the phone to my ear using my shoulder, carefully opening the envelope.

"No, Emily we aren't. She's just a friend." I pause for a minute, my hands shaky. Do I really want to know what's in here, and what if someone's watching? I look around the car park, but nobody is around.

"It's great that you've got that friendship with her. I'm silently begging you tell her you like her already." I chuckle again, but I'm now paranoid. How did they get this in my car.

"I did, remember. You were right behind her, at Quantico." I finish opening the envelope, glancing up to see where Avery is. What if this is just a distraction? Avery is still behind the bar, smiling from ear to ear with Lucas and Linda. "Where I tried to tell her I'm protecting her by telling Hotch?" I slip my hand into the envelope, my fingers tensing around the multiple slips of paper. There are multiple shiny feeling pieces - photos.

"Well...I'm rooting for you Reid. I hope you know that." I take the photos out and look around the place again. Nobody is here. There are loads of Polaroids of Avery. Avery sleeping in my room while I was making breakfast, her calm demeanour while she sleeps - she had no clue somebody was watching her. Avery in the kitchen this morning, huddled against me as I cook breakfast. Avery crying into my shoulder as I comfort her after breakfast. There are even photos of Avery changing in my bedroom before we left for Washington DC.

"Right..." my voice fades out and even Emily is perplexed.

"You alright Reid?" She asks, her voice concerned.