Dazed | Spencer Reid FanFiction

Chapter 15: Shooting Range*

I wake up to sun streaming in through the blinds of our bedroom and blink my eyes a few times. I then realize Spencer's arms are wrapped around me from behind, holding me tightly to him. I hear his soft snores behind me and smile to myself, relishing in the softness of the Sunday morning. The sun is nearly blinding and I resolve myself to try to hang up black out curtains in here today after we both wake up. I'm sure Spencer has work stuff to do today, but I have got to get those black out curtains hung up so I can have a normal night's sleep in this new house.
        Ryder is also curled up in a ball and snoring at the foot of the bed. I smile to myself at the peace of the moment; this is everything I ever wanted. I sit there for as long as I possibly can before my bladder becomes impossible to ignore. I gently slip from Spencer's arms and am relieved when I realize he didn't wake up. I quickly replace his empty arms with a pillow that he quickly embraces in his sleep. I smile at the sight before heading to the bathroom. After I've done my morning routine, I quietly leave the bedroom and head to the kitchen to make breakfast. I decide on making cinnamon rolls - the ones from a can, not homemade - and omelets.
I quickly whip up the omelets and am icing the cinnamon rolls when I feel Spencer wrap his arms around me from behind and kiss the side of my head. He breathes in the scent of my hair and hums before he says "you could've woken me up to help you." I smile and look at him out of the corner of my eye as I respond "I can handle breakfast by myself, Spence. I wanted to do something nice for you." He hums and says softly in my ear "well thank you, angel." I ask him "do you have a lot of work to get done today?" He nods and says "a lot of tedious paperwork. Why do you ask?" I shrug "I want to get my blackout curtains hung up in the bedroom so I can get better quality sleep here."
Spencer tells me "oh I can do that for you." I laugh and tell him "baby, I know you can, but so can I. I don't have a lot of paperwork to get done today, you do. So I'll hang the curtains and you focus on the paperwork, no big deal." He reluctantly nods and says "the second I hear a crash or a shout I'm coming in to help." I laugh heartily "okay, agreed." He gives me a smile and we make our plates before sitting down to eat breakfast together.
I'm considering in my head the night I'm trying to plan for our sex-aversary and surprise Spencer as I push the last few bits of food around my plate. We were both still a bit groggy and ate our breakfast in a comfortable silence for the majority of the time. Spencer asks me "what are you thinking so hard about?" I shrug and tell him "nothing." He then asks me "was last night okay?" I blush just a bit as I smile shyly at him "last night was perfect, Spencer." He furrows his brow and asks "then why do you look so...concerned." I shrug again "just planning the hanging of the curtains today." He stops probing me, but still looks unconvinced.
        We finish breakfast and I send him off to his home office as I head out to the store to buy a new curtain rod and curtains after taking the measurements in our bedroom. I go to Lowe's for the curtain rods and thankfully find good black out curtains there. I brought Ryder with me and he's just sitting in the cart in his bed, just happy to be included. I end up just going with black curtains for the heavy black out effect, but I also get sheer curtains to hang beneath those. I got double curtain rods for this reason. The windows are on either side of our bed so I'm going to have to hang up two different curtain rods today. The curtains have to be quite long because I'm not going quite to the ceiling but I do want to hang these curtains pretty high up.
       After I've made my final decisions on everything, and Ryder has gotten attention from nearly every other customer who walked near us, we head to the check out and easily make our way back to the car and head home to Spencer. We drive home and Ryder looks out the window in wonder as we make our way down streets he's seen plenty of times already. When we get home, I close the garage door and let him in the house as I bring the curtain rods and curtains in the house. I hear Spencer talking on the phone in his office and I start gathering everything in our room. I get the drill and its accessories, the step ladder, the curtain rods, the curtains, and my headphones.
I shut the door so Ryder can't steal any of my stuff, turn Taylor Swift on my headphones, and get to work. I make the necessary measurements with the tape measure and mark all the spots where I'm going to put screws in the wall so I can hang the curtains. I sing along quietly to the music while I follow the steps to hanging up the curtain rods. After getting the first set of curtains hung up, I come down from the step ladder and turn around to see Spencer sitting in a chair in the corner of the room eating a sandwich he made himself. The corners of his mouth quirk up in a smile when his eyes meet mine. He tells me "you're doing a great job." I stammer for a bit before asking "how long have you been in here?" He shrugs "20 minutes? I couldn't pass up the show, especially while I was eating my lunch. I made you a sandwich, too, by the way."
I laugh shyly and tell him "well thank you. I told you I didn't need help." Spencer hums in agreement as he stands and walks over to me "I know you don't need my help, but sometimes it's nice to think you do." I give him a bit of a sad smile and tell him "I may not need you to help me hang curtains, but I do need you, Spencer." He blushes and smiles a small smile at that statement. He then tells me "come eat so you don't get cranky." I roll my eyes and he says without looking back "don't roll your eyes at me." My jaw drops a bit before I snap out of it and follow him into the kitchen where I see the sandwich he made me.
        He tidies up the kitchen a bit while I eat. We sit in a comfortable silence all the while. Once Spencer is satisfied with how he has cleaned the kitchen, he starts brewing himself a coffee with the nespresso we received as a wedding gift. He may love it more than he loves me. I ask him "is that your second or third coffee today, Spence?" He looks away and says "third." I tell him "Spencer, it isn't even 2 pm yet, slow your roll." He rolls his eyes which makes me snap. I tell him "if I can't roll my eyes, neither can you." Spencer is speechless for a moment when I tell him "we are in an egalitarian relationship." Spencer chuckles "that's not what you said last night."
        I feel heat rise in my cheeks as I stammer out a response. "Well, outside of the bedroom, we are consistently in an egalitarian relationship. That's how we've always been." Spencer nods "I know, you're an equal person to me as long as we aren't in bed." I scoff and he laughs "I'm just kidding!" I chuckle and tell him "I'll remember that when it's my turn to punish you." Spencer gulps and asks me as he stirs his sugar in his coffee "when are you planning on doing that?" I shrug "maybe in the next weekend or two, whatever your work schedule allows." Spencer nods "I'll start mentally preparing myself for next weekend." I nod "you know I'm not going to do anything crazy, right?"
        He smirks "I know, just old habits die hard sometimes." I nod, not pushing the conversation any further. I tell him "you know I'd never pressure you to do something you don't want to do, Spencer." He nods "I trust you, it's myself I don't trust." I nod "well, that's where giving up control is nice, at least for me." Spencer nods, understanding. I finish most of my sandwich and go to clean up my place at the island, half expecting Spencer to berate me for not eating enough.
He eyes the plate but doesn't say anything. I look at him and ask "back to work for both of us, then?" He nods and closes the space between us, planting a kiss on my lips. He pulls back and tells me "I love you, let me know when you're done or if you need help, okay?" I smile and nod "yes, sir." His eyes flash a dark shade before he separates himself from me, heading towards his office with his coffee in hand and Ryder at his heels. I call after him "I love you, too, Spencer!" He turns and flashes a wide grin at me, but doesn't stop walking.
I walk back into our bedroom and get back to work hanging the curtains. I follow the same exact steps as last time, getting lost in the process. I enjoy turning off my brain and just focusing on this one task at hand. I don't have to worry about other life problems right now, just this task. It's such a nice feeling to know I can do something like this and that nothing in the past is stopping me from accomplishing this. When I was in the hospital I thought that I was going to be completely dependent on others forever and that I would never be able to feel "normal" again. I haven't let it stop me from living a fairly normal and happy life, and I don't intend to ever let that happen. Once the second set of double curtains is hung up, I stand back and inspect my hard work. I close both sets of curtains and the room becomes pitch dark, exactly what I wanted.
I walk out of our bedroom, heading towards Spencer's home office. I have every intention of grabbing him by the hand and taking him to our bedroom to show him the new curtains, but I hear his voice talking as I'm approaching the door. He sounds very serious, but the door was wide open so I stand in the open doorway. He's facing away from the door in his office chair as I hear his side of the conversation. He says "Hotch, I can't keep lying to her about this." He's quiet for a second before he continues "I'm lying by omission in this case. She deserves to know, too."  There's another break before he says "I know you think because of what happened to Haley that our families can't handle knowing about different dangers, but Annie has already endured a great deal on her own and she's persevered every time."
         I smile warmly that Spencer is fighting for me. He hates to worry me, but I know he also hates to keep things from me. Spencer tells Hotch "I know you're recommending against me telling her about this, but she deserves to know. Fire me if you have to, but I'm not going to lie to my wife anymore over this." He hangs up the phone and sets it down. I hear him sigh and I walk into the room over to where he's sitting, still facing the other side of the room. He looks at me with a look of defeat when he realizes I had heard at least some of the conversation. He asks me "how much did you hear?" I give him a sad smile and lift his chin so his eyes meet mine. I tell him "enough to know you were having to choose between your job and your wife, which isn't fair."
He rubs his eyes harshly and I gently lean forward, pulling his hands from his eyes. I take a deep breath and ask him softly "am I in danger?" Spencer sighs and shakes his head "not necessarily." I raise a brow and tell him "look, I trust you. I don't want you to get fired because you want to tell me something that you aren't supposed to tell me." Spencer laughs wryly "they aren't going to fire me, Annie. I would have to commit a major crime and get arrested before I would get fired. My mind is too valuable." I look at him "every part of you is valuable, Spence." He sighs and nods.
I tell him "if you don't think I need to know this for your safety or mine, then I trust you. Don't cause a scene at work over me." Spencer chuckles "I already did that when you got kidnapped." I laugh just a bit and nod "well this is hopefully not quite that big of a deal. If Hotch gives you the okay to tell me and you still want to tell me, then tell me. I'm not going to be mad at you for keeping the peace at work over something that isn't threatening our safety." Spencer nods and is silent for a minute. He then says "there has been a lot of internet activity looking into both you and me over the past two months." I nod "we got married and I survived something major that was all over the news, we are both going to be researched."
Spencer nods "that's what I thought, but Penelope found evidence that we have been tracked by private investigators recently as well." I ask him with concern "multiple?" Spencer nods "the FBI has increased their surveillance of us as well as a precaution in case this is more serious than we are thinking." I stand back and say "I thought you said that I was not in danger?" Spencer sighs "we don't think you are. It could just be Lila being crazy or somebody interested in your case. It's not a big deal yet." I laugh humorlessly "yeah Harrison wasn't a big deal until he stole me from my front yard and did awful things to me."
Spencer sighs "I didn't want to worry you and Hotch didn't want you paranoid." I shake out my hands anxiously, immediately walking over and closing the blinds of his window looking out at the front yard. I walk back over to him and take a seat in his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. I whisper softly "I just want to live a normal life." Spencer hums and responds "well, as long as I'm in the FBI there will be things like this that happen. Nothing has appeared to be violent or angry in nature, so that's why we aren't incredibly worried yet." I nod, taking a deep breath and trying to calm myself down.
         I ask Spencer "could it be connected to the poisoned champagne?" He hums and responds "possibly. We can't know for sure until we get down to the bottom of the situation." I nod and ask him "so is the team investigating?" Spencer answers "not yet, we don't have any leads yet." I groan and tell Spencer "okay, that's it, take me to the gun range." He looks frazzled by my request "right now?" I nod "right now. I refuse to be a helpless defenseless victim." Spencer flounders for a second before nodding "o-okay, yeah I need to put in a few more hours anyway." I nod and hop off of his lap "okay, let's go. Let's get out of our sweat pants and into some gun shooting pants." Spencer laughs at me as I pull him behind me towards our bedroom to change clothes.