Ineffable - S.REID

01

・゜゜・．TWO YEARS LATER  .・゜゜・

Clara arrived early to her first day at her new job, as her Nonno had advised the day she began her very first job in the local gelato store. It was one of the only pieces of advice she had ever taken from him, given that he was an old Italian man that didn't really care for the greater societal goings on. Upon her arrival, she had been directed towards her new bosses office and spent the first thirty minutes of the day talking to him about what the job entailed and getting all the appropriate paperwork signed and dated. Aaron Hotchner, or Hotch as he preferred to be called, was a methodical worker and it did not take her too long to come up with the minimal aspects of his personality that she hoped would help her fall into his good books quicker than the normal newcomer.

She then found herself sitting in a small office with a blank tv screen, waiting for the others to arrive whilst Hotch went on the various errands he needed to do that morning. She sipped a surprisingly good coffee from the mug she had brought with her, whilst flicking through the book she had plucked off her bookshelf only that morning.

Clara found herself glancing up as a ruly haired man entered the room, not noticing her presence until he took his seat and glanced up to meet her eye. Instantly, Clara smiled politely then looked back to her book. She had, unintentionally completely missed the look of pure bewilderment on the man's face as he stared at her in shock. As he cleared his throat, fixing his gaze on the wall behind her head instead, Clara looked up briefly and caught a millisecond of his expression then frowned and looked back down, trying desperately to figure out why her new co-worker appeared so recogniseable to her.

As her gaze scanned the page, mind falling into the story somewhat, she could not help but feel like he was watching her every move. A thick tension unraveled between them, with Clara trying to figure out how she knew him and with him trying desperately to figure out a way to initiate a conversation. Eventually, after what felt like hours but was only ten minutes, she finally looked up and softly asked, "Sorry but, do I know you from somewhere?"

"You called me Tony," he divulged softly, flicking through his own book to the bookmarked page. He had been far too distracted and overwhelmed beforehand to even think of reading, the girl he thought about whenever he walked through the park was sitting in front of him. How else was he supposed to act?

"Tony...?" she repeated under her breath, brow furrowed as she searched through all the horrible things etched in her mind to find something good. He watched and waited patiently, the corner of his lips turning up in a small smile once a flash of recognition crossed her face.

His kept his hair longer now and much curlier than before. His eyes that had been bright and cheerful now had a certain dullness to them, she wondered what had happened to cause such a reaction but she did not dare ask. She simply assumed it was one of the things that Hotch had warned her about, the many terrors of the job. He looked well though, more confident in himself. She honestly, now that she had placed him, didn't know how she had not instantly recognised him. He did, after all, frequent her dreams on the odd occasion. "Yeah of course...Coffee in the park, right? Reid.... Spencer?"

He nodded, sighing softly as the memory came to the front of its mind in such vivid and specific detail. "You never did tell your name," he replied, setting the long forgotten book back into his back as she marked her page with a slip of paper.

As Clara was about to respond, as if queued by some omniscient being, every other person in the office at that time flooded into the briefing room and took their usual seats around the table. Polite chatter amongst them all stopped as they looked at the newcomer, waiting for Hotch who had herded them all into the room to explain. "Agent Clara Davia everyone... From the narcotics division. Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, Derek Morgan, David Rossi and Dr Spencer Reid. " Clara smiled at each person as he gestured to them, lingering just a fraction longer on Spencer. He seemed far too young to have a doctorate, he couldn't have been older than twenty five.