✓ | 𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗘 · ͟͟͞͞➳ spencer reid

CHAPTER 37 ━━━

# ! | CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
- they take a breather

━━━ LUCKILY FOR SPENCER,
he was naturally a clean freak and, while his organizational skills could be measured only in the eye of the beholder, his darkly academic apartment smelled of leather, old paper, and a freshly laundered scent; all three of which were distinctly him, and all scents that Meryl loves.

At approximately twenty three minutes after seven, Spencer opens the door in a button down with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms and black pants. He'd long discarded his sweater from the day, having ramped up his body temperature whilst speed-organizing his main living space. Meryl stands outside the doorway in black skinny jeans with a grey flowy top tucked in and a cozy feeling open black sweater. She wears hightop Vans, he wears his Converse.

She hadn't bothered with makeup so Spencer gets an eyeful of her black eye and bruised throat. However, they didn't seem to be bothering her all that much. Regardless, the feeling of her about to be in his house made Spencer really, really happy.

"If you were expecting a science lab, I'm sorry to disappoint," he quips after greeting Meryl with a chaste kiss. She giggles and runs her eyes over his shoulders as she walks behind him. "I couldn't decide between a coffin, a charging port, or a gigantic test tube. This like a library and a leather jacket made sweet, sweet love. I adore it."

They take a seat on the brown leather couch and Spencer digs his phone out of his pocket. "Where do you wanna order from?"

He takes note of the way Meryl sits. When he'd sat down first with his chest facing her and arm on the back of the sofa, he'd subconsciously created the space where he'd wanted her. Usually, she would have nestled right up to him but today she perches with her legs tightly crossed, chest facing forward. It only lasts for a split second before she realizes and adjusts everything about her body language, leaning into his side and putting her legs in his lap.

"I'm not super hungry," she mumbles into his chest. "You pick where you want and I can find something wherever."

He puts his phone down, one arm encircling her hips and other resting on her folded knees. "Okay, what's wrong? Where's bubbly Meryl, what took her from me?"

Spencer tries desperately to meet her eyes, hazel searching for green, but she keeps her gaze downward. "If I tell you, you're almost certain to be mad, disappointed, or believe me to be a fool."

He shakes his head. "Look at me, Meryl."

She does as he demands, finding his eyes to be kind. "You're the farthest thing from a disappointment, okay? And you're most certainly not a fool, there are only seven hundred fifty people in the world with a confirmed IQ of one hundred seventy eight. Just don't keep me in the dark, please."

Spencer kisses her forehead and Meryl sighs. "Zane is a murderer, he would have killed me if he had the time. But even then, he's a grandfather. His paternal instinct was strong enough that his body language adjusted to mine before I lied about my crimes. If he can do such things and still love his kids..." She takes a deep, steadying breath. "Then how is it that my mother could have one kid, push them off on her husband, and then have another kid and kill herself in front of them?"

Spencer's mind works too quickly and he speaks before he can think it though. "She did it in front of you?"

"She made me pen her bloody suicide note. I was four, Spencer. How could she just leave?" Meryl scrunches her nose as if to fight back tears but it's to no avail, they flood her lower lash line all at once. It cracks his heart right in half to see a woman so sturdy, so strong, to crumble out of love for a women who cared for no one but herself.