Unbroken Souls (Spencer Reid x Reader POV)

Chapter 4

I slowly push a small toy car back and forth along the floor of a vacant office Reid found us, with the children across from me on the floor looking at the few toys Reid was able to find.

"Rei- Spencer, come sit with me" I invite Spencer to come down to the floor so things are less intimidating for the girls. "Hi Sophia and Taylor, my name is Charlotte, and this is my Friend Spencer. I want you to know that we are here to help you, and to catch the bad guy." I say in a nurturing tone while Spencer pulls over a small stuffed elephant he found.

It took some time, but with patience and engaging the girls with the toys we found, they started to open up about what happened to them. They told us about the person they saw, what they remembered, and then falling asleep in the closet after the unsub poked them. Spencer and I had an officer come over to supervise them in the room they were playing in as we went back to tell the team what we learned.

"That was... I... Wow" Spencer said stumbling over words.

"For a guy who can read 20,000 words a minute, you sure can't find the words now, huh?" I tease while smiling up at him. He chuckles and we continue to the boardroom. Hotch, Morgan and Prentiss look up as we enter the room, and Hotch asks how it went.

"You've gotta see this girl do her thing, I've never really seen questioning like that, it was incredible" Reid says smiling as he takes his seat, looking at me and making me blush.

"What you all do is incredible, I am just happy to be able to help" I say back finding an open chair across the table from Reid.

"They were able to tell us the basics of the story from what they remember, but there are still holes in the story. The brain needs about 24 hours to begin processing trauma, so we might get more information from the first child left alive. But they did tell us something interesting. Both girls recalled a poking that made them sleep. The way they described it makes me think the unsub injected them with something to put them to sleep, and that's likely when the scene was cleaned up" I recounted as Morgan looked at Reid wide-eyed.

"Damn, she's good. Call JJ and get her to look for needle marks on the bodies, we need to bring in the other kids again" Morgan said as Reid pulled out his phone.

A few hours passed, I talked with more of the children who also reported a poke and falling asleep, and the team had built a solid profile they were ready to deliver to the public. While they did this, I worked on arrangements for the two girls currently in our care. Garcia had done some digging into injections that could cause drowsiness to allow the unsub to then clean up the scene, and find out where you could obtain these drugs. After the profile was delivered, Reid began walking in my direction and my heart felt like it plummeted through the pit of my stomach. Everything about him is just so flawless and captivating, his mind is breathtaking, and when he talks to me it feels like we are the only two people in the world. I smile in his direction and he returns it as he approaches me.

"Without you, we wouldn't have the knowledge we do now. Garcia called and said she thinks she found a possible match to the profile, we are going to go check it out. Do you want to come?" he asks softly, inching closer to me.

"Yes, yeah that would be great! I mean, not great cause bad things are happening and this isn't a good thing but I would like to come to the scene as long as it isn't an impositio-" he cuts my nervous rambling off with a soft laugh, taking off his sunglasses to make direct eye contact with me as he says "you ramble... I do it too. The team thinks it's annoying when I do it, but hearing you ramble was... endearing".

Shit. If I didn't already have a little crush on this man, I definitely do now. My whole job is based on reading social cues and communication, and yet I find myself standing here wondering if he was just being nice or if he may have been flirting a little. "Come on, I have a rental car just in the lot over here, you can drive with me" he says motioning his head towards the car. We walk over quietly, but when I glance at him I can see his eyes searching for something to say. That's when I notice him fidgeting with his hands, unintentionally revealing his nervousness to me.

I spend the car ride listening to Spencer ramble off facts about organized killers and killers who drug their victims and witnesses. I turn my body as much as the passenger seat will allow so I can be facing him as he drives, holding the wheel with his left hand and gesturing as he talks with his right hand. The passion in his voice, the knowledge he holds, the way he glances over expecting to see me not listening and being surprised by the attention I am giving, it was one of those things you write in your diary about withing something would happen, yet I'm actually here and this is actually happening.

Spencer stops talking for a second and looks over to crack a small smile. I take a breath before saying "you mesmerize me, Dr. Spencer Reid... one day I want to know your story". This catches him a little off guard and from my peripheral vision, I see him bite his bottom lip as he relaxes into the seat a little more for the last few blocks of the ride. I open the files again and pretend to be reading them, with the intention of letting my last statement echo in his brilliant mind. His smile fails to fade away, even as we roll up to the location.