A Very Strange Night

Walk of Shame

Spencer had just returned from what seemed to be a particularly grueling case. He had been gone for almost two weeks, and when he finally got back, he looked exhausted. Now, Spencer always looked kind of tired, but you had never seen him with such bags under his eyes, struggling to keep his eyes open as you two watched a movie on the couch.

"Hey, Spence," you whispered, trying to get him to open his eyes, "c'mon baby let's go to bed."

Spencer's eyes flickered open, his half awake brain trying to process what you said.

"No, I want to spend time with you." He stated matter of factly, as he buried his head into your shoulder.

You just giggled, slowly standing up and grabbing hold of his hands to hoist him off the couch. He held your hand and followed you down the hall to your bedroom, as grumpy as ever.

When you reached the bedroom, you gave him a pair of pajama pants he had left at your house a few weeks ago. He put them on and crawled into the bed next to you, pulling you by the waist to be as close to him as possible. It wasn't long before the both of you were fast asleep in each other's arms, your limbs intertwined into what can only be described as a pretzel.

You awoke suddenly, practically jumping out of your skin at the startling sound of Spencer's ringtone blaring through the bed room. You rolled over to look at him, not understanding how he could possibly be sleeping through this.

"Spencer," you nudged him, "Spencer your phone."

Without a word, he rolled over to grab his phone off the nightstand next to him, groaning when he saw who was calling.

"It's Hotch." He said, his tone desperate for whatever emergency was waiting on the other end of the phone to disappear.

Reluctantly, he answered the call, mumbling a series of 'yeahs' and 'uh huhs' into the phone. Before you knew it he was throwing off the comforter and changing back into his work clothes.

"Another case?" You asked, your voice filled with pity. You couldn't contain how sorry you felt for him. He had been working for almost two weeks straight and now he had to go back in, running on a mere three hours of sleep.

"Yeah." He sighed, leaning down to kiss you goodbye.

Once he pulled away, he started to make his way out of the bedroom. You threw the covers off and followed close behind him. Before he could open the door, you pulled him in for a passionate kiss. You couldn't let him leave with just the sleepy kiss you had shared in the bedroom after all. You cupped his face in your hands, while his were on your waist, pulling you close. It was evident that he didn't want to leave, especially without knowing how long he'd be away for.

"Come home safe to me, Dr. Reid." You said, looking at him with more love than he knew how to process.

"I'll do my best." With that, he leaned in to give you one last quick kiss, and left.

Spencer felt like he was sleep walking as he entered the BAU, still feeling as though he was in that space in between awake and asleep. The poor boy was so tired he didn't even notice the abundance of looks he was getting from the rest of the team. Spencer was in such a daze when he left your house that he didn't even think about the fact that he was wearing the same clothes he had been yesterday, except now they were devastatingly wrinkled from the hours they spent in a pile on your bedroom floor. His hair was messy. He hadn't thought to do anything with it before leaving your house, leaving him with a severe case of bedhead. All this to say, Spencer looked like hell, and it did not go unnoticed by the rest of the team.

He managed to make it all the way to his desk before someone finally spoke up.

"Wow! Of the people here I'd expect to be doing the walk of shame, our boy wonder here was on the bottom of the list." The comment came from Rossi, who was displaying genuine shock at the fact that it appeared Spencer had not yet been home.

The bullpen fell silent. By now, the rest of the team had found out about Spencer's secret, but they had been sworn to secrecy and the last thing they wanted to do was break his trust.

"What do you mean?" Spencer asked through a yawn, not yet awake enough to understand what was happening.

"He means..." Morgan spoke up with a glint in his eyes that said he was getting ready to make fun of Spencer a little, "you clearly haven't been home yet, pretty boy. So, who's the lucky lady?"

That snapped Spencer back into reality. He looked down at his clothes and realized how horribly disheveled he looked. He tried desperately to smooth the wrinkles out, but quickly gave up when he realized it was no use. He frantically ran his hands through his hair, knowing how messy it must have been.

"Oh-I-um-well-" Spencer couldn't get the words out. Everyone but Rossi already knew about you, but he knew that once the secret was really out, they'd all want to meet you. Your relationship was still relatively new, you guys had only been dating for about a month, and he just wanted to be able to get to know you without the team interfering. He knew they meant well, that they were excited for him, but they had a tendency to be overbearing when it came to his love life, and he didn't want it to affect his relationship with you.

"Oh c'mon Spencer," JJ piped in, "everyone already knows."

This seemed to really catch Rossi's attention. "Everyone already knows what?" He asked, clearly feeling left out of the big secret.

"Reid's got a girlfriend!" Emily sang.

"You've got a girlfriend?" Rossi exclaimed, clearly excited for Spencer. "Why didn't you tell anyone?" He questioned.

"Well-um-hm-well, I didn't really have to. Everyone kind of found out on their own." Spencer sputtered out.

Rossi looked shocked, and a little hurt that he was the last one to find about the new girl in Spencer's life.

"So everyone knows?"

"Yeah, everyone knows." Spencer said shyly, not wanting to hurt Rossi's feelings any worse.

"Well, since I was the last to find out, I get to be the first to meet her!" Rossi said excitedly, happy that he found a way to be included. "Bring her over for dinner when we get back from the case!"

Spencer sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to get out of it this time. "Alright," he said reluctantly, "But you have to be nice, no telling embarrassing stories about me or prying too much into her personal life or profiling her or anything like that." he stated.

"Wow, you must really like this girl, huh?" Rossi said, feeling nothing but thrilled that Spencer had finally found someone to love.

"Yeah," Spencer blushed, "I really, really do."