❝baby come on, let me get to know you
just another chance so that i can show
that i won't let you down❞
it's been two years since melanie moved away to san francisco. things have been up and down for the couple during the first couple of months tha...
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"You're either deep in thought or you have completely stopped caring about what I'm saying." Spencer teased, chuckling.
The former was more accurate.
Ever since someone's torso had been found she couldn't help but to think about her current career. She loved being a journalist and true crime - and those things together gave her such an incredible experience. But she started to rethink everything. She had these thoughts before when she was kidnapped but she never expressed them out loud.
She also couldn't picture doing anything else. Maybe she did need that time off - a sabbatical so to speak.
Melanie let out a soft sigh. "Sorry, Spence. You know it's hardly ever I stop paying attention to you but I have been doing a lot of thinking lately."
Words like that usually never sounded good and by the look on Spencer's face, he had already automatically assumed the worst. Melanie had taken notice.
"No, no. Not about us." She clarified. "How do you...how do you do it?"
Spencer tilted his head to the side and looked at his partner in confusion. "Do what exactly?"
"How do you go on with your days after experiencing something so traumatic? You and the team always just seem to bounce back after cases. I know all of them aren't so bad but there is still some insane cases that I don't think I could ever recover from." Melanie was twiddling with her thumbs as she talked.
It wasn't much of a conversation neither of them talked about. Most of the time they didn't talk about cases. It was the type of thing they left at work. But now that both of them worked with in the BAU, it was hard not to reflect on them. Spencer now had someone to come home to that understood his work and what he did and they could somehow relate to him.
Hearing her words made him sigh.
"You want the honest truth?" Melanie nodded so Spencer continued. "It never gets easy. There are cases that stick with me up until now. My encounter with Tobias Hankel is something that comes and goes and that happened nearly 14 years ago. Trauma doesn't go away." Spencer shrugged his shoulders.
He made it seem like no big deal but sometimes these things did haunt him, and some he never thought about again.
But seeing how concerned his partner was made his heart feel a bit heavy. His answer was probably something she didn't want to hear but he didn't want to sugar coat things. Hell, Melanie was not the one to sugar coat things at all. She always told things how they were and he admired that.
A soft sigh escaped the male's lips as he placed his hands on her shoulders. His hazel eyes looking down at the woman.
"This job isn't the easiest but I wouldn't change career paths for the world. At the end of the day, I'm helping people and saving them. I prevent things from escalating when there are serial murders happening." Spencer rubbed the femme's shoulders. "Is there something on you mind?"
Melanie couldn't lie to him. Spencer read her like any other book there was to read.
"I was thinking about leaving the BAU." She chewed on her bottom lip softly. "I thought after Scratch that I'd be okay and don't get me wrong - I have been. Numerous amount of therapy sessions can't ever fix what happened - I know that. I've learned to deal with it. The nightmares don't happen as much. But what happened a week ago...getting that torso really brought me back. It was the first time since Scratch I've been directly involved in a case. Well, I mean there was that one time Barnes but I was protected."
Melanie scratched the back of her head. To her, this felt like nothing compared to what the team sees with their very own eyes but that took years of them to build up where Melanie was less than that. She wasn't sure if she could handle anything else.
"I get I'm being a baby but -"
Spencer shook his head and cut her off with his own words. "No, Mels. You're not being a baby. You're allowed to feel the way you are and I get it. You know I'd support you right? If that is something you want to do. Is there anything else you wanted to do?"
Melanie nodded. "Yes. I mean not career wise at the moment but I was thinking of pulling a David Rossi." She pause to laugh softly. "Take a couple years off and start a book. Journals and newspapers aren't too accessible for some people and I feel like I have enough stories and experience to be able to put something out there that can be in bookstores and in libraries. For now, I want to rest my mind and kind of think about what I want to do next."
Spencer smiled at her words. The male always did admire the other. To him: Melanie had a beautiful mind and soul. She took initiative and never let anyone hold her back.
"Then I support you 100%. I have been looking for a new book to read after all and I can't wait to see what you have in store for me." Spencer stated.
The femme smiled brightly. She never was quite sure how lucky she got with Spencer but there was no complaints. She loved him to the moon and back.
"You have said a lot of things to me, agent, but I think this one is the best one." She stated. She leaned up and pressed her lips against his.
"Really? Huh. I thought I would have improved by now. I think I'm getting better at social cues, right?" The federal agent asked with raised brows.
The journalist couldn't help but to laugh. "I mean, yeah? But I also like when you're unsure what people mean. Though I must say you're a lot better at it than when I first met you. I'm just glad you walked up to me and babbled about the psychology book I was reading."
"Not every day I see a beautiful woman read books about psychology. And now listens to true crime podcasts. Maybe I really should watch my back." Spencer teased.
Melanie pretended to look offended as she playfully hit his chest.
"I'm not that bad. But I also have watched Breaking Bad and know how to disintegrate a body." She warned.
Spencer was about to open his mouth on the logistics of that until Melanie held a hand up.
"Nope, I don't want to hear it! Let me have this moment." She says. "Besides you could've thrown me behind bars for all the times I'd say I'd stab you if you took any of my french fries."
Spencer laughed. "You're absolutely right. But 100% would be worth it to be stabbed by you."
Melanie playfully rolled her eyes before patting his cheek lightly. "Alright. I'm going to remember this the next time you try and take my food."
