Stellar {s.r.}

Chapter Five: Dreams

"It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams,

And have you any dreams you wish to sell?

Dreams of loneliness?"

~

Waking up in the morning was dreadful. Y/N opened her eyes to see Spencer's hand haphazardly thrown over the pillow wall and hitting her side with each breath. Carefully as not to wake him just yet, although she didn't know why she cared, she placed his hand back onto his side of the bed. His soft sighs were somehow captivating, and she had to physically shake her head to will herself to get up.

I can't believe I slept next to Spencer Reid and I didn't kill him, she thought. I must be getting too soft.

Y/N was already washed and dressed by the time sleeping beauty himself rose. And although she snickered to herself, she waited for him while he got ready before they both went downstairs to see the other agents.

Hotch drove Emily, Rossi, and Y/N to the field office, whilst Spencer made a big show of going to the opposite car with Morgan and JJ. She felt a pang of annoyance at his newest facade of antagonism towards her but quelled her anger to focus back on the case. It wasn't as if she wanted him to like her that bad anyway, she only deserved his respect.

On their way in, Morgan received a call from his favorite girl and put it on speaker.

"We have an update," Garcia greeted the team, her voice unusually cross as a sign of frustration.

"Let's hear it," Hotch answered, gathering the team to all sit around the conference room table. Y/N sat in between Spencer and JJ for no particular thought-out reason.

"Cara's last known location was at her high school, correct?" she asked.

A murmur of agreement arose from the team, but it was because they already knew the information.

"Well, my friends, it appears that is very wrong-o," she countered. "Cara's phone pinged one last time that day at the Rally club downtown."

Officer Lane was listening at the door, and once she heard that she stepped inside the room to add, "Rally is a dance club and bar, but it's twenty-one and older. They are supposed to card people at the door."

Morgan shook his head, "Who told us she never left the school?"

It was JJ who spoke up first.

"Shelley."

Hotch immediately pulled JJ and Prentiss aside to debrief them on how to interrogate Cara's best friend, and Morgan took Rossi to pick Shelley up from her house. There was no idea amongst the team as to why Shelley had lied, and what her motives were for even telling the lie. Was she covering for her friend? Or, although no one cared to admit it, there was a possibility that it might not have been Cara herself at the club at all.

Y/N was tasked with organizing a press conference to alert the public of the serial killer in the calmest way possible. However, Spencer Reid sitting right next to her was not making her calm.

If he taps his pen on the table one more time, that is it, she thought.

He tapped.

She turned her head to look at him and spat, "Can you quit it? I'm trying to help stop a murderer here, and I'm stressed enough about the conference already!"

He seemed surprised at her outburst, as if he didn't even realize he was being annoying in the first place. His eyes cast downward.

"Do you want any help?"