countless encounters || spencer reid

e l e v e n // cold hands, warm heart

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Violet was still fast asleep when her phone dinged, but Charlie was awakened due to it. The light sleeper rolled over to grab the phone, peeking at the screen.

"You have a new message.", he spoke in his raspy morning voice, throwing the phone at Violet, who was covered in three different blankets. She didn't budge.

Her best friend was quite annoyed as once he had opened an eye, he couldn't possibly go back to sleep, no matter how tired he was. So, he decided to wake Violet up.

He stood up and pulled all the blankets away what caused her to stir. "Violet, you need to wake up, Spencer messaged you."

She still had both of her eyes tightly shut, much to Charlie's dismay, "What does he say?", she mumbled what caused him to chuckle lightly.

Charles picked up the phone from the floor again, unlocking it quickly, "He says that he needs your help. Do you have a copy of 'The Colour of Magic'?"

She propped herself up, a funny look on her face.

"Is that a joke? I have a copy of every book Terry Pratchett wrote. I even attended a reading of his a couple of years back. Give me my phone.", she demanded, stretching her hand out to grab it.

"Do you even know me?", Violet asked rhetorically.

Charlie tossed the phone towards her, and she caught it. Spencer answered on the first ring.

"Hello?", he asked.

"Hey Spencer, here's Violet."

"Oh, hey Violet, how are you?"

"I'm okay, I guess, what about you?", Charlie looked at her, drawing up one eyebrow.

"Are you sure? Your style of speech gives me reason to worry.", he figured her out and she wasn't even surprised. Violet was very bad at lying, yet she was the best at dodging questions she didn't want to answer.

"Yeah, it's complicated.", she cleared her throat,"I'll tell you another time, alright?"

"Okay."

"So, what are you up to?", she asked, curious as to why he asked her, out of all people, for help.

"Yeah, right, look, I'm boarding in 2o minutes, and we have this case in Minneapolis, and I think that there are some parallels concerning  Pratchett's 'The Colour of Magic'. I only remember it vaguely and I had to think of you as you studied literature and English and thought that you could help me out, maybe? I know it's a log shot and probably very unlikely...", Reid stuttered.

"I'm currently at Charlie's and I have the copy at my apartment. I was the biggest fan of Pratchett once. I don't know if I will get there in time, but I will force Charlie to drive me. Where should we meet?", Violet asked as she signaled Charlie to get ready.

She put the phone onto her shoulder, tilting her head so that she had both hands free to tie her hair into a very messy ponytail, several strands of hair sticking out which she didn't mind.

"I'll wait outside the building for you, I'll message Charlie the details."

"Alright. We'll get going then. See you in a few, Spencer."

"Thank you, Violet, really.", he hung up, allowing her to get into the corridor to get into her shoes that took ages to be tied up. She always wore converse at the wrong time. She was lucky that she had spare clothes at her best friend's in which she had changed and slept in, she felt dirty leaving in the same clothes, but didn't have any other option. She looked miserable.

Charlie came running down the corridor as well, quickly slipping into his vans. Violet grabbed the car keys in the process, so that they would make it in time.

  .................... 

Spencer had three minutes left before his jet would take off, so Charlie and Violet made it just in time.

Violet basically fell out of the car, running up to Spencer to give him the copy.

"Here you go.", she handed him the book with a smile, breathing heavily because of the running. She hadn't even recovered from climbing the flight of stairs to her apartment, her heart was racing.

His eyes lit up as he thanked her at least 400 times.

She patted him on the shoulder, "Take care, Spencer. Call me if you have any questions concerning the book."

"I definitely will. Thanks again, Violet, I owe you one."

"It's nothing,", she brushed it off once again,"now go and catch the bad guy."

"Thank you!", he shouted as he ran to make it on time, leaving her behind. Spencer wondered if they worried about him, if they were concerned about him going on cases. Violet wondered about how she never noticed the comfort of Spencer's voice, she thought about how cold his fingers were as they had brushed hers when she gave him the book and she thought about how warm his heart must be as she stood there still, looking at the now empty space in front of the large building. Alexander's hands were always warm.

"Are you coming?", Charlie shouted from the car, and she turned to walk back.

....................

"I'm here, I'm here, I'm here!", Spencer said, rushing into the jet, taking in his seat.

"Why late, Doctor?", Rossi asked and Spencer held up the comic fantasy novel.

"Okay, so, the first victim was found in the North East, the second one in the South West and the third one in the West of the city. The dump sites were all near lakes.", JJ spoke.

"Garcia told me that the first victim was a high-risk victim, she was unemployed and lived in a rather harsh area, the second victim was a prostitute, also a high- risk victim, whereas the third victim was a renowned psychology professor. He gains confidence.", Morgan informed the team.

"I reckon that the fourth will be found in the East then, near a river of some sort.", Hotch voiced his thoughts, "and he must have a van to carry the victims from the crime scene to the sites they were found at."

"Most likely.", JJ said.

"I don't understand. He begins with high-risk victims, meaning that he probably doesn't have experience, but why doesn't he have a comfort zone then?"

After unpacking his satchel, that had contained other books, onto the table before him, Spencer was already flipping page after page, blending out what his team mates were saying. His mind was wandering to all kinds of places but he tried to concentrate on what was before him. He didn't know what this case had in store for him and his team.