That's Hollywood | a Spencer Reid Fan-fiction

1. The Assignment

Spencer

"What's this?" I say as a beige manilla folder is thrown onto the desk in front of me. It slides my other papers out of order and nearly knocks over the glass of water I had set down earlier.

"Your assignment. You told me you were fully cleared to be back at the BAU. You lied." Hotch replies as he clears up his own papers and puts them into his briefcase.

"Naught boy." Emily chips in with a laugh.

"I'm a doctor, so technically it wasn't a lie." I say as I study the folder in front of my face, yet to be opened. Garcia, who was about to leave the room, stopped in the doorway to look back at me.

"What was it then?" She asks.

I hesitate before lifting my head to make eye contact with her across the room. "A second opinion." I say with a smirk before she walks out.

Once everyone has cleared out and I have finally opened the folder, Hotch comes to stand behind my left shoulder.

"If you're so eager to be back to working, this is what you can be doing." Hotch says with his familiar stern, no nonsense voice.

"A security detail?" I ask, scanning the pages at record speeds before shifting to look up at Hotch. "Is this for real?"

"Take it or leave it. Either you're working that security detail, or you're back at home for the next month."

I know I don't have much of a choice. Oddly enough, working and learning are my escape from reality. It was already bad enough doing nothing while in the hospital and only leaving the apartment for physical therapy. Just the thought of one more month surrounded by the vast nothingness that is my after work life was enough to make me want to rip my own hair out. Don't get me wrong, I love this job, almost constantly working and staying busy, but the recovery period after getting shot in the field is so long that it had me willing to break the rules trying to get back to work.

"I'll take the job."

"Great. You fly out tomorrow morning."

I followed the boss out of the round table room, head down and shoulders stiff as I descend the few steps into the bullpen. One of my favourite things about working at the BAU was the bullpen. Centrally located, always busy, and full of co-workers that I admire. Even though there was always some sort of loud commotion happening, it made me feel comfortable. Like being surrounded by a large family on thanksgiving day. When I got to my desk I took a seat with a sigh, starting to tidy up the papers so I didn't leave my workspace messy and ready to collect dust for yet another month.

Within seconds of sitting down, the other members of the BAU team who should have been getting ready to head to the jet, crowded around my desk. Morgan took a seat on the edge of it, with one leg propped up on a chair, Garcia stood beside him, and Emily and JJ rolled their chairs over.

"So, did you get in trouble?" Emily asks, eagerly awaiting an answer with her elbows resting on her knees.

"No, but I have an assignment as a security detail for the next month. Apparently I'm not cleared for the BAU, but I am cleared to watch over a single person." I busy himself by neatly placing loose papers inside the desk drawer and swatting Garcia's hand away whenever she tries to pick up and view my skeleton sculptures.

"Oh, who's the person?" Morgan asks.

"Someone called Ruby Jewel?" I say it like it's a question, because I've never heard of her before now. "Her regular security broke his leg and they needed someone to fill in for a month while she films in LA."

"Oh, this is like another Lila situation!" JJ laughs, which makes Emily confused.

"Lila? Who's Lila?" Her brows are furrowed as she looks between the members of the team. Sometimes it's easy for the team to forget that she was Elle's replacement.

"Reid's girlfriend from a while back." Morgan gives my shoulder a little push as a smirk grows on his face. At this point, I've given up on trying to organize the desk.

"We were never dating. It was one kiss in a pool nearly ten years ago." I clarify, avoiding eye contact as a very obvious blush starts to form on my cheeks.

"Come on man, it was so much more than that. You saved her life, you were her hero. I'm sure she thinks about you every day."

"Maybe she does. I haven't talked to her in ten years." I say, finally making eye contact with Morgan who's still got that smirk on his face, eyes sparkling with laughter.

"Okay, this is a story I need to hear more of." Emily presses on.

"I'll fill you in on the jet." JJ says with a look to her watch. "We only have about ten more minutes before we need to leave, and I still need to use the bathroom."

I watch as the team gathers their stuff and makes their way to the elevators. With a small wave goodbye to them, I turn back to the desk and reopen the folder with my new assignment. Of course, with my eidetic memory I already know all of the information inside, but if I'm about to spend the next month living and working with this person, I want to make sure I know absolutely everything I could need to know to prepare.

"Ruby Jewel, age 25, originally from Canada, relocated to New York at 15 to pursue a Broadway career. Most notable role as Anya from Anastasia." I whisper the information to myself. "Minor case of stalking while performing in New York City for a year. Suspect was charged with trespassing and a restraining order was set in place."

I close the folder with a sigh, then gently place it in my briefcase before closing my eyes and brining my hands up to massage around the temples. I knew the bit about stalking when I first read through the case in the round table room with Hotch. But now that the floor has cleared out of most of the staff and it's eerily quiet, I'm left with my thoughts so loud they start to give me an instant migraine.

Maeve. My girlfriend. The love of my life. The woman I thought I would spend the rest of my days with. Who had been murdered in front of my eyes by her own stalker. I had worked hard to get rid of the thoughts surrounded by her. Replacing the negative ones with positive ones, having known that at least I got to experience her beauty and wonderful mind, even if it was only for a few short months. Having those negative thoughts creep back into my mind after five years was not where I wanted or needed my head to be at when I was about to be in charge of protecting a stranger, on the lookout for any signs of her own stalker.

With yet another sigh, I push myself away from the desk to stand up. Sitting around at work thinking about the past that I can't change won't do any good. So I gather up all my belongings, and make my way to the elevators. I need to go home and pack my bags because, after a glance at my watch, I have 13 hours before I need to catch a flight to Los Angeles.

*Authors note*
I don't want to make a habit of writing authors notes, but with this being the first chapter to my first ever Spencer Reid fanfic, I just wanted to say THANK YOU! Thank you for reading, or for commenting, or for giving it a vote. I hope you enjoyed! But please be nice, I'm totally open for nice constructive feedback! I will try my best to edit before posting an update, but if you notice any spelling errors and such, you can let me know. I'm not perfect!

In case you didn't see on the page with the cast, my hope is to update once a week! I'm also currently working on an original story as I simultaneously write this one!