Honesty - Criminal Minds || Spencer Reid Fanfiction

24. Proximity

"The difference between sex and love is that sex relieves tension and love causes it." ~ Woody Allen

The Daughter

"Well Milky," I sighed, running my fingers through her fur. "Looks like it's just you and me again." I glanced around the room I was in and sighed, burying my face in her fur and telling myself that this was the right thing to do.

~ 7 Days Previous ~

"He gave you an apartment?" Emily's voice gasped and I nodded my head, casting my eyes up to my dad sat in his office. "Wow. I wished my dad was that kind." She scoffed, flicking her fringe out of her eyes.

"So when do you move?" Morgan asked and I shrugged.

"I don't know," I admitted honestly. "My dad said the contract's only for three months, incase I decide I want to move back home or I don't like it... He said it starts the day I sign the contract but..." I sighed emphatically and shrugged.

"You don't want to move?" Penelope guessed.

"No I do," I nodded my head. "It's just... I've been living with him for months now, i've been used to living on my own my whole life and now that I've lived with my family..." I shrugged sheepishly.

"I'm just worried I won't like it as much as this." Penelope cooed and wrapped her arm around my shoulder, squeezing.

"Mel you're literally a ten minute walk from my apartment," Spencer explained.

"Your dad made sure your new place was somewhere close to either one of us. It's closer to me than it is to him, but you're still super close." He explained and I nodded my head.

"I know, it's just going to take a lot of getting used to." I admitted.

"Hey, tell you what," JJ grinned. "Why don't we help you move?" She suggested.

"Yeah," Morgan nodded enthusiastically. "Look at when we helped your dad and Jack, that whole thing was done in a matter of hours, and there's only one of you and far less stuff."

I smiled broadly,
"You guys wouldn't mind doing that for me?"
"Of course not, Mel," Penelope said, squeezing my shoulders. "We're your family too, remember?"

~ ~ ~

And so all of them; the team, Spencer, my dad, Beth and Jack; all of them helped me move my stuff from the family home to the new apartment.

And, because Beth had moved from New York and kept all of her furniture in storage; I didn't have to buy a scrap of furniture for the new apartment.

Everything had worked out perfectly, and for that I was forever grateful.

But now I was alone again, and the silence was overwhelming me. I felt as though I was drowning in it and I was reminded of all those nights I'd lay talking to myself just so there was some noise in my apartment, just so I wouldn't drive myself insane with every little creak or noise I heard.

I'd forgotten what it was like to be alone. I didn't like it. Not at all. But I had to show that I was adaptable and I could do this.

It would just take some time, that's all.

The Doctor

I thought about Mel as I laid in bed that night, wondering what she was doing in her new apartment and how she was 'enjoying her freedom again'.

That's what Morgan had said to her before we'd all left her new apartment to go home earlier that day.

He'd told her that the 'bright side' to moving into a big old empty apartment alone again was that she'd be able to do what she wanted again.